Extra 13. Summer 2019
In the summer of 2019, Xu Cheng took a long vacation. While the two of them were planning where to travel, Jiang Xi said softly, “I want to go somewhere with only you and me. If only we could leave Tiantian somewhere for ten days.”
After saying this, she quickly raised her hand. “Heaven knows I do not dislike him. But I see him every day. More than I see you.”
Xu Cheng could not help laughing.
“Let’s leave him at my aunt’s place.”
“Yay!”
After thinking for a moment, Xu Cheng added, “Jiang Xi, do you want to go back and live on our boat for a while?”
Jiang Xi was so delighted she almost jumped up. “I do! I dream about it!”
They packed their luggage as if going on a long journey, brought Jiang Tian along, and drove back to Jiangzhou.
On the way back this time, Jiang Xi was much more excited than usual. She hummed songs the entire trip.
Jiang Tian was also very happy. He could learn taiji sword from his aunt. He began singing too and asked Jiang Xi to turn on the radio.
A recently popular song was playing. It was from a talent show currently airing. Jiang Tian waved his arms excitedly. “Qingqing! Shao Qingqing.”
After Xu Cheng bought Jiang Tian an iPad two years ago, he occasionally watched TV dramas and variety shows, and even followed talent competitions. He had contestants he liked and even created nicknames for them himself.
After Jiang Xi’s life stabilized, he had also grown much happier. Of course, he still could not do without the care of the two of them.
Taking care of Jiang Tian, this “child,” might be a lifelong matter. But he was family. Family they had picked up along the way.
When they arrived in Jiangzhou, they entrusted Jiang Tian to Xu Minmin. Then Xu Cheng and Jiang Xi drove toward the river. While waiting at a red light at an intersection, the two of them spoke at the same time.
“I want to see the orphanage where you lived as a child.”
“I want to see your childhood home. Is it still there?”
They both froze, then smiled at each other.
Xu Cheng happily scratched his brow and turned the steering wheel left. “Let’s go to the orphanage first.”
Jiangzhou Welfare Institute had been renovated and rebuilt five years ago. A cluster of pale pink buildings. Jiang Xi did not want to go inside. She stood outside the small playground fence and watched.
Now many people lined up to adopt. Most of the children in the orphanage had severe disabilities. Staff were leading them outside to play.
“It has changed so much,” Jiang Xi recalled. “I remember before, it was all single-story buildings. Small ones. Now they built taller buildings.”
Xu Cheng said, “After all, more than twenty years have passed. What was it like before? Tell me.”
“Before… there was a small slide on the playground. It had a metal frame. Very simple. In winter it froze your butt. Not like this one now. So grand, colorful, with several slides.”
“When I was little, I also played on a metal slide in kindergarten. Just a sheet of metal, slanted straight down. Was it like that?”
“Mm!”
“What else?”
“There was a sandpit where we could do long jump and play with sand…”
Outside the fence, Jiang Xi’s memories built her childhood for Xu Cheng.
Xu Cheng imagined a miniature Jiang Xi playing here. At that time, the little girl did not have a prosthetic limb, but she had a small crutch, wore little braids, and hopped along with a limp.
“If only I had known you back then.”
“How could that be, silly.”
Before leaving, Xu Cheng patted Jiang Xi’s head. “It grew up and became better. So did you.”
“Mm!”
“Jiang Xi, in the future, I also want to go to Liangcheng, Yunxi, Weibei, and Xicheng. The cities where you used to live. I want to see them all.”
“Okay…”
“And go to the Netherlands to see The Little Street.”
“Mm-hm!!”
They drove toward the neighborhood where Xu Cheng had lived as a child. Halfway there, Jiang Xi suddenly said, “Turn right ahead. That is your high school.”
Xu Cheng was slightly surprised. “You still remember?”
“I went there often,” she said. “To secretly watch you.”
Xu Cheng’s high school used to have green teaching buildings. At some unknown year, they were renovated and painted light blue.
It was summer vacation. The campus was empty. The surrounding streets were shaded by lush trees, with few pedestrians.
Summer was green everywhere.
“I used to especially like this street by your school. The trees were big and beautiful. Now they are even more lush.”
The school was closed for the summer, so they could not go inside.
The two bought ice cream and walked around outside while eating. Xu Cheng pointed to a tree and said, “You stood there.”
Jiang Xi was delighted. “You still remember?”
“I remember. That day you tripped. A-Wu picked you up,” Xu Cheng said. He remembered that time. Though he had watched from afar, something in his heart had tugged. It had hurt.
Jiang Xi pointed to the round stone stool that had stood by the school gate for decades. “You used to love sitting on that round stone.”
Xu Cheng teased her. “Do you want to sit on it?”
“Okay.” Jiang Xi happily walked over. The moment she sat down, the summer-heated stone burned her, and she sprang up at once.
Xu Cheng burst into laughter, showing all eight teeth, laughing until he bent over.
“You did that on purpose!” Jiang Xi pinched his waist.
Xu Cheng kept laughing. “You silly thing. Who can you blame?”
“You!”
After laughing, Xu Cheng still wanted her to sit. He twisted open half a bottle of water, poured it over the stone stool, then wiped it dry with tissues. Jiang Xi sat again. The stone was still warm, heat rising straight into her waist.
She commented, “Sitting on it is really fun. No wonder you liked sitting here.”
“Did not think it was that fun. It was just convenient for waiting for people.”
“I think you were acting cool back then.”
“Tsk…”
From here, it was not far to the home where Xu Cheng had lived as a child.
Back then, that neighborhood had been new and affluent. After so many years, it had not developed much, and compared to the new districts, it had fallen behind.
Jiang Xi could tell that the courtyard houses lining both sides of the alley must have been quite forward-looking and well designed at the time. But decades had dimmed them.
Xu Cheng said his house had been designed and built by someone his father hired. It had been beautiful. After his father died, his uncle sold the house to others. Whether it had changed hands again, he did not know.
He did not know whether the people who came later had cherished it.
The car stopped in front of an old two-story courtyard. A rusty lock hung on the gate. Weeds grew thick inside the yard. The small building had long been in disrepair. The outer wall was mottled, exposing patches of red brick. A few birds perched on the roof, their little heads peering left and right, pecking at grass seeds.
Xu Cheng stood before the gate and looked for a long time. He sighed softly. “I remember the house being very big. Turns out it is this small.”
Jiang Xi looped her arm through his. “Back then this house must have been very beautiful.”
“Mm. That window was dark blue, and there was a sunshade. There were Roman columns on the terrace. There was a swing in this part of the yard, a grape trellis over there, and an osmanthus tree beside it.” He looked at the empty ground. “Probably cut down by the people who came later. There was also a gardenia over there…” Xu Cheng stopped mid sentence.
In the corner stood a large and flourishing gardenia tree.
Jiang Xi’s eyes widened slightly. She had never seen such a large gardenia tree.
Under the midsummer sun, its leaves were glossy green, the branches full of white flowers blooming plump and vivid. When the wind blew, the fragrance rushed forward.
Xu Cheng was stunned too. “I smelled it just now, but I thought it was from someone else’s house.”
He immediately walked along the fence. The gardenia was so lush that more than half of it billowed over the fence, swaying in the wind.
“Jiang Xi, this was planted the year my dad married my mom. He gave it to her!” Xu Cheng touched the branches, turning back with excitement.
Jiang Xi nodded vigorously. “I know. After you told me before, I always wanted to see the tree your dad planted. It is still here. I really got to see it. I am so lucky.”
Xu Cheng’s eyes reddened slightly. He gently touched the tree for a long while, not knowing what he was thinking, or perhaps thinking nothing at all.
He picked two flowers and pinned them into Jiang Xi’s hair bun, speaking softly. “My dad does not have anything else to give. Let these two flowers be his greeting gift to you.”
Jiang Xi’s eyes reddened too, yet she laughed brightly. “Then I like them very, very much.”
As if she wanted the people in the sky to hear.
He picked a large bag of gardenias to take to the boat.
He took a photo and sent it to Cheng Xiang. “Mom, the gardenia Dad planted for you is still here. It has grown up.”
After putting away his phone, he took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”
Jiang Xi leaned close and raised her hand to ruffle his hair, smiling. “It has grown up and become better. So have you.”
Xu Cheng was startled, then smiled. His face was full of sunlight.
The car started. They had nowhere else they wanted to go. Their hearts were set on Lingshui Pier, returning to their boat.
Jiang Xi had once thought the boat had been scrapped, but Xu Cheng had always entrusted Xu Minmin to maintain it, repair it, and replace the engine. So it was still there.
The teal blue boat was moored at Lingshui Pier. Like a steady, reliable old friend, it rose and fell quietly with the waves, waiting there.
Jiang Xi stepped aboard. The metal deck rang loudly. She deliberately made noise with her steps, as if telling it, Hey, I am back. I came back to see you again.
Summer in Jiangzhou was hot and humid. Heat waves clung like sticky glue. There were only electric fans on the boat. The two of them sweated profusely, yet loved it.
Xu Cheng put on a tank top again. Jiang Xi wore only a camisole. Together they carried buckets and a rubber hose, spraying water over the cabin and deck to cool them down.
They shuffled around in flip flops, spraying water while eating lao binggun. The weather was hot, the ice pops melted quickly. By the end, they felt almost liquid. Jiang Xi hurriedly slurped. Xu Cheng laughed and said she was like a little dog. She pouted, squeezed the hose, and aimed it at him. Cool water fanned over him from head to toe.
“Thank you.”
Xu Cheng soaked half of the gardenias in water. Jiang Xi stuck the other half onto the electric fan. Water was sprinkled on the petals and the fan blades, filling the cabin with a cool, fragrant breeze.
Jiang Xi said she wanted to keep running the supermarket. Xu Cheng said he had the same idea.
So he held the helm upstairs, while she arranged the shelves downstairs. The teal blue boat swayed gently on the river.
Jiang Xi brought her painting tools. After organizing the shelves, she painted. When the sun was strong, she stayed in the cabin. When it was not, she went onto the deck.
When she painted, she was completely focused. Only occasionally did she turn to look at Xu Cheng in the wheelhouse, Xu Cheng who had grown from a boy into a man.
Most of the time, he watched her, watching her silhouette overlap with the girl who painted long ago. She painted the Yangtze River, painted their boat. The canvas filled with teal blue, in layers of different shades.
Sometimes the sun was too harsh, and she hid in the cabin to paint with the fan blowing. Xu Cheng could not see her. But he knew she was there, just as she knew he was there.
They were on the same boat of shared fate, looking at the same stretch of water, chasing the same direction of the sun.
When passing boats sounded their horns to buy things, Jiang Xi in the cabin below would bounce up excitedly. “Coming!”
She was the boss lady, warmly calling up to the people on the large boats. “What do you need?”
“A box of water is fifty yuan.” Her mind was astonishingly sharp, every price remembered clearly. “Pliers twenty. Qiaolezi ice cream…”
“No bargaining, small business…” She bustled like a little sprite. “You bought so many watermelons. I will give you a peach as a gift!”
Someone asked Xu Cheng, “Husband and wife doing business together?”
Xu Cheng smiled. “Yes. One person cannot handle it alone.”
“The boss lady is quick and capable.”
“Smart and capable too. I am fortunate.”
After the customers bought watermelons and left, Jiang Xi also wanted some. She cut one in half, put it in the fridge, waited until it was chilled, then stuck two spoons into it and carried it upstairs to eat with Xu Cheng.
A pigeon flew from somewhere and landed on the second-floor railing. Jiang Xi tossed a spoonful of watermelon over. The pigeon did not eat it. It flapped its wings and flew away.
“Hey, do not waste it…”
In the evening, they stopped the boat and went to the ferry market stalls to buy the freshest farm vegetables.
Today, Jiang Xi stir-fried loofah tips, tender and exceptional. Tomorrow, Xu Cheng stewed a pot of five-fish soup, made from five kinds of small fish caught wild from the river, with tofu and green peppers. The soup was milky white and extremely fresh.
In summer Jiangzhou, seasonal dishes came endlessly. Tomatoes with sugar, stir-fried lotus root stems, lily bulbs with water bamboo, green beans with scallions, green peas, stir-fried free range chicken, braised old duck, river shrimp with chives, oil braised lobster. Every day the dishes were different, every bite tasted fresh.
There was also rice wine brewed by farmers, freshly made rice cakes, glutinous rice balls, lotus root starch, mung bean soup…
Every day Jiang Xi exclaimed happily, Jiangzhou food is still the best!
One day, they bought a big pumpkin and rice flour and made fried pumpkin cakes together.
It tasted just as delicious as in memory, with the flavor of childhood. The outside was crisp, the inside sticky and soft. Sweet and fragrant.
After dinner, they went for a walk. Xu Cheng taught Jiang Xi how to skip stones. You had to pick thin flat stones, throw them out, and the stones bounced across the river surface.
When Jiang Xi saw “sun grass,” she immediately bent down, pulled up a stalk, and found Xu Cheng to tear it together.
Each of them held one end of the grass stem and slowly split it apart. If it tore into a square, Jiang Xi would say, “Wow, tomorrow will be sunny.”
If it split unevenly, then it meant rain.
Of course, “sun grass” was not accurate at predicting the weather. It was better to look at the evening glow.
By the river there were always splendid, magnificent sunsets, blazing with reds and purples, dyeing half the river. They signaled that tomorrow would be another clear day.
But it also rained often. Summer in Jiangzhou was rich with rain. It clattered against the cabin and the deck, painting strands and lines across the window glass.
When they were not busy, they also sat by the doorway eating snacks, eating watermelon, peaches, oranges, chatting, watching the blazing sun outside, or the heavy rain.
When Xu Cheng ate the “provocative” peas, he still grew playful, fished one out, and lightly flicked it against her forehead with a thump.
“Stop throwing them!” she said, but the pea fell into the folds of her camisole. She immediately picked it up and ate it. Crunchy and quite tasty. She could not help laughing and held out her hand. “Give me one.”
Xu Cheng poured a few into her palm, and every time he had to sigh, “Why are your hands so small?”
“Are they?” She tipped the peas into her mouth. As usual, her palm stretched out toward him. He leaned forward and pecked a kiss into her palm.
It tickled.
At night, Xu Cheng wiped the cooling mat with cold water and sprayed the electric fan.
They lay in the small partition. The cabin that once seemed spacious now felt very small. The bed that once looked roomy now felt palm sized.
He and she were tightly entwined. Their bodies had always longed for each other, just as before, never satisfied.
That night it happened to rain heavily. The sound of water flowed on, and their thoughts grew even more tender.
“I like you so much. Ah, liking you is so easy. I like every part of you.” Jiang Xi lay on the pillow, panting. “Why is it so easy? It was easy back then, and it is effortless now.”
She suddenly turned her head to glare at him behind her. “Hm! Hmph!”
Xu Cheng laughed. “Jiang Xi, I think I saw the kaomoji you posted.”
╭(╯^╰)╮
He kissed her deeply.
“Mmm…” Her waist ached, and she lay down again. Moist light shimmered on her lips.
Xu Cheng leaned over her back, holding her curled hand. He arched his waist slightly. Her breathing quickened, her shoulders trembling faintly.
He brushed aside the damp hair at the nape of her neck, kissed her back, and kissed up to her ear. “I like you too. I love you.”
A soft cry slipped from between Jiang Xi’s lightly bitten lips. “Ah…”
“Jiang Jiang…” His voice was hoarse and dry as he called her. “Jiang Jiang…”
“Mm…”
His sweat damp chest pressed against her smooth back, his head resting by her hand.
Xu Cheng parted his lips slightly and took her fingers between them.
The fan whirred. He hugged her from behind, their fingers interlocked.
Some nights they also slept on the terrace, just like before. They sprinkled cool water, laid out the cooling mat, used the sky as their blanket, and fell asleep in the cool river breeze.
The night wind blew across their bare skin, leaving a wave of comfort. Even their dreams felt clean.
One night, the breeze was gentle and the night was serene.
Jiang Xi was fast asleep when Xu Cheng gently shook her and called, “Jiang Xi, Jiang Xi.”
She opened her eyes drowsily. The night sky spread like a curtain. Xu Cheng’s eyes were full of tenderness. “Get up. Look.”
Jiang Xi sat up from the cooling mat, still sleepy.
Xu Cheng lifted her and led her to the railing.
At that moment, Jiang Xi slowly woke. She saw the Yangtze River under the full moon.
It was clearly night, yet between water and sky everything was bright, as if coated in a layer of mercury, clear and luminous.
It was the fifteenth night. The sky was ink blue. The moon was a huge, lustrous white jade disc, as if never before so large, so white. A few sparse stars hung in the sky. At the edge where water met heaven drifted streaks of gray white clouds.
There were no other lights in the world, no neon signs. It was so quiet it felt like another planet.
Moonlight shone purely upon the river. The night sky was transparent and clean, without a trace of impurity. Fish scale like ripples shimmered across the water.
The deep ink night sky, the black Yangtze glimmering with silver. In that moment, it felt as if all the stars in the heavens had fallen upon the river. Starlight rippled like waves.
Beautiful enough to take one’s breath away.
Jiang Xi almost held her breath. She had never seen a moonlit night so clean and transparent.
She turned to look at Xu Cheng. Xu Cheng was looking at her, his eyes shining with magnificent light.
He pulled her into his arms, holding her from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder as they looked ahead together.
The river breeze was cool. Jiang Xi held the warm arm around her waist. She felt her soul grow light and clear, sprouting wings, rising into the air, overlooking this moment where time stood still.
This was the most beautiful painting she had dreamed of and painted in her girlhood.
Summer, full moon, night sky, river water, moonlight, and their boat.
(End of daily life extra)
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