Chapter 58
Because of his injury, Yang Ye stayed at home for more than half a month.
In fact, Yang Ye's injuries had almost healed by the time she left the hospital, but Xue Shangyang was too nervous and didn't want her to go out or move around too much, fearing that the chest injury would be affected and cause her to suffer from some symptoms later.
Besides her room, her only daily activities were in the kitchen, living room, and yard. Xue Shangyang was particular about how much time she spent in the yard. He couldn't go too early, fearing the early morning chill would seep into her bones and cause leg pain in her old age. He couldn't go too late, either, fearing the evening breeze would be too chilly and harmful.
It was around nine or ten o'clock, when the sun rose and its rays completely fell on the courtyard, making it comfortable and not too hot. But before noon, when the sun was clearly not yet strong and Yang Ye herself didn't even feel the heat, Xue Shangyang was already tapping on the study window to remind her to come in.
So at that time, Yang Ye really thought Xue Shangyang was annoying.
Even though he was clearly incredibly busy, he still managed to keep a close eye on her affairs, as if he had an extra pair of eyes watching him. Sometimes Yang Ye would wonder how he could possibly have the energy to juggle all those important matters while still paying attention to such a trivial matter as hers. It was truly puzzling.
Xue Shangyang was really busy at that time, and many people came to his house every day. In order not to disturb Yang Ye, Xue Shangyang asked them to go directly to the study through the small door. The noise in the study almost never stopped from morning to night. But no matter how busy he was, as long as he saw Yang Ye in the yard, he would always put down what he was doing, come to her side, and sit with her without saying anything.
The wind blew the leaves of the crabapple blossoms off, and a petal fell onto the page Yang Ye had just turned. Just as she was about to pick it up, Xue Shangyang's hand reached out. He picked up the petal, and his fingers brushed against the back of Yang Ye's hand. It felt like a feather drifting by, or like a breeze blowing across the water.
The touch on the back of her hand made Yang Ye momentarily stunned. She raised her eyes and met Xue Shangyang's seemingly gentle gaze. Only then did she see the dark spot under his eye. Yang Ye looked at him, her throat moving, and asked softly, "Are you tired?"
"Not bad," Xue Shangyang smiled. He always brushed it off lightly.
"Is the situation outside serious lately?"
"It's okay," he answered briefly, raising his hand to tidy up her hair that was messed up by the wind.
Xue Shangyang looked at her carefully, and suddenly he spoke, his voice even gentler than before, "After this period is over, I will take you to the outskirts of the city to see the newly planted acacia trees, okay?"
"Okay," Yang Ye nodded.
She continued to read, and Xue Shangyang continued to sit beside her, quietly accompanying her.
It had been seven years since their wedding, and what could seven years have meant? Perhaps they had long since passed the age of frequent bickering, the age of arguing over everything. As her mother had said, young couples marry, struggling to love each other, experiencing all sorts of arguments, then growing dependent on each other, and in old age, just walking together. She hadn't understood her mother's words before, but now she was slowly beginning to understand something else. There was no such thing as the perpetually hot, fresh, passionate heat of a branding iron; it was simply a matter of getting used to each other, forging a new understanding day by day.
Just like them now, the two of them are just sitting together in the yard, reading a book, not saying anything, but they can see each other beside them in their peripheral vision, and can really feel him at such a close distance. This kind of plainness and stability is probably enough.
*
"What's wrong?" He saw Yang Ye's distress and asked softly.
"This book is too complicated. I really can't understand it," Yang Ye said. The book she was reading today wasn't one of her usual books. Instead, she found it in Xue Shangyang's study. It looked like it was one he'd read while studying abroad.
Xue Shangyang put down the tea he had just taken a sip of and moved his chair closer to Yang Ye. "Which part don't you understand?"
Yang Ye glanced sideways and mentioned the sentence that had bothered her just now.
'Something is happening in the world, and it's affecting the world'
Events don't just happen; they ripple outward like a stone dropped into a lake, spreading outward in concentric circles. They entangle the causes and effects of the past and future, creating new wrinkles in the future. No event is an isolated island; they are intertwined in the longitude and latitude of time, ultimately weaving the world we see today.
"It looks like a tongue twister," Yang Ye frowned.
Xue Shangyang smiled, picked up a leaf and a stone from the ground nearby, and said to Yang Ye: "It will be easier to understand if you just change it to cause and effect. Just like this leaf and stone, the leaf is about the present, and the stone is about the past. The leaf fell and hit the stone, and the wind blew the stone onto the leaf. The leaf pressed by the stone rotted in the mud, and new grass grew the next year. The leaf rotted because of the stone, but if there was no stone, the leaf would have been blown away by the wind long ago, and new grass would not have grown again."
Xue Shangyang added: "Therefore, nothing in this world is alone. It is the roots in the front that pull the vines behind, and the intertwining and twisting make it what it is today."
Yang Ye seemed to understand somewhat, and she pointed to the handwritten sentence next to it, which did not sound like English.
"What about this one?"
Wenn ich dich sehe, vergesse ich alle Zeit
Xue Shangyang looked at the words, his eyes softened, and his voice was even lower than before. He leaned close to Yang Ye and said, "This is German. It means, when I see you, I forget all the time."
Yang Ye raised his eyes and said, "The meaning of this sentence is different from what you just said."
"Because I wrote it." Xue Shangyang's fingers rubbed the surface of the handwriting. He looked up and saw Yang Ye standing next to him, his eyes filled with tenderness. "After I read what I just saw, I thought of you. From the moment I first saw you, I kept thinking of you all the time, never forgetting you every minute and every second. It is because of this that I was able to marry you."
"You're teasing me again!" Yang Ye nudged him lightly with her shoulder. She lay sprawled on the table, her upper body as soft as a fluffy cat in the sun. Xue Shangyang couldn't help but rub Yang Ye's head. Yang Ye shook her head, and Xue Shangyang's hand slid from her head to her cheek, gently pinching it.
Xue Shangyang asked with a smile: "What's going on now?"
"It's very boring," said Yang Ye.
"We'll go out again in a few days."
Yang Ye tilted his head and leaned on his arm, "Why does it have to wait a few more days?"
"Your injuries haven't healed yet."
"Actually, it's been healed for a long time." Yang Ye sat up and moved her arms, but this slightly big movement made Xue Shangyang nervous again.
Xue Shangyang said: "Be careful"
Yang Ye was helpless, "I'm not a piece of porcelain, there's no need to be so careful"
"But in my eyes you are that unique piece of porcelain"
"Shangyang," Yang Ye called him. After over a month of rest, Yang Ye looked even thinner than before. The clothes she'd just received from the tailor shop felt empty on her, as if the slightest breeze would blow her away. Yet her eyes were brighter than ever before. That brightness wasn't the innocence of someone kept in seclusion, blind to everything, but the clarity of someone who had seen so much helplessness.
During Xue Shangyang's absence, much had happened in the city, with new troubles popping up every day. Yang Ye and Zhang Ma were walking home from the grocery store. At the corner of the alley, she saw a woman crying, holding a child. She knew the woman; she seemed to be a distant relative of Zhang Ma. Two days ago, she had brought her child to Zhang Ma to deliver some things from her hometown, saying that they would return home in a few days after her husband's wages at the dock were paid. Yang Ye had even given the child a piece of candy. But now, the child lay motionless in his mother's arms. Beside the woman lay a body covered in white cloth. The outlines were clearly those of an adult man, and blood was slowly seeping from the corners, forming small puddles on the ground.
The wind blew up the paper money she had just thrown out, and the fragments floated past and landed on the dark red pool at her feet.
"This world..." Aunt Zhang stopped, looked at her, sighed softly, and shook her head silently.
Yang Ye looked at the woman. She mechanically patted the child in her arms, her lips moving as if she were humming a lullaby, but no sound came out of her throat. "Aren't you going to go see her?"
Aunt Zhang sighed, "It's pointless for me to go. Her husband was beaten to death as a rebel. Reactionary leaflets were found in the dock warehouse. No one on the dock survived. If I go there now, won't I bring trouble upon my wife?"
"Where are her children?"
"No last night." Aunt Zhang turned her face away, unable to bear to watch any more. "She knelt in front of the police station all night holding her child, and only then did she get the man's body back. The child was frozen to death at dawn."
Yang Ye stood there, feeling as if something was gripping his chest, and even his breathing became sluggish.
"Let's go," said Aunt Zhang.
On his way home, Yang Ye looked up and saw seven or eight students, holding a white banner with black lettering, rushing out from the street corner. A child, crouched at the entrance playing with rocks, was drawn to the scene and ran over. The students chanted slogans, and the child joined in. Just as Yang Ye was about to call the child away, several police officers, guns drawn, chased after them. The lead officer grabbed the short child, who was running last, by the collar and slammed the butt of his rifle into his back.
"Stop!" Yang Ye suddenly rushed over and said to the policeman who was beating him, "He's just a child."
The police turned around and glared at her, "Those who incite riots should be beaten. Where did you come from, bitch? How dare you meddle in my business?"
"He didn't incite, he was just forced to go there, he didn't know anything," Yang Ye continued to explain.
"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding." Yang Ye disappeared in the blink of an eye. Aunt Zhang hurriedly chased after him and quickly stuffed two silver dollars into the policeman's hand. She pulled Yang Ye's arm and smiled at the policeman, "This is Mrs. Xue, you must know Master Xue Shangyang. Our wife saw that the child was beaten and felt pity for him. We definitely don't have any other intentions."
The policeman weighed the money in his hand, and then looked at Yang Ye with a more inquiring look in his eyes. He snorted, "It turned out to be Mrs. Xue. You should have told me earlier, why did you make such a fuss?"
He curled his lips, his foot still pressing on the child's back, "Madam, the police have specifically named and want to arrest these students. You can't let your brothers get away with it."
Yang Ye changed his tone, "He was just swept away. You see, he is only seven or eight years old. What can he know?"
The policeman snorted, suddenly grabbed the child's arm and dragged him out, "Mrs. Xue, you have to understand the difficulties we face on duty. Commander Xue is not in Peking at the moment, so you have to be more open-minded."
The impatience in his eyes grew more and more.
Aunt Zhang quickly pulled Yang Ye back and said, "You're right, we'll leave now so as not to delay your work."
She dragged the people into the alley. Aunt Zhang's hands were shaking as she pulled her. She suppressed her voice and glanced behind her after every word, for fear that those people would catch up with her again.
"Madam, we can only protect ourselves now. In this world, only those who turn a blind eye can live longer."
"But you saw it too. The child was only six or seven years old. What did he know? He just went over because there were a lot of people around and it was fun."
"That's his fate," said Aunt Zhang, walking back faster and faster.
'Bang'
The sound of gunfire behind him made Yang Ye's eardrums ring.
She was pinned to the spot.
The sound of a policeman spitting could be heard from the alley. "What a damn bad luck! We went through so much trouble and only caught a baby!"
Another voice chimed in, "Bringing them back won't accomplish anything. It's better to get rid of them. Then we can say they tried to resist and we shot them."
"Big brother is still smart"
The man snorted, "But the money that Madam Xue gave me is quite generous. Brothers, let's go to Chunxianglou for a drink tonight. I'll treat you."
"I can't hide behind you forever and just ask you to protect me." Yang Ye looked at him closely and said seriously, "Shangyang, you told me before that if I want to survive in this world, I must rely on myself. But look, you protect me so well, how can I rely on myself?"
Xue Shangyang's heart tightened, his Adam's apple rolling up and down. After a moment's silence, he raised his eyes to look at Yang Ye, his voice filled with a bitterness that he himself hadn't noticed. "Zhao Zhao, do you know why I let you take the name Ye?"
"You said Ye means sun."
"Yeah." Xue Shangyang hugged Yang Ye tightly, resting his chin on the top of her head. "The sun shines brightly during the day, and the moon shines brightly at night. I hope you can become your own light, and you are also the light that shines into my life, the light that belongs to me."
Yang Ye could hear his own heartbeat and Xue Shangyang's, which were firm and powerful.
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