The Scorching Sun - 53
The old woman wasn't one for smiles or small talk. When Fang Zhuo tried to speak with her, she rarely showed any interest in answering. On the occasions when she did respond, it was usually only a word or two, and she never looked Fang Zhuo in the eye.
Looking back carefully, Fang Zhuo's childhood had been so small and innocent, her desperate need for attention must've been written plainly across her face.
Old images flickered through her mind like a cheap, badly made film. In a daze, Fang Zhuo realized that perhaps all those little things she'd done as a child had never escaped the old woman's notice.
The low wooden stool facing the road in the little courtyard, the front door that was never locked even when she came home late, the old clothes carefully mended, the secondhand cloth shoes washed until they were plain and faded, the bowl of steaming white porridge waiting on the table whenever she came home lonely and dejected...
Perhaps in the old woman's eyes, all of Fang Zhuo's stubborn foolishness had been nothing more than childishness... and something terribly pitiful.
She'd said with her mouth that Fang Zhuo mustn't rely on her, yet she'd tolerated every kind of trouble Fang Zhuo brought home.
She'd been born into a brutal era. Reality had taught her that without strength, there was no way to survive. So she'd strangled her own innocence early on, and treated Fang Zhuo the same way.
If Fang Zhuo wanted to rebel against the world, then let her rebel.
If Fang Zhuo wanted to cry, then let her cry.
If Fang Zhuo wanted to be willful, then take away everything she had and let her stumble through the world until she came back battered, bloodied, and humiliated.
A person destined to be tempered by hardship couldn't afford to think about relying on someone else.
That was how the old woman taught her that the world was vast, but Fang Zhuo didn't yet possess the means to step beyond her own small corner of it.
By the time the old woman lay dying, she couldn't speak anymore. She simply kept her face turned toward the people beside the bed.
Fang Zhuo had thought she was looking at Fang Yiming. Only later did she realize that she'd been looking at her.
After she was gone, there'd never again be anyone to simmer white porridge for Fang Zhuo, leave the door unlocked for her, or remind her sternly to keep studying.
Fang Zhuo finally understood, at least in part, why Grandma had refused to accept Fang Yiming's money.
If she refused his sudden bursts of kindness, then she'd have no ties to him at all. She wouldn't have to grieve over someone who wasn't worth grieving for. Whom he favored, whom he betrayed, whether he was deceiving himself or simply too foolish to understand what he was doing, none of it had anything to do with Fang Zhuo.
Fang Zhuo roughly wiped at her face, brushing away the mist of tears in her eyes. She lifted her head and asked hoarsely, "Teacher Gao, could I borrow the ten thousand yuan you have?"
The homeroom teacher didn't say a word. She simply pulled the thick stack of bills from her bag.
Fang Yiming instinctively took a step back, the twenty thousand yuan he'd just withdrawn from the bank still clenched in his hand. But Fang Zhuo pushed the money back into his arms anyway. Her voice was indifferent, almost painfully distant. "I don't need your help. Goodbye."
Fang Yiming opened his mouth to speak, but Fang Zhuo had already turned her back on him. She shoved her hands into her pockets and walked away with cold, unwavering resolve.
The man stood rooted to the spot, at a loss for what to do. It felt as though the money had weighed down both his shoulders and his heart, making him unable to breathe.
That incomprehensible bewilderment returned once again. Just as he'd never understood how his own mother could be so cold, he couldn't understand why Fang Zhuo would still reject his kindness at a moment like this.
He turned to her homeroom teacher and forced out an awkward smile. "Please help me hold on to this money, Teacher. Have her use it to pay the medical bills, and let her keep whatever's left for living expenses."
The homeroom teacher didn't take it. She only shook her head. "She's already grown up. Besides, talking about compensation now doesn't sound very realistic. She's eighteen this year, not eight. At her age, that determination she has matters more than money. So I can't accept this on her behalf."
She slipped the bag over her arm, gave Fang Yiming a polite nod, and hurried toward the ward.
Yan Lie returned to school with the homeroom teacher, while Xiao Mu and Liu Qiaohong headed back to the village. A few minutes later, the hospital room suddenly fell quiet.
Fang Zhuo dragged over a stool and sat beside the hospital bed, staring blankly into space. The last remnants of sunset glowed a deep, broken red outside the window. Passing through the drifting curtains, the light cast an irregular rectangle across the blanket.
A faint, unfamiliar floral fragrance drifted in with the breeze, dispelling some of the oppressive smell that lingered in the ward.
Ye Yuncheng closed his eyes and rested for a while before calling softly, "Zhuo Zhuo."
Fang Zhuo looked over at him. Ye Yuncheng said nothing, only smiled.
Fang Zhuo smiled back.
She moved the stool a little closer and asked, "You used to send Grandma a lot of letters, didn't you? What did you write?"
"I sent a few. Nothing much. Your grandma couldn't read." Ye Yuncheng's voice was very soft. "No matter what I wrote, she never had anyone read them to her. She didn't want you to see me. She didn't want to know too much."
Fang Zhuo nodded.
"But she did send me one letter." Ye Yuncheng asked, "When did your grandma pass away?"
"When I was in my first year of high school. Not long after the Qingming Festival."
"Mm. That's when she sent me your middle school graduation photo." The corners of Ye Yuncheng's lips lifted in a smile. "But you looked so different in it that I didn't recognize you."
Fang Zhuo laughed despite herself. "No wonder I always wondered where my graduation photo had gone. Though, to be fair, it really was an awful picture. Our homeroom teacher took it himself."
Ye Yuncheng raised a hand and gently stroked the top of her head. "It's a precious memory. Your Uncle has kept it safe for you."
Supporting himself with one elbow, he struggled to sit up a little straighter against the soft pillow. With some effort, he said, "When you graduate, your Uncle will go take a picture with you. I haven't had my picture taken in years. You can wear a beautiful new outfit and stand beside your Uncle, and I'll shave my beard too. Afterward, we'll take the photo to show your mom."
Fang Zhuo swallowed the ache in her eyes and answered, "Okay."
Ye Yuncheng dipped his chin, gesturing toward her books. "Go do your homework. I won't keep you here chatting."
Fang Zhuo went to ask the nurse for several sheets of white paper, copied the problems from her phone, and bent over them by the windowsill, working through the calculations.
Mathematical problems could be solved, but so many of life's questions had no answers. Not even the cleverest person could solve them.
Like an uncertain future with too many variables, or a past whose conditions had never been sufficient to determine its outcome.
The future had no end, and the past had no final verdict.
She would no longer linger over that so-called past, nor allow it to keep her from the road ahead.
Toward evening, the police came to take her statement, bringing the ten thousand yuan with them. Only after asking them about it did Fang Zhuo finally dare to believe that what Wei Xi had told her was true.
"How did you get the money back?" Fang Zhuo asked in astonishment. "How did it happen so quickly?"
The young policeman clicked his tongue in amazement. "Your classmates are something else. They charged straight over to the next building and started wrestling with the guy. They wouldn't let go even with us standing right there, insisting that we search the place. The police can't just search wherever we want, can we? I hadn't even finished trying to break up the fight when they were shouting in my ear so loudly I thought I was going deaf. Then they actually started lecturing us about proper conduct. Honestly. Kids these days. Small in age, but they've got plenty of attitude."
Just thinking about the scene made Fang Zhuo feel as though it had come straight out of some absurd fantasy.
Another officer beside him said, "But we really do have your classmates to thank. The thief is a habitual offender. He gets restless if he doesn't steal something. He'd hidden the money under his pillow and planned to take it out later to pay off a debt. He never expected your classmates to stop him first. With someone like that, once the money's been spent, good luck getting it back. He'd have nothing left to lose."
"Those students..." The young policeman frowned, clearly at a loss to make sense of the world. After searching for the right words, he finally put it as diplomatically as he could. "They're... pretty unusual."
When Bai Lufei and the others stopped the thief, the workers nearby had no idea what was going on. Taking advantage of the fact that they were all familiar faces, the thief immediately made up a story. His coworkers assumed that someone had come looking for trouble, so they rushed over to help, and the whole scene quickly descended into chaos.
Several times, the thief tried to get away and return to his place to dispose of the stolen goods, but Bai Lufei clung to him for dear life. He took several punches in the process, leaving multiple bruises and swollen patches across his body.
In the end, one of the workers simply went inside and searched the place until he found the money. Only then was the whole matter finally settled.
The young policeman said, "We're going to give these students some serious guidance. They did the right thing by helping, but they were far too impulsive and didn't follow any proper procedure. They need to understand what they did wrong. Here's the list. Take a look."
Fang Zhuo genuinely hadn't expected Bai Lufei to stand up for her.
So much time had passed, she'd stopped thinking about that little incident from back then. Instead, she realized she'd also misunderstood Bai Lufei in quite a few ways.
She accepted the paper, thanked the officers, and saw them out.
Ye Yuncheng had always hated causing trouble for other people. He was extremely diligent about his recovery and followed the doctor's orders to the letter, his progress was remarkably smooth.
The next day, Yan Lie came to the hospital to tutor Fang Zhuo, bringing the little potted plant that belonged exclusively to her along with him.
"Since you haven't been around, everyone in class has been scheming to water it. They've been wandering around there N times a day. If I hadn't kept an eye on it, it'd probably be dead by now. School's too dangerous. You'd better take care of it yourself."
And so the little field guardian in its red cape appeared on the windowsill.
A week later, Ye Yuncheng was discharged from the hospital without a hitch. Fang Zhuo brought her little potted plant with her and returned to school.
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