If Wen Shiqing in the past had been an unripe, tart green fruit, then the girl she had become was now a plump, rosy peach—delicate and irresistibly alluring.
Everything had suddenly become real. Her soft, fragrant body was pressed against him, her graceful curves warm and supple. The hazy scenes from his dreams had suddenly taken on a tangible reality, and Xie Yucheng’s heart pounded fiercely and rapidly.
Several years ago, a certain day came when the dreams he could never speak of for the first time left Xie Yucheng flustered. He fled home as though running for his life and moved in with Wang Changlin.
Whenever she came close to him, it was as though he were holding his breath underwater. He would stop breathing, avoid her gaze, terrified that the slightest crack would expose what he was hiding.
He spoke harshly to her, as if deliberately using her as a means of fighting against the part of himself that had done something wrong.
He was afraid of falling for her. He wouldn’t allow himself to look at her for even a second longer, wouldn’t let himself get too close. He deliberately kept his distance, trying to sever the unrealistic thoughts that filled his mind.
But the desire inside him was like water weeds growing wildly, tightening around him until he could barely breathe.
The girl’s soft, warm breath brushed against his chest. Her long lashes curled delicately, and her red lips were slightly parted. Her sleeping face was peaceful and captivating.
Without realizing it, Xie Yucheng’s lips curved into a smile. As though possessed, he lowered his head and pressed a gentle kiss to the crown of her hair. Taking advantage of the faint light, he gazed deeply at her for a long while before carefully pulling himself away.
Anyone but her.
She was the one person he couldn’t touch.
…….
The next day.
By the time Wen Shiqing woke up, daylight was already streaming in. She was alone in the bed. Her clothes from the room next door had been placed beside the bed, presumably brought over by Xie Yucheng.
After getting dressed, she went downstairs and saw Xie Yucheng lazily leaning against the reception desk in the lobby, chatting with the young woman working there. A roguish smile played across his face. Whatever he had said, it made the woman reach out and smack him.
“Oh, my little sister’s awake. Time to go.” He looked at Wen Shiqing with a smile, then snapped his tongue playfully at the receptionist. “I’ll come find you when I get back.”
Once they left the inn, the truck was back on the road.
All morning, Wen Shiqing sat quietly in the truck, unusually silent.
She had always known that Xie Yucheng was a flirt.
During all those days when he hadn’t come home, how many women had he kissed? How many women had he slept with?
Whenever Shiqing thought about it, she felt as though her heart were being slowly tortured, as though it were being cut apart by a thousand knives.
Those chaotic thoughts tormented her again and again.
Finally, after a very, very long time, she had made up her mind.
If Xie Yucheng was willing to love her, she would forgive him for his past promiscuity. She would persuade her mother and overcome every obstacle to be with him.
But if Xie Yucheng wasn’t willing to love her, then once she returned, she would find an empty plot of land and use it as the place where the two of them would be buried.
The truck passed through a grove of poplar trees. Scattered houses stood along both sides of the road.
An elderly couple raised their hands to flag them down. Xie Yucheng slowed the truck and asked through the window, “Where are you going?”
The old woman’s silver hair was wrapped beneath her headscarf. She looked healthy and youthful, with a kindly smile on her face.
“To the county hospital up ahead.”
The old man wore a small floral cap. The two of them were clearly from an ethnic minority, and they spoke with a noticeable accent.
“Get in,” Xie Yucheng said.
“How much?”
“Nothing.”
The elderly couple thanked him repeatedly. “We’ve been waiting for ages, but the bus never came. Thank you, young man.”
Xie Yucheng waved his hand. “It’s on our way.”
Wen Shiqing climbed into the back row, leaving the front seats for the elderly couple.
As they got into the truck, the old man carefully looked after his wife the entire time, always afraid she might bump or hurt herself.
“Child, where are you two headed?”
“We’re delivering goods to Jiangcheng.”
The old woman immediately recognized that they were from inland China. “Oh my, you two are dressed so lightly. The farther north you go, the colder it’ll get. In previous years, it would already snow in Jiangcheng by September. Did you bring any warm clothes?”
Xie Yucheng smiled. “We brought two thick outfits.”
The old woman glanced at Wen Shiqing in the back and asked Xie Yucheng with a warm smile, “Are you two husband and wife?”
“No. She’s my little sister. She’s never been to the northwest, so she came along for the trip.”
“Oh, she’s very fair and pretty. Young lady, you’re not very old, are you?”
“I’m eighteen, Grandma.”
The old woman then asked where the two of them were from, what their parents did for a living, and all sorts of other questions. Once she started talking, there was no stopping her, like a faucet that had been turned on.
“My grandson is a doctor at the county hospital. He’s four years older than this girl and still unmarried.”
The old man tugged at his wife’s sleeve. “Why do you talk so much? Why are you telling them all this?”
The old woman pouted. “Hmph. If you don’t want to listen, cover your ears.”
Wen Shiqing broke into a grin. Her sweet smile traveled through the rearview mirror and landed directly in the man’s eyes. His dark gaze shifted slightly, becoming complicated.
“When we first met, we fought every single day. We were both around ten, the age when children are always fighting over things. Later, when we grew up and started to understand things, we naturally ended up together.”
“Did your parents agree?”
“They didn’t at first, but that didn’t stop us from being together. I wanted only him, and he wanted only me. Our parents couldn’t do anything about it anymore. They couldn’t control us.”
The more Wen Shiqing listened, the more interested she became. She asked, “Then who confessed first?”
The two elderly people both pointed at each other with smiles, neither willing to admit they had been the one to confess first.
“When he was young, he was helping someone build a house. He fell from the second floor and happened to land on a piece of rebar. That steel bar pierced straight through his abdomen and came out through his lower back. He lost a tremendous amount of blood, and by the time he reached the hospital, he was barely alive. The doctor told us to prepare ourselves.”
The old woman’s voice grew slightly choked as she continued.
“I asked, ‘Prepare for what?’ The doctor said we needed to prepare ourselves for the possibility that they wouldn’t be able to save him. My mind went completely blank. I couldn’t believe it. We’d only been together for a short time then. I couldn’t accept it. I kept thinking, if he died, how was I supposed to go on living?”
“I grabbed the doctor’s legs and knelt down, crying and begging him to do everything he could to save him. I knelt in that hallway and sobbed my heart out. Even my parents couldn’t pull me up. I told my father, ‘If he doesn’t make it, then I won’t live either.'”
“After his surgery, he was transferred to the intensive care unit for observation, but he didn’t wake up. I stayed by his bedside day and night. I kept saying, ‘Ma Xiliang, are you really going to leave me? If you don’t wake up, I’ll marry someone else. I’ll marry another man and have children with him.’ I kept whispering it into his ear every day. Thankfully, in the end, Allah blessed us, and he woke up.”
The old man held his wife’s hand and laughed. “Who would’ve thought I’d spend the rest of my life being nagged by you after waking up?”
The old woman snorted. “You should be grateful you married me. I gave you three children, and every one of them turned out well. What more could you possibly be unhappy about?”
When they reached the county hospital, the elderly couple got out by the roadside. Wen Shiqing watched as they held hands and slowly shuffled away together.