Evening Stars Chapter 39
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 39
Xu Nanheng's birthday was February 12, which happened to fall on the third day of the Lunar New Year.
They had both seen each other's driver's licenses. On the National Highway 109, Xu Nanheng had looked at Fang Shiyou's license and vehicle registration, and on the day he got altitude sickness, Fang Shiyou had also seen his driver's license for a routine blood test.
Unfortunately, Fang Shiyou was on duty that day. He had worked the night shift on the second day of the New Year and had a surgery on the morning of the third. After the operations, he still had to write medical orders and check on the patients before he could leave.
By the time the last surgical plan discussion ended and he left the hospital, it was already 10:35 PM. Only one hour and twenty-five minutes remained of Xu Nanheng's birthday.
The medical profession dictated that doctors could not prioritize other matters over their work. This held true for doctors all over the world. Fortunately, Fang Shiyou had added the owner of a bakery in the county on WeChat and asked him to reserve a cake for today. The owner had been waiting for him.
Fang Shiyou rushed to pick up the cake, thanked the shop owner profusely, and then hurried home. The first thing he said after entering was, “I'm sorry,” followed immediately by, “I got too busy with another surgery, otherwise I could have been back this afternoon.”
Xu Nanheng turned his head, a chocolate cookie stick dangling from his mouth. A game livestream was playing on his computer screen, a Doraemon blanket over his legs, and a cola by the desk. He looked very comfortable.
He blinked at him. “Are you apologizing?”
“……Yeah.”
“Am I your spoiled boyfriend?” Xu Nanheng pulled the cookie stick from his mouth, a look of amusement and helplessness on his face.
“It's not that exaggerated,” Fang Shiyou said, setting the cake on the dining table and sitting down beside him. “I just feel a bit guilty. I wanted to get back earlier. You don't have friends in the county, and there's not much entertainment around here.”
“Oh, it's fine.” Xu Nanheng continued eating his cookie stick. “It's not like I don't have friends here. I went to eat Hunanese cuisine tonight, and the restaurant owner counts as a half-acquaintance.”
Fang Shiyou propped his chin on his hand, looking at him. “Really? How did you meet him?”
“Remember the last time I delivered food for you? He gave me a box of fruit.”
“I remember.”
Xu Nanheng then briefly told him about running into the Hunanese restaurant owner and the candid older brother, and later going back to the restaurant to bring two cans of coffee. He also mentioned the sentence the owner said to him.
Let your emotions get ahead of your reason.
Although Xu Nanheng wasn't directly inspired by the words, they had given him a hint. A wooden dining table, a quiet night, the two of them sitting side by side, glancing at each other.
“Do you remember I said I read some academic papers that day?”
“I remember.”
“I was reading literature related to homosexuality.”
Fang Shiyou was slightly surprised. “Is this what makes a good teacher?”
The mood really did change depending on one's circumstances. Simply sitting in the living room, chatting leisurely with Teacher Xu, made him feel incredibly fulfilled. Every single second was filled with happiness. Fang Shiyou took a sip from the cola that Xu Nanheng had nearly finished and asked, “Did they know it's your birthday today?”
“No, I didn't say anything. There's no need to mention it.” Xu Nanheng smiled. “I just went to grab a bite to eat. Their restaurant is pretty busy. It's the Spring Festival, after all, and the tourists are back.”
Indeed, even if the entire internet advised against visiting Tibet in winter due to low temperatures, thin air, and frequent avalanches, tourists still came as long as there was a holiday and the roads were open. Xu Nanheng leaned back, tilting his head to stretch his neck. The blanket on his legs slipped down, so he reached out and pulled it back.
“I took your blanket.”
“Go ahead.”
“Does this blanket have a story? I see you bring it to the village too.”
Fang Shiyou smiled. “No story. My grandma bought it. It's soft and fluffy.”
It was Xu Nanheng's twenty-sixth birthday. They hadn't finished the cake, so they put it in the fridge. Xu Nanheng decided to go back to the village on the fifth day of the New Year to start visiting each student's home to check their homework and repeatedly reinforce the mistakes.
Snuggled in bed that night, Xu Nanheng said he wouldn't be able to celebrate Fang Shiyou's birthday with him. Dr. Fang's birthday was on July 19th, when Xu Nanheng had to ‘return to the capital for his report.’ Meanwhile, Fang Shiyou's medical aid work in Tibet would continue until August 1st, so Xu Nanheng had to return to Beijing first.
Fang Shiyou said it was fine.
Xu Nanheng felt a little regretful. “But it's your thirtieth birthday.”
Fang Shiyou kissed him on the top of his head. “There will be many more years.”
The gift Fang Shiyou gave Xu Nanheng was a pendant he had made himself, a simple wool felt ornament. Following Xu Nanheng's WeChat profile picture, he had felted a chubby…… well, a recognizably chubby little cat head.
Xu Nanheng liked it a lot. He felt that Dr. Fang had noticed he was homesick. He didn't ask, but he was happy. Some things didn't need to be asked or said out loud. Even though he and Dr. Fang hadn't been through major struggles, they could understand each other without a word.
Besides, making something like this as a beginner was difficult. For a cardiac surgeon who had been busy from dawn to dusk, it was no small effort.
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, a hospital in Shigatse sent an urgent request for help. A patient with severe tricuspid regurgitation needed surgery. Professor Gu set off for Shigatse, taking Fang Shiyou as his first assistant. Meanwhile, Xu Nanheng returned to the village. With his baseball cap on and eyes shaded in the shadow of its brim, he began randomly picking one lucky household each day for a surprise inspection of winter homework.
When he arrived at Lhamo's house, she was in the cattle pen, trying to catch a calf. One little yak was as agile as a fish in water. It even seemed to know Lhamo was trying to catch it and kept leading her on a chase.
Xu Nanheng stepped over the lowest part of the pen wall, pinned the calf down in one move, and then looked up at Lhamo. “How many math worksheets have you done?”
Lhamo: “……”
So the young girl went inside to do her worksheets, while the visiting teacher from the city secured the yaks in the pen one by one. Then Lhamo's mother returned with her younger siblings after fetching water. Seeing Teacher Xu working in their yard, tying up the yaks and even covering them with blankets, she was startled and quickly led the two children back inside.
Lhamo's mother, speaking in accented and halting Mandarin, told Xu Nanheng to stop……
“I nearly jumped out of my skin at the time.”
That night, Xu Nanheng video-called Fang Shiyou. “Let me tell you, those yaks at Lhamo's house have to be tied up one by one at night. So I was over there tying them up. It's pretty simple. They already have ropes on them, so you just have to tie one to the next. The thing is, Lhamo's mom isn't fluent in Mandarin. I guess she felt really bad seeing me work. She suddenly yelled loudly, ‘Don't move!’ ‘Stop!’ ‘Hands off!’”
Fang Shiyou burst out laughing on the other end.
Xu Nanheng said, “You get it, right? I don't look like someone who was helping. I look like I'm stealing their yaks.”
Fang Shiyou laughed nonstop. “You're an honored guest. How can an honored guest be doing chores? Who are you planning to surprise tomorrow?”
Xu Nanheng leaned against the headboard, thinking. “Hmm…… I guess Dasang Choedon is already preparing. Those two girls are inseparable. I'll skip them and go to Rinchen's house tomorrow.”
They chatted for more than thirty minutes. After a while, they hung up. Xu Nanheng was going to bed, and Fang Shiyou was sharing a room with Professor Gu, so it wasn't convenient to talk too late.
Winter on the Southern Tibetan Plateau brought snow from time to time. Looking out from the classroom, the window framed a patch of snow-covered scenery. By evening, the stars and moon hung high, marking the end of another day.
This snow would not melt until spring. In areas with high natural coverage, waiting for the seasons to change was a fascinating thing. Here, every living creature followed the rhythm of nature.
At dawn, the morning light awakened him to the day. By night, he fell asleep with the evening stars riding the wind.
After spending so much time in Tibet, Xu Nanheng could feel a change in himself. It was a kind of acceptance, not resignation born of helplessness, but a willingness to acknowledge his own smallness in the face of the world's injustices and inevitabilities.
Only after leaving the city did he realize how vast the world truly was. The sky was no longer sliced into squares by tall buildings. Once he stepped out of the metropolis, he could look up and see the sky. Beneath it, the land stretched in its original magnificence, extending to the foot of Tibet's high mountains. And when he lifted his gaze—
Those mountains were nothing less than divine statues rising from the earth.
Xu Nanheng still remembered a joke Fang Shiyou had made: coming to Tibet, the air's so thin you can hardly move, which in turn leads to a profound sense of tranquility.
Half of that statement was true. Coming to Tibet, there was indeed tranquility.
For a long period after the New Year, Xu Nanheng and Fang Shiyou lived a life where they spent more time apart than together. Xu Nanheng, whose school had started early, threw himself into teaching, while Fang Shiyou was so busy he often ate leftover lunch at night.
During the week Fang Shiyou was on duty at the small hospital, their time together was limited to meals, and even their kisses were rushed little pecks. Their early stages of dating had somehow taken on the rhythm of an old married couple.
Fortunately, they understood each other. Fang Shiyou would come to the dorm to massage Xu Nanheng's neck while he buried himself in work, and Xu Nanheng would visit the small hospital to share a cigarette and some conversation with him.
Once, Xu Nanheng had said that he really took care of himself too much, implying that he was the one benefiting in their relationship. Fang Shiyou ruffled his hair and asked, “Why do you have to measure our relationship with rulers or scales?”
Xu Nanheng thought about it and realized he had a point.
Spring was coming to the Southern Tibet, and he would soon be leaving.
The day Fang Shiyou returned to the county, he stopped by the school before leaving. On the first floor, one classroom was in session while another was holding an exam. The latter was Xu Nanheng's class.
Fang Shiyou wanted to see him without disturbing him, so he drove around the school gate once. Xu Nanheng, invigilating the exam, noticed his car and nodded toward him.
On the blackboard behind him, it said there were 65 days until the senior high school entrance exam. Time had reached May. The snow hadn't fully melted yet, and the tenacious plants beneath it pushed upward, trying to touch the sunlight.
That evening, Xu Nanheng called Fang Shiyou while smoking on the open ground outside the school. He stood exactly where he land Fang Shiyou had smoked together after dinner at the small hospital on his very first day there.
He said, “In two months, I'll be leaving.”
Fang Shiyou said, “I'm already starting to miss you.”