AOI 3

The man strode forward in a few quick steps. First, he grabbed Xu Minghai by the collar, lifted him up, and planted him to the side. Then he scooped up the dusty, dirt-streaked Qiu Shi from the ground and carried him over to Zhou Yingying.

The mother had no time to tidy her disheveled hair. She immediately crouched down and brushed the snow and dirt from her son’s clothes.

For a moment, no one spoke. The courtyard was filled only with a rise and fall of ragged breathing.

“Why… why didn’t you send a letter ahead? I would have gone to the train station to pick you up,” the man finally spoke again. The muscles of his face seemed frozen, betraying neither joy nor anger.

“Why would you pick her up? Chen Lei, how can you be this cheap?” Li Yandong cursed while beckoning Xu Minghai over. Seeing the blood seeping from the web of her son’s hand, she shot Qiu Shi a venomous glare. “Damn it, he really is a dog!”

Chen Lei immediately turned his head. “Li Yandong, don’t you start throwing your weight around here. We all grew up together running around in open-crotch pants—what are you throwing a tantrum at Yingzi for?” Then he said to Xu Yong, “Keep your own wife in line. Stop letting her make a scene all day long.”

“Yes, yes,” Xu Yong herded the two, big and small, toward their room like shooing pigs. “You two go back inside first.”

“I’m making a scene?!” Li Yandong shoved Xu Yong aside, pressed her index finger to the tip of her own nose, then swept it in a wide arc toward Chen Lei. “Who am I doing this for? What does it matter that we grew up together? Did Zhou Yingying ever spare you a single day’s notice? Back then she chased after that guy surnamed Yang all the way to the Northeast, and in less than a year, he…”

“It’s all a pile of goddamn moldy old history, what’s the point of digging it up?! Isn’t her coming back alive better than anything?” Chen Lei roughly cut off Li Yandong’s rambling. “Just tell me what we do now.”

“I already told her, I’ll vacate after the Lantern Festival, but no way before then! Our whole place from inside to out is barely ten square meters. What do you expect me to do on such short notice? Is she a person and I’m not? Chen Lei, you bastard with a head kicked in by a donkey!” A tearful quaver gradually crept into Li Yandong’s scolding. “Besides, last year I repainted the walls, fixed the roof, replaced the windows in that room—it cost me a whole month’s wages!”

“We’ll deal with the difficulties, solve the problems, and that’s that. We can talk and negotiate nicely. But no matter how you argue it, this house isn’t surnamed Li.” Chen Lei delivered the final word, then looked at Zhou Yingying. “Take the kid and squeeze in at my place for a few days. I’ll set up a folding cot and sleep with Xiaohai in this room. Let’s get through the holiday first. Xiaohai,” Chen Lei turned to Xu Minghai, “can you put up with your godfather for a few days? I’ll help you all get things sorted out. No matter how cramped your place is, I don’t believe we can’t squeeze in a half-grown kid.”

Xu Minghai quickly nodded, then magnanimously, using his injured hand, pointed at Qiu Shi. “He’s little, he won’t take up space. How about I share a room with him, and you squeeze in with this auntie?”

“Shameless nonsense!” Li Yandong’s eyebrows shot straight up. She raised her hand and smacked Xu Minghai on the head. “You don’t study hard at school—what goes through that brain of yours every day? Just wait till I see your homeroom teacher!”

Xu Minghai rubbed the back of his head, feeling wronged. He swore to Chairman Mao his intentions were perfectly pure—wasn’t he just trying to help solve the problem?

“It’s settled. What’s all this noise about? Such a small matter. Oh, and Yandong, make extra food for dinner tonight.” With that, Chen Lei bent down, hefted the luggage from the ground onto his shoulder, turned, and left, ignoring the furious cursing behind him: “Make food! I’ll make food for your granny’s ass!”

Qiu Shi, pulled along by Zhou Yingying, followed Chen Lei toward the southeast corner of the courtyard.

Once inside, Zhou Yingying sat Qiu Shi down on a chair and removed his hat, scarf, and thick padded coat. The coal stove in the room was burning vigorously; dried tangerine peels sat roasting on the stove top, making the air dry and warm. This made Qiu Shi feel like a snail that had finally shed the shell it had carried all the way.

Chen Lei’s place wasn’t big—basically a living room and bedroom all in one. Quite a bit of clutter was piled out in the open. He took a jar of “Tang” powdered orange drink from the cabinet next to the television, spooned some of the orange-yellow powder into a cup, added hot water from the thermos, and handed it to the mother and son.

“Guozi, thank Uncle,” Zhou Yingying reminded Qiu Shi.

Qiu Shi harbored a deep wariness toward all adult males, but this uncle felt different, projecting a rare sense of safety. So he murmured his thanks, cradled the glass painted with red flowers, and took several sips in a row. The warm, sweet-sour taste thawed him completely, and right away his fingers and face began to itch.

“Don’t scratch. They’re frost-nipped. It’ll pass,” Chen Lei stopped Qiu Shi’s hand, then looked around and somehow dug up a knockoff Transformer—one Xu Minghai had left behind last time. Chen Lei handed the toy to Qiu Shi, who glanced at Zhou Yingying. Under his mother’s acquiescent gaze, he carefully accepted it.

Zhou Yingying murmured a word of thanks.

Chen Lei finally cracked his lips into an almost-smile. “After all these years, your looks haven’t changed much, but your temperament’s different. When we were kids, if that tigress Yandong bullied you, you’d just find somewhere to cry by yourself. Now you dare to fight back.”

“She can push me around all she wants. Even if she made me sleep out on the main road, I could bear it.” Zhou Yingying’s gaze toward her son was tender yet resolute. “But what about Guozi? For him, I have to go all out, just to be worthy of being called his mother.”

“I saw how your son fought Xiaohai just now—pretty fierce. He definitely won’t get pushed around in the future.” Chen Lei glanced at Qiu Shi, then asked in a deliberately casual tone, “What about the child’s father?”

“He committed a crime up there and was sentenced. Before he went in, we finalized the divorce, and then I got someone to process the paperwork to return to the city.”

Another long silence. Qiu Shi had transformed the Transformer’s arms and legs into a car and back three times before the two adults spoke another word.

“I thought I’d never see you again in this life.” Chen Lei let out a long sigh. “No wonder my eyelid’s been twitching like mad lately. Left eye twitching, then the right—I just didn’t dare think it was about you. When I walked into the courtyard just now and saw you standing there, my whole brain shut down. Like I was dreaming.”

“Wasn’t it just like a dream?” Zhou Yingying kept her head lowered, her gaze fixed on the cement floor. “When I was young, I thought life stretched on forever. A vast world, great things to accomplish, afraid of nothing. In the end, nearly half my life was thrown away in Heilongjiang. Muddled through, not even knowing how I got through each day. Blinked, and eight years were gone.”

“Muddling through life or living it with clear eyes—there’s no difference. It’s still three hundred sixty-five days a year. You can’t skip even a single day of suffering.” Chen Lei stepped closer and gently patted her shoulder. “Let the past turn the page. Just think of it as getting lost for a while. No matter what, you’ve finally found your way home now.”

“Mm.” Zhou Yingying slowly raised her head and smiled.

Just then, the door suddenly opened. Xu Minghai burst in and, without a word, set the aluminum pot he was clutching down on the table. He lifted the lid to reveal a whole steamer tray of plump, white baozi, squeezed together and billowing fragrant steam. The smell triggered a gurgle from Qiu Shi’s stomach—he was hungry.

“My mom only told me to bring half a tray. I thought, how’s that gonna work? Who would that even feed?” Xu Minghai was very excited, utterly oblivious to the fact that his actions amounted to siding with outsiders against his own family, stabbing inward with an outward-pointing spear.

“Good, Xiaohai. Your godfather hasn’t spoiled you all this time for nothing.” Chen Lei vigorously ruffled Xu Minghai’s short hair in approval.

Xu Minghai thrived on the slightest encouragement. “If it’s not enough, I’ll go get more!” he announced loudly. Then, while Chen Lei went to fetch plates and bowls, he ran over to Qiu Shi. He raised his own hand, the web of which was smeared with gentian violet antiseptic, and grimaced dramatically. “Your big brother here has been in plenty of fights, but you’re the first one who ever dared to bite down like you wanted to kill me.”

Zhou Yingying saw this and felt deeply apologetic. She urged, “Guozi, hurry up and apologize to Xiaohai.”

Qiu Shi bit his lip and said nothing, eyes looking elsewhere, his porcelain-pale cheeks gradually flushing red.

“Hey! That Transformer you’re holding is mine too!”

Hearing this, Qiu Shi immediately threw the toy he’d been fiddling with so intently moments ago straight onto the floor.

“Guozi! Pick that toy up yourself and give it back to Xiaohai. Say you’re sorry properly.” Zhou Yingying frowned.

Unexpectedly, Qiu Shi not only refused to cooperate but immediately raised his left hand, opening his mouth to bite his own hand.

This sent Zhou Yingying’s heart, which had only just relaxed, clenching violently once again. She grabbed Qiu Shi’s hand, already halfway to his mouth, and pulled her son tightly into her arms.

Zhou Yingying felt as if her throat had been seared by a red-hot coal. Her voice hoarse, she hurriedly said to Xu Minghai, “Xiaohai, Auntie apologizes to you. I’m sorry. Guozi only just arrived today. He’s shy around strangers. Don’t blame him.”

Xu Minghai stood there dumbstruck. Now, hearing an elder apologize to him, he was so alarmed he waved his hands frantically. “Auntie, I’m not mad! I swear I’m not mad. I was just teasing him.” With that, he dug into his trouser pocket and pulled out a handful of fruit candies, dumping them all on the table. Then he said to Qiu Shi, “You’re part of this courtyard now. In this hutong, I’ve got your back.”

Qiu Shi ignored him, burying his face deep against his mother’s chest. At this moment, only this small space was familiar to him.

And Zhou Yingying, watching Xu Minghai, thought the boy was quite like Chen Lei had been as a child—loyal and warm-hearted. It was a pity she hadn’t understood back then. Looking back now, having a brother-like figure like this by one’s side was practically a blessing earned over a previous lifetime.

That meal of baozi was eaten in silence. After dinner, Chen Lei and Zhou Yingying began to reminisce. But no matter how they talked about the “old times,” it felt as if a thin layer of window paper stood between them, neither daring to probe too deeply.

Before bed, Chen Lei added coal to the stove, poked the air holes with the fire tongs, filled a borrowed bed warmer from Old Zhang’s place with boiling water, placed it on the bed, and then carried his folding cot over to Xu Minghai’s room. Zhou Yingying used hot water from the aluminum kettle to give Qiu Shi a quick sponge bath and let him sleep on the inside of the bed.

A full day and night of exhausting travel, plus the earlier chaos, made the current peace seem extraordinarily precious. Zhou Yingying lay beside Qiu Shi, gently stroking her son’s hair. At last, she coaxed out Qiu Shi’s first words since dinner: “Mom, I don’t like it here.”

Zhou Yingying didn’t address her son’s statement directly. Instead, she said, “When the New Year comes, Mom will take you to the Baiyun Temple Fair. It’s so lively there. We’ll ‘strike the money bell,’ ‘rub the stone monkey’…”

But Qiu Shi wasn’t led astray. He insisted, “Mom, that auntie bullied you. She’s just as bad as Qiu Jiawang! If we live here, she’ll keep bullying you.”

A long pause. Then Zhou Yingying said softly, “But Mom has you. Just like back in the village, Guozi could always protect Mom.”

“But I’m too weak,” Qiu Shi mumbled. “Mom, I shouldn’t have bitten him. But if I hadn’t, I couldn’t have gotten past him to reach you.”

“Mom knows,” Zhou Yingying fought back the sting in her nose. “Guozi, after the New Year, Mom will contact a school so you can start classes. You study hard. When you grow up, no one will be able to bully us. And Xiaohai, that big brother—he’s a good kid. You bit him so badly, and he still brought you baozi. Tomorrow you must apologize to him, understand?”

In the deep, murky darkness, Qiu Shi saw the fierce, unyielding resolve in Zhou Yingying’s eyes and heard the soft plea in her voice. He could only nod.