◎Rabbit Hair Clip◎
Grandmother’s fever persisted after surgery, and Chun Chuzhen, who stayed by her side as a caregiver, couldn’t attend to her daughter. She could only rely on daily phone calls to care for and inquire about Chun Zao’s daily life.
Friday evening, Chun Zao was taken by her sister to the provincial hospital to visit her grandmother. The old lady’s condition had improved slightly—she could eat some liquid food, and they even encountered her uncle and his young son, who had rushed back from Melbourne.
The man handed Chun Zao an elegant black paper bag beside him, saying it contained chocolate and foreign books he’d brought for her.
Chun Zao accepted it happily, thanked him, and then brought the gifts back to the rental apartment.
Chun Chang had to stay in the hospital room tonight to take shifts with their mother, so it wasn’t convenient to send Chun Zao home. She took a taxi back alone. Returning to the familiar little house, the first thing that caught her eye was Yuan Ye’s open door. After changing shoes and looking up, the boy was already leaning against the doorframe, watching her.
“Just you again today?” Yuan Ye asked.
Chun Zao nodded.
He was genuinely concerned about her eating: “Did you have dinner?”
Chun Zao said, “I ate out with my sister.”
“What about you?” She showed concern in return.
Yuan Ye said, “Not yet.”
Chun Zao glanced at her watch, surprised: “It’s almost nine o’clock.”
Yuan Ye’s eyes held laughter as he looked directly at her without speaking. After a moment, Chun Zao tasted his underlying dissatisfaction: “You weren’t waiting for me to eat, were you?”
Yuan Ye asked back: “What do you think?”
Chun Zao puffed her cheeks with a half-smile: “I see…”
“Forget it.” The boy showed no regret on his face, his brow arching carelessly: “I’ll order something myself.”
Chun Zao played along: “Next time for sure.”
Yuan Ye seemed to have been waiting for this, or perhaps it was sudden inspiration: “Don’t wait for next time. Come out with me tomorrow.”
What did that mean?
Was he asking her out?
Pink bolded bullet comments about “eating dinner, watching movies, holding hands” began scrolling back and forth in her brain.
Chun Zao gripped the paper bag’s drawstring tightly, her emotions surging outward like churned foam: “Go out?”
Yuan Ye hummed: “Remember? During the National Day holiday, you said you wanted to go out to study. Tomorrow is Saturday, a perfect opportunity. I’ll take you to the city library.”
The moment “study” was mentioned, Chun Zao deflated, but she disguised it well: “Oh, great,” then asked: “What time?”
Yuan Ye keenly pointed out: “You don’t seem very enthusiastic?”
“No way!” She immediately raised her voice, spiritedly refuting with full energy.
“Leave at nine, okay?”
Chun Zao doubted: “Can you get up?”
Yuan Ye was struck speechless for a second by her suspicion: “How do I get up during school days?”
Chun Zao: “But you sleep in every weekend.” Making her, who got up early every holiday, seem extraordinarily clumsy.
Yuan Ye: “Chun Zao, you have quite a bias against me. Tomorrow we’ll see who gets up earlier.”
Chun Zao: “That’ll be me.”
“Fine, we’ll see then.”
“Empty words prove nothing.”
Just as they were about to argue more, the girl had already used the magic attack of “blah blah blah” to block his words. Seeing him stuck, she immediately lifted the paper bag high in a victorious pose and danced back to her room, leaving Yuan Ye both angry and amused.
Thus, the next day, just after five o’clock, when heaven and earth were still a black wilderness, the two windows of this small house lit up with warm orange lamps one after the other.
Since they were going out alone, before sleeping, Chun Zao had spent an hour choosing clothes in front of her wardrobe. Due to mental excitement, she tossed and turned, and waking up to look in the mirror, she unsurprisingly found bloodshot eyes.
But at least…
She clipped a small rabbit hair clip by her ear, pulled the hem of her cream blue hoodie smooth, then walked out of her room feeling quite satisfied with herself.
The moment her gaze met Yuan Ye, who was already sitting at the living room dining table, having claimed the high ground early, she knew she’d lost completely.
The boy wore the most streamlined all-black windbreaker, forming an extreme contrast with his skin tone, making his lips appear even redder and teeth whiter.
Chun Zao was speechless.
How could he—just throw on anything and look so good that her gaze got tangled on him, impossible to untie?
The boy supported himself with one hand on the stool, dropping his phone, looking lazy and relaxed, somewhat like waiting by a tree stump for rabbits: “Who’s earlier?”
Chun Zao argued unreasonably: “You don’t have to do your hair.”
Yuan Ye looked her over twice: “You didn’t tie your hair today either.”
Chun Zao’s cheeks gained slight heat, beginning to regret wearing that superfluous “grand” hair clip: “Too lazy to tie it.”
Yuan Ye hummed softly.
Chun Zao went out to wipe the water droplets from her face. Yuan Ye still waited at the table. She removed her headband, arranged her bangs, and sat down. The hair clip she’d removed before washing her face was tucked into her hoodie pocket and never taken out again.