Mistaken Canary Chapter 79
Chapter 79
The setting sun sank lower, elongating the silhouettes of the two men tightly embracing.
The surrounding patients curiously began to whisper among themselves, not so much amazed at Lae Leon’s leg, but more intrigued by the identity of Tei Cher.
After a long moment, Lae Leon finally released his hold, gently stroking Tei Cher’s face, his gaze trembling as he traced every contour of his features.
“Why did you stop writing me letters?”
Tei Cher was taken aback; the question he’d been turning over in his mind was now spoken aloud by the other. Surprised, he replied, “I did write. I wrote every day, but I never got a reply.”
Hearing this, Lae Leon gave a faint, resigned smile. “So it must have been my mother interfering.”
“You mean aunt and the others knew?”
Over the years, Tei Cher had come up with many guesses.
After the letters stopped, he made a ruckus about going abroad to find Lae Leon.
But his mother said she had once received a long-distance call from Lae’s family. Uncle Lae’s illness was difficult to treat. After many hospitals and places, no one knew exactly where they had gone.
He had guessed that maybe Uncle Lae had passed away from illness, or perhaps Lae Leon had fallen for someone else.
But the truth was that Aunt Lae knew everything. So was Uncle Lae’s illness even real? And was the story about going abroad deliberately arranged?
Though his heart was full of questions, looking at Lae Leon’s face, the feeling of having lost and now regained him was stronger, and for the moment, he pushed those doubts aside.
“Our registration is done. Let’s find a place to talk properly,” Ying Tongchen stepped forward, standing beside Tei Cher.
Lae Leon suddenly looked at Ying Tongchen, then at Zhuo Shu who had come with them, frowning as he asked, “Who are they? Your children? Ah, I see…your parents have always wanted you to have a big, healthy son. They’ll definitely want you to marry. These two kids really do look like you; they have your nose and eyes.”
Tei Cher was both annoyed and amused. For a moment, he seemed to see the jealous Xiao Lion he once was in his youth, and laughed. “What nonsense are you talking about? How can I have kids when you haven’t married me?”
Lae Leon looked half convinced, half skeptical. “Then who are they?”
“I’m his student,” Ying Tongchen replied politely with a nod, then pulled Zhuo Shu forward to introduce him, “This is my boyfriend, Zhuo Shu.”
Lae Leon looked at them both with surprise, relieved yet somewhat envious that they could openly introduce each other so freely.
Zhuo Shu said, “Hello, it’s finally a pleasure to meet you. I suppose this will bring closure to a shared concern of theirs.”
Lae Leon didn’t quite understand why this was still a concern of Tei Cher’s student, his face showing some confusion.
“Let’s find somewhere else to talk. I’ll explain everything properly,” Tei Cher smiled as he took Lae Leon’s hand. But as he took a step forward, he noticed Lae Leon retracting his hand, frozen in place.
Tei Cher’s expression changed instantly, fear and nervousness flooding his face as he asked, “W-What’s wrong?”
Lae Leon hesitated for a moment, lowered his head to glance at his own feet, then took a deep breath and took the initiative to hold Tei Cher’s hand. Ignoring the stares from those around them, he staggered forward.
“My walking looks a little awkward,” he said.
Tei Cher looked down and saw that Lae Leon would step forward with his left leg first, then slowly drag his right foot to catch up; his movements somewhat stiff.
Suddenly, Tei Cher crouched before him, “Hop on, Xiao Lion, I’ll carry you.”
Lae Leon gazed at Tei Cher’s broad back, a scene he had replayed countless times in his dreams. He smiled softly.
Lying on his back, his heart swirled with bittersweet emotions, complex and tangled. After a moment, he gave a wry smile and said, “This time, it’s not a crab’s pinch; it’s a real injury.”
“No worries. From now on, I’ll be your legs. You’ll never leave my side again,” Tei Cher said, eyes fixed on the road ahead. His weight felt so light on him that his eyes reddened. “You always said you wanted to see the world. Now I’ll take you everywhere. Though this promise came late, it finally happened. Xiao Lion, did you miss me? I missed you so much.”
Lae Leon glanced at the two young men behind them, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious. He scolded, “Stop calling me Xiao Lion. We’re not kids anymore.”
“Then what should I call you? Old man?” Tei Cher teased back.
Instinctively, Lae Leon tugged on his ear, making Tei Cher laugh out loud while crying, “Ouch!”
Zhuo Shu stepped back and whispered, “Do people from your hometown like pulling ears?”
Ying Tongchen shot him a sharp look. Zhuo Shu felt phantom pain in his ear and quickly backed to the end of the group.
After escorting them to the ward, Lu Zongcai left them some privacy and went back to care for her mother-in-law.
Lae Leon’s room was modestly furnished, but a pile of origami cranes on the table caught Tei Cher’s attention.
He discreetly unfolded one and saw a brief line written on it: “How’s the weather over there?”
Perhaps because he never received a reply, Lae Leon had written on notepaper and folded the notes into cranes.
Lae Leon didn’t comment and instead rolled up his pant leg, revealing a prosthetic limb. He inspected the knee and said, “I don’t really walk much, so I never went for rehab exercises. I’ve gotten used to using the wheelchair; it’s actually quite convenient.”
“Why didn’t you do rehabilitation?” Tei Cher asked, his heart aching.
Lae Leon looked at him but said nothing.
In his silence, Tei Cher was able to understand the unspoken.
The thought of not seeing you frightens me more than death itself.
Lae Leon had thought about ending his own life more than once. Half a year after going abroad, when he discovered his father’s illness was a lie, a ruse to secretly send him to a treatment center, he had felt despair and wanted to end himself there.
After protesting silently through a hunger strike, Lae Leon was sent to the sanatorium. Not long after, when he heard from his mother that Tei Cher was engaged to someone else, he wanted to end himself there.
When he escaped from the sanatorium and wandered without direction, unsure if Tei Cher was still waiting for him in the same place, he again wanted to end himself there and then.
When the car headlights flashed and his parents pushed him away from the vehicle, crushing his right leg beyond repair, and his parents’ treatments proved futile, he realized he could no longer irresponsibly end everything.
The three listened quietly as he calmly recounted those painful memories, their hearts aching.
Tei Cher locked himself in the bathroom and broke down into uncontrollable sobs.
Lae Leon looked at Ying Tongchen and Zhuo Shu with a helpless smile and said, “You wouldn’t have guessed, but he’s actually the biggest crybaby. Whenever I scolded him, he would hide under a tree wiping tears; though he would usually cry on purpose just to get my attention.”
“That’s really hard to believe,” Ying Tongchen smiled. “But to have found you, it truly feels like fate’s blessing; what a relief.”
“Seeing that you two traveled all this way to accompany him, you must be very close,” Lae Leon said with a smile, the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes heavy with the passage of time, yet somehow charming.
Ying Tongchen chuckled awkwardly and said, “Actually, I’ve always regarded teacher as a father figure. At least until today, he was still a calm and gentle father in my heart.”
Then Ying Tongchen recounted, in detail, everything that had happened between him and his mentor.
Although Zhuo Shu had heard it all before, his heart still ached unbearably. His expression nearly broke, and he quickly found a good place to hide.
Not long after, the sound of two people crying came from the bathroom.
Lae Leon: "......"
Ying Tongchen: "......"
When the story was finished, the two had cried themselves nearly dry.
Tei Cher wiped his tears, opened the door, and clarified, “Xiao Lion, I never got engaged.”
Lae Leon gently nodded, “Mn. If you really had gotten engaged or married, you wouldn’t dare to come find me.”
Tei Cher hadn’t gotten engaged, nor did anyone dare to be engaged to him.
When he reached marriageable age, his family pressured him heavily; and with a decent job to his name, plenty of matchmakers came knocking.
Thoroughly annoyed and bluntly, he ultimately told the matchmakers, “I’m impotent, and it’s incurable.”
Naturally, those words scared off the matchmakers, leaving many single girls’ hearts broken in pieces, and numerous gossips about him spread across the town.
Later, he was promoted and transferred to a school in the city, and the gossip gradually lessened. Coupled with his effective teaching, he slowly earned the respect of many.
However, his weekly trips back and forth to the town’s post office and visits to Lae’s family home to clean up never escaped his mother’s notice.
Before she passed, she stopped pressuring him to get married and suddenly said, “Forget about him. He’s not coming back, and you still have to live your life.”
Tei Cher didn’t know when she had realized the truth, nor did he have time to ask. The two of them cried in each other’s arms for a while before his father urged him to handle the future arrangements.
“That must be another lie my mother told me,” Lae Leon said.
“You two talk quietly. Zhuo Shu and I will go check out if there’s any place worth eating nearby,” Ying Tongchen announced, standing up and pulling Zhuo Shu out of the room, then kindly closing the door behind them.
Tei Cher slowly approached Lae Leon, crouched down, and carefully touched the prosthetic leg, fearing he might hurt him.
“It’s fake,” Lae Leon reminded him.
“Fake or not, it still hurts,” Tei Cher said. He couldn’t imagine how much pain Lae Leon had endured back then, just thinking about it made him want to cry all over again.
“Now that you’re here, it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Lae Leon raised his hand to gently stroke the side of Tei Cher’s face, his gaze resting on the strands of gray at his temple. “You’ve already got white hair.”
“How wonderful, would you say this is our version of growing old together?"
Lae Leon chuckled.
Tei Cher was captivated, having once thought that with time, he would gradually forget the other’s face. Yet every smile and frown before him was the same, overlapping with memories—making it all the more enchanting.
“Xiao Lion, how are you still so handsome?”
Lae Leon’s lips curved faintly. “Handsome? I’m old now.”
“Not old at all.” Tei Cher braced himself on the wheelchair, then suddenly stood and kissed him, tears mingling indistinctly between them.
In that moment, the emptiness in Tei Cher’s heart was filled.
He was about to pull away, but Lae Leon gently tugged him back by the neck.
Tei Cher laughed softly, “See? You really haven’t lost your edge.”
“You sure have gotten more garrulous,” Lae Leon retorted, biting him hard. Slowly opening his moist eyes, his gaze drifted toward a spot outside the window.
That was where his parents’ graves lay.
There was something he’d long wanted to say in front of them.
“Mom, Dad, let me introduce you, this is the person I love. I love him. It’s not that I was being disobedient; I just never imagined that after so many years, I’d still feel this way.”
…
In the following days, Ying Tongchen and Zhuo Shu mostly showed up only at meal times. The rest of the time, they were either out enjoying the scenery or chatting with other patients and Lu Zongcai’s mother-in-law, determined not to be a third wheel.
But time couldn’t be delayed forever. One day during a meal, Zhuo Shu said, “Teacher, Mister Lae, we’re leaving tomorrow night.”
Lae Leon looked toward Tei Cher, who immediately shook his head. “I’m not going with them.”
Only then did Lae Leon finally nod.
Zhuo Shu added, “By the way, since we’re already here, we’re planning to hold our wedding at the church[1] tomorrow. It’s almost the deadline, would you two like to come and be witnesses?”
Tei Cher looked to Lae Leon for his opinion. Lae Leon was stunned for a moment, then blankly asked, “Marriage? Is there a process or procedure for that?”
“Of course! We can do it too!” Tei Cher stood up excitedly, spun around on the spot, then suddenly knelt down and asked, “Will you marry me? We’ll register tomorrow[1].”
Lae Leon: “.”
…
The next day, under the witness of all the patients, the four of them each held their own wedding ceremony in the church.
Watching Tei Cher and Lae Leon say their solemn vows, Ying Tongchen was deeply moved. Just the words “till death do us part” required so much effort.
Suddenly, someone took his hand. He turned to see Zhuo Shu, who also looked toward him. Both silently felt grateful for their luck, to be able to hold each other’s hands so tightly.
When it was Ying Tongchen and Zhuo Shu’s turn to exchange rings and recite vows, Tei Cher, excited and joyful, didn’t forget to video call the Zhuo family, streaming the ceremony live.
Mu Qing immediately spotted the person beside the old man. “Ah, who’s that handsome guy! Have all of the information regarding him ready in three minutes!”
Zhuo Fu: “.”
Tei Cher laughed. “That’s my husband.”
The three Zhuo family members all dropped their jaws in surprise. Zhuo Zi cupped her fists and said, “Impressive, Venerable! Only a few days abroad and you already found a partner!”
Mu Qing pushed her aside and urged, “Perfect timing! Hurry up and bring your husband back to play mahjong with us. We’ve been one short for so long! Next time, you can’t say we’re ganging up on you. Handsome, you’re coming back with him, right?”
Zhuo Fu chimed in, “Yeah, yeah! Tongchen even bought you a house next door. Bring your husband over, then Tongchen can feel at ease living with us, haha!”
Lae Leon had often heard Tei Cher talk about the Zhuo family these past few days. Seeing their warmth and liveliness, his sense of loneliness in a foreign land eased a lot, and he suddenly missed the vast, beautiful landscapes of their homeland.
“Alright, but I don’t know how to play mahjong.”
Mu Qing: “No problem, I’ll teach you personally!”
Zhuo Fu: “.”
Tei Cher: “.”
“Alright, enough chatting, they’re about to take their vows,” Tei Cher quickly turned the camera toward the two standing before the minister.
Following the minister, they recited the solemn and sacred vows together. The minister then asked, “Do you have any questions for each other?”
“Yes,” Zhuo Shu looked seriously at Ying Tongchen, nervously rubbing his hands.
Seeing this, Ying Tongchen became equally tense. He glanced around and whispered, “Don’t say anything too mushy.”
“Okay.”
Zhuo Shu cleared his throat twice, then with a charming, magnetic voice, teased, “You just said you’d love me through sickness and health, riches and poverty, till death do us part. Then can you promise me that no matter what mistakes I make, you won’t pull my ear until death?”
The venue was stunned. Why did he suddenly switch to Chinese? We don’t understand!
Zhuo Shu smiled triumphantly; at an occasion like this, at least he’d get a little concession, making future days easier.
“I promise you,” Ying Tongchen replied.
Zhuo Shu clenched his fist secretly: Yes!
Then Ying Tongchen asked, “Will you always love me and listen to me?”
“Of course, of course!” He was willing to grant at least this much.
Ying Tongchen faintly smiled: “Then I want to see you pull your ear yourself, will you behave and listen?”
Zhuo Shu: _(:з」∠)_
Completely caught off guard!
After a long moment, Zhuo Shu whimpered, “Nevermind, you handle it. I’m not as good as you anyways.”
.
.
.
TL Note: And that’s the end of Tei Cher and Lae Leon’s story. The last five chapters will be a parallel world, campus-style story.
Footnote:
[1] continuation of author’s artistic license. England has a slower process for getting a marriage registration, marriage certificate than China. (Not even including the process for non-Brits/non-EU applying for a marriage visa.)
Sources: