twenty four
Zhong Yan was still confused after finishing the college entrance examination.
Her life was planned out, seemingly well-organized, but in reality, it was like a castle in the air.
In the first few days after arriving on the island, she could spend nineteen hours a day cleaning the house.
Packing what needs to be packed, shipping what needs to be shipped, giving away what needs to be given away, selling what needs to be recycled—every day is like a spinning top.
As the amount of things to tidy up decreased, she began to fear waking up in the morning, opening her eyes, and not knowing what to do.
She used to waste her superfluous and useless time in silence and daydreaming.
If wasting time is a crime, then she would already be a death row inmate.
But now, before dawn, birds are chirping all over the house.
The little petrel may have spilled water, or it may have been hungry, or it may have been eager to go out and see the world.
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhong Yan opened her eyes and jumped out of bed to "serve" Xiao Haiyan.
After changing the liner, adding water, and putting in food, she went to change her clothes and wash up.
The person in the mirror had darker skin and longer bangs. She found a clip and tucked the excess hair to one side. Looking at herself, she felt somewhat unfamiliar.
Has she become any healthier?
Have you become a little more optimistic?
Zhong Yan no longer wanted to go to the hospital and have a doctor assess her condition. She would just look at herself in the mirror and silently give herself a score.
I guess I'd say that's passing?
After Xiao Haiyan finished eating, Zhong Yan had to clean up.
After she finished tidying up, she sat down to eat her breakfast.
After the rain stopped yesterday, Jifeng and she passed by a bakery. The store was having a promotion: buy three breads and get one free, and drinks were 20% off.
Her breakfast today consisted of two pineapple buns, a bottle of soy milk, and a handful of fresh lychees.
The lychees were bought by Jifeng. The shells were prickly, but the flesh was translucent and white. The sweet juice slid down my throat as if I had drunk a big bowl of honey water.
Zhong Yan peeled one for Xiao Haiyan, but Xiao Haiyan didn't think it was food. Instead, she treated it like a toy, kicking and nudging the lychee around.
After Zhong Yan had grown tired of playing with the lychee, she took it out of the house.
Let the little seagull go out and get in touch with nature more often, let it see birds flying in the sky or ducks swimming in the water, thereby stimulating its natural instincts. This is the only rehabilitation training that Zhong Yan can do for it at present.
Not long after, Jifeng also appeared on the jogging track.
They walked together along the jogging track, then turned into alleys at random intersections to look at the old houses on the island, admiring the old vines on the stone walls and the bougainvillea in front of the doors.
As she passed an old house laden with lychees, she happened to see the old woman who had sold lychees the day before, and her pace slowed down.
"What are you doing?" Ji Feng asked her.
"What is the mother-in-law trying to do?"
"You're using a ladder to pick lychees? You've never picked lychees before?"
Zhong Yan had certainly seen lychee picking before; when she was little, her father had taken her to an orchard to pick lychees.
"But Grandma is so old, isn't she afraid of falling?"
Her grandmother passed away after falling down.
Due to their physical limitations, older adults are more susceptible to falls; even a seemingly minor fall can trigger many serious complications.
Why don't you go and ask them?
Zhong Yan hugged the little seagull tightly, shaking her head repeatedly.
With his hands in his pockets, Ji Feng stepped forward and said, "Let's go."
Zhong Yan instinctively lifted the little petrel forward, and the little petrel lived up to its mission by grabbing Ji Feng's clothes.
The monsoon paused, looking back.
Both the person and the bird are innocent.
"Alright." Ji Feng was amused by her attempt to keep him here by using the bird as a bargaining chip. "You play the good guy, and I'll do the hard work, right?"
Zhong Yan stammered, "...No."
In the end, the two people and the bird still stood in front of the old woman.
"Grandma, are you picking lychees?"
The old woman spoke in the local dialect, and Zhong Yan guessed what she meant: it was going to rain heavily, and if the fruit wasn't picked soon, it would spoil.
Jifeng translated: "Grandma said, while the lychees are still fresh, pick them and sell them for money."
Seeing the old woman dressed simply, and her equally thin and bony hands, Zhong Yan was reminded of her own kind grandmother.
My maternal grandmother was a farmer and a widow.
She raised her five children single-handedly by working hard in the fields.
She didn't give up on the girls; as long as they were willing to study, she would save money and support them to go to school.
Zhong Yan's mother was the most promising among them. She wanted to leave the mountains and change her impoverished fate. She succeeded, which spurred her on as a girl herself.
It was as if if they relaxed even slightly, they would both fall back into the abyss.
Zhong Yan will never forget her grandmother's warm hand covering her head as she asked, "Qingyan, are you tired? If you are, take a rest."
Grandma never demanded great achievements from her; she simply cared for her, loved her, and wanted her to be happy.
She didn't know what the benefits of reading were.
I've just heard people say that reading is good, reading is good, reading makes people better.
She wanted her daughter and granddaughter to have a better life.
Zhong Yan shoved the straw hat into Ji Feng's arms and took the initiative to walk up to the old woman and start a conversation.
One of them couldn't speak Mandarin clearly, and the other couldn't understand the local language. After a long conversation, Ji Feng shook her head and stepped forward.
Zhong Yan finally earned the chance to climb the tree and pick lychees.
Ji Feng held onto the stairs with one hand, turning his head to comfort his grandmother, whose face was full of worry.
Grandma was worried that she would be responsible if Zhong Yan fell, so she kept saying that lychees weren't worth much and she couldn't afford the medical expenses.
Ji Feng said, "She's a student and has medical insurance."
Grandma was still frowning, but seeing that Zhong Yan was not reckless and that she was much more agile than her due to her youth, she gradually felt relieved.
The cicadas began to chirp loudly.
Cicadas—cicadas—
The monsoon raises its head.
The light above was excellent, making the girl's face appear even whiter and clearer, like a freshly peeled lychee, radiating a lustrous sheen.
When Zhong Yan was in her first year of high school, she found a kitten at the school gate. He had seen it too, but he was too far away to act as quickly as she did.
She was even shorter and thinner back then than she is now.
The junior high school student has just entered high school and still has a childish look on his face.
His friend nudged his elbow with a basketball and said, "Look, look! That's the unlucky girl sitting at your desk, Zhong Yan. She ranked tenth in the city in the high school entrance exam, she's a top student!"
He defended himself with a statement.
"Tch! What masterpiece? Yours is just scribbles! Look how good-looking she is, she could probably be chosen as a class beauty without any problem."
He chuckled dismissively, "Bean sprouts."
Zhong Yan, a first-year high school student, had no color in her face, almost transparently white. She was thin with skin and arms and legs, just like the little kitten she wrapped in clothes, looking sickly.
He wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Later, he also heard about a girl named Zhong in the first year of high school who was "troublesome," "pretentious," and "sickly."
Later, the department head approached him and criticized him for scribbling on the table.
They didn't have much interaction after that. When they met on campus, she would always pass by in a hurry, not caring about the people or things around her, like a soul wandering in the world.
Ji Feng's high school life was rich and colorful.
Of course, they wouldn't pay much attention to Zhong Yan, who seemed out of place in the lively atmosphere.
It's strange, though. Perhaps it's because Zhong Yan is too unconventional, but now that I think about it, I seem to have seen her many times in such a large campus as Shizhong High School.
At this moment, it was like a slideshow playing rapidly in his mind.
Some were reciting English on the banyan tree benches, some were reading ancient poems on their way to the canteen, and some were engrossed in calculations in the library.
She was all alone, lifeless, and seemed like a tool for studying.
Now, the monkey-like creature scooping lychees from the tree looks much more vibrant.
At first, Zhong Yan skillfully cut off several branches of lychees laden with bright red fruit, but then she broke out in a sweat and found herself in a dilemma.
The lychee fruit on the tree was scattered in clusters here and there, and there were many places she couldn't reach.
"Monsoon..."
She lowered her head and called out.
Monsoon was playing with the little petrel by the ladder, bouncing it around so much that it had to spread its wings to try to keep its balance, which made it squawk angrily.
Suddenly caught in his mischievous act by the girl picking lychees above, Ji Feng subconsciously touched the tip of his nose, looked up and asked, "Huh?"
Zhong Yan paused for a moment, then pointed ahead: "Those, we can't pick them."
"so?"
He adopted the same "What does this have to do with me?" tone he used when they first met. Fortunately, Zhong Yan now understood him and wasn't easily discouraged.
"You're a master."
The old woman probably understood what they were talking about. She waved her hand and said in the local dialect, "Let them rot on the trees. We won't pick them anymore."
Jifeng replied, "Grandma, I also have student medical insurance."
Zhong Yan held the little seagull in her arms and tilted her head back at the same time.
Ji Feng, like a long-armed, long-legged ape, quickly climbed to the top. He used his long shears as hooks to scoop up the fruits that Zhong Yan couldn't reach.
"Wow!--"
When the monsoon brought down the second bunch of lychees, a cheer suddenly erupted from behind.
The two turned around at the same time and saw several backpackers on the roadside.
They looked like students, because their eyes were filled with clear and pure admiration.
A bold boy stepped forward and asked, "Can I have a turn?"
Ji Feng was surprised that people were now scrambling to do manual labor, so he raised an eyebrow and said, "Okay, five yuan per person."
Zhong Yan hesitated, while the old woman beside her didn't quite understand Mandarin.
The boy deftly pulled out his phone, and Ji Feng quickly showed his payment code.
A man and a woman were also eagerly signing up nearby.
Ji Feng helped move the ladder, accepted the 15 yuan without any qualms, and then watched as they went up one by one, cheering and jumping for joy, to do farm work.
Zhong Yan hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping herself. She felt it was wrong for Ji Feng to cheat people like this, but at this moment, she didn't want him to be scolded by others because of the difference in their relationship.
The students were full of energy in the tree, calling out to their friends to take pictures of them while happily picking the bountiful harvest, attracting the attention of passersby.
The lychee picking event organized by the Monsoon Farm is becoming increasingly popular, with lychees being sold as soon as they are picked.
The mother-in-law was overjoyed and said she wanted them to stay for dinner.
Not wanting to bother the elderly woman, the two declined and made an excuse to go to a nearby convenience store to buy some drinks to cool off, leaving the baby seagull in her grandmother's courtyard.
After choosing their drinks, Ji Feng then displayed his gentlemanly manners and insisted on paying the bill.
"You paid for the bread and soy milk yesterday."
That's because it was a buy-three-get-one-free deal, and she couldn't finish four of them.
Zhong Yan stood at the door, gazing at the dark clouds rolling in on the horizon while looking at Ji Feng, who was paying the bill.
After paying for the two drinks, Ji Feng spoke a few words to the shop owner, who then opened the cash register, took out a wad of cash, and handed it to Ji Feng.
Zhong Yan remained surprised until Ji Feng approached, raised an eyebrow, and asked her, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Why does the boss give you money?
"I robbed them, pretty impressive, huh?"
Zhong Yan stared in disbelief, "Huh?"
Ji Feng tapped her forehead with water and laughed, "You believe that? How old are you?"
Zhong Yan was suddenly touched by an iced drink, and the moisture on her skin made her shiver.
She put her fingers to her forehead, looking like a robot that had been paused, completely dazed.
Ji Feng's phone screen swayed in front of her eyes.
"I was just exchanging cash with him."
The screen displays: Pay 45.00 with change.
The passersby who were picking lychees should have given him thirty-five yuan...
Did they include the two of them as well?
Ji Feng put his phone back in his pocket and explained, "Grandma's payment QR code doesn't belong to her; it should belong to her son or grandson."
Zhong Yan suddenly realized: "No wonder she asked yesterday if she could pay in cash..."
With the development of digital currencies, almost everyone can go out with just a mobile phone and travel freely, and very few people carry cash.
Jifeng probably thought of this when he paid for the lychees yesterday, which is why he made this fuss today.
Zhong Yan couldn't help but glance at Ji Feng again.
Although he seems carefree and unconventional, he is actually very thoughtful.
The two returned to the mother-in-law's small courtyard.
At first, the mother-in-law refused the forty-five yuan, but she reluctantly accepted it when Ji Feng said he wanted to take some lychees with him.
The remaining lychees, which weren't of good quality, were originally intended to be sold cheaply at the crossroads by the old woman, but Ji Feng said he wanted them, so she took out a large bag that used to hold rice and started filling it with them.
Ji Feng quickly grabbed a handful of lychees from the pile she hadn't picked up, and called Zhong Yan to run.
Zhong Yan hadn't run this fast in a long time. Her heart was pounding, as if an old machine was being restarted. Blood was rapidly pumped to her limbs, making them run faster.
The wind blew her hair away from her eyes, and she felt as if she were escaping towards freedom.
The young people were faster, and they quickly ran out of the old woman's territory.
In my haste, I forgot something important.
When they remembered and turned back to look for it, they saw the little seagull squawking loudly, its wings spread out at its sides, chasing after them with a fierce gait that showed no regard for its own family.
Zhong Yan carefully put the little seagull she had lost back into her hand, then sighed in frustration, "My straw hat."
That wasn't just her straw hat, it was also the nest of the little petrel.
Ji Feng was unwilling to take off his hat for Xiao Haiyan, so he could only go back to his grandmother to get a straw hat.
He returned about ten minutes later, carrying a red plastic bag full of lychees.
She was clearly at a disadvantage in her "dispute" with her grandmother.
Zhong Yan couldn't help but laugh.
Ji Feng handed her the plastic bag. "Grandma said you look like her granddaughter. A pretty little girl should smile more."
Zhong Yan suppressed her smile and said, "I'm just not naturally inclined to smile."
Then he said of the monsoon: "You don't laugh either."
With his hands in his pockets, Ji Feng coolly said, "I'm not a little girl."
Unable to argue with Ji Feng, Zhong Yan turned her attention to the little seagull.
"It can flap its wings now, so why won't it fly?"
"Fear of heights?"
Zhong Yan said, "How could a bird be afraid of heights?"
Ji Feng replied, "Even a living person can want to die."
Zhong Yan was speechless.
One of Ji Feng's talents might be to kill the conversation; he is best at stabbing people in the back where they are weak.
"What if it's really disabled and can never fly?" Ji Feng suddenly asked.
Zhong Yan didn't think much of it: "Then we can only accept it."
The monsoon said, "Oh."
He looked into the distance, lost in thought.
His brow was furrowed, and he put on a sour face.
/
Thursday, August 7, 2025
The lychees were sweet, but the monsoon seemed a little unhappy.
I wanted to ask him what was on his mind, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to comfort him.
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