Chapter 60: Jian Jian, I Like You

An Yize didn’t say anymore. His fluttering heart suddenly felt heavy and exhausted.

The man on the other mountain didn’t make any more noise, so Su Jian could only stop shouting. He picked up the earphones that he and An Yize were wearing again.

The earphones played a Chinese song.

“All my life it was difficult to get a sincere love

You only wanted to follow your logic

You weren’t keen on listening to us

Fa Hai you don’t know love

Leifeng Pagoda[1] can fall down……”

An Yize’s face was blank as he looked at the phone in his hand and shifted his gaze to the quiet and lovable person.

An Yize asked, “What are you doing?”

“Making a post on Weibo!” Su Jian delightedly said, “Who knew that there would still be signal at the summit of Mount Hua! Haha, not everyone can experience using the net on the summit of Mount Hua. I must boast about it on Weibo!”

An Yize: “……”

……

An Yize had a sour mood during the journey down from the east summit until the two reached their room.

Initially Su Jian didn’t realize it, but after they reached the room, he noticed that An Yize had actually not uttered a single sound, and he didn’t look at him at all. Finally, he probed, “Tired?”

An Yize gave an “Mhm”.

Su Jian said with deep concern for his companion, “Go rest earlier if you’re tired!”

An Yize turned his head and looked into the room that had two beds. He only felt his heart become even stuffier.

Su Jian booked this room and he didn’t feel that was wrong at all, so he quickly chose his favorite bed. “I want to sleep on the outer side!”

An Yize appeared to have no opinion; however, when Su Jian went to take a shower, he secretly splashed the water in the cup onto his own bed.

When Su Jian finished showering and saw that the other bed was wet, he was stunned, “How did it get like that?”

An Yize indifferently said, “I accidentally spilled water on it.”

Su Jian moved towards the bed to inspect it. He realised that it couldn’t be remedied, and said with a scrunched up face, “Do you want to change rooms?”

“No need.” An Yize said, “At this time, the hotel might not have other rooms. Moreover, you still have another bed right here, it’s not like you can’t sleep.”

Su Jian thought about it, and he also felt that this wasn’t the first time he slept with An Yize on the same bed. Besides, the nights on the summit would be cold, so perhaps it would be better and a little warmer if they huddled together.

If there was only one person sleeping on the bed, the mattress would still be spacious. But if there were two people, the bed would inevitably be a little cramped. When Su Jian and An Yize laid on the bed, their bodies were stuck closely to each other.

An Yize stretched his arms out to embrace him, but Su Jian couldn’t help but be a little stiff. Although he was usually in An Yize’s embrace every morning, this was still the first time he was hugged to sleep by An Yize when he was awake. However, it was still a familiar hug, so Su Jian quickly relaxed. Furthermore, An Yize’s body was comfortably warm so Su Jian couldn’t help but extend his hands to feel up his chest. Helatently said, “Yize, your body is really warm, you sure are a hot-blooded youth!”

An Yize: “……”

Su Jian said, “You have to wake up earlier tomorrow so we won’t miss the sunrise. Have you set the alarm yet?”

An Yize touched his hair. “It’s set.”

Su Jian said, “The tour guide says that the number of people who watch the sunrise isn’t little, most of them climb up the mountain in the middle of the night just to see the sunrise, so we definitely have to wake up early!”

An Yize’s eyelids drooped down towards him, “What if you can’t wake up?”

Su Jian solemnly said, “You can then shout loudly: ‘It’s thundering! It’s raining! Quickly bring in the clothes!’”

An Yize: “……”

Su Jian watched his unmoving, blank facial expression and was uncontrollably embarrassed, “Look at you, you don’t even have a shred of humor. I noticed that your mood wasn’t great, so I wanted to make you happy. But in the end you aren’t giving me any face!”

An Yize calmly gazed at him, heaved a sigh, and gently murmured, “My mood isn’t bad.”

“I also think you’re grumpy because of fatigue. After all, this mountain is so hard to climb, and you also carried so many things.” Su Jian immediately and passionately proposed, “How about watching television together? You can relax and melt away all your fatigue!” As he said that, he picked up the remote controller and turned the television on.

“Whose excavator technology is the best? Look out for Lanxiang[2] when in China’s Shandong Province!”

“No internal pain, granting monthly comfort!”

“I was originally one of the indigowoad root under woad and health that could cure all diseases amidst the mountain……”

Every television station had its mystical area. Su Jian browsed through about ten of them and finally found one that looked a bit more normal, So he said, “Let’s watch this then!”

It was a broadcast of a dubbed movie; there were two protagonists with ordinary clothes, ordinary genders, and ordinary moods having and ordinary discussion about love; first, there was ambiguity, then the falling in love, followed by mutual love…

As they watched the passionate masculine male and feminine female break the censorship regulation while their blank and tabs conjoined together, An Yize couldn’t help but tighten his embrace.

“Jian Jian…” An Yize drooped his head.

“Mhm?” Su Jian was in a blur when Yize turned his body and tightly grabbed onto him. One of Su jian’s legs landed directly onto Yize’s.

An Yize was shocked stiff. But when he saw the sleeping Su Jian clinging onto him so comfortably, he could only restrain himself with great efforts and silently calmed himself down.

……

When they woke up on the second day, An Yize’s had faint greenish shadows under his eyes..

Su Jian slept really well.When he awoke, he quickly stretched his lazy waist, but was suddenly shocked halfway through. He blurted at An Yize, “It’s daylight! My sunrise! Oh no! Oh no! Oi, didn’t you say that you would wake me up?!”

An Yize soothed him and calmly said, “It’s raining.”

“Ah?” Su Jian was shocked. He immediately showed a disappointed expression, “It’s really raining?”

An Yize nodded his head, “It’s raining heavily.”

Su Jian instantly climbed up to open the window curtains. It was indeed raining cats and dogs outside. Su Jian gazed into the vast white fog, and for a split second he made a bitter face.

“How can that be? With such a heavy rain, wouldn’t it be impossible to do anything today?”

An Yize said, “Come here to put on your clothes., We should eat breakfast first.”

Ultimately, they received more terrible news during breakfast: Due to the rain being too heavy, the paths up and down the mountain were both closed.

When they got back to the room, Su Jian leaned on the window to gaze at the white precipitation fog that only had a 10-meter visibility range and lifelessly said, “What do you say about us wearing raincoats and going outside?”

An Yize resolutely denied the suggestion, “Mount Hua isn’t like other mountains. The pathways are very narrow and very dangerous. Walking during clear weather is already dangerous.”

Unsatisfied, Su Jian said, “But just now I saw a lot of people braving the rain while going down the mountain. Now that the rain has died down, it should be okay. How about going out together?”

An Yize stood his ground. “No.”

Su Jian glared at him for a while, but he laughed soon after, “Could it be that you’re afraid that it’ll be extremely similar to Han Yu?”

When he climbed up to the Canglong Ridge earlier, he saw the place Han Tuizhi[3] summited in the book. Su Jian had checked it on the web, and this was actually about the allusion of the great writer, Han Yu. It was said that back in the previous years when Han Yu climbed Mount Hua and travelled around the mountain, he was afraid that he couldn’t get back down. As he cried due to his anxiousness, he wrote a on a piece of paper asking for help. Tying the paper to a stone, he threw it down the mountain and it was discovered by a herbalist who then saved him.

Just thinking about the scene of the great writer Han Yu squatting at Canglong Ridge and crying with great terror, Su Jian suddenly felt the rush of delight. However, after he did that, he couldn’t help but imagine An Yize squatting at Canglong Ridge crying and whimpering loudly. With the cracked domineering mannerism of Chairman An, he was hugging tightly the stone pillar beside him, pitifully squatting on the ground; on his face trickled two fat streams of tears, and he miserably shouted, “Who will come to save me? I am willing to give myself in return…”

Su Jian looked at An Yize and leaked an amused snort out.

An Yize helplessly uttered, “What is it?”

Su Jian gleefully gave him a look, “My mood is suddenly joyful!”

A trace of a smile appeared in An Yize’s eyes. “This rain shouldn’t last too long. If you cannot bear to stay in this house, wait until the rain is almost gone. Then we’ll go out.”

Su Jian happily pointed his thumbs up at him, “I agree!”

After waiting for a while again, the rain was indeed drizzling very lightly, leaving only threads of indistinguishable drizzles. Su Jian racked his brains whilst facing the window and said, “ Let us go now then! There are still so many scenic spots that we haven’t visited yet. If we still don’t go, there won’t be enough time!”

The two grabbed their things and put on disposable raincoats. Su Jian wasn’t paying attention previously when they shopped, and when he took them out to have a look, one of the raincoats was blue, and the other was actually pink. Su Jian was determined to give that pink set to An Yize. With a placid and upright face he said, “People don’t look good with this colour, but it suits you very well, seriously!”

An Yize silently wore the pink raincoat and pretended to not notice Su Jian’s snicker because of the thought of “An Yize looks like a pink hot balloon”.

The two exited the hotel. Su Jian gazed at the pavilion on the distant summit and dejectedly said, “Such a pity that it’s not raining. If not, I would have challenged the Yao Zi Fan Shen!”

An Yize said, “Be careful not to slip.”

Although the rain was light, the clouds did not fully disperse. Yesterday, Mount Hua’s connected mountain peaks and deep valley was precipitous and grandiose, presenting a lot of dangers. However, today there was only a vast stretch of white fog, letting people feel like they were lost but thrilled at the same time.

Su Jian felt that the feeling of the mist enveloping his feet was like part of a fairytale. After some thinking, he couldn’t help but break off a branch, put it into An Yize’s hand and passionately say, “Come, Yize, take this!”

An Yize was clueless, “For what?”

Su Jian then positioned his hand and placed it on his chest. He eagerly urged him repeatedly, “Don’t move!” Afterwards, he retreated back two steps, swiftly took out his camera, and pointed it at An Yize who was wrapped around in otherworldly air to snap a picture.

An Yize: “……”

After a while, a stele emerged from the fog at the side of the path. When Su Jian saw the four character engraving of “Mount Hua Contest[4]”, he immediately got excited, “So this is where the Mount Hua Contest takes place!!”

Hugging onto the stele, he let An Yize take a photograph. As Su Jian walked forward, he also emotionally sighed, “So this was the place where they competed back in the years when Dong Xie Xi poisoned Nan Bei Gai and gained magic power! They could actually fight in such a dangerous area. They’re indeed experts!” He suddenly turned his head to ask An Yize, “Oh right, who did you like amongst them?”

An Yize shot a glance at him, “I like the people from the Second Mount Hua Contest.”

“Second?” Su Jian used his fingers to count, “Eastern Evil Huang Yaoshi, Western Eccentric Yang Guo, Southern Monk Yi Deng, Northern Hero Guo Jing, Old Imp Zhou Botong… you like Yang Guo?”[5]

“No,” An Yize indifferently said, “I like the Old Imp.”

“Huh?” Su Jian was stunned momentarily, “You actually like Zhou Botong huh, I couldn’t tell!”

An Yize gave him a glance without talking.

Curiosity sprouted in Su Jian’s heart: could it be that underneath Chairman An’s cold and mighty appearance, he’s actually hiding childish heart?”

“Who do you like?” asked An Yize all of a sudden.

“Me?” Su Jian coughed, “I like Western Eccentric…’s wife.”

“Xiao Long Nü?”

Su Jian met An Yize’s “You actually like Xiao Long Nü” flabbergasted expression and became a little unhappy, “Don’t you like Xiao Long Nü too?”

An Yize said, “I prefer Huang Rong.”

Initially, Su Jian was a little astonished, but once he thought about Huang Rong who gained some understanding when she was fifteen years old in the《Legend of the Condor Heroes》, he secretly roasted Uncle An who indeed loved lolis in his heart. Meanwhile on the surface he said, “I thought you would like girls like Wang Yuyan. I remember Queen Ji apparently acted as Wang Yuyan in the past.”

An Yize’s tone was calm, “You think too much.”

Once he saw that his gossip-mongering was unsuccessful, Su Jian shrugged his shoulders and stopped pressing for answers. As the two continued forward, they quickly reached what Su Jian had been looking forward to for the entire week: Plank Road in the Sky. However, it was a pity that it rained. The extremely perilous Plank Road was already closed. Su Jian was mostly disappointed. He couldn’t help but rest on plank road’s iron chains and stretch his neck out to look down, “What do you say if I break open this gate and secretly go down, can I do it or no?”

An Yize extended his arms to hold him back, “You can’t.”

Su Jian turned his head, “Why?”

An Yize murmured, “Because, I won’t allow it.”

Su Jian: “……”

After reluctantly leaving Plank Road, Su Jian followed An Yize all the way to the south peak. After a brief stopover, he once again turned towards the west peak and continued.

There were still some people at the south summit who had braved the rain to explore the mountain. However, when they got to the west peak, there was only a boulder. Su Jian elatedly stood on the boulder and gazed out into the distance without a care for the violent mountain winds. He had just begun to step down when a strong wind crashed into it, making him involuntarily sway.

An Yize was fair a distance away and couldn’t support him. He said with a heavy voice, “Squat down!”

After Su Jian embarrassingly crouched down, he felt that it really wasn’t as shaky as before. As he looked at An Yize who could stand unmoving as usual in the strong wind, his heart soured. Your mom! It sure is useful to have some weight!

An Yize gazed upon the mushroom-like Su Jian obediently squatting on top of the rock. His gaze softened quite a bit, “The winds are strong here, be careful.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Su Jian nodded his head, sat his butt down onto the rock, and gazed out to the distant scenery. Uncontrollably he praised, “So beautiful!”

By now the rain had almost ceased, and the precipitation fog that hid the distant mountains had already been blown away. Due to the gales, the mist wasn’t stagnant, but rather it churned and fluttered against the mountain range. It was truly spectacular. As far as the eye could see, the flatland flooded the horizons.

As this spectacular sight met his eyes, Su Jian felt a sense of pride growing in his heart as it seemed like he was overlooking the entire world.

So, in the very next second, An Yize heard Su Jian abruptly singing, “I’m standing in the middle of this intense wind! If I could, I would have washed all these lasting heartaches away! Gazing at the firmament, the clouds are moving everywhere! With the sword in my hand, I ask, who is the hero!”

The lyrics somewhat fit the occasion, and the voice was also very resonant. It was only the melody that was awfully out of tune. An Yize kneaded the inner corner of his eyes and couldn’t help but interrupt him, “Jian Jian!”

Su Jian turned his head. “What do you want?”

An Yize took out a bottle of water to pass to him, “Come here to drink water.”

Su Jian had sung a beautiful song and felt a little thirsty. So gulped down half the bottle and handed the bottle back to An Yize. Afterwards, he headed to the cliff by himself and gazed along the cliffside whilst he leaned against the iron chain.

The two didn’t say anything for a while. Their surroundings only consisted of the whizzing of the mountain breeze and was devoid of any other noises.

Su Jian looked into the distance with a tumultuous look in his eyes. These feelings, this scenery; how bold! How desolate! How lonely it is at the top! He felt he finally understood the loneliness of those ancient experts and masters!

Su Jian silently imagined himself to be Dugu Qiubai right now.

An Yize definitely didn’t know what he was thinking. He just quietly looked at that person standing at the side of the deep cliff, gazing into the distance. As the mountain winds stirred, Su Jian stood in the middle of the clouds. His raincoat cap was already blown down, and although his hair was tied up in a bun, loose tendrils of hair were still brushed across his face. Su Jian’s usually agile eyes and brows displayed a tranquility that was exceptionally warm and beautiful.

An Yize all of a sudden rejoiced a little. He thought, luckily we didn’t go down the mountain straight away. If they did, he would have definitely missed this scenic beauty with the clouds swirling around these luxuriant mountains after the rain and the way that this person made his heart flutter.

“Marvellous!” Su Jian sighed and said, “Luckily we didn’t go down the mountain straight away. If we did we would have missed this scene! Mount Hua after the rain, not everyone will be able to see this!”

“Mhm.” Knowing that he and Su Jian were thinking about the same thing, his eyes looked gentler.

“If we have any more chances, let’s go Mount Hua again. We have to visit the Yao Zi Fan Shen and Plank Road since we weren’t able to do so today!” Su Jian gushed, paused for a while, then suddenly thought of something, “Hm, but by that time we would have our divorce filed, so I’m afraid that I can only come alone.”

An Yize’s expression twitched, “won’t.”

“You’re saying that you’re still willing to accompany me?” Su Jian was flabbergasted as he faced and immediately praised him, “Such camaraderie!”

“No,” An Yize shook his head, “It’s me who isn’t willing to divorce.”

“Ah?” Su Jian was dazed, “Why?”

An Yize quietly said, “Divorce is when the love between two people break. Since that hasn’t happened to us, it’s only given that we don’t need to divorce.”

Su Jian widened his eyes, “Marriage depends on the feelings between two people. From the start, ours was a fake marriage. So where would the feelings be?”

Yize murmured, “I have them.”

“Huh?” Su Jian suddenly felt an indescribable abnormal premonition in his heart.

In the next moment, only An Yize could be heard as he calmly said, “Jian Jian, I like you.”

Footnotes:

[1]People would take bricks from the Leifeng Pagoda because it was rumored that the bricks had healing properties. This tradition made the tower unstable, so it eventually collapsed. The song’s saying that if someone only exploits their partner in a relationship, eventually the relationship will fall apart.

[2]Shandong Lanxiang Senior Technical school , Lanxiang is the short form of the school’s name

[3]Han Tuizhi – Han Yu’s courtesy name

[4]Mount Hua Contest – Originating from the story “The Return of the Condor Heroes”, this is a place where people fight each other with their various martial arts skills.

[5]The front part before the names are the nicknames of the characters

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Condor_Heroes(this is the wuxia novel that he’s referring to)

Another version which I find to be more more funny (more modern-ish)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9jGaGI5Sn7I