57

The pot of Chinese plums was finally carried back in a plastic bag, she picked an empty pot from the long-deserted garden in the neighborhood as its last home.

Shan Yanxiu came out of the shower and stood at the side without saying a word, watching her like a newborn baby to take care of the plastic bag of plums little by little to move out into the flower pot. The whole process was not smooth, but she did it very patiently, carefully organizing the roots, burying them and then loosely dropping a thin layer of soil on top. When he was done he took it upon himself to get a broom and dustpan and clean up the floor, and then stooped down to move the pot of Lapis to the balcony. She had suffered a loss, like a bird of prey, a step forward to seize. He half-turned around to avoid, mouth floating silk playful smile, as if to say ‘do not worry, broken here I have to go to wash the floor’.

This day’s dinner was very simple, a vegetarian fried pumpkin and a lotus root rib soup, with large white rice. Two people face to face in silence, eat, finish eating Ya Xiao chopsticks thrown and go to the room to pack clothes to take a shower. He also very consciously cleaned up the dishes and washed and drained them. In the process of the two people did not say a word, but it is a very tacit understanding to follow each other’s movements, natural and smooth.

When she finished washing and entered the room she found him already comfortably ensconced on her bed flipping through car magazines, with the bedside lamp and headlight on. Frowning, she reached up and then turned off the headlight. He glanced up at her, his eyes seeming quite disgruntled. She raised her nostrils demonstratively and looked at him with a clear I’m-paying-I’m-the-biggest-so-I-can-don’t-give-a-fuck expression. He narrowed his eyes and with a warning twinkle he looked down and continued to read his magazine.

Ya Xiao sat on the edge of the bed, her hands wrapped in a towel as she gently rubbed her hair. Her hair hadn’t been taken care of in a while and had grown long so it wasn’t very easy to dry. After rubbing her hair until it was half-dry, she smoothly reached over to the bed to touch the hairdryer. Unexpectedly there was a rustling behind her and soon there was a coolness on her head, followed by the whine of the hairdryer. She froze, then slowly returned her hands to her lap and sat in a neutral position, contentedly enjoying his service.

Yasho didn’t really believe in the idea that people changed, that it was actually unlikely for someone to change fundamentally. If a person has a huge transformation, then take away the external factors, human nature is also one of the important root causes. For example, the current Shan Yanxiu, she did not think that his current behavior is to show her good, or apologize. There was no such word as ‘I was wrong’ in this man’s vocabulary, and from what she knew of him, it was 80% likely that this man had a purpose for being so kind. But when the ends of her hair had been blown dry, the man still didn’t say a word. Ya Xiao felt her back burning, she didn’t know if it was from her heart burning or from the hairdryer, after a few minutes of silence she finally couldn’t help herself, “Shan Yanxiu, do you have something to say to me?”

“No.”

She bit her lip, “Then I have something to say to you.”

“Well, I’m listening.”

“You’re not acting mature at all today.”

“Neither are you.”

“That man has a personal interest in you, keep your distance from him in the future.” He pulled her hair to one side, her white neck exposed, a hint if fragrance wafting in.

Her ears reddened, “You were so far away you didn’t even see the person’s face what makes you say that, stop making things up.”

“Based on what?” His fingers brushed the lower hollow of her neck, flowing extremely slowly, “By virtue of the fact that I’m a man, by virtue of the fact that I’m your man, isn’t that enough?”

She swallowed with extreme difficulty, her throat tightening her ears, the blood in her body seeming to go to her head, “Stop! Let’s not talk about this topic, okay? And let’s not talk about that Wang, okay?”

Her name for Wang Qiming made him tease a smile, “Then change the topic?”

She bit her lip, “Then, then let me ask you something. Is it still safe for us to stay here now? Those antagonists of yours are they going to come looking for us?” She’d tried not to think about it for a while, partly because the content of the text messages that came back from Silent Night made her inexplicably distressed, and partly because she had a selfish desire to live in peace like this with both eyes and ears covered. One day at a time like this, for as long as it takes.

The person behind her was silent for a moment before replying, “Not anymore.”

“They’ve given up?”

“They’ve gotten what they wanted,” his hand was pressed and ironed against her back, corresponding to where her heart was in front of her, “It won’t come back.”

“Not coming back ……” she repeated a little belatedly, in that moment her heart felt like it had fallen from mid-air and banged on the ground with a lingering thud, “That means . …uh ……” that there’s no longer any possibility of him being in a dangerous situation?

“It’s safe enough.” His voice was low and soft, with a calming power. He could hear the elation in her hesitant reply; she must be terribly homesick.

“Dawn, if you want to ……” he paused, his voice suddenly becoming a little hard, “you want to– ”

“It’s late, I’m sleepy,” she interrupted him abruptly, pulling the covers over herself, “I have to work tomorrow, I’ll go to sleep first.” She felt an inexplicable twinge of panic and didn’t want to hear any more from him, she was afraid to keep listening. What if he said to her, You can leave anytime you want if you want to.

Then what …… to do?

After a long time there is no movement around her, but her heart is beating very fast, her temples are pulled to bursting. After a flurry of thoughts in her head she suddenly felt a little sad, a kind of self-pitying emotion from the bottom of her heart lifted up, layer after layer over the confidence that she had not easily built up. She felt depressed and sad, as if she had been coldly punched in the face, aggravated to death.

“Xiaoxiao.”

She buried her head under the covers, refusing to hear him call her that again. Hot liquid spilled from her eyes and dripped onto her face quickly becoming cold. She felt that her was really no good, she just knew how to yell louder than anyone else, but when it really came to it, others only needed a light word to flip her over and she couldn’t get up again. This kind of feeling is really too hard to bear, as if there is a knife in the most tender place of her heart slowly digging, disintegrating her time-consuming and exhausting to build up trust, at the same time, also will be her old efforts to create an illusory image of scattered to the clean air.

“Dawn.”

“Told you I was sleepy, I’m going to bed.” She tried to keep her voice free of emotion, but the effort was futile, and the muffled sniffle could not be hidden by the heavy blanket.

The person behind her didn’t say anything anymore, just silently lay down next to her and put his arm under her head, the other hand was around her waist and circled, not very tight, but also never easy to get rid of it. Yaxiao squirmed a few times, feeling a hint of comfort in his gesture, and with the fire burning inside of her right now, she was not grateful for his hypocritical reassurance. Yet without realizing it, her body sank back, gradually fitting perfectly into his. The thin clothing unreservedly transferred his body heat and scent, warm and powerful.

“Xiao Xiao.”

“Do you want to drive me away? Now that it’s safe, you don’t need me anymore?” She spoke with her back to him, not in a questioning tone, and although she really wanted to lose her temper, or even fatally beat him up, the words came out without bringing too much emotion with them, “Shan Yanxiu you asshole! If I had known it would be like this I shouldn’t have gone back, even if I did I would have knocked you into a demented state with an ashtray. I have to throw you to the road ditch casually you blood flow into the river, I also buy you what medicine, cut ~ should have a rash hair death you, no clothes to wear freezing death you, no food starvation death you …… surnamed single you bastard you are not something, you cross the river to tear down the bridge you are unethical, you do not know that now so unethical in the future you will have what retribution? I tell you later–”

Her words stopped hard as she felt a warm moistness on her neck, just like the moistness she felt when her palm brushed against her cheek. A very low sigh, seemingly tinged with a little chagrin, came to her ears – she almost thought she had misheard him. The next kiss and every word he said fell one after the other, branding her more clearly than ever, and

“From now on, just the two of us, have a good time.”