Green Plum IslandCh27 - Family Matters

For whatever reason, Granny comes visiting out of the blue, complaining of thirst as soon as she arrives. We haven’t seen her in a while.

Grandpa goes to get his stash of green plum wine and asks me to go to the kitchen to prepare a plate of peanuts. Since my drunken episode, just the sight of green plum wine evokes traumatic memories and makes my head ache. 9pRVIF

“Don’t drink too much,” I tell the two of them as I place the peanuts on the table.

Granny downs her entire glass in one go and says, “Don’t worry, we know our limits.” Her Maltese lies beneath the table, his fur silky and smooth despite his old age. It’s evident he’s well-taken care of.

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I squat down to pet the little ponytail on his head. The dog eyes me lazily, too relaxed to lift his head.

“Ah Xian, did you hear what happened at Mt. Yuanyang yesterday?” wT20vo

I stop in my tracks, straining my ears to hear their conversation.

“Mt. Yuanyang? What happened?” Grandpa seems completely in the dark.

“The suspension bridge, it broke in half!”

“The what?”

“The suspension bridge, the one that leads to the lovers’ temple.”

“It broke? How, did lightning strike it?”

Granny sucks in a breath of air, unable to resist retorting, “I think your brain got struck by lightning.”

I can’t help stifling a snort of laughter, smoothing my hand over An An’s head. Naturally, the very next second, Granny brings her attention to me. 1jzJLF

“Mian Mian, did you hear about the incident?”

Not just, I experienced it myself. “Oh, just a little,” I say instead, spitting out half-truths. “Yesterday I was with Sun Rui and them on the mountain, but when it broke we had already gone past it. I’m not too sure what happened.”

I stand up. I don’t want Granny or Grandpa to worry, especially since everything is all over already and no harm was done.

“Really?” Granny asks, shocked. “Good thing you guys left early, otherwise it would’ve been terrifying. I think it’s because the typhoon a few days ago loosened the pillars keeping the bridge upright. Plus so many people have used it lately. After this incident, I hear they’re finally going to install a real bridge there.” wfrQRL

Thank goodness for that.

Although just like the green plum wine, I’ve experienced too much trauma over it. I don’t think I’ll be hiking that mountain for the rest of my life.

“Grandpa, I’m gonna head out. You don’t have to wait for me, just go to bed.” I grab Tortoise King’s keys off the wall and call out to Granny, “Granny, don’t drink too much. I’ll leave you guys be then.”

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.

“It’s almost dark out, where are you going?” Grandpa asks. k6q2KZ

“Kb tjcu bea klat Vec Eel,” P gfqis.

“Cujlc?” Xgjcvqj weaafgr. “Cgf sbe akb vjalcu yftlcv ws yjmx?”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

P cfjgis rajuufg jcv tbiifg lcvlucjcais yjmx, “Qf’gf cba! Gbc’a yf glvlmeiber, Xgjcvqj!”

Ccv kts kbeivc’a P vjaf yftlcv sbeg yjmx jcskjsr? Qtb lc atf kbgiv vjafr lc ogbca bo qfbqif jii atf alwf? wQ1bC6

“Jie, let’s drink!” He clearly pretends not to hear me again, instead topping Granny’s glass and starts discussing how precious this wine is to him, how difficult it was to come by, completely ignoring me.

I shake my head helplessly and shut the door, lugging Tortoise King out the yard. I’m definitely not going to Sun Rui’s, but I doubt the two of them suspect anything.

Yan Wanqiu’s hospital isn’t too far from home, just a half hour commute on Tortoise King. I promised her yesterday that I’d visit her today, so I have to make good on it.

I haven’t seen Yan Kongshan all day, and the house next door is quiet, with no sign of his familiar SUV. He must have come back at some point in the middle of the night though, because there were vague sounds of movement last night; he must have come to get clothes and toiletries before leaving again. bMXJ1q

Ambling along on Tortoise King, I marvel at how tall the trees are on either side of the road leading to the hospital. Golden light lines the horizon, and overhead the sky is a deep, dark blue. The trees rustle beneath the glow of the streetlights.

Before such scenery, I normally wouldn’t notice the pedestrians walking along the road, but my eyes are sharp. I wouldn’t say I never forget a person I’ve seen before, but people at least tend to leave an impression with me. And so, as I turn a corner, Ding Baizhou passes me, heading in the opposite direction. He disappears around the corner in an instant, but I recognise him and turn around instinctively to look for his silhouette.

It’s a dangerous thing to do, and what happens next proves it.

When my eyes turn off the road, Tortoise King starts moving sideways as well. By the time I’ve turned my head back, I find the motorbike nearly about to hit the road barrier. All I can do is steer in the opposite direction as far as I can, but because I move too fast, the motorbike loses balance and flips over. 3SXPI7

Thankfully, I wasn’t going fast to begin with so I’m not hurt too badly. My elbows are scraped, but that’s about it. I push Tortoise King upright while gasping for air. The bike has suffered a few light scratches, but it doesn’t look too bad. Grandpa likely won’t notice.

I turn back to look towards the corner once again. Ding Baizhou is long gone.

Yan Wanqiu was hospitalised yesterday, and he shows up nearby today. It’s too much of a coincidence. Had he still not given up and was looking for ways to see his daughter?

I’m not far from the hospital so I decide to just push the motorbike the rest of the way and park it in a nearby parking lot. WbnsOh

My elbows are burning; I find a bathroom and rinse them twice with cold water, until the tiny bit of blood is all gone.

There are three patient beds in Yan Wanqiu’s room — hers is nearest the door, and the other two are occupied by a seven-year old boy and a nine-year old girl.

When I walk in the room, I find Yan Wanqiu sitting by her bed attempting to teach the little boy how to play with a Rubik’s cube. The other girl sits close by, observing them quietly with both admiration and surprise in her gaze.

“Mian Mian, you’re finally here!” Yan Wanqiu sees me and tosses the cube to the boy, then comes bouncing towards me. She’s so excited she doesn’t even bother wearing shoes first. Qo0FJD

I catch her in my arms, then put her back on her bed. “Don’t catch cold.” I don’t see Yan Kongshan in the room so I ask her, “Where’s Ah Shan?”

“He went to eat, I think he’ll be back soon.” She eyes the boy’s progress and apparently isn’t satisfied because she goes over to him, frowning. “You did it wrong, you have to turn it this way!”

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The little boy nods. “Oh, I see. You’re so good at this.”

Sitting nearby is what I presume to be the boy’s mother, watching the children play. “This girl is so smart,” she comments heartily. And then she follows up murmuring quietly, “It’s a pity.” Her gaze shifts towards Yan Wanqiu’s prosthetic leg. Her implication is self-evident. Vgn6A

I purse my lips, wanting to contradict her, to say that saying the girl is smart but that missing a leg is pitiful seems to imply that no matter how talented she is, she’ll never be what she could’ve been if she were “whole.” What is there to pity? Even if she’s missing a leg, she’s still talented.

I want to say those things, but then I feel that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. They clearly had no ill intent with their words. And… I look at Yan Wanqiu, who’s focused on explaining the Rubik’s cube. She obviously didn’t hear anyway.

“Mian Mian, do you want to learn too?” She waves me over, seemingly worried about me feeling left out.

I end up like the other two kids, all of us gathered around Yan Wanqiu as a team, learning how to solve a Rubik’s cube. My age gives me an advantage, not to mention I just recently took my college entrance exams. Although Yan Wanqiu’s instruction is casually fleeting, I quickly get the hang of things and figure out the key. When I successfully complete a three-by-three Rubik’s cube, the other two kids are dazzled. qAjSL6

“Mian Mian, your brain works pretty well!” Yan Wanqiu claps her hands in applause.

I scramble the cube back up and hand it back to her, correcting her firmly: “I damaged my brain falling, but there’s nothing wrong with my intelligence.”

Right then, Yan Kongshan comes back.

He was probably listening to us talk; as soon as he walks in, his eyes land directly on me. Before I can greet him, his gaze moves downwards, landing on my elbow. cxsmlD

“You fell?”

He sure has keen eyes. The bleeding on my elbows stopped long ago; all that’s missing is a bit of skin, leaving my flesh exposed, which gives the whole thing a rather shocking appearance.

“It was an accident, I steered the wrong way…”

Yan Wanqiu takes notice of my wound and lets out an exaggerated aiyou sound. “Does it hurt?” she asks. ieZ6y1

I shake my head.

Yan Kongshan frowns, then hooks a finger at me, indicating that I should follow him out. Whenever he does things like this, I always get the anxious feeling that one usually feels when they’re being called from their classroom to the principal’s office.

In the hall, Yan Kongshan asks for some cotton swabs and iodine from a nurse and then makes me sit down on the bench. He sits near me, unwrapping the cotton swab from its wrapper and dipping it into the iodine bottle.

“Why were you so careless?” hdzcUx

I let out a shiver when the icy tip of the cotton swab makes contact with my wound. After a moment’s hesitation, I decide to tell him the truth. “I think I saw Ding Baizhou.”

Yan Kongshan loses control of the cotton swab for a second and it strikes my wound painfully. I let out a hiss, grabbing his wrist to stop him.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

He looks up at me.

“It kinda hurts,” I explain. lG5aUB

He seems to notice this belatedly and immediately moves his hand, wrestling free from my grasp. “Apologies,” he says quietly. He hands me the cotton swab. “Why don’t you do it yourself?”

If I knew I would’ve kept quiet about the pain…

I take the stick from him and sadistically start cleaning my wound myself.

“Seems he hasn’t given up yet.” Yan Kongshan’s tone is cold. GDcpkI

“Have you considered letting Qiuqiu see him once?” I see his face darken and hurriedly add, “I don’t mean to reconnect with him or anything, but to have Qiuqiu make him understand that there’s no chance she’ll ever be his daughter again.”

Another kid might not be able to, but Yan Wanqiu is different. I think she’ll be up to the task.

Yan Kongshan seems to find my idea preposterous. “She’s just a five-year old girl.”

I twiddle with the cotton swab in my hands, slightly miffed. “You’re always calling people too young.” m3BOjy

Does he really think that because someone is young, they aren’t reliable and can’t be trusted? The reason he doesn’t have faith in me or Yan Wanqiu is because we’re too young.

Maybe Jiao Changyue once thought of him too in such a way, leading him to develop prejudice against age. But I suppose while he likely found her thinking preposterous, he secretly agreed with her, and thus inherited it. Does he not realise how hard it is to take such prejudice? Of course he does, but that doesn’t stop him from treating me the same way.

“Can’t you just… give it a shot?” I look away. Admittedly, I’m not entirely talking about Yan Wanqiu.

Yan Kongshan doesn’t respond for a long time. The longer the air lays still between us, the more nervous I get. I can’t resist looking at him, but he says, “Yu Mian, thank you for going out of your way to come visit Qiuqiu.” He pauses, then continues, “But I want to deal with my family’s matters on my own.” His tone is polite and aloof. pF56SC

My hand freezes, cotton swab suspended in air. For the first time, I’m a little angry at him.

When he wanted to talk before, I listened. Now he doesn’t want to talk, and shuts me out. Yesterday he hugged me like he cherished me, today he’s back to his lukewarm, keep-me-at-arm’s-length attitude. Why is this person such a contradictory being?

I yank his hand over and stuff the cotton swab in his palm, then suck in a deep breath, standing up. “I’m leaving!” I say harshly, then turn around and actually leave — aggressively, without a look back.

[The person I like keeps saying I’m too young, it’s so annoying. Their ex-lover happens to have been older as well, so why can’t they accept a nine-year age difference? Or maybe it’s not my age that they can’t accept, it’s me…] 8yaMVv

Netizen A: Holy shit, OP is in love?!

Netizen B: Is it an older jiejie or a younger puppy?

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Netizen C: Wait what? I always thought OP was gay?