The New Year was closing in.
This was where the advantages of a small city showed themselves. The number of people on the streets had visibly multiplied several times over, there were vendors selling New Year goods everywhere along the roadside, and the festive feeling was thick in the air.
In Shanghai you never see anything like it.
On Saturday, Valentine’s Day itself, Xu Ye finished eating and set off for Red Leaf Estate. Before he left, Zhang Hong, sitting on the sofa, made a pointed remark. “Ah, well. Some people get themselves a wife and forget their mother.”
Hearing that, Xu Ye sat straight down next to her. “Mom, there’s no call for that. If you don’t want me going out, I won’t go out. But do you know what day it is today?”
“What day?”
Xu Ye nudged Old Xu with his foot. “Dad. You tell her.”
Old Xu said cheerfully, “It’s Valentine’s Day.”
Zhang Hong changed her tune on the spot and started shoving at him. “Then what are you still sitting here for? Go on, get out there and take her on a date.”
“I’m not going!”
Xu Ye put on a thoroughly sulky face. “You just said I’d got myself a wife and forgotten my mother. I’m not that sort of person.”
Zhang Hong slapped him on the shoulder, scolding and laughing at once. “Can’t you tell a joke when you hear one? Get out. Now.”
“Not jealous anymore, then?”
“Get lost~”
Xu Ye got up grinning all over his face and patted Old Xu on the shoulder. “Dad, I’ll be back late tonight. You two enjoy having the place to yourselves.”
“Little brat!” Old Xu lifted a foot to kick him in the backside; Xu Ye twisted out of the way and was gone out the door.
Once he had left, Old Xu shuffled along the sofa a little closer to Zhang Hong and asked, with his most ingratiating expression, “Love, why don’t the two of us go out somewhere today as well?”
“Go out where? What’s worth going out for?”
“You’ve been complaining your spine’s been bothering you. I’ll take you to a massage place and get someone to work on it.”
“Is it expensive?”
“It isn’t.”
Old Xu said proudly, “I’m a regular.”
The next second Zhang Hong had him by the ear. “A regular, is it? So you go often, then. And here I’ve been wondering why money keeps going missing out of my bag every few days — so it’s all been going on massages.”
“Love — ow, ow, ow.”
…
Xu Ye drove over and collected Chen Qingqing, then went on to Wang Yuxin’s building and picked her up too.
Hospitals don’t give much in the way of holiday, and the girl was on her own at home most of the time, so Xu Ye had talked it over with Chen Qingqing and they had decided to take her out with them for the afternoon and drop her back in the early evening.
The moment she was in the car, though, Wang Yuxin’s mouth went off like a machine gun and would not stop.
Xu Ye couldn’t be bothered to engage with her. Chen Qingqing, on the other hand, seemed quite taken with this little sister six years her junior, and answered essentially every question put to her. A few days earlier, when Xu Ye had brought Wang Yuxin over to Red Leaf Estate, Chen Qingqing had given her a whole lot of the sort of small presents girls like.
Those presents had all been brought for Chen Qingqing by Jiang Meilin’s colleagues and subordinates when they came to the house. But Chen Qingqing had no interest in music boxes and glass ornaments, and once they arrived they had simply sat where they were put.
Wang Yuxin receiving them was another matter entirely. She was beside herself, and once she was home again she messaged Xu Ye every day, asking when he was free to take her to see her Qingqing-jiejie again.
Which puzzled Xu Ye. Since when is she your Qingqing-jiejie? She’s plainly mine.
Twenty minutes’ drive brought the three of them to an old pedestrian shopping street downtown. With Wanda, Liansheng and other shopping complexes going up around the city one after another, the old street was no longer as busy as it had been — but for sheer New Year atmosphere, nowhere else came close.
Once the car was parked, Xu Ye took Chen Qingqing’s hand and led her in through the entrance, while Wang Yuxin took hold of Chen Qingqing’s other arm.
It was peak time on the street, and they had not gone many steps in before the smell of roasted nuts and seeds reached them.
“Qingqing-jiejie, do you like chestnuts? The sugar-roasted chestnuts over there are really good. I have them several times every New Year.”
“Do you want some?”
“A bit.”
Chen Qingqing smiled. “Then let’s go and buy some to try.”
“Mm-hm.”
Sponging off her in the past had been because he had no money of his own. Now that he had some, Xu Ye was certainly not going to let Chen Qingqing pay.
Once the vendor had weighed them out, Xu Ye stepped up and dutifully scanned the code to pay.
And then…
“Qingqing-jiejie, look, there’s candied haws over there.”
“Qingqing-jiejie, the egg tarts from that shop are especially good.”
“Qingqing-jiejie—”
Xu Ye, by this point carrying a great deal in both hands, heard that and stepped straight forward to clap a hand over Wang Yuxin’s mouth, threatening her “viciously”: “Keep this up and I won’t be taking you out with us again.”
Wang Yuxin looked up at him pitifully and blinked several times in quick succession, and only then did he let go.
Chen Qingqing pushed him away and drew Wang Yuxin to her. “How much has it actually cost you, that you’d come out with something like that?”
“Money isn’t the issue. The issue is buying this much and not being able to eat it — isn’t that a waste?”
“I can take some back for my mom to try,” Chen Qingqing said. “She’s certainly never had anything from here.”
Xu Ye’s face changed instantly. “This lot is what you two have left over,” he said cheerfully. “If it’s for your mom to try, I’ll go and buy a fresh batch in a bit.”
“Xu Ye-gege, you’re so biased.”
“Grown-ups are talking. Children keep quiet.”
“Hmph~” Wang Yuxin pouted, the picture of injured innocence.
Xu Ye couldn’t have cared less. She was his own cousin — a few words, a few tellings-off, no harm done. But a mother-in-law who needs buttering up still has to be buttered up.
The three of them spent over two hours on the pedestrian street, then went down to the lakeside for a while to look at the view. At five in the evening Xu Ye got a call from his aunt to say she was off work and to ask him to bring Wang Yuxin home. Xu Ye of course said there was no hurry — but his aunt had evidently already been on the phone to Old Zhang, because she knew that Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing were on a date and that today was Valentine’s Day, and so she produced an excuse about taking Wang Yuxin out for dinner that evening and asked him to bring her back as early as he could.
With his aunt putting it that way, Xu Ye had no choice but to run Wang Yuxin home first.
Wang Yuxin didn’t appear to have had any intention of eating with them that evening either. She knew perfectly well what day it was, and as she got out of the car to go inside, the girl gave Xu Ye a little you’ve got this gesture, which left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Once Wang Yuxin had been delivered home, Xu Ye set off with Chen Qingqing to find somewhere to eat.
“Decided what you want to eat tonight?”
“No.”
Chen Qingqing shook her head. “Whatever you say is fine.”
“‘Whatever you say’ again.” Xu Ye grinned wickedly. “Have you noticed that you’ve become dependent on me?”
“I have not.”
Chen Qingqing turned her head to look out of the window. Whether it was the heating in the car or something else, her face had gone pink.
(End of Chapter 189)