TSIBAMS Chapter 120
by VolareApril is when spring arrives most intensely.
Having shed the cold of winter, and not yet reaching the scorching heat of summer, the temperature and humidity are just right, even the breeze that unintentionally sweeps by is full of warmth.
Ye Xing drew the not-so-thick cotton and linen curtains, the room still filled with a dim yellow light. When he turned back, he saw Qi Guang smiling brightly in the remaining glow of the setting sun.
He couldn’t tell which feeling dominated his senses at this moment.
It was as if he had waited too long for this smile, but seeing it now, he felt that those four-odd months of unwarranted time in between didn’t matter anymore.
All the unwillingness and grievances, the struggles and resentment, all were resolved.
“Have you stared enough?” Qi Guang asked, his hands in his pockets, leaning against the closet door as he gazed back at him.
“Have you stared enough?” Ye Xing slowly approached him. “You said at the hotel this morning you’d only come for a quick glance, but you’ve been staring at me all day. How do we count the extra ones?”
“What do you mean ‘how do we count’? Do I need a math tutor to come to your house?” Qi Guang pretended to be clueless.
“Alright, Mr. Top Student’s acting skills are improving day by day,” Ye Xing raised his chin, “Those two words are too hot to handle, right? Let me help you say them…”
But Qi Guang interrupted him.
“Let’s make up, Ye Xing. Although, for me, standing here now, everything is already clear, if you insist on a clear sense of ritual, then I’ll say it, I can say it as many times as you want—let’s make up, okay?”
Ye Xing almost short-circuited from the sudden interruption and the rush of those words, and when he completely processed what he’d said, his mind went completely blank.
He suddenly realized he was a bit unaccustomed to this direct and passionate Qi Guang.
For so long, it wasn’t so much that he was sulking, but rather that he understood Qi Guang’s stubborn nature too well and didn’t dare to test the waters easily.
Yet, since Qi Guang had appeared at his door, he found he didn’t seem to know him that well at all.
Just like now, he was so sure Qi Guang’s stubbornness would prevent him from saying “make up,” even though all his actions showed his intentions.
But Qi Guang had directly defied his expectations.
Ye Xing suddenly didn’t want to play by the rules, he took a breath and said, “You’re so confident, what if I…”
“You won’t, Ye Xing. You won’t refuse me, and you know very well that we would meet again one day. The only thing you didn’t expect is that today would be that day.” Qi Guang reached out and hugged him, stroking his back up and down like comforting a child, “Ye Xing, it was my fault back then. I shouldn’t have lost control of my emotions and blamed everything on you, and I especially shouldn’t have brought up breaking up. I regretted it a long time ago. I thought you really would never talk to me again.”
What was he just saying?
That all the unwillingness and grievances, the struggles and resentments, had all been resolved?
Screw resolution, those things burst out like Pandora’s box had been opened. Ye Xing suddenly felt like crying, he put his head on Qi Guang’s shoulder and mumbled, “Then why did you dare to come?”
“You gave me the courage,” Qi Guang turned his head and kissed him on the ear.
“What do you mean I gave you the courage?”
As soon as Ye Xing lifted his head, Qi Guang blocked his mouth.
Even though he had pinned Qi Guang against the closet door and had the most advantageous position, he ended up being the passive one.
Qi Guang’s kiss was gentle yet firm. Every opening and closing of his lips felt as if he was delivering oxygen, Ye Xing felt his body and soul were completely awakened in that moment.
The previous four-odd months of being in a daze could only be considered survival, a puppet-like repetition of the same things every day.
While Ye Xing responded to Qi Guang with his lips and tongue, he reached out and wrapped his arms around his waist, Qi Guang shivered slightly.
The long-lost touch was surprisingly fresh and stimulating.
As if encouraged by something, Ye Xing raised his hand, lifted his hoodie, and reached inside.
When the sun had completely set, the room plunged into darkness.
Two young bodies lay on the bed, their chests still rising and falling heavily from exhaustion and excitement. No one spoke, quietly listening and enjoying the tranquility of the moment.
Countless flying molecules in the air merged and then separated.
Even though there was no light, it felt like all the senses were amplified, like flying safely, like a spaceship without the capacity for thought, this room was the entire universe.
Was it dizziness?
His mind felt like it was lacking oxygen.
He didn’t know how long they remained silent, and just as Qi Guang was about to drift off into a slumber, Ye Xing suddenly opened his mouth.
“What did you mean just now by saying I gave you the courage?”
Qi Guang was stunned, almost missing the connection in his thoughts. He then chuckled and sighed, “I saw the Weibo posts you made.”
“You have my Weibo?” Ye Xing asked.
“Silly dog, next time, please inform the person you’re confessing to, okay?” Qi Guang patted his head and then stopped, “Or were you not planning on me seeing it at all?”
“It wasn’t really meant for you to see…” Ye Xing moved his head, rubbing against his hand several times to show his displeasure, “No, when did you follow my Weibo? How come I didn’t know?”
“Tsk—” Qi Guang gave him a meaningful look, “Do you really check each of your followers’ Weibo?”
“If you’re going to be jealous, try to make it look real,” Ye Xing didn’t take it seriously, “I’ll flip through it when I’m bored, and I didn’t post much when I was in Chen Town, so my followers were increasing slower than they were dropping off, I’ve seen the names of everyone who’s newly followed me, nothing special.”
Qi Guang reached out and grabbed his pants, which had somehow fallen on the floor. He took his phone from his pocket, tapped it a few times on the screen, then held the phone in front of his eyes: “Here.”
Ye Xing looked at the screen at the jumble of numbers and letters that formed a random, meaningless Weibo name, and the empty profile picture, and couldn’t help but clench his fist. “Damn you, this account is actually alive. Qi Guang, you’re something, pretending to be a zombie fan, weren’t you tired?!”
“I wasn’t really pretending,” Qi Guang defended himself helplessly, “I just never really managed that account.”
Ye Xing looked at him suspiciously, took the phone, and scrolled down.
Qi Guang’s Weibo was as boring as his WeChat Moments. There was only one post.
“Oh, you went to release sky lanterns for New Year’s?” He zoomed in on the photo of the sky lantern, meticulously checking it, “With who?”
“Alone,” Qi Guang said.
Ye Xing glanced at him, “Don’t be nervous, I was just asking casually, I’m not cross-examining you. Besides, I saw two lanterns, why would you release two if you were alone? Too much money to spend…”
Qi Guang didn’t speak, just quietly looked at him.
Ye Xing took a breath, “Damn…this is, for me?”
“Yeah,” Qi Guang responded.
That soft “yeah” made Ye Xing completely lose his temper, even feeling a little ashamed of his display of distrust, and he immediately softened: “What wish did you make?”
“I’m not going to say, it won’t come true if I say it.” Qi Guang chuckled and kissed his lightly furrowed brow.
Ye Xing put down his phone and snuggled against him.
After the air settled again, he spoke once more, “Qi Guang, do you know why I dared to post your photos on Weibo?”
Qi Guang was stunned, “What?”
“Because I’m certain that you really like me, that you won’t give me up so easily. That’s why I was so blatant about posting your photos on Weibo, to let everyone know that you’re mine.”
Having said that, Ye Xing suddenly flipped off the bed and ran quickly to his desk on tiptoe. His speed was as if to say, “As long as I move fast enough, the dust on the floor won’t stick to me.”
Qi Guang didn’t have time to process his words. He shook his head at his nimble figure, wondering how he had regressed to his old self after just being separated for so little time; all the good habits he’d picked up were gone in an instant.
Just then, Ye Xing took out his math notebook from his backpack, and Qi Guang immediately felt a sense of unease.
Ye Xing turned back, smiled mischievously at him, and then quickly ran back to the bed on tiptoe.
“Before I open the notebook, is there anything you’d like to say?”
Qi Guang raised his hand and rubbed his nose nervously, not daring to look at him. He pretended to be confused and asked, “So, you really do need a math tutor?”
Ye Xing ignored him and directly flipped to the last page.
At first glance, it was filled with math formulas and problem-solving ideas. He stretched out his index finger, bypassing a bunch of headache-inducing words and numbers, and landed on a discreet paragraph.
—When an object has a very large relative mass (such as a star), it can cause any other object passing nearby, even light, to change its path.
“You thought I wouldn’t notice you secretly wrote the curved spacetime theory of physics within the math formulas?” Ye Xing grinned at him victoriously, “Sorry, I’ve already started working on ‘B’ level math test questions now. Did you think that I wouldn’t notice it until college entrance exams?”
Qi Guang covered his face.
He thought that the most embarrassing moment of his life was today, when he had taken the initiative to reconcile, but he didn’t expect this guy was now going full force with a shovel to dig up the foundation.
“You’ve already changed my path, I know.” Ye Xing grinned as he tried to pry his hands away, but failed.
Qi Guang simply flipped over and turned his back to him.
Ye Xing wasn’t discouraged, and continued to say: “Back then you said with such seriousness something about two independent individuals being mutually attracted to each other, that they should be together when they’re happy and not bother each other when they’re unhappy, I almost believed it.”
Qi Guang buried his head in the blanket.
“Don’t think that saying those words makes you cool, you really aren’t suited for playing a jerk.” Ye Xing said. “Not to mention whether you’ve been doing better in the months after we broke up, let’s just talk about those rotten things you said to me when we were fighting. Do you really think that we can just return to our original paths and to the so-called normal life without any consequences?”
Qi Guang wished he could wrap himself in the blanket and run out of the door.
He was not good at expressing himself, nor had he ever said sweet words of love to Ye Xing. Except for that time he wrote a modern love poem on an exam paper when they were deeply in love, which Ye Xing later discovered, and now there was also the curved spacetime theory that was used as “evidence” by Ye Xing.
Direct emotion and expression made him feel very awkward. Being able to reconcile with Ye Xing was already a blessing from heaven, he never thought that there would be this act after they reconciled.
Was this retribution?
The air inside the blanket was quickly becoming thin, he was muffled and his face was flushed red, but he wouldn’t let go.
Ye Xing moved closer, hugged him through the blanket, “This light of yours has already changed paths, so don’t try to predict that you can come and go freely anymore, there’s no such possibility, unless you’re going to overthrow Einstein’s theory, got it?”
Qi Guang struggled for a moment, pulled his head out of the blanket, gasping for air as he said, “Can I call you big brother? If you squeeze me any tighter, the bed will turn into a murder scene…”
Ye Xing loosened his grip, lowered his head and rubbed against his head, “Who told you to keep hiding from me?”
“You actually know that’s physics, Ye Small-Scholar, that’s a surprise.” Qi Guang didn’t respond to his statement, he mocked him and then made a “tsk” sound.
Ye Xing jumped up as expected: “Nonsense, I specifically looked it up, I wondered why it looked so strange, I’ve never seen this stuff on math test papers.”
Qi Guang laughed for quite a while, unable to stop himself.