Evening Stars Chapter 4
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 4
The man in the white coat was Fang Shiyou.
Dawa Gyatso turned back and saw Xu Nanheng still standing there, so he walked back to ask, “Teacher Xu, why aren't you moving?”
Xu Nanheng let out an “ah,” pulled his gaze back, and looked at Dawa Gyatso. “I…… well……”
He stammered a couple of times. Dawa Gyatso blinked, waiting for him to speak. It would have been easy to say, ‘I saw an acquaintance,’ but Xu Nanheng's mind got completely tied up at that very moment.
Fang Shiyou stubbed out his cigarette and walked over, calling out to him when he was about four or five steps away, “Teacher Xu!”
“Yeah, Dr. Fang.” Xu Nanheng responded instinctively.
Dawa Gyatso was surprised. “Huh?! You two know each other?”
Then he immediately pieced it together. “Oh, right, right. Dr. Fang is also from Beijing. Were you friends before?”
Fang Shiyou smiled faintly and said ambiguously, “We knew each other before.”
They did know each other before, which wasn't wrong, so Xu Nanheng didn't offer any further explanation. Dawa Gyatso broke into a grin. “That's great, Teacher Xu. At least you've got someone to look out for you here.”
“Y-yeah……” Xu Nanheng quickly pulled himself together, trying not to look too stiff. He straightened his collar and scratched the back of his head.
Fang Shiyou turned to Dawa Gyatso. “Were you planning to take him to the village for a meal?”
“Yes, to help Teacher Xu get familiar with the place.”
Fang Shiyou said, “You go on and take care of your work. I'll take him.”
Dawa Gyatso taught at the county junior high school, but he also helped out with classes at the village school every week. Fang Shiyou knew he was constantly shuttling between the two places. And now he had hosted Xu Nanheng on top of it all. He must have been exhausted.
Dawa Gyatso agreed with a nod, not standing on ceremony. “Alright then, thank you, Dr. Fang.”
The man who had been smoking with Fang Shiyou also walked over. Fang Shiyou introduced him. “This is my colleague, Yang Gao, from Sichuan. Dr. Yang, this is Teacher Xu.”
Xu Nanheng shook hands with him. Then Fang Shiyou said, “How about I take you into the county town for a meal instead?”
“No.” Three hours of mountain road instantly flashed through Xu Nanheng's mind. He refused at once. “I just came from the county. I've been traveling all day, so I really don't want to drive or sit in a car again.”
“Oh, alright,” Fang Shiyou said. “Then would you like to eat at our hospital cafeteria?”
Xu Nanheng agreed without hesitation. “Sure.”
The hospital Fang Shiyou spoke of was really just a single building. On the way there, Fang Shiyou explained that his assigned post for the medical aid program was at the hospital in the county town, but because transportation between the surrounding villages was so inconvenient, doctors from the county hospital took turns each month coming out to this small hospital to see patients.
Every so often, they would also go to various villages to provide free medical services, so this place wasn't staffed every day.
The nearby villages and the scattered Tibetan residents had gotten used to calling this place the ‘small hospital,’ while the one in the county town was the ‘big hospital.’
And the so-called cafeteria was actually run by the hospital director and his wife, who cooked meals in a large pot.
Like the school, the small hospital was a mud-brick building, even with the same patterned fencing. A few cars, all high-clearance SUVs, were parked in the front courtyard. Xu Nanheng looked up and took in the building. Beside the entrance stood an iron plaque with two lines of writing. The line in Chinese read ‘County Hospital.’ He figured this meant it was a subsidiary branch of the main county hospital.
Well, a hospital was a hospital, Xu Nanheng thought, continuing his inspection. Inside the only outpatient building, Xu Nanheng saw that it was only divided into Internal Medicine and Surgery.
“Dr. Fang,” Xu Nanheng called out to him.
“Yeah, Teacher Xu?” Fang Shiyou turned his head.
“Where's the restroom?”
Fang Shiyou pointed toward the corner of the outpatient hall. “Over there.”
“Could you wait for me for a moment?”
“Of course.” Fang Shiyou kept both hands in the pockets of his white coat, smiling as he looked at him.
Xu Nanheng jogged to the restroom. Yang Gao nudged Fang Shiyou with his elbow and asked, “Were you two friends back in Beijing?”
Fang Shiyou replied, “No, I met him on the way back from Golmud a couple of days ago. My car broke down halfway, remember? He gave me a ride back to Lhasa.”
“Damn.” Yang Gao thought back. “Didn't you say the car broke down late at night? On that pitch-dark highway, you just got into his car?”
“Mm.” Fang Shiyou nodded.
Yang Gao: “You've got guts.”
Fang Shiyou only smiled. In truth, after some reflection over the past couple of days, he had concluded that the reason was quite simple. Xu Nanheng was just too good-looking. With a cigarette between his lips and that frosty face, he had been unbearably sexy. Fang Shiyou had taken a gamble.
Yang Gao stared at his colleague for a moment, finding it hard to believe. Just then, Xu Nanheng came out of the restroom, and Fang Shiyou waved him over.
There were about six or seven doctors eating in the hospital cafeteria, and those six or seven made up the entire staff of this ‘branch.’ Since there was no emergency department, everyone took turns on the night shift. On the cafeteria wall, a blackboard held the duty roster, written by hand.
Everything was so rustic that Xu Nanheng felt as though he had stepped into a period drama. But it was really like the 1990s. In Shanghai back then, families were already wealthy enough to serve Australian lobsters and king crabs at the dinner table, while people in the vast northwest still used communal taps to wash clothes.
Even today, it wasn't much different. Hospital cafeterias in big cities had coffee shops, while the rice cooker in this small county hospital cafeteria was the exact model Xu Nanheng remembered from when he was ten.
The world was like a rainforest. Some trees stood tall in sunlight, nourished in fertile soil. Others rooted themselves in barren ground, struggling with all their strength just to stay alive.
And then others would say: ‘The trees in this forest are growing so well!’
“Thank you.” Xu Nanheng took the heaping bowl of rice from Fang Shiyou's hand, then whispered, “It's a little too much, Dr. Fang.”
“Here, give it back, I'll take some.” Fang Shiyou held his bowl out again.
During the meal, the other doctors told Xu Nanheng that the county town he came from had only recently been taken off the list of poverty-stricken counties in previous years. The county hospital wasn't very large either. It only had basic facilities like CT and MRI machines. Many pathology tests still had to be sent to a hospital in Shannan.
This small standalone hospital building mainly served the nearby villages. Many villagers had little idea how a hospital operated, so the county had set up a small branch here.
Registration was just a single manual window, where patients could use health insurance. Villagers usually came here for common illnesses like headaches and fevers.
Xu Nanheng nodded along.
Fang Shiyou noticed he was a little reserved. After dinner, someone suggested they all go to the county town to celebrate and welcome Teacher Xu, but Fang Shiyou politely declined on his behalf, saying that Teacher Xu had already been on the road all day. That was the end of the suggestion.
By the time they finished eating, dusk had already fallen. Since school hadn't started yet, there were no students around. Fang Shiyou walked with him from the hospital back to the school. The two buildings stood fairly close, with no other structures in between. It was only a five or six-minute walk.
“Have you seen your dorm yet?” Fang Shiyou asked.
“Yes.” Just like him, Xu Nanheng also kept both hands tucked in his pockets.
Fang Shiyou: “How is it?”
Xu Nanheng: “Do you even need to ask, Dr. Fang?”
Fang Shiyou let out a chuckle. “I've been to the teachers' dorm before. Last month I helped move in the desks.”
“Ah.” Xu Nanheng remembered. “I thought so. That set of desk and chair looked pretty new.”
Fang Shiyou nodded. “Right. The old desk had four legs, each with its own strength. The principal bought new ones from the county so the volunteer teacher could be more comfortable writing his lesson plan.”
“Each with its own strength……” Xu Nanheng smiled at the way he described it, but then the smile slowly faded.
The teaching building was already in sight. Thinking of that dorm room again, he wanted to sigh, but held it back. After all, he had come here to volunteer. He had to hold it back, and so he did.
“Dr. Fang.”
“Yeah, Teacher Xu?”
“Light.”
Fang Shiyou didn't smoke. He simply stood with Xu Nanheng two meters from the teaching building while he had a cigarette. Fang Shiyou happened to see the quiet, parked car in the schoolyard. He looked at it, then at Xu Nanheng. The young master has come to the countryside……
“Why don't you keep the lighter,” Fang Shiyou offered.
Xu Nanheng flicked the lighter, lit his cigarette, and then pressed his lips inward, letting his teeth clench the filter. “Actually, I had a lighter. I bought one in Lhasa, but I forgot it.”
“……” Fang Shiyou pressed his lips together to hold back a laugh. “The oxygen's thin, so I don't blame you.”
Xu Nanheng drew in a deep breath of smoke, let it swirl fully through his lungs, and then exhaled slowly.
Geographically, the place sat halfway up the mountainside, on the southwestern plateau at the northern foot of the Himalayas. The road wasn't smooth, but neither was it steeply rugged. The altitude was about 4,000 meters. Xu Nanheng was adapting well, well enough to smoke, which was considered a natural talent in high-altitude regions.
The overall environment looked much like the remote mountain area Xu Nanheng had always imagined. With a trace of melancholy, he lifted his eyes to the window of his dorm room on the second floor of the teaching building.
Following his gaze upward, Fang Shiyou asked, “What is it? Are you scared of living alone in an empty building?”
“Of course not,” Xu Nanheng said. “The national flag's flying in the yard. What's there to be afraid of?”
Fang Shiyou gave a small laugh. “Your eyes look a little bitter.”
“Not bitter. Bitter of what? If I was afraid of hardship, I wouldn't have volunteered.” Xu Nanheng took the cigarette out, glanced around but didn't see a trash can, so he stubbed it out against the wall and then held onto it.
Fang Shiyou didn't press further. He could relate. When he had first come to Tibet, it had been the same for him. It wasn't fear of hardship, nor distaste for the environment, nor regret. Just like the volunteer teaching program, the medical aid program required layers of screening. One part of that process was ensuring that teachers understood the local situation. Everyone knew exactly what kind of place this was before they came.
There was no twenty-four-hour hot water here, no convenience stores, and the toilet was nothing more than a trench. Express deliveries had to be picked up in the county town over ten kilometers away, or perhaps this area wasn't even within the delivery range. As for takeout, that was out of the question.
For someone like Xu Nanheng, who only smoked a cigarette to settle himself, his mindset was already excellent.
Fang Shiyou said, “There aren't any public trash bins here. Just throw it away inside the school.”
“Oh, alright.” Xu Nanheng nodded. “Well, you can stop here. I'll head upstairs to sleep. Thanks for the meal, Dr. Fang.”
“Don't mention it. It didn't cost anything.”
“Doesn't matter. I have to say thanks when I'm full.”
“Fine, then. Don't be so formal. Go rest.”
Xu Nanheng gave another nod.
By all logic, Fang Shiyou should have turned and left then, but he didn't. Since he stayed put, Xu Nanheng felt it would be awkward to walk away first. Under the evening stars, their eyes met for a brief moment…… After a while, Xu Nanheng tentatively asked, “Is there…… something else?”
“Did you bring any bedding from home? Like a cotton mattress pad to put on the bed board?” Fang Shiyou asked.
Xu Nanheng blinked. “There's one in the room.”
The school had provided it. Back in Shannan, during the preparatory meeting, the volunteer manual had mentioned that basic accommodations would be supplied, such as cotton quilt, cotton mattress pad, pillow, a few clothes hangers, a wash basin, and basic necessities. And just earlier, when he had gone upstairs with Dawa Gyatso, Xu Nanheng had seen that the bed was properly made, complete with a quilt and a pillow.
Fang Shiyou looked as if he wanted to say something but held it back. Instead, he changed the subject. “Oh right, I'm going to the county town tomorrow. Do you want to come along?”
“Why would I go?” Xu Nanheng asked in confusion.
“Here's the thing.” Fang Shiyou swallowed and tried another angle. “Why don't you go upstairs and sleep for a night first? The bed's a hard plank with only one quilt. If you can't get used to it, then tomorrow you can come with me to the county town and buy a few thick mattresses. The weather's turning cold.”
Xu Nanheng took the advice and nodded. “Okay. Then what are you going to the county town for?”
“The guy at the repair shop on National Highway 109 drove my car to Lhasa for me, and my colleague in Lhasa drove it to Shannan. I'm going to take a vehicle from the county town to Shannan to drive my car back,” Fang Shiyou explained.
“Oh. ” Xu Nanheng remembered that Fang Shiyou's car had broken down halfway. “I see.”
“Mm.” Fang Shiyou was just about to say he would head back when Xu Nanheng's furry brows suddenly knitted together as he stared at him.
Being stared at made Fang Shiyou uneasy. “What is it?”
“Dr. Fang.”
“Yeah, Teacher Xu?”
“How much did that repair shop guy charge you for driving your car back to Lhasa?” Xu Nanheng asked with a half-smile.
Fang Shiyou answered honestly, “Two thousand five hundred.”
Xu Nanheng folded his arms in mock seriousness. “So after deducting the fuel cost, you still owe me three hundred. We'll settle that account another day, Doctor Fang.”
“Alright.” Fang Shiyou laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “Get some rest. See you tomorrow.”
Xu Nanheng thought to himself that Dr. Fang was exaggerating. It was just a hard bed. Didn't everyone sleep on hard beds in college dorms?
But he had forgotten that back in college, his mother had padded that hard bed with several layers of cotton and fleece quilts, stacked so thick they were nearly a fist high. He went up to the second floor, walked into his dorm, and turned on the light. The long fluorescent light flickered twice before staying on.
Xu Nanheng pressed down on the bed with his hand…… then lifted the cover. Sure enough, there was only a single thin quilt. He didn't complain. He hadn't come here to be treated like royalty and waited on hand and foot.
So, after lying flat on the bed for a moment, the teacher from Beijing sat up. Under the cover of night, he walked back down the teaching building, opened his car door, reclined the seat, cracked the back window open a little, and went to sleep there.
The next morning, Dr. Fang walked from the hospital to the school.
He didn't even bother going upstairs and went straight to the car, knocking on the window.
Xu Nanheng jolted awake, his eyes snapping open. He sat up straight and found himself staring directly at Dr. Fang through the glass.
“Morning, Teacher Xu.”
“Morning, Dr. Fang.”
To be honest, it was a little awkward.
Xu Nanheng rubbed his eyes and opened the car door. Perhaps he had sat up too abruptly just now, and with the car being high off the ground, he stumbled forward as he stepped out.
Fang Shiyou instinctively reached out to steady him, and Xu Nanheng fell straight into his arms.
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TL Note: Yes, catch him! ৻(•̀ᴗ•́ ৻)