Yu Mo went back and rummaged through several large cardboard boxes, picking out an outfit she would never wear to the office: a goose-yellow, high-count cotton pullover shirt with a V-neck and horseshoe sleeves. It was very French in style. She paired it with white shorts and tied her hair into a loose braid draped over one shoulder, slipping on a pair of flat sandals.
After a long day, her makeup was mostly gone, so she simply went to the bathroom to wash it all off. Her face felt much fresher afterward.
She jogged toward the main gate, worried about making someone wait, only to find that Qi Lian hadn't arrived yet. She was quite surprised.
*Who would have thought?* she mused, pulling out her phone to kill time while she waited.
When Qi Lian came running toward her with his long strides, he saw her from a distance. The image that came to his mind was a freshly peeled scallion—crisp and bright.
He slowed his pace. He wasn't sure why his heart was racing so fast after just a short jog; he felt a sudden lack of oxygen.
Hearing footsteps, Yu Mo knew Qi Lian had arrived and tucked her phone away.
Qi Lian looked different today, though she couldn't quite put her finger on why at first.
He had clearly just showered; his hair was still damp. He wore a loose, white linen shirt that didn't cling to his frame, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a pair of beige mid-length shorts.
He looked clean and refreshed, carrying a sense of humility he didn't usually show.
Yu Mo spoke first. "Let's just go to Jufeng Plaza nearby."
Qi Lian reached her side and nodded, but he quickly averted his gaze—so quickly it felt unnatural.
Suddenly, Yu Mo realized why he seemed different. Aside from the clothes, he was acting a bit... bashful? Or perhaps it was just an illusion, she thought. That word didn't really fit him.
As they walked side by side, Yu Mo caught his scent again between their steps. It wasn't perfume. She asked, "Qi Lian, what laundry detergent do you use?"
Qi Lian turned to her in bewilderment. "Laundry detergent? I don't know, just whatever I grabbed at the supermarket. Why?" Having said that, a thought occurred to him, and he lifted his sleeve to his nose. "It’s clean, isn't it?"
Yu Mo smiled and said nothing more.
Qi Lian felt like his brain wasn't functioning properly. Seeing her smile at him, her lips curving up to reveal a glimpse of a small canine tooth, he felt a wave of dry heat. He forced himself to look away from her face, but his eyes landed on her legs and feet, and his mind suddenly went *boom*, a loud buzzing filling his ears.
Yu Mo was wearing black sandals consisting of only two thin straps. Her toes were as smooth as jade, her nails a soft pink, bound by those thin black lines. It was forbidden and... sexy.
Qi Lian remembered how he felt the first time he and Jiang Yuan’s crew went to the video parlor in town to watch those "little movies." Seeing a woman’s body on screen for the first time, completely exposed—every one of them had turned bright red, their bodies feeling like they were about to explode.
That feeling was back. Here he was on the street next to a woman, and after more than a decade, he felt like he was going to explode again.
He felt like he was about to make a fool of himself. It was so damn embarrassing.
His head was spinning. He could hear the deafening music from the clothing stores in Jufeng Plaza; he could see two men walking toward them, eyeing Yu Mo and nudging each other, but all his senses felt muffled, as if through a layer of gauze. It was like his head was submerged in water; nothing was clear.
Yu Mo felt that Qi Lian was a bit distracted. When she asked about restaurants, he only gave non-committal grunts. Once they entered a place and it was time to order, he simply handed her the menu, looking completely out of it.
She ordered a few dishes at random. Looking at him, she figured it didn't matter what they ate.
The restaurant was behind Jufeng Plaza, not far from Jiang the Fourth’s shop. It was a small place but packed with people. Warm lights, noisy chatter, and greasy wooden tables full of nicks and dents gave it a lively atmosphere.
Qi Lian pulled the set of tableware toward him, "snap" went the plastic wrap as he broke it open. He took out the bowl and chopsticks and carefully rinsed them with hot tea before placing them in front of Yu Mo.
His hands were large, his fingers long with prominent knuckles and veins visible on the backs. His fingers looked exceptionally strong. As he held the slender chopsticks and poured the hot water over them bit by bit, Yu Mo suddenly found the scene very tender—as if that warm water were flowing through her own heart. It was strange.
As Qi Lian placed the utensils before her, she reflected that while he seemed like the type to keep people at a distance, he was actually very attentive.
He washed one set of dishes for her, but for his own, he just unwrapped them and left them be.
Yu Mo asked, "Do you want to drink?"
"No."
Yu Mo had never seen him smoke either, so she remarked casually, "Qi Lian, you don't smoke either? You're really different from the others."
Qi Lian lifted his eyelids to look at her. He said flatly, "Yu Mo, in your heart, you probably think that anyone living in Lianhua who does renovation work should be naturally depraved—that we should obviously have every bad habit in the book. Have you ever considered that I just didn't have much schooling? My parents were upright people who raised me strictly. I have standards for myself, too."
His eyes were dark, and his gaze was unfriendly.
Yu Mo’s face instantly burned. Qi Lian’s words hit the nail on the head; asking that question had indeed stemmed from an unconscious sense of superiority. She apologized repeatedly, "I'm sorry, it really is my fault. But I didn't think of you that way."
Qi Lian nodded, not dwelling on the topic. He asked something else: "If you're willing to talk about it, tell me—why did you move to Lianhua all by yourself?"
Yu Mo countered, "Why can't I live in Lianhua? How do you know I haven't lived in places like this before?"
Qi Lian stared at her for a long time before saying, "If you don't want to say, you don't have to."
This man could be truly infuriating sometimes, Yu Mo realized. She asked, "How can you tell?"
Qi Lian didn't want to bother answering. Anyone in Lianhua with eyes could tell. He remembered when she first arrived; even a stray cat could make her jump out of her skin. She looked like a fairy who had just tumbled from the heavens into the mortal realm.
Finally, he said with forced patience, "I can tell from the mountain of boxes piled up in your room."
A plump waitress interrupted their conversation to serve the first dish: twice-cooked pork with garlic sprouts. It was glistening with oil but smelled delicious.
Yu Mo picked up a piece of meat to taste it, then set her chopsticks down.
Qi Lian asked, "Why aren't you eating?"
She said in a small voice, "I don't eat garlic sprouts."
Qi Lian couldn't understand her logic. "Then why did you order it?"
"I ordered it for you. I'm too picky with food; as long as you eat well, it's fine."
He said, "If my kid was a picky eater growing up, I’d definitely beat the habit out of them. It’s just being spoiled."
Yu Mo didn't take it to heart; it had nothing to do with her. "That's fine, as long as you don't beat me."
Qi Lian looked at her and, for some reason, laughed. He looked very handsome when he laughed, still carrying the faint air of a youth. He should laugh more.
"Why did you come to Lianhua?"
"I just got divorced. I have no money, and it's cheap here. That's all. There aren't that many reasons."
Qi Lian’s brow furrowed. He repeated with an unreadable tone, "Divorced?"
"Yes. But don't go imagining some tragic story where I was abandoned and kicked out. I’m the one who left my ex-husband. I’m staying here because I want to save money. In fact, my ex is searching the whole world for me. He said if I’m willing to go back, he’ll do anything."
She paused, took a sip of water, and continued. Since the secret was already out, she really wanted to say it; no one else knew about this yet. "I haven't told my parents or friends about the divorce either. Which is to say, not a single person I know knows I'm living in Lianhua. I actually own an apartment in Hudong. I rented it out for five thousand a month, and since my room in Lianhua is only eight hundred and fifty, I have four thousand in emergency funds even if I can't find a job."
As she spoke, a look of slight pride even crossed her face.
*What kind of heartless person is she?* Qi Lian wondered.
"Do you know why I took this job?"
"I don't. Keep going."
"To make money. Only sales allows for a massive income increase in a year or two. I used to be a tiny cog in a foreign company, then I followed my ex-husband on an overseas posting for three years. My resume is practically a blank slate, and at my age, jobs are hard to find. Even if I found one, it would barely cover my living expenses. That won't do. I have to prepare for my retirement and set aside some money for my parents, even if they don't technically need it. Everyone else is doing it, so I have to hold myself to that same standard."
Qi Lian nodded. "What are your plans for the future?"
"The future? Make good money. Once my income is high enough, I'll rent a better place. If I can make over twenty thousand, I'll move back into my own apartment in Hudong."
Qi Lian narrowed his eyes and asked, "No other plans? Not planning to find someone else?"
Yu Mo thought about it. "That's not something I can plan for. If it happens, it happens; if not, so be it. Men... how should I put it? My ex-husband and I had such a deep foundation—we were practically childhood sweethearts. Few people have a deeper bond than that, and even then, it only amounted to that much."
Qi Lian let out a scoff, returning to his usual prickly self. "You really don't treat me like a stranger. You've got guts, Yu Mo. Casting people aside whenever you feel like it. It seems my helping you chase off that pervert was unnecessary. If you're so fearless, would you really be afraid of one creep?"
Yu Mo couldn't understand why his mood had shifted. Wasn't she just talking about her own life? Why was he getting upset? But she realized she wasn't afraid of him anymore. She thought to herself, *Fine, fine, if you don't want to hear it, I won't say it.*
So, she asked, "Why aren't you married at your age? Was that girl I saw last time your girlfriend?"
"Which girl?" He blinked, then said, "I don't have a girlfriend. That was a friend's younger sister. We only went out twice."
Yu Mo gossiped, "That girl was so pretty. You two looked so good together. What a shame."
"Just because she's pretty means I have to be with her? There are pretty girls all over the street; I'd be too busy. When it comes to finding a partner, no one else's opinion matters—only mine."
"I didn't say I get a vote. Don't get worked up."
"Yu Mo, guess what kind of woman I like?"
Yu Mo had intended to keep teasing him, but his gaze was too intense. He was staring at her so bluntly that the playful words got stuck in her throat. She felt her face heating up and couldn't find her voice.
Qi Lian stared at her without speaking, waiting for an answer. He watched as she pretended to lower her head to drink water, her ears slowly turning red.
He knew when to stop. "I was engaged when I was in my early twenties. If things had gone smoothly, I would have married two or three years later. My kids would be big by now. But it didn't happen, and I've been single ever since."
"Why didn't it happen? If you're willing to say."
"Fate, I suppose. What did I know back then? I didn't know what I liked, and I didn't know what responsibility was. When you reach the age where everyone gets married, you just do it."
"I don't think you're that kind of person. Not someone irresponsible."
Qi Lian looked at her, his lips curving into a smile. "Did you know me back then? Everyone starts out young and ignorant. Maybe I was slightly better than some, but only slightly."
"Did you like her?"
His lips pressed into a thin line—a gesture of refusal. Yu Mo concluded that his feelings for that girl were complicated and a topic not to be broached. She thought he wouldn't speak of it, but then he opened his mouth again.
"Her father and my father were sworn brothers. They planned for our families to be joined since we were small. We went to the same primary and middle schools. We didn't have much contact, but we knew each other. She was delicate and easy on the eyes. When she got older and ran into me at school, she’d turn red and hide from me."
He stopped as the waitress brought over a large blue-and-white porcelain basin of fish with pickled mustard greens. The basin was likely too hot for her to hold steadily; Qi Lian stood up to take it and placed it firmly on the table.
He looked at Yu Mo. "You eat fish, right?"
"I do. I love pickled fish." Yu Mo picked up her chopsticks.
"When I was sixteen, my father was in a sudden accident while hauling sand. He was gone. At that time, our family couldn't even put food on the table. We had just built a new house and were over a hundred thousand in debt."
He paused. Even though more than a decade had passed, and even though he was now a man who stood tall, as he spoke of this, he was once again that panicked, helpless sixteen-year-old boy.
That morning, before he left home, he had eaten two eggs and a sticky rice roll because he had an exam that day and his mother had forced him to eat.
His father was about to head out, loading his tool bag onto the tricycle, saying with a laugh, "My son doesn't need luck; he always tests well. I've finished building the three-story house for you now. All that's left is for you to get into university. I've even found you a wife. You have nothing to worry about."
When he said those words, his eyes sparkled in the morning sun, his expression full of contentment.
Only a few hours later, all of it was gone.
To this day, the three-story house his father built is gone, the wife is gone, he never went to university, and his mother is gone. He is the only one left in this world.
The morning before his father died was the last time his family was whole.
He was in class when he got the news. The bell for the second period had just rung, and sweat from playing basketball during the break still clung to their foreheads.
An unfamiliar male teacher stood at the classroom door and called the Chinese teacher out.
The whole class seemed to have a premonition; they sat in silence, unlike their usual noisy selves.
The Chinese teacher was Jiang Qingfeng’s father. He wore glasses as thick as bottle bottoms. When he turned back and cast a look of pity toward Qi Lian, Qi Lian knew.
That scene had played out like a slow-motion film in his nightmares for many years, torturing him.
Since then, he had always consciously or unconsciously avoided Jiang Qingfeng’s father.
When he was led away, that basketball was still sitting in his desk cubby, but his youth was gone, never to return.
"A lot of things are just fate. If my father hadn't died, or if we hadn't built the house, our family would have had two hundred thousand in savings. I wouldn't have had to drop out. If it had happened three years later, the house would have been demolished for compensation, and money wouldn't have been an issue. But it chose that exact time. I didn't do anything wrong, but that was my fate."
His mother hadn't been like the other widows in the village who dried their tears and gritted their teeth to support the family. Her tears never dried. When she was doing better, she could get out of bed to cook or water the vegetable garden; otherwise, she could only lie at home or in the hospital.
She had once gripped his hand with her skeletal, waxen fingers and warned him: "You must continue your studies."
He didn't blame anyone. After hearing those words, he had hidden under the willows by the Lianhua River and had a good cry. Should he blame his parents for loving each other too much? Fate had thrown his naive self at a crossroads, but no one told him which way to go.
Yu Mo looked at him with a sorrowful expression.
"What are you crying for?" Qi Lian saw her red eyes, looking like the old yellow dog that used to crouch by his front door. He barked at her to scare her.
For years, he had hated talking about his family, and he hated the sympathetic comfort of others. A corner of his heart had been sealed shut with concrete following the upheaval of that year.
He both appreciated her being moved and loathed it.
His hand involuntarily reached toward her, but realizing what he was doing, he diverted it at the last second to scratch his short hair.
Yu Mo, her eyes still red, was about to speak when Qi Lian suddenly lunged from his seat. He jumped to her side and yanked her body away. Yu Mo’s arm stung—his grip was incredibly strong.
It happened in an instant; she hadn't reacted at all.
Qi Lian shielded her behind him, his brow furrowed as he blocked two scuffling men. He looked dangerous, his cold eyes half-lidded as he stared them down with total composure.
The two men weren't old, and both were in a heated argument. Being blocked like this, their anger turned toward him. Just as they were about to provoke him, they saw his gaze and his relaxed stance, and their bravado withered. That kind of leisurely posture wasn't something an ordinary person possessed; anyone who had spent time on the streets knew that. They cursed at each other and left, slamming the glass door so hard it rattled.
Qi Lian sat back down. Yu Mo watched him without a word.
"What are you looking at? Keep your wits about you. If I weren't here today, you’d either have your face buried in that basin of pickled fish or your head cracked open on the floor. Which one would you prefer?"
Yu Mo ignored his jab. Knowing he was just being prickly, she used her chopsticks to pick bean sprouts out of the fish basin, eating them one by one with deliberate slowness. Her fingers looked even more translucent than the sprouts.
Seeing her silence, Qi Lian rapped his knuckles on the table to get her attention. "Yu Mo, you know what kind of place Lianhua is, right? When I'm not around, you’d better stay sharp."
Yu Mo nodded. She wasn't stupid.
Biting the end of her chopsticks, she asked, "Why didn't you get married later on?"
Now, she didn't just want to know the sequence of events; she suddenly wanted to know what Qi Lian was like when he loved someone. She felt a scratching, restless curiosity.
Qi Lian took a large mouthful of rice, his cheeks bulging as he chewed.
Yu Mo waited anxiously for his answer, her eyes fixed on him. Watching him chew and swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing, she suddenly felt a bit hot. She shifted her gaze away inconspicuously but said, "If it's inconvenient to say, then forget it!"
Qi Lian tilted his head back to drain a glass of water. Setting the glass down, he said, "Later, I went to learn plumbing and electrical work. By the time I was twenty, I had finished my apprenticeship. Uncle Wang arranged for us to be engaged. My mother was so happy; for a year or two, her health improved enough that she could live like a normal person. She was even planning on helping me raise my kids. Then she was diagnosed with a major illness that wouldn't go away, and it required a lot of money. According to the customs around here, you’re supposed to marry a year or two after getting engaged. My mother desperately wanted to see me married. When she went to discuss it with Uncle Wang, there were always 'coincidences' on their end. I understood. I couldn't blame them; after all, they only had one daughter. I was the one who broke off the engagement. There was no need to turn a perfectly good girl into an old maid waiting for me."
He hadn't thought about these things for many years. Suddenly, in this noisy little restaurant, he remembered those eyes red from crying, filled with resentment and heartbreak. He remembered the last time they met, when she had sobbed and left a bite mark on his arm before leaving. That wound had taken over two weeks to heal completely.
Many years had passed in the blink of an eye; things had changed. The guilt in his heart was like autumn rain—continuous and endless.
If it were the him of today, everything might have been different. That girl with the rosy cheeks and two dimples when she smiled had loved him purely and sincerely, her heart set on marrying him. She had done nothing wrong, and neither had he. Two weak individuals unable to save themselves; it was fate that was powerful.
Yu Mo didn't know what that expression on Qi Lian’s face was, but it wasn't his usual one.
She felt she had to say something and blurted out, "Did you sleep together?"
They both froze. Qi Lian narrowed his eyes at her with an unreadable look. She pretended to be calm and stared back; she wanted to tear that expression off his face.
After a moment, Qi Lian said, "Yu Mo, I don't care about myself. I can tell you anything you want to know about me. But this involves another girl, and she's married now. Even if it's you asking, I won't answer that."
Yu Mo felt like she had lost her mind. Why would she ask such a thing?
Even as she cursed herself, she continued, "You loved her!"
Qi Lian just looked at her, saying nothing.
Yu Mo waited and waited until she started to feel a bit awkward. She waved her hand and said, "I get it! I get it!"
*Otherwise, you wouldn't still be thinking about it,* she thought.
Qi Lian looked at Yu Mo. She had a face that had never been let down by life. Every little emotion was clearly written in the curve of her brows and the corners of her eyes, just like now. She brought to mind beautiful phrases like "clear breeze and bright moon" or "favorable weather."
Just as she was about to fall from the heavens into the muddy pond of Lianhua, there he was, eagerly waiting to catch her, unwilling to let a single speck of mud touch her. Fate was a real bastard.
"Want some ice jelly?" he asked suddenly. He saw a bowl of colorful ice jelly being served at the next table, and the two girls there couldn't wait to dig in with their spoons. He figured Yu Mo would definitely like it.
Yu Mo followed his gaze to the ice jelly. Before she could speak, Qi Lian called out to the waitress, "Miss, add a bowl of ice jelly here."
The plump waitress gave a crisp reply.
Yu Mo said, "I didn't say I wanted to eat it!"
"Just try it. If you don't like it, don't eat it."
***
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Echoes of Lotus District | Chapter 14 | A Face Untouched by Life | Novela.app | Novela.app
