My Two Dads

The next morning, Yang Han went to school.

Sleeping in was something Han Shi Yu had not been able to enjoy for a long time now. But today, he intentionally skipped out on setting his alarm clock. The drizzling rain easily lulled people into a deep sleep. When he woke up drowsily, the rain had turned heavier and louder outside.

Yang Han liked listening to the sound of rain, just like Yang Mo.

When she was younger, she liked collecting glass bottles, placing them in a row outside the window or on some corner of their courtyard balcony. That way, she could see the rain’s tracks whenever she pulled the windows open.

There was a really fun game to play. Sometimes, Han Shi Yu would go out to the balcony on a whim with an umbrella, picking up a stone on the ground and knocking the glass bottles of varying heights for fun.

Their shapes were all different, some contained more water than the others, so the tunes were quite pleasant to listen to.

Yang Mo’s home office faced the courtyard. With the window open, he can clearly see the path of the raindrops on top of the leaves of their houseplants. The dense sound of rain could be heard from not far away.

It came from Han Shi Yu who was crouching in the corner of the courtyard with an umbrella.

Sometimes, little Yang Han would squeeze under his umbrella, both hands obediently resting on her knees as she squatted beside her father.

Sometimes, she would hold a small umbrella on her own, forming the sight of a small and a big umbrella cap side by side, like two mushrooms that were concentrating hard.

During that time, the father-daughter relationship between Yang Han and Han Shi Yu wasn’t that ‘bad’ yet. The little girl would sweetly tilt her head up and call him ‘dad’, or she would pick up a stone after watching him and knock on the glass bottles together.

Yang Mo pushed open the window and knocked on the glass a few times. The pair of big and small mushrooms turned back at the same time upon hearing that. Even their pose of holding the umbrella was the exact same.

Yang Mo’s tone was really gentle, “Your clothes. Be careful not to get them wet.”

Yang Han nodded while saying ‘ohh’, reaching out to the corners of her jacket that was almost touching the ground and holding them up.

Yang Mo decided to just leave the window open and as he worked, he would hear the clear sound of rain outside. As well as Yang Han’s voice as she gave out commands.

Yang Han: “Dad, knock on that one twice.”

The glass bottle rang out twice. Han Shi Yu asked, “Like this?”

Yang Han smiled, “Knock on them again only when I’m hitting this bottle.”

Han Shi Yu leaned on the windowsill, looked at the empty glass bottles on the balcony that were kept all this while as he lamented, “It’s true that when a girl is of age, it’s hard to keep her around.”

He stayed by the window for a little while longer.

Yang Mo was still resting. Usually, his routine would be so disciplined, as if there are many alarm clocks installed inside of him. But whenever the two had a rough night, he would sleep in on the next morning and Han Shi Yu would wake up first instead.

Han Shi Yu turned back and lightly pecked the red mark on the back of his neck before whispering, “Mo Mo, it’s time to get up.”

Feeling the hot breath tickling his ear, yang Mo woke up but didn’t turn around. Instead, he grabbed a pillow from behind him and threw it in Han Shi Yu’s face.

Han Shi Yu: “Ah.”

Yang Mo’s voice sounded nasally, deep and rough. “We’re switching next time.”

Han Shi Yu took the pillow off from his face, “…….”

His expression was instantly a pitiful one. “Ge.”

This request had been mentioned for at least seven or eight times by Yang Mo already.

But it has never been implemented for real.

On one hand, it was due to his soft heart who would always give in halfway.

On the other hand—

Han Shi Yu’s skills are truly really not bad at all.

Exactly why did it turn out this way.

Yang Mo’s mind entered a state of Zen, tuning out completely the second he start hearing the various crying, whining, sobbing sounds Ji Xun’s President made from behind him.

A rainy day was also considered to be a great thing for the future leaders of the country, since they wouldn’t have to go for their running exercise during class time.

Yang Han looked out the window with a hand propping her head up while spinning a pen in her hand. There were raindrops on the window and her silhouette was reflected on each drop.

Lu Yue Ming came back from the office with a pile of workbooks in hand. He reached out and waved his hand in front of Yang Han. “Why are you blanking out?”

Yang Han snapped out of her daze and saw the math workbooks on his desk. She said guiltily, “Ah! Xiao Lu, why didn’t you tell me to go with you again…”

Ever since they were chosen by the teacher as the math class representatives, Lu Yue Ming had never let her get involved with errands like moving things back and forth the office. At most, she would occasionally drop by the office just to remind the teacher about class, earning her some extra points at the end. Yang Han felt a little embarrassed at riding on his coattails.

Lu Yue Ming laughed, “I saw how serious of a daze you were in, so I couldn’t bear to interrupt you.”

Yang Han bowed her head and smiled too.

Looking around, she realized the classroom was quite empty during the time when she was distracted.

She asked, “Where have everyone gone to?”

Lu Yue Ming said, “On May 1st, there’ll be a science and technology art festival. The events held that day are currently going through bidding. Our class has also signed up for it.”

Yang Han had heard about this science and technology art festival from her seniors before, which was one of their high school’s specialty and exclusive event. Usually it’s held before May 1st, together with their sports day.

“The events are organized and carried out by the students collectively. While the teachers would direct them.” Lu Yue Ming smiled, “Our class is going to bid for a flea book market.”

“Xu Jia told me about it,” Yang Han said, “She heard that this would be one of the most interesting events. The class president and everyone else are going bald from preparing for it.”

Lu Yue Ming: “I’ve seen our class’s planning and I think it’s really good. I’ve also asked a few of our seniors about it. They said it’s a lot more innovative and complete than the previous years.”

Yang Han mumbled, “Xu Jia didn’t call me along to join in on the fun…”

Lu Yue Ming smiled again. “You can still go and watch it now. Or you can wait here for the good news too.”

Yang Han jumped out of her seat excitedly, trying to catch a glimpse before the event ended.

But the moment she took a step forward, she took another step backwards. Tugging on the corner of Lu Yue Ming’s shirt, she said, “That…Xiao Lu, come with me…” Yang Han said, “I don’t think I know the way there…”

Lu Yue Ming blinked.

“No need to look for the way.” Lu Yue Ming glanced at her hand that was on the hem of his shirt as the corners of his eyes curved, “It’s in your hands.”

Yang Han didn’t react for a moment there.

Then, it slowly became clear that this was a pun and also an answer to her question. 1.

“……” Yang Han muttered, “…Xiao Lu, you’ve changed.

Lu Yue Ming placed the pile of workbooks on top of the chair, planning to show Yang Han the way there. But just then, the class came back hanging their heads low in despair.

Shang Xue was leading the group as he grumbled, “This is impossible. We obviously were at an advantage…”

Fang Jia added, “I heard that during the preliminary selection, our proposal had the highest score…”

Xu Jia patted the class president’s shoulder and said, “And our class president did so well too…I suspect there’s more to what we know.”

The class president looked a little lost in self-blame, barely managing to squeeze out a smile and said, “Thank you, everyone…We’ve already lost the selection, so be it then. Let’s try our best again next time.”

Hearing the tone of their discussion, Yang Han knew that the results weren’t as they expected. She glanced at Liu Zuo Ye who was walking into the classroom. Liu Zuo Ye shook her head at her.

Lu Yue Ming seemed a little surprised. He had only just told Yang Han to wait for the good news after all. He said, “It’s truly regretful.”

Yang Han let out a long, sad sigh. “That’s right…But it’s okay, we’ll try again next time.”

The tenth class of their highschool had an optimistic spirit that no enemy can tear down, certified by the math teacher and this incident could only be considered as small of a matter as a dragonfly dipping on the surface of the water. Therefore, everyone was already seated and ready to start class when the teacher entered.

Yang Han slapped the back of her head and rushed to help Lu Yue Ming hand out the workbooks.

Footnotes

The Chinese for ‘I don’t know the way/directions’ contain the word ‘路/Lu’. While Lu Yue Ming’s name is also ‘鹿/Lu’. The Chinese characters are different but it’s pronounced similarly. Lu Yue Ming was saying ‘the way/Lu’ is already in her hands because she was holding onto ‘Lu’ Yue Ming.