AOI 10

On the morning of the fourth day of the New Year, Qiu Shi woke with that happy glow still cradled in his heart, so warm it seemed it would never melt away. After washing up, he had just sat down at the table and picked up his spoon to eat breakfast when he saw Chen Lei arriving with Xu Minghai. Listening to them talk for quite a while, Qiu Shi finally grasped that tomorrow they were all going to “visit the temple fair” together.

“It’s only just been revived these last few years. Let’s take advantage of the holiday and take the kids out for a stroll,” Chen Lei said, discussing it with Zhou Yingying.

“Is that really okay?” Zhou Yingying looked a little troubled. “If we take both kids, won’t Sister Yandong be unhappy?”

“My mom’s already agreed!” Xu Minghai announced jubilantly, then turned to Qiu Shi. “Temple fairs are so much fun—jam-packed with people and selling just about everything.”

Little did they know, to achieve this goal, Chen Lei and Xu Minghai had truly waged a fierce battle with Li Yandong. Plus, Xu Yong had fanned the flames on the side, pointing out that with the kid gone, the two of them could go stroll around the Wangfujing Department Store and have a little “world of two”—a trendy new phrase recently popularized by Hong Kong and Taiwanese TV dramas. When Li Yandong heard this, the corners of her mouth twitched upward despite herself while her eyebrows pressed firmly downward. She weighed the matter over and over before reluctantly agreeing.

And so, early on the morning of the fifth, the four of them boarded a year-round, drafty, wheezing public bus at the hutong entrance and set off through the vast, fine snow toward the White Cloud Temple.

When it comes to White Cloud Temple, there isn’t a Beijing local who doesn’t know it. It stands across the city from the Lama Temple—one west, one east; one Daoist, one Buddhist—the two having together gazed upon a century of this ancient city’s rise and fall, its prosperity and decay, and the sorrows and joys, partings and reunions, of all living beings in this mortal world.

Getting off the bus, Chen Lei and Zhou Yingying walked behind while Qiu Shi, pulled along by Xu Minghai, ran ahead into the swirling silver powder and jade dust of snow.

“You little punk, slow down with Guozi!” Chen Lei shouted. “It’s so crowded—careful you don’t get lost!”

Xu Minghai didn’t even turn his head. “Godfather, put your mind a hundred and twenty percent at ease! I know this place like the back of my hand!”

The fine, chaotic pellets of snow pelted Qiu Shi’s face. Though cold, they didn’t make him feel a chill. Gradually, a dense, heavy splash of red appeared before his eyes. Countless small banners hung high, and plump-bellied lanterns joined forces to color the faces of visitors a shade of pomegranate red. Everyone looked utterly radiant with joy.

From time to time, people passed by leading donkeys that trotted along with a jingling clatter. Small children sat perched atop them, riding through the streets with delighted grins. Qiu Shi listened as Xu Minghai told him that “donkey rides” were a special feature of White Cloud Temple.

“Come on! Let’s go rub the stone monkey first!”

Without waiting for the two adults behind them, Xu Minghai, relying on his familiarity with the place, ran with Qiu Shi straight toward the temple’s main gate. When they arrived, they found the spot already packed with people. The lower right side of the gate’s arched stone carving had been rubbed by so many hands it was nearly a mirror surface—you couldn’t even tell if it was a pig or a monkey anymore.

At this, Xu Minghai crouched down and signaled to Qiu Shi. “Sit on my shoulders. I’ll lift you up to rub it!”

Qiu Shi shook his head.

“Quick! Stop dawdling!”

Seeing Qiu Shi wouldn’t climb on, Xu Minghai got impatient and simply grabbed the boy by both legs, hoisting him up and shoving right through the crowd to lift him before the stone monkey. Qiu Shi hurriedly stretched out his hands and rubbed it fiercely a couple of times.

After Qiu Shi came down, he tried to lift Xu Minghai in turn.

“How could you possibly lift me?” Xu Minghai let out a laugh, then vigorously rubbed Qiu Shi’s hands. “You rubbed the stone monkey, I rub you—that counts as both of us rubbing it! Wards off evil, dispels sickness—a whole year without drinking medicine.”

Entering through the main gate, they found themselves amid a sea of stalls, all displaying a rainbow of steaming, fragrant snacks. Most were things Qiu Shi had never seen before. But Xu Minghai, with the air of a widely traveled sophisticate, introduced them to him one by one.

Almond tea… glutinous rice porridge… kidney bean rolls… fried cakes… pea-flour cake…

Before leaving the house, Xu Yong had secretly slipped Xu Minghai five yuan—all in small bills. So at this moment, Xu Minghai was playing the part of a big spender. He walked over to a candied hawthorn skewer stall, eyed the straw mound bristling with skewers of all colors, and immediately plucked out two skewers of hawthorn-and-yam. Paying, he handed one to Qiu Shi.

Holding the thin bamboo skewers, they each took a bite. A web of winding cracks instantly splintered before their eyes. The rock sugar was crisp and sweet, the yam fragrant and glutinous, the hawthorn tart and refreshing. Crunching away in their mouths, it gave a thrill like cracking ice.

Walking further, they spotted a small pushcart that sold nothing but sticky treats. The wooden board on top was polished to a mirror shine. On it, besides jujube cakes made of yellow millet dough, there were also aiwowo, each topped with strands of candied green and red fruit and osmanthus in syrup. A man and a woman, apparently a married couple, were rolling steamed yellow soybean flour into sheets, spreading a filling of sweet red bean paste, rolling it all up, coating the outside with more ground soybean flour, and cutting it into sections with a knife.

While sprinkling white sugar on top, the man hawked his wares: “Hey~ soybean flour cakes~ donkey rolls~ with a sugar sprinkle, hey~”

So Xu Minghai bought one of each kind, and the two of them shared, eating bite for bite. Qiu Shi liked the aiwowo best. He found the sweet, soft, thick outer skin, made from glutinous rice, and the filling inside—sesame seeds, white sugar, walnut kernels that crunched in his mouth—offered an incredibly rich texture, far better than the sticky bean buns back in the village.

Just like that, before they’d even properly started their tour, the two were already eighty percent full.

Moving deeper in, the sights became even more varied. Big windmills, diabolo spinning tops, kites, and also dough-figurine artists, stilt walkers, puppet shows, and comic dialogue performers. A cacophony of sounds, laughter, and shouts all blended together into a tangled mass.

Qiu Shi found everything novel and let Xu Minghai lead him wherever. When they reached a “ring toss” stall, the two came to a stop.

Here, a whole spread of toys was laid out on the ground—a bit of everything. The farther back the items went, the more high-end they became. The most eye-catching of them all was a large battery-powered toy Jeep. Placed in the very back row, it sat with extraordinary poise, its color bright and glossy, looking down upon all the lesser prizes with utter disdain. Xu Minghai took one look and was instantly seized by an unbearable itch. He called out to the stall owner, “Uncle, how much for one toss?”

“Three mao. How many rings do you want?”

The speaker was a middle-aged man. Though his face was far from kind and he had a severe underbite, his demeanor was rather enthusiastic.

Xu Minghai fished the small bills out of his pocket, handed the man one yuan and five mao, and took five rings in his hand. He turned to Qiu Shi and said, “I’m gonna get that Jeep.”

Qiu Shi stood on his tiptoes and glanced at it. Very objectively, he said, “It’s too far.”

“Tch,” Xu Minghai lifted his chin. “Watch me!”

With that, he narrowed his eyes, raised his arm, and flicked his wrist with a clever little snap. The plastic ring in his hand flew out with a whoosh. A streak of red spun through the air against the rustling snowfall, arcing beautifully, and then landed in a perfect loop—around a dead branch of a crooked, stunted tree behind the stall.

A chorus of snickers and giggles immediately rippled through the crowd. Qiu Shi looked around and saw that a bunch of kids, older and younger, had gathered around them at some point without his noticing.

“Ahem,” Xu Minghai picked up another ring and explained, “That was just a warm-up. Watch your big brother this time!”

This time there was clear improvement—at least it didn’t end up in the tree—but it was still thousands of miles away from the Jeep.

And so it went, until Xu Minghai had squandered all the rings in his hand. Forget the car—he hadn’t even snagged a deck of playing cards.

The crowd of kids around them grew thicker and thicker, all wearing expressions of eager anticipation for a good show. Qiu Shi tugged at Xu Minghai’s sleeve and whispered, “Let’s go.”

“Don’t go yet, try again! Who’s to say the next one won’t land right on it!” the underbite man hawked loudly.

“Not leaving!” Xu Minghai categorically rejected Qiu Shi’s suggestion. He pulled out more money and exchanged it for another five rings from the underbite man, his face full of determined confidence. “What my eyes set on is mine!”

Unfortunately, his grand ambitions were inversely proportional to his actual skill and luck. In the blink of an eye, another one yuan and five mao had grown wings and flown away. Only now did Xu Minghai cool down. He looked at the single surviving ring in his hand, then turned to Qiu Shi. “Guozi, you toss it.”

“Me?”

“Yeah.” Xu Minghai pressed the ring into Qiu Shi’s hand. “I just remembered—you’re the one who rubbed the stone monkey earlier! I’m counting on you, bro.”

“I’ve never done this before.”

“Hey, you’ve got my miserable performance as your cushion. There’s nowhere to go but up,” Xu Minghai encouraged him. “Go for it! Guozi! Go! Put that ferocity you used when you bit me into it!”

Qiu Shi had no choice. He took the plastic ring, faced the direction of the Jeep, leaned forward, and gave it everything he had in one throw. The nearly weightless ring wobbled forward, visibly veering off course.

“Ah…” Xu Minghai sighed. He took Qiu Shi’s hand, and the two of them, wilted and dejected, prepared to retreat.

But at that very moment, a fierce white squall of wind suddenly howled through, as if an invisible hand had reached out and yanked the errant object back on track. Then, with a click, the plastic ring landed smack on the Jeep’s proud, haughty front hood.

“Awesome! Awesome!” The crowd around them burst into a wave of cheers and applause.

Qiu Shi had never imagined a blind cat could actually stumble upon a dead rat. He stood frozen to the spot. Meanwhile, Xu Minghai beside him was already grinning from ear to ear, jumping up and down like a monkey several times, and pressing his mouth to Qiu Shi’s ice-cold cheek, planting several fervent kisses.

“Guozi, you’re incredible!!!”

The massive joy radiating from Xu Minghai infected Qiu Shi, and he grew excited too, letting his face be smeared with drool.

“Uncle, give us the car!” Xu Minghai turned to claim the spoils of war, only to see the underbite man lightly nudge the Jeep with his foot. The plastic ring hanging on it slipped right off.

“Doesn’t count,” the man said, face blank.

At those words, Xu Minghai instantly exploded. He yelled, “How can it not count?! Who does business like this? We got it on there!”

The underbite man rolled his eyes. “Fuck, but the damn thing fell off again, didn’t it?”

“You kicked it off with your foot! All these people here saw it!”

“Don’t you fucking spout bullshit just because you’ve got a mouth on you! Who saw it? Whoever saw it, step forward and speak up!”

The kids nearby stopped watching the fun and scattered in an instant. And so, the stall that had just been bustling with activity was now left with only Xu Minghai and Qiu Shi.

“I’m telling you two to stop making trouble. Beat it!” The underbite man bent over and began picking up the scattered plastic rings one by one, cursing under his breath, “Fucking spend three lousy yuan and expect to snag a big toy car—what the hell are you thinking? Hey—Ow! FUCK!!!”