"That was even worse! I was in high school, and you went to the middle school gate to pick me up. When you couldn’t find me, you scolded me for skipping class."
Her father wiped his forehead, whether from sweat or rain, it was unclear.
He pulled an umbrella from his bag and tossed it to Cheng Liao, then warmly took Sheng Jingchu’s arm, "Come on, Jingchu, let’s go to Uncle’s house. I’ll cook you something delicious."
Cheng Liao pouted, opened her umbrella, and followed them.
Fortunately, they weren’t far from Tian Shui Lane. The streets were flooded with water. Cheng Liao’s father wore rain boots, while Sheng Jingchu pushed the bicycle along. Cheng Liao’s father tried a few times to take over pushing the bike, but Sheng Jingchu politely declined each time.
Sheng Jingchu turned back to watch Cheng Liao. She was carefully picking her way through the least waterlogged spots under the streetlights, lightly hopping over deeper puddles.
Occasionally, she didn’t land quite right and had to steady herself before going back to try jumping over again.
Cheng Liao’s father felt like he had turned into a giant, glowing light bulb, so he said to Sheng Jingchu, "I’ll hurry back to start cooking. You keep an eye on Cheng Liao for me—this girl has a tendency to act a little crazy sometimes, and I have no idea where she gets it from."
He shook his head, pretending to sigh, then called back to Cheng Liao, "You hold the umbrella for Jingchu. I’ll go on ahead."
Cheng Liao hurriedly ran up to him, standing on tiptoe to hold the umbrella over Sheng Jingchu.
The girl’s umbrella was small to begin with, so it was a tight squeeze for both of them. Sheng Jingchu kept shifting the umbrella toward her, leaving half of his body exposed to the rain.
Cheng Liao nudged his hand, "You’ll catch a cold, panda."
"Teacher Jiang has a student named Chu He..."
Cheng Liao nodded, "I know, I’ve even played mahjong with him."
"Once, on a rainy day, Chu He said he was going to pick up his girlfriend. I was puzzled as to why he only brought one umbrella. I remember asking him, and he winked at me. That question puzzled me for many years, but now I finally understand."
He reached out and wrapped his arm around Cheng Liao’s shoulder, "This is why."
Cheng Liao was silent for a good while, the only sound being her heartbeat thumping loudly in her chest. She lowered her head, and her ponytail brushed against his neck, tickling him.
It made him feel a little itchy, a tingling sensation. He remembered how she used to play with the ends of her hair and quietly twisted a strand of her hair around his finger. Her hair was soft and smooth, cool to the touch, like water flowing over his fingers.
The hydrangeas along the roadside were heavy with water, ready to drop at any moment. Cheng Liao ran her fingers over them, collecting a handful of petals.
The path they were on was a stone-paved road with drainage ditches on either side, a significant improvement over the previous stretch.
This was thanks to a great flood many years ago when Tian Shui Lane was submerged. The residents organized a fundraising effort to repave the road, using long strips of blue stone, which were out of fashion at the time. They managed to get a good deal from a quarry owner whose concrete slabs weren’t selling well.
The blue stone road was laid by the local residents themselves. Cheng Liao’s grandfather had helped pave it, but she didn’t know which stone he had laid with his own hands. The year after she and her father moved back to her grandmother’s house, her grandfather passed away.
She still remembered her grandfather taking her out, offering his pinky for her to hold. When they reached the corner shop, he would buy her a few pieces of malt candy.
Back then, to her, Grandpa equaled malt candy.
After he passed away, there was no more candy.
By then, she had some understanding of life and death. When she missed him, she would walk along the blue stone road, counting the stones as she went. She could only count to one hundred at the time, so she counted three hundreds and an additional eighty-three steps before reaching the corner shop.
Sheng Jingchu sensed her mood shift and knew that when she grew quiet, it wasn’t shyness but sadness.
He decided to speak up, "You probably don’t know this, but I lived here when I was a child."
That statement immediately caught Cheng Liao’s attention.
"When?"
"You know I’m distantly related to the Xu family, right? I stayed at Grandpa Xu’s house for a while when I was little."
Cheng Liao made a sound of acknowledgment, "That must have been before I moved in with Grandma."
He continued, "When I was younger, I was even quieter than I am now. I had a hard time adjusting to the new environment, and Grandpa Xu even thought I might be autistic for a while. There was a little girl next door who would sit on a bench and recite nursery rhymes when she came home from kindergarten. She recited them over and over but couldn’t remember them. I got annoyed listening to her, so I started reciting them myself. She immediately climbed up on a stool, peeked over the wall, and waved at me, asking me to play with her. My happiest moments back then were waiting for her to come home."
Cheng Liao suddenly remembered, "Was she the one who taught you how to fold paper mice?"
He nodded.
Cheng Liao felt a slight pang of jealousy but teased him anyway, "Ah, your first love."
He had stayed at Grandpa Xu’s house, and that girl was the neighbor… But the neighbor on the other side of Grandpa Xu’s house was Grandma Zhou’s house.
At first, she felt an inexplicable surge of jealousy, but then a sly smile appeared on her face.
"Grandma Zhou’s granddaughter went abroad a long time ago. I heard she’s married now and even has a one-year-old child."
He responded with a nonchalant "Hmm," not sounding particularly surprised.
Cheng Liao wasn’t pleased, "Did you investigate or something?"
He didn’t answer that question, instead speaking with a hint of regret, "I visited Grandpa Xu a few times after that, but I never ran into you."
When he visited, Cheng Liao was always at school. After she got into university, she lived on campus.
Cheng Liao laughed, nuzzling her head against his chest, "It’s a good thing you didn’t run into me. I was really awkward during my teenage years."
When they entered the house, the whole family came out to greet them, all looking at them as if they were rare creatures.
Cheng Nuo looked like he had won the lottery, "Thank goodness I faked a stomachache and came home early today."
Third Uncle Cheng grabbed Cheng Nuo by the ear, "Faked it? Are you asking for trouble?"
Sheng Jingchu quickly apologized to everyone, "Sorry for the sudden visit and the inconvenience."
Grandma Cheng waved it off and invited him in, "Come inside, Xiao Sheng, and change your clothes. I’ve prepared everything for you." Then she turned to Cheng Liao, "Liao Liao, you should change too, especially your pants—they’re soaked through."
Cheng Liao went to her room first, quickly changed clothes, wiped her feet, and then, worried that Sheng Jingchu might feel uncomfortable, slipped on her slippers and went to find him.
Sheng Jingchu was in the main room. The main room had always been where Grandpa and Grandma Cheng lived. After Grandpa passed away, Grandma Cheng kept everything the same, and the family would gather for meals in the main room’s living area.
When she pushed the door open, Sheng Jingchu was sitting at the square table in the living room.
Seeing her come in, he stood up awkwardly.
Cheng Liao couldn’t help but burst out laughing, pointing at his outfit, "This…"
Grandma Cheng had found him an outfit that once belonged to Grandpa Cheng—a gray Mao suit.
The more Grandma Cheng looked at him, the more she liked him, nodding in approval, "This was made for Liao Liao’s grandpa when he was promoted to section chief. He intended to wear it to meetings, but then he was passed over for the promotion, and the suit was never worn."
Cheng Liao circled around Sheng Jingchu, pulled a pen from the pen holder on the windowsill, and stuck it in his chest pocket.
Then, she patted his shoulder, "Comrade!"
Sheng Jingchu tugged at the collar and sleeves, feeling a bit strange in the outfit, but he was still grateful for Grandma Cheng’s kindness.
He smiled at her, "The clothes are great, thank you."
Perhaps worried that Sheng Jingchu might feel out of place, the rest of the family claimed they had already eaten, leaving only Cheng Liao, her father, and Sheng Jingchu for dinner.
Cheng Liao’s father first brought out two bowls of ginger soup.
"Drink this to ward off the chill."
Cheng Liao tried to stop him, "He doesn’t like ginger."
But Sheng Jingchu accepted the bowl, "It’s okay, I’ll drink it."
He lifted the bowl and drank it in one gulp. His expression remained calm, revealing neither like nor dislike, but his eyes became even more luminous, almost reflecting the light.
Cheng Liao's father sat down at the table and began serving dishes to Sheng Jingchu. "These are just simple home-cooked dishes. If there's anything else you'd like, just let me know, and I'll make it for you."
Seeing that Cheng Liao had already started eating on her own, he tapped her hand with his chopsticks. "Are you that hungry?"
Cheng Liao playfully sucked on the tip of her chopsticks and giggled. "I was just tasting it for him. You added scallions, didn’t you? He doesn’t eat scallions."
Sheng Jingchu picked up a piece with his chopsticks. "It’s fine, I’ll eat it."
Cheng Liao looked at him curiously and nudged him. "You’ve changed your taste, huh, Panda?"
He didn’t respond, simply continued eating in silence.
Cheng Liao's father opened a bottle of Maotai. "Let's have a drink, just the two of us."
Cheng Liao tried to stop him. "Dad, your alcohol tolerance isn’t great. You should skip it."
Her words immediately sparked his competitive spirit. "When I was young, I was known for never getting drunk, even after a thousand cups!"
He filled Sheng Jingchu's glass and then his own. "Cheers!"
Cheng Liao’s father had a low tolerance for alcohol and rarely drank. After just one glass, he started to feel tipsy and began to hold Sheng Jingchu's hand, telling embarrassing stories about Cheng Liao.
"Our Cheng Liao, she was in the second grade and still couldn’t do multiplication. The only one she could get right was 2×2."
Back then, Cheng Liao used addition to figure out multiplication. If the teacher asked for 2×2, she considered herself lucky.
"And she’s always been a foodie. When she was three, I told her not to eat the tomato because I was going to make soup with it. She secretly sucked all the juice out of it and left the empty skin on the cutting board."
Cheng Liao felt utterly embarrassed by her father’s stories. She cleared her throat, but her father didn’t seem to notice her hints. Sheng Jingchu listened intently, taking it all in.
"The teacher asked the students to bring a hundred sticks from home for addition practice. Other kids brought toothpicks or matches, but our Cheng Liao carried fifty pairs of disposable chopsticks to school."
Sheng Jingchu could almost picture a tiny Cheng Liao carrying fifty pairs of chopsticks to school. He smiled but held back to spare her feelings.
Cheng Liao let out an awkward laugh. "It turned out to be useful. Once, the cafeteria ran out of food, and the teacher ordered boxed lunches for us. But the delivery forgot the chopsticks, so the teacher had me distribute mine to everyone."
Seeing that her father was getting more and more carried away, Cheng Liao took off the pendant around her neck and dangled it in front of him.
"Dad, you’re getting sleepy, Dad, you’re really getting sleepy."
Before she could finish her sentence, her father had already slumped onto the table.
Outside, the rain had stopped, and Xiao Qi called to say he was on his way to pick up Sheng Jingchu.
Cheng Liao walked him out. "Leave the clothes here; I’ll wash them and bring them back to you later." She also looked at the broken-down bicycle. "Let’s leave the bike here too."
He agreed and wanted to say goodbye to her family.
Cheng Liao told him not to bother. "Grandma is probably already asleep."
He realized she was right; after all, his visit had been quite sudden, and he hadn’t met everyone in the family.
Outside the house, he crouched down and patted his back. "Come on, I’ll carry you to the alley entrance."
Cheng Liao gave him a playful push and laughed. "Are you crazy?"
He turned his head to look at her, his eyes sparkling like a pool of water.
"If you don’t let me carry you, I won’t get up."
Was he acting spoiled?
Afraid that Xiao Qi would see them when he arrived, Cheng Liao relented. "Okay, but just for a few steps."
She climbed onto his back, careful not to put too much weight on him.
He bounced her slightly. "You’re still too light."
Cheng Liao wasn’t exactly skinny, but she wasn’t heavy either. Being told she was light gave her a little sense of pride.
Sheng Jingchu chuckled softly. "Maybe it’s because you didn’t eat enough tomatoes when you were little."
Embarrassed and annoyed, she pretended to pinch his shoulder. He yelped, "Hey, there’s a mosquito!"
He counted the steps on the blue stone path, one by one.
When he reached three hundred and eighty-three, they arrived at the small shop at the entrance of the alley.
This little shop had been around for many years, even before Cheng Liao moved in. The building was so old it looked like it might collapse at any moment, with a sign at the entrance advertising "Chilled Beer."
He set her down and asked her to wait for a moment while he went into the shop to buy some candy.
Pop Rocks, bubble gum, lollipops—he somehow managed to communicate with the shopkeeper and came out with a bag full of treats, including a pack of white sugar.
He unwrapped a lollipop and held it out to her.
It was lychee-flavored, very sweet.
"I don’t know why, but every time I see you, I just want to buy you candy."
With the lollipop in her mouth, one cheek puffed out, she mumbled, "Is it because I look like a foodie?"
He shook his head and gently tousled her hair. "It’s because you always make me feel so protective."
Cheng Liao looked at him, realizing he must be drunk because she couldn’t imagine him saying something like that when he was sober.
She just smiled, feeling a bit foolish, and then reached out to touch his face—it felt warm.
She said, "What if I want to compliment you again?"
He smiled too, not with the usual reserved and distant expression, but with a bit of playfulness, like a child.
"Go ahead."
She stood on her tiptoes and quickly kissed him on the lips.
"Compliment complete."
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