Volume 9: The Acidity of the Setting Sun
Chapter 23: The New Year’s Firecracker
The first firecracker of the new spring split the long sky, declaring that all things in the world had washed away the old dust and welcomed a new life, sweeping away the gloom and unhappiness of the past year. Lu Li didn’t know who was setting off firecrackers so early in the morning, but in his heart, he offered a word of thanks to that audacious fellow.
The so-called “flavor of the new year” was the pervasive smell of smoke left by the fireworks filling the sky, the clamor of human voices, and the crisscrossing figures of people carrying red gift bags.
Last night, Lu Li had set off fireworks on the Jinjiang Bridge with Baili, Hupo, and Yameng. He held a Gatling-style firework tube, which made An Baili jump up and down with joy, shouting like a little monkey. Wen Hupo, on the other hand, was a bit “cautious.” To say cautious was an overstatement; in truth, when Hupo was lighting the firework tube, she didn’t dare to get closer than ten centimeters from the fuse, as if it weren’t a fuse but a venomous snake flicking its tongue.
She turned her head away, constantly asking Lu Li, “Is it lit… is it lit?” In fact, without needing Lu Li’s prompt, she would let go of the lighter on her own, throw it away, cover her head, and run back. After waiting a long while with no activity, she would dazedly realize she hadn’t lit the fuse at all.
“I’d rather go and learn watercolor from scratch with Joseph Zbukvic,” this little foreign girl said proudly.
Yameng was the most exaggerated. She could hold a Gatling firework launcher—one that Lu Li needed both hands to hold steady—in each hand. Under the shocked gazes of the passersby, Yameng stepped on the railing, aimed the two “Gatlings” at the sky, and laughed heartily amidst the brilliant fireworks, like a Valkyrie descended from the battlefield. Lu Li thought, if this were the age of cold weapons, with Yameng’s unreasonable brute force, she might really be called a Valkyrie. The day before yesterday, when he went to buy New Year’s goods with his sister, they ran into a petty thief who was making a year-end push. Yameng stepped forward to stop him, and the little thief, in a panic, grabbed a metal pipe and swung it at her.
Lu Li only remembered that in a flash, Yameng had caught the metal pipe with one hand, and with one kick—no exaggeration, really just one kick—sent the little thief flying, and only then did she turn to look at Lu Li gently. “Was I too rough?” Afterwards, Lu Li examined the metal pipe and found that the place where Yameng had gripped it was clearly deformed.
In comparison, An Baili seemed ordinary and childish. She held a sparkler, making “vroom vroom” sounds with her mouth—she was simply enjoying the pure joy of setting off fireworks.
His wandering thoughts returned, and a faint smile appeared on Lu Li’s face. Life was already so beautiful, why must he add sorrow? Shouldn’t finding joy in bitterness be a man’s responsibility? Lu Li looked back at the bed. The golden-haired Hupo and the black-haired Baili were still nestled under the covers. Hupo’s sleeping posture was very proper, it was just that her hair was too long, and Lu Li often ended up pressing on it at night. Baili’s sleeping posture was far from elegant. She went from sleeping vertically to horizontally, and from horizontally to upside down. Lu Li was kicked awake by her more than a few times during the night.
Incidentally, to achieve the grand accomplishment of three people sleeping in one bed, Lu Li had set up a folding bed next to the main bed for expansion, laid two soft mattresses on it, and it was no different from sleeping on the big bed.
It was still early. Lu Li didn’t plan to wake them; let them sleep a little longer. He wanted to see if Yameng was up, so he tiptoed into Yameng’s home and saw her sitting at her desk, tying her hair into a ponytail. She was wearing a loose tracksuit and looked like she was planning to go for a morning run.
Lu Li quietly came up behind Yameng, wanting to cover her eyes and give her a surprise, or rather, a childish prank. But just as he reached out his hands, Yameng finished tying her ponytail and stood up briskly. Lu Li’s two large hands ended up grabbing those two sinful mounds.
He decided to go along with the mistake, his fingers contracting. Hmm, the bras Yameng usually wore had underwires, so they didn’t feel very good. If only Yameng wore the same soft little camisoles as Baili and Jingyi, the feel would be on a whole other level.
Yameng didn’t stop him, letting her beloved younger brother knead them. “Are you coming for a morning run with me?”
“It’s New Year’s today, and you’re still going for a run?”
“You have to be persistent with exercise. It’s a habit,” his sister said seriously. “Who was it that said they would go for morning runs with me? How long did you stick with it before you broke your promise?”
Lu Li had started exercising back then out of concern for the Price, but later he understood that his Price couldn’t be a physical symptom like Baili’s, but rather some kind of unknowable karma, so he was gradually sealed by the bed.
“Can’t we switch to another form of exercise?” Lu Li pulled her toward the bed. The woman who could bend a steel pipe was as weak as a reed, pushed down onto the bed by Lu Li.
Her eyes were watery. “It’s New Year’s morning… is this all you’re thinking about, Lizi?”
Lu Li chuckled twice. “I don’t have many pleasures, just this little hobby.”
Every night, squeezed together with Hupo and Baili, the sweet and soft scent of the young girls’ bodies was like the most effective aphrodisiac, always making him encounter one goddess after another from the constellations in his dreams.
When Lu Li woke up, it was at the time of a young man’s morning arousal, when his vitality was at its peak.
Yameng bit his ear. “Next time, should we pull Wen Hupo in too? Me, Wen Hupo, and Baili…” Her whisper was like a wisp of smoke, coiling around Lu Li’s heart. He couldn’t help but imagine the scene: Wen Hupo, unwillingly, having her legs spread open by Yameng and An Baili, completely exposed, a look of disdain on her face.
Yameng knew how to seduce. Lu Li secretly gave her a thumbs-up.
“It’s a long and arduous road. She won’t agree,” Lu Li said.
“By the way, what are her thoughts, really?” Yameng pressed down on the fidgeting little Lu Li. “Baili is a tag-along. Her old man is a scoundrel who even went to jail, so I can understand her following your lead. But what about Hupo? Isn’t she the young miss of some An-something family from a foreign country? I heard she’s the type that lives in a castle… How is she willing to be corrupted by you?”
“How… would I know.” Now that she mentioned it, Lu Li also began to wonder. Ever since Hupo decided to give up everything she enjoyed at the Amber family home and “elope” with him, she had rarely revealed her feelings as she had during the sports meet. She had gone back to being her proud little cat—only this time, she was a domesticated one.
“Next time… should I ask her?”
Yameng said guiltily, “Then let’s not ask. If we scare her away again, I’ll really be the sinner…”
Lu Li looked at the woman before him, her face flushed, her top disheveled from his wanton hands. “Then how do you plan to atone for your sins, Yameng?”
“Like this…”
“Hiss…”
…
In Chuanhai, at the Chu family residence. Chu Jingyi sat alone on the swing, her eyes staring blankly in a certain direction. Behind her, Auntie Wang, the housekeeper, kept her company. Ever since the Chu family of three moved to Chuanhai, Auntie Wang had been working here as their housekeeper. She could be considered half an elder who had watched Chu Jingyi grow up.
“Miss, Mr. Chu has called. He said he’s too busy this year and doesn’t have time to come back for the New Year.”
“Oh.” It was normal for her father not to come back. She heard he had been promoted again and was now one of the few people closest to the core of the country. For him, perhaps there was never a holiday in the true sense of the word.
“What about Mom?” Chu Jingyi asked blankly.
“Madam… she said that until Mr. Chu apologizes, she will never come back,” Auntie Wang said with difficulty.
Is that so… Chu Jingyi gently kicked the grass, and the swing began to sway with a creak. So I’m spending the New Year alone this year… for the first time…
In the empty little courtyard, there was only the lonely sound of metal rubbing against metal.
In the distance, someone set off a firecracker in broad daylight, so loud that the whole city could hear it. Chu Jingyi stared blankly at the distant sky, not saying a word.
