WSL Chapter 6

After dinner, Gu Jianian casually asked Grandma about Cheng Yi.

“Did I know him when I was a kid? The one with the ivy-covered villa.”

Grandma placed a mosquito coil between two bamboo chairs.

The crimson dots slowly circled around the black coil, and the faint smoke dispersed, gradually disappearing into the summer night.

Grandma didn’t know what she was remembering, but the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepened with a smile. “Do you remember him?”

Gu Jianian shook her head.

Perhaps her life in Beilin was too oppressive, causing her memories before the age of seven to be very blurry.

Gu Jianian pushed her hair to the side to cover her slightly flushed ears and said slowly, “It’s Cheng… He said my name was given by him. Did he also live in Yunmo when he was young?”

“Yes.”

Grandma seemed to be lost in memories. “He was less than ten years old that year, alone, coming to Yunmo to study in the countryside. His grandfather called me, asking me to help take care of him. But he usually stayed at school and only came to our house for dinner on weekends.”

Gu Jianian exclaimed, “He had dinner at our house? Every weekend?”

“Yes.”

Grandma continued talking about the naming incident. “You were only three years old at the time. Your parents called and said they wanted to take you to Beilin early to attend kindergarten and needed a formal name. They were both intellectuals but superstitious, insisting on consulting a fortune teller. But the two fortune tellers they found had conflicting opinions, so they couldn’t agree. I said I would do it.”

“I didn’t have much education, and I couldn’t even use a dictionary. In the end, Cheng Yi suggested the name while having dinner at our house.”

“He said, since the year you were born, every year in Yunmo has been a ‘Jianian’ year. I thought the child had literary talent, and the name had a good meaning, so I used it. But after the name was decided, there were problems on your parents’ side, and they didn’t come to take you until you were seven.”

Gu Jianian hadn’t expected such a connection between her and Cheng Yi. She hurriedly asked, “Why did he transfer to Yunmo to study? And why did he come alone? What about his parents?”

She completely missed that her focus was entirely on Cheng Yi.

Fortunately, Grandma didn’t seem to notice. “His family was in Zhushan City, and his parents were probably busy with work.”

Zhushan City was a southern city about the same size as Beilin, only a two-hour drive from Yunmo.

“As for why he transferred to Yunmo… I only know that he often skipped classes and got into fights when he was in Zhushan City, resulting in disciplinary actions from the school. His family had no choice but to agree to transfer him to the countryside. But he only studied here for one semester before his grandfather took him back to Zhushan City.”

“In the following years, he lived with his grandfather in Zhushan City.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Jianian was surprised.

She hadn’t expected Cheng Yi to skip classes and get into fights at such a young age.

And to be disciplined by the school.

Her hands clenched involuntarily.

“It’s funny to think about it now. During the six months he was in Yunmo, you often looked forward to having dinner and playing games with him on weekends. When he left, you even cried holding his hand. But now you don’t remember at all. You’re really a heartless little girl.”

*

That night, Gu Jianian lay under the quilt, and every time she closed her eyes, she could picture Cheng Yi’s face hidden in the smoke, his fingers swirling the wine glass, and those eyes always filled with impatience.

She also remembered the piles of messy manuscripts on the table, with emotions screaming on them. Those emotions extended into the books she read, turning into curved underlines.

Her parents always told her they hoped she would become a certain kind of person in the future — get into a good university, study a major with good job prospects, and preferably even pursue a postgraduate degree.

Only then could she survive in this fiercely competitive society, find a stable job, get married, buy a house, have children, and firmly establish herself in Beilin.

They called it the necessary track of life’s journey, warning her that once she deviated from it, disaster would strike.

But Gu Jianian looked at that track with great confusion.

It felt like her hands and feet were bound, struggling to move forward under a heavy load, unable to discern the direction.

She exerted all her strength but couldn’t keep up with the speeding trains passing by.

Instead, in the desolate villa beyond that track, she felt a fierce longing for the first time.

This longing burst into her heart like lightning tearing through the clouds, abruptly dispelling all the darkness.

She saw a world in the dim castle.

A captivating world.

He lived in a house undisturbed by anyone, with a vast collection of books and unbridled solitary time.

He could grasp his own rules, unrestrained and free.

He had also skipped classes and played truant when he was young, even coming alone to study in the countryside of Yunmo.

Was he, like her, lost and rebellious, trying to break free from those established tracks?

— Did that mean.

Did it mean that there was perhaps a tiny, tiny possibility, even if it was one in a thousand or ten thousand, that her future wasn’t doomed to decay?

Gu Jianian turned to the side, slowly curling up her body, feeling the intense beating of her heart and the sour sorrow in her chest.

She thought of the festering wounds of the past, and tears gradually welled up in her eyes.

Her breathing became difficult, tossing and turning in restlessness, even wanting to get up immediately and go ask him, hoping that this “experienced person” could give her direction.

Her curiosity about him was like a climbing vine outside the villa, eagerly climbing up the wall, using all her strength to surround that isolated building, but always unable to penetrate through those closed doors and windows.

That day was the first time Gu Jianian experienced insomnia since arriving at Yunmo.

Even when the moon reached its highest point, the insect chirping ceased, and all was quiet, sleep still refused to come.

She stared into the thick, ink-like darkness, repeatedly wiping the corners of her eyes, tossing and turning until dawn.

*

In the following two weeks, Gu Jianian’s daily routine resembled that of her school days, except now there was no need for the airtight supervision of her parents and school. She would wake up early to make the bed, help her grandmother feed the chickens, plant vegetables, and weed the garden. After eating breakfast cooked by her grandmother, she would go to the ivy-covered villa to read. She would return at noon to help her grandmother with lunch. In the afternoon, it was baking time with her grandmother, making date cakes, mung bean cakes, or cookies and bread.

Gu Jianian could now independently cook several simple home-cooked dishes, such as stir-fried green peppers with pork, shredded pork with green peppers, and stir-fried loofah with eggs… Her culinary skills improved every day, and she roughly grasped the steps of cooking.

In terms of reading, Gu Jianian followed her own reading list and read through each book systematically, showing great improvement in her reading ability.

However, her relationship with Chi Yan did not become familiar despite their daily routines.

Their schedules didn’t entirely overlap. Gu Jianian went to read in the morning, while Chi Yan usually slept until noon.

She tried to stay a little longer every day, waiting for him to wake up before leaving, but she hesitated and never found the opportunity to talk to him.

Of course, they did have some interaction.

Their interaction was all in the books.

Almost every book Gu Jianian read had notes written by Chi Yan, which guided her and helped her understand some metaphorical passages, revealing the essence of the stories.

His handwriting was very nice.

Sometimes, when Gu Jianian was taking notes, she would secretly imitate his handwriting. After a few days, some of her strokes were already three-quarters similar to his.

Another thing was that during these two weeks, her parents didn’t call anymore.

There was no news from the school or teachers either.

Gu Jianian slowly put her worries aside.

Everything in Beilin faded away with time, and she joyfully began to adapt to life in Yunmo.

*

On the day of Dashu, the rainy season in the Jiangnan region completely turned over, and the peak of summer arrived.

**Nomad: Dashu, or “Major Heat,” is a traditional Chinese solar term marking the hottest period of the year, usually occurring between July 22 and July 24.**

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all eaten at her uncle’s house.

According to her grandmother, on every big and small holiday, the whole family would gather together for a meal.

Breakfast was very sumptuous.

Her aunt made lotus root tea for this season, made from fresh lotus root and leaves, which was very refreshing and cooling. Gu Jianian drank several cups, and the slightly bitter taste of the tea seemed like a tongue cleanser. After drinking the tea, the taste of the dishes seemed even more pronounced.

At the dining table, the adults conversed in the Yunmo dialect, discussing farming, work, and life.

The dialect of Yunmo was very rare and difficult to understand. Gu Jianian grew up in Yunmo as a child and could originally speak the dialect, but after going to Beilin, her parents hoped she would learn standard Mandarin and forbade her from speaking Yunmo dialect.

Over time, Gu Jianian could barely understand it, but she couldn’t speak it herself.

After dinner, a few younger relatives sat together and chatted.

The younger cousin, Chen Suo, cracked open a fuzzy peach picked from a tree near the house and gave half to Gu Jianian, saying, “Jianian, we’re going crab hunting later. Will you join us?”

Gu Jianian nibbled on the slightly bitter peach and her eyes lit up, “Crab hunting? Are we going to the river?”

Chen Suo nodded, “Yes, there are lots of crabs in the river. My mom makes delicious spicy crabs. Are you coming? Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous. The river is shallow, only up to your thighs. My brother and I often go.”

Excited at the thought of pushing her morning reading time to the afternoon, Gu Jianian eagerly set off with her two younger cousins.

They were well-prepared, carrying bamboo baskets and some bait.

When they reached the riverbank, the two cousins rolled up their pants and, wearing sandals, stepped directly into the water.

Gu Jianian reached out to touch the water surface and shivered from the cold, “This water is so cold.”

“Cold?” Chen Suo pretended to be puzzled and reached out to her, “Jianian, come over here, it’s not cold on this side.”

Gu Jianian, with some doubts, walked over, but unexpectedly, her arm felt a strong pull, she couldn’t stand steady, and ended up tumbling into the river, splashing water everywhere and getting half-soaked.

The two cousins laughed heartily while Gu Jianian, feeling embarrassed, immediately grabbed a nearby bamboo basket to retaliate. Unfortunately, the basket leaked, and most of the water spilled out before she could throw it.

After playing in the water for a while, they started looking for crabs.

All the crabs were hiding under the rocks, so they had to flip the rocks to find them. The riverbed was covered with moss, slippery to the touch.

At first, Gu Jianian was too scared to flip the rocks, afraid that some terrifying unknown creature would come out. But after seeing her two cousins flipping rocks one after another, she overcame her fear and started flipping rocks herself.

Under the third rock, they finally found a crab, tiny, only half the size of a finger, with eight legs quietly clinging to the rock, its eyes bulging, even blowing bubbles.

Excitedly holding up the rock, Gu Jianian hesitated to grab it, so she called her cousins, “Come quick, I found one here!”

Both cousins came over, and the tiny crab, seeing more people, started to show off its claws.

“This one’s too small, let it grow a bit longer.”

“Okay.”

After a busy morning, Gu Jianian finally harvested a small basket of crabs and a fish. Compared to her cousins, her basket was much emptier.

Exhausted, the three of them took off their shoes and sat on the riverbank, basking in the sun.

Looking at the crabs crowded in the basket and the lively fish, feeling the warm breeze by the river, Gu Jianian’s lips slowly curled up.

Her parents said she would starve if she didn’t go to college.

But now she was learning to cook, baking cookies, and even catching fish and crabs by herself.

Maybe if she learned how to grow vegetables and raise chickens with her grandmother, she wouldn’t starve after all?

Gu Jianian’s heart gradually settled.

On the way home, Chen Xi talked to her about their daily life in Yunmo.

“Jianian, if you had come in March or April, you could have joined us in the mountains to dig bamboo shoots and wild vegetables, and even wild mushrooms. There’s a kind of fern that’s curled at the top, diced and stir-fried with minced meat, it’s really delicious. But summer is also good, there are two markets every month, starting at four or five in the morning, with fresh meat and vegetables, and some things you don’t usually see…”

Listening, Gu Jianian couldn’t help but feel envious.

He just needed to grow up slowly.

“But starting next year, I won’t be so free.”

Chen Xi sighed.

Gu Jianian asked him, “Why?”

Kicking a pebble on the roadside, Chen Xi looked a bit embarrassed, “I got into Zhushan No.1 High School, I have to go to high school when it starts, the school is too far away, it takes three hours by bus, I have to live there, I can’t stay at home all the time.”

“Zhushan No.1 High School?”

Gu Jianian caught onto that term keenly. She remembered her grandmother saying that Chi Yan’s family lived in Zhushan.

Except for that one semester in Yunmo, he had attended school in Zhushan from elementary to high school.

Gu Jianian asked casually, her voice calm, “Zhushan, what other high schools are there?”