The Thirteenth Fallen Leaf
Ji Shiqiu had been good at swimming since he was little, but the weather was impartial and inhuman, and would not give his bravery any special consideration. When they returned to the guesthouse that evening, he began sneezing, and Wu Yu naturally gave him a good round of cold sarcasm.
He pretended not to hear, sipping plain water as he stood by the window, looking at the mountain scenery.
The silk scarf was not hung out to dry with the rest of the freshly washed clothes. Instead, Wu Yu draped it over the window ledge, where it fluttered in the wind.
Ji Shiqiu took quiet satisfaction in being treated differently like this. Whenever he felt like smiling, he would raise his glass to cover the lower half of his face, only lowering it again once he had regained his composure.
But that night, he had not expected the scarf to have another use. It could become an adornment on Wu Yu’s body, and it could also become shackles binding him.
He could not move his hands or feet freely, and was completely at her disposal.
The experience was entirely unprecedented.
The next morning, Wu Yu was woken by the heat of Ji Shiqiu’s body. The boy’s hard body was like a pit of fire. She moved impatiently, then belatedly reached out with the back of her hand to feel his forehead.
Damn thing.
Wu Yu cursed inwardly.
Ji Shiqiu’s fever was severe, his axillary temperature approaching forty degrees. Wu Yu put the mercury thermometer back on the bedside table. “I’ll go downstairs and ask Lin-jie where the clinic is.”
But Ji Shiqiu was very resistant. “I’m not going.”
Wu Yu could only go downstairs and ask Sister Lin if she had any fever-reducing medicine.
Sister Lin rummaged out a few miscellaneous medicine boxes and muttered, “Don’t know if they’re expired.”
Wu Yu picked through them and selected cold medicine granules and painkillers. “We’ll treat a dead horse as if it were alive.”
Sister Lin laughed. “I didn’t get a chance to ask yesterday. Did Xiao Qiu fall into the water?”
Wu Yu gave a scoff. “Yeah. He’s an absolute idiot.”
She had never seen anyone more foolish than Ji Shiqiu. The boat was right beside them. There were clearly so many ways to retrieve the scarf, and at worst, he could simply have given up. Yet he had gone into the water without a second thought, putting himself in danger.
Ji Shiqiu sat on the edge of the bed, swallowed the capsules with water, and was then pressed back down onto the bed by Wu Yu.
He said, “I want to get up.”
Wu Yu asked, “Your head hurts terribly?”
Ji Shiqiu did not put up a brave front. “It hurts.”
“Then get some proper rest.” She stood and drew the curtains, leaving the room dim and suitable for sleep.
Ji Shiqiu said nothing more. His entire body was scorching, and his head hurt so badly that he wanted to tear it off at once, but he did not regret it in the slightest.
The extended-release tablets did not take effect that quickly. Ji Shiqiu tossed and turned, keeping his eyes closed for a long time, yet no matter what, he could not fall asleep.
Wu Yu, who had returned to the table to play on her phone and had snuffed out her urge to smoke several times, noticed. She raised an eyebrow. “Can’t sleep?”
Ji Shiqiu took it as a default yes.
Wu Yu put down her phone and, for once, said, “I can sing you something.”
Ji Shiqiu’s body visibly paused, as though he had not expected it.
“Don’t want me to?”
“You sing.”
Wu Yu thought for a moment, then slightly parted her lips:
“One frog, one mouth,
Two eyes, four legs.
Plop plop, jumping into the water,
Frogs don’t eat water, a peaceful year.
Lotus and plum blossoms, floating on the water.
Lotus and plum blossoms, floating on the water.”
She took the opportunity to mock him with the nursery rhyme, but Ji Shiqiu was not annoyed in the slightest. His shoulders began to tremble as he secretly laughed.
Wu Yu’s voice was clear and sweet, and even when singing a children’s song, she used such a serious tone that there was a peculiar kind of strangeness to it, and the strangeness was... very cute.
The dryness and pain brought on by the high fever receded by more than half.
Seeing this, Wu Yu stopped humming. “What are you laughing at?”
Ji Shiqiu suppressed his laughter. “Nothing.”
Wu Yu was also amused by her own sudden idea and deliberately put on a cold, sinister tone. “Don’t like my lullaby?” Since she was in his blind spot, he could not see that the corners of her mouth were also curling upward.
“It’s not that I don’t like it,” Ji Shiqiu answered honestly. “It’s just not very easy to fall asleep.”
Wu Yu could not help laughing.
As if someone had given permission for a switch to be turned on, Ji Shiqiu could no longer hold it back. Half his face was buried in the pillow as he laughed.
He was simply laughing, laughing without restraint.
Without caring about the illness, without caring about the wounds in his heart, without caring about the past, and without caring about tomorrow.
Their prolonged fits of laughter finally came to an end with Wu Yu’s single sentence: “Go to sleep.”
When he woke again, the sky was already dark. Ji Shiqiu sat upright in a daze, only to find the room completely empty and the feverish heat in his body entirely gone. For no reason, anxiety seized him. He immediately climbed out of bed, put on his shoes, and went downstairs to look for her.
The door blocked out the bustle of human activity and the fragrance of food. The first floor was unexpectedly lively.
Wu Yu was in the kitchen learning to stir-fry from Sister Lin. She had never used this kind of primitive stove before. Both the iron wok and spatula were a size larger, and stirring them around required twice the strength.
She was wearing a thin, close-fitting knitted shirt. Every time she stirred the wok, she would laugh, occasionally talking with Sister Lin, whose face was full of disdain.
Ji Shiqiu watched from afar. So this was the kind of smile that could even make the oil mist seem ethereal, as though steeped in an immortal aura.
That afternoon, with his back to her, he had heard only the sound of her laughter and never seen her smile. He had wanted to turn around and take a look several times, but feared that such an abrupt move would ruin that moment of relaxation.
But now, he had gotten his wish. He had no regrets.
Sister Lin was the first to notice Ji Shiqiu. Amid the crackling sound of oil, she called out, “Hey, Xiao Qiu, your fever’s gone down.”
Wu Yu looked over as well.
Sister Lin repeatedly beckoned him over. “Come quickly and take a look at Wu Yu. She’s laughing herself to death just trying to cook a dish.”
Wu Yu shot her a look. “What’s wrong with me?”
Ji Shiqiu walked over.
“Xiao Qiu, can you cook large-batch dishes?” Sister Lin asked, reaching for the spatula in Wu Yu’s hand.
Wu Yu pulled her hand away. “What are you doing, trying to steal my job?”
Sister Lin exclaimed, “You can’t even hold a spatula properly yet, and you already want to be a Michelin chef?”
Ji Shiqiu said, “I can’t.”
Actually, he could. He had many skills. Because he had never had the conditions to have clothes handed to him and food served to him, he had not known any different when he was young, and there had been no one to compare himself with. But after he started school, there were more or less a few princesses and young masters in his class, with no derogatory meaning intended. He was different. From a young age, he had had to worry about food and clothing and finding a way out, and had passively become “capable of anything.”
Of the four dishes and one soup on the table that day, three had been made by Wu Yu.
“Not bad.” Sister Lin picked up some with her chopsticks to have a taste.
Wu Yu said, “You think you’re the only person in the whole world who knows how to cook?”
Sister Lin laughed heartily. “So I was the one with eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai.”
Wu Yu corrected her. “Eyes that fail to recognize Lianshan.”
Sister Lin said, “Are you even one of us? You’ve already started making connections with the mountains.”
Wu Yu glanced at the mountain silhouette outside the window. “I like the mountains here.”
“You don’t like the mountains back home?”
“I do.”
Wu Yu did not love home, but she loved every mountain. Wherever she was, the mountains there could become her refuge.
That way, she would never be left without a place to belong.
She looked at Ji Shiqiu, who was eating with his head lowered, and asked lightly, “How is it?”
The boy raised his head. “It’s okay.”
He had barely eaten anything all day, and now his appetite had opened wide. Perhaps it was because he had taken medicine. Perhaps Wu Yu herself was his medicine.
A little after eleven that night, when the effect of the medicine wore off, Ji Shiqiu’s fever rose again. His body was burning hot, and he quietly shifted himself a little farther toward the edge of the bed.
Colds were mostly caused by viruses or bacteria, and he was worried about infecting her.
Even though the woman, just like her name, was safe and sound, she sat there unconcernedly with her earphones on, scrolling through variety shows, occasionally curling her lips into a smile.
Ji Shiqiu’s eyelids grew heavy. He vaguely felt the fluorescent light in the room being switched off.
The bedding rustled. A somewhat cool body pressed against him, an arm wrapping around his waist and abdomen.
Ji Shiqiu’s mind instantly cleared, his entire body going rigid.
But she was different from usual.
There were no further malicious or seductive movements, only a gentle embrace around him.
“You weren’t asleep...” Wu Yu asked softly near his shoulder blade.
Ji Shiqiu gave a low hum.
“Why are you still so hot?” She touched his arm, then quickly sat up, turned on the light, poured him some water, urged him to take his medicine, and even complained, “Your fever came back. Why didn’t you say anything?”
Why hadn’t he said anything? Ji Shiqiu did not understand it himself.
He was afraid of causing her more trouble. He was also afraid that she would think him weak, and that after putting on a brave front, he would still have to leave her to clean up the mess.
After they lay back down in the darkness, Ji Shiqiu reminded her, “Don’t get too close to me.”
Wu Yu asked, “Afraid you’ll infect me?”
Ji Shiqiu said, “Mm.”
Wu Yu was always forceful. As if she had not heard him, she returned to the position she had been in before, embracing him from behind, neither making excuses for her behavior nor giving herself any way to back down.
“I’m going to hold you,” she said. “Otherwise, you can go sleep on the floor.”
Ji Shiqiu: “...”
She really was good to a patient.
She really was good to him.
Especially when... she began humming that song again, the one from the daytime. Only the melody this time, without lyrics, but they both knew which song it was, the frog jumping into the water.
Yet this time, Ji Shiqiu only wanted to cry.
His tear ducts went out of control, making his already congested nasal voice even rougher and more obvious. He did everything he could to control it, but Wu Yu still noticed. She reached her hand over.
Even though the boy reacted with lightning speed and dodged away, her fingertips still brushed his chin, touching the damp trace of tears.
“You cried?” Wu Yu asked in surprise, rubbing her fingers together.
Ji Shiqiu knew he could no longer hide it and hastily wiped his face with the quilt.
The woman continued to speculate and press him for an answer. “Why are you crying?”
“Missing your mother?”
It was the perfect excuse. He should have simply gone along with it and answered yes, but suddenly Ji Shiqiu could not lie.
Because he was thinking of her, thinking of Wu Yu with a splitting headache and a heart that felt as though it were being cut by a knife, even while she was holding him in her arms.
A high fever would accelerate the heart rate and heighten emotions. The pain of the flesh and the pain of the soul became tangled together. He remembered what she had asserted during the day: he was nothingness, and he had a time limit. That was simply the truth.
He turned around, seized her face with both hands, and kissed her fiercely, as though he were dying.
Wu Yu was somewhat baffled, but she soon melted into this genuine and fervent expression. She tasted the flavor of his tears, bitter and salty like seawater.
The medicine took effect, and Ji Shiqiu fell asleep, still maintaining his unnecessarily fussy sleeping position, with his back toward her.
Come on. They had already exchanged saliva eighty or a hundred times over.
Wu Yu said nothing, but she found it even harder to fall asleep. After several days together, she still had not completely seen through Ji Shiqiu.
Mystery was the rule for keeping a relationship between a man and a woman fresh. She consoled herself by turning it into something like that.
After playing for a while with the thick, slightly soft black hair at the back of Ji Shiqiu’s head, she took out her phone and idly scrolled through Weibo.
An official post from the provincial public security authorities was pushed to her feed. The blue-and-white announcement image caught her eye. Wu Yu tapped it casually. It was a wanted notice offering a reward in connection with a major criminal case. She had no interest in such things and was about to close it when, unintentionally, her eyes passed over the photograph of the fugitive below.
Her pupils abruptly constricted.
This person was lying right beside her.
Wu Yu looked at the sleeping Ji Shiqiu, then back at the screen. Her heart pounded violently. Forcing down the trembling of her fingertips, she carefully read the text of the notice.
Every vague intuition finally had somewhere to land.
It turned out that Ji Shiqiu was only an alias.
His real name was Yu Lang.
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