#also we get so many snippets of Cunqu's depressing past in-between the happy lighthearted moments :')

[anon-apple]

Hot Soup and Soft Bread 15

Table of Contents and Synopsis <- Chapter 14 Read on WordPress T/N: Content warning for mention of suicidal thoughts/intentions

Chapter 15: Soymilk and Fried Dough III

To prevent Liu Xiaoying from catching on, Zhong Qiuyan started staying the night at his own place most of the time. Early in the morning, Zhou Cunqu decided to try and head outside without Qiuyan’s accompaniment. He encouraged himself to try and go downstairs to buy breakfast. He stood outside for a long time, picking at the wallpaper, listening to the sound coming in from the stairwell window of the world outside slowly waking up. 

That day he was just standing there when a little kid suddenly ran up from the fourth floor and stood in the stairwell landing halfway up the fifth floor. Cunqu looked at him; he looked at Cunqu. He was a chubby little kid, with half of a glutinous rice ball in his hand, and something like pork floss around his mouth. He looked at Cunqu and called out: “Jie-jie”.[1]

Afterward, Cunqu walked downstairs. The “Double Yolk Egg” Grandpas were standing next to the bulletin board reading the freshly-posted morning newspaper. One of them scratched his head, and the other one followed and scratched his own head. Cunqu passed by them and walked to buy breakfast from the usual place. The little kid’s mother passed by on a bike, the kid sat upon the back seat and waved at him happily.

Cunqu received his breakfast and ran into Liu Xiaoying as she returned from her morning exercises outside the condo building. Cunqu said: “Grandma, I bought breakfast.” He lifted the bag in his hand for Xiaoying to see, then he opened the security door and walked inside. Everything was as natural as if he did this every day. Xiaoying followed him inside, and the two of them walked up the stairs one after another. This was an extremely mundane scene, yet the last time this scene happened was over two years ago. 

That time, Xiaoying walked behind Cunqu, and water droplets dripped from Cunqu’s body onto the staircase every step he took. He looked like he had just been fished out of a pond and placed upon this stairwell. Arriving at the fifth floor, before he even entered the door, Cunqu took out his bank cards and placed them inside Xiaoying’s hand. Emotionlessly, he said: “Grandma, I sold my car and house, the money’s inside these cards.” 

Xiaoying clutched the wet bank cards and looked up at Cunqu. At that moment, she had a premonition, grabbed Cinque's hand, and pulled him inside her home. She hugged Cunqu tightly, and shakily repeated: “Grandma needs you, grandma needs you…”

When Cunqu turned around to look at her, Xiaoying came back to herself and wiped her eyes. She asked: “What did you buy for breakfast?”

Cunqu smiled and said: “Fried dough. And some millet congee for grandma.”

They sat together at the dining table to have breakfast. Xiaoying talked about how the walking path next to the river was bustling even early in the morning. There was always a bunch of people exercising. Cunqu listened to her and replied from time to time. Xiaoying stared at a tiny oil stain on the tablecloth and suddenly laughed. She said: “Without Zhong Qiuyan that chatterbox here, this place suddenly feels so quiet.” Cunqu lowered his head and laughed.

Cunqu, standing in the flowerbed of his family home, repeatedly sneezed. Next to him, Qiu Xuemei helped him transfer a Chinese rose plant[2] into a flower pot. Today was his day off, and Qiuyan had returned to his home village last night after work. He sent a text to Cunqu: Today I’m bringing back a gift for our family’s treasure[3].

In the afternoon, Qiuyan carried two pots of Chinese roses into Xiaoying’s place. Holding the two pots, he walked around looking for Cunqu everywhere. Xiaoying indistinctly said from where she was sitting on the couch: “Are you practicing acrobatics or what? Put the flowers down.”

Cunqu asked, bemused, “Where’s my ge? He’s actually not home.”

 Xiaoying was drinking some odd kind of nutritional soup. She tilted her head back and downed the whole bowl, then said: “He went out with a friend.”

Cunqu’s new good friend, the chubby little kid from the fourth floor, ran to the fifth floor after he came home from kindergarten and invited him to play together on the roof. When Qiuyan ran up, Cunqu was sitting on a camping chair that someone had tossed out. The little chubby kid was lying beside him listening to him read from a picture book. Cunqu read: “One rainy day, atop a continent of a planet in the universe, within a neighborhood in some city of a country, behind the window of a house, stood a little girl. Her name was Madeline. One day, Madeline’s tooth was about to fall out…

So Madeline sprinted out of her home, she wanted to tell all her neighbors this good news. Her neighbors came from all over the world. There was an Italian, a Latin American…" 

The little chubby kid often interrupted Cunqu asking him questions like “What is the Tower of Pisa?”, or “What is a jaguar?” Later he excitedly opened his mouth for Cunqu to look; one of his front teeth also fell. Whenever he smiled, that spot felt cool from the air. 

To demonstrate to Cunqu, he kept smiling. Cunqu eventually couldn’t hold back and also started laughing. Qiuyan took out his phone and captured a photo of that scene. He set it as his wallpaper.

The chubby little kid’s mom came up to get him for dinner. The kid squeezed Cunqu's hand and asked: “Will you read the picture book for me tomorrow too?”

Cunqu nodded. When he turned around, he saw Qiuyan staring at him from the side.

Qiuyan ran up and sat down on the other camping chair. With both hands holding his cheeks, he said: “Gege, I also want to listen to stories.” He was just joking around. But Cunqu suddenly stretched out his hands and feet and lay back on the camping chair. He smiled as he said: “That day when I came to grandma, I planned to just see her and then leave. Back then I accumulated a bunch of my pills and planned to down all of them in one go. But Grandma didn’t let me leave, she didn’t let me leave…”

Cunqu paused for a bit and continued: “And just now I suddenly realized how glad I am of that. The me of today has a boyfriend. And a good friend.”

Qiuyan didn’t reply and instead pulled him into a hug.

When they went downstairs, Qiuyan presented the two pots of Chinese roses to him as if they were treasures. He pressed up against Cunqu and said into his ear: “It’s a gift for you, not Liu Xiaoying. It says online that gifting flowers is a good way to enhance feelings between two lovers.”

Cunqu replied into his ear: “Did you read a romance guide for straight couples? You fool.”

But Cunqu really did like flowers. The two pots of orange and pink roses sat on the balcony, all the way until the end of September. Cunqu felt happy every time he saw them.

In the evening, after the sun had set, he retrieved the clothes he had hung up to dry. Xiaoying was in the kitchen stir frying while complaining about how useless the ventilation fan was. Qiuyan helped to bring out the dishes and yelled towards the balcony: “Ge, time to eat.”

Cunqu tossed the fresh laundry onto the couch and said he needed to wash his hands. When he headed into the bathroom to wash his hands, Qiuyan followed after him and quickly kissed his cheek. Then he hugged him from behind and said: “Wash together, let’s wash together.”

They playfully fought as they washed their hands. When they turned around, they saw Xiaoying standing at the bathroom entrance. Qiuyan was so surprised he almost leaped onto the sink counter. He yelped: “How did you walk over here without making a sound, old lady[4]?” 

Xiaoying’s gaze traveled between the two of them back and forth. Cunqu mumbled: “Grandma…”

The three of them stood stock-still at the bathroom entrance. Xiaoying said: “Hurry and come out to eat. I thought the two of you somehow encountered some big problem while washing your hands…” -> Chapter 16

Footnotes

[1] Not sure if I already footnoted this, but "jie-jie" is older sister haha ("ge-ge" is older brother) [2] A specific type of China rose 果汁阳台 (google images: https://tinyurl.com/2rxfnbzn) [3]  The word is 宝贝, it literally means treasure but is used in a similar way as the “baby” endearment. So it can be translated as that as well.  [4] I don’t know if I ever mentioned this but whenever Qiuyan calls Xiaoying “old lady” he always uses 老太太, which is a respectful address for an elderly woman.