Chapter 28: Twelve Years Old – Sleeping Beauty

Xuezhu, unable to move, was clutching the railing at the edge of the rink, feeling helpless as she tried to find He Zhenyue through the blinding lights.

“Xuezhu.”

Someone patted her shoulder with some force.

Xuezhu turned around, squinting her eyes, finally recognizing the person in front of her.

It felt like they hadn’t seen each other in years, and the sense of safety returned instantly. She pouted her lips, nearly bursting into tears and wanting to hug the person right there.

“I’ll take you over there,” Meng Yuning said.

With Meng Yuning holding her hand, Xuezhu didn’t need to move her legs, as she was effortlessly guided through the rink, like a broken-down car being towed through the crowd.

They managed to meet up with Zhong Zihan. Xuezhu looked around desperately, noticing that both of her brothers were there, and her sister’s boyfriend too, but her sister was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s my sister?”

Meng Yuning and Zhong Zihan exchanged glances. Under the flashing lights, their expressions were somewhat speechless.

It was Yi Zhengpeng who kindly pointed toward the center of the rink, saying, “Your sister is over there.”

Xuezhu followed his direction and saw the “train” in the rink—actually, just a line of people standing in a row, each holding onto the person in front of them, weaving through the rink like a snake. He Zhenyue didn’t know when she became the “engine,” but there she was, leading a group of people, skating around arrogantly like a snake in the rink.

As they passed by, He Zhenyue excitedly waved at them, shouting, “Come on! Join the train!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

No wonder she said she wanted to go to the rink. Turns out, she just wanted to be the one leading the train.

“I’ll go keep an eye on her so she doesn’t fall,” Yi Zhengpeng said as he stood up and headed toward the center of the rink. “You all just play, don’t worry about your sister.”

Xuezhu scratched her head, thinking that she couldn’t let her inability to skate ruin the fun for her brothers. So she said, “How about you guys go play? I’ll wait here for you.”

“I’m not interested in the train,” Zhong Zihan said, pulling the corner of his lips up, and reached out to her. “Come on, I’ll teach you how to skate.”

Xuezhu, holding onto one of his hands, felt like she was limping and still didn’t feel safe. Zhong Zihan couldn’t help but laugh: “Do you have soft bones or something? Why can’t you even stand up straight?”

Xuezhu wanted to cry but had no tears. “I’m afraid I’ll fall.”

As she spoke, her other hand was suddenly grabbed. Meng Yuning stood on her other side, smiling as he asked, “If we both hold you, won’t you be less scared?”

Xuezhu’s hands were firmly held, and their warmth made her feel comforted.

She emphasized once more, “You mustn’t let go, okay?”

“Got it. Now let’s skate forward,” Zhong Zihan said.

In the noisy skating rink, a small area for beginners seemed deliberately set apart. Xuezhu raised her leg, trying to control her clumsy skates, while her two tall brothers held her hands on either side to guide her and help her keep her balance. After a short while, Xuezhu began to feel like she already knew how to skate. She glided around the edge of the rink several times, gaining speed, and the wind brushed her cheeks.

From the awkwardness at the beginning to gradually feeling more at ease, Xuezhu started enjoying the fun of skating. The DJ’s music covered the sound of her laughter, and her feet moved as if there was wind beneath them.

Her confidence swelled, and she said, “It doesn’t seem that hard.”

Zhong Zihan chuckled knowingly, winking at Meng Yuning when Xuezhu wasn’t looking.

Meng Yuning raised an eyebrow, responding in kind.

At some point, they both simultaneously let go of Xuezhu’s hands.

Unexpectedly, Xuezhu, skating forward, realized that her guardians were no longer holding her, and her brain froze for a moment. Her feet went out of control, and her arms flailed out to try and catch her unbalanced body. She squeezed her eyes shut in fear and shouted, “I’m going to fall!”

Zhong Zihan shouted from behind, “You won’t fall! Keep your balance and keep going!”

“No, no, I’m going to fall!”

And then she did.

A small shadow in front of her suddenly collapsed, and her bottom hit the floor hard.

At that moment, Xuezhu actually let out a sigh of relief. She knew she was going to fall, and instead of being afraid of the fall, now that it had happened, it wasn’t as surprising.

But then came the sharp pain in her tailbone.

Her brothers quickly skated over to her, squatting down to check if she was okay.

Fortunately, she was young, so a fall didn’t cause much harm. Xuezhu covered her lower back and snapped at them, “Why did you suddenly let go? You scared me to death.”

“If we kept holding you, how would you learn?” Zhong Zihan sighed.

The more he explained, the angrier Xuezhu got. “You should have prepared me mentally! Letting go like that, are you trying to kill me?”

“Alright, alright, my fault,” Zhong Zihan surrendered. “Next time, I’ll tell you before I let go.”

Xuezhu raised her chin, her tone haughty. “Fine, I forgive you. Help me up.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Zhong Zihan helped her up.

Just as Xuezhu had barely fallen, Yi Zhengpeng, who had been watching his girlfriend skate, came over. His expression was a mix of amusement and concern. “Zhenyue just fell in the middle of the rink because she was skating too fast. Can one of you help me get her out? She seems to have hurt her waist.”

The three younger siblings instantly thought:

See, she finally fell.

“She still thinks she’s like Xuezhu, who can fall a hundred times and be fine. She’s over twenty now,” Zhong Zihan sighed. “I’ll go with you. Yuning, you stay with Xuezhu and keep skating.”

After the psychological trauma from her own fall, Xuezhu was afraid her brother would trick her again. She almost wished she could glue her hand to Meng Yuning’s with super glue to make sure she wouldn’t fall. No matter how tightly she held on, she just couldn’t shake the feeling that if he let go, she would fall again.

Meng Yuning, understanding her worries, gently threaded his fingers through hers, locking their hands together.

“Are you feeling better now?”

This way, it felt as if every inch of her skin was pressed tightly against his. Xuezhu, feeling a little flustered, bit her lip and nodded, “Mm.”

She was still hesitant to skate forward, taking tiny steps that were even smaller than her walking steps.

“Skate forward boldly. Even if you fall, I’ll protect you.”

He really kept his word, patiently staying with her, helping her practice around the edge of the rink over and over again. Only when Xuezhu truly felt like she could skate forward slowly did he lead her to a bench on the side to rest.

After skating for a long time, her legs felt a bit sore, so Xuezhu bent over to massage her legs.

Meng Yuning quietly watched her, and suddenly asked, “Are you still scared?”

“I’m not scared. With you holding my hand, what’s there to be afraid of?” Xuezhu looked at her skates and thanked him, “Thank you, Brother.”

Instead of hearing his usual “You’re welcome,” she instead heard him say “Thank you” back to her.

Xuezhu thought she had heard wrong and blankly opened her mouth, “Huh?”

Meng Yuning thought it was too noisy, and she couldn’t hear, so he leaned closer to her ear, raising his voice, “Back at the hotel.”

It wasn’t exactly a proud moment to argue with elders, and Xuezhu felt a little embarrassed. “Huh? You heard that?”

Meng Yuning smiled lightly, showing her what to do by blocking his ears with his fingers. “If you don’t want me to hear, next time remember to do this to block my ears.”

Xuezhu had said the same thing before.

Just covering the ears wasn’t effective.

Maybe it wasn’t that she truly didn’t want the other person to hear. In fact, what did it matter if they heard or not?

They would never say anything that would upset the other.

Xuezhu suddenly smiled foolishly.

Her moral education teacher had once said in class that when someone helps you, you should say thank you. Xuezhu was very familiar with the words “thank you,” but she wasn’t quite used to hearing others say thank you to her, especially from people close to her like her parents, or Meng Yuning.

Because doing things for them was just what she should do. Being thanked made her feel a little awkward.

“Hey,” she cleared her throat and pretended to be mature, “It’s okay, no need to thank me.”

Her exaggerated, somewhat awkward act made the person in front of her laugh.

The two pairs of clear eyes quietly stared at each other for a few seconds, not to see who blinked first, but in that moment, Xuezhu seemed to forget how to blink. After realizing, she slowly, with eyes clouded like mist, turned her gaze away from his.

“I still want to skate for a little while,” Xuezhu suddenly stood up.

Meng Yuning said, “Alright,” and started to stand up as well.

But she stopped him, “Let me skate by myself. You rest.”

“Okay, just skate around here,” Meng Yuning nodded, “Don’t skate too far.”

“Mm.”

Xuezhu could feel the gaze Meng Yuning had on her back.

She wanted to show off, but unfortunately, her hands and feet couldn’t follow the commands from her mind. She stumbled again and fell to the ground.

Meng Yuning had just stood up, intending to help her, when he saw her clumsily get up like a penguin. She patted the dust off her legs and quickly skated away in the opposite direction from him.

He didn’t know why she had suddenly become so clumsy, she was nothing like her usual self, quick and clever at learning things.

Meng Yuning couldn’t help but laugh.

—

The lighting inside the skating rink was dim, making it impossible to tell whether it was day or night, giving the impression that time was passing slowly.

He Zhenyue, who was sitting on the bench because of her back injury, was bored out of her mind. She took out her phone to browse the internet, and only when she checked the time did she realize it was almost six o’clock.

Still responsible for looking after her younger siblings, she didn’t have time for anything else. He Zhenyue got up, supporting her back, and scanned the rink until she found Xuezhu, who was still practicing skating, with Meng Yuning following her in the corner.

“Xiao Zhu, Ningning, it’s six o’clock. Time to go home.”

Xuezhu, full of energy, immediately became disappointed when she heard it was time to go home and exclaimed, “It’s already six o’clock?”

“Yes, time to go home.”

Fortunately, it was summer, and the sky was still bright at six in the evening.

They all took the bus home, with He Zhenyue and her boyfriend sitting in the front, while the others sat in the back.

Meng Yuning was the first to sit by the window, and Xuezhu hesitated for a moment. Then, Zhong Zihan took the only seat next to him, waving at Xuezhu, “Aren’t you coming to sit here?”

Xuezhu said “Oh” and sat next to Zhong Zihan.

Perhaps they were all tired from playing, so no one spoke. Meng Yuning rested his chin on his hand, staring blankly out the window, while Zhong Zihan yawned several times. His yawns were contagious, and soon, Xuezhu started to feel sleepy.

The bus ride was quite bumpy, with many people getting on and off. The light outside the bus gradually faded as it grew darker.

With only two stops left before they reached home, He Zhenyue turned her head and said, “Get ready to get off,” and then she noticed something and exclaimed, “It’s so noisy, and Xiao Zhu can still sleep?”

Xuezhu was resting her head on Zhong Zihan’s lap, mouth slightly open, sound asleep.

Zhong Zihan murmured, “She probably got tired after playing all afternoon.”

When the bus arrived at their stop, his leg was sore, so he gently tapped Xuezhu’s forehead. “Xiao Zhu, we’re home.”

Xuezhu opened her tired eyes and sleepily got off the bus.

The bus slowly left the platform, leaving behind a cloud of exhaust. Xuezhu coughed a few times from the fumes. The LED lights across the street flickered on, too bright and sharp, but they couldn’t shake her drowsiness as she sluggishly walked behind.

She was walking so slowly that He Zhenyue had to stop and wait for her. Seeing how she looked, it seemed like she could fall asleep right on the street, and He Zhenyue couldn’t help but laugh and ask, “Are you really this tired?”

She glanced at Zhong Zihan, who was still recovering from his sore legs, and then at her boyfriend.

It was Xuezhu’s first time meeting Yi Zhengpeng, and having him carry her on his back probably would’ve made Xuezhu uncomfortable.

“Ningning, why don’t you carry Xiao Zhu? Let her sleep on your back. Otherwise, I’m really afraid she’ll just collapse here.”

Xuezhu immediately woke up.

But the next second, Meng Yuning squatted down in front of her and motioned for her to get on. She quickly squinted her eyes and pretended to act tired.

Climbing onto his back hesitantly, Xuezhu nervously asked, “Is it heavy?”

“It’s not heavy,” Meng Yuning smiled. “Go ahead and sleep.”

Although Xuezhu wasn’t really tired, she decided to play along and closed her eyes.

Meng Yuning walked steadily with each step. His back was broad and his neck and shoulders were slender and white, with smooth and powerful lines. Xuezhu rested her cheek against his back, feeling safe and attached.

Closing her eyes didn’t affect Xuezhu’s other senses. In the short distance from the bus stop to the entrance of the neighborhood, she smelled the stinky tofu from a street stall, the scent of grilled gluten, and the spicy hot pot. She heard the loudspeaker announcements from the street vendors trying to attract customers, and felt the thick, lively atmosphere around her.

After passing through the busy street, they turned onto a tree-lined path, where the surroundings suddenly became quiet.

The dim streetlights cast long shadows of them both.

“By the way, Ningning, I heard from my dad that you got into Peking University, but I don’t know what major you’re studying.”

He Zhenyue suddenly asked.

“Finance.”

“Finance?” He Zhenyue was a little surprised. “I thought you would choose something in the sciences.”

Meng Yuning: “Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know, just a feeling,” He Zhenyue couldn’t explain it, so she asked him back, “Is finance your ideal field?”

The young man was silent for a moment, then he smiled self-deprecatingly and replied calmly and faintly, “Making money?”

Then, leaving his father behind, no longer needing to rely on this family.

It wasn’t just He Zhenyue, the others were also stunned.

Even Yi Zhengpeng, who had met him for the first time today, thought that Meng Yuning shouldn’t be someone who would bow down for mere money, someone so mundane. He should be the kind of person who soars high, standing on the mountain peak, noble and lofty, with eyes set higher than the sky.

When they were children, during homework class, the teacher would assign the essay topic “My Ideal,” and everyone’s dreams were diverse. They all thought Meng Yuning’s ideal would be something like a scientist, astronaut, or physicist—professions where reason and romance collided.

But Meng Yuning’s words were telling them otherwise.

He wasn’t someone standing on the mountain peak. He was an ordinary person in reality, with no great ambitions. His future wasn’t displayed in a beautiful cabinet, showing expensive things others could only dream of—roses and velvet, diamonds and violets—things others thought he should have, but they were all far beyond his reach.

At the last parent-teacher meeting before the college entrance exams, the class teacher, Mr. Lin, looked at the brief leave reason on the notification slip and couldn’t help but complain that even this last parent meeting wasn’t attended, wondering if the child’s college entrance exam was even being taken seriously.

His hands, clenched at his sides, suddenly tightened, then quickly loosened, as if he had come to terms with something, letting go of something.

Meng Yuning responded lightly, calmly accepting the teacher’s complaint.

Probably not.

He said.

Mr. Lin sighed, then spoke seriously and gently to him.

“There’s a famous quote by ^[1]Balzac’s quote suggests that suffering can either be a stepping stone to success for talented individuals, a resource for capable people to improve, or a destructive force for weaker individuals … Continue readingBalzac: ‘Suffering is a stepping stone for genius, a treasure for the capable, and a bottomless pit for the weak. Yuning, your life is in your own hands. Only one percent of people are lucky enough to have everything from birth. Like you, I’m in the ninety-nine percent, and although we don’t have the best conditions and many paths are blocked, the path of studying is open to you. It can change your destiny. I believe you, and not long from now, you’ll be one of that one percent.’“

Ideals, you can only have them once you’ve had your fill.

In fact, none of the friends he grew up with, including Xuezhu, who was peacefully sleeping on his back, knew that before moving to their neighborhood and meeting them, his dream was to become a chef. That way, when his parents weren’t home, he could cook delicious meals for himself, not go hungry, and not yearn for his neighbors’ food.

That was all. So simple, in fact, he was afraid people would laugh if he said it out loud.

“Finance is great, you can make money, and it sounds impressive,” He Zhenyue still affirmed his choice. “After you graduate, work hard and make money. I’ll be waiting to hug your leg in the future.”

Upon hearing this, Meng Yuning lowered his gaze and picked up the smile he most often showed.

Zhong Zihan raised his hand: “Count me in, I want to hug your leg too.”

“Hug what leg? Focus on your medicine studies,” He Zhenyue glared at her useless younger brother. “If you don’t become a chief physician in the future, don’t go around saying you graduated from Xiehe, and don’t say you’re my brother.”

“Chief physician my foot,” Zhong Zihan scoffed, “Who even cares about that?”

He Zhenyue was very dissatisfied with his attitude: “If you’re not aiming for that, then what do you want to do?”

Zhong Zihan turned his head away and reluctantly said, “I don’t even want to study medicine. Do you think forcing someone to study something they don’t like will make them do well?”

He Zhenyue was confused: “Then why are you still studying medicine?”

“Because of my parents. Anyway, I don’t get to choose what I study. They think it’s good for me, so I have to grit my teeth and study it,” Zhong Zihan sighed a long sigh, “Originally, after the college entrance exams, I would have been able to choose something I liked in university, but it turns out I was just dreaming.”

“…So, what do you like?”

“Robots, like Gundams,” Zhong Zihan lowered his eyes, mocking himself. “Isn’t that pretty unreliable?”

“What’s so bad about that?” He Zhenyue patted his shoulder, “Actually, when I was choosing my major, I wanted to choose animation. I was even less reliable than you.”

Zhong Zihan was surprised: “Didn’t you study business management in university?”

He Zhenyue spoke with a tone that implied “you know what I mean”: “Yeah, business management.”

For a moment, no one said anything.

Their long shadows stretched all the way to the last streetlight at the end of the path before disappearing.

He Zhenyue glanced at Xuezhu, still sleeping on Meng Yuning’s back, and sighed, “I hope Xuezhu can study what she likes in the future. Uncle Pei seems like the kind of person who would support his daughter’s decisions.”

“Hope so,” Zhong Zihan curled his lips, “As long as she doesn’t end up studying medicine like me, her life will still be interesting.”

He Zhenyue was speechless: “If everyone studying medicine were as negative as you, our country’s healthcare would be doomed.”

Zhong Zihan hummed: “I see you studied business management, yet our country’s economy hasn’t dropped either.”

“… Zhong Zihan, do you want to die?!”

Zhong Zihan grinned cheekily and shouted, “Brother-in-law, save me!”

He Zhenyue, desperate to hit him, snapped, “We’re not even married yet, stop saying that!”

The siblings nearly started fighting again, just like when they were kids.

Fortunately, Yi Zhengpeng was steady. He pulled He Zhenyue over and said seriously, “It’s inevitable. I can’t just stand by when my little brother talks like that.”

He Zhenyue, who had been enraged just moments before, suddenly calmed down.

Her words were scolding, but anyone could tell that her real feelings were softened by her boyfriend’s sweet words, making her unusually happy.

“…When did you start liking to talk back like my brother?”

Zhong Zihan, seeing that he was no longer the center of attention, lazily clicked his tongue, turned around, and decided to ignore them. He linked arms with Meng Yuning, planning to leave the couple behind: “We’ll go ahead as the third wheel.”

Meng Yuning frowned: “Slow down, don’t wake Xuezhu.”

“This girl really can sleep, huh,” Zhong Zihan jokingly said, “Little Sleeping Beauty.”

Meng Yuning chuckled softly: “She really is like that.”

The little Sleeping Beauty of the brothers.