Dazzling

When Qing Ye came out of the bathroom, she subconsciously looked up at the moon, her steps faltering slightly. The moon seemed bigger and brighter from here. It was clearly the same moon, yet last night she had been looking at it from her own bedroom window. Today, she was in a mountain hollow a thousand miles away. Qing Ye still couldn't believe that her life had been turned upside down in a single day.

Xing Wu also looked up at the bright moon, not rushing her. One stood in the courtyard, the other leaned against the doorframe, both staring in the same direction, each lost in their own thoughts.

Xing Wu finished his cigarette, tossed it onto the ground outside, and stamped it out. "Hungry?" he asked.

Qing Ye looked down and touched her stomach. Did Xing Wu just hear my stomach growl? she wondered. How could he possibly know?

Just then, she saw Xing Wu step out and walk toward the kitchen. "I'm hungry. If you want to eat, wait inside. There are too many mosquitoes out here."

Qing Ye glanced back at him. He had already entered the kitchen and was busy with something.

Not daring to go into the empty barbershop, Qing Ye sat on one of the shampoo beds and scrolled through her phone. Her Moments feed was mostly filled with posts from her old international school classmates. She browsed casually and saw that He Leling, who rarely posted, had actually uploaded a picture of a heart folded from paper, with the caption: Hope to have a future with you.

He Leling was one of the few girls in her old class that Qing Ye got along with. Both of them had top grades, and although He Leling had never surpassed Qing Ye since middle school, her ranking was never low. Ever since Qing Ye's mother passed away a few months ago and her family was hit with one misfortune after another, she hadn't gone shopping, studied for tests, or gossiped with He Leling in a long time. To think that in just a few short months, He Leling had started dating? Qing Ye didn't even know who the guy was.

Qing Ye liked the post and exited the app. Xing Wu came in carrying two bowls of noodles, placed them directly on the mahjong table, and said to Qing Ye, "Come here."

Qing Ye had already smelled the fragrant sesame oil. She swallowed and walked over. As soon as she sat down, she saw a very appetizing bowl of noodles, topped not only with vibrant green vegetables and ham but also a fried egg.

Qing Ye didn't pick up her chopsticks. Her nose suddenly tingled. Before her mother's health had worsened, she used to make her this kind of sesame oil noodles with greens. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Xing Wu propped one foot on his chair and slanted a look at her. "Eat. It's not poisoned."

Qing Ye picked up her chopsticks, took a bite of noodles, and then a piece of vegetable. Her appetite was suddenly whetted. Just this bowl of noodles alone was countless times better than Li Lanfang's cooking. At least the vegetables were tender, and the noodles were cooked to just the right firmness.

Qing Ye was truly starving and began to eat in big mouthfuls. If her mother were alive to see her now, she would surely scold her for her poor table manners. She would never eat so ungracefully in front of a stranger, but perhaps because of their argument earlier that evening, she couldn't be bothered to maintain any sort of image in front of him.

Xing Wu's eyelids lifted slightly as he watched her. Sensing his gaze, Qing Ye said, "Do you talk to everyone like you've swallowed gunpowder?"

Xing Wu's lips twisted into a smirk. "With that look of yours that scorns everything, you expect me to suck up and smile at you?"

"When did I scorn everything?"

Xing Wu finished his noodles, pushed the bowl away, and suddenly leaned closer to stare at her. "It's written all over your eyes that you look down on people," he said with a roguish air.

With that, he leaned back in his chair and kicked a nearby stool. "Tell me, who do you look down on? This poor town? Or my family? If I'm not mistaken, when you ran into us on the road this afternoon, you must have cursed 'country bumpkins' in your head, right?"

Qing Ye looked up in surprise. "I didn't."

Then she added, "I cursed 'fucking idiots'."

In the more than ten years Xing Wu had been running around Zhazha Pavilion, it was the first time he had been called a fucking idiot to his face, and by a girl no less. It actually made him laugh in anger.

He half-closed his eyes and stared at Qing Ye. Just one look from him sent a dangerous signal, and to be honest, the reason she had noticed Xing Wu in the crowd that afternoon was precisely because of this sharp, blatant edge he had that was hard to ignore.

But Xing Wu didn't hold it against her. He took out his phone and said coolly, "No matter how cushy your life was before, since you've come to my family for shelter, you'd better put away your pride. Around here, no one's going to coddle you."

Qing Ye didn't say anything. It wasn't that she didn't understand the principle of 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do,' but the hurdle in her heart was not so easily overcome. And there were eighteen years of habits that couldn't be changed just by deciding to. She didn't know what would happen when the sun rose tomorrow. She would just have to take it one day at a time.

Xing Wu had finished eating long ago and was leaning back in his chair, legs propped up, playing on his phone. Qing Ye didn't know if he was waiting for her, but as soon as she finished, he stood up too.

They went upstairs one after the other. Xing Wu didn't go into his room, instead flopping onto the sofa again. Qing Ye went into her room to sleep.

When she woke up the next day, Qing Ye blinked, her vision blurry. She had just raised her hand to rub her eyes when a sharp pain shot through them.

She tiptoed out of her room. Li Lanfang's door was still closed, and Xing Wu was still lying on the sofa with one leg hanging off. She grabbed her electric toothbrush and disposable face towel and felt her way to the sink. But after she washed her face, the water made her eyes hurt even more. She didn't know what was wrong with her; everything looked hazy.

She put her things down and felt her way to the top of the stairs, wanting to go downstairs to check her eyes in a mirror.

And so, the quiet morning was shattered by a loud "thud," which jolted the sleeping Xing Wu on the sofa into a sitting position.

He immediately ran to the top of the stairs and saw that Qing Ye had actually tumbled all the way down, landing heavily on the floor. Xing Wu rushed down, taking the steps two at a time, and frowned. "What happened?"

Just as he was about to pull her up, Qing Ye cried out, her face contorted, "It hurts."

Xing Wu saw at a glance that her right leg was scraped and her eyes were frighteningly red, like she was possessed by a damn ghost. It was enough to scare him wide awake first thing in the morning. Xing Wu cursed, "Fuck."

He hoisted Qing Ye onto his back and charged toward the clinic at the end of the street. Just as they ran out of the barbershop, Li Lanfang shouted from the second floor, "Wuzi, what was that noise?"

Without looking up, Xing Wu said, "Your niece fell to her death."

Although she was in agony, Qing Ye was still angry enough to pinch his neck. "I'm not dead, don't talk nonsense! Tell me what's wrong with my eyes. I can't see clearly. Am I going blind?"

Xing Wu snapped irritably, "Shut up. My family isn't that toxic. You're not going blind after staying for one day."

The clinic doctor was just starting his day. The rolling shutter was only halfway up. Xing Wu put Qing Ye down on the ground and pounded on the door with his fist, shouting, "Dr. Zhuang, help!"

The commotion was loud enough that there was soon movement inside. An old man ran over and pulled up the shutter. "What's the emergency? Who's dying?"

"..."

After the shutter was fully raised, Xing Wu pointed at Qing Ye beside him. "Her."

The old man seemed to know him well and shot Xing Wu a glare. "Always spouting nonsense. Get her inside."

Qing Ye's right leg hurt too much to move. Xing Wu gave her a hand, and she grabbed his arm with both hands, using his bicep as a crutch as she hopped into the examination room on one leg. Xing Wu glanced down at her soft, fair hands, then turned his head away and composed his expression.

After helping Qing Ye into a chair, Xing Wu told Dr. Zhuang, "She fell down the stairs."

Dr. Zhuang had Qing Ye move every part of her body. After confirming there were no fractures, he treated her leg wound and prescribed some medicine. Seeing that something was wrong with her eyes, he examined them as well, saying she had acute conjunctivitis. He prescribed medicine, told her not to rub her eyes, to get plenty of sleep and rest, and to boost her immune system. He also gave Qing Ye some eye drops.

On the way back, since Xing Wu knew she hadn't broken any bones, he didn't carry her anymore. Qing Ye clutched his bicep and hopped toward the barbershop, the heat making her start to question everything. "Do the doctors in this town see everything, regardless of specialty? Is he reliable?"

Xing Wu had his hands stuffed in his jeans pockets and quirked his lips. "What's not to be reliable about? He can even treat heart disease."

"Really?"

Just as she asked, Xing Wu's phone rang. He answered it and said, "Got it, I'll be right over."

After dropping Qing Ye off at the entrance of Dazzle Island, Xing Wu handed her the medicine and was about to leave. Qing Ye said, "Add me on WeChat."

Xing Wu raised an eyebrow and glanced at her. Qing Ye took out her phone and sneered, "Playing the noble and aloof card now?"

Xing Wu didn't say anything, just pulled up his QR code for her to scan. He had just gotten on his Little Angel when his phone buzzed. Xing Wu opened it and saw that Qing Ye had sent him a red packet with a note: For the medicine.

Xing Wu let out a "heh" and put his phone back in his pocket.

When Li Lanfang saw Qing Ye's injuries, she fussed all morning, but by the afternoon, she was back at the mahjong table as if nothing had happened. Only one of the two Wash, Cut and Blow-Dry stylists came in today; the other was supposedly on a day off. The one who showed up had a dog chain hanging from his belt loop and introduced himself to Qing Ye as "Liu Nian." Qing Ye almost misheard it as liulian —durian—and was about to comment on what a fragrant name it was when Liu Nian showed her his name tag. Through her blurry vision, Qing Ye could just make out the characters for "Liu Nian."

She didn't know if it was his real name, but it reeked of the Funeral Love Family's "gazing at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle" vibe.

Li Lanfang had Qing Ye sit at the cashier's counter to help collect money while she went off to play mahjong. Business at the barbershop was surprisingly good that afternoon. Brother Liu Nian washed and cut hair without a single complaint. During a lull, he even poured Qing Ye a glass of water. Qing Ye asked him casually, "How much do you make a month?"

Liu Nian flicked his flowing long hair and replied, "1200. And if Boss Li wins at mahjong, she gives us a bonus."

Qing Ye nearly spat out her water. Looking at the simpleton in front of her, she was momentarily speechless. What kind of faith made him willingly work himself to the bone for 1200 yuan? This truly was a magical place.

After three o'clock, Huang Mao and Pang Hu came to the barbershop. They had heard yesterday that Xing Wu had a beautiful cousin show up and came today specifically to flirt with—no, to visit her.

As soon as Huang Mao entered, he familiarly patted Li Lanfang on the back. "Aunty, going for a pure one-suit straight flush, huh?"

Li Lanfang swatted his hand away in annoyance. "Get lost. You'll pat all my good luck away. Where's Wuzi?"

Huang Mao's gaze shifted and landed on Qing Ye. "He's busy," he said distractedly.

"Busy my ass," Li Lanfang cursed, completely unaware she was cursing herself.

Qing Ye recognized the fat one and the skinny one as the hooligans from Xing Wu's motorcycle yesterday, so she naturally had no favorable impression of them and kept her head down, scrolling through her phone.

But Huang Mao pulled up a chair and sat right next to Qing Ye. Just as he was about to strike up a conversation, Qing Ye looked up, nearly scaring him off his chair. Her eyes were blood-red and full of broken capillaries, and she was staring wide-eyed. Huang Mao stammered, "Holy shit, is this a zombie transformation?"

Just as he finished speaking, Xing Wu walked in carrying a plastic bag. He strode over to Huang Mao, kicked his chair, and forced him to stand up. "What are you guys doing here?"

Huang Mao grinned and winked. "Aren't we here to see your cousin? But what's wrong with her? She's kind of scary."

Xing Wu took the plastic bag inside and replied, "She fell down the stairs and got acute conjunctivitis. You came to visit a patient empty-handed?"

Huang Mao said sheepishly, "We'll make it up, we'll make it up. We'll bring some big apples tomorrow. Cousin, what else do you want to eat? Just tell your big bro."

Xing Wu glanced at Huang Mao's eager expression but said nothing. To his surprise, Qing Ye wasn't polite at all and told him, "Cherries and avocados."

"Cher..." Huang Mao looked back at Xing Wu, his eyes screaming, Your cousin is high-maintenance.

A slight smile touched Xing Wu's lips. Beside them, Pang Hu, who hadn't caught on, asked, "Wh-why would falling down the stairs give you conjunctivitis?"

The three of them looked up at him and cursed in unison, "Fucking idiot."

Then Huang Mao paused and burst out laughing. "See, she's definitely your cousin! Look at that chemistry."

Qing Ye twitched her lips. A hint of a smile appeared in Xing Wu's eyes as he glanced at Qing Ye, but in the next second, the smile vanished completely. He snatched her phone away, his tone unpleasant. "Do you really want to go blind? Go upstairs and sleep."

Qing Ye had been sitting for hours and was too lazy to stay downstairs anyway. She steadied herself against the wall and limped toward the back. As she passed Xing Wu, she suddenly stopped and said to him, "Accept the money for the medicine."

Without looking up, Xing Wu said, "I may not have money, but I'm not so broke I need your medicine money."

Qing Ye found him utterly baffling. What was wrong with her paying him back for the medicine? What nerve of his had she struck this time? He was truly insane.

She ignored him and turned to go upstairs.

Huang Mao clicked his tongue and said to Xing Wu, "Brother Wu, aren't you being a little too harsh on your cousin?"

"Is she your cousin or my cousin?"

"Your cousin. But I wouldn't mind being your cousin-in-law." After saying that, Huang Mao gave a sleazy, grinning wink. Just then, an old man came in for a haircut. Xing Wu cursed at him, "Go help."

"Aye."