Luo Wenzhou stared for a long time. "Are…are you serious?"
Fei Du turned his head and glanced at him. There was a natural curve at the corner of his eye. Swept by the cold wind, there was a trace of red spreading there.
Luo Wenzhou woke up and met his gaze, but he was still somewhat at a loss, as if he'd been bewitched. Following Fei Du's movements, he stepped out of the car and reached from Fei Du's left shoulder to his right shoulder as carefully as though he were testing for landmines. He seemed to feel flesh and bone through the thick jacket. He didn't dare to use any force, only lightly laying an arm over Fei Du's shoulders, half hugging him and thinking, half a beat late, "What am I playing at?"
Then a cold winter breeze blew, and Luo Wenzhou's head cleared with a start. He pulled himself together and thought, "Isn't it nonsense telling him to carry me?"
Luo Wenzhou gave a dry laugh and was about to awkwardly draw back his arm when Fei Du grabbed his wrist and lifted him from the car.
Luo Wenzhou was frightened out of his wits and scrambled to hook his arms around Fei Du's shoulders—especially since the youngster had evidently underestimated his weight, trembling somewhat as he stood up, stumbling.
Luo Wenzhou's tongue tied itself into a knot with his teeth. "W-wait, wait a minute, put, put me down, I-I, what do you call it, I have low-grade acrophobia."
Fei Du got his footing and laughed. "Lock the car. The keys are in my pocket."
Luo Wenzhou scrambled to fish them out. "Darling, if there's anything to say, let's say it, you don't need to be such a hero… Put me down… Hey, don't rush! No 'hold tight' warning and you're already moving! Slow down, slow down!"
There were only a few steps from the parking space to the door, and Luo Wenzhou lived on the first floor. It was only a little way. However weak Fei Du was, he still wasn't so weak he couldn't carry him, but Luo Wenzhou was an expert at frightening himself. He was scared witless the whole way, feeling his legs were hanging in midair, and he was lying on an antique vase; the vase was normally kept under glass, and he still thought that wasn't safe enough, and now he was pressing down on it, shaking, not even daring to breathe deeply, afraid that if he took a big breath he'd scrape off a piece of that precious vase's glaze.
He could feel Fei Du's somewhat rapid breathing as he exhaled a trace of warmth. The ends of his hair were hidden inside his scarf, only one lock hanging out, softly falling on his collar. Fei Du's hard bones were pressing into his chest, stabbing, making him feel rather tender.
With that bit of tenderness, Luo Wenzhou couldn't resist behaving badly. He drew close and gently rubbed his nose against Fei Du's hair, drawing in a deep breath at his collar. Then he quietly said into Fei Du's ear, "I've thought of an expression."
"Oh?" Fei Du said.
"An ancient road." Luo Wenzhou freed up a hand to point at the opening of the stairs, then put it to his ear to feel the winter wind coming from Siberia. "A west wind…"
Then he poked Fei Du's shoulder. "A skinny horse2… Hey, hey, don't, don't, I'm sorry, I was wrong. My old bones can't take a fall, take it easy!
"It may be genuine leather, but you're still too skinny. My ribs hurt." After a while, Luo Wenzhou had to show off, grumbling, "I bet you've been eating badly while I wasn't home. After this, you're going to exercise with me every day."
Fei Du was a little out of breath and was annoyed into a laugh. "Yes, I've inconvenienced Her Majesty the princess by not piling up twelve layers of mattresses.—How about we get up to exercise at six in the morning?"
Jabbed in his vulnerable spot, Luo Wenzhou hooked an arm around Fei Du's neck. "Little whelp."
Hooking like this, he touched Fei Du's chin. He couldn't resist stroking that somewhat sharp-cut chin. "Say, last time when we ate at Tao Ran's, you wouldn't even take a little coffeemaker up the stairs. How come you're so nice today?—Have you done something to let me down these last few days? Huh?"
Fei Du thought about it. "One thing."
Luo Wenzhou froze.
Fei Du took a slight break, then raised a foot onto the step. "I've adored you without permission. Sorry."
Luo Wenzhou: "…"
He was silent a moment, then suddenly reached out to catch the banister, forcing Fei Du to halt his steps. Then without a word he struggled free and grabbed Fei Du's scarf.
Fei Du went up the last two steps pushed and pulled by him.
Luo Wenzhou carelessly got out his keys and unlocked the door without even looking, relying on instinct. Then he pushed Fei Du into the entrance hall and pinned him against the door.
Luo Yiguo heard the door, came out to have a look as usual, and unfortunately got its tail stepped on by the oblivious Luo Wenzhou. Master Cat shrieked and leapt fully two chi off the ground, bumping its head against the clothes rack.
The rather artistic tall and narrow clothes rack was unsteadily balanced and couldn't withstand the sudden attack of a fifteen-jin fat cat. It toppled over, sweeping between the two of them, separating the lovebirds like the river dividing Chu and Han. Then, the curved long hook scraped over the little wall lamp in the entrance hall. As the cat shrieked, the lightbulb and the lampshade both fell to the ground in a household disaster.
Fei Du: "…"
Luo Wenzhou: "…"
The two of them looked at each other helplessly for a moment. Then Luo Wenzhou squeezed a sentence out from between his teeth: "Today I'll definitely stew that furry bastard."
Hearing these words, Luo Yiguo's rage became even more towering. It launched an attack from atop the shoe cabinet, delivering a series of murderous paw swipes to Luo Wenzhou, unfeelingly tearing up the seam of the sleeve of his jacket. Then it angrily stomped over the ground covered in splinters, leapt up to the top of its cat tree, and sat up on high, seething.
Luo Wenzhou said, "Luo Yiguo, it's a fight to the death between us!"
Fei Du laughed out loud.
Luo Wenzhou glared at him for a while. He moved away his toe, which had been struck dead on by the clothes rack. He couldn't gather up a drop of temper.
He felt like he was the irresponsible emperor in a cautionary tale. Hearing this calamitous demon's rare laugh, even the total ruin of his country meant nothing, never mind a sleeve torn up by a cat.
"So you've cheered up now that you've watched the cat pull down the house?" Luo Wenzhou whispered irritably. "You didn't say a word all the way here, and you agreed to everything I said. My mind is a mess. I keep thinking you're holding back some big plot again."
Fei Du stared, his smile receding.
"I was just thinking, if you came out again with some bullshit like, 'We're not suited for each other, let's break up,' I'd kill you. You wouldn't be able to get out of bed next year." Luo Wenzhou stuck his hand into Fei Du's hair and viciously rumpled it. "Why? Is it…because of what happened that day at the ecological park?"
Fei Du paused. "I thought you were going to think…"
"Think that you really weren't any good?" Luo Wenzhou sighed. He leaned across the wreck on the floor and pulled Fei Du by the collar, lips flitting over the tip of his nose. "You really were kind of scary that day. You know what I thought?"
"What?" Fei Du said.
"It's lucky that I'm here to keep an eye on you… Ah, as a man using his beauty to save the world, the Nobel Committee really ought to issue me a Peace Prize."
Fei Du: "…"
"I'm just teasing." Luo Wenzhou let him go and bent down to pick up the clothes rack lying wearily on the ground. "If I weren't here, at your age, you'd still know what to do, isn't that right?"
Fei Du was looking at him without blinking, as if he wanted to use his gaze to make an imprint of his outline and hide it in the deepest, darkest part of his heart, not letting anyone see.
"What are you looking at?" Even with his invincible face, Luo Wenzhou still felt somewhat awkward being watched by him like this—and he'd thought that he'd removed the word "awkward" from his lexicon. "You won't help clean up, all you can do is stand there watching. You have no sense of the situation. Who else but me would want you?"
On this last night of the year, the first thing the two of them did after coming home was to clean up the trashed entrance hall.
Luo Wenzhou gathered up the shards of the glass lampshade and the lightbulb while Fei Du began to torment the ruined corpse of the wall lamp left hanging on the wall.
He changed the lightbulb and got some iron wire from somewhere and bent it a few times with needle-nosed pliers, turning it into a small frame to go over the lightbulb. Then he ran into the basement and dug up a dilapidated bicycle basket.
When Luo Wenzhou had finished arranging the food and was using a small pot to stew some red braised pork, he found that Fei Du had given the old basket a trim and propped it on the iron frame over the lightbulb. The basket at once became a very suitable makeshift lampshade, complimenting the "offending" narrow clothes rack next to it, as though the two of them had come from the same set.
The water in the pot boiled and the smell floated out. On account of the meat, Luo Yiguo condescended to forgive the litter box attendant, jumping down and turning circles at Luo Wenzhou's feet.
Luo Wenzhou leaned against the wall, calculating the cooking time and watching Fei Du with his back to him, cleaning up the tools he'd just used as well as the cut off iron wire.
For a time, the demented suspects, the victims shouting themselves hoarse, the complex old case, the unknown enemy agent…at once all of them calmly left his world on their own.
His mind was as peaceful as soup simmering over a low flame, slowly sending up steam, once in a long while sending up a bubble. Each bubble was a full production, nothing hasty, only popping when it was overflowing, the aroma assaulting the senses.
It was the aroma of home, which made a person feel a sense of perfect satisfaction when he smelled it, desiring nothing, as if his whole life could settle into place like this.
Luo Wenzhou crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head up, lightly closing his eyes.
This time, he felt that the opportunity was finally ripe. The hastily-spoken words came up to his lips in the fullness of time, and he called to Fei Du, "Hey, Feishir3."
"…" Fei Du said, "What is it, grandpa?"
Luo Wenzhou looked at the ceiling. Then he looked at the floor. He bent down and picked up the generously-proportioned Luo Yiguo. Squeezing the cat's paws, he asked, "When are you planning to make things official with me?"
Fei Du paused. Then, without saying a word, he looked down and searched around among the iron wire he'd cut off earlier, cut off a piece of the appropriate length, and very nimbly used the needle-nosed pliers to twist it into a spiral ring with three circles. He blew off the filings, brought it to his lips and kissed it, then turned and knelt down.
Luo Wenzhou and Luo Yiguo were both startled, backing up at the same time. Luo Yiguo bumped into Luo Wenzhou's shoulder, and Luo Wenzhou bumped into the wall.
Fei Du said, "The size is definitely just right. Will you put it on?"
That day, Luo Wenzhou personally demonstrated to him that the appellation "grandpa" was mere provocation; in fact, President Fei didn't get out of bed until next year.
Luo Yiguo was once again locked out of the master bedroom. However, the feline majesty had attained a bowl of unseasoned red braised pork, so it magnanimously set aside the master bedroom portion of its domain for the two humans, temporarily holding back from investigating the matter.
One year ended, and another year began.
Xiao Haiyang left the interrogation room to the sound of Lu Guosheng's snarls. The hysterical curses seemed to hold some magic power, releasing light and heat, protecting against wind and cold, making him feel light as a swallow. He rushed out onto the street in the howling cold wind, passing the crowds of young people keeping the night watch in the squares and shopping streets, then jumped onto a bus bound for the outskirts. He sat on it for over an hour until it reached the last stop, then indefatigably walked for most of an hour, arriving at a remote little graveyard.
Naturally the graveyard was already closed. Xiao Haiyang deployed his "agility," which could be compared to that of a black bear, and hopped the wall, getting inside the graveyard and finding a simple and crude stone tablet.
Light from a nearby streetlight slanted down. Xiao Haiyang could clearly see Gu Zhao in black-and-white on the gravestone. His appearance was what it had been in his prime, only his expression was somewhat unnatural, because he'd been somewhat camera shy, getting nervous as soon as a photograph was being taken. None of his pictures were as good-looking as he had been himself.
Xiao Haiyang suddenly felt very aggrieved, like when he'd been very small and someone had bullied him and he'd come all the way home forcing himself to keep up appearances, until he'd seen this man and finally broken down, the grievance he'd endured backfiring even more strongly, making him unable resist running to that person's arms and bawling.
His glasses were blurred, steam evaporating from his nose and mouth and from the rims of his eyes, the vapor rising into a ball as though he were a human-shaped steamer. The steamer slowly walked a few steps, then bent down and hugged the ice-cold stone tablet, wanting to unburden himself like he had so long ago.
Suddenly, a faint fragrance entered his somewhat slow to react nose.
Xiao Haiyang froze. Then he realized that the fragrance was coming from the gravestone, like the smell of some cleaning solution. Xiao Haiyang hastily rubbed at his blurred eyes, turned on a flashlight, and found that the gravestone had been very carefully cleaned. There wasn't a speck of dirt, even in the nooks and crannies. There was a bouquet of fresh flowers under the gravestone.
Xiao Haiyang slowly frowned, saying to himself, "Uncle Gu, who was just here?"
Because his death hadn't been at all honorable, Gu Zhao's sick mother had dragged herself to receive his body on her own. The unyielding old lady hadn't told anyone. Coldly turning down Gu Zhao's colleagues who'd wanted to help in private, she'd quietly used her savings to buy a cheap and remote plot of land in a graveyard, settling him here.
Relying on the fact that he was a child, Xiao Haiyang had shamelessly followed the old lady. The old lady, seeing that he couldn't be chased away, had let him follow as he pleased. Xiao Haiyang remembered it clearly. Gu Zhao hadn't had a funeral; his friends and relatives hadn't been notified; the day he'd been buried, only his mother and Xiao Haiyang had been present.
Then who had scrubbed the gravestone and arranged the flowers?
Today wasn't the anniversary of Gu Zhao's death, and there was no local custom of sweeping graves at the beginning of the solar year.
Had the mysterious visitor just learned that Gu Zhao's case would be reopened?
But it hadn't yet been publicly announced…and even internally, only the personnel concerned with Lu Guosheng's case had heard anything about it.
Who could it be?
--------------------
Author's note:
(2) Third line of Ma Zhiyuan's (Yuan dynasty poet and playwright, c. 13th-14th century) poem 秋思 (Autumn Thoughts) about being melancholy because it's autumn, as you do. Roughly, the complete poem goes: "A crow searches for an old tree at dusk,/Houses lie along a small bridge and running water./An ancient road, a west wind, a skinny horse,/The sun is setting in the west./The heartbroken traveller wanders far from home."
(3) Had this many a chapter back, but reiterating: puerile pun on Fei Du's name, using a word that means "troublesome."