Auntie Xiao Hua

Xie Xiao Hua limped on one foot. She looked far from young, and her hands were covered in calluses. She was probably used to hard labor.

Every couple of bites, she would tap her chopsticks against the edge of her bowl, then cover her mouth and smile at the two of them when she realized it was bad manners.

From the sound of her lip-smacking, she was deliberately trying to restrain it. It was quiet, but hard to ignore.

Perhaps to show she was educated, she kept referring to Ding Ding as Bai Congming's "elder brother" when she spoke to him.

"Your elder brother is such a good cook."

Bai Congming did not know what "elder brother" meant, but he knew Brother Ding had cooked the food, and he knew she was praising him, so he nodded repeatedly.

"Brother Ding's cooking is yummy!"

Xie Xiao Hua's smile was affected and exaggerated, as though she wanted to catch someone's attention. "No wonder he's taken such good care of you."

As she spoke, she reached out with her rice-flecked chopsticks and picked up a chicken wing. "Have some more."

Ding Ding could not stand watching, but he was too late to stop her. The instant the chicken wing landed in Bai Congming's bowl, he sprang to his feet and snatched the bowl away.

Two pairs of eyes stared at him. Ding Ding took a deep breath. "A bug just flew into it. I'll get you another bowl."

Of course Bai Congming believed him. He licked the corner of his mouth and said okay.

Xie Xiao Hua's expression changed, and her grip on her chopsticks tightened. She said nothing more after that.

Her silence gave Ding Ding a chance to sound her out. After exchanging a few words with Bai Congming, he naturally shifted the conversation to Xie Xiao Hua.

"Your accent doesn't sound local?"

"That's right." Xie Xiao Hua nodded. "I'm from the mountains in Qi County. I only came here recently."

"Oh, right." Ding Ding acted as though something had suddenly occurred to him. "I heard Auntie Zhou mention you a couple of days ago. She said you were someone's... whose was it again? Her niece, right?"

"Yes, the niece from the Xie Family."

Ding Ding betrayed nothing on his face, but inside, he was so twisted up he could practically squeeze blood out.

He could not understand it. Hadn't he made himself perfectly clear last time? Yet they had turned around and had Little Bai bring her home.

For a moment, Ding Ding did not know what to say.

Xie Xiao Hua knew how to read people. With her disability, she was inevitably a little more sensitive to other people's looks and thoughts.

When Ding Ding said nothing, she knew this household had not taken a liking to her, and she felt a little disappointed.

Actually, when she first heard he was a simpleton, Xie Xiao Hua had been unwilling.

There was a simpleton in their village too. With neither a father nor a mother, he spent his days picking garbage off the road to eat. He was filthy and stank all over, and sometimes, when he went wild, he would even bite dogs that bit him.

But her aunt said this simpleton was different. He could work and earn money, and marrying him would mean a good life. Xie Xiao Hua had wavered.

She thought her own relatives surely would not harm her.

After Xie Xiao Hua arrived, she was first taken to meet an auntie. They had chatted pleasantly that day, but later the auntie came back and said it would not work out. The simpleton's family did not want to find him a wife anymore; they would rather support him for the rest of his life.

Xie Xiao Hua was a little envious. If only her family thought that way too, life would be so much easier.

Although her aunt regretted it, she said nothing more and wanted to send her back to the mountains the next day.

Xie Xiao Hua cried for a long time before her aunt finally agreed to let her stay a few more days. If nothing else worked out, she could find a job here.

But she had only finished elementary school, and after putting things off until this age, what job would still take her?

So Xie Xiao Hua dragged it out, staying one more day whenever she could.

Then the weather changed that day. Xie Xiao Hua went to bring her aunt a coat, and the moment she entered the flower nursery, she spotted Ding Ding, who had also come to deliver clothes.

How could someone be so good-looking?

His voice was lovely too, and every movement exuded refinement. Even with his foot in a cast and ordinary clothes on, he was nothing like country bumpkins fresh from the countryside like them.

Ding Ding did not see her. He crouched beside Bai Congming and spoke quietly to him, reminding him not to hurt his hands while cutting flowers. He even stuffed his pockets full of food before leaving.

Her aunt pointed at the person crouching over there and told her that was the simpleton.

Xie Xiao Hua kept staring at Ding Ding, but she knew someone like him was out of her reach. After thinking it over, she decided she might as well find a way to marry the simpleton. Even getting to call Ding Ding Brother along with him would be something.

The simpleton was not easy to fool either. Xie Xiao Hua had gone to considerable lengths just to barely manage to talk to him.

She had only gotten this meal at his home by lying and playing the victim to win his sympathy.

At that thought, Xie Xiao Hua steeled herself and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, they were red.

"Brother, I really do like Little Bai. I want to build a good life with him. My aunt said you don't want him getting married, but that... it won't affect you two brothers. We can still live together afterward. We'll look after you in your old age and see you laid to rest!"

"..."

Ding Ding was practically scared out of his wits. He nearly dropped the bowl in his hand.

Xie Xiao Hua continued, "You'll have to get married someday too, Brother. You can't stay with Little Bai forever. I only have a lame leg. The rest of me is healthy. I can have children. I'll give Little Bai a..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Ding Ding hurriedly cut her off. "You... you... just eat first. Eat first..."

Ding Ding felt the world had gone utterly mad.

Someone who looked about his own age was tearfully telling him she would care for him in his old age and bury him.

Beside him, Bai Congming was bewildered. Just hearing Auntie Xiao Hua say she liked him and wanted to live with him had made him so angry that nothing else registered.

"Wifey!"

Ding Ding knew he was calling him, but Xie Xiao Hua did not. She assumed, all on her own, that she had been accepted.

Her tears flowed even harder, and she answered his call of "wifey" over and over.

"Yes, yes, yes! As long as you want me, I can be your wife!"

She had little time to celebrate. When Bai Congming turned to her with a frown, Xie Xiao Hua realized something was wrong.

"Auntie Xiao Hua, I don't want you!"

"A... Auntie...?"

"Auntie Xiao Hua." Bai Congming's expression was solemn. "Little Bai has a wife! You can't say that!"

"..."

Ding Ding's head was spinning. He could barely comprehend this whole mess, and then he heard Xie Xiao Hua blurt out a question.

"Since when do you have a wife?!"

Bai Congming put his hands on his hips, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and planted a smacking kiss on Ding Ding's cheek right in front of Xie Xiao Hua.

"..."

Ding Ding had foreseen this outcome, but he still could not quite keep his composure.

Luckily, he was good at pretending. He reached out and stroked Bai Congming's head reassuringly, then lifted his eyes and gave Xie Xiao Hua a cold look.

"Who told you I was his brother?"

"...A man... a man and a man..."

"Anyway, you've seen it for yourself." Ding Ding scratched his cheek. "I like him, and he likes me. We're living a good life together!"

"A good life!" Bai Congming slapped the table beside him in agreement.

The sight of the two of them presenting a united front against her was really... Xie Xiao Hua did not know how to describe it. It was as though countless threads connected them. No one else could slip between them, and they could not separate themselves either.

"Disgusting!" Xie Xiao Hua's heart pounded like a drum, and her humiliation turned to anger. "Perverts! Disgusting!"

Ding Ding's patience was completely exhausted.

"You came into my home to hurl abuse, and that's not disgusting?"

"..."

Xie Xiao Hua could no longer remember how she had left Bai Congming's home that day.

All she remembered was the sand in the wind, blowing into her eyes again and again. After all these years of living, even a simpleton did not want her.