After Ren Yunshen left, Teng Hao remained dejected for a long time. The normally cheerful and smiling young man suddenly became quiet and reserved. Every time he passed by the Ren family home, he would stand for several minutes, staring at the tightly closed gate, lost in thought.
During the final exams, his grades were a complete mess. Not only did he fail to achieve the promised improvement to rank among the top five, but he couldn’t even maintain his position in the top twenty.
Although this outcome wasn’t Ruan Yu’s fault, she still felt guilty.
Fortunately, this wasn’t the college entrance exam, and they still had time to adjust their condition.
As Spring Festival approached, Shen Bing couldn’t return home due to being too busy, so the Teng brothers, Teng Yi and Teng Hao planned to go abroad to spend the New Year with her. Ruan Yu had initially planned to stay in Liao City to work and earn money, as many positions offered triple wages during the Spring Festival period—an opportunity too good to pass up. However, Teng Yi couldn’t bear the thought of her running around during the holiday. He said if she didn’t go home, he wouldn’t go abroad either and would stay in Liao City to keep her company.
While Ruan Yu was still torn between choices, her grandfather, uncharacteristically, called from their hometown, saying he hoped she would come back to spend the New Year together.
With her grandfather’s request, Ruan Yu naturally agreed and booked her train tickets that same day.
Ruan Yu’s hometown was in Sanmenxia, where only her grandfather remained, named Ruan Heping.
Ruan Heping was a tailor who ran a small shop in town, specializing in mending clothes and making garments. Ruan Yu was raised single-handedly by her grandfather, but the two weren’t particularly close because he was especially strict with her, particularly after her father and grandmother passed away and her mother left without notice. Her grandfather had rarely smiled at her since then.
Ruan Yu was somewhat afraid of him.
When she was young, if she was mischievous, playful, slept in late, or didn’t do her homework properly, her grandfather would strike her palms with a wooden ruler, repeatedly and without mercy.
One could say that her good habits and excellent grades were all beaten into her by her grandfather.
On the day she returned home, Teng Yi drove her to the train station. Before leaving, he hugged her and repeatedly reminded her to “be careful on the road,” “don’t talk to strangers,” and “send a message when you arrive,” like a parent sending their child on a long journey.
Ruan Yu whispered in his ear, “You know what? Even my grandfather doesn’t nag as much as you do.”
Then, she was forcefully kissed.
Despite the crowded station, he kissed her without hesitation.
Ruan Yu boarded the train with both a red face and red eyes. Though this was just an ordinary, brief separation, she suddenly felt like crying for some reason. Watching Teng Yi on the platform, seeing him off until the last moment, she felt an indescribable sense of stability and security.
This feeling of stability and security brought tears to her eyes.
Once, Liao City had been just an ordinary city to her, where her school happened to be, nothing more. She had no expectations, nor was she expected by others. But now, she had someone she wanted to see through wind and rain and someone who would wait for her return through wind and rain.
The lonely sail had finally found its harbor.
The drifting duckweed had finally found its anchor.
Finding love was, as it turned out, this beautiful, this warm.
Ruan Yu waved to Teng Yi through the window, and he smiled and waved back.
–_–
The train thundered northward, and Ruan Yu slept until they reached Sanmenxia.
Sanmenxia is located in northwestern Henan Province, the closest city to the Yellow River among all riverside cities, and one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization.
After leaving Sanmenxia Station, Ruan Yu took two more buses to reach her home.
As soon as she got off the bus, Ruan Yu shivered from the cold wind that hit her face, though fortunately, the sunlight was still abundant that day. She tucked her neck into her scarf, pulled up the hood attached to her coat, and slowly walked home dragging her suitcase.
She hadn’t told her grandfather she was coming back today.
With Spring Festival approaching, every household in the small town had hung red lanterns and pasted red couplets, creating an atmosphere of peace and celebration.
Ruan Yu walked through the alley to her house, and seeing nothing but her grandfather’s “Repair Price List” hanging at the entrance, with no decorations or couplets, a sudden bitterness welled up in her heart.
If she hadn’t come back, was this how he planned to spend Spring Festival?
“Grandfather.” Ruan Yu pushed open the door.
Inside, Ruan Heping was sitting at his sewing machine, head down, mending a pair of pants. It was an old-style machine with a black body, its gold-pressed patterns long faded, powered entirely by foot pedaling.
Hearing her voice, Ruan Heping pushed up his reading glasses and raised his head.
“Grandfather, I’m back.” Ruan Yu walked toward him.
Seeing Ruan Yu return, a flash of joy crossed Ruan Heping’s eyes, but he quickly concealed it.
“Coming back without saying anything in advance?” He stood up. “Two years of university and you still haven’t learned to be thorough?”
Ruan Yu knew he was about to criticize and lecture her, so she kept her head down silently.
After scolding her for a while and seeing no response, Ruan Heping’s tone gradually softened.
“Are you hungry? Have you eaten?”
“Not hungry.”
She was somewhat hungry. During the five-hour train ride, she had eaten nothing but a few crackers.
But she was afraid of being scolded if she said so.
“Then I won’t worry about you. I’m going out for a bit, you go ahead and take out the bedding and quilts to air them.” Ruan Heping didn’t bother with the pants on the sewing machine, grabbed his change purse from the drawer, and quickly walked out through the small courtyard.
Ruan Yu put down her suitcase, went inside to bring out the bedding from the room, and spread it on the bamboo poles in the courtyard.
The sunlight was particularly warm.
Two hours of sunning would be enough.
After handling the bedding and pillows, Ruan Yu wiped down the dust in the room. By then, what little energy she had left was completely depleted, and she felt her stomach was empty.
Her stomach made gurgling sounds. Fortunately, her grandfather had gone out, or she would have been exposed.
Ruan Yu decided to go to the kitchen to find something to eat, but when she walked into the kitchen and lifted the food cover on the table, she was stunned. Under the cover was only a bowl of blackened preserved vegetables that looked like they had been eaten for many days.
This old man… what kind of life was he living?
Ruan Yu pressed her throbbing temples and turned to open the refrigerator door. The refrigerator was empty, not even plugged in, and a stale odor of long disuse wafted out, bringing tears to her eyes.
She knew her grandfather was frugal, wanting to save money for her education, but she hadn’t imagined he had economized to this extent.
Tears suddenly fell, impossible to hold back.
–_–
Ruan Heping returned an hour later, carrying several bags with Chinese yam and celery poking out from the top. It seemed his hasty departure earlier had been to go to the market to buy groceries.
“What are you doing sitting here in the draft?”
Seeing Ruan Yu sitting in the wind, he irritably scolded her a few times, chasing her inside before turning to enter the kitchen.
The aroma of meat soon wafted from the kitchen.
Dinner was especially bountiful, with fish, shrimp, and meat, along with several of Ruan Heping’s specialty dishes, as if celebrating Spring Festival early. That bowl of preserved vegetables had been hidden away somewhere.
At the dinner table, neither grandfather nor granddaughter spoke, both focused solely on eating. They rarely chatted; Ruan Heping seldom asked about her school life, and Ruan Yu never brought it up voluntarily.
Silence was their way of getting along.
After dinner, when Ruan Yu wanted to wash the dishes, Ruan Heping wouldn’t let her. Ostensibly, it was because he found her clumsy, but Ruan Yu knew he just didn’t want her hands to get greasy.
The old man was tsundere, never good at expressing himself properly.
Fortunately, Ruan Yu understood it all.
Back in her room, Ruan Yu chatted with Teng Yi for a while before taking a shower and going to bed.
She slept especially soundly that night, truly feeling like she was home.
In the following days, Ruan Yu didn’t go anywhere, just stayed at home keeping Ruan Heping company. The tailor shop had almost no business, with only occasional elderly neighbors coming to mend torn pants or split coat linings. Young people no longer believed in the concept of “mend and patch for three more years”; even new clothes would be discarded after a year when they went out of style.
Folk tailoring craftsmanship was gradually being eliminated in the tide of time.
When Ruan Heping worked at his sewing machine, Ruan Yu would sit beside him reading books and memorizing vocabulary. They still rarely talked, but there was a rare warmth in their silence.
When neighbors learned that Ruan Yu was back, they all came to see her, as she was Sanmenxia’s top scorer in the college entrance exam, and had become somewhat famous in both the town and city after the exam.
Next-door Auntie Sun also came to their home under the pretext of having clothes made.
Auntie Sun’s daughter Pei Qian was the same age as Ruan Yu, but unlike the studious Ruan Yu, Pei Qian was a typical poor student. She didn’t like studying or school life, so she dropped out of high school to work, and her marriage had been arranged early.
In the small town, there were many girls like this, nothing unusual. Rather, it was ambitious girls like Ruan Yu who were often seen as oddities.
“Ruan’er, haven’t seen you in so long, you’ve gotten thinner,” Auntie Sun frowned as she looked at Ruan Yu. “Studies must be very hard, right?”
“It’s fine,” Ruan Yu smiled in response.
“You say it’s fine, but that must mean it’s difficult. Ah, I say, why should girls work so hard? Learning so much knowledge, in the end, isn’t it all about getting married and having children?”
Ruan Yu remained silent.
She had heard such words many times, and although she fundamentally disagreed, she couldn’t be bothered to argue. Values were not something everyone could align on.
Of course, girls should study more. Only by improving oneself could one have more choices. Even if marriage and children were the eventual outcome, at least one could have a more excellent partner and raise more excellent children.
“Our Ruan’er can’t compare to your Qian’er. I heard Qian’er is due to give birth after the new year?” Ruan Heping spoke up from the side. It seemed he was taking the outsider’s side, but actually, he was just redirecting the conversation away from embarrassing Ruan Yu.
“Yes, yes.” Auntie Sun’s face lit up with joy.
“I heard it’s a boy.”
“Yes, yes.” Auntie Sun became even happier. “The hospital doesn’t allow gender testing, but we did it secretly. It’s a boy.”
“Congratulations then.”
Ruan Heping had thought that by actively drawing out her points of pride one by one, he could end the conversation and send this Buddha on her way, but who knew it wasn’t over yet?
“Ruan’er, let Auntie Sun tell you, when you’re in university, don’t just focus on studying, remember to find a boyfriend. Otherwise, by the time you graduate, all the good men will have been taken. Look at Old Chen’s daughter next door, she’s already thirty and still doesn’t have anyone.”
“Thirty isn’t old.”
“Thirty isn’t old? Back in our day, we would have had several children by then.”
“How can you compare now with then?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? People nowadays think they’re something special just because they’ve studied for a few years?”
“Auntie Sun, that’s not what I meant.”
Ruan Yu was speechless. She had brought up the topic herself, and somehow she was the one getting angry. Auntie Sun was a typical example of how “lack of education is truly frightening” among middle-aged women. Such people constantly harped on marriage and children, believing these two things were the standard for judging a person’s success. They not only confined their children within this framework but also liked to meddle in others’ lives. If anyone objected even slightly, they were considered disrespectful, not realizing how ridiculous they were.
“Ruan’er, don’t mistake good intentions for ill will, I’m saying this for your good.”
“Thank you for your concern, Auntie Sun. I already have a boyfriend,” Ruan Yu blurted out.
As she spoke, she saw Ruan Heping look over at her.
Ruan Yu immediately felt some regret, but surprisingly, Ruan Heping didn’t express any opinion. Even after Auntie Sun left, he didn’t say anything. Ruan Yu found it strange; normally, Ruan Heping would have lectured her about focusing on their studies and not getting distracted by romance.
–_–
The days at home passed quickly, and soon it was New Year’s Eve.
On New Year’s Eve, Grandfather Ruan Heping gave Ruan Yu a red envelope containing a fifty-thousand-yuan deposit slip. This was all of Ruan Heping’s savings.
“Grandfather, what are you doing?” Ruan Yu was at a loss.
She felt that since coming back this time, her grandfather had been acting strangely.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“What nonsense are you talking about? Are you cursing me during the New Year?” Ruan Heping glared.
Ruan Yu quickly shook her head. “Of course not, I only want you to be healthy, nothing else matters.”
“Stop talking nonsense, quickly put the deposit slip away. The password is your birthday. If you need money for anything in the future, just withdraw it. This amount should be enough for you to finish university. Also, don’t send money back anymore. Since when do students not focus on their studies but run around working part-time and sending money home?”
“I wasn’t working, that was my scholarship money.”
“Who are you trying to fool? Do you think I’m senile? What scholarship has that much left after paying tuition?” Ruan Heping saw through her immediately.
Ruan Yu fell silent, the paper in her hand feeling as heavy as a thousand pounds.
“Also…” Ruan Heping paused, “That boyfriend of yours, find time to bring him here. I need to see him, check him out for you.”
“Grandfather! Is that necessary?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? You’re just a young girl who hasn’t seen much of the world, what kind of judgment could you have?” Ruan Heping looked serious.
Ruan Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
After dinner, Ruan Yu relayed all of her grandfather’s words to Teng Yi, but there was no reply from his end.
She remembered he had a flight abroad that tonight.
As firecrackers started crackling outside with “pili pala” sounds, her phone also began vibrating frantically.
Ruan Yu glanced at it; most of the messages were New Year’s greetings forwarded by classmates. She didn’t reply to each one individually, just sent a “Happy New Year” in the dormitory group chat, then went to bed.
On the first day of the New Year, Ruan Yu woke up especially early.
As soon as she got up, she discovered they had a visitor.
It was Teng Yi.