Chapter Six: Metamorphosis One

  One

  Zhang Chongyu often had a dream, in which he returned to his childhood, sitting on the rooftop filled with moonlight, the rooftop was made up of tile pieces, walking on it would make a creaking sound. On every summer night when insects were chirping, he would put a few pieces of sugar made from sugarcane by his mother into his pocket, climb barefoot to the top of the pomegranate tree in front of the house, and reach the rooftop along the branches. Standing on the rooftop, what he saw was mountain after mountain, the mountains looked deep and low in the dark night, even in dreams, he yearned to climb over this mountain, and then that one, to see the bustling world outside, whether there were also insect sounds, tile pieces, sweet sugarcane sugar, soft moonlight, and this rooftop that made people nostalgic.

  Until I was admitted to a key middle school in the city, I had the opportunity to go to the world beyond the mountains. I remember that on the afternoon when I received the admission letter, I ran along the dusty ridge with the letter in hand, looking at my parents who were busy in the field, waving the letter in my hand and shouting loudly: "Dad and mom, I'm going to the city!"

  Parents lifted their heads from the fields, and Father gently pushed up the edge of his straw hat with the back of his hand, revealing those proud eyes. It was as if the tree saplings he had painstakingly planted over the years had finally bloomed and borne fruit. The pride in his eyes dispelled the heat and fatigue. Father stood in the fields, showing off to the villagers that his son had been admitted to a key school in the city. That feeling was truly wonderful, so much so that all of my later efforts seemed to be just for the sake of seeing the pride in their eyes.

  Later, his parents rented out the fields to another family and moved into town with a few thousand yuan. In order to take better care of Zhang Chongyu, they rented a small storefront in a narrow market to sell fruit, and their difficult yet warm life went on like this. Zhang Chongyu wandered back in his memories, surrounded by people rushing to the early market, his mother was rolling up her sleeves and moving the newly arrived fruit from the cart, sweat soaking through her shirt.

  "Mom, your waist is still not good, let me do it." Zhang Chongyu walked up and took the fruit box from his mother's hand, freeing up his right hand to comfortingly place on his mother's shoulder.

  Zhang's mother wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand, her face full of love and affection for her son. "You're still growing, carrying something so heavy will affect your bone growth, let mom do it instead."

  "Never mind, don't repeat." Zhang Chongyu directly moved the box in his hand to the front of the fruit stand and arranged it, then turned around to move the second box.

  I don't know when it started, but a sense of responsibility began to grow in my heart. As I grew taller and stronger, standing before my parents like a small mountain, I couldn't help but lament the cruelty of time - as I grew up, they would only get older. But it seems that the hardships of reality always accelerate their aging, and compared to the parents of rich families' children, mine have aged so much more. Thinking of this, Zhang Chongyu lifted the suitcase in his hand a little higher, and with his right hand, he picked up another box of fruit. A voice in his heart kept echoing: no matter what, I must work hard, Zhang Chongyu.

  It was almost noon when they finished moving the fruit, and in this small southern border town, even though it was only early March, the heat was already stifling. Zhang Chongyu sat under the big canopy set up in front of the fruit stand, his skin constantly emitting hot air from his shirt, his mouth dry and irritating. He bought a bottle of iced mineral water from the convenience store next door and put the frozen bottle on his forehead to dissipate some of the heat. Suddenly, the familiar canvas shoes that appeared before his eyes made him startled. Zhang Chongyu looked up at Lan Cai, who was standing in front of him. Since school started, he hadn't taken a close look at her, and she seemed to have lost a lot of weight. Her short hair was neatly combed over her ears, and her eyes stared motionlessly at him.

  "Blue...?" Zhang Chongyu swallowed hard, "H-how did you know I was here?"

  Looking at Zhang Chongyu's exhausted face, Lan Mou suppressed the heartache that had been growing in her heart and bit her lip, saying: "Earlier, I came to the vegetable market with my mother and knew you were selling fruit here. I'm here because Xiao Yi asked me to find you, but no one answered your home phone, so she called mine."

  She reminded him that they had planned to ride bikes to the Forest Park together today, Zhang Chongyu looked at her with some embarrassment, smiled and said: "Today was too busy and almost forgot, by the way, do you want to eat fruit? They're all fresh."

  "No, no need." Lán hastily waved his hand and looked at the simple fruit stand, "Do you come here to help your mom every weekend?"

  "Hmm." Zhang Chongyu responded faintly, clearly not wanting to say more about these things. Lan stood awkwardly, sneaking a glance at him, "Xiao Yi said... for you to go wait for her at the new street intersection immediately."

  "Now?" Zhang Chongyu looked at her in surprise. "I'm a bit busy today, can you help me apologize to her? I'll go to her house tonight, okay?"

  Lan nodded silently, without saying a word.

  Zhang Chongyu looked at her with complex emotions, and couldn't help but feel that what he was doing was a bit cruel. "Lan'er, thank you."

  A gentle breeze blew up her hair in front of her forehead, she looked at him shyly and smiled: "Okay."

  Nothing matters, no more talking, no more contact, no more looking at him, all gone to hell, as long as he speaks softly to her again, everything is gone to hell. Lan somehow dislikes this easy compromise with herself, but the inner feeling can't be controlled, liking Zhang Chongyu might just be her first crush.

  It's over. Every time I see him and Xiao Yi together, I always think to myself a thousand times: Break up already. Is this kind of self-revulsion not despicable? They like each other and there's nothing wrong with that. The mistake lies in the fact that I like Zhang Chongyu so much.

  Just past the intersection and I'll be home, might as well go into the supermarket to buy some snacks for watching TV tonight. Thinking this way, Lan walked into the supermarket under her apartment building. Having finally lost a bit of weight, fried foods like potato chips were no longer an option, nor was touching potato chips allowed, and wouldn't the fat content of cookies be a bit too high?

  Just as Lan Jue was standing in front of the snack shelf considering what to eat, a familiar voice that couldn't be any more familiar rang out from behind him: "Lan Jue!"

  Blue? C hadn't reacted yet when he was tightly hugged from behind, a familiar scent entered his nostrils, "Du! Hong! One! Let me go to death!"

  Hongyi looked at Lan's still frightened appearance and couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Wow, you're so fierce!"

  He turned around to see the girl gazing at him with affectionate eyes, and his heart skipped a beat. He swallowed hard: "Lan... I..." The girl gently placed her hand on his arm, her fingers sliding softly over his skin until they found the most tender spot on his upper arm, where she pinched down hard.

  Kouichi's scream was beyond description, the potato chips on the shelf couldn't withstand the shock and fell off in several bags. Kouichi panted heavily, looking at Lan Zhan's smug face, rubbing his arm, which hurt like hell, "Lan Zhan! Are you out of your mind?!"

  "Brother?" A little girl with braids suddenly ran out from behind, blinking her big eyes at Du Hongyi. Seeing Hongyi's painful expression, Xiao Nuan quickly looked angrily at Lan Zhan who was standing opposite, and then her expression changed from blame to surprise: "Pig-headed Lan Zhan!"

  What shocked Lan even more was that the girl called Hong "Ge" (older brother), and then turned around to call him "Pig Head". He felt helpless and annoyed: "Hey, how can this little friend be so rude?"

  Hongyi smiled and hugged the little warm sticky to his feet, pointing at Lan Jie and said: "Hey, Little Warm, she is the Pig Head Blue Jie that you and I mentioned. Go call her sister and she will buy you snacks to eat."

  Xiao Nuan excitedly screamed and ran over to tightly hug Lan'er's waist: "Sister!"

  Looking at the little kid stuck to himself like a dog skin plaster, Lan Caihe couldn't help but laugh and cry, glaring fiercely at Hongyi who was laughing so hard he was about to fall over, "Don't teach kids bad things, okay? What are you teaching him?"

  "Not spoiled at all, this kid is good-natured, haha." Hongyi continuously threw snacks from the shelf into the shopping cart, "This little warm loves to eat, eh, you don't also love eating this?"

  "I'm on a diet." He pushed away the snacks in his hand, and Lan pointed to the little warm jumping around the snack shelf: "When did you come up with a sister?"

  "I was born a few days ago." Hongyi smiled mischievously at Lan'er, "Isn't it cute?"

  "Get out."

  "My stepmother brought it back, and I thought it was pretty interesting so I brought it along." Hong said seriously.

  "Blue?" C looked at his rare serious expression and said: "So, you haven't gone to school for a while because of her?"

  "Yeah, no one is taking care of me at home."

  "Where is her mother?"

  "Every day playing mahjong with those rich ladies." As he said this, Hongyi helplessly turned his head, feeling inexplicably angry in his heart.

  "Hey, don't worry about it. You still have to come to class anyway. Let Xiaonu find her mom to take care of her, you're so careless how can you take care of someone?"

  Suddenly a warm current surged in his heart, and Hiroichi gently stroked the girl's hair with his right hand, saying softly: "Good."

  "Ah?" Looking at Hiro's sudden bright smile, Aoi was taken aback for a moment.

  "I'm fine, I'll go to class tomorrow." Hong was in a very good mood and continued to throw snacks into the shopping cart. He called out to Xiaonu not far away: "Xiaonu, let's head home."

  Standing in front of the cashier, Xiaonu excitedly hugged the snacks in her shopping cart and showed a sweet smile: "Wow! Brother, these are all my favorite foods!"

  "These are all bought by your sister." After finishing, she still pushed Lan's arm with ill intentions, "Right? Sister?"

  Xiao Nuan happily ran over to Lan and gave her a big hug: "Thank you, sister!"

  "Hello, that's 374 yuan in total." The salesperson said politely.

  Blue? C gnashed his teeth and kicked him hard with the Martin boots under his feet, "You crazy!"

  "Alright, I know you're broke, I'll get it. " Hongyi happily pulled out his wallet to pay the bill, divided the snacks into two bags, and handed one to the stunned Lan, "Here, take it. Why bother losing weight? It's better to be plump and cute."

  Before Lan could speak, Hongyi took a step forward and approached her, looking at her unexpectedly thin face, and couldn't help but curse: "Damn! How can you lose so much weight!"

  "I'm happy and I'm pleased, what's it to you?"

  "Yes, mind your own business, if you dare to lose any more weight I'll feed you to my dog Wangcai."

  Under the moonlight, Hongyi had Xiao Nuan on his back and was shouting as he dodged Blue's claw-like hands. Blue couldn't help but laugh until she was out of breath. Suddenly, she felt a pang in her heart and thought that having Hongyi by her side was really great. Every time they were together, she could easily forget about unhappy things. He seemed to have a kind of magic power that made the people around him happy.

  On the way home, the streetlights on the small path were broken, and Hongyi insisted on sending Blue back home. With Xiao Nuan asleep on his back, he accompanied her through the dark alley and into the entrance of their neighborhood. As they stood facing each other across the iron gate, Hongyi called out to Blue, who turned around and walked up to him, looking at him quietly: "What's wrong?"

  His face had a faint flush under the moonlight, and then he stretched out his hand to pinch her face fiercely: "What's wrong with you? So fierce. The snack hasn't been taken yet." After finishing, he handed over the bag full of snacks from the gap in the iron railing to her.

  Blue? C took the bag, and at the moment her warm fingertips touched his, her heart skipped a beat. She hastily said thank you and turned to run into the corridor, the voice-controlled lights in the corridor suddenly lit up, and the girl panted with difficulty, unable to suppress the palpitations in her heart. There was an inexplicable emotion that was occupying her mind, what was this feeling? Du Hongyi, do you also dislike this annoying emotion like me?