When Chi Wan and Song Xuan walked into the living room, they only saw Fu Ping sitting on the sofa, staring blankly and lost in thought, with no sign of Song Wenbin anywhere.
Song Xuan walked cautiously toward the sofa and called out, "Mom."
"Xuanxuan is back?" Fu Ping's eyes were still red and swollen from crying. When she turned around and saw Song Xuan, she managed a forced smile.
Catching sight of Chi Wan standing right behind Song Xuan, the smile vanished from Fu Ping's face. She said coldly, "I'm not in the mood to cook tonight. Go make dinner for your brother. I bought beef and spare ribs."
Then she turned back to Song Xuan with a smile, her voice softening as she asked, "Xuanxuan, tell your sister what you want to eat and she'll make it for you. Mom... Mom is a bit tired from work and wants to go rest for a while, okay?"
Song Xuan hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Okay."
Glancing at the now-empty wall, Chi Wan walked toward the kitchen.
With no television to watch, Song Xuan curled up on the sofa with his phone to play a mobile game. Perhaps influenced by the evening's quarrel, his usual brash shouting and yelling at his teammates over the mic was dialed down quite a bit.
At dinner, Chi Wan still did not see Song Wenbin, nor did she ask about him. Instead, Song Xuan timidly brought it up: "Mom, Dad, he..."
Fu Ping's expression stiffened. It took her a moment to reply, "Your dad... the boss called him into the office for some urgent business at work. He should be back... he should be back a bit later."
"Oh." Song Xuan poked dispiritedly at the spare ribs in his bowl.
After the meal, Fu Ping sent Song Xuan back to his bedroom and called to Chi Wan, who was about to return to her room to do homework.
The mother and daughter sat together on the sofa. Fu Ping looked at the child who shared four or five points of resemblance with her, feeling conflicted. She hesitated, seemingly trying to gather her thoughts.
While Fu Ping looked at Chi Wan, Chi Wan stared back, studying her face inch by inch. If not for their similar features, she sometimes really doubted whether she was truly this woman's daughter.
She did not know how other mothers treated their daughters, but she knew how Fu Ping pampered Song Xuan in every imaginable way, and she figured this must be what it was like.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" In the end, unable to bear it any longer, Chi Wan broke the cold and awkward silence.
Speaking in a low voice with a smile on her face, Fu Ping said, "I wanted to ask you... when we picked you up, did Granny Chi give you anything?"
This was the first time Chi Wan had ever seen Fu Ping smile at her, even though there was not a shred of genuine warmth in that smile.
She turned Fu Ping's words over in her mind. She refused to believe Fu Ping had no ulterior motive that would make her put on such a hypocritical display of maternal affection.
She remembered the day before she was brought back to the Song family, when Chi Jiang had called her over and given her a letter, telling her that upon returning to Jinshi, she could use the letter to enter Normal University High School to continue her studies. But Fu Ping and her husband already knew about this. Apart from that, Chi Jiang had not given her anything else, nor had she given any further instructions.
Chi Wan answered truthfully, "No."
"No? Really nothing? Mom knows you're an honest child." Fu Ping's voice suddenly rose with excitement.
Chi Wan couldn't help sneering inwardly as she quietly watched Fu Ping.
Jolted back to her senses by Chi Wan's cold gaze and realizing she had lost her composure, Fu Ping immediately adjusted her tone and tried coaxing her again: "Wanwan, tell Mom the truth. Did Granny really not give you anything?"
Hearing Fu Ping address her by that nickname, Chi Wan froze for a moment, momentarily caught off guard. No one had ever called her that before; even Chi Jiang always addressed her by her full name, "Chi Wan, Chi Wan."
Under Fu Ping's eager gaze, Chi Wan slowly spoke. "There is..."
Hearing this, Fu Ping's smile became much brighter and more sincere. Before Chi Wan could finish, she interrupted, "What is it? Let Mom see."
With a radiant smile, Chi Wan tilted her head and said, "It's just the letter of recommendation for the high school principal. Didn't you and Dad already know about it?"
She watched as Fu Ping's face fell once again. Chi Wan genuinely found it amusing; few people could rival such a rapid change in expression.
Feigning sleepiness, Chi Wan covered her mouth and yawned. She had no patience to waste time playing along with Fu Ping's hypocrisy here; she'd rather spend the time working through math problems.
"Is there anything else you want to discuss? If not, I'd like to go to sleep."
Realizing she wasn't going to get anything out of her, Fu Ping waved a hand.
Chi Wan didn't stand on ceremony, standing up and heading toward her bedroom.
So much had happened that day that Chi Wan felt completely exhausted. She locked her bedroom door, collapsed across the foot of the bed with her legs dangling off the edge, and stared blankly at the white ceiling until she drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
Before four o'clock in the morning, Chi Wan woke up feeling chilled. She realized she had simply crashed across the foot of the bed like that for the whole night without even pulling a blanket over herself.
Outside the window, a drizzle was falling. The wind carried raindrops through the open window, and some of the clutter near the windowsill had already grown damp from the moisture.
Chi Wan stretched her stiff back and walked over to the window, where a fine mist of rain brushed against her face. Outside, the sky remained pitch black due to the storm.
The fine, dense drizzle stopped just before she headed out. As the sun came out, a rising heat shimmered off the pavement.
Walking along the inner edge of the sidewalk, Chi Wan nibbled slowly on a steamed bun she was holding. Suddenly, a bicycle bell rang to her left, and she turned her head.
Jiang Zhi braked his bicycle, watched the girl eating in small, deliberate bites, and asked, "Going to school?"
"Yeah." Chi Wan nodded. She had left early today with the intention of walking to school at a leisurely pace, not expecting to run into Jiang Zhi.
"Get on." Jiang Zhi motioned toward his bicycle's back seat.
Not wanting to owe anyone a favor or grow too close to people, Chi Wan refused, "No thanks, I'm fine."
Jiang Zhi let out a cold chuckle. "What? Afraid of people gossiping?"
He looked at the girl, who was pressing her lips together in silence, and at the half-eaten bun in her hand. In a lazy tone, he did the math for her: "A bun costs one yuan, a bus ride costs two yuan, and walking takes you over forty minutes. My back seat costs nothing, and it only takes fifteen minutes."
At the mention of money, Chi Wan hesitated, tempted. She truly was short on cash and needed money at every turn. Her breakfast every day was just a single bun from the breakfast stall at the entrance of her residential compound, and truth be told, her stomach still felt empty after eating it.
Just as Jiang Zhi was about to pedal away, someone caught the back of his bicycle seat. Seeming embarrassed, the girl lowered her head halfway and whispered a soft "Thank you," then obediently climbed onto the back seat. Holding her unfinished bun in one hand and carefully steadying the seat with the other, she kept herself carefully tucked away so as not to brush against even a corner of his jacket.
Jiang Zhi chuckled softly as his long legs pushed down on the bicycle pedals.
The girl was terribly thin; if he hadn't seen her climbing on behind him, he would hardly have felt any weight on the back seat.
Curious, he couldn't help asking, "Do you girls really think being skinny is the only standard of beauty?"
Chi Wan carefully maintained her posture. Startled by his question, she replied, "I don't know. Maybe."
"Seeing how thin you are, how little you eat, and how you'd rather starve yourself, I honestly thought you wanted to lose even more weight." Jiang Zhi had heard his deskmate's stomach growling loudly during class more than once.
Watching the greenbelt rapidly recede behind them, Chi Wan remained silent, having no idea how to answer.