Chapter 41: The Return of the King (5)
The driver was holding a box of stinky tofu, still untouched. Seeing Yin Guo leaning on the armrest, lost in thought, he offered the box to her. She shook her head, thanked him, but had no appetite.
Noticing that not everyone had arrived yet, the driver took the opportunity to call his son. The gist of it was that he had argued with his wife and wanted his son to help smooth things over.
Under the shade of the trees, a cool breeze blew. After hanging up, the driver showed a rare hint of old-fashioned male embarrassment: "Me? I just didn’t wash my grandson’s socks. I wash them every day, but that day I was lazy and didn’t feel like it. My wife tore into me like crazy."
What a bizarre reason to argue…
"But after a couple of days, I thought—it’s just washing socks. A quick job," the driver added.
She thought about it and agreed.
Just a quick job.
Lin Yiyang returned to the pool hall at noon.
Jiang Yang was rummaging through his wardrobe for something to wear: "Got a meeting today. Lend me something."
"Meeting a woman?" Lin Yiyang asked.
"Yeah. Met her through a blind date," Jiang Yang volunteered, pulling out a light gray shirt. He slipped his arms into the sleeves and began buttoning it up one by one. "A girl who just got divorced last year. We’ve met twice—it’s going well. If things keep up, I might even get married before you."
Then he added, "Don’t feel like dating anymore. Too exhausting. Watching you last night was exhausting enough for me."
After putting on the shirt, Jiang Yang noticed the stack of promotional brochures and deposit receipts Lin Yiyang had tossed on the table and picked them up for a look.
Two months ago, the two of them had gone riding together during an out-of-town competition.
It was a trendy thing—gentlemanly riding, which had first become popular in Australia and Europe. Men dressed in full suits, shirts, and ties while speeding on bikes.
Suits and speeding—both were beloved by the men of East New City, so Jiang Yang had gotten into the spirit and borrowed someone’s bike for a few laps. At the time, Lin Yiyang had worn a black suit with a shirt but no tie, while Jiang Yang had opted for a dark gray suit and even switched to contact lenses to accommodate his helmet. They had a blast. Fan Wencong, watching from the sidelines, had remarked that the two brothers were "a rogue wrapped in a gentleman’s skin" and "an old fox in human form"—enough to make any girl’s heart flutter.
Jiang Yang guessed Lin Yiyang had bought this to appease his girlfriend.
Last night, seeing Lin Yiyang restless, he knew they’d had a fight: "At the start, everything’s seen through rose-colored glasses—all good, no bad. But slowly, the protective layer fades, and you have to adjust to everything, flaws included. We’ll talk about this dating stuff tonight."
Lin Yiyang, irritated, waved him off, signaling Jiang Yang to leave.
"You’re really no good at this. Last night proved it," Jiang Yang tossed back before walking away.
After Jiang Yang left, Lin Yiyang greeted Sun Yao, who was overseeing the construction crew upstairs, then went back to his room to sleep.
The guest room was small; his was spacious.
Lin Yiyang drew the curtains tight, blocking out all light. In the room where day and night blurred together, he lay on the bed, his right arm tucked behind his head, lost in thought. Sleep was the last thing on his mind.
Lying there was just killing time—might as well practice. He threw off the covers and got up, turning his back to the door. A sliver of light crept in from the gap beneath it.
"Got stood up?" he assumed it was Jiang Yang.
The person outside leaned against the doorframe, peering from the lit hallway into the dark room: "No, I stood them up. Told them to go ahead without me."He turned around as the girl who entered closed the door again, feeling her way through the darkness until she stood before him.
Yin Guo reached out to hug him, then hesitated for a second when she remembered he wasn’t wearing short sleeves. Before she could pull back, he caught her hand and pressed it against the small of his back.
“Isn’t this training camp time?” Lin Yiyang spoke first.
“I was afraid you’d stay upset and it’d affect your match,” she said softly. “Just came back to see you, then I’ll leave.”
The warmth of his palm traveled from her wrist down to her elbow. He loved this—loved all her joints, her smooth skin. “Starting to care about me now?” he asked again.
“I care about you, but you don’t care about me,” Yin Guo murmured, holding him.
It was all because of those three words— I miss you —that had stabbed straight into her heart. She felt like not coming back would have been letting him down.
Lin Yiyang searched for her face, her lips. “Even if you hadn’t come, I would’ve driven over tonight.”
He couldn’t stand fighting with her. Neither could she.
Last night, he had tossed and turned, thinking all night about when to reach out. If he brought it up at night and they argued again, she’d definitely lose sleep. That was one reason. The other was the tangled mess in his mind—his irritation with Li Qingyan, the Open, all the problems he had to untangle since coming back. His thoughts churned, leaving him sleepless.
She rested her face against his shoulder, recounting yesterday’s ordeal. “I argued with my sister twice yesterday, both times about you. And then you yelled at me—completely out of nowhere…”
“Annoying to watch,” he murmured by her ear. “Watching that kid Meng Xiaodong brought along.”
“…There’s nothing between us.”
“Cheng Yan didn’t even speak to me in front of you. How many times did you bring him up?” he countered.
Same thing—just jealousy, bite by bite.
When emotions ran high, it sparked arguments. But now, it was like rosemary—an intoxicating spice. Hearing the person you loved get jealous over you was the most satisfying kind of vanity. His fingers worked at her clothes. “What’s the latest you have to be back?”
“Tonight. No set time.”
There was a dinner, but not everyone had to attend.
Still early, then.
“Let me ask you something,” he said near her cheek. “Who was it that told me she’s easy to coax, that some good food would do the trick? I wanted to get you cherries, but you wouldn’t even turn around.”
While talking, he had already stripped her bare, trapping her in his arms. “Quite the temper.”
Unfamiliar with the space, she gripped his arm tightly, remembering the door wasn’t locked. “The door’s not—” His body pressed against hers, making her want to bite down—and she did. Slow down…
His voice was rough. Can’t.
After some time against the wall, he carried her to the bed. The moment Yin Guo’s back touched the white sheets, she unexpectedly dug her fingers into his back, her forehead knocking against his collarbone as she cried out his name.
He answered. The pressure of her forehead against his collarbone was intense, almost enough to break it. Gradually, her whole body relaxed, and she turned her face into the pillow, instinctively curling into his arms to sleep.
“Missed me that much?” he whispered, nipping her ear. “So fast.”
Yin Guo rubbed her flushed face against the pillow, her ears burning red.
The pillow smelled like Lin Yiyang. The whole room did, awakening every memory her body had of him.When she was little, she heard an old song called "Taste," where the lyrics kept repeating: "Missing your smile, missing your scent." Back then, she didn’t understand such deep sentiments—what was there to miss? Weren’t boys just smelly? Especially after playing sports or P.E. class, summer days were the worst.
But now she understood. The lyrics referred to that unique olfactory recognition between two people, especially after intimacy.
Sweat gradually seeped from their skin, smeared by his hands until theirs mingled together. Lin Yiyang propped two pillows behind her and didn’t say much else, focusing on the task at hand.
The entire time, he kept her wrapped in the blanket, worried she’d catch a chill—it was early April, still bitterly cold.
When it was finally over, Lin Yiyang fumbled along the wall by the bed, his fingers brushing it a few times before he managed to turn on the wall lamp. The light was neither too bright nor too dim—clearly chosen by someone experienced like Jiang Yang, perfect for moments like this.
After handling the aftermath, Lin Yiyang bundled her in the blanket and pulled her onto his chest.
She let him hold her, muttering softly, "You’re like this as soon as we meet."
He chuckled. "It’s been almost two months. If I didn’t want to, you’d really have to consider whether you should get a new boyfriend."
The last time was her birthday—it had indeed been a long stretch. Given his current physical state and age, it was practically ascetic. But with them living apart and unmarried, frequent visits weren’t feasible.
Yin Guo bumped his collarbone with her chin. "Pervert."
Lin Yiyang grinned.
It had been a while since she’d called him that.
The blanket was meant for her, so he didn’t cover himself.
Yin Guo noticed the compass tattoo on his waist looked different from before. At first, she thought it was the dim light or her exhaustion playing tricks on her.
But upon closer inspection, it really had changed—there were new needles added.
She lifted the blanket covering him and leaned in for a better look. Lin Yiyang grabbed her arm, teasing, "Who’s the pervert here? What are you looking at?"
Ignoring him, she studied it intently.
His skin, damp with sweat, had a glossy sheen. The letters were tiny, so at a glance, the markings in the center of the compass dial might seem like needles. But upon closer inspection, they were actually a line of English letters: fruitlet .
She recognized the word—she’d once considered using it as her English name.
Translated, it meant: little fruit, young fruit, small fruit.
Her chest tightened, her nose stinging. "You didn’t say anything. Why didn’t you tell me?"
Lin Yiyang smiled.
What was there to say? It was just a tattoo.
Originally, he’d wanted a compass because his life had been adrift, without a fixed direction—so the dial had no needles. The tattoo artist had joked that if he ever found someone special, he could add their name. It was just banter, but after seeing her off at the airport in Washington, he’d felt hollow and had a fellow traveler add it for him.
The guy who inked the English word, charmed by its cuteness, had asked if it was for his daughter.
At the time, Lin Yiyang had laughed and said, "My daughter wouldn’t get this treatment. My wife comes first."
As if he already had a wife and kids.
Yin Guo traced the line of his waist, feeling the slight raised texture of the tattoo—invisible to the eye but soft under her fingertips. Seeing her eyes redden, Lin Yiyang gently touched her face.He remembered there was still a half-full bag of cherries in the fridge and wanted to bring them for her to eat. "Wait," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Seeing her hair still damp and her hugging a pillow while staring at his V-line, he lay back down, pulling the white pillow from Yin Guo's arms and tucking it under her waist. "Never mind, we'll talk on the way."
Yin Guo woke up again when Lin Yiyang's alarm went off. Afraid of being late to take her, he had set two alarms—the first one vibrated for a full half-minute, followed immediately by the second.
The vibrations roused her. Her back and thighs were warm, pressed snugly against him as they slept comfortably intertwined.
For a moment, she was disoriented—this sore, cuddled-up feeling was something she’d only experienced in his old apartment during his student days. The darkness around her made her think she really was back in that February apartment. She turned over, wrapping her arms around his waist, wanting to linger in bed.
"What sweet dream are you having?" Lin Yiyang's voice came from above her. "Not getting up yet?"
Still drowsy, she shifted upward, resting her head on his arm. "Thought we were in your apartment."
"Lease ended," he said. "If you want to go back, we’d have to stay in a hotel."
"You were freest there," she murmured, listening to his heartbeat. "Watching you serve tea yesterday, it didn’t even feel like you."
"That wasn’t me either," he said after a pause, twirling a strand of her long hair around his finger. "Back then, I went to study because work was boring. No real ambitions—just wanted a few more years to broaden my horizons."
After a beat, he added, "I’ve always wanted to compete again. Ever since I left. But my pride wouldn’t let me, so I just drifted."
Lin Yiyang reached behind her for his phone and turned it on.
Seeing the time, he patted her back over the blanket. "Get up."
Before they left, Jiang Yang returned from a date and handed Lin Yiyang a printed temporary license plate.
"Perfect timing—got the car’s temp plate sorted," he said. He’d bought the car for Lin Yiyang before returning to China, but without plates, it had been sitting unused in the garage. "First trip in the new car is to drive your girlfriend. Good omen, little junior."
This was teasing him for going the extra mile—clearly, Yin Guo had him wrapped around her finger.
Lin Yiyang ignored him, holding the bag of cherries in one hand and examining the temporary plate with the other. "Just put this on the windshield?"
"Yep."
He handed the cherries to Yin Guo and carried her suitcase downstairs.
A few men were on the second floor with Sun Yao, calculating renovation timelines—all back to help Lin Yiyang. When they saw Yin Guo following behind, Sun Yao grinned and greeted her first: "Sis-in-law."
Yin Guo acknowledged him with a smile, nodding politely at the others behind him.
She glanced around the second and third floors—much bigger than the old Beicheng location. She hadn’t expected him to come back and actually build a major billiard club.
Lin Yiyang told her to wait by the roadside while he fetched the car from the neighboring complex.
Soon, a pitch-black G65 turned out from the adjacent neighborhood’s gate, the temporary plate taped to the windshield. It stopped right in front of her, and Lin Yiyang waved through the window. "Get in."
As Yin Guo climbed in, he stepped out alone to toss her small suitcase into the trunk.
Once back in the car, he noticed her eating the cherries. "Sweet?"
Yin Guo nodded, smiling at him.The night had fallen over the city. He turned on the navigation, studying the now-unfamiliar streets on the map.
A burst of sweetness spread across his lips as she popped a cherry into his mouth. "Why didn't you sign up for the China Open last year?"
"Last year wasn't the right time," Lin Yiyang replied, his left hand steady on the steering wheel as he followed the navigation's instructions, making a U-turn at a small intersection. "This year is about right."
He needed to readjust to the competition, to forget the achievements he once had, to forget his natural talent. He had to fully understand himself again before he could return and stand on the stage he had once lost.
Since he had left from here back then, his return had to be worthy of a comeback.
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