Yin Ting cheerfully described the moon (Zuben: If you’re‘talking to them’ and they know you’re not married surely they know what themoon is like) and the delicious moon cake, and how Qiu Zong was really filialbut a.s.sured his parents not to worry and they can look after themselves and soon…

Yin Shi gave Zhengqing a helpless glance. Zhengqing smiled,he realised he didn’t mind someone else talking to his parents; he was denseand rarely had anything to say to them.

Yin Ting talked on and on. Then she finally stood up andturned in the direction of her mother’s grave,

‘Dad is talking to Mom a long time,’

Her brother pinched her lips, ‘See your mouth. At least Dadis talking to his wife; you have been chatting for so long to people you don’tknow.’

Yin Ting glared at him, ‘How rude. The elders of our friendsare our elders too, and Qiu Zong will not boast about his achievements, so someonehas to.’

Yin Shi gave Zhengqing and apologetic look, but Zhengqingcould not help but laugh. Yin Ting’s brain was certainly not like a normalperson’s. He turned to Yin Shi and said, ‘If I were you, I’d make her carryaround the family’s phone number on a tag just in case she gets lost.’

Yin Ting sputtered, was he complaining? After she’d helpedhim boast to his parents? Some people don’t know how to repay kindness anduphold justice.

Her silly look make Zhengqing smile even wider. Yin Shiraised an eyebrow and asked Yin Ting, ‘Has your careless reputation has spreadall over the sea?’

‘My reputation has always been witty, brave andbroad-minded.’ Yin Ting said confidently.

 Ying Shi and Zhengqing burst out laughing. Witty andbroadminded huh? He didn’t realise those two words were synonyms for carelessand spastic.

Yin Ting was now grumpy, what was funny about what she said?She turned back to the Qiu family graves, ‘Uncle, Aunt, you see, not only isQiu Zong very successful in what he does, he is a good person…very loveable…’Yin Shi gave her a knock on the head,

 Yin Ting clutched her head and bared her teeth at herbrother, as she winced in pain, Zhengqing laughed, ‘Thank you but stop praisingme. I am scared my parents would not recognise their son.’

Zhengqing’s words reminded Yin Ting of the nick name shegave him – please be more serious. She could imagine him telling her, “be moreserious!” but she could not help but smile and sought to educate him and said, ‘Givethem an opportunity to know more about you.’

Just then, Yin Ting and Tin Shi’s father came up to them. He’dnoticed his children talking to a stranger to he’d come over, Yin Ting madeintroductions, ‘Dad this is Qiu Zhengqing Zong who works for Uncle Qin.’

Yin Guohao nodded, ‘Qiu Zhengqing? Old Qin has mentionedyou. h.e.l.lo,’

Zhengqing quickly greeted the older man, ‘h.e.l.lo Yin Shu,’

Yin Ting laughed and waved to Zhengqing, ‘We’ll be offfirst, goodbye,’ they made their farewells and Zhengqing watched the Yin familywalk away.

As they walked away Zhengqing could hear them still talking,Yin Shi was saying to Yin Ting, ‘You should get dad phone number printed onyour back,’

‘I don’t care if you make fun of me!’ Yin Ting replied.

After they had gone out of sight, Zhengqing turned back tohis parents’ grave with a smile, ‘She’s a colleague’s friend. A kind littlegirl,’ he paused not knowing what else to say, ‘I’ll be off now. I’ll see youagain soon.’

Zhengqing fussed with the flowers, took one last look at thegraves, then left.

❀❀❀

His car was not parked very far, as he was about to get in, he sawthe Yin family trio near their car, Yin Ting looked back and saw him, shewaved. Zhengqing waved back.

Zhengqing entered his car, just as he was about to start theengine, Mao Huizhu called.

‘Are you busy? Can we chat?’

‘Yes, what’s up?’ Zhengqing had a feeling that things werenot going well at home for Huizhu, so she called to air her grievances,

‘Can you believe it, seven aunts show up for dinner. One ofthem was upon me in no time; my make-up doesn’t look good, I should look moreinnocent and delicate. My clothes don’t suit me, I should wear a one shoulderedscalloped dress with flowers and fancy work, (Zuben: That sounds hideous) howcould I be this old and not married, one of my cousins already has a child in elementaryschool and is expecting another one. I should read dating books; another girldid and got a boyfriend. All this pointless jibber jabber, I could not endureit any longer.’

‘So you are outside for some peace and quiet now?’

‘Yeah, I told them I was going to have a smoke.’

Zhengqing smiled, Huizhu seemed quite rebellious, ‘Some ofthem mean well, but obviously some of them are just jealous of your success andare sour grapes, who just want to pick on what they perceive as your fault. Andif you show it bothers you, they will be gleeful.’

‘I know, I have to take it on the chin, but my parents theyare quite proud of me. They aren’t happy about what they are saying. But when Itold my dad I was going to smoke, his complexion changed.’

 Zhengqing didn’t know what to say in this situation. Therewas really no way to go about it, some people where like this, you can’tsatisfy the whole world. Don’t mix and people would say you’re looking down onthem. Be friendly and they will ridicule you behind your back. Or they’ll behavelike you owe them something, and must benefit from your success, otherwise youwould be seen as petty. Zhengqing can understand what Huizhu was going through.

He could not say much, but decided to be a bit encouraging, ‘It’sonly two more days, hang in there. You don’t need to care what they say.’

‘Hmm, I’m not happy about it but venting has made me feelbetter.’

‘But smoking is not good for the body,’ Zhengqing said, hewas very self-disciplined. He did not smoke, there were lots of people in theirfield who did. Perhaps because his face was so foreboding, but no one had evertried to convince him to smoke.

‘Do you mind?’ He could hear her smile, ‘I’m not addicted. Ionly do it on occasion, when you confirm the possibility of us dating, you canbe rest a.s.sured if we begin to date, I will quit.’

Zhengqing laughed, this idea was similar to his; terms canbe set and agreed upon, signed and then implemented.

‘Shall we meet up after the holidays?’ Huizhu asked.

‘Sure,’ Zhenqing had no reason to refuse. The more contactthey hand, the more he could get to know her better and it would help him makea descision.

‘I will be back in town the day after tomorrow, we can thinkabout a time then.’ There was a short pause, ‘I have to go my mom is callingme. Thanks for talking with me, I feel much better.’

‘Zhōngqiū kuàilè1,’ Zhenqing said. Out of the corner of hiseye, he suddenly found someone standing at the window. He looked properly tosee Yin Ting holding a huge grapefruit in his window grinning.

Huizhu had hung up at that time, so Zhengqing put down hisphone and wound his window down. 

‘Zoe?’ Yin Ting asked cheerfully.

Zhengqing raised his eyebrows, does she now read minds too?

Yin Ting laughed and said, ‘I saw you laugh happily andguessed,’ Not wanting to go on about the phone issue, she continued, ‘My dad’sfriend sent us some grapefruit for the festival greetings. It was in the car,they are especially nice. Here are a few for you. Zhōngqiū kuàilè oh!’

Zhengqing expressed his grat.i.tude, but Yin Ting had alreadyskipped off, waving goodbye. Yin Ting’s car was not parked far from his. As gotin as they drove by him, Yin Shi also waved goodbye.

(Zuben: Too much words to say very little.)

That night while most families were eating dinner with theirloved ones and not so loved ones. Zhengqing ate take-out by his lonesome in-frontof the TV. He felt a little depressed, not knowing what to do; he did not wantto go on the internet, or read financial news. This evening also has no meaningto him. Sitting for a bit, he remembered the oversized grapefruit. He got afruit knife out and peeled the grapefruit. He did not like grapefruit usually,it was troublesome to peel and tasted so sour, so he really did not feel goodabout this fruit.

Today, he had nothing better to do, so he peeled thegrapefruit. Carefully stripping the skin to get to the fruit took a while, butit was kind of fun. Then he began to eat.

 Sweet! Very sweet! The fruit was really good. He atetwo more, then collapsed on the sofa. (Zuben: How do you get tired from eatingfruit? Maybe the peeling?)

He never would have thought grapefruit could send him nearlycomatose. He thought of Yin Ting giving him the fruit with that sweet smile. Ifhe really died from eating the grapefruit, what reaction would she have? Guilt?Or will she say “Oh I knew that will happen,” or “Or you get what you deservefor eating so much.”

Zhengqing decided he wanted to know her reaction so he senther a text message, ‘Zhōngqiū kuàilè, thank you for your grapefruit, they weretoo big, I am nearly in a fruit coma.’

Just as he as falling asleep, he got a reply, ‘Ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha’ filled the screen.

Black lines hovered over his head, why was she happy? Herlaughter was too unrestrained.

There was nothing after all the laughter. It was completelydifferent from his guess. Zhengqing felt more bored so he got off the couch andwent to bathe and prepare for bed.

In bed, he checked his phone to make sure the alarm was set.Checked his mailbox to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. There was worktomorrow, it made him relieved and happy. 

In the mailbox, he found a newmessage, it was from Yin Ting, it seemed there had been a network delay betweentime sent and time received,

The message read, ‘Please be more serious, the red stringcertainly has begun its effects. You have been hugged by the G.o.d of humour. Ifyou behave like this more, you are certainly going to have better luck in love,compared to your usual mechanical behaviour. Wishing you a pleasant evening.’

Zhengqing was mollified; he didn’t think that his messagewas that funny. He was rather serious. What was going on in that woman’s brainall day long? And he was not looking for love, intended to set terms todetermine a good compatibility to marriage.

However, being hugged by the sense of humour G.o.d was ratherinteresting. He guessed that Yin Ting girl had been hugged by the G.o.d ofsilliness and it was holding on to her tightly.

[1] - Zhōngqiū kuàilè : Happy Mid Autumn Festival; It sounded awkward so I chose to keep it Chinese.

Zuben: Don"t get me wrong, I like the story, if I was reading it for myself, I"d skim like a surfer. It seems Asian authors are suffering from the too many words to say very little affliction. Or it could be okay in Chinese or j.a.panese, but absolutely tedious in English.

 ❀ Chapter 7