Chapter 2: Pomelo Leaves

“Achoo!” Xu Feiyan covered her mouth and sneezed loudly.

Aming was scaling fish and said with concern: “See, see, you caught a cold, didn’t you? Yesterday when the temperature dropped, I told you—dressing that thin, you’d definitely get hit.”

Xu Feiyan sniffled. The market was noisy, and Aming’s voice wasn’t loud. She could barely hear him, so she could only turn slightly and tuck the hair covering her right ear behind it, explaining: “No, this isn’t a cold. My nose just suddenly itched.”

“Keep pretending you’re tough.” Aming was working on a large golden pomfret under his knife, careful not to let fish scales splatter onto the woman in front of the counter. Without looking up, he asked: “Buying such a big fish today, and shrimp too—expecting guests at home?”

While answering “Yeah,” Xu Feiyan pressed her phone screen on. There were three unread WeChat messages, all from Xu Chaolong.

One was from about ten minutes ago: “Still waiting at the gate.”

The next: “Picked him up.”

The last was actually a photo.

In the unopened thumbnail was a figure she hadn’t seen in so many years. Although his build and outline seemed somewhat different, the dust-covered image of that person in her memory was being brushed away bit by bit.

Xu Feiyan didn’t tap open the full photo for a long time. She only came back to herself when Aming called out to her.

She took the two bags Aming handed her, thanking him while scanning the code to pay, then hung the bright red plastic bags on the handle of her shopping cart puller so the fish and shrimp wouldn’t be crushed by the other meat and vegetables.

“Bye.” She waved at Aming and pulled her little cart away.

Aming had just shaken the water droplets off his gloves and wanted to chat with her a bit more. When he looked up, she was already gone. An old auntie who had been waiting nearby had already squeezed into the empty spot, pointing at the red snapper on the ice: “Boss, give me two threadfin.”

Aming’s mother came over from the other side of the fish stall. Seeing Aming still dazed, she slapped him on the head in frustration: “Wake up! Can’t you hear the customer calling you!”

The man had just been smacked by his mother in public. The back of his head didn’t hurt, but his cheeks burned. He carried the red snapper to the cutting board nearby and said irritably, spouting nonsense: “Go ahead, hit me more. A few more times and maybe I’ll become an idiot.”

His mother followed and stood beside him, lowering her voice to scold: “I’m warning you one more time—stop making eyes at that woman from the auto repair shop.”

Aming cried injustice: “Oh, Mom, what are you talking about? What making eyes!”

His mother glared at him: “Every time she comes, you look like your soul’s been hooked. Either you shortchange the weight or you round off the price. Don’t forget—she has a child. She’s not suitable for you.”

Aming rolled his eyes, quickly scaled the red snapper, and stopped paying attention to his mother.

At ten thirty, the vegetable market was packed with people. Hawking, bargaining, cart wheels rattling, meat chopping, fish scooping—all mixed together. Xu Feiyan wove through the crowd, her little pull cart growing heavier and heavier behind her.

When she walked out of the market after finishing her shopping, the phone hanging around her neck vibrated. She grabbed it and looked down—another message from her brother.

She pulled her cart to the side, pressed her phone on, and instead of immediately looking at the latest message, she lightly touched her finger and opened the photo she hadn’t enlarged earlier.

Her brother had taken it secretly from behind the man. His hand had shaken, and once enlarged, the image was blurry. The man was wearing the clothes she had bought last week. The sweater size was obviously too small—the shoulders and arms were stretched tight, the sleeves couldn’t cover his wrists, and the pants looked tight too, especially around the butt…

Xu Feiyan rubbed her still-itching nose and looked away from his butt.

A sudden thought struck her—this was going to be a disaster. That red underwear was definitely bought too small too. With that young master’s temper, he’d probably curse and grumble the whole way.

But soon, Xu Feiyan scolded herself for worrying over nothing. Think about it—who was she to Lei Wu?

First, she wasn’t his wife. Second, she wasn’t his girlfriend. Third, she wasn’t a close female confidante by his side. She was just the sister of a helper who used to work at Lei Wu’s garage. The two of them could barely be considered… friends. Right, just ordinary friends.

Now she’d even prepared underwear for him—that was the limit of her goodwill, wasn’t it? Surely Lei Wu wouldn’t dare say a single word against her?

She scrolled down. Her brother had just sent a voice message. Xu Feiyan didn’t tap it directly—she long-pressed the little green bubble and converted the voice to text: “I’m taking Brother Wu to get a shower outside. Don’t wait for us for lunch at noon, and tell everyone we’ll have a good meal at the shop tonight.”

The voice recognition had errors—”Wu” became “Five,” making it look all thuggish.

Xu Feiyan rolled her eyes hard. Just out of prison and already going to a bathhouse—a dirty dog can’t change its habit of eating shit!

But her brother definitely wouldn’t dare take Lei Wu to any establishment that broke the rules. Otherwise, when her sister-in-law came back, her brother would at best sleep in the living room for a month, and at worst she’d pull out the acupressure mat from the storage box for severe punishment.

Xu Feiyan took a photo of her shopping cart and sent it to her brother, then recorded a voice message: “Today I spent almost five hundred yuan on all this. Big brother, please reimburse me first.”

She pulled her cart toward the auto repair shop. She passed the fruit stand, walked a few steps, then suddenly stopped and pulled her cart back to the fruit stand.

She pointed at the pomelos displayed prominently: “Boss lady, give me two.”

The fruit stand owner was feeding her little grandson rice cereal and let the customer pick herself: “Huilai red-hearted pomelos this year—guaranteed sweet! Lots of juice! Pick whatever you like!”

Xu Feiyan didn’t care whether they were sweet or not. She picked two of the biggest ones, still with a few leaves attached, and had the owner weigh them. The owner put down the cereal and came over, wanting to pluck the leaves before weighing. Xu Feiyan quickly stopped her: “Keep the leaves, keep the leaves.”

The owner didn’t find it strange. Pomelo leaves steeped in water for bathing can ward off bad luck—superstitious people around here often did this. She asked Xu Feiyan: “You want the leaves? I can find you half a bag more. Want them?”

Xu Feiyan nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes, yes, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Watch my grandson for me while I look.” The owner went to the side to find leaves in a cardboard box and casually asked: “How come you didn’t bring your daughter to buy groceries today?”

Because the owner had her back to her and it was noisy around the market, Xu Feiyan couldn’t hear clearly at first. She stepped closer and asked what she’d said. After the owner repeated it, she answered: “She has to go to kindergarten.”

“Oh, you finally got the school transfer sorted out?”

Xu Feiyan sighed: “Yeah, getting into a public school here is really such a hassle.”

She didn’t have a Shuishan City household registration, so there was no way to get into a public kindergarten in the city. Private school fees were beyond what she could afford. Fortunately, her sister-in-law Zhou Qing knew someone, and after spending some money, they got Xu Duoduo into the same public school her nephew Xu Hao attended.

Whenever Xu Feiyan thought about the favor money and so-called “tea fees” she’d spent this summer, her heart still twinged with pain. If they were still in Xiafeng Village, those tens of thousands of yuan would have been enough to send Xu Duoduo from elementary through high school in the town.

Her savings weren’t much. This money was paid by Xu Chaolong for her. Although her brother kept saying she didn’t need to pay it back, Xu Feiyan still recorded it in her little notebook, planning to slowly repay him in the days to come.

Xu Feiyan walked to where the owner had been sitting. The temperature had dropped these past two days, and the air in this small coastal city in the south carried a chill that seeped into the bones. The little baby was bundled up like a snowball, sitting in a rattan baby stroller. Rice cereal was smeared across his lips and chin, glistening. His chubby little hands flailed in the air as he looked at Xu Feiyan curiously and smiled.

Her heart was effortlessly kneaded into a soft ball. Xu Feiyan couldn’t resist crouching down and making funny faces to entertain him.

The owner gathered half a bag of pomelo leaves for her. Xu Feiyan said she wanted to pay, and the owner was so startled she patted her chest, saying don’t joke like that—if she charged money for a few worthless leaves, who would ever come to her shop to buy fruit again?

Xu Feiyan was amused into laughter by her adorable reaction.

She bent down and took the meat and vegetables out of her cart bag by bag, placed the two pomelos at the bottom, then rearranged the meat and vegetables back into the cart basket, with the small bag of lightweight pomelo leaves on top.

She took out her phone to pay the owner for the pomelos, then suddenly remembered something and asked: “Hey, boss lady, is there any shop around the market where I can buy an earthen basin? A short one, the kind for burning paper money.”