Chapter 16
On August 28, 2003, school was about to start, and Zhou Yue's injuries had almost healed. It was still her birthday, but there was no longer a bed full of toys, a beautiful princess dress, or a giant cream cake. In her mother's words, "She asked for it."
She admitted that she had too few choices in her life, and "not doing" something was the biggest choice she made for herself. So she never celebrated her birthday again in her life and rarely ate cake.
But she took a lot of medicine. One night, after she had taken so many medicines that she couldn't even remember how many, Jiang Huai asked her about her birthday. She said she didn't know. The date on her ID card was a random number her parents gave her so that she could go to school in the morning. In the 1990s, their small place was full of rampant gangs and chaos, and no one cared about the exact date a premature baby was born.
Jiang Huai just nodded and said he understood. He would not dwell on the birthday of a lover who could not even make it to the list.
He was from Zhejiang, born and raised in Hong Kong. He looked down on the gruff northerners and the dirty, cinder-covered snow of the north in winter. As she knelt to fasten his belt, she talked about the gangsters in her hometown with huge arm tattoos and gold chains, and the gangsters who would cut their carotid arteries and cause blood to spurt out. He smiled helplessly and said nothing. As he left, he said the medicine was harmful to her health. He asked her if she really couldn't get pregnant in this life, would she blame him? She said no, and her lines were the same: "You saved me from falling into prostitution, and saved my mother's life. You are my lifelong benefactor."
He just smiled after hearing that, turned around and went downstairs. The person who was waiting for him was waiting for him at the dark corner of the corridor. A scarred face could be seen between the flickering cigarette butts. The man raised his wrist to check his watch and went downstairs before Jiang Huai.
Zhou Yue often thought that if Jiang Huai didn't go out on time, she would be cut into pieces by the knife. However, she was quite calm when she thought so. She closed the door, took a shower, and tidied up the dirty sheets. Jiang Huai's other side had nothing to do with her.
She and Jiang Huai had always spoken very little, and in the end she never told him that when her father was alive, he was a small shareholder of Jiang Group (which had been renamed Huainan Group), and her father's death anniversary was her birthday.
But on the sunny night of August 28, 2003, thirteen-year-old Yueyue had no idea what was going to happen. She stared at the TV intently, praising Brother Jiang for not only his good looks but also his beautiful heart.
"Look, ape, there are so many zeros. How much is this?"
She lay on the sofa. The purple medicine Kang Xingxing had applied to her was not dry yet. Her clothes were hung up to dry. The wound on her right eye was scabbed, and her two eyes looked one bigger than the other. But this did not stop her from watching TV. She pointed at the TV, chewed some instant noodles, and asked with a sob.
"What's seven zeros? Yueyue forgot again?" Kang Xingxing sat next to her, holding the raccoon bag high and pouring the last bit of seasoning into his mouth. This bag of seasoning was his dinner. The seasoning was salty, so he had to drink water. Once he was full, he would feel better.
"One... one..." She hesitated for a long time, her little head was dizzy but she still couldn't figure out how much money it was.
Kang Xingxing sighed helplessly, "Ten million."
"Ten million!" Zhou Yue was so excited that her face was covered with scum. "Ten million can buy a lot of pianos, right?" Piano is her unique unit of measurement, used to measure the price of everything.
"Yeah, enough to buy countless pianos." Kang Xingxing nodded, put the new cardboard on the coffee table, and used a black watercolor pen to draw black piano keys.
"Oh..." Zhou Yue received Kang Xingxing's affirmation and stared at the person on TV more intently. "Brother Jiang is handsome, kind, and so amazing." She supported her messy little head with one hand to read the subtitles. "The name is nice too, Jiang Huai."
Next to the words "Jianghuai" were a series of small characters: "Chairman of Huainan Group." The man in the camera wore a black suit and was less than thirty years old. His red tie shone with the same pearly luster as his face. Even his grief-stricken expression and tears were respectable. He bowed slightly to the cameras held before him and choked back tears as he said, "On April 1st of this year, my wife died of SARS. In this war without gunpowder, I shared the tragic sacrifice with everyone else. I hope to do my best to contribute to the fight against SARS and to our country..."
"He was very good to his wife...but it's so pitiful that the eldest sister died at such a young age."
There was nothing bad about Brother Jiang in front of Zhou Yue. Kang Xingxing stopped writing and turned to look at Zhou Yue. The summer night was too hot. In order to keep cool, the lights in the living room were not on. Only the TV was on in the darkness. In the dim light, her soft little eyebrows were wrinkled, and she sighed for this sad love story like in an idol drama.
Kang Xingxing looked at her for a long time, blinking his long eyelashes slowly. He then lowered his head to paint the piano keys again, saying as he painted, "But I won't let Yueyue get sick. I will protect Yueyue well at home. If you need to go out, I will go out first. If you need to get sick, I will be the first one to get sick."
His voice had been hoarse since he was very young, and now at the age of fourteen, it had become very rough. Everything he said was serious, as if the god of death was knocking at the door outside.
But Zhou Yue didn't listen at all. After the evening news ended, the TV screen turned to "Sailor Moon". When the theme song "Legend of Moonlight" sounded, she immediately became radiant, immersed in the fantasy that she was Shuibin Yue, and smiled from ear to ear.
But Kang Xingxing hadn't recovered yet. He tilted his head and drew piano keys, whispering as he did so, "I'll make a lot of money and buy Yueyue a piano."
"I don't want you to make a lot of money," Zhou Yue said, completely forgetting the pain in her girlish dream. She picked up the juice on the coffee table and took a sip. She said proudly, "Look how hard Dad works to make money. He's even sick. I want you to stay with me all the time."
The Jiang family's blessing of 10 million did not benefit these two poor children, and the virus seemed to have forgotten them. Zhou Yue always felt fortunate. If there was another virus to make things worse during these stormy days, she really didn't know what the situation would be like.
She rarely felt grateful for fate, but this was one of those times. The population in the small city was too sparse, and she really couldn't remember anyone around her dying from the disease.
She just remembers being hungry. In China in 2003, in the state-owned enterprise compound where the average person was rich, she was starving.
Of course, Dai Yan would not really starve her own daughter to death, but like many people of that era who became parents after a night of pleasure, she had only one way to educate her children: set rules, lock the door, and let them go hungry for a few meals, so that they would naturally know who had the final say in the family, just like kittens and puppies.
At night, there are endless cicadas chirping outside the window, and endless intestine rumbling in the bedroom, one after another.
"Orangutan, are you hungry?" Zhou Yue asked knowingly while lying on the pillow. She felt guilty because she had eaten all the Little Raccoon instant noodles by herself.
The stars were very bright that night. She could see Kang Xingxing's eyelashes flickering slowly in the darkness. "I'm not hungry, I just drank too much water." He turned around in the darkness, his eyelashes disappeared, and his breath came closer, with the minty scent of toothpaste and the smell of burnt medicine. He kissed her on the lips, "Yueyue, are you hungry?" He wrapped her in his arms and stroked her stomach. She was thin to begin with, and now the area under her ribs was as flat as her pelvic floor.
"I'm not hungry either." She smiled and paused for a moment in the darkness before asking tentatively, "Orangutan, when we can get out, let's go find Grandpa."
"But grandpa is sick." Kang Xingxing said truthfully. Ever since Zhou Tiancheng died, Zhou Yi has been completely paralyzed in bed. When he's feeling better, he can sit up and eat with his back to the pillow. His eyes are bright and his speech is clear. He can answer when you talk to him. When he's feeling worse, he'll lie in bed with his eyes half-open, mumbling something. Sometimes he'll say he wants to sweep under the bed so Yueyue can hide there when she plays hide-and-seek. Sometimes he'll say he wants to buy the child's mother a red hairband and Shanghai Vanishing Cream after he wins the battle. Then he'll yell and ask his son why he's still smoking on the balcony. He'll tell him to stop smoking, or his lungs will be damaged.
He talked about everything from one thing to another, and no one knew what year he was talking about. Even the old nanny who had taken care of him for many years couldn't understand him.
Zhou Yue was silent in the darkness. After a long while, she finally spoke: "I'm sorry, Xingxing. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have argued with Mom."
"Don't blame Yueyue, Yueyue did nothing wrong."
This is the sentence Kang Xingxing said to Zhou Yue the most, both when they were children and when they grew up. He has never blamed her once.
"I'm fourteen years old. In four years, I can earn money to support Yueyue." Kang Xingxing held her in his arms, paused, thought of something, and said, "Maybe I can do it now. Lin Peng's barbecue stall is short of a waiter, I can go there. The barbecue stall is busy at night, and I can serve food and help them with the cashier."
"No!" Zhou Yue was unhappy when she heard this and shouted, "What about your studies? You won't do your homework at night? Besides, we're going to college when we're 18. You have such good grades, you'll definitely be able to go to a good university. Only by going to a good university can you get a good job. Don't worry about money now!"
"After graduating from college, you still have to earn money to support the family. Besides, the barbecue stall doesn't open until 8 o'clock, and Lin Peng has to finish his homework before helping his mother. I finish my homework much faster than him, so I'll still have time to go after I finish it."
He knew that he had made her unhappy, so he quickly hugged her tightly and begged her for mercy, fearing that she would jump out of his arms and he would have to coax her for a long time before she would pay attention to him.
"I just feel that Aunt Dai Yan..." He held her in his arms, hesitating in the darkness, pondering his words. He couldn't resist this ominous premonition, he was too smart.
"I must take good care of Yueyue, even if I have to do it alone." He said this at last.
Zhou Yue was silent. Seeing her silence, Kang Xingxing took it as her agreement. He covered her eyes with his palms and whispered, "Go to sleep." After a while, he felt goose feathers falling on his mouth, fluffy and warm. The goose feathers floated to the tip of his nose with his breathing, and then floated to his Adam's apple. He smiled and said, "Itchy." But she still didn't speak. The goose feathers continued to float, floating to his collarbone, chest, and belly button. He was startled, held her hand and whispered, "Yueyue?" But his abdomen felt like it was on fire, and his ears were filled with the throbbing of his heartbeat.
"You want me, right now." Her long, silky hair fell on his abdomen, and every strand of hair burned his skin like a tongue of fire. "No, not now." He felt like his blood vessels were about to burst. He clasped her shoulders, not knowing whether to refuse or to please her, but his hands slid up her slender swan neck and rubbed into her hair.
"Then I want you." She murmured, her lips slightly parted, her soft and moist breath brushing against his navel, her pointed teeth sliding across it, stirring up tremors...
That night, he felt the pitch-black ceiling transform into a starry night sky, fireworks bursting one after another, moonlight shimmering everywhere. She was a moon fairy, usually with her wings folded, but with them spread wide, she transformed into a plump, charming fairy. His hand caressed her body, undulating like rolling hills, rubbing into the roots of her hair, gathering it, feeling the rhythmic brush of her hair against the back of his hand. She absorbed his soul, and it was just like in the cartoons, white, floating in the air, lingering at the corner of her mouth...
The next day, Dai Yan came back with the windows open. One of the two children was watching TV in the living room, and the other was doing homework in the bedroom. It was rare that they were not together, each doing their own thing. She was quite satisfied. She went to the kitchen trash can and saw the bag of Little Raccoon instant noodles and the empty juice bottle still in it. Were they fighting over a bite of food?
She jingled her keys and walked slowly to the living room. She stood in front of the TV to look at her daughter. She had lost weight, her eye sockets were sunken, and she was wearing a loose white nightgown. When she saw her coming, she turned off the TV and looked up at her.
There was a rustling sound in my ears, and the person in the bedroom came out silently and stood at the door.
"Alright? Do you know you're wrong?" Dai Yan turned around and glanced at the person at the bedroom door. "Are you hungry?"
The two children were silent. Dai Yan scoffed and took out a hundred yuan from her jeans pocket and handed it to Kang Xingxing, "Go buy some food! Remember, be obedient next time."
After saying that, she looked at him again, wondering why there was blue under his eye sockets and he was dizzy, but the wound healed very quickly, much faster than the girl's. Is his health so poor?
She didn't think about that for a moment, but she saw him standing at the door without moving, with his head down, refusing to take the money. It was obvious that he was going to get angry again. She got angry all of a sudden, and just as she was about to explode, she heard her daughter, who had been silent on the sofa, speak:
"Gorilla, I want to eat candied haws."
The voice was very soft. He raised his head and looked at her blankly, like a sleepwalker who had just woken up.
"What? Did you hear that?" Dai Yan sat on the TV cabinet with her arms folded across her chest, looking at her daughter with satisfaction. She turned around and smiled mockingly at Kang Xingxing, "Your sister wants to eat candied haws. Go buy them some!"
Kang Xingxing never looked at Dai Yan from beginning to end, but only at Zhou Yue. He didn't know what look she gave him, but this stubborn guy lowered his head, took the money from Dai Yan, said "Thank you, Aunt Dai Yan," and left.
After Kang Xingxing left, Dai Yan grabbed Zhou Yue's arm and brought her to her front. As usual, she used her sharp red nails to poke and tap at the tip of her nose for a long time. After she was relieved, she breathed a sigh of relief and then scolded her again: "Stay away from your brother, you hear me? Just do what he wants, don't act so wild!"
Zhou Yue had been looking at her mother when she suddenly knelt at her feet, startling Dai Yan. She stared down at her kneeling on the ground in a daze, her little hands placed respectfully on her legs. Her kneecaps were so thin that they bulged out, and there were purple bruises on them. She looked up at her little face. After all, as a mother, her heart ached when she saw her daughter's face covered in blood scabs. The threatening words got stuck in her throat, and she heard her say, "Mom, I'm sorry. I know I was wrong. I will be obedient from now on." At this point, her long, curled eyelashes drooped, flickering again and again. Finally, she raised her eyes to look at her and said, "I will never play the piano again."
Dai Yan is a person who responds to soft words and does not like to be tough. Her heart softened immediately and she picked up her daughter from the ground, held her in her arms, kissed her, and stroked her little face.
Her mother hugged her again and kissed her. Her body still smelled so good, but Zhou Yue felt nothing. She looked at the wall and felt her heart was as blank as the wall.
Dai Yan happily gave the change from the hundred yuan bill to her daughter. Zhou Yue took the money, carefully spread it out, smoothed it out, rolled it up again, and placed it in her favorite tin box of chocolates, which Zhou Tiancheng had brought back from Germany. It had embossed nutcracker soldiers and snowflakes on it. After she finished the chocolates inside, she couldn't bear to throw the tin box away, so she placed the money reverently inside...
Zhou Yue's kneeling brought her and Kang Xingxing a long period of peace.
Kang Xingxing said she shouldn't kneel, but she also said she was not kneeling to heaven or earth or her parents, she was kneeling to him, and this was the most romantic love words she could say.
Her love was passionate and unabashed, but there was one thing she had never said, which was that for him, she was willing to do anything. It wasn't because she was shy, but because she couldn't let him get too proud and not be able to tell the difference between the big and small kings.
But it was probably from that time that Zhou Yue developed a bad habit. She would eat as much as she could when she could, and would not be able to eat for several meals. She loved to stock up on dry snacks such as biscuits and peach cakes at home. She also loved to calculate, calculate for herself and for him, and would hide any good things in her mouth like a hamster.
She later told others about this past event, and laughed at herself for being like someone born during the famine in 1960. Even after she followed Jiang Huai, she saved any money she had, and took the house and car he gave her. She spent all day and night at the Real Estate Exchange watching the rising Shenzhen housing prices, as excited as watching the stock market rise. She kept her bags, watches, and jewelry at home and took good care of them. She knew these things were valuable, but they had to be new and flawless to be valuable, right?
Jiang Huai didn't say anything when he saw her poor and unpresentable appearance. He was a man of few words and didn't like to comment on people or things. He was very tolerant of her. As for whether he was like this to people close to him, she didn't know.
But during those early days, Zhou Yue truly remembered his kindness. He was attracted to her skin, her body, and her voice. These things, like the things he gave her, became old and worthless after being used too much. She understood this principle, so how could he not understand it? So she was even more grateful. She had already made up for it.
There were times when she thought, Jiang Huai is so much older than her, and one day he'll be old and lying in bed talking nonsense like her grandfather, and she'll just be a little nanny to take care of him. Those women can't do the work as well as she can? She's not afraid of dirty or tiring work. On the one hand, she really wants to repay her gratitude, and on the other hand... She thought in a despicable way, for a rich man like him, wouldn't the nanny fee be another huge profit?
She thought happily that she had amassed so much wealth and could live a good life with Kang Xingxing, but where was Kang Xingxing? Truly, after so many years of hardship, when it was time to enjoy life, he disappeared. In 2010, China's population exceeded 1.3 billion, and she couldn't find him anywhere.
What happiness would she have without him?
There is no blessing, only suffering.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
