Stepping out of the diving center, the sun had just set, leaving the sky dim but not yet fully dark. The lively neon lights had already begun to adorn both sides of the street in advance.
Wen Xing suddenly let go of Wen Wanbing’s hand.
“What’s wrong?” Wen Wanbing crouched down and asked.
Wen Xing lowered her head, silently spinning the pearl in her hand.
Wen Wanbing gently coaxed her to speak: “You have to tell me what you want to do so I can understand.”
Silence stretched between them as passersby cast curious glances their way. Patiently, Wen Wanbing tried again, and finally, Wen Xing uttered two words: “Not leaving.”
Surprised that Wen Xing had adapted to the new environment so quickly and didn’t want to leave, Wen Wanbing hesitated before saying, “Grandma is waiting for us at home for dinner. There’s still a lot to do when we get back. We have to go now, Xingxing.”
After a long pause, Wen Xing took Wen Wanbing’s hand again, still spinning the pearl with her other hand.
Glancing over, Wen Wanbing was momentarily lost in thought.
Wen Xing had clear social difficulties, making communication extremely challenging. Yet, that woman had somehow coaxed her into the diving center and even gotten her to voluntarily take out the note from the star pendant.
Unconsciously, Wen Wanbing recalled Fu Junxue’s smiling eyes and soft-spoken words.
“Add me as a friend and send it.”
The image in her mind abruptly shifted, the illusion shattered.
Wen Wanbing gathered her thoughts and called He Xiuying.
As soon as the call connected, He Xiuying asked first, “Did you find her?”
Wen Wanbing tightened her grip on Wen Xing’s hand. “Yes, I found her.”
“Good, good that you found her.” He Xiuying remembered something. “I need to cancel the missing person report.”
After hanging up, Wen Wanbing noticed a new WeChat message notification in the status bar.
Thinking it might be Fu Junxue accepting her friend request, she opened WeChat, only to find a message from her leader, Hai Ling:
[You’ve worked hard these past two weeks. Once the Sniff perfume ad project wraps up, you’ll get your annual leave Monday to Friday, plus the weekends before and after, totaling nine days. It’s perfect timing since Xingxing is on summer break, so you can spend more time with her. But keep an eye on work too.]
The air was thick with the lingering heat of the day, windless and stifling.
Wen Wanbing took a deep breath and replied: [Okay, thank you.]
She checked her contacts, the friend request still hadn’t been accepted.
For some reason, in the hours that followed, Wen Wanbing kept checking to see if Fu Junxue had approved her request.
It wasn’t until she got busy at home that she finally put it out of her mind.
After dinner, Wen Wanbing received calls from two tenants in Building 11, reporting broken living room lights and kitchen pipes.
He Xiuying walked from the kitchen to the entryway. “I’ll go ask Uncle Zhang to fix it for them.”
Uncle Zhang lived across the hall. His wife had passed away, and his children were abroad, leaving him alone. When they first moved in, Uncle Zhang had helped He Xiuying carry her luggage, and in return, she had given him some homemade dishes. Over time, they became familiar.
“Alright,” Wen Wanbing said. “Call me if anything comes up.”
After He Xiuying left, Wen Wanbing returned to the living room to find Wen Xing sitting at the craft table, taking out clay from the storage compartments.
Wen Xing liked to recreate the most memorable things from her day using clay.
“What does Xingxing want to make today?” Wen Wanbing propped up her phone to record her.
Wen Xing didn’t answer, but her expression was relaxed, and she didn’t mind being filmed.
Wen Wanbing watched her work for a while before starting to shape numbers out of clay herself.
To encourage interaction, Wen Wanbing would come up with arithmetic problems, occasionally asking Wen Xing to answer, “What number should I put on the right side of the equals sign, Xingxing?”
Wen Xing would hand her the disliked gray clay: “9.”
With a slight smile, Wen Wanbing continued kneading new problems.
After the seventh problem, Wen Xing ignored Wen Wanbing and suddenly began rummaging through her clothes.
Wen Wanbing glanced over.
Wen Xing had already finished her creation, a little mermaid lying in a fish tank, resembling the sculpture at the entrance of the Solo Diving Center.
At that moment, Wen Xing pulled the pearl from her pocket and tossed it into the clay fish tank: “Returned.”
Wen Wanbing froze.
Only then did she notice that the clay doll Wen Xing had made had hair color and style somewhat similar to that person.
Throwing the pearl to the clay doll counted as returning it.
“Click!” The front door opened.
Wen Wanbing snapped out of her thoughts and looked toward the entrance. It was He Xiuying returning: “Fixed?”
“Mm.” He Xiuying responded while changing into slippers.
Wen Wanbing carefully placed Wen Xing’s clay doll into the glass cabinet, took a photo, then turned around to see He Xiuying waving two boxes of candy in front of Wen Xing. She asked, “Where did the candy come from?”
“Old Zhang gave it to me. Said his daughter sent it from abroad.” Seeing Wen Xing wasn’t interested, He Xiuying tossed the candy into the fruit bowl on the coffee table and glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’ll stay with her. You go do your own thing.”
Wen Wanbing hummed in agreement and headed to her room.
He Xiuying nagged, “Don’t always focus on work. It’s not like you’re achieving anything great. How many years have you been single? Find someone to date. Next time something like today happens, you can ask your partner to fix it instead of bothering Old Zhang. Plus, Xingxing would have one more person to take care of her.”
“Someone like the one in Building 11 would still require Uncle Zhang’s help. As for the unreliable ones.” Wen Wanbing swallowed and changed the subject. “They wouldn’t provide Xingxing with any extra care.”
He Xiuying was both exasperated and amused. “Then find someone reliable!”
“It’s up to fate.” Wen Wanbing replied wearily. Once in her room, she immediately closed the door behind her and leaned against it, exhaling deeply.
After finishing her work and editing the footage to post on the “Stars Like Water” account, Wen Wanbing grabbed her pajamas and headed to the shower.
In the quiet environment, the repetitive motions of washing up easily led to absentminded contemplation.
He Xiuying often lectured her like this.
It wasn’t that she only cared about work and didn’t want to date. She had once hoped for a love as romantic as those in novels. But later, she became more aware than anyone of the gap between reality and ideals life’s trivialities were enough to shatter all fantasies.
She no longer naively dreamed of meeting someone perfectly compatible, someone who could fulfill all her expectations.
After drying her hair, her phone was fully charged. The screen kept flashing with notifications from short video comments, interspersed with a WeChat message.
Wen Wanbing opened WeChat first and saw a new contact at the top of her list.
The chat bar displayed the note she had written when adding the person: [Red Envelope]
The other person’s nickname was a single snowflake symbol. Their profile picture was a Bombay cat with sharp facial features, its fur glossy black and its eyes a smoky jade like gemstones stunningly beautiful.
Apart from the blunt “Red Envelope” and a system notification confirming the friend request, there was nothing else.
Wen Wanbing bit her lip as she started calculating how much money to send in a red packet.
Unable to determine the price of the pearl, she sent a photo of it to Hailing Consulting, who had previously worked on pearl advertising projects.
Hailing: Looks like an Australian South Sea pearl. I’d estimate this one costs at least over 2,000.
Hailing: Why didn’t you ask me if you were buying pearls?
Icey: It was a gift.
After replying, Wen Wanbing switched to Fu Junxue’s chat window. After a moment’s thought, she tapped into the red packet interface and entered 5,000.
A prompt popped up: The maximum amount for a single red packet cannot exceed 200.
Wen Wanbing switched to a transfer, only to be met with another prompt: Please enter the recipient’s surname.
“…”
She sent 25 red packets of 200 each, then felt it might not be enough and the number wasn’t particularly auspicious either so she added one more.
On the other side, Fu Junxue was massaging her calf while scrolling through short videos to pass the time.
Perhaps because she had previously searched for autism-related content, the algorithm pushed a video about autism.
One featured a child playing with clay, each step unexpectedly creative, and Fu Junxue found herself watching for a while.
Just as she was about to swipe to the next video, an adult’s hand entered the frame, taking the clay from the child.
Fu Junxue’s gaze fixed on the faint circular scar on the back of the hand near the thumb. She sighed softly, “What a coincidence.”
In the comments, someone had written: Has Xingxing gone to learn diving? There was a news report before about how diving therapy works well for autism intervention. Looking forward to seeing Xingxing’s progress!
Fu Junxue gave it a like and searched for related information. Halfway through reading, a flurry of WeChat notifications suddenly popped up.
Normally, only her younger sister Meng Xuran would spam her with over a dozen messages in a row, but Meng Xuran was already asleep for her beauty rest.
Puzzled, Fu Junxue tapped into WeChat.
Wen Wanbing whose plain white profile picture and empty Moments had given Fu Junxue the impression of an “abandoned account” was now bombarding her with red packets.
[Snowflake]: ?
Icey: ?
Fu Junxue stared at the two question marks, feeling as if they were about to leap onto her head and start dancing disco.
[Snowflake]: Are you showering me with a red packet rain?
Icey: Transfers require a full name.
[Snowflake]: Name: Fu Junxue.
The “typing” indicator above the chat froze for a good thirty seconds.
Icey: Already sent them all.
“…”
Imagining Wen Wanbing’s speechless expression, Fu Junxue unceremoniously accepted every single red packet.
[Snowflake]: 5,200?
Icey: Payment for your help, plus the pearl. If it’s not enough, I’ll send more.
Even after being told the pearl was a gift, she insisted on paying back.
Fu Junxue narrowed her eyes as she typed: It’s enough. 5,200, 26 packets both numbers are great. [Heart eyes]
Wen Wanbing stared at her phone, belatedly realizing: “…”
Without replying to Fu Junxue, she switched to the short video platform and saw the comment. She then looked up more information.
Other cities had already been using diving as an intervention method, with remarkable results.
Wen Wanbing felt tempted and messaged Fu Junxue: Can Wen Xing learn diving at Solo?
[Snowflake]: Yes.
Given Wen Xing’s condition, only Fu Junxue whom she was comfortable withcould teach her. Wen Wanbing asked: Can I request you as her instructor?
[Snowflake]: I’m not an instructor at Solo.
[Snowflake]: But I can substitute.
[Snowflake]: Given Little Star’s special circumstances, I suggest you learn first.
Three sentences sent Wen Wanbing’s emotions on a rollercoaster ride, soaring and plummeting in waves.
Icey: “If both Xingxing and I sign up for lessons, is there a discount?”
Fu Junxue rolled her eyes playfully and typed: “If you also request me as your coach then we can arrange something”
“Typing.” hung on the screen for another thirty seconds.
Icey: “Let me think about it”
It was unclear whether she was considering whether to take diving lessons or whether to request Fu Junxue as her coach.
Fu Junxue chuckled softly and turned the air conditioning down two degrees.