Back to 1988 63

Chapter 63: Competition

The date for the competition in Beijing was quickly confirmed. Mi Yang and Bai Luochuan’s group would depart together. The participating students went home early on Thursday to pack their luggage.

After Mi Yang returned home, Cheng Qing helped him pack his luggage and said, “Yangyang, it’s cold over there. I saw the weather forecast, and it’s going to get colder. Why don’t you bring another sweater and your down jacket?”

Mi Yang nodded. “Okay.”

He packed two sets of clothes, then turned to look to the side, a little embarrassed to bring his small pillow.

It was something he had been used to using since he was a child. The pillow core had been changed several times, but the pillowcase was still clean and soft. He had used it carefully, and it still looked very neat, just that the fabric had become very soft.

Cheng Qing saw it and lowered her head to the little girl who was following her closely. “Xiaoxue, go to the living room and get Mom’s sewing kit. Mom needs to sew a button on your brother’s clothes again.”

The little girl then ran to the living room with her short legs.

Cheng Qing had sent the little girl away.

She took apart the small pillow, only taking the pillowcase, folded it, and placed it at the very bottom of Mi Yang’s suitcase. She smiled and said, “I thought you didn’t need it anymore these past two years.”

Mi Yang had been trying to quit this little pillow for a year or two. He would bring it to school intermittently. Now, although he could fall asleep, he always felt uneasy when it wasn’t by his side, waking up twice a night. At school, with Bai Luochuan to talk to and distract him, it was fine. But now, going out for a competition, he was afraid that not sleeping well would affect things.

Cheng Qing just joked with him for a bit. This son of hers was so worry-free. Let alone one pillow, she would agree to him bringing three or five. After packing the luggage, Cheng Qing gave him some money. “Isn’t Luochuan going too? If you have time after the competition, go and have a look around. Don’t just bury your head in your studies and tire yourself out.”

Mi Yang took the money. “I know.”

The little girl brought the sewing kit. Cheng Qing was sewing a couple of stitches on Mi Yang’s clothes on the side. The little girl went over to talk to her brother. “Brother, are you going to Beijing?”

Mi Yang held her and placed her on his lap. “Yes.”

The little girl bit her finger and asked him, “Is it the Beijing where Dad brought back the especially delicious pastries last time?” She paused, emphasizing the point, and even swallowed.

Mi Yang smiled. “Mm, I’ll bring some back for you too. You still want the Eight Great Beijing Pastries and the hawthorn preserves, right?”

The little girl was overjoyed. Her pigtails swayed as she nodded. She hugged Mi Yang’s arm and said coquettishly, “I like brother the most!”

Cheng Qing asked her, “What, you don’t like me the most today?”

The little girl quickly said softly, “I also like Mom the most, and I just ordinarily like Dad.”

Mi Zehai had just come home from work. Hearing this, his heart was about to break. He didn’t even change his shoes and walked in, picked up the little girl, and poked her with his stubble. “How is Dad just ordinary? No, you think about it again. Think it over and then say it!”

The little girl dodged a couple of times but couldn’t escape, giggling nonstop.

The school attached great importance to this competition, especially Bai Luochuan’s group. They were all provincial-level seed players, and a school teacher had specially led the team to the competition. In comparison, Mi Yang’s interest group was more like they were there to make up the numbers. But they weren’t competing for anything themselves, and it was quite interesting to discuss models together.

After getting on the plane, Bai Luochuan switched seats with someone and sat next to Mi Yang. He was already 1.7 meters tall and was still growing, still maintaining a half-head taller stance than Mi Yang.

Mi Yang had a good personality, and the classmates from the model aircraft interest group who had come with him all handed him water and small snacks. There was also a small bottle of chewing gum.

Mi Yang ate a piece and lowered his head to ask Bai Luochuan, “Chewing gum, want some?”

Bai Luochuan shook his head, pulled the brim of his hat down a little, and leaned his head on Mi Yang’s shoulder to sleep.

There were still dark circles under Bai Luochuan’s eyes from lack of sleep. When Mrs. Bai had sent him off this morning, she had been heartbroken for him and had told Mi Yang, “Studying is too hard.” In fact, Mi Yang could guess that the young master Bai was just sleepy from playing games last night. Because he knew that he would be on the road all day today and would have time to catch up on sleep, he had played until midnight without any scruples.

Bai Luochuan had plenty of energy and would be full of life after a few hours of sleep. Mi Yang sometimes couldn’t even outlast him. His biological clock was like that of a middle-aged or old person, very regular. He would lie down early every night and could fall asleep after reading for a while. Bai Luochuan was the complete opposite. Since he was a child, he was like he was solar-powered. He would automatically wake up as soon as the sun rose, and at night, he had to use up all his energy before he would go to sleep obediently. Sometimes, when he didn’t get enough sleep, he would be full of energy again after a one or two-hour nap during the day.

Mi Yang was extremely envious.

As the plane was about to land, Bai Luochuan woke up. He was still drowsy. Mi Yang unscrewed a bottle of mineral water for him, and he took a sip from Mi Yang’s hand.

Mi Yang whispered to him, “Want more? Want to eat something?”

Bai Luochuan shook his head. “No.”

He sat there for a while, still looking a little dazed, and said to Mi Yang, “I had a dream.”

Mi Yang asked him, “What did you dream about?”

Bai Luochuan said, “I went back to the border town. I went on a spring outing with Tang Xiao, the class monitor, and the little fatty. It was also very noisy…”

Mi Yang also missed the children from the first class of the third grade. They had only been in elementary school in the border town for a year, but many things had happened. After all, it was a friendship forged in an “uprising.” At the beginning, the two sides still corresponded with each other, but after they slowly entered middle school, they contacted each other less and less. Mi Yang had even received an elementary school graduation photo. They had specially taken it, leaving two empty spots for him and Bai Luochuan. When they printed the names on the back, they had handwritten theirs.

Mi Yang had cherished it.

Hearing Bai Luochuan mention it now, he also felt a little nostalgic. “When we have time in the future, we can go back and have a look.”

Bai Luochuan said, “Mm.”

The young master Bai had slept for the entire two-hour journey. Now that he had had enough sleep and had recovered his energy, he looked like a spirited and handsome young man again.

The plane landed, and everyone went their separate ways to the hotel.

Because the competition venues were not in the same place, Bai Luochuan and Mi Yang’s two teams were also staying in different places. Mi Yang went with his classmates to a slightly more remote hotel. The accommodation was alright. Anyway, the competition was only for one day, and it would be over soon.

The classmate who was staying in the same room with him was also a cheerful person, without any of the arrogance of a rich second generation, and was very polite to Mi Yang. They usually only met in the interest group and didn’t talk about much besides models. It was a rare opportunity to interact in private, and he was quite curious about Mi Yang. He asked him, “You’re very familiar with Bai Luochuan, right? Did you also participate in the Olympiad with him before? I remember you also won an award.”

Mi Yang smiled. “That was all in elementary school. I haven’t participated since I entered middle school.”

The other person said, “That’s a bit of a pity.”

Mi Yang, on the other hand, didn’t think it was a pity. After he came to the school in Shanghai, he had participated in many competitions. In elementary school, he had participated in an Olympiad with Bai Luochuan once. Later, when he entered middle school, he knew his own limits and didn’t participate in those, turning to his small handicrafts instead.

He didn’t have that much of a passion for math. Later, when he saw that there was a model aircraft team at the school, he was very fond of this kind of fine work and went to participate in a few competitions with them, with only one goal: to win an award with a Buddhist-like mindset. The ranking didn’t matter. Their school had a rule that students who won a provincial-level award would receive a cash prize, and a portion of their tuition would also be waived based on their overall score for the year.

Mi Yang was still participating in competitions in the second semester of his third year of middle school for no other reason than this prize money and waiver.

The tuition at this school was too expensive.

Although Mi Zehai and Cheng Qing’s income was also alright, they still had a younger sister at home, and Cheng Qing had recently been thinking of buying the pharmacy she was currently renting. There were still many places where they needed money, so there was no harm in saving a little.

Mi Yang had participated in many of these competitions at school, and over the years, he had gained a bit of popularity. But compared to a celebrity in the school like Bai Luochuan, he was still far behind. The main reason people remembered him was as “Bai Luochuan’s little brother.”

The young master Bai was a few years older, but he still hadn’t restrained himself outside. He had marked his territory clearly, and he wished he could keep the people in his territory within his reach, so that no one could touch them. He was extremely protective.

Thanks to him, Mi Yang had not been bullied by anyone until he was about to graduate from middle school, but he also hadn’t made many friends at school.

After the model aircraft competition ended, Mi Yang’s team won a second prize. Because the competition level was relatively high, everyone was very happy to get second place. The teacher took them out for a meal to celebrate and ordered a yuānyang guō(Chinese hot pot).

Many of the classmates couldn’t eat very spicy food, but Mi Yang quite liked it, especially the duck blood, which was very tender. After being boiled in the red soup for a while, it could be eaten when it floated to the surface. It was numbing, spicy, fresh, and fragrant, and it melted in your mouth.

Mi Yang ate half a plate by himself and was very satisfied.

The classmate beside him was dumbfounded. “I thought you only liked sweet things. I didn’t expect you to be able to eat such spicy food.”

Mi Yang remembered the sweet-toothed persona he had been carrying for the young master Bai and smiled. “I’m not a picky eater. They’re all delicious.”

After the meal, Mi Yang asked for leave from the teacher and went to Bai Luochuan’s side.

Bai Luochuan’s competition would end in two days. It was just right for the competition to be on Friday and Saturday, and he could go back with him on Sunday, without delaying classes on Monday.

As Mi Yang was getting up to leave, a piece of news flashed across the TV hanging in the hot pot restaurant. The report of a person in a white uniform, fully armed, pushing an emergency patient only lasted for a little over a minute and did not attract everyone’s attention.

Mi Yang bent down to pick up his scarf and hat and also didn’t see the news. He wrapped himself in his down jacket, stood at the entrance of the restaurant, and hailed a taxi. Through the taxi window, he looked outside. Beijing in early spring was still very cold, and the hot breath he exhaled quickly condensed into a small patch of mist on the car window.

When Mi Yang arrived there, he called Bai Luochuan from the lobby. The young master Bai quickly came down to claim him, took him to a room, and while carrying his suitcase up, asked, “Is it cold outside?”

Mi Yang’s hands were still in his pockets, and his scarf was covering half of his face. “It’s alright.”

Bai Luochuan glanced at him and smiled. “Why are you still so afraid of the cold? It’ll be warm once we turn on the air conditioner inside.”

Bai Luochuan had specially chosen a room on the same floor as his and had no intention of leaving. It was only when his classmates repeatedly came to knock on the door and call for him that he reluctantly went out. He stood at the door and spoke in a low voice for a bit, then frowned and agreed, “I know. I’ll be over in a bit.”

He came back to get his coat and room card and said to Mi Yang, “I’ll be back a little later. The teacher wants us to go over and discuss the problems. There are experiment questions tomorrow and the day after, so we need to do a little more preparation.”

Mi Yang said, “Okay.”

Bai Luochuan took a couple of steps, then turned back to him. “If you’re tired, you can go to sleep first. I’ve had someone send another quilt over. You can open the door and have them make the bed for you in a bit.”

Mi Yang was sitting in the room, wearing a thick sweater, and had already warmed up quite a bit from holding a cup of hot water. Hearing this, he smiled and nodded. “I know.”

Translator’s Notes

1. 鴛鴦鍋 (yuānyang guō): A type of Chinese hot pot that is divided into two sections, one with a spicy broth and the other with a mild broth. It’s named after the mandarin duck, which is a symbol of a loving couple in Chinese culture.