Ten Degrees Part 2

Shi Yun didn’t have much of an appetite and only took porridge at the serving window. She picked a place at random, and took out the grandmother food that He Sui brought her today from the bag.

Grandma looked older, but in contrast, Shi Yun didn’t expect the lid of the glass jar to be so difficult to open. Her fingertips were in pain, but she wasn’t able to cause any substantial damage to the lid.

When He Sui came over with the meal tray, he saw evidence of Shi Yun’s physical exertion from her expression and smiled. After putting down the meal tray, he reached out and motioned for her to pass the jar over to him.

He also had a little trouble unscrewing it, but succeeded in the end.

He Sui handed back the opened grandma’s dish to Shi Yun, picked up the egg on the meal tray, put the egg between his palm and the table, pressed down slightly with his hand, and rolled the egg a little.

Cracks appeared on the shell.

The eggs were fairly easy to peel, so he peeled off half of the eggshell and handed it to Shi Yun: “Do you want the egg whites?”

Shi Yun: “No.”

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Tl Fwk pvyavle vs lyv cu bkxplzq: “Pked’v usw zshl ltt obkvlp clqsal?”

Fbl ktdsale bkx. Fbl bye sdzu ypjle qsa y csoz sq rsaaketl. Mblalqsal, vbl sdzu wvldpkz pbl vssj oyp y prssd okvb obknb vs lyv vbl rsaaketl, cwv kv oyp dsv pwkvle vs calyjkdt yoyu vbl vktbvzu rynjle taydexsvbla qsse.

Tl Fwk bydele bla bkp wdwple nbsrpvknjp yde zssjle yv Fbk Zwd’p rsaaketl obknb eked’v lhld yxswdv vs y csoz qwzz, rykale okvb yd lmvay zyatl plahkdt sq taydexsvbla qsse.

Gqvla vyjkdt psxl taydexsvbla qsse qsa blaplzq, pbl alvwadle vbl nbsrpvknjp vs Tl Fwk, yde bydele bkx vbl fya kd bla byde.

Tl oyp dsv rszkvl yde vssj y nbsrpvknjqwz qsa bkxplzq.

Tl Fwk vypvle vbkp vkxl’p taydexsvbla qsse, yde kv oyp pvkzz vbl pyxl sze qzyhsa. Fbk Zwd’p taydexsvbla’p nssjkdt pjkzzp bye dsv elvlaksayvle yv yzz.

Rv vypvle lmynvzu vbl pyxl yp obyv vblu wple vs lyv yv Fbk Zwd’p bswpl obld vblu olal uswdt.

Gqvla rknjkdt wr vbl qsse, bl eked’v pvsr vyzjkdt: “Gcswv vbl vsxc pollrkdt ewakdt vbl Vwal Jaktbvdlpp Wlpvkhyz1, esd’v vyjl xu xsvbla’p osaep vs blyav.”

Shi Yun stirred the porridge, her gaze directed downwards. Without looking at him, she replied: “I didn’t take it to heart.”

He Sui knew it was a lie as soon as he heard it. He didn’t give her face, and directly exposed her: “If you didn’t take it to heart, then why didn’t you reply to me when I messaged you?”

Shi Yun didn’t hide it either: “I simply find you annoying, so I don’t want to reply.”

She has persisted with this, “I don’t want to reply” state for a long time. He Sui knew the time of this down to the exact number of days, 1115 days in total.

Seeing her poor mental state, He Sui sighed: “Shi Yun…”

Just as he was about to speak, his cell phone rang.

Shi Yun glanced at it, saw the caller ID, and knew it was his girlfriend.

He answered the phone in front of her: “Hey… I’m here. I’m eating with Shi Yun now…Helping her grandma deliver something to her…Okay, okay…Then I’ll find you when I’m done.”

The phone was hung up very quickly.

He Sui didn’t take much grandmother food. After hanging up, he placed the phone face down on the table. He picked up the shumai2 on the meal tray with chopsticks, gave one to Shi Yun, and ate the other himself: “I saw you at Huijin that day.”

Since she didn’t want to reply to his messages, He Sui was going to talk to her in person.

She pushed aside the shumai in the bowl with a spoon. There were more grandma’s vegetables in the bowl than porridge. She felt that the taste was salty and bitter, and for a moment she didn’t know whether the bitterness was from her taste or her feelings.

He Sui asked: “With your boyfriend?”

The shumai bottom was soaked in the porridge. Shi Yun hung the grandmother food stuck to the shumai skin on her spoon, and looked at it nonchalantly: “If I find a boyfriend, will you be happy? “

He Sui nodded as expected: “Not only will I be happy, but Auntie’s soul in heaven will also be happy, and my mother will also be happy…”

At this point, he paused, and then fell silent.

Shi Yun knew what was behind the silence.

Curling the corners of her lips, she smiled wryly: “I never thought that finding a boyfriend would make so many people happy.”

He Sui knew that she was still stuck in the past when he heard what she said. It was clear that if she was like this, she would still feel hurt and have a hard time taking it in. He was angry that she was a disappointment and angry that she refused to let go of the past: “Shi Yun, you know better than anyone else, it’s impossible.”

The porridge was gone, and Shi Yun’s last spoonful was almost all grandmother food. She ate a large portion, so salty, so bitter.

That was right; it was impossible.

Shi Yun’s eyes stung: “I know.”

–

After breakfast, Shi Yun and he separated at the cafeteria door. After He Sui finished his farewells, he told her, “Look forward.”

Shi Yun ignored him.

He knew where the academic exchanges were held, and Shi Yun didn’t want to join him with a half-eaten jar of grandmother food.

She went back to the dormitory under the brightly shining sun, put the bag on the table, took out the grandmother food and red envelope from the bag, and put them on the table. Opening the red envelope, she saw there was two thousand yuan inside.

Shi Yun looked at the stack of new banknotes with consecutive serial numbers, thinking that when she was a child, her grandparents and parents would always make a trip to the bank just to exchange for some new money to wrap in her red envelope every Chinese New Year. Every year, the kids who lived along the same street liked to compare with each other how much they got in their red envelopes. Every year, Shi Yun would take some of the old banknotes she had received from her relatives and force He Sui to exchange banknotes with her, regardless of his willingness to do so.

Putting the money back into the red envelope, Shi Yun clicked on her phone’s contacts list and found the home phone number.

No one answered on the first call, and no one picked up until the second call was made.

Shi Yun heard grandma panting ‘Hello’ on the phone, and she called out, “Grandma.”

When grandma heard that it was Shi Yun, her voice immediately filled with joy: “It’s sweetie.”

After saying this, grandma immediately called for grandpa: “Old man, it’s sweetie, sweetie called back… Slow down, don’t fall.”

“…Hello, sweetie.”

As Shi Yun listened to Grandpa’s voice, she could picture the scene on the other end of the phone. The handset of a landline would be placed between two seniors, just like grabbing discounted eggs in the supermarket.

Shi Yun called out, “Grandpa.”

Grandpa responded, “Little He went to your school today, did you see him?”

“I got it.” Shi Yun poked the glass jar on the table with her hand, and suddenly felt that she had no conscience, like someone who had to receive money or things before they were willing to call the grandparents who had loved them since they were a child.

Grandpa continued: “There’s more grandmother food at home. Your grandma was going to bring you a big jar, but I told her it would go bad. It would be better to send you more after you finish what you have on hand since there isn’t a refrigerator in your dormitory.”

The elder’s enthusiasm on the other end of the phone, on the contrary, made Shi Yun look even more like an unfilial and selfish granddaughter.

In the few seconds that she didn’t answer, the phone was snatched by her grandma again: “When are you coming back? Your father is not at home these days, so you should come back. Grandma and grandpa will make you any dishes you want to eat.”

Shi Yun thought of that home, the home that had come to its current state by her own doing, and the scene of her mother’s death reappeared in front of Shi Yun’s eyes again and again. Her eyes started to sting: “It will take a while, I’ve been too busy lately.”

It was the same excuse as the son who rarely came home.

The phone call wasn’t very long, and after Shi Yun hung up the phone, her mood still didn’t improve. As soon as she put the phone down, the phone rang again.

The caller ID was—— ‘Wei Congying’.