Summer was coming to an end, yet it left nothing behind, just like last year, and the year before that.
Qiao Qingyu emerged from her sunless room. After taking just a few steps in the sweltering air, the sunlight forced her eyes shut. She realized she should have brought an umbrella. Should she go back? Never mind.
The afternoon Chaoyang New Village was drowsy with sleep, and Qiao Qingyu’s quickly moving figure was like a fish gliding through still waters. As she reached the main entrance and turned the corner, her eyes fixed on the bus stop in the distance when a voice suddenly invaded her ears.
“Hey! Little sister from the Qiao Family Handmade Noodle Shop!”
The voice came from the newspaper stand she passed by daily. The slightly plump owner with permed hair enthusiastically waved at Qiao Qingyu, “Come here, eldest daughter of the Qiao family! Out for a walk?”
A more assertive, more decisive person would have ignored her artificial enthusiasm and walked away pretending not to hear, but Qiao Qingyu didn’t. She stopped, partly out of politeness, partly out of curiosity.
“Sister, come here,” the owner beckoned her closer, “I need to ask you something.”
Switching between “eldest daughter” and “sister,” Qiao Qingyu felt slightly dazed. As she walked over, she noticed a tall, thin middle-aged man already standing at the newspaper stand.
“Director Wen, you can ask her,” seeing Qiao Qingyu obediently approach, the owner offered an ingratiating smile to the middle-aged man, “This child just moved here, lives right across from your place, in Building 39, third floor, isn’t it?”
As she spoke, she turned her gaze toward Qiao Qingyu, her eyes filled with undisguised curiosity.
Qiao Qingyu nodded, her guard rising. This owner knew quite a lot.
“Ask her if she’s seen Asheng if he’s been at the old house these past few days?”
The thin man turned around, his clear eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses meeting Qiao Qingyu’s confused and defensive gaze.
“Sister, which apartment do you live in?” the owner leaned half her body over the magazine stand to ask.
“303,” Qiao Qingyu answered softly.
“Oh, isn’t that right across from your place!” the owner looked at the middle-aged man, her face plastered with a smile, “This makes it easy! From now on, we can just ask her whether Asheng has come to the old house or not.”
Having proposed this brilliant suggestion, the owner’s eyes sparkled as she eagerly awaited the middle-aged man’s approval. However, he merely stared at Qiao Qingyu, his strange gaze making her uncomfortable.
It wasn’t a frivolous or playful look, but rather a heavy, contemplative gaze, as if searching for something in Qiao Qingyu’s face.
“Director? Professor Wen?”
“Hmm,” the man gave a brief, calm nod to the owner, “This young lady looks familiar, but,” he showed Qiao Qingyu an apologetic, polite smile, “I can’t quite place where I’ve seen her before.”
“Hey, you’ve seen more people than I’ve eaten grains of rice, but this time,” the owner laughed, “I bet you’re mistaking her for someone else! The Qiao family is from Shun Yun, they just moved to Huan Zhou a month ago! By the way, this eldest daughter is about to start at Huan Second Middle School, her second year of high school, right? Maybe she’ll be in the same class as Asheng! Sister, have you seen Asheng these past few days? He lives right across from you on the third floor, you can see his place from your balcony… This is Asheng’s father, he’s been looking for him these past few days…”
Qiao Qingyu maintained her guarded expression. While the owner prattled on, she alertly noticed the man silently mouthing the words “Shun Yun,” his furrowed brows relaxing into a look of sudden understanding.
Qiao Qingyu understood.
The man hadn’t seen her before, but rather her sister, Qiao Baiyu, who had studied in Huan Zhou for half a year several years ago.
At that moment, she became extremely worried that the man’s next words would be about Qiao Baiyu, and she began to regret stopping.
“Have you seen Asheng, sister?” the owner continued pressing, “His balcony is right across from yours, Ming Sheng, do you know him?”
Qiao Qingyu shook her head.
“Haven’t seen him?” the owner squinted in disbelief.
“Haven’t noticed,” Qiao Qingyu said, “Don’t know him either.”
“Ha! Don’t all you students know Asheng?” the owner laughed, “Don’t many students who come to buy books here tell me they know Asheng? They say he’s quite famous! How come you don’t know him?”
Her words caused both Qiao Qingyu and the middle-aged man to show expressions of embarrassment. Qiao Qingyu felt ashamed of her usual disconnection from news and gossip, while the middle-aged man seemed to have been touched on a sore spot, sighing lightly with a complicated expression.
The owner ignored Qiao Qingyu and hurried to save face: “Director, don’t misunderstand, everyone knows Asheng because he’s so handsome! Too handsome! I tell you, Asheng’s looks would stand out even among movie stars, let alone…”
“Enough, Sister Feng, stop speaking for him, I know exactly what he’s like,” the middle-aged man waved his hand impatiently, “He’s completely out of control now, you old neighbors shouldn’t keep indulging him, always speaking well of him…”
“Boys being a bit mischievous shows they’re smart!” Owner Feng reached out to pat the middle-aged man’s back consolingly, “Isn’t Asheng smart? He excels at everything! Such a good son, we can only envy, don’t worry so much…”
“Are your parents doing well?”
As he asked this, the middle-aged man shifted slightly to the side, subtly avoiding the owner’s forced familiarity. His gaze toward Qiao Qingyu had lost some of its distance and gained more warmth.
This question came out of nowhere, and Qiao Qingyu was a bit surprised. She blinked, about to speak, when Owner Feng interrupted: “Old Qiao and his wife are healthy as can be! Look, they opened a noodle shop over there, don’t even hire help, work hard from dawn to dusk every day…”
“They’re doing very well,” Qiao Qingyu answered, looking at the middle-aged man.
“Good,” the middle-aged man nodded briefly again, turning to Owner Feng, “Sister Feng, I need to go, if you…”
“If I see Asheng, I’ll text you,” Owner Feng eagerly cut in, “Won’t call, you’re busy.”
“Thank you for the trouble.”
After the man left, Qiao Qingyu’s suspended heart finally settled—he hadn’t mentioned Qiao Baiyu. However, she quickly realized her earlier worry had been directed at the wrong person. Whatever relationship the middle-aged man had with Qiao Baiyu, however much he knew about her, he was calm and restrained, and didn’t live here—he probably wouldn’t and wouldn’t care to randomly bring up Qiao Baiyu’s matters. In contrast, the gossip-hungry newspaper stand owner guarding the community entrance, whose curiosity equaled that of all the newspaper stand owners in Shun Yun City combined, was the one to be wary of.
Although she had referred to Qiao Qingyu as “the Qiao family’s eldest daughter” twice, she didn’t know about Qiao Baiyu’s existence.
“Huan Zhou is much hotter than Shun Yun, right?” After seeing off the middle-aged man, Owner Feng turned her piercing gaze toward Qiao Qingyu, “What about your brother? Saw him once when you just moved in, haven’t seen him since?”
“Huan Zhou is too hot, he went back to our hometown.”
“Living alone in Shun Yun?”
“With our grandparents in the countryside.”
The answer satisfied Owner Feng, who smiled slightly and asked in a sympathetic tone: “In this heat, your parents won’t even install an air conditioner for you? You and your brother share a room, right? Just need to install one, save the children from suffering.”
It was one room, but also not one room. Chaoyang New Village stretched along the west bank of the Grand Canal, an old narrow community almost thirty years old with dated layouts. The Qiao family rented apartment 303 in Building 39, a two-bedroom unit of less than 60 square meters. The master bedroom shared the same orientation as the balcony, and Qiao Lusheng and Li Fanghao had divided it in half with several pieces of fiberboard—the window side for Qiao Jinyu, and the door side for Qiao Qingyu. The reason was simple: the internet port was by the window, and Qiao Jinyu, who had stumbled into sports school, could play games, while Qiao Qingyu, who had struggled to transfer to Huan Second Middle School, wasn’t allowed to touch the computer.
The fiberboard separating the siblings was airtight, with a door that could be locked from both sides. During the days when Qiao Jinyu wasn’t home, the door remained tightly locked, and Qiao Qingyu couldn’t even remember the color of the curtains on that side. How could one air conditioner be enough?
“Your grades were good in Shun Yun, right?” Having finished discussing the air conditioner, Owner Feng moved on to the next topic, “Huan Second Middle School isn’t easy to get into, your parents must have connections.”
Qiao Qingyu understood there were people like this in the world, putting on airs and pretenses, praising with their mouths while sneering in their hearts—simply put, looking down on others.
“I ranked first at Shun Yun First Middle School.”
“Oh, those are good grades indeed,” Owner Feng nodded with feigned approval, “Then you should do well in the upper ranks at Second Middle, you can compete with Asheng when the time comes since you’re at the same school…”
“I don’t like competing with others.”
“My, what a thing to say,” Owner Feng laughed dismissively, seeing right through Qiao Qingyu, “Second Middle is so competitive, and you who never even comes out to play, saying such things!”
That last statement had indeed been somewhat against her true feelings, but it had nothing to do with the academic competition Owner Feng mentioned—she didn’t go out to play because her mother Li Fanghao wouldn’t let her, and staying home wasn’t just about studying. Reading Dickens, Hugo, and Balzac, repeatedly exploring the strength of Liu-style calligraphy on rice paper, and watching the thriving Beijing Olympics on TV occupied most of Qiao Qingyu’s summer vacation.
Qiao Qingyu didn’t bother to explain. She had already spent too long at the newspaper stand and couldn’t let this bored, empty owner continue to invade her precious freedom.
“How rare to see you out today,” Owner Feng continued, “Where are you going?”
How to cleverly and properly avoid this question, completely seal Owner Feng’s mouth, and leave immediately? Qiao Qingyu thought quickly, feeling anxious inside.
“Going after your mother? Worried about her picking out a phone for you?”
Phone? Mother went to buy her a phone? She would finally have her phone?
“Let me tell you something, sister, your parents don’t earn money easily, a phone that can make calls and send messages is enough,” Qiao Qingyu’s delayed reaction made Owner Feng even more talkative as she assumed the pose of an elder, “Don’t chase trends. The students at Huan Second Middle are better off than those in Shun Yun, there are more rich people, you absolutely must not compete with your classmates, vanity is the worst thing for a girl, understand?”
“I understand,” Qiao Qingyu nodded in agreement, “I’m leaving now, goodbye auntie.”
She turned around as soon as she finished speaking, taking large quick steps, pretending not to hear Owner Feng calling out “Your mother went to Pacific Computer City” behind her. When she reached the Chaoyang New Village bus stop, she stopped and found her destination on the sun-scorched bus stop sign.
Qing Lake.
Imagining the sparkling waves on the lake’s surface, Qiao Qingyu let out a light laugh.