Bending down to enter the chess game

She caught sight of the key on the wooden door and immediately flew into a rage: "Xing Ge, how many keys have I given you? You always lose them, and when you lose them, you don't even ask? You have to make your uncle come to me to get a duplicate. I think if you lose it again, you can just quit and move to your grandfather's room. Since you came, we haven't had enough money." She muttered, shaking the wooden door from side to side with one hand.

The old wooden door creaked and groaned. "I think you could live without a door; it would even be cool in the summer."

"It wasn't me."

"What did you say?" Her aunt looked up at her, the freckles on her tan face standing out brightly in the blazing sun.

Her uncle placed his hand on her shoulder: "She said it wasn't intentional, right, Xiao Ge?"

A snake with its tongue flicked out was coiled around his shoulder; his T-shirt was soaked with sweat; and goosebumps rose on his skin after the chill.

She hadn't yet recovered from that damp chill. The scene shifted in an instant: the July sunlight streaming through the grape trellis beside the courtyard.

She squatted in the yard, picking cowpeas in front of a bamboo winnowing basket. Her grandfather sat in a rattan chair by the stone table, coughing intermittently. "Xing Ge, make noodles for lunch. Your uncle said school is on holiday. Go help out if you're free, and be quick-witted, okay?" She didn't want to agree. She opened her mouth to refuse.

But when I turned my head, I saw my grandfather's pale hand resting on the armrest of the chair, his wrist bones protruding like the roots of an old tree that was about to die.

He gave a muffled reply.

She stood up and walked into the house wearing a faded blue old shirt, which was her cousin's old clothes that he had discarded. Her aunt insisted that she looked better in it than her cousin.

With a creak of the wooden door, Fu Wen said, "You're here." He stepped over and closed the door behind her. He stopped in front of Xing Ge, his fingertips tracing the hair hanging down her chest. "This braid is so neat. Xing Ge, in the blink of an eye, you've grown into a young woman." His voice was extremely soft.

Xing Ge, on tiptoe, tried to subtly shrink back, but not paying attention to the green beans in the bamboo basket she was carrying, two of them immediately fell out. Fu Wen bent down to pick them up, his shirt collar slipping open half an inch, revealing a faint red mark below his collarbone. He looked up, his glasses flashing slightly: "What are you afraid of? Your uncle has taught at the school for ten years, he's not going to eat you, is he?" His fingertip touched her wrist, and goosebumps quickly rose on the skin where it touched.

The smell of firewood wafted from the kitchen, and Xing Ge hurriedly said, "I'll go add some firewood." The iron pot on the earthen stove was boiling water, and she stuffed a handful of dried corn husks into the firebox, sparks flying onto her blue apron.

However, Fu Wen's footsteps sounded behind her: "Your aunt went to the west slope to check on the cotton, she won't be back by noon." His shadow loomed over her back. A pair of hands pressed on her shoulders, thumbs rubbing back and forth below her collarbone: "So thin, did your mother leave you no food when she passed away?" Xing Ge stiffened, the beans in her hand falling to the ground with a thud. She immediately struggled.

His breath tickled behind her ear, his voice cold: "Don't move, don't pretend to be serious. Do you think your father is dead and your mother has run away? Who's feeding you?" His hand slid down, and she could feel the heat of his palm even through her coarse cloth shirt. She wanted to scream, but her throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Tears suddenly welled up, blurring the blue brick wall in front of her.

The boy pushed the door open heavily.

"Xiang Nan is back?" Fu Wen turned around, immediately regaining his usual gentle demeanor. He raised his hand to push up his glasses that had slipped down to the bridge of his nose, and Xing Ge took the opportunity to immediately back away from the stove.

A moment later, Aunt Xing Sanchang returned carrying a hoe, her trouser legs still covered in freshly turned soil. She first saw her husband's tall figure standing in the courtyard, and unconsciously smiled, quickening her pace: "Finished with school?" Fu Wen hummed in agreement, stood up to go inside, but before he could finish speaking, Xing Sanchang, who had already reached his side, said, "Don't move!"

She frowned: "Why is there a hair on your collar?"

It was a permed, curly strand of hair, jet black with a dark reddish tinge, clearly not hers. Xing Ge stood not far away, watching her aunt's hand hover in mid-air, her fingertips gently tracing the strand of hair. Fu Wen's back tensed abruptly, her eyes behind her glasses blinking rapidly: "Hair? No, it's not there. Was it from tutoring Guan Lan's child, maybe it got from the hair tie...?"

Xing Sanchang's hand trembled. She stared at her husband, "You think you can get so close to my collar? Fine, I'm sunburnt and peeling in the fields, and you're at school having an affair with a widow!"

"Don't listen to gossip. I only tutored her daughter in arithmetic twice..." Before he could finish speaking, Xing Sanchang suddenly ripped open his shirt collar, revealing a few dark red marks below his collarbone. As the collarbone was pulled open, they became increasingly clear—lip prints! Xing Sanchang started grabbing him: "Then what's this? Do you think I'm blind? You're a teacher, have you no shame?!"

With a series of cracking sounds, the two quickly began to wrestle.

Xing Ge turned her head and saw her grandfather standing in the shadows, leaning against the door frame, his fingers digging into the wooden door.

Fu Wen's face flushed a deep purplish-red. He suddenly caught sight of Xing Ge huddled by the stove, his eyes turning icy. "Why are you crying?" He reached out to grab Xing Ge, but Fu Congnan stopped him. The boy's white shirt was wrinkled, but his back was ramrod straight, like a stalk of corn battered by a storm. "Dad, what do you want to do?"

Xing Sanchang was initially happy, but in that instant, she suddenly noticed a single black hair on her husband's collar. Her hand froze in mid-air, her rough, cracked hands trembling slightly, as if she were trying to identify something unfamiliar. Suddenly, she abruptly turned to Xing Ge, her gaze fixed like a nail.

"I toil in the fields every day to make a living..." Her voice lowered, sounding more like a murmur than a question. "But you, you're sheltered from the wind and rain at school and you've learned... some really good skills." She took a step in front of Xing Ge, her fingers almost poking his face, and then grabbed his arm.

That hand strength was immense.

"I pitied you for having no parents, raising you with every bite of food and every drop of water, just so you could..." Xing Sanchang's voice suddenly rose, "...so you could come and steal my girlfriend? Huh?"

With her other hand, she swung the broom and started hitting Xing Ge indiscriminately, the broom bristling in the wind. "You jinx! We shouldn't have let you in! You killed your father, brought trouble to your mother, and now you're ruining my family! You can't stand seeing anything good happen to this family, can you?!"

The broom handle struck her flesh with a dull thud, and Xing Ge ducked to avoid it. "Enough!" Fu Congnan suddenly rushed forward and grabbed his mother's wrist as she was about to swing it down.

Xing San was panting heavily, but her son stopped her, and she felt as if all her strength had been suddenly drained away. Her eyes were bloodshot as she glared at Xing Ge, who was huddled in the corner, then she turned sharply to look at Fu Wen, whose face was ashen, before finally fixing her gaze on the old man coughing violently in the shadows by the door.

"Father! Did you see that?" Her voice trembled, choked with sobs, but she forced them back, leaving only desperate gasps. "This life... this life is unbearable! It's all her fault... ever since she came, this family has never had a moment of peace! Father, tell me, isn't this girl a jinx to our family? She not only killed Wude when she arrived, but now..."

"Waaah, I'm such a poor soul..."