A decorative railing was on the right-hand side, and outside of it stood Tao Ling’s fellow shixiong, Kou Huai. A man in his thirties was also standing next to him.
That man had a gentle temperament, but the expression upon his face still carried the shock that had yet to dissipate.
Tao Ling called out, “Shixiong.”
Kuo Huai smiled, giving a few pats to the man’s shoulder. “Chaoyang, what’s wrong? This is my little shidi,1 Tao Ling.”
He then looked at Tao Ling, saying, “Tao Ling, this is the colleague I’d mentioned before, Mr. Xia Chaoyang. He came to attend a meeting with me.”
1[In contrary to shixiong, shidi means junior male schoolmate.]
“Mr. Xia,” Tao Ling spoke as he stood up, “take a seat first.”
The man named Xia Chaoyang quickly withdrew from his improper behavior, and in the blink of an eye, the strangeness in him had already vanished. He smiled and followed behind Huo Kuai around the railing to the table.
Tao Ling took the initiative to raise his arm and shook hands with Xia Chaoyang. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Xia.”
The three of them sat down.
As a shixiong, Kuo Huai has always been accustomed to taking care of others. After asking for their opinions, he coolly became in charge of ordering the food. Since he still remembered that Tao Ling was sensitive to spicy food, he asked for a dual-sided pot. The side with the red broth was also instructed to only be mildly seasoned.
“Shixiong, you don’t have to baby me. You guys are free to order the spicy version if you guys want to,” Tao Ling said.
Kuo Huai continued ordering food, waving off with a faint smile on his face. “Who else will baby you if I don’t? You’re about to turn thirty yet there’s no one that you can rely on.”
Tao Ling threw Xia Chaoyang a glance, and the latter only smiled contently.
They asked each other questions related to school and work. They were about to exchange a few words when the waiter soon delivered the pot to the table. The steam rose up to the air, melting slightly the reserved atmosphere between the two strangers.
While waiting for the broth to completely boil, Tao Ling asked, “Mr. Xia, do you know my elder brother?”
Xia Chaoyang lightly nodded. “Tao-shidi does not have to be so polite with me. Mr. Kuo never mentioned to me before that you had an older brother. I was shocked when I saw you a moment ago, but turns out that you were Tao Jun’s little brother.”
“Correct, ” Tao Ling replied. “My brother and I look alike; even more alike than twins. Growing up, I’ve always heard people saying that I’m a duplicate of Tao Jun.”
Xia Chaoyang looked at him closely through the steam, saying, “Although you guys do look alike, it’s still very easy to tell the difference as you seem more energetic than him.”
“I’m younger than him by five years. There’s no way he can look that old, ” Tao Ling replied.
“That’s not what I meant. Your brother doesn’t look old either.” Xia Chaoyang was a little helpless, though it obviously wasn’t because he couldn’t take the joke.
Kuo Huai laughed, saying, “Just like I’ve always said, Tao Ling is pretty much full of beans. Not only does he look young, but also has other areas that are different than us soon-to-be middle-aged men.”
Tao Ling chuckled. “Is shixiong trying to say that I’m immature or that I’ve become a fool from studying indoors? Well, I guess I don’t belong to this generation then. Even the birthdays I’ve spent have gone to waste.”
Kuo Huai shook his head. “This mouth of yours.”
“There’s a good side to immaturity,” Xia Chaoyang unhurriedly said.
Something sprung to Kuo Huai’s mind. As such, he called out the waiter, saying, “I forgot to order the most important thing. Since we hardly see each other, how about we have some wine? You both can drink and aren’t driving later, so don’t give me excuses.”
Xia Chaoyang smiled and asked, “Can Tao-shidi handle his alcohol well?”
Tao Ling adjusted his glasses before answering, “Yes.”
The three of them toasted to each other, swallowing another part of politesse that the heat was unable to melt.
Kuo Huai asked Xia Chaoyang, “Chaoyang, how did you meet Tao Ling’s brother?”
“We were classmates in university.” Xia Chaoyang held his glass, lightly turning around at the side of the table. A simple-looking ring was worn on the ring finger of his left hand.
Tao Ling pondered, “I have my brother’s graduation photo with me, but Mr. Xia wasn’t on it.”
Xia Chaoyang laughed. “I couldn’t join the graduation photo since I was busy that day. I have always felt regretful about it too.”
When they were halfway done with the hotpot, Xia Chaoyang asked, seemingly on a whim, “Tao-shidi, where does your brother currently work at? Is he still working in the same company?”
Kuo Huai became a little alarmed and threw a quick look at Tao Ling. Just as he was about to speak, Tao Ling raised a nonchalant smile and replied, “My brother passed a long time ago. It happened three years ago from this season.”
Thud! The wine glass in Xia Chaoyang’s hand suddenly fell down. Its bottom part knocked against the table edge, followed by the rest of the body that would soon roll around in two circles. The wine had wildly spilled over the table, flowing steadily towards the edge of the wet iron stove under the hotpot.
Sizzle, sizzle——the scent of wine winged its way to the air.
“Hey! Did you get wet?” Kuo Huai pulled out the last few sheets of napkins.
Xia Chaoyang gave a light stroke to his shirt. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I didn’t get any on me.”
Tao Ling hurriedly asked a waitress he found, “Meimei,2 please do me a favor and help me get a pack of napkins.”
2[妹妹 means “younger/little sister” in Chinese, but it’s also just a term of address to show friendliness in this case.]
After clumsily getting the table cleaned up, Xia Chaoyang smiled with great haste. However, his complexion looked slightly pale. He spoke to Tao Ling in a hoarse voice, “Pardon me, I didn’t hold it firmly enough.”
“It’s alright.” Tao Ling calmly replied, “The funeral wasn’t held since my brother didn’t want one, so people he rarely got in touch with weren’t aware of this matter.”
Two minutes later when the atmosphere cooled down, Kuo Huai helped Xia Chaoyang pour another glass of wine, asking, “How is the report of the project going? I don’t even know what will happen to the SS. fund next year.”
Xia Chaoyang replied to him. The two of them discussed for a short while the issue with launching the project, as if the incident from a moment ago never occurred.
Kuo Huai then asked Tao Ling about the research progress during this period. In the end, he advised him, “Although you’re only doing administrative tasks in the time being, you still need to keep studying and writing papers. There’s absolutely no harm in doing that. Being active during the writing portions of the academic conferences is important as well. So don’t feel that it’s meaningless just because it’s a platform for people to gather in circles. I know that you don’t like to cooperate with others, but there are still many great opportunities you can get to also open up new academic horizons. Nowadays fields are all the same, which is why it’s very important to bring forth new ideas. You can’t just hide yourself from the world and wait for someone to call your name.”
When the glasses knocked against each other, Kuo Huai said with absolute sincerity, “I’m not nagging you. This advice will definitely be helpful once you officially start teaching in the future.”
“Got it,” Tao Ling replied, “shixiong doesn’t need to stress over me.”
Kuo Huai shook his head. “That answer from you was too plain.”
Tao Ling smiled.
After that, Tao Jun’s name was no longer mentioned till the end of the entire meal.
Upon stepping out of the restaurant, Tao Ling said, “I wouldn’t have chosen hotpot if I had known earlier that you guys still need to attend a meeting.”
“Don’t worry, we brought extra clothes,” Xia Chaoyang replied.
They chatted at the crossing for a bit. Kuo Huai patted Tao Ling’s shoulder.”Go home now.”
“How are you both leaving? Let me see you guys off.”
“No need, ” Kuo Huai said. “The hotel we’d reserved is by the Kaide Mall. It will only take us a few minutes to reach there.”
The breeze was quiet, and the heat that the wine had steamed upon Tao Ling’s face cooled down a few. Just as he was about to say goodbye, Xia Chaoyang reached out his hand to him. “Goodbye, Tao-shidi. I was very pleased to meet you.”
Tao Ling only formed a smile by curving the corner of his mouth, but it was dimmed away by the night scene. He nodded and shook hands with Xia Chaoyang again.
After finishing bidding farewell, Tao Ling turned around to leave.
A moment of hesitation surged inside him as he got closer to the east gate. Naturally the distance would be small when going home from the west gate. However, he was currently off-campus, thus choosing to pass through the west gate now would force him to walk a few more steps.
Before he could even ponder over it, his legs had already brought him inside the school as if they’d acquired a mind of their own.
Tao Ling walked along the pathway encircling the campus. The lamposts shined brightly under the dark sky. It was very late in the evening, so the flower shop must have closed already.
However, as soon as he exited the west gate, Tao Ling saw Wen Qing’s figure standing outside of the flower shop. The latter appeared to be looking around aimlessly, and therefore spotted Tao Ling the moment he showed up.
Upon stepping on the crosswalk, Tao Ling – at a distance – saw that Wen Qingying had blossomed a smile on his face.
When he got closer, Wen Qingying’s smile vanished. No matter how the lighting changes, his face will always be so good-looking and gentle, too.
However, Tao Ling didn’t look at him. He lowered down his head and examined the flower racks on his own.
The flower shop seemed to be doing very well. Only a little half of the fresh cut flowers at the doorway were left, as well as the last bundle of light green daisies. But since its quality clearly wasn’t as nice, no one paid mind to it.
Wen Qingying stood still by the entrance, watching Tao Ling walk back and forth.
Two minutes later, Tao Ling picked up that bundle of daisies and walked up to Wen Qingying. He looked at him face to face for two seconds before raising his hand to push him.
Wen Qingying moved two steps aside from the strength, revealing the QR payment code blocked behind him. Tao Ling’s face showed no expression, and just scanned the code without delay.
He turned around as soon as he finished paying.
After walking two steps, however, Wen Qingying suddenly caught up to him. He held Tao Ling’s wrist from the side, stuffing something on his palm.
A decorative railing was on the right-hand side, and outside of it stood Tao Ling’s fellow shixiong, Kou Huai. A man in his thirties was also standing next to him.
That man had a gentle temperament, but the expression upon his face still carried the shock that had yet to dissipate.
Tao Ling called out, “Shixiong.”
Kuo Huai smiled, giving a few pats to the man’s shoulder. “Chaoyang, what’s wrong? This is my little shidi,1 Tao Ling.”
He then looked at Tao Ling, saying, “Tao Ling, this is the colleague I’d mentioned before, Mr. Xia Chaoyang. He came to attend a meeting with me.”
1[In contrary to shixiong, shidi means junior male schoolmate.]
“Mr. Xia,” Tao Ling spoke as he stood up, “take a seat first.”
The man named Xia Chaoyang quickly withdrew from his improper behavior, and in the blink of an eye, the strangeness in him had already vanished. He smiled and followed behind Huo Kuai around the railing to the table.
Tao Ling took the initiative to raise his arm and shook hands with Xia Chaoyang. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Xia.”
The three of them sat down.
As a shixiong, Kuo Huai has always been accustomed to taking care of others. After asking for their opinions, he coolly became in charge of ordering the food. Since he still remembered that Tao Ling was sensitive to spicy food, he asked for a dual-sided pot. The side with the red broth was also instructed to only be mildly seasoned.
“Shixiong, you don’t have to baby me. You guys are free to order the spicy version if you guys want to,” Tao Ling said.
Kuo Huai continued ordering food, waving off with a faint smile on his face. “Who else will baby you if I don’t? You’re about to turn thirty yet there’s no one that you can rely on.”
Tao Ling threw Xia Chaoyang a glance, and the latter only smiled contently.
They asked each other questions related to school and work. They were about to exchange a few words when the waiter soon delivered the pot to the table. The steam rose up to the air, melting slightly the reserved atmosphere between the two strangers.
While waiting for the broth to completely boil, Tao Ling asked, “Mr. Xia, do you know my elder brother?”
Xia Chaoyang lightly nodded. “Tao-shidi does not have to be so polite with me. Mr. Kuo never mentioned to me before that you had an older brother. I was shocked when I saw you a moment ago, but turns out that you were Tao Jun’s little brother.”
“Correct, ” Tao Ling replied. “My brother and I look alike; even more alike than twins. Growing up, I’ve always heard people saying that I’m a duplicate of Tao Jun.”
Xia Chaoyang looked at him closely through the steam, saying, “Although you guys do look alike, it’s still very easy to tell the difference as you seem more energetic than him.”
“I’m younger than him by five years. There’s no way he can look that old, ” Tao Ling replied.
“That’s not what I meant. Your brother doesn’t look old either.” Xia Chaoyang was a little helpless, though it obviously wasn’t because he couldn’t take the joke.
Kuo Huai laughed, saying, “Just like I’ve always said, Tao Ling is pretty much full of beans. Not only does he look young, but also has other areas that are different than us soon-to-be middle-aged men.”
Tao Ling chuckled. “Is shixiong trying to say that I’m immature or that I’ve become a fool from studying indoors? Well, I guess I don’t belong to this generation then. Even the birthdays I’ve spent have gone to waste.”
Kuo Huai shook his head. “This mouth of yours.”
“There’s a good side to immaturity,” Xia Chaoyang unhurriedly said.
Something sprung to Kuo Huai’s mind. As such, he called out the waiter, saying, “I forgot to order the most important thing. Since we hardly see each other, how about we have some wine? You both can drink and aren’t driving later, so don’t give me excuses.”
Xia Chaoyang smiled and asked, “Can Tao-shidi handle his alcohol well?”
Tao Ling adjusted his glasses before answering, “Yes.”
The three of them toasted to each other, swallowing another part of politesse that the heat was unable to melt.
Kuo Huai asked Xia Chaoyang, “Chaoyang, how did you meet Tao Ling’s brother?”
“We were classmates in university.” Xia Chaoyang held his glass, lightly turning around at the side of the table. A simple-looking ring was worn on the ring finger of his left hand.
Tao Ling pondered, “I have my brother’s graduation photo with me, but Mr. Xia wasn’t on it.”
Xia Chaoyang laughed. “I couldn’t join the graduation photo since I was busy that day. I have always felt regretful about it too.”
When they were halfway done with the hotpot, Xia Chaoyang asked, seemingly on a whim, “Tao-shidi, where does your brother currently work at? Is he still working in the same company?”
Kuo Huai became a little alarmed and threw a quick look at Tao Ling. Just as he was about to speak, Tao Ling raised a nonchalant smile and replied, “My brother passed a long time ago. It happened three years ago from this season.”
Thud! The wine glass in Xia Chaoyang’s hand suddenly fell down. Its bottom part knocked against the table edge, followed by the rest of the body that would soon roll around in two circles. The wine had wildly spilled over the table, flowing steadily towards the edge of the wet iron stove under the hotpot.
Sizzle, sizzle——the scent of wine winged its way to the air.
“Hey! Did you get wet?” Kuo Huai pulled out the last few sheets of napkins.
Xia Chaoyang gave a light stroke to his shirt. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I didn’t get any on me.”
Tao Ling hurriedly asked a waitress he found, “Meimei,2 please do me a favor and help me get a pack of napkins.”
2[妹妹 means “younger/little sister” in Chinese, but it’s also just a term of address to show friendliness in this case.]
After clumsily getting the table cleaned up, Xia Chaoyang smiled with great haste. However, his complexion looked slightly pale. He spoke to Tao Ling in a hoarse voice, “Pardon me, I didn’t hold it firmly enough.”
“It’s alright.” Tao Ling calmly replied, “The funeral wasn’t held since my brother didn’t want one, so people he rarely got in touch with weren’t aware of this matter.”
Two minutes later when the atmosphere cooled down, Kuo Huai helped Xia Chaoyang pour another glass of wine, asking, “How is the report of the project going? I don’t even know what will happen to the SS. fund next year.”
Xia Chaoyang replied to him. The two of them discussed for a short while the issue with launching the project, as if the incident from a moment ago never occurred.
Kuo Huai then asked Tao Ling about the research progress during this period. In the end, he advised him, “Although you’re only doing administrative tasks in the time being, you still need to keep studying and writing papers. There’s absolutely no harm in doing that. Being active during the writing portions of the academic conferences is important as well. So don’t feel that it’s meaningless just because it’s a platform for people to gather in circles. I know that you don’t like to cooperate with others, but there are still many great opportunities you can get to also open up new academic horizons. Nowadays fields are all the same, which is why it’s very important to bring forth new ideas. You can’t just hide yourself from the world and wait for someone to call your name.”
When the glasses knocked against each other, Kuo Huai said with absolute sincerity, “I’m not nagging you. This advice will definitely be helpful once you officially start teaching in the future.”
“Got it,” Tao Ling replied, “shixiong doesn’t need to stress over me.”
Kuo Huai shook his head. “That answer from you was too plain.”
Tao Ling smiled.
After that, Tao Jun’s name was no longer mentioned till the end of the entire meal.
Upon stepping out of the restaurant, Tao Ling said, “I wouldn’t have chosen hotpot if I had known earlier that you guys still need to attend a meeting.”
“Don’t worry, we brought extra clothes,” Xia Chaoyang replied.
They chatted at the crossing for a bit. Kuo Huai patted Tao Ling’s shoulder.”Go home now.”
“How are you both leaving? Let me see you guys off.”
“No need, ” Kuo Huai said. “The hotel we’d reserved is by the Kaide Mall. It will only take us a few minutes to reach there.”
The breeze was quiet, and the heat that the wine had steamed upon Tao Ling’s face cooled down a few. Just as he was about to say goodbye, Xia Chaoyang reached out his hand to him. “Goodbye, Tao-shidi. I was very pleased to meet you.”
Tao Ling only formed a smile by curving the corner of his mouth, but it was dimmed away by the night scene. He nodded and shook hands with Xia Chaoyang again.
After finishing bidding farewell, Tao Ling turned around to leave.
A moment of hesitation surged inside him as he got closer to the east gate. Naturally the distance would be small when going home from the west gate. However, he was currently off-campus, thus choosing to pass through the west gate now would force him to walk a few more steps.
Before he could even ponder over it, his legs had already brought him inside the school as if they’d acquired a mind of their own.
Tao Ling walked along the pathway encircling the campus. The lamposts shined brightly under the dark sky. It was very late in the evening, so the flower shop must have closed already.
However, as soon as he exited the west gate, Tao Ling saw Wen Qing’s figure standing outside of the flower shop. The latter appeared to be looking around aimlessly, and therefore spotted Tao Ling the moment he showed up.
Upon stepping on the crosswalk, Tao Ling – at a distance – saw that Wen Qingying had blossomed a smile on his face.
When he got closer, Wen Qingying’s smile vanished. No matter how the lighting changes, his face will always be so good-looking and gentle, too.
However, Tao Ling didn’t look at him. He lowered down his head and examined the flower racks on his own.
The flower shop seemed to be doing very well. Only a little half of the fresh cut flowers at the doorway were left, as well as the last bundle of light green daisies. But since its quality clearly wasn’t as nice, no one paid mind to it.
Wen Qingying stood still by the entrance, watching Tao Ling walk back and forth.
Two minutes later, Tao Ling picked up that bundle of daisies and walked up to Wen Qingying. He looked at him face to face for two seconds before raising his hand to push him.
Wen Qingying moved two steps aside from the strength, revealing the QR payment code blocked behind him. Tao Ling’s face showed no expression, and just scanned the code without delay.
He turned around as soon as he finished paying.
After walking two steps, however, Wen Qingying suddenly caught up to him. He held Tao Ling’s wrist from the side, stuffing something on his palm.
