Zhuang Tongguang said that he and Xin Hexue had their own rooms.
In the three-bedroom, one-living-room layout, Xin Hexue’s room was at the very end of the hallway, and just on the right was Zhuang Tongguang’s room. Whether they studied, did homework together, or played until tired and slept in whoever’s room, it was all the same, since the beds were big enough.
However, such a harmonious brotherly relationship was still quite rare.
One classmate said enviously, “I’m an only child; I really wish I had a sibling.”
Most people in their generation were only children. Of course, there were also classmates in the class whose families had exceeded the birth limit and paid fines, so they had an extra sibling or two. Other classmates generally had relationships with cousins.
But strictly speaking, wasn’t Zhuang Tongguang’s younger brother actually a cousin?
“Don’t wish for siblings, being an only child is better. Just this summer, my cousin came to stay at my house, and I couldn’t stand it,” one boy said angrily, “He actually sneaked into my room and played with my game cartridges! And he broke one.”
“I saved my allowance for two months to buy that! I was so angry.”
“So now I always lock my bedroom door.”
After saying this, the boy felt it was inappropriate and quickly added to Zhuang Tongguang and Xin Hexue, “I don’t mean you guys. Your relationship is so good, you probably don’t even need to lock your doors.”
Young people’s thoughts are lively and hard to keep up with. The topic shifted again before anyone could react, moving to newly released game cartridges, summer homework, and discs from the video store.
Only Zhuang Tongguang lowered his eyes, lost in thought.
Xin Hexue changed his shoes at the entrance and stepped into the summer heat of the corridor outside. His calves were snow-white and so dazzling they seemed to glow.
“Big Brother, I’m heading out.”
Zhuang Tongguang seemed to snap back to reality, and he nodded once, “…Mm.”
………
The atmosphere in the Lu household was unusually heavy this summer.
Lu Guoxing stood on the balcony, having picked up smoking again after quitting for years, puffing up clouds of smoke that swirled around him.
The air conditioner hummed, its condensate slowly dripping onto the metal awning below.
Zhu Cuifeng rubbed her sweaty fingers, counting money sheet by sheet, saying anxiously, “You’ve worked at the factory for almost twenty years. You were assigned there right after graduation and everything’s tied to the factory. You never complained even when they demanded overtime during New Year. After working most of your life like this, how can they just lay you off so easily?”
Lu Guoxing was also bitter and troubled. Seeing his wife’s unhappy face, he tried to comfort her, “Alright, didn’t the factory give us compensation? I’ll go out and look for a new job in a couple of days.”
“How much compensation did they even give! You worked twenty years, and they just buy out your seniority, just like that? Only twenty thousand yuan compensation. With prices rising so fast now, that’s not even enough for eight square meters in the city center.”
Zhu Cuifeng’s usually well-kept permed hair was disheveled, and her face looked haggard. She said with resentment and anger, “They laid me off before the New Year. I went to argue with the HR leadership, and they promised me they’d take care of dual-employee families, ensuring at least one breadwinner remained. Now they talk about ‘structural layoffs’? Their words are like farts!”
Zhu Cuifeng pointed at the building opposite, “Miao Ling’s dad switched to being a taxi driver. Now, scraping together five hundred yuan a month is a struggle for them.”
Lu Guoxing stubbed out his cigarette butt and sighed deeply, “There’s no other way. The factory posted the notice for competitive hiring back in March. How could us old operational workers compare to the new university graduates in written exams?”
“Compared to the textile factories in the western suburbs that went through the wave of layoffs years ago, we at least had five more years of stable meals.”
He could only comfort himself like this.
He also consoled his wife, “Alright, don’t shout so loud. You’ll wake our son from his nap soon.”
“He eats three bowls of rice per meal and sleeps like a pig every day.” Zhu Cuifeng scowled angrily, but after her words, she ultimately sighed, her shoulders slumping under the weight of an invisible, heavy burden.
On the other side of the door, Lu Yang sat with his back to the wooden door, silent and head bowed.
The faded poster of sports stars on the wall lost its stickiness and fell straight down with a “pa”.
………
Xin Hexue arrived just as Lu Yang “woke up” and came out of his room.
“Uncle Lu, Auntie Zhu.”
Xin Hexue was a little puzzled why Uncle Lu hadn’t gone to work today.
“You came at the right time!” Lu Yang grinned broadly, taking advantage of his height to sling a long arm around Xin Hexue’s neck, resting it on his shoulders. Body heat bred and spread between them. “I rented the new discs that came in at the video store this morning. We’ll watch them together later.”
Lu Yang had recently become obsessed with the Young and Dangerous series. He had already finished Young and Dangerous, Young and Dangerous 2, and Young and Dangerous 3. He called the video store’s landline this morning, found out the new set had arrived, and immediately ran to rent the latest one, Young and Dangerous 4.
Xin Hexue pushed him away helplessly, “It’s so hot, don’t stick so close.”
He had just come in from the street outside. The back of his short-sleeved shirt was warm from the sun, and his forehead was dotted with fine, glistening beads of sweat.
Xin Hexue asked, “Have you finished your summer homework exercise book? School is starting soon.”
Lu Yang looked up at the ceiling, “Ah… my ‘Happy Summer’ seems to have been carried away by a cat.”
Since Lu Yang’s parents were both home, Lu Yang and Xin Hexue moved to Lin Oufei’s house to do homework.
The air conditioner was on in the living room, making the room cool and refreshing.
The metal pull-tab of the soda can was pried up by a thumb, emitting a crisp click sound, and the carbonated drink instantly released its icy, fizzy gas.
Lu Yang sighed contentedly, “Ah… this is what summer is all about.”
“If you don’t finish your homework soon, it’ll be autumn.” Xin Hexue tore up the answers for the “Happy Summer” work book and handed the blank exercise book to Lu Yang, “Here. Hurry up and write.”
He and Lin Oufei had finished their homework within the first week of summer vacation. Lu Yang, however, had spent the first half of the summer at his grandmother’s house, so Xin Hexue hadn’t been able to supervise his homework.
Lu Yang took the opportunity to press the cold can against Xin Hexue’s cheek.
The little cat immediately scrunched his nose, “So cold!”
The skin on his face, flushed from the sun, cooled down.
Prank successful!
With a grin, Lu Yan withdrew his hand, tilted his head back, and gulped down the cola, the soda bubbling and swirling down his throat.
A tall black-haired boy walked out of the kitchen, still wearing an apron.
Lin Oufei had shot up quickly after starting middle school. Combined with his mother’s emphasis on meat, eggs, and milk at every meal, he had now reached 1.8 meters. The apron his mother commonly used looked a bit tight on him.
Lifting his pale eyelids, Lin Oufei placed a transparent glass bowl of noodles on the table in front of Xin Hexue. “Cold noodles. Eat.”
“Huh?”
Xin Hexue looked up.
Lin Oufei: “Didn’t you say you had no appetite at lunch and didn’t eat much?”
Xin Hexue glanced at the big bowl of cold noodles helplessly, “But… you didn’t have to make this much…”
“Don’t I need to eat?” Lin Oufei asked.
Xin Hexue picked up chopsticks to share some with him, “Should I get another bowl?”
Lin Oufei didn’t take it, instead saying, “You eat first. I’m not hungry right now.”
Shredded fresh green cucumber, slices of juicy tomato, a boiled egg cut in half, and the yolk, which Xin Hexue didn’t like, had already been scooped out. Kimchi clung to the side of the transparent bowl, and cold buckwheat noodles nestled in the chilled broth, covered with a layer of oil-splashed chili oil and sprinkled with white sesame seeds.
Xin Hexue stirred the cold noodles with his chopsticks, picked up some cucumber shreds, took a bite, and his eyes lit up, “It’s delicious.”
“It’s my first time making it.”
Lin Oufei said flatly.
[The first five attempts don’t count.]
[Indeed, failure is the mother of success.]
Xin Hexue stared in disbelief, glancing at Lin Oufei.
From childhood to now, strange voices of various kinds had accompanied him for nearly fifteen years. Xin Hexue originally thought that after his infant stage ended and his animistic psychology faded, he should no longer hear the unspoken thoughts of others.
When he was little, K explained that it was because he was an invincible genius little cat, so he could hear them.
Xin Hexue didn’t really understand what he meant, but he liked being praised, so he didn’t continue asking Uncle K the ‘hundred thousand whys’, and instead, wagged his tail and went off to play with the other children.
As for now…
Xin Hexue felt that perhaps he didn’t just have a heart condition; he might also be experiencing some auditory hallucinations.
However, he didn’t like going to the hospital, so he had no plans to seek consultation in the psychiatry department.
Moreover, if all the auditory hallucinations were cured, K would probably disappear too. Xin Hexue quite liked this knowledgeable, strange uncle and didn’t find him annoying.
While eating his cold noodles, Xin Hexue explained problems to Lu Yang, who was beside him.
“Smack!” Xin Hexue slapped his own calf, where a small bump had risen and was itching intensely.
It was probably a mosquito bite from when he was passing by the sewer on the way.
Lin Oufei reminded him, “The cooling oil is in my desk drawer.”
“Mm.” Xin Hexue put down his chopsticks. “I’ll go put some on. Lin Oufei, you help Lu Yang with this problem.”
The cooling oil was indeed in the drawer of Lin Oufei’s desk.
Xin Hexue used a coin nearby to pry open the lid of the metal box, scooped up a fingertip’s worth, and applied it to the mosquito bite on his calf.
As he put it back, his peripheral vision caught something. On the very top shelf of the bookcase was a castle building block set and a fairy tale book, both well-preserved and dust-free.
‘Had they been placed like that for so many years?’
Xin Hexue tilted his head slightly and reached a conclusion.
‘Sure enough, Lin Oufei’s words and heart didn’t match. He looked grown up, but actually still had a childlike heart.’
By the time he returned to the living room, it had already descended into chaos.
Lin Oufei was clearly not cut out to be a teacher. He not only lacked empathy for fools, but his mouth was also as sharp as a controlled knife.
“The resistance of the sliding rheostat is -10Ω? Are you short-circuited?”
“The total water is 1000g. The problem is to find out the sugar content percentage, but you actually calculated 2600g of sugar. The missing water must have gone into your brain.”
Lin Oufei scanned the exercise book, “When your mom gave birth to you, did she throw you away and raise the placenta instead?”
Lu Yang’s spirit had already left for a while. When Xin Hexue came out, Lu Yang immediately straightened his back. Even when scolding a dog, one must consider its owner.
Xin Hexue sighed and advised, “Lin Oufei, don’t talk about Auntie Zhu like that. It’s not like she wanted this.”
Lu Yang was immediately filled with grief and indignation!
Lin Oufei: “The most important thing for you right now is to have Auntie take you to get your IQ tested.”
Lu Yang ran home angrily and severely condemned Lin Oufei, but Zhu Cuifeng and Lu Guoxing actually dragged him to the municipal hospital’s psychiatry department.
Halfway through the examination, the doctor said the parents brought him in too late, prescribed medication, and sent them home.
Lu Yang shouted, I’m not mentally ill, I don’t need medication!
After the doctor’s explanation, he sadly learned that when his teacher said he had ADHD as a child, it wasn’t just an angry insult. He was actually diagnosed with ADHD.
Zhu Cuifeng and Lu Guoxing returned home with heavy hearts, watching their son rush into his room and slam the door shut.
“What should we do? Your son has the high school entrance exam next year.” Zhu Cuifeng asked.
“The doctor said medication can help, so don’t worry. Don’t worry about the money either. The factory laid off eight hundred people this time, it’s not just us. I’ll go job hunting with Zhuang Ping tomorrow.” Lu Guoxing comforted while massaging his wife’s shoulders to help her relax.
“Money is manageable, don’t forget how good I was at budgeting back when we first got married.” Zhu Cuifeng said, but as she spoke, her face showed worry, and a headache began to set in.
“What I’m more worried about is, you know how unruly Lu Yang was as a child? I also wondered if I should take him to the hospital. He only behaved better later because Hexue managed him. But now Hexue is going to No. 1 High School. Once they’re separated, won’t your son become a street gang leader?”
“Let’s wait and see.”
Lu Guoxing sighed.
By the time they returned from the hospital, it was already late at night. Zhu Cuifeng went to the kitchen and cooked a pot of loofah and egg noodles.
Carrying a bowl of steaming hot noodles, she pushed open Lu Yang’s door, her face unusually gentle, “Son, are you hungry? Have some dinner first. Mom made you…”
Lu Yang was sitting at his desk, looking bitter and resentful, with a hemp rope tied under his chin, the other end fastened to the ceiling.
Zhu Cuifeng screamed, “Lu Guoxing, come quick! Your son is trying to hang himself!”
Lu Yang said woodenly, “…Mom, this is called ‘hanging one’s hair from the beam, and stabbing one’s thigh with an awl’ to study.”
Zhu Cuifeng almost spilled the noodle soup, “Lu Guoxing, aliens have switched our son with someone else!”
**’Hanging one’s hair from the beam, and stabbing one’s thigh with an awl’ is an idiom originating from two historical figures who used these extreme methods to stay awake and study (Sun Jing tied his hair to a roof beam so that if he nodded off, the pain would wake him up. Su Qin stabbed his thigh with an awl to fight off sleep while studying). It symbolizes extreme diligence and a willingness to endure hardship for academic success.
