Older cousin

Many years later, whenever this incident came up, Sun Pao would still get a little annoyed and say that Qin An had been a sly little bastard ever since he was a kid...

Hearing Qin An's suggestion, Sun Pao hesitated...

"I pulled all mine out. Want me to show you...? Covered in hair like that-how ugly is that? It even gets pee on it. When you go to the bathroom, wouldn't you be embarrassed to take it out?" Qin An looked disdainful, but he had no intention of actually showing Sun Pao. He tugged up his trousers and walked away, leaving Sun Pao alone to weigh his pride against the pain...

Li Qin was dropping charcoal into the stove in the corridor. Most families used the corridor as their kitchen, filling it with buckets, kettles, wooden racks, vegetable leaves, and grimy dishcloths...

Qin An had grown up in surroundings like these. They had not moved until his father quit his job to start a business and began earning a sizable income...

"What were you and Sun Pao talking about just now?" Li Qin brushed her hair aside and turned to Qin An with a smile... From upstairs, she could see everything going on in the courtyard...

"He said he had hair growing on his dick, so I told him to pull it out..."

"You little rascal, how can you be so mean!" Li Qin tapped him on the head, but her eyes were full of laughter...

Qin An fetched a towel, wrung it out, and wiped the sweat from Li Qin's temples and forehead...

Li Qin was a little surprised, but her heart filled with a honeyed sweetness. Remembering the thoughtful glass of cooled boiled water and the basin half full of clean, clear water waiting for her when she got up at noon, she felt a little wistful. Her son really had grown up. He knew how to care for others now, how to be a good son...

Parents never truly expected their children to make some great contribution to the household. When a son bought something expensive for the home, what delighted his parents was not the purchase itself, but his ability to provide it...

It took only a little thought to understand this, but few people looked at things from their parents' perspective. By the time they became parents themselves and understood, they had little time left with their own parents...

Just a little care and consideration, and the happiness and joy it brought them, was enough...

"Mom, I think you've lost a lot of weight lately... Shouldn't you get a checkup?" Qin An had been worrying about this all along. Although his mother's cancer had not manifested until more than ten years later, there might already be signs of it now...

"The school just arranged a checkup. That was why we went to visit your aunt in the city last time, remember? Have you forgotten? The results are back, and I'm perfectly healthy..." Li Qin smiled with relief, her voice especially gentle. "Go and play. I'll call you when dinner's ready..."

When he pushed open the door, memories that had already grown somewhat hazy immediately became clear. A twenty-one-inch color television stood on a corner cabinet, facing a wooden sofa. A small table topped with brown-tinted glass and a bamboo sleeping mat completed the living room's furnishings...

They had bought a new set of furniture that year, costing over two thousand yuan and consisting of five large pieces. By the standards of the dormitory building, it had been quite fancy. When they brought the television home too, several teachers who were friendly with his father had come over for a meal, jokingly congratulating Qin Huai's family on joining the comfortably well-off...

"You're back... I have something to ask you..."

At home, Qin Huai looked nothing like a teacher. He wore baggy shorts and slippers, his upper body bare, and held a palm-leaf fan. Yet he retained his authority as a father, his tone allowing no refusal...

Qin An dropped his schoolbag and sat cross-legged beside Qin Huai on the bamboo mat. He laughed. "Dad, your feet still stink!"

Qin Huai felt a little embarrassed. This little brat was showing him less and less respect...

"Do you think I'll let you do whatever you want just because I'm your homeroom teacher? You actually dared to skip class at noon!" Qin Huai said angrily. Back in Class 68, Qin An had been mischievous, but that had only meant not paying attention, daydreaming in class, and not doing his homework. Now he had actually progressed to skipping class...

If Li Qin had not talked him out of it, Qin Huai would have picked up a broom and beaten Qin An the moment he came through the door...

An indulgent mother spoils her son, Qin Huai sighed inwardly...

"I won't do it again..." Qin An lowered his eyes submissively and obediently admitted his mistake...

Qin Huai was rather surprised. Faced with this attitude, he suddenly had no use for the whole lecture he had prepared, and it sat uncomfortably in his throat...

"Dinner's ready..."

Li Qin brought in the food: a bowl of stir-fried pork with dried bamboo shoots, tofu soup with scallions, a plate of cucumber, and a small bowl of steamed pork with dried longan. Steamed until its aroma filled the air, that last dish had been prepared especially for Qin An...

Qin An remembered that these special dishes had never stopped coming between his graduation from middle school and his move into the high school dormitory. They had made him particularly strong and healthy. During that period, his nutrition had kept pace with his development, making him shoot up like bamboo...

For years afterward, his mother's special dishes had remained the finest food in the depths of Qin An's memory. He had never thought he would have another chance to eat them...

He ate every last morsel, even licking the rim of the bowl clean...

"This child must have been starving..." Watching the way Qin An ate, Li Qin's heart ached for him...

After dinner, Li Qin told Qin An to visit his eldest uncle's house. His older cousin was back, she said, and had asked him to come over...

Qin An suddenly remembered something and practically flew over...

His eldest uncle's house was not far from the dormitory building. Among the low mud-brick houses of the farming families, his uncle's two-story house, faced with ceramic tiles, stood out...

When he reached his uncle's house, Qin An heard his older cousin's booming voice, and his heart tightened. This was the cousin who owned a coal mine. In the second week after Qin An started school, his cousin's mine had collapsed, burying him underground...

"Qin An's here... Have you eaten?" His eldest aunt greeted him cheerfully when she saw him. "Your cousin came home today, so we made a whole tableful of dishes. Come and have some more..."

"No, you go ahead. I'll play with Qin Qin and Qin Yuan..." Qin An saw that his cousin's wife, his older male cousin, his eldest uncle, and his older female cousin were already seated at the table...

"As you like, then..." his eldest uncle said. This nephew was close to their family, so there was no need for formalities...

Qin Qin was a little girl just over three, as pretty as a porcelain doll. Qin Yuan was a little boy of exactly two, round and especially adorable. His cousin's two children had always been his eldest uncle's pride...

Unfortunately, perhaps because they had lost their father and their mother had spoiled them too much, a little over ten years later, both children had become stereotypical alternative post-nineties kids, giving the whole family endless headaches...

As Qin An played with Qin Qin and Qin Yuan, he turned the matter over in his mind, unsure how to bring it up. How could he tell his cousin that the mine would collapse?

Because of that mine, his cousin had lost his life, and all the money he had earned over the years had gone toward compensating the families of the miners who died underground. His eldest uncle's family fortunes had plummeted, forcing him to return to his old work as a barefoot doctor...

His cousin's wife had remained a widow, but there were always sordid rumors about her, making his eldest uncle feel utterly disgraced. He had pinned his hopes on his grandson and granddaughter, only for the two children to turn themselves into the standard alternative look, neither human nor ghost. Heartbroken and hopeless, his eldest uncle had gone completely gray before he was sixty...