AaSoL 09
Chapter 9: The World Beneath the Snow (5)
When they were young and not yet famous, everyone at the billiard hall had nicknames.
He was Dùn Cuò (the Pause), Jiang Yang was The Thief, Wu Wei was Wu Suo Wei (No Problem), Fan Wencun was The Peddler, Lin Lin was Zong Zong (Miscellaneous), and Chen An’an was called An Mei (Sis An) because her name sounded like a girl’s. There were many others. The billiard hall had several teachers, each from different backgrounds. He and Jiang Yang were the most talented of the six apprentices of the master, He Lao. People often said that He Lao had chosen six disciples, and when he was ready to retire, he found two kids with great potential. Among them, Lin Yiyang had the highest talent and was the one who came to him on his own.
People liked to compete in domestic professional tournaments at the age of thirteen.
After that, if they won a ranking, especially the first or second place, they would joke around and address each other as “Grandpa.”
Jiang Yang was the first to win a championship, so he was called Yang Grandpa. When it came to Lin Yiyang, he had to add the word “Little” in front, because both brothers shared the same surname, but with different characters.
“What’s with playing nine-ball?” Lin Yiyang asked Jiang Yang.
Jiang Yang was a snooker player and had taught a group of students how to play nine-ball, which seemed a bit strange.
“I took him in as a student, but An Mei is teaching him. An Mei switched to nine-ball a few years ago. She had family matters this time, so she couldn’t come early. She asked me to bring the kids here.”
“Wasn’t the competition in April?” Lin Yiyang recalled, remembering that Wu Wei and Yin Guo were both competing around that time.
“The junior and youth groups are in March,” Wu Wei answered for Jiang Yang.
“Oh.” Lin Yiyang continued drinking his beer.
The kids on the sofa were eagerly waiting, hoping to talk to their Little Master.
“You all chat. I’m going to get some food,” Lin Yiyang said.
He returned to his room, put on his winter coat, wore sneakers without socks, grabbed his keys and wallet, and walked across the living room. At the end, seeing the kids all staring at him, he couldn’t help but wave his hand as a farewell.
The door closed behind him.
He walked slowly down the stairs in the hallway.
Two minutes outside, and it was still the same ramen shop. His memory was excellent, and he remembered the ingredients Yin Guo had added to her ramen that night. At this time, there weren’t many people. The owner was free and sat down across from Lin Yiyang.
They had known each other for a year.
Lin Yiyang spoke Japanese, and the owner spoke English. They complemented each other, and each time they chatted, it was very enjoyable.
“That girl from last night, the one you brought, she’s really pretty,” the owner said.
Lin Yiyang picked up his noodles with chopsticks and smiled.
“She’s the one you wanted to meet when you first saw her,” the owner, who was in his forties, said knowingly.
Lin Yiyang didn’t deny it.
“When was it? I mean, when did you meet her?” the owner asked.
“That night, the night I stayed here,” Lin Yiyang replied.
The owner immediately recalled, “The snowstorm night.”
That night, the snowstorm covered the entire city.
He had sent Yin Guo back to her hotel and, upon returning to the apartment, realized he didn’t have the key. The two sisters were stuck on the other side of the city and hadn’t come back.
Luckily, the kind owner let him stay at the shop that night.
A girl who made him want to know her at first sight—she was the only one in the past twenty-seven years.
That night, Lin Yiyang helped her move her suitcase to the hotel entrance. Yin Guo bowed to him seriously and thanked him. She was so cute. That night, he slept in this ramen shop, and the image of her bowing and thanking him replayed in his mind.
WeChat Moments was indeed a good thing.
What Yin Guo didn’t know was that when she sent him a friend request, Lin Yiyang had just entered the subway station.
When he saw the first WeChat Moment she posted about the open competition registration, he realized the cue stick on top of the three suitcases wasn’t her brother’s, but hers. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get a signal in the subway, so he stayed at the station entrance for a full hour. In that hour, he gathered all kinds of information about her from her Moments.
She didn’t know that on the bus ride back from Washington to New York, he had read countless reports and videos about her competitions.
She was… how should he describe her?
If Lin Yiyang was a carefree player, Yin Guo was the master who had perfected her emotional stability, without a single mistake, as if her emotions disappeared the moment she entered the game.
How many lost matches had it taken to get to this level?
He could even imagine her daily training, being refined and challenged by top players, practicing her psychological resilience.
In the past, Lin Yiyang was always referred to as a genius player by the teachers at the billiard society.
But in truth, he preferred players like Yin Guo.
You could tell she had talent, but what was more evident was how much effort she had put into it. A player like that would always receive the loudest applause, because they truly deserved it.
Everyone would sincerely congratulate her because it was well-earned.
A long ten days.
Lin Yiyang had gone through all the data on her athletic career.
Yesterday, to meet Yin Guo, he changed his train tickets three times and finally found a time slot to invite Meng Xiaotian for coffee at that café. But when he saw Yin Guo appear before him, he didn’t know how to start the conversation.
He couldn’t just say, I’ve watched all your competition footage, from your childhood, even the fan gossip.
Nor could he say, Your performance in those two competitions was so impressive, if I replaced your opponent with myself, I wouldn’t dare say I’d win.
He definitely couldn’t say, Your brother, Meng Xiaodong, and I have met many times in competitions, each time we won and lost, we’re like rivals. Ask him, he will remember me.
In the end, Lin Yiyang didn’t say anything. He just watched her walk into the café from the sunlight.
He watched her pause for a moment, steady herself, and slowly walk to the coffee table. When she sat down, he pushed a menu toward her. “Take a look and see what you want.”
It was easier to treat her to food than to chat.
Lin Yiyang snapped back to reality and continued eating his noodles.
“Last night, you guys were here, but you didn’t talk to her much,” the owner laughed.
“I used to… speak harshly, hurt a lot of people. Especially on the phone, when you can’t see the face, there’s even more misunderstanding,” Lin Yiyang said.
Of course, face-to-face wasn’t much better.
Last night’s conversation on the subway felt like an arranged blind date.
“I actually just met her, don’t really know her yet,” he added.
He meant that Yin Guo didn’t know him.
Past, present, and future—there should have been no connection between them.
The owner of the ramen shop seemed to understand Lin Yiyang’s state and smiled. “My wife is my high school classmate. For a long time, I couldn’t speak normally to her. Later, she told me she felt wronged, thinking I hated her,” the owner said, handing Lin Yiyang a plate of wasabi octopus from the staff.
The owner finally advised him, “Say what’s true, she’ll feel it.”
Yin Guo was at the billiard hall, practicing with Su Wei.
Today, for some reason, her mind wandered. She kept missing shots, and Su Wei teased her several times, asking if she had spent the night with the regional champion, causing her to lose her energy. At first, Yin Guo smiled and didn’t respond, but after several teases, she had to clarify that her relationship with Lin Yiyang was very ordinary.
In fact, Yin Guo thought that before last night, Lin Yiyang had somewhat disliked her.
Su Wei naturally didn’t believe it.
To prove her point, Yin Guo showed Su Wei their WeChat chat.
It was all clean and straightforward.
In all their chats, she had been patient, giving long self-introductions, frequently showing kindness, trying to build a relationship and become friends. But all the replies from Lin Yiyang were cold, either “No problem” or “Okay,” or just an emoji, ending the conversation.
Especially in Washington, when she thanked him for taking care of her cousin, he just replied with a cold “Okay” and an emoji. She was genuinely hurt. After that, for the next ten days, they didn’t exchange a word.
If she still thought that meant he was interested, then she must have been overly self-assured…
“I take back what I said,” Su Wei handed her the phone. “Did you offend him?”
It was a good thing Yin Guo had a good temper. If it had been Su Wei, she would have given up long ago.
Yin Guo smiled helplessly. “I did offend him a little the night we first met.”
Su Wei was tired too, so she suggested they both take a ten-minute break, put down their cues, and go outside for some fresh air.
Yin Guo sat alone on the billiard chair, aimlessly scrolling through WeChat, when she suddenly remembered she hadn’t checked his Moments yet.
She quietly opened it—
There was nothing. Not a single post.
He was someone who didn’t post on Moments.
Lin Yiyang leaned against the wall of the ramen shop and pulled out his phone, opening Yin Guo’s WeChat chat window.
He carefully read through all their conversations, from when they first added each other to last night. What should he say? He spun the small glass beer bottle between his fingers, deep in thought.
Outside, Jiang Yang, wearing a black padded jacket, walked to the edge of the stairs, half-squatting and waving at Lin Yiyang inside.
The owner, looking through the glass door, asked, “Looking for you?”
“Yes,” Lin Yiyang slipped his phone into his pocket, paid for the meal, quickly put on his coat, and pushed open the door.
In the cold wind, he jumped up two steps.
“I had the coach take the kids back to the hotel first,” Jiang Yang tilted his head, pointing to the right, “Wu Wei said there’s a billiard hall nearby. Let’s go and have a game. We should show some face when we meet.”
Lin Yiyang wanted to refuse.
But somehow, maybe because he had just been thinking about how to send a message to Yin Guo, his mood was better than it had been earlier that morning.
Without saying a word, he nodded and walked with Jiang Yang down the street to the right.
Jiang Yang took out an e-cigarette, opened it, inserted a small paper cigarette, and took a deep puff. “To be honest, I’ve always admired you. Among us, only Wu Wei did okay in school. It’s no surprise he’s still studying, but nobody expected you to make it this far.”
Jiang Yang laughed. “Back then, we were at the bottom of the class, right? With about forty people in the class, could you even make it into the top thirty?”
“Middle school? Probably,” Lin Yiyang recalled.
In the billiard hall, good students were rare. Some kids couldn’t continue their studies and were sent to the billiard hall, either because their parents allowed it or because their family ran a billiard hall. Lin Yiyang himself didn’t do well in middle school.
After quitting the billiard hall in high school, he was motivated by a setback and studied day and night. Besides earning money, it was all about studying. It was tough, really tough.
Even during his three years of studying abroad, he had done all kinds of jobs.
In his first year, he wasn’t allowed to work, so he worked odd jobs in the Chinese community…
Making money wasn’t easy, and even Wu Wei complained that Lin Yiyang should have gone to a cheaper school, instead of choosing a school with expensive tuition. He grumbled about it twice but never said anything more because Wu Wei knew it was partly out of defiance.
Lin Yiyang stuffed his hands into his pants pockets and looked up, watching the traffic.
The past ten-plus years, he had climbed hard, all because of what his teacher said back then: You, Lin Yiyang, don’t even have a home. If you leave the billiard hall, without the cue stick, you’re nothing.
Now, he stood here, good as he was. Whatever he wanted, he could get.
He could pick up the cue stick, and he could put it down. Either way, he could live.
“These years haven’t been easy, huh?” Jiang Yang looked at his younger brother.
Lin Yiyang turned back, smiling casually. “Has anything been hard for me?”
Still the same as back then.
Jiang Yang laughed, took another puff of his cigarette, and patted his shoulder. “That’s right, for our Xiao Yang, nothing’s impossible.”
Lin Yiyang glanced at the e-cigarette in his hand. Jiang Yang caught on and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, along with a lighter, and handed them to him. “I switched to these. Consider it quitting.”
Lin Yiyang looked down, ripped open the plastic wrap, but then found it boring. He stuffed the plastic and the cigarette pack, along with the lighter, back into Jiang Yang’s jacket pocket.
“What’s up?” Jiang Yang laughed. “Not like you.”
“How long has it been since you’ve seen me?” Lin Yiyang asked.
As they were talking, they entered the billiard hall.
The owner saw Lin Yiyang, smiled, and turned to grab a big ice bucket. He filled it with seven or eight bottles of beer and placed it in front of him, pointing to a table.
Lin Yiyang picked up the ice bucket and walked toward his usual table, placing it down. He didn’t pick a cue stick yet but opened the beer and took a sip. “Here, you can drink, but no smoking. Keep that thing hidden.”
He almost said that girly e-cigarette but stopped.
“Pick a cue,” he nodded toward the sticks on the rack.
Lin Yiyang tilted his head, took another sip of beer, put the bottle down, and watched Jiang Yang pick a cue stick. He didn’t complain and picked up the one on the far right.
Jiang Yang set the nine balls in a diamond shape on the blue table.
Lin Yiyang found the white ball, then heard Jiang Yang casually ask, “Last night, I saw Wu Wei post something.”
Lin Yiyang paused.
“What girl? What country? What skin color?”
Lin Yiyang pointed to his own pitch-black pupils. “Chinese.”
He shook the white ball in his hand, then added, “Just met her, it’s not as mysterious as Wu Wei said. Besides,” he bent down from the side of the table and placed the white ball on the break line, “she might not even like me.”
“Not confident?” Jiang Yang laughed unexpectedly, pointing to the white ball, signaling for Lin Yiyang to break. “People need to know their strengths and play to them. For you, it’s definitely easy to charm people, huh, little brother.”
Lin Yiyang rolled his eyes at him but didn’t say anything. He bent over, adjusting his cue stick.
Aiming at the white ball.
With a forceful strike, the white ball flew and hit the rest of the balls. The sound of balls dropping into pockets was continuous, leaving only three balls on the table. Finally, even the nine ball rolled into the pocket in front of Jiang Yang.
The nine ball went straight in.
With one shot, he won the first round.
Jiang Yang whistled.
Lin Yiyang stood up, took the bottle, drank again, and stared at the remaining two balls on the table, pondering. What message should he send? Talking to a girl… Should he start with an emoji?
Author’s Note: I changed Jiang Yang’s name to Jiang Yang because it looks better written out, since he’s one of the main characters (this is an ensemble cast).
PS: A lot of readers asked about Dùn Cuò. I mentioned it earlier in Chapter 2, but didn’t want it to appear so soon, so I edited it the next day. Also, Wu Wei’s name was initially written as Wu Suo Wei, but I changed it to Wu Wei.
Some readers didn’t catch this and saw the original names in the earlier serialized chapters.
One more thing, the first major chapter is from the female protagonist’s perspective, and the second major chapter is from the male protagonist’s perspective. Now that the second chapter is finished, going back to the first chapter might give you a fresh perspective.
By the way, it’s just the beginning, no deep feelings yet, so don’t over-interpret it. He just wants to get to know her better…
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