Part 4. My Heart, Like the Sea

96 (Part 1) | Unexpected Surprise
Gu Mingxi, can you say it in a way that I can understand?

Gu Mingxi got into Pang Qian’s car, a red Sagitar. There was a little grey wolf hanging from the rear view mirror and the seat was covered with a Mickey Mouse cushion. There was also a Yoyo and Cici (monkeys) stuck on the dashboard. This was obviously a girl’s car. When the car started, those little monkeys would start bobbing. Gu Mingxi stared at them for a moment and then smiled silently.
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He asked Pang Qian, “When did you buy a car?”

“Ah, the middle of last year. I’ve only been back a little longer than a year.”

“Are you planning on going back to Shanghai? There should be more opportunity for expansion there.”

She didn’t answer right away, but after awhile, she said, “I probably won’t be going back any time soon.”

As Pang Qian drove Gu Mingxi around the streets of E City, she realized that the man beside had been silent the whole time.

She didn’t disturb him. It took an hour to get from the airport to Shark’s place. Pang Qian gave him his s.p.a.ce, to let him take in all the changes to the city in the long time that he’d been gone.

Along the way, there were a lot of road blocks. Gu Mingxi said, “They’re building a subway here, right? I saw in the news that E City was building a subway.”

“Mm, the first line will open next year. There’s a stop next to my house too.” Pang Qian smiled. “Where did you see the news?”

“E City News Online, and also Baixing forums.” (Note: Baixing is basically like Craigslist.)

As the car pa.s.sed by the site where the metals factory used to exist, Gu Mingxi looked out the window at the unfamiliar square. He asked, “What’s this place called?”

“New Century Square,” Pang Qian replied. “Hey, see that brown building? That’s where the compound used to be.”

“If they tore down the compound, where does Grandpa Ceng live now?” Gu Mingxi asked.

Pang Qian paused. Then she said, “Grandpa Ceng pa.s.sed away a long time ago. Before they tore the compound down, he was already gone.”

Gu Mingxi’s pulled his eyes back from the window. He thought for a moment, and then asked, “I nearly forgot. If Grandpa Cai were still alive, he’d be more than 80 years old.”

Pang Qian nodded. “Yeah, we’re already all grown up.”

The heavy machinery factory hadn’t been demolished yet. Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi arrived at Shark’s house.

Shark had already gotten married with Xiao Le, and they had a (more than) 2 year old daughter. They came back from Shanghai for New Year’s. The family of three lived together with Shark’s mother. The second floor of the house was still empty, which was great for Gu Mingxi to stay in.

When Pang Qian saw Shark, she was really angry. A few years ago, she’d gone to find Shark in Pudong a few times. Each time, she’d asked if he’d heard anything about Gu Mingxi, but Shark swore to G.o.d that he hadn’t had any contact with Gu Mingxi. He said he hadn’t seen him in the past few years.

Pang Qian clenched her teeth. “Shark, you’re really too much! You saw that I was looking for him all these years! Didn’t you ever feel guilty?! You couldn’t tell him that I’d been waiting for him all that time?!”

Shark quickly apologized. “I’m sorry, sorry. Little Crab, it’s really not that I didn’t tell him. I worried for him too. It was that blockhead Xiao Gu who didn’t get it straight. Go ask him. I tried persuading him for years!”

Gu Mingxi smiled at the side, which made Pang Qian even more angry. She pinched at his waist, “You’re still smiling?!”

“Oh!” He couldn’t help calling out. Shark’s daughter, Tian Tian, ran over at them and started hitting Pang Qian’s legs with her little hands. “Bad guy! Bad!”

“Hey! So even this little girl is your fan?” Pang Qian picked up Tian Tian. The little plump girl glared at her. Pang Qian said, “Little Plump Girl, why are you calling me a bad guy?”

“You hit Uncle!” Tian Tian twisted around with all her strength in Pang Qian’s arms. She pat Gu Mingxi’s face with her little hands and like a child, she said, “Uncle, does it hurt?”

Gu Mingxi smiled and kissed Tian Tian’s forehead. He said, “It doesn’t hurt. Tian Tian’s a good girl.”

Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi had lunch at Shark’s place. Afterwards, she carried his luggage into the guest room. She helped him change out the bed sheets for a clean pair, and as she was about to help him unpack his things, Gu Mingxi stopped her.

“I can take care of it. Didn’t you say you had to head back to work in the afternoon? Hurry and go. I’ve already held up your entire morning.”

Pang Qian pouted. “What’s there to be so polite about with me? I’ve been a bit busy these few days, so I won’t be able to spend time with you. But we can get together over the weekend, okay?”

Gu Mingxi smiled and nodded.

Pang Qian sat down beside him and asked, “When are you coming over to my house for a meal? I told my parents that you were back and my dad called you over for a meal.”

Gu Mingxi thought for a moment, and then said, “How about tomorrow night? I haven’t seen them in a long time, and Uncle and Auntie took care of me a lot. I feel pretty bad not having kept in touch all these years.”

“So you know that too, huh.” Pang Qian hugged him. “Then it’s settled. Tomorrow night. I’ll get off work a little earlier to pick you up. I’ll probably have to work overtime tonight, so we won’t get to see each other. I’ll cal you when I get home.”

Gu Mingxi asked, “Do you work overtime often?”

“Yeah. And especially at the end of the year, everyone’s really busy.” Pang Qian smiled at him. “Don’t worry, I won’t work too late. I’ll be home by 10 or 11 at the latest.”

Gu Mingxi frowned. “10 or 11 isn’t late?”

“Aiya, in our line of work, it’s pretty common to work all night too. One time, I didn’t go home for three days and worked at the office until the sky was dark. When I got sleepy, I’d take a nap on the sofa for a few hours, and then get back to work when I woke up.”

Gu Mingxi felt very distressed about it. “How can your body handle that? Pang Pang, it’s too tough like this.”

“That’s what work is like.” Pang Qian reached out and ruffled his hair, and then she touched his forehead. “I’m sure that when you have to get a book out, you stay up all night too.”

Gu Mingxi spoke firmly, “I’ve never worked through the night before.”

“Okay, I’ll watch out for my health.” Pang Qian checked her watch. “It’s already past 1 o’clock, I have to get going. I’ll call you at night. Bye.”

She kissed him on the lips and then grabbed her bag and left.

Gu Mingxi stayed at Shark’s house. He hadn’t met with Shark in a long time, so they spent the rest of the day chatting. In the evening, Clam brought his girlfriend over. He’d already gotten his college diploma and was working at a Volkswagen dealership. Because of his baby face and sweet talk, the customers were happy and business was taken care of quickly.

When Clam saw Gu Mingxi, he was extremely excited. He pointed to Gu Mingxi to show his girlfriend. “Do you know who this is? He’s the extremely popular…”

Shark smacked him on the back of his head, and Clam quickly swallowed the rest of his words. His girlfriend asked curiously, “Extremely popular what?”

“Uh… An internet celebrity.”

“Ah?”

Gu Mingxi smiled. “Ignore his nonsense. I’m just a primary school teacher who occasionally posts drawings online.”

Clam’s girlfriend asked, “What’s your internet handle?”

“I’m sorry, I haven’t revealed myself to the public yet,” Gu Mingxi said. “I’m Gu Mingxi, and you can call me Xiao Gu. In this place, I’m just Shark and Clam’s good friend, nothing more.”

Because they hadn’t seen each other in a long time, everyone drank a bit more than usual at dinner. Clam drunkenly called Oyster, who’d already gone back to his hometown to live. He’d opened his own barbecue place. When he heard Gu Mingxi’s voice over the phone, he was suddenly really moved and started crying. “Xiao Gu! It’s really you!”

Gu Mingxi felt extremely touched. He realized that in all these years, there were more than just a few people who’d been thinking of him.

Oyster said, “When are you and Little Crab getting married? Give me a call then and I’ll definitely be there. Pearl always kept saying she wondered what ended up happening between Xiao Gu and Little Crab.”

Gu Mingxi laughed. “It’s a bit too early to talk about that. Pang Qian and I just… We’ve just been together for a little while now.”

Listening at his side, Clam got really excited. In a loud voice, he called out, “Xiao Gu, Xiao Gu! Did you eat up Crab?” (Note: Literally ‘eat up and wipe clean’)

Gu Mingxi’s face was already red from drinking, but it started burning even more now.

Shark scolded Clam, “Your head’s full of dirty thoughts! You think Xiao Gu’s you?!”

Clam complained, “Xiao Gu’s already 27 years old! Can this be considered dirty thoughts?! If a guy holds himself back for too long, something bad will happen! Hey, Xiao Gu, you’re not still a virgin are you?”

Xiao Le was so embarra.s.sed that she got up from her seat. Clam’s girlfriend couldn’t stand to hear him keep talking, so she grabbed at his ear. “Shut up! You really drank too much!”

Gu Mingxi’s face was so red you could cook on it. He lowered his head and drank more beer through his straw.”

It wasn’t until 11 o’clock that Pang Qian’s call came. She’d just arrived home, and she sounded tired. Gu Mingxi told her about his dinner with Shark and Clam. As Pang Qian listened, she woke up a bit. “Aiya, you guys are terrible. You’re playing around while I have to work overtime? I don’t care, next time, tell Shark to invite Clam over again.”

Gu Mingxi laughed, “No problem.”

“Is Clam getting along well now?”

Gu Mingxi told Pang Qian about Clam, and she said, “Who’d have thought. If I knew, I’d have bought my car from him. I might’ve even gotten a discount.”

As she spoke, she yawned. Gu Mingxi said, “Pang Pang, you’re tired. Get to sleep.”

“But I want to talk with you.”

“Aren’t we meeting up tomorrow? Hurry and wash up, and then go to sleep early. You still have to go to work tomorrow.”

Pang Qian rolled onto her bed with her phone in hand. “Okay, I’ll go wash up then. You sleep early too.”

“Mm, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” She kissed at her phone. “Gu Mingxi, see you tomorrow.”

The next day, Pang Qian got off work and quickly headed to Shark’s place to pick up Gu Mingxi.

Shark helped Gu Mingxi bring a bunch of things to Pang Qian’s car. Pang Qian stared a bit, and then asked, “What’s this? What’s all this for?”

Shark laughed out loud. “The kid’s going to see his wife’s parents. He had me go along with him to buy some gifts during the day.”

Pang Qian looked at the bags carefully. Two bottles of wine, two packs of smokes, two cases of health products, a gift box of fruit, and even a box of jewelry. She looked at Gu Mingxi’s bashful expression and complained, “Why did you buy so much stuff? It’s so expensive!”

“I should do it.” Gu Mingxi smiled. “I’m just worried that you won’t be able to carry it all up, and we’ll have to ask Uncle to help.”

Seeing how apprehensive he looked, Pang Qian couldn’t say anything else. She closed the car door and giggled. “I’m taking the guy I like to meet my parents. Gu Mingxi, are you nervous?”

“No.” He turned his head away, reluctant to admit it.

Pang Qian kept giggling as she closed her mouth.

The car headed toward the Prosperous North neighborhood and then parked the car. She carried out all the bags of things from the car. Gu Mingxi looked around at the unfamiliar area. There were six or seven tall buildings around a park. The park had a pond in it, which was surrounded by evergreens. There was also a children’s playground and public exercise area.

“What do you think of the place?” Pang Qian asked him.

Gu Mingxi looked around and nodded. “Not bad.”

“Compared to the Compound?”

Gu Mingxi looked over at her and laughed as he shook his head. “Can’t be compared.”

Pang Qian also laughed and said, “I think so too, can’t be compared.”

When they took the elevator up, Pang Qian saw Gu Mingxi’s reflection in the mirror.

He was wearing a light yellow down jacket, one of the things Pang Qian had bought for him. The bright color gave off a warm feeing. It’s just that yellow would make a pale person look more pale, and it also made a tan person look darker.

Gu Mingxi examined himself in the mirror. He turned his neck and moved his shoulders. And then he saw the girl beside him faintly smile. (Note: Literally ‘smile but not smile’)

He shrugged, tilted his head and smiled at her. “I’m really tan right now, so yellow doesn’t look good on me.”

Pang Qian shook her head. “No, I think you look really handsome.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” She tilted her head and laughed as she looked at him. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you were First High’s school hunk?”

The corners of Gu Mingxi’s lips curved up. “Wasn’t that Xie Yi?”

“Everyone said you were more handsome than Xie Yi. Didn’t you know?”

“Everyone said…” Gu Mingxi looked at her with shining eyes. “So what did you think?”

“I…” Pang Qian smiled wickedly. “Seeing you all the time as I grew up, I grew so tired of it. At the time, I kept arguing with Li Xiaoyan. She said you were handsome, but I said Xie Yi was handsome.”

Gu Mingxi’s face gave her a dirty look. Pang Qian laughed as she watched him. Then she said, “But when I couldn’t find you, I realized that you were better looking than everyone else. Even when you came to Shanghai all sloppy looking, I still felt that you were the best looking.”

“…”

“To be honest, I saw a lot of handsome guys after that.” Pang Qian spoke slower. “Of my clients and friends, there are some who are mixed and Caucasian. Golden hair, blue eyes, tall, with great qualities – they were really handsome. Even Xie Yi wouldn’t be able to compare. And there were a few colleagues at work who were also extremely handsome. For example, there were a ton of girls who had the hots for my team leader. But so what?”

The elevator dinged as it arrived on the 17th floor. Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi stepped out, and stood in front of Apt. 1702. She turned to Gu Mingxi and said, “Gu Mingxi, no matter how handsome those guys were, in my eyes, none of them could compare to you.”

Then she used her foot to knock on the door. Gu Mingxi had been speaking with her the whole time, but now, he was very nervous. The door opened and Pang Shuisheng and Jin Aihua stood together there.

The feeling of home and family gushed out the door. A warm, brightly lit living room. The rumbling of the exhaust hood on in the kitchen. And the aroma of a delicious meal floating in the air…

Gu Mingxi looked at the middle aged couple in front of him. They were already more than 50 years old. Their hair was greying, their stomachs fat, with more wrinkles on their face, and their stature even seemed to have shrunk.

He still remembered the younger Pang Shuisheng, thick black hair and a strong body. He helped him alter his bike. He had a custom desk made for him. In primary school, when it rained, Pang Shuisheng would ride over on his large bike and take the two kids home.

Gu Mingxi sat in front of him, covered with Pang Shuisheng’s raincoat so he wouldn’t get wet. And Pang Qian sat behind him and would get drenched every time.

Gu Mingxi once brought up changing seats, but before Pang Shuisheng could answer, the dripping wet Pang Qian called out, “No! You can’t hold on, so if you sit on the back, you’ll probably fall off!”

…

That was really a very long time ago. A smile appeared on Gu Mingxi’s face, no longer nervous. In a quiet voice, he said, “Uncle, Auntie.”