「Zhou Yanqian」
The next day, when Lian Wan got off work in the evening, she saw those three words sent to the message bar on her phone, which had been quiet for a day and a night.
What a coincidence, as if everything had already been arranged. That night the Truck Fleet was having dinner together, and the others still hadn’t come back to the yard, so she had to wait there for a while. Right after parking the truck, she wiped the dashboard with a rag, lowered the seat back to lean and rest for a bit, and pulled out her phone, when this message popped up as if afraid she might miss it.
Thinking of last night’s heat and stickiness, Lian Wan lowered her eyes and hesitated for a moment, before seeing another message from the other side:
「Put my name in your contacts」
Lian Wan was always at a loss in front of her, and now it was no different even through the screen. After thinking it over, she typed back dryly,
「Okay, Sister Zhou.」
The other side quickly sent back a string of ellipses: 「…」
Lian Wan thought about it, didn’t reply, and first obediently tapped on her profile picture to add a note, unconsciously biting her lip.
Zhou, Yan, Qian.
The three characters opened and closed between her lips and teeth, as if after speaking them she were gently exhaling, with the corners of her mouth lifting.
As she typed, with the weariness of a day’s work in her body, Lian Wan idly thought: a name suited to a person, really so nice to hear.
After saving the note, she backed out to the previous screen and looked over their conversation again. Only then did she belatedly remember:
She still hadn’t told her own name yet.
The phone’s built-in keyboard clicks sounded on and on. Lian Wan weighed her words again and again, deleting and retyping for quite a while before carefully sending it over:
「Hello, my name is Lian Wan. I drive a truck for xx Truck Fleet. Four point two meters, starting at 20 yuan. Sister Zhou, if you have cargo to haul, you can contact me. Phone number 139xxxxxxxx」
The other side stayed silent for quite a while, so long that Lian Wan even grew a little uneasy, before replying: 「Got it」
Seeing that line, Lian Wan somehow suddenly felt a wave of relief. Her fingers moved faster than her brain, and she immediately turned the screen off.
She tossed the phone aside and sat there dazedly, lost in thought.
Not long after, someone outside started pounding hard on her truck window.
The others from the Truck Fleet had all come back, and were shouting for her to get out of the truck.
Lian Wan killed the engine and followed them out together.
It was nearing evening, and the sky had not yet gone dark. The sun was still fierce. Luckily, the alley was lined with tall trees, lush with green, blocking most of the heat. By the wall at the roadside, several cats were lying there basking in the sun, their tails swaying lazily back and forth, only to be startled off by the loud voices of the people talking next. This group of drivers had worked all day, and each of them carried at least some sweat smell. Lian Wan breathed it in, her expression faint, not showing the slightest discomfort.
She walked among that crowd of burly men, back straight, face cool and composed. One glance at her made her stand out sharply, forcing the rough edges of the scene to soften.
Pingchuan Town was small, and before long they reached the barbecue place the drivers always went to for dinner gatherings. The food wasn’t especially good, but the portions were large, it was cheap, and most importantly, the beer was eighty cents a bottle.
The boss knew this group of regulars and had the staff bring over plastic chairs, then pushed two tables together and handed out menus.
As soon as they sat down, everyone rushed to order. The Truck Fleet’s team leader, Wang Zhiqiang, scribbled on the menu, turned and handed it to the boss, then waved a hand. “Beer first, eight crates! If it’s not enough, we’ll get more.”
A driver beside him tapped his cup and hollered in a loud voice, “Nice! Brother Wang is really generous!”
This dinner gathering was mainly to celebrate Wang Zhiqiang’s wife giving birth to a son, and he was treating them.
Lian Wan had no objections to what they ate or how much they drank, and stayed silent off to the side. She had never been very talkative, and everyone was used to it. As they talked, if they glanced over and saw her, they’d even joke with her a little: “Xiao Lian, come on, have a cup with your brothers?”
Lian Wan would pick up her cup, touch rims with each of them in turn, and tilt her head back to drink it all down.
“Good!”
They all cheered.
Afterward they piled skewers onto her plate one stack after another. “Eat more, don’t just drink. You’re so young, don’t ruin your stomach. Don’t be like me…”
Lian Wan looked back at each of them seriously and nodded.
The drivers watched her eat, smiled in relief, and lifted their glasses again.
The scene looked warm, but in fact it hadn’t started out this harmonious.
When Lian Wan first came to the Truck Fleet, because she was young and also a woman, she often heard a lot of gossip and contempt, and there was a period when life was not very easy. But she could hold her liquor well, and the drivers all liked drinking with her. Once alcohol got into their heads, it was easy to start talking like brothers, and the relationship quickly improved by leaps and bounds.
Gradually, after getting used to one another and opening up, everyone came to treat her as one of their own.
As they ate and drank, more and more customers came into the shop. Even sitting outside, it grew hotter and hotter. The boss brought over a big black electric fan, and cool air spread through the air. In the gradually darkening sky, pale purple and orange evening clouds spread wide.
They had gone through several rounds. Beer wasn’t very strong, and everyone there was only slightly tipsy, but they all loosened up and started saying all sorts of random things. One family had married a new daughter-in-law, another was beating a child, a cat behind the house had given birth to seven kittens. As they spoke, they lowered their voices, their faces flushed red with drink, and the topic also became more and more unrestrained.
First it was Brother Li, sitting next to Lian Wan, who lifted his cup and said to Wang Zhiqiang, “Brother Wang, this cup’s to you. You’ve been leading the brothers to make a living all these years, and now you’ve even got a wife and a son. What a life, no regrets at all! Unlike me… I don’t know what’ll be left after I die…”
By the end, the man’s rough voice already carried a faint, hoarse choke.
Lian Wan, who was still sober, looked at him rather unexpectedly, then at the others nearby, and found that everyone’s faces showed some moved expression. After thinking it over a little, she belatedly remembered that this older brother had been single for many years. Nearly forty, and still alone.
Wang Zhiqiang looked at him and sighed. “Ai… after all these years, brothers, you’ve all worked hard. We’re not family, but we’re better than family. Don’t be sad. Since you call me brother, I’ll definitely help you figure this out.”
They began dipping their fingers in the wine and writing in the gaps on the table littered with cups and plates, calculating which family’s daughter would be suitable, which widowed woman wouldn’t do, and after all the weighing and measuring, someone muttered, “What about that one… that new girl… I think she’s pretty suitable.”
As soon as it was said, everyone seemed to know who he meant, and they fell into a tacit silence for a moment.
Brother Li said a little guiltily, in a low voice, “She’s from the city, and young and pretty too. Would she even look at us?”
Someone else retorted carelessly, “Why wouldn’t she? Old saying: the older a man gets, the more desirable he becomes! The way I see it, she doesn’t look like a proper woman either… otherwise why would she have come back from the city? With our honest Brother Li going up to her, how could she refuse?”
“Really? I heard from her parents she makes a lot in the city.”
“What can she possibly make? Just look at what she wears!” Seeing that nobody believed him, the man raised his voice and turned to Lian Wan. “Xiao Lian, her shop is downstairs from your place. You tell us, doesn’t she dress slutty?”
Lian Wan, who had been spacing out on the side, was suddenly asked this and took quite a while to react before she understood who he was talking about. Anger came suddenly, and by the time the heat rushed to her head, the words had already been forced out of her mouth. “She wouldn’t look at Brother Li.”
The driver who had asked the question probably hadn’t expected her to say that, and gave a “heh.” “What’s that supposed to mean? Watch your words. The team treats you so well, gives you all the good jobs, and yet your elbow is always bending outward!”
Suppressing her anger, Lian Wan gripped her cup without changing expression. “I think the cigarettes she smokes are expensive. Women like that spend money recklessly, and if you marry one home, she won’t stay proper. Brother Li is an honest man. It wouldn’t be a good fit.”
Lian Wan naturally spoke with a quiet certainty, and hearing it, the others even sobered a little from their drunkenness. They all felt she had a point, criticized the man who had started that topic a few times, and chose someone else instead.
That line of discussion had been rejected by Lian Wan, but the man still had Zhou Yanqian on his mind, and kept clinging to the subject without letting go. “That may be true, but she’s already packed up and come back from the city to her hometown. How unsteady could she really be…”
“Pingchuan Town is only this big. What waves could she possibly make?”
He kept going without end, and gradually someone began agreeing with him. “A girl from the city really is pretty… even if she doesn’t like talking to people, her little mouth is red, and her eyes are alluring…”
By the end, their voices grew lower and lower. The two drunk men draped arms over each other’s shoulders and leaned together, letting out a burst of suggestive laughter.
Lian Wan listened quietly, tightening her grip on the cup in her hand.
Most likely the two of them were truly drunk. Seeing Lian Wan sitting off to the side with a darkened expression, they even leaned over and teased her. “Xiao Lian? What’s wrong? Envious? You’ve been alone these years too, that must have been hard on you?”
The drunk man slurred, “Sh-sh-should we, brother, brothers get you a wife too…”
Lian Wan was startled.
As the man kept talking, his head bobbed once, twice, then thudded onto the table and he couldn’t get up again.
“How about we call it a day here.”
Seeing someone had passed out drunk, Wang Zhiqiang looked at the skewers and beer on the table, nearly finished, and stood up to call the boss to settle the bill. He didn’t forget to comfort Brother Li, who was watching him anxiously. “Don’t worry, brother will definitely get this done for you.”
Lian Wan stood nearby and helped steady the two drunks. She deliberately didn’t put much force into it, letting the two drunks sway back and forth and keep falling toward the ground, until tomorrow morning they’d probably wake up with several bruises on their knees.
After a while, Wang Zhiqiang came out after paying, told the brothers to disperse, and said they’d rest for half a day tomorrow morning, then drive again after the drunkenness wore off by noon, and if necessary they could ask for leave.
The group staggered off in different directions and split apart at the intersection.
Lian Wan lived nearby, and she hadn’t gotten drunk. The streetlights were bright, and she walked all the way home. The mottled shadows of the trees were stepped underfoot, insect calls came in a steady rhythm, and the night sky was tranquil. She had seen this scene for more than twenty years.
She didn’t know if it was the alcohol hitting her, but the anger that had been burning in her chest just now only grew more intense. Beads of sweat broke out on Lian Wan’s forehead, and her steps turned weak and unsteady.
Borrowing the alcohol, borrowing the anger, and maybe borrowing some of last night’s discomfort and shame, some fear that what had been on her mind had been exposed. Lian Wan pushed open that glass door once again and stepped into the bright world behind it.
This time she didn’t buy mineral water. She went straight to the counter, staring at those eyes that had been startled because of her, wanting to say something, but suddenly losing her courage.
In the end, she only muttered,
“Don’t wear so little next time. It’s not good.”