Southern Tibet's Evening Star
Jing Feng
Xu Nanheng was still a thousand kilometers away from Lhasa. Growing increasingly agitated behind the wheel, he stepped out for a cigarette only to find no lighter in his pocket. Just as frustration drove him to kick the tire, a man struck a flint, a flame flickered to life, and leaned in to light the tip of his cigarette. Under the evening stars, it was the only face Xu Nanheng had found agreeable in months. "Going to Lhasa?" Fang Shiyou asked. "Mind giving me a lift? My car broke down here—name your price." Xu Nanheng squinted. "Five hundred." Fang Shiyou: "Quite the philanthropist, aren’t you?" ...Damn, too cheap. · Xu Nanheng spent a year teaching in Tibet. The young master from Beijing had never seen skies so breathtaking. He adored dusk most—the moment just before dark, when twilight stars graced the lakeside hues of southern Tibet’s plateau. Standing tall and striking, textbook in hand, Teacher Xu would gaze up at the stars, serene as the breeze, the Milky Way shimmering faintly. Fang Shiyou lingered nearby, eyes blazing as they fixed on him. To Fang Shiyou, this was the epitome of unrivaled grace. Truthfully, Teacher Xu, while stargazing, also wanted to evoke poetic verse—only to remember he was a math teacher with literary skills thinner than paper. Sighing, he muttered, "Ow, my neck." Fang Shiyou: .