Fei Ni wanted to cover Fang Muyang's mouth to stop him from speaking, but he insisted on continuing.
His voice was so low that Fei Ni couldn't tell whether she heard it with her ears or felt it through her fingers and the back of her hand.
The softer the voice, the more one concentrates on listening; a louder voice would have just become background noise. All of Fei Ni's attention was focused on her hands. She felt the skin at her fingertips pulsing, all the way to her wrist. She didn't know whether her hand or Fang Muyang's lips were warmer.
Her fingers sensed Fang Muyang's voice as he said: he liked her.
That he liked her—she actually believed that. But how much of his affection she represented was another matter. Someone sensitive to art often had rich emotions too; even liking a few girls might not be difficult for them. She almost blurted out to ask how many girlfriends he'd had before, even suspecting that Ling Yi might not be the only one. But the words never left her lips. What right did she have to ask him? Besides, Fang Muyang had never inquired about her previous blind date history either.
At that thought, she forcefully pulled her hand back. Fang Muyang didn't cling to it, still smiling at Fei Ni as he repeated his earlier question: was she reluctant to let him go?
Fang Muyang seemed utterly confident that she was unwilling to part with him. Fei Ni knew that if she said yes, he'd be smug; if she said no, he'd think she was being dishonest, hiding her reluctance, which would make him even more pleased.
She refused to say either yes or no. The buzzing of a mosquito reached her ears.
The door wasn't completely closed, and a mosquito drew closer to Fang Muyang's arm. Fei Ni reached out to swat it for him.
She'd never been good with these small flying insects—her slap left Fang Muyang's forearm red, but the mosquito escaped.
Before Fei Ni could speak, Fang Muyang took her hand and asked if it hurt. She had hit him, yet he was worried about her hand aching. Fei Ni smiled sheepishly. As he massaged her palm, Fang Muyang said, "Your hand isn't big, but it's stronger than I imagined."
While speaking, he deliberately lowered himself, bringing his face close to hers until their noses nearly touched, his eyes fixed on her. Embarrassed by his gaze, Fei Ni inexplicably closed her eyes. Fang Muyang tilted his head and rubbed his nose against hers, then her Cupid's bow and the corners of her lips—intimate and familiar, as if they did this every day.
The corner of Fei Ni's lips tingled with itchiness, and she instinctively leaned back, her hands supporting against the wooden wall. The splinters on the boards brought her back to her senses, and she reopened her eyes. When she did, their lips were barely a millimeter apart. She pushed Fang Muyang away, but he showed no intention of forcing her, immediately putting his hands back in his pockets and looking at her with an innocent smile. "When you closed your eyes just now, I thought you were hinting... You know, in these matters, I always follow your lead."
He gazed at her openly, his focus lingering between her nose and lips.Fei Ni was the one who grew embarrassed under his gaze and lowered her head first. The weather was unbearably hot, and her entire body felt feverish. According to Fang Muyang, she had no grounds to accuse him because he hadn’t forced her. If she insisted on blaming someone, he could even argue that she was the one who closed her eyes first, and he had merely kissed her out of courtesy—though he hadn’t actually managed to do so.
Fei Ni could explain why she had closed her eyes, but she couldn’t explain why she had kept them shut for so long, allowing him to be so intimate with her. She attributed it to Fang Muyang’s experience. He had dated before and was that kind of person—certainly not content with just holding hands. He had probably done everything she could imagine and even things she couldn’t. Faced with someone like him, she was naturally no match.
She rubbed her eyes, a mix of embarrassment and anger in her voice. "A bug flew into my eye. What did you think happened?"
Her anger was unclear—whether it was directed at Fang Muyang for being so experienced or at herself for her lack of it.
Because she was lying, her tone was more forceful than usual, as if to prove she was telling the truth.
"Oh, so that’s what it was." Fang Muyang leaned in again, peering at her eyes. "Is it better now? Let me take a look."
"No need."
"Why be so polite? Let me blow on it for you."
The small wooden shed was too cramped, and Fei Ni couldn’t escape his proximity. She practically fled outside, only to have Fang Muyang grab her hand as she stepped out—she had forgotten the envelope he had given her.
"I’ll walk you back."
Fei Ni pulled her fingers out of his grasp. "No, it’s so close. I’ll be there in no time."
"I want to spend a little more time with you."
"You should rest. Now that you’re back," Fei Ni paused before adding, "we’ll have plenty of time to be together."
Yet he still walked beside her. On the short path, they walked side by side, Fei Ni’s hands clasped behind her back. She had applied too much cooling balm on Fang Muyang yesterday, and the scent still lingered, transferring to her fingers and likely the envelope as well.
When they reached the earthquake shelter where Fei Ni lived, Fang Muyang said to her, "Get some more sleep. I won’t say goodbye when I leave."
Fang Muyang reached out to touch her head, and Fei Ni instinctively stepped back.
His hand hovered in the air before returning to his pants pocket. He smiled and said, "Don’t worry. If no one contacts you, it means I’m fine. There’s no need to worry about me."
Fei Ni hummed in acknowledgment. She watched his retreating figure until he turned back and smiled at her. Her gaze immediately shifted to the sky. Only when he turned away did her eyes return to the ground.
The heat was too intense for Fei Ni to sleep. She remembered there were still a few eggs at home.
She boiled the eggs and went back to Fang Muyang’s small wooden shed. He was lying on the floor, his arms pillowing his head, eating biscuits.
"Take these eggs with you."
"Did you raid your entire house for supplies?"
"It’s easy to buy things here. Besides, if you don’t eat them, you can give them to someone else."
"You’re so good to me. How can I repay you in the future?"
Fei Ni was about to say it was just some food when Fang Muyang added, "How about I offer myself to you? Wait, no—we’re already married. Think carefully about what you want. You can tell me when I get back."Fei Ni found him too talkative and wished she could stuff his mouth with food. She handed him an egg to peel himself.
Fang Muyang took the egg, peeled off the top half of the shell, and held it to Fei Ni’s lips, the egg white brushing against them. "You eat it. I’ve already had one."
"I’m not hungry."
Fang Muyang didn’t stand on ceremony and took a bite from the pointed end of the egg. "The eggs you boiled are a bit overcooked. You boiled them too long."
Fei Ni hadn’t expected Fang Muyang to be so picky at a time like this. After her effort to boil the eggs, such a comment naturally didn’t please her.
"When I come back, I’ll boil all the eggs in our home."
Fang Muyang talked a lot about the future—the cracks in the Fei family’s walls from the earthquake would be repaired when he returned; the furniture would be built when he came back…
The cracks in Fei Ni’s walls didn’t wait for Fang Muyang to return. Fei Ni’s brother came back and not only fixed the cracks but also repaired the windows and leveled the floor.
The city organized donations for the earthquake zone. Fei Ni used her money and food coupons to buy ten jin of biscuits, packed them up, and delivered them to the donation point.
Among the thousands of people in the earthquake zone, Fang Muyang was just one. The probability of her biscuits reaching his mouth was slim, but it would be good if they reached someone else’s. Aunt Wang in the building baked steaming hot flatbreads and wrapped them in plastic bags right out of the pan to donate. Fei Ni gently reminded her to let the flatbreads cool first, or they might grow mold before they even arrived.
The makeshift earthquake shelter Fang Muyang had built was dismantled, and the lumber was piled up again.
The factory’s new apartments were completed. Those eligible to live in them moved out of the old houses, leaving them for young people like Fei Ni, who was assigned her own unit.
The apartment wasn’t any newer than the one she had lived in before—the kitchen was still in the hallway, and she still had to go to the water room to wash up.
But because it was her own, Fei Ni thought it was quite nice.
The new place was bare and needed everything. Fei Ni’s parents offered to pay for furniture, suggesting they use Fang Muyang’s lumber to make a set for their daughter first.
Fei Ni refused, not because of the money. After all, she had promised Fang Muyang she would wait for him to come back and build the furniture.
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