Chapter 56: Dust-covered Pride (4)
That night, Lin Yiyang and Meng Xiaodong stood side by side outside Yin Guo's house, both feeling it was rather miraculous that they could appear here together.
Lin Yiyang handed him a cigarette. Meng Xiaodong hadn’t touched one in ages, but since today was a rare occasion for celebration, he accepted it.
Yin Guo locked the front door and ran out, wrapping her arms around Lin Yiyang from behind.
She was so happy she felt like she was floating, her whole body light as air.
"Thank you, Brother," she hadn’t forgotten Meng Xiaodong, her great benefactor, "for specially calling Tian Tian back."
"As for Tian Tian, you should thank him," Meng Xiaodong pointed at Lin Yiyang. "You’ve got a hold on my brother—impressive." When he had told his brother to come back and help Lin Yiyang win over the family, Meng Xiaotian hadn’t hesitated for a second. He packed his bags and rushed back to spend a whole week brainwashing Grandma.
After finishing his cigarette, Meng Xiaodong left without another word.
Yin Guo watched his car disappear before turning her full attention to Lin Yiyang. "My brother never smokes."
Lin Yiyang patted her head. Too naive, little girl.
Of course, your brother wears a mask around you.
"Let me take you somewhere." He beckoned to her and, with practiced ease, led Yin Guo around the neighborhood fountain, taking a small path toward the back gate.
Yin Guo walked slowly, enjoying the night breeze, watching as he stayed half a step ahead of her, his back to her. She wondered—how had she ended up with such a treasure?
He fulfilled every expectation she’d ever had of a man.
Even surpassed all she had ever imagined.
The surroundings were empty.
Noticing her slow pace, he glanced back, thinking she might have twisted her ankle.
"Why are you looking at me?" She smiled at him under the moonlight and streetlights.
He reached out, grasping her arm.
His hand slid down, found hers, and held it tight.
"You know my neighborhood so well..."
"I walked around once on your birthday," he said.
That night, the first time he had returned to see her for her birthday.
After their brief reunion at the hotel, he had escorted her back to the neighborhood gate and watched her enter before getting out of the car alone. He had circled the outer walls and entered through the northwest side gate.
Lin Yiyang’s childhood home had no property rights—it was a rented factory dormitory. The old buildings in the complex were packed tightly together, with at most a half-meter-wide flower bed that held no flowers, just dry soil littered with flower pots and first-floor residents’ clutter.
Yin Guo’s neighborhood, in contrast, was quiet and spacious, half of it covered in towering trees and shrubs, with wide paths between buildings. That night, he had walked the entire perimeter, telling himself—this was where Yin Guo had grown up.
This was the life her parents had worked most of their lives to provide for her.
And from now on, wherever she went with him, it could only be better—never worse.
Yin Guo undid the button on his cuff, rolling up his sleeve for him. "You’ve wanted to do this all night, haven’t you?"
Lin Yiyang laughed.
Truthfully, tonight had been too important—he hadn’t had time to fuss over such trivial details.
They exited through the small gate, crossed a white stone bridge, and headed toward the opposite bank of the river.
At first, Yin Guo thought he just didn’t want to leave yet and wanted to wander around. But when they arrived outside a motorcycle shop and the owner enthusiastically came out to greet them, she was still confused. "Did you buy a motorcycle?"
"More than just buying," the owner grinned at the sight of Yin Guo. "Let me show you this."
Yin Guo followed Lin Yiyang behind the shop counter.
The owner brought out a small white helmet, exquisitely crafted—clearly custom-made.Yin Guo had never ridden on a man's motorcycle before, but now she owned a helmet first. She picked it up, examining it left and right, absolutely thrilled. She deliberately put it on and ran to the mirror on the right side of the shop, checking herself from all angles while repeatedly asking him if it looked good.
Lin Yiyang tilted his head, signaling for her to follow him outside.
Yin Guo took off the helmet, cradled it in her arms, and hurried after him, certain that Lin Yiyang was about to take her for a ride.
Late at night, nearly eleven o'clock, the small path had no streetlights and no pedestrians.
The row of shops was dark, with only this one emitting light that spilled onto the empty ground outside. Seeing how pitch-black it was, Yin Guo thought about suggesting they postpone the ride until tomorrow—it was too late, and without streetlights, it seemed dangerous.
But she didn’t want to dampen Lin Yiyang’s excitement.
Suddenly, he raised a hand and pointed toward a tree by the roadside in the distance.
Yin Guo followed his gaze but saw nothing.
A taxi drove past, its headlights illuminating the area, confirming her observation—there was nothing there.
Before she could react, Lin Yiyang dangled a stainless steel keychain in front of her eyes, teasing her. He had been joking earlier, but now he was serious about giving her something.
It was a string of red cherries swaying in his palm, each one gleaming with a metallic sheen under the light.
And beneath the keychain was a key—a door key.
...
She recognized this key.
Back when she rented the apartment, Wu Wei had retrieved it from the previous tenant and handed it to her and her cousin on behalf of the landlord. Later, when Yin Guo moved out, she left the key directly with Lin Yiyang.
The moment she saw the key, she froze for a few seconds, a wild guess forming in her mind. Had he impulsively bought this apartment? No way... right?
"Go whenever you want, stay whenever you want," Lin Yiyang confirmed her suspicion.
"You actually bought it?!"
He didn’t deny it. "I was in a hurry to buy it at the time and didn’t have enough for the full payment, so I took out a loan. But by the end of this year, it’ll pretty much be paid off."
Of course, there was one more thing he didn’t say.
Once the loan was cleared, he could transfer the property to her. It was meant for her all along.
"No, no..." Yin Guo was nearly speechless. "You don’t even live there—isn’t this a waste of money?"
She watched as he smiled, taking her hand and placing the key and pendant into her palm.
What he didn’t say aloud was this:
From the moment she had dragged her suitcase downstairs from the New York apartment, glancing back longingly at the laundry room again and again, from the moment she had flipped through photos of that laundry room even after getting into the taxi—he had made this plan. Once he graduated and started earning well, the first thing he saved up for was to buy an apartment in that building. Ideally, the exact one she had lived in, but if not, at least one in the same complex.
Yin Guo knew this couldn’t have been a recent purchase, or even one made after returning home.
She guessed he had been saving for this since his very first match. Sometimes, she couldn’t quite figure him out—his thoughts jumped too quickly, his outlook on life was too carefree, so much so that he often acted unpredictably.
But when it came to her, he was just a big fool. There was no need to guess.
Clutching the key, Yin Guo was still struggling to process this. "You... really know how to spend money. Buying a home should mean buying one where you live first. Who buys a place they won’t even stay in often?"
Lin Yiyang laughed, resting a hand on her waist. "This one?"
His dark eyes drew closer. "Are you talking about a marital home?"
..."Who said anything about buying a marital home?" Just stepping through the door and already talking about a marital home—even the Great Leap Forward wasn't this hasty.
"If I don't buy it, who will?" He found it amusing. "Would it be appropriate if you bought it?"
Yin Guo was left speechless by his retorts. Flustered, she blurted out, "I wasn't discussing marriage..." Wait, why was this conversation veering off track? "We haven't even talked about getting married."
"If not for marriage, why did you bring me home?"
...
Inside, the shop owner wiped down a motorcycle, listening to their conversation as if it were a comedy skit, chuckling nonstop.
He had chatted with Lin Yiyang about motorcycles a few times and felt an instant connection. He had no idea what the guy did for a living but found him carefree and generous, looking every bit like a wealthy playboy. Yet, he was surprisingly devoted to his girlfriend. Especially tonight, seeing the young woman in person and observing their dynamic, they seemed more like a student couple—or at least, they had been together since their student days.
Conventionally, when a boyfriend buys a house, the girl might at most share in the joy.
They were independent individuals, and gifting a key was just about sharing a romantic space. But Lin Yiyang was different. Yin Guo knew him well—for someone like him, buying a car would be easy, but buying a house carried a special, profound significance. That key was like "returning" something to her, preserving the memories of their earliest days together and giving them back to her anew.
So much so that when they returned to the underground garage of the complex and stood by his car to say goodbye, neither wanted to part. One inside the open car door, the other outside, lingering.
She held onto a few of his fingers, gave them a light shake, and whispered, "Congratulations, Captain Lin."
Lin Yiyang smiled, pressing a finger to his lips with his other hand, signaling her with his eyes—come here, let’s make it real. Yin Guo glanced around, confirming no one was nearby, then took half a step forward before he wrapped an arm around her waist.
Before she could act, he leaned down and kissed her—first her lips, then her tongue. After a while, he moved to her forehead, his warm breath pressing through her bangs.
After a long moment, he murmured with a low laugh, "I really want to take you back with me."
He didn’t want to let her go upstairs.
As she stepped out of the elevator and fumbled for her house key, a WeChat notification suddenly chimed.
Wasn’t he driving? How could he be texting?
She turned the key, quietly pushing open the heavy burgundy security door, and saw his message by the entrance:
Lin: 30 days happy.
30 days?
The precision of the date left her stunned.
First kiss? First night? Those were too far in the past. His return to the country? That was over two months ago.
Then it hit her—the most fitting occasion.
The day they had truly met.
She only remembered it was about a month ago, never counting the exact days. But him, a grown man... actually kept track?
Lin Yiyang’s car was parked on the small road outside the residential garage, idling for a while now.
He rolled down the window, gazing at the empty street at eleven p.m.
Streetlights on, no pedestrians. Shops present, no lights.
In other words, at this hour, on this little road, it was just him and his car. Through the window glass, he noticed raindrops beginning to fall, one by one, hitting the pane.Lin Yiyang watched the streaks of water trickling down the windshield, gradually washing the entire glass clean. He turned on the wipers, wiping the water away.
Suddenly, he felt dazed—what kind of day was this?
It was as if, from the night he left East New City, these past dozen years had all been leading up to this moment.
The closed training camp for the Asian Games would last seventy days.
This was also Yin Guo’s first time training alongside players from various disciplines in the field of billiards. In other words, it was her first opportunity to train together with Lin Yiyang.
Yin Guo had come with a few senior sisters from the North City team.
Although only two spots were available for competition in each event, all national team players from every discipline would participate in the training camp. Everyone would train together—after all, opportunities like this, where the strongest active players gathered under one roof, were rare. It was also a chance to nurture newcomers.
Yin Guo changed into her training gear in the female athletes’ dormitory, tying up her long hair in front of the mirror. She thought about sending Lin Yiyang a message to ask what he was doing, but then reconsidered—since they would see each other soon, she might as well save the surprise.
Meeting him at the national team training camp was something she had never imagined before.
With so many players gathered in the small auditorium of the training camp, aside from the coaches seated in the first row, the athletes were scattered around. Those who knew each other chatted in groups, while the unfamiliar newcomers sat shyly on the sidelines, smiling.
As soon as Yin Guo entered, she was pulled by her senior sisters into the North City group. Meng Xiaodong and Li Qingyan sat in the front row, with a few boys and girls behind them. The East New City team was on the other side, while the middle seats were left for newcomers and independent players from various regions.
It wasn’t intentional to sit by club affiliation—it was just that those from the same place were more familiar with each other and could chat more easily.
...
Suddenly, someone clapped their hands, signaling for silence. The head coach had arrived.
A man in his fifties, formerly the coach for the Snooker event—Yin Guo hadn’t seen him much before. And beside him, walking in wearing the national team tracksuit, was Lin Yiyang, towering nearly a head taller than the head coach.
The head coach stepped to the center of the room, smiling as he looked over the assembled crowd. “Lots of new faces here,” he said with a chuckle. “Or perhaps, for many of you, I’m the new face.”
The room laughed.
“This marks the first gathering since our billiards events returned to the Asian Games after many years. I also participated in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. It’s a pleasure to see players from all billiards disciplines gathered here for joint training.”
Meng Xiaodong, who was very familiar with this coach, led the applause, prompting the entire room to clap.
“To keep it simple—I’m Zhou Bin, the head coach of this year’s national billiards team.” The head coach smiled and gestured to Lin Yiyang, signaling the star player to introduce himself.
Lin Yiyang lifted his gaze, sweeping over the first row of coaches and the rows of players behind them. His dark pupils reflected every person in the room. “Hello, everyone. I’m Lin Yiyang, captain of this year’s national billiards team.”
No extra words, no elaborate self-introduction.
He had registered for all five men’s events, and his resume was well-known to everyone present—no need for further explanation.
In his eyes, she seemed to see the strongest opponent that Meng Xiaodong, and every one of Lin Yiyang’s brothers, had repeatedly described, recalled, lamented, and lost in their words.At this moment, Yin Guo suddenly felt it was real—the Lin Yiyang from the past had finally returned to the competition completely.
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