It wasn’t until the tent was set up that Lin Yingxiang and Qin Bailan’s secret conversation ended. Ji Xiruan’s face also returned to normal, though her ears retained a slight reddish afterglow, only flaring up again when she made eye contact with Qin Shuangchi.
And Ji Qingyou, amidst Ji Xiruan’s flustered and helpless narration, understood her connection with Qin Shuangchi that had started long ago. Qin Shuangchi, an OB/GYN, had held her first newborn, Ji Xiruan. Ji Xiruan, a general surgeon, had witnessed her first rescue scene, with Qin Shuangchi as the lead doctor.
Also, according to Ji Xiruan’s insistence, the first letter she sent in that series of “Sister, I want to marry you” letters was to Qin Shuangchi. Ji Qingyou still had doubts about this, as she couldn’t rule out the possibility that Xiruan was altering her own memories.
At lunchtime, they spread a picnic blanket on the grass. Under the bright sunlight, they ate the fruit Ji Xiruan had brought, the pan-seared steak Li Nanli had brought, the grilled meat Qin Bailan had prepared, and the world’s best egg fried rice made by Yu Qinjiu.
Fortunately, the rice was cooked this time.
But it seemed a bit salty. So salty that Brittany stuck out her tongue and drank two bottles of water, swearing that for the next seventy years of her life, she would never eat the world’s best egg fried rice again.
Joining her in the vow was Li Nanli. Although she emphasized that she was still recovering from a major illness and couldn’t eat such “heavy-flavored” fried rice, Brittany still shoved a big mouthful into her. She chewed with a furrowed brow the whole time, finished, and very seriously asked Ji Qingyou, “Why did you use to say this was the world’s best egg fried rice? Is it really better than my mom’s, who runs a restaurant?”
Li Nanli was the deskmate who had brought Qingyou the egg fried rice.
Ji Qingyou realized this belatedly. After that month of eating the world’s best egg fried rice that Yu Qinjiu brought her, she could no longer recall whether Qinjiu’s sudden competitive urge was directed at the egg fried rice itself or at her then-deskmate, Li Nanli.
Even now.
Under Yu Qinjiu’s eager gaze, Ji Qingyou still nodded in admission. “This is indeed the world’s best egg fried rice.”
Ji Xiruan was shocked. “Is that why you never eat egg fried rice?”
Ji Qingyou paused for a second, glanced at Yu Qinjiu, but before she could say anything, Ji Xiruan added, with a tone of sudden realization, “Because your sense of taste is messed up?”
Ji Qingyou gave her a flat stare. Ji Xiruan shut up and mimed zipping her lips.
“Pfft—” Qin Shuangchi burst out laughing, saying the same thing she had said three times today. “Dr. Ji, you’re so cute.”
Ji Xiruan, now able to handle Shuangchi’s straightforward compliments, waved her hand. “It’s nothing, nothing.”
“Is it really that exaggerated?” Yu Qinjiu didn’t believe it. She tried a bite of the egg fried rice herself, savored it, then slowly put down her spoon. “It’s just a little salty. At least the rice is cooked.”
“Let me try.” Lin Yingxiang said, taking a tiny bite. Her expression didn’t change. She nodded. “I think it’s pretty good. Not too strong.”
“See? There’s no one like a mother.” Yu Qinjiu linked her arm through Yingxiang’s, her eyes curving in a smile, her chin lifted slightly. “My mom says it’s good, so it’s good.”
Li Nanli made a “tsk” sound. “Well, I still think my mom’s egg fried rice is the best.”
“And Ji Qingyou?” Ji Xiruan asked again. “Doesn’t her saying it’s good count?”
The topic circled back to Ji Qingyou. She pursed her lips, exchanged a glance with Yu Qinjiu for a few seconds, and was about to explain, when she heard Yu Qinjiu’s light voice reach her ears before hers, carried on the breeze.
“Okay, actually, I put more salt in on purpose.”
Ji Qingyou froze.
Qin Shuangchi voiced the question for her. “Why?”
Yu Qinjiu said very seriously, “Haven’t you seen that TV show? The female lead always puts a lot of salt in her cooking. I was imitating her.”
“Why?” Ji Xiruan was confused.
Yu Qinjiu blinked. “So people would remember it better.”
Li Nanli understood instantly. “I get it. You start learning now, then bring your egg fried rice to the handsome guy next door. Say you made it, so he remembers you.”
“No, that won’t do.” Yu Qinjiu refused, but her tone was still light. She smiled and covered the egg fried rice. “I only cook for Ji Qingyou to eat.”
Li Nanli made a “tsk” sound, accusing Qinjiu of favoritism.
Yu Qinjiu gave a harmless smile and nodded openly, admitting it. “I am biased.”
Ji Qingyou listened quietly to the laughter and chatter. In a crowd, she was always used to being quiet, unless the topic rested on her, in which case she felt obliged to speak.
So, in this pleasant afternoon, she sat on the soft, fragrant grass, quietly hugging her knees, listening to the others debate the question: “How many spoons of salt should be in the world’s best egg fried rice?”
A gentle wind blew, knocking loose the tangli pear blossoms from above their heads. The pure white flowers, like flowing dust, fell into the joyful laughter and chatter, passing through the gaps between everyone, landing in the most fitting places.
Yu Qinjiu was not quiet.
Whether it was the tangli pear blossoms falling in her hair, the wind brushing her slender neck, or the gaze resting upon her, she was not quiet.
When something was funny, she would clap her hands in amusement. When she couldn’t hold it in, she would fall over laughing on Lin Yingxiang’s shoulder.
When a topic required serious listening, she would fix her gaze on the person needing her attention, her brow slightly furrowed in concentration, and offer her advice.
And when she noticed Qingyou hadn’t spoken for a while, she would periodically let her gaze fall upon Qingyou, using a very soft voice, amidst the laughter, to engage in a sort of “secret conversation.”
Sometimes she would mouth a question like “What’s wrong?”, “Do you want a drink?”, “Do you want something to eat?”, “Do you want to go somewhere?”
Other times, she would gently tug at Qingyou’s sleeve, or squeeze her fingers, pick the most beautiful pure white flower from the grass and tuck it behind Qingyou’s right ear, then pick the second prettiest tangli pear blossom to put behind her own left ear… just like in school, making their own secret signals and little gestures amidst the bustling noise of the world.
When the topic returned to “whether cooking saltier food makes you more memorable,” Yu Qinjiu firmly took the “it makes you memorable” side. But just as everyone was passionately debating, she secretly squeezed Qingyou’s fingers and whispered in her ear.
“I was lying to them. I didn’t actually do it on purpose. I just made a mistake…”
The soft voice was delivered close to her ear. The wind blew, carrying Qinjiu’s faint, moist rose scent and the fresh tangli pear blossom smell of the park. It was like a net woven of flowers, a dense feeling of security.
As she spoke, Qinjiu heard Ji Xiruan say she was going to try this method too. It made Qingyou’s ear feel itchy. She curled her fingers and heard Qinjiu say, “What do we do, Ji Qingyou? Is it really just because it was too salty that you remember it?”
They sat side-by-side on the grass, embedded together in the crowd that had a close connection to them. Ji Qingyou tilted her head to look at Yu Qinjiu, thinking about the question: “Why do I remember the world’s best egg fried rice being salty?”
Yu Qinjiu met her gaze. Amidst the increasingly heated arguments of the others, her clear eyes reflected the tangli pear blossoms falling from the sky. She smiled at her, eyes curved.
In a way, Ji Qingyou felt as if she had returned to that spring when she was seventeen. The bright blue sky was backed by fluffy white clouds. The tender green grass opened its arms to welcome the constantly falling tangli pear blossoms.
The flowing wind brushed her face.
She was riding a bicycle, an earphone in her left ear. Behind her sat seventeen-year-old Yu Qinjiu, sharing the other earphone. The white wire seemed to connect their lives from then on.
In the earphone, Chen Qizhen sang:
/ You are the one who kidnapped me
/ Sitting on the back of the scooter, I feel the wind
/ Escaping mediocrity /
Their shadows, cast by the sunlight, swayed. Yu Qinjiu, sitting on the back, swung her legs. The bow tied in her hair was slightly lifted by the wind, like a truly free, unbound butterfly.
Yu Qinjiu lightly hummed the song from the earphone. Even listening to the original, she couldn’t sing the line “We elope to the moon” well. There were four repetitions of “We elope to the moon” in the song. Singing the fourth, she suddenly jumped.
“Ji Qingyou, how about we just elope!”
Ji Qingyou was used to her suddenness. She didn’t ask why. She just asked, “Do you have a place in mind?”
She couldn’t remember if her feelings at the time were perfunctory… or carried some anticipation she hadn’t even known herself.
She only remembered.
Yu Qinjiu, sitting behind her on the bike, cast such a carefree, unrestrained shadow in the sunlight. Their shadows were stuck together, with no gap between them.
She pedaled the bike. As they passed by a street corner, a passerby’s words drifted in: “Where are the Olympics next year?” Yu Qinjiu, swinging her legs on the back of the bike, said lightly, “Let’s go to London next year to watch the Olympics. I heard there’s a street in London, and at the very end of the street there’s a tavern. The tavern’s name is ‘Average Tavern’. But they have the world’s best egg fried rice there.”
To be fair, everything that came out of Yu Qinjiu’s mouth tended to be an absurd existence in this world.
London, a tavern, the world’s best egg fried rice – the combination of these three words was very strange.
Like the relationship between the Alps and Alps lollipops. Like how the snow in the Alps is perfect for making snowmen. Like how there’s a tavern in London called Average Tavern, and the Average Tavern serves the world’s best egg fried rice…
But.
Ji Qingyou didn’t say the Alps weren’t beautiful. She didn’t ask if there really could be an Average Tavern in this world that served the world’s best egg fried rice.
She just said, “Okay.”
So Yu Qinjiu laughed lightly again within that song, “Elope to the Moon”, and emphasized to her, “Then it’s settled. You can only go with me.”
The afternoon sunlight rolled by in waves. The crowds on the street were thick. Ji Qingyou carried Yu Qinjiu, the wind flowing around them. She nodded lightly and repeated, “Okay.”
Time slipped by like a white horse passing a crack. Ji Qingyou’s thoughts drifted back from the spring of her seventeenth year, returning to 2023. Yu Qinjiu was in front of her, watching her quietly, waiting for her answer.
She thought, she would consider this the world’s best egg fried rice, not because Qinjiu’s version was salty. In fact, sometimes it was salty, sometimes bland.
Not because she had eaten it for a whole month and developed muscle memory. But because…
Every moment Yu Qinjiu was present felt as long as eternity.
Thinking this, Ji Qingyou lifted the corner of her mouth. “It wasn’t because it was salty.”
“That’s good.” Yu Qinjiu seemed to breathe a sigh of relief over this too. Her gaze softened as she looked at Qingyou. “None of them think my egg fried rice is good. Only you and I do…”
“So, does that mean we have another secret?”
Ji Qingyou looked at her and didn’t deny it. “It seems so?”
Yu Qinjiu tilted her head, her expression adorable. “Right? I think so too.”
It seemed everything could be stamped with Qinjiu’s bright mark. For a second, an aimless thought crossed Qingyou’s mind:
In this spring of falling tangli pear blossoms, Ji Qingyou was not alone in her silence. Yu Qinjiu was not alone in her brightness.
The ones who were silent in the noisy world were both of them.
The ones who were bright in the monotonous world were also both of them.
–
After lunch, they rested for a while. Lin Yingxiang and Qin Bailan said they were going to the park’s fishing spot. Li Nanli was invited by the neighboring camp to join some youth games. Qin Shuangchi got a call from the hospital and had to rush back. Ji Xiruan and Brittany were playing hopscotch.
Ji Qingyou prepared to accompany Yu Qinjiu to practice skateboarding, the thing Qinjiu was most looking forward to on this camping trip.
The wind picked up in the afternoon, making their clothes billow. It was a bit hot. So hot that Qinjiu took off her scarf and tossed it aside. Holding onto Qingyou’s arm, she focused on studying the skateboarding moves, seemingly unconcerned about the non-existent butterfly.
Lin Yingxiang watched their figures, somewhat distracted.
“What’s wrong?” Qin Bailan noticed her expression. She adjusted the sun hat she had just put on. “Can’t bear to be away from your daughter even to go fishing?”
Lin Yingxiang didn’t speak. She just straightened her own sun hat.
Qin Bailan continued, “You’re always telling me your daughter can’t live without you. I think it’s the other way around.”
“You’re right.” Lin Yingxiang’s voice dropped. “She can’t live without me, and I can’t live without her.”
Qin Bailan noticed her low mood. “Isn’t that a good thing? It shows you two are close. It’s hard to get Little You to be close to me. We’re like there’s a barrier between us.”
Lin Yingxiang silently picked up a fishing rod. “They should live their own lives. They’re young. No romance, no life. Hanging around an old woman like me every day. What’s the point?”
“Hey, that’s not a nice thing to say.” Qin Bailan paused. “What do you mean by ‘old woman’? Weren’t you just arguing with me about a forty-year-old ‘young hunk’ hitting on you?”
Lin Yingxiang didn’t want to argue. “It’s just an expression.”
“Expression or not, she wants to be with you. Don’t always hold her back. It makes my heart ache just hearing you say that. Don’t even mention Little Jiu. You’re always hinting for her to stay. No one feels good hearing that.” Qin Bailan glanced over, then suddenly leaned in. “Hey, your complexion looks off today. Did you take your medicine?”
