Chapter 17 So Light, So Sweet, So Soft

Luo Yi lost focus for a moment. She turned her dark eyes toward Ye Xiaoyang, like a dazed little sparrow.

His expression was calm, his posture upright. There was not the slightest hint of discomfort.

It was she herself who… really wasn’t calm enough.

She looked away, trying to drive off this strange feeling.

The urgent ringtone left her no more time to think. She unzipped her backpack and took out her phone.

It was Luo Hengzhou.

“Hello, Dad,” she answered obediently.

“Xiao Yi, today’s May Day. Is school on holiday?” Luo Hengzhou was in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. It was seven hours behind Beijing time. Over there it was only nine in the morning.

“Yes, we’re on holiday.” Luo Yi hugged her bag, crossed her legs, and swung her little white canvas shoes. “I went on a spring outing with my classmates today.”

“Oh. Did you have fun?”

“Mm. Pretty fun.”

“Have you gotten used to the new school? Has anyone bullied you?”

“No one’s bullying me. Everyone’s been very nice to me.”

“That’s good. Dad was afraid you’d be treated poorly.”

“I haven’t.” Luo Yi picked at the studs on her bag.

“Is the mining over there going smoothly?”

“We’re still in the survey stage. Construction hasn’t started yet.”

“Then you have to be extra careful.” She had heard that public security in Africa was a bit chaotic, plus mosquitoes and malaria and things like that. Luo Yi was worried.

“Is it very hot over there?” she asked again.

“It’s alright. Daytime temperatures are a little over thirty, about the same as summer back home. Besides, there’s air conditioning. How hot can it get?”

“Oh.” Luo Yi said dully, “The classrooms at No.1 High don’t even have air conditioning yet.”

When Luo Yi had studied in Tongze before, every classroom had air conditioning. She didn’t know why a school as good as Xishui No.1 High didn’t install air conditioning for the students.

She had specifically asked Qian Jiayun. Qian Jiayun said, “Air conditioning? Only the Grade 12 teaching building has air conditioning. The school leaders say Grade 10 and Grade 11 need to temper their willpower, so they don’t install it.”

Of course, the school leaders’ real intention might not have been to temper the students’ willpower. Maybe they just didn’t have the funds.

Anyway, they had gotten through so many years like this. Not installing air conditioning hadn’t heat-killed a single student.

The air conditioning in the leaders’ offices, however, ran nonstop as soon as summer arrived. Very cool.

“What? Your classroom has no air conditioning?”

“The dormitory doesn’t have air conditioning either,” Luo Yi added. “They don’t even install fans. They say they’re afraid we’ll catch a cold if we blow them at night.”

When Luo Hengzhou heard this, that was too much.

Not letting kids use air conditioning in summer—how hot would that be?

He only had this one precious daughter. He was afraid of dropping her if he held her in his hands, afraid of melting her if he kept her in his mouth. From childhood she had been a little flower raised in a greenhouse, unable to withstand wind and rain.

“Xiao Yi, Dad will find someone right now to install air conditioning in your classroom and your dormitory.”

“Dad.” Luo Yi’s voice was soft and gentle. “That wouldn’t be appropriate, right? No one else has air conditioning.”

She didn’t want special treatment.

Today she had just been mentioned for drinking a can of coconut milk. If she installed air conditioning, who knew what outsiders would say about her.

It wouldn’t matter if they talked about her. Dragging down the whole class would not be good.

“Oh…” Luo Hengzhou calmed down and felt that doing it this way really wasn’t quite proper.

He thought for a moment, then said, “Then I’ll donate several dozen air conditioners to your school in my personal name.”

That way no one would have anything to gossip about.

Luo Yi: “…”

Dad, can we keep a lower profile? This is a bit too showy, isn’t it?

Luo Hengzhou left her no room to question. He said, “Later I’ll have someone contact your school leaders and send the air conditioners over as soon as possible.”

Luo Yi didn’t argue anymore. She really was afraid of heat.

It was only the beginning of May now, and daytime temperatures were already approaching thirty degrees. After May Day it would probably get even hotter.

“When do you start summer vacation?” Luo Hengzhou changed the topic.

“I don’t know. Probably July.”

“Do you want to come to Africa to play?” Luo Hengzhou missed his precious daughter very much. “Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya—I heard the snow on the summit will melt by 2020. If you don’t see it, there won’t be another chance.”

“Ah?” Luo Yi was very surprised. “No way?”

Mount Kilimanjaro was known as the roof of Africa, a textbook case of vertical climate zones in geography. From the foothills to the summit, you could experience the climate changes of all four seasons.

The famous writer Hemingway had written a novella called The Snows of Kilimanjaro . Luo Yi hadn’t even seen the snows of Kilimanjaro yet, and she was already being told they were about to melt. How could that not make her feel regret?

“Why would Dad lie to you? Africa has a lot of fun and beautiful things. Didn’t you like watching Animal World when you were little? Dad will take you to the East African savanna to watch the animal migration.”

Luo Yi was drawn in. This sounded truly too tempting.

“When vacation starts, Dad will book you a ticket.”

“Am I going alone?” Luo Yi asked. She was a minor and had never flown by herself. This was also an international flight, and to a small African country like Nigeria at that. Most likely she would have to transfer. It would probably take a day or two of tossing about before she arrived.

“Dad will see if any friends happen to be coming this way and can bring you along.” Although minors flying alone could go through unaccompanied minor procedures, Luo Hengzhou was definitely not at ease.

“When the time comes I’ll book first class on Emirates, transferring in Dubai. You can sleep on the plane so you won’t get tired.” Luo Hengzhou was afraid Luo Yi wouldn’t want to come, so of course he provided her the best service.

“Won’t that be a bit expensive?” Luo Yi asked softly. Emirates first class had always been famous.

“It’s alright. Not expensive.” A round trip was only about twenty thousand US dollars, converting to a little over a hundred thousand RMB. If it could let Luo Yi come over comfortably, Luo Hengzhou felt this deal was very worthwhile.

“Alright then.” Luo Yi agreed very readily.

Luo Hengzhou gave Luo Yi a few more reminders, then hung up.

After this phone call, Luo Yi was no longer sleepy.

She turned her head and met Ye Xiaoyang’s eyes.

Ai. She had almost forgotten there was a huge trouble sitting beside her.

“Your dad?”

“Mm.” Luo Yi nodded. “He called to ask how I was doing.”

“Where is your dad mining?” Ye Xiaoyang continued his household-registration-check mode.

“Nigeria.”

“That far?”

“Mm.” Luo Yi said, “A lot of Chinese people go there to mine now.”

The “mining” she spoke of was of course not putting on a miner’s lamp and digging with a hammer, nor was it setting up a few mining machines to dig digital cryptocurrency day and night. It was putting up money to contract a mine and then develop it—investment, in short.

This kind of investment wasn’t huge, and it wasn’t small either. Without tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in funds, it couldn’t operate.

Ye Xiaoyang was silent for a long time before he could only say, “Then your dad is pretty hardworking.”

“Mm. He is very hardworking.” Luo Yi agreed. Luo Hengzhou had gone to a remote little African country just to earn money and support the family. How could the conditions there compare with those at home? How could it not be hard?

Tongze had rich rare earth mineral deposits. These past years Luo Hengzhou had long since made a fortune.

From the day Luo Yi was born, she had never lacked money, yet she had never felt that her family was rich.

On ordinary days everyone went to school in uniforms, ate three meals a day, and slept in one bed at night.

Except that the house at home was a bit bigger and there were a few more cars, Luo Yi felt her family wasn’t much different from other families.

If there was a difference, it was probably that other families all had mothers, and she didn’t. A father and daughter living in a big house felt rather cold and empty.

Luo Hengzhou had let her study in Tongze for the convenience of taking care of her.

He didn’t have any especially high requirements for Luo Yi’s studies. He only hoped she would be healthy and safe.

If he hadn’t needed to stay in Nigeria for a long stretch this time, he wouldn’t have been willing to send Luo Yi to Xishui for school.

Ye Xiaoyang always felt something wasn’t quite right.

Just now, listening to her talk with her dad, it hadn’t been as miserable and pitiful as he had imagined. Instead there was a spoiled little-daughter coquettishness.

If Luo Yi’s dad was a miner, how had she transferred into Xishui No.1 High?

Her grades shouldn’t have been especially outstanding either.

What’s more, No.1 High didn’t even accept repeat students. You couldn’t transfer in on grades alone. Student status alone could block you to death.

Luo Yi’s outfit looked quite plain, but the little MCM backpack she was hugging in her arms had to be worth several thousand at least.

Although it was nothing compared with the cabinet full of bags his mother Ji Shu had, for a high school student to use this kind of backpack was still a tiny bit luxurious.

Ye Xiaoyang was still thinking when the bus announcement rang out: “Welcome aboard Bus 702. Next stop, Xizhao Evening Road. Please prepare to exit from the rear door.”

Luo Yi let out an “Ah,” jumped up hugging her bag, and said, “I have to get off.”

She was just about to greet Ye Xiaoyang and walk toward the rear door when, unexpectedly, Ye Xiaoyang also stood up. “I’m getting off too.”

Luo Yi blinked and asked, “Do you live around here?”

Last night Zhou Jiahang had said he lived in White Deer Manor. That seemed pretty far from here.

Ye Xiaoyang said without changing expression, “My grandfather’s house is in the municipal party committee compound. I’m going over for dinner tonight.”

“Oh.” So that was it. Calling a grandson home for a meal on May Day was perfectly reasonable.

After getting off the bus, the two of them walked along the street.

A few photinia trees were planted along the roadside. It was the flowering period now. Clusters of small white flowers gathered together, shaped like little umbrellas. From afar they looked like snowflakes. Li Bai had once written, “Water pounds the mica pestle; wind sweeps the photinia flowers.”

But when you got close, that strange smell made passersby cover their noses and walk around.

Luo Yi twitched her nostrils and sneezed. She had a mild pollen allergy. Once she came into large-scale contact with pollen, it would cause a bit of discomfort.

Ye Xiaoyang also furrowed his brows without meaning to.

Photinia flowers, the filthy demon king among flowers, truly lived up to the name. A girl smelling this kind of scent should find it pretty embarrassing. Anyway, he found it a bit embarrassing.

“This flower smells so weird.” Luo Yi pulled out a tissue and wiped her nose, muttering in complaint. “Why plant this kind of tree on the street?”

Ye Xiaoyang smiled faintly. From the looks of it, she completely didn’t understand why pedestrians took a detour. It wasn’t only because the photinia flowers smelled fishy and pungent. More importantly, the smell was extremely similar to male semen—full of the scent of life.

Where would a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old little girl have smelled that kind of scent? Not knowing was very normal. Knowing would be the abnormal thing.

Ye Xiaoyang said expressionlessly, “The flowers of certain plants in the rose family contain amine substances, such as trimethylamine. The cells of many marine animals contain trimethylamine oxide, which under oxidation can turn into trimethylamine—what people usually call the fishy smell.”

“Photinia is a rose-family plant. It’s cheap, beautiful, easy to keep alive, and can also purify air and reduce pollution, so it’s a common landscaping tree.”

Luo Yi: “…”

She had only complained casually, yet he had earnestly answered her question and cleared up her confusion.

His serious expression was just like that day in the little bamboo grove when he had popularized for her why A-Fei was a male cat.

What kind of structure was Ye Xiaoyang’s brain, exactly?

She could understand every single word he said, but when they were strung together, they left people puzzled.

When he spoke these words, it was like an audiobook of a popular science reader—no rise and fall of emotion.

If he had been reading from a book, that would have been normal. But he had said such a long passage out of thin air. His super memory was astonishing.

Luo Yi nodded half-understanding. “You’re so amazing. You know everything.”

“I just read it in a book before.” Ye Xiaoyang explained lightly, as if photographic memory wasn’t a skill worth showing off.

“If only I were as smart as you.” Luo Yi sighed. “Sometimes I can’t even remember the simplest math formulas, not to mention that pile of messy reactions in chemistry.”

Ye Xiaoyang asked, “In Grade 11 they’ll divide into arts and science classes. What will you choose?”

“Me?” Luo Yi kicked a small pebble on the road. “I should choose arts. I can’t handle those science things.”

The pebble rolled a few circles with a clatter and “dong” dropped into the sewer, going still.

“Choosing what you’re good at is fine.” Ye Xiaoyang pressed his lips together. “I just don’t like memorizing those politics things. Very boring.”

“Nothing is a problem for you to study.” Luo Yi said. She felt Ye Xiaoyang’s words were a bit too modest. His head had probably been blessed by a high monk at a temple when he was born, which was why it was so sharp.

“Most of the classmates in our class will choose science, right?” Luo Yi asked again.

“Probably.” Ye Xiaoyang said. “Every year the experimental classes only have about thirty people in total choosing arts, so the experimental classes don’t get split.”

“Ai, what a pity.” Luo Yi silently sighed. “I can only be classmates with everyone for two more months.”

The teachers in Class 6 were kind, the classmates harmonious. She quite liked it here. Thinking that once they were divided she would have to leave, she felt a little reluctant.

Hearing this, Ye Xiaoyang also fell silent. Thinking of her going to the arts class made him feel uneasy.

But he knew she really wasn’t suited to studying science. He couldn’t do something like persuading her to stay and ruining her future.

She was like a little butterfly that had flown silently to his side. When the time came, she would flap her wings and leave.

The two of them walked to the downstairs of Luo Yi’s aunt’s building. Luo Yi stopped, turned around to face Ye Xiaoyang, and said, “I’m here.”

Ye Xiaoyang took off his shoulder bag, pulled out a box, and stuffed it into her hands. “This is for you.”

Luo Yi looked at the box in her hands—it was a box of chocolate. On the box were the six gilded English letters “GODIVA,” tied with a red bow. The packaging was very exquisite.

This chocolate wasn’t cheap. Luo Hengzhou had brought it for her before when he went on business trips. A small place like Tongze couldn’t buy it at all.

“About last time with the football, I’m very sorry.” Ye Xiaoyang coughed lightly, finding a high-sounding reason.

“You didn’t do it on purpose,” Luo Yi said. “And you already bought me milk tea.”

He zipped up his backpack and hung it back on his shoulder. Seeing her at a complete loss, Ye Xiaoyang’s lips curved slightly and he said softly, “You like eating candy. I remember.”

She suddenly thought of the coconut milk she had drunk today. That had also been taken out of his backpack.

Had he specially put the things he wanted to give her together? Luo Yi’s ear roots turned a little red.

“Ai.” She called him softly. “Ye Xiaoyang.”

It seemed this was still the first time she had called his name to his face. Her voice was soft and melting, like a fine spring rain in March drifting into his ears.

“You’re really too—” good.

Good enough that she almost produced a strange illusion, like the illusion that this lofty academic god would look favorably on a little academic slacker like her.

In all the years she had grown up, aside from her dad, no one had ever been this good to her.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow and asked.

Luo Yi shook her head. “Nothing. Thank you.”

After speaking, she waved at him and turned to go upstairs.

Ye Xiaoyang stood in place for a long time before coming back to himself.

He was certain he had developed a different kind of feeling for her—a feeling that came from nowhere and could not be suppressed. Just now when she had been sleeping against him, he had very much wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms.

He had even wanted to touch the little ears hidden in her short hair, to see if they were made of cotton candy—so light, so sweet, so soft.

The daydream was suddenly interrupted by a phone ringtone. Ye Xiaoyang recovered his calm self-control.

“Haven’t you gotten home yet?” Ji Shu’s voice came from the other end of the line. For some reason, her voice sounded a little tired.

“Heading back now.” Ye Xiaoyang stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked back.

“Oh.” Ji Shu responded, was silent for a while, then said, “If Mom wants to divorce Dad, who would you go with?”

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

He didn’t know what kind of sentimental illness Ji Shu had come down with, suddenly bringing this up.

Ye Xiaoyang walked out of the community gate, flagged down a taxi, and said to the driver, “White Deer Manor south gate.”

“Mom, what’s wrong with you again?” After getting in the car, Ye Xiaoyang rubbed his brow. If it weren’t his mom, he wouldn’t bother with this mess.

“Nothing.” Ji Shu said to herself, then hung up without head or tail.

Ye Xiaoyang looked at the rows of streetlights rapidly receding outside the car window. A layer of frost seemed to have formed in the depths of his eyes.

His dad was the president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank in Xishui. His mom was the pretty, glamorous bank president’s wife. The two had been loving for many years, a pair of enviable good husband and wife in outsiders’ eyes.

Was the family harmonious? Actually it was quite harmonious—at least when they weren’t arguing.

Once they started arguing, the two of them could flip the roof. The reasons for arguing were nothing more than the beauties outside, or trivial chicken-feather-and-garlic-skin matters.

They used to argue more frequently. Back then they thought Ye Xiaoyang was young and didn’t understand. They would argue until the middle of the night.

But a child’s heart was very sensitive. When they argued, Ye Xiaoyang couldn’t sleep at all.

Every time they argued, Ye Xiaoyang would also suffer collateral damage.

Ye Rongcheng would go silently to the balcony to smoke. Ji Shu couldn’t scold a fart out of him, so she would pull Ye Xiaoyang over and ask, “If Mom and Dad divorce, who would you go with?”

Seeing the pool of tears in his mother’s eyes, little Ye Xiaoyang’s heart was soft.

He would say, “Mom, can you not divorce Dad?”

Or, “Mom, I’ll go with you.”

Whenever she got an answer like that, Ji Shu would be as satisfied as if she had received some kind of comfort. The setbacks she suffered from her husband were all collected back from her son.

Ji Shu would say, “If it weren’t for you, I would have divorced your dad already. So you have to strive, understand?”

This trick was played until Ye Xiaoyang was almost graduating from elementary school. One time he was doing homework in his room when Ji Shu called him out again and asked the same thing.

Ye Xiaoyang couldn’t say why. When Mom listed Dad’s faults, he should have stood with Mom against a common enemy. Yet he instead produced a feeling of irritation.

That time, he said coldly, “If you want to divorce, then divorce. Don’t ask me anymore.”

If they couldn’t go on, why still make do? Better to split cleanly and get some peace.

Ji Shu froze on the spot. She probably hadn’t expected Ye Xiaoyang to say something so heartless.

She didn’t say more and told Ye Xiaoyang to go back to his room.

Ye Xiaoyang lay on the desk and thought, this time they should really divorce, right? If he really had to choose, he would probably still choose Mom.

He spent the next few days in uneasy anxiety. Ji Shu never mentioned the matter again, as if making a fuss about divorce was just playing house.

From then on, Ji Shu rarely pulled Ye Xiaoyang over to ask this kind of stupid question again, but the arguments never stopped.

Ye Xiaoyang understood. Actually Ji Shu didn’t want to divorce. She only wanted to seek from her son a reason to maintain the marriage, so she could deceive herself into continuing to swallow her anger.

From the way she madly swiped cards to buy bags, clothes, and jewelry, she still couldn’t leave Dad.

Husband and wife were a community of economic interests. They were also people with status in Xishui. Who would go get divorced? Were they crazy?

Once Ye Xiaoyang figured this out, he no longer took these pointless fights to heart.

But in his memory the two of them hadn’t argued for a while. He didn’t know what new story had happened today.

The taxi arrived at White Deer Manor. Ye Xiaoyang got out and walked home in the gathering dusk.

White Deer Manor was a famous high-end lakeside villa community in Xishui. Each family had its own gate and courtyard, plus a private garden and swimming pool. Every household living here was either rich or noble.

He had just entered the house and changed into slippers when Ji Shu’s sharp voice came from the living room: “Who exactly was it bought for?”

And Ye Rongcheng’s rather bad-tempered tone: “I already said I never bought it. Don’t make trouble for no reason.”

“I’m making trouble for no reason? When have you ever let me have peace these years?”

“One thing is one thing.” Ye Rongcheng was quite righteous. “This is you framing me!”

“I’m framing you? Then those text messages in your phone before were also me framing you?”

“You’re digging up old accounts again! Can the past just stay in the past?”

…

The two of them argued until Ye Xiaoyang’s head hurt.

When Ji Shu saw Ye Xiaoyang shuffling in slippers across the rosewood floor, she pulled out a few tissues and silently wiped her tears. This behavior seemed to be expecting her son to say a few words for her.

When Ye Rongcheng saw his son return, he sat down on the sofa and silently took out a lighter to light a cigarette.

Then Ye Xiaoyang caught sight of a crumpled little receipt spread on the coffee table—GODIVA store consumption, 1,560 yuan.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

This time it seemed Ye Rongcheng really had been wronged.

Yesterday when Ye Xiaoyang went out to buy drinks, he passed the GODIVA store at Haiji Plaza. Thinking of a certain candy-loving little rabbit, he bought a box of chocolate as if possessed.

Only after getting home did he remember the receipt in the bag. To avoid suspicion, he crumpled it into a ball and threw it into the living room trash can.

Who would have thought Ji Shu would dig it out.

Chocolate was definitely something little girls liked to eat. He had never seen any grown man who loved eating chocolate.

In Ji Shu’s eyes, this became ironclad evidence that Ye Rongcheng was seeking flowers and asking willows outside.