In mid-September, the first wedding guests arrived at the provincial capital’s international airport.
Lin Qile stood in the airport lobby, watching from afar as his sister-in-law pushed his elder brother in a wheelchair towards them. She also held the hand of a young child – Jiang Qiaoxi’s six-year-old nephew, already in first grade in Hong Kong.
“Uncle Qiaoxi!” The little boy, wearing a backpack, let go of his mother’s hand and ran towards them with outstretched arms like a small bird.
Jiang Qiaoxi scooped him up in one swift motion.
Lin Qile helped his sister-in-law with the luggage and folded his brother’s wheelchair to store in the trunk. His brother’s hair had grown thicker and darker since their last meeting in Hong Kong. He looked healthier overall, wearing a well-fitted shirt. He now used a small cane and could walk short distances, though long trips were still challenging.
Jiang Qiaoxi drove the family home for a family dinner. His sister-in-law sat in the back seat, curiously gazing out the window on her first visit to mainland China. She asked Lin Qile about the wedding preparations.
Lin Qile handed his nephew a Lego toy to play with in the car.
“We just picked out the wedding favor boxes today,” Lin Qile told his sister-in-law. “The wedding is in two weeks. We’re doing final confirmations on guest attendance now.”
“Right, right,” his sister-in-law nodded, remarking to her husband, “She seems young, but Yingtao is so attentive to details.”
Jiang Qiaoxi wheeled his brother out of the elevator and carefully through the door Yingtao held open. The little nephew ran inside, looking around excitedly. “Uncle Qiaoxi’s home is so big!” he exclaimed in his childish voice.
“It is, isn’t it?” His father steadied himself on the armrest, surveying his younger brother’s new home. He took his son’s hand, asking, “Would you like to work on the mainland someday?”
Lin Qile went to the kitchen to take the dishes out of the oven and set the table. Her sister-in-law came to help, rolling up her sleeves. “So many dishes! Did you make all these yourself?” she asked, surprised.
Lin Qile glanced outside, then leaned close to whisper something in her sister-in-law’s ear.
“Oh…” Her sister-in-law’s eyes widened as she looked back at Jiang Qiaoxi. “You should tell him, though.”
“I’ll go talk to him,” Lin Qile nodded.
Outside, Jiang Qiaoxi had opened a new Lego set and was playing with his nephew. He turned on the TV as Lin Qile approached, saying softly, “Can you prepare drinks? Uncle Jiang is downstairs. I’ll go meet him.”
Jiang Qiaoxi looked up at her.
His brother sat across from them, leafing through a fund prospectus from Jiang Qiaoxi’s company.
Lin Qile pressed her lips together, discussing with Jiang Qiaoxi, “With your brother’s family here, we shouldn’t both go down. I’ll go alone to meet him.”
She changed her shoes, grabbed the keys and resident card, and hurried downstairs. In the first-floor visitor lobby, Lin Qile pushed open the door and saw a man in his early sixties with graying hair, wearing a navy blue work uniform, sitting on a bench.
His hands rested on his knees, a suitcase beside him.
“Uncle Jiang!” Lin Qile called out as she ran over.
Jiang Zheng looked up, seeing a flash of red approaching. His wrinkled face immediately broke into a smile. He stood, gently embracing Yingtao’s shoulders.
Lin Qile choked up, looking up at him.
“It’s been a long time, Yingtao,” Jiang Zheng said with emotion.
In the elevator, Lin Qile looped the keys around her wrist and said, “Uncle Jiang, let me take your suitcase.”
Jiang Zheng stood beside her, watching. The suitcase wasn’t heavy, containing only some clothes, documents, and local specialties for the young couple.
As the elevator numbers climbed, Jiang Zheng said, “Still calling me Uncle Jiang?”
Lin Qile glanced at him, lips pressed together. It felt strange to suddenly change how she addressed the uncle she’d known for so long.
“Dad,” she called him softly.
Jiang Zheng nodded, sighing with a smile. “That’s nice. It’s been a while since I’ve heard someone call me ‘Dad.'”
Jiang Qiaoxi was busy distributing cutlery and polishing wine glasses when he heard the door open. He looked up to see Yingtao enter the foyer carrying a small suitcase.
“Jiang Qiaoxi,” Lin Qile called, “Dad’s here!”
“Uncle!” His brother suddenly called from the living room. “It’s been so long!”
Jiang Zheng let out a hearty laugh. Having been a high-level executive in a state-owned enterprise all his life, his laughter was deep and restrained. As a child, every time Jiang Qiaoxi heard him laugh, he knew it was for others’ benefit.
“Ruochen,” Jiang Zheng said, “You’ve survived quite an ordeal, my boy!”
Jiang Qiaoxi set down the wine glass he was holding. Lin Qile took his arm, leading him out of the kitchen to face Jiang Zheng.
Jiang Zheng looked at his daughter-in-law, noticing her nervousness and unease.
“You’ve grown up,” Jiang Zheng smiled as if he had never been separated from his younger son.
Jiang Qiaoxi raised his eyes, facing his father in person rather than through a computer screen. Jiang Zheng’s face was so lined with wrinkles that Jiang Qiaoxi barely recognized him.
Yingtao gently tugged at his sleeve. Jiang Qiaoxi responded with a soft “Mm” and nodded to Jiang Zheng, aware of the family’s presence.
To this family, Jiang Qiaoxi was the head of the household, but Jiang Zheng was everyone’s elder. At the dinner table, his brother chatted amiably with their uncle, with Yingtao occasionally chiming in. Ignoring Jiang Qiaoxi’s silent presence, it appeared to be a harmonious family gathering.
“It’s not easy for us to travel with such a young child, and my health issues,” his brother said with a smile. “If it weren’t for Qiaoxi’s wedding, who knows when we’d have made it over.”
“When was the last time you came back?” his sister-in-law asked.
“Last time…” His brother pondered, turning to look at his silent younger brother. He smiled, “I think it was when Qiaoxi was born… No, when he was two or three!”
Lin Qile broke open a soft jujube bun, giving half to her father-in-law. Seeing Jiang Qiaoxi still unhappy, she took a bite of the other half herself. “Do you want some?” she whispered, leaning close.
Jiang Qiaoxi looked up at her, so Lin Qile split the remaining piece in two, offering him the unbitten half.
His brother was reminiscing about that winter when he and his classmates went to the cinema to see Stephen Chow’s new movie, “King of Beggars.”
After leaving the theater, night had fallen. His classmates had planned to go to Lan Kwai Fong, but they heard about a fire at a department store in Causeway Bay. His brother found a phone booth to call home, intending to ask if his mother and cousin had returned from Sogo, but his father said, “When are you coming home?”
“Why?” his brother asked.
“Your uncle and his wife are fighting again, talking about divorce. Come with me to the mainland.”
“What for, to meditate?”
“To bring your little cousin back!”
In that era, travel permits to Hong Kong were complicated to obtain. Yet, in his innocence, young Jiang Qiaoxi found himself in his uncle’s arms, boarding a flight to Hong Kong.
Lin Yingtao stood up to refill the elders’ wine glasses. As his brother mentioned “Uncle and his wife fighting again,” she approached Jiang Zheng’s side, hearing him sigh with a chuckle.
She sat back down, and Jiang Qiaoxi took the wine bottle from her, pouring her a small glass.
“That visit,” his brother laughed, “we went to Beijing, walked around and saw the sights.”
“You must miss being able to walk,” his sister-in-law asked from beside him.
“Of course,” his brother smiled ruefully. “When you’re young, you don’t know how to cherish it.”
They discussed the changes in the mainland over the years. Jiang Zheng suggested his brother’s family visit Beijing again to see today’s capital of a great nation. His brother replied, “We plan to. After the wedding, we’re thinking of touring the coast and then returning via Beijing.”
“That’ll be tough on Xiaoya,” Jiang Zheng said.
“He has some classmates and colleagues here,” his sister-in-law smiled. “Otherwise, we’d head back to Hong Kong. I couldn’t manage on my own.”
Lin Yingtao ate quietly, listening to the elders chat. She whispered to Jiang Qiaoxi, “How could your parents bear to let you go back then?”
Jiang Qiaoxi’s hand rested on the back of their chairs. He hadn’t touched his food for a while, focused on listening to his brother’s recollections.
“At that time…” Jiang Qiaoxi pondered, “they didn’t know I also had… some talent.”
Talent? Lin Yingtao noted his casual use of “also.”
The elders hadn’t noticed the young couple’s whispered exchange.
“I was in first grade,” Jiang Qiaoxi looked at her. “My uncle told me he caught me helping the driver’s child with math homework. He thought I was being bullied.”
Lin Yingtao couldn’t help but smile as Jiang Qiaoxi chuckled softly, “Actually, the child just showed me his math book, and I got so engrossed I wrote out the answers without realizing…”
“Then Jiang Zheng and the others brought me back,” Jiang Qiaoxi told her.
Lin Yingtao knew what happened next: At six, Jiang Qiaoxi won a gold medal in the provincial primary school Math Olympiad. His mother, who had always neglected him, hugged him excitedly. He briefly thought his parents might start to love him. A math prodigy emerged. For the next ten years, Jiang Qiaoxi never left the world of competitive mathematics.
“This is the first time I’ve heard you talk about this in such detail,” Lin Yingtao said.
“I’ve told you before,” Jiang Qiaoxi replied.
“But not like this,” Lin Yingtao said.
Jiang Qiaoxi opened his eyes, observing his brother and Jiang Zheng’s faces in the dim light above the dining table.
“Sometimes I forget too,” he said.
As a small child, he had tried to please his parents, to earn their “love.” He naively believed that if he scored just a bit higher next time if he studied math diligently enough, his parents would love him instead of being fickle, tossing him a few perfunctory words of praise before sending him back to his room.
Jiang Qiaoxi’s young nephew sat between his mother and Grandpa Jiang, eating sweet and sour pork his grandfather had served him. Jiang Zheng stroked the child’s soft hair, looking up with a smile, “Yingtao’s cooking skills truly match Juanzi’s.” He glanced at Jiang Qiaoxi, “You’re a lucky man!”
His brother and sister-in-law smiled from across the table, also praising Yingtao’s excellent cooking. His sister-in-law mentioned that Yingtao had cooked for them once in Hong Kong during her university days, and it was delicious.
Lin Yingtao’s hand hung by her side, clasped by Jiang Qiaoxi under the table, their fingers slowly intertwining. She turned to look at him.
The meal lasted until after eight. Everyone except Jiang Qiaoxi had drunk some wine, becoming emotional and speaking with soft, slightly intoxicated tones.
“Uncle, Yingtao,” his brother said from across the table, his eyes glistening, “I’ve been wanting to find an opportunity to apologize to you.”
He leaned forward, hands on his wheelchair armrests, as if trying to stand.
Jiang Zheng quickly pressed him back down.
“What are you talking about?” he said.
Lin Yingtao watched them, then looked at Jiang Qiaoxi beside her.
“For a while, I was fully conscious,” his brother shook his head, gesturing near his ear. “I could see and hear, but I couldn’t move or speak. It was like being trapped in this… this broken body, not knowing when my consciousness might disappear.”
Jiang Qiaoxi looked at him.
“My own family has been burdened by me,” his brother said. “That was inevitable, but Qiaoxi shouldn’t have been affected… From when he was young, I hoped he could become a mathematician, or pursue any career he wanted, as long as he was happy and could fully express his talent… Instead of working every day, tutoring for someone with no future, or wasting time as a hospital caregiver. It’s just… too unworthy…”
“Ruochen…” Jiang Zheng sighed beside him, grasping his hand.
“But you have a future now, don’t you?” Jiang Qiaoxi said from across the table.
Jiang Ruochen looked up at him.
“If I didn’t,” he said, glancing at his wife, “how long would I keep burdening you all?”
Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly let out a cold laugh.
“By then, Yingtao had already come to find me,” he said, feigning callousness. “You couldn’t have burdened me for long even if you wanted to.”
His sister-in-law explained that when Ruochen first had his accident, the whole family was busy and didn’t consider Qiaoxi’s situation. They thought Qiaoxi would be leaving for Berkeley in a few months, and she was relieved that at least one cousin cared about Ruochen and could help for those few months. Who knew Qiaoxi would quietly stay in Hong Kong for seven years without leaving?
After dinner, Jiang Ruochen stood up from his wheelchair. Leaning on his cane, he walked back and forth several times. Jiang Qiaoxi stood by the door, watching as if inspecting.
“How’s my walking?” Jiang Ruochen turned to ask.
“How’s my home?” Jiang Qiaoxi looked at him and asked in return.
Jiang Ruochen nodded, carefully observing the house’s layout and furnishings, watching Yingtao laughing and talking with his father in the kitchen. He said contentedly, “This feels like your home!”
Jiang Qiaoxi stood still, his head bowed.
Jiang Ruochen walked over to him, leaning on his cane. He made a fist and gently tapped Jiang Qiaoxi’s shoulder. Jiang Qiaoxi leaned back slightly, his head still lowered.
After a moment, Jiang Qiaoxi looked up, taking a deep breath.
He suddenly hugged his brother tightly.
Lin Yingtao asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Zheng and Ruochen’s family were chatting animatedly in the living room. Lin Yingtao had just finished washing the dishcloth in the kitchen when she felt Jiang Qiaoxi embraces her from behind, resting his face on her hair, silent.
Lin Yingtao said, “After you take your brother’s family to the hotel, take Dad to the company apartment too.”
Jiang Qiaoxi’s arms around her, he finally muttered, “What dad…”
Lin Yingtao turned her head, looking up at him.
“He’s your biological father. I should call him Dad,” she said.
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his head, looking at Lin Yingtao sullenly.
She wrapped her arms around his waist, saying softly, “I want to call him that. If you’re still not comfortable, I’ll just do it for you, okay?”
Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly felt that his wife studying early childhood education might have been specifically to comfort him.
Jiang Zheng said, “Oh, right, Yingtao! I brought the photos you asked for, of Jiang Qiaoxi.”
“Photos of Qiaoxi?” his sister-in-law asked.
“Yes,” Jiang Zheng stood up, personally pulling over his suitcase. He bent down to open it, taking out an envelope from between several books. “Photos from childhood to adulthood, though not many—”
Lin Yingtao hurried over, taking the envelope from her father-in-law’s hands. She opened it and poured out the photos to look at them.
His brother looked up at Jiang Qiaoxi, asking, “Don’t you ever take photos of yourself?”
Lin Yingtao saw many photos of Jiang Qiaoxi at different ages. Although he always looked unhappy in the old pictures, Yingtao gratefully said to Jiang Zheng, “Thank you, Dad…”
His brother was reminding his wife, “We helped Yingtao look for photos in Hong Kong before, remember…”
His sister-in-law turned around to see Yingtao coming out of the study, carrying several thick photo albums.
Lin Yingtao had always loved taking photos, and the uncles and aunts around her liked photographing her too. Her photos were the most numerous in the family. Among the many group photos, there were occasionally shadows of the past Jiang Qiaoxi.
His brother picked up a photo of the Qunshan worksite dormitory, laughing, “So this is the little cabin you lived in back then? No wonder Jiang Qiaoxi was so unhappy when he first moved in.”
Everyone laughed. Jiang Qiaoxi walked over, leaning on the wheelchair, also looking at the photo in his brother’s hand.
On the small path of the Qunshan worksite dormitory, surrounded by power plant workers in blue uniforms, Foreman Zhou still wore his safety helmet, laughing heartily nearby. A large rooster, its feet tied with a red and white string, was tethered to a tree, holding its head high with its comb raised. Lin Yingtao, with two pigtails, tiny as she was, was being held up by her father, wailing loudly while covering her fingers. It seemed she had just tried to pet the rooster and got pecked.
Jiang Qiaoxi couldn’t help but smile. He looked up again, watching Yingtao crouching beside Jiang Zheng, helping to flip through the photo albums.
In photos from the same era, Jiang Qiaoxi’s face was blurry and lifeless. Even Du Shang, Yu Qiao, and Cai Fangyuan occasionally looked confused. Only Lin Yingtao, with her every expression and movement, no matter who took the photo or from what angle, even just a glance back while eating a sweet pear, made people feel how vivid and full of life she was.
Old photos from before the millennium lacked Photoshop filters and beauty cameras. Everything in 2014 was so new, but the past, because of its age, was full of sincere magic.
“Cherish life, cherish the time you have together,” his brother said to Yingtao and Jiang Qiaoxi before leaving. His eyes curved into a smile. “More importantly, cherish your health and your family…” He glanced meaningfully at Uncle Jiang Zheng, then said to Jiang Qiaoxi, “Don’t wait until you’re at death’s door like me to regret leaving things unresolved…”
He hugged Jiang Qiaoxi again, patting each other’s backs.
His sister-in-law then brought over a paper bag, saying gently, “Yingtao, this is from Ruochen and me for you two.”
“Ah?” Lin Yingtao was confused.
The paper bag contained an exquisitely carved pear wood box. Jiang Qiaoxi held the box in his hands, somehow suddenly having a bad feeling.
Sure enough, when the lid was opened—
Inside was a shiny string of golden pig pendants.
Jiang Qiaoxi exclaimed in frustration, “I said we didn’t want these pigs!”
His sister-in-law was amused by his reaction and explained to the bewildered Lin Yingtao that in Hong Kong weddings, brides wear golden pig pendants: “For continuous births of precious sons, many children, and much good fortune!”
There was also a letter pressed under the box of golden pig pendants. Jiang Qiaoxi picked it up to look at it. It was in his brother’s handwriting, with “For Little Sister Lin” written on the envelope.
Jiang Qiaoxi looked up at Jiang Ruochen, finally accepting the gift.
He hadn’t been drinking, so he drove his brother’s family of three to the hotel. Lin Yingtao stayed at home, pouring a cup of tea for Jiang Zheng as they continued looking at old photos together.
Jiang Zheng asked about her work and inquired about Lin Haifeng and his wife’s health.
Lin Yingtao asked, “Dad, have you… been in contact with Aunt Liang recently?”
Jiang Zheng looked at her.
“Does she want to come?” Lin Yingtao asked nervously.
“Yingtao,” Jiang Zheng asked, “you don’t hate your Aunt Liang, do you?”
Lin Yingtao held the photo album, saying softly, “I… I’m not very familiar with Aunt Liang…”
Jiang Zheng nodded.
“Your Aunt Liang, as a person…” Jiang Zheng paused here as if he couldn’t find a simple word to summarize the impression his ex-wife had left on him, “can be quite stressful to be around.”
Lin Yingtao looked at him.
“Sometimes she acts rather extremely,” Jiang Zheng lowered his eyes, speaking quietly, “but she’s not a bad person.”
Lin Yingtao listened, not fully understanding.
” I know very well that Jiang Qiaoxi probably doesn’t want to see his mother, especially at an occasion like the wedding,” Jiang Zheng told his daughter-in-law. “He probably doesn’t welcome me either.”
“Dad…” Lin Yingtao frowned.
Jiang Zheng looked at her.
Sometimes, he couldn’t imagine what might have happened if he and his son hadn’t met this young girl before them.
“Jiang Qiaoxi carries a heavy burden,” Jiang Zheng said. “Back then, whether it was your Aunt Liang or old colleagues from the power system, old neighbors, everyone thought this child was selfish, cold, unfilial,” Jiang Zheng rubbed his fingers together as he spoke, crossing his arms over his chest. “But over the years, it’s become clearer. Look at his brother, who played with him since childhood, often called him, and sent him books and study materials. You can’t say it was a great kindness, and the emotional bond wasn’t that deep either. Ruochen was the eldest of their generation, with many younger siblings. He was in Hong Kong, where life was more prosperous, so he often helped this person or that person. He didn’t treat Jiang Qiaoxi particularly special…”
“But it was this not-so-special brother who stayed by Ruochen’s side when he had his accident,” Jiang Zheng looked at Lin Yingtao, suddenly growing sad. “I think this child values relationships deeply.”
Hearing this, Lin Yingtao understood that her father-in-law was saying this for her benefit.
“Yingtao, you’re in education too,” Jiang Zheng smiled bitterly. “You surely understand that being good to a child-like Jiang Qiaoxi, even if it’s not exceptionally good, he will willingly repay you.”
“Dad…” Lin Yingtao didn’t know what to say. “I know.”
Jiang Zheng rubbed his fingers again as if he desperately wanted to smoke but held back because his daughter-in-law was present.
“Seeing you two living well and happily now, I feel at ease,” Jiang Zheng said with a smile. He pulled at the leg of his trousers, and picked up his teacup, watching his daughter-in-law hurry to refill it. “After attending your wedding, I’ll go back to work.”
Jiang Qiaoxi returned after dropping off his brother. He stood by the door, watching Jiang Zheng still looking through old Qunshan albums with Yingtao.
Without changing his shoes, Jiang Qiaoxi walked in, waiting a moment before saying, “It’s getting late.”
Jiang Zheng turned to see him and quickly stood up.
Lin Yingtao also rose, watching Jiang Qiaoxi reach for Jiang Zheng’s suitcase behind the sofa, saying, “Let’s go.”
On the night road, the car drove steadily towards the company apartments, neon lights flashing outside the windows.
“Qiaoxi,” Jiang Zheng sat in the back seat, the window open, a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers. Smoke brushed past his cheeks as he broke the silence.
Jiang Qiaoxi drove in front, seemingly in a foul mood. His shirt collar was unbuttoned, and he had opened the window too.
“Dad wronged you in the past.”
The car fell silent. Jiang Qiaoxi was about to turn when he saw the green light suddenly change to yellow. He slammed on the brakes.
He sat wordlessly in the driver’s seat, his left elbow propped on the window. Jiang Qiaoxi raised his blurry eyes to look ahead, unconsciously biting his thumb.