One year later.
Airport terminal.
At the arrival gate, Yin Guo set her suitcase down beside her and took a seat in the innermost chair on the right side of an empty row. People waiting to pick up passengers were scattered across these rows; she was the only one who had just stepped off a plane herself.
She checked the time on her phone. It was still early.
His flight didn't have satellite Wi-Fi, so she couldn't reach him online. She could only calculate his progress by the passing minutes, guessing where he was flying and how much longer it would be before he touched down in China.
Lin Yiyang was coming back—returning home for good.
Yin Guo hadn't been the only athlete on her flight. A group of them emerged from the exit one after another, pulling their luggage, chatting in low voices and laughing. Most of the men hadn't bothered to change, simply throwing a casual blazer over their clothes for the flight. The girls still wore their competition makeup, clustered in small groups. Some carried cue cases in their hands, while others had them balanced on top of their suitcases, drawing quite a bit of attention from passersby.
The last to emerge were the referees, dressed simply in full tracksuits. These referees were required to wear formal suits on the floor, standing all day until they were exhausted, so they were always the quickest to change once they left the arena.
Among the seven or eight referees, the one leading the pack was the head of the officiating crew, Lin Lin. Having spent the entire year recovering from a major surgery, this was her first time officiating a tournament from start to finish since her medical leave.
Lin Lin quickly spotted Yin Guo in the corner.
This was the "Rookie Sensation" who had debuted only a year ago and had seen her ranking skyrocket on the national 9-ball and 8-ball circuits, as well as the world professional 9-ball rankings. She had exceptionally large eyes, but because her head was bowed, her bangs had slid down to obscure them. Dressed in a dusty pink hoodie and white jeans with her legs crossed, she sat obediently in her chair, staring motionless at her phone screen.
Lin Lin guessed she was lost in thought, and she knew exactly who she was waiting for.
Within the next few hours, many people would be rushing to this airport, to this very exit, all to welcome the same person.
"We haven't been formally introduced. I'm Lin Lin."
Yin Guo looked up and smiled at her. "We met in Hangzhou." How could she not recognize the head of the officiating crew?
"It's different now," Lin Lin smiled. "I'm Lin Lin from Dongxin City. I'm a close friend who grew up with Lin Yiyang."
Yin Guo smiled and shook her hand.
She felt Lin Lin's grip—it was firm and warm, the kind of handshake one gives when meeting family.
The distance between them seemed to vanish instantly.
"I heard you had major surgery? Is it too much, taking on such a big tournament right after coming back?" Yin Guo asked softly after Lin Lin sat down.
"It's alright. I actually wanted to rest for another month, but this Open was too important. The higher-ups wouldn't let me stay away."
They exchanged a few more pleasantries.
Suddenly, Lin Lin started teasing Lin Yiyang, asking, "Tell me secretly, is Lin Yiyang in debt to loan sharks in America? Why is he being so frantic since he came out of retirement?"
Yin Guo understood the implication immediately.
She was referring to how his ranking had been surging and his uncanny ability to sweep up prize money. Someone had estimated his winnings from various major tournaments; between pounds and dollars, he had already accumulated two million USD.
As a Chinese player temporarily living abroad, he had appeared out of nowhere last year, fighting a solitary battle across every major international event. It wasn't just snooker; as long as the schedules didn't clash, he didn't pass up 9-ball or 8-ball tournaments either. It was a rare sight.
Some 9-ball players liked to dabble in 8-ball, but few combined them with snooker. Someone like Lin Yiyang was a rarity.
When a person of great talent hits a low point, it is often called a period of "dormancy." But where there is a descent, there must be an ascent.
In those long twelve years, he had never put down his cue for a single day. Through wind and rain, through bouts of illness, a pool table had always been his companion. He might have hidden himself away for a long time, but he had never abandoned the passion of his life.
***
On another flight.
The cabin lights were all extinguished, and the windows had been tinted deep blue by the pilot.
Ninety percent of the passengers were asleep.
Lin Yiyang emerged from the lavatory and saw a few scattered passengers still watching movies. He returned to his seat, where the young man next to him, Sun Yao, had woken up mid-flight.
"Sister-in-law is definitely coming to pick you up, right?" Sun Yao asked, hugging his blanket and leaning back lazily. "The last time I saw her was at the Open. I've almost forgotten what she looks like."
"She might not make it in time," he said.
Before he boarded, Yin Guo was still competing. They hadn't had a chance to speak.
Lin Yiyang put on his headphones and scrolled through the selection, picking an old arthouse film. The opening credits featured a clean soundtrack—the plucking of guitar strings backed by a drumbeat. That faint guitar melody gradually swelled, as if enveloping the cabin and the sky tens of thousands of feet above.
Over the past year, there were several times Yin Guo had fallen ill without telling him. Once, she had a high fever that wouldn't break for three days, yet she still chatted and video-called him on schedule, hiding it perfectly. Another time, she competed while sick; he only found out because Wu Wei heard it from the Beicheng crew. When he asked her, her first instinct was to nervously comfort him: "Before I had you, I was on my own when I got sick too. I just take some medicine and get better."
In the end, she had acted a bit spoiled in a soft voice, saying she missed him so much that he felt like a dream in the video calls, and she was almost forgetting what he looked like in person.
They had spent three hundred and sixty-two days in a "Platonic" long-distance romance, rotating between texts and voice notes, never breaking their video call routine. Yet, they had only truly met twice, around their respective birthdays.
On Yin Guo’s birthday, she was supposed to spend it with her family, but she was stunned by a surprise visit from Lin Yiyang. She hastily cooked up a lie about celebrating with college classmates and sprinted to the hotel where he was staying.
That was their first meeting since parting in America. They missed each other so much they were overcome with the impulse to do everything, but it happened to be an inconvenient time for her. That day, the torture of long-term separation made them feel more like internet friends who didn't truly know each other.
Facing each other suddenly, they were so awkward they had nothing to say. For the first ten minutes, one sat on the sofa while the other sat at the desk, chatting about random nonsense... they were one step away from discussing US-China relations on the evening news.
Eventually, somehow, they ended up in each other's arms. Not just her—even Lin Yiyang felt a sense of trance, wondering if this really was his girlfriend.
It felt so foreign, like holding a stranger. That night, they used every means to please one another. It was as if they were proving, *See, I still love you*, while desperately trying to confirm, *You still love me too.*
Even as life moved forward and countless impressive men and women appeared around them, they only loved each other.
That night, Yin Guo couldn't bear to go home. she kept playing with the thin calluses on his palm, saying that next time they had to time their meeting better, otherwise the trip would be a waste. Lin Yiyang had laughed, wondering how he had managed to find such a precious treasure.
Later, for Lin Yiyang’s birthday, Yin Guo was scheduled to be in Singapore. Taking matters into her own hands, she didn't rest for a single minute after her match ended. She flew straight from Singapore to Washington D.C. to see him.
They went nowhere, staying in Lin Yiyang’s apartment for two whole days. Aside from one trip to the supermarket, they cooked all their meals themselves. Those two days were wild; they were everywhere from the bed to the bookshelves, even the windowsill. Later, the room was a total mess. Yin Guo felt the bedsheets were beyond saving, so while he went out to buy dinner, she hand-washed them herself. She even hand-washed all his dirty laundry before having him take it to the laundry room to machine dry.
Before taking her to the airport, Yin Guo wanted to cook him a meal and asked what he liked.
Lin Yiyang replied: Noodles with tomato and egg gravy.
Yin Guo was much younger than him and hadn't really eaten this dish that the older generation was fond of making during times of scarcity. She tinkered around for a long time and actually managed to make it. The red and yellow gravy was poured over thin spaghetti noodles; she stirred it evenly with chopsticks and fed him several mouthfuls. Finally, she watched him finish the very last noodle before leaving the apartment reluctantly. Before going, she took his white T-shirt and left behind a new black one she had bought with the same letter design.
Later, when he spread the dried sheets back on the bed, he realized that silly Yin Guo had only focused on the sheets, forgetting that the duvet cover and pillowcases had also been rendered unusable by their antics.
He thought about washing them, then decided against it. This was the only bit of her scent left. If he washed them, it would be gone.
***
Yin Guo and Lin Lin were the first two to arrive.
Past eleven, Wu Wei drove over with Chen An’an and Fan Wencong. About half an hour later, Jiang Yang’s flight landed as well. These old brothers—whether they were now club owners, heads of coaching staffs, or famous players still dominating the arena—all gathered in Terminal 3 in the dead of night.
Yin Guo was the youngest of the group.
While they chatted, Wu Wei—at Jiang Yang’s suggestion—specifically sat beside Yin Guo to keep her company so she wouldn't feel left out.
They talked about trivial things at first, but then Wu Wei coughed twice. "Does your family know about Lin Yiyang?"
Yin Guo shook her head, looking troubled.
Her cousin had given her a piece of advice: don't mention it until Lin Yiyang returned to China to avoid bringing trouble forward. Once he was back, they would find the right opportunity. Meng Xiaodong planned to step forward personally, perhaps even bringing his father along, to plead Lin Yiyang’s case.
"You know, right? Back then, your mother was the referee and also a leader in the association."
"Yes," she nodded. "I also know that Old Mr. He had a falling out with my mother because of him. If it weren't for Old Mr. He, he would have been suspended for a year... not just six months."
"Really?" Wu Wei was surprised.
"You didn't know?" She was equally surprised.
"How would I know that?" One was an association leader, the other a highly respected elder of the club. How could a couple of rookie players back then have known about a fight between people of that stature?
Yin Guo thought that made sense. Even her cousin had only heard it from her, and she had overheard her parents talking...
Since Lin Yiyang started his comeback this year, the topic had come up often at home. Yin Guo’s father had been involved in sports in his early years; though he later went into business and made a fortune, he was still a romantic at heart regarding his old ideals. When her parents mentioned Lin Yiyang, the things they said... if Yin Guo didn't know him, she would certainly think he was a man who flouted the rules, was arrogant and conceited, obsessed with money, and lacked any sense of sportsmanship or competitive spirit.
"He's in for it," Wu Wei sighed softly.
He was in for it on all fronts. First, with Yin Guo—it was unlikely her family would accept him without him losing a few layers of skin first. Second, Yin Guo’s mother had been promoted steadily and was now a leader at the Sports Bureau. His prospects for developing a career domestically looked grim...
Yin Guo could actually guess that Lin Yiyang’s reason for competing so hard abroad this past year was to secure good results and capital before facing the conflict head-on. But Yin Guo knew her parents; good results weren't everything. Especially her relatives on her mother's side—most were in sports, and they had seen every kind of achievement imaginable. It wasn't particularly prized in their family. Even Yin Guo herself, who medaled in every Open, rarely got praised at home.
The two of them had never discussed this topic.
She didn't want him to face that pressure the moment he stepped back into the country. Some things were better faced only when they absolutely had to be resolved.
It was past three in the morning.
The flight landed at the airport after a ten-minute delay.
Yin Guo and the others waited at the exit.
At this hour, there weren't as many people waiting as there were during the day. They stood in a row behind the silver railing. Yin Guo picked the best vantage point, where she could see the customs security scanners and the distant luggage carousels...
Gradually, more people began to emerge from that flight.
Among the weary-faced, hurried travelers, Yin Guo quickly recognized Lin Yiyang. His height gave him a clear advantage; aside from the foreigners on the same flight, he was the tallest. He wore a black hat, that sports backpack he never seemed to change, and a black casual jacket as he walked through the exit.
He was pushing a luggage cart loaded with four suitcases of various sizes belonging to him and his companion. Every one of them was scuffed and battered, covered in checked-baggage tags—as striking a testament to his intensive tournament schedule over the past year as anything else.
When he saw Yin Guo, his pace slowed to a stop.
All his brothers were there, and so was she.
In the crowd, she was leaning against the railing and smiling at him. Only that small patch of the world had color; everything else was black and white, unimportant. Her bangs seemed longer than the last time he saw her, and her hair had grown too, reaching almost to her waist and straightened. The dusty pink hoodie made her face look even fairer and smaller. Her eyes were full of tears, yet a smile remained on her face.
"Look at Duncuo seeing his wife," Fan Wencong couldn't help but whisper to Chen An’an. "I bet all three of his legs are standing straight right now."
Chen An’an glared at Fan Wencong.
"The girl can't hear me," Fan Wencong muttered. "I'm keeping my voice down."
The tears in Yin Guo’s eyes wouldn't stay down. She wiped them with the back of her hand and waved at him over the chest-high railing. Lin Yiyang walked straight up to her and, reaching across the barrier, wiped away her tears.
They stared at each other for a long time.
Neither was the first to speak.
"Has anyone been chasing you lately? Tell me about it," he said with a low laugh, asking her in front of everyone.
The group behind Yin Guo erupted in laughter. He was still the same as ever.
She gave a small "mm," her voice thick with emotion as she played along with forced lightness. "I just didn't really remember what they looked like. None of them were as handsome as you."
He smiled. "So you only fell for my face?"
She gave another "mm," locking eyes with him as her tears began to fall uncontrollably. It was because she was too moved, too happy to contain herself. Seeing her crying while smiling, Lin Yiyang felt a dull ache in his heart. He reached over the railing and pulled her into a powerful embrace.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 林霖 | Lin Lin | Head of the officiating crew; Lin Yiyang's childhood friend. |
| 孙尧 | Sun Yao | A younger player/companion traveling with Lin Yiyang. |
| 范文匆 | Fan Wencong | One of Lin Yiyang's old friends/peers. |
| 陈安安 | Chen An'an | One of Lin Yiyang's old friends/peers. |
| 西红柿打卤面 | Noodles with tomato and egg gravy | A traditional Northern Chinese noodle dish. |
| 顿挫 | Duncuo | Lin Yiyang's old online handle/nickname. |
| 新人王 | Rookie Sensation | Literally "Rookie King," referring to Yin Guo's rapid rise. |
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