Chapter 18
When Zhou Yue was almost home, she remembered what was in her schoolbag. It was Friday, and the bag was particularly heavy. She glared at Kang Xingxing angrily, took off her schoolbag, unzipped it, pulled out a large stack of envelopes, slammed them on him, and yelled at him, "Here! Today's!"
They were love letters, one after another, all written by female classmates in the school. They arrived every day. Most of them were from Class 13 or Class 14, but there were also some from other classes. Zhou Yue didn't know many of them. On the way back to the classroom after the morning exercises, the corridor was packed with people. Everyone was chatting and slowly walking up the stairs with the crowd, like cattle and sheep entering a pen. At this time, there would always be a girl who squeezed out from the surging crowd, squeezed in front of her, shyly took her arm, and asked: "Are you Zhou Yue? Can you help me give this to your brother?"
"Sharp and deep eyes..." "A nose as tall as a mountain..." "Calm and gentle."
Every Friday was a day of relaxation. As soon as they got home, they would huddle together like spies to check accounts. The desk lamp was brightly lit, and the desk was piled with opened envelopes and densely written letters.
Every time Kang Xingxing checked the accounts, he would get scolded, but he was not angry at all. He would lie in his arms with half of his face exposed and peek at her. His dark, narrow eyes smiled into a moon-like bay, reflecting her face. He was reluctant to leave her big, angry eyes and her little mouth that kept babble-babbling.
"You're quite proud, aren't you?" Zhou Yue was so angry that her head was blazing with anger. She punched him on the shoulder, but he didn't dodge. He just lay there, shook his head, and laughed intoxicatedly, "Yueyue is so cute."
"Hmph!" Zhou Yue folded her arms, leaned back in her chair, and turned her head away from him. The tips of her ears blushed pink as she gritted her teeth and said, "Sweet talk!"
He stopped laughing and lay there quietly looking at the back of her head. After a while, he stretched out his arm and gently poked the end of her curly hair. "It's Yueyue's turn."
Zhou Yue froze when she heard that, and with her back to him, she shouted in a bluffing manner, "My what?"
"love letter."
…
He held up the stack of love letters and unfolded them like a fan. His eyebrows were raised high, and wrinkles appeared on his forehead. He read each letter and opened them one by one. Zhou Yue felt that he was as slow as a koala.
Naturally, the boys would not pass their love letters to Zhou Yue through Kang Xingxing. At the age when they were most concerned about their reputation, masculinity was more important than life, not to mention in front of their loved ones. So they usually opened the zipper of their school uniform, revealing a T-shirt with large stains of sweat and smelling like pickled cabbage. They would walk to her desk with a bold and unconcerned gait, and throw the love letter on her test paper with a casual flick. The edge of the manila envelope was curled up, like a rotten vegetable leaf, as if they were not men if they showed any sincerity.
The more subtle ones would slip the gift into her desk pocket when she went to the teacher's office or the restroom. These gentle types were generally more sincere and would carefully prepare a small gift with an exquisite envelope, praising her with all kinds of romantic words. She would bite her fingers and read it smugly several times before putting it away and taking it home to Kang Xingxing, reading it aloud to him:
"Sapphire-like eyes and cherry-red lips, they made my entire youth romantic..."
But she is very annoying when she is bold and unrestrained:
"You are my rose, you are my flower, you are my lover and my concern..." It would be fine if he just copied the lyrics, but the handwriting is also ugly, as if there are fly legs stuck on the letter paper, and also rice grains and beef tendon chili oil.
After they finished checking the bills, both of them were thirsty and exhausted. Looking at the mountain of love on the table, you stole a glance at me, I stole a glance at you, and finally smiled at each other, "I still win!" Zhou Yue raised her chin and glanced at him arrogantly, because her love letters piled the highest and she had the most gifts. In her words, "Who doesn't say nice things? Give me something practical!"
They sat at the desk and shared the chocolate she had received, their mouths black with it. "Delicious!" She nodded, and he nodded, echoing, "Delicious."
The two of them ate in silence. Kang Xingxing looked at the chocolate with the hazelnut kernels exposed in her hand and said abruptly, "They only like Yueyue because she's pretty."
"Tsk! As if you're not." Zhou Yue sneered, his cheeks puffed up like a hamster. He said nothing after listening, and ate for a while. Looking at the silhouettes of the two people on the blank wall, he asked with a smile: "So Yueyue likes me because I'm pretty?"
"Hahahaha!" Zhou Yue laughed crazily with his big black mouth. "You? You just came to my house like a coal ball turned into a spirit! How shameless of you, you chimpanzee!"
"But I'm different," she said happily, "I've always been beautiful! That's why I don't dislike you! I treat you better, I love you more!" He laughed when she said that. She scolded him for having a laughing disease, laughing even when he wasn't talking. He looked down at Dark Chocolate and asked, "What if one day I become ugly again, will Yueyue still like me?"
"Of course!" Her eyes were big and bright. She leaned close to him, so close that he could see her reflection in his eyes. "As long as you stand there, under the scorching sun, with the yellow sand all over the sky, just a dark shadow, I will love you."
"What about you?" She glared at him sideways. "If I weren't so pretty, but fat, ugly, and covered in acne, you wouldn't love me, right?"
He thought about it, as rigorously and seriously as if solving a math problem, and said, "There is no such option for this question, just like a shadow will not disappear just because its owner is ugly or old."
"Then what is the correct answer to this question?" She smiled and moved closer, her nose touching his, her eyelashes touching his fluffy, flickering eyelashes. His deep brown pupils reflected countless of her delicate smiling faces.
He giggled as if he was being tickled and shook his head, saying "Hmm..."
He hummed for a long time without saying a word.
But even on Friday night they still had to study the questions again before going to bed. Kang Xingxing wore a white vest and leaned against the head of the bed holding a math textbook. Zhou Yue lay in his arms. A pile of test papers and notebooks were spread on the quilt. The notebooks were all marked with flags of all nations with colorful highlighters, but that couldn't change the fact that there were a bunch of red crosses on the test papers.
When she heard his explanation with the same rhythm and tone, it was like listening to a lullaby. Her eyelids were drooping. She smiled and teased him with her eyes closed, "Say a few words in Cantonese."
When Kang Xingxing first came to our home, she could speak Mandarin, but it was a little strange. After picking up Zhou Yue from kindergarten, she would always pat her arm, point to the water dispenser, and say to her, "Yueyue, drink some water first."
It was still hot at that time, and when Zhou Tiancheng and Dai Yan were not at home, he only spoke to Zhou Yue occasionally. He moved a small stool and sat next to the sofa, and suddenly he said "eat snow sticks" in Cantonese.
Zhou Yue was lying on the sofa watching TV at the time. She was completely confused by what he said and absentmindedly scolded him: "Poplar bars? Where is the snow in the summer? If you want to eat them in the winter, go dig them out in the snow and roll them yourself!"
He straightened up and leaned on the armrest of the sofa, looking at her, blinking slowly, and said hoarsely, "Eat some ice."
This time Zhou Yue finally understood and complained, "It's so annoying!" She jumped off the sofa and rushed to the kitchen, slamming open the door of the refrigerator freezer.
She was also very strong, just like Dai Yan. She waved the spoon like a snow shovel, scooped up a small bowl of ice cubes, and handed it to him in the living room. "Here! Eat it sparingly! My popsicle will melt without ice cubes!"
He tilted his little head to look at her, took the bowl from her hand, and she jumped onto the sofa to watch TV again. He then silently finished a bowl of ice cubes by himself.
Later, she realized that he meant eating popsicles. Zhou Yue felt very remorseful. To make up for it, she stuffed two old popsicles into his mouth at noon. She fed him and he ate them like a goldfish. That night, he rolled around in pain on the bed, but he never said a word about the pain.
Later, after staying at Zhou's house for a long time, I rarely heard him speak Cantonese anymore, but Zhou Yue actually thought his Cantonese was very nice and sometimes urged him to speak it.
He stroked her forehead from behind, smiled, thought for a moment, and said:
"There are many people who like you, and they don't need me, but there are few people who like you, and they only need you."
"Hahahaha what?" Zhou Yue laughed so hard that her face trembled. "I didn't understand a single word!" She looked up at him, "What do you mean?"
"It means Yueyue is very cute."
"Lovely, do you have to say so many words?" She turned around and lay in his arms, looking at his face suspiciously, "Cantonese people are so long-winded when they talk? Or did you secretly scold me?"
"I didn't." He smiled innocently, his head shaking and leaving an afterimage. Zhou Yue tilted her head and looked at him for a long time, half believing and half doubting, muttering, "Okay... okay, I'll let you go today, but it's better not to let me know you scolded me!" Then she smiled coquettishly, resting her chin on his collarbone, and asked delicately, "How do you say 'I love you' in Cantonese?"
Kang Xingxing was intoxicated by her Persian cat-like coquettishness, smiling from ear to ear, but that was just the way he was. You have your thousand plans, I have my old ideas. After enjoying her coquettishness, he still hummed and whined, "This is pronounced the same as Mandarin."
"Hmph, you just don't love me!" Zhou Yue pushed him away, rolled over and fell on the bed, facing the wall, the shadow of her long eyelashes flickering like a flying butterfly.
After a while, another shadow emerged, swaying back and forth, and landed on her shoulder.
"what?"
"Yueyue, don't be angry, Tang..."
"Would you like some candied haws? I'll go buy some for you!" Zhou Yue shouted impatiently, "Can you come up with something new?"
He rested his chin on her shoulder, pressed against her back, and whispered, "Then I'll find another way to calm Yueyue down." His moist breath brushed behind her ear, tickling her so much that she couldn't help laughing. She waved her hand to shoo him away like a fly, and pushed him with her shoulder, "Go away!" But she still reluctantly asked him to press under her body. He kissed her soft lips with rapid breathing, and hurriedly lifted her nightgown, tearing and pulling it, like an eager pervert... The lights were dim, and the creaking sound of the wire bed was as rapid as raindrops, and it took a while to calm down. She looked like a crimson carp from head to toe, her hair soaked and stuck to her face, and the fine beads of sweat on her back turned into shining fish scales.
"What is this?" she asked loudly, gasping for breath, looking at the bed sheet in horror.
Kang Xingxing kissed her neck and smiled shyly, "It's proof that I made Yueyue comfortable."
So there would always be the sound of splashing water in the Zhou family's house in the middle of the night. That was the sound of Kang Xingxing and Zhou Yue busy washing the sheets in the bathroom. They washed them in the bathtub, took them to the balcony, and each of them hung one end on the clothesline, stretched them out, and flattened them. Fortunately, it was dry in the north, so they dried overnight.
Zhou Yue felt embarrassed, but then she thought about it and realized it wasn't shameful. This was a secret that belonged only to the two of them, and it was proof of their love for each other.
The sheets were wet and then dry, and were filled with the fragrance of laundry detergent, but there was never the legendary red.
She asked him why he didn't want it, what did it matter if it was early or late?
Because her dull life seemed to have no end in sight at that time, she had planned it long ago. After they graduated from college and became independent, they would rent a small house, go home together after get off work, buy some cheap vegetables at the market, and save the remaining money. Without children, they would have many expenses when they were old. As for clothes, shoes, and bags... She was so beautiful that she could be a model even if she wore a sackcloth. She didn't need beautiful skirts and high heels.
Since her brother won't marry her and her sister won't marry him, no one can say anything about them living together, and she doesn't care what others say.
He said nothing, his face burning like a branding iron, buried in her flat belly, panting and sweating, grinning foolishly, "I want to wait for Yueyue to grow up."
"Tsk! Coward!" Zhou Yue admired the two people's overlapping figures on the wall, and remembered that they had been together for nearly ten years, but they didn't even have a photo together.
They picked out a ceramic photo frame from the few gifts Kang Xingxing received. It was too fancy, with red roses carved on all four sides and large green leaves dotted around the four corners. It was also very heavy, but based on the principle of making the best use of things, they decided to use this photo frame.
They walked to a photo booth far from the school. It was noontime and no one was around. The owner, smiling, handed them a thick booklet and exclaimed, "Pretty girl, handsome boy, tell me which one you like! I'll put it on the wall after I take it. Here, right in the middle!"
She pointed with her hand painted with bright red nail polish, and saw a wall full of photo stickers of young couples.
That thick book contains backgrounds for photo booths, some in dark Gothic style, some in Diamond Princess style, each one looks great. Zhou Yue spent a long time choosing, and finally picked a background that couldn't be plainer, with only a crescent moon and tiny stars in the upper right corner.
There were no exaggerated non-mainstream hairstyles. Kang Xingxing had a buzz cut, and Zhou Yue had a Liu Hulan style haircut that was short to the chin. Because they went there after school at noon, both of them were still wearing white school uniform T-shirts, and they didn't know how to find the angle, so they just awkwardly put their heads together.
"Should I press it?" Kang Xingxing asked stupidly, looking at the camera.
"Go ahead!" Zhou Yue smiled and smoothed her hair one last time to smooth the curled ends. At the moment the shutter was pressed, she suddenly turned around and kissed him. With a click, their only photo together was taken.
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