Evening Stars Chapter 7
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 7
Xu Nanheng clicked directly on his chat window and typed: ‘Why are you using your phone while driving?’
Fang Shiyou: ‘Lining up for gas.’
Xu Nanheng: ‘Oh, no rush. Drive safely.’
Fang Shiyou: ‘Got it.’
At this moment, Xu Nanheng felt he had done enough. He got up from the ground and decided to let himself off the hook again, just like he did at the Potala Palace. After all, he'd be driving back to the village from the county later. He didn't want to get severe altitude sickness that might affect his driving.
Another tourist who had been resting nearby saw him leaving and called out, “Hey, young man! You're leaving already? Not going up to take a look?”
Xu Nanheng smiled. “The fate isn't right yet. Maybe next time.”
In Buddhism, everything was about fate, so that answer was fair enough. Xu Nanheng adjusted his sunglasses and walked to the foot of the mountain, where many vehicles like taxis and rickshaws were waiting for customers. He hopped into a rickshaw and told the driver to take him to the market.
Fang Shiyou should be arriving soon, he guessed. It was past three in the afternoon, and the plateau's powerful ultraviolet rays felt like heaven itself had developed germaphobia, sterilizing everything in sight. Xu Nanheng felt as if he were sitting inside a sterilizing cabinet.
The highest temperature of the day was nearly 30 degrees Celsius, and the car seat was scorching. The moment Xu Nanheng's sat down, he almost bounced right back up from the heat.
“Ow, that's burning.” Xu Nanheng sighed and sat there with the door left open.
It was hot, but not the kind of heat that made one irritable. Actually, it felt rather pleasant. He scrolled through his phone while the group chat for volunteer teachers buzzed idly. Ever since he'd posted on his Moments, they'd started tagging him again.
[Tan Xi: @Xu Nanheng Wow, Teacher Xu, the mountains where you are so beautiful!]
[Xu Nanheng: Of course. It's the Himalayas. Which mountains are you heading to again?]
[Tan Xi: Daliang Mountains, hehe.]
Xu Nanheng's eyes narrowed slightly as he caught onto something. This year's list of school-to-school volunteer teaching posts had already been made public. At the time, Xu Nanheng was so bothered by the rumors swirling around him that he had only seen his own assignment in Tibet and hadn't bothered checking anyone else's.
“Daliang Mountains……” Xu Nanheng murmured, thinking for a moment before it hit him.
[Xu Nanheng: Damn, Teacher Tan, you're returning to your hometown by means of volunteer teaching!]
[Tan Xi: Hehe, yeah. My granduncle and grandaunt are so excited I'm coming home. They're getting ready to slaughter a pig, the room is all cleaned up, and they even upgraded the router to one that works through walls.]
[Dai Jimian: Teacher Tan doesn't even need to pack. Everything's waiting at home.]
[Su Yu: Hahahahaha~ Teacher Xu just realized it. We've already been jealous for ages.]
Xu Nanheng's lips twitched twice. Right, right, right……
Everyone in the group chatted about the start dates for their respective teaching posts. Because customs and climates varied from region to region, Tibet's schools started the earliest, finished the earliest, and had the longest winter break. Teacher Dai announced that there would be an online meeting tomorrow. Everyone was told to secure a stable local internet connection in advance.
Xu Nanheng had already checked the signal at the school. It was usable, but painfully slow. If he used his phone as a hotspot for the laptop, it probably wouldn't sustain a video conference. The thought of asking Dr. Fang for help made him sigh.
“Why the big sigh?” a voice suddenly came from the car door.
Xu Nanheng shot up. His car door was wide open, and the man had his arm resting on the door, looking at him with a slight smile.
“Dr. Fang.”
“Yeah, Teacher Xu.”
“Back already?” Xu Nanheng jumped out of the car and stretched lazily. “Ah, I just saw in the group chat that the school's having an online meeting soon. They told us to find a place with good internet.”
“The school in Beijing?”
“Yeah.” Xu Nanheng nodded. “Does the hospital have internet?”
“Yes, just come over when it's time.”
“Alright,” Xu Nanheng agreed easily.
Fang Shiyou's car was a Ford Raptor. If Xu Nanheng wasn't mistaken, it was the Flamestorm Special Edition. After glancing a few times, Xu Nanheng had to admit it looked pretty impressive. The hood came up almost to his chest.
“Cool car,” Xu Nanheng said. “Hey, why does a doctor drive a pickup truck?”
Fang Shiyou replied, “The hospital has a limited number of ambulances. When we go out for medical services, we either have to call for a ride-hailing service or take a rickshaw. A pickup truck is more convenient. The back can carry supplies and people can lie down in it.”
“Ohh.” Xu Nanheng nodded in understanding.
After that, they each got into their own vehicles and started toward the village.
Xu Nanheng drove in front, with Fang Shiyou following behind to keep an eye on the items tied to his roof, just in case anything got shaken loose along the way.
When they reached the village, Fang Shiyou helped him carry the purchases upstairs. Thankfully, it was only the second floor. With two men working back and forth, they made quick progress. Still, by the fourth trip, Xu Nanheng felt a little embarrassed. Leaning against the car and catching his breath, he said, “Dr. Fang, you can head back. I'll finish the rest slowly.”
Dr. Fang had already taken off his jacket. “Let's finish it together. We can go back to the hospital for dinner once we're done.”
“You're quite a warm-hearted person,” Xu Nanheng said with a smile.
Fang Shiyou froze for a moment, then laughed. “You really hold a grudge, don't you, Teacher Xu?”
The items weren't heavy, just small and many, so they couldn't carry much in one trip. After going up and down several times, they finally finished. In the school lot, Xu Nanheng still couldn't completely acclimate to the high altitude. He bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing hard.
Fang Shiyou opened an oxygen tank and held the nozzle toward him. “Breathe for a bit.”
After a while of breathing the oxygen, Xu Nanheng recovered and let out a sigh of relief. Then he saw Fang Shiyou lift another box from the back of the pickup. He asked, “Weren't we done moving? What's that?”
Fang Shiyou replied, “Bought you a case of Coke in Shannan.”
“Damn.” Xu Nanheng walked over in disbelief, so moved he nearly teared up. Grabbing Fang Shiyou's arm, he said, “You doctors really do save people's lives and help the injured.”
“……That's what we do,” Fang Shiyou said helplessly.
School would start next Monday.
That night, Xu Nanheng curled up in his dorm room reviewing the curriculum. He had already taken the exams back at the main school in Beijing, but he was flipping through them again.
The online meeting with the Beijing school was scheduled for 9 AM.
Xu Nanheng set his alarm for 8:30 but ended up waking at 8:56.
Since he had given him a heads-up, Fang Shiyou had been waiting that morning. When no one showed up, he finally left the hospital at 8:50 to head to the school.
The walk took five minutes, and getting to the second floor took another thirty seconds.
When Dr. Fang knocked on the door, Teacher Xu had just opened his eyes.
“Shit.” Xu Nanheng glanced at the time and scrambled out of bed. Tan Xi was frantically messaging him on WeChat, asking why he wasn't online yet. Holding down the voice button, Xu Nanheng shuffled to the door in slippers.
So when the dorm door opened, Fang Shiyou was greeted by the sight of Teacher Xu in a rumpled white T-shirt, loose shorts, messy bed hair, and sleepy eyes, mumbling into his phone, “Can you tell them my internet is a little unstable? I'll…… uh, I'll fix it and be on in five minutes.”
Fang Shiyou raised an eyebrow. “Unstable internet?”
“My alarm didn't wake me,” Xu Nanheng admitted. “I've been so tired the last couple of days that I slept like a rock. Dr. Fang, could you grab my laptop and put it on the desk? I'll go wash my face.”
Fang Shiyou stepped inside. The room…… how to put it? It was full of life.
The laptop was on the desk, its bag on the floor. Fang Shiyou neatly coiled the power cord and mouse, placed them inside, and then put the laptop in too. Xu Nanheng grabbed a plain jacket, along with his toothbrush and toothpaste, then suddenly asked, “Is my hair a mess?”
“Looks fine,” Fang Shiyou said.
He genuinely thought it looked fine, because Xu Nanheng's face card could redeem anything.
Suddenly, Xu Nanheng froze. Just a moment ago, he was in a frantic rush, but now he was still. Fang Shiyou asked, “Not in a hurry anymore?”
“Let's go,” Xu Nanheng said. “There's no point pretending. I overslept, that's all. I'm a young master, spoiled and accustomed to sleeping in.”
Fang Shiyou didn't quite understand. Xu Nanheng just smiled and said, “I'm going to wash up.”
Despite what he said, he still ran all the way back to the hospital.
He sat down at Dr. Fang's desk, plugged in the cable, and joined the video conference. “Sorry, I overslept.”
Everyone on the video call was muted. The supervisor smiled and said it was fine, and then the meeting began.
Fang Shiyou poured him a cup of hot water and stepped out, closing the door behind him. The small hospital didn't have many patients, especially on a Sunday, so things were quiet. He hadn't even bothered to wear his white coat that day.
But those phrases ‘no point pretending’ and ‘I'm a young master,’ combined with his car, his laptop brand, and the way he dressed, made it fairly obvious that Teacher Xu came from a well-off family.
But that line, ‘no point pretending,’ made Fang Shiyou think that Xu Nanheng might have been acting like an average person all this time back in Beijing.
Dr. Fang couldn't help but feel a bit emotional. What kind of family, he wondered, made someone feel the need to pretend to be ordinary……
“Hey, Dr. Fang,” a nurse called out when she met him in the hallway. “You're working today?”
“Oh, yeah, I……” Fang Shiyou pointed toward the consultation room. “Just handling something.”
“Oh, but the cafeteria isn't cooking today,” the nurse said. “Dr. Gao and Dr. Sanggyai went out for a free clinic. There are some leftover beef patties from last night in the freezer. Heat them up if you want some.”
Fang Shiyou nodded. “Alright, got it. Thanks.”
Xu Nanheng was genuinely exhausted. He'd spent the entire yesterday running around, then came back in the evening to move things. Despite his own obsessive-compulsive tendencies, the young master made the bed all askew. After all that hassle, he had to boil water in his newly bought electric kettle and then wash himself by pouring bowl after bowl of water over his head in the bathroom.
He really was dead tired, and meetings were boring enough to make anyone drowsy. To make matters worse, the ones from the Beijing main school were filled with stiff official talk about safety hazards, teacher ethics, and patient guidance……
Xu Nanheng warned himself not to nod off. But then, in the grid of video thumbnails, Teacher Dai yawned first.
Well, that was it. The cyber infection hit him instantly. Xu Nanheng quickly grabbed a tissue and dabbed at the tears forming from sheer sleepiness.
So when Fang Shiyou came back in to grab a charger, he saw Xu Nanheng wiping his eyes in front of his laptop.
He was stunned. Why was he crying during a meeting?