While Mai Ding was still bargaining over the price, he noticed a girl with an exceptional bearing approaching. There was no telling what she was feeling from her expression. She simply stared at the artist’s back. Mai Ding guessed she must be his girlfriend. He probably couldn’t beat the artist in a fight, but surely he could manage to beat the girlfriend. Really, he ought to have been ashamed of what he was thinking. As he was considering this, An Zi Yan abruptly pulled him behind himself. Mai Ding was baffled. Had An Zi Yan guessed what he intended to do? He explained, “I won’t hit her hard. I’ll just give her a little tap to show them how formidable I am, so they won’t dare come out and cheat people again.”
“Your judgment of people is as bad as ever. Remember to thank me properly in a moment.”
“What do you me…” Mai Ding’s words stopped halfway out of his mouth. The girl came up behind the artist without saying a word, then suddenly raised her leg. In an instant, she kicked the man and his easel to the ground. One of his sandals went flying. If An Zi Yan hadn’t pulled Mai Ding away, he might have gone down too. The girl wasn’t finished. She placed a foot on the artist’s shoulder and turned him over to face her. “We’ve finally managed to go on a holiday together. I was only gone for a little while. Was it really so difficult to ask you to watch the luggage? Instead, you came here to pretend to be an artist?” Her foot moved to his stomach, grinding back and forth. “Where’s the luggage?”
“Isn’t it by the roadside?” The artist’s face remained perfectly expressionless. If someone took a close-up of his face, nobody would question a caption claiming he was lying in bed watching television.
“Heh, heh.” The girl’s laugh was terrifying. Mai Ding hid his entire body behind An Zi Yan, allowing only his head to peek out. Her foot moved farther down. “Do you realize all my clothes and my wallet were in those bags? I think you do. Should I crush your balls?”
“I have no objection. But what would you do afterward?” The artist was definitely the kind of person who invited a beating. Mai Ding had encountered ferocious girls before, but this one could only be described as brutal. His earlier plan to hit her vanished without a trace. She couldn’t possibly be the artist’s girlfriend. She had to be his mortal enemy or something.
“I don’t have time to argue with you. Go find the bags. Right now.”
The artist rose, brushed the footprints off his clothes as though nothing had happened, and went to retrieve his runaway sandal just as calmly. He picked up his drawing board in one hand and took the girl’s right hand with the other. “Let’s go.” She tried to shake him off. “Don’t hold my hand. I’m still angry.”
“What if I won’t let go?” He held tight. A tiny smile appeared on her face as she looked at the man whose expression hadn’t changed from start to finish. “Then I’ll hit you.”
“Use your left hand, then.” She raised her left hand, made a fist, and tapped it lightly against his chest. “Consider yourself lucky. I don’t have the strength right now.” So they really were lovers!! Mai Ding couldn’t ignore what had just unfolded before him. Remembering the portrait still in his hand, he realized that although he’d been cheated a little, it wasn’t right to refuse payment. He hurried after them. “Um… excuse me…”
“What?” The girl looked back. Mai Ding held out six hundred yuan with both hands and bowed slightly. “Please accept this.” Without asking a single question, she grabbed the money, then disappeared into the distance with the artist. Mai Ding composed himself and returned to An Zi Yan. “See how frightening girls can be? Surely you now realize marrying me, a man, was the right choice.”
“I suggest you go home and change your pants before saying that.”
“I did not wet myself!” Mai Ding unfolded his portrait again. In the bottom right corner was the artist’s signature. He murmured, “So his name is Kuang Li. What a strange guy.” By the time he’d recovered from his thoughts, An Zi Yan had walked ahead. Mai Ding opened his mouth to ask him to wait, but An Zi Yan turned slightly. “You’re so slow.” Mai Ding ran after him. “If you carried me on your back, I wouldn’t be slow.”
“In your dreams.”
“You’ve carried me lots of times already.”
“That was because I pitied you.”
“Then pity me again now!”
They continued along the riverbank. The rolled-up portrait in Mai Ding’s hand swung with his arm. The sunshine seemed listless, and their shadows flickered indistinctly on the ground. A group of laughing university students passed them. Six years. He’d known An Zi Yan for six years already. The number was startling. Mai Ding could no longer remember exactly which day they’d become a couple.
“Hey, An Zi Yan.”
“If it’s something boring, don’t bother saying it.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet! In idol dramas, there are always confessions where somebody can tell you exactly how long they’ve known the other person, right down to the minute and second, and the heroine is moved to tears. If I could work that out someday, I could…”
“Prove you’re good at mathematics?”
“Stop interrupting. Let me finish!”
“If I calculated it, I could record the time every day. Then five years from now, or ten years, when…”
“When you’d finally realize how stupid you are?”
“I told you, stop interrupting!” Mai Ding pouted, recovered his romantic mood, and tried once more. “Then, if I suddenly told you how long it had been on a certain day, maybe you would…”
“Maybe I’d think it was time to kill you?”
“An Zi Yan, can you please let me finish?”
“You’re still not done?” An Zi Yan looked thoroughly disgusted.
“Forget it! I don’t want to say anything anymore. You’ve completely ruined the mood!” To prove he was angry, Mai Ding walked faster. An Zi Yan called from behind, “Hey.”
“What?”
“Don’t move.”
“I’m going to move anyway!” Mai Ding deliberately swung his arms and shook his feet. An Zi Yan was already used to such idiocy. He walked in front of Mai Ding and turned his back. “You have three seconds. Three, two…” Mai Ding leaped onto his back and declared triumphantly, “Good thing I react quickly.” Maybe he couldn’t remember the day he first met An Zi Yan, the day he fell in love with him, the day An Zi Yan began loving him, or the day they decided they were together. If he couldn’t remember the dates, he didn’t need to. None of those were important. What mattered was that he loved An Zi Yan, An Zi Yan loved him, they had become a couple, and they were still together now.
Hanging on An Zi Yan’s back, Mai Ding swung his feet. “It’s been a long time since you carried me like this.”
“Maybe I’m tired of it.”
“Then I’ll make you even more tired of it. Hey, An Zi Yan, why do you love me?” It seemed rather silly to ask this six years later. An Zi Yan looked out across the river and thought for a moment. “Because you’re so easy to fool, probably.” Mai Ding couldn’t believe the answer. “That’s it? Just because I’m gullible, so you can satisfy all your twisted interests?”
“Of course not. Your backside satisfies me, too.”
Mai Ding nipped his shoulder. “Beast!”