Chapter 52: Fork in the Road
"Mom, what's wrong? Are you not feeling well? Or do you not like seafood?" Dad Mai saw that Hang Liumei had not eaten much since she sat down, and under Mai Sui's urging, he showed concern for his mother.
Hang Liumei picked up a palm-sized mantis shrimp and held it in her hand: "I've never seen it before, I really don't know how to eat it."
After she finished speaking, she removed the shrimp's head and placed it on Xiaomai's plate. Picking up her teacup, she asked to herself, "You guys, do you think people always have one or two things on their mind, and the longer they dwell on it, the more they gnaw at your heart."
That new grotto was tickling her now.
Mai Sui and Mai Dad looked at each other and felt that she was talking about them.
Hang Liumei continued to mutter to herself, "Or maybe it's like, if you don't do something when you should, you'll always remember it later. So no matter what the outcome, just go for it. At least there won't be any regrets."
At first, she wanted to go with Teacher Gong, but she was too busy to do it. Now she should go and find out the result.
Xiaomai's words were heard with a sense of empathy. Later, he thought about it and wondered if his grandmother had read his love letter after picking it up that day. Otherwise, how could the subsequent events be so coincidental?
"It would be fine if I didn't know, but now that I know, can I just ignore these things?" Hang Liumei suddenly raised her voice and poked her chopsticks into the bowl. The other four people didn't know what she was going to do, so they sat upright and didn't dare to interrupt.
Hang Liumei picked up a piece of squid and chewed it while saying, "I saw the photo of Teacher Gong left behind at Xiaoyu's place today, and I can't help but think about that grotto. This situation is just adding to my troubles. I have to cut the Gordian knot."
It turned out to be all about Dunhuang. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but forgot to ask her how she planned to "cut the Gordian knot."
"Mom, let me toast you first. I've only accompanied you to Hong Kong once in all these years. I hope you have fun." Dad Mai raised his glass first.
"Happy, I'm really happy. I'm the happiest because of you. Your dad must have seen it, and he's happy too."
"Mom, I want to toast you another glass. This is an apology. I won't go back to Xi'an with you. I plan to stay and accompany Mai Sui." After saying this, Mai's father drank another glass.
Even Mai Sui didn't expect him to say this. Everyone looked at him in surprise, but he crossed his arms on the table as if nothing had happened.
Mai Sui nudged his father with his elbow. He stroked his hair and added, "Mom, didn't you just say that everyone has something on their mind? I've decided to stay. One of us has to figure it out first."
Hang Liumei looked at her son, then at Mai Sui, nodded and said, "Okay, okay, you decide your own affairs, and you still have to live your own lives. I have things to do too, don't I? Don't worry about me."
"By the way, Mom, when do you plan to reply to Professor Hashimoto so that she can arrange the rest of the matter earlier." Mai Sui asked.
"Uh," this question stumped Hang Liumei. All she could think about today was the new grottoes, and she had completely forgotten about going to Japan. "Let me think about it. Can you help me hold her back for a while?"
No one understood. They had been so excited when they were invited, vowing to go, so why did they suddenly change their minds? Hang Liumei couldn't explain it clearly, and could only say vaguely that she was tired from the trip, so she needed to go home and rest and then set a time.
There were four of them when they came, and three when they left. After arriving in Xi'an, Pu Zhihe began to move the luggage out of Hang Liumei's house one by one. Xiaomai watched but said nothing.
Hang Liumei was even more bizarre. She'd spent most of the last two days locked in her room, her open books spread out across the table, some even spilled onto the floor. She also frequently made phone calls, never knowing who was on the other end, but she'd chat late into the night. Xiaomai had urged her to go to bed early several times, but Hang Liumei had resorted to playing in secret.
Pu Zhihe brought the last box of clothes home. She still had a number of picture albums and books at Hang Liumei's, so she came early in the morning to pick them up. As she entered the neighborhood, she saw a large man clumsily sitting on a bicycle. He tried pedaling twice at first, but when it got a little unstable, he used his feet to scrape along the ground.
Pu Zhihe wanted to just walk away, but Xiaomai was having a hard time riding. Since they wouldn't have much chance of meeting again, there was no need to avoid him and pretend not to know him. As Xiaomai turned the corner, she held onto the seat from behind to help him steady the bike.
Xiaomai turned around and asked, "Sister Zhihe?" She was initially very happy, but then felt somewhat disappointed. "Are you here to get something?"
"Well," Pu Zhihe still helped him hold the back seat of the bike, "you should look ahead when riding a bike, and don't be afraid of falling." After saying that, she increased the strength of her hands.
"Sister Zhihe, I didn't expect that you were the one who helped me learn how to ride a bike in the end." Xiaomai said sullenly in the front.
Pu Zhihe pretended to be relaxed and comforted him: "Don't be so polite, it's just that I'm going to Dunhuang and won't have the chance to learn the guqin."
Xiaomai turned around and said solemnly: "Even if you don't work with grandma in the future, if you want to--"
He was so busy talking that he didn't pay attention to the road ahead. Several families in this area were renovating, and the construction waste was temporarily piled up downstairs. Seeing that Xiaomai was about to ride on, Pu Zhihe quickly reminded him: "Stop pedaling! Look ahead, turn right--"
In her haste, she forgot that she only needed to hold the car with her hands.
Xiaomai's long legs became a hindrance at this time. He did not respond flexibly as expected. He was in a panic and finally could not avoid the marble floor fragments scattered on the roadside. He and his car fell on them in slow motion.
"Are you okay?" Pu Zhihe held one of his arms and tried to pull him up.
"It's okay, it's okay." Xiaomai felt a little embarrassed, so she kept shrinking back, hiding her hands behind her back.
Pu Zhihe had noticed his hand injury and rushed him to the community hospital for a bandage. As soon as he walked out the door, his phone rang. His roommate frantically called, "Mai Xu! Did you take the textbook with you when you finished taking my elective class last time? I can't find it anywhere. I have an open-book exam tonight! Please help me check it!"
Pu Zhihe helped him open the bag, and indeed, there were his classmates' textbooks inside. Seeing him raise his mummy-like hands to hail a taxi, Pu Zhihe sighed, got on his bicycle, and gestured to Xiaomai, "Get on, I'll take you there."
Xiaomai hadn't expected to ride in the back seat of Pu Zhihe's car again. As he gave his roommate the book, he looked at them with gossipy eyes. Xiaomai knew he'd tell everyone about it, exaggerating the whole story. He grabbed Pu Zhihe and tried to leave, not wanting anyone to discuss their relationship. He didn't really care, but he was afraid Pu Zhihe would get wind of it and avoid him even more.
Pu Zhihe, however, squatted on the ground, clutching her stomach and unable to stand up: "I haven't even had breakfast, and I'm already dizzy from driving you all the way."
"Then I'll buy you some bread or chocolate?" Xiaomai saw that her face was pale, as if she was about to have hypoglycemia.
"Did you bring your meal card?"
Wheat nodded.
"I'll just have a bowl of the three-fresh steamed bun from the cafeteria. Is it still on sale?"
"It's still for sale, but are you sure you want to eat this so early in the morning?"
Pu Zhihe nodded: "Yes, aren't you hungry? I can go alone. There will be a lot of people after class."
Sitting in the noisy cafeteria, Xiaomai barely touched the food in his bowl, completely focused on watching Pu Zhihe eat. Having known her for so long, he'd noticed that while she ate slowly, she ate with great relish. It was the same back home, too: he cooked and she washed. He'd just stir-fry simple home-cooked dishes, but Pu Zhihe would chew them with such care, as if savoring the finest of ingredients, that she left the dishes and tabletop untouched.
Pu Zhihe ate without paying attention to anyone else. She added a spoonful of garlic and chili sauce, and the bowl suddenly burst with color. When eating a steamed bun with three fresh ingredients, you have to scoop up the diced bun with a little broth first, then add a few vermicelli noodles, vegetables, and a fried meatball to create a rich texture. The steamed bun at this cafeteria had a rich bone broth, the white bun was chewy, and the meatballs were crispy—the flavors she'd longed for, satisfying her cravings after acclimatizing in Hong Kong.
"Are you not going to eat that pickled garlic anymore?" She was so hungry that she couldn't help but look at the pot and basin.
"You eat it." Xiaomai pushed the plate in front of her. She didn't hesitate and picked up a fruit, peeled it and threw it into the bowl.
When Xiaomai opened his schoolbag to help his roommate find a textbook, he saw something else. It was something he had specially prepared for Pu Zhihe. She must have seen it too, but she might not have thought of it as her own.
Xiaomai was just hesitating whether to give it to her right now when she suddenly heard the loud sound of tinkling palm trees behind her.
The entire cafeteria was startled by the noise. Pu Zhihe's hand shook, and the meatball she had just picked up flew into Xiaomai's bowl. Everyone looked towards the source of the noise. A boy had violently thrown all the metal plates on the table to the ground, then launched into a rage at a man and a woman sitting there. His hair was standing on end, his face was as red as a pig's liver, and his words were so agitated that they were barely audible. All that could be heard was, "Who is he?"
Some people were whispering to each other, and some even raised their phones. The girl who had been sitting with her back to Xiaomai and Pu Zhihe, perhaps unable to bear the onlookers, stood up, turned around, and rushed towards them. Her face flushed, her lips tightly pursed, tears welling in her eyes. As she ran to Pu Zhihe and Xiaomai, the enraged boy grabbed her arm, and someone nearby gasped.
Pu Zhihe and Xiaomai hadn't expected the farce to unfold right above their heads. They definitely couldn't eat, and now they couldn't sit or walk. The boy grabbed the girl tightly and yelled, "Who is he? Tell me! Don't lie to me! Why did you eat with someone else behind my back?"
"What are you doing! I told you that I don't like you. It was you who told everyone that I was your girlfriend. Stop stalking me like a pervert! It's none of your business who I eat with! Stop harassing me!" The girl struggled hard, trying to shake off his hand, but she accidentally hit him in the face with her arm.
With a "bang", the boy was stunned.
The whole cafeteria was silent and the girls were also scared.
"I didn't mean it--" She just whimpered and the angry boy reacted, yelled and grabbed his hair madly, and the next second picked up the three-fresh steamed bun that Pu Zhihe had not finished eating and threw it at the girl.
Seeing him take the bowl away from her, Pu Zhihe stood up and stood in front of the girl. All the leftover rice was poured on her head. Pu Zhihe, with a head full of broken steamed bun soup, brought a moment of calm to the excited male and female protagonists.
"If you have any problems, find your counselor. If that doesn't work, call the police. There are so many people watching, and no one is helping!" Pu Zhihe said to the crowd behind her in a resounding voice, then turned her gaze to the boy opposite her: "If you dare to move again, I will call the police!"
The girl stood behind Pu Zhihe, sobbing and holding her arm tightly.
Xiaomai also wanted to stand up and put himself between the two of them, but he couldn't squeeze in. He could only raise his two inconvenient hands and frantically search for toilet paper in his bag. Suddenly, someone rushed out from beside him and took away his bowl full of steamed buns.
"Who? Wait!" Before Xiaomai could finish her words, the boy who had just been sitting and eating with the girl was about to throw the bowl at the male protagonist. As soon as he took a step, his foot tripped over the chair leg, and the whole bowl of boiled steamed buns fell on half of Xiaomai's body.
The three of them were dumbfounded. The exhausted counselor finally arrived and escorted them out of the cafeteria. Seeing that there was no more fun to be had, the other students also dispersed, leaving Xiaomai and Pu Zhihe in their twilight years. They exchanged a look of rage and laughter.
"What should we do now?" Xiaomai asked Pu Zhihe.
"I have no choice but to ride my bike to pull you back." Pu Zhihe said as he took a piece of wood ear from his head.
"I want to ask, do you want another bowl?" The soup dripped down his clothes to the ground.
"Still eating? I don't want to eat anymore this year." Pu Zhihe could smell the smell of rice all over her body just by standing there.
Xiaomai saw his open schoolbag, and Inoue Yasushi's copy of Dunhuang glared into his eyes. He took the book out with his right hand and handed it to Pu Zhihe: "Sister Zhihe, this book is for you. I wish you a safe journey to Dunhuang."
Pu Zhihe was baffled by him, but she wiped her hands and took it. Although it was a new book, it was not covered in plastic. Pu Zhihe was about to flip through the pages when Xiaomai stopped her: "Sister Zhihe, you still have food on you. You should read the book later."
Unaware of what was going on, she put the book away as Xiaomai had instructed. The two of them simply cleaned up the leftovers on their clothes and left the school, smelling and looking awful. Back in the neighborhood, after parking her bike, Pu Zhihe felt something was amiss. Instinctively, she touched her earlobe, and sure enough, one of her earrings was missing. Xiaomai saw her standing there motionless, so she asked, "What's wrong?"
"I lost my earrings. I bought them when I was studying abroad. I think I moved too much just now and they fell off."
"Then let's go back and look for it now."
Pu Zhihe pinched her ears and laughed at him: "I'm sure I can't find it. I guess it's already mixed in the steamed bun soup on the ground. Forget it, let's just keep it as a commemoration of our good deeds today. There's still one left, so let's just leave it that way."
But Xiaomai remembered the earring left on her ear, which was a goose yellow ceramic circle.
When I entered the house, I saw a familiar pair of shoes placed in the entrance hall. They belonged to Qi Xiuchun.
She and Hang Liumei were sitting close together on the sofa, excitedly discussing something. When they saw Xiaomai and Pu Zhihe coming back, they waved to them to come over.
"Have you decided?" Qi Xiuchun asked Hang Liumei with a smile.
"It's decided!"
"Then tell the children."
Hang Liumei couldn't wait to announce to Xiaomai and Pu Zhihe, "Your Grandma Xiuchun and I are planning to go back to Dunhuang. You two should come with us!"
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