Nan Zhi walked on the snow, feeling it funny about the two people’s different brain circuits.
On her side, treating the person as a partner, already considering marriage; on his side, actually completely unaware.
Nan Zhi couldn’t help asking him, “Then what do you take me as? If not a partner, would I bring you back, let you enter my room alone, and to you…”
She, under her clothes, placed her hand on Song Qing’s perky place, “like this.”
Song Qing: “……”
He buried his head into Nan Zhi’s thick hat, said in a small voice: “I know.”
Nan Zhi was very curious about how he could think of himself as a mistress or third/fourth party, “Why would you think like that?”
“Hmm?” Song Qing didn’t understand.
Nan Zhi reminded him, “Why would you think you’re someone I raised to play with before marriage?”
Song Qing didn’t hide from her, “Fang Guanqi said, our family and their family long ago wanted to form a marriage alliance, we’ve already looked at each other many times, this time coming is to settle it, later on we’ll definitely marry.”
This time it was Nan Zhi’s turn to be surprised, “What ghost?” [a slangy expression, literally “what ghost,” used to express confusion or disbelief akin to “what the hell?” or “what nonsense is this?”]
When did this happen, she didn’t know at all. She and Fang Guanqi had only seen each other a few times during New Year’s Eve dinners, right?
Every year going to her parents’ place for New Year, she saw with her own eyes how her parents treated her older sister and younger brother so well, playing around affectionately. When it came to her, they were polite and formal, as if they didn’t know how to interact with her.
Every time she felt like a guest, and the kind that didn’t know how to communicate, still at the unfamiliar stage yet already annoying everyone into awkwardness.
Every time she went there it was like sitting on pins and needles, wishing for it to end quickly so she could run back into grandma’s arms, then comfort herself: they have parents, she has grandma.
Her whole heart and mind were preoccupied with internal turmoil, she didn’t even notice who was at the dinner table.
It was just that it was inappropriate to play on her phone while eating, and boring, so she heard a few lines of their conversation — that’s what they call “looking at each other”?
Nan Zhi: “……”
Speaking of this, she suddenly recalled, “No wonder my parents were so weird today. That liquor was clearly Wuliangye, yet they didn’t tell me the brand, insisted I take Fang Guanqi with me, and that old master fears dirt and avoids trouble, makes so many fusses — I was the one running around, got exhausted to death.”
Nan Zhi sighed, “This isn’t finding me a partner, it’s clearly finding me an ancestor to worship.”
She thought of how, just because the car seat had a bit of dirt, he refused to sit and stood in front of the car for a long time, only showing satisfaction after she wiped it clean with her sleeve — even now, she still felt somewhat stifled.
“Is it that they see me living too leisurely, so want to find me an ancestor to serve?”
The two of them were in an equal relationship. Fang Guanqi’s family may have a little money now, but so did hers. He ran a pharmacy abroad and made some money; she took business commissions and earned tens of thousands, sometimes even one or two hundred thousand — not worse than him, so why did they so kindly treat her like a maid?
That bit of grace from back then wasn’t owed by her; the one who owed it wasn’t even him. Besides, so many years had passed, shouldn’t it be over by now? No need to keep holding it over her head, right?
Anyway, she just couldn’t understand it no matter what.
She only knew one thing — those who came for blind dates, before marriage all put on airs in front of her, wanting her to accommodate this and that. After marriage, would they even still treat her as a person?
At first, Nan Zhi just thought she helped him buy alcohol, buy gift boxes, drove him to visit relatives — and he didn’t even help with such small things. She was already mad. Now finding out he called it “meeting” and “coming to finalize the arrangement” — she was even angrier.
She placed Song Qing in the front passenger seat, then went back to retrieve the wheelchair he dropped and the detached battery, brought everything back into the car. As she sat in the car, she continued complaining, unable to figure out what her parents were thinking, why they had to torment her like this?
Song Qing sat at the side listening. Before, he always thought she didn’t mean what she said — that she was already about to settle with Fang Guanqi, happily going in and out together every day. Once Fang Guanqi appeared, he was nothing, aside from sleeping under the same blanket at night, during the day he couldn’t even see her shadow. Occasionally seeing the two of them talking and laughing — it was completely unlike what she said when venting to him, that she really didn’t like Fang Guanqi.
The reason she spoke like that in front of him was probably just the kind of fun between little couples.
At that time, he thought so.
Only now, upon realizing that he was the proper, official boyfriend, did he understand — it was Fang Guanqi and her parents putting on a one-man show.
She had been kept in the dark, completely unaware. If he hadn’t said anything, she would still think Fang Guanqi was just a friend of her parents.
Treating him well, tolerating him — it was only because he was her parents’ friend, a guest.
Nan Zhi knew even less than he did.
After things were cleared up and explained clearly, Song Qing felt like the haze in his chest had been swept away by someone — it became clear again.
He wiped his dirty hands on his clothes, barely getting two fingers clean, then opened the small glove compartment at the front of the car. He had just intended to pull out a pack of wet wipes to clean his hands, when someone snatched it ahead of him — the whole pack was taken, and after being torn open in her hands, was slapped straight onto his face.
He recalled Nan Zhi’s complaint earlier — how Fang Guanqi was like an old master, afraid of dirt and hard work, full of fuss.
He didn’t want Nan Zhi to think he was like that too, so he tried to grab the wet wipes from Nan Zhi’s hands himself, but got his hand smacked by her.
His chin was also held and twisted toward her side.
Having spent some time with him, she could probably tell what he was thinking. As Nan Zhi wiped his brows and eyes, she said, “You’re not like him. Doing things for him, I care about the give and take; for you, I don’t.”
Because he was the same — acting without considering the consequences, leaving no way back, giving everything to her with nothing held back.
You throw peaches at me, I repay with plums. [idiom meaning: “You show kindness, I repay it in kind.”]
And wiping his dirty face clean to reveal handsome and upright features — Nan Zhi didn’t feel it was a chore.
She generally called this kind of thing fun.
Nan Zhi wiped very meticulously. It could be seen that his face hadn’t really touched much dirt — probably just on his hands, like touching his hat or undoing his collar — got a bit of mud. But Nan Zhi still carefully wiped from his forehead down to his neck.
Wet wipes were changed again and again, as if his face had been buried in the dirt — made even him lose confidence. He just sat there obediently, letting her wipe back and forth.
Nan Zhi even wiped behind his ears several times. Though she called it wiping, even she felt something wasn’t quite right. It was more like playing — rubbing his thin earlobes until they turned red.
Once the face was done, she unbuttoned his collar and wiped his neck.
She used quite a bit of strength — as if she really wanted to test whether he, who was always so diligent, had actually scrubbed himself clean.
She scrubbed for a long, long time. Front of the neck, back of the neck — didn’t leave anything out. All she got was red skin — not a trace of dirt or other color. The wet wipe looked like it had just been pulled from the pack.
Nan Zhi stared at the cloth and clicked her tongue in amazement.
He really scrubs himself this clean every day, huh.
Nan Zhi pulled out a few more wet wipes and wiped his hands. Song Qing had very pretty hands — fair skin, long fingers, very thin skin, with a faint pink in the palms. Could even be used for hand model work.
Nan Zhi also didn’t pretend not to know how to find the right light and shadow — used him as a hand model, making various hand gestures and movements.
For example, grabbing the bedsheet.
This guy was very pure. Just after graduating from school, he was tricked home by her. He hadn’t yet been tainted by this big dye vat that is society, didn’t have any greasy male friends talking about dirty things, also didn’t pay much attention to entertainment. Every day he worked earnestly, putting all his energy into studying computers and software.
Like a sheet of white paper. Even if you tied a red string around his wrist, he wouldn’t think in any weird direction. [Note: “Red string on the wrist” alludes to the East Asian cultural idea of the red string of fate — often implying romantic destiny.]
Clean to an impressive degree.
Teasing him was especially interesting.
For example, right now she was very curious about something and wanted to test it.
Nan Zhi brought him back home the same way she carried him into the car — carried him all the way back, never let him touch the ground.
First stop was the laundry room, where she changed the outer clothes he wore — down jacket, down pants, all taken off.
He was still wearing clothes underneath, a good young man who wore thermal underwear. Stripping off the outer layer, the inner clothes weren’t dirty at all. After helping him put on new outerwear, she carried him back to his room.
The one on the right with a carpeted floor — that room was a bit warmer, so bathing wouldn’t feel cold, and it didn’t have a bathtub.
Only one downside — it had a large water heater tank. The water took some time to heat up, so Nan Zhi simply used that time to check the surveillance footage.
Song Qing, meanwhile, was placed at the computer desk by her. Put him on the bed, and you’d end up with a bedsheet-and-quilt-covering person; put him at the computer desk, and he would obediently open the computer to work and earn money for her.
This guy was a treasure no matter where you put him.
Nan Zhi made use of this trait of his — not out of laziness. Sometimes she was just too lazy to open packages herself, especially the ones she wasn’t looking forward to. She’d lure him into the room where the packages were placed, and once she left the room, the person would disappear from sight.
A little later, when she re-entered the room, she’d gain a person who not only had unboxed all the packages and placed them where they belonged, but also happened to have tidied up the rest of the place.
She never asked him to, never said anything about it — he just did it on his own, always had eyes for work.
Sometimes, even when she didn’t plan it, she’d be chatting with him and suddenly not see him anymore — turn around to find he was trapped in some room and couldn’t come out for the time being.
He was more or less a bit obsessive-compulsive, liked to finish everything before going to relax.
Household chores, he took care of more than half.
He was only physically disabled, not mentally. By contrast, Nan Zhi was physically healthy, but her heart had long been crippled.
Fang Guanqi —
Fang Guanqi couldn’t even compare to her, let alone to Song Qing.
The surveillance software was on Nan Zhi’s phone. She found the time when she messaged Song Qing that day, skipped directly to that time — it was easy to see how the two of them interacted.
The house used to only have her and Grandma. After all, two weak women, so the sunroom, the living room, the courtyard — all had surveillance cameras installed.
She fast-forwarded the playback. It only took ten or so minutes to finish watching the full process of their contact.
After thinking about it, she rewound again, watching once more the scene in the kitchen when Fang Guanqi spoke.
【Her family does Western medicine, ours does Chinese medicine. Our two families have wanted to combine East and West for a long time. We’ve also been arranged before. We’ve met a few times. This time is to finalize things. If all goes smoothly, we’ll marry next year. By then, what will you do?】
【Actually, having a maid who can cook and clean the house isn’t bad either.】
Nan Zhi had thought that Song Qing would fall into a disadvantage, because this person had never argued with anyone, nor did she expect he would be bullied like that.
Nan Zhi shut the bathroom door and almost immediately called her parents.
Even now, there was still some estrangement between her and her parents. Once the call connected, both sides were silent for a long time.
After a while, Nan Zhi went straight to the point:
“Dad, Mom, take Fang Guanqi away. I can’t serve this great Buddha. And don’t introduce me to any more matches, I already have a partner.”
“I know why you came back this year. You think my boyfriend is disabled in both legs, so you want to break up a pair of mandarin ducks, right?” [idiom meaning to forcibly separate a loving couple.]
“If that’s the case, then there’s no need to come back. I’ve decided on him. I’ll go over there to pay New Year’s respects.”
After a pause, she added, “If it’s because you miss home, or want to give us your blessing, then you’re welcome back.”
“Grandma said, this house is left to me but it’s also your home.”
Grandma had said that while she was alive, the two families were constantly fighting because of whether she had contributed labor or money to whom.
Even if her inheritance was divided equally, they would still argue that last time this one got more, that one got less, so this time it should be balanced.
Then the other would say, “Well, the time before that we helped your side, so now we should get more,” and so on — fighting again until they ended up never speaking for the rest of their lives.
So-called kinship, after all that fighting, had only a surface left — not much substance.
As a mother, what Grandma most couldn’t bear to see was her own children splitting apart.
So this time, no one got anything.
She left everything to Nan Zhi.
The house — Grandma’s two sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren had residency rights, but no ownership. Ownership belonged to Nan Zhi.
If one day they fell out, she had the right to revoke their right to live there and make the house completely hers.
Aside from balancing the two families, it was also a guarantee and a pure land Grandma left for her — full of love.
Grandma gave all of her love to her.
Maybe she also knew that without herself around, Nan Zhi would drift on the outside of both families — just one person, one home — so she always favored her a bit.
Around seven or eight in the evening, Nan Zhi knew that her parents, who now were more like teachers, only teaching students and rarely entering the operating room, basically got off work on time. At this hour, they were most likely home and together.
So she patiently waited. Waited for the response from the other end.
After a long, long time, they finally replied: “Okay.”
It wasn’t the scene of tearing faces that she had imagined.
Her parents didn’t argue with her, and didn’t say how they would choose.