Vol 3 Book 3 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Book 3 Chapter 4 – Signs from the Heavens

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The visitor had ruddy cheeks and seemed more excited than ever as she broke through the entrance. When she saw Liu Meng fall down, she cried out in shock and rushed toward her with a speed that defied the laws of physics and stopped her fall. Her angry voice was heard before Liu Meng could have a good look at her face. “What are you doing? Letting her clean the floor in her situation? Why are you just like that stupid father of yours? Do you even know how to take care of her? Don’t you know that she needs your affection and protection? Pfft, how blind can you be? Hey, girl, come, take a break, my Yiming is a little fool, so don’t take it to heart, okay? Leave this to me, I’ll make some soup for you too.”

The angry-sounding woman was Li Yiming’s mother, and, after scolding her son, pulled Liu Meng to a seat on the sofa with a gentle smile. She scrutinized Liu Meng from head to toe and seemed very satisfied. The wrinkles around her eyes pulled in closer together as she smiled and complimented her. “What a beautiful girl, sorry, you haven’t been treated too well.” She reached out for Liu Meng’s hand in the most natural way.

“Ah… h.e.l.lo aunt…” Liu Meng squeezed out a smile. She was far too surprised by the suddenness of it all. ‘What exactly is happening? ‘

“Mom, why are you here?” Li Yiming’s hand trembled behind his back. Just a moment ago, he was ready to send a bullet into the forehead of his mother. ‘Phew, what a close call…’

“Yiming! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back home? If it weren’t for old man w.a.n.g’s wife, who called aunt Liu at my workplace, I wouldn’t even have known.” Li Yiming’s mother threw another reprimanding glance at him and resumed her examination of Liu Meng. ‘Wow, what a beautiful girl. Look at this face, look at this body! A perfect fit for Yiming.’

‘Old man w.a.n.g and aunt Liu?’ Li Yiming glanced at the balcony of the apartment facing his, a little surprised, and it all suddenly became clear to him: old man w.a.n.g saw it all before he closed the curtains after arriving with Liu Meng. ‘Holy c.r.a.p, does gossip spread this quickly nowadays? I’ve barely arrived and mom’s already here? That’s the power of the neighborhood crowd I guess, no wonder some celebrities are ruined by rumors that spread far too quickly.’

“Have a seat, okay? I’ll clean up the room and make you some food.” After setting Liu Meng down, Li Yiming’s mother quickly began her work. Needless to say, the efficiency of a professional was incomparable to theirs, and between the occasional turning back of the head to smile at Liu Meng, the room was tidied up in no time. Liu Meng stood up to help her on several occasions, only to be stopped firmly and told to sit back down. She sat back with a freshly peeled apple and stared at Li Yiming innocently.

Li Yiming hunched his shoulders and sat down next to Liu Meng with a half-amused smile. He knew that his mother was making the wrong a.s.sumptions about himself and Liu Meng based on what his father had told her. However, Li Yiming did not want to explain the situation to her right away as he found the whole misunderstanding to be quite droll.

A sumptuous supper was soon made ready and the three took their meal happily together. Li Yiming’s mother’s eagerness and enthusiasm almost scared Liu Meng, and not only did she insist on Liu Meng drinking a lot of chicken soup, she constantly bombarded her with reminders such as not walking around too quickly, not was.h.i.+ng her head, and not using cold water. This surprised Li Yiming at first, who thought that even his mother would not treat a girl he had just brought home in such an exaggerated way. However, right after his mother left, Li Yiming suddenly caught the reason behind such an odd behavior.

“What’s wrong with your mom?” Liu Meng asked him in a shaking voice. “I feel like she’s treating me as if I was pregnant.”

“That’s exactly what she’s thinking.” Li Yiming remembered the call he made back at the hospital in Jing Prefecture and wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead.

“What?”

As night, but Liu Meng still turned left and right on the fresh bed sheets that Li Yiming’s mother had just put on. Li Yiming himself was sleeping in the living room. For a reason unknown to him, Liu Meng did not lock the door to her room and left it ajar.

Li Yiming lied on the sofa with a quilt that made it too warm once it was put on, but once he took it off, he would be freezing. He also turned left and right, and, after looking at the slit of the bedroom for the twenty-first time, he searched for a Buddhist scripture on his cellphone and went over it inside his head over and over again.

Avalokiteshvara

while practicing deeply with

the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Sh.o.r.e,

suddenly discovered that

all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,

and with this realization

he overcame all Ill-being.

“Listen Sariputra,

this Body itself is Emptiness

and Emptiness itself is this Body.

This Body is not other than Emptiness

and Emptiness is not other than this Body.

The same is true of Feelings,

Perceptions, Mental Formations,

and Consciousness. 1

The door to the bedroom was flung opened silently, and Liu Meng scuttled to where Li Yiming slept with her feet bare. He quickly put his cell phone down, just like a junior high student when the school residency is being checked. “Don’t you feel anything?” Liu Meng asked in a quiet voice, but her heavy breathing betrayed an inner turmoil.

“Feeling… yes.” Li Yiming gulped down some saliva. His eyes wandered about her svelte, white legs, but he did not dare to climb upward.

“Then why aren’t you making a move?” Liu Meng asked in a surprised voice.

“I…” Li Yiming was unsure about what to say. ‘Aren’t we bros, how can I…’

“What do we do now?”