Mu Wen’s eyes drifted away.
She picked up her glass and finished the drink in one go, then said to Xie Chong, “You drink too! Are you just keeping fish in there?”
She was trying to hide the chaos inside her heart.
Mu Wen was a very rational person.
She had always understood one thing: liking Xie Chong was her own business. She never expected him to return her feelings equally.
She was climbing a mountain, while Xie Chong was a tourist on that mountain.
He was standing high above, while she had only just bought a ticket and taken her first step.
She didn’t know how far she would climb or whether she would ever reach the top.
The only connection between them was like calling to each other from opposite sides of the mountain. They could hear each other’s voices, but to actually meet, either she had to climb up or he had to come down.
She was only in her early twenties and had originally never understood these things.
It was Chu Ling and Little Gu who had taught her through their own experiences.
Little Gu was from Henan.
He had married a young man who was a “true old Beijinger” and lived with his parents-in-law in a tiny 60-square-meter home.
Little Gu’s husband worked for the local neighborhood office and earned very little.
She herself had always worked as an assistant, constantly measuring rooms and drawing simple layouts.
Even so, her in-laws still said that she had “married above her station.”
They always said,
“A girl from a rural village in Henan who manages to marry into Beijing—that’s a once-in-a-thousand-lifetimes opportunity.”
Mu Wen comforted her.
“You’re really great. You studied so much and have a good-paying job. Why do they talk about you like that? They have no reason to.”
Little Gu would always give a tired smile.
“Engineer Mu, please don’t end up like me. Your starting point is higher than mine. Don’t put yourself through the kind of unfair treatment I have.”
As for Chu Ling, she was dating one of her coworkers.
Her company was excellent, a major internet company exploring many new areas of business.
Her coworker was also a graduate of a prestigious university and worked there as a programmer.
Once, Mu Wen accompanied Chu Ling to work a shift at the office and saw the young man.
He was simple and neat.
He placed two boxes of fruit in front of them and immediately left.
“We’re evenly matched. Neither of us is lacking anything,” Chu Ling said. “So we respect each other.”
What happened to Little Gu and Chu Ling had deeply affected Mu Wen.
She realized that Beijing was a very realistic city.
Everyone here was eager to prove their own value so they could gain more leverage in life.
Mu Wen had never once contacted Xie Chong first.
She was afraid of how he might look at her.
If he looked down on her, then her feelings for him would become worthless.
Even when she received her first official paycheck and desperately wanted to share the happiness with him, she still went to karaoke alone.
Xie Chong didn’t expose her.
He asked Mu Wen whether Moutai tasted good.
She said it did and asked,
“Can you give me just a little more?”
Xie Chong poured her another small glass.
Mu Wen pointed toward the kitchen.
“Actually, there’s still dough and filling left. I’ll make all the dumplings later. You can freeze them. When you don’t have anything to eat, just cook a few.”
“Aren’t you tired?” he asked.
Mu Wen slapped the table.
“We’re only this young and we’re already saying we’re tired every day? Don’t be like that! Young people should have the energy and liveliness of young people!”
She shouted the slogan loudly, but she really did believe it.
“With all that energy, maybe I should tie a millstone to you and have you pull it around. Or maybe send you out to plow the fields.”
Xie Chong pointed toward the things in the living room.
“You made dumplings for me. I don’t really have anything to give you in return. If I give you money, you’ll think I’m insulting you…”
He wanted her to choose something from the room and sell it. Any one of those things would be worth quite a lot.
“Give it to me!”
Mu Wen interrupted him and held out her hand.
“Please give me money! What’s shameful about being paid for my work?”
She was actually happy that Xie Chong understood this.
Now she felt that she hadn’t made enough dough or enough filling.
She should make more.
That way, she could earn more money.
“How much would be appropriate?” Xie Chong deliberately asked.
Mu Wen thought about it.
“How about we calculate it by the number of finished dumplings? One yuan per dumpling?”
“Okay.”
“Then I’ll go~!”
Mu Wen happily returned to the kitchen.
Xie Chong followed her.
She made dumplings while he watched from the side.
Mu Wen’s fingers were incredibly nimble.
She placed a wrapper in her palm, added a spoonful of filling, and with a few quick movements, she had a plump dumpling ready.
Then she lined the dumplings up neatly and put them in the freezer.
She said to Xie Chong,
“If you ever get the chance, you should try freshly made dumplings. You eat them right after they’re made.”
“What does that mean?” Xie Chong asked.
“You boil a huge pot of water. Once the dumplings are wrapped, you throw them straight into the boiling water. When they’re cooked, you eat them right there beside the pot.”
Mu Wen described it enthusiastically.
“They’re so delicious you’ll jump for joy!”
Xie Chong smiled.
He had already drunk almost a bottle of liquor, but he was nowhere near drunk.
He simply felt warm.
Mu Wen’s voice made him feel light and relaxed, as if he had returned to the afternoons of many years ago at his grandmother’s or maternal grandmother’s home.
His memories always seemed to revolve around August.
The very end of summer.
Flowers in the alley competed to bloom, while cicadas cried endlessly.
He would wake up, rub his sleepy eyes, and climb out of bed.
Then he would see the elderly woman busy working by the stove.
Xie Chong had an unusually sensitive sense of smell as a child.
With the slightest breath, he could already tell what they would be eating that evening.
If he smelled the fresh scent of shredded cucumber, it meant fried sauce noodles.
If he smelled lamb, it meant lamb noodles.
If he smelled green onions, it meant lamb and green onion dumplings.
If he smelled carrots, it meant a carrot-and-egg pancake.
He used to alternate between staying at his grandmother’s and his maternal grandmother’s homes.
The reason he couldn’t stay too long was that his uncles lived there too.
The houses were small, and if he stayed for too long, one of them would eventually become unhappy.
His parents had money and bought him a large apartment so he could live there.
His grandmothers took turns staying with him, and his uncles would sometimes come over too.
But the older women worried that if they stayed too long, their sons would start thinking about taking over the new house.
So eventually, they stopped coming.
His parents hired a “little nanny” instead.
The “little nanny” was almost fifty years old.
People said she was an excellent cook, but Xie Chong never actually tasted her cooking.
He remembered that she had a bad temper.
Sometimes when he said he was hungry, she would make him a packet of instant noodles.
Once he asked,
“Shouldn’t we add an egg?”
The woman would pinch his arm and say that eating too much would turn him into a fat pig.
Then she would ask,
“Am I good to you?”
Xie Chong was afraid of her, so he would say,
“You’re very good to me.”
He had been very young then.
He only thought the “little nanny” was a man-eating monster.
He cried and demanded to go back to his grandmother’s house.
It was still August.
The end of summer.
He would carry his schoolbag, with his textbooks inside, and a bag containing his clothes.
When he arrived at his grandmother’s house, he would see her covered in sweat.
The moment she saw him, she would hug him and tell him to take an afternoon nap and rest.
“When you wake up, Grandma’s dumplings will be ready.”
Xie Chong would fall asleep to the endless sound of the cicadas.
That day must have been very hot.
When he woke up, his entire body was covered in sweat.
He rubbed his sleepy eyes and went looking for his grandmother.
Then he saw her lying on the kitchen floor.
She had not suffered much.
She had simply passed away peacefully.
After that, Xie Chong lost one more place where he could eat.
Having a proper home-cooked meal became harder and harder for him.
Fortunately, he had more and more money as he grew older, and he became increasingly skilled at eating out.
But restaurant food was never the same as home cooking.
Only at the riding school could he still taste something like home.
Jiang Wu noticed that he always seemed hungry, so she would give him the meat from her own bowl.
When he offered her money, Jiang Wu would become angry.
“What makes you think your little bit of money is such a big deal?”
Jiang Wu didn’t want his money.
She didn’t care about it at all.
She would say,
“If you like it, eat it. If you don’t, then don’t! If you’re going to eat at my house, don’t do these annoying things.”
But Mu Wen was willing to take his money.
For some reason, that made Xie Chong feel relieved.
He thought making dumplings was fun and asked to help.
Mu Wen taught him.
“Look. First pinch it like this, then squeeze it like this, and the dumpling is done!”
She looked up at him.
“Did you learn it?”
Xie Chong said,
“What’s so difficult about that?”
He copied her movements.
One pinch.
One squeeze.
And a strangely shaped dumpling was born.
Mu Wen stared at the strange-looking dumpling and burst out laughing.
“Forget it, forget it. You should just go drink your alcohol.”
She pushed Xie Chong out of the kitchen.
By the time she finished, it was already evening.
The living room windows were wide open.
Xie Chong was lying on the sofa asleep, holding a cushion in his arms.
He looked like a completely different person.
He was neither arrogant nor childish.
The breeze gently played with his hair and the flowers by the window.
He looked so peaceful and content.
Mu Wen quietly went to the bathroom and brought out a bath towel.
She gently covered his stomach with it so he wouldn’t get cold.
She crouched there and looked at him for a few seconds.
His long, curled eyelashes and high nose bridge made him look like a very handsome young man.
For some reason, Mu Wen sighed.
Then she quietly stood up, picked up her toolbox, slung her canvas bag over her shoulder, and left Xie Chong’s home.
On the way back, her footsteps felt light.
She felt that even the wind was being kind to her because it was blowing so gently.
The flowers were being kind to her because they were blooming.
Even the bus was being kind to her because there weren’t many passengers, and she had a seat by the window.
She sat on the bus listening to music through her earphones.
The song kept playing:
“Let it be
Let it be
Let it be…”
The bus rocked gently.
She slept through the length of one song.
Her heart felt soft.
So this is what it’s like to like someone…
It was as if everything in the world had something to do with him.
When Xie Chong woke up, the sun had already set.
The house was dark and quiet.
It felt as though he had just had a long dream.
He couldn’t remember what the dream was about, but the feeling of happiness and fullness still lingered in his heart.
“Mu Wen?”
He called out.
There was no answer.
He realized that Mu Wen had already left.
He was thirsty.
Very thirsty.
He got up to get some water.
The dining table was spotless, and the leftover food had been covered.
The kitchen was also clean.
There wasn’t even a trace of cooking smoke.
It was as if no one had ever cooked there.
She’s really hardworking.
Xie Chong thought to himself.
She really is hardworking.
Then he remembered that he hadn’t paid her for her work.
He sent her a message.
“How many dumplings did you make in total?”
Mu Wen replied:
“Eighty-six. Round it up to 200 yuan.”
“That’s how you round numbers?”
“300 works too.”
Mu Wen wasn’t actually trying to cheat Xie Chong.
Later, she thought about it.
I’m basically a private chef.
Other private chefs charge 2,000 yuan for one meal.
My dumplings can’t be that cheap.
“Bandit,” Xie Chong called her.
Qian Song called Xie Chong and asked if he wanted to go out for dinner.
“A new Hubei restaurant just opened near Sanyuanqiao. It’s really good.”
“I’m not going. I drank already. I have food at home.”
Qian Song was stunned.
Since when has Xie Chong ever had food at home?
He hung up and immediately showed up uninvited.
The sight before him shocked him.
His good friend not only had food at home, but the food consisted of handmade dumplings!
Without saying a word, Qian Song went from room to room, looking around as if he were investigating a secret affair.
He was almost certain that Xie Chong had someone in his life.
But the house was spotless.
There was no trace of another person’s belongings anywhere.
Except for the dishes and dumplings.
“Who is it?” Qian Song asked.
“Did you secretly start dating someone? You don’t like Jiang Wu anymore?”
“I’m not dating anyone,” Xie Chong said. “She’s a friend.”
“What kind of friend?”
“Just an ordinary friend.”
“An ordinary female friend comes to your house and cooks for you?”
Qian Song stared at him.
“Brother, is something wrong with your brain? Have you ever seen an ordinary female friend come over to cook for a man? Are you pretending not to understand?”
“I’m not.”
Xie Chong said,
“I’m not.”
Xie Chong felt that he couldn’t tell Qian Song the whole story.
Before today, he hadn’t realized that Mu Wen liked him.
She was simply too natural.
She never took the initiative with him and treated him like an ordinary client.
She was also naturally warm toward everyone, so he had never thought that he was special to her.
Perhaps, at some moment, he had sensed that she might have been attracted to him.
But that alone didn’t amount to love.
“I’m hungry.”
Qian Song decided he was going to stay at Xie Chong’s house.
“I want to see how good this ordinary friend’s cooking is.”
There was no way he could expect Xie Chong to heat up the food for him.
So he helped himself.
He dumped some lettuce into a lightly oiled pan and started stir-frying it.
As he cooked, he sniffed the air dramatically.
“Smells good! Really good!”
Qian Song kept secretly watching Xie Chong’s expression, trying to figure out what was different about him.
But he couldn’t see anything.
Xie Chong told Qian Song that tomorrow he would go to Jingdezhen to deal with that man surnamed Chen.
Someone had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tried to take his order.
He had to go there himself.
“Go, go,” Qian Song said. “I’m staying here to eat dumplings.”
Xie Chong didn’t want to give Qian Song any dumplings.
Qian Song ate like a glutton.
He would swallow the dumplings almost whole and wouldn’t appreciate their flavor at all.
They might as well feed them to a dog.
But Qian Song insisted.
In the end, they reached an agreement.
Xie Chong would cook ten frozen dumplings for Qian Song.
Qian Song would pay him 500 yuan.
Xie Chong insisted that they settle the payment immediately.
Qian Song cursed him for being heartless and unreasonable while handing over 500 yuan in cash.
Xie Chong put the money into his wallet and, only then, allowed Qian Song to eat the leftover dishes and the large homemade dumplings.
Qian Song praised the rare taste of real home cooking as he ate and kept questioning Xie Chong about what was going on.
Xie Chong finally had to tell him that someone from the renovation company had come to repair the furniture and happened to have dinner there.
Qian Song looked completely confused.
“Then why doesn’t my renovation company cook for me?”
“You chose a cheaper renovation company back then.”
Xie Chong answered seriously.
“Next time, choose an expensive one. If you choose an expensive one, you get every service.”
After seeing Qian Song off, Xie Chong took his wallet and left the house.
He valued his word.
He had promised to pay Mu Wen, so he intended to pay her that very day.
When he reached Mu Wen’s window, he originally planned to knock and call her outside.
He even raised his hand as if he were about to knock.
But just before his hand touched the window, he suddenly pulled it back.
He took 800 yuan from his wallet and placed it beneath a stone on the windowsill.
Then he walked to the corner and sent her a message.
“The labor fee is outside your window. 300 for the work, plus payment for ten dumplings. 800 yuan in total.”
He was worried someone might take the money, so he stayed nearby.
After more than ten minutes, a hand reached out and took the money from beneath the stone.
Only then did Xie Chong turn around and leave.
Mu Wen sat on her bed.
The 800 yuan bills were neatly lined up on the blanket.
She hadn’t even dried her hair yet.
Drops of water fell onto the money.
She immediately cried out,
“Oh no!”
She quickly gathered up the money.
Then she looked up.
A bright full moon hung high in the sky.
She smiled.