“What house?”
“Didn’t you dream about buying a big villa in Beijing to bring your grandmother and aunts to live with you? Weren’t you going to at least manage a three-bedroom place this year to make do?”
“Not buying anymore. Besides, those grand ladies in our family wouldn’t want to go even if I bought a place,” Ye Meng looked at the sparse night scene of the town and said, “And I don’t plan to go back after returning this time.”
The car passed by a supermarket. Fang Ya’en went in to buy a lighter and spent ages queuing to check out. The crowdedness of the supermarket was comparable to a clearance sale held by a boss who had run away with his sister-in-law, leaving his wife to liquidate the stock. The streets were deserted because almost everyone in town was squeezed in there.
Ye Meng, sitting in the car, spotted a few thuggish-looking loiterers squatting under a streetlight, smoking with sly grins.
This was the norm for small-town youth.
Ye Meng had long had enough of her lazy, unconstrained life, but she was also extremely tired of the scheming and intrigue of the big city.
With the new partner coming in to sideline her, and Gou Kai not speaking up for her at all, Ye Meng felt that all her years of hard work had gone to waste. Even if the partner hadn’t said anything, she would have resigned voluntarily.
Fang Ya’en finished a cigarette before getting in the car. While rummaging through her purse for perfume, she said to Ye Meng: “You’re not going back? Have you thought it through? You studied for five years to test out of here. Wasn’t the whole point to take your grandmother and the others away from this place? The Ye family has had its ups and downs for so many years. Just when it looked like you were about to make something of yourself, you’re back to square one.”
Ning Sui town was small, but populous, with gossip flying everywhere. Ye Meng had experienced this deeply since childhood. When she was little, her test papers with zero marks were posted in the town hall, and the townspeople bullied the Ye family for having weak and meek men.
Even now, people still say, “Ye Meng? Isn’t that the Ye family’s daughter who scored a zero? Old Master Ye was truly unlucky—his son was weak and cowardly, his daughter-in-law birthed three daughters who couldn’t bear children, and when they finally had a great-granddaughter, she turned out to be a girl. With average intelligence, too. Took five years of high school to get into university.”
Fang Ya’en didn’t think Ye Meng had average intelligence; she was just naturally lazy and couldn’t be bothered to care.
“My grandmother is the type who would die here no matter what. I can’t move her. She still hopes I’ll marry and have children here to tend the Ye family graves for life. Forget it, I don’t want to go back to Beijing. I’ll find a job here.” Ye Meng added, “Oh, and stop at the intersection ahead.”
Fang Ya’en didn’t bother trying to persuade her. She finished touching up her makeup in the sun visor mirror and prepared to start the car: “Where to?”
“To Alley Street to eat crabs.”
Fang Ya’en sighed: “Your intelligence is truly all spent on eating crabs. But not today—my husband’s not around and I still need to help my son with his homework. Another day, my treat.”
“Your son isn’t even in kindergarten yet. What homework does he need help with?”
“What kind of memory do you have? My son is already in elementary school. And nowadays, children compete on this stuff—I can’t let him fall behind at the starting line. After all, neighbor Wang’s kid already knows how to buy soy sauce using English.”
“Alright then,” Ye Meng hadn’t planned to bring her along anyway. “I’ll go by myself. After eating, I might stroll around, and perhaps have a romantic encounter or something. It’s been so many years since I left, I wonder if the younger brothers in town have grown up yet.”
“Tsk, tsk, you’re persistent about dating younger men.” Fang Ya’en smiled and shook her head.
However, the crab restaurant had relocated without posting a new address. The entire alley street seemed slated for demolition, with all shop signs completely removed.
At this time, the town was pitch black. The camel-back-shaped mountains were vaguely hidden in the murky twilight. The sparse, barely functional streetlights also shone casually, neither fully on nor off. The moon, pressing against the last thin layer of light at the horizon, barely allowed her to discern directions.
Ye Meng decided to visit the park across the street.
She sauntered, not seeing any younger men along the way, but spotted several wrinkled old men practicing tai chi sword, each push and turn to embody the elegance and contentment of small-town elders.
Then she reached the lakeside and saw someone.
To be precise, she first noticed the crab, and only belatedly realized there was a person next to it.
There were no lights here. The stone pillar lamps along the lake were even more capricious than the streetlights, choosing to go on strike altogether. The moonlight, however, seemed especially generous, pouring down its clear radiance, making the calm lake surface look like a giant mirror, glistening with ripples that formed barely noticeable circles.
In this dim light, Ye Meng could still see clearly that the crab on the railing was cooked—
And that the man looked young, possibly one of those “younger brothers.”
He sat on the railing dressed entirely in black, with his black sports jacket zipped up, the collar standing upright against his long nape. He wore a black bucket hat, with wet hair at the nape of his neck glistening in the moonlight, still dripping water. His back was soaked, as if he had just showered and hadn’t had time to dry off before being called to the lakeside.
For some reason, this tall, broad-shouldered figure with a slightly lowered head struck Ye Meng as somewhat pitiful, like an abandoned stray dog.
Perhaps sensing something, the man with his head buried in his collar suddenly looked up, revealing a lean chin, a tense jaw still damp, and earrings that gave off a cold gleam in the pale moonlight. In this town, most who wore earrings were small-time thugs, but few wore them with such ascetic, cold air.
The man caught a glimpse of Ye Meng standing below the railing. He turned his head, his wet eyes dark and deep, emotions complex, as if waiting for an unknown judgment.
“What do you want?”
The stray dog spoke. His voice was pleasant to hear—like cold sake on a scorching day beside the lake that gave off a faint smell of unripe fish. It carried a distinct coldness that felt refreshing, though the voice was somewhat hoarse, suggesting recent vocal cord strain.
Ye Meng was first startled, then quickly looked around. The surroundings were silent, with only a few seemingly lost leaves floating about. There was nothing else he could be talking to—no lights, not even a passing ant. Except for her.
“Keep staring and I’ll charge you,” the stray dog turned away with a cold gaze.
“…”
Ye Meng blinked in astonishment. These younger brothers were stingy and prideful these days.
“Do you need something else?”
Fine, Ye Meng cleared her throat lightly. She was always good at brazening things out, so she might as well be thick-skinned—
“May I ask you for…”
“No money for dating? Why are you trying to pick up girls?” The stray dog inexplicably glanced back at her in the pale moonlight, his eyes slightly squinted, his cold eyelids furrowed into three layers from impatience: “If there’s something urgent, I’ve got to go.”
Only then did Ye Meng notice the black earphone wire emerging from his collar.
So he was on a phone call?
Three minutes earlier: “Little Yu-ge.”
“What?”
The person said: “Where’s your computer? Let me borrow it to download some software, want to check something.”
“Keep looking and I’ll charge you.”
The person said: “Don’t be like that, it’s legitimate work—”
“Do you need something else?” he interrupted directly.
The person said: “You miser! Don’t make everything about money!”
“No money for dating? Why are you trying to pick up girls? If there’s something urgent, I’ve got to go.”
…
The atmosphere was silent. The lake’s surface rippled slightly. In the early autumn small town, all was quiet, without even the sound of a dog barking.
The stray dog casually removed his earphones and hung them outside his upturned collar. The face under the hat brim was rather pale, with clearly defined, rounded lip contours. Sitting on the railing, he glanced down at her, seemingly quite accustomed to being approached by girls: “Want my WeChat?”
“No,” Ye Meng didn’t particularly like this type. Thinking quickly, she lied shamelessly, “I was asking about the address of this crab restaurant.”