Chapter 15
Two children walked out of the arched corridor. They looked up at the moon and stars. The more than ten minutes they spent in the dark corridor were their common secret. Now they were really bad kids.
Under the bright moonlight, the boy looked down at his school pants and immediately raised his head as if he was burned. His ears and face were hot, and even his breath was hot.
The dark round spot on the school pants seemed to have a magical power, attracting him to look at it again and again. The cheap acrylic cloth was soaked with the round spot, and it felt hot, sticky, and burning against his skin.
In those years, the boys in my class had already started passing magazines around during breaks. In between playing basketball or football, the foul smell of sweat on the plastic track was always mixed with a hint of sourness, and the white liquid in the grass was as filthy as their smiles.
People always dislike those who are different, especially boys of this age. If they can't beat him, they will disgust him and stuff those torn and sticky magazines into his schoolbag, saying, "I just don't believe he's not interested in his mother!"
When he got home, he opened his schoolbag and saw it. It felt like a hot potato in his hands. He hid it like a thief in Zhou Tiancheng's chess and card room. There was a steel bed there, and when Dai Yan wasn't calling friends home to play mahjong, he would sleep on the bed, reading the magazine rolled up like a rotten leaf in the moonlight. The sexy girls on the yellow kraft paper weren't even a hair as pretty as her. He closed his eyes and imagined them all as her, her sparkling fox eyes captivating her soul, her mouth half-open as she cried plaintively beneath him...
He was a good student, in every way. He learned a lot of new things from books. He knew she didn't yet belong to him completely, and the round spots on her school pants were just traces of her joy. But when he thought that joy was given by him... he glanced at the girl beside him, her swollen red lips, her hair wet and dry, sticking to her fair face and neck. Her watery eyes glanced at him quickly and turned away, and he also secretly felt joy...
This secret joy lasted for many years. They had slept in each other's arms, eaten and played together since they were six years old. They had never been apart. They were as close as one person. Now they had a deeper connection. Every night when Dai Yan was not around, Kang Xingxing lay on the wire bed, sometimes looking at the moon, sometimes looking at the dark doorway, and hearing the sound of bare feet clacking on the cold tiles. Happiness and guilt surged in his heart, but he was as dark as the night, and no one saw the upturned corners of his mouth.
After a while, a small figure appeared, with the moonlight shining on her face and hair. Her hair was very long, reaching her waist. She looked like an elf running out of a mountain stream, holding a doll.
"I'm coming!" She moved very quickly, jumping onto his bed like a kitten, bringing with her a sweet scent, lifting the quilt and crawling in, and he immediately wrapped her in his arms.
"You look like an African carnivorous plant!" she giggled. "And you're so dark, you can tell you're from Africa."
They looked at the stars and moon in the night sky, just like they did when they were little. Kang Xingxing knew everything: this is Orion, that is Lepus. Zhou Yue didn't understand. It was just a field of stars, wasn't it? But she also enjoyed watching them. If the weather was bad, she would be very depressed, "There are no stars today..."
"Xingxing has always been there, she's just hiding." Kang Xingxing's chubby hands clumsily stroked her fluffy, soft hair and kissed her ears and neck.
"Why are you hiding?"
"Protect the moon from the sight of the bad guys."
The boy's heroic complex made him create many imaginary enemies, such as the bad boy who crouched on the edge of the stage to peek under her skirt, and the old man who fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan to enjoy the cool air at the door of the hardware store. As soon as he saw her coming, his cloudy, bulging eyes glued to her face...
"I'm very strong, I don't need your protection!"
Zhou Yue felt itchy from the hot breath behind her ear. She shrank her neck and smiled to avoid him, but it was still itchy, as if it had penetrated into her heart, making her feel numb and tingling. She turned around with a red face, breathing rapidly, and met another pair of bright eyes.
"Gorilla, you have beautiful eyes," she feigned composure, leaning closer to him and gently stroking his fluffy eyelashes. "They're so long, reaching his temples. They really look like a crescent moon. You should be called Yueyue."
"Yueyue's eyes are so bright, she should be called Xingxing." Kang Xingxing smiled foolishly, and it seemed like two rows of white teeth were floating in the dark night.
"Your teeth are floating! Like ghosts!"
"Hahaha!"
They laughed and tickled each other, then stopped laughing and stared at each other in silence. Kang Xingxing was very bad. He always waited for Zhou Yue to kiss him first, kissing his eyes and nose. Zhou Yue was also very bad. She hooked him and stopped kissing him on the mouth, then put her hands under her face and looked at him with a smile, "Yueyue, why don't you kiss me?" He muttered intoxicatedly and aggrievedly, then smiled foolishly like a drunk, held her face, kissed her lips, chin, neck, collarbone... She held his head tightly in her arms, and the licking on her chest was wet and hot, so hot that she closed her eyes and hummed softly. She had never heard herself speak so charmingly. She recalled the faint meow of a cat in her parents' bedroom when she was young. That meow had a magical power. He suddenly pressed her down, holding her tightly, and sucked her little tongue frantically. His hands were clueless. He stroked her shoulders and arms clumsily, and lingered timidly around her waist. It took a long time for him to muster the courage to tear off the thin piece of cloth. He clumsily and carefully twisted the delicate flower bud, feeling it bloom under his caress, the petals wet with morning dew, dripping at the touch...
They seemed to have found a missing part of themselves and explored it with curiosity and enthusiasm.
"Ah! You're so ugly!"
She frowned in disgust, but after looking at him again, she would look at him again and again. Every time she looked at him, she would laugh at him for having a big tail growing in front of him, which was so ugly that it was shocking. Unlike her, who was fully evolved and a beautiful and decent human being.
Kang Xingxing hung his head in frustration, feeling that he was as ugly as a wild beast. He didn't say anything for a long time. Zhou Yue teased him, hugged him and kissed him, but he didn't respond. Later, she got angry and slapped him on the back angrily.
He looked up at her silently, which softened her heart. She swam over and coaxed him humbly, "You don't understand my heart at all."
These words made her feel extremely aggrieved. She pouted and stroked his eyebrows again and again, as if coaxing a child to sleep: "A child will not despise his mother's ugliness, and the moon will not despise the stars' ugliness. No matter how ugly you are, I will not despise you. You are my home."
She coaxed him into laughing, and the two of them rubbed together again, as if they had found a game that they never got tired of playing, and they played to their heart's content in the night...
No one knew the secret of the Zhou brothers and sisters, not even Dai Yan. Whenever someone at the card table occasionally asked her how her daughter was doing, she would feel an indescribable disgust in her heart, as suffocating as the rainy season.
"That's it!" She shook her long hair and smiled vaguely. The roots of her hair were completely white, so she had to dye it again and again. She used too much dye and it hurt her scalp. When she combed her hair, it fell down, and it was shocking on the white tile floor of the bathroom. She thought of her daughter's black waist-length hair, which was shiny and swayed like ripples on the lake when the wind blew.
Zhou Yueru was as beautiful as she had imagined, even more beautiful, so beautiful that it made her feel bitter. She was old and there was nothing she could do. She visited Zhou Tiancheng's grave on Qingming Festival and looked at him amid the flying ashes. His face was frozen in the photo, forever young and forever handsome.
And she was getting weaker day by day, and shriveled up night by night, as if the torture was long and desperate.
She dreamed of the twenty-year-old Zhou Tiancheng, who was pointing at her nose and scolding her in the sunset, but his eyes were glued to her face. She was young at that time, didn't understand, and felt scared, but in the blink of an eye, half her life had passed. Now there is no such young and handsome man looking at her with such fiery eyes, only men who are as greasy as toads, who don't look at her face, but at her plump buttocks. The peach has become a bulging rotten cotton core, just like a swan has become a meat duck, and even a toad dares to have any ideas.
Little boys in their teens and twenties would also tease her, their eyes lightly glancing at her face, their hands pinching and kneading her waist, calling her baby, baby. But she knew that they were not calling her, they were calling the bank card in her wallet.
What makes people most angry is that little girl Zhou Yue, a premature baby, as small as a mouse when she was born. She drinks milk like her life depends on it, which sucks away her youth and blood. She grows into a little goblin that makes men unable to walk. She is as despicable as the group of little goblins around Zhou Tiancheng. Not only does she not remember her mother's kindness, but she also has a rebellious nature.
As for Dai Yan, if you say she is stupid, she actually knows very well why those card-playing and dancing friends surround her. She just wants to pick up the dignity that was trampled on by Zhou Tiancheng during the more than ten years they were together. When these people have praised her enough and flattered her enough, and she is fed up with it, she will stop. A woman who has to bargain even for a bunch of onions can still do her homework. It is not worth it to just do it for a few words of praise from a few old men with foul mouths like sewers.
She began to focus her attention on her daughter. As promised, she bought her daughter a piano and placed it in the center of the living room. It looked magnificent in the sunlight. She also spent a lot of money to hire a teacher for her daughter.
The little girl really liked it. She played it in class, after class, and whenever she had nothing to do. She would sit there for the whole afternoon. Kang Xingxing would turn over the music scores for her like a little servant, and serve her tea and water. The rest of the time he would sit next to her and listen, watching her fingertips dancing on the keys, smiling intoxicatedly, as if she was playing some heavenly music, so beautiful that his soul flew away.
But what she played was not the sound of nature at all. It was just like the howling of ghosts and wolves. The little girl was okay at singing, but her piano playing was really "outrageous" and stupid. It took her a month or so to play an introductory piece of "Canon", and it was so unfamiliar and stiff that even Dai Yan, an outsider, could hear it.
Dai Yan plays mahjong all night long and goes to bed during the day. Her daughter plays the same song over and over in the living room, like sawing wood, which makes people angry.
She tossed and turned in bed, her face flushed with heat, her hair and body tingling. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, she jumped up, opened the door, and rushed out, cursing, "Stop playing! You've played it hundreds of times and you still can't do it? Do you have a pig's brain? Are you deliberately trying to prevent me from sleeping?"
The bright midday sun poured into the living room, giving the piano a layer of gold. The two children snuggled together, concentrating like golden sculptures. They were startled by her and suddenly raised their heads, looking stunned as if they had just realized that there were other people in the world besides them.
Every time Dai Yan hit Kang Xingxing, he would lower his eyes before the slap landed, but not today. He looked straight at her and said slowly, word by word, "Auntie Dai Yan, Yueyue is just not very skilled yet. She will get better in the future."
Zhou Yue remained silent, looking down with her long eyelashes covering her eyes, and whispered, "Practicing at night will disturb others."
"Then stop practicing!" Dai Yan waved her hand. The wrinkles between her eyebrows were so deep they looked black. Once a woman who likes to make things difficult gets older and has wrinkles on her face, her noses will be turned upside down, like two black holes. She shrieked, "You've studied for so long! With such an expensive teacher! You spend hundreds of dollars on a lesson, and you still play the piano like this? Don't take on porcelain work if you don't have the skills! From now on, don't let me hear you playing the piano again..."
"I want to play the piano."
This was the first time Zhou Yue interrupted her mother. Dai Yan and Kang Xingxing were both startled. She raised her head, her neck stiff, and said, "I want to play the piano."
"Huh?" Dai Yan's eyes nearly popped out of her head in shock. All the jealousy, resentment, and fear that had been accumulating for a long time suddenly rushed to her head. She pointed at her daughter's nose and started scolding her, "I paid for it. You play the piano if I tell you to, and you don't if I don't..."
She strode over, raised the music sheet and smashed it on Zhou Yue's face, "Just shut up!"
The music score didn't hit Zhou Yue, but hit Kang Xingxing who was standing in front of Zhou Yue. The music score was light, but the angle was tricky, and it scratched his forehead. A drop of blood oozed out, flowed down his nose, and stopped at the tip of his nose.
Kang Xingxing didn't say a word, and Zhou Yue didn't say a word either. She just tilted her neck and looked at her mother with red eyes, her little face cold.
She shouldn't have a cold face. Her pretty face should have a submissive smile, but she never learned this in her life.
"What are you looking at?" Dai Yan felt uneasy when she looked at her.
"The money is not yours," Zhou Yue said, tears welling up in her eyes as she spoke each word with conviction, "It belongs to Dad."
That night, the Zhou family's living room was in a mess, the coffee table was broken into pieces, and the beautiful streamlined body of the Xinghai piano was smashed into a pile of uneven scrap iron. Kang Xingxing was often beaten, but Zhou Yue had never suffered physical pain. Dai Yan avoided her face and hit her in places she couldn't see. The feather duster cut through the air and hit her back with a whistling sound, making her spine rumble.
Chicken feathers filled the living room. Kang Xingxing hugged Zhou Yue and protected her in his arms, but she pushed him away. He hugged her again, and she pushed him away again. She just straightened her neck and looked at her mother, her spine straight and would not bend no matter how they hit her. Later, they used the broom to hit her, but it still did not bend.
Not a word was uttered by either child. All that could be heard in the living room was the crackling sound of a feather duster lashing across their flesh, as dense as raindrops.
Zhou Yue didn't eat that night. She was in so much pain that she couldn't eat and lay in bed, unable to get up.
Dai Yan had left early. Kang Xingxing sat by the bed and broke the steamed bun into pieces and fed her a little at a time. Under the desk lamp, her bright little fox eyes were swollen into a slit, one big and one small, and she couldn't even open them. Dai Yan was so angry that she didn't care how valuable her face was. She slapped her several times, and blood marks appeared on her cheeks like red earthworms.
She couldn't eat the steamed buns. It hurt as soon as she opened her mouth. The steamed bun crumbs were stuck under her tongue and she couldn't swallow them. Kang Xingxing took some water, drank a sip herself, and passed it to her mouth, softening the steamed bun crumbs bit by bit and then washing them down.
That day was a day during the summer vacation. The family compound was filled with the children's happy laughter every day, but no one knew about Kang Xingxing and Zhou Yue's injuries. They lay on the balcony window and looked at the open space in the family compound. Several girls were jumping rope and playing in a square.
"We can go downstairs and play when Yueyue gets better." Kang Xingxing herself wasn't well either. There were scars all over her face, and her smile looked like a cracked tomato.
"I don't want to play with them. They're childish. I'm an adult now." Zhou Yue retracted her gaze and sat back in the rocking chair.
The rattan rocking chair on the balcony was placed here by Zhou Tiancheng when he was seriously ill. He would sit on it every day to bask in the sun. When Zhou Yue went to see him, he would close his eyes and rock it, and the rattan chair would squeak when it rocked. "Dad, does he look like a tumbler?" He laughed, and Zhou Yue laughed too, "Yes!"
She now also rocked in a rattan chair like her father, holding a piece of cardboard in her arms. Kang Xingxing had drawn 88 piano keys on it for her. She placed it on her knees, her fingers dancing silently on the keys drawn with watercolor pens. Kang Xingxing still smiled as he turned the pages of the music score for her. Every time he turned it over, it was correct. It seemed as if notes were really flowing in the quiet air, playing piano music that only they could hear. The little singer, wrapped in her gorgeous red shawl, sat high on the windowsill every day, holding a microphone and singing to the beat.
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