Lightly Painted Eyebrows

Playing marbles took skill. Although it involved knowledge of the momentum theorem and basic mechanics, it depended more on practice making perfect. Qin An had been an expert back in the day, but now he had forgotten every last bit of that experience. It was perfectly normal for him to lose all his marbles...

Qin An sat in his seat. The midday nap period had just ended, and most of his classmates looked listless as they woke from their deep sleep...

Sun Sun rubbed her eyes and looked groggily at Qin An...

Qin An looked at her too. Sleepy-eyed Sun Sun had a captivating little charm of her own. A shame she had not drooled, or Qin An would have found it amusing again: Sun Sun, who had once stood onstage with ten thousand admirers calling her name, drooled in her sleep too...

"Where did you run off to... You even skipped nap period. I've already told Teacher Qin!" Sun Sun looked Qin An over, taking in the dust all over him, and immediately grew annoyed. As a well-behaved girl, Sun Sun was something of a clean freak, and she could not stand Qin An looking like this...

Qin An had just been lying on the ground playing marbles with a bunch of elementary school children. No matter how many times he patted himself down, he could hardly be very clean...

"Tattling is extremely annoying. You'll understand that someday. It's a flaw, a sign of poor character..." Qin An said with a smile...

"If I didn't tell on you, why would Teacher Qin have seated me next to you? I'm here to keep an eye on you. Besides, I'm the class monitor. You skipped class without asking for leave or giving any reason. Am I supposed to keep that from the teacher?" Sun Sun said angrily. Qin An was plainly no good student, yet he had the nerve to say she had flaws and poor character...

"Suit yourself... Next time I skip class, I'll tell you. Just don't tell the teacher..." Qin An went on grinning...

"Why should I cover for you?"

"I'll copy out song lyrics for you. Lots of songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan that haven't caught on here yet..." Qin An knew Sun Sun loved singing most of all. At this age, she had a little notebook containing the lyrics to songs she liked to sing...

There were no MP3 players, no MP4 players, much less smartphones that served as multimedia terminals. There was no internet, nor a developed distribution economy. The popular music children in this small town could access came from nothing more than cassette players and television. Copying lyrics into a notebook song by song, then decorating it with celebrity stickers to make an exquisite lyrics book, was a very popular pastime back then...

"If they haven't caught on here yet, how do you know them?" Sun Sun asked doubtfully, clearly already a little tempted...

"Of course I know them!" Qin An casually hummed a few lines...

Sun Sun's beautiful eyes lit up. Though it was only a few lines, the melody was very moving, and Qin An had some talent for singing too. Naturally, he could draw her in...

After Sun Sun made her debut as a singer, she had never tired of singing and would drag Qin An to karaoke every few days. But by then, Qin An was always the one hogging the microphone, while Sun Sun sat drinking and smiling as she watched him string all sorts of songs together...

"Heh-heh..." Qin An gave an ill-timed, smug chuckle...

"I won't betray my principles. I'm the class monitor, and I have the right to report students who skip class. It's my duty. The sugar-coated bullets of capitalism can't corrupt me..." Sun Sun declared through gritted teeth, brimming with righteousness...

Sun Sun really was that stubborn. Despite her boundless anticipation, despite loving to sing and not knowing how to sing this lovely new song, she would make herself give up the lyrics when they were within her reach...

Qin An burst out laughing. Sun Sun had actually used a line from the text they had just studied in Chinese class...

"Hand it over..."

"What?" Sun Sun's eyes widened...

"Your lyrics book..."

"I won't help you do anything wrong..."

"You don't have to help. No payment required..."

Sun Sun hesitated for a moment, then took a plain white notebook from her bag, but did not give it to Qin An right away. With one hand in her pocket, she looked at Qin An, then at the notebook. After a moment of awkward hesitation, she took out a spotless white handkerchief. "Wipe your dirty hands. Don't get my notebook dirty..."

A handkerchief was undoubtedly a personal item for a girl. Watching hers fall into Qin An's filthy hands, Sun Sun felt terribly distressed and a little embarrassed. She turned away, deciding that out of sight was out of mind...

Holding Sun Sun's handkerchief, Qin An caught a faint fragrance. Sun Sun habitually used a handkerchief, and over time, it had naturally taken on her scent...

Qin An's heart gave a jolt, and he could not help glancing at Sun Sun's profile. This woman, who would one day be alluring enough to bring ruin, had never been entangled in a romance. Even when that director destroyed her reputation, she had still been a virgin...

Qin An gripped the handkerchief tightly. When had he ever wanted to sully this woman's purity?

He stuffed the handkerchief into his pocket, ran outside to wash his hands, then returned to his seat and opened Sun Sun's lyrics book...

When Sun Sun saw him return, she held out her hand...

"It's dirty. I'll wash it and give it back..." Qin An said with a smile...

"Give it back. I'll wash it myself..." Sun Sun's face was flushed...

"No..."

"You!" She had never met anyone so shameless. Sun Sun turned away, furious...

A moment later, Sun Sun felt Qin An push the lyrics book over...

Sun Sun eagerly opened it. Sure enough, a column of lyrics filled the newest page...

"Indigo lightly brushed over arched brows, green as autumn's distant hills

A pale blouse, thin silk gauze, twin spiraled brows faintly knitted

A dark indigo dot between the brows, pale yellow at the temples

Brushed indigo seems too dark, applied white seems too light-why ask what is in fashion?

The Sequel to Records of Vermilion and White, Charts of Ten Brows, glazed hands unroll painted silk

..."

"This song is called 'Lightly Painted Eyebrows'... I'll teach you to sing it when we get the chance... Mm, tunes like this will become popular many years from now. They call it Chinese style... It's a little more interesting than all the love songs popular now..."

In fact, this song was Vincent Fang's "Blue and White Porcelain." When its lyrics first appeared, they sparked some discussion. In an age when traditional Chinese learning was in decline, a song so rich in Chinese character stirred many people's nostalgia. Writing new lyrics for "Blue and White Porcelain" had also become a favorite pursuit of some talented Chinese literature students and others with confidence in their abilities...

Qin An had never written replacement lyrics. He had originally intended to copy the song out for Sun Sun, but once he put pen to paper and saw her frowning profile, this woman who had never once in her previous lifetime had the chance to lean into her husband's arms and ask, "Are my brows painted light or dark enough to suit the fashion?" he wrote this passage instead, borrowing the title of a notebook by the Tang writer Zhang Mi for the song's name...

"Isn't this all poetry...?" Sun Sun was astonished. The songs popular in mainland China at the time were all songs that had been popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan years earlier, in the eighties and nineties, such as Andy Lau's "Water of Forgetfulness," Leon Lai's "Will You Come Back Tonight," and Aaron Kwok's "Wild City"...

By comparison, what Qin An had written did not look like song lyrics at all. Sun Sun found it hard to imagine how lines like these would sound when sung...

The lyrics Qin An had casually written overturned everything Sun Sun had always understood about popular music. She was quite eager to find out when he could teach her...

The bell rang, and the music representative sang out loudly, "When love runs too deep, the scars show easily... Ready, go!"

The whole class joined in. This was the five-minute singing session before the first afternoon lesson, supposedly intended to help the students perk up after their midday nap...

Qin An remembered that these five-minute sessions had continued right through the end of high school...

This lingering, sorrowful love song by Sam Tai became grand and thunderous when sung in chorus by nearly sixty children. Among them, Qin An sang out loud and clear, with utter abandon...