NH chapter 034

Chapter 34: New Year’s Eve

On New Year’s Eve, firecrackers started going off early in the morning, waking people from their dreams. The air was filled with the smell of fire and ash, with red paper scraps piled thick on the ground.

As shoes crunched over them, it was inevitable that someone would accidentally step on an unspent firecracker, “bang!”

That was enough to scare the unwary unfortunate who happened to be standing nearby.

Children came out in groups, holding piles of fireworks and firecrackers in their arms, with snot bubbles hanging from their noses.

At their age, they were fearless and dared to play pranks, like lighting firecrackers on fresh cow dung and calling over the village’s simpleton to see what would happen.

The simpleton didn’t understand what was going on and walked over, only to end up splattered with muddy dung, furious and screaming, wanting to hit them.

The children laughed loudly as they quickly ran away, particularly annoying.

The simpleton rushed to complain to Huo Ye, sniffling and wiping his tears, feeling quite wronged. He and Huo Ye were about the same age; they had played together when they were seven or eight, but now Huo Ye had grown up while he still looked like a seven or eight-year-old.

After listening, Huo Ye nodded and comforted the simpleton, telling him to go home and take a bath. Then he turned around and grabbed a feather duster, heading out the door.

The children peeked through the cracks of the door, and upon seeing Huo Ye smiling sinisterly, they screamed in fright, “Huo Seven gege is gonna hit people! Run! Save yourselves!”

“None of you are allowed to run.”

With a smile, Huo Ye said, “I promise not to kill you.”

The fireworks and firecrackers were confiscated, and the children, looking forlornly at the locked doors of the storage room, started crying.

“Don’t cry, or I’ll hit you again.” Huo Ye put the keys to the storage room into his pocket and pointed at whoever was crying, making them suppress their sobs.

Once the children walked away with their heads hanging low, Huo Ye made sure there was no one around, reopened the storage room, and picked out the fireworks they had left unfinished, bringing out a huge bag.

Children weren’t allowed to play with them, but adults could.

Huo Ye hugged the fireworks and proudly piled them onto the table. Shen Tingyu frowned and poked at the red plastic bag’s packaging, asking him, “What’s this?”

“Let’s set off fireworks; it’ll be fun,” Huo Ye said, opening the plastic bag and eagerly introducing the types of fireworks inside.

“This is a colorful chrysanthemum; it spins on the ground, very beautiful. The only downside is that it burns too quickly.”

“This is ‘Golden and Jade Abound’; it makes a popping sound like firecrackers. It has a large burning area and will explode with sparks, also beautiful.”

“This is ‘Fire Phoenix’; if you light it on the ground, it will fly into the sky immediately, flying very high, and looks even better at night.”

“This is a silver fountain; it burns for a long time, and when it just ignites, it reaches about 1.8 meters high. This is a two-step firecracker, and there are small colorful firecrackers…”

Shen Tingyu inspected each one as if he were seeing fireworks for the first time.

Huo Ye found it strange: “Didn’t you play with fireworks when you were a kid?”

“Isn’t fireworks for watching? You can also play with them?” Shen Tingyu replied, equally puzzled. “In the past, someone else would set them off—those big ones that go into the sky, they’re huge and colorful, you could watch them all night.”

From Shen Tingyu’s few words, Huo Ye understood.

It turned out that rich people and ordinary people had different childhoods, and the fireworks they set off weren’t the same.

In Shen Tingyu’s eyes, watching fireworks was just a ceremonial sense of welcoming the new year, a way to get auspicious tidings. Tens of thousands could be burned in one night. The servants would set them off outside, while the master stayed in the house to watch.

The fleeting joy of setting off fireworks in person was something far beyond his reach.

It turned out that Shen Tingyu was a child without a childhood.

Huo Ye felt it was necessary to help Shen Tingyu reclaim the fun he never had as a child. He pulled him up, saying, “I know there’s an abandoned basketball court nearby. Come on, let’s go set off fireworks.”

A moment later, the two tall boys squatted on the ground, whispering to each other. Shen Tingyu watched Huo Ye use a lighter to ignite two incense sticks.

“Aren’t we setting off fireworks? Why are we lighting incense?”

Huo Ye explained, “Incense burns slowly. We light the firecrackers’ fuses with them so we don’t get burned by sparks.”

“Oh.”

The colorful chrysanthemum was cheap and plentiful, with a small box containing eight, perfect for novice firework enthusiasts. Huo Ye handed the incense to him, and Shen Tingyu took it, trying to light it from a distance without knowing if it had been touched.

“Stand a little closer; are you just tickling it?” Huo Ye couldn’t watch anymore and snatched the incense back, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll demonstrate.”

Shen Tingyu haughtily said, “I’m just afraid it will hit me in the face.”

Huo Ye concentrated on lighting the fuse, and Shen Tingyu instinctively leaned closer to watch.

In the moment Shen Tingyu was serious about watching, the fuse suddenly ignited with a psssh sound, and Huo Ye reacted quickly, leaping backward. However, Shen Tingyu was slow to react, and the colorful chrysanthemum danced like a little devil chasing after him.

Shen Tingyu jumped in fright, feeling that his panic was quite foolish. He turned around and grabbed Huo Ye, who had just lit the fire and was trying to run away, laughing as he got trapped in Shen Tingyu’s grip.

“Huo Ye, you did that on purpose!”

The colorful chrysanthemum spun and burned on the ground, striving to show the fleeting brilliance to its audience, only to leave behind an empty shell and fleeting ashes once consumed.

This transient joy seemed to make people temporarily forget their worries during the burning process. At this moment, all we needed to care about was how many minutes were left until it stopped burning, and how many seconds remained.

The boys were like fire aids that couldn’t be extinguished by rain; a slight collision could unleash something uncontrollable. Looking back, it had already become a youth as unreachable and fleeting as fireworks after burning out.

Whether it was a few dollars’ worth of fireworks or tens of thousands, in the end, it all amounted to nothing.

On New Year’s Eve, people stayed up late, with long red decorations stretching from the village’s start to its end, waiting for midnight to arrive, when the earth would be filled with the deafening sound of firecrackers.

That evening, Huo Ye and Shen Tingyu prepared a small cooker as usual, serving two big bowls of dumplings as a late-night snack. Despite not even having digested dinner, they already started feasting again. Shen Tingyu felt a little bloated.

“Huo Ye, I’ve gained about five or six pounds in less than half a year since meeting you,” Shen Tingyu said unhappily.

“That’s a good thing,” Huo Ye went to grab chopsticks. “You were too thin.”

Shen Tingyu raised an eyebrow at this, glancing at Huo Ye’s busy back. Huo Ye was not wearing an outer coat, just a form-fitting, cool gray sweater. His broad shoulders and straight posture made him look amazing when he casually turned around, his figure slender and frame resembling that of a clothes hanger.

Huo Ye seemed completely unaware of how he had unwittingly shifted the comparison, and believed he was right.

“… What’s wrong?” Huo Ye turned around and almost bumped into Shen Tingyu, who had somehow come closer. To an outside observer, their height difference seemed minuscule, but in the moment Huo Ye stood before Shen Tingyu, the few centimeters became glaringly evident.

“Huo Ye, you should know this.”

Shen Tingyu lowered his gaze.

Huo Ye: “?”

“Your clothes; I can only wear the outer coat.”

Huo Ye: “.”

“And those new items you bought me that day,” Shen Tingyu said coldly as if to humiliate, “including the underwear size you picked for me; they’re a size smaller. — They’re too tight.”

Huo Ye: “…”

An awkward silence fell over the atmosphere, and at that moment, a huge explosion of firecrackers erupted outside, “Bang bang bang!!!!”

In an instant, the entire world flickered, dazzling lights flashing bright like day, and then dimming back into night. The colors in the night sky were no longer a single black but blossomed vividly, brilliantly celebrating. Countless splendid meteors scattered and fell, growing increasingly intense.

After waiting for so long, midnight arrived unceremoniously.

The sound was sharp; it pierced through the ear like a knife. Shen Tingyu clearly had never seen such a spectacle and thought for a moment he might be deaf. Instinctively turned to look outside, but a force turned him back, and when he raised his eyes in confusion, Huo Ye had both hands tightly covering his ears, his eyes filled with a kind of mischievous tenderness.

At that moment, all the noise faded into a hum, and Huo Ye’s voice, though not very clear, seemed to be the center of the world: “In the sound of firecrackers, a year ends. Shen Tingyu, Happy New Year!”

… Happy New Year.

Shen Tingyu quietly replied, “Happy New Year, Huo Ye.”

This was the first New Year we spent together.

This year, next year, every year.

Traditionally, one should stay awake until dawn, but it’s quite a challenge to keep their eyes open until morning. So at two in the morning, Huo Ye suggested, “Let’s go to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise. What do you think?”

Shen Tingyu lay on the table, too sleepy to speak, wondering why Huo Ye always became excited in the early morning.

He really didn’t want to go; had it not been for Huo Ye dragging him along, there was no way Shen Tingyu would run halfway up the mountain at this time when the living were half-dead and the dead were half-alive.

There was a Phoenix Mountain behind the village, a scenic spot long forgotten by tourists. The hiking trail was well maintained, but few visited; even the villagers at the foot of the mountain rarely ventured there.

Yet the path was right there, and there were always some free-spirits. Huo Ye led the way, often stopping to wait for Shen Tingyu.

Shen Tingyu was in a state of detachment, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and moving slowly, his expression colder than usual, even somewhat cynical, as he stepped carefully.

“Hey, there’s a snake by your feet,” Huo Ye suddenly said. Shen Tingyu jolted back to life, jumping away quickly.

“Where?!”

Huo Ye anxiously replied, “By your heel, come this way quickly! The snake is gonna chase you down! Hurry!”

At that moment, Shen Tingyu was very obedient, darting over to Huo Ye like a released arrow. Huo Ye stumbled forward from the impact, nearly sending both of them crashing into the bushes.

The path in the mountains was dark, with only the flickering beams of their flashlights waving about, one of which fell with a thud.

“Where is it? Just tell me!” Shen Tingyu leaned against Huo Ye, shaking him in frustration. Turns out he was afraid of snakes.

Huo Ye couldn’t speak, only stifling his laughter, and through the dim moonlight, one could see the mischievous glint in his eyes. Shen Tingyu immediately realized he had been tricked again.

“…”

Shen Tingyu was utterly speechless: “Huo Ye, do you think this is funny?”

“Of course! I do this all the time, but only my sister and Bai Feiyu would panic and jump. I imagined you’d be more calm than I thought.”

Huo Ye chuckled: “I thought you would scream and want me to carry you down, saying you won’t ever want to climb the mountain again.”

“Nonsense. I won’t pay you any more attention.”

Shen Tingyu pushed him away, not looking back as he continued forward; there was still about an hour and thirty-two minutes before sunrise.

After all the commotion, Shen Tingyu didn’t feel sleepy at all anymore. If he concentrated on climbing, his endurance and physical strength were quite good. The tables had turned, and now Huo Ye was lagging behind, trying to catch up to his fast-paced steps. Whenever Huo Ye was about to catch up, Shen Tingyu would deliberately speed up to shake him off, not waiting for him when he shouted.

“Shen Tingyu, are you being childish?” After chasing for quite a while, Huo Ye began to pant, “Are you in elementary school?”

The elementary school student pretended not to hear.

The elementary school student seemingly forgot that his name was Shen Tingyu.

Perhaps it was the altitude of the mountain that caused the air to thin. After a while, Huo Ye begun to have trouble catching his breath. The more desperately he tried to breathe, the worse it became.

He bent down to catch his breath, pressing on his left chest, where his heart was racing wildly, likely reaching 150 beats per minute. His stomach began to cramp, and he felt frightened.

Huo Ye knew this wasn’t normal. Pulling at his shirt, he thought calmly that it must have been stopping his medication without permission tonight that triggered his symptoms. What started as insomnia had manifested physically.

… He had indeed been reckless, but that medication made one’s head foggy and consciousness unclear, like being rusted over, making it hard to think. On such an important night, he didn’t want Shen Tingyu to spend it alone.

It had been a long time since he had had such a relapse.

Why — did it have to be at a time like this? Just when he finally felt happy, thinking he was finally ushering in a new beginning.

His body was being pulled down, and Huo Ye tried hard to calm his breathing, attempting to regain control, worried that if he took too long, he wouldn’t be able to catch Shen Tingyu ahead.

Ugh, really. Huo Ye thought in frustration, why does time never seem to wait for him? He was so close to catching up.

“What’s wrong?”

A familiar voice suddenly came from above.

Huo Ye’s body jolted, and when he looked up, he saw Shen Tingyu had turned back at some point, looking at him with a serious expression.

“… I’m fine. I have low blood sugar; just give me a moment,” Huo Ye weakly smiled, his face pale, but the discomfort of his heart racing made him frown the next second, unable to suppress a groan threatening to escape his throat.

He was best at bearing things in silence. Shen Tingyu was so easy to trick; whatever Huo Ye said, he would believe it. As Shen Tingyu squatted down in front of him, dissatisfied, he said, “You have low blood sugar and you still bring me night hiking? Voluntarily seeking suffering, huh? Get on.”

Huo Ye looked down at Shen Tingyu’s broad back, feeling somewhat moved. “It’s still a long way to go; you’ll get very tired.”

“Since we’re already this far, are you going to give up?” Shen Tingyu urged nonchalantly, “Get on, don’t make me say it a third time.”

After a while, Huo Ye reluctantly climbed onto his back, feeling Shen Tingyu’s hot breath against his neck. Shen Tingyu awkwardly turned his neck slightly, needing to quip back to relieve some tension, taunting, “Really impressive; the tyrant of Lanjing still needs someone to carry him up a mountain. It seems you’re getting worse as time goes on.”

“…” Usually, Huo Ye would have been unwilling to yield and would have said something back, but now he just closed his eyes, leaning his side against Shen Tingyu’s shoulder, trying hard to regulate his breath.

“Huo Ye, it’s been so long; why is your heartbeat still so fast? I can feel it; are you unwell?”

“… No. I’ll be fine soon.”

Huo Ye half-opened his eyes, his voice low and weak, “I won’t die on your back; don’t worry…”

Shen Tingyu paused, mumbling, “You should just keep quiet.”