Qu Hua first recognized his brother-in-law on the train, but his wife’s younger brother hadn’t noticed him. He had just gotten off another train before boarding this one. Though he and Fang Muyang started from different stations, they shared the same destination.
While boarding, a burly man rushed forward, stepping on a young girl’s foot. Instead of apologizing, he complained about her being slow and blocking his way. Cursing under his breath, he pushed forward while keeping others at bay with his elbows. The girl, likely in pain from being stepped on, lost her desire to move forward and stood there dejectedly.
His vulgar cursing was so offensive that even the roughest men found it jarring. Only Fang Mujing made way for her.
Just as the burly man was about to succeed in pushing through, someone from behind hooked his foot, nearly causing him to fall flat on his back. Qu Hua boarded the train expressionlessly after him, following the proper order.
The burly man managed to scramble onto the train at the last moment. Though he knew who his enemy was, he lacked the physical strength to settle the score. Instead, he could only accept it and continued to vent his frustration on the girl he had stepped on. As he was cursing, he suddenly found himself kneeling before the girl.
A voice said, “Even if you’re apologizing, there’s no need for such old-society formalities. We do things the new way now—a simple bow will suffice.” Fang Muyang withdrew his foot and captured the kneeling man’s silhouette in his sketchbook.
At the previous station, Fang Muyang had noticed a young woman with a three or four-year-old girl standing in the corner of the carriage. Their eyes were half-closed, wanting to sleep but not daring to. He had given them his seat and taken their corner spot.
The girl thought the burly man’s first near-fall was merely bad luck, so she only thanked Fang Muyang for standing up for her.
Fang Muyang thought of Fei Ni, deciding he should teach her some self-defense moves to prevent her from being bullied when out alone.
Qu Hua sat in the last row of the carriage while Fang Muyang squeezed into a corner to draw.
Two years ago, Qu Hua had seen Fang Muyang’s face in a newspaper that Mujing had given him. Thinking back, he recalled that only when speaking of her brother did Mujing show any trace of pride. The artist didn’t know that he was partly responsible for Qu Hua’s marriage to Mujing.
Fang Muyang was now sketching an elderly man sitting opposite him. Looking at the drawing, Qu Hua realized that Mujing’s praise for her brother wasn’t merely due to their blood relation. When Qu Hua looked at portraits, he primarily focused on anatomical accuracy, but Fang Muyang’s drawings made such concerns irrelevant. Nevertheless, his critique is still centered on structure.
Hearing his commentary, Fang Muyang smiled and said, “You must be a doctor.” Particularly knowledgeable about skull structure.
Qu Hua didn’t deny it.
Looking at his features, Fang Muyang thought he matched someone Fei Ni had described.
“Where are you headed?”
Coincidentally, they shared the same destination.
Old Fang spotted a familiar face in the sleeper car—none other than his son-in-law. True to the Fang family style, his son-in-law was working even on the train. He looked thinner and rougher than when they’d last met.
Seeing that his son-in-law hadn’t noticed him, Old Fang coughed once, waiting for a greeting. When the first cough went unnoticed, he coughed several more times until finally catching his son-in-law’s attention.
Only upon meeting his son-in-law did Old Fang learn that he had been providing medical aid in a nearby city for the past year, finishing his support mission just this week. His daughter’s letters had never mentioned this. He had assumed his son-in-law and daughter worked in the same city, and when his son-in-law had visited him last time on a business trip, he thought he had come from the south. Had he known earlier that his daughter and son-in-law lived separately, with her staying with her inconsiderate in-laws, he would have transferred her back long ago. With his son-in-law present, he directly brought up the matter of transferring his work location. He was certain his son-in-law would agree.
He knew his daughter well—she liked men who listened to her. She wouldn’t accept those who didn’t.
Qu Hua didn’t express whether he wanted to transfer or not, instead asking about Mujing’s thoughts.
Old Fang spoke of how close Mujing was to them, naturally wanting to live together. He mentioned his house, saying how he and his wife felt guilty living in such a large home, and that it would only fulfill its purpose if his daughter and son-in-law lived with them. He added how Mujing’s brother and sister-in-law eagerly anticipated their sister and brother-in-law’s return. In Old Fang’s words, there was no better daughter than Mujing, no better sister than Mujing—they all loved her.
“Mujing’s brother is also on the train. He likes the camera you gave him last year, always taking pictures with it.”
Qu Hua didn’t remember giving his brother-in-law a camera, though he had received a fountain pen from him. Mujing had brought it when she visited him last year.
Since last year, Qu Hua hasn’t returned home once. He had spent the entire year providing medical support at a hospital twenty hours away by train.
The aid mission came suddenly. His grandmother had recovered well, and there were people to care for her at home. As someone without family obligations, he had plenty of valid reasons to volunteer.
The day he left for the aid mission, he went directly from the hospital to the station after finishing surgery, taking an early train before dawn. He had said goodbye to his family the day before, except for Mujing, who was working late at school. Their schedules rarely aligned—when he wasn’t working late at the hospital, she was pulling all-nighters in the school laboratory. Even without living apart, it was difficult for the couple to meet.
Neither had mentioned divorce, as even filing for divorce required time. Neither of them had any.
At the new hospital, he sent Mujing a short message, asking her to seriously reconsider their relationship. The choice was hers, and he would respect whatever she decided.
If she had asked for a divorce when she was struggling, he would never have agreed. But now things were different—Mujing no longer needed his help, and the reason they got together couldn’t bear scrutiny. His aid mission had made it more difficult for Mujing to divorce him, given the distance, though this wasn’t his intention. If she wasn’t willing to make the trip to find him for a divorce, it showed she lacked the determination to end their marriage.
This time, Mujing didn’t reply to his message.
Qu Hua next saw Mujing after the Mid-Autumn Festival last year. She had visited her parents and then taken the train to see him. When she arrived, he had just entered the operating room. Five hours later, when the surgery finally ended, someone told him his wife was waiting in his dormitory. Perhaps exhausted from the five-hour surgery, his steps toward the dormitory grew increasingly slow, thinking she had come to ask for a divorce.
At the dormitory door, Qu Hua’s pace suddenly quickened.
Opening the door, he saw Mujing at the desk, calculating something.
Even at this moment, she was working.
Hearing the door, Mujing stood and turned around. Their eyes met, neither willing to look away. Mujing told Qu Hua that she had visited her parents during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and they wanted her to transfer back.
Qu Hua’s freshly washed hands still smelled of soap. He picked up the thermos to pour Mujing a cup of water. As he handed it to her, their hands touched. Mujing took the water and asked what he thought.
“Haven’t eaten yet?” Qu Hua didn’t share his thoughts, instead telling her about a newly opened restaurant nearby that was quite good. He picked up her jacket from the chair back and draped it over her shoulders.
As for his thoughts, he had already expressed them earlier—he would respect her decision. Once words are spoken, they can’t be taken back. That letter was the final version; his previous drafts had been much longer but were all burned with a lighter, leaving only ashes. Even those ashes were gone now.
“Let’s eat here, I brought mooncakes.” Mujing took out a package of mooncakes from her bag, bought from a shop before leaving, in their hometown’s style. She untied the hemp rope binding the mooncakes and used her small knife to cut two mooncakes in half, giving half to Qu Hua.
They sat facing each other, slowly eating the mooncakes. Seeing Qu Hua finish his, Mujing gave him another half.
Old Fang’s words interrupted Qu Hua’s memories. He first mentioned his son winning an art exhibition prize, then said his son didn’t care much about awards. Even when he used to chase his son to beat him, the boy never spoke ill of him outside. After discussing his son’s profession, he spoke of his son’s thoughtfulness toward his daughter-in-law. His daughter-in-law took the plane while his son took the hard-seat train. His wife took the plane while he took the train—the Fang family had a tradition of respecting women, something he wanted his son-in-law to hear. He could have also mentioned his son’s filial piety, buying him a sleeper ticket while taking the hard seat himself, but he didn’t want his son-in-law to be too submissive to his father, so he omitted this detail.
From his father-in-law’s words, Qu Hua extracted one piece of information: Mujing’s parents and brother had all come.
A patient’s family member came to thank Qu Hua for his help in the carriage. Qu Hua nodded, gave a brief instruction, then checked his watch and said he needed to return to his original carriage. Old Fang asked which carriage, and upon hearing Qu Hua’s answer, said what a coincidence that his brother was in the same carriage. Old Fang accompanied his son-in-law to find his son, but when they reached the carriage, Old Fang couldn’t find him. A girl saw Old Fang and, recognizing him from Fang Muyang’s description, handed him a note from the person he was looking for. Reading it, Old Fang learned that his restless son had gotten off at the previous station and climbed onto the train’s roof, promising to meet him at the final destination. At that moment, Fang Muyang sat on the train’s roof watching the clouds, thinking that Fei Ni must have arrived by now.
With Fang Muyang absent, Old Fang could only tell his sole listener—his son-in-law—about his daughter. When Mujing was born, his joy was no less than when he first became a father. All the doctors and nurses received gifts he had prepared. For his daughter’s full-month celebration, he had specially published an article in the newspaper about his feelings as a father. Old Fang had a good memory; he could still recall this article and recited it to his son-in-law…
Fei Ni and Madam Mu arrived first. Mujing went to pick them up in a car sent by Old Qu, originally planning to take them directly to the Qu house for lunch. Madam Mu declined with a smile, insisting on going to the guesthouse first and visiting the in-laws another day.
Madam Mu mentioned Old Fang’s plan to transfer their work locations. Mujing knew that if her mother disagreed, her father certainly couldn’t proceed, though he always believed every decision was his own. His will had been filtered through her mother’s. Her mother wanted her to transfer back.
Knowing her mother-in-law and Second Sister needed to talk, Fei Ni mentioned going to her room to work on an unfinished translation upon reaching the guesthouse, leaving her mother-in-law and Second Sister to talk in one room. Once this book was translated, the manuscript fee would be enough to let Fang Muyang take a plane ride—a small luxury.
“I don’t plan to transfer for now.”
“For Qu Hua? Your father has already found a receiving unit for him.”