Having listened for a while now, the young bride was already brimming with curiosity about Qin Ziheng, and the moment she heard he was back, she immediately turned her head toward the village entrance.
On the road leading in from town, a car was driving toward the village. Its front end had a little grille divided into small squares, with a few rings above them. The young bride knew nothing about cars and had no interest in them, so of course she didn’t know the brand. The vehicles in the village were either three-wheelers or beat-up minivans due for the scrapyard, those who did have a proper car drove ordinary ones worth a hundred thousand or so. This car she didn’t recognize, but it was black and glossy, catching the light, and it looked so imposing, so unlike an ordinary car, that at a glance it gave off an air of being terribly, terribly expensive, clearly not in the same class.
Hearing the sound, the shopkeeper’s wife’s younger son came dashing out to look, his eyes going wide. “Holy crap, that’s an Audi A8L Horch.”
The young bride said, “Xiaoming, you know this car? Is it expensive?”
“Of course. This one costs over a million nine! I don’t think that was the one Brother Qin drove last year, did Brother Qin change cars again? Damn, he’s really something.”
The shopkeeper’s wife and the young bride could barely swallow.
Over a million?!
The young bride watched the car stop at the village entrance.
The Liang family had used their three-wheeler to haul firewood today, and the wood had spilled onto the road and hadn’t been carried inside yet, so the car couldn’t drive in. This end of the village had the basketball court. The village’s young people were all off working or at school, the court was usually empty. In earlier years some old folks had thought it a waste to leave it empty and had paid out of their own pockets to buy a basketball, only for one to bounce a couple of times, throw out his aching back with a crack, and be carted off to the hospital by ambulance that very night, sirens wailing. After that no one came to play ball except at New Year and the festivals, and the villagers took to using the court as a parking lot.
The car stopped, backed up at the village entrance, and pulled a little way into the court. Only once he’d made sure it wasn’t blocking the road did the driver come to a halt.
Qin Liang and his wife had arrived at some point, the moment the car stopped, the couple went over.
“Bao Wa’er.”
The driver’s door slowly opened, and a foot stepped out, clad in a gleaming leather shoe.
Qin Ziheng got out of the car in a custom-tailored black suit, a three-piece underneath, with a long overcoat left open on top, revealing the suit within, and beneath that a white shirt with the top two buttons undone, the tie had apparently been taken off, leaving his elegant collarbones bare.
Some villagers worked in sales in town, real-estate sales, it was said, and those young fellows wore suits every day too. But their suits were probably bought off Taobao, put on, they made it obvious the men were salesmen. A custom-tailored suit, crisp and perfectly fitted, on the other hand, clearly cost a small fortune.
Qin Ziheng stood one meter eighty-nine, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, his features and proportions alike so fine, his tall frame so well-balanced, as to be flawless. His skin was a cool fair tone, and his thick, soft black hair was parted seven-three and had clearly been carefully styled, it looked very sharp. Perhaps from all his years of study, he carried himself with a refined air, like a gentle, well-bred young lord, cultured and mild.
The tailored suit only accentuated his height and long legs, and with a watch at his wrist, he looked like an elite from one angle and an overbearing CEO from another. Up and down, every angle handsome, seen from afar, a walking suit-clad heartbreaker.
For a moment the young bride was struck dumb.
Earlier, when the shopkeeper’s wife had said Bao Wa’er was good-looking, she’d wondered, how good could he be? At most like that male celebrity on the bottle, her idol. But now, seeing him, she felt Bao Wa’er was even better-looking than that, and this was a man just like them, with two eyes, a nose, a mouth, yet handsome to an extreme, handsome to the point of being unearthly. Simply standing there, he was dazzling, outstanding, truly not like someone who’d come out of their village, setting her heart pounding wildly and flushing her face crimson despite herself.
The shopkeeper’s wife had gone red in the face too. “Bao Wa’er’s grown more and more handsome these past few years.” Even she felt her heart flutter each time she saw him.
“He has!” her son said. “Brother Qin is ridiculously good-looking! Last year when he came back, I sneaked a photo of him and posted it on our school forum, and it blew up, a whole crowd chasing me to ask who he was, whether a movie star had come to the countryside, pestering me nonstop: Who is he, that handsome, I’ll give you eight hundred yuan, I need all his info in five seconds.”
……
Qin Liang was happy to see his nephew back, but seeing him only once a year, there was still a certain awkwardness.
And Qin Ziheng’s looks made Qin Liang nervous to the point of not knowing where to put his hands and feet. He rubbed his hands together, at a loss, and searched for something to say. “Xiao Heng, you’re back?”
“Mm.”
“Tired from the trip?” Liang Jinlan asked. “You got back so fast today, did you set off the moment you got off work yesterday?” Seeing Qin Ziheng nod, her heart ached at once.
He must have driven through the night, their village was, after all, no short distance from Beijing.
Qin Ziheng had indeed left the moment he got off work, driving straight through on the expressway without stopping. If he hadn’t come back last night, he’d surely have been stuck in traffic today. His work was busy, and Qingming was only two days, afraid of being jammed on the road on the third and unable to make it, he made the night drive every time.
The villagers gathered around to greet Qin Ziheng. Most of these aunties had gone out to work when they were young and only come back in their old age to care for the family’s elders and grandchildren, so they weren’t really close to him.
Grandma Liang, gaunt and hunched, leaning on her cane, came trembling forward. The others only dared to greet Qin Ziheng, not to touch him, always feeling he was somehow different from them.
But Grandma Liang dared. Now she gripped Qin Ziheng’s hand and said, moved, “Bao Wa’er, you’re back.”
Her teeth had all fallen out and her words were a little unclear, but Qin Ziheng understood. He steadied her and, raising his voice a little, called out, “Grandma Liang.”
“Ai, ai, back is good, back is good.”
Once he’d finished greeting everyone, Qin Ziheng opened the trunk. It was packed full of gift boxes that looked high-end and costly, along with fruit he’d bought on the way. He lifted out several boxes of fruit. Qin Liang clicked his tongue at the sight and made to help, but Qin Ziheng gave a slight, very gentle smile and said, “Uncle, no need, I’ve got it.”
Liang Jinlan glanced at her nephew, deeply envious of her brother-in-law. She couldn’t fathom the good fortune her brother-in-law and his ex-wife had had, to produce a child like this.
If she’d had a child like him, even a mute one, she’d have loved him to her very bones.
There was too much to carry, and Qin Ziheng couldn’t manage it all alone. He put the heavy things in his own hands, leaving only two lighter boxes of mandarins for Qin Ming, no, for Liang Jinlan and Qin Liang to carry. Once Qin Ziheng had shut the car door, Liang Jinlan said, “Xiao Wen’s home watching the fire, the water should be about to boil. I steamed the glutinous rice getting up in the middle of the night, and your uncle’s bought the incense, candles, and white paper. Once we’re home we’ll kill the chicken and cook it, then go sweep your grandfather’s grave.”
“Mm. Sorry to trouble you, Auntie.”
Liang Jinlan pretended to be cross. “This child, always so polite, we’re family, what’s all this talk?”
The house Qin Liang had built was three stories, with the kitchen and main hall on the ground floor and the bedrooms on the second and third. Step through the door and you were in the hall, the kitchen was a bit farther in.
When they got home, Qin Ziwen heard the commotion from the kitchen and came hurrying out. The moment he saw Qin Ziheng his eyes lit up, and an honest, guileless smile spread across his face. “Big brother.”
Qin Ziheng was quite fond of this thick-browed, big-eyed, likeable cousin. He set down his things and ruffled the boy’s hair. “A year apart, and Xiao Wen’s grown this tall.”
Qin Ziwen grinned foolishly.
He now stood one meter seventy-six, shorter than Qin Ziheng, of course, but much taller than his other two cousins, and he was thoroughly content. His eldest cousin was the tallest of all the Qins, there was no measuring up to him.
Killing the chicken was easy. Liang Jinlan and Qin Liang wouldn’t let Qin Ziheng lend a hand, afraid too of dirtying his clothes. In that outfit, with that watch, if he helped them kill a chicken they’d feel too guilty. Knowing his work was busy and that he had to be back at work the day after tomorrow, the couple wanted to hurry, if the grave-sweeping went quickly, Qin Ziheng might still get a meal and a bit of sleep and rest before heading back.
Qin Ziheng chatted with Qin Ziwen in the living room for a while, then pulled a bag up from the floor. “This is a phone I bought for you. I didn’t know what you liked, so I just picked one.”
It was the newest iPhone. Qin Ziwen was overjoyed, clutching the bag with his face flushed red, thrilled beyond words. “Thank you, big brother.”
Qin Ziheng gave a soft laugh and ruffled his hair again. “No need to be so formal with your big brother. But you’re in your final year of high school now, the college entrance exam is only a few months away, so don’t bring the phone to school. Focus on your review first.”
“Mm, I know.” Qin Ziwen couldn’t wait to fish out the gift and start examining it.
Qin Ziheng glanced toward the kitchen. Liang Jinlan and Qin Liang were crouched on the floor plucking the chicken, a big free-range bird they’d raised themselves, its skin a golden yellow, a bird like that wouldn’t cook through quickly.
Qin Ziheng picked up a box of fruit and, after telling Qin Liang, headed outside.
The village used to be so spacious, all dirt roads. Now cement connected village to village, everyone had earned money working away and every household had built new buildings, the tile-roofed houses and mud-brick houses were nowhere to be seen anymore.
It had been only ten years, yet the changes came day by day, and compared to his childhood the village was, one could say, ‘unrecognizable,’ which stirred in Qin Ziheng once again a sense of estrangement from the village where he’d spent more than ten years.
He’d just stepped out the door when someone called to him.
“Xiao Heng, you, you’re back.”
Qin Ziheng’s steps paused, and he looked to the side. It was Qin Ming and his wife, both wearing ingratiating smiles, standing at their door with their two sons, watching him.
Seeing Qin Ziheng look over, Qin Ming was beside himself with delight and even pulled out a cigarette, meaning to offer Qin Ziheng one.
That was the way of village men, on meeting, they always offered a smoke first, acquainted or not, once the cigarette was shared, strangers became acquaintances.
The cigarette had barely been extended when Qin Ziheng walked off.
“Xiao Heng!”
Qin Ziheng didn’t stop.
Qin Zili and Qin Ziran stared at Qin Ziheng’s back in silence. In earlier years Qin Zili would still have sneered and cursed under his breath, putting on airs, who does he think he’s looking down on.
But these past few years he hadn’t dared say it anymore.
Back then he’d been young, and seeing someone better than himself, he couldn’t help but be jealous. Qin Zili was only two and a half years younger than Qin Ziheng, and he’d been compared to this eldest brother endlessly.
It rankled Qin Zili. They were born of the same father, why should this freeloading eldest brother beat him by a mile in everything?
And what was there to be so arrogant about?
So he’d studied a little better, gotten a slightly better job, so what?
He, Qin Zili, could do it too.
Back then he was still in school, still young, proud and headstrong, with no idea what the outside world was really like, always thinking that once he was out in society he’d rise to the top in no time.
But by middle school he found studying truly too hard, and out in society, work was truly too grueling. Tightening screws with no stopping, and the moment you stopped the foreman cursed you as though you weren’t even human, his days in the factory left him feeling utterly stifled.
At the construction site, winter was a little better, but summer was brutal, starting at two in the morning, and in the blazing July and August sun his clothes never dried out all day. Only later did he understand: society wasn’t as easy to get by in as he’d imagined. Money was hard to earn, and hardship hard to swallow. [1]meaning: making a living is bitter, thankless work jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2954289_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2954289_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); Years on, he had no savings, let alone any rise to the top.
Only then did he understand: this eldest brother of his was truly beyond him, the gap so vast that even the will to envy or compare had drained away.
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