The Healing Sunshine Chapter 6.2

Chapter 6: My Little Thoughts 2

一厘米的阳光， 第六章： 我的小心思

When Ji Yi was about to quietly get off the bed, Ji Chengyang suddenly stretched out his arm, probably wanting to hug the blanket, instead unwittingly caught hold of her right arm which was pressed up beside him.

She was taken aback for a moment, the latter had also woken up.

A brief moment later, he let go of the thin blanket he was hugging, pushing himself against the bed to sit up.

“Xixi?” He was a little surprised, his voice sleepy and unclear.

Ji Yi felt so awkward to death, wanting to jump off the bed, but instead clumsily fell backwards, fortunately, w.a.n.g Haoran stretched out his hands just in time, holding her to standing steadily, “Look you have already scared other family’s little lady.”

Finished, truly made a fool of herself……

Ji Chengyang got off the bed, b.u.t.toned up two b.u.t.tons, no doubt, very easily guessed how Ji Yi could have the key for this place, but did not keep asking any further, seemed like he had already thought of Ji Yi as a part of his family, and did not mind her sudden intrusion. Only while he was washing his face in the bathroom did he ask: “Where’s Nuannuan?”

As he was asking, his two hands cupped up two handful of cold water, splashing it on his face.

The water dripped down from this face, he nonchalantly used his right hand to wipe away most of it, only a little was left,  each drop dripping down from his chin, to the collar of his shirt……

“She…… went to buy a present for you.”

An excuse even she herself could not believe…… undoubtedly did not have any persuasive power on him.

Ji Chengyang lowered his head to look at her, after a moment, did not dismiss the excuse, only suddenly said something entirely irrelevant: “Xixi this year has grown not a little.”

“Yes,” she sighed a relief, “grown six centimeters, already one hundred and fifty five.”

That was the first time anyone had paid attention to the matter of her height.

But still need to completely look up to look at him. He’s probably around one hundred and eighty seven?

Ji Yi randomly guessed. When Ji Chengyang and w.a.n.g Haoran had woken up from their weariness, she was quickly asked what she would like to eat for dinner.

“I can eat anything. Ah-” Ji Yi remembered at the exit junction1 there was an ethnic Hui snack place, but the words only came to her lips, only to be swallowed down.

“You know what you want to eat now?” Ji Chengyang very easily saw through, using his index finger to graze the tip of her nose, “No need to be polite with me.”

Light and soft pressure slid down from her nose bridge to the tip of her nose, and also the smell of tobacco. She could feel her ears heating up.

“Not something very expensive,” Ji Yi could not but said, “just feel like eating ethnic Hui snacks over at the exit junction. Their chicken gizzard is really good.”

Fried chicken gizzard Image credit

“Xixi,” w.a.n.g Haoran suddenly laughed, “You are really easy to raise.”

And so those two grown men indeed decided to easily take care of dinner at the ethnic Hui snack stalls at the exit junction of Xinjie Road. From the compound where Ji Chengyang lived to that place, it took only a maximum of twenty minutes. It was coincidentally dinner time, so it was especially lively inside the restaurant.

w.a.n.g Haoran put three people’s serving of zasuitang2 down, and already brought the chopsticks.

Zasuitang Image Credit

Yi Chenyang already ordered a plate of snacks and put it down on the table.

“Ji Chengyang, how come I’ve never realized, you have a knack at coaxing young girls? w.a.n.g Haoran looked at the food on the plate, very quickly laughed, “You strange uncle is not scheming something funny right?”

Ji Chengyang seemed to be too lazy to talk, pushing the whole plate to the front of Ji Yi. The meaning was simple, all of them were ordered for her.

A paperbag full of fried chicken gizzard, four skewers of fried goat’s meat, two tangerduo3, two wandouhuang4… this is an amount that even if she was. .h.i.tto death she still could not finish. Ji Yi lowered her head, looking one more time at zasuitang in front of her, “I cannot finish this much.”

Tangerduo Image Credit 

Wandouhuang Image Credit

“Did you hear? Xixi said she cannot finish them.” w.a.n.g Haoran took the opportunity to jeer at him.

Ji Chengyang instead was even too lazy to lift up his eyelids, putting aside the ceramic spoon in his hand, w.a.n.g Haoran looked at him, smiling, thinking that there would be a few sentences of retort, but did not expect that he would only talk to Ji Yi who had already picked up the bamboo skewer to pick up a piece of chicken gizzard: “Looks like I forgot to ask them to put in the spicy seasoning.”

“It’s okay.”

He stood up, taking the paper bag of chicken gizzard, walked again to the door and gave it to the person manning the skewers. Seeing that there were many people, he simply went to the other snack stall window and added two more ludagun5, lifting up a can of cold c.o.ke, when the seasoning was sprinkled, he then walked back.

Ludagun Image Credit

w.a.n.g Haoran lifted up his brows, chuckled.

That meaning was: after saying that you’re fat, you even pant6, you eldest master really plan on making this little lady fill up to death?

Ji Chengyang only acted as if he did not notice, putting the straw inside the gla.s.s c.o.ke bottle, telling her: “Eat slowly, not in a rush.”

Ji Yi gave an “umm”, clearly saw the two young boys sitting at the next table staring at the food in front of her, displaying the envious expression “Big sister, you really can eat”, looking at her with the utmost admiration……

She discovered, the zasuitang in front of Ji Chengyang, was not touched even once.

To be precise, he seemed to have not eaten anything, just ate a little shaobing7 and ludagun.

Shaobing Image credit

As they were leaving, w.a.n.g Haoran was also curious, and even asked him: “Haven’t you always been a meat-eating animal? Why after accompanying the Palestinian troop for a while, just changed completely?

“Respecting other people’s religion? All of them are vegetarian?” w.a.n.g Haoran made conjectures.

“Do you want to know?” He only smiled.

w.a.n.g Haoran sneered, “Still trying to sell the climax [keeping people in suspense]?”

His line of vision, fell on the bridge over Jishuitan8 on one side of the city moat, there were cars coming and going, wan lamp light.

“If you were to witness with your own eyes a tank in the midst of a rocket strike, over ten soldiers roasted to charred corpse in your face, or…… the commander who just minutes before were telling you about the situation of the war shot to death on his head by a sniper in front of you, dripping fresh blood, or even-”

“Stop, I understood, if it were me I wouldn’t be have any appet.i.te for meat,” w.a.n.g Haoran glanced over at Ji Yi, who was only two steps behind the two of them, “not suitable for children.”

He smiled, and did not carry on.

He smiled more often than before.

Ji Yi continued to summarize his changes during the past year.

Although it sounded quite gory, yet she could not help but wanting to listen, wanting to understand every matter that has something to do with him.

She stared at w.a.n.g Haoran’s back, silently thinking, this person can’t be staying over at Ji Chengyang’s home tonight? Fortunately, as soon as this thought came up, w.a.n.g Haoran picked up an urgent phone call, and left.

He seemed to be very fond of Ji Yi, with one foot already inside the taxi, still did not forget to say: “Chengyang, you give your phone number to the little lady, if not it’s so inconvenient to find you. Right, also mine, also give my number to Xixi-”

Ji Chengyang, with one hand inserted inside the pocket of his pants, waved the other, telling w.a.n.g Haoran to quickly leave.

His friend already left.

Only the two of them remained, walking from under Jishuitan Bridge, following along the city moat, walking back.

She had always loved silence, did not know how to chitchat; at the dormitory, she would also just accompany other people talking, as if whatever other people said, she would just continued the conversation with a few sentences, but if she had to enliven the atmosphere, that would be hopeless. Therefore, at this moment, walking by Ji Chengyang’s side, she tried her hardest to find something to say, yet her efforts were futile.

She secretly glanced at him several times, finally at one instance, was found out by him.

Ji Chengyang lowered his head, slowly and unperturbed, smiled, “What do you want to say to me?”

She suddenly felt a little embarra.s.sed, her cheeks grew hot, turning her head, she saw the fleet of cars on the Jishuitan Bridge, “I’m thinking……Is driving fun?” This indeed was fishing for something to say when there was nothing to say.

“A means of transportation, very difficult to judge between ‘fun’ or ‘not fun’. Ji Chengyang still answered following the topic.

She gave an “oh”.

Nuannuan would be turning eighteen soon, will get to learn to drive.

She still had to wait two years and a half, such a long time.

Still another half a year, before getting the ident.i.ty card that all the cla.s.smates no longer cared about, sigh.

The two reached the ground level of the building, the young mistress Ji Nuannuan finally completing her act, took out a box, and handed Ji Chengyang a pair of deep blue cufflinks that were suffused in cold light, “Little uncle, happy birthday, I hope you get even more attractive as you age.”

Birthday?

Ji Yi was completely taken aback, she herself the gate crasher did not even prepare any present, but still had him, for his birthday dinner, accompany her at a small, ordinary ethnic Hui snack stall to take care of his dinner.

Note:

豁口 (huōkǒu): is a road junction that allows cars to exit a particular road into another. In this case, the car would exit from Xinjie Rd. This is an actual location in Beijing. https://www.baidu.com/s?ie=utf-8&wd=%E6%96%B0%E8%A1%97%E5%8F%A3%E8%B1%81%E5%8F%A3 杂碎汤 (zásuìtāng): a kind of soup originated from Western China made from cooked the head, heart, lungs, intestines and stomach, hooves, etc. of cows and goats. 糖耳朵 (tángěrduo): literally, sweetened ear, a Beijing snack made from fried dough dipped in malt sugar. 豌豆黄 (wāndòuhuáng): another Beijing snack made from peeled peas cooked until soft mixed with ripe dates and other ingredients. 驴打滚 (lǘdágǔn): Another common snack in Beijing and Tianjin areas, made from a sheet of soybean flour dough wrapped with red bean filling, then sprinkled with soybean flour. It feels like a variation of j.a.panese moji for me. 说你胖你还喘 (shuōnǐpàngnǐháichuǎn): Literally, saying that you’re fat, you still pant. It is an expression used to describe when a person goes to another level after being praised by someone, usually used sarcastically. In this case, w.a.n.g Haoran said that Ji Chengyang already ordered a lot of food for Ji Yi, then Ji Chengyang went on and bought even more food. 烧饼 (shāobing): any of the Chinese style flat cake, usually roasted on a flat iron pan. 积水潭 (jīshuǐtán): a body of water located in Beijing. It was constructed with a ca.n.a.l during the Yuan dynasty to facilitate sea transportation. The location used to served as the main seaport/dock.