The Scorching Sun - 58
The two of them left the internet café, but couldn't find anywhere they could sit down and eat the watermelon properly, they simply picked a shady corner in a nearby park and set the watermelon on the paving stones.
When Fang Zhuo glanced over, Yan Lie awkwardly avoided her gaze. He stared fixedly at the ground, looking almost dazed.
Fang Zhuo said, "Don't apologize to me. Otherwise, I won't know how to respond."
It had been so many years since Ye Yaoling's death, even visiting her grave had become something Fang Zhuo could do with complete calm.
"I wasn't going to," Yan Lie said quietly. "I was thinking that we don't have a knife."
"Why do we need a knife to eat watermelon?"
She put the plastic bag underneath it, then simply slammed the watermelon onto the ground. Following the crack, she pried it apart and gave it a few more rough smacks until it broke into a pile of irregular chunks.
Yan Lie watched her, then muttered, "Eating it like that is going to get juice all over your face."
Handsome guys were such princesses. Honestly. You had to coddle them.
Fang Zhuo picked out the smallest piece and handed it to him, then pulled him down into a crouch beside her.
Watermelon that hadn't been chilled lacked a certain crispness, even the sweetness seemed muted. With the cool breeze of early summer slipping through the leaves, it tasted almost like a clear, sweet spring.
Yan Lie stared at the lush stretch of grass nearby. He felt like a tiny ant wandering around inside it, searching and searching without finding anything, and said distractedly, "Maybe I shouldn't go either?"
"Why wouldn't you go?" Fang Zhuo asked. "Didn't you already make plans with the other classmates?"
Yan Lie let out a complicated sigh.
"I've never been to the seaside either," Fang Zhuo said. "You can take some nice pictures for me. It's pretty boring out in the village."
Yan Lie's expression fell. "You don't have a phone. By the time you see them, it'll probably be time for school to start again."
"I've decided to buy a new phone once I get my supermarket paycheck. Then I'll save up a little more and buy a laptop before university starts." Fang Zhuo asked, "Can a computer that costs a little over a thousand yuan last four years?"
"Probably? If you're only using it to look things up and make presentations, it should be fine." Yan Lie looked up. "If your computer breaks, I can find someone to fix it for you."
"Thanks," Fang Zhuo said. "I can help you with your group assignments too."
The idea of an equal exchange of services left Yan Lie utterly speechless with amusement. Still, he worked his facial muscles into what could only be called a somewhat unnatural smile.
The cicadas twined through the branches the juice trickling down his fingertips both gave him a strange, dreamlike sense of unreality, as though this summer had stretched far beyond anything he had ever known.
His legs had gone numb from crouching. He stood up and shook out his arms and feet. Looking down at Fang Zhuo's back from where he stood, he drew a deep breath, then crouched beside her again.
Back and forth, over and over, unable to make up his mind. The words that kept hovering at the edge of his lips were always driven back by those four words: not the right time.
He felt that Fang Zhuo might never understand, yet he had no way of being completely honest with her.
If he said it and Fang Zhuo answered with something as detached as, "I have to go to work later. We'll talk about this after I'm off," he knew it would break his heart.
He knew Fang Zhuo was the kind of person who could grit her teeth until they hurt and never shed a tear. But she was also the kind of person who, when her softer side took over, couldn't even bring herself to step on a leaf. What he couldn't tell was whether he belonged among the things she cared about with that same softness.
The two of them ate about two-thirds of the watermelon until they really couldn't manage another bite. They cleaned up their trash, walked along the road for a while, and calmly said goodbye at the street corner.
A couple of days later, Yan Lie helped her choose the most suitable phone model within the price range she could afford. After Fang Zhuo received her paycheck, she went straight out and bought a new phone, then sent her new number to Yan Lie.
Yan Lie: Am I your first contact?
Fang Zhuo stood outside the service center, switched over to QQ, and sent him a simple "Yes."
Little Sun: This number doesn't have a text-message plan. If you need anything, talk to me here.
They Call Me Lie: [Grinning]
They Call Me Lie: Can I ask you something? Would you be generous enough to make an exception for your future boyfriend?
Little Sun: No.
Little Sun: Why should I make an exception for such an unreasonable request? [Frowning]
It took Yan Lie a while to reply.
They Call Me Lie: Thanks. Somehow, I feel comforted-
Before Yan Lie left for his trip, Fang Zhuo finished her part-time job at the supermarket.
She packed up her things, moved out of the rented room, and caught an early bus back to the old house.
The news that she'd been accepted to A University had spread through the village long ago, and Liu Qiaohong deserved much of the credit.
He told everyone he met, especially when he visited the families of girls who didn't want to continue their education. He would tell their parents how much Fang Zhuo could earn every day running a tutoring class in A City, and how many ways there were to make money once she entered university. If their daughters were registered as students from poor households, he would explain how generous the work-study subsidies could be.
Sometimes poverty relief really did require such painfully practical encouragement. Liu Qiaohong had chatted with her about it on QQ, and had even considered dishonestly asking her to fabricate a few payment receipts.
Once Fang Zhuo returned, the locals learned that she was going to run an intensive summer course, charging only fifty yuan for two hours. It didn't take long for both of her small classes to fill up.
After Liu Qiaohong made a soft-voiced plea, she squeezed in two more girls for free.
Fang Zhuo spent her mornings preparing lessons, taught from noon until six, sometimes running overtime, then spent her evenings marking their homework and cleaning up. There wasn't much time left for rest.
The July sun was like a poisonous tiger, turning the room where she taught into something resembling a furnace beneath a blazing canopy. The only old-fashioned electric fan worked itself to death under the strain and gave up spectacularly after a week, becoming yet another summer burden heavy enough to crush a person.
In weather like this, Fang Zhuo came to understand something very clearly: studying didn't calm the mind at all. If anything, it made people irritable. She felt like she sweated away several pounds every day, growing thinner by the hour.
She remembered that summers hadn't seemed this unbearable when she was little. Now, even her ability to endure discomfort seemed to have diminished considerably.
One unusually cool night, after spending half the night battling mosquitoes, Fang Zhuo reflected on it and decided that the real culprit behind her inability to find peace of mind was still Yan Lie.
The seaside trip he'd been dreaming about had finally happened, and he sent her several photographs.
To be fair, Yan Lie was quite good at taking pictures. Through his lens, the deep blue sea merged seamlessly with the cloudless sky, while the golden sand and white-fringed waves were bright and vivid enough to look like an oil painting.
Sometimes the crowded shore could be glimpsed in the distance, but he always managed to find the perfect angle, capturing the sea's stillness and vastness.
Even the play of light across his arm beneath the water looked strangely captivating.
However, the messages Yan Lie sent weren't nearly as cheerful.
They Call Me Lie: I almost stepped on a beer bottle on the beach today. So annoying. Who has that little regard for other people?
They Call Me Lie: There are way too many people at the beach. The moment the tide goes out, everyone comes rushing in to hunt for things. A really enthusiastic uncle taught us how to find shells and crabs by looking for their breathing holes, but we didn't catch a single thing.
They Call Me Lie: Turns out there are lots of tiny octopuses at the beach. I caught one today, but the second I picked it up, it sprayed ink all over my clothes. [Picture] [Crying Hysterically]
They Call Me Lie: [Video] Look at this crab burying itself in the sand.
Fang Zhuo would occasionally receive his messages while she was teaching. They were all sorts of trivial things, tiny details from his day. Every time she caught sight of one, her thoughts would shuttle between a shore swept by salty sea wind and the furnace-like classroom where she stood.
Yan Lie had definitely started treating her account like his QQ journal. He was recording the minutiae of his daily life as though he were keeping a diary.
Fang Zhuo always replied with the bare minimum, never giving him an opening to say, "Then come see for yourself," because she didn't know how she could refuse him a second time.
July 15.
Fang Zhuo told her students that classes would be suspended for a few days, then went up the mountain ahead of time to clean Ye Yaoling's gravestone. She wiped the stone clean and pulled out as many weeds as she could.
Ye Yaoling's grave was halfway up the mountain. Even walking slowly from home took at least two hours. The path was uneven, with steep, muddy slopes. Ye Yuncheng couldn't make the trip to pay his respects regularly. As a result, the area around the grave had been left somewhat neglected.
Fang Zhuo took two pictures and told Ye Yuncheng that he didn't need to come back this time. She had already cleaned everything.
Ye Yuncheng sent her a message thanking her for her hard work.
At five the next morning, the weather finally turned cool and overcast. Fang Zhuo put on a hat, slung her schoolbag over her shoulder, and half walked, half ran up the mountain.
On the way, she spent some time thinking about what she wanted to say. By the time she was halfway there, she'd forgotten all of it. When she finally stood before the gravestone, all that remained was silence.
All those dates that carried some kind of meaning seemed to be Fang Zhuo's weak spot. She could never think of any proper way to commemorate them.
This time, though, she extravagantly bought two carnations and picked a few wildflowers, arranging them together in front of the stone.
She stood silently in front of the grave for a long while before saying awkwardly, "I'm leaving."
Everything around her was utterly quiet.
Fang Zhuo took two steps, then turned back. "We're all doing pretty well. We have new beginnings and new plans. Thank you."
"I actually had a lot I wanted to say to you before. I'm a little embarrassed now. If you can understand, then you probably already understand."
"I have other things to do today. I'll come see you again next time."
The trip down the mountain was much faster. Fang Zhuo ran all the way home, pulled out her phone, and checked the time. It was nine in the morning.
She saw Yan Lie's messages.
They Call Me Lie: [Picture] Everyone's in pairs. Even their footprints are.
They Call Me Lie: I'm a lone single dog.
The picture below showed a little crab flipped onto its back, all four legs waving helplessly in the air.
Going out first thing in the morning just to torment other creatures. Fang Zhuo felt his mindset was getting seriously unhealthy.
Little Sun: [Picture] Poor, bullied little baldy.
They Call Me Lie: ??
Little Sun: What could I do? The Chicken Mascot brought it on himself. He couldn't beat the others, then he banged his head until he went bald.
Little Sun: His eye patch fell off, and the rooster saw him and decided chickens of the same kind liked fighting. But Uncle Liu helped me get a few replacements from someone. It should be fine now.
They Call Me Lie: My heart is shattered!
Yan Lie suddenly grew worried. Afraid that the potted succulent he'd left at home might suffer the same unfair treatment as little baldy, he hurriedly sent Yan Chengli a text.
Yan Lie: Dad, is my succulent okay?
Yan Chengli: It's fine.
Yan Lie: Send me a picture!
Yan Chengli found the request baffling, but still ran over from the study and took a picture for him.
Yan Lie looked at it and breathed a sigh of relief.
Yan Lie: Push that little figurine in a little farther. And don't leave it by the window. The wind will blow it away.
After some hesitation, Yan Chengli asked: "That Little Fang Zhuo, is she your old deskmate?"
Yan Lie didn't answer. He had already switched back to QQ.
They Call Me Lie: I've been taking such good care of you. [Picture]
They Call Me Lie: Did you forget to tell me something? I thought you'd send it to me at midnight, but I ended up waiting until two in the morning.
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