Prelude: Accidental Reunion

It was snowing lightly outside, the year at its end. The ma.s.ses, in a rush to get home, were stuck halfway through their way home.

A rickety folk song was played on repeat, and none of the two in the car spoke a single word, awkward silence between them.

Xu Xilin had a hand on the steering wheel. He looked up through the windshield, watching rows and rows of cars extend all the way to the horizon. Brake lights flashed on and off around them—it was going to be a long time before he could drive through the traffic. Xu turned his gaze to the left, and saw Mr. Dou Xun prop up the side of his face by one hand, s.p.a.cing out.

Though it had been many years since they last met, Dou Xun was aiming for ignoring Xu Xilin"s presence for the whole ride.

Xu Xilin sighed to himself. Then he suddenly decided to swerve the car round in the tiny gap they were in, showing off his driving skills along the way, and successfully wove out of the traffic jam, snaking into a tiny alley.

Dou Xun finally paid attention to him, swiveling his gaze to glance at him.

Xu Xilin immediately reacted to it—he had been extra alert to Dou Xun"s presence since the start of the ride.

"I think taking a smaller road will be faster—"Xu Xilin said.

"So that you can get rid of me sooner?" Dou Xun laughed scathingly.

"—and I can also get a few flowers along the way."They both opened their mouths to say something, and then went quiet simultaneously.

Xu Xilin frowned, looking like he was going to go on a rant, but then decided to put up with Dou Xun.

"What are you getting p.i.s.sed off about? You know that he"s been like this since forever." Xu Xilin thought, and turned his attention back to weaving through the tiny lanes.

The northwest winds weaved into a discordant harmony with the barking of dogs, and the folk singer"s voice became wispier and wispier, close to breaking. Xu Xilin stopped the car in front of a store that called itself "*Lao Ye". He dug his phone out of his pocket and called a contact.

"Hey, it"s me. I"m in front of your flower shop. Bring me a few orchids or k.u.mkrats or something like that—I need them for New Year gifts."

"So you"re bothering to buy flowers, *"Lin-zi? I watched the stars tonight, and did a telling for ya—they say you"re gonna encounter some misfortune soon!"A swaggering voice shouted from the other side of the phone.

Xu Xilin: "......"

The flower shop"s window on the side of the street flew open, and a non-mainstream-styled young man with a tiny moustache poked out of it. The apparent dumba.s.s set down his phone, concentrated his energy in his belly, and yelled out with an even louder voice, "Did you hear that Dou Xun"s back?"

Xu Xilin wished that his arm were two meters longer so that he could slap that dumba.s.s right onto the window frame.

The window on the shotgun"s side rolled down slowly, revealing Dou Xun"s face. "Yeah, I"ve heard."

The store owner"s expression twisted into a strangled wild chicken"s.

Then the apparently muted store owner and a stony-faced Dou Xun helped Xu Xilin carry the plants into the back of the car together. Before the two left, the shop owner scratched his head for quite a while, and then finally decide to pull Xu Xilin back, asking, "So, uh, there"s a cla.s.s reunion next week, are you going to attend it?"

Xu Xilin wanted to get rid of the awkward people as soon as he could. He answered detachedly, "I"ll think about it for a while."

"Just go. You haven"t showed up even once in many years," The shop owner retorted. Not even wanting to look at the flower shop owner"s face, Xu Xilin didn"t reply. He merely waved, and drove away.

Half an hour later, they finally arrived at the hotel Dou Xun was staying at. Do Xun got off the car without speaking a single word, and stood outside of it, staring at Xu Xilin silently.

Xu Xilin let out an inaudible relaxing sigh. "That"ll be it. Get some rest—I"ll have to leave now."

Dou Xun nodded, and then dug inside the pocket of his coat, realizing the cigarette box inside was empty. He instinctively asked, "Hey..."

Xu Xilin stopped the car half a meter away. "Hmm?"

Dou Xun stopped himself from asking, You got a cigarette?: he remembered that Xu Xilin didn"t smoke.

Xu Xilin never smoked, and even never drank any alcohol if he didn"t have to. When he was young, he was always careful in fights—he was that type of person that didn"t look responsible on the outside, but actually was inside.

"You need anything else?" Xu Xilin asked.

"Was it because you didn"t want to see me that you never went to any of the reunions?"

"......"

Dou Xun probably could never leave any mental personal s.p.a.ce for anyone, being the *wooden club he was.

"I"ve simply been busy for the past few years." Xu Xilin said stiffly.

"So you"re not busy this year, right? I"m going. Are you?" Dou Xun locks his burning gaze on him.

When Dou Xun spoke, it brought up a thin layer of white steam. He stood in the stern winter like a sharp sketch, lacking red and green colors. He did look good, Xu Xilin had to admit—but his gaze had daggers hidden in them, and a knife concealed in the tip of his tongue. An exquisite and clean human a.r.s.enal. Xu Xilin"s eyes were close to being pierced through by how sharp he was.

He could only give him a skimpy and perfunctory answer. "If I"m free on that day, maybe. I"m not sure." Xu Xilin said.

Dou Xun had nothing else to say. He stood in stiff silence, and watched Xu Xilin leave, perfect manners and perfect politeness and perfect small talk and all.

"Could you please turn back and give me a single glance?" Do Xun thought desperately.

I"ll jump down from a rooftop for you to turn back and look at me.

Unfortunately, Xu Xilin couldn"t read his mind and drove away cleanly, not leaving a even a single trace.

Dou Xun lost his chance to jump off a building.

The horrible folk song was still on repeat in the car, and Xu Xilin drove, the dusk surrounding him, closing into him from all directions. His vision was blurry—perhaps a fog?

It was the thirteenth year since he and Dou Xun first knew each other.

They"ve been together, broke it off with each other, wanted to be together forever, and also wanted to never see each other again.

A notification popped up on his phone, letting out a small "ding!". Xu Xilin glanced at it—Dou Xun had even bothered to give him a full-star rating.

The sky was still clear, the ground was still heavy, the traffic jam was still there, Earth still hadn"t destroyed itself yet, and the rest of the years he had left were still rich and plentiful.

But the school buildings and papers and pens of the past were left bygone.

—and the only one that became anew was the person from the past.

Author"s Note:

The only novels I"ve written of the same genre/topic is Their Lives(BL) and Flowing Fifteen Years(BG). They"re both terrible, so from the past data, this is probably going to be terrible too.

Translator"s Note #1:

1)Lao Ye: Chinese speaking language for maternal grandfather.

2)Lin-zi: Xiao-Lin-Zi in the original text. Xiao meaning little, Lin as in the last character of Xu Xilin"s name, Zi just to accentuate the "young(er), little" meaning and add some verbal stuff—kind of like chan in j.a.panese but doesn"t have the same complete meaning-ish effect.

3)Wooden club: Bangchui in Chinese. Basically means someone who is dumb when it comes to Chinese social interaction and its messy properness. (Me!)

Translator"s Note #2:

So I"ve encountered a really, really serious problem with translating this: I CANT STOP CRYING IT"S SO GOOD ASDFGHJKL ahhhh

Oh, and I probably won"t be able to update frequently: I"m also working on another project(also one of priest"s novels), but I won"t say which one lol. Hope you enjoy this, and don"t forget to leave comments and votes!!!