Chương 26: Pizza Night

Shen Yue reminded him to send a message when they were still in the car. She didn't look away from the road ahead when she said it.

"Hu Baolin." Lin Che had been watching the city pass through the window in a daze.

"Right, yes." He took out his phone and opened the messages app. Hu Baolin's last message was from that morning — a reminder of his shift starting soon. Lin Che looked at it for a moment and then typed. I'm so sorry for not messaging earlier — something came up this afternoon and I wasn't able to make it in. I should have let you know sooner. I'll explain when I see you. The reply came in as they were a couple of streets away from the apartment, which suggested Hu Baolin had been busy with a customer just earlier.

Already guessed as much. Girl from Shen came in this morning and mentioned you were busy over there. You should have led with that Lin Che stared at the message. Don't worry about it. Come in next week and we'll talk then. He liked the message and put his phone away.

They got home just after seven. Shen Yue put the kettle on and relaxed in the living room whilst Lin Che sat at the kitchen table and did nothing in particular for several minutes. Once the kettle flicked its switch back up, he got up and poured two cups of chamomile to wind down for the night. He went to the living room with a cup in each hand and handed one over to his wife.

She thanked him as he sat himself down"Tell me about the breakthrough," she said, after putting the cup to her mouth and deciding it was far too hot to drink. He'd been expecting this, and had been constructing the answer for the duration of the car ride home. The challenge was not telling the story, but to make sure he was accurate enough that she wouldn't be able to tell when he held back information on his loops.

"I've been thinking about the Hollow Bell Technique wrong this entire time," he said. She waited.

"The technique describes the self as distinct from the external environment — you map the boundary between yourself and what's outside, and that clarity is where the technique's defensive properties come from. Your Qi doesn't leak because you know exactly where you end," he said, taking a sip. It was too hot for him too.

"I'd been thinking about that as a fixed relationship: self here, external there."

"And?"

"I reframed it. The boundary isn't fixed and is more of an active mapping rather than a static one. Which means it can expand." He looked at her.

"If I extend the mapping outwards, the external Qi stays coherent because it's still inside the defined boundary. I'm not projecting Qi into space and hoping it holds — I expand what counts as self, and the Qi follows naturally." Shen Yue's pupils went up to her brain as she thought about how to respond to that.

"That's not in the technique documentation," she said.

"It's a significant reframing. Most practitioners spend years in the Hollow Bell's intermediate stage trying to solve the external Qi problem by going further inwards." She finally managed a sip of her tea.

"You went the other direction."

"It seemed like the obvious direction."

"It is not," she said, with a flatness that indicated she was not at all being modest about his feat.

"It genuinely isn't." Lin Che said nothing, filling the silence with a slurp. She set her cup down.

"How do you want to celebrate the breakthrough?" He thought about it for around half a second before he realised there was only one answer that was appealing to him right now.

"Pizza." A half-laugh escaped from her mouth.

"That is certainly a way to celebrate."

"I could kill for some pizza right now," he responded simply.

"I actually have to go back to the residence this evening," she said, standing up and picking up her cup.

"There are a few things I need to deal with in person before the week starts, so I'll be back late. But pizza sounds great — we can do it later."

"Another night."

"Another night," she agreed.

"Call Xu Fang — you haven't seen him properly in weeks and you'll eat everything in the apartment if you're left alone tonight."

"That's a bold assumption." This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Breakthroughs come with hunger, and I've been hearing your stomach rumble throughout the car journey," she said, without looking at him, and went to get her bag. He did not say anything to that. She came back through, coat on and bag over one shoulder before waving goodbye and leaving the apartment. The door closed and he heard the lift. Lin Che picked up his phone and called Xu Fang.

Xu Fang arrived less than an hour later with two boxes of pizza that he'd ordered on the way over without being asked, which was the kind of connection the two had. The two of them just happened to crave pizza at the same time. He came in, dropped the boxes on the coffee table, and looked at Lin Che.

"You look different."

"I got a haircut."

"Haircut my arse," he said, sitting down and opening the top box.

"Where's your wife?"

"Out with her family."

"And you're not joining?"

"I'm with my family," he replied, half-joking.

"Aww, how sweet," acted out Xu Fang, slapping a hand on Lin Che's shoulder. It felt like slapping a rock.

"Ow! What the hell? Have you been working out?"

"Just a little bit every now and then. There's a lovely gym I can take you to sometime."

"You must have some crazy genetics."

"What did you have going on tonight?"

"I was doing absolutely nothing when you called. Been going out too often lately so wanted a night in."

"Oh, I'm sorry for calling you over then."

"This is a night in."

By the time the second box was open, Lin Che had consumed the majority of the first, a substantial portion of the second, and had also found and eaten the cold rice from the fridge that he'd passed on the way to get another drink. Xu Fang watched this process with the fascination of a nature documentary presenter maintaining professional composure. Lin Che ordered a couple more boxes of pizza, feeling bad that he stole Xu Fang's portions.

"I had a date on Wednesday," Xu Fang brought up suddenly.

"How'd it go?" asked Lin Che, leaning back on the sofa a bit more.

"Define 'go'."

"How did it end?"

"Amicably. Very, very amicably." He swallowed another slice of pizza.

"She used that word — amicably. In the message afterwards. Have you ever received a message where someone used the word amicably about your date and felt optimistic about the follow-up?"

"No."

"Correct answer," he said, reaching for a drink.

"I don't even know what I did wrong. We had noodles, I talked about the shop, and she talked about her job at the finance place, and then we started talking about all the shows we've been watching lately. And then she said it was getting late and left. Amicably."

"Did you ask questions?" Xu Fang paused.

"About the finance job?"

"About her, generally." A longer pause.

"I talked about the finance job."

"Xu Fang."

"In my defence, it is a very interesting job she has, and it pays really well. Anyone would be proud to have that kind of job." He stopped, leaned forwards, and cradled his head in his arms.

"I didn't ask questions."

"Ask questions."

"I know," he said, staring at the floor.

"I know, I know. I just get nervous and then I start talking because I think I should be saying interesting things, and by the time I've said too many interesting things, it's somehow forty minutes later and she's looking at her watch." He turned his head back to Lin Che.

"How do you do it?"

"I don't talk that much."

"That can't be the whole answer."

"I ask questions and then I listen to the answers." Xu Fang sighed.

"There's a third date possibility," he said.

"Different woman. We've spoken online but haven't met yet. She's a teacher."

"Ask her questions that aren't about teaching."

"And then listen."

"And then listen," confirmed Lin Che.

"You make it sound straightforward."

"It is straightforward."

"You are a deeply unhelpful friend," said Xu Fang, and picked up the TV remote. The TV opened to a dating show that Shen Yue recorded and watched as a guilty pleasure. Xu Fang immediately turned off the TV.

"How about your wife? Do you just ask questions and listen to her?"

"Well, yes." Xu Fang was stunned. Lin Che got up to grab another few cans of beer from the fridge and left the room. Meanwhile, Xu Fang reached back to adjust the cushion behind his head. His hand found something that wasn't cushion. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was a notebook with a pen still clipped to the cover. He turned it over and opened it. The first page was a series of notes in Lin Che's handwriting — in the partially legible shorthand he used back in university.

Xu Fang could piece together bits of it, having borrowed his notes on far too many occasions. He turned to the next page. It was a map — a detailed one containing corridors and chambers and branching paths with small annotated symbols in the margins. There were notations beside several chambers and names of things he didn't recognise. He flicked back to the front few pages of notes. Something about harmonies and circulation. A list of what appeared to be herbs with properties written beside them.

Lin Che walked back into the room with his beer cans and froze in place. Xu Fang looked up from the notebook at Lin Che.

"What is this?" he asked.