It Seems There is Light

It rained all night on the night of New Year, and the next day the temperature dropped a few degrees, so Shi An was woken up by the cold.

The day was still young, Shi An shrank under the covers and rolled himself into the blanket. He was in a daze and about to fall asleep again, but suddenly remembered something and opened his eyes suddenly.

He raised his head and looked to the side, and found that the seat beside him was empty.

Shi An half propped himself up and saw Yan Liang sitting at the end of the bed with his legs crossed, actually waking up earlier than him.

Hearing the movement, Yan Liang slightly turned around to look at him.

Shi An looked at Yan Liang and his eyes widened slightly.

Yan Liang’s beautiful peach blossom eyes were blue and gray underneath. His skin was fair so the dark circles under his eyes looked distinct.

Shi An was worried that after sleeping with Yan Liang in the same bed all night, he would be out of shape the next day, but now it seemed that Yan Liang slept even worse than he did.

Shi An hesitated for a while between the questions “Didn’t you like sleeping with other people before?” and “What did I do last night after I fell asleep?” and finally said succinctly, “Yan Liang…dark circles under your eyes.”

Shi An stretched out a slender finger and tapped it under his eyes.

Yan Liang was stunned. He fished the phone over, opened the front camera and took a look, then reached out and rubbed his eyes.

“It’s been too long since I slept at others’ place, I’m not used to it.” Yan Liang stood up and straightened his somewhat messy short hair.

“…” Shi An didn’t know what to say, “…When you were a kid, you often…”

Yan Liang turned to his side, his eyebrows raised: “Often what?”

Shi An swallowed back the words ‘come here to sleep’ and said, “Go to sleep at other people’s houses.”

“I forgot,” Yan Liang walked out of the room, “Maybe I loved to play when I was a kid, but now I’m not used to it.”

Yan Liang’s tone was gentle, but Shi An still felt slightly choked up.

After all, he was the one who wasn’t used to it, and now Yan Liang was the one who was saying ‘not used to it’.

On the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, they had to go to the temple to worship Buddha as usual. They had a hasty breakfast and bought some fruit for the Buddha before arriving at the first temple at nine o’clock.

Shi An really didn’t like this activity.

In the temple, the incense and candle smoke was like a cloud, choking the nose and eyes. Jiang Yuan went to ask for incense, Shi An worshiped and coughed all the way, coughing up tears in his eyes.

After a hasty worship, Shi An came out of the Buddha Hall, the scene in front of him became clear again, and even the air was slightly fresher than in the hall. His nose was full of the scent of incense that made his temples ache.

As soon as Yan Liang left the Buddha Hall, he saw Shi An bending over and coughing, his eyes and nose were red, and his eyes were hazy with water vapor.

Yan Liang went over to pat his back, Shi An straightened up saying it was okay. Yan Liang was also choking hard, frowning slightly. The two squatted by the door with wet eyes waiting for the adults to come out.

Yan Liang felt that his nose was choking with incense ash. He lowered his head and pinched his nose, his eyes were red.

It rained last night, the sky was white, the air was remnant of the smell of rain, wet and cool, cloudy and drenched, and soon their noses were scrubbed clean.

About ten minutes later, Jiang Yuan and her group of people came out of the Buddha Hall, and moved to the next temple.

In this way, they went to several temples in a row. It was only when they went to the fifth temple​ that Jiang Yuan coaxed them and said that it was the last one. After the worship, they went to have lunch.

In a group of people, Jiang Yuan was the most enthusiastic to do this kind of thing, so she walked in the front. Yan Zhao and Xie Fei, these two couples followed behind her, and Yan Liang and Shi An became the most tired in a row, half dead wandering in the last.

Yan Liang spoke very little today; Shi An was a little uncomfortable, turning his head to look at him several times.

When Yan Liang laughed, the pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes and small fangs on the lips made him look like a sunny and handsome brother next door, but the cold face could especially intimidate people.

His slightly narrow eyes looked a little dangerous when he was not smiling. His lip was thin and sharp, and his jaw lines were indifferent and beautiful, especially now that he still had dark circles. The whole person had the breath of ‘don’t come to Laozi’.

In fact, Yan Liang just looked ordinary when he was expressionless. This look was similar to the look on Shi An’s face that had remained unchanged for thousands of years, but the effect on his face was completely different from the effect on Shi’ An’s face.

Besides, Yan Liang had a smile in the corner of his eyes most of the time.

Shi An didn’t know why Yan Liang had such a look on his face after sleeping with him all night. After suffering all morning, Shi An finally couldn’t resist calling him, “Yan Liang?”

Yan Liang gave a low muffled sound and turned his head to look at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Shi An asked him.

Yan Liang was stunned, as if he did not expect him to ask such a question suddenly. He did not answer for a while. When Shi An thought he would not answer, Yan Liang suddenly asked him, “Shi An, do you have someone you like?”

Shi An’s mind buzzed at his question, and his heart thumped.

He subconsciously curled his knuckles before asking, “Why do you suddenly ask this?”

“At our age, it’s easy to just…so, is there?” Yan Liang didn’t look at him, his hands were in his pants pockets.

“Yes.” Shi An nodded gently, his voice so flat that he felt a little incredulous himself.

Yan Liang quickly raised his head, turning his head to look at him and raising his eyebrows. He seemed surprised: “The girl who gave you the phone that day?”

“…No.” Shi An was also taken aback, completely surprised at how Yan Liang had connected him to Shen Qiaoqiao.

“…Then, Tong xue jie?” Yan Liang’s voice was a bit eager.

“…How is it possible,” Shi An said, a little helpless but also relieved, “Don’t guess blindly.”

Yan Liang really didn’t say anything else and turned his head back to walk. After walking for six or seven minutes they reached the last temple. The two of them were speechless the whole way.

Compared to the previous small temples, this one was relatively more crowded, with a lot of people milling around. Shi An hated this kind of occasion, frowning and avoiding people, but still inevitably got bumped into several times.

The group of people was quickly dispersed by the flow of people. At the beginning, Shi An could still see Yan Liang walking in front of him, but after walking for a while they got separated.

The incense and candles were all taken by Yan Zhao and Shi An was completely empty-handed, standing in the same place, somewhat helpless.

The temple was filled with smoke and incense, like clouds and fog, and everything looked like a veil. After choking for some time and getting used to it, Shi An rubbed his red eyes and continued to walk around looking for someone.

Yan Liang at first did not know that Shi An had not followed him. There were too many people and it was easy to get separated, so he turned around and tried to pull Shi An. However, there was no longer a familiar figure behind him.

He looked at the strange and crowded flow of people, a little at loss.

The crowd came and went, and he stood still, looking at the flow of people who kept going around him, and for some reason he began to panic. He suddenly felt that he could no longer find Shi An in this crowd.

Then Yan Liang avoided the flow of people and ran through the Buddhist temple in small steps, looking around and shouting Shi An’s name as he ran.

[Ling Yue jie, do you think I’ve crossed the line by having such thoughts?]

[What do you think?]

[I don’t know.]

[How do you feel about Shi An?]

[Of course it’s a friend, a younger brother, a family member, ba. But I think that even if we are close to him, we should not interfere with his problems in that area.]

[…Yan Liang, haven’t you ever thought of it as ‘like’?]

[Yes, but I don’t like them.]

[…Not them, I mean, Shi An.]

Yan Liang was walking aimlessly around the hall when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye. He jerked to a halt and turned his head to look.

He was standing next to the candlestick, and large red candle in the burning of rolling candle tears. The candle flame was burning brightly that the air above was slightly distorted by the heat. Through the large swaying candlelight, he saw Shi An on the opposite side of the candlestick.

Shi An’s back was to the candlestick, but now he also turned around and saw Yan Liang across the candlestick.

Shi An was standing diagonally across from Yan Liang, but as soon as he turned around, he tilted his head to the side with uncanny precision, facing Yan Liang’s gaze.

With people moving around and candlelight swaying, their eyes were like auto-focus cameras at that moment, everything around them blurred and they saw each other clearly at once.

After finding his companion, Shi An grinned for the first time.

There were too many people and he didn’t have his cell phone with him, so he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to meet Yan Liang and the others. Shi An was not sure if Yan Liang had seen him, so he stood on tiptoe slightly.

[What is it like to like someone?]

[I guess it’s like… associating him with all the good things.]

When Yan Liang received the message from Ling Yue, what he thought in his mind was that Shi An was originally a boy who could be described as beautiful.

He was the beauty itself.

Yan Liang trotted around the candlestick and stood in front of Shi An.

Shi An’s eyes were red from the temple’s incense and candle smoke and ash, but his eyes were still bent, smiling lightly as if he was happy: “I thought I couldn’t find you guys.”

The orange-red candle flame swayed slowly around his eyes, and Shi An’s light-colored eyes were reflected in a peculiar and beautiful color.

Yan Liang blinked.

“Now that you’ve found me,” Yan Liang reached out and clasped his wrist, “Follow me and don’t get lost.”