Extra 3. Summer 2015
When Xu Cheng was discharged from the hospital, the doctor had originally said he should stay a while longer.
But after only a few days, he checked out. At the time, Jiang Xi had been running to the hospital constantly to take care of him, growing noticeably thinner. Whenever his colleagues came by, she had to avoid them, sitting in the corridor for hours at a time.
Xu Cheng simply went home to recuperate.
On the second day after returning, Jiang Tian spoke to Jiang Xi in private. “Jiejie.”
“Hm?”
“Xu Cheng-gege kicked me.”
At that moment Jiang Xi was arranging flower petals into a painting. She looked up, puzzled. “Ah? Why?”
“I don’t know either. I was drinking water. He came out of the bathroom, said ‘Jiang Tian,’ then kicked me once. Then he left.” Jiang Tian said, “I didn’t do anything.”
Jiang Xi froze for a moment, then laughed, continuing her work.
“Really. He kicked me.”
“Got it.” Jiang Xi smiled, then added, “He’s sick, so he’s a bit strange. Forgive him.”
“Alright.” Jiang Tian paused, then said worriedly, “What if he kicks me again next time? Jiejie, you have to tell him off.”
Jiang Xi’s smile widened. “Don’t worry. There won’t be a next time.”
Jiang Xi cleared out the desk on the south-facing balcony and pushed a soft sofa chair over.
When Xu Cheng’s colleagues came to discuss work, Jiang Xi would retreat to the secondary bedroom on the north side, doing her own things, napping for a while when she got tired.
Although Xu Cheng was not at the office, once he left the hospital, the amount of time he spent working each day only increased. There were too many people and matters to investigate. A mass of details and clues had to be grasped before they were erased.
When he worked, Xu Cheng seemed like a different person. Occasionally relaxed, joking, but most of the time calm and severe. His sharp thinking always showed in his eyes.
Jiang Xi, who had never seen this side of him before, found it inexplicably attractive.
She never disturbed him while he worked, but every so often she would peek her head out from the room, checking the water level in his cup. When it was nearly empty, she would come over and refill it.
When she appeared, everyone would naturally stop discussing the case. The room full of people would fall quiet, waiting.
Jiang Xi said nothing, nor did she feel awkward, moving about like the host, calmly pouring water.
When he was discharged, the doctor had repeatedly told Xu Cheng to rest more. But the detectives under him, the members of the investigation team, came in waves, or called him, and the time always stretched long.
Sometimes Jiang Xi would stand far away and glance at him. Xu Cheng would understand what she meant and could only smile apologetically.
Jiang Xi would pout, then leave.
At other times, it would already be very late. Jiang Xi would open the door to go out, and when Xu Cheng saw, he would interrupt his work and ask, “Where are you going?”
“To buy groceries and cook.”
Xu Cheng would say, “They’re not eating here.”
He never kept anyone for meals. Without him being free to help, cooking for such a crowd would exhaust her.
So Jiang Xi only made simple meals for him. When it was time, Xu Cheng would order takeout for everyone, or have them go to the restaurant downstairs to make do.
Once, Jiang Xi saw a farmer downstairs selling homegrown green-skinned tangerines from a small truck, so she went down to buy some. When she left, Xu Cheng was looking over materials with Zhang Yang and didn’t notice her.
Jiang Xi was picking tangerines at the entrance of the residential compound when, halfway through, Zhang Yang and the others came out, smiling as they greeted her.
Zhang Yang said with a grin, “Captain Xu likes this kind of green tangerine the most.”
Qian Xiaojiang said, “You don’t see these old-style tangerines much anymore. I only had them when I was a kid. I’ll buy some too.”
“Then I’ll try some as well.”
As a result, a group of detectives and investigators gathered around the small truck buying tangerines. The old man driving it was grinning from ear to ear.
Jiang Xi’s phone buzzed. It was Xu Cheng:
“You went out? How could you leave me alone at home? Q？？Q”
Jiang Xi: “……”
She glanced at the colleagues in front of her. They would probably never believe such a message could come from a certain captain.
Holding tangerines in one hand and money in the other, she didn’t have time to reply quickly before another message came:
“Bao, where are you? ┗|｀O′|┛”
Jiang Xi’s heart skipped abruptly. Like a thief, she was afraid the people around her would see and ruin the image of their heroic, formidable captain.
“Downstairs buying tangerines for the pig. ^(*￣(oo)￣)^” Her fingers moved quickly over the phone, but thinking of how he would rush to her room and push open the door to look for her the moment he finished work, she couldn’t help but smile.
She had just sent it when he replied: “Then I’ll come down to get you. (#^.^#)”
Jiang Xi gathered all the cards from the flowers sent by the citizens. Then she used petals of different colors to assemble a painting. It depicted the spring scenery of Yucheng’s two rivers and three banks. High-rises and old houses. Rivers and ships. Bridges, flowing crowds. The sky, the evening glow…
A mosaic of colored petals outlined the most beautiful scenery of Yucheng. At the same time, it was also, ingeniously, the handsome and resolute face of a man. The painting was titled Xu, A City of Peace [1].
Xu Cheng was deeply shaken. He had always known Jiang Xi painted beautifully, but that painting was still more beautiful than he had imagined.
He couldn’t speak at the moment, except for a few “wo cao.”
That night, just before falling asleep, he suddenly opened his eyes and said, “Jiang Xi, you’re like a little spirit.”
Jiang Xi: “Huh?”
“Clean, full of spiritual vitality, with an ethereal, immortal-like aura drifting around you.”
Jiang Xi was baffled, her face flushing. She was about to ask something more, but he had already fallen asleep.
In the days just after returning from the hospital, Xu Cheng worked hard during the day, his mental energy heavily drained, and always fell asleep early.
In the past, he had been a light sleeper, easily woken by the slightest movement. But perhaps because he had been discharged too early, recently his sleep had become unusually heavy, he could not wake easily; yet it was not restful, and he often drifted in a hazy half-consciousness.
If Jiang Xi merely turned over, he would frown in his dreams and reach out to grab her hand.
During this period, Jiang Xi also suffered from frequent insomnia. When she could not sleep in the middle of the night, afraid that turning on the light to draw would disturb him, she would quietly climb out of bed, slip into the living room, turn on the air conditioner, wrap herself in a thin blanket, and curl up on the sofa to draw.
She would draw for less than ten minutes before the master bedroom door slid open.
Xu Cheng, eyes half-closed and drowsy, walked straight over and collapsed onto the sofa, kicked off his slippers, burrowed into the thin blanket, wrapped his arms around her legs, and asked groggily, “Why did you come here?”
His brows knit. “Jiang Xi, this isn’t okay. You can’t just run off without telling me.”
She could not help but curve her lips, reaching out to stroke his head. “I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to draw. I was afraid of disturbing your sleep.”
Xu Cheng said, “You not being there is what disturbs me.”
Jiang Xi said softly, “I know you can’t sleep with the light on. The doctor said you need more rest.”
He kept his eyes closed, as if he had fallen asleep again. After quite a while, he opened them, a little more awake. “Why can’t you sleep?”
Jiang Xi said, “It’s always been like this.”
“Insomnia?”
“Mhm…”
Ever since leaving Jiangzhou until now, she had often been unable to sleep. At first it was sorrow in her heart, later it was anxiety over danger.
“But I’ve gotten used to it.”
Xu Cheng was surprised he had not noticed, and looked up at her. Jiang Xi set the tablet aside and explained, “When I sleep with you, it doesn’t happen. After we got together, I thought it had gotten better. I don’t know why.”
Xu Cheng wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her down; she lay beside him.
“Then why has the insomnia come back now?”
Jiang Xi did not answer. During the days he was missing, she had hardly slept at all. Every night she lay awake until near dawn, and only when she could not hold out any longer would she sleep for three or four hours. Even now, she had not fully recovered.
Xu Cheng gently stroked her back. “Jiang Xi.”
“Hm?”
“I promise, in the future, I will never do anything this dangerous again.”
“Mhm…” Jiang Xi nestled closer into his arms. “Go to sleep.”
“Not sleeping. I’ll chat with you.”
“About what?”
“When you couldn’t sleep before, what would you do?”
“A lot of things.” Jiang Xi thought for a moment. “Sometimes I’d draw. But I only had pencils and ballpoint pens, and the paper wasn’t good. If I had a sketchbook, that would already be very nice. Sometimes it was newspapers, flyers, receipts, scrap paper.” As she spoke, Jiang Xi’s heart trembled. In those years, when she was drawing on such paper, was he somewhere far away, folding little boats out of the same kind of paper?
“What happened to those drawings?”
“I threw them away.”
Xu Cheng felt a bit regretful. “I really want to see them.”
“It’s okay. I’ll draw many more in the future.”
“Alright.” He asked, “When you couldn’t sleep, would Tiantian stay with you?”
“Pfft…” Jiang Xi pouted. “That idiot, no one has better sleep quality than him. He’s practically like a little piglet. Once I really couldn’t sleep, so I went to talk to him. I finally shook him awake, said two sentences, and he didn’t respond. I looked and saw his head leaning against the wall, tilted back, already asleep. His mouth was wide open. I stuffed a bit of tissue into his mouth and he still didn’t wake up.”
Xu Cheng could not help laughing; Jiang Xi also trembled with quiet laughter.
“Sometimes, I would slip out of the room. Back then, on the boat, I would sit alone on the deck, watching the stars, watching the Yangtze River, and also the cities along the shore. There were many streetlights, but at night there were hardly any cars on the roads, very empty. Sometimes I would see trains passing by, in the carriages everyone sitting in rows, asleep. Very quiet. And very interesting.”
Xu Cheng fell silent for a moment, then asked, “At times like that, would you think of me?”
Jiang Xi pressed her lips together, then answered honestly, “I did.”
“Xu Cheng, back then, you really liked calling me to look at the world outside. At the time I was afraid, always hiding in the cabin, but you kept coming to call me. The partition only had a cloth curtain, no door. You would knock on the wardrobe, dong dong dong, then say: ‘Hey, Jiang Xi. There’s a sunrise outside.’ ‘Hey, there’s a bird on the deck.’ ‘Hey…’…”
Xu Cheng smiled and continued, “There’s sunset glow, cargo ships…”
“Mhm…” Jiang Xi’s eyes lit up. “A very big ship, a colorful ship…”
“Do you remember…” Xu Cheng traced their shared past with her, only to realize she always remembered more.
Although he had already recalled the truth of the past, like most people, he could not remember every moment, every detail from ten years ago. Memory only retained key fragments.
Unlike Jiang Xi. Every moment she had spent with him, in the heart of her younger self, had all been shining key points, deepened through repeated recollection.
It didn’t matter. He would make it up slowly in the future.
That night, they talked very late, drifting in and out of sleep, and eventually fell asleep together on the sofa.
The next day, Xu Cheng returned to work, though not to field duty. When he came home that evening, he brought back a small desk lamp.
Before going to sleep that night, Jiang Xi noticed that on the side of the bed where she slept in the master bedroom, there was now a small, gentle lamp by the headboard.
Xu Cheng said, “If you wake up at night and want to draw, turn on that lamp. Don’t switch rooms.”
Jiang Xi said okay.
That night, when she quietly sat up to draw, Xu Cheng, still asleep, shifted closer and wrapped his arms around her, his face buried against her waist, his breath warm and ticklish.
She lowered her head to look at his sleeping face beside her, and her heart grew very still.
The night was no longer frightening or lonely. It became warm, peaceful.
After a few days, Jiang Xi’s insomnia gradually eased. Sometimes she would wake in the middle of the night, nestle in his arms for a while, and listening to his steady breathing, she could fall asleep again.
By the end of July, the two of them went to the hospital for a follow-up check together. Xu Cheng had recovered well, and so had Jiang Xi.
On the way home, Xu Cheng asked, “What did the doctor say?”
Jiang Xi touched her ribs. “Pretty good. What about you?”
“Almost fully recovered.” Xu Cheng asked, “Did they mention anything to watch out for?”
“No.”
“Can you exercise?”
“Exercise?” Jiang Xi was puzzled. “I didn’t ask. I don’t usually exercise anyway.”
Xu Cheng smiled a little but said nothing. Just then, they hit a red light, and the car stopped.
Jiang Xi said, “Did the doctor tell you not to exercise? With a concussion, it’s better to rest more. You still can’t go out on field assignments. Maybe you should hold off on training for now…”
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed he had been looking at her the whole time. She turned her head, and he had already leaned over and kissed her.
She froze for a moment, then slowly remembered what she had just been saying. “What do you think?”
“Think what?”
“…Were you even listening to me?” Jiang Xi said. “What were you thinking about?”
“I don’t know. Didn’t really hear what you were muttering either. I just suddenly wanted to kiss you,” he said. “You were tempting me.”
Jiang Xi protested, “What did I even do?”
“Exist.”
Jiang Xi burst out laughing, her cheeks flushing.
When they got home, as she was showering, Jiang Xi caught a glimpse of her own body in the mirror. She suddenly remembered that during this time, both of them had been recovering from injuries, and it had been a while since they had…
Actually, it hadn’t been that long.
It was just that in that instant, she belatedly realized what Xu Cheng had meant earlier by “exercise”…
That pervert.
But she…
was one too.
When she came out of the bathroom, Xu Cheng had just finished a call with Zhang Yang. He glanced at the pink flush on her cheeks, puzzled. “Was the water that hot?”
Jiang Xi gave a vague mm and slipped back into bed to wait for him. She wondered how she could “naturally” get things started later. Touch him? Or kiss him?
Her thoughts drifted as she rolled over in bed, ending up by his desk. She saw the drawer she had pried open before. Sitting up, she pulled it open again for another look.
Flipping through it casually with a mix of heartache and happiness, she unexpectedly saw receipts from a disability assistance center…
*
After rinsing off, Xu Cheng returned to the bed and said, “The shampoo’s almost out. Let’s buy some tomorrow.” He had just lain down when he picked up his phone again. “Actually, let’s do it now. In case I forget. What if you need to wash your hair and there’s none left.”
He tapped around on his phone, then sensed something was off. Jiang Xi hadn’t responded.
At home, they always responded to each other.
He turned his head and saw her staring at him without blinking, her eyes filled with affection.
Xu Cheng paused, caught off guard.
She leaned closer. “Xu Cheng.”
“Mm?”
She bit her lip. “I want…”
How could he not understand? He swallowed. “Want what?”
Jiang Xi moved a little closer to him. Her long lashes trembled. Then she leaned in further, lifted her head, and pressed a kiss to his lips, gently sucking. Her small hand unconsciously climbed to his waist.
She kissed him with feeling, too proactive; Xu Cheng was so surprised he didn’t react for a moment.
Jiang Xi pulled away. Seeing him staring blankly at her, she suddenly felt shy, her whole body tingling and warm. She quietly shrank back and whispered, “You don’t like it?”
How could he not like it?
Xu Cheng immediately pulled her into his arms, his voice low. “I like it like crazy.”
His voice was hoarse, tinged with temptation. “Jiang Xi, I’ve been holding back so much I’m going crazy. You want it too, don’t you?”
Her heart burned. Her hand grew bolder, slowly moving downward, tracing the hollow at his lower back, her voice soft. “Mm…”
How could Xu Cheng hold back any longer? Instinctively, he tightened his arms around her waist and kissed her deeply.
Jiang Xi’s head sank into the soft pillow, the rustle of fabric sounding by her ears. The man’s heat was unlike anything before, brimming with passion. His breath fell on her face like a warm current, flowing into her heart, spreading through her limbs.
Clearly, she had been the one to start it, but before long, her whole body softened.
She lifted her waist slightly, only wanting to press closer to him. Her legs brushed against his, rubbing and lingering, unwilling to part.
Xu Cheng kissed her neck, her earlobe, his tongue teasing the small lobe as he murmured in a dazed, desire-thick voice, “Jiang Xi, I like you like this. I like it so much.”
A tingling shiver ran through Jiang Xi’s heart. Encouraged, emboldened, her fingers tentatively slipped into his hair. The man’s hair was short, flat, resilient. He jolted slightly, pecking at her ear, coaxing, “Keep going, A Xi.”
Her hand brushed past the back of his neck, circling along the firm, sculpted muscles of his back to his taut, swelling chest. Her heart surged again with emotion. The boy in her memory had, after all, grown into a man.
Her fingers traced his neatly lined abs, rising and falling. Tight, warm muscle beneath her touch.
Xu Cheng stiffened for a moment, propping himself up slightly, gazing at her.
Jiang Xi’s cheeks flushed crimson, her dark eyes glossy. In a soft, breathy sound, she murmured, “You… are you… again?”
He pulled her into his arms by the waist. “Last time you didn’t… you didn’t know?”
Jiang Xi’s hand was hot, her face even hotter. “I forgot.”
Xu Cheng bent down close to her ear, his voice hoarse and coaxing as he whispered something.
Jiang Xi’s face flushed explosively, her blood pounding in her chest. Not quite firm, she whispered, “No.”
“A Xi…” Xu Cheng’s voice was utterly tender, lingering. As he spoke, he pressed lightly.
“Mm—” Jiang Xi’s whole body trembled, her neck arching back.
Xu Cheng licked her neck, sucking gently.
Her hand braced as she did as he said.
But she was too sensitive. In an instant, her whole body softened, her hand losing strength.
Xu Cheng took her hand, guiding it, inch by inch, taking ground.
Pressing forward continuously, until the deepest point.
Mindful that both their bodies were still recovering, he was unusually gentle. Jiang Xi could hardly bear it, squeezing her eyes shut, letting out a soft sound, then slowly opening them again to look at Xu Cheng. And at that exact moment, she fell into his deep, dark eyes. He, too, was gazing at her, as if to gather every minute expression of hers into his sight.
In that moment when their gazes suddenly quieted, the faint sounds of sheets rubbing, of skin pressing together then parting, the gradually deepening desire coloring his eyes, her peach-blossom flushed cheeks, her long hair in disarray on the pillow, the faint sheen of sweat at her waist.
And the desire that rubbed together yet never parted, as though rooted deep within their bodies, tightly entwined.
Jiang Xi sank into his gaze.
Her heart was like vines bursting forth in spring, wildly breaking through the soil, sprouting, competing for sunlight. Twining around him, holding him tight, embedding into bone.
Her love flowed endlessly from her kisses, from her body, moistening his once-parched heart, his entire being.
Like abundant rain, soaking into every limb and bone.
Rain began to fall in the night, pattering softly. This kind of weather was most suited for holding each other, for lingering intimacy, for pouring out love.
When they joined closely again, Jiang Xi thought of many things. Countless nights over many years, the nights after their reunion. Everything seemed to overlap with this moment.
It was always like this.
There was always a volcanic intensity in Xu Cheng, an endless, unrelenting desire. Casting aside all the concealment, deception, guilt, and torn barriers of the daytime, shedding those composed, indifferent, calm, easy exteriors, at night he was the most primal, the most sincere.
Every kiss, every inch of touch, every time, was filled with surging love and deep affection, pouring over her like a rushing river, like tides in a tropical sea that never receded.
She understood now.
It was love, very deep love.
The heat of their bodies rubbing coursed within her, perhaps surging up to her eyes, turning warm.
“Why are you about to cry again?” Xu Cheng stopped, kissing the small mole at the corner of her eye. Her lashes were damp, stray strands of sweat-wet hair clinging to her temples.
“No.” Jiang Xi huffed softly, blinking. Her lashes brushed against his lips, making them itch.
He couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smile, revealing a faint dimple on one side.
She parted her lips and licked at that dimple, as if tasting his smile. It was sweet.
Xu Cheng’s hand slipped beneath her burning, damp back, parting the soft sheets as he lifted her into a sitting position. The air conditioner’s breeze brushed over her, and her back shifted from heat into sudden coolness, making her shiver and cling closer to him.
At that, she whimpered, trembling as she drew in breaths, her brows knotting.
It had been too long since…
All at once, she still couldn’t quite—take it—
With one hand, Xu Cheng firmly lifted her slightly, his other hand turning her chin toward him. Their breaths tangled as his eyes, wolf-like, locked onto her bitten red lips, her dazed gaze, her cheeks flushed like little lanterns.
“Xu Cheng, I can’t anymore. Tomorrow you…”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday. No work.” He lightly bit at her upturned chin, his voice low and hoarse. “Be good.”
The rain seemed to grow heavier. The sound of it tapped insistently against the window frame, spilling everywhere.
She couldn’t remember how long they went on before finally falling asleep. Before losing consciousness, Jiang Xi vaguely thought that in the future, this kind of closeness, this kind of intimacy, should really be done regularly.
Otherwise, like this, erupting and tossing all night long, her body would feel like it was falling apart.
But at the same time, it felt very good.
The summer night rain of July and August was so heavy.
She slept deeply, deeply. Dreamless, peaceful. Like earth nourished by heavy rain, full, renewed.
✦
Notes:
[1] The original title reads as《许一座平安城》which plays on Xu Cheng’s name. It can be either read as “Xu, A City of Peace” or “To Promise a City of Peace.”
✦
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