Chapter 20: 16.1

Ji Linqiu opened the door and his gaze fell on the stainless steel basin held by the two of them.

“If I say no, are you just going to go back with this big pot of stuffing?”

Jiang Wang’s face didn’t change color as he said, “No, I’ll take it to Aunt Wang downstairs.” 

“Huh, good idea.” Ji Linqiu cursed with a smile, stepping with his flip-flops he turned around. “You guys go downstairs first, I’ll change clothes and come over.”

“Do you still need to change clothes?” Jiang Wang said casually, “How long have we known each other? Come on.”

Since it was summer vacation, Ji Linqiu didn’t have to look like a refined and gentle teacher all the time. He wore a loose white T-shirt at home, his hair was fluffy and his feet were bare. He was even holding a glass of coke with ice cubes in his hand.

Some people could be fooled into believing that he had just graduated from college. There was a young and inexperienced smell on his body.

Ji Linqiu raised his eyebrows, and regarded Jiang Wang’s words as a compliment. He went back to the house to turn off the radio then accompanied them to make dumplings.

The child was very curious while holding the large pot of cabbage and minced meat.

“Doesn’t Teacher Ji usually watch TV?”

“Don’t ask,” Ji Linqiu walked forward with his hands in his pocket, “It’s boring.”

Peng Xingwang had never seen the teacher in this style before, so he was a little lost.

On the contrary, Jiang Wang relaxed a lot. He felt more at ease now than their usual meeting at school.

“Don’t you usually watch a movie or something?”

“Occasionally, I watch in the office for a while after working overtime, but I just want to sleep when I get home.” Ji Linqiu yawned, “In two days, I will have to do teacher training for half a month, so I won’t have much time to sleep.”

Almost a year after the child entered school, this was the first time he saw Teacher Ji yawning. He looked at him with round eyes for a long time.

The three of them washed their hands and sat down. The two brothers sat on the sidelines waiting to be of help, Ji Linqiu propped his head up to look at the dough.

“How do you wrap it?”

Jiang Wang’s expression stiffened, “You don’t know either?”

“This isn’t coming together properly.” Ji Linqiu saw that his computer was on, so he got up and watched the video, “Oh, this should be doable.”

When he came back, he casually twisted a piece of dough and tentatively rubbed the stuffing into the innermost place. He pinched out eight folds neatly.

Although it wasn’t as good-looking as the fried dumplings sold on the street, it was much more decent than the previous ones.

As soon as Ji Linqiu studied something, he became serious. He didn’t even talk to them and only intently explored his skills of wrapping.

It was neater to only fold down by half, the more he went back, the more brisk the fold. Now, twelve pleats could be seen neat and beautiful.

Jiang Wang was really sh*t compared to him. He sat next to him and watched for a while, and said with a sigh, “That’s how I wrapped it though?”

Ji Linqiu glanced at Peng Xingwang, who was playing with the dough and kneading it into dinosaurs. With a smile he said, “You make one and let me see.”

Jiang Wang rolled out the dough in front of him and squeezed the stuffing in, but half of the stuffing burst out before he even finished folding.

“The way you hold it in your palm is wrong,” with his flour-stained fingertips, Ji Linqiu tapped the space between Jiang Wang’s thumb and index finger, “It’s important here, hold it loosely on the side.”

Then, as if talking about the subject, predicate, object and the six tenses, he clearly explained to him the essential steps from start to end.

The two of them gradually became familiar with the process. It was like “Approaching Science”[1] was being filmed in the room. There was also a long row of dough, shaped into velociraptors and the Tyrannosaurus Rex on the coffee table.

Jiang Wang didn’t expect that the two would be able to make dumplings so well, as they were busy he had the time to watch Ji Linqiu.

He couldn’t help but compliment him for being good-looking.

Men were naturally born with excessive narcissism. When they compared themselves to Daniel Wu or Takeshi Kaneshiro, they wouldn’t even feel guilty at all. It was difficult to admit that others were more handsome than themselves.

The lines at the end of Ji Linqiu’s eyes stretched out, making a sense of charm flow out when his eyes blinked.

The eyebrow bones were just right, the thin lips were pale and the skin, jade white.

With a little packaging, it was more than enough to debut as a star.

Four rows of newly wrapped dumplings were boiled in one pot and fried in another. The remaining one person took one pile back to the refrigerator for freezing, this could last for another two or three days.

The child who had waited for a long while was starving, and regardless of the vinegar he buried his head in and ate. Jiang Wang watched for a while, still a little reluctant to give Peng Xingwang up.

Ji Linqiu noticed something, and tentatively said when they parted, “Why does Brother Jiang seem to be in a bad mood?”

Jiang Wang smiled, “The child’s mother is coming back, maybe she plans to pick him up.”

“Not necessarily.” Ji Linqiu said calmly, “Children will choose the life they like better.”

“What’s wrong with going with his mother?” Jiang Wang said without thinking much, “She’s been married for more than a year now. I think it’s safe for him to go with them.”

Ji Linqiu has been teaching for nearly seven years now and has witnessed too many things. At this moment, he only shook his head slowly and waved goodbye.

After Jiang Wang closed the door, he looked at Peng Xingwang, who was watching TV intently, and walked into the balcony after a while, closing the door.

Then he dialed Du Wenjuan’s phone.

He has heard a lot of news when he was playing cards with people these days. It took little effort to get the new mobile phone number of the child’s mother.

Du Wenjuan married a man who worked in a public institution. It would take four hours to take the green train from their province. She had also heard some things about Jiang Wang from relatives and friends in City A.

Jiang Wang had almost no contact with this woman when he was an adult.

The woman called him several times after she got old, probably wanting to find a place to retire. But Jiang Wang responded indifferently and bluntly, he no longer had any intention of getting closer to her.

She was not there when he was a child. There was no need to show up again after 20 years.

While waiting for the phone to be connected, his breathing gradually slowed to a minimum.

There were loud heartbeats, and a long-lost uneasiness.

This was probably the first time in his own life that he took the initiative to contact his birth mother.

“Hello? Hello?” A young female voice came from the opposite side, it sounded like someone who had just reached their 30s, “Is it a wrong number?”

“No,” Jiang Wang said calmly, “I am Jiang Wang, and I am currently taking care of Peng Xingwang on the family’s behalf.”

The woman responded in surprise, her tone a little flustered, “Hello, hello. I heard about you from a friend, and I’m actually planning to come back in the next few days.”

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“They said you are a relative from the Du family,” she said hastily, not knowing how to express herself. “There are too many relatives on my parents’ side. Sorry… I don’t remember very well.”

“You have a cousin who does business in Hong Kong and is very kind to me.” Jiang Wang said gently, “They originally asked me to come and see the child when I was on a business trip.”

“But the situation I saw… was not very good. So they left me to develop my business in City A and take care of the child as well.”

The woman nodded again and again in a panic, and said apologetically, “There are four or five brothers on my mother’s side. I can’t tell who is who, but they have always been very kind to me.”

“Please be sure to convey my gratitude for me, and my lover and I will personally thank you when we come over.” She hesitated for a few seconds, as if she didn’t feel worthy of asking such a question, “Xingwang is… better now?”

Jiang Wang thought for a moment, she was asking about the current situation.

The man came back to his senses but was silent for a few seconds before answering, “He took second place in the class in the final exam. He has gained a lot of weight and is very healthy and cheerful.”

Peng Xingwang was a very good child.

When Du Wenjuan received this call, all the dereliction of duty as a mother reappeared in her mind.

She felt embarrassed to talk to the stranger on the opposite side, but she had to ask him to take care of the child for a few more days.

“My lover and I bought tickets for July 21st, we will come over after we get off work on Friday. I will contact you then.”

Jiang Wang answered briefly, and didn’t ask anymore until the phone hung up.

How was he going to explain this to Xingwang?

‘In fact, the child had always missed you very much. When you meet, please hug him more.’

The woman’s mind was all on the child, that she did not explore his identity in more detail.

The night wind made people’s nerves seem to be immersed in ice. Their thoughts were dragged down, as if they were going to melt with the restlessness of the summer night.

Jiang Wang squatted down like a child, holding his knees and looking into the dark distance.

He used to be like a person roaming in the sea of stars, but suddenly a small satellite appeared scurrying around him. The two of them sat together on the Milky Way watching the sun.

Now, the small satellite can finally return to its true harbor.

Peng Xingwang had already finished both episodes in the living room. He didn’t want to wait until Jiang Wang came back to eat oranges with him, so the child slid down the rocking chair and ran to the balcony to find him.

Only to see the shadow of a man squatting and hugging his knees outside the glass partition.

The moon was high, the sky was dark, and the world, quiet.

Peng Xingwang couldn’t imagine why an omnipotent person like his brother would be so sad.

He plucked up the courage to step forward, knocked on the door, and then walked towards him with a bright smile.

“Brother, there are mosquitoes outside!”

Jiang Wang went to squat, his feet a little numb. He then reached out to touch the child’s head.

“Brother wants to tell you something.”

“Huh?” Peng Xingwang tilted his head, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“…No.”

“Your business has lost money, so we have to start picking up garbage?”

“…Impossible.”

“What can be the matter,” the child pinched his face, “Smile.”

Jiang Wang laughed and slowly stretched out his hand to hug him.

“I have good news for you.”

“Your mother is coming back to see you this Friday.”

Peng Xingwang was taken aback for a moment, then quickly jumped up.

“Really!!!”

“Is it really mom?!!”

What a little heartless brat, forget it.

Jiang Wang led him back, with his ears almost becoming deaf.

“Will mom come back from Hong Kong to see me? She won’t suddenly step on our balcony by plane, will she?”

“Does she miss me?! I haven’t seen her for several years. Will she mistake me for other children?”

“Ah, brother, I’m going to be so happy tonight that I won’t be able to sleep. My face is so hot, touch it.”

“You touch it!!!”

The eldest brother tried to control the child.

“Tomorrow I will take you to buy new clothes and get a decent haircut.”

“Don’t jump and disturb downstairs or Aunt Wang will come up with a broom and beat you up.”

……Did he still want to tell him about Du Wenjuan’s remarriage?

Or should he keep it a secret first, and wait for the mother to say it themselves when she arrives?

Jiang Wang swore in his heart while bathing the child with flour on his neck like a mud monkey.

‘Really, couples, it’s cool to fall in love and start a family by yourself. But can’t you think about the children?’

‘Now I even have to wipe my own ass? Why, for what reason?’

TL NOTE:

The mom is coming… What do you think will happen? (≖_≖ )

References

References

↑1	A documentary film program in China, discussing different sciences. Broadcasted from 1998 – 2019.

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