Peaches and Plums Don’t Speak – Chapter 64

My Sweetheart (Part 2)

In the second-floor living room, Yan Yidong watched the two people embracing in the courtyard below and sighed. “Ah, youth. To be young…”

Xiao Yutong came over and glanced outside. “Is everything okay now?”

            

Yan Yidong nodded. “Should be,” he said, then added, “I never thought Second Brother would be the first of the three to find someone. I really thought he’d die alone.”

Xiao Yutong smiled. “Alright, you go give Junjun his bath. I’ll go check on those two brothers, see if they’re playing on the computer again.”

“It’s so cold, does he really need a bath? It’s already snowing,” Yan Yidong said, rubbing his nose.

            

Xiao Yutong shot him a look. “He didn’t have one yesterday. Do you want him to start stinking? You too, go take a bath with your son. Honestly, I have to worry about the big ones and the little ones. It would be so much better to have a daughter…”

“Hey, I’m going, I’m going.” As if afraid of her nagging, Yan Yidong hurried out, calling for his son as he went.

Xiao Yutong watched his retreating back and smiled to herself.

            

Da Pang came over. “Mom? Have you seen my Adidas?”

Xiao Pang asked with a grin, “Mom? I can’t find my socks.”

Xiao Yutong’s temper flared. “I don’t know, I don’t know, find them yourselves! It’s because of you lot that your mother’s become a yellow-faced woman¹!”

            

“Mom, you’re not old, you’re beautiful! It’s just that maybe you’re going through…”

“Menopause!”

“You little brat²!…”

            

“I’m a brat you gave birth to!”

Amid the ruckus outside, Yan Yidong soaked comfortably in the bathtub, with Junjun sitting on his lap playing with a little yellow duck.

“Shh…” Yan Yidong whispered as he lathered shampoo into Junjun’s hair. “At a time like this, you absolutely do not go out, and you do not offer an opinion. This is your mom’s home field³… understand?”

            

Junjun opened his little mouth curiously and babbled, “Yiyi, yaya… Mama… mean…”

“Shh!” Yan Yidong put a finger to his lips, holding back a laugh.

Driving his car, Yan Yinan took a moment to glance at his phone. The WeChat message he’d sent still hadn’t received a reply.

            

He smiled, unconcerned, and touched the paper cup in the holder. It was still warm.

A hot drink on a winter night like this would be nice, wouldn’t it? She might even smile at him. What would that face, which so rarely smiled, look like when it did?

Yan Yinan looked forward to finding out.

            

“Auntie, it’s snowing…” Anzhi pointed to the specks of white fluff drifting outside the car window. She reached her hand out to catch a snowflake, and a second or two later, the cool liquid seeped into her skin.

A smile spread across Anzhi’s face. She leaned her head out and looked up. Beneath the deep blue canopy of the night sky, fine, dense snowflakes fell in silence, blanketing the entire city.

Yan Xi drove slowly, glancing at her from the side.

            

Anzhi had always loved the snow, ever since she first saw it as a child. Every year, she looked forward to it.

She drove along the road by the river. From inside the car, the endless snowflakes dotted the ink-blue sky, drifting slowly down onto the river’s surface. It was like a scene from a Makoto Shinkai⁴ anime film.

Yan Xi glanced at her watch. It was still early.

            

“Want to get out and take a look?”

“Mm!”

After parking the car, Yan Xi and Anzhi ambled to the riverside. It wasn’t very cold. Anzhi tilted her face up, letting the snowflakes caress her cheeks, and her happy dimples never left her face.

            

Yan Xi smiled.

“We’ll go home in just a little bit,” Anzhi said, turning to her. The wisps of hair by her ears fluttered, her cheeks were a rosy pink from the cold, and her eyes sparkled with joy.

“Mm,” Yan Xi nodded, walking to her side to stand with her, taking in the beautiful scenery.

            

“Will Auntie Liu and Second Uncle get married?” Anzhi asked. “Like First Uncle and Auntie Xiao?”

“Hmm… I don’t know about Yiyi and Second Brother. They’re still just a couple. Starting a family is a more complicated matter.”

“Complicated? Isn’t being in love enough?” Anzhi asked.

            

“Being in love is the prerequisite, but starting a family requires two people to be on the same page about many things—what they both want, what they need, on a spiritual level, a phys… Cough.” Yan Xi stopped herself there. She gave a covering laugh. “Why are you asking about this?”

Anzhi froze, her guilty conscience making her avert her gaze from Yan Xi’s face.

Yan Xi smiled. “Curious?”

            

Anzhi bit her lip lightly and looked at her. “Will you… in the future?”

The question caught Yan Xi off guard. She suddenly didn’t know how to answer. She chose her words carefully. “Of course, I hope so… but right now, I, I haven’t…”

“So you mean, you’ll get married and have children in the future?” Anzhi stared straight at her. Yan Xi felt that gaze was too deep, too serious, as if she absolutely had to know the answer. There was a burning desire for knowledge in it.

            

Yan Xi was a little confused. This wasn’t like Anzhi. The Anzhi she knew was gentle, well-behaved, and reserved; she rarely showed such urgent emotions.

Yan Xi’s thoughts raced, and then she sensed that Anzhi might be feeling a little scared. Yan Xi’s first instinct was to soothe her. “Taotao…”

But her earlier hesitation had already felt like a confirmation to Anzhi. She lowered her head, dejected, and said sullenly, “Let’s go home.”

            

Just as Yan Xi was about to speak, Anzhi turned and walked back to the car with her head down. To Yan Xi, she looked utterly crestfallen. Yan Xi ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

Yan Xi resumed driving, but the atmosphere in the car had turned strange.

Yan Xi tried to think of a way to lighten the mood. Anzhi was leaning her head against the window, her gaze fixed ahead, her lower lip pushed out in a pout.

            

Is she unhappy? Is she sulking? Is she angry?

Yan Xi sighed quietly. So it’s started. She always used to hide her emotions, and now that she’s a teenager, it’s even worse?

“Tao…”

            

Just then, Anzhi’s phone rang.

Anzhi answered it. “Hello? Xiao Pang?”

Yan Xi’s eyebrows shot up.

            

“Shouldn’t you be at school? Oh, tomorrow. Why are you calling? No, your questions are all too stupid. Besides, aren’t you not allowed to use your phone at school…”

Xiao Pang’s cheeky tone was audible even through the receiver. “We can, you know. We get an hour every day. Also, Anzhi, can you stop calling me Xiao Pang? Call me Xiao Ji, or Jì-gege…”

Anzhi frowned. “You’re younger than me, why should I call you Jì-gege…” Not only did Anzhi find it a bit sickening, but Yan Xi also frowned and glanced over, apparently just as disgusted.

            

Yan Xi kept her composure. Anzhi said, a little indignantly, “No, you can’t call me Taotao…”

Yan Xi lost her composure. She said in a low voice, “Give me the phone.” Anzhi held the phone to Yan Xi’s ear, and Yan Xi’s tone turned cold. “Yan Xiao Pang, if you call Taotao again, I will personally guarantee you spend all three years of high school at a boarding school! The kind where you can’t even come out once a month!”

“Little Aunt!!!”

            

“And you are not to call her Taotao, do you hear me?”

“Huh? Little Aunt! Why is it that only you…”

Yan Xi had no desire to continue the conversation. She said to Anzhi, “Hang up.” Anzhi stared at her, stunned, and instinctively obeyed, ending the call.

            

Silence fell.

Yan Xi suddenly asked, “Do you like Xiao Pang?”

“Huh?” Anzhi didn’t register the question at first.

            

“Mm. Auntie Xin and Eldest Sister-in-law both noticed. They said Xiao Pang might like you,” Yan Xi said, her eyes fixed on the road ahead.

Anzhi was about to say, “Of course not.” But just as the words were about to leave her lips, another thought popped into her head: What would Yan Xi’s reaction be if I told her I liked Xiao Pang? What if I just pretended to like him…

But the very idea of “liking Xiao Pang” was too bizarre. She couldn’t stand it herself. Her eyes met Yan Xi’s, and before she could even decipher the emotion in them, she blurted out the truth. “No, I don’t like him.”

            

Yan Xi raised her eyebrows.

“Not that kind of like, anyway,” Anzhi said.

Yan Xi just made a sound of acknowledgement, “Mm,” and continued driving.

            

Anzhi’s heart pounded. She felt like there was something more to that “Mm,” or was there?

“…That’s good, then. Taotao, no one in the family would be able to accept Xiao Pang liking you. Da Pang has a girlfriend, and those two brothers are always competing with each other. Xiao Pang has good taste, but you’re the one person he can’t have…”

Anzhi held her breath as she listened.

            

Why am I the one person he can’t have? Why, why, why?

“You’ve long been a member of the Yan family⁵… Taotao. So it’s not allowed.” Yan Xi’s tone was patient and gentle. But Anzhi’s heart felt like a target struck in mid-air—pierced through, and sent plummeting.

Anzhi fell silent and lowered her head.

            

She had come so close to saying those two words. Yan Xi thought it was unacceptable, and not only that, she had already snuffed out another possibility.

Yan Xi didn’t know if she’d said something unclearly, or said the wrong thing. Anzhi looked as if she’d lost her soul, completely devoid of life.

A headache began to throb in Yan Xi’s temples. She was trapped in a communication black hole⁶.

            

The strange atmosphere returned to the car.

They arrived home, got out of the car, locked it, went to the kitchen for a drink of water, and were about to go upstairs.

Finally, Yan Xi couldn’t stand the silence any longer. She spoke. “Taotao, what’s wrong? Did I say something wrong? Do you actually… like Xiao Pang?”

            

Anzhi kept her head down and didn’t speak, looking completely unwilling to engage with her.

Yan Xi felt like she’d thrown a punch and hit nothing but air. Frustration welled up inside her, and her headache worsened. She was sinking deeper and deeper into the communication black hole.

“Taotao?…”

            

“I don’t like Xiao Pang. I don’t like boys at all. The ones I like are girls!” Anzhi lifted her head, her shoulders trembling slightly, her voice trembling along with them.

“What?…” Yan Xi said, stunned. It was as if she’d been struck by a cold cudgel. It was as if she, already in a black hole, had been suddenly dragged inside a great bell, which was then struck, leaving her ears ringing with a deafening roar.

She couldn’t seem to hear what Anzhi was saying, so she asked again, instinctively seeking confirmation. “What?”

            

Anzhi bit her lip until it turned white. She was so nervous she couldn’t speak. She opened her mouth, her heart in her throat.

“You heard me. It’s, it’s that.” Anzhi shot a quick glance at her, not daring to look at her expression any longer, and ran up to her room with a thump-thump-thump of her feet.

She left Yan Xi standing there in shock. For a long, long time, she felt she needed to sit down and properly digest this fact.

            

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