The Scorching Sun - 70
Fang Zhuo didn't own many clothes. Back in high school, she'd never had to worry about it. She could wear her school uniform most of the time, and no one cared what she had on underneath it.
After starting university, Fang Zhuo's pitiful wardrobe had practically become part of her identity. Even Yu Qingjiang once said Fang Zhuo was the first person whose identity she could guess from a single glance at her back.
Ye Yuncheng noticed the problem soon enough. It was especially obvious one rainy day when Fang Zhuo had gone out of her way to visit him. The temperature had dropped sharply, so she'd thrown on an old jacket that was already too small for her, and looked as though it had been bought in another lifetime.
The older generation of the Ye family had been deeply prejudiced in favor of sons. When Ye Yaoling was young, she had never had new clothes to wear.
Ye Yuncheng believed such thinking was at the root of so much misery in their family's history. The biggest reason he worked so hard to make money was so he could spend it on Fang Zhuo. How could he possibly let her go through the same hardship?
So Ye Yuncheng practically forced a thousand yuan into Fang Zhuo's hands and urged her to hurry up and buy some new clothes. Once she'd bought them, she was to take photos as proof. Otherwise, he'd go and buy them for her himself.
Fang Zhuo thought he'd misunderstood. It wasn't that she was unwilling to spend money on clothes. She simply hated shopping. It was more torturous to her than working. If Ye Yuncheng was willing to buy them for her, she'd actually be quite happy to let him. She was just too embarrassed to ask.
Fang Zhuo showed him the salary that had just been deposited by the university. To keep him from worrying, she overcame her natural reluctance and decided to buy herself a hoodie or a sweater, while also getting Ye Yuncheng a new outfit for the New Year.
Online shops made it impossible to judge the quality of the clothes, and the prices were all over the place. After browsing around, Fang Zhuo decided she couldn't trust them. Years of shopping habits had made her much more inclined to buy things in physical stores.
Yan Lie had asked her out the previous weekend, and Fang Zhuo had said she was going shopping. When he asked her out again that weekend, she gave him the same answer. She was going shopping.
Yan Lie was astonished. "How many clothes are you planning to buy?"
"I haven't found anything yet." Fang Zhuo wasn't in a particularly good mood. Just thinking about shopping was enough to leave her exhausted for days afterward. She shared the ordeal with Yan Lie. "I have half a day's work on the weekend, and I still have assignments to do and software to learn. That leaves me about three hours for shopping, which isn't enough time to go somewhere too far away. Last week, I went through all the stores east of the university. The clothes were expensive, the quality was bad, and none of the styles really suited me. This week I'll go through the stores on the west side. If I still don't find anything, I'll go to the wholesale market in the north of the city."
Yan Lie was silent for a long while before asking, "By the time you've made your way through east, south, west, and north, it'll be more than a month later. It'll be cold by then, won't it?"
"Yeah." Fang Zhuo brightened at the thought. "I'll have winter clothes!"
Yan Lie: "..."
Seeing the faint excitement on her face, Yan Lie decided this couldn't go on. If she didn't buy those clothes soon, when were they ever going to have time to develop their relationship?
The two of them did share a few elective classes, but during class Fang Zhuo consistently ignored him, her attitude so cold it was practically icy. Whenever Yan Lie tried to take her hand, she'd pull it away.
All these little things were seriously annoying.
Yan Lie recommended several shops and told her to have a look when she had time. After that, he asked a few female upperclassmen for recommendations for reasonably priced online stores and sent those to Fang Zhuo as well.
Fang Zhuo said she'd give him a report that night. She said it with such solemnity that it sounded like an official assignment.
A little after ten that night, Yan Lie was lying on his bed while several roommates were gaming downstairs when Fang Zhuo's research report arrived.
Her conclusion was concise to the point of being almost laughable.
Little Sun: I discovered that men's clothes are so much easier to shop for.
They Call Me Lie: How so?
Little Sun: They all look the same.
They Call Me Lie: ...I think you might be approaching this from the wrong angle.
Little Sun: There are more styles of pajamas, though. And the colors are prettier.
Yan Lie thought back. He didn't think he'd sent her any pajama shops. How had she even ended up there?
Little Sun: [Image] Do you like it?
Little Sun: Should I buy it for you?
It was a light-blue set of autumn pajamas. They were actually quite nice. But Yan Lie certainly wasn't short on clothes.
They Call Me Lie: I usually don't wear clothes to bed.
They Call Me Lie: Want to see?
Little Sun: ...??
They Call Me Lie: [Husky grinning stupidly]
Fang Zhuo stopped replying.
The man had randomly decided to act like a pervert.
After going back and forth over her options several times, Fang Zhuo finally bought a fairly ordinary outfit with the help of a few roommates. Then, at Yu Qingjiang's emphatic insistence, she bought a long dress as well.
The reason was simple. Long dresses were cheaper because she wouldn't need to buy a pair of pants to go with them.
Her packages hadn't even arrived when Liu Qiaohong suddenly called her. There had been extremely strong winds in the village, followed by two straight days of torrential rain. The water level in the rice paddies along the roadside was rising rapidly and was about to flood the chicken coop.
Little baldy’s little life was in grave danger.
Luckily, it was the weekend. Fang Zhuo packed up her schoolbag and hurried home to check on things.
As the seasons were changing, the weather in A City had been unusually unpredictable lately.
The drainage system in the urban area was relatively good, so the impact there wasn't severe. In the village, however, heavy rain turned unpaved mountain roads into thick mud that could take several days to dry. Buildings exposed on all sides were also much more vulnerable to strong winds.
Fang Zhuo took the first bus home. When she turned into the entrance to the house, she found that the black awning they'd put up in the courtyard had already been blown away by the wind, and there was no telling where it had ended up.
She stood at the gate and counted the chickens. Three were missing. They had probably climbed over the earthen wall and escaped.
The sunglasses covering the rooster's eyes had disappeared yet again, which meant that poor, delicate little baldy had spent the past few days getting his backside pecked bald by his companions. Now he could only huddle miserably in a corner, looking utterly pitiful.
Long time no see, Chicken Mascot. Still as hopeless as ever.
Fang Zhuo went inside and found a long piece of rope. She tied up the chickens' legs and wings, then carried them home one by one and placed them on a cardboard box in the kitchen.
No one had been home for a long time, a thick layer of dust had settled over everything. Fang Zhuo quickly cleaned the bedroom she would be staying in, then discussed what to do with the chickens with Ye Yuncheng.
They no longer needed to rely on selling eggs for money, and neither of them had the spare time to look after the chickens. Constantly asking Liu Qiaohong to come over and feed them was becoming a nuisance. They might as well shut down the whole operation.
Ye Yuncheng agreed. He stayed on a voice call with her for half an hour, asking whether she knew how to kill a chicken. If she didn't, she could go to the market up ahead and find someone to do it for her. It cost about five yuan in labor to kill one chicken, and she could probably bargain if she had several.
There was absolutely no way Fang Zhuo was going to do that, so she immediately said she could handle it herself.
By the time she hung up, the back of Fang Zhuo's phone had already started getting hot. She lit up the screen and saw several messages from Yan Lie.
They Call Me Lie: Why did you suddenly go home? Did you just abandon your boyfriend?
They Call Me Lie: [Husky baring its teeth] I'm going to be sad.
They Call Me Lie: Where's my girlfriend? [Terrified]
They Call Me Lie: I'm willing to pay the ransom. Please let her contact me as soon as possible. [Serious]
Fang Zhuo smiled and typed out a reply.
Little Sun: [Image] Little baldy ended up like this.
They Call Me Lie: Why did you suddenly go back?
Fang Zhuo walked over to the window and filmed the glass rattling violently in its frame, then sent the video to him.
Little Sun: There are strong winds in the village. The chicken coop got blown over, and the chickens escaped. I came back to check on them.
They Call Me Lie: ...Is it dangerous?
Little Sun: Not dangerous. There haven't been any evacuation warnings. The house is just too old, and the windows are a little loose.
Little Sun: I'll go back tomorrow. We're having chicken for dinner tonight.
They Call Me Lie: [Frowning]
Yan Lie didn't reply after that. Fang Zhuo plugged her phone in to charge, rolled up her sleeves, and went to the kitchen to heat some water.
Fang Zhuo had never actually killed a chicken herself, but after spending so many years in the village, she had plenty of theoretical knowledge. She'd watched the entire process more than once.
Bleed it. Pluck the feathers. Clean out the organs.
At first, because she wasn't very practiced, she scalded part of her arm.
Little baldy, the sole surviving chicken, squatted in the kitchen and watched his brothers meet their end, squawking wildly the entire time.
By the time Fang Zhuo had finished processing all of them, it was almost evening. Compared with summer, night had fallen more than an hour earlier.
There wasn't enough room in the refrigerator. Fang Zhuo packed the rest of the chickens into a large box and hauled it, grunting and puffing, over to Liu Qiaohong's house.
Seeing Fang Zhuo show up so late at night startled Liu Qiaohong. He kept her for dinner, then rode his electric scooter to take her home afterward.
Sitting on the back, Fang Zhuo teased him, "Well, look at you. You've upgraded your ride."
Liu Qiaohong gave a couple of sheepish laughs.
The wind grew even stronger after dark, and after eight, the rain began to fall as well.
Fang Zhuo showered, changed into clean clothes, and sat at the desk to preview her coursework.
The final exams at A University weren't particularly difficult. Judging from leaked papers from previous years, Fang Zhuo's level was more than enough to secure a high GPA.
Their professor, however, was an elderly scholar with very high standards. He often assigned extracurricular problems that went well beyond the syllabus. He didn't insist that they complete them. He simply wanted them to think for themselves.
Fang Zhuo couldn't concentrate tonight.
Every so often, a tremendous bang came from the glass window, loud enough to sound as though someone outside were hurling stones at it. Rainwater seeped through the gaps where the old windowpanes no longer fit together properly and trickled onto her desk, nearly soaking her textbooks.
Fang Zhuo pulled back the curtain and looked through the glass at the layers of black shadows beyond the rain. The irregular buildings and ancient trees took on an eerie, furtive quality in the wild wind and driving rain, as though a few extra pairs of claws had appeared, thrashing wildly in the darkness.
She couldn't read another word. Picking up her phone, Fang Zhuo stared at their chat, still paused on the [Frowning] sticker, and felt vaguely that something was off.
Little Sun: What are you doing?
Five minutes passed before Yan Lie replied.
They Call Me Lie: I'm a little scared. [Trying to hold it in]
Little Sun: ?
Little Sun: What are you scared of? Is it raining in A City too?
Fang Zhuo sent him a voice-call invitation. Yan Lie didn't answer.
Five more minutes passed. Just as she was about to call him herself, a message finally appeared.
They Call Me Lie: Open the door! I'm here!
Fang Zhuo shot to her feet in shock and hurried toward the side door. She switched on the living-room light and opened the door.
Yan Lie slipped nimbly through the crack in the door, too afraid to look back. He quickly shut it and locked it.
He was soaked through. Water dripped steadily from his hair and clothes, his face was deathly pale, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. Mud covered his shoes and trouser legs. Clearly, he'd run all the way from the entrance of the village. The broken streetlights still hadn't been repaired. Whether from the cold or from fear, his entire body was trembling.
Yan Lie wiped a hand across his face. Only when he saw Fang Zhuo did he finally relax. He opened his arms, his voice muffled and plaintive as he pleaded, "Come on, give me a hug."
Fang Zhuo had only just showered, and she hesitated for a moment before reaching out to touch his arm. His skin was icy cold, his muscles drawn taut with tension, every inch of him practically radiating grievance.
Then Yan Lie pushed her away himself and lowered his head to kiss her cheek.
"I'm going to shower first. Then you have to comfort me." Yan Lie shivered his way inside. "That scared me to death. How could it rain like this? I hate it.”
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