one year later.
Airport terminal.
At the exit, Yin Guo put his suitcase at hand, and sat on the right side of the empty seat, the innermost one. These rows of seats were scattered with people who came to pick up the plane, and she was the only one who had just got off the plane.
It was still early when she was looking at the time on her phone.
The flight he took didn't have satellite wifi, and the network couldn't be connected. She could only use time to calculate where he had flown and how long it would take before he landed in China.
Lin Yiyang is coming back, returning to the country completely.
Yin Guo was not just one of the contestants who came back from that flight. Everyone pulled their luggage and walked out of the exit one after another. They communicated in low voices and laughed. Most of the men didn’t change their clothes. They all wore competition makeup, and they made up a few groups, some with club cases in their hands, and some on the suitcase, which attracted the attention of many passers-by.
The last ones to come out were the referees in plain clothes and full sportswear. These referees are all required to wear suits and leather shoes on the field. They stand all day long and are extremely tired, so they are the ones who change their clothes the fastest after leaving the field.
Among the seven or eight referees, the leader of the referee team, Lin Lin, was at the forefront. Because of a major operation, she has been recuperating for a whole year. This is the first time she has executed the penalty from beginning to end after her sick leave.
Lin Lin quickly saw Yin Guo in the corner.
This is only one year since his debut, and he has risen rapidly in the domestic nine-ball, eight-ball and world fancy nine-ball rankings. Her eyes are very big, but because she bowed her head, they were blocked by the bangs that slipped to her eyes. She was wearing a bean pink hoodie and white jeans, her legs were crossed, and she sat obediently on a chair, holding her mobile phone and staring at the screen motionlessly. .
Lin Lin guessed that she was distracted, and knew that she was waiting for someone.
In the next few hours, many people will rush to this airport, come to this exit, and they will be picked up by the same person.
"I haven't formally greeted you yet, Lin Lin."
Yin Guo looked up and smiled at her: "We met in Hangzhou." The boss of the referee team, how could he not know each other.
"It's not the same," Lin Lin smiled, "I'm Lin Lin from Dongxin City, a buddy who grew up with Lin Yiyang."
Yin Guo smiled and shook hands with the other party.
It felt like Lin Lin was holding hands quite strongly, the kind of close handshake as if meeting a family member.
The relationship between the two seemed to be drawn closer.
"I heard you had a major operation? Is it okay to lead such a big game just after you come back?" Yin Guo whispered after Lin Lin took his seat.
"It's okay. Actually, I still want to rest for a month, but this Open is too important to allow rest."
The two said a few more words without pain or itching.
Lin Lin suddenly made fun of Lin Yiyang, and asked her: "Tell me quietly, is Lin Yiyang owed a loan shark in the United States? Is he so crazy this time?"
When Yin Guo heard this, she immediately understood.
It is said that his ranking has been soaring, and his ability to sweep bonuses is also astonishing. Some people have estimated that his prize money in major events, the sum of pounds and US dollars, has accumulated two million US dollars.
As a Chinese player who lives abroad temporarily, he came out of thin air last year, playing alone and appearing in major international competitions, not only snooker competitions, as long as the schedule does not collide with snooker, even nine balls and eight balls The game is not missed, very rare.
Some nine-ball players like to take care of eight-ball, but they rarely play with snooker. Lin Yiyang is too rare.
When a capable person is at a trough, there is another more appropriate term called the dormant period, where there is a rise and fall.
In the long ten years, he has never put down his club for a day, rain or shine, and has been sick all the time, and he always has a table to accompany him. He may have hidden himself for a long time, but he never gave up what he loved in his life.
***
On another flight.
The lights in the cabin were all off, and the windows were turned dark blue by the captain.
Ninety percent of the passengers were asleep.
Lin Yiyang came out of the bathroom, and saw a few passengers in a few seats still watching a movie. He returned to his seat, and the big boy next door, Sun Yaoman, woke up halfway through his sleep.
"Sister-in-law will definitely come to pick you up?" Sun Yao hugged the quilt, leaned there lazily and asked him, "The last time I saw you was at the Open, I almost forgot what I looked like."
"Not necessarily in time," he said.
Before boarding the plane, Yin Guo was still competing, and the two didn't have time to talk.
Lin Yiyang put on his headphones, picked and fumbled, and found an old literary film to watch. The subtitle soundtrack at the beginning is very clean, the guitar strings are plucked, the drums are behind, and the faint guitar sound gradually grows louder, as if enclosing the sky and the cabin tens of thousands of feet high.
In the past year, Yin Guo didn't tell him several times when he fell ill. One time, he had a high fever that lasted for three days, and he still chatted and video chatted with him on time as usual, keeping everything secret. There was a competition with a sickness, and Wu Wei heard it from someone from Beicheng. When he asked her, her first reaction was to comfort him nervously: "I didn't have you before, and I was sick myself. Just take medicine and you will be fine."
In the end, she whispered a few coquettish words, saying that she missed him very much, the video looked fake, and she almost forgot what he was like in real life.
They spent three hundred and sixty-two days in Plato, and the text and voice took turns, and the video was not interrupted, but they actually met twice, around their birthdays.
On Yin Guo's birthday, he was going to spend it with his family, but Lin Yiyang gave him a surprise. He made up a lie and said that his college classmates were celebrating his birthday together, and rushed to the hotel where Lin Yiyang was staying.
It was the first time the two met after they separated from the United States. They both missed each other so much and were very impulsive to do something, but it happened to be inconvenient for her. That day, the torment of missing each other for a long time made them more like netizens who had been dating online for a long time and didn't know each other well.
When they met each other at first glance, they were unfamiliar and speechless. For the first ten minutes, one of them was sitting on the sofa and the other was sitting at the desk, chatting nonsense, and they were only about to talk about Sino-US relations on the news broadcast...
In the end, I hugged it somehow. Not to mention her, Lin Yiyang would be in a trance, this is really his girlfriend.
It feels too strange, like hugging a strange girl. The two tried their best to please each other that day. It seems to be proving, you see, I still love you, and it seems to be desperately proving that you still love me.
Even if you move forward in life, there will be countless excellent men and women around you, all of whom just love you.
That night, Yin Guo was reluctant to go home, and kept playing with the thin calluses in his palm, and was still talking, see you next time on a good day, or it would be too bad to run for nothing. Lin Yiyang was so teased that he couldn't help laughing, thinking how he picked up such a big baby.
Later, on Lin Yiyang’s birthday, Yin Guo was in Singapore according to the match schedule, so he decided not to rest for a minute after the match, ended the match by himself in Singapore, and then flew to Washington to meet him.
The two of them didn't go anywhere, they just stayed in Lin Yiyang's apartment for two full days, except for a trip to the supermarket, they cooked their own meals. In those two days, the two were crazy, doing it from the bed to the bookshelf, and even on the windowsill. Later, the room was in such a mess, Yin Guo felt that the sheets were unreadable, so while he was shopping for dinner, he washed the sheets and his dirty clothes by hand, and asked Lin Yiyang to take them to the laundry room machine dry.
Before sending her to the airport, Yin Guo wanted to cook him a meal and asked him what he likes to eat.
Lin Yiyang replied: Tomatoes are braised noodles.
Yin Guo is much younger than him, and has never tasted the noodles that the elders were keen to make in the era of poor supplies. After a long time of tinkering, he really made it. The chopsticks stirred evenly and fed him several mouthfuls. Staring at him at the end, watching him finish the last noodle, and reluctantly leave the apartment. Before leaving, he also took his white T-shirt away, leaving behind a new black-bottomed T-shirt she bought with the same letter design.
Later, when he re-layed the dried sheets, it occurred to him that the foolish Yin Guo only stared at the sheets, forgetting that the quilt cover and pillowcase were also tossed so that they could no longer be used.
He wanted to wash it, but didn't want to, so he just touched the smell left by her, and after washing it, it was gone.
***
Yin Guo and Lin Lin were the first two people to arrive.
After eleven o'clock, Wu Wei drove Chen An'an and Fan Wen to arrive in a hurry. About half an hour later, Jiang Yang's plane also landed. Brothers from the past, no matter the boss of the current ball club, the head of the coaching staff, or the well-known players who are still in the arena, all gathered in Terminal 3 in the middle of the night.
Yin Guo was the youngest of the group.
When everyone was chatting, Wu Wei was afraid that she would feel unfamiliar, so under Jiang Yang's instruction, he sat beside Yin Guo and talked with her.
At first, what he said was irrelevant, and then Wu Wei coughed twice: "Does your family know about Lin Yiyang's existence?"
Yin Guo shook his head, also worried.
My cousin gave her an opinion, don't mention it before Lin Yiyang returns to China, and try not to let the trouble go ahead. After returning to China, Meng Xiaodong planned to find a suitable opportunity to come forward in person, and even asked his father to come forward to intercede with Lin Yiyang.
"You know, right? Back then, your mother was the referee and the leader of the association."
"Well," she nodded, "I also know that Mr. He was also upset about him and my mother. If Mr. He hadn't been there, he would have been suspended for one year...more than half a year."
"Really?" Wu Wei was surprised.
"You don't know?" She was also surprised.
"I don't know that." One is the leader of the association, and the other is a respected old man of the ball club. How could the few players who were still fledgling know about the quarrel between the two.
Yin Guo is right after thinking about it, even her cousin listened to what she said, but she listened to her parents talking...
Lin Yiyang started to make a comeback this year, and this matter was often mentioned at home. Yin Guo's father was also involved in sports in the early years, and later went to sea to do business and made a lot of money, but deep down he still yearned for his old ideals. Parents mentioned Lin Yiyang and said those words, if Yin Guo didn't know him, he would definitely think that he is a man who is lawless, arrogant, loves money like his life, and has no sportsmanship and competitive spirit.
"He's miserable." Wu Wei sighed softly.
It’s miserable in every way. One is Yin Guo’s place. She might not be accepted by her family even if she peels off several layers of skin. Second, Yin Guo’s mother has been promoted step by step.
In fact, Yin Guo guessed that Lin Yiyang played outside this year because he wanted to avoid confrontation before getting good results and capital. But Yin Guo knows her parents well, good grades are nothing, especially the relatives of Yin Guo's mother's side, most of them are engaged in sports, and they have good grades, so they are not very rare in this family. Including Yin Guo himself, he won medals in every open competition, and he didn't have much chance to be praised at home.
The two never discussed the subject.
She didn't want him to face pressure as soon as he returned to China. Some things should be dealt with when they have to be resolved.
It was past three in the morning.
The flight was delayed for ten minutes and landed at the airport.
Yin Guo and everyone are waiting at the exit.
At this time, there were not as many people waiting outside the exit as during the day, and everyone stood in a row outside the silver fence. Yin Guo chose a location with the best angle, where he could see the customs security inspection machine and the luggage belt in the distance...
Gradually, more people came out, and they were all from this flight.
Among the tired and hurried travelers, Yin Guo quickly recognized Lin Yiyang. His height advantage is obvious. Apart from the foreigners who came on the same flight, he is the tallest. Wearing a black hat, carrying the sports backpack that never changes for thousands of years, and a black casual top, he walked out from the exit.
He was pushing a luggage trolley, on which he and his companions threw four suitcases of different sizes. Each one was covered with traces of falls and covered with consignment labels, as eye-catching as his intensive racing schedule in the past year.
When he saw Yin Guo, he stopped slowly.
All the brothers are there, and her.
In the crowd, she held on to the railing and smiled to herself, only that part of the scenery was colored, the rest were all black and white, unimportant. It seems that the bangs are longer than last time, and the hair is also long, draped almost to the waist, and straightened. The bean paste powder hoodie makes the face whiter and smaller. There were tears in her eyes, but a smile on her face.
"Look at his daughter-in-law." Fan Wenchu couldn't hold back, and whispered to Chen Anan, "Are the three legs straight?"
Chen Anan glared at Fan Wenchao.
"Miss can't hear," Fan Wenchu muttered again, "I'm keeping my voice low."
The water in Yin Guo's eyes could not be suppressed, so he wiped it with the back of his hand, and waved at him while leaning on the railing on his chest. Lin Yiyang walked up to her, and wiped away her tears through the railing.
The two looked at each other for a long time.
No one spoke first.
"Has anyone chased you recently? Tell me." He smiled and asked her in a low voice in front of everyone.
Everyone behind Yin Guo laughed. Still the same.
She said "um", with a strong nasal voice, pretending to cooperate with him easily: "I just don't remember what I look like, and I'm not as handsome as you."
He smiled: "Are you only looking at my face?"
She said "um" again, looked at him, and tears began to fall. It was because I was so excited that I couldn't control myself. Seeing her smiling and crying, Lin Yiyang felt a dull pain in his heart, and gave her a strong hug through the railing.