Chapter 45

Late in the evening, Tang Yi-Bai's parents still had not come home. Tang Yi-Bai gave them a call and only then did he find out that it was his parents' 25th anniversary today, so they had gone out to celebrate and would not be back so early.

So they could not wait for his dad to come back and cook dinner.

They set up an electric hot pot in the dining room, bought back a whole bunch of ingredients, and began to cook their own hot pot for dinner. Hiding in an air-conditioned room on a hot summer's day to eat hot pot — one could only describe it as hedonistic.

After dinner, they had some fruits, and then after watching television for a little while more, Tang Yi-Bai sent Qi Rui-Feng packing.

Qi Rui-Feng had been planning to stay over for the night. He tried to offer a compromise. "I can sleep on the sofa."

Tang Yi-Bai shook his head, "The sofa in my house can't fit you."

"I can bear it."

"I cannot."

Yes, he could not stand the fact that Qi Rui-Feng was still in the house after night fall. Even though brother Feng had stayed over before in the past, Yun Duo wasn't here back then. Things were different now.

Also, most importantly, Yun Duo was obviously speaking more to Qi Rui-Feng than to him — how could he be magnanimous in this situation?

After Qi Rui-Feng left, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became a little strange. Yun Duo sat on the sofa idly watching television. Then, Tang Yi-Bai walked over to sit beside her.

Yun Duo did not shift her eyes from the tv, but all her attention had turned to him. Her fingers rubbed lightly against the edges of the remote control in her hand, a sign of her nerves.

The two of them were suddenly alone together — even Tang Yi-Bai felt rather unsure what to do, He placed both hands decorously on his thighs, only turning his head to look at her face. "Today, you..."

The sound of the door opening interrupted him.

Tang Yi-Bai turned to look and saw that his parents were finally back, but... they really had terrible timing...

Daddy Tang did not notice the strange look his son was giving him. He said, "Doudou, your mum and I saw Feng outside. Why didn't you let him stay the night?"

"Well, it's inconvenient," Tang Yi-Bai explained vaguely.

Madam Lu came over and put the small paper bag in her hands before Yun Duo. After that, she sat down and said to Yun Duo, "A friend in Hong Kong sent it to me. I don't use this brand and it's unopened. You won't mind, right?"

"For, for me?" Yun Duo was surprised at the sudden gift.

Madam Lu nodded in reply.

Yun Duo lifted the bag and looked inside to find a set of cosmetics. It was a brand she did not recognise — her make-up skill tree had not been awakened yet. She looked gratefully at Madam Lu. "Thank you, Auntie!"

Tang Yi-Bai had also taken a peek and seeing the cosmetics, he smiled and said, "Mum, Yun Duo is still young and naturally pretty. She doesn't need makeup."

Yun Duo cast an odd look at Tang Yi-Bai — her expression read "You're dead meat".

Honestly, how could you bring up age in front of auntie? And why did you have to bring me into it too?! Not only are you dead meat, are you trying to bring me down with you?!

Madam Lu stared at Tang Yi-Bai with narrowed eyes, and Tang Yi-Bai could almost hear the sound of his mother gnashing her teeth. He quickly sprang up and ran away. "I'm going to take a shower!"

After his shower, Tang Yi-Bai stepped out from the bathroom with damp skin. Yun Duo was no longer in the living room; only his parents were on the sofa. He looked around for a moment, and then Madam Lu, as if having eyes at the back of her head, suddenly said, "Stop looking. She has already gone back to her room."

Tang Yi-Bai nonchalantly walked over to sit down on the sofa. He saw a bowl of washed grapes, so he took one and threw it into his mouth. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Madam Lu gave him a sideways glance and said with a half-smile, "Forgetting about your mother now you have a wife!"

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough!" Tang Yi-Bai choked and was sent into a long fit of coughing.

Daddy Tang said, "Doudou, aren't you athletes supposed to have great mental fortitude? Looks like you need more training with that."

Tang Yi-Bai rubbed his chest trying to catch his breath. When he could speak again, he lowered his eyes and said, "Don't make things up."

Madam Lu chuckled confidently and said, "If I can't even see something like this, you can just take my eyes out and feed them to the dogs."

Daddy Tang said, "Honey, can you not be so gory... Say, how did you figure it out?"

Madam Lu asked, "Offending his own mother in order to please a girl, has our son ever done such a stupid thing?"

Daddy Tang shook his head. "Never!"

Tang Yi-Bai was silent. Why does my mum have to be as astute as Sherlock Holmes? It was so tiring.

Seeing his son's silence, Daddy Tang asked, "Don't tell me you haven't confessed to her yet? Doudou, if so, you're not as good as your old dad then."

Tang Yi-Bai was a little depressed. "I don't have the time to date right now."

Madam Lu laughed, "At 22 years old, a man — one, has no money; two, has no power; three, has no career. What else can he do but date?"

"I have a career. Dad, Mum, I really like swimming. I hope to do the best I can in it and to one day stand on the Olympic podium. Are you two really not going to support me?" Tang Yi-Bai asked, feeling even more depressed.

Daddy Tang quickly reassured him. "We will always support you!"

However, Madam Lu keenly latched onto a key issue. "So you plan to sacrifice your feelings for your swimming career?"

Tang Yi-Bai bowed his head and said nothing.

Madam Lu leaned back into the sofa and stretched out her limbs. She said, "Do as you like. Just don't regret it later."

Tang Yi-Bai did not sleep well that night. As soon as he closed his eyes, he would see Yun Duo. He saw her wearing a pretty dress, asking him whether he liked her. He wanted to say yes, that he really, really liked her, but he just could not bring himself to say anything. One could not be too greedy in life — you can't have your cake and eat it too鱼和熊掌不可兼得: The original Chinese saying here literally translates to "you can't have both a fish and a bear claw".. He had already made his decision, so he could only stick by it. No matter what, he could not turn back.

Competitive sports was a cruel profession. He only had two or three golden years left — if he missed the window, it would be gone for life. He had already lost his dream once and had only managed to reclaim it after a lot of trouble. How could he bear to bury it once again?

If, after he had gone through the peak of his professional career, she was still there, then he would pursue her with no reservations. But if she had already...

Would he regret it?

In his dictionary, there had never been regret, only stoic determination. He believed that there was no right or wrong in making decisions — whichever choice one made was always the right choice, so there was no such thing as regret.

But did he really have no regrets? This time?

If he had no regrets, then why did he rush back so anxiously? Why was he so happy over a cup of pomegranate juice? Why did he always find himself unconsciously gravitating towards her? Why did every little glance or movement of hers stir up ripples within his heart?

How could he lie to himself...?

Still, regardless, he had already made his decision.

So... he needed to keep his distance from her in future.

At the thought, his heart ached inexplicably. Faint spasms of pain, unshakeable sadness — in the silent darkness of the night, they wrapped around him like a cocoon of silk. He turned over and half buried his face into his pillow, sighing soundlessly into it.

Tang Yi-Bai returned to the team the next day; Yun Duo did not see him at all before he left. She knew he would soon enter training for the pre-game of the Asian Games. The next time he could come home would be after the Asian Games — even his birthday would be spent with the national team.

That morning, she had breakfast with Uncle Tang and Auntie Lu. Uncle Tang was a little sad over his son's departure, and Yun Duo empathised. After all, their son was in the same city, just a few dozen kilometres away, and yet they often did not manage see hide or hair of him for a month or more. Any parent would be depressed over such a situation.

Auntie Lu was not saying anything, but she must be missing her son as well.

After breakfast, Yun Duo went to take a booklet from her room and gave it to the couple.

Ever since becoming an official reporter at her newspaper agency, Yun Duo had prepared an extra large notebook, mostly to keep clippings of her published manuscripts. She was primarily responsible for those few water events; Tang Yi-Bai featured in them quite a lot. She pointed out all the articles relating to Tang Yi-Bai inside the notebook to the couple.

Daddy Tang and Mama Lu huddled close together to look at their son from a different perspective.

Yun Duo said softly beside them, "Tang Yi-Bai has a very good reputation within the field. The reporters are all rather fond of him."

Madam Lu swept a glance up at her, "Do you like him too?"

This question hit Yun Duo's concerns on the head. She coughed softly and replied, "I, I quite like athletes like him."

Madam Lu nodded. "Lend us this book for now. We'll return it a few days later."

"Okay, go ahead."

********
Time quietly slipped by and soon it was the end of August. The Asian Games drew ever closer. The national swimming team was going to hold a press conference to announce the training condition of the swimmers and the tentative competition schedule. The athletes present were all pretty high-profile. Tang Yi-Bai had produced some outstanding results, and he had just been sent to Australia for foreign training so it was clear to see how much the team valued him. Therefore, there was quite a lot of media attention on Tang Yi-Bai's condition.

And yet, he did not appear at the press conference.

Before going, Qi Rui-Feng had even asked him in surprise, "Why aren't you going to the press conference? Is Coach Wu not letting you go?"

Tang Yi-Bai answered, "No, I don't want to go."

"Why not? Don't you want to see Yun Duo?"

"No."

Qi Rui-Feng was nonplussed. "You don't want to see her? Is this why you're not going to the press conference?"

"Mhm."

Tang Yi-Bai would never tell Qi Rui-Feng that he just did not dare to face Yun Duo. Every time he saw her, he could not help but lose his cool and want to get closer to her despite himself — his emotions were always on the edge of getting out of control.

In that case, why should he continue to meet her?

Even though he was always thinking about her.

Qi Rui-Feng harboured a bellyful of questions as he attended the press conference. After the conference, Yun Duo stayed back to seek him out when he was alone and she asked, "Why didn't Tang Yi-Bai come?"

"He doesn't want to see you."

Yun Duo stared blankly at Qi Rui-Feng. "Really?"

"Yup." Qi Rui-Feng had a strange expression on his face. "Did you do something to make him unhappy?"

Yun Duo felt wronged. "I don't know. We had not seen each other for so long and we did not say anything much to each other that day." How ironic. She had been looking forward to seeing him again, but he did not want to see her at all.

What's even funnier was that she had even brought a birthday present for him...

The more Yun Duo thought about it, the sadder she felt and her eyes reddened. She took out a gift box wrapped in lilac plastic wrapping paper, hesitating over whether to still give it out.

Qi Rui-Feng saw the paper printed all over with "happy birthday" and asked, "Is this a birthday present? For Tang Yi-Bai?"

Yun Duo pursed her lips, reluctant to answer the question.

"What's inside?" asked Qi Rui-Feng.

"A pair of swimming goggles." She couldn't help but recall the pair of goggles he had given to her at their first meeting. Yun Duo would forever remember his smile then. She had struggled a long time over what to buy as a gift, and in the end she had still chosen a pair of goggles.

Qi Rui-Feng mused thoughtfully, "Do all girls like giving guys swimming goggles as a gift?"

"Huh?" Yun Duo found his phrasing rather odd. "Has someone else given Tang Yi-Bai goggles before?"

"Yeah," said Qi Rui-Feng. Then, thinking that they were already so close now, he did not hesitate to share the whole story of what happened between Tang Yi-Bai and the team flower of the artistic swimming team.

After listening to the full story, Yun Duo felt as if her organs were breaking apart. So that pair of goggles he had given her at the start was all just because he had not known what to do with them?

Even if it had just been a bit of kindness from a random stranger, that would still have been better than the truth...

She put her heads between her hands, her expression stunned and lost.

Qi Rui-Feng said, "Let me help you pass this birthday present to Tang Yi-Bai. When he sees the present, you two can make up. He's not such a small-minded person."

"No." Yun Duo felt the start of tears clogging up her nose. She huffily tore open the lovely packaging and took out the goggles and offered them to Qi Rui-Feng. "Can I just gift them to you?"

"Huh? That's not too nice, right?"

"Anyway, I don't feel like giving them to Tang Yi-Bai anymore. If you don't want them, I'm throwing them away."

"Don't throw them. That's such a waste. Fine, just give them to me. As my fan, giving your idol things is reasonable." So saying, Qi Rui-Feng accepted the goggles.

"Oh, and don't tell Tang Yi-Bai."

"Why?"

"Just don't tell him, and you can't tell him that I asked about him either."

"Okay..." Qi Rui-Feng looked at Yun Duo's red eyes and asked worriedly, "Are you going to cry?"

"Who’s going to cry?!" Yun Duo angrily turned and walked away.

When Qi Rui-Feng returned to the team with the goggles, he was just in time for lunch. He sat together with his bros — Tang Yi-Bai, Zheng Ling-Ye, Ming Tian, and also Xiang Yang-Yang. Ming Tian saw the brand new pair of goggles in Qi Rui-Feng's hand and asked, "Big bro Feng, which lady gave you that?"

"Yun Duo."

This answer made the other three look up from their food, each of them with a different expression. Tang Yi-Bai pressed his lips together into a thin line and asked, "Who?"

"Yun Duo, you know, she's my fan. What's so strange about that?"

Ming Tian asked, "Big bro Feng, could big sister Yun Duo have a crush on you?"

"It's possible," Qi Rui-Feng shrugged, "It's a bit troublesome, and Matron Yuan doesn't allow me to date."

Tang Yi-Bai suddenly lost his appetite. He put down his chopsticks. "Yun Duo," the name felt a little sweet and a little sour on his lips. He took a breath and asked Qi Rui-Feng, "Did she mention me?"

"Nope. We chatted for a bit and then she left."

"You must be remembering wrong."

"She really didn't. I even asked if she wanted to interview you, and she said it didn't matter and walked away." Right then, Qi Rui-Feng really wanted to give himself a thumbs up for his acting skills.

Tang Yi-Bai felt as if a cut had opened on his heart and cold wind was blowing into it.

Wasn't this the result he wanted? The two of them not meeting each other, each doing their own thing in peace?

Why then, was he feeling so bad?

---

Previous: Chapter 44
Next: Chapter 46

Back to Index