一厘米的阳光， 第四章：故人已归来 (Part 2 of 2)
At the weekend, she went home.
Nuannuan was addicted to QQ chat; however being strictly supervised, she could only take the opportunity when Ji Yi came home every weekend to play to her heart’s content. Therefore, the moment she got back, Nuannuan was already there to report to her.
“My little uncle has returned.” Nuannuan was focused on the computer’s screen, not even turning her head back.
She gave an “um” sound, looking at the math exercise problems while using her teeth to bite off little bits of an apple. A thick pile of exercise papers, scrawled over were letters and the notes she had added herself. Unfortunately, although she seemed to be diligently reviewing at the moment, her mind was in fact already slightly stretched taut, wanting to hear Nuannuan talk further.
Why doesn’t she say anymore?
She glanced at the computer, discovering… Nuannuan was typing the words “I also miss you a lot”.
“Nuannuan, you’re dating online?” She was surprised.
“Shh, keep your voice down a little,” Nuannuan turned back her head, softly said, “It’s class leader.”
Ji Yi’s eyes widened, curiously wondering: When did this happen, how could she not know?
“He is at an internet cafe, doing the problems while chatting with me,” Nuannuan said in a low voice, “Replies so slowly.”
“Puppy love…” Ji Yi murmured.
“Pah, I am a person who already holds an identity card,” Nuannuan turned her head back and smiled, “Little Xixi, if you are talking to someone, that’s when it can be called puppy love, fourteen year old Little Xixi oh.”
Did not feel anything when they were little, but now that they are in high school, the difference in age suddenly became so obvious.
Moreover, Nuannuan, from when they entered high school, started to especially like to call her by her little name, taking it as a source of great fun…
Ji Yi lowered her head, continued to chew the peel of the apple.
Because they talked up the topic of an identity card, Nuannuan remembered the fast approaching summer break, and also Ji Yi’s birthday. Every year either during the winter break or summer break, Nuanuan would have to go to Chengdu, to accompany her maternal grandfather for a week.
“Xixi, why don’t you go together with me,” Nuannuan finally saw a reply from class leader, instantly tapping away a bunch of words; as she was typing, she continued, “Just the time to give you a birthday celebration. There’s more, my little uncle will also be coming too.” Nuannuan’s last sentence was just said as a matter of fact, but Ji Yi heard it clear in her ears.
“We will take the plane with grandpa, won’t need the identity card. On the return, we will take the plane by ourselves, you must remember,” Nuannuan in the end did not forget to remind her, “Little child who doesn’t have an identity card, remember to bring the hukou (11) booklet.”
It turned out that she did particularly well for the semester’s examinations.
When she finally received the report card, it was the same time as when the second and third uncle brought their families to grandfather’s home to have a meal. Grandfather and grandmother were very happy, so she took advantage of the moment to broach the topic of wanting to go to Sichuan with Nuannuan. When she finished, she lowered her head to eat the food in her own bowl.
“Going to Sichuan; don’t we need to ask your mom?” Third aunt-in-law said; she had just married into the family and was not familiar with the situation.
On the contrary, grandfather cleared his throat, “What did you just say? You wanted the hukou booklet?”
“Um.” She had searched through, her hukou is here, not at dad and mom’s home.
“Take it, remember to be careful to take care, be obedient, do not make any troubles for Nuannuan’s father and mother.”
She lowered her head and repeated an “um”.
After she finished the meal, she quickly gave Nuannuan a call. Not a moment later, Nuannuan ran downstairs carrying a light blue luggage, “My mom said you have never travelled far, surely wouldn’t have this,” after she was finished talking, Nuannuan also thrust her a piece of paper filled with words, “on this are the things you need to put in your luggage, my mom asked little uncle to write them down.”
Such…a special handwriting.
In fact, from when she was young, the adults she know all have beautiful handwriting.
She had once curiously asked third uncle, why are military men’s handwritings especially beautiful. Third uncle smiled and told her very as a matter-of-factly that, because there was nothing to do during the free time, everyone just practiced writing… Afterwards when she enrolled in the experimental class and saw that for the top science students in class, most of the characters they write really did not carry any strength, did she come to understand; it was because all of them were too busy, busy doing exercise papers.
However, Ji Chengyang’s script unexpectedly lacked the rigidity that could be seen in most of the military men’s writing, instead there was softness and fluidity.
Isn’t it said that looking at a person’s script is the same as looking at his person(11)? Why doesn’t it seem very much like him…
“Down jacket, gloves, hat…” Two things per line, she was reading down through every one of them when she saw the last line, “…Sanitary napkin.”
Heavens.
She was holding the note, suddenly feeling that it was too hot to handle, hearing her heart thumping inside her chest.
This note was brought down by Nuannuan, she probably couldn’t have seen it… Ji Yi suddenly felt a little self-conscious, as well as one hundred and twenty thousand times embarrassed. When she went to buy these things herself, she would always wait until there were not many people before paying. One time, when the person at the cash register was a boy, she even had to silently stand from afar and waited until a girl had come to replace, before embarrassedly going forward…
He just simply wrote it down…
Worse yet, wrote it down for her.
Ji Yi was tormented by the matter the whole night, to the point that she even dreamed of the time when she was young, and also repeatedly relived that awkward scene when she went to buy sanitary napkin for the first time. The next day, when she scrambled up from bed, she looked at that note for a long time, in the end placing it with the kite in the drawer, then put on the lock.
No matter what, these are all gifts that other people had given her.
Moreover… they cannot be seen by anyone else.
After she had finished packing the luggage, she realized that she had made a grave mistake. She had already packed the things that she normally like to wear or use inside the luggage, because it was not easy to pack, she did not want to open it again. She could only made do and endured until the day of their departure.
She had put on the backpack, waiting for Nuannuan to call her. However, the person whom she had waited for turned out to be Ji Chengyang.
“Got a lot of things in your backpack?” Ji Chengyang scanned her bulging school bag, feeling it a little strange. There was obviously the luggage, why is the school bag still packed so full?
“All of them are exercise papers,” her head lowered as she spoke, “Math exercise papers.”
Why is it that when she sees him, she thinks of that piece of note…
When he had helped her carry the luggage down the stairs, Ji Yi finally realized that the whole company only consisted of Nuannuan’s grandfather, Nuannuan’s mother, Ji Chengyang, and then Nuannuan and herself.
The northern wind blew viciously, disheveling her short hair.
“Little Xixi, your bang is in a mess, not beautiful anymore,” Nuannuan’s spirit was extremely good, helping her set her bang neatly, “We are off to conquer Chengdu! Also…” Nuannuan’s voice was lowered, “I heard just now my mom and little uncle chatting, little uncle will also be going to Daocheng Aden(12). I will definitely brazenly cadge little uncle and make him take us along.
Daocheng Aden?
Sounds like a name of an old European city fortress.
Ji Yi did not have time to ask any further and just got on the car with them.
It was a smooth journey going to the airport and boarding the plane. On the plane, there were only a few uncles in military uniform; one by one got up and greeted Nuannuan’s grandfather. One rather old uncle caught sight of Ji Chengyang, was slightly stunned, but soon broke out a smile, “This must be the youngest son of the Ji Family?” Ji Chengyang seemed to also know the uncle, courteously smiled and greeted the elder.
Nuannuan had wanted to sit next to little uncle, but was dragged to sit beside her mom, and could only longingly looked this way at Ji Chengyang and said to Ji Yi, who was preparing to sit alone, “Quickly go and sit with my little uncle so he feel doesn’t bored.”
……
Isn’t sitting with her that’s ought to make him feel bored?
Ji Yi walked over and sat down next to Ji Chengyang. Just as she was opening her school bag, taking out the exercise papers to study, she felt that he had stretched out his hand and fastened the seat belt for her with a click.
“Don’t look at the exercise papers now, you’ll feel plane sick,” his voice was above her head, in a low voice, “Wait until the plane has taken off for half an hour before studying.”
She nodded her head.
“These exercise papers are assigned by the teacher as her winter break homework,” Nuannuan who had had her head turned towards this way the whole time quickly explained, “Our class’s top ten students were all called up to the teacher’s office, each and everyone was openly scolded, all of them were given so much homework, even our class leader who ranks the first in our class was also scolded by the teacher, saying that of all the subjects, it’s only chemistry that his worst at, that if he can’t do better, just move out of the experimental class. Even the number one in the whole class was scolded so much, can they survive at all…”
“You girls’ class leader?” Nuannuan’s mother pondered, “Is that the boy who is especially tall, and looks quite cute when he smiles?”
Nuannuan was suddenly taken by surprise, wearily diverting the topic away from class leader, “Ji Yi is weak at math. She was scolded for half an hour. We students in the experimental class are especially pitiful, first semester was the courses from first year of high school, second semester was already courses from the second year. Little uncle, you must explain the questions to Ji Yi.”
It was Nuannuan’s mother who laughed first, “Talking as if you aren’t also in the same class as Ji Yi, why didn’t you ask little uncle to teach you?”
“Even if he explains, I wouldn’t understand,” Nuannuan stroked her mother’s arm, “Mom, even if I don’t study well, you wouldn’t turn your back on me, right?”
Nuannuan’s mother smiled helplessly, “If you are not good at studying, later, you can only enroll in legacy class(13) in military school.”
“…I don’t want, I don’t want to wake up early everyday for the drill…”
……
Nuannuan was exaggerating a little. As the one who was scolded, she on the contrary was not struck by such a great feeling.
When the plane took off, she finally realized that what Ji Chengyang had said about plane sickness was true. She and Nuannuan were both too excited that they did not have a good sleep the night before, and now, they were experiencing the reaction.
Nuannuan was lying on her side, sound asleep in her mother’s embrace, no longer making noises.
Those uncles all joked that the little dictator was finally quiet for a while. As she hugged the pillow and closed her eyes, trying to find the best position to sleep, her face was suddenly cupped by a warm palm and she was gently pulled towards Ji Chengyang’s shoulder. She was caught by surprise. Without daring to open her eyes, she pretended that she was still sleepy, and leaned over.
“Sleep well,” she could hear him say, this time his voice was really so very very close.
She did not utter a sound, and, in the midst of plane sickness, slowly drifted off to sleep.
She did not sleep very soundly. Half way through the flight, she could slightly feel that he had covered her up with a layer of blanket, so that, not long after, she was already feeling so hot that her palms were starting to sweat. Sleepily, she stretched out her arm and lightly grasped on the cuff of his shirt, wanting to tell him that it was so hot, but before she could finish, she had already fell into another dream.
Nuannuan’s mother turned back to look and let out a laugh, “Xixi’s face is almost completely red, you are making her too hot.” Ji Chengyang lowered his head and examined her face; it was indeed so hot that it was slightly flushed.
He then used his hand to feel her forehead; there were already sweat.
…….
He has always been said to be high in both IQ and EQ, yet when he meets Xixi…seems like whatever he does is always wrong.
He only meant to treat her well, but did not have any experience taking care of children. Ji Chengyang took off the gold half-framed glasses, softly kneaded the area between his brows, and could not help but laugh. He loosened the safety belt on her body, put away the arm rest between them, placed a pillow on his legs and let her lie on the pillow.
As he was considering removing the blanket on the outer layer, he paused for a moment, and just slightly lifted up a half of it.
“Um, was just going to remind you,” Nuannuan’s mother was also amused, praising him with pretended seriousness, “Removing it too quickly can give her a chill, now you really seem like an uncle.”
On the very evening of their arrival in Chengdu, Ji Chengyang began preparing to leave for Daocheng Aden on the second day. Nuannuan indeed did as she had said, exhausted every possible way, finally causing everyone a headache that they finally agreed to have Ji Chengyang take her and Ji Yi along.
“You know, there could be some altitude sickness,” Nuannuan’s mother tried her hardest to dissuade them.
“No problem,” Nuannuan sucked air into her mouth as she ate chuanchuan xiang(14), “Grandpa has already agreed, he will arrange especially experienced solider and doctor for me.
Chuanchuan xiang
Image credit
In the end, dissuasion declared defeat.
Ji Yi also ate until her eyes were brimmed with tears, so spicy, and quietly eyed Nuannuan with respect.
……So dictatorial, simply a strength of one that wins against ten.
Early morning on the second day, they left Chengdu when it was just five o’clock. As the car drove along, they slept all through the way. It was time for lunch when they finally woke. After having some food, Nuannuan started to happily grab and sway Ji Chengyang’s arms, trying to humor him(15), or holding up her phone by herself, surreptitiously sending texts to Class Leader Yu Qing.
At the times when she was playing with her phone, Ji Yi would talk to Ji Chengyang to keep him company.
Saying that she was accompanying him, more correctly would be that he was accompanying her.
Ji Yi looked at the outside scenery through the window, softly said: “The air outside must be especially good.”
“Indeed very good,” the driver who was sitting on one side answered, “but also very cold. Not only that, you two little ladies should spare some strength, the road we are on today will be even higher up from sea-level as we go, perhaps when we arrive in the evening, you two might not be able to stand it.”
“Altitude sickness?” Nuannuan’s mother had mentioned it before.
“Yes, altitude sickness,” the driver smiled, “but we have a doctor with a lot of experience with us, we are much better off than those other travelers who drive here by themselves.
She nodded.
Although she wanted to keep asking whether the place they were going would be fun, she was also afraid that the driver might find her bothersome and did not ask any more questions.
However, the driver enjoyed talking and explained for a while, saying that usually, in the high altitude, people who are physically weak does not have any problems, instead it was healthy people who were easily affected.
She listened for a while, feeling that she herself gets sick quite often. Nuannuan’s health on the other hand, was very good.
She craned her neck, with her hand, she patted Ji Chengyang who was sitting on the passenger seat. Finding that his eyes were closed, Ji Yi was afraid that she would wake him up, so she quietly retracted her hand, but he suddenly grabbed her wrist, “What happened? Hungry? Thirsty?”
She was embarrassed, shaking her head, “No.”
Ji Chengyang let go of her, “Or do you want to go to the bathroom?”
She was even more embarrassed now, shaking her head profusely, “No.”
“Uncomfortable? Have a headache? Cannot breathe?”
“No…,” Ji Yi said with a low voice, “Just wanted to ask whether you are healthy or not.”
Only to elicit that string of questions.
Ji Chengyang obviously had not paid attention to what the driver was saying and did not really understand what she meant to say; however, there was a change in his gaze. Before she could see them in his eyes, she already heard Nuannuan exclaimed: “Why isn’t there signal anymore?” The driver quickly explained, saying that the place is not Chengdu after all, intermittent signal is very common, also, they were entering the mountain area, signal will be even worse.
Nuannuan’s expression changed, she just thought that as she traveled, she could continue to call and text class leader.
She did not think that her expectation would be totally shattered.
In the evening when it was time for bed, Nuannuan could not take it anymore, tossing and turning in bed.
Ji Yi was only half-asleep, disturbed by her.
“They said tomorrow we are going to the home of one of little uncle’s relatives, then only the day after tomorrow that we reach Daocheng. I can’t do this. I can’t take not being able to talk with Yu Qing for so many days.”
“You can just think of it as helping him save money,” Ji Yi yawned, quietly said, “So many texts and calls, it wouldn’t be enough even if he does two part-time jobs.” Nuannuan felt a little cold, poking her feet under Ji Yi’s cotton blanket and putting them between her thighs.
Ji Yi was so cold that her face was contorted, using hands to rub her feet, “Your feet are so cold.”
“What should I do? I miss him…” Nuannuan continued to say, “The cell phone was all but bought by my money for him as a gift, wasn’t easy to convince him to take it, even said that he would repay me after saving enough money… Phone charges he absolutely wouldn’t let me pay for him.”
Being a “man”, none of them would feel right taking these.
She thought about it, then fell asleep again.
Nuannuan woke her up again, suddenly said: “Xixi… The day after tomorrow is your birthday, how about you celebrate it with just my little uncle?”
“Ah?” she did not understand.
“It’s not very often you get to come, it would be a pity if you don’t go to Aden,” Nuannuan spoke and decided by herself, making a plan, “Tomorrow I will pretend to have altitude sickness, how about that? You need to help me lie, tell them that I was feeling horrible all night.”
“Wouldn’t the doctor be able to tell?” Even though this grown-up little miss is adept at playing sick.
“What would he be able to tell?” Nuannuan had already thought out the plan, “I will just say that I feel uncomfortable, they wouldn’t dare not send me back to Chengdu.”
“Actually, it’s not as if there is no signal at all, sometimes there is.”
“I want to have it every time at every single moment, Xixi—“ Nuannuan was really struck with love sickness.
“… Then how about I just go back with you?”
“No, you go and celebrate your birthday. I’m telling you, it’s very very beautiful there,” Nuannuan recalled what little uncle had said, “surrounded by snow-capped mountains, under the mountains are villages, warm as spring, and all sorts of animals…”
“Wild goats, deers, also Zangmaji(16), Ji Yi completed the sentence for her, “and also old temples.”
Zangmaji (Tibetan eared pheasant)
Image Credit
These are all what the driver had talked of in the car, her heart was so tickled.
In the end, she caved against her conscience for the first time, and on waking up the next day, helped Nuannuan to successfully lie and she herself stayed on.
“You really don’t want to go back?” Ji Chengyang was using his hand to feel Nuannuan’s forehead, but could not really tell whether she had really started having altitude sickness as he turned back his head to ask Ji Yi.
Stay. If you stay, you’ll get to see snow-capped mountains, grasslands, autumn leaves, brooks…
Ji Yi looked at him, softly uttered an “um”.
Ji Chengyang surprisingly simply agreed.
When he was already on the car on to continue on their journey, he was still pondering whether he had made the wrong decision. After all, this was a child from another family, from then on, the road would be even farther from sea level, if anything happens, he really would not be able to take responsibility… but seeing Ji Yi with her nose pressed against the window, her constant surprised expressions at the outside scenery, he finally felt at ease.
They have a doctor with them anyway; there can’t be any big troubles.
The farther they went, the worse the road got. It was all winding road up the mountains.
As the driver drove the car, he also said: “I heard that they are applying for Natural World Heritage or something. Perhaps, in ten years, this place would become a scenic spot. When that happens, the road should be improved quite a lot.”
Ji Yi originally thought that they would be able to see the tibetan houses she had heard about. When Ji Chengyang told her that the place they were heading in the evening was not Daocheng, Ji Yi finally remembered that they were going to his relative’s home this evening.
From what she had heard, Nuannuan also did not know this relative, so they must be from Ji Chengyang’s mother side?
When the sun was about to set, they finally entered a town that was not too big.
The car drove in along an old road. The road was constructed from all kinds of stone planks placed next to each other; there were quite a few bumps. She looked through the window, there were red-colored wooden gate and wall, as well as a lamp that swayed side to side. After the car had taken several turns, they were already on dirt road. If they kept driving, it would be driving on stream and a vast expanse of grasses.
When they finally stopped and the driver was asking Ji Chengyang if it was the place, he surprisingly did not quickly answered.
Ji Yi got off the car, followed Ji Chengyang through the large gate into the court yard. Just as they stepped inside, there was suddenly a barking sound of a dog. Heavens… when she looked at a very large black dog in front of her, her legs went limp.
Ji Chengyang stretched out a hand, keeping her protected behind him.
“Xiaohei!” The voice of an old grandmother stopped the dog just as she also lifted open the cotton curtain and walked towards them.
When the old grandmother caught sight of Ji Chengyang’s whole company, she was startled at first, then, after closely examining Ji Chengyang, her eyes suddenly widened, so that the tears gushing down the corners of her eyes could be seen…
“Yangang, Is that Yangyang…”
Ji Chengyang made a sound as a confirmation and called out “Great aunt(17)”.
Even though Great aunt’s legs and foot were not agile, she nonetheless walked towards them with quick steps and did not stop looking at Ji Chengyang. After several agitated questions, her gaze finally fell on Ji Yi, “This is…a child of their family?”
“No.” Ji Chengyang refuted.
Great aunt stroked Ji Yi’s face. She was obedient, did not move away.
In fact, she had also considered, shouldn’t there be another greeting, after all, she herself calls Ji Chengyang Little uncle… But what would one call little uncle’s great aunt? She really don’t know.
So she could only, in a low voice, followed Ji Chengyang and called out Great aunt.
“Is this the little wife Ji family found for you?”
……
Even though Great aunt spoke with quite a strange accent, she could still understand that sentence and instantly felt awkward.
Ji Chengyang was also caught off guard for a moment, suddenly laughed, “No, this is a child from another family.”
Great aunt was confused, then why does she also call me great aunt?
However, she did not continue to ask and busily led them inside the house. The driver and solider were both from Sichuan and grew familiar after chatting for a few sentences. Ji Chengyang seemed to be able to understand their local dialect, but could not speak very well, and only stood by the fire’s side to warm himself.
In the evening, a crowd of people visited. Ji Chengyang worried that she would not be comfortable and let her sit and watch the television inside the house.
There were not that many channels, Ji Yi was bored after changing channels with the remote control for a while and just took out the exercise papers from her school bag and spread them all over the bed. When it was almost time for bed, Ji Chengyang came in and saw her, under the yellow-colored light from the bulb, holding a pen, her teeth gnawing on the transparent pen cap. She seemed to be stuck on a hard question.
She was not even one meter and fifty tall, also quite thin, coiled up amongst the piles of exercise papers, just a tiny ball.
Her shadow was even smaller.
“Got stuck?” He walked over and sat down by her side.
“Um.” She pushed the paper over to him expectantly, pointing at the question.
He read the question, said in a flat voice: “y≤0 or y≥4.”
“…Not showing your work, no points.”
“Why?” Ji Chengyang took her pen and started writing down the steps on her scratch book.
He wrote sloppily, just writing out briefly what came to his mind.
“Don’t know… Before this, it was because I did not show the steps that I was given no points. There’s no use even if the answer is correct,” Ji Yi was also unhappy, looking at what he had written down, roughly understood the meaning, but there were still a lot she had to add, “Skipping steps… will also be marked down.”
Ji Chengyang paused for a moment, then good-humoredly started writing again, this time much more detailed.
“Also need to write…a lot of words, not only the formulas…”
“For example?” He really had forgotten how to write the answers in high school.
“For example,” she told him with seriousness, “The last sentence, you cannot write ‘C is vertically located at y≤0 or y≥4’, you must write ‘The limit of C’s vertical coordinate is ….y≤0 or y≥4’.”
……
He finally smiled helpelessly, “Is it that if I were to study in your class, I would also be made to stand still as punishment by the teacher?”
“…That’s possible.” Ji Yi answered honestly.
She had waited for him the entire evening, but still felt too embarrassed to ask him where the bathroom was. Now that they had talked for a while, she finally felt that she absolutely must use the bathroom and very awkwardly asked: “Do you know… where the bathroom of Great aunt’s home is?”
Ji Chengyang was again taken by surprise, realizing that she had not yet gone to the bathroom since they arrived…
She must have waited for so long?
He felt quite guilty leading her out. The cement platform was empty but for a string of rope, a yellow light bulb hung down from above, illuminating the greater half of the courtyard. The dog was already tied up. There should not be any problem. He pointed to a small brick wall house at the corner of the courtyard, “Go, I will wait for you here.”
Where?
Ji Yi walked over, the light growing dimmer and dimmer. As she followed the small path to the front of the brick wall, it got so dark that there was merely moonlight.
The inside was pitch-dark, no door.
So scary.
But Ji Chengyang was standing behind looking at her.
Finally, under the great conviction “I cannot cause more trouble, I cannot embarrass myself”, Ji Yi walked in; it was indeed an old kind of bathroom in the country. She hastily went in, and hastily ran out, only to find that even the light in the courtyard was out; moreover, there was no shadow of anyone. Seeing this, her hands and feet turned cold.
Where is Ji Chengyang?
Where is Little uncle Ji……
This is too scary, why is it just like in a horror movie, an old-fashioned courtyard, and also the soft barking sound of a dog.
There is no one, not even a single person.
“Xixi?” A sound coming from the large gate called out to her, a shadow of a person came towards her.
When Ji Yi abruptly turned over and found that it was him, she quickly threw herself forward, tightly hugging his waist, burying her face deeply inside his black cashmere shirt, so scared that her hands and feet had gone limp, “Where did you go…”
(11) 户口 (hùkǒu): household registration book, usually required for a lot of official applications and procedures, including marriage registration. For young children who do not yet hold an identity card, hukou is used instead.
(12) 观字如观人 (guānzìrúguānrén): Looking at a person’s script is the same as looking at his person, meaning that a person’s character can be deduced from his/her handwriting.
(13) Daocheng Aden or 稻城亚丁 (Dàochéng Yàdīng) is a nature reserve located in Tibet. See http://www.thelandofsnows.com/yading-sichuan/
(14) 军校子弟班 (jūnxiàozǐdìbān): literally translated as sons of the people’s class in military school. From what I gathered from the internet, it is post-high school (not sure if it is equivalent to university level) class in military schools that can be enrolled by students who are related to high-ranking officials in the military.
(15) 串串香 (chuànchuànxiāng): Chuan chuan xiang, or 麻辣烫 (málàtāng), is a POPULAR (emphasis is mine, because I love them. One of my best memories in China is eating malatang out on the street in an evening on a winter day in Beijing :P) Chinese street food, like a hotpot that you can pick and choose what to put in a specially-seasoned soup. 串 means skewers, and the ingredients do usually come in skewers. One of the spices in the soup is Sichuan pepper corns (麻辣 is a combination of two words: numbing + spicy, numbness coming from the Sichuan pepper corns) and, naturally, the dish originated in Sichuan. But according to wikipedia, there is a difference between the original Sichuan version and the popularized version.
(16) The original word used in the novel is actually 撒娇, which means acting pouty to gain a person’s affection. Again, Hoju over at Hui3r did a much better job explaining the meaning of this word so I’m linking the blog post here: https://hui3r.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/together-forever-%E8%87%B3%E6%AD%A4%E7%BB%88%E5%B9%B4-chapter-6-2/#_ftn4
(17) 藏马鸡 (zàngmǎjī)： Tibetan eared pheasant, a type of bird.
(18) 姨婆 (yípó): great aunt, or your maternal grandmother’s sister.
一厘米的阳光， 第四章：故人已归来 (Part 2 of 2)
At the weekend, she went home.
Nuannuan was addicted to QQ chat; however being strictly supervised, she could only take the opportunity when Ji Yi came home every weekend to play to her heart’s content. Therefore, the moment she got back, Nuannuan was already there to report to her.
“My little uncle has returned.” Nuannuan was focused on the computer’s screen, not even turning her head back.
She gave an “um” sound, looking at the math exercise problems while using her teeth to bite off little bits of an apple. A thick pile of exercise papers, scrawled over were letters and the notes she had added herself. Unfortunately, although she seemed to be diligently reviewing at the moment, her mind was in fact already slightly stretched taut, wanting to hear Nuannuan talk further.
Why doesn’t she say anymore?
She glanced at the computer, discovering… Nuannuan was typing the words “I also miss you a lot”.
“Nuannuan, you’re dating online?” She was surprised.
“Shh, keep your voice down a little,” Nuannuan turned back her head, softly said, “It’s class leader.”
Ji Yi’s eyes widened, curiously wondering: When did this happen, how could she not know?
“He is at an internet cafe, doing the problems while chatting with me,” Nuannuan said in a low voice, “Replies so slowly.”
“Puppy love…” Ji Yi murmured.
“Pah, I am a person who already holds an identity card,” Nuannuan turned her head back and smiled, “Little Xixi, if you are talking to someone, that’s when it can be called puppy love, fourteen year old Little Xixi oh.”
Did not feel anything when they were little, but now that they are in high school, the difference in age suddenly became so obvious.
Moreover, Nuannuan, from when they entered high school, started to especially like to call her by her little name, taking it as a source of great fun…
Ji Yi lowered her head, continued to chew the peel of the apple.
Because they talked up the topic of an identity card, Nuannuan remembered the fast approaching summer break, and also Ji Yi’s birthday. Every year either during the winter break or summer break, Nuanuan would have to go to Chengdu, to accompany her maternal grandfather for a week.
“Xixi, why don’t you go together with me,” Nuannuan finally saw a reply from class leader, instantly tapping away a bunch of words; as she was typing, she continued, “Just the time to give you a birthday celebration. There’s more, my little uncle will also be coming too.” Nuannuan’s last sentence was just said as a matter of fact, but Ji Yi heard it clear in her ears.
“We will take the plane with grandpa, won’t need the identity card. On the return, we will take the plane by ourselves, you must remember,” Nuannuan in the end did not forget to remind her, “Little child who doesn’t have an identity card, remember to bring the hukou (11) booklet.”
It turned out that she did particularly well for the semester’s examinations.
When she finally received the report card, it was the same time as when the second and third uncle brought their families to grandfather’s home to have a meal. Grandfather and grandmother were very happy, so she took advantage of the moment to broach the topic of wanting to go to Sichuan with Nuannuan. When she finished, she lowered her head to eat the food in her own bowl.
“Going to Sichuan; don’t we need to ask your mom?” Third aunt-in-law said; she had just married into the family and was not familiar with the situation.
On the contrary, grandfather cleared his throat, “What did you just say? You wanted the hukou booklet?”
“Um.” She had searched through, her hukou is here, not at dad and mom’s home.
“Take it, remember to be careful to take care, be obedient, do not make any troubles for Nuannuan’s father and mother.”
She lowered her head and repeated an “um”.
After she finished the meal, she quickly gave Nuannuan a call. Not a moment later, Nuannuan ran downstairs carrying a light blue luggage, “My mom said you have never travelled far, surely wouldn’t have this,” after she was finished talking, Nuannuan also thrust her a piece of paper filled with words, “on this are the things you need to put in your luggage, my mom asked little uncle to write them down.”
Such…a special handwriting.
In fact, from when she was young, the adults she know all have beautiful handwriting.
She had once curiously asked third uncle, why are military men’s handwritings especially beautiful. Third uncle smiled and told her very as a matter-of-factly that, because there was nothing to do during the free time, everyone just practiced writing… Afterwards when she enrolled in the experimental class and saw that for the top science students in class, most of the characters they write really did not carry any strength, did she come to understand; it was because all of them were too busy, busy doing exercise papers.
However, Ji Chengyang’s script unexpectedly lacked the rigidity that could be seen in most of the military men’s writing, instead there was softness and fluidity.
Isn’t it said that looking at a person’s script is the same as looking at his person(11)? Why doesn’t it seem very much like him…
“Down jacket, gloves, hat…” Two things per line, she was reading down through every one of them when she saw the last line, “…Sanitary napkin.”
Heavens.
She was holding the note, suddenly feeling that it was too hot to handle, hearing her heart thumping inside her chest.
This note was brought down by Nuannuan, she probably couldn’t have seen it… Ji Yi suddenly felt a little self-conscious, as well as one hundred and twenty thousand times embarrassed. When she went to buy these things herself, she would always wait until there were not many people before paying. One time, when the person at the cash register was a boy, she even had to silently stand from afar and waited until a girl had come to replace, before embarrassedly going forward…
He just simply wrote it down…
Worse yet, wrote it down for her.
Ji Yi was tormented by the matter the whole night, to the point that she even dreamed of the time when she was young, and also repeatedly relived that awkward scene when she went to buy sanitary napkin for the first time. The next day, when she scrambled up from bed, she looked at that note for a long time, in the end placing it with the kite in the drawer, then put on the lock.
No matter what, these are all gifts that other people had given her.
Moreover… they cannot be seen by anyone else.
After she had finished packing the luggage, she realized that she had made a grave mistake. She had already packed the things that she normally like to wear or use inside the luggage, because it was not easy to pack, she did not want to open it again. She could only made do and endured until the day of their departure.
She had put on the backpack, waiting for Nuannuan to call her. However, the person whom she had waited for turned out to be Ji Chengyang.
“Got a lot of things in your backpack?” Ji Chengyang scanned her bulging school bag, feeling it a little strange. There was obviously the luggage, why is the school bag still packed so full?
“All of them are exercise papers,” her head lowered as she spoke, “Math exercise papers.”
Why is it that when she sees him, she thinks of that piece of note…
When he had helped her carry the luggage down the stairs, Ji Yi finally realized that the whole company only consisted of Nuannuan’s grandfather, Nuannuan’s mother, Ji Chengyang, and then Nuannuan and herself.
The northern wind blew viciously, disheveling her short hair.
“Little Xixi, your bang is in a mess, not beautiful anymore,” Nuannuan’s spirit was extremely good, helping her set her bang neatly, “We are off to conquer Chengdu! Also…” Nuannuan’s voice was lowered, “I heard just now my mom and little uncle chatting, little uncle will also be going to Daocheng Aden(12). I will definitely brazenly cadge little uncle and make him take us along.
Daocheng Aden?
Sounds like a name of an old European city fortress.
Ji Yi did not have time to ask any further and just got on the car with them.
It was a smooth journey going to the airport and boarding the plane. On the plane, there were only a few uncles in military uniform; one by one got up and greeted Nuannuan’s grandfather. One rather old uncle caught sight of Ji Chengyang, was slightly stunned, but soon broke out a smile, “This must be the youngest son of the Ji Family?” Ji Chengyang seemed to also know the uncle, courteously smiled and greeted the elder.
Nuannuan had wanted to sit next to little uncle, but was dragged to sit beside her mom, and could only longingly looked this way at Ji Chengyang and said to Ji Yi, who was preparing to sit alone, “Quickly go and sit with my little uncle so he feel doesn’t bored.”
……
Isn’t sitting with her that’s ought to make him feel bored?
Ji Yi walked over and sat down next to Ji Chengyang. Just as she was opening her school bag, taking out the exercise papers to study, she felt that he had stretched out his hand and fastened the seat belt for her with a click.
“Don’t look at the exercise papers now, you’ll feel plane sick,” his voice was above her head, in a low voice, “Wait until the plane has taken off for half an hour before studying.”
She nodded her head.
“These exercise papers are assigned by the teacher as her winter break homework,” Nuannuan who had had her head turned towards this way the whole time quickly explained, “Our class’s top ten students were all called up to the teacher’s office, each and everyone was openly scolded, all of them were given so much homework, even our class leader who ranks the first in our class was also scolded by the teacher, saying that of all the subjects, it’s only chemistry that his worst at, that if he can’t do better, just move out of the experimental class. Even the number one in the whole class was scolded so much, can they survive at all…”
“You girls’ class leader?” Nuannuan’s mother pondered, “Is that the boy who is especially tall, and looks quite cute when he smiles?”
Nuannuan was suddenly taken by surprise, wearily diverting the topic away from class leader, “Ji Yi is weak at math. She was scolded for half an hour. We students in the experimental class are especially pitiful, first semester was the courses from first year of high school, second semester was already courses from the second year. Little uncle, you must explain the questions to Ji Yi.”
It was Nuannuan’s mother who laughed first, “Talking as if you aren’t also in the same class as Ji Yi, why didn’t you ask little uncle to teach you?”
“Even if he explains, I wouldn’t understand,” Nuannuan stroked her mother’s arm, “Mom, even if I don’t study well, you wouldn’t turn your back on me, right?”
Nuannuan’s mother smiled helplessly, “If you are not good at studying, later, you can only enroll in legacy class(13) in military school.”
“…I don’t want, I don’t want to wake up early everyday for the drill…”
……
Nuannuan was exaggerating a little. As the one who was scolded, she on the contrary was not struck by such a great feeling.
When the plane took off, she finally realized that what Ji Chengyang had said about plane sickness was true. She and Nuannuan were both too excited that they did not have a good sleep the night before, and now, they were experiencing the reaction.
Nuannuan was lying on her side, sound asleep in her mother’s embrace, no longer making noises.
Those uncles all joked that the little dictator was finally quiet for a while. As she hugged the pillow and closed her eyes, trying to find the best position to sleep, her face was suddenly cupped by a warm palm and she was gently pulled towards Ji Chengyang’s shoulder. She was caught by surprise. Without daring to open her eyes, she pretended that she was still sleepy, and leaned over.
“Sleep well,” she could hear him say, this time his voice was really so very very close.
She did not utter a sound, and, in the midst of plane sickness, slowly drifted off to sleep.
She did not sleep very soundly. Half way through the flight, she could slightly feel that he had covered her up with a layer of blanket, so that, not long after, she was already feeling so hot that her palms were starting to sweat. Sleepily, she stretched out her arm and lightly grasped on the cuff of his shirt, wanting to tell him that it was so hot, but before she could finish, she had already fell into another dream.
Nuannuan’s mother turned back to look and let out a laugh, “Xixi’s face is almost completely red, you are making her too hot.” Ji Chengyang lowered his head and examined her face; it was indeed so hot that it was slightly flushed.
He then used his hand to feel her forehead; there were already sweat.
…….
He has always been said to be high in both IQ and EQ, yet when he meets Xixi…seems like whatever he does is always wrong.
He only meant to treat her well, but did not have any experience taking care of children. Ji Chengyang took off the gold half-framed glasses, softly kneaded the area between his brows, and could not help but laugh. He loosened the safety belt on her body, put away the arm rest between them, placed a pillow on his legs and let her lie on the pillow.
As he was considering removing the blanket on the outer layer, he paused for a moment, and just slightly lifted up a half of it.
“Um, was just going to remind you,” Nuannuan’s mother was also amused, praising him with pretended seriousness, “Removing it too quickly can give her a chill, now you really seem like an uncle.”
On the very evening of their arrival in Chengdu, Ji Chengyang began preparing to leave for Daocheng Aden on the second day. Nuannuan indeed did as she had said, exhausted every possible way, finally causing everyone a headache that they finally agreed to have Ji Chengyang take her and Ji Yi along.
“You know, there could be some altitude sickness,” Nuannuan’s mother tried her hardest to dissuade them.
“No problem,” Nuannuan sucked air into her mouth as she ate chuanchuan xiang(14), “Grandpa has already agreed, he will arrange especially experienced solider and doctor for me.
Chuanchuan xiang
Image credit
In the end, dissuasion declared defeat.
Ji Yi also ate until her eyes were brimmed with tears, so spicy, and quietly eyed Nuannuan with respect.
……So dictatorial, simply a strength of one that wins against ten.
Early morning on the second day, they left Chengdu when it was just five o’clock. As the car drove along, they slept all through the way. It was time for lunch when they finally woke. After having some food, Nuannuan started to happily grab and sway Ji Chengyang’s arms, trying to humor him(15), or holding up her phone by herself, surreptitiously sending texts to Class Leader Yu Qing.
At the times when she was playing with her phone, Ji Yi would talk to Ji Chengyang to keep him company.
Saying that she was accompanying him, more correctly would be that he was accompanying her.
Ji Yi looked at the outside scenery through the window, softly said: “The air outside must be especially good.”
“Indeed very good,” the driver who was sitting on one side answered, “but also very cold. Not only that, you two little ladies should spare some strength, the road we are on today will be even higher up from sea-level as we go, perhaps when we arrive in the evening, you two might not be able to stand it.”
“Altitude sickness?” Nuannuan’s mother had mentioned it before.
“Yes, altitude sickness,” the driver smiled, “but we have a doctor with a lot of experience with us, we are much better off than those other travelers who drive here by themselves.
She nodded.
Although she wanted to keep asking whether the place they were going would be fun, she was also afraid that the driver might find her bothersome and did not ask any more questions.
However, the driver enjoyed talking and explained for a while, saying that usually, in the high altitude, people who are physically weak does not have any problems, instead it was healthy people who were easily affected.
She listened for a while, feeling that she herself gets sick quite often. Nuannuan’s health on the other hand, was very good.
She craned her neck, with her hand, she patted Ji Chengyang who was sitting on the passenger seat. Finding that his eyes were closed, Ji Yi was afraid that she would wake him up, so she quietly retracted her hand, but he suddenly grabbed her wrist, “What happened? Hungry? Thirsty?”
She was embarrassed, shaking her head, “No.”
Ji Chengyang let go of her, “Or do you want to go to the bathroom?”
She was even more embarrassed now, shaking her head profusely, “No.”
“Uncomfortable? Have a headache? Cannot breathe?”
“No…,” Ji Yi said with a low voice, “Just wanted to ask whether you are healthy or not.”
Only to elicit that string of questions.
Ji Chengyang obviously had not paid attention to what the driver was saying and did not really understand what she meant to say; however, there was a change in his gaze. Before she could see them in his eyes, she already heard Nuannuan exclaimed: “Why isn’t there signal anymore?” The driver quickly explained, saying that the place is not Chengdu after all, intermittent signal is very common, also, they were entering the mountain area, signal will be even worse.
Nuannuan’s expression changed, she just thought that as she traveled, she could continue to call and text class leader.
She did not think that her expectation would be totally shattered.
In the evening when it was time for bed, Nuannuan could not take it anymore, tossing and turning in bed.
Ji Yi was only half-asleep, disturbed by her.
“They said tomorrow we are going to the home of one of little uncle’s relatives, then only the day after tomorrow that we reach Daocheng. I can’t do this. I can’t take not being able to talk with Yu Qing for so many days.”
“You can just think of it as helping him save money,” Ji Yi yawned, quietly said, “So many texts and calls, it wouldn’t be enough even if he does two part-time jobs.” Nuannuan felt a little cold, poking her feet under Ji Yi’s cotton blanket and putting them between her thighs.
Ji Yi was so cold that her face was contorted, using hands to rub her feet, “Your feet are so cold.”
“What should I do? I miss him…” Nuannuan continued to say, “The cell phone was all but bought by my money for him as a gift, wasn’t easy to convince him to take it, even said that he would repay me after saving enough money… Phone charges he absolutely wouldn’t let me pay for him.”
Being a “man”, none of them would feel right taking these.
She thought about it, then fell asleep again.
Nuannuan woke her up again, suddenly said: “Xixi… The day after tomorrow is your birthday, how about you celebrate it with just my little uncle?”
“Ah?” she did not understand.
“It’s not very often you get to come, it would be a pity if you don’t go to Aden,” Nuannuan spoke and decided by herself, making a plan, “Tomorrow I will pretend to have altitude sickness, how about that? You need to help me lie, tell them that I was feeling horrible all night.”
“Wouldn’t the doctor be able to tell?” Even though this grown-up little miss is adept at playing sick.
“What would he be able to tell?” Nuannuan had already thought out the plan, “I will just say that I feel uncomfortable, they wouldn’t dare not send me back to Chengdu.”
“Actually, it’s not as if there is no signal at all, sometimes there is.”
“I want to have it every time at every single moment, Xixi—“ Nuannuan was really struck with love sickness.
“… Then how about I just go back with you?”
“No, you go and celebrate your birthday. I’m telling you, it’s very very beautiful there,” Nuannuan recalled what little uncle had said, “surrounded by snow-capped mountains, under the mountains are villages, warm as spring, and all sorts of animals…”
“Wild goats, deers, also Zangmaji(16), Ji Yi completed the sentence for her, “and also old temples.”
Zangmaji (Tibetan eared pheasant)
Image Credit
These are all what the driver had talked of in the car, her heart was so tickled.
In the end, she caved against her conscience for the first time, and on waking up the next day, helped Nuannuan to successfully lie and she herself stayed on.
“You really don’t want to go back?” Ji Chengyang was using his hand to feel Nuannuan’s forehead, but could not really tell whether she had really started having altitude sickness as he turned back his head to ask Ji Yi.
Stay. If you stay, you’ll get to see snow-capped mountains, grasslands, autumn leaves, brooks…
Ji Yi looked at him, softly uttered an “um”.
Ji Chengyang surprisingly simply agreed.
When he was already on the car on to continue on their journey, he was still pondering whether he had made the wrong decision. After all, this was a child from another family, from then on, the road would be even farther from sea level, if anything happens, he really would not be able to take responsibility… but seeing Ji Yi with her nose pressed against the window, her constant surprised expressions at the outside scenery, he finally felt at ease.
They have a doctor with them anyway; there can’t be any big troubles.
The farther they went, the worse the road got. It was all winding road up the mountains.
As the driver drove the car, he also said: “I heard that they are applying for Natural World Heritage or something. Perhaps, in ten years, this place would become a scenic spot. When that happens, the road should be improved quite a lot.”
Ji Yi originally thought that they would be able to see the tibetan houses she had heard about. When Ji Chengyang told her that the place they were heading in the evening was not Daocheng, Ji Yi finally remembered that they were going to his relative’s home this evening.
From what she had heard, Nuannuan also did not know this relative, so they must be from Ji Chengyang’s mother side?
When the sun was about to set, they finally entered a town that was not too big.
The car drove in along an old road. The road was constructed from all kinds of stone planks placed next to each other; there were quite a few bumps. She looked through the window, there were red-colored wooden gate and wall, as well as a lamp that swayed side to side. After the car had taken several turns, they were already on dirt road. If they kept driving, it would be driving on stream and a vast expanse of grasses.
When they finally stopped and the driver was asking Ji Chengyang if it was the place, he surprisingly did not quickly answered.
Ji Yi got off the car, followed Ji Chengyang through the large gate into the court yard. Just as they stepped inside, there was suddenly a barking sound of a dog. Heavens… when she looked at a very large black dog in front of her, her legs went limp.
Ji Chengyang stretched out a hand, keeping her protected behind him.
“Xiaohei!” The voice of an old grandmother stopped the dog just as she also lifted open the cotton curtain and walked towards them.
When the old grandmother caught sight of Ji Chengyang’s whole company, she was startled at first, then, after closely examining Ji Chengyang, her eyes suddenly widened, so that the tears gushing down the corners of her eyes could be seen…
“Yangang, Is that Yangyang…”
Ji Chengyang made a sound as a confirmation and called out “Great aunt(17)”.
Even though Great aunt’s legs and foot were not agile, she nonetheless walked towards them with quick steps and did not stop looking at Ji Chengyang. After several agitated questions, her gaze finally fell on Ji Yi, “This is…a child of their family?”
“No.” Ji Chengyang refuted.
Great aunt stroked Ji Yi’s face. She was obedient, did not move away.
In fact, she had also considered, shouldn’t there be another greeting, after all, she herself calls Ji Chengyang Little uncle… But what would one call little uncle’s great aunt? She really don’t know.
So she could only, in a low voice, followed Ji Chengyang and called out Great aunt.
“Is this the little wife Ji family found for you?”
……
Even though Great aunt spoke with quite a strange accent, she could still understand that sentence and instantly felt awkward.
Ji Chengyang was also caught off guard for a moment, suddenly laughed, “No, this is a child from another family.”
Great aunt was confused, then why does she also call me great aunt?
However, she did not continue to ask and busily led them inside the house. The driver and solider were both from Sichuan and grew familiar after chatting for a few sentences. Ji Chengyang seemed to be able to understand their local dialect, but could not speak very well, and only stood by the fire’s side to warm himself.
In the evening, a crowd of people visited. Ji Chengyang worried that she would not be comfortable and let her sit and watch the television inside the house.
There were not that many channels, Ji Yi was bored after changing channels with the remote control for a while and just took out the exercise papers from her school bag and spread them all over the bed. When it was almost time for bed, Ji Chengyang came in and saw her, under the yellow-colored light from the bulb, holding a pen, her teeth gnawing on the transparent pen cap. She seemed to be stuck on a hard question.
She was not even one meter and fifty tall, also quite thin, coiled up amongst the piles of exercise papers, just a tiny ball.
Her shadow was even smaller.
“Got stuck?” He walked over and sat down by her side.
“Um.” She pushed the paper over to him expectantly, pointing at the question.
He read the question, said in a flat voice: “y≤0 or y≥4.”
“…Not showing your work, no points.”
“Why?” Ji Chengyang took her pen and started writing down the steps on her scratch book.
He wrote sloppily, just writing out briefly what came to his mind.
“Don’t know… Before this, it was because I did not show the steps that I was given no points. There’s no use even if the answer is correct,” Ji Yi was also unhappy, looking at what he had written down, roughly understood the meaning, but there were still a lot she had to add, “Skipping steps… will also be marked down.”
Ji Chengyang paused for a moment, then good-humoredly started writing again, this time much more detailed.
“Also need to write…a lot of words, not only the formulas…”
“For example?” He really had forgotten how to write the answers in high school.
“For example,” she told him with seriousness, “The last sentence, you cannot write ‘C is vertically located at y≤0 or y≥4’, you must write ‘The limit of C’s vertical coordinate is ….y≤0 or y≥4’.”
……
He finally smiled helpelessly, “Is it that if I were to study in your class, I would also be made to stand still as punishment by the teacher?”
“…That’s possible.” Ji Yi answered honestly.
She had waited for him the entire evening, but still felt too embarrassed to ask him where the bathroom was. Now that they had talked for a while, she finally felt that she absolutely must use the bathroom and very awkwardly asked: “Do you know… where the bathroom of Great aunt’s home is?”
Ji Chengyang was again taken by surprise, realizing that she had not yet gone to the bathroom since they arrived…
She must have waited for so long?
He felt quite guilty leading her out. The cement platform was empty but for a string of rope, a yellow light bulb hung down from above, illuminating the greater half of the courtyard. The dog was already tied up. There should not be any problem. He pointed to a small brick wall house at the corner of the courtyard, “Go, I will wait for you here.”
Where?
Ji Yi walked over, the light growing dimmer and dimmer. As she followed the small path to the front of the brick wall, it got so dark that there was merely moonlight.
The inside was pitch-dark, no door.
So scary.
But Ji Chengyang was standing behind looking at her.
Finally, under the great conviction “I cannot cause more trouble, I cannot embarrass myself”, Ji Yi walked in; it was indeed an old kind of bathroom in the country. She hastily went in, and hastily ran out, only to find that even the light in the courtyard was out; moreover, there was no shadow of anyone. Seeing this, her hands and feet turned cold.
Where is Ji Chengyang?
Where is Little uncle Ji……
This is too scary, why is it just like in a horror movie, an old-fashioned courtyard, and also the soft barking sound of a dog.
There is no one, not even a single person.
“Xixi?” A sound coming from the large gate called out to her, a shadow of a person came towards her.
When Ji Yi abruptly turned over and found that it was him, she quickly threw herself forward, tightly hugging his waist, burying her face deeply inside his black cashmere shirt, so scared that her hands and feet had gone limp, “Where did you go…”
(11) 户口 (hùkǒu): household registration book, usually required for a lot of official applications and procedures, including marriage registration. For young children who do not yet hold an identity card, hukou is used instead.
(12) 观字如观人 (guānzìrúguānrén): Looking at a person’s script is the same as looking at his person, meaning that a person’s character can be deduced from his/her handwriting.
(13) Daocheng Aden or 稻城亚丁 (Dàochéng Yàdīng) is a nature reserve located in Tibet. See http://www.thelandofsnows.com/yading-sichuan/
(14) 军校子弟班 (jūnxiàozǐdìbān): literally translated as sons of the people’s class in military school. From what I gathered from the internet, it is post-high school (not sure if it is equivalent to university level) class in military schools that can be enrolled by students who are related to high-ranking officials in the military.
(15) 串串香 (chuànchuànxiāng): Chuan chuan xiang, or 麻辣烫 (málàtāng), is a POPULAR (emphasis is mine, because I love them. One of my best memories in China is eating malatang out on the street in an evening on a winter day in Beijing :P) Chinese street food, like a hotpot that you can pick and choose what to put in a specially-seasoned soup. 串 means skewers, and the ingredients do usually come in skewers. One of the spices in the soup is Sichuan pepper corns (麻辣 is a combination of two words: numbing + spicy, numbness coming from the Sichuan pepper corns) and, naturally, the dish originated in Sichuan. But according to wikipedia, there is a difference between the original Sichuan version and the popularized version.
(16) The original word used in the novel is actually 撒娇, which means acting pouty to gain a person’s affection. Again, Hoju over at Hui3r did a much better job explaining the meaning of this word so I’m linking the blog post here: https://hui3r.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/together-forever-%E8%87%B3%E6%AD%A4%E7%BB%88%E5%B9%B4-chapter-6-2/#_ftn4
(17) 藏马鸡 (zàngmǎjī)： Tibetan eared pheasant, a type of bird.
(18) 姨婆 (yípó): great aunt, or your maternal grandmother’s sister.
