Ji Yuchen didn’t know what kind of constitution he had; his skin was as delicate as a child’s, turning red with just a bit of sun exposure, and he easily got prickly heat from sweating. No wonder Xu Chuang thought he was young. Speaking of prickly heat, Xu Chuang had experienced it too, but only when he was five or six years old, or even younger. He hadn’t had it since he grew up. Seeing Ji Yuchen’s back now was truly a pitiful sight: tiny red dots densely covered his entire back, some areas sparse, some dense. Ji Yuchen reached out to scratch, but his wrist was grabbed by Xu Chuang, who ordered him not to move, saying scratching would make it worse.
Xu Chuang bent down to blow gently on the itchy spots, his gaze sweeping over Ji Yuchen’s waist. The curve where his spine met his waistband dipped slightly, faintly revealing two shallow dimples. His skin was as smooth as milk tofu. Xu Chuang swallowed and said nothing.
Lying on his stomach was uncomfortable for Ji Yuchen, and he held his breath, asking Xu Chuang how it looked. Was it serious?
The man snapped back to reality and blew on the concentrated area of prickly heat again, asking if it felt any better. Ji Yuchen mumbled, “It’s just like that… Blowing helps a bit, but it still itches when you stop…”
He clung to Xu Chuang’s thigh, his knees half-kneeling at the edge of the bed. Xu Chuang lifted him onto the kang, telling him to wait while he went to get some medicinal powder.
After saying that, he left the room. Ji Yuchen lay there, not daring to move, his back prickling and itching, leaving him no time to think about anything else. Xu Chuang returned after a while, holding a damp towel and a small white porcelain bottle.
Ji Yuchen tilted his head and asked, “Is this prickly heat powder?”
Xu Chuang replied, “It’s not specifically for that, but it has an anti-itch effect. Try it and see if it works.”
He instructed Ji Yuchen to lie still and turn his head away. Ji Yuchen obediently complied, feeling the warm, damp towel press against his back, the evaporation taking away the moisture, similar to the effect of blowing. Xu Chuang helped him wipe his back, following instructions to move left and right. When he reached the waist, Ji Yuchen laughed and said it tickled, so Xu Chuang dared not move further.
He waited for the moisture to evaporate almost completely, then sprinkled the anti-itch powder and spread it evenly with his hand. Xu Chuang’s fingertips were full of calluses, rough in a way that didn’t match his age. Ji Yuchen squirmed under his touch, feeling a reaction below, and buried his face in the pillow, saying nothing more.
Xu Chuang spread the powder evenly and asked, “Does it feel better with this on?”
Ji Yuchen nodded hesitantly, saying it felt much better. He pulled his clothes down and urged Xu Chuang to sleep. Xu Chuang didn’t dawdle, placing the towel back in its place and setting the medicine bottle on the bedside table before turning off the light.
The room went dark again, and for a while, it was pitch black, with vision unable to adapt to the environment. Ji Yuchen draped the quilt over his waist, taking deep breaths and silently telling himself to calm down. He heard the breathing next to him, heavier than usual. Xu Chuang rarely snored, only doing so when he was very tired.
He drifted into a hazy sleep, half-awake, hearing someone say, “Tomorrow, come with me to see my parents, if you’re willing.”
Ji Yuchen didn’t remember if he agreed, instinctively moving closer to Xu Chuang, as if he didn’t mind the heat.
The next day, Ji Yuchen didn’t wake up late, but Xu Chuang had already gone to the pig farm, leaving him a note saying he’d be back early in the afternoon and that food was on the table.
Recently, the days had entered the dog days of summer, and it was too hot to stay outside during the day. They had set up a table in the entrance hallway and placed the two chairs they had made opposite each other, serving as a temporary dining room. Ji Yuchen shuffled in his slippers to wash his face, finding that he had sweated again while sleeping, so he decided to rinse off with cold water and change his clothes.
Since coming here, Xu Chuang had been doing all his laundry, inside and out, and Ji Yuchen wasn’t embarrassed, mainly because he didn’t want to do it himself. He thought about how Xu Chuang worked every day, came back to do laundry and cook, taking care of everything, while he lay around like a little lord, and it didn’t seem right.
Thinking of this, Ji Yuchen put his changed clothes in a basin and went to the yard to find some soap powder. He turned back and saw the underwear on the drying rack, swaying in the breeze on the clothesline—it wasn’t his underwear, much larger in size, probably washed by Xu Chuang in the morning and still a bit damp. Ji Yuchen wondered why Xu Chuang washed clothes in the morning when he usually did it at night.
He carried the jar of soap powder to the bathroom, where it was cooler and less sunny. Ji Yuchen imitated Xu Chuang’s method, soaking the clothes in water, scooping a spoonful of soap powder, and mixing it in. Once the water turned slightly opaque, he began to rub and scrub in earnest.
Summer clothes were thin, and it wasn’t convenient to use one hand with force. After a few scrubs, there wasn’t much left to wash, so he rinsed them and considered them done. He wrung the clothes dry and hung them on the clothesline, noticing that the other clothes were hanging neatly. So he took his down, shook it out, and used his plastered left hand to smooth out the wrinkles from wringing before hanging it back up.
This back-and-forth took quite a bit of energy. The weather outside was hot, and any movement made him sweat. Ji Yuchen felt that the morning’s activities were enough, and in the afternoon, he still had to go up the mountain with Xu Chuang. He planned to eat and then read the essay collection he had bought from the market.
He hadn’t read the book for long before finding it somewhat boring, with its ethereal writing that didn’t delve deeply, as if all the love in the world was fleeting and not worth mentioning. But Ji Yuchen felt that emotions were the most fundamental difference between humans and all other animals, unlike the creation and use of tools, which were objective, while emotions were subjective. He couldn’t help but think of his parents, wondering if they worried about him after being gone for so long, if they had tried everything to find him. Ji Yuchen didn’t know what kind of people his parents were, but he thought they should be like most parents in the world, wanting their child to have a good life.
Thinking about this made him feel down, a bit listless. When Xu Chuang returned and saw him lacking enthusiasm, he thought Ji Yuchen might be unwell and squatted by the kang to ask for a long time.
When he learned that Jiu’er was homesick, he didn’t know how to comfort him. He called the police officer who had filed the missing person report, but they didn’t provide any substantial answers, so Ji Yuchen temporarily gave up.
Xu Chuang initially planned to go up the mountain alone, leaving Jiu’er at home to avoid the sun. But Ji Yuchen quickly jumped off the kang, put on his shoes, and donned a straw hat, saying he wanted to go see Xu Chuang’s parents together.
The two of them took some offerings up the mountain. Since fires were prohibited in the forest, they could only burn incense and paper money when they returned in the evening. Xu Chuang said today was his parents’ death anniversary, and he came to visit whenever he had the chance. Ji Yuchen hummed in agreement, not saying much else.
The cemetery was on a side path on the other side of the jasmine field, passing by a lotus pond. When they went up the mountain, the sky was still early, and the sunlight filtering through the trees didn’t feel so cold. Xu Chuang first cleared the weeds in front of his parents’ graves, then used a cloth he brought to clean the tombstone, which simply had a few large characters engraved: “The Tomb of Father Xu Sheng and Mother Yang Sufen,” along with their birth and death years.
He placed the offerings on a small plate in front of the tombstone and knelt to kowtow twice. Ji Yuchen felt it was inappropriate to just stand there, so he followed suit, learning by example. In his heart, he said, “Uncle and Aunt, rest in peace. Xu Chuang is doing well now, healthy and successful at work, and someone cares about him, so you can rest assured.”
He didn’t dare think too much, afraid that if the two elders had spirits in heaven, they might hear something they shouldn’t and get upset. After kowtowing, Ji Yuchen stepped aside, giving the family of three some space to be alone, and played with a piece of foxtail grass by the roadside.
He listened to the breeze rustling through the mountains and began to think about his own parents again. What would they be like? Would they miss him? Wonder why he hadn’t come to find them yet…
Ji Yuchen didn’t think being with Xu Chuang was bad; he was simply curious about his own background, what kind of life he had led before ending up here. He felt that being loved was a very happy feeling, and he wondered if he had been like that before.
They stayed halfway up the mountain for a while. Xu Chuang spoke softly, and Ji Yuchen didn’t know what he said to his parents, but his expression seemed somewhat heavy. They bid farewell to the two elders and headed down the mountain, meeting Uncle Zhang from next door, who was leisurely carrying a wine jug up the mountain.
Xu Chuang greeted him with a smile, asking, “Uncle, why are you going up the mountain at this hour? It’ll be dark soon…”
Uncle Zhang shook the wine jug in his hand, “Going to see the old lady…” He noticed the little tail next to Xu Chuang and asked with a smile, “What? Bringing your little Liu’er to meet the parents?”
Xu Chuang smiled and said his name was Jiu’er, not Liu’er. Uncle Zhang waved it off, saying it was all the same.
As he passed by Ji Yuchen, he patted his shoulder and said that meeting the parents meant he was part of the family now, and he should live well with Dali. Ji Yuchen was at a loss for words, thinking Xu Chuang probably didn’t know what Uncle Zhang had said about him, let alone that the man thought he was a girl. It was a huge misunderstanding!
He had no way to refute it, and Xu Chuang didn’t ask further. The two of them, each with their own thoughts, walked down the mountain, passing the fork in the road they had come from. Ji Yuchen saw a small wooden boat by the lotus pond, seemingly unused for years, and casually asked, “There’s a boat here. Does anyone use it?”
Xu Chuang tilted his head to look and asked if he wanted to go to the center of the lotus pond, where it was cooler.
[Author’s Note]
Updates follow the rankings, and the entire manuscript is stockpiled. Please collect and comment, and more interaction will lead to faster updates. Thank you for following along~