[04]

The sea on a clear morning was a deep, luminous blue; white seabirds swept rapidly over its surface, like torn fragments of cloud.

Ah Cui’s convenience store had already opened for business.

Yan Sishi was the first customer of the day.

He bought a bottle of water, a bag of bread, and a pack of cigarettes — though he had never really been addicted to them, and no longer smoked at all these days.

The proprietor looked him over with a grin. “Back to give me your business again, I see.”

Yan Sishi asked him how business had been lately.

The proprietor said a typhoon had hit the island a while back, trapping quite a few tourists for an extended stay. The longer they stayed, the more they needed, which had earned him a tidy sum. Then there were those blessing strips for the banyan tree — he nodded in the direction of the great tree as he spoke — he’d never actively promoted the custom, but people kept asking about it, so he’d stocked some inventory. Buy two bottles of water or more and he’d throw one in for free.

The proprietor also asked Yan Sishi how things had been going, and whether there was really enough on the island to bring him back a second time.

Yan Sishi smiled faintly: “Perhaps I’ll come every year from now on.”

Yan Sishi took the bread to feed the seabirds.

He walked to the edge of the beach, tore off a piece, and tossed it out over the water. Seabirds came wheeling down, competing to snatch and peck at it. Their pristine white wings caught the sunlight, and when they took to the air, they stirred a wide and far-reaching rush of wind.

He had used up about half the bread when a voice called out from behind him: “Hey! You’re back!”

He turned — it was Ah Yong.

A year had passed, and the boy had shot up several inches. He was wiry and lean as a monkey, with a close-cropped haircut that showed his scalp, and dark sun-browned skin that gave him a look of robust health.

Yan Sishi said hello.

Ah Yong ran over and asked: “What are you doing?”

“Feeding the birds.” As he said it, Yan Sishi tossed the last bread crumbs from his fingers toward the sea.

Ah Yong squinted out at the water. Yan Sishi held the bread out to him; Ah Yong tore off a strip, ate it himself first, then tore off a second strip and crumbled it before throwing it out.

“Are you here alone?” Ah Yong asked.

“No.”

“Who else? The older sister who came to pick you up last time?”

“That’s right.”

“Where is she?”

“Still asleep at the hotel.”

“Will she come by later?”

“Once she wakes up, she’ll probably find her way here.” Yan Sishi glanced at Ah Yong. “You seem to like her a lot.”

“She’s really pretty, and very gentle…” Ah Yong shifted uncomfortably, reaching up to touch his nose, then turned away and said quietly, “…She’s a little like my mom.”

Yan Sishi reached out and ruffled his bristly head.

Ah Yong ate a bite of bread, then tossed a bite to the birds. The two of them chatted — idle talk about nothing in particular — yet somehow there seemed to be no gap between them at all.

“What’s your surname?”

“Yan.”

“Which Yan?”

“The Yan from Yan Zi’s Mission to the State of Chu — have you gotten to that one yet?”

“We just studied it last semester!” Ah Yong scratched his head. “But I always write it wrong — I keep writing the Yan from ‘banquet’ instead.”

“And how did you do on your Chinese exam at the end of term?”

Ah Yong grinned and wouldn’t say.

After a little while, Ah Yong said: “There are some people over there who seem to be watching you.”

Yan Sishi followed Ah Yong’s gaze and spotted three or four unfamiliar young women not far away, glancing frequently in their direction — by the look of their clothes, probably university students.

Yan Sishi said: “Perhaps they want to feed the birds too.”

Ah Yong said: “I don’t think so. That’s how the delivery lady Aunt Zhao sometimes looks at my dad.”

The bread was all gone. Ah Yong brushed off his hands and asked Yan Sishi: “Are you busy right now?”

“Not at all.”

“Then could you help me with my summer homework?”

“It’s almost time for school to start, and you still haven’t finished your homework?”

“…The math is just too hard.”

Yan Sishi recalled the mental exhaustion of tutoring him last time. “…I should really charge your dad tutoring fees.”

The convenience store was too small, so Ah Yong brought his homework to the outdoor table under the parasol.

The parasol hadn’t been there last year; Ah Yong explained that it had been put out this summer, purchased cheap when a café on the island went under — his dad had picked them up for a good price.

There were two parasols in total, one with dark green and white stripes, both still in good condition. Ah Yong said that ever since getting the parasols, their store had done much better business.

Yan Sishi spread open Ah Yong’s math workbook. The problems inside — the kind you could solve at a glance, as straightforward as one plus one equals two — genuinely left him at a loss as to where to begin.

The proprietor came out carrying two glass bottles of orange soda and set one in front of each of them, then patted Ah Yong on the head. “Study hard.”

“I know,” Ah Yong muttered.

Once the proprietor had gone back inside, Yan Sishi quietly slid his own bottle of soda over in front of Ah Yong. “This one’s for you too.”

Ah Yong hadn’t even gotten the word “yes!” out before Yan Sishi added: “Don’t make a fuss about it.”

Ah Yong clapped a hand over his mouth.

Not long after, the group of young women from the beach wandered over as well, heading into the store and coming out each holding a cold drink, then settling at the other parasol table.

Yan Sishi was working out how to explain word problems to Ah Yong in a way that would actually make sense to him, when two of the young women stood up and walked toward him.

The one in front was given a gentle push by her companion, stumbled half a step forward involuntarily, and said: “Um, um… sorry to interrupt. Would it be okay if I added you on WeChat?”

She received no answer — but saw his gaze travel past her, settling on something behind her.

She turned to look, but realized he wasn’t looking at the table behind her at all. He was looking toward the beach in the distance.

There, a young woman in a white sundress and a sun hat was walking toward them.

Then she heard his voice, calm and measured: “I’m sorry — that probably wouldn’t be convenient.”

The tone was not cold, yet that very politeness put more distance between them than coldness ever could.

The young woman quickly murmured another “sorry to bother you” and pulled her companion back to their table at a trot.

Xia Li pressed the brim of her sun hat down slightly and narrowed her eyes to look.

Ah Yong was already waving a big greeting: “Big sis, you’re here too!”

Xia Li called back with a smile and quickened her pace.

As she passed the table where the four young women were sitting, they all turned their heads to look at her — but there was no hostility in their gaze, only plain curiosity.

Carrying a faint warmth from the walk in the summer air, Xia Li sat down in the chair beside Yan Sishi, smiling as she said: “You woke up and didn’t even come get me.”

Yan Sishi was wearing a loose white T-shirt. The white set off his complexion, and on this blazing summer day, he alone gave off a kind of crisp coolness — like frost, or the clear freshness of chilled purified water.

“It’s a rare day off. I wanted to let you sleep in. Have you had breakfast?”

“I ate at the hotel.” Xia Li said.

As he spoke, Yan Sishi picked up the glass soda bottle he had just slid over to Ah Yong — untouched — and held it out to Xia Li.

Ah Yong: “…You said that was for me!”

Yan Sishi: “That was then.”

Ah Yong: “…”

Yan Sishi: “Children who drink too many sweet drinks will ruin their teeth.”

Xia Li let out a laugh and passed the soda to Ah Yong anyway.

Ah Yong: “Big sis, you drink it — I’m treating you.”

The orange soda was wonderfully cool. Xia Li sipped it while watching Yan Sishi walk Ah Yong through the problems.

Yan Sishi: “Let’s say we let x equal the number of 45-seat buses rented…”

Ah Yong: “But the question asks for the total number of people. Why would we assume the number of buses first?”

Yan Sishi: “If we assume the total number of people directly, we can’t set up an equation to solve it.”

Ah Yong: “…But why not?”

Xia Li leaned in for a look. She’d already worked it out in her head. “The total is 270 people. Just write that down.”

Ah Yong: “My teacher said that an answer without working shown is only worth one point.”

“Your teacher won’t check summer homework.”

“Really?”

“Really. When I was in school, the teacher never looked carefully. As long as all the blank spaces were filled in, that was enough.”

Yan Sishi said: “Miss Xia, please don’t teach the child bad habits.”

Xia Li smiled and made a show of zipping her lips shut.

Yan Sishi picked up Ah Yong’s math textbook and flipped through it, then began explaining from the most basic definition of linear equations in one variable.

Xia Li could see that he was, in fact, finding it a bit taxing — but no matter how many times Ah Yong asked “but why?”, his patience never wore even slightly thin.

If she had been the one teaching, she might well have been driven to her wit’s end already.

Finally, Ah Yong exclaimed: “I think I get it!”

Yan Sishi handed him the pencil. “Then try it yourself — work out the equation for this word problem.”

Ah Yong gripped the pencil and began scratching his head, trying to set up the equation.

Xia Li leaned close to Yan Sishi and said softly: “The table over there seems to keep looking at you.”

“No. They’re looking at you.”

“At me? What for?”

“Because you’re beautiful.” Yan Sishi said it as naturally as breathing, and reached out to smooth a strand of hair the wind had blown across her face.

Ah Yong made a sound across the table, as if he’d seen something he couldn’t quite bear to witness.

Before long, the women at the other table got up and left.

The two of them spent the whole morning at the store, helping Ah Yong with his homework. It wasn’t an activity with any particular excitement to it, but they had no other plans either — and there was something thoroughly pleasant about idling away the hours in the sea breeze like this.

Lunch was provided by the store proprietor.

The ingredients were fresh enough that even a casual preparation was every bit as good as a restaurant meal.

When the proprietor noticed the matching rings on Yan Sishi’s and Xia Li’s fingers, he asked: “Married?”

Both of them spoke at the same moment. Xia Li said “not yet,” and Yan Sishi said “soon.”

Xia Li glanced at Yan Sishi, and couldn’t help but smile.

The proprietor said: “Then let me raise a glass — an early blessing to you both.”

Xia Li and Yan Sishi each picked up their respective drinks — she with a glass of orange soda, he with a canned beer — and clinked with the proprietor.

After lunch, some of Ah Yong’s classmates came by in the afternoon to take him out to play.

Yan Sishi and Xia Li were just about to leave when Ah Yong quickly called out: “Yan-Uncle, Yan-Uncle — my classmate competed in a math olympiad and there’s this one really hard problem that even our school teacher couldn’t explain properly. Could you help go over it?”

Yan Sishi looked to Xia Li, and Xia Li smiled: “Yan-Teacher, go ahead.”

Ah Yong promptly pushed forward a shy little girl who was his classmate and asked her to repeat the problem.

And just like that, Yan Sishi found himself surrounded by a small crowd of children.

Xia Li made no move to hurry him along. She went to the ice chest, pulled out some popsicles, and distributed one to each of the children.

Half an hour more passed before Yan Sishi set down his pen. He glanced toward the beach in the distance, where Xia Li sat digging through the sand with her feet while drinking iced water, then turned back to the girl who still had more questions and said he was sorry, but he had to go now.

The little girl asked: “Is Yan-Teacher going to keep Big Sis company?”

“That’s right,” Yan Sishi said. “I’m worried she might be bored.”

A wave came rushing in, threatening to wash over their calves.

Xia Li quickly stepped back — and then someone caught her arm, and she found herself leaning back against a familiar embrace.

She turned her head and looked, smiling: “All done?”

“Mm.”

“Children really love you,” Xia Li said.

“Not particularly.” Yan Sishi took the flip-flops she was carrying in her hand with one of his own, then linked his other hand with hers and walked forward.

“You really are very patient.” Xia Li was still smiling, and as another wave broke nearby, she said offhandedly: “From now on, looking after the children should be left to you.”

Yan Sishi paused. “What did you just say?”

“…Forget it if you didn’t catch it.” Realizing what she’d said, Xia Li immediately felt embarrassed.

“I heard it.” Yan Sishi gave a quiet laugh.