After the first typhoon passed and as the second one approached Huan Prefecture, the supplementary classes ended. During the six-day gap before the official start of school, the first three days blazed with scorching sun, the fourth and fifth days brought torrential rain to the city, and on the sixth day, the sun peeked out again—brilliant and fresh, as if heralding another summer. Seeing that the rain had finally ceased, Qiao Qingyu rose from the small desk where she had been sitting for days and left home with her keys.
This time, she was genuinely heading to the bookstore.
She first went to the restaurant to inform Qiao Lusheng of her whereabouts. At two-thirty in the afternoon, the quietest time for the restaurant, her appearance brought both surprise and joy to Qiao Huan, who was leaning against the cashier counter. “Qingqing!” She rushed out immediately, “What brings you here!”
Qiao Qingyu said she was going to the bookstore to buy study guides and wanted to let Qiao Lusheng know.
“Your dad just left to buy groceries, said we’re running low on beef,” Qiao Huan pulled Qiao Qingyu to sit at a random table, “Go ahead if you need to go, I’ll let your dad know later.”
Since Qiao Huan found her place half a year ago, although Qiao Qingyu still saw her daily, their interactions had been limited to brief, polite exchanges. Now, with no other customers around, though Qiao Huan said she could leave, she held onto her hand, so Qiao Qingyu simply sat down.
“Sister Qiao Huan, you’ve lost weight. You look good.”
Qiao Huan laughed heartily: “Your parents haven’t told you? I’m seeing someone.”
“Oh?”
“He lives in Chaoyang New Village too, two years older than me, from Shunyun, a fellow townsman,” Qiao Huan said with a shy smile, her eyes sparkling, “He’s an electrician, not particularly handsome, but honest.”
Her genuine joy was infectious to Qiao Qingyu.
“That’s wonderful,” Qiao Qingyu couldn’t help but smile, sharing Qiao Huan’s contentment, “Really wonderful.”
“Well, he came to the restaurant a few times, that’s how we met,” Qiao Huan said cheerfully, “We started dating in March, it’s been almost half a year. We’re planning to get married, and I just moved in with him a couple of days ago.”
“That’s great.”
“He wanted to get married during the National Day holiday, but I said no,” Qiao Huan shook her head, “I told him your family is going through difficulties now, and it’s not easy to find reliable help at the restaurant. I need to help you all first, and we’ll talk about marriage after your mom returns.”
Qiao Qingyu felt guilty: “Won’t that delay your…”
“No, no,” Qiao Huan winked at her, “Your mom said the same thing—it’s fine to date longer and marry later, but we can’t make mistakes. Character needs time to assess.”
“Mm.”
“Your mom also said some things must be discussed before marriage, especially about having children, like whether we must have a son, how many children to have,” Qiao Huan continued smiling, “She said we must discuss childbearing with his parents, his agreement alone isn’t enough. Your mom said she was too naive back then, thinking your dad’s iron rice bowl meant he wouldn’t dare violate family planning, who knew your grandparents would be so stubborn about having a grandson… I think your mom is right, she speaks from experience.”
“Mm.”
“Hah, it’s too early to talk about these things with you, you’re still young,” Qiao Huan smiled, “Besides, you’re pretty and smart, and you’ll have plenty of choices when the time comes, unlike me, I’m lucky to find someone compatible… You should go buy your books now, if you go too late, the bus will be very crowded on your way back.”
Qiao Qingyu indeed hadn’t thought about such distant matters. However, she wasn’t ready to leave yet.
“Sister Qiao Huan,” she said, “Tell me about my sister.”
“Your sister?” Qiao Huan was somewhat surprised, then smiled, “Your sister? You must know her better than I do, being her sister and all.”
“Just,” Qiao Qingyu smiled, touching her forehead, “Just want to talk about her with someone…”
“Ah, you miss her,” Qiao Huan nodded understandingly, “Of course you do! Such a beautiful person, as she stepped out of a painting. During those years when she was in the village, it was so lively, that boys from neighboring villages would always come to play… But she was sensible, didn’t mess around, timid as a rabbit, and always went out with Jinrui. Didn’t I mention it before? When Jinrui took Xiaobai out, her dress and shoes never got dirty.”
She suddenly stopped, looking apologetically at Qiao Qingyu: “Ah, my big mouth, mentioning… mainly because I wasn’t close to your sister before, in the village I basically only saw her with Jinrui, I knew Jinrui better… Let’s not talk about this anymore.”
“You went to the same middle school as my sister, right?” Qiao Qingyu asked, “Was she happy at school?”
“I was two grades above her when she was in the first year I was already in third,” Qiao Huan said while reminiscing, “We weren’t close… I’m not sure if she was happy, but she was famous, and boys from other schools would come to see her…”
“Did anything memorable happen?”
“Well, I can’t really remember,” Qiao Huan tried hard to recall, “Seems like she had stomach problems, often had stomach aches, and didn’t attend much PE class. Oh right, I only heard about this, wasn’t your sister transferred to Shunyun in the second year? I heard when she was in second year, there was a male student teacher, and they seemed…”
She looked carefully at Qiao Qingyu: “Seemed to have some unpleasantness. Being a student teacher, he didn’t stay long, and then your sister transferred schools.”
“Was the male teacher gentle?”
“I heard he was nice.” Qiao Huan confirmed.
An older male figure. Although Qiao Huan was vague, Qiao Qingyu had no desire to inquire further.
“Sister Qiao Huan,” she hesitated, “Do you think what I did was too much?”
“Well, how to put this,” Qiao Huan shook her head awkwardly, “You sisters were close. You were young, your reaction was most reasonable.”
“Will my sister blame me for causing Brother Jinrui such misfortune?”
“It’s a pity about Jinrui,” Qiao Huan sighed, looking up, “But anyway, he’s fine, he can find another job. It’s all fate, just Jinrui’s fate. Your sister is the real pity, leaving so young.”
Seeing Qiao Qingyu’s tight-lipped silence, she raised her hand to pat Qiao Qingyu’s head, smiling consolingly: “Life moves forward, don’t think about past things anymore. You’re in your final year now, studies are most important, go buy your study guides.”
When she left the bookstore at four in the afternoon, Qiao Qingyu walked to the intersection to wait for the bus under the blazing sun, carrying a bag of study guides, her palms quickly becoming sweaty. While waiting to cross the street, a deep red convertible suddenly approached the sidewalk, its engine’s low rumble startling Qiao Qingyu into taking several steps back. The car disappeared around the corner after accelerating, but Qiao Qingyu saw clearly—in the passenger seat, face turned away looking at the opposite side, hair messy in the sunlight and wind, was Ming Sheng.
She had seen him while browsing books between the shelves. Wearing a white T-shirt, he suddenly appeared from behind a pillar, startling Qiao Qingyu so much she almost cried out. He seemed not to notice her, crouching down to look for books on his own, blocking the exit, so Qiao Qingyu had to tiptoe silently past behind him.
Later at checkout, she saw him again, with another slightly shorter but seemingly older boy, queuing in another line, to her right and behind. She heard their conversation, very soft, alternating between Chinese and English, mainly discussing American universities. The boy seemed to be his cousin, accompanying him to buy books. Their line moved slightly faster than hers, and they placed their books on the counter at the same time. The boy faced Ming Sheng, resting his arm on the counter between them, taking a small step back, accidentally bumping into Qiao Qingyu’s shoulder.
“Oh, sorry.”
The boy turned to look at Qiao Qingyu, while Ming Sheng remained impassive, not even lifting his eyelids.
Qiao Qingyu hurriedly shook her head, saying “It’s okay” twice. The checkout continued and quickly ended. Walking out of the bookstore, Qiao Qingyu felt she had acted nervously, and became dissatisfied with herself.
She had thought she had already composed herself, but suddenly seeing him made that tingling feeling emerge from her heart again. After two months without seeing him, she felt he was different. His height more steady, cold and distant, hard to approach, but completely lacking that childish arrogance—he was now a proud youth.
Looking so unreachable—
At night, Qiao Qingyu packed the organized test papers and books one by one into her schoolbag, preparing for the official start of senior year the next day. During these days without Li Fanghao at home, her behavior had been mechanical, her schedule as precise as a clock. When putting in the last new light green soft-cover notebook, she hesitated, then opened it and carefully wrote on the blank title page: “There will be time to ride the wind and break the waves, To hoist the sail straight into the clouds across the sea.”
While writing, her pen paused as she remembered the calligraphy Qiao Baiyu had written at age twelve, and suddenly realized—at that time, Qiao Baiyu’s words had been meant for Qiao Jinrui, who was about to take the college entrance exam.
Ah.
This notebook would be used for recording wrong answers. Qiao Qingyu thought as she stuffed the light green notebook into her bag.
Ming Sheng was right, she was indeed an uninteresting person. Every day just a triangle between classroom, cafeteria, and home, silent and withdrawn, reading too many profound world classics, her head stuffed full of heavy thoughts. This was who she was, Qiao Qingyu, an uninteresting girl, not light, not at ease, not beautiful.
There was the sound of a key in the lock—Qiao Lusheng returning from the restaurant.
These days he had been coming home an hour or so later than usual. With Li Fanghao away, he had more to do, and no longer watched TV when he got home, usually going straight to shower and then to bed after entering the door. Today, extraordinarily, he didn’t go to shower when he returned but knocked on Qiao Qingyu’s plywood door.
“Qingqing asleep?”
“No,” Qiao Qingyu got up to open the door latch, “Dad.”
“Mm, sit for a while,” Qiao Lusheng stepped in and sat on the corner of the bed, “Tomorrow’s the start of school, officially the final year.”
“Mm.”
“Is studying difficult?”
“Not difficult.”
Qiao Lusheng tilted his neck slightly to look at her, his tired drooping eyes full of love.
“There’ll be evening self-study after school starts?”
“It’s still voluntary,” Qiao Qingyu answered, “But, the school has a good study atmosphere, I’ll stay for evening self-study before coming home.”
“Better to study at home, Dad and Mom bought you air conditioning, not hot in summer not cold in winter,” Qiao Lusheng said while stretching his hunched back, giving a big yawn, “It gets dark early now, better to come home earlier.”
“Okay.”
Father and daughter didn’t speak further, Qiao Lusheng closed his tired eyes, tears squeezed out from his previous yawn filling the creases at the corners of his eyes, glistening.
“Dad.”
Qiao Lusheng opened his eyes.
“Is it difficult for you?”
“Not difficult,” he shook his head, standing up at the same time, “We’ve weathered all sorts of storms, now just need to support your college education, no other thoughts, not difficult… Go to sleep early.”
He left, closing the door. The electric fan under the window hummed, and summer cicadas desperately tried to hold onto the summer heat with their calls, just like every previous year. Qiao Qingyu sat quietly for a while, didn’t go to bed, but turned on the computer instead.
I love you too.
Centered, enlarged, then enter, enter again. The four characters of the title were pure gold, typing line after line felt like weaving a basket, just to catch their constantly dripping fragments. What drove her was the sincerity in her heart. In the quiet of the night, Qiao Qingyu stopped typing, turned off the computer, set her alarm, went to bed, and fell into deep sleep.
The next day she spent two hours first reading and revising the article she had written in one go the night before, then carefully copied it onto clean letter paper. On the third day, after returning home she cut out the New Concept registration form from “Sprout” magazine, filled in the school name and other information, left the photo and phone number columns blank, folded it together with the copied article, and put them in an envelope. On the fourth day, after the senior year preliminary test ended, she put a stamp on the envelope, wrote the address on Julu Road in Shanghai, and dropped the envelope into the mailbox.
It was September, but the sun was still scorching, melting stones into flowing gold.
Qiao Qingyu still walked without an umbrella. She didn’t know if the sunlight had darkened her skin a bit, she hoped it had, as a mark of her existence in this summer.
This hot summer, except for the sea of exam questions, the world was empty.