Mud beads

The day Yu Pandi left the village, the sky cleared up.

Autumn sunshine in the Qinling Mountains is fleeting. Clouds press down on the mountainside, and sunlight filters through the gaps, making the walnut leaves gleam. At the village entrance, some people watch the spectacle, eating sunflower seeds by the roadside. Neither Yu Dahai nor Liu Guizhen sees her off. Only Yu Zhaozu chases after her for a while, asking if she can bring back candy again.

Yu Pandi was holding a snakeskin bag.

Inside the bag were two old clothes, a pair of rubber shoes, and the piece of paper with Yue Jianche's name on it. Liu Guizhen originally wanted to keep the old clothes as well, saying that city people would definitely buy her new ones, but Yue's driver couldn't bear to see her like that and helped her stuff them into the bag.

Before leaving, she looked back at her own yard.

It wasn't that she was reluctant to part with Liu Guizhen, nor with Yu Dahai. She just suddenly remembered the spotted hen in the coop, who had been squatting there yesterday, refusing to come out, as if she wanted to brood. She hadn't had time to scatter cornbread this morning, and she wondered if Liu Guizhen would remember to feed her.

The small shop next to the woodshed was still there, with a shallow crease she had made while sleeping on it. The stove was blackened, the water vat was chipped, and the threshold was broken. None of those things were kind to her, but they were things she recognized.

The car door was open, and the inside was very clean.

Yu Pandi suddenly became frightened.

She was only thirteen years old and had known Echizen Toru for half a month. Half a month ago, he was someone who stood by the millstone giving her candy; half a month later, he became someone who wanted to take her away. She didn't know how far the city was, nor whether the person who was bought could ever come back.

Yu Zhaozu asked again, "Are you coming back?"

Yu Pandi didn't answer. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth, she would burst into tears.

Toru Echizen sat in the back row by the window.

Yu Pandi didn't dare sit next to him, and even when the driver opened the passenger seat for her, she still didn't dare get in. Finally, Grandpa Yue spoke up and told her to sit on the other side of the back seat.

The car door closed, shutting out the village.

She had washed herself and her hair had been hastily combed by Aunt Wang, but her clothes were still old, and the yellow mud on the edges of her rubber shoes couldn't be washed off. Yuejian Che turned his head to look out the window, and his nose wrinkled slightly as if he had smelled something.

Yu Pandi immediately hid her feet under the seat.

The driver turned up the air conditioning a little and glanced at her in the rearview mirror again. That glance wasn't malicious; instead, it made her feel even worse. She didn't know where to put her hands, and finally hugged the snakeskin bag to her lap, like a fig leaf.

A tablet rested on Toru Echizen's lap, its screen displaying an English interface she couldn't understand. She watched his fingers glide across the glass—clean, long, with neatly trimmed nails. Looking at her own hands, she saw they were washed, yet faint traces of black remained between her fingers.

She also hid her hands in her sleeves.

The car passed through the town and then got on the highway. It drove through tunnels, the mountains receding into the distance. It was the first time she had ever seen such long rows of lights, one after another, as if someone had hidden the daylight inside the mountains.

Grandpa Yue was resting with his eyes closed in front of him.

Echizen was playing a game with headphones on, his fingers moving incredibly fast. Yu Pandi secretly glanced at him. His profile was clean, his eyelashes long, and his clothes had a faint fragrance. She thought, he's like a god.

The gods brought her out of that courtyard.

Unbeknownst to her, the "god" was cursing at his teammates in the game.

Even when Yuejian Che was cursing, he didn't raise his voice; he spoke in a low, lazy tone, as if he didn't think the other person was worth his effort. Yu Pandi couldn't understand what the person in the earphone was saying, but she saw a smile on his lips, a smile very similar to the one he gave her candy.

She thought it was a good temper.

By the time they arrived in Chang'an, it was already dark.

The Yue family lived in a villa area in the south of the city. There was a security guard at the gate. As the car drove in, the trees on both sides of the road were neatly trimmed, and the lawns were like cloth. Yu Pandi leaned against the window to look, not daring to touch the glass.

Grandpa Yue lives in the building in front. Yue Jianche's house is next door, with a larger yard and warm white lights shining upstairs.

"Your father isn't in the country," Old Master Yue said to Yue Jianche. "You're the one who's bringing him back, so don't complain about the trouble later."

Echizen Toru took off one earphone and smiled sweetly, "No, Grandpa."

Yu Pandi felt a surge of warmth in her heart upon hearing these words.

The door opened, and Aunt Wang, the nanny, came out to greet them. She was in her fifties, wearing an apron. She paused for a moment when she saw Yu Pandi, then quickly bent down to take the bag.

The living room lights were too bright; the floor was so shiny you could see your reflection. Yu Pandi stood in the entryway and smelled a mixture of wood, flowers, and cleaning agents. She didn't know it was called aromatherapy; she just felt like even the air here had been cleansed.

As Toru Koshima stood in the entryway changing his shoes, he casually said, "Aunt Wang, give her a bath and change her clothes. Let her stay in the room on the left on the second floor. Don't let her into my room, and don't let her touch my things."

Aunt Wang nodded in agreement, "I understand."

Yu Pandi stood at the door, unsure where to take off her shoes.

Echizen changed into slippers and walked past her. She moved aside, but the snakeskin bag still accidentally brushed against his trouser leg.

He paused for a moment.

Yu Pandi turned pale with fright.

Echizen glanced down, his smile undiminished: "It's nothing."

He said it was nothing, turned around and went upstairs, but before entering his room, he took off his pants and threw them into the trash can.

Aunt Wang took Yu Pandi to take a bath.

Hot water was poured over her head, and Yu Pandi flinched as if burned. Aunt Wang said it wasn't hot, that she was just too cold. The shampoo lathered up and dripped down her neck. Standing on the seamless tiles, she watched the black water gushing into the drain and suddenly felt incredibly dirty.

The toilet in the bathroom could flip open its lid by itself. Yu Pandi took a step closer, and it suddenly lit up, making a soft sound of water, which startled her so much that she pressed her back against the wall. Aunt Wang laughed and said it was a smart toilet, with buttons next to it for washing, drying, and heating. She memorized it word by word, more carefully than she would a primary school textbook.

Aunt Wang trimmed her nails, changed her into pajamas, and brought her food.

On the small kitchen table sat silver cod, pan-fried asparagus, mushroom soup, and a small dish of thinly sliced ​​beef. The beef was red in the middle, with a speck of black sauce around the edges. Yu Pandi only recognized rice; she sat at the table, hesitant to touch it. Aunt Wang said, "Eat up. The young master isn't coming down to eat; he's playing games."

The sink by the kitchen island had a thin stream of water running continuously, and no one turned it off. Yu Pandi checked it several times, feeling uneasy, but Aunt Wang said, "Young Master complains about the smell in the sink, so the water's been running all along. There's no need to turn it off."

As she went upstairs, she heard Tetsuya Etsuya talking on the phone in his room. They were discussing things like "skins" and "Titan stickers." A boy's voice came through the static, "Tetsuya just bought a gun skin worth over 1.3 million like that?"

Yu Pandi couldn't understand.

All she knew was that 80,000 yuan could buy her, while over 1.3 million yuan could buy a gun in a game.

Echizen Toru never came downstairs again.

She ate very slowly.

The fish was boneless and as soft as tofu. The asparagus had a fresh, green flavor, and the soup had a milky aroma. She didn't dare touch the slice of red beef, thinking it wasn't cooked through. She remembered that Yu Zhaozu loved meat, and although the family rarely bought any, he was always the first to eat it. She picked up a piece of fish, hesitated for a long time, and finally put it in her mouth.

No one scolded her.

This made her more uneasy than being scolded.

The next day, Aunt Wang bought her clothes. The third day, Aunt Wang taught her how to use the smart toilet and shower. The fourth day, Aunt Wang forbade her to sweep the floor, saying there was a cleaning lady at home. The fifth day, when she wanted to wash the dishes, Aunt Wang took them away, saying the dishwasher would do them.

Yu Pandi didn't know what she could do.

She wakes up very early every morning and sits on the edge of the bed waiting for dawn. Outside the curtains, there are no roosters crowing, no pigs squealing, no Liu Guizhen cursing. It's too quiet here, so quiet it's as if she shouldn't be breathing.

She tried folding her quilt into a perfect square, but Aunt Wang laughed when she saw it and said there was no need to be so nervous. She then tried wiping the stair railing, but halfway through, the cleaning lady politely took the rag away and said, "Young lady, don't do this."

She had no choice but to go back to her room.

The room contained a desk, a lamp, a dressing table, a television, and a wardrobe that covered an entire wall. The wardrobe was mostly empty, as if waiting to be filled in. She dared not turn on the television, nor sit at the dressing table; the mirror was too bright, leaving her nowhere to hide.

When she went to sleep at night, she always dreamed that Liu Guizhen kicked the door and scolded her for being lazy. When she woke up, she saw the ceiling and couldn't remember where she was.

On the seventh day, Aunt Wang asked her, "Didn't the young master say when he would take you to school?"

Yu Pandi shook her head.

Aunt Wang sighed, "Then go ask. We can't just stay here like this forever."

She went up to the second floor and stood in front of the door of the Etsuya room. Light shone through the crack in the door, and people inside were laughing and talking. She raised her hand, then lowered it, then lowered it again, then raised it again.

Finally, she tapped it very lightly.

There was a two-second silence inside.

The door opened. Echizen Toru, wearing headphones, his hair a little messy, still had an impatient look on his face. He stared at the girl in the doorway for a long while.

"Oh," he said, "you're still in my house."