Dazzling

Xing Wu went downstairs to take a quick shower. When he came back up, Qing Ye was sitting on the bed fiddling with her laptop. The room had already cooled down, much more comfortable than outside.

With a towel draped over his head, Xing Wu rubbed his nearly bald scalp dry in just a few wipes. Glancing sideways, he noticed a large pile of clothes heaped on the floor beside Qing Ye’s bed.

Had it only been a few days since he was last here? How had this woman managed to turn his room into a garbage dump?

Frowning coldly, he tilted his chin upward and asked, "Why are you piling so many clothes on the floor?"

Without looking up, Qing Ye replied, "They're dirty."

"And leaving them on the floor makes them clean?"

At that, Qing Ye lifted her head and looked at him calmly. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to wash them. On her second day here, she had asked Li Lanfang where the washing machine was. Li Lanfang had led her to it, opened the lid, and told her to just toss her clothes in. The machine was a faded, old-fashioned twin-tub model—that alone was bad enough—but when Qing Ye peeked inside, she saw it was stuffed with dirty towels used by customers at the barbershop, covered in bits of hair and grime. The inner walls of the machine were coated with a layer of filth. Qing Ye was deeply convinced that her clothes would be cleaner if she didn’t wash them at all.

So she couldn’t bring herself to use it and had carried her dirty clothes back to her room. Over the past few days, she had been wearing a new set each day, and by now, she was almost out of clean clothes.

Seeing her silent expression, Xing Wu tossed the towel aside, placed his hands on his hips, and asked, "Think it’s dirty?"

"Isn’t it?" Qing Ye shot back.

Xing Wu was left speechless by her retort. A couple of years ago, he had taken the washing machine apart to clean it, but he soon realized his mother’s laziness was beyond redemption. She would stuff towels and capes used by customers into the machine almost every night, let them sit overnight, and then take them out. The accumulated musty smell over the years had eventually made him give up, so he washed his own clothes by hand.

Xing Wu curled his lip and gestured with his eyes toward the pile by her bed. "What are you going to do when you run out of clothes?"

Unexpectedly, Qing Ye answered, "I don’t know."

What the hell did she mean, "I don’t know"? It was the first time Xing Wu had encountered someone so utterly incapable of taking care of themselves, yet so unapologetic about it. He was so annoyed he almost laughed.

He stood by the desk for a long moment, then sighed, walked over, picked up the pile of clothes from the floor, and headed out. Qing Ye looked at him in surprise and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Going downstairs to do laundry. I’ll wash yours while I’m at it. If you want to thank me, kowtow three times and call me Grandpa."

His voice trailed off as he walked away. Qing Ye sat on the bed, stunned. Back at home, her clothes had always been washed by the maid, and she had never seen anything wrong with that—but the maid was a woman, and her father paid her wages.

But Xing Wu… Qing Ye suddenly gasped, "Oh no!"

She hurriedly slipped on her shoes and rushed downstairs. Her underwear was still mixed in with the pile. Qing Ye raced to the backyard and burst into the washroom, where she found Xing Wu standing by the sink with a bar of laundry soap. In his hand was one of her bras, his brow furrowed as if he were studying some incredibly complex object.

Qing Ye rushed over and snatched it from him, her face burning bright red. She yelled at Xing Wu, "What are you doing? You pervert!"

Xing Wu, feeling awkward from her outburst, cleared his throat and said, "I was just wondering if I needed to take this padding out to wash it properly."

Qing Ye shoved him aside, dug through the pile to retrieve her underwear, and without daring to look up, muttered, "I’ll wash these myself."

Then she turned and fled without a backward glance, her face a picture of panic and embarrassment.Xing Wu's lips twisted into a smirk, his eyes glinting coldly. Heaven knew he had no impure thoughts—helping her wash clothes only to be called a pervert? Had this woman fed her conscience to the dogs?

Fuming, Xing Wu turned on the faucet. Despite his anger, he picked up her dress and began washing it. Qing Ye's clothes felt delicate and high-quality to the touch. Though he was strong, he didn't dare scrub as vigorously as he did with his own clothes, afraid of damaging them. If he ruined it, the young lady upstairs would surely throw another fit. So he gently rubbed the fabric. Fortunately, her clothes weren't dirty and carried a faint, girlish fragrance.

Girlish fragrance? Xing Wu's lips curled slightly. Why had that phrase popped into his head? How fucking perverted!

Soon, Xing Wu heard footsteps behind him. Qing Ye had come downstairs again and tossed her mud-stained patent leather shoes beside him. "Wash these too."

Xing Wu glanced over—it was the same pair she'd worn on her first day here, still caked with hardened mud. After all these days, she hadn't washed them yet?

He was finally witnessing a woman even more exaggerated than his mother. What sin had he committed to end up in a household of four where three women—aside from him—were utterly incapable of taking care of themselves?

Xing Wu muttered under his breath, "Do I owe you or something?"

Qing Ye, already walking away, replied lazily, "You're the one who got them dirty in the first place."

Fine. Just great. Fantastic.

After finishing the laundry, Xing Wu hung the clothes on hangers and strung them up on the clothesline in the backyard. He then went upstairs to his room to grab his motorcycle keys. Qing Ye lifted her eyelids and asked, "Are you going back to Shunyi to sleep tonight?"

Xing Wu stuffed his phone into his jeans pocket and replied, "What else?"

Qing Ye didn't respond, but as Xing Wu opened the door, she whispered very softly, "Thanks."

Xing Wu glanced back at her before closing the door.

Though this inexplicably dropped-in young lady always acted like her eyes were on the top of her head, she wasn't an unreasonable or ungrateful girl—she just genuinely didn't know how to do laundry.

The next morning, when Qing Ye came downstairs, she saw her little leather shoes polished to a shine, placed on the windowsill on the first floor. They were so clean they reflected light, without a speck of mud left. Although she'd stepped in the mud because of Xing Wu, Qing Ye still felt that her seemingly unrelated hooligan cousin wasn't as bad as he appeared on the surface.

But early that morning, Qing Ye hurriedly washed her own underwear. Running out of clean pairs was one thing, but leaving dirty underwear piled on the floor was something she couldn't bear to look at herself.

Xing Wu's home didn't even have a washing machine, let alone a dryer. People here washed their clothes and hung them in the yard to dry naturally. But the yard was shared, and the thought of her underwear fluttering out there for all to see felt utterly indecent. Qing Ye hesitated for a long time, unable to bring herself to do it.

It wasn't until Li Lanfang woke up and saw Qing Ye standing in the yard holding a basin that she said, "Are you hanging laundry? Give it here, I'll hang it for you later."

Then, with quick efficiency, Li Lanfang hung all her underwear on the clothesline. As a result, the backyard that day was adorned with a row of colorful dresses and various styles of underwear, directly causing Xing Wu to avoid lifting his head when he came back at noon to feed them. While collecting the bowls, he accidentally caught a glimpse of Qing Ye's white lace panties and was suddenly overcome with an inexplicable irritation.So after feeding her, he left without even looking back. When Li Lanfang helped the old lady back to her room, Qing Ye heard the grandmother muttering about someone. Her speech was slurred, and Qing Ye couldn't make out what she was saying, only hearing Li Lanfang curse: "If you die one day, your own son won't even ask about you, and you're still thinking of him!"

Shortly after, Li Lanfang came out fuming. Qing Ye recalled Xing Wu saying last night that his father hardly came home twice a year and couldn't help feeling curious.

"Where did Xing Wu's dad go?"

Li Lanfang grumbled angrily: "He goes wherever there's a construction site to haul bricks. Says he's working on a building in the neighboring county, but who the hell knows if that's true? Who knows if he's found some floozy out there? I'm breaking my back every day raising his son and taking care of his mother, and that heartless bastard hasn't brought a single cent home in all these years..."

When it came to Xing Wu's father Xing Guodong, Li Lanfang could spew curses for ten minutes straight without repeating herself, giving Qing Ye a headache. She could only think that every family has its own troubles. Back when her own father was doing well, he was always out socializing, using all kinds of excuses not to come home either. A man neglecting his family really has nothing to do with whether he has money or not.

But as for Li Lanfang claiming she was breaking her back, Qing Ye had her doubts. If she had to pinpoint what exhausted Li Lanfang, it was probably staying up late playing mahjong.

When Xing Wu returned that evening, he brought two bottles of Jinlongyu cooking oil. The moment Li Lanfang saw them, she exclaimed: "Why buy this kind of oil? It's so expensive! These two bottles must cost nearly a hundred yuan, right? It's not like we don't have oil at home."

Qing Ye sat with her head bowed at the wooden table. Xing Wu pushed Li Lanfang into the kitchen and told her: "Throw out the lard. It's got flies all over it. Are we feeding that to people?"

Li Lanfang wanted to say more, but Xing Wu cut her off: "Boss Cao gave them to me."

Boss Cao was the owner of Shunyi. He usually stayed in the county town and rarely came over. He trusted Xing Wu and Quan Ya to manage the shop. Quan Ya had dropped out of school early and spent every day at the shop, while Xing Wu was basically there whenever he wasn't in school.

When Li Lanfang heard they were from Boss Cao and free, she didn't say anything more.

During dinner, Qing Ye was acting unusual, keeping her head down the entire time without saying a word. After eating, she went upstairs silently. Her whole demeanor seemed off.

Xing Wu looked up and asked Li Lanfang: "What's wrong with her?"

Li Lanfang said angrily: "Just thinking about it makes me mad. Qing Ye's underwear was stolen."

"Ah?" Xing Wu was surprised. He had seen it hanging in the yard when he came back for lunch at noon. Stolen?

Li Lanfang deliberately raised her voice and cursed: "Who knows what shameless bastard would steal a young girl's underwear? Whoever does such a wicked thing deserves their parents to die miserable deaths. What kind of person raises such a mongrel..."

The curses that followed became increasingly vulgar. Li Lanfang deliberately directed them toward the three households across the courtyard, as if convinced the thief was one of those shameless people.

Xing Wu frowned. The backyard usually saw all sorts of people - customers using the barbershop's toilet, neighbors coming to play mahjong or just watch others play, plus the people from those three households in the big courtyard. It was hard to say who did such a despicable thing, but he figured it must have upset the girl badly.

"What is she going to wear then?"

Li Lanfang said: "It's fine. I'll give her some of mine to wear later."

Xing Wu raised an eyebrow and glanced sideways at his mother: "She'd wear yours?"Li Lanfang said nonchalantly, "What's the big deal? Mine are all washed clean, why can't she wear them?"

Xing Wu hissed through his teeth, staring at his mother with a strange look: "Haven't you considered the size difference?"

Li Lanfang seemed to just realize: "Oh right."

Xing Wu was utterly exasperated. Even he could think of that problem, yet Li Lanfang acted completely oblivious.

Xing Wu sighed and pulled out two hundred yuan from his pocket, handing it to Li Lanfang: "Go buy her two new sets tomorrow."

"Me? How would I know what style she wears?"

"If you don't know, how the hell would I know?" Xing Wu snapped at Li Lanfang.

Li Lanfang took the money and said: "No time tomorrow. I promised Zhao Mazi's wife I'd help out. Isn't her son getting married soon?"

"What's that got to do with you?"

"We already agreed! We play cards together every day. How could I refuse when she asked me? Let Qing Ye wear mine for now. I'll buy some for her when I go to the county town next week."

Xing Wu's face turned cold as he snatched back the two hundred yuan and left.