In the small billiards room near their New York apartment, the night was at its liveliest.
Inside one of the private rooms, a five-year-old girl and a boy who looked to be six or seven were in the middle of an argument.
"Do you know who my daddy is?" The girl’s eyes were round and bright as she slapped her small, pale hand against the edge of the pool table. "He’s the captain of the Chinese national team and the head of Dongxin City!"
"That’s in the past. Your dad already stepped down," the boy said, patting the little girl’s head as he ruthlessly repeated a cold, hard fact. "My dad was the one who truly built up Dongxin City. I’ve told you a hundred times."
...
The little girl pouted. she ran out and, after a short while, returned lugging a small stool.
She set it down, positioned it carefully, and ran out again. Moments later, she dragged in a house cue. Climbing onto the stool, she hauled the cue onto the table and said fiercely, "You break!"
The boy gave her a helpless look.
The girl was only five; she didn't have enough strength. While she could manage a single shot, she had no hope of breaking a full rack.
So, he had to take the first shot every time.
Seeing how serious she was, the boy had no choice. He walked out, picked a cue that felt decent, and came back. Thinking she would probably cry again once she lost, he closed the door to the private room.
...
Outside the room.
A man sat by a nine-ball table, playing a casual game with an elderly, white-haired foreign man. They chatted intermittently. "Aren't you going to check on your daughter?" the old man asked.
The man didn't seem particularly concerned. "They're just playing around."
They had a big argument every few days. When she couldn't win the argument, she insisted on a match; when she had a match, she invariably lost and ended up in tears.
It had become a fixed routine.
Outside, a blizzard was blowing in.
Inside, the atmosphere was sweltering. People were shouting for ice-cold beers.
Lin Yiyang sat on a high billiards chair, checking his watch. He was wondering if he should head back to the apartment to check on her—why wasn't she awake yet? Just as the thought crossed his mind, he saw a small figure at the entrance. She ran down the steps, covered in snow, even on her hat. Fearing she might brush snow onto others, she dodged people as she walked, pulling off her hat.
She scanned the room and smiled when she spotted Lin Yiyang.
As she ran over, she habitually glanced at the small private room. Sure enough, the door was closed again.
"Fighting again?" She took off her down jacket and draped it over the billiards chair.
She tucked both hands into the pockets of Lin Yiyang’s athletic jacket, and he naturally took hold of them.
Lin Yiyang nodded.
Watching those two bicker every day was a decent form of entertainment.
Ever since Jiang Yang had tied him down to Dongxin City, Lin Yiyang had spent seven years steering the club onto a new track. Once everything was running smoothly, it happened to coincide with Jiang Yang’s retirement announcement.
On the day Jiang Yang retired, Lin Yiyang handed Dongxin City back to him.
Lin Yiyang didn't feel a hint of lingering attachment. In his own words: he had been putting out a fire back then, and it was his duty to step up.
Their teacher had passed away, and Jiang Yang was sidelined by injury; he had stepped in to fill the gap.
But at his core, he still preferred the life of a wandering spirit—playing in world rankings, teaching enthusiasts, nurturing newcomers, and running a small, non-profit billiards club. This was the life he pursued.
Because their New York apartment was right here, Lin Yiyang eventually bought this small billiards room as well.
It made practicing convenient.
Sun Zhou had moved to New York with them, leaving the Washington club in someone else's hands.
Not long after she arrived, Sun Zhou brought over some hot coffee. Just as Yin Guo took it, she heard a loud wail.
Yin Guo nearly choked, letting out an uncharitable laugh first.
A stranger might think the girl wasn't her own... but honestly—she cried every single day. Yin Guo was already numb to it.
Suddenly, the door was flung open.
The little girl dragged her cue out of the room, her eyes and face streaming with tears. "Dad... he said you couldn't beat his dad when you were little, so that's why I can't beat him... Is it true?"
Lin Yiyang was holding a piece of chalk, coating the tip of his cue. "Do you believe him?"
The girl’s eyes were red. She brooded for a few seconds. "No."
"Then that's that," he said with a smile.
Yin Guo stuffed her coffee into Lin Yiyang’s hands and ran over to wipe her daughter's tears, but the girl brushed her hand away. In some ways, she was exactly like her father... She silently wiped her tears with her sweater sleeve, dragged her cue back inside, and said with a sob, "One more rack."
With that, she slammed the door shut, locking her own mother out.
Yin Guo looked at the door in a daze, then turned to Lin Yiyang. "Were you like this when you were a kid?"
Lin Yiyang smiled, which was as good as an admission.
He leaned over, and with a sharp thrust of his right hand, he broke the diamond rack that had just been set.
With a loud *crack*, the colored balls scattered across the table. To the continuous sound of balls dropping into pockets, only three remained on the table. Finally, even the nine-ball rolled toward the pocket in front of the old man and dropped in.
The nine-ball went in on the break.
Just like that frame when Jiang Yang had come to New York to meet him all those years ago.
Winning the first frame right off the break.
That day, the two of them had been chatting about what nationality Yin Guo was and how they had met.
He had been thinking about whether to download some emojis to chat with her...
Clearing his heart, returning to the professional circuit, reuniting with his brothers—so much had happened in those two years.
How many years had passed in the blink of an eye?
Having won the frame, he looked at Yin Guo, who was sitting dejectedly on the billiards chair, ignored by her daughter and sipping her coffee. He whispered to the old man in English, "Is my wife beautiful?"
The old man nodded and gave him a thumbs-up.
In a great mood, Lin Yiyang pulled half a bar of dark chocolate from his pocket. He finished it in a few bites, crumpled the wrapper into a ball, and tossed it into the trash can in the corner.
He put his cue on the rack and draped the down jacket over Yin Guo’s shoulders. "Let's go get dinner."
"I'll go call them out," Yin Guo said, moving to get the children.
"They already ate," he said.
Children ate early. He had just given them pizza and pasta, so they were full and playing in the room—it saved them the trouble.
Lin Yiyang put his arm around her as they walked out.
Outside the main door, large snowflakes were falling. People were coming and going, hurrying through the cold.
Thick white snow had piled up along the roads. Lin Yiyang saw a homeless man seeking shelter from the wind by the door; he smiled and handed him a pack of cigarettes, pointing inside the billiards room and telling him to go in and warm up.
He pulled Yin Guo’s hat over her head, tucked her into his embrace with his left arm, and walked with her into the wind and snow. Amidst the swirling flakes, the streetlights stretched into the distance, casting a dim yellow glow over the entire night sky.
As they walked onto a narrow pedestrian path, Lin Yiyang pulled her to his right side.
"Why do you always pull me to this side whenever we walk on a narrow path?" she asked. There were no cars, and it wasn't dangerous.
She had noticed this several times over the winters they'd spent here; he always seemed to give her a little tug on narrow paths. She found it strange every time, but the moment always passed quickly, and she never thought deeply about it or asked.
Lin Yiyang pointed to the downward-sloping staircases leading to the basement apartments. "I'm afraid you'll fall in."
"So you were afraid I'd fall in?"
"What did you think it was?"
...
Back in Flushing, the first time he had done that, she thought he had obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Yin Guo glanced at the snow-covered steps leading down from the apartment building, finally solving a mystery of many years.
This man really was something—if you didn't ask, he wouldn't say a word. He could keep a secret for a lifetime.
How had he managed to woo her? It was a miracle.
Her boots left fresh prints on the layer of new snow as she followed Lin Yiyang’s pace. He walked slowly, waiting for her. She exhaled a puff of white mist, turned her head, and smiled at him. "Let's go to Flushing tomorrow, okay?"
Lin Yiyang nodded. "Okay, let's go to Flushing."
She smiled happily. That place was very special to her.
Everything had started there, in that Chinese billiards room. It was there that she had first seen the real Lin Yiyang.
It had been snowing that day, too.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 东新城 | Dongxin City | The name of the billiards club/sect Lin Yiyang and Jiang Yang belong to. |
| 巧粉 | Chalk | Billiards chalk used for the cue tip. |
| 九球 | 9-ball | A popular pocket billiards game. |
| 开球 | Break | The opening shot of a game of billiards. |
| 法拉盛 | Flushing | A neighborhood in Queens, New York, known for its large Chinese community. |
| 闲云野鹤 | Wandering spirit | Lit. "idle clouds and wild cranes"; refers to someone living a life of leisure and freedom, unconstrained by worldly affairs. |
