Jin Fengzi climbed into the front passenger seat, while Jin Chao placed Jiang Mu in the back seat and drove off. Along the way, he listened to Jin Fengzi talk about the events that happened at Wanji that evening, his brows furrowed the entire time. Occasionally, he would glance at Jiang Mu in the rearview mirror.
She was curled up in the backseat, her body wrapped in Jin Chao’s large coat, her eyes closed, not moving for a long time.
On the road, Jin Chao thought to himself that it was a good thing she had drunk a little alcohol, as she would likely fall asleep immediately after returning, sparing herself from worrying about Lightning’s situation. However, it seemed that he had overestimated Jiang Mu’s tolerance for alcohol.
As soon as he carried her into the repair room, Jiang Mu regained consciousness and kept tapping Jin Chao’s shoulder, her voice soft and fuzzy as she murmured, “I feel sick…”
Just as Jin Chao laid her on the floor of the lounge, Jiang Mu wobbled and stumbled into his room. By the time Jin Chao entered the room again, Jiang Mu had locked herself in the bathroom, vomiting uncontrollably.
All he could hear from the bathroom was the sound of chaos as if a battle was happening. After a while, the sound of running water continued without pause.
Jin Chao knocked on the door and asked, “Are you okay?”
Jiang Mu was initially disoriented, but as her mind slowly began to clear, she didn’t respond to him. She wanted to bury her face in the sink, ashamed. This was the first time she had gotten drunk to the point of throwing up, and it was in front of Jin Chao. Being just one door away, she felt utterly embarrassed, as if she had made a fool of herself. No matter how Jin Chao called her, she refused to respond.
Outside the door, Jin Chao asked again, “Are you dizzy? Open the door, let me see you. Don’t hurt yourself.”
“…” Jiang Mu braced herself against the sink, biting her lip tightly.
“Talk. If you don’t, I’m coming in.”
“Don’t,” Jiang Mu hurriedly pressed her body against the door.
Her voice mumbled, “Go away.”
The shadow of Jin Chao appeared outside the door, “Where would I go?”
“I don’t care.”
The three words were soft, like dough rising, making it hard to tell if they carried a hint of childish defiance, coquettishness, or the drunken demeanor of a woman.
Jin Chao was stunned for a moment. He had lived for over twenty years, and the only person who would throw tantrums like this had been his younger sister when they lived in Suzhou. After high school, a few girls would occasionally come to him, dramatizing their pain and crying in front of him, but he would usually remain indifferent, and they’d back off, not daring to cause a scene. He never imagined that many years later, the same person would be throwing a tantrum at him again, even using the same lines. Whenever she was unreasonable or couldn’t argue with him, it always boiled down to the same thing, “I don’t care.” And then, no matter what, he was powerless against her.
He found it somewhat amusing that, after all these years, that trick still worked on him.
Jiang Mu pressed her ear to the door, listening as Jin Chao finally left. Then, she began cleaning the bathroom, polishing the sink until it gleamed. She casually opened the storage compartment next to the sink, and when she saw that her toothbrush cup and towel were still neatly arranged inside, Jiang Mu’s drunkenness faded considerably. Jin Chao hadn’t thrown away her things. Despite how cold he had been toward her recently, he still hadn’t gotten rid of her belongings. A complex mix of emotions stirred within her, like waves crashing over her heart.
She took out her toothbrush cup and towel, and as she opened the door to leave the bathroom, she froze. Jin Chao was sitting on the bedside table, looking down at his phone. The moment she opened the door, he locked his phone and lifted his gaze to look at her.
When their eyes met, Jiang Mu almost wanted to turn around and go back into the bathroom. Embarrassed, she walked towards the room. Jin Chao observed her expression, then glanced at her slightly unsteady steps and asked, “What were you doing in there? You were in there so long, I thought you fell asleep.”
Jiang Mu avoided his gaze, stammering, “Just… taking it slow.”
“Are you okay now?”
Jiang Mu nodded. Jin Chao didn’t press the matter further. Instead, he stood up and handed her a cotton pullover, saying, “Change your clothes.”
He walked out as soon as he finished speaking. Jiang Mu couldn’t wear the sweater that had blood on it anymore, so she changed into Jin Chao’s clothes. As she was doing so, she heard him ask from outside, “Are you done changing?”
“Mm.”
Jin Chao walked back in and handed her a glass of water, “Drink this.”
The room had heating on, and the warmth made Jiang Mu feel drowsy. She took the glass into her hands, and Jin Chao said to her, “Sit and drink.”
Jiang Mu stepped back a little and sat at the edge of his bed. Just as she sat down, Jin Chao walked over to her, half-squatted in front of her, and held her left ankle, pulling up the leg of her pants. His touch startled Jiang Mu, and almost instinctively, she pulled her leg back and asked, “What are you doing?”
Jin Chao raised his eyes to look at her, “Are there thorns in my hand?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what do you mean?”
Jin Chao remained kneeling in front of her, and even in this position, he was almost at eye level with her. Jiang Mu couldn’t explain her overreaction. The same sense of embarrassment she felt a while ago returned. His fingers seemed charged with electricity, making her nervous, her heart racing, and she felt uncomfortable.
Seeing her refusal to communicate, Jin Chao sighed lightly and asked, “Does it hurt?”
Jiang Mu was a bit startled. She didn’t know how Jin Chao noticed her leg injury. She lowered her gaze and pitifully nodded.
When she was drunk, she didn’t seem very sharp; even the movement of turning her head was slow. Jin Chao could only coax and tempt her, “If it hurts, let me see.”
Perhaps it was because he had been driving all night, or maybe it was the late hour, but there was a slight hoarseness to his voice. Normally, she wouldn’t notice, but now, alone in the room in the middle of the night, Jiang Mu felt her face heat up because of the sound of his voice.
Jin Chao glanced at her again, then picked up her ankle and rolled up her pants. After rolling up a few folds, he saw her calf was bruised and swollen from being pinched by the iron gate. His expression immediately darkened.
“Who did this?”
Jiang Mu, although a little dazed, still remembered her grudge. She said to him, “It was that… Pingtou.”
Jin Chao’s lips were cold, and he didn’t say another word. When he acted like this, it always made people feel somewhat intimidated. Jiang Mu bent down and, as if whispering, softly said to him, “I’m really hungry.”
Jin Chao looked up at her and said, “Did you not eat?”
Jiang Mu shook her head. He quickly stood up and went out. When he came back, he brought some oden and medicine, handing her the food. “It’s the only thing they sell. Better than instant noodles.”
So, Jiang Mu ate the oden while Jin Chao applied the medicine. As she ate, she suddenly felt a bit melancholic. Maybe it was because she finally had food in her stomach, but Jiang Mu started thinking about Jin Chao’s past. Suddenly, she extended the skewer of meat to his mouth. Jin Chao was momentarily stunned. He wasn’t used to such intimacy from others. It seemed like no one had treated him this way over the years. He lowered his gaze and said, “You eat.”
Jiang Mu seemed to challenge him, using an imperative tone as she scolded, “No, if I get a bite, you have to get a bite too.”
A three-yuan chicken meatball made her feel like they shared a bond of life and death. Jin Chao could almost be sure she was still a bit drunk. He could only comply with her and took a bite. Jiang Mu immediately leaned her face close to his and asked, “Does it taste good?”
He had been running around all night and hadn’t rested yet so he couldn’t taste anything. He only looked at her rosy lips, her eyes sparkling with moisture, her slightly tipsy appearance, and he had to go along with her words, saying, “Not bad.”
After saying that, he realized he shouldn’t have commented, because from then on, every time Jiang Mu took a bite, she would offer him another, staring at him with a pair of watery eyes. It was as if he hadn’t eaten in three years. Even though the food was for her, she kept pushing it into his mouth.
When he went out to throw away the bamboo skewer after she finished eating and returned to the room, Jiang Mu was already lying on the bed, asleep. He took off her shoes, afraid that she might fall off the bed if she slept too close to the edge, so he pushed her further in and covered her with a blanket.
Jiang Mu, however, murmured something in a daze. Jin Chao couldn’t hear clearly and leaned closer to her, asking, “What?”
The early morning was quiet without a sound. Jiang Mu’s body had a faint scent of alcohol mixed with the fragrance of a young girl, like the smell of cream. Jin Chao’s throat moved slightly, and just as he was about to sit up, he heard her sweet voice ask in his ear, “Do you still mean it when you said you’d wait for me to grow up?”
……
“Brother, you be the dad, I’ll be the mom, and our little bunny will be our baby.”
“Stop playing this, it’s childish.”
“Brother, play with me for a while, I’ve already played chess with you, next time I won’t play with you again, hmph.”
“You’re threatening me again, you little pest. Alright, what do you want me to do?”
“You take this bag and go to work outside, I’ll stay here and cook with our baby.”
“…”
Knock, knock, knock. “Open the door.”
“Start over, you have to say, ‘Darling, I’m back.'”
“I wonder who taught you all this nonsense?”
“Even the little boys in kindergarten know this, why don’t you, Chao Chao? If you keep this up, none of the little girls in kindergarten will pick you to be their husband.”
“Heh, don’t call me Chao Chao, it’s too childish.”
“Chao Chao, Chao Chao, Chao Chao, it’s fine, if no one picks you to be their husband, I can choose you! You go out to work and buy me lots and lots of yummy food.”
“Dream on.”
“I want chocolate cones, cotton candy, teddy bear biscuits, and French fries, lots and lots of them…”
“…You won’t find a husband.”
“Then you can be my husband, okay? Please? Please? Otherwise, no one will buy yummy food for Mu Mu.”
“Jin Mu Mu, you’re really annoying. We’ll talk about this when you grow up.”
……
Almost every time they played house, the topic would always come back to the same thing, Jiang Mu pestered Jin Chao to marry her, until he got so annoyed that he always ended the endless topic with “wait until you grow up.”
At that time, Jiang Mu was too young to understand things like kinship and morality, so even when she grew up and remembered pestering Jin Chao to play house, she only found her childhood thoughts ridiculous. Of course, she never took it seriously.
It wasn’t until they arrived at Tonggang, especially in recent times, that she started to frequently think about the past. She didn’t know if, back then, when Jin Chao, five years older than her, said “Wait until you grow up,” and knowing they had no familial connection, he ever, at some point, really had that thought about it?
……
Jin Fengzi didn’t leave that night. He went next door to San Lai’s place and stayed there for the night. In the morning, before heading to work at Wanji, he remembered what he had discussed with Jiang Mu the night before and casually mentioned it to San Lai.
San Lai immediately slapped him and scolded, “Have you lost your mind? Why are you talking to a little girl about that stuff? You’re really a certified madman.”
Jin Fengzi mumbled, “I was drunk, you know. Can you help greet Youjiu for me?”
No one wants to lay their worst side in front of someone who has no idea about it. San Lai didn’t expect that Jin Chao didn’t want Jiang Mu to know about his past, but in the end, it was inadvertently exposed by Jin Fengzi.
So, in the morning, after Jin Chao finished a phone call at the garage entrance, San Lai came out, cleared his throat a few times on purpose, and relayed to Jin Chao what Jin Fengzi had said.
Jin Chao just listened silently and finished a cigarette. His expression did not change. If anything, it was probably that the shadow between his eyebrows deepened.
San Lai glanced at him a few times and then cautiously asked, “So, did Jiang Mu say anything to you after you came back last night?”
Jin Chao suddenly gave him a strange, confused look, then silently walked into the repair room, leaving San Lai utterly baffled.