Chapter 34 Dislocation
Xiaomai held Qin and walked her to the bedroom door to say goodbye, "Take a rest and see you tomorrow."
Well, see you tomorrow. Pu Zhihe closed the door, turned around, lay face down on the bed, and fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.
She dreamed all night long, transforming herself into a Dunhuang mural painter. For her depiction of a leader leading a family in offerings to Buddha, she was rewarded with a frail man, unable to carry anything. This man, a palace musician, refused to marry her or stay in Dunhuang, crying daily, begging to return to the bustling capital. Unable to bear it any longer, she let him go. At their farewell, her husband let down his hair and said, "Actually, I'm a woman. I've always feared you'd find out. Now that we're no longer husband and wife, I won't hide it from you anymore."
She was about to ask why everyone thought they could pass as men and women by tying their hair up and down, and if they really wouldn't be recognized, when an arrow pierced her back. She was killed by someone who had chased them, mistaking them for deserters.
Pu Zhihe was awakened by the bottle of drink pressed against her body. When she opened her eyes, it was already noon. She seemed half asleep, still melancholy over the mishap.
Her thoughts returned to reality. She had already broken up with Zhu Fu. Sure enough, today all the damn guilt had disappeared, and she began to be glad that she had made the right decision to break up.
There was someone moving around in the living room. She couldn't tell if it was Hang Liumei or Xiaomai. It probably wasn't Xiaomai. She had heard someone go out in a daze that morning. It must have been Xiaomai going to class.
She opened the door and came out, only to see Xiaomai sitting on the carpet in the living room reading a book, but Hang Liumei was nowhere to be seen.
Seeing her come out, he looked up and said, "Are you awake? There's breakfast in the pot."
Pu Zhihe's eyes were swollen, and it took a lot of effort to open them. Her hair had just been tidily pinned up with a shark clip, and it was obvious that it was messy. She came out in wrinkled pajamas, a casual look that shouldn't be shown to ordinary friends like Xiaomai.
Thinking back to their conversation on the balcony last night, she couldn't be too slow. Pu Zhihe could only walk quickly to the bathroom while saying, "Thank you for your hard work. I overslept."
Xiaomai only relaxed after she closed the bathroom door.
Living under the same roof with two women, one old and one young, everyone always walked out of their rooms with ease. Although it was Pu Zhihe who was unkempt, he was the one who was nervous. Xiaomai pretended not to notice anything, asked her a calm question, and then was too embarrassed to look at her again.
By the time Pu Zhihe finished cleaning up and sat down, Xiaomai had already arranged the food on the coffee table and bent down to pour her some freshly made soy milk.
She and he sat cross-legged on either side of the table, eating while asking, "Where's Teacher Hang?"
"He left early in the morning and said he was going to attend a funeral today."
Pu Zhihe nodded and asked, "So what are your plans for today?"
Xiaomai picked up his phone and said, "My mom just sent me a message asking me to go to the movies with her." After a pause, he added, "Do you want to join us?"
Pu Zhihe shook her head. "I'll continue practicing. When they come back, we'll start painting again. I'm already far behind, so I need to work harder."
Someone was unlocking the door, so Xiaomai immediately stood up and walked towards the door. Before he took two steps, his father rushed in.
It was rare to see Mike's father shaved off his beard; he looked younger. He also wore glasses and a white T-shirt underneath a blue short-sleeved shirt. The combination was fine, but the clothes didn't look like his own; they looked like he'd stolen them from his son.
"Did your mom ask you to go to the movies with her? Dad wants to talk to you. You should push her away first. I originally wanted to ask her to go alone, but I don't know why she asked you to go too." Dad Mai was still not used to his glasses. As he spoke, he pushed the frame on his nose with his index finger.
Xiaomai said, "That's it. You didn't tell me in advance. I already promised my mom."
Dad Mai walked around the living room with his arms folded: "What should I do? What should I do? I have to think of a solution."
He noticed Pu Zhihe eating tofu pudding and immediately clapped his hands, saying, "Xiao Pu, how about you come too? You and Xiaomai can watch something else by yourselves. Besides 'The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village,' which your aunt and I are going to see, you can watch whatever you want."
Pu Zhihe had promised Hang Liumei to help Xiaomai's parents, so she had to go now. She had no choice but to nod and say yes.
"Okay, then let's do this. You can choose what you want to see now."
Pu Zhihe thought to herself, "Even though this guy is older, why is he still so childish when it comes to love? Is he afraid they'll end up in the same theater?" She smiled and nodded, then cooperated by pulling out her phone to watch the latest movie news with Xiaomai.
She scrolled through the family comedies and popcorn movies, paused for a moment at the introduction page for "Barbie," then thought Xiaomai probably wouldn't want to watch any of that, so she clicked away. Unexpectedly, Xiaomai immediately said to her dad, "Let's watch Barbie."
"Barbie? Barbie is Barbie, that's it."
Dad Mai made an appointment with them to meet at the cinema’s self-service ticket machine, and then went to pick up Mai Sui.
The agreed time had long passed. Xiaomai and Pu Zhihe stood in front of the ticket machine waiting for a long time. When the broadcast reminded them for the fourth time to start ticket checking, Mai's father finally appeared at the escalator entrance with Mai Sui. They were like a pair of guests who had just successfully held hands on a middle-aged and elderly blind date show. They were a little reserved but pretended to be natural.
"Are you all here? Have you been waiting for a long time? Let's go in quickly." Mai Sui greeted them, turned his head and nodded his chin, signaling Mai's father to get the tickets.
Dad scanned the QR code and quickly printed out four tickets. He gave two to his son and kept two for himself, then urged everyone to enter. Following the waiter's instructions, one couple went straight and turned right to Hall 3, while the other couple went downstairs and turned left to Hall 9.
Dad Mai and Mai Sui found a seat and sat down. He had specially dug out the old ticket stub from the first time they watched this movie and bought the seat according to the seat number on it. He wondered if Mai Sui still remembered it.
"Oh my god, it's the middle of the last row again."
She still remembers! Mai's father's heart began to beat as he agreed, "Yes, I picked it specifically. It's rare for a place to re-screen this movie."
"Old movies can still be so popular. Such a big hall is full." Mai Sui looked at the young people in the row in front of him and was surprised to find that they were the oldest couple in the whole audience. It seemed that time really passed by too quickly.
"Young people nowadays love horror movies. Look, some even brought their kids here. Do you remember when Xiaomai was five years old and we took him to the movies? He cried and wanted to be held, but I finally coaxed him to sleep before we finished watching the movie. What movie was it?"
"'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' must have scared him. He didn't like watching those things anymore."
"That's not like us."
The lights went out, the movie started, and a group of little girls playing with dolls and speaking English appeared on the screen. Dad Mai was a little confused, until the giant swimsuit girl appeared, and then he realized that they were not watching "The Village Corpse" but his son's "Barbie".
Dad Mai turned to look at his ex-wife, and Mai Sui was also looking at him.
"I got the wrong ticket. Wait here for me while I go find Xiaomai to exchange it for me."
As soon as Dad Mai stood up, Mai Sui grabbed his wrist and said, "Don't bother them. Just watch it. This movie is quite interesting."
On screen, a woman with her face painted like an opera singer offered the female lead a pair of shoes: one pair of high heels, the other a pair of flat, buckled sandals. The whole audience burst into laughter. Mai's father couldn't figure out the joke, but when he sat back down, he looked down and saw that Mai Sui was wearing the same ugly flip-flops from the movie. She was laughing too. So, did she choose the right movie? So, he just sat down and let her do what she wanted. As long as she was happy to watch, that was fine.
Xiaomai didn't look for him either. It seemed that they were also very engrossed in watching "The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village".
However, Xiaomai and Pu Zhihe were in pain.
There was something wrong with this theater from the start; it was small, and only a few people were seated there. As soon as the movie started, the two knew they had gone off the track, but neither wanted to disturb Mama and Mama's rare date.
Even though Xiaomai was wearing a light jacket, goose bumps still covered his arms. He couldn't understand why his parents loved horror movies so much. When he was little, he'd sneak through their drawers and be terrified by the monsters and ghosts on the DVDs. Another night, unable to sleep, he went to find his mother, clutching his blanket. Unexpectedly, they were secretly watching a horror film. Xiaomai flung open their bedroom door in the dark, and all three of them screamed. He stopped watching horror movies after that.
Today, Pu Zhihe was sitting next to him. This was a matter of a man's dignity, so he couldn't be too timid. Xiaomai stole a glance at her. Pu Zhihe stared blankly at the screen, and he thought to himself how brave she was, not afraid at all. He adjusted his sitting position to appear more relaxed.
Pu Zhihe crossed her arms. Xiaomai guessed she was cold. Although the hall was small, the air conditioning was on high. If he took off his coat and put it on her, it would be too greasy and she probably wouldn't like it. Xiaomai silently unzipped his clothes, took off his clothes and held them in his arms. He leaned over and whispered to her, "It's quite hot without air conditioning above me. You seem to be facing the air conditioner. Do you want to share it?"
"Then I'll use it, thank you." Pu Zhihe took Xiaomai's coat, still warm from his body, feeling like she had been saved. She'd been so frightened earlier that she'd secretly removed her contact lenses. Her 400-degree myopia blurred the image, but the swaying blood and terrifying screams were still terrifying. Xiaomai, beside her, seemed to be watching intently. How could he not be frightened at all? She was too embarrassed to leave, so she just had to pretend to watch the movie.
Her stomach rumbled with pain. Perhaps she had eaten something wrong this morning? Pu Zhihe covered her abdomen with her arms and pulled Xiaomai's coat over her. After a while, she felt something was wrong again. She stood up and explained to Xiaomai that she was feeling a little unwell and needed to go to the bathroom. When she came out, Xiaomai was waiting outside.
"Are you okay? If you feel uncomfortable, let's go?" he asked.
"I'm fine. If you want to watch, we can continue." She noticed Xiaomai's expression and changed the subject, "Don't you want to watch it anymore?"
Xiaomai scratched his head: "Yes, I've always been afraid of this kind of thing. You don't want to watch it either?"
The two decided not to go back and instead found a dessert shop to sit down and rest.
"What would you like to drink?" Pu Zhihe asked as she looked at the menu. "Last time, that girl gave you milk tea and you said you didn't like it. Was that true or not?"
"It's true," Xiaomai looked up and answered seriously, "I have a weird taste. I like sour or salty drinks."
"I remember now, what were you drinking when we first met in the classroom?"
Xiaomai suddenly remembered the sour taste of the green plum when the straw pierced his teeth that day, and replied that he was drinking green plum green tea.
Pu Zhihe closed the menu regretfully. "But we don't have that here. How about sea salt iced tea?"
"I'm fine with anything. I'll listen to you."
Pu Zhihe took the initiative to ask him: "By the way, you said that Teacher Hang went to the funeral. Did she go alone?"
"No, the ones going to say goodbye with Grandma Qi were their old friends from Dunhuang."
To be honest, Xiaomai was a little worried about her grandmother. After all, her last experience of seeing Song Jiang off wasn't very good. She hadn't contacted her grandmother until now, so she wondered how she was doing at the funeral.
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