Chapter 18.2 - The Girl's First Love (Part 1)
Zeng Li’s mother didn’t forget to shout out as she left, “Every time we argue, you take my money and go out drinking and eating. Why should I have to deal with it?” With that, she threw her apron aside and grabbed her bag.
The loud voices suddenly disappeared.
Yu Yi asked, “Do they argue like this often?”
Zeng Li hurriedly said, “No, no, not often. Really, not often.” Then, feeling guilty, she nervously bit her lower lip.
“You shouldn’t bite your lower lip so much, you’ll end up with buckteeth,” Yu Yi said.
Zeng Li felt even more embarrassed and quickly stopped biting her lip.
Yu Yi, however, intentionally stuck out his lower teeth and made a "bunny teeth" gesture to make her laugh. Zeng Li, though, still looked troubled and didn’t laugh.
Yu Yi then said, “You know, having buckteeth has its benefits.”
“What?” Zeng Li asked.
“When you eat watermelon rinds, it’s easier. It won’t make your face dirty,” he said, mimicking the action.
Zeng Li, hearing this bizarre "benefit," couldn’t help but laugh.
Yu Yi looked at her smile and said, “Good girl,” before patting her head.
At the end of August, Yu Yi went back to school.
During the winter, Zeng Li suddenly felt something different in her body during a gym class. She rushed to the bathroom and saw that her pants were stained with blood. Immediately, she realized what had happened.
There was no panic, no confusion. She was the last girl in her class to get her period, so she had heard and learned all about it beforehand. She calmly used some toilet paper to stop the bleeding, then went to the convenience store to buy some sanitary pads.
She went home and told her mother. Zeng Li’s mother just replied flatly, “You already know everything, right?”
That was all.
Perhaps because both of her parents were so loud and flamboyant, Zeng Li had been unusually quiet and timid since she was young. They lived in a resettlement house on the edge of the city, and downstairs there were four courtyards. The yard, which used to be a garage, was rented out to people for holding funeral services.
According to local customs, after someone died, family and friends would observe a three-day mourning period before the body was cremated.
Normally, people wouldn’t hold funerals at home, but since there weren’t many places in the city for this kind of business, the yard downstairs was busy year-round. Some superstitious family members even hired people to perform traditional rituals, playing music day and night. The neighbors complained, but nothing could be done.
Zeng Li’s main concern, however, was the body downstairs.
Over ten years ago, before the use of refrigerated caskets at funeral homes, bodies were simply placed on two chairs with a wooden board over them and covered with a white cloth. For some reason, a lamp would always be lit beneath the body.
Later, she overheard the neighbors say that the oil lamp represented the soul, and it couldn’t be extinguished during the three-day mourning period. If it went out, it was considered bad luck. Zeng Li didn’t dare ask further questions about what exactly "bad luck" meant.
Every day, when she came home, she would avoid looking at the yard, focusing on the white cloth and the flickering oil lamp. As soon as she passed by, she would run upstairs as fast as she could.
In the last term of junior high, Zeng Li didn’t have evening study sessions, but sometimes the teacher would give extra lessons. Because her home was close, and her parents were busy, she would return home on her own. She usually got home just after 9 p.m., right when the funeral services were most lively. Some people would play cards, chat, or eat snacks, making the place seem more festive than mournful.
But what terrified her the most wasn’t at night, but in the mornings.
Zeng Li would wake up at 6:30 a.m. and leave by 7 a.m. In winter, it was still dark at 7, and the mourning was happening during that in-between time. The people who had stayed up all night would have gone home to sleep, and those coming to take over hadn’t arrived yet. Sometimes, no one would be there at all, except for the body under the white cloth and the flickering oil lamp.
Any small noise would frighten her so much that she would want to scream.
Later, Zeng Li couldn’t help but tell her parents how scared she was. To her surprise, they took her to talk to the funeral service owner. “You’ve scared my daughter! What are you going to do about it?” Then, the neighbors gathered around, and more endless arguments ensued.
Before long, the winter break came, and Yu Yi returned.
