Green Plum IslandCh14 - Rehearsal

[I’m about to challenge myself to do something I’ve never done before. I don’t know that I’ll do well, but at the very least I won’t completely screw up.]

Netizen A: Young people should challenge themselves bravely. HqBFfS

Netizen B: What is it what is it what is it?

Netizen C: Work? Courting someone? Lol or helping a cat give birth?

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Mr. Zhang informs me that we have two rehearsals before the official ceremony and tells me and Yan Kongshan to meet with him at the location he gives us.

The meeting point is an elementary school gym, which has become a makeshift office of sorts for the Rainstopping Ceremony, since the school isn’t using it for the summer anyway. PeOyUS

After Yan Kongshan parks the car, we follow the path towards the gym. Our surroundings are dark and unlit, the school gym being the only source of light in the vicinity.

The noise the cicadas make is deafening, and perhaps because there are ponds in the school, frogs join the chorus as well, the two creatures seeming to partake in a competition to see who’s loudest.

I’m listening so intently to their calls that my feet trip over something and I slip and nearly land face first in the mud. Thankfully, I reach out in front of me and grab onto Yan Kongshan’s arm just in time.

He’s sturdy enough that my sudden fall doesn’t rock him off balance. He simply stands still, tilting his head slightly downwards in the darkness and waiting for me to stabilise myself.

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“It’s so dark here, why don’t I hold your hand?”

Before I realise it, a large, warm hand clasps over my wrist and gently tugs me forward.

Ah~ If I count liberally, then this is our first time holding hands!

I try to tamper down feelings of impish satisfaction. If a dash of light lit my face right now and Yan Kongshan turned around, he’d definitely catch the exaggerated, foolish smile on my face. Qy2S8W

In my heart, the sparrow is already leaping and swirling around in a rhythmic gymnastics routine to the beat of the cicadas’ choir, its mouth blooming with roses. It concludes its performance with a magnificent Thomas flair.

Truly a dramatic bird, I think to myself, pressing my other hand against my chest.

The gym is only about twenty metres away from the parking lot and soon enough, we arrive. As Yan Kongshan pushes open the door and bright light washes over us, he lets go of my hand. With that, the short-lived moment of sweetness is over.

Besides Mr. Zhang, the gym is filled with people. Some I’ve seen before in the village, and others I don’t know at all, probably from the neighbouring village. Props lay scattered all around the vast space, most noticeably the sedan chair in the very centre that’s about half a person tall. 92HFJ4

The chair is black and secured with red ropes, surrounded by knee-high protective rails on three sides. Behind the back of the chair is a red silk screen. Despite the fact that it’s called a “sedan chair,” it looks more like an exhibition float.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“This chair has been used since I was young. It’s painted, then repainted, over and over again. I don’t know how many more years it’ll last,” Mr. Zhang explains when he sees me looking at the chair. He slaps one of the poles holding the chair. “It’s made from the highest quality pear wood and requires the simultaneous strength of twenty four people to hold it up. During transportation, it’s very sturdy, don’t worry. You won’t feel motion sickness.”

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“Carry me?” I zero in on the key point.

“The sky maiden’s plummage is white and gets dirty easily. Plus, you can’t wear shoes during the real thing, so you’ll be barefoot. When you get up onto the chair, the general has to carry you up,” he clarifies, pointing at me and Yan Kongshan each in turn. “Come on, let’s try it out.”

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So suddenly?

Before I have time to digest this startling turn of events, Yan Kongshan walks to my side and grabs onto my waist. The heat from his palms sears my skin through the thin material of my t-shirt. Our degree of physical interaction today has completely surpassed anything I ever expected and I’m… I’m completely overwhelmed. eSNR8V

“Relax,” he murmurs by my ear, probably because he can feel how tense my muscles are.

Well great, now I’m so tense, I’m like a corpse.

“Alright, let’s go, 1, 2,” Mr. Liu calls from the side, “Go!”

Instantly, I feel myself lifted from the floor until I’m being held horizontally in Yan Kongshan’s arms. I swallow a shocked yelp and instinctively wrap my arm around his neck. TQWGOZ

“Perfect!” Mr. Zhang exclaims. “Okay, now walk a couple steps, watch the stairs, and ascend the platform.”

Yan Kongshan adjusts his grip a little, shifting me up and then tightening his hold. “You’re too skinny, you should eat more.” As he speaks, he makes his way up to the sedan chair languidly and effortlessly.

In truth, I do eat a lot, but I’ve been growing lately and the entirety of my nutrition intake has gone to my height, making me look skinny.

“I eat all of my lunch every single day, it’s not as if you don’t know,” I protest, leaning into him. zWO4P

He places me on the sedan chair following Mr. Zhang’s instruction, then straightens himself and ruffles my hair. “Tomorrow I’ll make you lunch, be sure to eat it all.”

There’s an umbrella in front of the silk screen behind the sedan chair, which Yan Kongshan goes to open up after putting me down.

“Yes, after you open the umbrella, walk behind the sky maiden and sit cross-legged behind her,” Mr. Zhang instructs. “Mian Mian, you kneel, yes, like that. Bear with it, because it doesn’t look good if the sky maiden is cross-legged.”

With the seating process over with, he then calls everyone over to get in position and prepare to lift the chair. UvweFd

Mr. Liu takes over the counting while Mr. Zhang stands off to the side, making sure everyone’s formation is correct and rhythm is accurate.

“One, two, three!”

On three, the platform moves and then the sedan chair is in the air.

“One, two, three!” hLRKo8

“One, two, three!”

The gym reverberates with the sound of all twenty-some people counting. Each time they hit three, the platform wobbles slightly and they take one step forward.

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Mr. Zhang was right, it moves quite steadily, but that’s because we move at snail speed…

It’s nine by the time rehearsal is over, and when we get home, it’s already ten. bQ2 a9

Yan Kongshan comes into the house with me to pick up Yan Wanqiu. The little girl lays asleep on a mahjong mat on our wooden couch. Her face is slightly flushed, and traces of sweat linger around her temples. There’s a blanket tossed across her middle, and her prosthetic leg leans against the coffee table.

Since we don’t have an air conditioner, Grandpa has placed our fan directly in front of the couch, and he also uses a handheld fan to swat away the occasional mosquito.

Yan Kongshan thanks Grandpa, then carefully picks up the girl and heads out. I follow behind him, helping him bring her prosthetic back home.

The prosthetic leg is small in my hands and ice cold despite the heat of summer. I always looked past the fact that Yan Wanqiu had a disability, and I never treated her any differently, but suddenly holding the actual prosthetic leg in my hands makes me feel out of sorts. KwQpr0

It’s not because I sympathise with her or that I pity her, but just that it makes me feel sad–sad that she suffered the pain of a lost limb at such a young age.

Not to mention her biological father is a real arsehole.

After arriving at Yan Kongshan’s house, I follow him upstairs, landing on the mysterious second floor of the house for the very first time.

Up here, there are three bedrooms. One is Yan Wanqiu’s, another is a library, and the final room has its doors closed, but it’s obvious that it’s Yan Kongshan’s room. If this was a video game, I’d be unlocking a new part of the map. RMbuSx

Yan Wanqiu’s room is pink and feminine, filled to the brim with dolls with a pink canopy extending over the headboard of her bed. I place the prosthetic next to her nightstand so she can find it immediately the next morning.

After Yan Kongshan settles her into bed gently, he turns on the air conditioner and zips up her canopy, after which we both exit the room.

“It was a car accident.”

I’m about to leave when Yan Kongshan suddenly offers up this explanation from behind me. ynIOkP

I turn to look at him questioningly; he’s standing under the awning of the house. He doesn’t seem intent on going back inside any time soon, because he digs a cigarette and lighter out from his pocket. I stand still some distance away from him, his words tethering me so I can’t move.

“You looked like you really wanted to know,” he explains with a little laugh before tilting his head down to light the cigarette. His mood index value starts dropping.

Afraid of upsetting him like last time, I hurriedly protest, “No, no, I don’t want to know. If you… If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to.”

He leans against a railing beneath the awning and breathes out a puff of smoke. “I want to talk about it,” he says. “Do you want to listen?” VeNJt3

In the air wafts the sweet scent of roses mixed with salty sea, combined with humid mist. If this melange were a perfume, it would smell like charm, tenderness, and maturity all at once.

The writer Sei Shonagon wrote that summer evenings are sublime, and it’s true. My summer evenings are filled with enchanting scents and an enchanting Yan Kongshan. Overhead, the moon shines down softly, without being overbearing.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Is there anyone who can reject Yan Kongshan? Not me, at least.

So I reply: “If you want to talk, then I’ll listen.” I fiddle with my fingers. 7z3UCM

“When Qiuqiu was eighteen months old, she and my sister got into a car accident.” As he speaks, his mood index turns blue.

It was a stroke of bad luck–they were on their way for a routine wellness exam at the hospital and had nearly arrived when a car lost control and rammed into the taxi they were sitting in. Yan Kongshan’s sister managed to protect her daughter with her own body, but the injuries she sustained couldn’t be treated. Yan Wanqiu managed to escape death, but regrettably, one of her legs had to be amputated.

Right at this time, Ding Baizhou was honeymooning with his new bride overseas, squandering away more money than he could make in a lifetime, without a clue as to what had occurred back home.

“My sister and I were each other’s entire worlds when we were children. She put me through school and raised me–it wasn’t easy for her. When she found Ding Baizhou, I was happy for her and I thought that at last, there was someone who could make her happy. They were together ten years, during which I thought of Ding Baizhou as family, a brother-in-law. But in the end, he left her for another woman.” g wbUk

Yan Kongshan’s eyes harden. His cigarette is finished; he tosses the stub on the ground and smashes a shoe over it.

“It’s late, you should go to bed,” he says, a slight frown still lingering on his face, his emotions not yet back to normal.

But I can’t just leave him, not when his mood index is only at 60.

I walk straight towards him under his penetrating gaze, open my arms wide, and wrap him in a tight embrace. “Don’t be upset. You raised Qiuqiu well, I’m sure your sister would be happy.” iamBzd

I’ve never comforted someone in this fashion before–it just happens intuitively. And while it’s easy to hug someone, it’s hard to figure out what to do afterwards. I stay frozen in that position for a few beats, embarrassment almost overwhelming my desire to comfort him.

Up above, the moon hides behind a layer of clouds, as if it too feels self-conscious on my behalf.

Then, I come back to my senses and yank my arms back, too afraid to meet Yan Kongshan’s eyes. “G-Good night!” I manage to utter, before hightailing it out of there with hurried steps, not daring to look back.

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