Chapter 1 Electric Motor Wait for me to bring you coolness!
Electric Fan
Author: Sword under the waist
First published on
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Jiang Haoxiang's back was stuck to her pajamas.
There was a layer of sweat between her skin and her pajamas. She could hear a tearing sound when she moved slightly. She turned over, leaving a human-shaped sweat mark on the sheets.
I felt the sweat seeping out of every pore, gathering into small streams and flowing down my neck and back. It was itchy, and I remembered the time when Brother Zheng Yi took me to the park to catch ants. Now Jiang Hao felt like countless ants were marching on his body.
Cicadas chirped outside the window, and moonlight peeked in through the gaps in the curtains, shining reluctantly on a pile of miscellaneous items. Those were the things she had just packed up tonight, moving them from the original south-facing bedroom to this small west-facing room in less than an hour.
Stepmother Aunt Wang's mother came to take care of Aunt Wang, who was pregnant. So Jiang Haoxiang's room became her step-grandmother's, and she was crammed into this west-facing room. This room had no air conditioning.
"I miss you so much. Can you move to the west room for a few months? Grandma is coming to take care of mom. I'm sorry to trouble you." Dad didn't look at her when he said this. His eyes were on Aunt Wang, but in fact he was not looking at Aunt Wang. He was looking at the invisible person in her belly. Dad's eyes were like X-rays.
Aunt Wang sat on the sofa and said, "My mother is just here to stay for a while and will go back after I give birth. Why should she feel wronged? Am I not wronged that I am pregnant? It makes you feel like no one would want to stay in your house."
Jiang Cheng apologized to her with a smile.
Jiang Haoxiang remained silent. She was six years old, but she already knew that speaking was pointless at this moment. The last time she'd brought this up, she'd said she didn't want to move rooms, and her father had frowned. Aunt Wang had started crying, saying that since she was pregnant and her own mother couldn't come to take care of her, she might as well go back to her parents' home. Then her father would look at her with that "How can you be so ignorant?" look, which was even more painful than scolding her directly.
So this time she said nothing, but just silently moved her things out of her room one by one, and then moved them into this strange room one by one.
Now she regrets it.
She stared at the ceiling with her eyes wide open, but couldn't see anything. She couldn't sleep. It was impossible.
The west-facing room had absorbed ample sunlight during the day, and now it was gradually releasing the stored heat. She sat up and reached for the bedside table, where she came across a plastic water cup. Drinking from it didn't quench her thirst, and it made Jiang Haoxiang feel like she needed to go to the bathroom.
Jiang Haoxiang tiptoed out of bed and stepped barefoot on the floor. The floor was warm, like a cat's belly. She slipped out of the room, used the restroom, and then walked around the living room, kitchen, and balcony. The only fan in the house was the table fan in the living room.
She dragged it out with all her strength and carried it all the way back to her room.
Closing the door, she examined the fan's control panel. It had several buttons and a small display. She pressed the largest button, but nothing happened. She tried the others, still silent. She pressed every button again, even turned the knob several times, but the fan remained silent. There was no wind.
She tried other buttons, and when she pressed one called the timer, the numbers on the display began to flash. She didn't know what it meant, so she pressed it again, and the numbers flashed faster.
Six-year-old Jiang Haoxiang didn't feel wronged when she gave up her room, and she didn't feel wronged when she lay in the stuffy room. Now, facing this electric fan that she couldn't control, she felt so wronged that she was about to cry.
After her nose felt sore, she became a little anxious and patted the electric fan with her hand. "Please turn!" she pleaded with the fan.
Jiang Hao remembered her father telling her, "You are six years old, not a three-year-old child. You must be sensible."
She was six, not three! But now she felt smaller again!
"I can't cry," she told herself. "It'll only make me hotter." The last time she cried because she missed her mom, Aunt Wang said she looked sad, and her dad didn't talk to her the whole day.
But it was really hot. So hot that my hair was covered in sweat.
She stared at the electric fan, helpless. She wanted to call Zheng Yi.
Zheng Yi lived in the same neighborhood as Xiang Li, who was three years older than her. Zheng Yi's mother, Xiang Li, was very kind to Jiang Haoxiang, often inviting her over for meals and always buying two portions of anything for Zheng Yi.
Xiang Li and Jiang Haoxiang's mother Lin Ran were good friends, so after Lin Ran passed away, Xiang Li always took good care of the deceased's daughter. This was both a remembrance of the deceased and a sensitivity as a woman - she knew that Jiang Haoxiang's life was not easy now.
Although Zheng Yi always looked impatient and accused Jiang Haoxiang of being troublesome, it was Zheng Yi who helped her get her toy back when another child snatched it from her. When she accidentally broke Aunt Wang's vase, it was Zheng Yi who claimed he had knocked it over. Most importantly, Zheng Yi seemed fearless. He dared to climb trees to rob bird nests, blow up puddles with firecrackers, talk back to Jiang Haoxiang's father, and even stay up past 11 p.m.
It seems very late now.
"What?" The phone was picked up immediately, and the sound of keyboard clacking came from the receiver.
"Brother Zheng Yi, I'm dying of heat."
"Jiang Haoxiang? It's already late and you're still awake?" Zheng Yi's voice was accompanied by the intense sound effects of the game. "Wait a minute, this teamfight will be over soon... Okay, okay, dead. What happened?"
"I'm so hot," she said.
"If it's hot, turn on the air conditioner. You're not going to follow my mom's lead and say that using too much air conditioning is bad, are you? I'm telling you, that's all nonsense. My room is set to 16 degrees, and it's absolutely comfortable."
Jiang Hao wanted to listen to his nonchalant voice, imagining him sitting comfortably in the air-conditioned room. Then, she compared her own situation of standing in this steaming box, sweating all over. Finally, she couldn't help crying and let out a little sob.
"Hello? What's wrong with you?" Zheng Yi's game voice became quieter. "I'm just saying, why are you crying?"
"I, there is no air conditioning in my room." Jiang Haoxiang said with a sob.
"What do you mean? Your air conditioner is broken?"
"No, there is no air conditioning in this room." She became sadder and sadder as she spoke, crying out of breath.
"Wait, wait," Zheng Yi shouted in frustration. "Damn! Mistake! Oh my, ...
Jiang Haoxiang thought he was apologizing to her, and she cried even harder. And he even said sorry? What was the point of saying sorry? Would an apology give her air conditioning? Would an apology make her feel less hot?
She also burst into tears: "What's the use of you saying sorry! I'm still hot!"
Zheng Yi couldn't help laughing.
"Who talked to you? I was talking to someone in the game..." He didn't finish his words because his teammates, who were connected to the microphone in the game nearby, also heard him. Another boy's voice came from the headset: "Dude, who are you talking to on the phone? You're crying so hard?"
Zheng Yi pulled the microphone further away, rolled his eyes, and said into the receiver, "Talking to a nagging idiot."
Jiang Hao wanted to stop crying immediately.
"You're the annoying one!" she yelled into the phone. "You're the most annoying, annoying person in the world! Tomorrow I'm going to tell Aunt Xiang that you scolded me! That you stayed up all night playing games! And you scolded me!"
Zheng Yi sighed speechlessly: "Alright, alright, I'm wrong, isn't that enough? What did you say just now? There's no air conditioning in your room? What do you mean? The air conditioning in your room is broken? Didn't your dad find someone to fix it?"
Jiang Hao wanted to tell her what had happened. During this time, the sound of keyboard could be heard from Zheng Yi's side from time to time, but he did not interrupt her again. He just hummed occasionally to show that he was listening.
After she finished, there was silence on the other end of the line for a moment, followed by the sound of victory from the game. Zheng Yi checked the time again; it was almost half past eleven. He cursed at the air, "Jiang Hao missed her father."
"It's over," Zheng Yi said. "So your dad kicked you out to this shabby room and didn't even give you a fan?"
"There's an electric fan," Jiang Hao wanted to whisper, "but it doesn't work."
"Is it plugged in?"
"Yes."
"Did you flip the switch?"
"Yes."
"Is the timer set?"
"What's a timer?"
Zheng Yi suddenly realized something and said, "Wait."
"What are you waiting for? Are you going to wait until dawn and let me die of heat?"
"Wait for me to bring you some coolness!" Zheng Yi said, jumping up from his chair and hanging up the phone.
Jiang Haoxiang stood in the middle of the room, holding her phone, not knowing what to do. The room was still hot, and her pajamas were soaked and stuck to her back.
Twenty minutes later, Zheng Yi called her again and asked her to open the door.
She was startled and tiptoed downstairs, first raising her finger at Mimi: "Mimi, stop screaming!"
Then he walked to the gate and asked, "Who is it?"
"I, open the door." It was Zheng Yi's voice.
Jiang Haoxiang opened the door in surprise. Nine-year-old Zheng Yi was standing outside the door, carrying a standing electric fan on his shoulder that was not much shorter than him, and his forehead was covered with sweat.
The fan wasn't too heavy, but for a nine-year-old, carrying it from the third floor to the fifth floor of the adjacent building was no easy task. It shouldn't have taken more than twenty minutes, but the base of the fan was a little uncomfortable, and Zheng Yi's arms started to ache after just a short walk. He stopped, hefted the fan onto his shoulder, and then had to shift positions before continuing. He kept thinking about that annoying Jiang Haoxiang.
"You." Jiang Haoxiang opened his mouth wide.
"Let me go in, it's so heavy." Zheng Yi squeezed through the door and carried the electric fan all the way to Jiang Haoxiang's new room. He put the fan on the ground and looked around the room. "This room is really hot, like a sauna. You can sleep at my place."
"I'm not going." Jiang Hao wanted to say something contradictory, but she decided to listen to her words.
Zheng Yi was used to being confronted by her, so he didn't respond.
The orange cat followed in and continued to sleep.
Zheng Yi was already squatting in front of the non-working electric fan, studying it.
He pressed a few buttons, turned a knob, and finally laughed. "The timer is set for four hours, it's a wonder it's working." He pressed a few buttons expertly, then flipped the largest switch. The fan still didn't turn.
Zheng Yi frowned, turned the fan in a different direction, and checked the wiring behind it. Then, with a sound of understanding, he pulled out a thin wire from the power cord, which ended in a small plug.
"The remote control receiver isn't plugged in," he said, inserting the small plug into a small hole at the bottom of the fan. "Your fan is quite advanced."
He flipped the switch again, and this time the fan blades slowly began to turn.
A gust of wind blew across his face, ruffling the loose hair on Jiang Haoxiang's forehead.
Jiang Hao probably remembered the feeling of that moment for years to come. It wasn't earth-shattering or dramatic, but it felt like a gust of wind had finally blown into that sweltering world.
Zheng Yi stood up and looked at her proudly: "Done."
Jiang Hao wanted to stand in the wind, feeling the coolness brought by the sweat being blown away, and suddenly he wanted to cry again.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Zheng Yi plugged in the electric fan he had brought with him and turned it on. The two fans worked together, and the room was quickly filled with cool air.
"Yours is still more advanced." Jiang Haoxiang looked at Zheng Yi's simple fan and said sincerely. The coolness made her want to talk.
The two of them sat on the floor together, hugging their knees.
Jiang Haoxiang whispered, "That grandma still uses my orange-flavored toothpaste, but I don't like it."
Zheng Yi yawned: "If you don't like her, just tell her. Will your father let you live here forever?"
Jiang Hao wanted to lower his head: "Dad said that after Auntie gives birth to a child, we will let that grandmother move back."
"Do you believe it?" Zheng Yi raised his eyebrows.
Jiang Hao wanted to stop talking. She wasn't sure.
"Look at you, you're such a coward. You're not going to make a fuss? You're not going to cry? You're the only one crying to me, right?"
Jiang Hao couldn't seem to argue. It seemed like she only dared to cry like this in front of Zheng Yi. In front of her father and stepmother, she never dared to make too many demands.
"Okay, I've fixed the fan for you. I should go home now." Zheng Yi stood up, stretched his muscles, turned around and pointed at the new electric fan he brought. "Put this here with you too."
Jiang Hao wanted to nod. Seeing that he was really leaving, she felt a little scared. If he left, she would be alone again.
"Brother Zheng Yi." She called him.
"What again?"
Jiang Hao wanted to get up from the ground, ran to his schoolbag, searched for a while, and ran back with something, stuffing it into Zheng Yi's hands. It was a few White Rabbit candies with slightly wrinkled wrappers, which seemed to melt when squeezed.
"Here you go, thank you."
Zheng Yi actually didn't like it at all, but he accepted it anyway: "You still have some conscience."
He opened the door and slipped out. Before closing the door, he looked back at her and said, "Next time, tell her about this kind of thing earlier, don't wait until midnight."
Jiang Hao wanted to stand there and let the fan's wind blow all over his body. The temperature didn't drop much, but it felt like the whole world had become bearable.
She went back to bed and lay down, facing the direction of the wind.
The orange cat jumped onto the bed and found a spot to lie down in front of the wind.
In her dream, she was not in a stuffy little room, but standing in an open field. The wind blew from far away, blowing the entire sea of red, green, yellow and white flowers that she could not name.
The author has something to say:
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A similar series "Can't I Handle This Hot Kiss" has been completed, which tells the story of a tough female painter and an honest male doctor who speaks in a dishonest way but acts in a righteous manner.
A different type of "Relapse of Old Wounds" story is being serialized, a story about a violent young lady vs. an upright (paranoid) law enforcer.
The new article I will write next is "Falling Flowers and Flowing Water", a story about a lively girl and a stomach-nourishing guy.
(But maybe I'll suddenly decide to open a new one... you never know.)
Thank you to my readers including "Black Sesame Balls", "Two or Three Raindrops in Front of the Mountain", "Qingyan Pinellia", "61385834", "67797073", "Tao Ye Ye", "Yin Ting", "Di Bao" and others. I remember you and thank you. This book was published so suddenly and I felt lonely when I was writing it because I kept thinking of many things from my childhood. So I found your company when I opened it so early and when no one cared about it. I really feel very lucky.
And thank you to all the readers who voted for me. I will keep writing because you have given me a lot of care and attention. I have no way to repay you.
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