Chapter 37

The sky was a clear, bright blue, clouds layered like waves. Along the dirt road skirting the fields, countless wildflowers bloomed like scattered stars, spring in full, lush glory.
The quietly expectant joy in Song Jinping’s heart felt as if it had been draped in a long, drizzling plum rain, fine, relentless discomfort. Jealousy took root where no one could see.
After a few seconds where his expression was stiff and ugly, he smoothed it all away, handed the parcel to Bai Xinmei, and started to probe as if nothing were wrong.
“A blind date. Funny, I hadn’t heard anything of it in the village… So you already have a suitor you’re interested in?”
“Because I’m a widow, there’s no need to make a big fuss. I just asked Aunt Wang to quietly look out for someone suitable.”
She snuck a cautious glance at him.
Comrade Song’s face didn’t look too good. She could clearly feel the pressure of the gloomy aura coming off him. Was he regretting it and planning to take the parcel back?
Bai Xinmei went on, “I wouldn’t say I’m interested, as long as he’s suitable, that’s enough. Anyway… it’s not like I’m some untouched maiden anymore.”
As she spoke, her eyes drifted off into the distance, unfocused, as if lost in her own thoughts.
The sight made something tug painfully inside Song Jinping. “So you’re just… wronging yourself, picking any man to marry? It’s possible you have better options… right beside you…”
“That’s not ‘any man,’ is it? Isn’t that what blind dates are, if you fit, then it works. I don’t have time for romance, or the luxury to stroll under the moon with someone, Comrade Song.”
The moment he called her way of choosing a husband “wronging herself,” her brows creased. Was he saying she was a casual woman? She’d thought the two of them at least counted as acquaintances, friends, even. He’d helped her so many times. She’d believed he understood her.
[Good one. ‘Wronging herself,’ he says. Our streamer picks a man like an emperor picking concubines, eight major criteria, ten must-have conditions. I’d say she’s really wronging herself.]
[Maybe there’s a better choice right next to you. Tsk tsk tsk, Little Song, just say it already.]
Bai Xinmei watched the ever-changing look on Song Jinping’s face and, for a moment, couldn’t figure out what exactly she’d done to set him off.
But Wang Shuisheng was still waiting for her inside; she couldn’t leave him hanging forever, or she’d have no way to explain herself to Aunt Wang, who’d introduced them.
And yet, telling him directly to leave… she really couldn’t get those words out.
“Song Jinping, thank you, today I…”
She glanced back toward the room, expression wavering. The meaning, however, couldn’t have been clearer. Seeing that all of her attention was clearly fixed on the blind date inside, Song Jinping found he couldn’t even maintain a polite veneer of a smile.
Those dark, ink-black eyes of his simply stared at her, heavy with a storm about to break.
She didn’t know if she was imagining it, but why did she get a bizarre feeling from his expression, like a husband who’d just been cheated on and handed a green hat?
Haltingly, she said,
“Then, Comrade Song, I’ll go in first. We’ll talk later.”
“Mm.”
Bai Xinmei pressed her lips together and snuck another look at him. If anything, his face looked even worse.
She took a few steps back into the courtyard, then felt that standing here with his parcel in her arms and not even offering him a sip of water, leaving him out at the door drinking the northwest wind, was a bit too much.
So she turned back, cleared her throat, and asked cautiously, “Um…Comrade Song, would you like to come in for a cup of tea…”
It was only meant as a polite formality.
“Alright.”
That’s more like it. His expression finally eased a little, and before Bai Xinmei could react, he had already lifted his foot and walked in.
Bai Xinmei: ??? Weren’t you just saying you were leaving?
She’d never expected to hoist a rock only to drop it on her own foot. Her little brain instantly blue-screened.
What was she supposed to say to Wang Shuisheng now?
What a coincidence, we have guests today?
Brother Shuisheng, this is my other blind date. I’m in a bit of a rush, so let’s all three blind date together?
Or maybe: The educated youth spot ran out of soy sauce, so Comrade Song came to borrow some from us…
Her mind spun furiously through excuses.
Sure enough, when she brought in a big bowl of tea brewed with dried mint and honeysuckle, what she saw made her scalp go numb.
Comrade Song and her blind date, Wang Shuisheng, were sitting on stools to the left and right of the main room.
The atmosphere made her want to suffocate, and, just a little, feel guilty.
No, wait. Why should I feel guilty? I’m openly blind dating. What is there to feel guilty about?
Forcing herself to ignore the inexplicable weirdness in the air, she pasted on a well-behaved smile and began making introductions.
“This is Song Jinping, Comrade Song. He’s really kind; Niuniu and all the village children like him a lot. He’s a very warm-hearted person.”
Hearing that, Wang Shuisheng felt a little pang. Xinmei seemed to think quite highly of this Comrade Song.
“Oh, and this is Brother Shuisheng. He’s the one who saved me the other day. You could say he’s my savior.”
Song Jinping’s brows knitted. Savior? So she’s going to repay him with marriage now? This isn’t the old days!
Silence had been strange enough, but once they started talking, the mood somehow grew even more bizarre.
“I’ll go boil some water for tea.”
Bai Xinmei was the first to bolt.
She dawdled and dawdled, and at last the water boiled.
“Xinmei, let me help you, that must be really hot.”
She was carrying a big bowl, shuffling along with small steps, clearly struggling. Seeing the steaming water, Wang Shuisheng got nervous that she’d scald her hands and stepped forward to help.
“O–oh… no need! No need, I can do it myself. Y–you and Song Jinping are both guests, how could I let the guests do the work?”
Reflexively, she’d almost agreed to let him help. But the instant she felt Song Jinping’s gaze boring into her, like he was about to stare a hole through her, she immediately refused several times in a row.
Right as she drew near, she stumbled.
“Ah!”
The hot tea sloshed over a pair of long, clean, pale hands, bones and joints distinct, already roughened with a light layer of calluses.
He caught the bowl itself with a steady grip.
“Are you alright?”
His voice, clear and resonant like a struck chime, jolted her back to herself. By the time she fully came to, he had already set the bowl down on the table next to the boxes of peach crisps. The back of his hand was already swollen red.
Her heart lurched. She grabbed his sleeve, her whole face leaning in almost to his hand, thick lashes fluttering nervously. She looked utterly earnest, nervous, and flustered.
Just like when she’d helped him pull the leech off his leg. Clearly, in her heart, he was more important than this blind date who’d popped up out of nowhere.
The knot in Song Jinping’s chest instantly loosened; he didn’t feel quite so stabbed in the heart.
In a panic, Bai Xinmei rushed back to her room to grab two tubes of ointment, the kind she used in winter for frostbite. It ought to work on burns too.
As soon as she left, the two men looked at each other across the room, and sparks flew. The faint scent of gunpowder spread through the air, like two beasts squaring off over a mate, neither willing to give an inch.
“Comrade Song is handsome and refined, and your family situation must be quite good. I imagine you left a sweetheart behind in the capital, didn’t you?”
From the moment Song Jinping walked in, Wang Shuisheng had sensed that his intentions toward Bai Xinmei were not exactly pure.
That educated youth’s eyes had stuck to Xinmei the instant he entered, and he’d been openly hostile toward himself.
Ordinarily, faced with a rival like this, Wang Shuisheng might have backed off, avoiding unnecessary loss.
But this time what he was fighting for was his own love, his future wife.
Song Jinping shook the tea from his burned hand and looked at the reddened skin, secretly pleased. In Comrade Bai’s eyes today, surely this blind date, whose looks, talent, and everything else fell short of his, wouldn’t stand a chance.
In his good mood, he said, “No. When I was young, my heart was set only on studying, so that when I accomplished something, I could serve my country. Later, when the call came to go up to the mountains and down to the countryside, I was among the first to respond. Where would a girlfriend fit into that?”
Under other circumstances, Wang Shuisheng might have liked to befriend someone like Song Jinping. But not today.
“Comrade Song truly is a man of great ambition. You do look like someone above ordinary sentimental entanglements. Not like me. My life’s ambition is just to marry a woman I like, have a lovely child, and spend a peaceful, steady life together. That’s enough.”
Trying to box me in with big ideals, is he? Put a tall hat on me? The corners of Song Jinping’s fox-eyes lifted slightly as he laughed.
“Who says family and country can’t be balanced? Comrade Wang, that’s a bit too leftist of you.”
“If I happen to like someone, I’ll naturally do my utmost to protect her. To love one person and devote my whole life to shielding her.”
“But in one respect you’re right: my family conditions really aren’t bad. I don’t find that anything to brag about, but if my future wife happens to like that her man has a good family background, then I’m actually quite grateful to have this advantage.”
As he spoke, he raised his burned hand and smiled at Wang Shuisheng with open provocation.
Wang Shuisheng snorted. “Looks like Comrade Song is indeed a thoughtful, calculating man.”
“Could it be that the person you like is Xinmei? I wonder if she knows how devoted you are. Shame for you that right now, the one she’s meeting as a blind date is me, Wang Shuisheng. Comrade Song will have to queue up.”
Those words brought a chill to Song Jinping’s gaze. Outside in the courtyard, hearing the word “blind date” had hit him like a blow to the head, and in that instant he’d understood his feelings for Comrade Bai: it was affection, no, a fierce, burning love.
Before he’d even had time to calm down, he’d heard Comrade Bai say that Wang Shuisheng was a very suitable man to marry.
Had Wang Shuisheng gotten there first? Was he late?
No. He would make sure she understood that he was more suitable than Wang Shuisheng, that he was the man who matched her best.
By the time Bai Xinmei came back with the ointment, the air in the room had changed again, no longer just suffocatingly awkward, but crackling with gunpowder.
She’d only been gone a short while…
“Comrade Song, put some ointment on your hand.”
She started toward him, intending to apply it for him.
A flash of satisfaction crossed his face as he once again shot a triumphant look at Wang Shuisheng.
But Wang Shuisheng was no pushover. He stepped up, sounding all concern, “Xinmei, Comrade Song is a grown man. Wang Cuilan is still nearby, if she comes in and sees this, I’m afraid…”
Right. With that reminder, Bai Xinmei snapped back to reality. She was a widow; putting ointment on an unmarried man’s hand, if that turned into gossip, what would she do?
How could she keep going on blind dates after that? Wait, had this blind date already misunderstood something?
“Comrade Song, um, take this back and apply it yourself. I’ve still got things to do, so I won’t keep you.”
Meaning: I still need to blind date. Go home and treat your own burn, or people will misunderstand and I’ll never get married.
Hearing that, Song Jinping nearly twisted his nose out of shape with anger. Heartless woman!