FWP Chapter 8

Chapter 8 We Want to Fly to That Distant Place and See

Chapter 8 We Want to Fly to That Distant Place and See

Wanderer and Zhou Zhao came face to face across a low wall.

Wanderer was squatting on the ground, holding a bowl of leftover rice in his hand, with several bloody fingernail marks on his arm. Four fully grown dogs surrounded him, munching and snorting as they ate from the bowl. Zhou Zhao carried three boxes of snacks in his left hand, two boxes of yogurt and milk hooked on his right arm, and his luggage bag on his back. The taxi driver helped him unload a pot of kumquat tree and placed it at the entrance.

Wanderer looked terrible. He came out to help Zhou Zhao with his things. “Zhou Zhao?”

Zhou Zhao took the opportunity to grab Wanderer’s hand, smiled at him, and said, “There’s a big pond next to your house, and people are flying kites there.” He took out his wallet from his pocket and paid the driver.

The taxi drove away, and Wanderer noticed the car-hailing phone number printed on the trunk. He reached out and pulled down his sleeve to cover the fingernail marks on his arm, and held Zhou Zhao’s hand in return, “Why are you here?”

“I came to find you. Why the hell did you drop out of school without a word? What happened? Where’s Grandma?” Zhou Zhao craned his neck and looked at the big house behind Wanderer. The dogs on the ground swirled around their feet, and one particularly greedy one ran over randomly, took a few steps, and turned back to eat.

Wanderer shrugged, answering only the second half of the question, “She went on a trip. With my uncles.”

Zhou Zhao directed Wanderer to put the things he had bought away, while he went to carry the kumquat pot himself.

Most kumquats are off the market in March. Zhou Zhao caught a glimpse of these last few greenhouse-grown ones in the supermarket. The shop assistant didn’t pick one for him to taste, but only praised how bright the color of the kumquats were, and how lucky it would be to have them at home. Zhou Zhao was happy to hear about the luck.

“I’ll put it here, facing the gate, so wealth can enter my door?”

“Whatever, you can put it anywhere.”

When Wanderer spoke to Zhou Zhao, he unconsciously imitated his erhua accent. He put the boxes of food and drinks in his room, locked the door to prevent the dogs from getting in and eating them.

“You haven’t eaten this cantaloupe yet?” Zhou Zhao placed the kumquat, and saw the long table by the wall of the big house. On the table was a jade-green stone Guanyin statue, with offerings placed in six plates, one of which contained a cantaloupe, with a layer of gray-green fuzz already floating on the bottom of the melon.

Wanderer put on a sweater over his shirt. He walked over and picked up the cantaloupe. “Sorry, I forgot.”

Zhou Zhao grabbed his arm, he leaned close and smelled Wanderer’s neck. “I’m here, which means I’m willing to listen to you.”

“Listen to what?”

“Tell me what you want to say, tell me what happened to your family?”

Zhou Zhao pointed to the dogs outside the yard, eating with their heads down, and then pointed to the floating dust on the long table. “You just got back too, right? The house is full of dust, and the dogs have been hungry for days. You still smell like shampoo.” Zhou Zhao let go of Wanderer and stood back a little. “It can be considered fate that we have, you are at home, so I don’t have to run in vain.”

Wanderer smiled. His hair grew fast. Before the first month of the lunar year, Zeng Haitang had cut it for him with clippers when she wasn’t sick. In less than two months, his hair had grown long enough to tie an apple head. Zhou Zhao saw the blush on his face, his face was thin and narrow, and the connection between the root of his nose and his brow bone was not so prominent before. After the baby fat faded, he had the face of a young man, and also the voice of a young man. Zhou Zhao had never noticed it before, why did he suddenly notice it today?

Wanderer casually explained, not far from what Zhou Zhao guessed. The family was out of money, so he would suspend his studies for a year to earn some tuition before going back.

At that time, gap years were not very popular in China, but Wanderer’s explanation was not a problem.

They picked a few kumquats and chatted as they ate. The kumquats were so sour, they quickly ran out of things to say.

Wanderer grimaced. Zhou Zhao also grimaced. He spat a few times on the ground, and the dog trotted up to eat it. Zhou Zhao was so angry that he ran out to push the dog’s muzzle, “Don’t eat it, it’s too sour, oh, how disgusting.”

Wanderer swallowed it. He hung the lock on the big house and led Zhou Zhao around the big house, climbing over the wall from the backyard. Wanderer was light, and Zhou Zhao was tall. The two of them climbed over the wall quickly and gracefully. They paid attention to each other, afraid that the other would stumble and fall.

A shiny motorcycle leaned against the wall in the backyard. Wanderer got on it and beckoned Zhou Zhao to get on.

Zhou Zhao was puzzled, “When did you learn to ride this?”, while straddling it, and hugged Wanderer’s waist.

Wanderer raised the collar of his sweater to the tip of his chin. He patted Zhou Zhao’s hands covering his navel, “I knew how to do it when I was ten years old. Relax a little, I can’t breathe.”

Zhou Zhao felt that he hadn’t hugged very tightly, he let go a little. “Why can’t I get through to your phone? I recharged it for you a bit.”

“The phone fell into the water. Did you recharge a lot?”

“Not much.”

The roar of the motorcycle starting quickly drowned out their voices. He carried Zhou Zhao through the fields. A bold sparrow stood on the scarecrow’s shoulder. Seeing a car coming, the sparrow chirped twice, fluttered its wings and flew into the sky. It flew to the power cable, its black bean eyes staring at the motorcycle heading towards the intersection of the field and the road.

Wanderer took Zhou Zhao to Zhenyuan Building near No. 16 High School for lunch. Zhou Zhao came covered in dust, and his stomach started to growl as soon as he entered his house. Wanderer ordered several large dishes.

Zhou Zhao glared at him, “Yo, did you get rich? Can’t make ends meet?” He snatched the menu, and said to the waiter: “Get rid of the pork knuckle, and don’t want the braised pork either, change it to scallion tofu, and also a cucumber salad, that’s all.”

Wanderer pressed the menu, “Keep the braised pork, don’t want the pork knuckle, add the two dishes he said,” he looked at Zhou Zhao, “I have money.”

When the dishes were served, Zhou Zhao took a bite and lamented, “If I eat one more bite, you will come back a day later. Do you understand my good intentions?”

“Understood, understood, eat quickly.” Wanderer sat by the window with his legs crossed. He opened the private room, only sitting the two of them. Zhou Zhao was hot-blooded, and he was already sweating in the spring. Wanderer opened the window and the door, forming a convection wind, so that Zhou Zhao could eat refreshingly. Zhou Zhao took two bites, and when he saw that Wanderer was eating one bite at a time, he opened the chatterbox. He showed Wanderer all kinds of things to talk about. Wanderer thought for a while and chose the most unimportant thing to ask: “You came to find me, what about the class?”

“Skipped it.” Zhou Zhao was extremely unrestrained.

“Did you and your family eat the mountain goods we sent?”

“Ate them, ate them, sugar-fried chestnuts, chestnut stewed chicken, chicken stewed with fresh mushrooms, squirrel mandarin fish, all made once.”

Wanderer put his hands on the dining table, he said that’s good, I’m glad you like it.

Zhou Zhao took a bite of scallion tofu, praising the scallion leaves for being fresh and sweet, as if they were just picked from the ground.

He told Wanderer about his life of not thinking about tea and rice in the past few months. The corners of Wanderer’s mouth dropped little by little, and finally flattened into a straight line.

“Your idiot roommate is going crazy. I asked where you were, and he was still playing tricks with me. I even fought in your dormitory. How could I not recognize you?”

“Ouyang, he’s an idiot.” Wanderer raised the tip of his chin and smiled again. The Zhenyuan Building was next to a river, and the shadow of the sun was reflected on the river. The shadow of the sun was cast into Wanderer’s eyes, and his knowing look was like a section of bamboo drooping with dew.

There was a spicy chicken dish on the table that was particularly well-made. The pepper and sesame oil were abundant, delicious, and beautiful. Zhou Zhao ate a plate unconsciously. They were both half-grown boys at the age of eating their parents broke. After eating almost enough, Zhou Zhao leaned back in his chair and was in a daze. He was a little dizzy from the meal, and chatted with Wanderer on and off.

They used to chat like this often, without a theme, and every sentence was not seamless. They could chat for a long, long time back and forth.

After one o’clock in the afternoon, the sun rose into the sky, and half of Wanderer’s shoulder was basking in the sun. He had sweat on his face. Zhou Zhao asked him to take off his sweater. He didn’t take it off, but moved to the cool shade by the window.

“Speaking of making money, I also found something to do, and I plan to do it when I go back, to save some money for a summer vacation trip.”

“What’s the matter?”

“It doesn’t match my major. I’m working as a teaching assistant in the competition class of our original high school.”

“That’s suitable for you. You like to scold people, and the class is full of ‘dullards’ as you say.”

The two of them looked at each other, Zhou Zhao was holding a toothpick in his mouth, and said angrily: “Get out of here, I don’t usually scold people. Li Tinglin infected me.”

Zhou Zhao smiled, Wanderer didn’t know why, he stared at the toothpick in Zhou Zhao’s mouth, a thin strip, hanging in the middle of his lips, he pointed to it, “How did you break your mouth?”

Zhou Zhao touched his mouth and said embarrassedly: “Don’t mention it, I kissed Yu Zipei, her teeth are sharp, and a sudden collision knocked off half a layer of my skin.” He went to the glass turntable on the table to look at the reflection, “Your eyesight is good, it’s growing back almost completely, is it still obvious?”

“Not obvious, basically can’t see it.”

Zhou Zhao stroked his mouth and said, “Do you remember when I wanted to get you glasses? You were going to die, and you didn’t want me to show my love. Now your eyesight is pretty good. Hey – did you have nearsightedness surgery?”

Wanderer propped open his eyelids, “No, I’m wearing contact lenses.”

Zhou Zhao looked at him carefully for a long time, and saw a circle of light blue light from the edge of his eyeball. He had never worn contact lenses before, and felt that it was something that greatly hindered the movement of the eyeball, so he asked Wanderer if he was used to it. Wanderer said he was used to it.

When it was time to pay the bill, Wanderer took out a few banknotes from his pocket. The girl behind the counter said that it didn’t need to be paid, it had already been paid. Wanderer said oh, Zhou Zhao came down from the stairs, he grabbed two breath mints from the plate on the counter, gave one to Wanderer, unwrapped one and put it in his mouth. He glanced at Wanderer, “Let’s go, let’s go digest.”

They rode their motorcycles along the river bank under Zhenyuan Building all the way south. When they arrived at the tidal flats, the car couldn’t get in, so they started walking. In the orange-yellow sunlight in the afternoon, they could see the sparkling sea and the bridge not far away.

Some people were walking on the tidal flats. Two women were singing on the tidal flats. Their speakers and karaoke machine were placed in the trunk of the van. The two people were singingThe sound of misty facing the open ass of the car, and the bubbles blown by the ignorant children next door swirled around them. Wanderer walked and walked, opened his arms, and sang.

“I want to take you to fly everywhere, to see all over the world, there is no trouble and no sorrow, free and happy.”

Zhou Zhao walked behind him, Wanderer climbed onto a tall reef, and the sea softly sent a piece of light.

“Forget the pain, forget the sorrow, let’s set off together to wander -”

“Do you like Tsai Chin?”

Wanderer squatted on the stone, his eyes narrowed with a smile, “Tsai Chin is the dream lover of mine.”

Zhou Zhao also climbed up and sat next to him. On his left were the songs of two women, and on his right was Wanderer’s. He sang along unconsciously, thinking in his heart, what does Tsai Chin look like?

“We want to fly to that distant place and take a look, this world is not so desolate.”

“We want to fly to that distant place and have a look, this world, is still a piece of light -”

/

“You have good taste.” Yu Zipei said, “People who like Tsai Chin have good taste.”

“Thank you.” Wanderer was shy, rubbed his nose, and looked elsewhere, at the pomegranate tree planted in the courtyard.

Yu Zipei majored in dentistry in college. After graduating, she worked in a public hospital for a few years. After giving birth to a child, she found that she couldn’t find a job. Fortunately, her ex-husband had connections and spent money to open a studio for her to work independently. Wanderer followed Yu Zipei around the studio. It was located near Dongsi, where every inch of land was worth a lot of money, not far from the subway station. A Cantonese restaurant had good dishes, and the double-skin milk was delicious.

Yu Zipei opened the refrigerator, took out cakes and pudding, and ordered takeout to eat. Wanderer was also hungry. He had eaten a bowl of udon noodles in more than twenty hours. He impolitely ordered a lot on Yu Zipei’s phone.

The mosquito killer she mentioned was indeed very large, standing under the porch, glowing blue, and ordinary mosquitoes did not dare to approach. Wanderer repaired a shaking fan for Yu Zipei and moved it outside to blow.

The smell of disinfectant in the clinic was too strong, so they both sat outside, chatting and smoking, waiting for takeout.

Yu Zipei frowned, shivering and said: “How can you two be so peaceful together?”

“Is it? Aren’t we usually like this?”

“Anyway, he doesn’t listen to me sing, and he never sent me kumquats.”

Wanderer explained: “That kumquat is very sour, it’s not delicious.”

“Do you know a high school classmate of Zhou Zhao and I named Chen Buchu?”

Yu Zipei looked blank. According to Zhou Zhao’s statement, their class might be divided into those who collected homework, Wanderer, and those who handed in homework. Wanderer had to introduce Chen Buchu to Yu Zipei——”My relationship with Chen Buchu… how should I put it, before Zhou Zhao, Chen Buchu was my best friend, if it wasn’t for my grandmother, I might have been Chen Buchu’s older brother.”

“The family where I was sold by my parents as a bet was Chen Buchu’s house.”

————

Tsai Chin, “Zhang San’s Song”, 2000

[The author has something to say]

Oh my god, thank you to the owners who gave me starfish~