TSMLI CHAPTER 12

Shen Zhongxun stole Lin Chu’s number for no reason, but didn’t know what to do with it. The next day, at the crack of dawn, he got up, washed up, grabbed a bag of slippers, and took a taxi back to Chuqian.

It was before seven o’clock when he arrived at the residential building. The morning light was close to the ground, and the rough wood along the roadside was dry and cracked, with circles of light that seemed to burn continuously. As soon as he opened the car door, a wave of heat hit him. Shen Zhongxun paid the fare and was about to go upstairs when he saw Lin Chu’s grandfather slowly walking down the path, his back hunched, his clothes soaked with sweat, and a plastic bag in his hand containing several empty plastic bottles.

Grandpa also saw Shen Zhongxun and greeted him with a smile. “Going to work so early?”

Shen Zhongxun replied, “Not yet.”

The two walked into the building together. Shen Zhongxun was tall and couldn’t walk alongside his grandfather, so he lagged behind. His grandfather muttered about the hot weather, seemingly weak and listless. When they reached the second floor, for some reason, his footing gave way, and he suddenly fell. Shen Zhongxun reacted quickly and caught him immediately.

Grandpa’s eyes were closed. Just as Shen Zhongxun was about to call him, he saw him slowly open his eyes again, waving his hand and swaying as he leaned against the wall.

Shen Zhongxun asked, “Grandpa, are you suffering from heatstroke?”

Grandpa took a breath, his eyes gradually cleared, and he whispered to Shen Zhongxun, “It’s alright, don’t tell my wife, I’ll be fine after a rest.”

He could no longer walk, and after this rest, he stood on the stairs. Shen Zhongxun simply helped him upstairs, turning sideways so that his grandfather’s entire weight could be borne by him.

Grandma was very shrewd. As soon as she opened the door and saw Grandpa’s face, she immediately realized what was going on and scolded, “You old fool, are you suffering from heatstroke?!”

Grandpa was about to deny it when Shen Zhongxun spoke up. “Let him go in and rest for a while, lest he faint!”

Upon hearing this, Grandma’s heart tightened. She stopped scolding and immediately helped Grandpa into the house, thanking Shen Zhongxun again. As she closed the door, Grandma’s complaints could still be heard: “You’ve been collecting bottles since five o’clock, and you’re hoping to get rich from this? How about we go to the hospital?”

Grandpa said something, and Grandma stopped complaining; the sounds in the room gradually quieted down.

Lin Chu rushed down from the building, glanced at the grassy area, and seeing that the motorcycle was gone, she went back to the stairwell to open the mailbox, but found nothing there, which puzzled her. She was in a bit of a rush to work, so she didn’t think much of it and hurried to the bus stop.

Before lunch break, Lin Chu received an apology text message from Jiang Jin, saying that he had forgotten to put the money in the mailbox in the morning and would return it to her in person after work. Lin Chu sent him her bank account number and asked him to transfer the money to her card, but Jiang Jin then went silent.

On hot days, people were becoming less productive at work. Outdoor workers didn’t have to work in the afternoon. The meteorological department had issued a red alert for high temperatures. A large number of people in Nanjiang City had been hospitalized for heatstroke, and the hospitals were already overcrowded.

Lin Chu finally finished work at four o’clock. She hadn’t brought an umbrella, so she hid under a colleague’s umbrella as she walked outside. Everyone complained about the weather; they were sweating profusely after just a few steps. Lin Chu’s neck was already covered in a thick layer of sweat, clinging to her long hair and feeling stuffy and hot. Just as she gathered her hair and was about to tie it into a braid, someone suddenly called out to her from ahead: “Lin Chu!”

Lin Chu looked up and saw Yang Chunbei standing next to the motorcycle, seemingly unfazed by the sun, pressed close to Jiang Jin, and calling out to her, “Here, Jiang Jin is looking for you!”

Lin Chu said goodbye to her colleagues and walked towards them. Before Jiang Jin could speak, Yang Chunbei said, “I’ve been waiting for you for a while. Hey, how about we go out for dinner and shopping together later?”

Lin Chu had nothing to say about her suggestion in the sweltering heat, and replied perfunctorily, “No.” Turning to Jiang Jin, she asked directly, “Pay back the money?”

Jiang Jin exclaimed “Ah!” and, holding his helmet, laughed, “I’ll pay you back and treat you to a meal as a thank you!”

Yang Chunbei immediately replied, “Okay, where should we eat?”

Lin Chu was about to refuse when Jiang Jin spoke up: “Hey, I won’t treat you today. I’ll treat you to something nice next time!”

Yang Chunbei insisted that Jiang Jin take her along, and while talking, she clung to Jiang Jin’s arm and shook it from side to side. Jiang Jin impatiently pulled his hand away, threw another helmet to Lin Chu, and simply gestured: “Get in the car!”

Lin Chu pretended not to see their flirting and wanted to get home quickly to enjoy the air conditioning. After taking the helmet, she tugged at the still-nagging Yang Chunbei and said, “Hey, you go with him, I’m not going!” With that, she handed the helmet to her.

Yang Chunbei excitedly took the helmet, but as soon as she got it, her hand was tugged by a force. She cried out, and in the blink of an eye, Jiang Jin snatched the helmet back into her hands.

Jiang Jin got off the motorcycle and suddenly put the helmet on Lin Chu’s head. Before Lin Chu could react, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the back seat of the motorcycle, pressing her down firmly.

“What are you doing!” Lin Chu reached out to take off her helmet, but Jiang Jin grabbed her and twisted her shoulders, forcibly moving her to the side and making her sit steadily. Without saying a word, he got on the car and started the engine. Just before it sped off, he waved to Yang Chunbei, who quickly made way, but was still covered in dust from the kick-up.

The car was going fast. Lin Chu hugged Jiang Jin’s waist and shouted, “Slow down!” But her words, which were muffled by the wind inside her helmet, were quickly lost, and Jiang Jin couldn’t hear her at all.

Although it was evening, the sun was still blazing, its heat so intense it felt like it was sizzling on the skin. The motorcycle seemed to leap over fire, and the strong wind cooled the scorching heat somewhat. After some time, the motorcycle slowed down, and the scorching heat returned to Lin Chu’s arms. However, Lin Chu’s sense of touch had become numb from the wind.

Jiang Jin took off his helmet and said with a smile, “Get out of the car, I’ll take you to get something delicious!”

Lin Chu finally poked her head out, her long hair sticking haphazardly to her face, and said breathlessly, “I told you to slow down, why are you acting like a madman?”

Jiang Jin said innocently, “When did you say that? I didn’t hear you!”

Lin Chu glared at him angrily, her legs numb and unable to lift. Jiang Jin stood by and watched, and only after Lin Chu struggled for a long time and finally got off the motorcycle did he go over to put down her helmet and lead her into the restaurant.

Since she was already there, Lin Chu decided to make the best of it and accepted Jiang Jin’s inexplicable invitation to dinner.

Lin Chu had never been to an authentic Japanese restaurant before, and found the interior decorations and tableware novel. After the dishes were served, she exchanged a few polite words and then focused on tasting them, while exchanging a few casual words with Jiang Jin.

After a long pause, Lin Chu swallowed a bite of sushi and stared at him, saying, “So, you just graduated this year?”

Jiang Jin nodded, his mouth full of food, and said indistinctly, “Yeah, I just got a permanent job, and my old man at home almost sent me abroad!”

Lin Chu smiled, then lowered her head and picked up another variety, unable to bear to say that he looked older than his age, and that he was a student just last month.

Halfway through the meal, Jiang Jin’s phone suddenly rang. After hearing what was said on the other end, Jiang Jin whispered, “I know. I plan to apologize to Grandpa when I get back tonight. I’m eating now, so I’ll talk to you later!”

After exchanging a few words, the other end of the phone hung up first. Jiang Jin called out “Hey, hey” twice and shrugged at Lin Chu.

Shen Zhongxun put down his phone and went to open the door. Lin Chu’s grandparents were standing outside, holding a large bowl of dumplings. They smiled and said, “We saw you coming back from outside. You haven’t eaten yet, have you? We made some dumplings for you!”

Shen Zhongxun was taken aback for a moment, then took out two pairs of gray slippers from the shoe cabinet and immediately welcomed them inside.

The old lady was always warm and didn’t stand on ceremony. After saying a few words, Grandma went to the kitchen to find small bowls and seasonings. Shen Zhongxun said he would do it himself and told them to sit wherever they wanted. Grandma smiled and said, “I know this house much better than you do. Please sit down!”

Grandpa said to Shen Zhongxun, “I tripped and fell on the stairs this morning, and when I told my wife, she said she wanted to come and thank you. Thank you!”

Shen Zhongxun replied politely, “It’s my pleasure, Grandpa and Grandma!”

Grandma took the initiative, urging Shen Zhongxun to eat as much as he wanted. Pointing to the condiments, she said, “I should have brought some from home earlier. We have a special garlic-flavored chili sauce at home. It’s so fragrant when mixed with vinegar. Daodao loves it the most. Only I can make this flavor; even her mother can’t.” Then, remembering that Shen Zhongxun didn’t know who Daodao was, she explained, “Oh, by the way, Daodao is my granddaughter. Her full name is Lin Chu. She’s the one who asked you to store these dumplings at your house last time!”

Shen Zhongxun swallowed the dumpling and smiled, “I know Lin Chu, but why is her nickname ‘Daodao’?”

Grandpa got excited when he started talking about this, interrupting Grandma: “This is so interesting! When she was little, she couldn’t read and was a bit slow. Once in preschool, they were handing out picture books. The teacher wrote each child’s name on the book, along with pinyin, and asked two class monitors to hand them out. When they got to ‘Dao Dao,’ the class monitor said her name wasn’t ‘Chu Chu,’ but ‘Dao Dao.’ There was pinyin on it, and Dao Dao would initially point to the pinyin and say it was pronounced ‘Chu.’ But the class monitor, being a good student, insisted on saying it was ‘Dao,’ claiming the teacher had written the pinyin wrong. This made the girl come home and say her name was ‘Dao Dao,’ and she kept saying it for a whole semester. She only believed her name was ‘Chu Chu’ when she started elementary school, but by then, no one had changed her!”

Shen Zhongxun couldn’t help but chuckle, finding it hard to imagine Lin Chu being illiterate. After a long pause, he whispered, “‘Dao Dao’ is a pretty nice name too.”

Grandma chuckled, “This nickname is easy to remember. She wasn’t happy about it after she learned to read, but now she’s so well-behaved.” Once Lin Chu was mentioned, Grandma became quite talkative. She had grandsons, and in the past, she had been somewhat biased towards boys. Only after the children grew up did they realize how well-behaved and filial their granddaughters were. Her grandson lived in Chuqian and only came back to visit them once every six months or so. Lin Chu, on the other hand, would always come to visit her parents whenever she came home. “Our Daodao is so well-behaved and smart. So many people applied for state-owned enterprises back then, and she really lived up to expectations, actually getting in! State-owned enterprises are so hard to get into these days; it’s really not easy for a little girl like her!”

Shen Zhongxun responded occasionally, slowing down his eating pace. He didn’t finish the last dumpling until the afterglow faded. His grandmother was also about to finish her meal when she said, “The person she’s dating now, neither her grandfather nor I have met him, but he sounds very good. He works in a government agency and earns an annual salary of seventy or eighty thousand. We’re just waiting to see when she brings him back for us to meet.” Shen Zhongxun fell silent for a moment, holding his chopsticks without moving, feeling as if his heart had sunk to the bottom of a mountain with the afterglow, feeling heavy and unable to rise.

After Lin Chu finished eating and drinking, she left the restaurant but Jiang Jin still hadn’t returned the money. Feeling embarrassed to ask for it back, she had no choice but to get back on the motorcycle.

On the way back, Jiang Jin drove extremely slowly, arriving at Guanjin Garden only when it was completely dark. Lin Chu returned the helmet to him, standing in front of the building hesitant to speak. Jiang Jin pretended not to notice: “Why aren’t you going up yet? How about we go for another drink?”

Lin Chu gritted her teeth and said, “By the way, you haven’t paid back the money yet, have you?”

Jiang Jin said “Oh,” and slowly took out fifty yuan. As soon as Lin Chu touched it, he immediately tightened his grip, holding the banknote in a stalemate with her.

Lin Chu looked at him strangely, and Jiang Jin smiled and said, “By the way, have you looked for a house before? Are you familiar with the housing prices and available properties in this area? I want to move, but I have no experience.”

Lin Chu forcefully pulled out the banknotes, stuffed them into her pocket, and said, “I’m not familiar with this place either. I haven’t even figured out the way around here yet. You should find an agent!” After saying that, she immediately waved goodbye, turned around, and ran into the stairwell. Jiang Jin called out twice more, but Lin Chu no longer responded.