Chapter 3: The Familiar Voice on the Late-Night Radio Station.
As the electric scooter drove into the community gate, it was already getting dark, and the rain suddenly intensified.
Ignoring her blurred vision, Zhu Liushuang honked her horn and quickly drove through the deserted alley, arriving at her apartment building before the heavy rain soaked her to the bone.
Zhu Jiaben originally lived in another district of Gucheng. After her father passed away, her mother, Gu Chunling, moved with her from their original house to this place.
Back then, the old house was in a hurry to be sold, but it didn't fetch a good price. Later, when Zhu's father received his compensation, after deducting the portion taken by his grandparents, the rest of the money was added to this house.
At first, Zhu Liushuang didn't understand why her mother would spend so much money to buy an old, secondhand house. It wasn't until she entered junior high school that she gradually understood her mother's good intentions—it was simply to have a good school district.
Now, the building's facade is even more dilapidated. The motion-sensor lights in the stairwell frequently malfunction.
The soundproofing wasn't very good either. As Zhu Liushuang walked up the stairs, smoothing her half-wet hair, she could hear clearly the sounds of other people chopping vegetables and cooking.
The Zhu family lived on the top floor, which also had a small attic. Unfortunately, the attic wasn't properly waterproofed and insulated, making it unbearably hot in the summer, like a sauna, and leaking during the rainy season. The mother had people come to repair it several times, but the results were unsatisfactory.
I turned the key three times, and the door opened. The interior was very clean, the only jarring thing being the leaky ceiling.
"Drip-drop—drip-drop—" The rainwater fell slowly, jumping into the red plastic bucket directly below.
Zhu Liushuang knew that her mother had tidied up the house again, despite the pain. She sighed helplessly and turned to go into the kitchen.
After the rice cooker started working, she went to the bedroom to get a change of clothes and then walked sideways into the bathroom.
The hot water from the showerhead soaked her snow-white skin, flowing down her collarbone and dripping onto the gray floor along her gracefully curved back.
The shower was filled with steam. The young girl's beautiful body was reflected on the glass door. The sound of rushing water continued for a while, and Zhu Liushuang finally felt like she had come back to life.
Through the crack in the glass door, she saw her expressionless reflection in the mirror across the room. She then raised her hand, pressed her index finger to the corner of her mouth, and drew an upward curve.
In an instant, that lifeless face became innocent and bright again.
————
Gu Chunling was carried up to the sixth floor by Lü Feng with her bare hands.
At that time, Zhu Liushuang had changed into a clean set of home clothes and was chopping minced meat in front of the kitchen counter.
Despite her petite stature, she possessed considerable strength. The sound of the knife blade striking the cutting board was so loud that it drowned out the noise of Zhu's mother and Lü Feng entering the room.
Suddenly, someone put their hand on her shoulder from behind, startling Zhu Liushuang, who was focused on chopping meat.
She turned around instinctively, the kitchen knife still hanging in the air, looking somewhat comical.
"I just wanted to help chop some meat... You wouldn't use that against me, would you..." Lu Feng took two steps back, pretending to be scared, but his words carried a hint of a smile.
Zhu Liushuang avoided his gaze and asked, "Thank you for your hard work today. Where's my mom?"
"Why are you being so polite with me?" Lu Feng muttered, taking a few steps to the side and pointing to the living room. "Aunt Gu is resting on the sofa. Would you like to go and see her?"
Zhu Liushuang nodded, then put down the kitchen knife in her hand and went to the living room.
"Mom—didn't I tell you not to go out during the day?" Although she was clearly very concerned, her words carried a hint of reproach.
She silently bent down and half-squatted on the floor to examine her mother's leg: "Where is it hurt?"
To outsiders, the two people in the living room seemed to have switched roles. Gu Chunling, sitting on the sofa, looked like a child who had done something wrong, her eyes darting around as she pulled up her chiffon pants.
Looking at her mother's swollen ankle and abraded skin, Zhu Liushuang bit her lip and asked, "Mom, what did you go downstairs to do?" Her previous reproach was gone.
"I saw that it was raining so hard and the roads were flooded, so I thought I'd wait for you at the intersection and bring you a pair of rain boots..."
Zhu Liushuang pulled down her mother's trouser leg and said helplessly, "It's not a big deal to walk this far. We're already wet anyway, so we can just go home and change." Her gaze fell on the photo of the mother and daughter together. "From now on, don't worry about me anymore. Take care of yourself first."
Lu Feng stood awkwardly by the door, looking at the mother and daughter in the living room, caught in a dilemma.
Seeing this, Gu Chunling said, "Shuangshuang, we owe Xiaofeng a lot today. He even carried me upstairs just now..." She took Zhu Liushuang's hand, "We should thank him properly."
Before Zhu Liushuang could reply, Lü Feng interrupted, "Aunt Gu, you're being too formal! We've been neighbors for over ten years, shouldn't we help each other out?"
"Oh, yes...yes..." Gu Chunling smiled happily, "You've been busy all day, why don't you have dinner here?"
Hearing this, Zhu Liushuang looked up at Lü Feng. She had only prepared two dishes today; she could have just stir-fried a plate of minced meat and eggplant and they would have been ready to eat. If Lü Feng stayed, she would have had to cook two more dishes.
Just as she was considering what two more dishes to add, Lü Feng politely declined: "No, my mother has already cooked and is waiting for me to come back."
As he spoke, he handed Zhu Liushuang a bag that was placed on the console table by the door, and instructed her, "This is medicine and painkillers prescribed by the hospital. If there's nothing else, I'm going home."
Zhu Liushuang accepted the medicine and said "thank you" again, without trying to stop her.
Gu Chunling looked slightly disappointed, "Let's eat here before we leave."
"No, Aunt Gu, I see Liu Shuang has worked hard all day cooking, so I won't bother you any longer. I'll come over another day..."
The Zhu family's door closed, while the security door of the Lü family across the street opened. The voice of Lü Feng's mother, Qiu Yan, could be faintly heard.
Soon, silence returned.
“Xiao Feng is a reliable kid. I think he treats you well too…” Gu Chunling glanced at her daughter and continued, “He takes good care of you too. I’d be at ease if you two got together.”
Zhu Liushuang gripped the corner of her apron, looking somewhat uncomfortable.
"I'll go stir-fry the eggplant." She ignored her mother's words and went straight to the kitchen, clearly not wanting to discuss the matter.
Gu Chunling lowered her eyes, sighed softly, and said nothing more.
————
The Lü family also fell silent.
Just now, Lü Feng had a few words of argument with his mother, Qiu Yan.
Qiu Yan knew why her son was late coming home, so she was in a bad mood and said sarcastically, "I told you to come home earlier today, why are you so late? Why don't you just stay at their house?"
"Didn't I call ahead? I didn't make you wait for me," Lu Feng said with a long face.
"You... you used to hang around the Zhu family girl when you were in school, but she stopped paying attention to you after she got into a good high school. And you... you're just trying to be nice to her but she doesn't appreciate it..." Qiu Yan was furious.
Lu Feng became anxious: "Didn't you all tell me to take good care of Xiao Shuang? We're all neighbors, and now that their family is in trouble, what's wrong with helping them out? Dad—don't you think so?"
Knowing he couldn't win the argument with his mother, Lü Feng pulled his father, who was reading a newspaper nearby, into the "battle."
Lu Jianghai couldn't stay out of it, so he had to smooth things over: "Honey, say less. Our Xiaofeng has always been kind, you know that. Besides, we're old neighbors, it's only right to help out."
As he spoke, he gave his son a look: "In the end, isn't your mother just worried about you? I called you home early today because I have some good news to celebrate."
Lu Feng ate his meal, uninterested in his father's so-called good news, but he didn't want to spoil their fun: "What good news? Mom—" his tone softened.
Unable to resist her son's call, Qiu Yan finally straightened her stiff smile and said, "Our old house in our hometown is going to be demolished. This time it's for real."
Qiu Yan's hometown is in the suburbs of Gucheng, and news of its demolition and relocation had been circulating for several years. At that time, she took it upon herself to transfer the household registration of her entire family of three there.
After waiting for so many years, it finally paid off, and she was overjoyed.
"When we get the housing and money, we'll buy a duplex in the new district..." Qiu Yan said, then seemed to remember something else, "Son, if you can get married within a year, your new wife's household registration will be transferred here too. If she gets pregnant, we can add two more people to the household registration..."
At this point, Qiu Yan's face lit up with joy: "Old Lu, are there any new girls in your unit who would be a good match for our Xiao Feng?"
Lü Jianghai works at the power bureau. He took off his reading glasses and thought for a moment: "There is one, but he's a graduate student and a year older than our Xiao Feng..."
"Being a year older doesn't matter, what matters most is their character and appearance."
Lu Feng glanced at his parents, feeling utterly overwhelmed. He slammed his rice bowl down on the table, his face grim: "The person involved is still here. Did you even ask for my opinion?"
He cleared his throat and said, "I'm just a car mechanic with a junior college degree. Do you think a graduate student would even look at me?"
“I don’t like hearing that… You’re a car repair shop owner. Besides… our house is going to be demolished!” Qiu Yan picked up her chopsticks, tapped her son’s head, and retorted.
“My auto repair shop? One boss and two employees…” Lu Feng frowned. “Anyway—I’m still young, I don’t have time for blind dates.”
He had no appetite for the remaining half bowl of rice, so he simply hid in his bedroom.
"I think you're not too busy to go on blind dates, you're just thinking about that girl from the Zhu family, aren't you?" Qiu Yan said anxiously. "Let me tell you, I'm fine with her being a neighbor, but I won't agree to her marrying me!"
Lu Feng sat in the chair in the bedroom, rolled his eyes, and pretended not to hear.
After a long silence, his lips drooped, his expression forlorn, and he muttered to himself, "I'd like to marry her, but I need her to give me the chance..."
————
In the dead of night, Zhu Liushuang suddenly opened her eyes.
The room was dark, with only the numbers displayed on the air conditioner's casing emitting a dim light.
My back and neck were covered in sweat.
She had another nightmare, the same dream she had during the day.
Zhu Liushuang rubbed her eyes and picked up her phone. The screen showed 0:10 and there was a new WeChat notification in the message notification bar.
[Lü Feng: I left in a hurry last night and forgot to ask. Do you need someone to fix your attic?]
I typed a few words into the input box, but she deleted them all, planning to politely decline again in the morning.
She turned off her phone, stared blankly into the darkness for a long time, and became increasingly clear-headed.
After trying various methods to fall asleep without success, Zhu Liushuang picked up her phone again and opened an app called "Yueyin FM".
This audio software was recommended to her by her colleague Zhuang Xiaoqian, who said it could help her sleep. She downloaded it but hasn't opened it yet.
Zhu Liushuang quickly registered an account and began browsing the recommendation page. The colorful interface displayed radio station names that were increasingly bizarre, but none of them piqued her interest in clicking on them. Her finger swiped randomly across the screen, a little too hard, and she ended up on the "Local" page.
A quick glance revealed very few local radio stations, and their names were all fairly normal.
The personal radio station displayed at the top of the page is called "Human World and Grass," and it's fifteen kilometers away from her.
Zhu Liushuang squinted, staring at the radio station name for a long time before her gaze fell on a book beside her pillow.
By the dim light of my phone, I could vaguely make out the words "Human World and Plants" on the book cover.
What a coincidence.
So, despite her lack of interest, she inexplicably clicked on the personal radio station with the same name.
"Hello, this is FM856777 Human World, and today's travelogue is 'Nanxun in the Rain.' A beautiful woman leans against the railing of the Hundred-Room Building, while clear water ripples below… A few days ago, I went to the ancient town of Nanxun alone…"
A cool male voice slowly rose in the quiet night.
Zhu Liushuang was momentarily dazed; the voice sounded somewhat similar to a voice she had longed for in her memory.
Unfortunately, too much time had passed, so much so that she could no longer tell the difference.
Zhu Liushuang closed her eyes, a self-deprecating smile curving her lips. A slender figure flashed through her mind.
...
I slept exceptionally soundly in the latter half of the night.
Zhu Liushuang didn't know when she fell asleep. In her hazy state, she only felt the man's voice flowing in her ears like a cold spring in the mountains. The pattering rain in the background, along with the man's gentle whispers, inexplicably soothed her restless mood.
The phone screen was still on the page I opened at midnight; the program cover was a beautiful landscape photo—the Hundred Houses in the drizzle.
She couldn't help but think that the radio station owner must be a kind-hearted person. So, she clicked into the comments section and left a few words.
Thank you for your voice and photos.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, there is the Zhonghe Accounting Firm.
The young man, who had just finished working overtime all night, stretched out his long arm and leaned lazily against the sofa. He wearily took off his frameless glasses, his captivating almond-shaped eyes staring at the ceiling with a faint air of detachment.
My phone chimed, and a new message notification popped up in the notification bar.
The man straightened up, propped his chin on his hand, glanced at the notification bar expressionlessly, and then clicked the "Clear" button without thinking.
A note from the author:
----------------------
In the previous chapters, Shuangshuang and Senior He's interactions will probably only appear in flashbacks. My darlings, please allow me to slowly recount them...
"A beautiful woman leans against the railing atop the hundred-room building; below, the water ripples clearly." — Zhang Zhen, "Fisherman's Song on Xunxi River"
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