Chapter 4
Chapter 4
In the hazy light, it seemed as if I was groping in the mud, searching for something. I touched something, and when I looked closely, it turned out to be a crocodile opening its foul-smelling mouth to bite me.
Shen Qingyuan was jolted awake.
When I woke up, I heard Nan Lan talking to Shen Jing'an.
Nan Lan: "Zheng Meijuan has a granddaughter, and she cherishes her like the most precious thing. She talks about her granddaughter all the time, saying that she is incredibly smart. When I listen to her, she's practically a child prodigy!"
Nan Lan and Zheng Meijuan, these two longtime colleagues, have children of similar ages and have been secretly competing with each other for over twenty years. They are evenly matched, and have had their share of victories and defeats over the years.
Nan Lan had been in the lead all along. Shen Qingyuan's life six months ago was impeccable; she was the epitome of someone else's child, getting a medical master's degree from a prestigious university with a smooth path to success, and then staying in a big city to work. She truly made Nan Lan proud.
Zheng Meijuan's son, Han Dong, struggled to get into a second-tier university, then returned to Chenyang and took the civil service exam for a government job. He doesn't earn much, but he's looking for stability and a respectable position.
Zheng Meijuan clearly couldn't compete with the second generation. Fortunately, her son married and had children early, giving Zheng Meijuan a fairly clever granddaughter. Zheng Meijuan finally felt triumphant and began to focus her efforts on the third generation.
Nan Lan didn't actually have any grandchildren she could immediately boast about. But she arrogantly thought that intellectuals all married and had children late, it was no big deal; she was already twenty-seven or twenty-eight when she married Shen Jing'an. Only those who couldn't make it in their careers liked to stay at home and have children. Cattle, horses, pigs, and sheep, on the other hand, all had litters of offspring. What was so remarkable about that?
The two tigers fought, the wind howled through the forest, and the standoff lasted until six months ago.
"Keep your voice down, Yuanyuan's still asleep." Shen Jing'an lowered his voice. "That big mouth Zheng Meijuan, you'd better not tell her anything about our family. If she finds out what happened in someone's family, the whole neighborhood will know the next day..."
"Breakfast is almost ready, wake Yuanyuan up!" Nan Lan sighed habitually. When she was particularly troubled, she would sigh unconsciously.
Shen Qingyuan rolled over. The bed was simply the best place in the world. How could spending a third of her life in it not be enough?
A short while later, there was a knock on the door.
Shen Qingyuan mumbled an agreement and slowly put on her clothes. She must have really gained a lot of weight, because she's been moving rather sluggish lately.
As Shen Qingyuan dressed, she habitually turned on her phone and opened WeChat.
Song Ting sent her several WeChat messages, asking if she was going to the 10th anniversary class reunion this Saturday, and if so, to let her know in the group chat to make reservations.
Shen Qingyuan found it troublesome and replied: I'm not going.
Song Ting: Come on, come on! Humans are social animals. It's not good for you to stay cooped up and never go out. Go see your old classmates and catch up with them.
Song Ting: Anyway, it's not a loss. Zhang Chi said he'd cover all the expenses!
Song Ting could understand Shen Qingyuan's feelings. When people are frustrated and down, they want to be alone, but staying alone isn't a long-term solution. Seeing people and experiencing some stimulation might lift her spirits. And if she felt better, she might regain her fighting spirit. As her best friend, she wanted Shen Qingyuan to cheer up more than anyone else.
Shen Qingyuan didn't reply, put down her phone, opened the door, and went to eat breakfast.
Nan Lan cooked pumpkin and rice porridge and boiled eggs. Shen Jing'an bought tofu pudding, sugar-coated glutinous rice cakes, and rice noodles from a nearby breakfast stall and brought them back in a thermos, still warm.
Shen Qingyuan went to university in Jicheng at the age of eighteen, and ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. Rice noodles are rarely sold for breakfast in Jicheng, and Shen Qingyuan was not used to it at first. It took her a long time to get used to the random combination of fried dough sticks, soy milk, tofu pudding, and mutton soup.
If you take your time, you'll find a wide variety of breakfast options in Jicheng, basically covering all parts of China. She liked Jianbing Guozi (Chinese crepe) from the beginning, and later she also thought Hulatang (spicy soup) was pretty good.
However, I absolutely cannot drink Jicheng douzhi (fermented mung bean juice), it tastes like swill.
Having just woken up, Shen Qingyuan didn't have much of an appetite. She slowly sipped her thin porridge with a small spoon and peeled the egg bit by bit.
Nan Lan glanced at the eggs on the table, then suddenly remembered something, "When Yuan Yuan was in high school, to save time so she could sleep a little longer, I always peeled the eggs. I'd quickly wash my face, grab them, and eat them on the way..."
A faint, long-lost sense of relief appeared on Nan Lan's face. Her gaze was unfocused, as if she were reminiscing about someone who was not present.
Shen Qingyuan also misses that person.
Shen Jing'an winked at Nan Lan, smiled apologetically, and said to Shen Qingyuan, "Yuanyuan, try this sugar-coated glutinous rice cake. It's freshly fried and still warm."
During her puberty growth spurt, Shen Qingyuan had a large appetite, consuming two bags of milk each morning and evening, and sometimes four or five eggs a day. During the ten years she worked and studied in Jicheng, Shen Qingyuan rarely returned home. Shen Jing'an still thought his daughter had the same appetite as a teenager, allowing her to eat high-sugar, high-calorie foods without restraint, never letting her eat less. Shen Qingyuan's weight gain of twenty pounds was largely due to her father's overfeeding.
Shen Qingyuan hummed in agreement, but didn't move her chopsticks.
Nan Lan adjusted her mood and said happily, "Yuanyuan, your father's classmate's cousin has a comrade-in-arms who is now a high-ranking leader at our city hospital. He heard that you have returned to Chenyang, and the leader wants to meet you."
"See me?" Shen Qingyuan raised one eyebrow.
Nan Lan said, "Yes, you're a top student from Jicheng University's medical school, and you also have work experience in a major hospital. People immediately recognized your talent and wanted to meet you. If things go well, you might even get a job at the city hospital. Although we're a small city, getting into a good tertiary hospital isn't easy..."
Shen Qingyuan gave an "oh," thinking that it was no easy thing for her father, a man of such high aloofness and self-restraint, to be willing to shamelessly use these connections that he hadn't used for many years for her sake.
"Thank you, Dad."
Shen Qingyuan was always very polite.
Shen Jing'an smiled sheepishly, his handsome brows and eyes relaxing a bit. "No need to thank me, we're father and daughter, no need for thanks."
Nan Lan pressed her advantage, "How about we arrange a meeting this weekend, when the boss is off work?"
Shen Qingyuan blurted out, "I don't have time this weekend, I have to go to my high school classmate's 10th graduation reunion."
Nan Lan gave an "oh" sound, drawing out the last syllable, as if weighing which activity would be more beneficial to her daughter's physical and mental health.
Shen Jing'an said good-naturedly, "Then let's go to the class reunion first. After all, it's the tenth anniversary of graduation, a big day. Old classmates must miss each other after so many years. As for the leader, scheduling a meeting this weekend might be a bit rushed. If he has time next week, it won't be too late to meet."
Nan Lan gave a helpless snort. She knew there was a reason why her husband had only ever been a low-level clerk for so many years—he simply didn't treat his superiors like leaders. Ironically, the father and daughter were remarkably similar in this respect, both possessing a somewhat otherworldly air.
However, Nan Lan thought again that it was rare for Shen Qingyuan to take the initiative to suggest attending any gatherings. For the past six months, she had spent most of her time holed up in her room. Meeting more people her own age would definitely be good for her mental and physical health. So she didn't raise any objections.
After finishing her meal, Shen Qingyuan pulled up her high school classmates' WeChat group and signed up in the group.
Lu Jiawen, the class monitor in charge of statistics, immediately responded enthusiastically. It wasn't easy for someone as busy as her to return to her hometown for a class reunion, especially since it wasn't a holiday.
Song Ting, thinking she had succeeded in persuading him, sent another WeChat message: "Shen Qingyuan, remember to dress up nicely. Everyone wants to look their best in these kinds of situations."
Shen Qingyuan: Okay.
Shen Qingyuan made a special trip to check her wardrobe. Over the years, most of the clothes she bought in Jicheng were either donated or given away, and she didn't bring them with her. There really weren't many pieces in her wardrobe that she liked.
The trouble lies here: for a party, you have to dress up, mentally prepare, and drastically lose weight and take care of your skin—it's incredibly annoying. So Shen Qingyuan's initial reaction was to refuse. But to go unprepared and looking disheveled wouldn't be right either.
Shen Qingyuan called out loudly towards the door, "Mom, do I have any other clothes?"
"I don't know, but check the cabinet under the bed for a suitable one."
There was a large camphor wood cabinet under the bed. Shen Qingyuan bent over and struggled to drag it out, patted off the years of dust, and coughed as she opened the lid.
Inside were Shen Qingyuan's clothes from her student days, mostly from junior and senior high school. She didn't actually buy many clothes back then, as the school had uniform requirements, with two sets of school uniforms for spring, summer, autumn, and winter. She never had a chance to wear more than that.
Shen Qingyuan rummaged through the closet and found a summer school uniform on the bottom shelf. It was a simple short-sleeved white collared T-shirt with the words "Chenyang No. 2 Middle School" printed on the chest.
The T-shirt was paired with a pair of navy blue, thin-fitting trousers, which were a bit baggy and didn't accentuate the waist or hips. It was definitely designed that way on purpose.
In high school, the girls complained that it was hard to tell whether they were male or female when they wore this outfit.
However, there are also girls with particularly slender figures, wearing school uniforms, with long flowing hair, who occasionally flash by on campus, forming a unique scene.
Ten years have passed, and looking at this school uniform again, Shen Qingyuan unconsciously recalls fragments of her high school life.
Her memories of her high school years are very hazy, mainly consisting of intense academic work. She spent most of her time doing practice problems and has a vague recollection of most of her classmates' faces.
So when Song Ting talks about the current situation of her high school classmates, Shen Qingyuan will pause for a moment when she hears their names, and then she will have to dig deep into her memory.
Thinking about it this way, it would be quite embarrassing if someone remembered her name at the class reunion on Saturday, but she forgot who they were.
Fortunately, there were high school graduation photos in the family album. Shen Qingyuan flipped through the photos and found that she could only remember a few names. Song Ting was one of them, along with Ye Chuyang and four or five other more active students from the class.
Shen Qingyuan sent the photos to Song Ting, asking her to mark the names of everyone in the photos.
Song Ting sent a speechless emoji.
Song Ting: Sister, really? We've been spending over ten hours a day together every day for a whole year. Some of us were even in the same class in our first and second years of high school. Are you getting Alzheimer's and don't remember anyone?
Shen Qingyuan: It's not that I don't remember any of them, but most of them.
Looking back now, Shen Qingyuan completely muddled through her adolescence, a time when her mind was most active and she was most sensitive to the slightest changes in the outside world, all for the sake of higher numbers on her report card and a higher ranking in exams.
The words "a wasteland of youth" popped into Shen Qingyuan's mind, and she couldn't help but smile bitterly, feeling somewhat lost.
Song Ting: When that day comes, stick close to me. With my guidance, you won't make a big fool of yourself.
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