Dazzling

Xing Wu went back to his room to grab a T-shirt and glanced at Qing Ye in passing. She was curled up by the bed, her laptop open, but her eyes were glazed over, clearly not taking anything in. He couldn't tell what she was spacing out about, but he noticed she seemed to have lost a lot of weight since she first arrived at his home—her chin had grown noticeably sharper.

Just as he pulled out the shirt, he heard Qing Ye's soft voice drift over from behind the curtain: "Why are people here all like this?"

Hearing this, Xing Wu's eyes flickered slightly. Having grown up in Zhazha Pavilion, he was long accustomed to this kind of atmosphere. He had never seen any issue with the locals' tendency to take advantage of others, act selfishly, or nitpick over every little thing. After all, "every man for himself, or heaven and earth will destroy him"—that was how he had lived for eighteen years.

But since this girl arrived, in less than half a month, Xing Wu had felt embarrassed more than once because of his mother's actions or the behavior of the neighbors.

Why were people here like this? He couldn't answer that—he was one of them.

He asked, "Did any of your clothes go missing?"

Qing Ye shook her head, resting her chin on her knees, her face full of confusion. "I just don't get it—why would someone take my underwear instead of my clothes? Isn't it gross to wear someone else's underwear?"

Xing Wu wanted to tell her that the person who took her underwear might not be planning to wear it, but he held back, afraid of scaring her.

As he was leaving, he noticed her dried dress had been brought in and neatly folded on top of her suitcase.

On his way downstairs, Qing Ye's words echoed in his mind: "Isn't it gross to wear someone else's underwear?"

He clenched his jaw and walked into the kitchen, standing at the doorway to ask Li Lanfang, "Where do you usually buy your underwear?"

"Fengyang Market. Why?"

"Nothing." Xing Wu turned and left.

Sure enough, that evening when Li Lanfang offered her own underwear to Qing Ye, she politely declined. Thinking of the grimy washing machine, Qing Ye couldn't be sure whether Li Lanfang tossed her underwear in there to wash. During her time here, she had learned that with Li Lanfang, anything was possible.

Early the next morning, Xing Wu went to the county town. Quan Ya asked Hua Bi to mind the shop and offered to accompany Xing Wu, planning to browse around as well. But Xing Wu outright refused, telling him to go on his own if he wanted and not to follow. Quan Ya was baffled.

If it weren't so early in the morning, they would have suspected Xing Wu was meeting a lover in town—he was being so secretive.

By the time Xing Wu reached Fengyang Market, it had just opened. The semi-open-air market had everything—clothes, shoes, socks, bags—and of course, underwear. The vendors shouted prices in the hundreds, but Xing Wu knew the actual selling price was usually about a tenth of that.

He found a few stalls selling women's underwear but felt too awkward to go in and look. Instead, he pretended to casually pass by, glancing briefly. The styles were either outdated or overly provocative and sheer—hardly worth a second look. He suspected that if he actually bought one, Qing Ye might get so angry she'd throw it in his face.

As he passed one stall, a middle-aged woman had just paid for a bra. Xing Wu heard it was 15 yuan—definitely cheap. But then he remembered the fabric and brands of Qing Ye's clothes from when he helped her with laundry the other day. The thought of making her wear something that cost just over ten yuan made him hesitate.He walked out of Fengyang Market, lit a cigarette at the entrance, then strolled along the pedestrian street for over ten minutes before spotting a lingerie specialty store. Without hesitation, he stepped inside.

But the moment Xing Wu entered the shop, the atmosphere turned subtle. Racks were lined with bras and panties in various colors and styles. The shop assistant, a young girl, stared at him awkwardly, and he returned the uncomfortable gaze.

Finally, Xing Wu mustered his courage and asked, "Are you open?"

The assistant replied, "Yes, what would you like to buy?"

Xing Wu scanned the store—indeed, a specialty shop was different. The lingerie looked much more normal here. After browsing, he found a style similar to the one he had picked up to wash the other day and pointed at it. "I'll take this."

The assistant’s expression grew even stranger. After all, she’d never encountered a man buying a bra first thing in the morning. But adhering to professionalism, she asked, "What size?"

The question stumped Xing Wu. Size? How the hell would he know? He pulled out his phone to message Qing Ye but paused abruptly. How could he ask? "What’s your bra size?" Qing Ye would probably block him immediately!

Xing Wu feared nothing and had never been stumped by anyone, but now he felt utterly defeated. He sincerely thought women were troublesome.

Troublesome as they were, he relied on his memory from that day and selected a similar size. "About this big."

The assistant glanced and said, "Oh, a B-cup. Just this one?"

Xing Wu picked out two more in plain colors and told her, "These three, with matching panties. How much?"

Noticing the young man’s discomfort, the assistant assumed he was buying for his girlfriend. She thought he seemed considerate—coming early in the morning—and quite handsome too. Kindly, she offered, "I’ll throw in the matching panties for free. As for the bras, the blue one is a new style, so it’s more expensive—368. The other two are 218 each. That’s 804 total. Alipay or WeChat?"

Xing Wu was taken aback. How could a few scraps of fabric cost so much? Nearly a thousand?

After leaving the store with the lingerie bag, he didn’t return to Shunyi but went straight home. Qing Ye had just gotten up and was sitting behind the cash register memorizing English vocabulary when she suddenly heard Little Angel’s voice. Wondering why Xing Wu was back so early, she watched as he walked up to her, tossed a bag at her without a word, and headed to the backyard.

Liu Nian was also curious about Xing Wu’s early return and asked Qing Ye, "What did Brother Wu give you?"

"No idea," she said, opening the bag. Her face instantly flushed bright red, and she snapped it shut before Liu Nian could peek inside.

She rushed to the backyard, where Xing Wu was casually drinking a glass of water.

Qing Ye glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then stepped closer to him, her face still burning. "What do you mean by this?"

"Mean by what?"

"Why did you buy this for me?"

"What do you think?" His reply made Qing Ye extremely flustered. Even her father had never bought her such things—she wished she could just die of embarrassment.

It was the first time Xing Wu had seen her so sheepish. Suppressing a smile, he told her, "I’ll bring a clothes rack back this afternoon and put it by the window. You can dry these things in your room from now on. It faces south, so the sunlight will dry them fine.""Hmm..." Qing Ye lowered her head and hurried inside, too embarrassed to come downstairs for a long time. She only descended after hearing Little Angel ride away again.

Xing Wu didn't return at noon, allowing Qing Ye to witness Li Lanfang's feeding routine firsthand. The moment the elderly woman refused to eat, Li Lanfang would immediately put down the bowl and chopsticks, cursing impatiently as she rushed off to play mahjong.

Seeing that Grandma had barely eaten anything, Qing Ye simply told Li Lanfang: "You go ahead. I'll feed Grandma and wheel her back to her room."

Li Lanfang was more than happy to have someone take over caring for the old woman. Tossing out a "She's all yours," she promptly left.

When Xing Wu returned in the evening, Huang Mao and Pang Hu came with him. They had bought several ready-made marinated dishes and carried back a case of beer, planning to drink at Xing Wu's place that night.

Li Lanfang had just gotten off the mahjong table. Xing Wu found it strange and approached her, lowering his voice to ask: "Didn't you say you were going to Uncle Zhao's place to help out today?"

Li Lanfang replied casually: "Got the days mixed up. It's tomorrow."

"..." Xing Wu truly had no way to deal with his mother. He wondered what his father had ever seen in someone with her character.

"Did Grandma eat at noon?" Xing Wu asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Qing Ye fed her."

Xing Wu hissed through his teeth and cursed under his breath: "Would it kill you to gamble less? Why'd you make her do it?"

Li Lanfang dismissed it unconcernedly: "She volunteered. Did a fine job too - finished a whole bowl of rice. Don't worry about it."

Xing Wu planted his hands on his hips and frowned: "Is that what I'm concerned about? She didn't come to our house to be your servant. Could you show some consideration?"

Huang Mao, seeing Xing Wu about to argue with his mother again, quickly called out: "Brother Wu, let's drink."

Li Lanfang hurriedly pulled him aside: "Since Liu Nian's here, settle this month's accounts before eating. I'll fry up a couple of dishes."

Having only graduated elementary school, Li Lanfang could barely write properly. Aside from being sharp with mahjong calculations and bookkeeping, she couldn't be bothered with other calculations. Every month-end she'd make Xing Wu do the accounts, though her records were essentially incomprehensible to ordinary people.

It was just a tattered notebook without covers, haphazardly recording who got haircuts, how much per perm or dye job - handwritten entries without consistent dates, everything jumbled together. Most entries required Liu Nian's recollection, but Liu Nian wasn't particularly sharp either. When they got busy with many customers, he often couldn't remember how much money they'd collected or how many customers they'd served. Plus, Li Lanfang frequently took money from the register for mahjong, and Liu Nian never knew exactly how much she took.

So their monthly accounting basically relied on guesswork. Most of the time, Xing Wu and Liu Nian would just stare blankly at each other before randomly reporting a number to Li Lanfang. As long as they weren't losing money, Li Lanfang wouldn't ask too many questions. Everyone remained in a muddled state.

Hearing noise downstairs, Qing Ye came down and saw Huang Mao and Pang Hu had arrived too. Xing Wu was holding the tattered notebook, glaring at Liu Nian with profound suffering: "How the hell can you calculate like this? Get a calculator! I'll call out numbers, you add them."

"Okay." Liu Nian dazedly ran to find a battered calculator.

Xing Wu called out beside him: "58 plus 30 plus another 30 plus four 10s plus... hurry the fuck up, I haven't eaten yet."Qing Ye took a sip of water while glancing at Liu Nian, genuinely feeling exhausted for him. It took him forever to find the numbers on the calculator—when Xing Wu said "four tens," Liu Nian pressed two and then forgot how many he had already entered, starting over from the beginning. Watching these two display such lack of intelligence, Qing Ye nearly spat out his water.

Xing Wu started reciting the numbers again, listing a long string before asking Liu Nian, "How much is it?"

Liu Nian panicked, his restless hands fumbling and accidentally pressing who-knows-what.

Just as Xing Wu was about to curse, a voice came from beside them: "5380."

Everyone turned to stare at Qing Ye. Huang Mao exclaimed in surprise, "You calculated that in your head?"

Qing Ye closed his cup lid and said calmly, "What else? You need to struggle for so long with just a few numbers? Even elementary school students around here could make it to high school, right?"

Li Lanfang happened to walk in, originally intending to call them for dinner, but she paused at the scene.

Instead, Qing Ye sat down at the cash register, opened his laptop, clicked on a spreadsheet, and declared confidently, "I don't know how you came up with these accounts, but the numbers are definitely wrong—and the discrepancy is quite large."

The group was left speechless, exchanging bewildered looks.