A-Heng was stunned. She saw Yan Xi’s lip movements, nodded slightly, turned around, and smiled at Chen Juan: “Mary, let’s go.”
Chen Juan hesitated, glancing at Yan Xi, then noticing the weariness in A-Heng’s usually gentle features. He suppressed his many doubts and followed A-Heng away.
“You’re not going to help him?” Chen Juan smiled ambiguously. “I thought you’d drag him back like before.”
He had always understood better than others A-Heng’s inability to see Yan Xi suffer.
A-Heng gently shook her head: “It wouldn’t be appropriate. This is Yan Xi’s own decision, it’s not good for others to interfere.”
Chen Juan was speechless, muttering: “Did you two fight?”
A-Heng smiled: “What makes you say that?”
Chen Juan was lost for words: “Before if you saw Yan Xi mistreating himself, you’d have already gone up to scold him.”
A-Heng frowned, pondering for a while.
Chen Juan smiled with satisfaction, thinking Yan Xi might owe him a Quanjude duck in the future: “Figured it out?”
A-Heng shook her head and spoke softly: “Mm, I understand now. I was too disrespectful to Yan Xi before.”
Chen Juan pinched her face, caught between laughter and tears: “Oh my, which deity has possessed our A-Heng without prior notice?”
A-Heng knew he was teasing, and tried to maintain a stern face, but the red mark Chen Juan’s pinch left on her fair skin ruined her attempt at composure, making her look somewhat disheveled.
Chen Juan knew she was upset about what had just happened and sighed: “In my opinion, Yan Xi didn’t want you to see him in that state. He was worried it would upset you, that’s why he told you to leave.”
A-Heng didn’t respond, instead pointing to a shop ahead and smiling: “Look, there’s Guifaxiang, the Eighteenth Street twisted crullers you’ve been craving.”
Chen Juan, with his childish temperament, didn’t notice the topic change and happily pulled A-Heng into the store to make selections. The twisted crullers smelled wonderful, making Chen Juan almost drool.
“A-Heng, I heard you have a dog’s nose, smell what’s in these crullers?” Chen Juan was picky about food, and not particularly fond of salty things.
A-Heng gave him a look: “You’re the one with a dog’s nose, your whole family has dog noses!”
Chen Juan was embarrassed: “Alright, alright, this humble one has a dog’s nose, and requests Miss Wen to use her noble nose.”
A-Heng burst out laughing, sniffed, and fanned the various fresh crullers with her hand. She carefully smelled their fragrance before smiling and saying: “The assorted one has green plum, ginger candy, and some other nuts inside. It’s neither salty nor greasy – you should be able to eat it.”
The shop assistant nodded: “This young lady knows her stuff, those are indeed the ingredients in the assorted filling.”
Her keen sense of smell was well-known, everyone in the compound knew about it.
Chen Juan’s eyes sparkled as he smiled, his phoenix eyes full of charm: “A-Heng, idol, oh oh, idol! I thought Yan Xi and Feifei were just exaggerating.”
A curly-haired girl nearby heard the name “Yan Xi” and was startled, accidentally dropping her paper food box to the ground.
A-Heng heard the noise beside her and turned to face a pretty girl with curly hair.
It was Lin Wanwan.
“Wen Heng.” Seeing she couldn’t avoid it, the girl greeted coldly.
A-Heng smiled: “Miss Lin.”
Hearing this form of address, Lin Wanwan felt ashamed and irritated, not knowing how to respond. She glanced at Chen Juan and sneered: “Not playing the devoted caretaker anymore? Wasn’t Yan Xi sick? Weren’t you the filial daughter at his bedside?”
Seeing her unfriendly tone, Chen Juan quietly asked A-Heng who this person was. A-Heng moved her lips, softly saying “Si Wan.”
Chen Juan “oh” -ed, understanding who this Miss Lin was, and smiled with ill intent.
Hearing Lin Wanwan’s words, A-Heng wasn’t angered, her expression barely changing: “Yan Xi’s illness has long since healed. How is it Miss Lin doesn’t know?”
Lin Wanwan’s expression was complex, showing disappointment, frustration, and a trace of joy: “He’s recovered? What did the doctors say?” After speaking, she realized her tone was too eager and her face darkened.
A-Heng smiled: “He’s fully recovered, Miss Lin need not worry.”
Lin Wanwan softened her tone, speaking quietly with some dejection: “That’s good then.”
Chen Juan found the conversation increasingly strange. Wasn’t this Wen Si Wan’s ex-girlfriend who was desperately in love with Si Wan? Why did it sound like she had some past with Yan Xi too?
A-Heng was about to leave with Chen Juan after selecting several boxes of sweet-smelling crullers, but Lin Wanwan called out to her: “Wen Heng, could you help me pass on a message?”
“What is it?”
Lin Wanwan spoke, her voice clear but quiet and trembling: “Could you tell him I didn’t mean to back then? I just… thought his illness hadn’t improved. You don’t know what he was like during his episodes… Si Wan and I were chatting outside his door, he was sleeping soundly at first, then suddenly he broke a vase… stepping on it… his feet covered in blood… looking at me… it was terrifying, I didn’t mean to…” She became somewhat incoherent.
A-Heng was confused, but Chen Juan quickly grasped the key point and coldly asked: “What did you and Si Wan say that made Yan Xi glare at you? You say you didn’t mean to – what didn’t you mean to do?”
Lin Wanwan became flustered, but thinking about how things hadn’t ended well with Si Wan either, she gritted her teeth and spoke: “Si Wan asked what I would do if Yan Xi liked me. I was very scared because I’d heard others say Yan Xi became like that because he was raped, so I asked Si Wan if it was true.
“Later, Yan Xi came out. He looked at me, his feet still covered in blood, but his expression was very calm, not like someone who was ill at all. His voice was very clear when he said it was true, that he liked me, had liked me for a long, long time. He said he had liked me since I broke my eraser in half during an exam and gave him one piece, and he asked if I would try being with him.
“At the time I thought he was talking nonsense, then he grabbed my clothes, his hands covered in blood. I was young then, very scared, and cried begging him to let me go. He didn’t speak, just looked at me, kept looking at me with such sad eyes.
“You haven’t seen that kind of gaze, you wouldn’t understand how terrifying those lifeless, desperate eyes were.
“I used a lot of force to push him away, but I didn’t expect Yan Xi to fall down the stairs. At that time, I was very scared, I didn’t know…”
Lin Wanwan clutched her long hair forcefully, tears in her eyes, her expression full of pain: “I didn’t want to, I just… I liked Yan Xi, really…”
This was the first time A-Heng had heard this story. Yan Xi had only mentioned it briefly before, in a few light sentences, even having enough spirit to joke about Si Wan and Lin Wanwan.
Wasn’t he tired?
Though he might not mind being tired himself, A-Heng looked at Lin Wanwan with complex emotions.
She looked at her directly, not because her hair was curly, her eyes curved; not because her neck was as white as tender lotus root when she stood straight; not because her name was Lin Wanwan. It was only because this Lin Wanwan was the Lin Wanwan that Yan Xi had liked.
Wen Heng, who had given her all for loving Yan Xi, only now understood what kind of girl could make Yan Xi’s heart flutter.
She had not a single similarity.
Lin Wanwan crouched down, tears flowing, her tone somewhat bitter: “A month later, Yan Xi came back to school, fortunately, his injuries weren’t serious. Only then did I realize that Yan Xi had been lucid, his illness had already improved by then.
“After that, Si Wan confessed to me. I knew spilled water couldn’t be gathered up, and I was afraid of the Yan family’s revenge since I had pushed Yan Xi down the stairs and caused him to be injured for a month. What followed is what you know – I started dating Si Wan.”
Chen Juan cursed loudly: “Sister, I can’t believe you have the nerve to ask us to forgive you. If it were me, kicking you into the eighteenth level of hell would be too light. Just go home and sleep, stop fucking daydreaming.”
Lin Wanwan’s face turned white instantly.
A-Heng closed her eyes: “Miss Lin, I cannot help you.” She turned, pulling away the still-cursing meat strips.
Meat strips raged: “Why didn’t you let me continue? Damn, no wonder Yan Xi is afraid of women, I would be too! Goddamnit, these days, there’s not a single good woman!”
A-Heng opened her eyes, giving an ambiguous smile.
Meat strips stared straight ahead, righteously adding: “Except my mom and classmate Wen Heng!”
When Yan Xi returned home that evening, he was wearing the thick outfit from the morning that A-Heng had prepared for him – scarf, gloves, coat, everything complete.
Snow had just fallen. He took off his coat, patted off the snow, and walked to the study only to find A-Heng practicing calligraphy.
The girl sat very straight, her features proper, her braid falling onto her gray sweater.
He smiled, walking quietly to her front, discovering she was writing several lines from a Tang poem. Her characters were bold and clean, but she seemed to be thinking about something while writing, making her strokes somewhat hesitant.
Yan Xi bent down, his right hand grasping A-Heng’s right hand.
A-Heng’s body trembled slightly, but she didn’t look up, only pursed her lips in a smile, letting him guide her writing.
Only after that fair hand completed the final character of the poem did she look up, smiling: “Why are your hands so cold?”
Yan Xi also smiled, picking up the paper and fixing his gaze on the last three characters “qing cheng se” (complexion that could topple cities), speaking softly: “Give this to me? A-Heng, don’t ask about today’s matters, wait a few more days, don’t worry.”
She handed him warmed chocolate milk, smiling: “Alright.”
Yan Xi looked at the milk, swirled it, remembered something, and chuckled softly: “A-Heng, is it scary when I open my eyes wide?”
Those pure, beautiful big eyes, deliberately made rounder and larger – A-Heng looked at him: “Mm, it is quite scary.” It should be described as impressive. Others who saw it would lose their souls, unconsciously wanting to keep looking, which is why they used “how scary” to mask their enchantment.
Yan Xi laughed lightly, his eyes curving as he lowered his head: “So it’s true, no wonder… Before, someone said… mm… I didn’t believe it, but today, many people said the same thing.”
A-Heng’s heart ached. Before – did he mean Lin Wanwan?
Yan Xi put both hands behind his head, leaned back on the sofa, and closed his eyes, mumbling in a youth’s fresh tone: “Tch, could it be my eyes are too beautiful and earthlings are just jealous?”
A-Heng laughed: “Yes, yes, I’m jealous of you. Being so good-looking puts pressure on others, you know?”
She lowered her gaze, her expression becoming quiet and resigned.
She didn’t scold “Yan Xi, how can you be so narcissistic? You narcissistic pest, it’s so annoying!” For the first time, she seriously considered this question. It seemed she had come to understand, and even the fact that he had never belonged to her from beginning to end wasn’t so hard to accept any more.
Because this was simply the truth.
By heaven, by earth, by that person, but not by her.
January 10th, Mother Wen said Si Er would have her eighteenth birthday, and since it marked becoming an adult, it should be more formal. She booked several tables at a restaurant and invited many friends.
It was the same for Si Wan’s birthday last year – seemed to be a custom of the Wen family for their children.
Mother Wen said: “A-Heng, you and Si Er are offset. In a few days, it will be your eighteenth birthday, we’ll set up some tables then.”
A-Heng looked at her; her mother seemed to have forgotten something. But seeing her mother’s expression showing some pity and guilt, A-Heng smiled and said okay.
On the morning of January 10th, when A-Heng opened her eyes upon waking, she immediately saw Yan Xi’s big eyes and was startled. She rubbed her eyes: “When did you come?”
Yan Xi complained woefully, propping his chin, pouting: “Daughter, why did you take so long to wake up? I’ve been waiting for ages, my eyes are sore, look, several eyelashes have fallen out from blinking.”
He extended his index finger, and indeed, several eyelashes lay quietly on his crystalline fingertip.
A-Heng twitched: “How can you be so boring, causing trouble early in the morning, so annoying!” She casually threw her pillow at his face.
Yan Xi’s eyes welled up with tears like an abandoned puppy: “Si Er got up early to get styled.”
A-Heng yawned: “What’s that got to do with me?”
Yan Xi looked disapprovingly at A-Heng’s uncombed black hair: “You should at least brush your hair straight.”
A-Heng had just woken up and was somewhat confused: “What?”
Yan Xi sighed helplessly, and gently patted A-Heng’s hair: “Come here, come here, sit here.” He pulled up a wooden chair in front of the mirror.
A-Heng was puzzled but sat down, asking him: “What are you doing?”
The youth took out a comb, then pulled a beautiful crystal hairpin from his pocket, smiling: “It might not look as good as a salon, but I’ve been learning for several days, it shouldn’t look bad.”
He turned his palm over, gently pressing the hairpin into A-Heng’s palm, his soft cool finger temperature lightly grazing her palm.
A-Heng looked down at the light pink, bright white, and light purple crystalline pieces in her hand, caught between laughter and tears: “Hey, Yan Xi, you’re not planning to make me wear these, are you?”
Yan Xi scorned: “You’re a girl, you know? All girls like these things! I specially picked them out!” Then his left hand lifted A-Heng’s hair while his right hand gently combed down, with shallow arcs and slow movements, showing the same seriousness as when he painted.
He lowered his head, parting her hair down the middle, his slender fingers nimbly weaving through, appearing even more fair against the black hair. Starting from the left temple, like a gentle stream, his fingertips wrapped in hair fragrance, slowly braiding four strands, binding them at the crown, securing them with a white crystal hairpin. Then the other side is bound to meet the left side. He picked up another strand, repeating the previous motions.
The small, exquisite crystal hairpins gleamed gracefully in her hair, each one crystal clear against the ink-black strands. From afar, the flowing lines looked like beautiful crystal butterflies resting in her hair.
A-Heng looked in the mirror, only seeing Yan Xi’s hands, joints slightly curved, flowing through her hair at beautiful angles, completed in one smooth motion, like every painting he drew, infused with soul, taking on a new rhythm of life.
Then, his snow-like countenance condensed into a pocket of warmth, standing quietly beside her.
She couldn’t help it as her eyes grew moist, feeling some resistance and unfairness in her heart.
He had styled her hair, presumably unable to bear seeing her unkempt. But when he was so impulsively kind to her like this, making her attached and addicted, what was she to do?
He let out a breath, like completing a work of art, satisfied yet scrutinizing.
The youth smiled: “A-Heng, today you must stay obediently by my side, don’t let anyone steal you away.”
A-Heng was surprised, but he produced a ribbon-tied box from somewhere, smiling: “Open it and see.”
A-Heng untied the ribbon, slightly frowning: “Yan Xi, you know I’m not comfortable with Cinderella scenarios.”
It was a white dress adorned with crystals, elegantly radiant, incomparably beautiful.
Yan Xi pulled up one corner of his lips, speaking languidly: “I’m not comfortable being a fairy godmother either, at most I’m just Cinderella’s stepmother, running around for my daughter.”
A-Heng squinted at him, but Yan Xi glanced at the wall clock: “Still an hour until eleven thirty-five.”
He instructed A-Heng to change clothes, while he bounded downstairs.
The long dress fit perfectly, flowing to her ankles, appearing noble and sacrosanct from afar. A-Heng smiled slightly, still clear as mountain waters.
When she went downstairs but didn’t see Yan Xi, the phone happened to ring. It was Si Wan, asking when they would leave.
A-Heng opened her mouth, but a fair, slender hand beside her snatched the phone, holding it to his ear, voice calmed: “You go ahead, A-Heng, and I will take a taxi later. Mm, have other important matters.”
Then he hung up.
A-Heng looked up, asking him: “What important matters?”
The youth examined her carefully without answering, patted A-Heng’s head, his eyes bright: “Knew this dress would suit you, indeed my daughter is exceptional, very good very good.”
A-Heng’s face flushed slightly as she coughed, her voice soft and tender: “When are we leaving?”
Yan Xi brought out a bowl from the kitchen, smiling: “First finish this, then we’ll go.” It was a bowl of noodles, with fried egg, soy sauce-colored ribs, and crystalline round noodles, very long.
A-Heng asked: “Did you make this?”
Yan Xi shook his head, his bright black eyes darting around: “No, I just went out and bought it. You know, this young master never cooks, how could I make such universally beloved, flower-like, clearly supreme noodles?” He praised the noodles with flying spittle.
A-Heng burst out laughing but noticed Yan Xi’s hands still bearing unhealed red marks, understanding somewhat. She smiled and took a bite of the noodles, but her mouth twitched: “Indeed… supreme.”
Indeed supremely beyond normal human consumption.
Yan Xi’s eyes were watery, with a very expectant innocent expression: “Is it good?”
A-Heng smiled: “Good beyond both our imaginations.”
Yan Xi coughed, somehow feeling this wasn’t exactly praise: “Let me taste.”
A-Heng shook her head, leaving no room for negotiation: “No, these are my noodles.” Then she buried her face in the steaming mist, sweating profusely, tears falling silently.
He smiled tenderly, watching her eat the noodles as if it were the greatest happiness in the world.
Yan Xi, these noodles are so spicy, how much chili did you add? Look, look, you’ve made me cry.
He carefully lifted his eyes. The wall clock had just struck eleven thirty-five.