Still Frame Chapter 16
byChapter 16 The Willow Tree (2)
Grandma Mo nodded, giving them a thumbs up and saying they had excellent temperaments and were a perfect match.
Duo Fei chimed in agreement: “I think so too.”
Zhang Liuxin didn’t really understand why everyone here said they were a perfect match. Was it just excessive politeness? After all, back in Yinzhou, unscrupulous gossip magazines often mocked their marriage as a hypocritical window display, deliberately putting on a show of deep affection and mutual respect for the world to see. Although the words were sharp, they were essentially true.
“Are you heading back to the shop?”
“Yes.”
Grandma Mo said: “Then I’ll go with you. I need to buy some jam to spread on my bread.”
When they returned to the shop, business was quite good. Seeing Tu Huisha overwhelmed, Zhang Liuxin washed his hands in the back kitchen and went to help. After they finished, he saw that Wen Jin had already helped Duo Fei neatly arrange the different leaves.
“Obsessive-compulsive,” Zhang Liuxin glanced at the arrangement and whispered in Bernlin.
“Did you think I wouldn’t understand?” Wen Jin gave him a faint look. “Is this the first day you’ve known me?”
Zhang Liuxin looked at the leaves, meticulously arranged by genus and family in the notebook, and deliberately asked: “Then what did I say?”
Wen Jin: “Obsessive-compulsive.”
Zhang Liuxin was genuinely surprised: “How did you know?”
Wen Jin pulled out a chair for him to sit down, tapped the nearby glass window, and pointed to his reflection: “Whenever you want to say something but are afraid to, that’s the expression you make.”
In the glass reflection, Zhang Liuxin saw his lips curved upward, and his eyes revealed an unprecedented sense of ease and joy. This version of himself hadn’t appeared in a long time. He quietly suppressed his smile.
“Are these the leaves you collected? Our Feifei is so clever.”
Tu Huisha picked up her daughter and sat her on her lap, pointing to the first leaf and telling her: “This is a Jatropha tree.”
“I know this leaf,” Duo Fei said. “Brother just told me. It grows fruit, right? And lots of little birds. Mama, when the birds come, can we go see them together?”
Tu Huisha smiled and agreed: “Of course.”
“Then Uncle Zhuo and Liuxin must come too, and Uncle. We’ll all watch the little birds together.”
Hearing this, Tu Huisha looked up at Zhang Liuxin. Before Zhang Liuxin could say anything, he heard Wen Jin next to him say: “Alright.”
“Do you know what she’s talking about?”
Wen Jin: “No.”
“Then why did you answer…”
“Liuxin,” Wen Jin looked at him and spoke, “‘When children look at you with expectant eyes, don’t let them down.’ You said that.”
Zhang Liuxin’s expression shifted. He hadn’t expected Wen Jin to remember that sentence. He had said it when he and Wen Jin went to a charity event for the Disabled Persons’ Federation. At the time, they had only been married for a year, and opportunities to meet were scarce. Suddenly being required to attend an event together, Zhang Liuxin felt completely out of place. For the first half, he stiffly followed Wen Jin, acting as a smiling, nodding puppet.
Later, when they visited the children in the dormitory, most of them had physical disabilities, didn’t like to talk, and always kept their heads down, avoiding people. Occasionally, there were a few optimists who were excited to see them. Blinking their big eyes, they said Wen Jin was very tall and they wanted to try being that tall too.
The child who spoke had both legs amputated. Zhang Liuxin wanted to lift him up, but having just undergone acupuncture, he lacked the strength. He looked at the aloof Wen Jin beside him.
“Wen Jin,” in front of the cameras, he softly called his name, trying to sound less estranged, “When children look at you with expectant eyes, can you not let them down?”
Wen Jin didn’t speak then, and Zhang Liuxin felt extremely awkward. Fortunately, Wen Jin was gracious enough to pick up the child and gently told him: “In another generation of technological progress, you’ll be able to see the higher view yourself.”
This scene was captured, and the PR teams of the Zhang and Wen families worked together, eventually making it onto the front pages of many media outlets.
Zhang Liuxin remembered Levi telling him that the public reaction to the charity event was very positive, beneficial for this and that. He hadn’t listened much; he only looked at the photo. Wen Jin was holding the child with one hand, turning his head to speak, his expression surprisingly gentle. Zhang Liuxin stood beside them, his head slightly tilted, his gaze fixed on the two in front of him, smiling very tenderly.
He loved that photo. He bought the newspaper, carefully cut out the picture, and tucked it inside a foreign language book he rarely read.
Snapping back to the present, Duo Fei was already asking for the name of the third type of fern. Wen Jin’s gaze was still fixed on him. Perhaps because the weather was pleasant today, that look held more warmth than it had that year.
Grandma Mo was also sitting nearby and asked them: “Black hair and black eyes, are you from Yinzhou?”
“Yes.”
“I was very surprised when I saw you yesterday. I didn’t expect Huisha’s shop to have two such handsome young people.”
Tu Huisha said: “Yes, maybe my shop’s business will get even better.”
“It’s certainly possible,” Grandma Mo exclaimed, looking at the wall clock. “It’s time. I need to go back and remind my old man to take his medicine. I won’t stay today. Come visit us next time you have a chance.”
“Alright.”
“Wait a moment,” Tu Huisha went to the back kitchen and brought out a bag of fruit. “I bought this this morning. It’s fresh. Take it back and share it with Uncle Da.”
Grandma Mo smiled: “Huisha, you always do this.”
Tu Huisha tied the bag and hung it on the elderly woman’s wrist: “It’s not much, just eat it while it’s fresh.”
“Thank you. Feifei, come play at Grandma’s house tomorrow. Grandma will make you pancakes.”
“Okay, goodbye Grandma!”
After Grandma Mo left, Tu Huisha told Zhang Liuxin and Wen Jin: “Auntie Mo’s husband, Uncle Da, used to be a war correspondent. He was still on the front lines almost until retirement, but then he was caught in an air raid explosion, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. The old couple doesn’t have any children, so Auntie Mo is usually alone. That’s why we neighbors look out for them, sometimes buying groceries or inviting them over for a meal.”
Uncle Da… war correspondent…
Zhang Liuxin asked: “Is that Uncle Da, Teacher Da Ping?”
Tu Huisha was surprised: “You know him? Oh, I remember my brother saying you were in the news industry. Are you a reporter too?”
A flicker of sadness crossed Zhang Liuxin’s eyes: “No, I’m an anchor.”
“An anchor, like the kind on TV? The one who reads the weather forecast?”
“Yes, but I host interview programs.”
“That’s impressive too. Uncle Da used to be a reporter in the capital, Yoan City, and he even met the president. Auntie Mo tried to persuade him to change jobs when he got older because his body wasn’t as strong, but Uncle Da was stubborn and refused until this incident happened.”
“The city also arranged a retirement home for Uncle Da, but he wanted to return to the town, to retire in his hometown, so he moved back. Chen, how did you know about him?”
Zhang Liuxin folded the white paper on the table over and over, finally creating a rough, unrecognizable lily. He curved his lips: “When I was in college, I studied journalism and read Uncle Da’s reports.”
“I didn’t realize Uncle Da was so famous that his reports reached Yinzhou,” Tu Huisha assumed his distraction was him reminiscing. “Well, tomorrow we can go to Auntie Mo’s house together and visit Uncle Da. Uncle Da loves talking about those old stories, but we don’t understand them. Maybe you two will have a lot to talk about.”
“Good.”
Wen Jin took the crumpled lily from his hand and asked: “What are you talking about?”
Zhang Liuxin said: “We’re talking about Auntie Mo’s husband.”
A sweet warmth wafted from the back kitchen. Tu Huisha stood up: “Keep an eye on Feifei for me. I’m going to bottle the rest of the jam.”
“Alright.”
Nighttime.
Zhang Liuxin was still thinking about what Tu Huisha had mentioned earlier about Uncle Da. He remembered the man with the dark green eyes from the documentary, but there was too little information. He hadn’t known that Uncle Da later encountered an air raid and lost the ability to walk.
Perhaps he was too distracted. Without paying attention, he forgot he wasn’t wearing his exoskeleton. He slipped while reaching for the shower gel. Fortunately, he quickly grabbed the nearby shelf and didn’t fall too badly.
Bottles and jars tumbled down, making a jarring noise. Zhang Liuxin hissed, supporting his left leg as he slowly squatted down, picking them up one by one.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
“Zhang Liuxin,” Wen Jin’s voice came from outside the door, slightly muffled through the steam-filled room. “What happened?”
Zhang Liuxin braced himself and stood up: “Nothing.”
“If you don’t answer, I’m opening the door.”
The bathroom door actually made a “click” sound. Zhang Liuxin quickly said: “It’s really nothing, I just almost slipped.”
He grabbed his clothes and put them on, only then noticing that his knee had been knocked, turning into a dark bruise. Because his skin was fair, the contusion was particularly noticeable. Fortunately, his sleep pants were long, so it was hidden once he put them on.
He pushed open the bathroom door while drying his hair, startled by Wen Jin standing by the door.
“You…”
“Where did you fall?”
“Nowhere.”
Wen Jin frowned, grabbing his hand: “Come here, let me see.”
His attitude was too forceful. Zhang Liuxin instinctively tried to pull away, but couldn’t overpower him. His left leg was throbbing faintly. He said: “Wen Jin, let go, it hurts.”
Wen Jin released his hand, looking at him: “Where does it hurt?”
There was a significant distance from the bathroom to the bed. Normally, Wen Jin wouldn’t have noticed, but now Wen Jin was standing right beside him, watching him. That gaze was very palpable, making the few steps Zhang Liuxin took feel excruciating.
He tried his best to walk with what he thought was the most normal posture, but the old injury on his left leg compounded by the new one meant the pain was magnified with every step. Zhang Liuxin kept his head down, but he couldn’t deceive himself; he could feel Wen Jin’s gaze still fixed on him.
By the time he finally sat down on the bed, a thin layer of sweat had broken out on his forehead.
“You should go take a shower,” he picked up the book on the bedside table and started reading.
“Zhang Liuxin,” Wen Jin’s voice grew closer, until a shadow fell over the book, and he only glimpsed the edge of a dark garment in his peripheral vision. “Have you been here so long that you’ve forgotten our relationship?”
Zhang Liuxin subconsciously wanted to ask, what relationship? A cooperative relationship or a fake marriage relationship?
Wen Jin raised his hand, intending to lift his pant leg to check the injury, but Zhang Liuxin pressed down on it. His warm palm pressed tightly against the back of Wen Jin’s hand, preventing movement: “It’s really nothing. Go take your shower.”
Their eyes met. Zhang Liuxin almost felt as if a hot, sticky wire connected them, nearly strangling his breath and scalding him.
In the end, Wen Jin was the first to look away. Without saying another word, he entered the bathroom.
There was no Bernlin lesson tonight. Wen Jin didn’t speak again. He silently turned off the lights and went to sleep with his back to Zhang Liuxin.
Zhang Liuxin stared at his back for a while, thinking that Wen Jin must be angry, but he didn’t think Wen Jin would be angry just because he was injured.
So, he still believed that Wen Jin’s temper was as unpredictable as it had been in college.
Perhaps because Uncle Da was mentioned during the day, and the last thing he thought about before sleeping was the college-era Wen Jin, Zhang Liuxin unusually dreamt of that time twelve years ago.