It Seems There is Light

The Spring Festival Gala was a difficult hurdle that had to be overcome once a year.

Shi An curled up on the sofa with Taro Ball curled up in the crook of his arm.

Two crumpled little dumplings.

Too sleepy.

Yan Zhao glanced back, shaking his shoulders and laughing as he leaned into Xie Fei’s ear: “Look, Xiao An is really like a kitten.”

Xie Fei was also amused. She put her fingers on her lips and made a shush gesture. She pulled her phone with one hand and unlocked it, the camera was facing Shi An.

Yan Liang grabbed a pillow and blocked Shi An’s face: “Don’t take photos.”

Xie Fei let out a cry, “Just protect the calf.”

Yan Liang ignored her and ran his fingers along Shi An’s soft forehead.

Something like the Spring Festival Gala.

I do not understand.

Shi An stared at the TV screen and blinked mechanically.

The eyelashes were frosted.

He rested his chin on Taro Ball’s soft body and yawned.

Yan Liang turned his head and ran into his red and wet eyes.

The tips of his eyelashes picked up fine tear stains, a bit like crushed water beads.1the literal translation for water beads is 水宝宝 (water baobao). It’s so cute hahah

Sleepy to the point of losing his persona.

Yan Liang lifted the corners of his mouth, bent the knuckles of his index finger and gently touched the tip of Shi An’s eyelashes.

Shi An closed his eyes cooperatively, and Yan Liang wiped his wet eyelashes.

“Is Xiao An sleepy?” Xie Fei leaned over and called him, “Go back to your room to sleep first? I’ll get you up for New Year’s Eve when the time comes.”

Shi An nodded his head and agreed.

For the Spring Festival Gala, Jiang Yuan always had a different kind of obsession.

In the past, just to make the old woman happy, Shi An would stay up until zero o’clock before going to bed.

It had been a long time since he skipped the Spring Festival Gala.

Shi An went back to his room with Taro Ball in his arms.

The winter night in a small town was rarely noisy.

Just after eleven o’clock, the fireworks silently pierced the sky.

Putting the sleepy cat on the cushion, Shi An pulled open the heavy curtains.

There was no light in the room, and through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the fireworks were haloed in various bright and dark shades.

Shi An suddenly couldn’t bear to close the curtains to sleep.

Fireworks and lanterns reflected the world.

Dreams bloomed with fireworks.

 

When Shi An went back to his room, Yan Liang could not sit still for a bit.

A hundred claws scratching his heart itch.2百爪挠心 (lit. a hundred claws scratching the heart): to describe an unsettling and complex mood

Yan Liang couldn’t count the number of times he had pulled his eyes back from Shi An’s door. He was so annoyed that he rolled on the couch.

“Is your ass nailed, ah?” Xie Fei bit the straw of yellow peach yogurt and turned her head to glare at him, “Are you still watching it?”

“I don’t want to watch it.” Yan Liang leaned his face on the back of the chair, squeezing it flat.

“… Then don’t watch. Go wash and sleep.”

“Really?” Yan Liang stood up with a thud.

“If you want to sleep, you go home and sleep,” Xie Fei pointed at him, “You don’t disturb Xiao An.”

Ah.

I just want to sleep with him.

Yan Liang deflated back to the sofa.

“There are so many fun and interesting things for kids nowadays,” Yan Zhao said, glancing at Yan Liang, who had wilted again. “Why don’t they watch the Spring Festival Gala? When I was a kid, I always watched it. At eight o’clock I was glued to the TV, refusing to go to sleep until I finished the countdown.”

Yan Liang pretended to be impatient and gave him a cry.

Finally, when it was almost zero o’clock, Xie Fei stretched out her hand and patted him: “Go go go, go get Xiao An, it’s the new year, hurry hurry hurry!

Yan Liang jumped up and trotted to open the door of the room.

The curtains were wide open and the fireworks filled the room brightly and darkly. The wooden floor was sprinkled with ever-changing shadows of various colors

Yan Liang walked forward and turned on the bedside lamp.

Shi An didn’t wake up. He habitually curled up, hugging the quilt in his arms. Taro Ball nestled next to his pillow, also curling himself up into a small ball and squinting his eyes as he fell asleep soundly.

The two milky dumplings were as quiet as a small fish, with a shallow and long breath. They even breathe at the same frequency.

This scene was a little too cute.

Yan Liang smiled, the tip of his tongue against his own fangs.

“Shi An,” he bent down and drew the quilt Shi An was holding in his arms, “Wake up? It’s New Year’s Eve.”

His voice was so soft that it sounded like a sleeping aid. Shi An didn’t wake up, and instead he frowned and let go of the quilt, obediently letting him take it away.

“…”

Yan Liang put the quilt aside and rubbed Shi An’s hair: “Get up.”

Shi An rolled over and switched to lying on his back. His forehead hair spreads out in thin strands, exposing his smooth forehead.

He opened his eyes in a daze.

“Get up?” Yan Liang clasped his wrist and shook it gently.

Shi An got up and sat on the edge of the bed, looking dazed from sleep.

Yan Liang dragged the soft long woolen cloth over his sleeve and then stretched out his hand to smooth the bunch of stubborn hair that was sticking up at the back of his head.

“Come on, come on,” From a distance, Xie Fei urged at the top of her voice, “It’s the countdown!!”

“Eh!!!” Yan Liang responded to her, pulling Shi An with his backhand, “Come on!”

The hour hand was about to point to zero and the numbers on the screen jumped.

Change.

Return to zero.

The beginning of a new year.

“Eh friends on the other side of the mountain—” someone standing on the balcony, yelling at the top of their voice so loudly that the ground shook, “Happy New Year ah—”

“Happy——new year”

“This year—quit snacking—”

“I don’t want to be—single anymore—!!!”

“Ah ah ah—I don’t know what to say but I’m so happy—”

“Pfft hahaha silly you——”

“What’s going on over there in Old Zhao—how come it’s so quiet—?”

“Getting old—maybe go to bed early—”

There was a lot of laughter outside. Someone raised the lantern and shone it casually at the balcony of Shi An’s house.

“Crazy person,” Yan Zhao peeled a clove of orange and stuffed it into his mouth. He raised his hand to cover his eyes and cursed with laughter, “It dazzled my eyes.”

Xie Fei rushed to the balcony with a thud, her upper body crouched on the railing: “Who said old? Ah? Who are you talking about? Who are you talking about—”

She laughed and cursed a few times before raising her hand and took off the lantern hanging by the window, shaking it across the room like a revenge.

People began to laugh, and along with the noisy sound of the TV, they were taken up into the sky by fireworks and then exploded.

 

“Want to go…” Shi An also plopped down on the balcony.

“En?” Yan Liang smiled and looked back at him.

“I want to go watch fireworks.”

“Then go,” Yan Liang unplugged the phone that was charging and stuffed it into his coat pocket, “Let’s go?”

“Really?” Shi An’s eyes curled up, “I want to go.”

“Go. Now go.” Yan Liang gently squeezed the back of his neck.

“Now, ah? In the middle of the night?” Xie Fei stared at them, “Is this the power of youth?”

“You should go along too,” Yan Zhao interjected, sitting in the living room and poking his head out, “Didn’t you just say you are young? Have you realized the reality?”

Xie Fei gave him a whack on the head: “Shut up and eat your orange.”

Yan Zhao laughed and retracted his head.

There were still a lot of people on the streets at zero o’clock.

They were laughing, coming and going. The red lanterns were dangling in their hands, looking like a river of stars reflecting the earth from a distance.

“You follow me,” Yan Liang leaned in Shi An’s ear, “There are a lot of people, don’t get lost.”

Shi An answered and really moved closer to him.

The fingertips touched together with the movement, like a quick peck from a fish. Yan Liang almost thought it was an illusion.

His heart moved and he didn’t have time to think about it. He quickly hooked his backhand back to the slightly cooler temperature.

His little finger happened to be loosely hooked to Shi An’s little finger.

He could feel Shi An’s fingertips curled up slightly.

It was unclear whose fingertips were wet with sweat; they were softly tangled together, like a melted candy.

Yan Liang put his palm over it and took Shi An’s hand into his palm.

Shi An’s hand was smaller than him, and it was just right to hold his whole hand.

Shi An returned his grip, his palm was soft.

The street lights were on and people came and went, but the world suddenly became quiet.

Just the two of them.

It was just the two of them.

Clear and obscure.

Quiet and noisy.

They randomly walked down the Nanxing River and there was a small temple in the middle of the city with a small mountain.

“This is it,” Yan Liang said, looking up, “It’s quite crowded.”

Many people found a good place to watch fireworks, standing or sitting in scattered places. Some people brought lights, and the stars winding around to light up the mountain.

Yan Liang pulled Shi An up the trail and finally stopped halfway up the mountain.

“This is it. There are quite a lot of people at the top, and the angle of view here is okay.”

Not too low. Looking down, you could see the small town was crowded with lights.

The fireworks were as beautiful and gorgeous as millions of swimming fish crossing the sea.

Shi An raised his hand and circled a frame with his index finger and thumb, putting all the fireworks in the sky in it.

Yan Liang turned his head and looked carefully at the teenager’s quiet profile.

Shi An’s eyelashes were reflected in a dark silhouette as the fireworks flickered.

“Yan Liang,” Shi An called out to him, “Do you have your phone with you?”

“Yes. Do you want to take a picture?”

Shi An shook his head and reached out to hold his shoulders, “You stand here and don’t move.”

“Okay, I won’t move.” Yan Liang laughed,his eyes looking at Shi An’s direction.

Shi An turned around and stood face to face with him, taking a few steps backward.

The lights behind the boy were dim.

He couldn’t tell whether it was the boy who was wandering around a river of stars, or it was the fireworks that were falling on the earth.

The backlighting position made it difficult to see Shi An’s expression.

“Yan Liang, the phone, look at it.”

Yan Liang took the phone out as he was told and couldn’t wait to unlock it.

The screen lit up and there was a message from Shi An lying on the screen.

Yan Liang clicked on it, smiling unconsciously between actions.

[Yan Liang]

The phone was set to eye protection mode, with white characters on a black background lying quietly in the chat box.

[I was not meant to be with the light

But the light embraced me.]

[It’s the first year, I’m chasing the light.

Please give me more advice.]

[And, Yan Liang, happy new year.]

The time when he raised his head was just right. The night wind lifted the snow-white corners of Shi An’s shirt, just like the corner of the teenager’s shirt lit up the sky of fiery trees and silver flowers.3It’s fireworks. Just a poetic way to describe fireworks.

The blossoming fireworks illuminated Shi An’s curved eyes.

Shi An raised his hand and made a hug gesture.

Yan Liang also opened his arms without hesitation and ran quickly to him.

The embrace was in the next moment.

The clothes of the young man went up and down, and the sky was full of fireworks.

Dye the spring and autumn for a lifetime.

 

 

The author has something to say:
I am grateful to all of you who can read this and tolerate this immature me. I don’t know what it is about these temporarily immature characters under my pen that makes you happy or sad for them, but it’s your comments that always touched me. At least, it lets me know that someone is waiting for such an immature me.

I don’t like 47, I don’t like 49, so it just happened to be 48. Thank you for your company, for your liking (bow)

 

T/N: So it’s completed! Thank you for reading this. I hope you all enjoy reading thi as much as I do! Like always, please let me know if there’s something wrong with my translation or if there is any typo or grammatical errors.

1the literal translation for water beads is 水宝宝 (water baobao). It’s so cute hahah2百爪挠心 (lit. a hundred claws scratching the heart): to describe an unsettling and complex mood3It’s fireworks. Just a poetic way to describe fireworks.