Still Spring in Green [Blind Goalball]

Gu Yao x Ye Tingfeng

Writer x athlete

1.

Like the earth turning green in spring, Gu Yao and Ye Tingfeng met in a summer that was still lush and green.

Gu Yao had written many stories: a summer spent drowning, a child who had lost their voice. But she had never written about anyone like Ye Tingfeng.

He played blind goalball. His eyes held no light, yet he could pinpoint the direction of every ball by its sound.

He was like a wind in the dead of night, saying nothing, yet always listening when she thought no one could hear her.

The "him" in her novel was initially only a vague silhouette, described as blind, athletic, quiet, and highly perceptive. She never imagined that one day the real "him" would see right through her.

"You've written about me."

"But you got it wrong."

Gu Yao was stunned. "What did I get wrong?"

He lowered his eyes, the corner of his lips lifting. "You wrote that he lives by his hearing. But we live by our sixth sense. For example, I know when you're sad."

From fiction drawing close to reality, from a line of text to a person.

She was writing about his world, but he was quietly lighting up her heart.

2.

Gu Yao interviewed Ye Tingfeng. The first time she saw him, she saw an athlete sensitive to sound, free and nimble as the wind.

Ye Tingfeng had a stubborn air about him. His eyes were small, their corners tilted upward. His gaze held a contradictory mix of innocence and sincerity. Using the vision he had left, he tried hard to locate each person speaking.

"I have inherited retinitis pigmentosa. My vision is tunnel vision now. Sorry, I have a habit of trying to look at whoever's speaking, but it might seem a little strange."

Ever since his eyesight began to decline, Ye Tingfeng had become sensitive to everything. He always noticed when Gu Yao paused before asking a question. He pressed his lips together and explained in a very low voice, seeming remarkably calm about what had happened to him. He didn't say that the voice sounded so familiar, and that curiosity was quietly rising in his heart.

"But if you compete in sports and win a few more world championships, maybe your eyesight will get better." Gu Yao had said something like that before. Ye Tingfeng remembered hearing it, and the voice had sounded just like Gu Yao's.

But Gu Yao didn't notice his fluttering heart. She only replied, "I lost my train of thought, sorry. Could you share some more interesting stories from training?"

It was the height of summer, yet Ye Tingfeng felt as if he were in a damp, rainy night. In front of her, he seemed just as he had always been. Even her odd gestures were like a butterfly spreading its wings, carrying away all the dampness and fatigue.

Maybe, like spring to green, Gu Yao and Ye Tingfeng were indispensable to one another.

"You feel familiar to me, as if I must have met you before."

"Yeah. If you win every championship, your eyesight will get better."

"I really have met you, a long time ago, before I went blind."

"We play blind goalball not to see the light, but to hear the sounds."

"Every sound we can hear becomes our light."

1. First, I'll finish the neighboring story, Sunny Snow, about blind goalball. I'm stuck on the stories of the other two couples right now, so I need to think them through...

2. This story features creative writing, literary short fiction, essays, poetry, livestreaming, short videos, blind goalball, the Asian Para Games, and related competitions.

Theme: Passionate youth.