'SEE YOU MORNING' 156 Whose Tears Are Flying
‘SEE YOU MORNING’ 156 Whose Tears Are Flying
The next morning when Lin Yuhui woke up, he hadn’t slept well last night. It seemed that the cheap man reeking of grease and stench had invaded his dreams, disgusting beyond words. Lin Yuhui is a man, he likes women, dislikes men, and despises stinky rotten men even more, especially when there’s a rotten woman thrown into the mix.
Despite these external and internal disturbances, Lin Yuhui hadn’t ignored the shifting pandemic situation over these past few days. Two days ago, his hometown had called again to verify his vaccination status, and the surrounding areas of Zhejiang seemed to have begun localized lockdowns as well.
Lin Yuhui certainly didn’t want to be dragged into centralized quarantine. Not just because of the risk of cross-infection, but also the inconvenience in daily life. Just one thing alone—not sleeping well could trigger heart problems. On top of that, the quarantine environment lacked the medications and supplements he depended on. He might very well not make it through.
As every morning, Lin Yuhui walked to the factory office for work, but what was different was that the threshold for evading pandemic lockdowns was accumulating.
There was one more thing Lin Yuhui could no longer tolerate. He knew Cerise drove to work in the morning, and he didn’t want his actions to cause someone else a traffic accident. When he saw her settle into the office, Lin Yuhui sent her a WeChat message:
“I lost, I admit defeat, okay?! Why must you demean yourself like this?!”
Before long, Cerise was crying across from him. Stephanie and Sapphire rushed over to ask what was wrong, then they all went to other rooms.
The matter passed like that. Things settled down for a while, and Lin Yuhui had already started booking tickets to go back to his hometown. This time his lips were sealed tight, heh.
One afternoon at noon, as usual, Lin Yuhui had finished lunch and gone to the restroom to wash his face. When he came out, he happened to run into Cerise and Lila also coming out of the women’s restroom nearby.
Lin Yuhui didn’t want to see her, so he just looked at the ground and walked away on his own.
Back at his desk, he opened his computer, checked the international news, then scrolled through the comment sections and personal posts to get a sense of how the pandemic situation was progressing everywhere.
Internationally, the Biden administration was tightening its containment of China. Domestically, pandemic lockdowns were being carried out in different locations. Actually, what Lin Yuhui feared wasn’t the pandemic itself—he could discipline himself to stay away from risks and quarantine properly. What he worried about most was the secondary disasters from forced lockdown measures. Those were things he couldn’t predict or control.
For a moment there seemed to be no good news. His nerves were on edge, at least for him—he was quite sensitive. While flipping through web pages, he happened to see an animal with cute big eyes, its head swaying, looking at the camera—an owl.
Lin Yuhui smiled, a long-lost smile.
“He’s smiling over there,” Lila said from across the way.
Lin Yuhui of course heard her. He didn’t look at her or acknowledge her, just kept searching for the information he needed. He’d get back to work after the lunch break.
“David, I’m telling you, stop harassing me!” a girl shouted loudly behind Lin Yuhui.
He turned around and saw it was Cerise. He didn’t know when she had gone out and come back. Lin Yuhui sat there confused, looking up at her and said,
“I didn’t?” thinking to himself how long it had been since he last sent her a WeChat message.
“You pervert, I’m telling you, the messages you sent me are all recorded on my WeChat!”
Oh, Lin Yuhui understood. She wanted to vent by calling him a pervert. So let her scold him—what was the point of arguing? So he just went along with her,
“Fine fine fine, I’m a pervert, I’m a pervert.” Then he turned back and ignored her.
Cerise swished her proud single ponytail as she walked past him back to her seat.
Lin Yuhui had originally brought up the concept of sexual harassment to point something out to Cerise, to warn her that if she wasn’t looking for a partner at work, she shouldn’t shout about these things in the office every day. Wasn’t that a woman harassing a man? Otherwise why would the Sinosteel leaders ban them from wearing shorts and showing their thighs? He never expected her to turn the tables on him.
What frustrated Lin Yuhui was that he couldn’t help himself either. Just now when Cerise was scolding him, his attention had still been on her pale white face, beneath the lipstick on her lips—the color was very faint. Was it because she was so angry?
While Lin Yuhui was still pondering, Stephanie had already left with Cerise. In the corridor, she asked Cerise if she wanted to apologize to Lin Yuhui. But how could that ever be her proud choice?
Lin Yuhui felt wronged too. For private conversations, if you don’t like it, just block them, or talk back, or have the courage to communicate formally. Although he didn’t care about being scolded by a female colleague in public, what made him feel wronged was that it was her who had been saying behind his back, sentence after sentence, that she wanted to find a partner. He was the only single man in the entire office. And now it had turned out like this—wasn’t this toying with his feelings?
Thinking of this, Lin Yuhui’s nose stung a little. He simply got up and left the office, went to the place where he usually walked, looked up at the blue sky and sighed in his heart—God, what’s wrong with people nowadays?
Suddenly he felt what seemed like a drop of water land on his face. He was a bit confused, because it was high noon and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.
He stretched out his hand again, and sure enough another drop landed on his palm. A few drops had fallen on the ground around him. He looked back at the production area—no water cooling towers were discharging, and it wasn’t the wind direction from this side either. It really was raining. Heh, only heaven knows me, Lin Yuhui sighed.
His days could finally settle down. On a new morning, a new girl came to the Sinosteel front desk, slim of figure, with exactly the same hairstyle as the third person he had met in his dream. Lin Yuhui found it amusing in his heart—you’re all here now, right? I should go too. This is just the fate we have in this life.
Back at his desk, he was still somewhat worried about the person greeting at the door, because the pandemic situation seemed even more tense. So he took a printed copy of the hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin usage instructions for COVID prevention from his drawer and brought it to the main gate front desk. Turning to walk back, he ran into the Sinosteel IT girl—she had seen everything. Lin Yuhui could only share a smile with her. He didn’t want to explain anything either.
Half a month later, the train he had booked finally took him back to his hometown during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday—that hometown he had missed so many times during his growing years.
Carrying his laptop and pulling his suitcase, there before him was the building where he had grown up. Now he could finally stay in this peaceful little nest. But grandma was gone, and grandpa had been taken to live with his parents.
He opened the door. The room was stuffy and damp—the windows hadn’t been opened all summer. Lin Yuhui put down his things and opened all the windows.
The computer desk was still as messy as when he had left. He set up his computer, ready to start a new life, only now there were no longer children’s laughter and whispers by his side.
He went to the kitchen wanting to boil some water to drink, and discovered that over the past few months, the chopsticks had grown green mold. The sunlight streaming through the window was still scorching hot, but grandma’s figure was no longer in the kitchen.