“Hey, Mom.”
“Oh? Yueyue, you’re awake?” Chen Fang was lying on a beach chair in the same spot as yesterday, only this time she hadn't fallen asleep.
“Where are you?”
“Down at the beach.” As she stood up to put on her shoes, Chen Fang winced, her feet recoiling from the sand scorched by the blazing sun.
Hearing this, Chen Jinyue breathed a sigh of relief. It was already half-past two in the afternoon when she woke up. She had scrambled out of bed to look for someone, only to find the large suite empty—Lin Yunsheng was gone, and even her mother had vanished.
“Look at the time. Why didn't you wake me up?”
“Oh, you looked like you were sleeping so soundly, I didn't want to disturb you.”
“Have you had lunch?” Chen Jinyue smacked her lips, feeling the dryness.
“Not yet.”
“Okay, come back now. Let’s go to the market.”
“Coming, coming.” Chen Fang stood up, shook the sand out of her shoes, and headed toward the hotel.
The New Year market in Nancheng wasn't as bustling as the fireworks display from the night before; the crowds were thinner, and the atmosphere was less intense. However, the crisscrossing streets and alleys had been fully developed into a comprehensive walking route.
As soon as they reached the market entrance, a volunteer handed them a small brochure. Chen Jinyue flipped through it. It contained a brief introduction to the market activities followed by the locations of various stamping stations. It was like a small philatelic album; you could get a stamp at every stop, and by the time you finished the route, the book would be full.
“Everyone can collect a stamp booklet. How many would you two like?”
Chen Fang didn't have much interest in these youthful gimmicks and was about to say one would be enough when she heard her daughter speak up.
“Two, please. Thank you.”
Chen Fang glanced at her. Chen Jinyue took one for herself and stuffed the other into her mother’s hand. “It’s the same effort to stamp one as it is for two. We’ll take an extra one home for Sis.”
The volunteer moved behind them to continue assisting other tourists. Chen Jinyue flipped through the booklet and picked out a shop.
She took Chen Fang’s arm and asked if she wanted to eat coconut chicken hot pot. Chen Fang agreed, saying she’d been eating seafood for days and wanted a change of pace.
It was hard to say whether a hot pot meal at half-past three counted as lunch, dinner, or just a very substantial Nancheng afternoon tea.
At this hour, the restaurant was indeed nearly empty. Not long after Chen Jinyue sat down, a server arrived with several small dishes to help them prepare their dipping sauces.
“Are there any ingredients you two avoid?”
Jinyue scanned the tray. Seeing no cilantro, she shook her head.
The server skillfully mixed soy sauce, sand ginger, bird's eye chilies, and green calamansi, creating two bowls of dipping sauce which were placed before them. Finding it novel, Chen Jinyue took out her phone and snapped a photo.
“Do you think Sis has arrived yet?” she asked casually.
“She should be there by now.” Chen Fang added, “Don’t you go bothering her.”
Chen Jinyue pursed her lips and said nothing, thinking to herself: *I’m not bothering her, but what if she bothers me?*
She dipped her chopsticks into the sauce and touched them to her tongue to taste it.
It was incredibly sour. Her brows knit together.
She ate the meal distractedly, checking her phone every so often to see the time or if any messages had come in.
When Chen Fang asked why she kept looking at her phone, she claimed she was just checking the time because the market closed at six and they shouldn't linger too long.
She said it without a hint of a blush or a skipped heartbeat.
By the time the two of them returned to the market clutching fresh coconuts, it was nearly five o'clock.
The sun was no longer blinding, but the western exposure was just as fierce, leaving people’s faces flushed with heat. Most tourists had adopted the local custom, wearing floral island shirts and flip-flops, with straw hats obscuring their sweat-drenched faces.
The stalls were packed tightly together, their sounds weaving through the air. Chen Jinyue walked arm-in-arm with her mother, browsing superficially. She occasionally bought souvenirs, never forgetting to pick up something for Lin Yunsheng—regardless of whether she actually needed it or would even like it.
After collecting a few stamps, the booklets were forgotten; no one mentioned them again. Since they wouldn't be able to finish the entire route anyway, the booklets were tossed into a souvenir bag, their future uncertain.
Chen Jinyue bit the straw stuck in her coconut and asked her mother, “Want to go to the beach to watch the sunset?”
“Sure, let’s go.”
They changed course again, heading in a different direction. It was almost funny; not a single day of the trip seemed to go according to her plan. She probably wasn't cut out for planning, so she simply followed the sea breeze.
The sun began to sink, and once again, a vast expanse of the sky was dyed gold, just like the day they arrived.
That day, the sun had occasionally hidden behind buildings, but today it was much more generous, simply sinking into the far end of the coastline.
She found a stone step and sat down with her mother, piling their scattered souvenirs to one side. She found herself missing Lin Yunsheng’s eyes—the way she had caught them in the rearview mirror on Sunset Boulevard. Quiet, yet lingering.
The salty, briny sea breeze blew against her face. Chen Jinyue leaned back, propping herself up with her hands behind her. After watching for a while, she pulled out her phone again. She framed the sunset, the coconut trees, and the shimmering surface of the sea, then pressed the shutter to freeze the moment.
The sky was magnificent and grand; it didn't care for the petty thoughts of the people beneath the sunset. Of the scene before her, seven parts were beauty and three parts were regret, a ratio only she truly understood.
“Mom.”
Chen Fang turned to look at her, seeing her hair blown messy enough to almost cover her eyes.
“Do you like Nancheng?”
“It’s alright, I guess. Just no mahjong to play,” Chen Fang replied, looking at her with a strange expression.
Chen Jinyue’s shoulders shook with laughter.
“Do *you* like it?” her mother asked in return.
“It’s okay. Not as good as Haicheng.”
The warm breeze of Nancheng felt like a stolen dream. As her thoughts drifted in the sea wind, she suddenly found it tasteless. She missed the skyscrapers and the cramped alleys of Haicheng.
She missed that night when the cold wind had been tamed, when Lin Yunsheng kissed her downstairs at their home.
That moment when she had tied her love to the laces of her Dr. Martens, running and jumping onto her sister’s back, only to be caught firmly.
All the things she hadn't had the chance to say—the words she had originally planned to tell Lin Yunsheng today—were stuck in her throat, permeating down into her chest.
Restless. Clamorous. They only found peace once the sun finally dipped below the horizon.
She and Chen Fang hailed a taxi on the street as night fell to return to the hotel. The driver was an older man playing old songs. Chen Fang hummed along to a line or two, appearing to be in high spirits.
Jinyue waited for a message from Lin Yunsheng all evening. Even after she was lying in bed with Chen Fang, she kept checking WeChat every few minutes, wondering if she was finished with her work yet.
Just as drowsiness began to weigh on her eyelids, the notification she had been waiting for all day finally arrived. She bolted upright in bed, startling Chen Fang.
Lin Yunsheng asked: 「Did you have fun today?」
She didn't answer with words. Instead, she sent the photo of the beach.
A moment later, she sent the photo of the coconut chicken hot pot as well. She wrote: 「This was delicious. Let’s eat it together next time.」
Lin Yunsheng replied: 「Okay.」
「Have you eaten?」
Mimicking her, Lin Yunsheng sent a photo back. The background was their dining table at home, with a seared steak sitting on a plate.
「Just about to eat.」
Chen Jinyue checked the time; it was past eleven. 「Then hurry up and eat. Get some rest early after you're done.」
「Okay.」
About two minutes later, another message from Lin Yunsheng came in. This time, she was replying to the photo of the beach. She said: 「It’s very beautiful.」
Chen Jinyue stared at her phone and giggled foolishly. When Chen Fang asked what she was looking at, she didn't say a word.
She reached up to brush back her long hair. As the room fell completely silent, she could almost hear the sound of the waves in the distance, crashing against her heart in rhythmic pulses.
The seawater seemed to have evaporated, carried into the room by the wind to entwine itself in her hair. Her neck felt sticky; she scratched it subconsciously.
She looked up at her mother, who was half-reclining on the bed playing with her phone, and asked, “Do you want to play mahjong?”
Chen Fang knit her brows, unsure of what she was getting at.
In Chen Jinyue’s ears, the old song from the taxi suddenly echoed. Sandy Lam’s ethereal, delicate voice sang:
*The mole on your palm,*
*I always remember where it is.*
In her heart, she changed the lyrics. It wasn't the palm; it was those gentle eyes of Lin Yunsheng, bathed in the sunset, and the mole at the corner of her eye that had stolen her soul.
She continued, “Shall we go back early?”
“Huh?”
A flash of bewilderment appeared in Chen Fang’s eyes, only to fade a moment later.
The wrinkles extending from the corners of her eyes were traces settled by time—marks that Chen Jinyue wasn't yet old enough to read.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 椰子鸡火锅 | Coconut Chicken Hot Pot | A popular Hainanese-style hot pot using coconut water as the broth. |
| 沙姜 | Sand ginger | Also known as aromatic ginger or kencur; a common spice in Southern Chinese dipping sauces. |
| 朝天椒 | Bird's eye chili | Literally "facing-heaven pepper," a small, very spicy chili. |
| 青金桔 | Green calamansi | Small green citrus fruits used for their tart juice in sauces. |
| 林忆莲 | Sandy Lam | A famous Hong Kong singer; the lyrics mentioned are from her song "At Least I Still Have You." |
| 弄堂 | Longtang / Alleys | Traditional lane neighborhoods in Shanghai/Haicheng. |
