Just as Shen Zhuxi had feared, as the sixth month set in, the days grew increasingly sweltering. Even sitting perfectly still in the daytime, a thin sheen of sweat would soak through the back of one’s clothes before long.

At night, though the sun was gone, the evening breeze remained thick with heat. Shen Zhuxi tossed and turned on the bed — without a bamboo mat, sleeping was hot; with one, it dug into her skin. And whenever she rolled over, her delicate flesh would get pinched in the gaps between the bamboo strips, making her eyes water from the pain. To say nothing of the omnipresent mosquitoes: pulling the blanket over meant dying of heat; leaving it off meant dying of itch.

She twisted and turned in bed, while the insufferable Li Wu was completely unaffected by the summer heat. Every time he lay down, it took no more than the span of a cup of tea before the sound of slow, even breathing rose beside her. As for those wretched mosquitoes — they seemed to prey on the weak, turning a blind eye to Li Wu beside her while feasting exclusively on her, leaving seven or eight red, swollen welts every single time!

Under such torments, Shen Zhuxi had not managed one proper night of sleep in over ten days. Beneath her once-smooth, fair eyelids, a faint shadow of blue had begun to appear.

Unable to sleep each night, with Li Wu slumbering peacefully beside her, the contrast was deeply unsettling to her peace of mind. Shen Zhuxi had half a mind to seize the feather duster from the bed and beat Li the Fart-Man awake — if she couldn’t sleep, she wasn’t about to let him sleep either!

But then, whenever she reconsidered and thought of how he went out day after day laboring for a living, enduring who knew what hardships and slights, her heart would soften, and she could not bring herself to wake him.

He was out there working as a companion-for-hire to keep her — what was a bit of summer insomnia on her part?

In the end Shen Zhuxi simply sat up in bed, rather than risk disturbing with her turning and tossing the person beside her who had toiled hard all day. She hugged her knees and stared blankly at the dim darkness beyond the window, missing the ivory mat she had once used in the palace.

Before long, the sound of Li Wu stirring came from behind her.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

Shen Zhuxi turned. Li Wu had sat up in bed too, brow lightly furrowed, looking at her.

She shook her head.

“Then why aren’t you sleeping?”

Shen Zhuxi murmured vaguely, too embarrassed to admit she was too hot to sleep. But Li Wu understood her well enough. He got up and left the bedroom, and when he returned, he was holding a palm-leaf fan from somewhere.

“You sleep. I’ll fan you,” he said.

“That won’t do,” Shen Zhuxi shook her head at once, reaching out to take the fan. “Let me do it myself…”

“When I tell you to sleep, you sleep. Stop your fussing.” Li Wu pressed her back impatiently, then settled onto the bed himself. He began to wave the palm-leaf fan, and a stream of cool air immediately swept over Shen Zhuxi. Having tasted the benefit, she swallowed back any further requests for the fan.

She couldn’t fan herself to produce nearly this much of a breeze.

With Li Wu fanning beside her, Shen Zhuxi gradually felt less stifled. Drowsiness washed over her. Her eyelids grew heavier with each blink, until at last they fell closed.

Shen Zhuxi slept soundly through the first half of the night, but in the second half, she was jolted awake by a strange sensation against her face.

She turned over in a drowsy haze — but before long, something long and slender brushed against her chin again.

Shen Zhuxi assumed Li Wu was playing a prank, and had half a mind to kick the presumptuous Fart-Man clean off the bed for not sleeping properly and coming up with such odd ideas. She waved her hand in annoyance, trying to swat away whatever it was — and her hand closed, without warning, around something smooth and slippery.

“Squeak squeak squeak —”

Shen Zhuxi snapped wide awake in an instant. She jerked her eyes open — a small, gray mouse was struggling desperately right before her, and in her hand was gripped a long, thin tail.

A piercing, anguished scream rang out without warning. It startled the cicadas into silence and jolted awake Li Wu, who had been sound asleep, palm-leaf fan still in hand.

He rolled upright from the bed, eyes not yet fully open, yet already wearing a ferocious expression.

“Who has a death wish?!”

Li Wu had barely finished the shout when something struck him hard on the leg. A wild-haired madwoman wailed like a banshee and crawled over him, her elbow grinding right into the tender flesh of his thigh.

“Shen Zhuxi?! What is wrong with you in the middle of the night?!” Li Wu said, wincing through the pain.

The madwoman didn’t spare him a glance, and stumbled lurching out of the room.

Li Wu ignored the ache in his leg and rushed after her. Afraid this madwoman would go bolting into the street in the middle of the night, he was relieved to find her crouched in the kitchen, scooping water from the water jar over and over, splashing it across her face and hands.

The water cascaded down, soaking her cheeks and the front of her inner garment. Her tears and the water blended together, indistinguishable.

Li Wu grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her back from the jar. “Have you lost your mind?”

“I’m filthy… I’m filthy…” She trembled violently, sobbing, and held up her right hand for him to see.

He looked it over thoroughly and could not find a single thing wrong with that smooth, fair hand.

“You’re not filthy — you’re dreaming!” Li Wu said.

“I’m not dreaming! There’s a rat in the room — it crawled onto my bed, and I touched its tail!” Shen Zhuxi thought of the slick, smooth feel of the rat’s tail, and her tears broke through anew like a burst dam.

She was utterly revolted — she felt sick but couldn’t quite vomit, leaving only a churning, heaving nausea in her stomach.

“I’m filthy…” she wept through her sobs.

“You’re not filthy one bit!” Li Wu couldn’t make head or tail of such a reason even after thinking it through, and was half-exasperated, half-amused. He took his sleeve and scrubbed vigorously at her face, deliberately shoving and jostling her round, smooth oval face about.

“You… what… are you… doing…”

“Waking you up properly!” Li Wu said brusquely. “Going into a frenzy in the middle of the night — and all over a single rat! It’s just one rat — is this any way to carry on?”

“It’s a mouse — a mouse. I just touched a mouse, I’m filthy…” Shen Zhuxi’s sobbing voice was tinged with shame. Fresh tears welled in her already red-rimmed eyes, glittering.

“If you keep crying, I’ll press you face-down into the privy hole and let you learn what real filth is.” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi’s mouth crumpled. Her shimmering almond eyes grew round and wide. She trembled with quick, shallow heaves — the very picture of someone who desperately wanted to cry but didn’t dare.

Li Wu took her by the wrist and led her back to the bedroom. She did not struggle — she followed him, docile and aggrieved.

Li Wu searched the room thoroughly, including under the bed, and found no sign of the little mouse anywhere.

“Go to sleep. Stop imagining things.” He dropped back onto the bed and grumbled: “Last night I was up all night reading—”

He suddenly caught himself and stopped.

Shen Zhuxi sniffled. “Reading what?”

“…Gambling on dice.” Li Wu’s gaze drifted toward the ceiling beams.

“You shouldn’t go gambling — that’s a bad habit.” Shen Zhuxi was so worried she forgot to even wipe her tears dry before hastening to advise him. “Zhou the sister-in-law’s youngest son was exactly…”

“Alright, alright, I know.” Li Wu cut her off and urged her again: “Now hurry up and get into bed. If you don’t sleep, it’ll be dawn.”

But Shen Zhuxi no longer dared approach the bed where the rat had appeared. Whatever Li Wu said, she refused to lie back down.

With Shen Zhuxi not sleeping, Li Wu couldn’t sleep either. He sat up in bed and looked helplessly at Shen Zhuxi, who stood in the center of the room, unwilling to sit and unwilling to lie down.

“Are you planning on never sleeping in a bed again?”

Impossible as it was to never sleep in a bed, the truth was that tonight, she simply lacked the courage to sleep there again.

She hadn’t recovered from her shock. Her vigilant gaze kept darting to the corners of the room, dreading the moment when something small and gray might come skittering out.

“You work harder than I do… you sleep. Don’t worry about me…” Shen Zhuxi said.

“If you’re not sleeping, do you think I can?” Li Wu said. He paused for a moment and then said suddenly: “What if we rented a bigger place in town? Steward Zhang recently put a property up for sale — it’s quite nice. Spacious rooms, with a garden.”

“…It’s all right. There’s no need.” Shen Zhuxi shook her head at once.

She thought to herself: you’ve already suffered enough.

“But I can’t just sit by and watch you not sleep!” Li Wu lay back with casual sprawl, hands folded behind his head, and said with ill humor: “Are you tormenting yourself, or are you tormenting me?!”

Shen Zhuxi said weakly: “You don’t have to worry about me…”

Li Wu immediately replied: “If you don’t want me worrying about you, who else do you want worrying?”

Li the Fart-Man was saying inexplicable things again. Shen Zhuxi felt herself in the wrong and dared not argue back.

“There is another option,” Li Wu suddenly sat up.

“What option?”

“I have another small courtyard by the river. I usually spend the months of the seventh and eighth there. It’s right next to the water — cool and not many mosquitoes.” Li Wu asked: “The accommodations are a little more basic than here, but — do you want to go?”

This was nothing short of retiring to an estate to escape the summer heat! She never would have thought that Li Wu, this rough man of common stock, would actually have a summer retreat!

The moment Shen Zhuxi heard the words “cool” and “not many mosquitoes,” she was sold. Who could possibly notice the “more basic accommodations” he mentioned after that?

She nodded eagerly: “Let’s go!”

Li Wu decided to go the moment he said it, and gave up on sleep altogether, getting up immediately to pack their things.

Shen Zhuxi didn’t have much to bring — just over ten sets of clothes for changing, along with her bedding and incense burner, her precious tooth-cleansing powder, the essential toilet paper, and a few books for leisure reading…

“Shen Zhuxi, are you moving house or just spending a little time there?” Li Wu’s temple throbbed as he looked at the mountain of luggage she had assembled. “Throw out half of it!”

Shen Zhuxi sorted and deliberated, and ultimately gave up her bedding and incense burner. But this still fell far short of Li Wu’s requirement. Her eyes moved back and forth between the books and the tooth-cleansing powder and toilet paper, a glimmer of tears slowly building.

“…Fine, fine — you go outside and wait. Stop blocking the way.” Li Wu said impatiently.

Shen Zhuxi saw that he wasn’t going to cut her luggage down any further. The glimmer of tears vanished at once. She walked out of the room with delight and stood obediently in the courtyard to wait for him.

Half a period of time later, Li Wu carried all the luggage out into the courtyard.

Shen Zhuxi asked: “There’s no ox-cart at home. How will we get everything over there?”

“What do we need an ox-cart for? Li Diao’er has the strength of a wild bull — one trip from him will do it.”

Shen Zhuxi was still a little worried: “Won’t it be too much for him…”

Li Wu gave her a look and said: “There’s no such thing as a life without hardship. When there’s nothing else demanding your energy and effort, even the act of breathing can become a burden.”

Shen Zhuxi listened to this in a daze, not quite sure what to make of it.

“Let’s go. If we set out now, we can get there by daybreak.” Li Wu headed for the fence gate, and Shen Zhuxi hurried after him.

Once out of the courtyard, Li Wu turned onto the path on the left. The sky had just barely begun to lighten. The moon had retreated behind thick clouds, and something — moonlight or dawn, it was hard to say — fell in a thin wash over the narrow path, casting the shadows of the two figures in and out of visibility. A long, drawn-out cockcrow rang beneath the sky where night and day met.

The two walked for roughly the span of two incense sticks burning. Gradually the sound of rushing water grew clearer.

Shen Zhuxi recognized the place where she had come to fetch water the last time. Li Wu turned at the end of the path and followed the river upstream.

“How much further?” The soles of her feet ached and stung. Shen Zhuxi could not help but ask.

“Almost there.”

Having the previous mountain-climbing incident to go by, Shen Zhuxi took his word with a grain of salt. Quite unexpectedly, after only a short while, a bamboo hut — barely half the size of the courtyard where Zhou the sister-in-law lived — actually appeared before them.

“We’re here,” Li Wu said.

“This is what you called your courtyard?” Shen Zhuxi stared at the drafty bamboo hut before her, jaw dropping.

Li Wu made a sound of assent, gave the teetering bamboo structure a kick with his foot, and walked right inside.

Dust billowed up and rushed toward her nose. Shen Zhuxi, who had been about to follow him in, immediately stumbled back in alarm.

“It hasn’t been lived in for a year — naturally it’s a bit dirty. Clean it up and it’ll be fine.” Li Wu walked around inside, muttering to himself: “Li Kun brings the things, Li Que tidies them up. We can settle in by today.”

Shen Zhuxi looked fearfully at the cobweb hanging from the doorway. The words of protest had already risen to her lips — but she didn’t have the nerve to say them.

They had made such a great fuss packing up all the luggage, then walked all this way to get here. If she were to say now that she wanted to turn around and go home, Li the Fart-Man would definitely press her face-first into the privy hole.

“What do you think — it’s not bad, is it?” Li Wu came to the doorway, looking at her with self-satisfaction.

Shen Zhuxi could not bring herself to dampen his enthusiasm. She gave a forced smile. “Not bad…”

Li Wu came to stand beside her and pointed to a grove of trees on the opposite bank. “There’s a banana grove over there. Once Li Diao’er and Li Que arrive, I’ll go and cut some banana leaves to make you a mat. Banana leaves keep you cool, and they won’t pinch your skin. And when the sun sets, we can fish right outside the door — it’s a great spot for fishing. Whatever we catch, I’ll make you fish belly soup that very night.”

Without noticing it, Shen Zhuxi found her attention drawn in, and forgot all about the bamboo hut’s simplicity.

“What is fish belly soup?”

“It’s a dish made with just the two thin cuts from the fish’s belly.” Li Wu seemed to be recalling the taste of it. He smacked his lips and said: “You have to pair it with a sip of wine to really enjoy it. Once Li Diao’er finishes moving the luggage, I’ll have him go with you to town — buy a good supply of spirits… and braised pig’s trotters too. Without trotters, a drink just won’t do.”

Li Wu rambled on without stopping, and Shen Zhuxi agreed to everything, one by one, beginning to feel a faint thread of anticipation for the summer days ahead at this riverside retreat.