Chapter 16: In Her Singing Voice

Tang Yi-Bai sat at his desk, a pen in one hand as he looked at the test paper before him. His posture was very straight and proper, like a primary school student learning how to write in class. He scanned quickly through the reading comprehension text before his eyes, at times using a highlighter pen to mark words and phrases which seemed familiar but were still unknown to him. As for those words and phrases which were not at all familiar nor known, his time was limited so he was going to ignore them for now.

This was something Yun Duo had taught him. After he was done with the whole text, he would look up all the marked words and just remember what he could. If he encountered a word a few more times, he should be able to remember it.

And so on his desk, other than the test paper, there was also an electronic dictionary. This was a substitute for his handphone's translation software.

Qi Rui-Feng had not lied to Yun Duo. Tang Yi-Bai was indeed doing his English reading, and he was taking it very seriously.

In comparison, Qi Rui-Feng was quite agitated. He kept running circles around Tang Yi-Bai, like a restless dog without a master. Tang Yi-Bai became a little annoyed. "Stop buzzing around me."

Qi Rui-Feng deflated like a balloon into another chair. He said dejectedly, "Sorry."

Tang Yi-Bai's head was bent over his test paper, and without even raising his head, he said, "28th time."

This was the 28th time Qi Rui-Feng was apologizing to him.

Qi Rui-Feng sighed heavily. He really had not expected that his casual mention of Arbussy yesterday would incite such a uproar today. It was so inexplicable, a senseless catastrophe. The media's ability to stretch the truth was just too powerful, and the flaming capacity of the netizens was also too much. Still, at the bottom of it all, the root of the problem was that he had mentioned Arbussy.

Thus, Qi Rui-Feng was wracked with guilt right now — he felt that all this harm heaped onto his good brother his fault.

Tang Yi-Bai saw Qi Rui-Feng curled in on himself and could only put down his highlighter. "Even I, the one being flamed, is alright, so what are you all twisted up about?"

"Sorry." Qi Rui-Feng repeated once more.

"You didn't do anything wrong. You don't have to say sorry." Tang Yi-Bai shook his head. "Technically, those news outlets are not wrong. I'm indeed planning to challenge Arbussy, just not right now. To become the world champion, of course one must have to challenge the strongest opponent. As for those who are roasting me, they just don't understand my situation. Let them flame, they'll change their tune later anyway. For an athlete, results are the most compelling fact. Everything else is but transient clouds."

Qi Rui-Feng looked at him with disbelief. "You're not mad?"

"A little, at first, but now I've come to terms with it."

"Aren't you adjusting way too quickly? You haven't even finished one reading yet!"

"Because I don't want to waste time on being angry. That's completely pointless. A year later will be the Asian Games, two years later will be the World Championships, and three years later is the Olympic Games. My time is very tight. Oh, and there is less than two weeks before the level 4 exam. This big brother is very busy, and doesn't have the spare time美国时间: Fun fact - the original phrase here was 'American time'. Apparently, when this phrase was coined, the Chinese believed Americans had more free time to waste on idle pursuits. So it became a rather common slang to say that 'I don't have the American time to waste on xxx'. to hold a grudge against netizens."

Qi Rui-Feng stared at Tang Yi-Bai for a long moment, silent. In his eyes, there was incredulity, some admiration, and some relief.

Tang Yi-Bai frowned. "Stop staring at me like that. Are you crushing on me?"

"F*ck!" Qi Rui-Feng could not help cursing. He rubbed at the goosebumps which had risen up on his arms, and then said to Tang Yi-Bai with utter sincerity, "I think you're so much stronger than me."

Tang Yi-Bai was silent for a moment, and then he let out a soft sigh and said, "If you had ever believed that you were about to lose everything before your eyes, then you would not be phased by anything which you have to face now. Because at least you're still here and can still push forwards and fight for your dreams with all your heart. That is enough."

Qi Rui-Feng sighed as well, just like Tang Yi-Bai had earlier. He was not quite used to having this kind of sorrowful memories, and so he changed the topic to say, "Yun Duo sent me a message just now asking about you."

"Is that so? Let me see."

Tang Yi-Bai glanced swiftly through the chat log between Qi Rui-Feng and Yun Duo, and then he sent a video call request to Yun Duo.

The video call connected quickly, and their respective faces appeared on the other's handphone screen. Although they were in fact physically very far apart, this was still the first time Tang Yi-Bai had seen Yun Duo's face in such close proximity. Her hair was tied up in a casual ponytail, with fine bangs covering her forehead; her face was small, sketched in gentle, full lines; her eyes were not very big, but they were lively and spirited and shaped exquisitely, resembling apricot kernels; the corners of her lips were naturally upturned slightly, so it seemed like she was smiling even when she wasn't. No wonder he always felt great whenever he saw her.

However, Yun Duo was not in a good mood right now. Her delicate eyebrows were locked together, and when she saw Tang Yi-Bai, she was visibly taken aback. "Tang Yi-Bai?"

"It's me, Yun Duo." Tang Yi-Bai settled the handphone vertically on a Pokémon phone seat, and then he sat down and looked at Yun Duo with a hand supporting his chin.

"Are you ... alright?"

Tang Yi-Bai looked at her with a troubled expression. "No."

Qi Rui-Feng stared incredulously at Tang Yi-Bai. This punk had just been plying him full of chicken soup a moment ago, making all sorts of sense, seeming to have a heart even bigger than that of a monk ... and now he's suddenly not alright?

Yun Duo looked at Tang Yi-Bai with concern. "Don't take it to heart. Those people would throw away all of their shame and integrity just for the sake of a few extra eyeballs. They're not worth your attention."

Tang Yi-Bai nodded. "I understand that rationally, but I still feel bad about it."

"So, what can you do about it? You still have a competition tomorrow. Focus first on your competition, there's nothing you can do about the rest even if you worry." Yun Duo felt a little fake saying this, because she felt that if she were to ever encounter something like this herself, she would definitely be really depressed — it's not something she could just stop thinking about even if she wanted to.

Tang Yi-Bai sighed. "Why don't you sing me a song?"

"Huh?" Yun Duo stared at him blankly. She thought that Tang Yi-Bai may be joking, but who would have the heart to joke around at a time like this? So ... Tang Yi-Bai should really be asking for some consolation? But does it have to be in this form...?

Singing through a video call on the handphone just seems really silly, and she was still at her office. Singing under the eyes of everyone there, wasn't that even sillier...?

"Does it have to be singing?" she asked.

Tang Yi-Bai did not reply, merely staring at her with his jaw propped on his hands. His eyes were sparkling with unspoken words.

Sometimes, it is actually more effective to say nothing at all — under his pleading eyes, Yun Duo only managed to resist for three seconds. In the end, she capitulated. "Alright, fine, I'll sing. What do you want to hear?"

"Anything is fine," answered Tang Yi-Bai.

The voice of another person rang out from behind him; it was Qi Rui-Feng. "Sing 'Little Apple'《小苹果》: This song is a single released by the Chopstick Brothers. Since its release, it quickly attained great popularity in Chinese cyberspace, making it a widespread internet meme and a global hit (Wikipedia, 2019). (I've included a link to a version of the song which is not the official MV, but I think you can hear the song better without all the conversational interruptions in that MV.) [Link]!"

Yun Duo decisively turned her head away. "No!" That song had a mysterious magical demonic power — just singing it once would leave it circulating in one's brain for a good half a day, and it would sometimes seep out unconsciously through humming ... it was truly a brainwashing tune of legendary status.

There were not that many songs she knew how to sing — she had initially considered showing off by singing an English song, but when she recalled Tang Yi-Bai's level of English ... Forget it, she had better just stick with a proper local song.

Yun Duo carried her handphone with her to a stairwell where there typically weren't many people. In the stairwell, she sang 'Fly Higher'《飞得更高》 [Link] for Tang Yi-Bai. This was a motivational song so it was actually pretty appropriate for the current situation.

The original singer was Wang Feng, whose voice was deep and raspy. The low roar of his voice imbued the song with a kind of repressed explosive power. Yun Duo's voice was crisp and delicate, like the tinkling of spring water. She sang with emotion, her gentle voice exuding a warmth which enveloped the heart.

She was also earnest and ingenuous — singing just because she was asked, she actually sang the entire song from start to finish, singing through the high parts of the climax several times.

The lighting in the stairwell was rather dim, making her figure within the video call rather blurry and unfocused as well. But this just made her singing voice stand out even more, clean and clear — Tang Yi-Bai and Qi Rui-Feng were enraptured.

When the song ended, Yun Duo was a little embarrassed. She leaned against the railing of the stairs and asked Tang Yi-Bai, "How was it? Are you feeling better now?"

Tang Yi-Bai touched his chin, and looking at the blurry image of her face, he said, "Yes, you sing very well."

"Thank you."

"But," he said, looking at her in serious manner, "I'm a swimmer so I cannot fly that high. Why don't you sing me another song like 'Swim Faster'?"

Yun Duo finally realised he was joking. Goddamn, he actually still had the mood to joke around at a time like this? She glared at him. "Is it so fun teasing me?"

"Very fun." He grinned, his eyes dancing with good humour. His smile, which was normally lovelier than flowers, now looked incredibly annoying.

Yun Duo sweatdropped. "Hey!"

"Okay, okay, don't be angry." Tang Yi-Bai saw that Yun Duo was about to explode at him, and so he quickly rushed to placate her.

"You're still laughing!"

"Okay, I'll stop." Tang Yi-Bai pressed his lips together, hiding his smile from being too obvious. "Thank you. I'm really feeling much better now."

"I'm going to ignore you now. I'm going back to work."

"Don't be mad. How about this? Since you've sang me a song, I'll give you a song back in return, okay?"

Yun Duo's eyes lit up instantly by several degrees. "Really? You'll sing? Sing what? How exciting! I want to record this!"

"Ahem," Tang Yi-Bai raised his index finger and pressed it lightly against his lips, then said, smiling, "I'll let Qi Rui-Feng do the returning. He's great at singing."

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

This time there were two cries of protest, one from within the phone, the other from without. Disgruntled, Qi Rui-Feng grumbled, "What does this have to do with me?"

Tang Yi-Bai replied, "I'm giving you an opportunity for redemption."

Qi Rui-Feng was not convinced. "Didn't you say I did nothing wrong?"

Tang Yi-Bai smiled coldly. "I was just being polite and you actually took it seriously."

Qi Rui-Feng, slayed.

After that, Qi Rui-Feng sat before the desk and sang the 'Little Apple' song that he had been fixated on from the start in the direction of the handphone.

Yun Duo was almost reduced to tears — was she fated to be brainwashed by this legendary song no matter what ...?

After the brainwashing melody ended, Qi Rui-Feng was shoved aside by Tang Yi-Bai, and Tang Yi-Bai reclaimed his position before Yun Duo. Yun Duo looked at him. "You, tomorrow ... forget it. Even if I say nothing, you'll still swim well tomorrow. You are just too mentally put together. Pretty much invincible, immune to all toxins."

Tang Yi-Bai's lips quirked in a smile and the two of them happily said goodbye. When Tang Yi-Bai collected the handphone to pass it back to Qi Rui-Feng, he saw Qi Rui-Feng staring at him with a weird look on his face.

"What's the matter now?"

Tentatively, Qi Rui-Feng asked, "Are you two dating?"

Tang Yi-Bai was taken aback. "Ridiculous."

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Previous: Chapter 15: Hospitality and Verbal Abuse
Next: Chapter 17: Asian Record

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