The Twelfth Fallen Leaf
Wu Yu had heard many words of love. Because of her attractive appearance, she had never lacked men around her, and she had heard so many vows of eternal love that her ears had practically grown calluses from them. But for the vast majority of men, words of infatuation came readily to their lips, just like a burp. Having obtained some kind of satisfaction, whether physical or spiritual, they would linger away leisurely after filling their bellies and belching, carrying no real weight.
In Wu Yu’s eyes, Ji Shiqiu’s words were the same.
Even though his tone was serious and his expression resolute, of course, this resoluteness might have benefited from his sharp, angular features. Whatever he said or did, he always seemed as immovable as bedrock.
She pretended to believe him, like every girl who had received a promise, and deliberately pushed her luck, making things difficult for him: “Now? What about the next second, then? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow?”
But Ji Shiqiu said, “Every now.”
Wu Yu’s heart stopped for a beat. “That’s a really cunning answer.”
But she liked this response. As though rewarding him, she leaned over and pecked his chin.
Ji Shiqiu lowered his head and tangled his tongue with hers.
Men always gradually lost themselves under her seduction. Love was mostly something illusory, but in moments like this, it would become concrete and real.
And whenever that happened, Wu Yu would also gain complete control in the truest sense, becoming the master of this part of the world.
They slept until the sun was high in the sky. When they woke, Wu Yu was still nestled in Ji Shiqiu’s arms, while the young man holding her remained fast asleep. She touched his handsome lips. He did not stir, but the furrow between his brows had lingered for a long time without fading.
Wu Yu reached up to smooth it, wanting to use her fingers to iron it flat.
She succeeded.
Under her sustained touch, Ji Shiqiu opened his eyes. He was extremely wary and became fully awake almost instantly, his eyes a clear, lucid black.
“Good morning.” Wu Yu greeted him in a soft, languid voice.
Ji Shiqiu asked, “What time is it?”
Wu Yu said, “It should already be noon.”
Then she asked, “Hungry? Do you want to get up?”
“No.” Ji Shiqiu moved lazily, the arm loosely encircling her lower back suddenly tightening with force.
Wu Yu smiled at his embrace. “What are you doing...”
His breath and lips sank into the side of her neck. He said nothing, as though he were breathing oxygen.
Wu Yu hunched her shoulder and bumped his chin. “Are you going to stay in bed for the rest of your life?”
Naturally, that was impossible.
They settled breakfast and lunch together. Wu Yu decided to go out for a walk. She had been in Suixiu for several days, yet she still had not properly explored this ancient village that had not yet been eroded by commercialization.
The culprit walked beside her. At first, they simply walked side by side as they had before, with little physical contact. Today, Wu Yu took the initiative and held his hand. Ji Shiqiu was stunned for a moment, then turned his hand around and clasped hers.
Don’t be fooled by how rapidly his bed skills had improved. When it came to romance, he was still nothing more than a green shoot.
Wu Yu said, “In the future, please take the initiative with things like this. Not every woman is like me.”
Ji Shiqiu suddenly tightened his fingers, squeezing until her hand hurt.
This was within Wu Yu’s expectations. Right now, he had only her, yet she was already explaining what would come afterward.
How could she not provoke him?
She had an unusual proclivity, one that made it impossible for her to enter an ordinary and stable love affair. She was always tireless in provoking the other person into anger as a way of proving her own worth. Her “being loved” had to be filled with hurricanes and sudden downpours. It could never be a tranquil afternoon shimmering with rippling light.
Her “being loved” had to be accompanied by the men’s suffering, as though only then could it compensate for all the treatment she had received from childhood onward.
There was a kind of flower often found by the roadside called oleander. Its pink or white blossoms looked delicate and harmless, but its flowers, leaves, and stems were all poisonous, and in severe cases, it could even cause death.
After browsing the few inexpensive shops, Wu Yu chose a silk scarf, made of imitation silk, with a shoddily printed oleander pattern in white.
But once she draped it around her neck, its price increased a hundredfold.
Wu Yu possessed a kind of sophisticated beauty that was anything but ordinary.
Ji Shiqiu did not know how old she was, but she looked younger than her manner of conduct suggested. Skin with almost no blemishes or visible pores was something usually seen only on children’s faces. She was like a smooth, lustrous jade purification vase; the longer one looked at her, the more unconsciously one found oneself holding one’s breath.
“Does it look good?” The woman in the mirror turned her head and asked him.
Ji Shiqiu could not deny it, but he answered tactfully, “It’s okay.”
She was beautiful.
From the very first moment he saw her, this had been an indisputable fact. Her objective beauty even drew the shopkeeper over to praise her: “Miss, just take one with you. How pretty it is.”
Wu Yu glanced at Ji Shiqiu and redirected the hostility toward him. “He only said it’s okay.”
The middle-aged woman immediately looked over at him with eyes like torches.
Ji Shiqiu was silent for two seconds. “It looks very good.”
Beauty was so all-powerful that even the way she bargained did not seem vulgar or mercenary. So beautiful that he kept his eyes fixed on her from beginning to end as she leaned against the side of the display rack, unable to look away.
Wu Yu did not take off the silk scarf again.
They stepped out of the shop one after the other, and this time, Ji Shiqiu consciously took her hand.
Wu Yu gave an almost inaudible scoff, and his face began to grow hot. She was the one who had been picky, the one who had given him instructions, yet when he did as she said, she was also the one who mocked him.
For an instant, he thought he might as well shake her off, in order to reclaim and protect his dignity.
The contradictory thought was immediately scattered by the sunlight.
The woman used their clasped hands to shield herself from the sun instead of the one she had left free. The side of his right hand was pressed closely against her slightly cool forehead, so intimately near. At this point, self-respect was hardly worth mentioning. He became exceedingly easy to satisfy and delight.
They wandered about aimlessly, gradually moving farther away from the village wreathed in cooking smoke.
The wind was strong out in the open, the fragrance of rice was fresh, and the reeds swayed. A water buffalo was tethered beneath a tall tree, grazing. When Wu Yu spotted it, she walked over with interest.
Her original intention had been to look at the buffalo, but when she came closer, the tree restraining it attracted even more attention. Especially its leaves, which were quite delicate in form, mostly a bean green in color, with some already turning bluish-yellow. Wu Yu reached out and plucked one.
Ji Shiqiu followed her gaze and glanced over. “A Chinese tallow tree.”
The wind was too strong, and Wu Yu did not hear clearly. “What?”
Ji Shiqiu said, “The name of the tree. A Chinese tallow tree. There are lots of them where we come from, too.”
Wu Yu raised her head to look at the crown and shape of its branches. “It’s beautiful.”
“It hasn’t reached its most beautiful yet,” Ji Shiqiu said.
Wu Yu pinched the leafstalk. “When is it at its most beautiful?”
Ji Shiqiu thought for a moment. “In about a month. Its leaves will turn yellow first, then red. From far away, it’ll look as though the whole tree has blossomed.”
His description stirred Wu Yu’s imagination, and she pictured the green leaf in her hand dyed red.
Ji Shiqiu said instinctively, “We probably won’t be able to see it this year.”
Wu Yu immediately asked, “Why?”
Ji Shiqiu looked at her. “Will you stay here for very long?”
Wu Yu threw away the leaf and leveled her gaze. “I don’t know.”
Ji Shiqiu pressed his lips together, unable to suppress his curiosity any longer. “Where are you from?”
“You don’t need to know,” Wu Yu said.
Ji Shiqiu gave a quiet “Mm.” She was right. He did not need to know. But the woman’s contrariness and barriers struck him with a dull blow, and the muffled ache made him frown almost imperceptibly.
His mood worsened, and he asked, “Why not?”
Wu Yu turned her head, her hair fluttering in the wind. “Why not what?”
Ji Shiqiu said, “I’ve told you so much.” Even thoughts of death had been shared without reservation, yet he knew almost nothing about her.
The torment had begun.
Once a person began longing to truly enter another person’s heart, repeatedly running into walls became the punishment for overestimating their own ability.
Wu Yu hit the nail on the head. “I asked you why we wouldn’t be able to see it this year. Did you answer me?”
Ji Shiqiu was rendered speechless.
“If I said I could stay here for a month, until all the leaves of the Chinese tallow trees turned red...” Wu Yu’s expression became almost amused. “What about you? Where are you going? Ever since I met you, you, including everything about you, have been what’s called nothingness, and everything seems to have a time limit.”
“Didn’t you realize that yourself?” she asked calmly.
The wind at the foot of the mountain grew stronger, the waves of rice fields surging like a tide, while Ji Shiqiu remained silent. After a long while, he parted his lips without much emotion. “You think you don’t?”
Wu Yu adjusted the loosened silk scarf. “Of course I do. You don’t think I can stay for you, do you? Who do you think you are?”
Ji Shiqiu lowered his eyes slightly. “I never thought that.”
Wu Yu gave a cold laugh. “If you’re going to stay, that isn’t called an adventure. It’s called martyrdom.”
After a brief tremor in his eyes, Ji Shiqiu’s gaze became utterly lifeless. “I know.”
As they faced off against each other, their hands slipped apart without either of them realizing it. Wu Yu threw down, “Then why ask?” and walked on by herself.
He should not have asked.
Ji Shiqiu was frustrated with himself, and hated himself as well.
He took two steps forward and found her hand again. Wu Yu did not pull away.
The woman’s hand had been chilled considerably by the wind, and he silently cupped it in his own.
People were strange. Love always came accompanied by contradictory thoughts. They knew perfectly well that love existed in the present, yet still prayed that it could last forever.
Those who had never truly been loved were even stranger. Apart from contradiction, there was an even more painful reshaping wrapped within them, tempered by the past into blades and swords wielded against themselves and the other person. If a person could be stabbed until they were drenched in blood, yet still rise again and again and draw close to her, only then could she reluctantly believe that perhaps she was loved.
Only perhaps.
Wu Yu had never been truly loved. Never.
What could be certain, though, was that after late autumn came bitter winter, and all the rich colors would be buried beneath white snow.
Yet when the warmth of Ji Shiqiu’s palm passed into hers, the tip of her nose grew faintly sore.
The person beside her was as silent as though he did not exist, yet he caused a corner of the frozen wilderness in her heart to collapse.
They reached the lakeside. Not a single word had passed between them along the way, with only the wind speaking. Before them stretched a vast lotus pond. A boatman sat listlessly on the shore, smoking in desolation. Wu Yu was affected by the mood and lit a cigarette as well, then walked over and spoke to him. “Does your boat carry passengers?”
The gray-haired old man looked up. “No. I use it for fishing and picking lotus pods.”
“What if I pay you?”
The old man immediately changed his tune and asked how much she would give. Wu Yu told him to name his price. The old man quoted a figure, and she agreed without a second thought.
Wu Yu told him that one round was enough, then lightly leapt onto the sculling boat. Ji Shiqiu followed her. The old man took up the wooden oar and, speaking Mandarin with an unfamiliar accent, asked where they were from.
This time, Wu Yu answered him. “Jiangxi Province.”
Ji Shiqiu glanced at her.
They drifted silently around the lake. Not a single lotus blossom remained, and the round leaves had withered somewhat, drooping with their scorched edges half-curled. Along the way, they also saw those trees, the Chinese tallow trees they had encountered earlier. They could be seen everywhere in Anhui, some luxuriant, some spindly, but all equally striking.
At the time of the setting sun, all the trees were moving toward decay, yet the mountains and waters of Suixiu had lost none of their spirit, possessing a tranquil beauty rich with poetic charm and picturesque imagery.
Wu Yu took some photographs.
Throughout the entire boat ride, the only sound was the shutter of her phone. She and Ji Shiqiu did not exchange a single word.
Just as they were about to reach the shore, the wind suddenly grew stronger, snatching away the already-loosened silk scarf. Wu Yu let out a startled sound, then looked back at the scarf drifting farther away. It was caught on a lotus pod in the middle of the lake, half of it trailing into the water, completely soaked through.
A look of regret appeared on her face.
Wu Yu turned around, intending to ask the old man whether she could pay him a little more to retrieve the scarf for her.
Before she could speak, there was a splash beside her. Ji Shiqiu had already plunged headfirst into the lake and was swimming toward the scarf without the slightest hesitation.
Even the old man rowing the boat was stunned, staring in disbelief.
Crimson-red light shimmered across the lake around Ji Shiqiu. Soaked through, the beautiful young man, like a little prince, shook the droplets of water from his hair and face, snapped off the slender lotus pod with one hand, and held it high to keep the scarf from dragging through the water again.
The afterglow spread widely behind him.
The autumn evening was chilly, yet he looked warm and damp.
After her worry came relief so absurd that Wu Yu did not know whether to laugh or be angry.
Her heartbeat slipped into a rhythm she was unfamiliar with, and to conceal it, she shouted, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”
As though showing off his spoils of victory, Ji Shiqiu laughed and waved his arm at the woman on the shore.
If life and death were not used as the price, how could it be called an adventure?
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