Offense - Chapter 40

Chapter 40

After that day, life suddenly slowed down.

For Lian Wan, these days weren't much different from before, except now there was Zhou Yanqian. There was conversation with another person, an extra pair of chopsticks on the table, an extra space left on the towel rack. These trivial details turned life into a deep lake. A shared glance between them would send ripples spreading across the surface, letting time slowly, gradually sink to the bottom.

In the days that followed, the calmness Zhou Yanqian showed was unexpected to Lian Wan. Lian Wan had to admit, when she first saw her, she inevitably had some fantasies. A beautiful woman who had returned from the outside world, who had shared a brief glance with her. Because of that momentary connection, Lian Wan couldn't just walk away as she usually would. Nor did she dare to get closer. She could only secretly fantasize about her uninhibitedness and mystery, wondering if it could fill her own inferiority and emptiness.

She didn't dare to think about it herself.

Of course, this fantasy itself didn't need a response, just as Lian Wan would never reveal her timidity to anyone. In town, she was already doing well enough. She didn't give people reason to gossip and could be considered a winner. So, to admire a beautiful shell, and even to satisfy her own less-than-polite thoughts about her, those base offenses…

…wasn't such a great wrong.

But now, that beautiful shell had been broken by Zhou Yanqian herself. After that moonlit night, she revealed more of herself to Lian Wan. Whether it was a glamorous past or a bleak journey, they spent their dinners together in peace. Lian Wan would watch her slowly smoke a cigarette on the balcony, the evening breeze stirring her nightgown, making the woman's shoulders seem especially delicate.

Suddenly, as if moved by something, Lian Wan walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, thinking to herself, I have to protect her.

This, perhaps, was a new meaning in her life.

Life was certainly slow and peaceful, but the long summer was not yet over. In fact, the temperature grew more intense as autumn approached. Standing under the sun for just a short while would leave you feeling as if you'd been drenched in water, forcing you to shower several times a day.

These past few days, Lian Wan had taken a few small jobs, transporting waterproofing materials to a construction site. Because she had to coordinate with the workers' schedules, it was hard to get away, so she bought lunch from a roadside stall. The vendor was an elderly woman who hunched over a huge insulated container to scoop rice for her. It was a self-serve boxed lunch that cost a little over ten yuan, specifically for the nearby workers and passing drivers.

The old woman didn't know how to use mobile payments, so Lian Wan rummaged through her truck and finally managed to find a single twenty-yuan bill, receiving a few flimsy banknotes back in change.

By the time she finished her morning's work, it was past the usual lunch hour. The workers had already eaten and gone back to rest, so there were seats available. Lian Wan carried her plate to a spot under a nearby sun umbrella. The meat in the dishes was mostly gone, leaving only some scattered stir-fried glass noodles and greens.

After serving her portion, the old woman was also packing up nearby, looking like she couldn't stay for too long.

The weather was hot, and everyone was in a hurry to go home, shower, and take a nap.

The food was mediocre. Lian Wan frowned slightly as she ate. She didn't have time to wonder who had spoiled her palate. There was no other choice, so she just had to swallow the coarse-textured rice and the unevenly seasoned stew. She wasn't quite full, but the old woman had already put the lid on the rice pot, looking ready to leave.

All she could do was have another bowl of soup. The sun was intense. As she walked back, sweat streamed down her cheeks, and Lian Wan raised a hand to wipe it away.

There was hardly anyone on the street. The concrete road was scorching hot from the sun, and the sparse plants in the greenbelts were all drooping, wilted and listless.

When she arrived, Lian Wan had driven around for a while to park her truck in a shady spot with few people, where it was both cool and easy to back out. But when she returned, the steering wheel in the driver's seat was still searing hot. Opening the door released a blast of hot, stuffy air that was frustratingly oppressive.

She wiped her sweat while unscrewing her water bottle to take a drink.

The water bottle was a gift from Zhou Yanqian. It had replaced the iced mineral water she used to drink. In the morning, she would fill the 2-liter bottle at home with boiled water that had been left to cool, enough to last her the whole day outside.

Lian Wan drank some water and rested for a while before she felt a little better.

But she couldn't run the truck's air conditioner for too long, as the noise would disturb the people resting nearby. She turned off the engine, switched on a small fan, pulled the sunshade curtain, and prepared to make do with a nap.

In the stuffy afternoon, time seemed to stretch on and on, like a taut string. Leaning against her seat, Lian Wan swayed gently and, just like that, fell into a deep sleep.

In her memory, the summers in Pingchuan Town had always been this long and sweltering.

Back then, the apartment building was still full of people, upstairs and down. Every summer, the hallways were littered with ice pop wrappers. A cart selling iced plum soup would pull up to the complex entrance at a fixed time every evening. It would blast its horn a couple of times, and people, freshly showered, would emerge from the building carrying large ceramic mugs. Each household would buy a bowl to take home and dilute with water to drink.

She was among them, holding her grandmother's hand, grinning foolishly with her mouth open.

Happiness was so simple back then. A child's wishes were easily satisfied, and the expenses for two people weren't much. But as she slowly grew up, needing better nutrition, needing to go to school, needing to pay for materials, life gradually became a struggle.

So, by the time she got to high school, she needed to cover her own school fees. On weekend mornings, she would go with her grandmother to the morning market to sell small, wholesale handicrafts, like hair ties and toys. In the town, relationships mattered, and market stalls were often fixed. As luck would have it, their spot was right next to the busiest steamed bun stall in the entire market. The steam from the steamers would blast her arm, bringing a sticky, grating heat. There were so many people buying buns that the line would inadvertently trample their stall. The crowd jostled and squeezed, gradually pushing them into a space like an isolated island. Yet her grandmother sat peacefully behind the stall, quietly watching the lively scene that had little to do with them.

Lian Wan was already quite tall in high school. She had a face that could look intimidating, but she was still helpless in situations like this. She stood frozen beside the bun stall's steamers. The liveliness of the crowd was like a splash of cold water, yet her elbow was still scalded red by the steam.

That day, the grandmother and granddaughter left the market the same as they had arrived. In the days that followed, their life continued without any ups or downs. Good and bad, gain and loss—life lost its elasticity, becoming a straight line moving ever forward.

Later on, the horn of the iced plum soup cart never came again. The ice pop wrappers on the ground were trampled by footprints until they lost their color. Lian Wan would later go to the morning market to buy buns herself. The person behind the bun stall had changed; it was the original owner's daughter.

The two would exchange a few greetings. The steam from the steamers would drift over, bringing with it the same sticky heat. Past and present, a seemingly real yet illusory echo seemed to rise from the billowing steam, gradually tightening around Lian Wan's throat.

She had never been one for talking. At first, it was shyness around strangers, which later turned into taciturnity. She listened passively, accepted passively, never revealing any inclination or desire, just like that girl who had stood by the bun stall with a scalded arm.

This summer was too long, too hot. Countless times she had been drenched in sweat under the blazing sun, dizzy and light-headed. In the silent nights, she wouldn't think about it. She would just press her lips shut, turn over, and fall into a deep sleep. She was too tired, but she couldn't rest the next day.

Her rigidity made it impossible to even dream. A beautiful dream was like a tender sprout; it needed a person's heart to clear a space for it to grow, to be nourished and to flourish.

When dreams are too barren, a person cannot be happy.

The night was too deep. Lian Wan kept her lips pressed shut and walked forward. Through so many wordless nights, she had, it turned out, always been unhappy.

Gradually, she didn't know when it started to change. As Lian Wan walked forward, a light appeared in an instant. It was as if a cool breeze had swept by, and those sweltering, sticky, taciturn days suddenly became very, very light. And it seemed as if many people were smiling…

Lian Wan tentatively curved the corners of her mouth into a small smile. The heavy emotions that had always weighed down her face were carried away by the wind. It was so easy, a feeling that was foreign to her. The oppressive heat also receded. The scar on her arm gradually faded. From far to near, her nose began to catch the scent of cool water vapor. Summer, summer was about to pass…

Faintly, something was tapping by her ear, again and again, growing clearer and clearer. Lian Wan jolted, opened her eyes, sat up, and lifted the curtain to look outside.

All she could see was a vast expanse between heaven and earth, her vision filled with chaotic threads of rain. The truck window was adorned with mottled water droplets.

A heavy downpour.

In this weather, the construction site should be closed for the afternoon. She could also have the afternoon off, clock out, and go home to rest.

Having just woken up, Lian Wan's head was still a bit fuzzy. She sat there blankly for a short while before receiving a notification on her phone: work was canceled for the afternoon, and progress was temporarily halted.

There was another message on her phone. Zhou Yanqian had made milk tea jelly at home and put it in the fridge, waiting for her to come back in the evening to eat it together.

Lian Wan looked at it, then looked again, finally becoming a little more clear-headed.

It was rare to get half a day off. Surprises like this didn't come often, to say nothing of the fact that now there was someone at home with whom she could share this happiness.

Once she realized this, a belated sense of joy finally washed over her. She replied to Zhou Yanqian's message, then immediately started the truck and turned it around.

The road was clear all the way. Craving the cool breeze outside, Lian Wan rolled down her window a little, letting the fine rain dampen her temples. She hummed a little tune, a rare expression of joy, feeling like a puppy with rain-soaked fur, gleefully scampering all the way home.

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