Eighty-Five: A Sleepless Night on the Eve of the Sacred Flame

Only after stepping into the private room did I realize that it was already full.

The next day was the torch relay, so there were naturally far more people than usual coming to KTV for an all-night spree. The large room had long since been packed to capacity, and the dozen or so people from Xiaokai’s club had no choice but to squeeze into this smaller room, making the whole space feel especially cramped.

Xiaokai led me around to greet everyone in the room one by one. The others then did their best to scoot aside, forcibly making room for two seats. I had never had any contact with the people in Xiaokai’s club, and since we were strangers to one another, there was nothing much to say. So I simply sat quietly there, listening to them chat and sing. Shortly after midnight, a waiter came in to say that a large room had opened up. Everyone immediately grabbed their belongings and followed him to the new place.

Once inside the larger room, it was obviously much more spacious. Those who wanted to sing rushed to the front sofa to claim seats, while Xiaokai and I took the bar stools behind the sofa.

Bored, I idly toyed with the dice in my hand and soon began to doze off. In a hazy half-sleep, I seemed to hear Xiaokai chatting with a beautiful girl beside him, but when I woke from my nap, the two of them were nowhere to be seen.

Having woken up, I could no longer fall asleep. Leaning listlessly on the bar, I suddenly received a text from Xiaokai: "Xiaobei, come out for a late-night snack. We’ll be waiting for you at the intersection."

At first I had not felt hungry at all, but once Xiaokai mentioned it, my stomach really did begin to rumble. I jumped off the stool, pushed open the door, and left the room.

When I left KTV, I glanced down at the time out of habit. It was already past one in the morning, and the street outside was very empty. Walking slowly alone toward the intersection, I found the scene strangely familiar.

I ransacked the fragments of memory in my mind and suddenly remembered that three years ago, on Christmas Eve, I had once walked along this very road with Huang Xin. Faintly, I seemed to see again the happy look on Huang Xin’s face as she sprayed perfume into the sky.

In the blink of an eye, three years had passed, and Huang Xin seemed to have long since vanished from my life...

Just after crossing the intersection, I spotted Xiaokai waving to me from afar. The beautiful girl he had been talking to earlier was walking beside him as well. I broke into a run toward them, and in the deep night of early summer there was still the faint chill of late spring. After running all that way, I did not break a sweat; instead, I felt warm almost at once.

The three of us walked side by side along the deserted street. The occasional passerby did not slow their hurried steps, vanishing quickly from view. If not for the torch relay, perhaps it would have been nothing more than an ordinary night.

Listening all the while to Xiaokai’s reckless boasting and rambling from one subject to another, I did not feel bored at all. Before long, the street-food market appeared before us.

Even from far away, the rich, savory aroma of cooked dishes came wafting over, and I could not help swallowing. By day this had been the busiest commercial center in the city, yet by night it had somehow transformed into a gathering place for all kinds of delicious food.

The owners manned their own stoves. Flames roared up from the bottoms of the pans, all manner of food boiled and rolled in the pots, and then each dish was carried to the tables of the diners seated along the street.

We sat down in front of a stall selling oden. Xiaokai went to order the food, leaving me alone with the beautiful girl, seated face to face. Neither of us said a word, and the atmosphere quickly became awkward.

For some reason, ever since Lele left, I seemed to have become very afraid of being alone with a woman. Especially now, facing a girl I had never met before, it was only natural that I felt thoroughly ill at ease. I did not dare raise my head to look at her face. I kept my head down and occupied myself with browsing the internet on my phone.

Fortunately, Xiaokai returned very quickly. He and that beautiful girl seemed to always have endless things to say, endless topics to discuss, and I was happy enough to stay out of the way. Sitting to one side, I ate the steaming oden and listened to their conversation, all the while watching the minutes and seconds slip past before my eyes.

After finishing our late-night snack, we could not be bothered to walk back, so we casually hailed a taxi. The roads at that hour were empty, with hardly any cars in sight, and the driver sped along at a furious pace. In less than five minutes, we were back at KTV.

When we entered the room again, we found that most of the people inside had already collapsed into drunken sleep. Only a few night owls were still singing, endlessly and with great enthusiasm, the classic Cantonese song "Offering Himself" by Jordan Chan.

It had been one of Lele’s must-sing songs whenever she went to KTV. The familiar music, the familiar melody, and those familiar memories...

At 4:30 a.m., I was suddenly awakened by Xiaokai. Half asleep and still dazed, I followed the crowd down to the lobby on the first floor of KTV. The lobby was ablaze with lights, packed everywhere with students waving flags and dressed like schoolchildren. The few sofa seats were already full, and even the steps on the floor were covered with people. To my surprise, I even ran into a few classmates from my preparatory year. So everyone had come here to stay up all night and wait for the torch relay.

Just as everyone was gathered together, with nothing to do, someone from Xiaokai’s club suddenly suggested that there was a motorcade parade going on at the square where the torch relay would begin, and that it was well worth seeing.

Since we were just sitting around here anyway, after a brief discussion everyone nodded in agreement. The dozen or so of us then split into four taxis outside KTV and set off in a grand procession for the square.

The closer we got, the heavier the traffic became, and before long our car could no longer move forward at all. We could already see the tall roof of the square’s landmark building ahead, but no matter what, we could not get any closer. After sitting in the car and waiting for a long while while the meter kept ticking upward, we finally decided to get out and walk.

After going forward for about ten minutes, we finally discovered the real reason for the traffic jam. The streets were packed with people everywhere, and the intersections were completely blocked by the human tide. Though traffic police were doing their best to maintain order, it was only a drop in the bucket.

These people must have been organized by the universities nearby to come watch the torch relay. Some wore matching outfits, some tied the same red headbands around their foreheads, and many fanatical people had stuck flags and Beijing Olympics logos all over their faces and arms.

At that moment, a wave of cheering suddenly rose from afar. Everyone turned their heads and rose on tiptoe to look, and sure enough, the parade convoy was coming toward us. The cars taking part in the parade had all been spontaneously organized by enthusiastic citizens. From the windows, people kept leaning out, excitedly waving the flags in their hands, both the national flag and the Beijing Olympic flag, and together with the people outside the cars they shouted thunderously, "Go, Beijing! Go, Olympics!"

It was truly a scene to be remembered for a lifetime.

Chapter revised on October 14, 2010.