Chapter 5: Guan Yizhou Is Here!
Xia Wu pedaled for about ten minutes before she reached the road at the village entrance.
A child from the first house by the gate came darting out of the courtyard, a middle-aged woman hurrying after him, still calling out:
“Slow down! Don’t run out like that. How many times have I told you? You won’t learn until you get yourself hit, will you?”
“Oh, Xia Wu’s back! On summer vacation already?”
The woman was Auntie Wang, who had watched Xia Wu grow up. She greeted her warmly.
“Hello, Auntie. Vacation just started—I came to see Grandma,” Xia Wu answered happily.
“Go on in, then. Your grandma’s been waiting on you every day. She’s saved up all sorts of good things for you.”
Xia Wu smiled and pedaled off quickly, following the cobblestone path east through the village.
A small river ran in front of Grandma’s house, lined with a row of dawn redwoods that had grown over ten meters tall, towering into the sky. Xia Wu rode the whole way in their shade, so the sun never touched her.
Just as she reached the turn, she spotted Grandma from afar, standing at the door and looking out.
Xia Wu pedaled faster, braked hard, and pulled up right at the doorstep.
“Grandma, it’s too hot out here—get back inside before you have a heatstroke. It’s not like I don’t know my own home.”
Grandma’s hair was white, but she was in good spirits. She chuckled as she lifted the things out of Xia Wu’s bicycle basket.
“I put a watermelon in the well water this morning. It’s perfectly chilled by now—go cut it open and eat.”
The two of them fussed over each other for a long while. By the time the sun sank in the west and the moon climbed above the willow tips, they still had endless things to say.
Xia Wu lay on a bamboo chair enjoying the cool evening, Grandma fanning her with a palm-leaf fan.
Swatting at mosquitoes, Grandma chattered on:
“Are you and Xiao Ying doing all right? That boy doesn’t talk much, but he’s got a good heart. He’s a good one. With him, Grandma doesn’t worry. Don’t let those sweet-talking types out there fool you—none of them are sincere.”
Grandma knew well enough that Xia Wu was beautiful—she’d been pretty since she was small, and her suitors could line up from here to the entrance of the next village.
But Xia Wu’s parents had passed early, and Grandma had fretted over that more than she could say.
Thankfully there was Xu Ying, so Xia Wu wouldn’t be easily tricked away by anyone else.
Xia Wu gazed at the dawn redwoods, her vision blurring a little. Come nightfall, she was half-blind.
Luckily the porch light at Grandma’s gate was bright enough. Maybe she’d stared at the trees too long—tears slid down her face.
Xu Ying was a good person. But so what?
If he didn’t treat her well, then he wasn’t a good person.
“Grandma knows you’ve always kept things buried deep, ever since you were little. Forgive them. It’s not that they didn’t love you, it’s just…” Grandma didn’t finish, but it always came back to the same words.
When Xia Wu was ten, her father died in an accident. His workplace paid out compensation, and she’d thought the three of them—grandmother and granddaughter—could hold their lives together.
But her mother couldn’t hold on. She missed him too much, so much that she lost sight of the young Xia Wu.
One starry night, she left a letter behind and departed this world to go find her stars.
For years afterward, whenever Xia Wu looked up at the sky, she wondered—had they found each other?
Xia Wu didn’t take the bait. She changed the subject instead: “Grandma, let me sleep with you tonight. We haven’t had a late-night talk in ages.”
“All right. You’re a big girl now, and Grandma’s bed is small—I’m afraid of squeezing my precious girl.” Grandma got to her feet as she said it.
“I’ll go shoo the mosquitoes away. With that delicate skin of yours, one bite and you’ll swell up something awful.”
Xia Wu smiled happily and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. But when she turned her head, she saw a figure at the doorway.
The porch light stretched his shadow long. Only as he walked closer did Xia Wu see—it was Xu Ying!
Xia Wu jumped up from the bamboo chair. Xu Ying stood a meter away from her.
“What are you doing here? Did you leave something at my place?” Xia Wu thought for a moment.
“No. I only took my own clothes. Your things are all at the foot of the bed. I didn’t touch the suitcase.”
Xu Ying’s face was backlit, so Xia Wu couldn’t make out his expression.
She only heard his voice, as flat as ever: “I saw the note you left. So I came.”
“Did you walk here?” Xia Wu asked, uncertain. The distance wasn’t far, but it wasn’t close either.
Xia Wu stepped closer, reaching out to touch his forehead—walking all this way, how much must he have sweated?
But halfway there, she froze. She realized she shouldn’t do this.
This person, this body—from now on, they should have nothing to do with her.
But Xu Ying caught her wrist in one hand, giving her no chance to retreat.
“Go on. Touch it. I’m sweating.”
Xia Wu tried to pull her hand back, but she couldn’t break free of Xu Ying.
She could only glare at him. “Who wants to touch you? It’s filthy—all sweat and stink. Disgusting.”
Xu Ying leaned down instead, closer still, and lowered his voice: “Don’t you like seeing me sweat?”
Xia Wu glanced in panic at the house behind her and smacked his chest with her other hand:
“What nonsense are you spouting! If Grandma hears, have you no shame?”
Xu Ying let out a scoff, lips curving with a hint of mockery:
“Now you know shame? Where was your shame when you had your hands all over me?”
Xia Wu rose on her toes and clapped a hand over his mouth. “Stop it! I won’t touch you anymore, all right?”
Xu Ying’s pupils tightened, his thin lips pressing shut—then relaxing again.
Xia Wu wouldn’t keep her word. She always said things like this to rile him, and yet she never touched him any less—if anything, she found new ways to torment him.
Thinking this, he reached out and tucked the stray hairs from her forehead behind her ear, wiping the sweat from her brow along the way.
After leaving the restaurant in town today, he’d gone straight home. Pushing the door open, he’d seen the neatly folded stack of clothes at once.
Xia Wu never folded clothes. Hers or his—he was always the one who folded and sorted them.
He didn’t like things jumbled together.
At first, his were his, and Xia Wu’s were Xia Wu’s.
He wouldn’t let his clothes pick up her scent.
He was his own person. This debt he owed Xia Wu—one day he’d repay it in full.
But in the end, the lines blurred anyway.
“Xiao Ying’s here?” Grandma’s voice came from inside. Xia Wu quickly dropped her hand, stepped back, and hung her head.
“Yes, Grandma. I came to take Xia Wu home.” Xu Ying withdrew his hand and walked toward the house, ignoring the stomp of Xia Wu’s feet behind him.
Grandma looked at Xu Ying and asked quietly, “Did you two have a fight? Be patient with her. She’s been stubborn as a mule since she was little. If she upsets you, tell Grandma—don’t go giving her the cold shoulder.”
“She’s just afraid of being left behind.”
Xu Ying smiled and agreed. Then he went back outside and said to Xia Wu, “Let’s go. Get on the back.”
He wheeled the bicycle out and motioned for Xia Wu to climb on.