Peaches and Plums Don’t Speak – Chapter 60
by Little PandaSummer Vacation (Part 1)
Summer vacation arrived right on schedule. This year, Yan Xi didn’t have any holidays for traveling, and since Anzhi couldn’t stand the heat, she was more than happy to stay home.
She had only been lazing around for a few days when Yan Xi started dragging her out to exercise.
Anzhi hadn’t ridden her bicycle much since it was lost. She wasn’t the type to enjoy sports to begin with; during the holidays, she could happily spend an entire day curled up on the sofa without moving. She also loved sleeping in, making up for the sleep she lost on school days.
Yan Xi hauled her out for a night run. “Come run with me.”
“Ugh…” Anzhi pouted, unwilling to go.
“You know, high school has a physical education examination.1 You’ll have to do an 800-meter test, sit-ups, and a standing long jump… as I recall. Do you think you’re in any shape for that?” Yan Xi reached out and flicked her forehead.
“Mmm…” Anzhi’s face fell. “Fine, then.”
They ran in the area around their residential complex, the dense chirping of summer cicadas buzzing in their ears.
Anzhi was flagging after just a short while, her bangs soaked with sweat as she panted for breath. Yan Xi ran about half a meter in front of her. “Slow your breathing, make it even. You don’t have to go too fast. Take it slow…”
Anzhi followed her, gasping for air.
“Swing your arms, follow me. Just a little longer. We’ll run a bit more—see? We’ll stop when we get to that tree.”
Anzhi gritted her teeth, her eyes fixed on the tree, not daring to let her feet stop for even a second. When she finally reached it, she let out a wretched cry of relief, drenched in sweat. Just as she was about to squat down, Yan Xi pulled her up. “Don’t squat. Come on, walk slowly.”
Anzhi was still panting as Yan Xi led her on a slow walk. After a short distance, a breeze blew past, and she gradually started to feel much better. She glanced at Yan Xi beside her, who was only slightly dewy with sweat and didn’t look tired at all.
Yan Xi even teased her. “You’re this exhausted after such a short run…”
Anzhi was still catching her breath, a hot feeling in her chest. She looked miserable. “Can I practice later? I don’t like running…”
A half-smile played on Yan Xi’s lips. “No. You still have to come to the gym with me…”
Anzhi wailed, “I don’t wanna…”
The gym was near their complex. Anzhi curiously touched this and that. Yan Xi went to find a personal trainer for a boxing lesson and sent Anzhi to the treadmill.
After running for a little while, Anzhi’s stamina gave out, and she snuck off to watch Yan Xi’s class.
Yan Xi’s slender, fair hands were wrapped in black hand wraps. Under the coach’s guidance, she was doing speed bag drills.
To Anzhi’s eyes, it was just Yan Xi facing a small, hanging ball, striking it in a rapid, dense rhythm with alternating hands.
She was wearing a cropped tank top, and as she moved, the two distinct V-lines on her incredibly fair, slender waist were visible—a perfect fusion of strength and beauty.2
After finishing the speed bag drill and jumping rope two hundred times, she put on boxing gloves and started sparring with the coach. Following his commands, she threw a left jab, a rear straight, a one-two combo, blocked, ducked, and slipped.
Fast, direct, and endlessly repetitive.
Her hair was tied up completely. Anzhi had seen photos of her boxing as a teenager; in those pictures, she had been full of sharp-edged spirit, absolutely fiery. But none of it compared to seeing it in person. Her features were more mature and refined than in her youth, and her face wasn’t domineering by nature—it was gentle and elegant. But when she was boxing, though her face didn’t change, her eyes and her aura did. She was like a cool, piercing light shining from within an elegant jade vase.
With each soft cry, that light was dazzling.
Anzhi stared, completely mesmerized.
On the training floor, Yan Xi stepped back, practicing her form and footwork, coordinating them with the movements of her hands. A small patch of fabric on her chest was damp with sweat, and her exposed skin was coated in a crystalline sheen.
During a break, Anzhi trotted over like a little follower, holding up a water bottle with eyes full of adoration. Yan Xi unscrewed the cap, took a few sips, and smiled at her.
Anzhi’s dimples appeared as she smiled back. Just as she was about to suck up to her—Auntie, you’re so cool! or something of the sort—she got a flick on the forehead. Yan Xi stared at her. “Go run on that treadmill for half an hour, then come find me!”
Anzhi whined, “Wuu…”
She was exhausted on the way home and still had to be dragged along by Yan Xi, who laughed at her. “You need to pay attention to your fitness, you know. You can’t be a little bookworm who only knows how to study.”
You really can’t judge a book by its cover. Who would have thought Yan Xi had a hobby like boxing, in addition to her other, quieter one—photography.
There was a room on the third floor of their house dedicated to her cameras, her photographs, and her specialized books, along with the magazines she subscribed to every month of every year. Anzhi knew Yan Xi liked to take pictures of their family and other things, but she felt that Yan Xi kept this hobby hidden rather deep.
“Did you not major in photography in university?”
“Mm… I don’t really have any talent in that area. It’s just a hobby.”
“Huh? How do you know you don’t? Can I see the pictures you’ve taken? Even though I don’t really get it.” Anzhi had seen the photos Yan Xi took of her and the rest of the family. She always captured everyone’s expressions and appearances perfectly, suffused with a warm, domestic air and an overwhelming feeling of coziness.
But Yan Xi wouldn’t let her see any of her other photos.
Yan Xi cleared her throat. “…There’s nothing much to see.”
Anzhi thought she saw a hint of embarrassment on her face, which only amused her more.
“Auntie, have you ever sent your photos to any magazines?”
“Ahem, you don’t need to worry about that.” Yan Xi evaded the question, turning her face away.
“Hey, Auntie…” Anzhi pressed on with a grin. “Are you shy?”
“Don’t tell me you secretly submitted them to a magazine, and then they didn’t…”
Yan Xi suddenly stood up and shot her a glare. “Why is a child talking so much! Go do your homework!”
It was rare to see Yan Xi looking so bashful. Anzhi pressed her lips together to hide a giggle, thinking she was utterly adorable.
She had been too young before, without enough awareness to truly understand Yan Xi. But now, she felt that Yan Xi was getting better and better, cuter and cuter. Such a wonderful person—what kind of person would she fall in love with? What would she be like when she was in love? Whoever got to spend their life with her must have saved the world in a past life.
Anzhi would look at her and sometimes smile for no reason, and at other times feel an inexplicable sense of loss, wistfulness, and sorrow.
During the summer vacation, Anzhi went to stay at the Yan Family Old Residence for a while. Eldest Sister-in-law’s new baby boy was already over a year old. He was exceptionally well-behaved, with red lips and white teeth that made him look like a little girl. He was named Yan Jun. Anzhi called him “Junjun,” and soon everyone else followed suit.
Eldest Sister-in-law laughed. “Anzhi’s habit of using reduplicated characters3 is really something she can’t shake. It sounds quite nice, though.”
Junjun adored Anzhi. He had just learned to walk and could say a few words. His older brothers were always rough with him, often just picking him up and carrying him off, hoisting him onto their shoulders, or tucking him under an arm and running away. Only his older sister would hold his hand, feed him, talk to him, and sing to him.
One day, Liu Yiyi came to the old residence to escape the summer heat. She and Yan Xi sat drinking tea in a corner of the corridor just off the first-floor living room.
Outside, the summer cicadas droned on in the courtyard, and the flowers were in full, vibrant bloom. Inside, the air conditioning was cool and refreshing, making for a very pleasant atmosphere. Liu Yiyi chatted idly with Yan Xi.
“Hey, that handsome director I saw when I went to find you at the TV station last time—is he interested in you?”
Yan Xi didn’t deny it.
“Well, now, Yan Xiao Wu, you sure know how to keep a secret…” Liu Yiyi poked her. “Why don’t you like him?”
Yan Xi gave her a helpless look.
“Okay, I won’t say any more… Ah, no, I have to say one more thing. Look, even if you don’t like him, you can still sleep with him!” Liu Yiyi stared at her with a wicked grin.
Yan Xi let out a “pfft” of laughter, remembering what Liu Yiyi had said about sleeping with her second brother.
They continued their desultory conversation. From their angle in the corridor, they could see Anzhi tutoring Yan Xiao Pang inside the living room.
“Look here, AC=BC, so angle A equals angle B, right? And since triangle ABC is an isosceles right triangle, angle ACB is 90 degrees, right? AD=DB…”
Xiao Pang said, “Huh?… Oh. Can you not skip steps?”
Anzhi replied, “…Isn’t that written in the problem?”
Xiao Pang said, “Oh, oh, oh.”
Anzhi said, “…Can you please focus!”
Xiao Pang said, “Hehehe.”
Liu Yiyi could hear them from a distance and laughed out loud. “Sometimes I feel like Da Pang and Xiao Pang are dragging down the average IQ of the Yan family children. Little Anzhi is the one who seems more like she belongs in your family.”
Yan Xi pressed her temples, clearly a little exasperated with Xiao Pang herself.
Of the two youths in the living room, Xiao Pang had already grown into a young man of 1.7 meters, with thick eyebrows, large eyes, and a simple, honest-looking face. Sitting there, he was twice Anzhi’s size. Anzhi, who had just turned fourteen, had lost some of her baby fat, her chin now a little pointier. Her eyes were dark, bright, and crystalline. She had her hair up in a bun hairstyle and was wearing a loose sailor-collar dress, sitting primly as she wrote with a pen. Beneath the table, her two straight, porcelain-white calves would occasionally swing playfully.
“Little Anzhi is such a beautiful and adorable child,” Liu Yiyi praised. Working in fashion, she had seen far too many beautiful celebrities and models, not to mention all sorts of designers with unique auras. She had her own views on beauty.
She said, “I’ve noticed in recent years—and I don’t know if it’s because life is better now and nutrition has improved, or some other reason—but most kids mature early. In the 14-to-16-year-old stage, they prematurely display a very mature look. It’s not that it isn’t beautiful—on the contrary, it’s very beautiful—but it’s the kind of beauty that belongs to you when you’re an adult, maybe even in your late twenties. At 14, 16, even 17 or 18, you’re supposed to have a kind of raw, unripe beauty. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime, fleeting beauty of being about to ripen but not yet ripe. It’s supposed to be green, soft, innocent, and tender, but so many kids are in a rush to force that quality to ripen. Ah, such a hurry…”
“But Little Anzhi right now has exactly the kind of beauty I’m talking about. She’s so adorable. Ah! It’s just so wonderful…”
Liu Yiyi sighed with emotion for a few moments, then, feeling she had made her point exceptionally well, she shot Yan Xi a smug look. “Don’t you think I’m right?”
Yan Xi looked at the girl in the living room, who was so earnestly explaining the problem. Her gaze was focused and gentle. The corners of her lips lifted into a slight smile, a smile of tender, lingering affection.
She said, “You are.”
Footnotes
- In the Chinese education system, the High School Entrance Exam (zhōngkǎo) often includes a standardized physical fitness test (tǐyù huìkǎo) covering events like running, sit-ups, and long jumps.
- The term used is mǎjiǎ xiàn (马甲线), literally ‘vest line.’ It’s a popular modern slang term in China for the visible lines of defined abdominal muscles on a woman’s stomach, similar to ‘V-lines’ or ‘abs definition.’
- In Chinese, it’s common to create affectionate nicknames by repeating a character from a person’s name, like calling ‘Anzhi’ ‘An’an’ or ‘Yan Jun’ ‘Junjun.’ This is known as using dié zì (叠字).
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