The Scorching Sun - 45
Yan Lie was an impossibly unfair man. The things he said without a second thought were dangerous to dwell on too deeply. They had a way of making people lose themselves.
Fang Zhuo hadn’t said anything at the time, but she still found herself following his line of thought, remembering when, exactly, everything had begun to change.
Maybe it was the deliberately casual concern outside the convenience store. Maybe it was the sudden light that had appeared in a lost city. Maybe it was the sky-blue umbrella tilting toward her through a curtain of fine rain. Maybe it was a certain smile, so gentle and strangely unreal.
It had begun with jokes she couldn’t tell were real or not, and ended with restraint that could say everything except the words themselves.
When Fang Zhuo finally fell asleep with all those tangled, indistinct thoughts in her mind, her dreams were filled with scenes that seemed to have been washed smooth by a flowing stream.
Cool, clean, leaving behind nothing but a fresh, rain-damp scent.
On a morning after the rain, before a mountainside covered in tiny white flowers, Yan Lie had smiled with an earnest expression and said, "Flowers that try so hard to bloom can't just be called wildflowers, can they? They all have names of their own."
Every effort, every tiny dream that seemed too insignificant to mention, had a name of its own, too.
Even if no one knew about it yet, someone could still come to appreciate it.
The day after the Spring Festival ended, Xiao Mu came back. Fang Zhuo had nowhere to stay, so she returned to the countryside for a few days.
After going so long without paying attention to them, she found that the chickens in the little courtyard had grown into shapes she could barely recognize.
Fang Zhuo rolled up her sleeves and caught them one by one to identify them. Sure enough, little baldy's bald patch had not been hereditary. Now that he had grown into a plump, handsome rooster, he had completely blended in with the rest of the flock.
And the chicken coop Ye Yuncheng had once said was specially made for little baldy no longer belonged to him either.
Chickens were naturally combative creatures. little baldy might have been the most pampered, but he certainly wasn't the toughest, so there was no way he could defend his own coop.
Fang Zhuo was already entertaining a rather dangerous idea when, thankfully, Liu Qiaohong happened to stop by. He lent her his phone so she could seek help from someone outside the situation.
Fang Zhuo casually picked out one of the chickens, took a particularly imposing photo of it from below, and sent it to Yan Lie.
Yan Lie replied almost immediately, and exactly as she’d expected.
Yan Lie: They grow so fast! No wonder it's little baldy! You've raised this chicken so well!
All right.
This guy couldn't even tell a rooster from a hen. Typical of him.
Their father-son bond had officially come to an end.
Fang Zhuo sent the same photo to Ye Yuncheng. To her surprise, he said with absolute certainty, "That's not little baldy. little baldy's tail is darker, he's easy to recognize. I even tied a string around his leg. Look carefully."
Following his instructions, Fang Zhuo found the lucky chicken with a bright red string around its leg.
After finding some time to clean up the little courtyard, she couldn't resist. Following the Taobao picture Yan Lie had shown her, she built little baldy a new chicken coop.
For some reason, all of Yan Lie's sudden whims somehow ended up being carried out by her.
Unfortunately, she didn't have a chance to send Yan Lie a picture of the chicken coop just yet.
Fang Zhuo wasn't particularly familiar with the neighbors in the village. During the day, when she had nothing to do, she cleaned. At night, she stayed in her room doing homework. Around eight or nine every evening, before the grocery store across the way closed, she'd go over and call Ye Yuncheng to let him know she was safe.
Once she'd gotten used to that rhythm, she didn't find it boring, even if it was monotonous.
After she'd been there for two days, an elderly neighbor from the next house asked her to help fix a computer.
Fang Zhuo had barely used a computer herself, let alone repaired one, the request made her nervous. But the elderly couple couldn't read and their understanding of computers was limited to "turning it on" and "turning it off." They repeatedly asked this educated young person to come take a look, and Fang Zhuo couldn't bring herself to refuse.
Luckily, the problem wasn't too serious. She borrowed their phone, searched Baidu for a tutorial, and spent more than an hour tinkering with it before successfully getting their computer set up again.
When she saw the programs running normally, Fang Zhuo finally let out a long sigh of relief.
She had never been particularly interested in electronic devices.
The old woman peeled an apple for her and pressed it into her hand. She even wanted to make her lunch, but Fang Zhuo politely declined.
As they saw her out, the elderly couple followed her to the door and said in a mixture of dialect and Mandarin, "Young lady, you're really an educated person. Thank you so much today. Last time we had someone fix the computer, it cost us more than two hundred yuan, and it broke again a few days later. Such a nuisance. How are we supposed to figure out this thing? We told them from the start not to buy it, but they insisted..."
Fang Zhuo urged them to go back inside. As she passed an empty courtyard between the houses, she spotted several woven bamboo crafts displayed on a wooden rack. There were dragonflies, crickets, and all sorts of little insects. The workmanship was exquisite, each one look almost alive.
She was sure Yan Lie would love these childish little things. That was simply the kind of person he was.
Especially spoiled, and always fond of acting cute.
The old woman noticed where she was looking and took one down to give her. "You like this? Then take it. The old man has nothing better to do with his hands, he weaves these for fun."
Fang Zhuo accepted it and turned it over in her hands, looking up with a smile. "Thank you."
She could already imagine exactly what Yan Lie would say. He'd surely be delighted, exclaiming, "Wow, that's so pretty! You're really giving it to me? Fang Zhuo, you're too nice!"
This would be Yan Lie's New Year's gift.
After the New Year, Ye Yuncheng began selling braised food, along with his upgraded pushcart.
The new business was more profitable, but it was also much more labor-intensive. Preparing the ingredients took considerably more time.
Ye Yuncheng never told Fang Zhuo about anything negative. He only told her the good news. For example, today's sales had gone up again. Or one of their old customers had ordered more than two hundred yuan worth of braised food for a company gathering. Their business was steadily moving forward.
The winter break ended incredibly quickly. Senior-year students didn't get much time to enjoy a leisurely holiday.
By the time Fang Zhuo had worked her way through an entire backpack of test papers, it was nearly time to return to school. Before heading back, she stopped by the rental apartment to take a look.
When she arrived in A City, it was already seven or eight in the evening. Fang Zhuo stood outside the apartment and knocked, but no one answered. She sat by the door and waited for a while, but still no one came back.
She had called Ye Yuncheng that morning, around six-thirty, and they'd already gone out to set up their stall by then.
Fang Zhuo calculated the timing in her head. Once Ye Yuncheng came home, he'd still have to prepare the braised food. He was barely going to have any time to rest.
Ye Yuncheng's leg sometimes caused him severe pain, especially on rainy days, and he really couldn't work for long stretches. Fang Zhuo couldn't help worrying about him. But it was already too late, so she could only leave them a note before returning to school.
Early the next morning, Fang Zhuo went with her bag to their usual stall, finally relaxed when she saw Ye Yuncheng safe and sound.
She stood beside the stall and gave him a few stern reminders, telling him that she already knew they'd secretly worked overtime the day before and that they weren't to do it again.
After enduring her lecture, Ye Yuncheng was both amused and exasperated. "How are you more like a parent than I am? Do you even remember that I'm your elder?"
Fang Zhuo said, "Because neither of you ever listens."
Xiao Mu hurriedly protested from the side, "I didn't disobey!"
Fang Zhuo laughed. "That's right. Xiao Mu is the most obedient."
After lunch, she returned to school. By then, most of the students had already arrived.
It had been less than half a month, yet Wei Xi had somehow become noticeably rounder. Fang Zhuo walked into the classroom and ran straight into her. She froze for a moment, but before she could say anything, Wei Xi cut her off.
Wei Xi said urgently, "Don't say it! I know I've gained weight! But you are not allowed to say it!"
Fang Zhuo said, "...I was only going to say you look much healthier."
Wei Xi's expression eased a little, though she still looked mournful. "Maybe. If you gained eight or nine pounds, you'd be just as rosy as me."
...Apparently she'd really been working hard on restoring her health over the New Year.
Fang Zhuo stepped aside and went around her, sweeping her gaze across the classroom until she quickly spotted Yan Lie.
Yan Lie was sitting near the window, flipping through Shen Mushi's homework.
Cake was wearing a mask, his voice sounded muffled and slightly unnatural.
His backpack was still on his back, so he had probably only just arrived. Looking down at Yan Lie, he shamelessly said, "Lie Lie, copy my homework for me."
Yan Lie laughed in exasperation, rolled up a test paper, and smacked him on the head. "You're exactly the kind of person who keeps pushing your luck. You're not satisfied with just copying my homework anymore, are you?"
"I'm sick!" Shen Mushi announced loudly, apparently convinced that this was a perfectly valid excuse. "I can show you my medical records!"
Yan Lie said, "You could show me your entire family tree and it still wouldn't help. Go tell our homeroom teacher yourself and see if she buys it."
Shen Mushi clutched his chest in anguish.
Yan Lie shot him a sidelong look. "So, do you still want me to copy it?"
Shen Mushi said weakly, "Yes."
Fang Zhuo sat down beside them and heard her deskmate mutter under his breath, "What a handful."
She straightened her back, ready to show him her New Year's gift.
She put down her backpack, unzipped it, and took out the woven straw craft.
Ideally, it was supposed to be a dragonfly with its wings spread. Unfortunately, it had apparently been crushed somewhere during the journey. One of the strings had come loose, leaving the poor thing looking like some bizarre, misshapen creature.
Fang Zhuo stared down at it, lost in thought. Since she'd brought it all this way… she eventually frowned and held it out to Yan Lie.
Yan Lie immediately understood what it was supposed to mean. He casually stuck it into the potted plant on the windowsill and said with shameless sincerity, "Wow, how creative. Even the plant has its own decoration now? Did you weave a scarecrow after an explosion?"
Fang Zhuo: "..."
He said it with such heartfelt conviction.
...So was this how he'd fooled her before?
Noticing something was off about her expression, Yan Lie took the craft back. After examining it seriously, he hesitated before saying, "You didn't weave me, did you?"
He looked at it for another moment, then convinced himself, "Actually, it does look a little like me."
Fang Zhuo: "..." This man had absolutely no principles.
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