A Guide to Wasting Life - Chapter 11

As Xu Nianzhu walked down from Sunset Pavilion, she maintained a distance of over a dozen steps ahead of Zhou Qi. Her head was lowered, busy sending Wen Yi a photo she had just taken.

Focused on selecting the picture, Xu Nianzhu failed to notice a hard nut shell-like object on the ground. She stepped on it directly, twisting her left foot awkwardly. Instinctively, her right foot lifted to keep balance, but ended up kicking the rough edge of a stone step.

She hissed sharply in pain, suppressing the urge to cry out. Quickly, she shoved her phone into her pocket and hopped on one foot toward the nearest lamppost for support.

She was wearing ankle socks, and now both feet bore symmetrical injuries.

Xu Nianzhu bent over, massaging her reddened and slightly scraped ankle. Lost in thought, she suddenly heard the sound of a zipper being opened nearby. She turned her head and saw Zhou Qi.

She hadn’t even realized when he had caught up. He was now standing under the streetlight, pulling a small flat case from his crossbody bag.

He opened it and took out two adhesive bandages.

The last two in the box. It was now empty.

Standing on one leg in a crane pose, Xu Nianzhu tilted her head up and stared at him. Several seconds passed, and then a thought popped into her mind. Forgetting her pain, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Has the pain numbed your senses?” Zhou Qi asked, speechless. He looked up at her briefly, then carefully supported her arm as he guided her, hopping on one foot, to a higher stone step nearby. “Rest your foot on that in a moment.”

Still chuckling, Xu Nianzhu replied, almost mischievously, “So, does this box come with five bandages?”

Zhou Qi turned the box over to the front to check and nodded.

“Who would’ve thought-just half a day, and all of them were used on me.” She continued talking as they moved. “Honestly, this is the first time I’ve realized how much of a bandage-killer I am.”

Zhou Qi glanced at her in disbelief but couldn’t suppress a faint smile. She could still joke around despite bleeding scrapes.

Carefully, he helped her position her right leg on the step. His brows furrowed slightly as he prepared to say something, though his expression had already betrayed his concern.

But Xu Nianzhu cut him off before he could open his mouth. She raised three fingers solemnly and declared, “Don’t worry, next time I won’t look at my phone while walking-especially on mountain paths.”

-Especially in front of you.

Seeing that he didn’t respond, she slowly, almost childishly, extended her pinky finger one joint at a time, as if it were a tender spring shoot stretching toward the sun.

With her fingers now all together, she wiggled them playfully.

Zhou Qi stared at her tightly pursed lips and her mischievous little movements. It almost seemed like she was the one trying to distract him from the pain-as if he had been the one who fell, and she was doing something silly just to cheer him up.

His heart softened as he silently chuckled. Gently, he pressed down on her right hand, still “swearing” in earnest, and in one smooth motion, crouched down and tore open one of the band-aids.

This time, Xu Nianzhu didn’t flinch or resist. She even helped by tugging up the hem of her skirt slightly. When Zhou Qi looked up at her, clearly a little surprised, she smirked and teased, “Hurry up! At this rate, my wound’s going to heal itself before you even finish.”

But later, as they walked, a sharp intake of breath betrayed her.

“Ahh…” she hissed softly through clenched teeth. She lightly stamped her heel against the ground, trying to distract herself from the pain.

“Does it hurt a lot?” Zhou Qi immediately noticed. Without hesitation, he halted and bent down slightly. “Get on, I’ll carry you.”

What a heartwarming offer.

As far back as Xu Nianzhu could remember, she had never heard anyone say those words to her. What she had heard instead were things like, “If you fall, get up on your own,” or “If it hurts, suck it up.” Over time, even when someone offered to help, her instinct had been to politely refuse.

And so, as expected, Xu Nianzhu waved him off again. “It’s fine, I can manage on my own.”

But this time, her reasoning-and her feelings-were entirely different.

Something within her seemed to have softened.

She playfully pushed Zhou Qi forward, urging him to keep walking. Then, with a grin, she broke the silence. “You know what I just thought of? Those shopping carts at the supermarket. You ever see adults who get tired while shopping? They sit in the cart like kids, hugging their knees, and have someone push them around the store. And then they pass by a cart with actual kids, and if they get caught, some of them get all embarrassed and look away. But others are totally unfazed-might even wave hello.”

It was a random, out-of-nowhere analogy-but somehow, it fit perfectly.

“I’d be one of the first group,” Xu Nianzhu continued, now walking beside him again. She swung her legs slightly as she spoke. “And besides, look how old we are already.”

Look how old we are already.

It was the kind of phrase people in their age group heard over and over-used as a preface to dismiss any behavior deemed “immature.”

They were expected to be responsible, to manage their emotions, to think about everyone else before themselves.

Zhou Qi understood the first half of what she said, but he couldn’t get behind the second. “That doesn’t belong to any particular age group.”

“Besides,” he added, turning to look at her with a small, crooked smile, “other than the number on your ID, you don’t seem like an adult at all.”

Xu Nianzhu froze for a second, her thoughts coming to a screeching halt.

Two ideas popped into her mind: one, he was saying she looked younger than her age; or two, he was saying she was childish. Either way, they both sounded pretty good. If anything, they could just as easily be reframed as “youthful looks” and “youthful spirit.”

But of course, she wasn’t going to let him off that easily. Putting on a mock-offended expression, she zeroed in on one thing: “Oh, I see. So you’re calling me an immature brat now, huh? Well, guess what-you’re one too!”

Zhou Qi gave a small shrug, his tone nonchalant. “Yeah, so now… would one immature person let another immature person carry them on their back?”

Huh? Was this something he used to say?

Xu Nianzhu was thrown off for a moment, not expecting Zhou Qi to be so persistent about the whole thing. She was just trying to think of a way to respond-something straightforward but not too blunt-when her sharp eyes caught sight of something at the corner of the street.

She rubbed her eyes for clarity, then pointed it out to Zhou Qi, eager to shift the topic. “Do you see that? The red characters.”

Zhou Qi glanced in the direction she was pointing. It was an old-fashioned bicycle with a white insulated box strapped to its backseat, covered by a quilt. On the side of the box were several bold red characters that unmistakably read: Popsicles.

It had been ages since he’d seen anything like that.

“I’ll go buy some,” Zhou Qi said, somehow managing to voice what Xu Nianzhu was just thinking right as the thought crossed her mind. He motioned toward a bench nearby. “You go sit down over there for a bit.”

Caught off-guard by his uncanny ability to read her thoughts, Xu Nianzhu stood there blinking for a few seconds before nodding.

One day, she thought, she’d have to ask Zhou Qi about this particular talent of his-how he always seemed to know exactly what she was thinking before she even had a chance to say it.

Just as she was about to walk away, she noticed Zhou Qi pause and turn back after taking a few steps forward. Without speaking, he mouthed three distinct words to her: Don’t wander off.

Xu Nianzhu couldn’t help but grin. Honestly, it seemed like “immature” was the theme of their day.

She waved her phone at him, gesturing for him to hurry up, and then playfully used her forefinger and middle finger to mimic a pair of running legs darting across her palm. Her silent message: If you don’t go now, I’m running off.

Zhou Qi chuckled at her childish antics. He tilted his head with a knowing smile and turned back around, finally heading toward the bicycle.

A minute later, as he waited at the crosswalk near the traffic light, his phone vibrated in his hand. He glanced down to find a message from Xu Nianzhu: a quick thanks accompanied by a dramatically bowing emoji.

Curious, he turned back to look at her. There she was, lounging on the bench, stretching her legs out as far as they could go. She leaned back into the seat, tilting her head to squint lazily up at the sky, her arms stretched overhead in a deep yawn. She looked entirely at ease, like a cat basking in the afternoon sun after a satisfying meal.

In that moment, Zhou Qi had some clarity. Whatever her thoughts might be, he had already made up his mind. For these few days, all he wanted to do was take care of her.

The rest could wait. Slowly but surely, there would be time for that.

On the bench, Xu Nianzhu yawned again, her eyes watering from tiredness. She reached into her bag to grab a tissue, but when she pulled something out, it wasn’t what she expected-it was an unopened box of band-aids. Confused, she placed it on her lap, fishing around in her bag again. To her surprise, she pulled out another box of band-aids.

This repeated two more times until she finally gave up, laughing in disbelief. Exasperated but amused, she plopped the bag right onto her lap and tipped it upside down to get a better look at its contents. Sure enough, in the very bottom corner of the bag, buried under everything else, was the elusive packet of tissues she’d been searching for.

It all came back to her now.

Ah, that convenience store on the way down from the mountain earlier. A small shop conveniently located right by the exit path. Zhou Qi had insisted on stopping by, despite her half-hearted protests.

She could still remember him doing the math out loud, arguing how many boxes of band-aids she might need if she used half a packet a day. Apparently, he’d decided they should stock up for at least a week. The cashier, clearly delighted by the sudden bulk purchase, had eagerly shoved a pile of boxes their way.

The phone sitting on her bag lit up, pulling Xu Nianzhu back to the moment. Smiling, she glanced down. It was a message from Wen Yi.

Wen Yi: [The photos you sent are so pretty!!!]

Wen Yi: [/thumbs up//thumbs up//thumbs up/]

What a half-hearted response.

Xu Nianzhu had been about to launch into a moral critique of Wen Yi’s laziness when it suddenly hit her-at this hour, it must be well past 11 p.m. where Wen Yi was.

Xu Nianzhu: [Why aren’t you asleep yet? /puzzled//puzzled/]

Xu Nianzhu: [Don’t you care about your beauty sleep?]

Wen Yi: [Just finished working out.]

Xu Nianzhu: [?????]

Wen Yi: [Hehehe…]

Two seconds of silence.

Xu Nianzhu: [Wish you happiness. Goodbye.]

Wen Yi: [Wait, wait, wait! Who’s that in the background of the third photo you sent?]

The veins in Xu Nianzhu’s temples involuntarily twitched.

Had she accidentally checked the wrong photo when multi-selecting earlier?

She scrolled back up. A photo caught her eye-overexposed, shot backlit. It wasn’t hard to spot: a silhouette in the foreground, taken as the person stood on a staircase bathed in the warm, golden hues of a setting sun. She had snapped it casually while running up the steps, sneaking glances behind her. The timing had been perfect. The glow of the sunset framed him like a halo.

In that fleeting moment, she’d thought of a phrase: Buddha’s light shining down.

Looking at it again now, the photo seemed to hold even more charm.

Xu Nianzhu: [That’s… Zhou Qi.]

Xu Nianzhu: [We went out today.]

Wen Yi: [But didn’t you text me from his car that day saying he was leaving the next day?]

Xu Nianzhu: [He was supposed to… but the next day, he didn’t leave.]

For reasons she couldn’t explain, Xu Nianzhu felt a wave of emotions as she typed those words. She had thought that their fleeting reunion had an expiration date-just one night.

Back then, she was sure her eyes had welled up with tears. Otherwise, Zhou Qi wouldn’t have displayed that flash of alarm when he saw her.

Wen Yi hadn’t yet replied. Xu Nianzhu lowered her head and took a few deep breaths, locking her phone and tucking it away.

Just then, Zhou Qi handed her the popsicle he had bought, set the plastic bag he was holding down, and sat beside her. “They were almost sold out,” he explained, “Only one flavor left-the classic, red bean. I figured…”

“Mm, my favorite.”

“Favorite enough to cry over?” he teased.

Xu Nianzhu grinned at him as widely as she could.

Yes, it was good enough to cry over.

Xu Nianzhu took a bite of the red bean popsicle. The taste hadn’t changed-the soft, grainy texture of the beans and the rich, creamy milk flavor brought back waves of nostalgia.

Noticing the open plastic bag beside Zhou Qi, she asked, “What else did you buy?”

“Oh,” Zhou Qi shifted slightly, switching the popsicle to his other hand as he reached into the bag. “Green ointment and some mosquito-repellent wristbands.”

Seeing her puzzled expression, he explained that he’d noticed the mosquito bites on her legs earlier, while they were still up the hill.

He gestured for her to free a hand and hold it out to him. Without fully understanding why, Xu Nianzhu complied somewhat absentmindedly. She felt something cool slip onto her wrist-a wristband.

“This was the only design they had left. It’s cute though, isn’t it? Really suits you,” Zhou Qi said with a hint of a smile. “Once you finish eating, I’ll help you apply the ointment.”

Xu Nianzhu raised her wrist for a closer look. The band had a small round emblem with a cartoon Rilakkuma bear on it.

Maybe the theme of today was being taken care of like a little kid.

The thought made her face heat up, and she relied on the cold popsicle in her mouth to help cool down.

“You probably don’t see these much anymore, right?” Xu Nianzhu asked, finally biting off the last piece of her popsicle. “The bicycles with bells that sell popsicles?”

“They were fairly common when I was young,” Zhou Qi replied, “but yeah, not so much anymore.”

“Hmm?” She tilted her head. “After 2000, they pretty much disappeared. I was lucky to catch them right at the tail end.”

Xu Nianzhu had grown up on the cusp of two decades. As a kid, she’d been fortunate enough to experience sitting on the stone steps outside her house, waiting eagerly for the sound of a bicycle bell ringing in the distance. When it rang, she’d grip her coins tightly in her palm and dash towards the bike, buying a popsicle whenever she had the chance-and always sneaking it behind her family’s back.

Red bean popsicles, mung bean popsicles, sugar-water popsicles, creamy milk popsicles… She had tried them all.

“So,” Zhou Qi chuckled, a faint dimple forming on one side of his face, “you’ve always assumed I was younger than you?”

“Mm…” Xu Nianzhu nodded faintly, “Because of your face and the clues you gave.”

Zhou Qi took the stick from her empty popsicle wrapper and tossed it into the nearby trash bin with his own. After cleaning his hands with a wet wipe, he opened the green ointment, dabbed a bit onto his finger, and applied it to a mosquito bite on her elbow that she hadn’t even noticed.

“Back then,” he explained while concentrating on his task, “due to some family matters, I had to take a year off from school.”

Xu Nianzhu’s voice softened. “And now?”

“It’s fine now.”

The sky was in its blue moment-that short, magical time when the fading warmth of the sunset merged with the cool blues of the evening. The shift in the sky’s palette was subtle yet mesmerizing.

Sitting on the inside of the bench, Xu Nianzhu turned her head slightly, her gaze falling on Zhou Qi. Behind him, the sky glowed in a deep, melancholy blue, blending into shadows along the horizon.

Her instincts, honed over years of quiet observations, told her that his dismissive “It’s fine now” wasn’t the full truth. Something in the way he said it, with the faintest undertone of finality, hinted at emotions he had carefully chosen not to share.