Chapter 19.3 (1/2)
Together Forever (至此终年) — Chapter 19.3
It’s not quite the Lunar New Year Tong Yan was expecting. Finally, we have a full picture of what happened on the fateful night that Gu Pingsheng’s mother left the world.
Chapter 19.3 – During That Season of Time (3)
Pingfan’s mother patted her on the shoulder. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Tong Yan did not even know what had happened; why would she need consolation? But within her, she had the foreboding feeling that something very bad had occurred upstairs. This sort of conjecture was quickly confirmed. When the sound of footsteps coming downstairs was heard, she and Pingfan’s mother simultaneously raised their heads. Alone, Gu Pingsheng stepped down the staircase. On his forehead was a very obvious gauze pad that someone had hastily applied for him.
White gauze applied on with white adhesive tape.
So white it was a horrible sight to see.
She stood in that spot, almost stupidly, watching as he came down, walked toward her, and came to a stop in front of her. “Yan Yan, let’s go home.”
Tong Yan stared into his eyes, suddenly unable to speak. In the end, she simply gave a nod of her head and without asking any questions, followed him toward the front door.
A moment ago, when Gu Pingsheng was walking down those stairs, the lighting had suddenly seemed starkly white and cold. It called up in her memory the “him” from their first meeting long ago, an extremely young man sitting on the floor, his back leaning against the snow-white wall, his one arm draped across his knees, and his hand holding a thin sheet of white paper.
At that time, it had also been this same feeling.
The expression in his eyes when he looked at her was as if the entire world had nothing to do with him. Only she and he were the same.
For reasons unknown, her heart began beating at an increasingly faster rate, as if it was releasing the shock and fright from earlier on.
Normally, from their home to workplace, they only needed to take the bus. Therefore, other than that time she had taken the metro here late at night to find him, it had been many years since she had truly ridden it.
Today, however, they opted to take the metro.
It was not a work day, and there were not too many people. The train car they were sitting in even still had some empty seats. Their seats were on the far right of this particular train car, and leaning against its wall, she every now and then would allow her gaze to wander over to him.
Gu Pingsheng sensed her eyes on him. “Just now, there was some unpleasantness between Grandfather and me. His spirits have not been very good these last couple of years, and his temper has been a little bad.” He finally pointed at his own forehead and in a rather resigned tone, said, “Luckily, the house is always prepared with these things, and luckily, as well, there’s Pingfan, the still-not-graduated doctor.” His tone was very casual as he downplayed everything.
It was more or less as she had presumed. Wordlessly, she gazed at him, and only after some time did she say, “Was it because of me? Earlier, on the way over, Pingfan said that your grandfather is sick. It’s been so long and you never mentioned it all this time. Back when you were teaching in Shanghai, you would frequently say that you had matters in the family. Was it because of your grandfather?”
She ran through the timing of everything in her mind. They had all overlapped: her family matters, his own matters, and the matters in his family. Basically, it had been one successively after the other …
“He doesn’t like me?” Tong Yan asked another question.
The metro train happened to come to a stop at that moment. It was a transfer station, and many people, with large and small bags in hand, flooded onto the train car.
No matter how noisy his surroundings were, he still only ever remained within his own envelope of silence. He fixed his gaze on her. “Yan Yan, this whole thing has no direct relation to you, personally. Because of what happened with my mother, Grandfather is very much against relations.h.i.+ps between teacher and student, and sometimes his reaction is a little on the extreme.”
None of the answers were very unexpected. That was, aside from the wound on his forehead.
Fortunately, since the two of them were heading on vacation, Grandmother had risen early, left the house with them, and then went to Tianjin. Otherwise, when they returned home, it would only lead to another scare.
Possibly for the reason that he had once been a doctor, Gu Pingsheng kept a simplistic first aid kit readily available at home. Following his instructions, she step by step helped him treat his wound. Listening to him caused her heart to quake, and though the wound was not considered deep, that purple-red cut still caused her heart to ache dully when she looked at it. With her head down, she asked him, “Do you need to go get a teta.n.u.s shot?”
“No,” he chuckled, “the object that hit me was very clean, and when Pingfan treated it, she was very clean and sanitized about it as well.”
She made a pout with her lips and carefully secured a white gauze pad over his injury. “My beautiful one, your face has been marred. But trust me, regardless of what your appearance may become, beautiful one, I will never find you repulsive.”
Saying this, she leaned in and gently kissed that layer of gauze on his forehead.
She changed the position she was in and took a seat. Face to face, the two sat with legs crossed, he looking at her and she staring back at him. In between them was a first aid kit that had not yet been closed.
Because she was to meet his grandfather today, Tong Yan had specially put care into her dress and adornments. She wore a delicate, blue hair ribbon and her long hair flowed over her shoulders, framing her face so that it appeared even slimmer. Her complexion was milky, her frame slender. She had always been one who, no matter how much she ate, would not grow chubby.
“Yan Yan, you are very beautiful today,” he said very slowly.
Her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled, “To be one of the school’s master of ceremonies, you have to have the makings of a beauty. I’ve just have been by your side all this time, so the radiance of my beauty has been temporarily overshadowed.”
He stretched out his hand, bent his finger, and flicked her on the forehead. “So that means, in the future, my daughter should be very beautiful.”
Tong Yan unabashedly nodded her head vigorously. However, she immediately became a little disheartened as she looked at him and said, “How come it’s been so long but we still haven’t conceived a baby? …” She was, after all, still young so when she mentioned this, she nevertheless felt very embarra.s.sed and straightaway stuck out her tongue lightly, unable to carry on any further.
“It’s because of me,” he stated forthrightly.
Tong Yan’s mouth fell open in an “ah,” and she stared wide-eyed at him. “Your aftereffects from SARS also include not being able to have children?”
He paused in surprise, then suddenly broke out in a laugh. “Don’t let your thoughts go the wrong way. I just didn’t want you to have to bear such pressure, so I’ve been using contraceptive measures.” Before Tong Yan had recovered from this, she felt a weight on her head. Reaching over, he patted her lightly on the head. “We’re lucky that was the case. Otherwise, if Grandfather found out today that you were pregnant before getting married, I reckon he probably would never see us again.”
The weight was lifted from Tong Yan’s mind. The topic, though, had returned back to the unpleasant situation of today. Setting her elbow on one of her knees, she propped her chin on her hand and looked at him. “It’s no big deal. So many things have already happened and pa.s.sed. This is just ‘another thing,’ that’s all.” Taking the words he had once told her, she repeated them to him. “You said before that these things need to be resolved, and it is just a matter of sooner or later.”
He smiled, “You are a good student, indeed.”
Their flight to Saipan for their vacation was at night.
The original plan had been, on Lunar New Year’s Day, to have dinner at the home of Gu Pingsheng’s grandfather, then return home to get their luggage and rush to the airport. The timing of their arrival would have been just about perfect. Now that this incident had occurred, the entire daytime of Lunar New Year’s Day was unoccupied. Tong Yan changed out all the window curtains and bed sheets to new ones and then, without stopping to rest, began to do the laundry.
It seemed as if only in such busyness was she able cease thinking about what happened this morning.
As she stood beside the was.h.i.+ng machine with nothing to do, she decided to take out their clothes that they normally did not wear and soak them in a washtub. Using this way to fill her time, she managed to exhaust an entire bottle of laundry detergent.
The messages coming into Gu Pingsheng’s mobile phone had not stopped the entire time. She could roughly guess that Pingfan was discussing with him their family’s matters. While her mind was thinking too much on everything, Gu Pingsheng suddenly came to the door and handed the phone to her: “Pingfan wants to wish you a happy Spring Festival.”