(1)
June 21, 2010, Monday.
The sun hung high in the sky, yet a few warm drops of rain fell as if it were urinating, and crisp bird calls echoed from the treetops outside the apartment building, drowning out the sparse chirping of cicadas.
An Jing turned over in bed, but felt that the space beside her was somewhat empty. Looking more carefully, she realized that Zhu Ying, who had slept beside her yesterday, was nowhere to be found.
The computer had been left on all night, still displaying a Sword Net 3 login screen with a “Server Maintenance” window popped up. Who knew when that had appeared.
The small digital alarm clock on the nightstand was showing the current time, and as An Jing watched it, the numbers representing ‘seconds’ jumped forward a few more times.
“It’s past nine…” An Jing stretched and yawned, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she sat up in bed. Her feet fumbled around on the floor for a while before finally finding her slippers, and then she
staggered out through the bedroom door and into the living room.
The noisier the world outside the window grew, the quieter the home seemed to become.
Qian Mingfei had definitely gone to work, and Yu Minghui hadn’t returned yet.
An Jing patted her head, which felt as heavy as if it had been waterlogged, and staggered into the bathroom to wash up in a hurry before plopping down onto the sofa in the living room.
She stared blankly at the bright sky and lush green leaves outside the window, her mind completely empty. It took her a long while before she started wondering why she was even sitting here.
-If she sat here early in the morning on a normal day, it was usually to wait for Yu Minghui to bring breakfast to the dining table…
Maybe after all this time, it had become an instinct.
“There seems to be a smell of rice porridge coming from the kitchen.” An Jing sniffed the air, forcing her brain, which felt like it had stopped responding, to start working again as she thought about what she should do.
Whether or not she was going to eat breakfast at home, she needed to drink some water first.
It wasn’t that she was thirsty—just a habit. As if without water to moisten her throat in the morning, even breathing wouldn’t feel right.
This was a habit Yu Minghui had helped her develop, because ever since she’d moved in here, before breakfast every morning, Yu Minghui would have everyone drink a small cup of warm water.
Sometimes it was plain warm water, and other times it was water with salt or sugar.
At first it seemed like a hassle, but gradually it became part of life. If she skipped it one day, she’d have a feeling all morning of “forgetting something.”
An Jing wandered into the kitchen and saw a small wisp of steam, along with—Zhu Ying, who had fallen asleep on a chair in front of the stove.
“Hey? Hey? Xiao Ying? How did you fall asleep here?” An Jing gently shook her. “What’s going on?”
“Mmm…? Huh…?”
“Even if Huihui Jie wiped the stove clean, you shouldn’t be sleeping on it, right? If you want to sleep, why not go to bed?”
“Grrr…” Zhu Ying groggily opened her eyes and licked her pink, moist lips that looked like they’d had lip balm applied. “I wanted to play games this morning, but I didn’t expect them to shut down the servers for maintenance today…”
“It’s Monday… I don’t usually feel anything about it.”
“Since we’re both at school on Mondays anyway, it doesn’t matter whether there’s maintenance or not.”
“Then why didn’t you just watch TV in the living room? What were you doing in the kitchen?”
“I wanted to try making some breakfast.”
“Uh… what did you make?”
“White porridge!”
“Oh…” An Jing let out a sigh of relief. “That should be fine.”
“What’s with that tone of disgust!”
“No no, I mean… nothing should go wrong, like blowing up the kitchen or anything.”
“I’m not some anime character! How could I blow up the kitchen!”
“I remember we have quite a bit of pickled vegetables at home to go with rice.”
“No need for pickled vegetables!” Zhu Ying jumped up with a “whoosh” and opened the lid of the frying pan on the stove. “Ta-da! I also pan-fried some zongzi!”
“Oh, that’s impressive?”
“Pretty impressive, right~”
“They’re a little burnt, but most of them are golden and crispy. They look really good.” As An Jing said this, she opened the lid of the rice cooker, and the smile on her lips instantly disappeared. “Uh… Xiao Ying, are you sure what you made is porridge?”
“What’s wrong?”
“It doesn’t look like porridge to me?”
“Huh? It’s all dried up? Did I put in too little water?”
An Jing stirred the semi-solid substance in the pot with a rice spoon and scratched her head helplessly. “This is neither rice nor porridge…”
“It’s just a bit sticky, it’s still edible! Or should I add some boiled water and cook it a bit more?”
“Adding more water afterward would probably make the taste even weirder.” An Jing shook her head. “Forget it, let’s just eat it.”
“It’s not like it’s inedible—” Zhu Ying wrapped her arms around An Jing’s neck from behind, resting her hands on her shoulders. “At least I made it for you with my own hands.”
An Jing gave an awkward smile. The words “thank you” reached the tip of her tongue but were swallowed back down—perhaps saying it out loud would have made things feel too formal. So instead, she gently held Zhu Ying’s little hand and rubbed her thumb softly against her palm.
“…What about the cut on your finger…?”
“When I was frying the zongzi, I wanted to chop up some garlic, but I slipped while picking up the cleaver and nicked myself a little. No big deal~”
“Be more careful.”
“Accidents in the kitchen are pretty normal.”
“Then try to keep your hands dry today. I’ll do the dishes later.”
“Even if Xiao Jing didn’t say that, I didn’t want to wash dishes anyway~” Zhu Ying giggled and pinched her cheek. “Cooking is pretty fun, but cleaning up afterward isn’t enjoyable at all.”
“Huihui Jie occasionally says the same thing.”
(2)
It was actually almost noon by now, but for the two of them, this still counted as breakfast.
“Should I turn on the electric fan?” An Jing asked, looking at the sweat beading on Zhu Ying’s cheeks.
“Huh? I’m fine… but sure, turn it on if you want? The sun is almost reaching the dining table.”
“It should be in the living room, but it’s not here… Let me check Fei Jie’s room—of course, she moved it into her room.”
“Feifei Jie’s room doesn’t have a fan?”
“She has one.”
“Then why does she need two?”
“She just likes to have more wind blowing on her.”
“If she’s really that hot, why not just turn on the air conditioner? Two fans can’t be that much more energy-efficient, right?”
“Fei Jie, she…” An Jing clicked her tongue. “She can’t really stand air conditioning.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Something about the smell being unpleasant, like motion sickness. Stay in an air-conditioned room too long and she feels like throwing up.” An Jing shook her head. “I don’t know the details, but she’s had this problem since she was little.”
“Then what does she do in the summer?”
“She just uses the fan as much as possible, or sets the air conditioner temperature higher.”
“Then Feifei Jie must not be afraid of heat, right?”
“Wrong. She’s the one among us who’s most afraid of heat…”
“That’s rough.”
“Last year I remember she got a swimming card at the pool near the shopping street. Every day after work she’d go for a swim before coming home, or rather, soak in the cold water until she’d had her fill, then come back.”
“And then she sleeps without the air conditioner?”
“Exactly. In the summer, she sleeps alone on the sofa, since Huihui Jie can’t stand not having the AC on…”
“What a strange constitution.”
“The world’s full of all sorts of bizarre constitutions.” An Jing shrugged. “Back in the first year of junior high, before class division, wasn’t there a classmate of ours who’d get diarrhea every time he sang?”
“Oh~ right, that guy was even weirder.”
“It was like flipping some kind of switch…” An Jing muttered, about to make a teasing remark, when she heard a soft knock on the door.
“Knock, knock…”
“Who is it—? Coming!” An Jing jumped down from the table, didn’t bother putting on her slippers, and dashed barefoot to the door. With a “slap,” she pushed it open.
Standing at the door was a somewhat familiar figure—it was the nurse from the research institute, the one who always took care of An Jing specifically every time she visited.
“Ah? Huh?” An Jing saw her without a nurse uniform for the first time. The blue-green striped short sleeves paired with pale cyan jeans made her look less gentle but much more capable.
“Yujing Jie…?”
“Yes?”
“Long time no see, little one!” Jiang Yujing greeted her cheerfully, handing over the things she was carrying. “How have you been feeling lately?”
“Pretty good… no problems…”
“Have you had your period this month?”
“Ah, ah? Y-yes, it came…”
“Mhm~”
“Is she the nurse sister who took care of us at the research institute last time?” Zhu Ying peeked out half her head from behind An Jing. “Hello, sister~”
“Hello there.” Jiang Yujing waved. “I’ve been on vacation recently, just got off the boat now. I do have something to deliver to An Jing, but I figured I might as well come by.”
“What is it?”
“Of course, the full set of identity documents.” Jiang Yujing looked at An Jing with a knowing smile. “What, little one, aren’t you going to let me in?”
“Ah… ah!” An Jing quickly moved aside. “Please, come in! I haven’t cleaned the house much, it’s a bit messy, ah… um, just wear whatever slippers you like!”
“Yujing Jie didn’t come just for this, did she?” Zhu Ying looked as if she’d guessed something.
“That’s right. I’m also here to give you two a physical examination—the simplest kind.” Jiang Yujing shrugged helplessly. “Can’t even rest properly during my vacation. Oh well, I’m the most convenient one these days.”
“We don’t need to go to the research institute?” An Jing asked, a little confused.
“No need to go that often. Besides, you didn’t think the bracelet was just a bracelet, did you? It records your physical data and uploads it to us. If anything goes wrong, we’ll find out quickly.”
“Ah… I see.”
“What about me?” Zhu Ying pinched the red-and-white necklace hanging around her neck. “Does this have body data monitoring too?”
“You don’t have one, since in terms of superpowers, you’re attached to An Jing. As long as she’s fine, you usually won’t have problems either.”
“By the way, then when… I go to the province capital, do I still need to come back for checkups?”
“Major examinations definitely need to be done at the institute. As for minor ones… don’t worry about that. You’ll be told how it’s arranged then.”
“Ah… okay.”
“So, um—make some space. I’m going to examine your bodies, and give you a massage while I’m at it.”
“The really painful kind?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll definitely hurt more than last time!”
“I don’t need a massage, right?” Zhu Ying asked quickly.
“Nope, you both get one.”
“Eek!?”
Zhu Ying and An Jing shrank their necks at the same time, looking utterly resistant.
But since Jiang Yujing had come all the way in person—there was clearly no escaping this disaster.