Chapter 54: A Troubled Conscience
“Would you please leave? I don’t need anyone’s concern.”
Chen Yu did not want to face Ma Hongmei’s questions, nor did he wish to waste another word on her. After speaking, he pulled the quilt over his head.
Dealing with this lovestruck girl in front of him, his only recourse was to play dead.
“You like Li Jixiang! I know you like Li Jixiang—she doesn’t know I know. I’ve noticed the way you look at her, how you secretly touch her waist, smell her hair, how she gets angry and grabs your little bird…”
Oh heavens! Ma Hongmei really dares to say anything—perhaps she’s furious and just letting everything go…
The speaker felt no shame, but the listener blushed.
How did Ma Hongmei know so much?
That day on the assembly platform, when Chen Yu touched Li Jixiang’s waist and she retaliated against his sensitive spot—how could Ma Hongmei have noticed?
Unless she’d been standing to the side of the platform, watching Chen Yu and her every move.
“I’ll say it again. Please leave.”
Chen Yu could endure no longer. He threw off the quilt, jumped out of bed, pushed Ma Hongmei out the door, and locked it behind her.
Who knows what Ma Hongmei felt standing outside Chen Yu’s door; only after a long pause did she walk to the yard with her head bowed.
She carried two large bags of fruit, trudged heavily to the edge of the yard, placed them on a small cart, then turned and pushed the cart away.
Everything was clear now—Chen Yu had not lied.
She walked out from the side of the house, only to notice the pink popularity value climbing ceaselessly: +1, +1. Last night, after a hundred points were lost at Chen Yu’s, it suddenly soared by a thousand, and now another silent thousand was added.
The system must be mad!
Chen Yu had not gone to work for two days; the workplace sent someone to visit him and found him unconscious with a high fever…
The town clinic rushed Chen Yu to the city’s People’s Hospital overnight.
His life was saved, but his brain and lungs suffered damage from the fever.
A month later, Chen Yu was discharged and returned to Xingqiu Town.
Rumors began to spread: Chen Yu had become an idiot.
“That young man Chen Yu—he used to be so handsome and spirited, but now he doesn’t recognize anyone! I heard he doesn’t even know his brother and sister-in-law… His brother’s job was changed because of their parents’ troubles, so he doesn’t have the energy to look after him! Chen Yu is pitiful, really… Lucky he can still work; at least he hasn’t forgotten what he does at work…”
An Chen’s mother spoke vividly, but she didn’t believe it; she decided to see for herself.
Chen Yu had moved into the staff dormitory at the Agricultural Technology Station. While he was hospitalized, the town reclaimed his family home, repainted and renovated it, and the new mayor’s family moved in.
The staff dormitory, near the small farm, was a three-story, matchbox-style old building. The gray-white exterior had patches peeling off, exposing blue bricks beneath, as if covered with bits of hide plaster.
Perhaps considering his health, his dorm was assigned on the ground floor near the entrance.
It was still working hours, so the dormitory was quiet.
She leaned against the big tree at the entrance, gazing across the street. If Chen Yu appeared, she would notice him at once.
Autumn had begun, but the weather remained stifling. Even under the shade, sweat soon beaded her skin.
Groups of men and women, some with children, began to enter the dormitory. From the corridors upstairs, the sound of sizzling food and the aroma of dishes grew stronger in the evening breeze.
Still, Chen Yu had not returned, and she prepared to leave.
Just then, a familiar figure appeared—Chen Yu had come back. She hid again under the tree’s shade.
When Chen Yu got off his bicycle, she stepped out from behind the tree, deliberately standing in front of him, watching his expression as he looked at her.
Perhaps used to people blocking his way, Chen Yu did not look surprised; he kept his head down, pushing his bicycle, trying to go around Li Jixiang.
His dormitory door was only steps away.
“Chen Yu, have you eaten yet?”
She mimicked the town’s usual greeting, gazing steadily at Chen Yu’s lowered face.
Upon hearing her familiar voice, Chen Yu immediately lifted his head, staring at Li Jixiang without blinking.
The pink popularity value soared; her anxious heart finally settled.
Chen Yu recognized her; he was not as foolish as An Chen’s mother claimed.
Chen Yu had fallen ill after running through the rain at night to confess to Li Jixiang at Grandma Li’s store. She had to admit she felt deeply guilty. She even blamed herself for going to Chen Yu’s house the next day and eavesdropping on his conversation with Ma Hongmei, failing to notice how gravely ill he’d become.
Had she gone inside then to check on him, Chen Yu might have received timely treatment and not ended up as he was now.
Though Chen Yu wasn’t as foolish as she’d feared, he was gaunt and withered, resembling an elderly man near the end of his days, making it hard to look at him without pity.
“Then I won’t keep you from dinner.”
The popularity value had risen by another thousand and stopped. She prepared to go home.
Chen Yu, as if petrified by Sun Wukong’s spell, stood rigidly, pushing his bicycle.
Only after Li Jixiang had walked far did he slowly turn, murmuring her name at her departing figure: “Jixiang.”
To send off An Ning and Li Jixiang before they left for the county high school the next day, An Chen’s mother set a banquet in her courtyard.
Today, there were no neighbors, only her family and Grandma Li’s.
Han the blacksmith and Grandma Li helped with the cooking by the stove.
An Chen’s mother had set out the bowls and chopsticks, then called for An Chen to fetch Li Jixiang. An Chen pouted, saying he’d already looked and Li Jixiang wasn’t at the store.
“Where could that child have gone?” An Chen’s mother returned to the kitchen to ask Grandma Li, who guessed her granddaughter had gone to find Ma Hongmei.
Since Ma Hongmei had come to buy fruit in bulk last month, she hadn’t returned. Li Jixiang hadn’t visited her either; Grandma Li had asked several times, and Li Jixiang always said perhaps Ma Hongmei had family affairs and no time to sell fruit.
School would start tomorrow; it was only fitting for friends to say farewell.
“Jixiang must have gone to see her classmate Ma Hongmei,” Grandma Li affirmed.
“Then let’s wait a little longer—no need to rush the greens into the pot yet.”
An Chen’s mother wiped her hands on her apron, smiling at Han the blacksmith and Grandma Li.
The two worked in perfect harmony: one pumped the bellows, the other stirred the pan.
“Let An Ning go meet Jixiang then. We agreed days ago to have dinner together tonight—I’m afraid she’s forgotten.”
Grandma Li glanced toward An Ning’s room; An Ning was already at the door, waiting for orders!
From the farm lane to the highway, passing the intersection, she happened to see An Ning riding his bicycle toward the town center, calling out loudly twice.
An Ning probably didn’t hear her, quickly turning the corner toward North Street.
At this hour, Aunt An should have dinner ready and waiting. Why did An Ning leave? Did An Ning quarrel with his family?
She pushed open An Chen’s door suspiciously, and An Chen rushed over like a plump quail.
“Jixiang, Jixiang, where have you been? My brother went to look for you—didn’t you see him?”
An Chen blinked his small eyes.
“Ah…”
She certainly couldn’t say she went to see Chen Yu; she and Chen Yu were nothing but a misunderstanding. She visited him only because her conscience troubled her.