Chapter 8 Flowing Water

Chapter 8: Days Like Water

Days pass like flowing water, drifting eastward one after another.

On a rare clear and windless weekend in Beijing's winter, Mou Wen slept until the sun was high in the sky, dressed, and headed to the Book Building with her little butt pad slung over her shoulder. This was her favorite way to kill a weekend.

She would pick out a few books in the Book Building, find a quiet corner, toss her cushion on the floor, and sit cross-legged to read.

Mou Wen loved reading.

Reading was her happiest pastime.

Her hometown was so remote that another hundred kilometers would take her to the border. The adults there often talked about "pastures," "seeds," and "hunkering down for winter." At first, everything she knew about the world came from books.

In the old days, her small town had no library—only a bookstore with very few books. Mou Wen would go there whenever she had free time. Her dad drove big rigs, and besides bringing back food from all over the country, he'd bring her books too.

On weekends when she could read, she would usually stay there until four in the afternoon, then buy a few books before leaving. She loved buying books from the Book Building—the clerk would wrap them up with a pretty ribbon and hand them to her.

She'd carry them off like they were precious treasures.

On the way back, she would pass by some snack shops and stop for Guilin rice noodles with an added braised egg. Outside a nearby restaurant stood "palace maids" and "eunuchs" in Qing Dynasty costumes. She'd speed up every time she passed, scared of being dragged in and castrated.

The weirdest thing was, one day she actually spotted Xie Chong. The restaurant's entrance was very narrow, and several people were directing him as he drove in. She watched from afar, picturing Xie Chong in eunuch robes—hilarious.

Then she thought: At least now Xie Chong can eat in peace, without worrying about someone spitting in his bowl.

Luckily, he didn't see her, and she only ever ran into him that once.

She never saw Xie Chong again after that meal. She'd called him twice in the meantime about the renovation, and he sounded busy both times, saying, "It's all up to you. I trust you. I'll handle any problems myself," then hanging up in a hurry.

Mou Wen had guts. With him saying that, of course she felt free to decide.

Besides, her mentor's family had a new baby girl, so he couldn't keep up with the workload. Mou Wen was handling almost all the clients. In no time, she'd become a "pro."

Her workdays were all about drawing or hitting construction sites. She was always crisscrossing Beijing during the day, slowly getting to know the city. Each site had a different style. One site was almost done, already starting to feel like a real home. Imagining the happy lives people would live there gave her a huge sense of accomplishment.

That day, she stayed at the Book Building until a little after three, when the post office called to say a package had arrived—the stuff Ge Yunqing had sent.

She'd just picked it up when Lin Weisen called, asking her to go with Xie Chong to look at appliances and take measurements.

Mou Wen looked at her big box and decisively refused: "Mentor, can we do it tomorrow? If I go now, I'd have to take this back to the dorm first, then race to the mall—it'd be closing by then."

"Alright."

Mou Wen hung up and planned her route: she'd take the bus with the box, not a cab. She had the strength for it anyway.

She squatted down, hoisted one end of the box onto her foot. Before she could make the next move, Xie Chong called.

"Where are you?" Xie Chong asked.

"I'm at the post office. What time tomorrow?"

"Now," Xie Chong said. "I'll pick you up."

"I've got a lot of stuff... you..."

Before Mou Wen could finish, Xie Chong had already hung up. Ten minutes later, his car pulled up in front of her. He saw Mou Wen, all puffy like a little bear, sitting on a big taped-up box with a few books in her arms.

He eyed the huge box and asked, "What's that? You dumping a body?"

Mou Wen was already wiped out from wrestling with the box. She looked up at him with a pitiful face: "Didn't we say tomorrow? Can't you see what shape I'm in?"

"Stand up," Xie Chong said.

"I don't want to stand up. I'm tired."

Xie Chong stepped back, opened the car door, and gestured for her to get in.

"You're not gonna toss my box, are you? That's all precious stuff my mom sent me."

"Quit your yapping." Xie Chong hauled her up, shoved her into the car, then walked over, bent down, and hefted the box into the trunk without breaking a sweat. The box had traveled over a thousand kilometers to Beijing, dusty and grimy, and it got Xie Chong's coat dirty too.

Once in the car, he told Mou Wen, "You owe me for the dry cleaning."

"Then I should've just taken a cab home," Mou Wen said. "I didn't ask you to come—you guys are the ones making me work weekends."

Mou Wen was the cheapest person Xie Chong had ever met.

He was dead sure: if he hadn't shown up, she'd have hauled that monster onto the bus even if it killed her. In business, he'd hear clients gripe about "pinching every penny," and he'd always sneer. Now he'd met someone who "splits pennies into fourths," and he figured the "halvers" had it easy.

"Mall first, then dinner, then I'll take you home." Xie Chong laid out the plan bluntly, worried Mou Wen would want to eat something "weird" again, so he warned her: "I'm picking where we eat today."

"Is this a work dinner?" Mou Wen said. "I can't pay you back 'cause I'm broke." She pulled out her tiny wallet and showed him: "See? Flat broke."

Xie Chong glanced at it and said, "What are you, some kind of Grandet?"

"I'm not like Grandet. He's got money and won't spend it. I really don't have any."

"If you had money, would you actually spend it?"

"Depends who it's for." Mou Wen said it, saw Xie Chong shoot her a cold look, and immediately clamped her mouth shut.

Mou Wen had been to appliance stores with clients a few times already, so she knew the drill. Xie Chong's whole-house custom build meant picking everything out in advance and reserving dimensions—a real pain.

When they first met, he'd said he'd put thought into the decor. Now he didn't want to lift a finger. The only effort he made was pushing Lin Weisen and Mou Wen around.

Just like now.

At the store, he sat back and let Mou Wen do the work. He was thoughtful enough to have a staffer bring paper and a pen for her notes.

"Are you seriously not going to help at all?" Mou Wen asked him. "It's your home. You should at least know the specs of the appliances."

"I am participating," Xie Chong said. "Showing up counts."

Mou Wen couldn't help shaking her fist at him. She genuinely wanted to hit him. A lazy guy like him couldn't even beg for food back home. At least beggars had a silver tongue!

Xie Chong stayed put, making Mou Wen run back and forth. She'd pick out styles within his view, point them out, and when he nodded, she'd go talk specs. Once that was done, she'd run back, sit next to him, and give him the rundown.

Mou Wen was quick and didn't mind the running around. Clients were all like this anyway. Xie Chong was already a good one—generous and never unreasonable.

Xie Chong watched her study everything with real focus.

She was sharp. Every space and dimension from her drawings was locked in her head. Looking at appliances, she'd jot down quick sketches and explain what choosing one thing would look like, how it might change under certain conditions—she covered it all.

Xie Chong didn't say much—he just listened.

Truth was, Xie Chong hadn't had a great few days—a bit of a rough patch, you could say. He'd run into one backstabbing jerk after another in business, had a falling out with Jiang Wu, and a close friend had suddenly turned on him. Bottom line: nothing was going his way.

So listening to Mou Wen talk warmed his heart.

His renovation costs were all aboveboard, and there was no money owed between them. She threw herself into decorating his place, and everything she said was looking out for him. She'd thought of details he hadn't even had time to consider. At least she wouldn't rip him off.

Mou Wen kept chattering, asking Xie Chong, "Is this okay?" Xie Chong didn't respond. She looked up at him: "Is it okay or not? Just give me a yes or no."

She looked so eager waiting for his reply that for a second, Xie Chong couldn't think of anyone he'd met lately who was as genuine as her.

"It's fine," he said. His eyes dropped to her hands. She held a pen so often that she'd developed light calluses on her index and middle finger joints.

Mou Wen noticed him looking, then held out her hands without a fuss: "What's there to look at! Go look at any high school senior's hands—they're all like this!"

"You tired?" Xie Chong asked. "I see you running around, and you just seem to get more energy each time. Don't you get tired?"

"I'm tired. You gonna pay me overtime?"

"No."

"Then why'd you ask?" She gave him a mock glare.

"I'm tired," Xie Chong said. "I'm tired of sitting around." He stood up and said, "Let's go grab something to eat."

"Let's finish looking first, or they'll close soon," Mou Wen said. She wanted to get it done today, not put it off till tomorrow.

But Xie Chong said, "Let's eat first. If we don't finish, we'll check it out tomorrow."

"Overtime tomorrow too?" Mou Wen put on a grumpy face. "When I was hunting for an internship, I was looking for something with weekends off!"

Xie Chong grabbed her collar and hauled her up: "Come on, let's go eat."

Mou Wen was actually hungry too, but she couldn't let a client pay for her meal. She suggested they eat separately and meet up after.

Xie Chong stopped dead and stared at her. His stare was seriously scary, and Mou Wen felt like hiding behind the display fridge. Once he'd scared her enough, he turned and walked off. Mou Wen trailed right behind him.

There weren't many places to eat in this mall, and nothing looked good to Xie Chong. Mou Wen pointed at random:

"This one—Hunan food, goes great with rice!"

"This one—hotpot, all hot and bubbly."

"This one—Northeastern food, huge portions and super filling!"

...

None of that sounded good to Xie Chong. In the end, he drove Mou Wen to a place that served local cuisine. The restaurant's storefront looked classy, and inside it was even fancier.

Mou Wen usually steered clear of local cuisine in the cafeteria, and now she didn't dare complain, but she was annoyed. When Xie Chong asked what she wanted, she said she didn't care. Xie Chong quickly ordered a few things.

Last time they ate together, he'd been too busy protecting his own plate to say a single word to Mou Wen. This time it was quiet, but Xie Chong had no idea what to say. He felt gloomy and down, like nothing was worth caring about.

But that was okay—Mou Wen knew what to talk about.

She quickly pulled out the drawings and started pushing Xie Chong to lock in the decisions right away. She wanted to sleep in the next day.

Xie Chong felt like a fly was buzzing around his ear. He grabbed the drawings and shoved them under his phone, asking Mou Wen, "Where are you from?"

"Me?"

"Yes."

"I'm from Inner Mongolia."

"Did you ride horses to school?" Xie Chong asked on purpose. He didn't want to look at the drawings; he just wanted to lighten things up.

"I could ride a horse right after I was born!" Mou Wen played along and teased him back. "Where I'm from, if you can't ride, they execute your whole family."

The corner of Xie Chong's mouth twitched, and he finally cracked a smile.

"So can you actually ride a horse?" he asked again.

"I can!" Mou Wen perked up. "I seriously can! When I was little, I went with my mom to visit relatives out in the pastoral area—yeah, my mom has family out there. They put me on a horse, and I just figured it out. I could ride!"

"That's impressive. But do you know how to do equestrian stuff?" Xie Chong asked again.

"No, I don't. I just know how to ride wild and free. Do you?"

Xie Chong had been learning equestrianism since he was a kid.

It seemed like all his friends had been sent to learn it as well. Oddly enough, he loved horses but hated equestrianism. He only liked being around horses—watching them get shod, feeding them, and giving them water.

Jiang Wu was really good at equestrianism. They'd met at an equestrian school, where Jiang Wu's dad was one of the instructors.

He suddenly went quiet.

Luckily, the food came.

Mou Wen didn't like local cuisine, but she hated wasting food. The rich, savory sauce was perfect over rice, so she ordered two bowls and dug in.

Seeing her eat so enthusiastically, Xie Chong's appetite came back, and he wolfed down his food.

At that moment, Mou Wen looked at him and thought he wasn't much different from her guy friends. Just a "little" guy with one nose and two eyes, eating like a champ. He looked better like this.

He was a decent guy, except for his mood swings.

"Have you ever eaten with other clients?" Xie Chong asked her.

"Does a lunchbox count?" Mou Wen had shared a boxed lunch with a client at a building supply store. That client was a real character—he'd bought a 600-square-meter standalone house but insisted on shopping at the building supply store. They'd had boxed lunches, and Mou Wen had paid. Of course, she didn't pay for nothing—she went back to the office and got Lin Weisen to reimburse her.

Xie Chong found her stories entertaining. He said, "I won't make you pay, but you can get a receipt and get reimbursed when you get back."

Mou Wen quickly waved her hand: "Oh no! I can't do that!"

Xie Chong just shrugged.

After eating, he didn't leave right away. He sat there drinking water and eating fruit for dessert—a long routine that had Mou Wen rolling her eyes on the inside. By the time he was done, the mall had closed.

He drove Mou Wen back. When they got there, he stopped to grab the box, but it had fallen apart from the long trip. Xie Chong saw what was inside: milk tablets, milk tofu, milk skin, bagged milk tea, plus a knitted sweater and a pair of gloves.

Mou Wen tore open a milk tablet and popped it in her mouth. The rich, creamy taste spread, and suddenly she felt homesick, her eyes stinging.

She motioned for Xie Chong to hold out his hand, and he did, confused.

She grabbed a big handful of milk tablets and put them in his hand.

"Eat them. You're in a bad mood today. This'll make you feel better," Mou Wen said.

Xie Chong's breath caught for a second, and he felt vaguely comforted by her.