Great Power Reclamation

The movie theater was located at the main entrance of the research institute, sandwiched between a hardware store and a pharmacy. The storefront wasn't large, but the signboard was quite impressive.

The seven large characters "Junkencheng People's Cinema" are made of cement and painted red, but over the years, most of the paint has peeled off.

The stroke of the character "人" (person) is almost completely gone, making it look like "Military Reclamation City Cinema" from a distance, which has a somewhat indescribable meaning.

Ye Hai stood at the entrance of the movie theater, clutching two movie tickets in his hand, as nervous as if he were holding two sets of engine test data.

He arrived twenty minutes early, which was unprecedented for him.

Normally, he arrives at the door just in time; a second early is too early, a second late is too late. Except when he goes to the research institute, in which case he has no concept of time.

But today is different. Today we're going to the movies. And he's going to the movies with Ayiguli. It's the first time in his life he's ever gone to the movies with a girl.

He looked at the movie ticket over and over again. The title of the film was printed on the ticket in both Uyghur and Chinese. He recognized the Chinese title—"The Moon Over the Grassland".

It sounds like a very slow and gentle film, probably consisting entirely of long shots of grasslands, flocks of sheep, yurts, and stargazing.

He didn't know if he could sit for two hours, but then he thought that if Aygul could sit, he could too.

"What are you looking at? Can tickets fly away?"

Ye Hai turned his head. Ayiguli stood three meters behind him, wearing a white dress with a denim jacket over it. Her hair was loosely braided and draped over her shoulders, with the red hair tie still attached to the end of the braid.

She wore light makeup today, her eyelashes were longer than usual, and she had a light layer of lipstick on her lips, like the thin layer of white frost on a freshly picked cherry.

Ye Hai stared at her, stunned for a long while. He opened his mouth, wanting to say, "You look beautiful today," but the words that came out were:
"You've arrived."

Then she added, "You're not late."

Then she added, "I wasn't late either."

Aygul was amused by his three nonsensical sentences and walked over, naturally taking his arm.

"Let's go in. Standing there like two idiots."

The movie theater looked much larger inside than outside. It had a large hall that could seat more than two hundred people, with old-fashioned flip-up chairs. The wooden armrests were polished to a shine, and the cushions were covered with dark red velvet, with some areas worn white.

The ceiling lights were off, with only a few wall lamps on, casting a dim, yellowish light that made the whole hall look like a living room from an old era.

The screen was white and stretched straight, displaying an advertisement for a shampoo. It showed a long-haired girl tossing her hair on a grassland in slow motion for over ten seconds.

Ye Hai found his seat according to the number on his ticket: row seven, seats three and four, right in the middle, neither in front nor behind, neither to the left nor to the right, with his line of sight facing the center of the screen.

He didn't know if this was a good seat; he had never seriously watched a complete movie in a theater before.

He went to the movie theater while in Boston.

The school organized an event and showed "Apollo 13". He left halfway through because he was busy calculating the combustion efficiency equation for the combustion chamber. He found the movie too noisy and went back to the lab.

"Have you ever seen a movie before?" Aygul sat down and took off her denim jacket, draping it over her lap.

"I've seen it."

"What have you seen?"

"Apollo 13".

Is it pretty?

"I didn't finish watching it. I left halfway through."

"why?"

"It's too noisy."

Aygul glanced at him, her eyes filled with helplessness, amusement, and a touch of heartache.

"Are you annoyed by the noise, or by the waste of time?"

Ye Hai thought for a moment. "Both."

Aygul sighed and reached out to take his hand. Her hand was soft and small, like a warm dove nestled in his rough palm.

Ye Hai subconsciously tightened his grip a little, then realized he was gripping too tightly and might hurt her, so he loosened his grip.

She loosened her grip, then felt it was too loose and would slip away, so she tightened it a little more. After several such repetitions, Aygul couldn't resist any longer.

"Would you rather shake hands or knead dough?"

Ye Hai's hand froze, motionless. Ayiguli pried his fingers apart one by one, then inserted her own fingers into his, interlocking them.

That's just right. Not too tight, not too loose. Like a key inserted into a lock.

The commercials on the screen ended, the lights went out, and the movie began. The scene was a grassland, the sky was blue, the clouds were white, and a young man rode a horse galloping from afar.

The camera zooms in, revealing the man's striking features: thick eyebrows and large eyes, a typical Kazakh appearance.

He said something in Kazakh, and then the subtitles appeared—

"I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Aygul turned to the side, leaned close to Ye Hai's ear, and whispered:
He said, 'I've been waiting for you for a long time.'

Her breath brushed against Ye Hai's ear like a feather, tickling him so much that he involuntarily shrank his neck.

“Your ears are red,” Aygul whispered.

"No."

"Yes. The redness extends from the tips of the ears to the roots, like a boiled shrimp."

Ye Hai reached up and touched his ear; it was burning hot. He wanted to say, "It's not because you were breathing into my ear," but he felt it would be even more embarrassing to say it, so he kept quiet.

The movie continued. A man on horseback found a girl's yurt. The girl was waiting for him at the door, wearing a red dress and a flower in her hair.

The two stared at each other without saying a word. After several seconds, Ye Hai felt a pang in his teeth.

"What are they doing?" he asked in a low voice.

"They are making eye contact."

"Staring at each other for so long?"

"Isn't that romantic?"

"Isn't that a waste of time? When you make eye contact, you can think about many things at the same time."

Aygul turned to look at him, the light from the screen reflecting on her face, flickering on and off.

She held back for several seconds, but couldn't help laughing. Tears streamed down her face as she quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand, afraid of ruining her makeup.

“You,” she laughed, almost breathless, “turning a movie into a technical analysis report. Are you even planning to give them a score? Perfect for eye contact? Pass for emotional depth? And some improvement for technical moves?”

Ye Hai felt a little embarrassed by her laughter, but the corners of his mouth also turned up.

He didn't think what he said was funny, but seeing her laugh made him happy too.

Halfway through the movie, the male and female protagonists are taking a walk under the moonlight. They are walking on a hillside covered with wildflowers, and the moon is big and round, hanging in the middle of the sky.

The man spoke a very long speech, which took several lines of subtitles to read, but Ye Hai didn't have time to finish before the text ended.

"What did he say?" he leaned closer to ask.

Aygul's face flushed slightly, but the movie theater lights were too dim to see. She whispered in his ear, her voice as soft as the wind.

He said, 'The moon is bright, but not as bright as your eyes. The grassland is vast, but not as vast as your heart. The wind is far-reaching, but not as far-reaching as your song. I have traveled many roads, climbed many mountains, and crossed many rivers, all to find you.'"

After listening, Ye Hai remained silent for a while. "That's right."

"good?"

"Like a poem."

"It's poetry. Written by a Kazakh poet. All the lines in this movie are poetry."

Ye Hai thought for a moment. "So, did the male protagonist win over the girl by reciting poetry?"

"Not entirely. He was also riding a horse."

Ye Hai silently repeated the words "riding a horse" in his mind, feeling that it was a bit too difficult.

He couldn't even ride the bicycle properly at the research institute. Once, the chain fell off halfway through a ride, and he squatted by the roadside for half an hour to fix it, his hands covered in black oil.

Needless to say, he doesn't even know how to mount a horse.

“What if you can’t ride a horse?” he asked.

Aygul glanced at him and smiled. "It's okay if you can't ride a horse. Being able to draw turbine blades is fine too."

Ye Hai was taken aback for a moment before realizing he was being teased. But he didn't feel embarrassed; instead, he smiled.

The smile wasn't big; the corners of his mouth were just slightly upturned, but the light in his eyes was bright.

It was almost 10 p.m. when the movie ended. The two walked out of the cinema, and the wind outside was much colder than when they went in. Ayiguli put on her denim jacket and pulled up the collar.

There were stars in the sky, but not very densely; they were scattered in twos and threes, like a handful of sesame seeds casually scattered by someone.

"Is it pretty?" Aygul asked. "It's pretty."

"Really? You almost fell asleep in the middle of it. I saw you close your eyes three times."

Ye Hai scratched his head. "I wasn't closing my eyes. I was... thinking."

"What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about how the cooling holes for the turbine blades should be arranged. When the male protagonist was reciting poetry, he spoke so slowly, one word at a time, that I got distracted and started thinking about something else."

Aygul stopped and turned to look at him.

"So, when you were watching the movie with me, you were thinking about turbine blades?"

Ye Hai opened his mouth, wanting to say, "No, I only thought about it for a little while, and spent the rest of the time thinking about the poems you whispered in my ear," but what came out of his mouth was, "I'm sorry."

Aygul looked at him for a few seconds. Then she reached out and lightly flicked his forehead. "Never mind. I forgive you. After all, it's your first time watching a movie."

Ye Hai rubbed his forehead; the spot where he'd been flicked hurt a little, but the pain was strangely pleasant. He didn't know why being flicked on the forehead felt good; perhaps it was because the person who flicked him was her.

The two walked back along the town's narrow streets. Most of the shops on both sides were closed, their shutters pulled down, leaving only a few stalls selling kebabs and naan open. The charcoal in their ovens glowed red-hot, and the smoky aroma of roasting lamb filled the street. Several workers who had finished their shifts sat on small stools by the roadside, each with a skewer in hand, drinking beer and chatting quietly, their voices low but lively. Ayiguli stopped in front of a naan shop, bought a freshly baked naan, broke it in half, and handed it to Ye Hai.

"Try it. This place has the best naan bread in the whole military reclamation city."

Ye Hai took it and took a bite, hissing as it was scalding hot. The outer layer was crispy, the inside soft, with a strong wheat flavor, and a hint of sweetness as you chewed.

"good to eat."

"Of course it's delicious. I'm telling you it's the best, the absolute best."

Aygul took a bite herself, eating as she walked. She ate beautifully, slowly and deliberately, taking small bites like a little rabbit nibbling on grass. Ye Hai watched her eat, forgetting to even chew his own naan.

"What are you looking at?" Aygul asked, her mouth stuffed with naan bread, her voice muffled.

"Watching you eat."

What's so interesting about me?

Everything looks beautiful.

Aygul paused in her chewing. She looked at him, her expression shifting from surprise to slight shyness, then from shyness to something indescribable—like looking at a fool, but one she herself had chosen.

"Why are you suddenly so talkative tonight?" She swallowed the naan in her mouth, her voice returning to normal.

"I guess I've watched too many movies. The male protagonist recited so many poems, I had to learn a couple of lines."

"What two phrases did you learn?"

Ye Hai thought for a moment, then said, "The moon is bright, but not as bright as your eyes."

Aygul paused for a moment, then reached out and lightly punched his arm. "You're just reciting what you've learned. No way. That doesn't count. You have to say one yourself."

Ye Hai scratched his head, racking his brains. The thing he was worst at in his life was coming up with his own words. He was good at analyzing data, drawing blueprints, calculating formulas, and adjusting parameters. These things all had standard answers; he didn't need to think for himself. But now Ayiguli wanted him to come up with one, and he couldn't.

“The turbine blades are important,” he said after a long pause, “but you are not as important as the turbine blades.”

He regretted it as soon as he said it. What kind of nonsense is that? What does a turbine blade have to do with Ayiguli? Comparing a girl to a turbine blade is not a compliment, it's an insult.

But Aygul didn't scold him. She stood there, the orange light of the streetlamp illuminating her face. Her expression changed from surprise to something indescribable; her mouth opened and closed, then opened again, but still no words came out. Finally, she stuffed the remaining small piece of naan into her mouth, using chewing to mask her comprehension of what to say.

Are you praising me or the turbine blades?

"I'm praising you."

"You praised me while also bringing up the turbine blades?"

"Turbine blades are indeed very important—"

"Alright, alright, shut up." Ayiguli reached out and covered his mouth. Ye Hai didn't flinch or move. His palm rested on the back of her hand, warm and soft. He shut his mouth, but he smiled. When he smiled, his eyes, which usually only stared at data and blueprints, curved into two crescent moons, even the fine lines at the corners of his eyes seemed softer. He didn't smile often, but every time he did, it conveyed a clumsy yet sincere joy overflowing from the bottom of his heart.

Looking at his smile, Aygul suddenly realized that her decision to come to the military reclamation city was absolutely the right one. Not for the world's most advanced engine, but for this man who smiled like a big child.

The two walked back to the entrance of the research institute. The street lamp was still on, its orange light casting long, thin shadows on the ground, like two forked branches lying side by side.

"We've arrived," Ye Hai said.

"Yes. We've arrived."

A few seconds of silence followed. Ye Hai didn't know what to say. He wanted to say, "I had a great day," but that felt too ordinary. He wanted to say, "Let's watch a movie together again next time," but he didn't know when "next time" would be. He wanted to say, "I like you," but—he mentally calculated the time; it had only been less than two weeks since they met. Was saying "I like you" too fast?
"What are you thinking about?" Aygul asked.

"I'm wondering when we can watch a movie together again."

Aygul lowered her head and rubbed her toes back and forth on the ground a few times. "Next weekend. They're showing the same movie again. I only watched half of it before your snoring drowned out the rest."

"I don't snore."

"You hit him. Quietly, like a kitten whimpering."

Ye Hai's face flushed again. No one had ever told him he looked like a kitten. He thought of himself as a cow, a horse, any large, thick-skinned animal, unafraid of wind and rain. But a kitten? He instinctively hummed, trying to prove he wouldn't make that sound. Ayiguli was so amused by his hum that she covered her mouth and bent over laughing.

"You really are—you really are—" She laughed so hard she couldn't finish a sentence, so she stopped and tiptoed to kiss him on the other cheek. This time it was a bit harder than the last, a solid kiss on his cheek, with a slight coolness—her lips had been out in the night wind for a while and were icy cold.

"This is a reward for not running back to the lab halfway today." She finished speaking, turned, and ran into the stairwell. Her footsteps thumped upwards, growing fainter. Ye Hai stood downstairs, looking up, watching the motion-activated lights on the second and third floors turn on one by one, then off again. Finally, the light in the east-facing window on the fourth floor came on, casting a shadow on the windowsill. The person stood by the window for a moment, then drew the curtains.

Ye Hai turned and walked back. He touched the side of his cheek that had just been kissed, then touched the other side—one from yesterday, the other from today. The two sides were different temperatures; one was already cool, the other was still hot. He wondered, if Ayiguli kissed him every day, would the temperature of his face remain at a constant level for a year? Then he shook his head, dismissing the thought. It was too engineer-like; he couldn't let Ayiguli know.

He returned to his dormitory, pushed open the door, and found Ye Yuping sitting on his bed.

Ye Hai was startled. "Dad? What are you doing here?"

Ye Yuping stood up, his expression unnatural, as if he were preparing to say something difficult. He walked a few steps around the dormitory with his hands behind his back, then stopped and cleared his throat.

"Did you go to the movies with Ayiguli tonight?"

Ye Hai's heart skipped a beat. "How did you know?"

“Everyone at the R&D institute knows. Ivan said it in the cafeteria. He said, ‘Ye Hai’s turbine blades are drawn crooked because he’s in love.’” Ye Yuping paused, then added, “Ivan said this in Russian. But he was so loud that everyone in the cafeteria heard him.”

Ye Hai opened his mouth, wanting to explain something, but found that he really didn't have anything to explain. He went to the movies with Ayiguli, ate naan, held hands, and was even kissed twice. These were facts, and he couldn't deny them.

"Dad, Ayiguli and I—"

“You don’t need to explain to me.” Ye Yuping raised his hand, interrupting him. He walked up to Ye Hai, patted his shoulder lightly but firmly, as if performing some kind of ritual. “I just came to tell you—”

Ye Yuping paused. His lips moved, as if he was considering what to say next.

"Dating is fine. But you can't draw the turbine blades crooked tomorrow."

Ye Hai paused for a moment, then smiled. That was just the kind of person his father was; he hid all his emotions behind seemingly insignificant words. He reached out and grasped Ye Yuping's hand that was resting on his shoulder, squeezed it briefly, and then let go.

"Dad, it won't be drawn crooked."

Ye Yuping nodded and turned to leave. He stopped at the door, but didn't look back. "Helena said you should bring Aygul home for dinner tomorrow. She wants to make hand-pulled rice."

The door closed.

Ye Hai stood in the middle of the dormitory, staring at the closed door for several seconds, stunned. Then he picked up his phone and sent a message to Ayiguli. This time, he knew what to send.

"My mom is treating you to dinner tomorrow night. It'll be hand-pulled rice. Seven o'clock. I'll pick you up at the entrance of the research institute."

The reply came very quickly. Faster than ever before.

"it is good."

And then there was another one.

Is your mom fierce?

Ye Hai thought for a moment and typed: "Not fierce. She just spent her whole life researching how to prevent turbine blades from exploding."

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"Then I'll bring a bouquet of flowers. What kind of flowers does your mom like?"

Ye Hai thought for a moment and said, "Orchids. She has a clivia in her office that she's had for over ten years."

"Okay. I'll go to the flower shop tomorrow."

Do you know where the flower shop is?

"I don't know her. But I'll look for her. Don't come to pick me up, I'll go by myself. You should leave work early, don't leave your mom busy in the kitchen alone."

As Ye Hai looked at those words, a feeling he had never experienced before welled up inside him. He couldn't quite describe it, only that it made his heart race even faster than when the engine test run was successful.

He placed his phone beside his pillow and lay down. The crack in the ceiling was still there, stretching from the light fixture to the corner of the wall.

But today, the crack doesn't look like a river anymore; it looks like a road. A road leading to some place he doesn't know.

He turned over and quickly fell asleep. The stars shone outside the window, and the night breeze of the military reclamation city blew gently.

The streetlight in front of the research institute was still on, shining for two hours. Ayiguli walked out of the dormitory building, looked up at the starry sky, took a deep breath of the crisp air of the Gobi Desert, and a smile that she herself did not realize was on her lips.

She glanced down at the movie ticket stub on her phone, then carefully tucked it into her pocket. It was as if it weren't just a piece of paper, but a seed, waiting to take root and sprout somewhere.

(To be continued) (End of this chapter)