EGRV 15 | Per Aspera

【Liang Muyi, this friend of yours, is he good-looking?】

Liang Muyi arrived at the resort hotel and got a room for the night. He had certainly experienced sleeping rough in a car before, but times were different now. He wasn’t about to shortchange himself on such things. Before getting out, he followed Chi Yu’s advice and opened the trunk.

Chi Yu practically used his seven-seater Highlander like a two-seater pickup truck. The back two rows of seats were always folded down, and the expanded trunk resembled a mobile tent. Aside from the various snowboards, bindings, and boots for different occasions, Liang Muyi also found a sleeping bag, a blanket, clean clothes, a flashlight and a simple toolbox, a deck of cards, a phone charger, a small cooler, and non-perishable snacks. Chi Yu had indeed mentioned during their first drive that, with all his competitions and training over the years, he’d sometimes just crash in the car for a night when in a pinch.

Liang Muyi had left in a hurry. Besides his phone and wallet, he hadn’t even brought a change of clothes. He casually grabbed two of Chi Yu’s shirts. Just as he was closing the trunk, his peripheral vision caught the corner of a sports magazine. He hesitated for a moment, then grabbed that too.

Since he had plenty of free time, Liang Muyi decided to open his phone and look into work.

President Zheng Chengling from Summit Greater China had already sent him the schedule for the upcoming training trip to Squamish, Canada, and had added him to a group chat with all the members.

Liang Muyi tapped on the profile pictures of all the contacts in the group, going through them one by one, until he stopped at a white avatar. The ID was a string of gibberish, and the name was a word that looked like Latin: per_aspera.

Per aspera ad astra (Through hardship to the stars).* But only the first half. He knew immediately who it was.

Liang Muyi had known Zhong Yanyun since he was eighteen. The subject of his first published outdoor exploration photo series and his first documentary film was Zhong Yanyun.

In his eyes, the man was less an athlete and more a wandering bard. He had no fixed address, went for many years without a smartphone, had no TV at home, and wasn’t into smoking, drinking, or parties. He only liked to immerse himself in all things related to rock climbing. Naturally, he also paid no mind to social customs and etiquette, often disappearing for months at a time without a word to go climbing, camping, and free soloing in the deep mountains. He would never send holiday greetings to anyone.

He said they weren’t exactly friends because it was hard to define their relationship in conventional social terms. Liang Muyi had once really wanted to be close buddies with him—the kind of closeness that comes from being on the same rope, two lives connected—but no matter how close they were during their climbs, it seemed he was never Zhong Yanyun’s friend. And it wasn’t just him; Zhong Yanyun didn’t seem to be anyone’s friend.

It was only after the Mufeng incident that he understood Zhong Yanyun’s wisdom. For the next three years, Liang Muyi only did commercial shoots, and the two of them naturally had no contact. Unlike Wang Nan’ou and the others, Zhong Yanyun had never once tried to hold him back.

While he was looking over the training schedule, a call came in from his boss, Li Xiangwan.

After he answered, she first apologized. “This one’s my fault. Brother Zheng came to me twice through a friend. I was the one who told him you happened to be in Canada, and I was also the one who told him to ask if you were willing to take the job. I went out for drinks last night and didn’t get a chance to give you a heads-up. He was in a hurry too, probably called you right after he hung up with me. I know you’re there for vacation and to be with your family—”

Liang Muyi’s vacation was practically non-existent; he was still working and still taking calls from his boss. But he didn’t mind. He was the type who couldn’t stay idle; it had been that way for years.

“It’s no problem. I’ve shot for them before, and the people coming this time are all old acquaintances of mine. I’ve looked at their preliminary plan; it’s not too time-consuming. It’s just that Jiayun ad…”

“Let’s push it back another month. I know their boss, it’ll be fine. Everyone’s taking a break these next two months anyway.”

“Alright,” Liang Muyi said readily. “I’ll let President Zheng know then.”

There was a clicking sound from Li Xiangwan’s end, like a lighter flicking, which made Liang Muyi want a cigarette too. After lighting hers, she asked, “You really don’t want to go home that much?”

She had always known about the troubles in Liang Muyi’s family. Back when he first approached her, asking if her offer to join the studio still stood, he hadn’t hidden his reasons. It was only later, as they got to know each other better, that they became friends.

“You actually hit the nail on the head. I’m really not at my dad’s place right now.”

“Out having fun? It must be pretty late where you are. At a hotel?”

Only then did Liang Muyi explain, “Not at all. I was dropping a friend off somewhere.”

Li Xiangwan didn’t say anything, so he continued, “How should I put it… a friend of my friend got into some trouble while skiing. He had to go help, but he’d just had a drink. We had dinner together tonight. I didn’t drink, so I drove him.”

On the other end of the line, Li Xiangwan took a drag from her cigarette, then asked, zeroing in on the key point, “Your friend?”

“He’s an instructor, but a friend too, I guess. I’ve been learning to snowboard from him recently. Snowboard, not skis.”

Li Xiangwan chuckled. Not only was her sixth sense sharp, but she also knew Liang Muyi very well. “Liang Muyi, this friend of yours, is he good-looking? You’re moving pretty fast.”

“What do you mean, fast? I’m in a hotel room by myself,” Liang Muyi joked back before hanging up.

He hadn’t answered her directly, but he found himself thinking about Li Xiangwan’s question. Was Chi Yu good-looking? Of course not. Liang Muyi had been a portrait photographer for years, after all. He was more observant than others and had long since noticed the prominent, crescent-shaped scar by the corner of Chi Yu’s eye, about two fingers wide. When he wasn’t talking, his face was always expressionless, even a bit fierce-looking.

As the night deepened, Liang Muyi found he couldn’t sleep. He took out his phone, intending to search for news about avalanche rescues. The search was still ongoing, so naturally, he found nothing. He had just spent nearly two hours in a confined space with Chi Yu, and when he’d gotten out of the car, he couldn’t help but be affected by the other man’s mood, feeling a slight anxiety himself.

When Chi Yu got out of the car, he had taken a snowboard with him—the only splitboard in the vehicle. Even a layman like Liang Muyi could guess his intention. If the ski patrol agreed to let him join them, he would use the splitboard. A solid snowboard looks cool, but when facing the complex terrain of the backcountry, a splitboard, which can be used as both a board and skis, was more suitable.

The off-piste backcountry area where the avalanche had occurred during the day was dangerous. For him to go into that unsafe, pitch-black area at night to help search for someone was no less so.

Yet, he wasn’t particularly worried about Chi Yu’s safety. Maybe it was from the moment Chi Yu had pressed his helmet to his chest after his first heelside fall, or maybe it was from when he had bent down to buckle his boots for him. In his memory, Chi Yu was always strong, resolute, and decisive. Liang Muyi thought about what Cheng Yang had said that day—that he liked Chi Yu because he was introverted, shy, and handsome. But Liang Muyi felt that through their interactions, he had seen a different Chi Yu. That person was bold, stubborn, and a bit neurotic, but his eyes were always fiery, as if a small, burning universe resided within them.

He was making this judgment based on a very dangerous intuition, but he just wasn’t worried about Chi Yu. He knew he would definitely come back.