Chapter 6: The World Under Snow (2)
Yin Guo noticed that he was playing Nine-ball—her own competition event.
"He's an amateur," Su Wei whispered to Yin Guo, pointing at Lin Yiyang's back. "Berry said he's challenging a regional champion here."
Yin Guo nodded slightly. So, he was an amateur.
Berry was speaking, and Su Wei relayed his words: "And this regional champion has already won three matches in this pool hall. This place is his lucky spot. Berry also said that betting three thousand dollars is reckless."
Yin Guo wasn’t familiar with the betting stakes here, so she stayed silent.
Three thousand dollars was indeed no small amount.
Lin Yiyang held the orange ball himself, handing the yellow one to his opponent.
Yin Guo knew they were about to compete for the break.
He and the regional champion walked to one side of the table, each placing their ball on the head string.
The room fell silent.
Yin Guo and Su Wei stopped their hushed conversation. Both of them knew very well that in Nine-ball, the break was crucial—winning it significantly increased the chances of victory. So, the two players would first compete for the right to break.
The rule was simple: both would shoot from the head string simultaneously, their balls hitting the opposite cushion and rebounding. Whoever’s ball stopped closest to them would win.
In the hushed room, two soft clicks sounded.
The two balls rolled out almost simultaneously, tracing straight paths across the blue felt before striking the opposite cushion and rebounding at a steady pace.
The balls slowed, slower and slower.
Yin Guo watched them closely—she could already predict the outcome.
Slowly, steadily, Lin Yiyang’s orange ball overtook the opponent’s yellow one. It rolled to a stop right in front of him, perfectly flush against the cushion—no closer distance was possible.
Amid the applause, the yellow ball halted, trailing by just 1 cm.
Against that 1 cm gap, Lin Yiyang won.
"Who’s refereeing?" Lin Yiyang picked up the cue ball and placed it on the head string.
"Me, I’ll do it," Berry volunteered eagerly.
He had originally come for the regional champion, but after witnessing Lin Yiyang’s flawless shot, his excitement soared.
He would referee, ensuring fairness—though, in truth, he wanted to confirm whether Lin Yiyang’s shot had been a fluke.
A low-hanging overhead lamp cast a soft white glow over the blue felt, illuminating only the area below his waist. Berry quickly racked the balls into a neat diamond formation.
Lin Yiyang switched to green chalk powder, applying it to his cue tip.
He bent low at one side of the table, eyes locked on the cue ball, the tip aligned. With a sharp strike—
As the ball dropped into the pocket, he was already moving to the right side of the table, lining up his next shot. Another ball fell. Before Yin Guo could even register the pocketed ball, he shifted again, striking swiftly.
Was he playing fast?
In major tournaments, few played at such speed—career rankings and professional stakes demanded steady, calculated play. But in pool halls, you might encounter fast-play masters.
Some players pursued speed and flair, but that demanded impeccable positioning and precision.
The faster you played, the more accurate you had to be.
Unlike Chinese Eight-ball, in Nine-ball, you could only hit the lowest-numbered ball on the table.
Ball 1, Ball 2, Ball 3…In the end, when only the 7, 8, and 9 balls remained on the table, he struck the 7-ball with the cue ball, causing the 7 to collide with the 9. Surprisingly, both balls sank into the pockets one after another.
Applause erupted as the game concluded.
In Nine-ball, whoever pockets the 9-ball last is the winner.
He had won. A perfect run.
Her eyes were fixed on Lin Yiyang’s back as she watched him apply chalk powder to his cue tip once again.
In a formal match, if not playing speed shots, every stroke is crucial. Chalking the cue before each shot is essential—both to steady the nerves and to prepare for the next strike.
But tonight was different. This felt more like a performance.
“There’s still time, everyone,” this time it wasn’t Lin Yiyang extending the invitation but an excited Barry, who said in English with a grin, “We can still raise the stakes. There are fifteen games in total. Don’t miss out, folks.”
Amid laughter, people eagerly added to their bets and pulled out cash.
Lin Yiyang’s first game had won over all the strangers present, including the regional champion. Perhaps before tonight, that man had been the reigning champion of this pool hall and the region. But now, it seemed a formidable battle lay ahead.
...
“He really looks like a pro,” Su Wei murmured in admiration.
By the end, he was playing faster and faster.
Every stroke precise, every ball sinking flawlessly. Not a single mistake—zero errors.
There was no pause, no aiming—none of it. Just balls dropping one after another, and him seamlessly moving to the next position. It was Yin Guo’s first time seeing someone play speed shots up close from start to finish. The spectacle and exhilaration were beyond words.
In the tenth game, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the 9-ball was struck and plunged straight into the corner pocket.
Lin Yiyang straightened up.
Without even completing all fifteen games, he had already secured tonight’s bet. A flawless victory.
The regional champion, who had been seated on the pool chair watching the final game, stood up and extended his right hand to Lin Yiyang, grinning broadly—the exhilaration of meeting a worthy opponent. Defeated fair and square, he harbored no resentment.
“Honored,” Lin Yiyang said, leaning on his cue with one hand as he shook the man’s hand.
The man gave him a hearty pat on the arm. “Young man, tell me—are you competing in this year’s U.S. Open? You must have signed up, right?”
Lin Yiyang smiled and shook his head. He returned the cue to its place on the rack.
Unlike these professional players, even when coming for a high-stakes game like this, he hadn’t brought his own cue—just used the house cue provided by the pool hall.
The owner, beaming, handed him a towel along with a cup of hot water—something Lin Yiyang had requested before the final game. He was thirsty.
Lin Yiyang gripped the cup and took a small sip, moistening his throat. Among the Americans around him, he kept his head down, drinking quietly. It seemed the game had truly drained him—he was severely dehydrated. After finishing nearly half the cup, he finally looked up, his gaze landing on Yin Guo as if noticing her for the first time. He flashed her a casual smile. “Hi.”
She had been waiting for him to finish drinking before approaching, but his sudden greeting caught her off guard, leaving her flustered.
“Hi,” she replied softly, raising her right hand slightly.
Her throat was a little hoarse from the tension of watching the game and not speaking for so long. She cleared it unconsciously.
“You two know each other?” Su Wei asked Yin Guo excitedly.
“Are you friends?” the defeated regional champion asked Lin Yiyang at the same time."We haven't known each other long," Lin Yiyang set the water glass on the pool chair, looking at her seriously as he addressed the nosy crowd in English. "Though I do wish she'd consider me a friend."
...
"Of course," Yin Guo replied under everyone's intense gaze, her earnest tone and proper demeanor making it seem like she was admitting to some wrongdoing. "We've always been friends."
Lin Yiyang was amused by her seriousness and switched back to Chinese: "Just joking, don't take it seriously."
Yin Guo also relaxed, responding in Chinese: "At first I thought I'd mistaken you for someone else."
Lin Yiyang smiled but said nothing more.
He seemed in good spirits though, soon pulling a half-torn sticky note from his pants pocket and handing it to the regional champion. He told him this was a classmate's account number—any lost bets could be transferred there.
The regional champion happily accepted it, grinning as he promised to save up for another bet with Lin Yiyang.
"Probably won't happen again," Lin Yiyang said.
The other man didn’t take it seriously, patting his shoulder. "You're always welcome here."
The crowd quickly dispersed, returning to their own tables, their enthusiasm for playing reignited by Lin Yiyang's thrilling bet. Soon, the room was buzzing with the night's heated matches.
Only their corner remained quiet.
Yin Guo introduced Su Wei to Lin Yiyang: "Su Wei, she came with me."
Lin Yiyang nodded.
He handed a bill to a server and murmured something. Moments later, the server returned with two drinks, which Lin Yiyang passed to Yin Guo and Su Wei.
After thanking him, Su Wei was pulled away by Berry to start a game, still turning back to express her gratitude as they left.
Yin Guo stayed behind alone.
She sat on the pool chair by Lin Yiyang's table, leaning against the wall, her feet propped on the lower rail as she watched the match at the next table. Noticing Lin Yiyang was now alone, she glanced back and smiled at him.
Lin Yiyang leaned against the pool table, idly rolling a cue ball in his hand.
Silence.
This was the first time the two had been alone without Meng Xiaotian around.
He placed the cue ball on the break line. "What brings you all the way here?"
Knowing where her hotel was, he also knew it was quite far from this pool hall.
"Berry, the one who was just talking to you, brought us. I heard there’d be a lot of competitors here tonight, so I came to check it out," Yin Guo explained after a pause. "I signed up for the U.S. Open."
Lin Yiyang nodded. He already knew.
From the first day at the bar, when he spotted the cue case atop the three suitcases in the corner, he’d guessed the siblings were here for the Open. Hiding in a bar during a snowstorm with a custom cue could only mean one thing—that identity, that purpose.
Back then, though, he’d assumed the cue belonged to the brother.
Seeing he wasn’t speaking, Yin Guo kept chewing on her straw.
She had plenty of questions but wasn’t familiar enough yet to chat casually like friends, so she held them back.
Lin Yiyang began retrieving the balls he’d pocketed earlier, arranging the nine into a diamond shape in the center of the table. She thought he was setting up for another game, but he was just tidying up.
Once finished, he picked up his cold-proof clothing from the chair. "That friend of yours—is she staying at the same hotel as you?"
His gaze indicated Su Wei.Su Wei was bending over, aiming at the ball she intended to hit, at the pool table near the door in the distance.
"Not the same family, but close by," she also thought about the issue of going back, "but she's staying in Flushing tonight, at her boyfriend's place. I guess I'll have to go back alone."
Lin Yiyang had already put on his cold-proof clothing and zipped it up. "I'll take you back."
Take me back?
"Is it on your way?"
Probably not. On the first night when they took a cab, the driver had clearly mentioned that he was taking Yin Guo and the others to the hotel, and going to Queens was out of the way.
"I'm a guy, it doesn't matter how late I go back," Lin Yiyang glanced at the wall clock, "but it's different for you."
It was indeed quite late. Her friend had also sternly warned her that in New York, unless she lived in Manhattan, she should never go out alone at night as a girl. Knowing that Yin Guo practiced at the pool hall until dark every day, she even reminded her to have Meng Xiaotian pick her up and take her back to the hotel every day.
But the hotel was too far from here. Would it be too much to ask him to go out of his way to take her back?
Accepting too many favors didn't seem appropriate, did it?
Yin Guo was still hesitating.
"Afraid I'll sell you off?" Lin Yiyang teased her.
"No, not at all," Yin Guo shook her head, "I just don't want to keep troubling you."
"It's only right," he said, "I'm a guy. When it comes to seeing a girl home, there's nothing to shirk."
Lin Yiyang didn't give her much time to think it over. He pointed at the clothes and bag Yin Guo had piled on the nearby pool chair, signaling her to put them on, while he directly picked up her cue case and carried it to the front desk to settle the bill with the owner.
As per the usual rule, whoever won the game paid for the table rental.
Yin Guo didn't have time to think further. She returned the glass to the bar, said goodbye to Su Wei, put on her down jacket, grabbed her bag, and followed Lin Yiyang as he pushed the door open and stepped out.
In less than fifteen games, it had already started snowing outside.
"I'll call a car, wait a moment," Yin Guo fished her phone out of her down jacket pocket.
"Been here this long and still taking cabs? Why not take the subway?"
"Last year I took the wrong line several times, so I stopped daring to take it casually," she said gloomily.
Yin Guo was also frustrated. Actually, there was a subway entrance right by her hotel, so in theory, she shouldn't need to keep taking cabs. But the thought of the subway gave her psychological trauma.
The subway here was over a hundred years old, and many cars were extremely run-down. She wasn't afraid of dirt, but rather that the subway cars lacked electronic displays. Since the announcements weren't in her native language, she had to listen carefully for the station names the entire ride.
The worst part was that usually, on these old cars, the announcement speakers were often broken.
Once the broadcast announcements were gone, she was completely lost.
She had twice in a row boarded subway cars that had neither electronic displays nor working announcements, and coincidentally encountered the subway acting up—skipping four stops in a row. It felt like she had boarded a shady vehicle that was going to take her away to be sold...
Amid the swirling snowflakes, Lin Yiyang laughed.
He pressed down on Yin Guo's phone and pointed at her hat. "Put it on. We have to walk three blocks, at least fifteen minutes to the subway station. Follow me, you won't get lost."
With that, he slung Yin Guo's cue case over his shoulder and stepped into the wind and snow.
Yin Guo put on her hat and hurried after him. It was so cold she didn't dare take her hands out of her pockets.
Her boots left fresh footprints in the thin layer of snow as she followed Lin Yiyang's steps. Lin Yiyang had been checking the traffic when he looked down and saw those little boots walking at an extremely fast pace—it looked exhausting just watching.He was used to walking briskly and had never slowed down for anyone. Tonight, however, he showed great courtesy by reducing his pace.
His slowing down let Yin Guo breathe a sigh of relief.
Breathing out white puffs of air, she walked silently beside him for five minutes. The quiet was becoming awkward, so she decided to break the ice.
“Do you like betting on games?” she asked casually.
“Not really.”
“Are the stakes always this high? Or is it just a preference here?” Yin Guo had been startled by the amount she’d heard earlier—she hadn’t expected the sums to be so large.
Lin Yiyang shook his head. “A classmate of mine made a heavy bet on a game but didn’t dare show up. He begged me for half a month to come in his place.”
Lin Yiyang stopped walking—they had already reached the intersection.
A red light loomed ahead, and they had to wait for it to turn green.
Noticing Yin Guo’s silence, he looked down at her. “Why aren’t you asking more?”
“I was thinking… it must be a really good friend, right?”
Coming all the way from Washington to Flushing, New York—it had to be for someone important.
Lin Yiyang shook his head. Not really.
“I wanted to treat someone to a meal but didn’t have the money,” he said, noticing the light turn green. He placed a hand on Yin Guo’s back, guiding her onto the crosswalk before moving to her right side. “This was part of the deal.”
So that’s how it was. As she crossed the street, Yin Guo mused—he really did love treating people to meals.
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