In Central Hunan in September, though the season has officially transitioned into autumn, the climate mirrors a person's frustration and irritability. The setting sun casts streaks of golden light on the slopes, where the lush rice fields look like neatly trimmed grasslands, exuding an enchanting fragrance.
The air is hot and muggy. Liu Shiyu rides on a pedal car, the moving wind flutters her lightly colored long hair, infiltrates under her short skirt, and teases her fair skin ruthlessly. This is a country tarred road, with a pristine surface snaking among low hills, reaching far-off places.
Despite the heat wave, she still finds it difficult to breathe. She doesn't know why but recently, she has been on a losing streak in poker games, and her right eyelid has been twitching too frequently. The elderly in her village have a saying: left twitch for wealth, right for disaster. Even though she, born in the 198s, doesn't believe in such superstitions, there's no way to deny that things haven't been going smoothly recently. The beauty and tranquility of her current environment resemble invisible cages imprisoning her.
Perhaps what they say is true, your surroundings reflect your mind.
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, in 201, China had 87 million rural residents left behind in the villages, 47 million of them being left-behind women. Unluckily, Liu Shiyu is one such woman. The term "left-behind women" came into frequent use in the last two years, similar to H1N1, which, perhaps, has existed long before, but was only recently discovered and given attention. "Left behind" refers to staying in one's hometown and home. As for "guarding", they guard the family, the marriage, the elderly, the children ... But for women of Liu Shiyu's age, what they guard most is probably loneliness.
Loneliness is not just psychological - it is physiological. The loneliness faced by married couples living separately is palpable. It is like a baby suddenly deprived of milk, unbearable hunger. Xu Duoxi, Liu Shiyu's best friend, would describe it differently: Without sexual satisfaction, she'd rather be dead.
Unlike Xu Duoxi, Liu Shiyu is not a woman who cannot live without sex; she is rather traditional. In terms of romance, she leans more towards Platonic love.
She has been separated from her husband for several months already. They say, "absence makes the heart grow fonder", but such a long separation, especially for young men and women who are at the peak of their hormonal surge, is a daunting physiological and psychological torment. Whenever night falls, reminiscence surges like a vine after a summer rain, growing wildly.
Longing is a tormenting emotion, it easily agitates a person. And agitation is a poker player's downfall; one who is agitated loses money, and losing money adds to the frustration! As Liu Shiyu was contemplating all this, a motorcycle suddenly shot out from a corner.
"Ah!" Liu Shiyu screamed at the sudden appearance of the motorcycle. She lost control of her balance and tumbled off her pedal car. The motorcycle, meanwhile, had crashed into the slope by the roadside. Country roads in China are often built according to the topography, leading to sudden sharp turns which often become accident-prone areas. Liu Shiyu's accident here seems like a coincidence, but there also seem to be inevitable factors. As the saying goes, "If you walk around at night a lot, you're bound to run into ghosts."
The person who caused the accident is a young man, tall and lean. Although the two vehicles didn't collide, he immediately stopped, rushed to help, "Are you okay?" He squatted down, concerned about Liu Shiyu.
"Okay? Try falling off a vehicle yourself!" Liu Shiyu retorted, agitated. She sat down on the roadside filled with foxtails, bending one leg, and putting a hand on the ground, trying to stand but her leg hurt too badly.
"Ah..." When Liu Shiyu looked down at her leg, she couldn't help but scream. She noticed that the inside of her left leg was scraped, and vivid red blood was flowing out of her fair skin. It's no wonder her right eyelid had been twitching incessantly today. Left twitch for fortune, right for disaster, she must have been cursed today. Tears began to blur her vision, but she managed to hold them back, as one has to endure some pain.
The person causing the accident was about to help her up, but seeing the blood on her leg, he panicked and would retract his hand, rushing to leave.
"What kind of person is this? Causes an accident and thinks of running away, devoid of any sense of responsibility!" Liu Shiyu watched the hurried departure of the young man, bitterly thinking it was her bad luck. But thankfully, she wasn't seriously hurt.
However, the man who had turned around didn't leave but quickly returned to his motorcycle. There, resting on his motorcycle's footrest was a doctor's emergency box. He quickly took out a few things from the box and hurried back to Liu Shiyu's side.
"Turns out he's a barefoot doctor," thought Liu Shiyu, "No wonder his hands are so clean." When this man had previously reached out to her, she was already noticing his hands: pale and slender, full and strong. A man's hands can not only tell a lot about his line of work, but their movements can also reflect his psychological activity. Impatient, restless men, tend to fiddle with objects like lighters endlessly.
"Let me help you with that," the man crouched down beside Liu Shiyu. His voice was calm and steadied, seeming like a consultation but implying a certain irrefutability.
"Oh..."
Liu Shiyu intended to refuse. To be honest, she didn't have a good impression of rural doctors. In her eyes, it was rare to find a rural doctor that hadn't accidentally caused a fatality before. Already seated on the ground and looking somewhat pitiful, she was now embarrassed to have her legs exposed right before this crouching stranger. And what made matters more humiliating was her blue skirt which couldn't properly cover her revealing the unsightly bruise on her leg!
How unfortunate the bruise is right there! She thought vexingly, trying to stand up but found the sensation in her calf unbearable.
Sparrows flit and chirp in the adjacent woods, adding liveliness to the tranquil rural world. The setting sun streamed through the trees opposite, scattering gold upon the ground. The scent of rice paddy mixed with the man's cologne hung in the air, slightly intoxicating.
People always say that Peach River town produces beautiful women and that's certainly true with Liu Shiyu. Even though she is a 26-year-old mother to a toddler, her beautiful face, fair skin, and stunning figure would make every man's heart flutter. When she subconsciously tried to pull down her short skirt, the man quickly swept his eyes over her, causing her to skip a beat and blush as red as the sunset.
The man had bright and alive eyes, strong and firm nose and his face seemed to have just been shaved–clean and fair, unlike the typical suntanned farmer.
The man placed his warm and strong hand on her calf, using a pair of tweezers to gently dab her bleeding wound with medical cotton, causing her to wince from the sting of alcohol.
"It'll be over soon," the man said, taking out a band-aid and swiftly patched it over her wound. The wound wasn't deep, just a small scratch. Once the band-aid was applied, the bleeding stopped.
"Get up," the man extended his hand. After hesitating for a moment, Liu Shiyu took his hand and thought it wasn't a big deal anymore since her most private part was already seen by him. Thinking like this, her face burned even fiercer, but she was grateful for the crimson sunset, helping her to mask her blush.
"Try to move your leg," he said, holding Liu Shiyu's hand.
She followed his instruction and kicked her left leg, then her right one. She found nothing serious seemed to happen, except for a small scratch on the inner side of her calf, which didn't affect her appearance.
"Here's my business card and some band-aids. If you feel unwell, give me a call." A man pulled out a thin card from his pocket, then took out several band-aids from the first aid kit and handed them to Liu Shiyu.
"Oh..." Liu Shiyu hesitated, then reached out and took these items, thinking to herself that if anything went wrong, she wouldn't let this guy off the hook.
As she thought this, she couldn't help but covertly glance at the man across from her. The culprit towered over her by half a head, a trace of mischief flashed in his bright eyes as he looked down at her. She felt flustered and subconsciously covered her low-cut top. Beneath her plunging neckline, her two firm and snowy peaks were heaving restlessly with her rapid breaths. Suppressing her pain, she quickly mounted her bike and beat a hasty retreat homeward.
"Mommy!"
When she got home, Little Bao was sitting at the front door, his large innocent eyes staring eagerly at her as she approached. Before she could bring her bike to a stop, Little Bao had run over to her, a little Mickey Mouse backpack jingling on his back.
Little Bao, Liu Shiyu's son, was three years old and as cute as a button.
"Little one!" Liu Shiyu scooped him up into her arms and lavished a big kiss on his apple-red cheeks. "Did you have fun at kindergarten?"
"I didn't like it, and I don't want to go to kindergarten." The mere mention of kindergarten seemed to throw Little Bao's mood into a deep freeze. He pouted and so close to tears. For most Chinese children, kindergarten was their worst nightmare.
"You have to go to kindergarten, just like Daddy has to go out and work to earn money for Little Bao and Mommy," Liu Shiyu told him in a firm voice. She feared that maternal softness would compel her to pull Little Bao out of kindergarten, which he'd just started less than a month ago. Things had improved in the countryside, and children could usually start kindergarten at three. Not like her own generation, who at three or four, were just running around all over the place with open-crotch pants following behind adults.
Liu Shiyu's home sat next to a newly constructed rural road, not far from the famous Taojiang Reservoir. In summer, it attracted many people who enjoyed swimming in its waters. The reservoir was nestled within picturesque surroundings, just like most women from the area, shy and introverted.
Her husband, Wu Jianfeng, also a child of the eighties, was now working in Shenzhen. She lived with her mother-in-law, who was already in her fifties and had been a diligent and capable woman. However, the premature death of her husband and her own high blood pressure had worn her spirit down.
Apart from the early death of her father-in-law, this was a typical Chinese family. The husband worked outside while the wife took care of the child and the elderly at home.
In reality, it was Liu Shiyu and Little Bao who were taken care of. Even though the mother-in-law was battling high blood pressure, she was patient and nurturing. She adored Little Bao and was overly protective of him. As for Liu Shiyu, she wasn't cut out for traditional rural housework. In fact, she could barely cook a proper meal. But you couldn't blame her. Throughout her childhood, she had been pampered and had led a worry-free life, getting whatever she wanted without lifting a finger. After graduating from university, she moved to Shenzhen to work until she married Wu Jianfeng.
Women like her belonged to the modern, trendy, and cosmopolitan cohort, youthful, beautiful, open-minded, yet cultured. Her best friend, Xu Duoxi, always told her that.
In reality, that was the lifestyle Liu Shiyu had once dreamed of, even Little Bao was born in Shenzhen. But the economic crisis had withered many factories over there, leaving them as lifeless as frost-bitten eggplants. As Little Bao was born, life pressure intensified. Being young parents themselves, the burden seemed unbearable. Plus, Little Bao was about to enter kindergarten, and the fees in Shenzhen were so astronomical that ordinary workers couldn't afford.
Adding to her father-in-law’s early demise, her mother-in-law also seemed rather lonely. Wu Jianfeng was a very filial son—the idea of desiring to support his parents but they were not around is a painful one. Therefore, it was natural for Liu Shiyu to return.
However, that naturalness came somewhat from helplessness. As the saying goes, 'a young couple grows old together', her mother-in-law, who was at the age of needing companionship, could not get it from her deceased husband, naturally so. Hence, the return of the granddaughter-in-law surely lifted her spirits.
Transitioning from the lovebirds sharing a pillow at night to living like a solitary bird flying across the sky, life has turned quite difficult for Liu Shiyu. The days are slightly easier, after sending off Xiao Bao to nursery, the rest of her time was mostly spent on playing cards, which rural women considered to be the best and the most prevalent leisure activity. But once night fell, and Xiao Bao fell into soundless slumber, the boundless loneliness and tension fermented slowly within her, desire like an unleashed Pandora’s box, driving one mad.
She was initially Wu Jianfeng’s darling, not only because of her enchanting body that all men would be infatuated with, she also had a kind heart. Every time they nestled together, Wu Jianfeng always had a way to make her feel the overwhelming sensation of ecstasy.
Having been back for almost half a year now, all of this has become a nostalgic past for her. Just like a habitual drunkard suddenly having to quit drinking, one can only imagine how that feels. Therefore, her streak of bad luck and restlessness can sometimes be understandable.
Dinner was made by her mother-in-law, and not long after they finish eating, it got dark. The nights come earlier in the mountain village, Liu Shiyu had already adjusted to these changes. Finally managing to send Xiao Bao to sleep, she returned to her own room.
Liu Shiyu’s home was a two-story building, which in the eyes of foreigners would be a decent country villa, but such houses have become commonplace in the rural areas of China. Liu Shiyu lived upstairs, her mother-in-law downstairs. Xiao Bao stayed with his grandmother, a request made by the grandmother herself.
The temperature was still rather high and Liu Shiyu felt sticky all over. She grabbed a towel and went into the bathroom. The bathroom was spacious as she desired but regrettably, it lacked a large bathtub that she liked for soaking. Having removed each item of clothing that clung to her body, her graceful figure was utterly exposed in the sweltering air, and she chose to open the north-facing window as well.
