The driver held a box of stinky tofu, not yet eaten. Seeing Yin Guo leaning against the armrest looking preoccupied, he held the paper box out to her. She shook her head and thanked him, but she wasn't in the mood to eat.
Seeing that not everyone had returned yet, the driver took the opportunity to call his son. The gist of the conversation was that he had quarreled with his wife and wanted his son to help smooth things over.
Under the shade of the trees, a cool breeze blew. After hanging up, the driver showed a rare hint of old-fashioned embarrassment. "Me, I just didn't wash my grandson's socks. I wash them every day, but that day I felt lazy and didn't want to, so my wife scolded me until my head spun."
What a strange reason to fight...
"But thinking about it a couple of days later, isn't it just washing socks? It’s just a momentary impulse," the driver added.
She thought about it and realized he was right.
It really was just a momentary impulse.
***
Lin Yiyang returned to the pool hall at noon.
Jiang Yang was rummaging through Lin’s wardrobe for something to wear. "I’m meeting someone today. Let me borrow a shirt."
"A woman?" Lin Yiyang asked.
"Yeah. Met her through a blind date," Jiang Yang admitted freely. He pulled out a light gray shirt, slid his arms into the sleeves, and began fastening the buttons one by one. "She’s a girl who just got divorced last year. We’ve met twice, and she seems nice. If things go well, I might even get married faster than you."
He paused, then added, "I don't want to just 'date' anymore; it's exhausting. Watching you last night made me feel tired for you."
After putting on the shirt, Jiang Yang noticed the stack of promotional brochures and the deposit receipt Lin Yiyang had tossed on the table. He picked them up to take a look.
The month before last, when the two of them were competing abroad, they had gone for a motorcycle ride.
It was a bit of a trend—the "Gentleman’s Ride" that had first become popular in Australia, Europe, and America. Men would wear their most formal suits and shirts, racing bikes while wearing ties.
Suits and racing were both passions for the men of Dongxincheng, so Jiang Yang had taken an interest and borrowed some bikes for a few laps. At the time, Lin Yiyang had been in a black suit and shirt, though without a tie, while Jiang Yang wore a dark gray suit. Jiang Yang had even specifically bought contact lenses so he could wear a helmet. They’d had a great time. Fan Wencong had commented on the two brothers: one was a rogue in a gentleman’s skin, the other an old fox in human skin—any girl who met them would have her heart shaken.
Jiang Yang guessed he was buying this to coax his girlfriend again.
Seeing how restless Lin Yiyang had been last night, Jiang Yang knew he’d had a fight with his girlfriend. "At the beginning, everyone wears rose-colored glasses; everything looks perfect. Slowly, the protective film disappears, and you have to adapt to both the good and the bad. I'll talk to you about this relationship stuff tonight."
Lin Yiyang was feeling irritable and waved him away, telling Jiang Yang to just leave.
"You’re really no good at this. I could tell just by looking at you last night," Jiang Yang dropped that final remark and left.
After Jiang Yang departed, Lin Yiyang greeted Sun Yao, who was supervising the renovation team on the second floor, and went back to his room to sleep.
The guest rooms were small, but his quarters were spacious.
Lin Yiyang pulled the curtains shut, blocking out every sliver of light. In the room where day could not be distinguished from night, he rested his head on his right arm, staring blankly while leaning against the bed. In truth, he wasn't sleepy at all.
Lying there was just wasting time; he might as well practice. He threw off the covers and got out of bed. With his back to the door, he saw a sliver of light on the floor, leaking through the crack of the door behind him.
"Did you get stood up?" he asked, assuming it was Jiang Yang.
The person outside held the edge of the door, looking from the brightly lit space into the pitch-black room. "I was the one who stood them up. I let them go on ahead."
As he turned around, the girl who had entered closed the door again and walked toward him in the dark.
Yin Guo reached out to hug him, but realizing he wasn't wearing a shirt, she hesitated for a second. He grabbed her hand and pressed it against the small of his back.
"Aren't you supposed to be at training camp?" Lin Yiyang spoke first.
"I was afraid you’d keep feeling upset and that it would affect your tournament," she said softly. "I came back to see you before I have to leave."
His palm brought warmth to her wrist, sliding down until the heat covered her elbow. He liked doing this; he liked all her joints, her skin so smooth. "So you know how to feel bad for me now?" he asked.
"I feel bad for you, but you don't feel bad for me," Yin Guo said, hugging him.
It was all because of those three words—"I miss you"—that had pierced her heart. She felt as though not coming back would be leaving him to suffer.
Lin Yiyang searched for her face, her lips. "Even if you hadn't come, I would have driven over there tonight."
He couldn't stand fighting with her, and neither could she.
Last night, he had tossed and turned, thinking all night about when to contact her. He was afraid that if they spoke at night and got angry again, she definitely wouldn't be able to sleep. That was one reason. The second was that he had too many things on his mind—a thousand tangled threads. He felt annoyed thinking about Li Qingyan, he thought about the Open, and he thought about the many problems he had to dismantle now that he was back. With his heart in such turmoil, he hadn't slept all night.
She leaned her face against his shoulder, talking about her situation yesterday. "Yesterday, I argued with my cousin twice, both times about you. And then you were mean to me, for no reason at all..."
"It was annoying to watch," he whispered in her ear. "Watching that kid Meng Xiaodong brought along."
"...There's nothing going on between him and me."
"Cheng Yan has never even spoken to me in front of you. How many times have you brought her up?" he countered.
It was the same thing—eating vinegar, one sour bite at a time.
When moods were bad, it was a source of conflict; right now, however, it was like rosemary. Hearing the person you love being jealous for your sake was the kind of flirtation that best satisfied one's vanity. His fingers began unbuttoning her clothes. "What's the latest you have to be there?"
"Tonight. There's no specific time."
There was a dinner, but not everyone had to attend.
Then there was still time.
"Let me ask you something," he murmured against her face. "Who was it that told me she was easy to coax, that just buying her something good to eat would fix everything? I wanted to get you cherries, but you wouldn't even look back when I called."
He pinned her within his arms. "Quite a temper you have."
She wasn't used to this unfamiliar space. Thinking that the door wasn't locked, she gripped his arm tightly. "The door isn't locked..." Rubbed by his body, she felt the urge to bite him, and she actually did. "Slow down..."
His voice was hoarse as he said, "I can't."
He carried her to the bed.
The pillows were filled with Lin Yiyang's scent, as was the room, awakening all her body's memories of him.
When she was little, she had heard an old song called *Scent*. The lyrics kept repeating: *I miss your smile, I miss your scent.* Back then, she didn't understand such deep things, wondering what there was to miss—weren't boys always smelly? After playing ball or gym class, especially in the summer, it was unbearable.
But only now did she understand that the lyrics referred to a unique olfactory recognition between two people, especially after they had been intimate.
He kept her wrapped in the quilt the whole time, afraid she would catch a cold. After all, it was early April, and the chill was still biting.
When it was finally over, Lin Yiyang reached for the wall by the headboard. His fingers brushed against the wall two or three times before he finally clicked on the wall lamp. It wasn't too bright or too dim—one look and you could tell it was a fixture chosen by an old hand like Jiang Yang, perfect for this kind of lighting.
Lin Yiyang took care of the aftermath, then pulled her, still wrapped in the quilt, onto his lap.
She let him hold her, murmuring softly, "This is what happens every time we meet."
He laughed. "It's been almost two months. If I didn't want to, then you'd really have to consider whether it's time to find a new boyfriend."
Yin Guo tapped his collarbone with her chin. "Rogue."
Lin Yiyang smiled.
It had been a long time since he’d heard her call him that.
The quilt was used to wrap her, so he wasn't covered.
Yin Guo noticed that the compass tattoo on his waist looked different from last time. At first, she thought the light from the wall lamp was insufficient or that she was exhausted and seeing things.
But looking again, it was indeed different. It had a needle now.
Yin Guo pulled back the quilt covering him and leaned in to look closer. Lin Yiyang caught her arm and teased, "Who's the rogue now? What are you looking at?"
Yin Guo ignored him and looked intently.
His skin was damp with sweat, possessing the moist luster of having been washed. The letters were very small, so if one didn't look closely, they would truly think it was a needle in the center of the dial. But looking closely, it was a string of English letters—*fruitlet*.
She recognized the word; she had once thought about using it as her English name...
Translated, it meant: small fruit, young fruit, or little fruit.
Her heart swelled with an ache, and her nose began to sting. "You didn't say anything? You didn't tell me?"
Lin Yiyang smiled.
What was there to say? It was just a tattoo.
He had originally wanted to tattoo a compass because his life was adrift with no set direction, so he had left the dial without a needle. Back then, the tattoo artist had joked with him that if he ever found a sweetheart, he should put a name on it. It was just a joke, but after he saw her off at the airport in Washington, his heart felt empty, so he had found someone in a youth hostel to add it.
The person who added the English word thought the name was cute and even asked if it was for his daughter.
He had thought about it then and said with a smile, "A daughter wouldn't get this treatment. The wife is more important."
He’d spoken as if he already had a wife and child.
Yin Guo traced his waistline. You could feel the tattooed area; it wasn't visible to the naked eye, but it felt like a soft protrusion to the touch... Seeing her eyes turn red, Lin Yiyang stroked her face.
He remembered there was more than half a bag of cherries left in the fridge and wanted to go get them for her. "Wait here." Just as he sat on the edge of the bed, he saw her hair was half-damp, and she was still staring at his hip line while clutching a pillow.
He lay back down, pulled the large white pillow from Yin Guo's arms, and tucked it under her waist. "Forget it. We'll talk on the road."
***
When Yin Guo woke up again, it was to the vibration of Lin Yiyang's alarm. Afraid of being late to drop her off, he had set two alarms. The first vibrated for a full thirty seconds, and the second followed immediately after.
Yin Guo was vibrated awake. Her back and the backs of her thighs were warm; she had been sleeping comfortably, held tightly against him without a gap.
She couldn't quite tell what day or time it was. This experience of being sore all over and sleeping while being held had only happened in his apartment when he was a student. It was pitch black before her eyes, and for a moment, she thought she was back in that February apartment. She turned over and hugged his waist, wanting to linger in bed.
"What kind of good dream are you having?" Lin Yiyang's voice asked from above. "Still not getting up?"
Drowsy, she shifted upward and rested her head on his arm. "I thought I was in your apartment."
"I gave up the lease," he said. "If you want to go back there, we'll have to stay in a hotel."
"Actually, you were the most free over there," she said, listening to his heartbeat. "Watching you serve tea yesterday, I felt like you weren't yourself."
"I wasn't myself over there either," he fell silent for a long moment, his fingers twining through her long hair, gently twirling it. "I wanted to go study back then because work was boring and I had no pursuits. I figured I'd study for a few more years to broaden my horizons."
He added, "I've always wanted to compete. I've wanted to since the moment I left. I just couldn't get past the hurdle of my own pride, so I let myself drift."
Lin Yiyang found his phone behind her back and clicked it on.
Seeing that it was about time, he patted her back through the quilt. "Get up."
Before the two of them set off, Jiang Yang returned from his date and gave Lin Yiyang a printed temporary license plate.
"Perfect timing, the temporary plates for the car are ready." He had helped Lin Yiyang buy the car before Lin returned to China, but because it hadn't been registered yet, it had been sitting in the garage and had never been on the road. "The new car's first trip is to drop off your girlfriend. That's a good omen, Junior Brother."
He was teasing him about driving such a long distance to drop her off—Lin Yiyang had truly been tamed by Yin Guo.
Lin Yiyang ignored him. He held a bag of cherries in his left hand and took the paper with his right to look at it. "Put it in front of the windshield?"
"Yeah."
He handed the cherries to Yin Guo and carried her suitcase downstairs.
Several men were on the second floor with Sun Yao, calculating the renovation timeline. They had all come back to help Lin Yiyang. Seeing Yin Guo following behind Lin Yiyang, Sun Yao was the first to greet her with a smile: "Sister-in-law."
Yin Guo acknowledged him and smiled politely at the men behind Sun Yao.
She took a brief look at the second and third floors. It was much larger than the old Beicheng club. She hadn't expected that his return this time would involve starting such a massive pool hall.
Lin Yiyang told her to wait by the roadside while he went to the neighboring complex to get the car.
Before long, a pure black G65 turned out from the gate of the neighboring complex, with the printed temporary license plate placed behind the front windshield. The car braked in front of her. Lin Yiyang gestured to her through the window. "Get in."
As Yin Guo got into the car, he stepped out alone to toss the small suitcase into the trunk.
Once in the car, he caught a glimpse of her eating from the bag of cherries. "Sweet?"
Yin Guo nodded and smiled at him.
Night had already fallen over the city. He turned on the navigation, looking at the city that had become unfamiliar to him through the map.
A burst of sweetness spread from his lips—she had picked out a cherry and fed it to him. "Why didn't you sign up for the China Open last year?"
"Last year wasn't the right time," Lin Yiyang held the steering wheel with his left hand and made a U-turn at a small intersection as the navigation instructed. "This year is about right."
He needed to re-adapt to the arena. He needed to forget the achievements he once had and forget his own talent. He needed to see himself clearly before he could return and stand once more on the field he had once lost.
Since he had left from here, he should return with the dignity he deserved.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 绅士骑行 | Gentleman's Ride | Refers to the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride, a global motorcycle event. |
| 范文匆 | Fan Wencong | A character name, likely another member of the pool circle. |
| fruitlet | fruitlet | The English word used for Lin Yiyang's tattoo, meaning "small fruit." |
| G65 | G65 | Refers to the Mercedes-Benz G65 AMG, a high-end luxury SUV. |
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