The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 77
by Little PandaOfficial Announcement
“My girlfriend isn’t feeling well.”
[You must live a very, very good life.
If the gods do not permit it,
I will act as your god.]
When Cheng Xiang ran quickly out from the depths of the alley, the bright moon hung clear and luminous right above her head.
She opened the car door and slipped inside, only then letting out the breath trapped in her chest. “Wow, it’s absolutely roasting today. Have you been waiting long? I couldn’t slip out while my mom was still awake.”
“No,” Tao Tianran said. “I have a small gift for you.”
“What is it?” Cheng Xiang smiled.
Tao Tianran raised her hand and opened her palm. A silver ring was looped around her slender finger, a tiny globe dangling and swaying from it.
Cheng Xiang burst out laughing.
She reached into her pocket to search around. “Ah, wait a second… Heavens, please tell me I didn’t lose it.”
Her brow furrowed, then smoothed out again, creasing into fine lines between her eyebrows like a paper airplane—one that had flown through Tao Tianran’s years for a long, long time.
Then she raised her hand high, revealing the object in her palm. “Ta-da!”
Smiling, a single dimple showing, she said, “Bet you didn’t expect that! I bought one too.”
It was the souvenir keychain from 《The Ocean of Time》 exhibition. During the preview, Cheng Xiang had wandered over to the display case and taken a liking to it, but she had been unable to buy it back then.
Today, taking advantage of Director Ma going to work, she had taken the bus to the exhibition hall once more. After the official opening, the place was a sea of people. She scoffed under her breath: “Has everyone achieved financial freedom or something? Doesn’t anyone have to work?”
Yet, a small sense of pride swelled in her chest, as if she and Tao Tianran, before this, had possessed these sixty-four seas all to themselves.
She asked Tao Tianran, “What time did you go? I didn’t run into you at all.”
“After work.”
“No wonder.” Cheng Xiang nodded. “I went in the afternoon. Otherwise, once my mom gets off work, it’s hard for me to get out of the house.”
“Well then,” she said, her smile crinkling the soft skin beneath her eyes as she held out the keychain to Tao Tianran. “Give me yours, and I’ll give you mine.”
Running her thumb over the globe, she looked down. “I’m really such a terrible student. I literally just looked at them, but now I can’t remember any of them clearly except for the Kara Sea.”
She pointed to one of the small blue sections. “Which sea is this one again? Do you remember?”
“The Sulawesi Sea.”
“You’re that amazing?” Cheng Xiang’s eyes widened slightly.
“I’m just making it up.”
“Pfft.” Cheng Xiang dangled the keychain. “I’m going to take it back and hang it on my canvas bag, right next to my… bear.”
She had to pay attention. A bear was a bear; she shouldn’t try to act cute by calling it a “little bear,” or else Tao Tianran would subtly tease her again. Hmph.
Tao Tianran turned around, picked up her Bolide bag, and clipped the keychain onto it.
Watching this, Cheng Xiang clutched her chest from the side. “Hey, don’t…”
“What is it?”
“I mean, that bag is so expensive.” Cheng Xiang’s heart ached. “If you just hang it like that, the leather will get scuffed.”
“If it gets ruined, I’ll just buy another one.”
Cheng Xiang sucked in a cold breath.
Her cheeks puffed up. She was feeling some serious wealth envy—especially now, as someone who was unemployed because “the boss ran off with his sister-in-law” and was currently a freelance comic artist.
Tao Tianran poked her cheek with her index finger.
She deflated like a pufferfish and rubbed her own face. “Sigh, I’m just a little anxious. I don’t even know if my comic is going to take off. Do you know my public account got three new followers today? Do you think that’s a lot or a little?”
“A big V with millions of followers would probably laugh themselves to death hearing that, but honestly, I don’t think three is too few either. It’s the first step, after all, hehe.” Cheng Xiang tilted her nose up slightly in mild pride.
“You’re going to be incredible,” Tao Tianran said.
Cheng Xiang jingled the keychain on her finger again. “More incredible than you?”
“No,” Tao Tianran shook her head. “Because I have a very strong competitive streak.”
Cheng Xiang let out a sudden laugh, thinking to herself, So you actually know that about yourself, jiejie.
“It’s hard to say,” Cheng Xiang said. “Even I don’t know what it’ll turn out like.”
“I know.”
“You’re just coaxing me.”
“You don’t believe me?”
Cheng Xiang sat with her head lowered for a moment, then suddenly curled her lips into a smile and whispered, “Whether I believe it or not, it’s always nice to have someone willing to coax me.”
Tonight was so strange. There were constantly people walking back and forth near the alley, making it quite inconvenient to steal a quick kiss from Tao Tianran.
Cheng Xiang couldn’t drag it out any longer. She said to Tao Tianran, “You should head home and get some rest. Working is exhausting. As a former beast of burden1, I’d know.”
“Mhm.”
She got out of the car, put the keychain in her pocket, and waved to Tao Tianran.
She took a couple of steps toward the mouth of the alley, then slowly shuffled back.
Sure enough, Tao Tianran’s car remained parked in the same spot, unmoved, with the window already rolled down.
Feeling herself being a little clingy, Cheng Xiang slowed her pace even further as she walked over and stood by Tao Tianran’s car. With the occasional person still passing by behind her, she pointed toward the entrance of the alley and said to Tao Tianran, “Listen.”
“To what?”
“The trees sing a different song at night than they do during the day.”
You’re finished, Xiangzi. Why are you being so sappy now?!
“How is it different?”
“In the daytime, they sing ‘ee-ya-ee-ya-yo,’ but at night they sing…” Cheng Xiang rested both arms on the car window, looking at Tao Tianran with a smile as she sang softly, “If you were to become a distant star once more, forever out of reach, I would be the gaze that watches from afar…”
Suddenly, she snapped upright and waved her hand at Tao Tianran. “I can’t stand myself anymore! Bye!”
She dashed all the way home and collapsed onto her bed.
Director Ma pushed the door open and walked in. “Did you just go out?”
“No,” Cheng Xiang turned her head to reply. “You must have heard wrong. Oh, why are you up?”
“Can’t I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night? What are you doing lying face down on the bed?”
“I’ve been drawing all day, so my neck is sore. Just taking a breather.”
“I don’t know what you’re pointlessly busying yourself with.”
“Of course I do. That brat who fought Sun Wukong3.”
“No, I mean the animated movie,” Cheng Xiang said, scrambling up to sit cross-legged on the bed. “Do you know that the director had also resigned and stayed at home for several years? Do you know how much he makes now? Probably billions!”
Director Ma let out a laugh. “You think I’m actually expecting you to make billions?”
After Director Ma left, Cheng Xiang hopped off the bed and pushed open the window. The siheyuan courtyard at night was far from quiet; there was the chirping of crickets, the sound of flowers and grass wrestling with the soil, and the moonlight pouring down, carrying with it the refreshing crispness of the north.
Loving someone is a truly magical thing.
She can make your heart shrink into a tiny walnut, but she can also make you feel like the world is vast and boundlessly free.
Cheng Xiang gazed out at the world for a while, then walked back to her desk. She picked up her canvas bag, hung the globe keychain on it, and gave it a gentle flick with her finger.
When Tao Tianran walked into her office the next day, she found Yi Yu sitting inside.
“Have you had any neck, shoulder, waist, or leg pain lately?”
“No.”
“What about your knees? Pain in your knees works too. No knee pain either? Your tongue?”
Yi Yu looked thoroughly disappointed by the end of her interrogation. “Are you telling me absolutely nothing hurts?”
She had been suffering from unbearable back pain recently, and after searching all over her WeChat Moments, she had found a famous traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. She was currently agonizing over having nowhere to show off.
Her eyes suddenly caught the Bolide bag on Tao Tianran’s desk. “Yo~”
Her tone practically twisted through eighteen bends. “Look at you, actually hanging a charm on your bag! What a novelty. Why a globe, of all things?”
Tao Tianran looked at her in silence.
“Say something, then.” Yi Yu didn’t understand her intention.
Tao Tianran remained silent for another fifteen seconds before opening her mouth. “It’s eight o’clock sharp. From now on, we only talk about work.”
“Tsk!” Yi Yu pursed her lips. “Fine, fine, work it is. Our company is about to host its annual meeting, did you know?”
“An annual meeting is called an annual meeting because it has to be held at the end of the year,” Tao Tianran replied.
“Oh, let’s host a sports meet then,” Yi Yu said. “I’m telling you, my muscles and bones are in terrible shape lately. I need to get some proper exercise and stretch out. We can invite all the clients, network, and build some goodwill, right?”
Yi Yu’s forehead practically had three words boldly written across it: She. Is. Bored.
Cheng Xiang was at Qin Ziqiao’s place when she received a WeChat message from Tao Tianran: 【Our company’s team-building event is going to be a sports meet. Do you want to come along?】
“It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.”
Qin Ziqiao didn’t even look up from the post-apocalyptic novel she was reading.
“I said it’s over!” Cheng Xiang slapped her arm.
“You say it’s over eight hundred times a day.”
“This time it actually is! You have no idea—TTR invited me to her company’s event.”
“Then just go.”
“No, what should I wear? They’re a design company, it’s full of trendy people. Oh right, haven’t you met her colleague before? Yu Yusheng—the gorgeous beauty. Speaking of which…”
Cheng Xiang asked Qin Ziqiao, “Didn’t Yi Yu invite you?”
“She did,” Qin Ziqiao said, turning a page.
“And you?”
“Not going. No time.”
Cheng Xiang narrowed her eyes. “You have a rostered day off this Wednesday, don’t you?”
“…Why do you have my schedule memorized so perfectly? Are you secretly in love with me?”
Cheng Xiang grabbed Qin Ziqiao’s arm. “Then you have to go! I’ll only feel comfortable going if you’re there!”
On Wednesday, as Cheng Xiang dragged Qin Ziqiao into the indoor sports arena, Yi Yu first waved to greet Qin Ziqiao. Spotting Cheng Xiang, she froze for a moment, then called out to the person beside her, “Teacher Tao, your grand-aunt is here.”
Cheng Xiang: …
She walked over with her canvas bag on her back. Yi Yu spotted the globe keychain dangling from it, let out a loud “ha!” and asked Cheng Xiang, “Is your family’s WeChat group chat named 「One Big Loving Family」?”
A question mark slowly materialized over Cheng Xiang’s head.
“I see your family has some serious team spirit,” Yi Yu said, pointing to the globe. “I saw Teacher Tao had one hanging on her bag too. So it’s a family symbol.”
Qin Ziqiao took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling, acting as though she didn’t have a single cent’s worth of relation to her.
Tao Tianran and Yu Yusheng walked over together.
Yu Yusheng greeted them with a smile. “Hi.”
“…Hi,” Cheng Xiang said, shrinking slightly toward Qin Ziqiao.
Although she was usually a social butterfly, she genuinely suffered from fashionable person anxiety4. The last time she had met Yu Yusheng, her heart had pounded wildly—gasping and panting—the raw power of a gorgeous woman was truly formidable.
Tao Tianran pulled her closer to her side, naturally straightening the collar of her T-shirt.
As Qiao Zhiji walked into the sports arena, Yi Yu clapped her hands together to gather everyone. “Alright, everyone is here. Let’s get started.”
The so-called sports meet was really just team-building activities like three-legged races and shuttle runs.
They paired up in teams of two, wearing oversized, color-matching T-shirts. Cheng Xiang drew orange. She asked Tao Tianran, “Are you going to wear one?”
A shake of her head—a very resolute shake of her head.
“But you can’t really exercise in a dress shirt and trousers anyway.”
Tao Tianran pointed to the rule board on the side.
Cheng Xiang read along, “Each team must field at least one person to participate in at least one event…”
She tapped her nose as she read. “So, me?”
A nod—a very resolute nod.
Cheng Xiang stood at the starting line of the shuttle run with a smile. To her left was Yu Yusheng, dressed in a blue T-shirt, and to her right was Yi Yu, wearing a white T-shirt.
Looking over to the sidelines, Tao Tianran and Qiao Zhiji were both standing there with their arms crossed, alongside a sour-faced Qin Ziqiao.
Alright, alright, alright, you’re all big shots.
Yu Yusheng gave a lazy smile and said to Cheng Xiang, “Don’t be nervous, it’s just for fun.”
Wow, gorgeous beauties are so nice, Cheng Xiang nodded gratefully.
The starting pistol went off, and Yu Yusheng shot forward like an arrow. She was already tall and long-legged, over 1.7 meters tall; as she ran, her steps were light and her stride was wide.
Wait, that’s not what you just said!
Cheng Xiang swung her arms, chasing after her with everything she had.
Actually, her athletic coordination wasn’t bad; after all, she had grown up running wild in the alleys with Qin Ziqiao. But just then, her heart suddenly gave a sharp thud—a very unfamiliar sensation of palpitations.
Cheng Xiang stumbled forward a couple of steps, her legs went soft, and she fell onto the track.
When she gradually came to, Cheng Xiang found herself surrounded by a circle of people.
Tao Tianran’s brow was furrowed, and beside her was Yu Yusheng. The moment Cheng Xiang saw Yu Yusheng, her heart skipped another beat.
Raising her hand, she pointed weakly at Yu Yusheng. “Gorgeous… gorgeous beauty, please step back a bit…”
Yu Yusheng was taken aback.
“My… fashionable person anxiety is acting up… I can’t breathe…”
Yi Yu burst out laughing, “Pfft, hahaha! What’s going on with you? You weren’t stunned into a faint by Shianne’s beauty, were you?”
A cold, sharp gaze shot over from beside her.
Yi Yu turned her head to look at Tao Tianran. “Did you just glare at me?”
“No,” Tao Tianran said, ignoring her. She extended a hand to Cheng Xiang. “Can you sit up?”
“Yes,” Cheng Xiang said, casting a quick glance around.
But they were surrounded by the company’s colleagues. She blinked at Tao Tianran, whose hand was still held out to her.
Pursing her lips, she took Tao Tianran’s hand and sat up.
“Are you dizzy?” Tao Tianran asked.
She shook her head. “Uh, I think some water got into my brain.”
Awkward silence. Nobody laughed.
“Haha, ha…” Cheng Xiang picked up the joke she had dropped on the floor herself. “Just kidding, I’m not dizzy.”
Yu Yusheng burst into a chuckle. “Why are you so funny? What happened, is it low blood sugar?”
Cheng Xiang stole a glance at her languidly charming, feline face, her heart still thumping rapidly.
If she weren’t so deeply in love with Tao Tianran, she would have suspected she was about to experience transference.
She looked away. “No, I’ve probably just been cooped up at home for too long lately. Suddenly doing exercise like this, my body couldn’t quite handle it.”
You’re a bit weak, Xiangzi. Time to start practicing Baduanjin5.
Fearing that the crowding colleagues would block the air, Yi Yu said, “Alright, alright, she’s fine now. Everyone disperse.”
Many people were asking, “Who is this to Teacher Tao?”
Tao Tianran’s rarely shown softness, like a crack in an ice field, left everyone astonished.
Yi Yu had a smug look of “only I know the truth” on her face. “Haha, you all have no idea, do you? This is Teacher Tao’s grand-aunt!”
“Oh, no wonder,” someone laughed. “In that case, does this count as Shianne meeting the elders?”
“Pfft, hahaha!”
Thus, Cheng Xiang witnessed with her own ears that the company staff were indeed shipping Tao Tianran and Yu Yusheng as a CP6.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Tao Tianran said.
Qiao Zhiji stood on the side with a cold expression. Tao Tianran held Cheng Xiang’s hand and led her to the edge of the arena.
She crouched down, balancing on one leg, and lowered her eyes to look at Cheng Xiang’s knee.
Only then did Cheng Xiang notice that her knee had been scraped when she fell.
Oh, it was quite embarrassing with so many people watching—especially when she heard Yi Yu talking very loudly from the side, “Look at that, see how filial Teacher Tao is!”
Cheng Xiang: …
Tao Tianran looked up and asked, “Does it hurt?”
In this kind of situation, according to the script, she should say it didn’t hurt, right? But the sight of Tao Tianran crouching in front of her in a white dress shirt and dark charcoal trousers was just too heart-meltingly handsome. Plus, she had just overheard her colleagues shipping her and Yu Yusheng.
Wringing her fingers behind her back, Cheng Xiang said with a touch of sappy affectation, “A little bit.”
If it hurts, it hurts, what’s with ‘a little bit’? Pah!
Tao Tianran stood up and pointed a finger at Cheng Xiang from a short distance. “Don’t move. Stand still.”
As Tao Tianran walked away, Cheng Xiang looked around and noticed Qin Ziqiao watching her, so she gave her a wide grin.
Qin Ziqiao looked away.
Tao Tianran returned with a band-aid and crouched before Cheng Xiang once more.
Cheng Xiang pulled her knee back slightly, but Tao Tianran said, “Don’t move.”
Peeling open the band-aid, she gently pressed it over Cheng Xiang’s wound.
When Cheng Xiang heard Tao Tianran say she liked her eyelashes, she had actually been a little surprised. Why would someone like another person’s eyelashes?
But right now, Tao Tianran’s long eyelashes were lowered, blinking very slowly, as if brushing against the scrape on her knee.
It felt ticklish.
Cheng Xiang suddenly said, “Tao Tianran, I feel like I’ve dreamed of this scene before.”
Tao Tianran’s movements froze.
After a few seconds, she raised her head, keeping her voice as steady as possible. “What?”
Cheng Xiang grinned. “Really, I feel like I’ve dreamed of it. I dreamed that I was in college. Back then, my hair was slightly longer than it is now, maybe down to here.”
She gestured toward her shoulder with her hand. “About this long. I dreamed that I was standing outside a small convenience store by the road. I can’t quite remember if it was my own university… and you were crouching right in front of me like this, applying a band-aid to my knee.”
Tao Tianran looked at her for a long time, then asked, “How did you scrape your knee?”
Cheng Xiang shook her head. “I don’t remember.”
“And then?” Tao Tianran asked.
Cheng Xiang suddenly grinned again. “And then there was no more of you in the dream, and it turned into me and Ziqiao frantically searching for a bathroom. So funny, I must’ve drunk too much cola before sleeping that night.”
Tao Tianran’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. “Is that so?”
She stood up and held Cheng Xiang close by her shoulder.
“Eh…” Cheng Xiang was slightly dazed as Tao Tianran guided her toward Yi Yu.
Yi Yu was standing there telling a joke to some colleagues when Tao Tianran called out to her, “My girlfriend isn’t feeling very well. I’m taking her and leaving first.”
“Sure, sure, health is important,” Yi Yu said, turning back to her colleagues. “So, about that steak…”
At that point, she suddenly whipped her head around, pointing at Tao Tianran’s retreating back, her eyes widening like copper bells. “She, she, she… what did she just say?!”
Yu Yusheng burst into laughter. “Did you really not notice at all?”
Standing to the side, Qiao Zhiji gazed at Yu Yusheng’s profile, her gaze pausing for a moment.
Yu Yusheng was smiling.
It was as if, in the countless days without her, Yu Yusheng had always been laughing like this.
When Yu Yusheng casually turned her head, her gaze met Qiao Zhiji’s, and she pursed her lips.
Once they stepped out of the sports arena, Tao Tianran let go of Cheng Xiang’s shoulder.
Cheng Xiang followed her like a little quail, constantly stealing glances at her from the corner of her eye.
“What is it?” Tao Tianran asked.
“I mean… did you just casually blurt it out like that?” Cheng Xiang was still in a daze.
“Otherwise?” Tao Tianran paused. “Didn’t you hear what they were discussing?”
“Ah.” So Tao Tianran had noticed. Scratching her ear in slight embarrassment, Cheng Xiang said, “I mean, I totally get it. Honestly, if I worked at your company, with an ice-field yujie7 and a feline-faced boss girl—two major beauties—I’d ship them every day too. Seriously, gasping and panting.”
“So,” Tao Tianran asked in a flat, expressionless tone, “you don’t mind?”
Cheng Xiang was quiet for a moment, then tucked her chin and burst out laughing with a ‘pfft’. “I’m just pretending.”
“I was just thinking about how wonderful you are.” As she got into the car, Cheng Xiang bit her lip. When Tao Tianran leaned over to fasten her seatbelt, she pressed herself against the seatback and suddenly said, “Tao Tianran, can we really just go see sixty-three seas in the world?”
“Why?”
“I’m really afraid that if things are too perfect, they won’t last long.” Cheng Xiang grimaced slightly. “You’re so wonderful that, to be honest, I’m a bit insecure. Being with you, I keep wondering if God is plotting to pull something big on me someday and make me pay some price.”
Tao Tianran looked at the windshield. A single hibiscus petal had drifted down and lodged itself under her wiper blade.
She suddenly remembered the ditch outside her grandmother’s house from her childhood. She had spent the entire afternoon crouching by the ditch, hugging her knees, watching the snails on the moss slowly, softly, and damply extend their tentacles.
Until her grandmother came out with a basin of hot water and carelessly splashed it into the ditch.
Tao Tianran looked up.
Her grandmother was a stern woman. When she had no expression, there were two deep creases by her mouth. Looking down, she asked Tao Tianran, “What is it?”
Tao Tianran shook her head.
Her grandmother left with the water basin. Tao Tianran continued to crouch by the ditch, hugging her knees. The death of a snail was a process of its flesh slowly separating from the shell, its tender, pink, soft body turning pale and dry little by little.
The plum rain season8 in the South always had a damp, gloomy tone, the sky hanging overhead in a dusty gray—just like the color of that dead snail. Consequently, whenever Tao Tianran thought of her childhood, she would always recall that color.
And now, the hibiscus petal caught in the wiper was a gorgeous pinkish-white hue. The midsummer sun was blazing, refracting through the windshield to create rainbow-colored spots of light. Cheng Xiang sat in the passenger seat, wearing one of her own white T-shirts, with a messy, rainbow-like patchwork of colored blocks around the collar.
She squinted and smoothed back her bangs as if to block the sunlight. The spots of light pooled on her fine, soft bangs, swaying with her movements.
So vividly, brilliantly alive.
Tao Tianran said slowly, “You won’t.”
“Won’t what?” Cheng Xiang turned her head to look at her.
“You won’t pay any price. You will only live a very, very good life.”
“You’ll draw the works you like, enjoy the love of many people, raise a little animal you like, and grow old and pass away peacefully in your bed at home.”
Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, Tao Tianran turned her gaze to Cheng Xiang and repeated, “You’ll live a very, very good life.”
Cheng Xiang instinctively asked, “And what about you?”
“I’ll be with you,” Tao Tianran said. “Always together, every single time.”
Cheng Xiang offered a gentle smile, crinkled her nose, and tapped the tip of her nose with the back of her hand. “Where are we going, anyway?”
“The hospital.”
“Ah? I don’t feel unwell anymore, not at all.”
“Let’s get a checkup just to be safe.”
“Well then, you should start driving.” Cheng Xiang nudged her toes slightly.
Once Tao Tianran started the car, Cheng Xiang turned her head to look out the window.
Sigh, for some reason, you’ve really gotten so sappy since you started dating, Xiangzi. She didn’t want Tao Tianran to find out she wanted to cry at all, which was why she had hurried her to drive.
Yet, hearing those words from Tao Tianran had brought an inexplicable sour, swelling ache to her chest. Touched? Heart-sore? It was a feeling she couldn’t quite put into words.
Tao Tianran drove Cheng Xiang to the hospital.
Cheng Xiang looked up. Whoa, that private hospital that’s rumored online to be obscenely expensive.
“Uh,” Cheng Xiang said, “I really am fine.”
Tao Tianran unbuckled her seatbelt. “Didn’t we agree to get you checked?”
Well, even if it was a bit embarrassing, Cheng Xiang decided to be direct. “It’s a little expensive here. Right now, well, I’m kind of broke.”
“I have a card that gives a discount. It’s basically the same as a public hospital.”
“Oh, is that so? Then never mind,” Cheng Xiang said.
Cheng Xiang didn’t want Tao Tianran to bear the cost for her.
Cheng Xiang opened the WeChat mini-program to fill out her information, while Tao Tianran went to make an appointment with a doctor she knew.
After finishing, Cheng Xiang switched over to WeChat and rapidly tapped out a message to Qin Ziqiao: 【Handsome, right!】
Qin Ziqiao replied at a leisurely pace: 【What are you talking about.】
【TTR is so handsome! Wow, I’m honestly swooning to death.】
Qin Ziqiao replied with the exact same line: 【What are you talking about.】
【Ha! You knew exactly what I was talking about from my very first message. You just don’t want to admit it.】
【What are you talking about.】
When Tao Tianran walked back, she saw Cheng Xiang holding her phone, her toes swinging back and forth, scuffing the floor, her fist pressed to her lips to stifle a silent laugh.
“What are you looking at?” Tao Tianran asked.
“Ah, nothing, nothing at all.” Cheng Xiang waved her hand twice, locked her screen, and stuffed her phone back into her pocket, her curved eyes filled with mirth. “You made the appointment with the doctor?”
“Mhm, let’s go.”
“Alright!” Cheng Xiang leapt up from the light taupe waiting sofa and followed Tao Tianran toward the examination room.
A pot of daylilies sat on the corridor windowsill, with sunlight streaming through the half-open window. Tao Tianran’s silhouette was cast onto the wall, the cool tones of her white shirt, for once, also took on a warm shade.
Cheng Xiang sniffed, feeling that the air was entirely filled with the cozy warmth of midsummer.
Tao Tianran looked back. “Hmm?”
“Nothing, nothing.” Cheng Xiang still had a smile in her eyes.
Tao Tianran accompanied her to the door of the examination room. She went in alone and asked the doctor, “A dynamic ECG and an ultrasound, right? I have to take off my clothes? L-Like, completely?”
Her voice dropped. “My bra too?”
She mumbled even quieter, “Sigh, this is exactly why I hate physical checkups. Doctor, what are you laughing at? You definitely laughed, I heard you! No, really, I’ve actually developed since fifth grade…”
Tao Tianran leaned against the wall outside the examination room, letting out a soft laugh.
When Cheng Xiang emerged from the examination room, she couldn’t help but marvel in her heart: High-end hospitals really are different. The examination bed was so comfortable, and even the gel they applied to my skin was the perfect temperature.
Spotting Tao Tianran sitting on a waiting chair by the corridor, she trotted over.
Tao Tianran was about to stand up when she saw Cheng Xiang crouch down in front of her with curved eyes, holding her fingertips.
“Tao Tianran.”
“Mhm?”
Cheng Xiang had very round eyes, but they always curved into crescents when she smiled, her feathery eyelashes like sunflowers. “You need to eat well, eat lots and lots of food.”
Tao Tianran didn’t understand, simply gazing at her.
Gently swaying Tao Tianran’s fingertips back and forth, she continued, “And you have to drink plenty of water, lots and lots of water.”
“You also have to sleep well, get lots and lots of sleep.”
“This sounds so silly, Tao Tianran.” A single dimple like a parenthesis bracket popped up at the corner of her mouth. “But you’re so outstanding and capable that I don’t even know what else to advise you or wish you.”
Her eyes curved even more as she looked up from where she crouched in front of Tao Tianran, her smile bright, soft, and fluttering like a flower in the wind. “You must live a very, very good life too—forever, every single time.”
Footnotes
- Modern self-deprecating Chinese slang ('niúmǎ', literally 'oxen and horses') used by overworked employees to describe themselves as corporate slaves or beasts of burden.
- A prominent protection deity in Chinese folk religion and mythology, who has been featured in numerous classical works and modern animated films.
- The legendary Monkey King from the Chinese classical novel 'Journey to the West'.
- A popular internet slang term ('cháorén kǒngjùzhèng') referring to the social anxiety or self-consciousness triggered by being surrounded by extremely stylish or trendy people.
- A traditional Chinese health qigong exercise consisting of eight distinct, gentle movements designed to improve physical fitness, known as 'Bāduànjǐn'.
- Short for 'character pairing', an internet slang term used in Chinese online fandoms to refer to a romantic couple or ship.
- A subcultural slang term originating from Japanese 'onee-sama', referring to a cool, mature, or elegant older sister archetype.
- The rainy season in East Asia, typically occurring from late spring to early summer, characterized by persistent rain and high humidity, known in Chinese as 'méiyǔ'.
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