Lin Yiyang landed in New York to dozens of interview requests.
Hearing the sheer volume of these invitations, Yin Guo finally grasped a profound reality—even setting aside snooker, Lin Yiyang, who had swept nearly ten major and minor nine-ball titles the previous year, had long since become a bona fide celebrity here.
Unfortunately, he rejected every interview, giving the same uniform response: it was a private trip.
Lin Yiyang brought her and Chen An’an back to his old residence.
Nothing in the apartment had changed. Everyone’s rooms were still there, untouched, including Yin Guo’s.
Over the past year, Lin Yiyang and Meng Xiaotian had become very close. So much so that when the brownish apartment door opened and Meng Xiaotian saw Lin Yiyang and Yin Guo step inside together, his first word was "Brother-in-law." Yin Guo, his actual sister, was left standing to the side.
Of course, his next sentence was: "Brother-in-law, help me edit a paper. I have to leave right away."
"Where are you going?" Yin Guo asked, seeing him dragging a suitcase, clearly prepared for a long journey.
"Back to China. My brother summoned me."
And so, the siblings said their goodbyes after only five minutes of seeing each other.
...
Lin Yiyang rummaged through the fridge and cabinets for food, mentally calculating what he needed to restock from the supermarket. Yin Guo sat behind the bar counter, her chin resting on her hand as she watched him. Both were frequent long-haul flyers and were used to the travel, so they weren't particularly tired.
Chen An’an, however, was exhausted. He had been nearing retirement over the last two years and played fewer matches, let alone long-haul flights. Tortured by jet lag, he could barely keep his eyes open. He didn't even bother showering, heading straight into Lin Yiyang’s room, locking the door, and falling asleep.
Consequently, ten minutes after arriving at the apartment, only the two of them were left in the living room.
Yin Guo glanced at the door to Lin Yiyang’s room and asked softly, "You let him sleep in your room... aren't you basically telling him that you're sleeping with me?"
Lin Yiyang closed the fridge door, looking genuinely puzzled. "If I’m not sleeping with you, who would I sleep with?"
The fact was one thing, but she wasn't close to Chen An’an. During their month of intensive training, they hadn't exchanged more than ten sentences. Suddenly being under the same roof and blatantly staying in the same room with Lin Yiyang right in front of Chen An’an—
"It feels weird." The thought made her uneasy.
In Lin Yiyang’s eyes, Yin Guo was already his wife-to-be; he couldn't quite grasp the "weirdness" she felt.
"I’ll shower first. Sit for a bit."
He was thinking about cleaning up the bathroom. Meng Xiaotian had lived here alone for a month, and it likely wasn't very clean. He wanted to tidy it up before letting her use it.
Lin Yiyang walked around the bar, went to his suitcase in front of the sofa, and rummaged for a change of jeans and a T-shirt. He casually tossed a stack of short-sleeved shirts to the other side of the suitcase.
Yin Guo followed him, squatting down to look through the clothes he had brought. They were all old, things she had seen before.
This man was incredibly flashy when it came to buying cars, yet incredibly frugal when it came to his wardrobe. Aside from the formal wear required for matches, the only branded item he owned was still the one Yin Guo had given him—just that one. He was a straight-laced man through and through.
"That short-sleeved shirt, the one I took," she remembered and asked, "Why did you buy it back then?"
He had been so poor then; it was strange for him to suddenly buy something like that.
"I didn't buy it," Lin Yiyang unbuttoned his white shirt and tossed it into the red plastic bin for dirty laundry. "A kid at the pool hall won a regional championship and bought it with the prize money. It was a gift from a student to his teacher."
Given Lin Yiyang’s temperament, he normally wouldn't have accepted it, but the kid was Canadian and went back home afterward, so it became a memento.
No wonder.
He was about to take off his trousers, his belt already unbuckled.
"Go inside to change. Go to the bathroom."
Lin Yiyang was once again amused by his girlfriend’s "unreasonable request." It wasn't like she hadn't seen him before.
She had.
But it was the same logic—what if Chen An’an suddenly came out and saw Lin Yiyang standing in the living room in nothing but cotton boxers talking to her? It would be unseemly.
Once Lin Yiyang entered the bathroom and the sound of the shower started, Yin Guo was still thinking—it seemed that no matter how handsome or dashing a man was, once he became "yours," he couldn't wait to walk around the house half-naked every day, completely disregarding his image.
Amidst the sound of the water, she leaned on the bar counter, scrolling through Weibo and her WeChat Moments.
Surprisingly, there were already photos of Lin Yiyang at the airport today.
Some were taken by passersby from the second floor, others from the first. From the second-floor angle, Lin Yiyang’s back was to the camera as he looked out at the tarmac; it was just a distant shot of a white shirt, black trousers, and black leather shoes. The first-floor shot was likely from the southwest corner, showing his profile. He had a high bridge to his nose, which pushed up the top of his black mask. His eyes were cast down at his phone, making it impossible to read his mood.
She thought the photos were quite atmospheric and saved them to her album.
On her Moments, someone had shared the post-match press conference with the comment: *This guy is the real deal. His girlfriend is lucky.*
Yin Guo’s heart skipped a beat as she tapped to watch.
The camera flashes merged into a continuous sheet of light.
Led by the host, Lin Yiyang and the Association President walked behind the long red interview table and sat down.
The empty seat to his left should have belonged to a coach; it remained vacant. To his right sat the leaders of the Billiards Association.
As he sat, his instinctive move was to unbutton his cuffs, but he seemed to remember something and smoothly diverted the motion. He gave a low cough, sat up straight, and began the interview.
Yin Guo noticed this little interlude and couldn't help but smile.
The reporters' questions were sharp, and his answers were concise.
"You had a gap of over ten years. You aren't familiar with the circuit or your opponents. Have there been times when you felt overwhelmed?"
"No."
"You’re twenty-eight this year and just starting out again. Do you have any concerns about your age?"
Again: "No."
...
Finally, someone brought up the past directly.
"It’s said you retired out of frustration because of a suspension. Is that true? Will you clarify the past rumors of match-fixing today? Why choose to return after being retired for so long? Is it to strike back at the old rumors? Or were you unwilling to stay retired under such a cloud?"
After a few seconds of silence, Lin Yiyang spoke a rare, lengthy paragraph: "Everyone has their own conjectures about the past. Even if I clarified it a hundred times here today, you wouldn't fully believe me. You might just see it as a polished PR answer. I can't convince everyone to believe me, and no one here can either. Let the past stay in the past. Truth or falsehood isn't what matters."
Lin Yiyang continued, "The path of an athlete is very hard. If it were just for 'striking back' or 'unwillingness,' one wouldn't last long. Negative emotions cannot sustain a person through all hardships. Only passion can make a person swallow all the bitterness and reach the end."
"I returned today for only one reason—Lin Yiyang’s road isn't finished yet," he paused, then concluded, "This road is mine, and I must walk it myself."
Yin Guo felt a surge of emotion; the applause in the video was thunderous.
In that atmosphere, the host timely moved to close: "Thank you to the reporters present, and thank you to Lin Yiyang for today’s brilliant match and the post-match interview—"
A reporter suddenly cut the host off: "There is one last question."
The microphone was passed over.
"As a star player, you don't just have to manage your public image; your romantic life will also be exposed to the public. This has already caused trouble for many sports stars."
The reporter was smiling, and everyone else was laughing; they were fishing for gossip.
As the laughter died down, the reporter got to the point: "Before you returned to the country, Jiang Yang and Meng Xiaodong were considered the most popular domestic players in this industry. Neither of them has a girlfriend yet, and they are often discussed online because of it. Are you mentally prepared to become one of the industry’s most valuable golden bachelors like them upon your return? Or rather, do you feel pressured about putting your future relationship in the public eye?"
Lin Yiyang rested both elbows on the red table, fingers interlaced, listening intently. Once the reporter finished, he said half-jokingly, "Whether Jiang Yang and Meng Xiaodong have girlfriends... I’m not sure."
Everyone present knew the three of them had been friends since youth. Saying "not sure"—did that mean there were secret romances??
Instantly, three or four reporters shouted questions at once—
"I heard Jiang Yang is divorced, is that true?"
"Are the rumors of Meng Xiaodong’s secret marriage true?"
"Someone photographed Meng Xiaodong training overseas this year with a wife and daughter following him. Is that true?"
Lin Yiyang laughed and waved his hand, signaling it was just a joke and he wouldn't reveal their secrets.
He brought the question back to himself and gave the honest answer without leaving any room for doubt: "But one thing is for certain: I am not single."
Another bombshell.
In an instant, all the reporters started shouting questions. Nothing could be heard clearly anymore; the noise was deafening.
The video abruptly stopped. It had ended.
Yin Guo’s heart pounded fiercely. She wanted to drag the slider back and replay the last minute.
"Enjoying what you see?" the man from the video asked beside her face.
Her heart jumped again. she turned her head and, at her most distracted moment, was kissed by him. Her phone was taken away, and he was still kissing her long hair...
"Let me shower first," she suddenly dodged. After a ten-plus hour flight, she felt gross.
Lin Yiyang didn't mind. He had finished his shower, and he would never find her anything but pleasant. She always smelled good to him.
Yin Guo thought otherwise; she felt she smelled bad, like airplane seats and cabin air. After much persuasion, she sent him away, grabbed clean clothes, and entered the bathroom.
It had been cleaned very well; she could see the floor tiles had been scrubbed.
Only the mist on the mirror remained, not yet dissipated.
She looked down at the sink; his razor and blades were there, making it feel like they were back in the past. Yin Guo traced her finger across the surface, looking at herself in the mirror. Luckily her hair was straight now, not curled like last year, otherwise it would truly feel like time had flowed backward.
She showered quickly and returned to her room.
The furnishings hadn't been moved.
The sheets and duvet covers had just been changed for clean ones by Lin Yiyang. He was sitting in the small armchair by the window, holding his laptop, proofreading an English paper for Meng Xiaotian.
Yin Guo wanted to blow-dry her hair but was afraid of waking Chen An’an, so she gave up on the idea.
"Rest for a bit. You started helping him with his work as soon as we arrived."
He smiled. "Wasn't I waiting for you?"
The girl’s fingers waved in front of his eyes.
Lin Yiyang finally looked up and saw her half-squatting in front of him. The top of the laptop blocked some of his view, but it might as well have blocked nothing. She was wearing only a men’s short-sleeved shirt—his shirt. Her legs were completely bare. The white T-shirt was thin enough to hint at the color of underwear, but she... wasn't wearing any. He was very familiar with the curves of her body.
The physical desire that had been suppressed by the academic paper was successfully reignited by the sight before him.
"What do you want to do?" he asked in a low voice.
"Sleep," she said, feigning ignorance. "I’m tired."
He laughed.
He snapped the laptop shut and tossed it onto the sofa.
Without a single wasted word, he grabbed the hem of his own T-shirt with both hands and pulled it off. He pulled her into his arms, his bare chest against her. Through the thin layer of cotton, their body temperatures seeped into each other, both rising.
The zipper of his jeans brushed against the skin of her waist, and his belt buckle felt cold against her.
"Wait," he said, responding to her passion with his palms, kissing her and speaking in a low, raspy voice. He was telling her to wait; the protection was still in the suitcase, and there was none in this room.
Yin Guo’s tongue proactively deepened the kiss, giving him no time to leave.
Her hands were already wandering over his jeans, completely uninhibited... Lin Yiyang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. While kissing her, he pinned her to the bed, pulling her hands above her head. "What’s gotten into you today?"
Then, he added in a husky voice, "Be good."
"It’s okay..." she said in a barely audible whisper. Ever since he returned to China, she had been consistently using a secondary method of protection as a double insurance to avoid any mishaps.
So even without the things in the suitcase, there was a layer of protection.
Lin Yiyang’s breathing grew heavier. He said nothing more and lowered his head to kiss her.
His dark, bright eyes remained locked on her body and face. The light from outside the window cast down from above them; his features were silhouetted against the light, and his short hair was rimmed with a white glow.
Her heart beat faster than it had the first time. It felt more like a "first night," as she gave him her complete trust.
Or perhaps it was a ritual—their bodies accepting each other without any barriers. For a man, the significance of doing this for the first time with the girl he loved was something only those who have truly loved could understand.
...
Everything came in a surging tide. Then, the room fell silent.
the man’s rough fingertips were still stroking her face, his breathing still heavy and unsteady. Yin Guo’s heart beat slowly in this silent intimacy. Feeling him press against her face, she leaned into him affectionately, nuzzling him gently and giving him a soft kiss.
When he prepared to pull away, she suddenly held him tight, wanting him to stay a little longer.
Lin Yiyang seemed to understand and let out a soft laugh.
The back of his fingers rubbed the area behind her ear as he whispered, "I didn't even take off my jeans. If I don't clean up soon, I’ll have to wash the pants too."
This time they’d have to be hand-washed; it would be unseemly to throw them in the laundry room.
She shook her head, her hair spread across his arm and the sheets. The man didn't move, holding her as he relaxed, no longer thinking of leaving. It was fine not to leave; given Chen An’an’s exhausted state, he would likely sleep until evening.
They still had plenty of time to waste here; cleaning up could wait.
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 黄金单身汉 | Golden bachelor | A term for a highly eligible, wealthy, or successful single man. |
| 第二重措施 | Secondary method/protection | Refers to birth control (likely the pill) used in addition to other methods. |
| 江杨 | Jiang Yang | A character mentioned as a top player and friend of Lin Yiyang. |
| 孟晓东 | Meng Xiaodong | Yin Guo's cousin and a top player. |
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