Evening Stars Chapter 2
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 2
Early morning, sunrise.
Around six, Fang Shiyou seriously suggested that he take over the wheel. The condition of the national highway was not ideal, and with the change in altitude, Xu Nanheng could not continue driving for such a long stretch.
At first light, the two men got out and had a bite to eat at a roadside stall along the highway. Then, switching places, they set off again with Fang Shiyou at the wheel.
Once Fang Shiyou had settled into the driver's seat, Xu Nanheng, his usual Beijing drawl now softened by drowsiness, pointed out a few controls. “Gear lever, handbrake, emergency assistance. The mirror adjustment is in front of the window buttons, right here. This one's for lane-keeping assist, and that's the radar. Thank you for your trouble.”
“All right, get some sleep,” Fang Shiyou replied.
Ultimately, a person's speech mannerism was shaped by their linguistic environment. If the influence was strong enough, one easily slipped into it. The most obvious example was the Northeastern accent, which overpowered everything in its path.
Having spent so long in Tibet speaking standard Mandarin with his colleagues, Fang Shiyou had largely lost his Beijing accent, including his habit of using that polite ‘you.’ Now, Xu Nanheng had brought it flooding back to him.
In truth, Xu Nanheng reserved the polite ‘you’ primarily for home. With colleagues of the same rank, he dropped the formality once they were familiar. It was his grandfather who paid attention to it, often reminding him, ‘The honorific shows respect. We're a great nation, a land of etiquette.’
This time, Xu Nanheng experienced the concept of a great nation on a physical level.
After this long drive, Xu Nanheng felt that China's geography was incredible. On the Beijing-Tibet Expressway, they were walled in by snow-capped mountains, but the moment they turned onto National Highway 109, the world opened up into a vast, boundless expanse of grassland stretching to the horizon.
He found a relatively comfortable position in the passenger seat, curled up, and closed his eyes. Long-distance driving was less physically exhausting than it was mentally draining from the prolonged high-level concentration.
Xu Nanheng drifted in and out of sleep. The problem was that the G-Wagon had such a tall body that it created a lot of wind resistance, which in turn generated a torrent of airflow noise on the highway, known as ‘wind noise.’
He didn't know how much time had passed, but from the passenger seat, he mumbled with a frown, “This damn car is so noisy.”
He figured that with all the airflow noise in the car, Fang Shiyou wouldn't hear him, or at least wouldn't hear him clearly. But Dr. Fang let out a slight gasp of surprise, which quickly turned into an easy laugh. “Don't say that. I was just thinking that you really can't drive other people's cars. Once you do, you'll want to buy one.”
Xu Nanheng smiled and pulled out his phone. Outside, lush green grasslands stretched endlessly toward the horizon, dotted with herds of yak, sheep, and horses, but he didn't even glance at them. This made Fang Shiyou a little curious. He figured Xu Nanheng might not be a tourist. Any normal visitor would have rolled down the window by now and taken pictures.
The route into Tibet was filled with breathtaking scenery, with the golden light of the sunrise catching on the peaks of the snow-capped mountains. Many people would never see such landscapes in a lifetime, yet someone could actually look only once and remain unmoved.
As the sunlight grew stronger, the national highway became busier with traffic, and the vendors setting up stalls along the roadside gradually livened up the atmosphere. Many businesses operated along this highway, also known as the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, one of the main arteries for transporting goods in and out of Tibet.
So, the number of cars increased, mostly large semi-trucks rumbling past.
That said, a G63 was still a G63. At 1.9 meters tall with its V8 engine, it had no reason to yield before the big rigs. Fang Shiyou pressed down on the accelerator, overtaking two trucks in quick succession. Only then did Xu Nanheng lower the window a little, looking out with clear lack of interest.
“Why aren't you excited at all?” Fang Shiyou asked. “Most people on their first trip to Tibet would take a dozen photos of the same view.”
“I'm pretty excited,” Xu Nanheng said flatly.
That left Fang Shiyou at a loss, but he did not press further. There was nothing much to say. A man of Xu Nanheng's age driving a G-Wagon to Tibet gave one the most direct conclusion—
At the very least, he was very rich.
Owning a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon did not, by itself, prove someone was rich. But anyone who was willing to drive it on the national highways of Tibet was truly rich. The fuel consumption alone, not to mention the inevitable wear and tear, spoke volumes.
For the record, Xu Nanheng wasn't lying. As he looked out at the vast grasslands and the natural landscape untouched by urban development, he felt much more at ease.
It was just that Fang Shiyou had never seen him back in Beijing. At the time, in the school office, he'd flipped three desks in a row, and finally kicked over a gossipy teacher's computer tower, planting his foot right on it. When the teacher slipped and fell all by himself, he pointed a trembling finger at Xu Nanheng and said…… What did he say again?
Xu Nanheng no longer remembered exactly what the teacher had said. It was likely a warning, something along the lines of, ‘If you lay a finger on me, I'll call the police immediately.’
Xu Nanheng was not stupid. Of course he wouldn't hit anyone. But he still had to flip the desks. If he didn't, he felt like he would suffocate.
A person, after all, could not be stifled to death. So he traced the problem back to the source and found the teachers spreading the rumors. As it turned out, they all shared the same office, so he seized the opportunity and flipped three desks in a row.
In the process, he also took down two potted plants and a water dispenser, as if he were there to wreck the place.
When the matter reached the school administration, the leaders were troubled. Xu Nanheng had passed both the teaching demonstration and written exams, and his background check showed he came from a clean and respectable family.
Spreading rumors was certainly wrong, but flipping desks and trashing an office was also wrong. In the end, both sides were given equal blame, told to apologize to each other and drop the matter.
Xu Nanheng, however, refused to let it go. He firmly believed he was not in the wrong and would not apologize.
What was his mistake? That he had been born into a wealthy family through no effort of his own? His family had been in business for three generations, while he had spent ten years studying diligently. This merchant family wanted to cultivate a scholar, someone who smelled of ink. So, they carefully guided him from a young age, encouraging him to read the classics.
Through years of study, Xu Nanheng developed the aspiration to teach and nurture students. His family, of course, fully supported him. So he studied conscientiously, passed the entrance exams for a normal university, completed his master's degree, and got a job at a high school.
It so happened that the university was recruiting volunteer teachers for a new program offering educational assistance to schools in remote areas. Xu Nanheng, filled with passion and idealism, envisioned himself as a scholar journeying to the distant frontiers. Yet somehow, his genuine enthusiasm was twisted into nothing more than a calculated effort to gild his resume and secure future promotions.
And so, he came.
To a small county town nestled deep in a mountain valley, almost at the border line, further south of Shannan in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The school offered to buy him a plane ticket, but he refused and drove himself.
“We'll be reaching Nagqu soon,” Fang Shiyou said.
“Huh?” Xu Nanheng came back to himself. “Then, let's stop for a meal.”
Fang Shiyou gave a quiet “mm” and said, “The car needs gas too.”
There were still more than three hundred kilometers from Nagqu to Lhasa. Just as Xu Nanheng had estimated, they would reach Lhasa around five in the evening. He had already booked a hotel in Lhasa for the night, planning to get a good rest before heading to Shannan the next day, then on to the county town.
Fang Shiyou pulled into a gas station to line up. Xu Nanheng got out of the car and stretched lazily.
“What octane?” Fang Shiyou asked from inside, through the lowered window.
Xu Nanheng: “98. The gas card is on the dashboard above your head.”
“Got it.” Fang Shiyou smiled.
Xu Nanheng walked over to the driver's side and reached through the window. “Dr. Fang, lighter.”
“This is a gas station.” Fang Shiyou stared at him.
“Tsk.” Xu Nanheng sounded helpless. “Do you think I don't have that much common sense? There are some baked baozi being sold up ahead. I'm going to wander around a bit. All this sitting has made my blood circulation sluggish.”
Fang Shiyou nodded and reminded him, “Don't wander too far.”
“And don't you run off with my Mercedes-Benz.”
“No chance,” Fang Shiyou said. “I still owe you five hundred.”
Xu Nanheng chuckled, flipping the lighter in his hand as he walked toward the small stall in front of the gas station. The stall sold not only baked baozi but also some pastries he didn't recognize.
The stall owner, a woman holding a little girl by the hand, smiled and asked him in fluent Mandarin, “What would you like to eat?”
The woman had dry skin and the plateau redness commonly seen on the faces of locals. The lower half of the little girl's face was covered by a cloth, likely for sun protection. Her dark, large eyes were fixed steadily on Xu Nanheng.
Xu Nanheng casually pointed at a few items, then realized the girl truly had been watching him the entire time. He knew he was decent-looking, but he also figured that since the girl's family ran a stall along the highway, she must have seen all kinds of people. It shouldn't have been his looks that drew her attention.
Still curious, he asked the woman, “Is this your daughter?”
“Yes,” the woman said with a smile, pulling the girl close. “Sorry about that. The school's been saying the volunteer teacher will arrive soon, so now she sees everyone as her teacher.”
“Ah, I see.” Xu Nanheng nodded, picked up his food, and said goodbye.
The girl was clearly very young, still in primary school. Xu Nanheng's post was at a junior high school, teaching the third-year class. As the new school year drew closer, all the details regarding teaching assignments seemed to have been finalized.
Xu Nanheng felt a little emotional. Just moments ago, the girl's eyes had been filled with a thirst for knowledge and deep reverence for the teaching profession.
An educator could hardly bear to face such eyes. A sharp ache rose in his chest, and he walked away quickly. At the same time, he felt grateful that he had chosen to come for this program. For the moment, many of his grievances at school seemed to ease.
He found an empty spot, lit a cigarette with Fang Shiyou's lighter, and smoked one. When he returned to the gas station, he happened to see Fang Shiyou slowly driving out of the exit. Fang Shiyou spotted him too, tapped the horn, and Xu Nanheng raised a hand in greeting.
Fang Shiyou pulled the car off the highway and parked. After turning off the engine, he got out and said, “Put the food in the car first. Let's go wash up behind the station.”
“Okay.” Xu Nanheng nodded and left the baozi on the passenger seat.
Inside the gas station, there was a convenience store. They bought disposable toothbrushes and toothpaste, then went to the restroom for a quick wash. Splashing the icy water on their faces felt quite refreshing. Afterward, Fang Shiyou pulled a tube of sunscreen from his pocket.
Xu Nanheng had done no preparation before coming to Tibet. Since this was his first semester after finishing his internship, he had not yet been assigned a class at the senior high school in Beijing. With nothing to hand over, he had simply packed his things and left.
It wasn't until he saw the sunscreen in Fang Shiyou's hand that he realized he was in a high-altitude region, where the UV rays were harsh.
“Thanks.” Xu Nanheng felt a flicker of warmth. Was this what it meant to meet a fellow villager out in the frontier? It was unexpectedly heartwarming.
But Fang Shiyou didn't let go. “I meant I'd squeeze some out for you. Do you want to take the whole tube?”
“……”
After a moment of awkward staring, Fang Shiyou broke first, snorting with laughter. “Just kidding. This one's already half used. I bought you a new one in the shop just now.”
As he spoke, he pulled a full tube from the other pocket of his jacket.
“……” Xu Nanheng sighed. “Dr. Fang, I really can't handle any emotional ups and downs right now.”
“Sorry about that.” Fang Shiyou squeezed a large dollop of sunscreen onto the back of his hand. “I don't know what you've been through, but since you've come to Tibet, try to relax a little.”
“Huh?” Xu Nanheng didn't quite understand.
Fang Shiyou pointed to the back of Xu Nanheng's hand, gesturing for him to apply the sunscreen first. “Let's get going. Don't want to just stand around chatting in front of the restroom.”
So the two of them walked and talked.
Fang Shiyou said, “Do you know why Tibet feels so tranquil?”
“Why?” Xu Nanheng asked, haphazardly smearing sunscreen on his face.
Fang Shiyou said, “Because the air is so thin, making movements a struggle. Naturally, a deep tranquility follows.”
Xu Nanheng: “……”
Fang Shiyou laughed, walked to the front of the car, and patted the hood. “Whether you come with stories or with a Mercedes-Benz, Mr. Xu, this is Tibet. Once you've crossed the Tanggula Mountains, you leave your worries behind. Get in.”
“I'm a teacher,” Xu Nanheng said. “I teach senior high school math.”
Fang Shiyou nodded. “Teacher Xu.”
“Yeah, Dr. Fang,” Xu Nanheng responded.