Chapter 9.3 - 郁金香 Tulip
The afternoon sun suddenly dimmed, and gusts of cold wind began to blow. The petals of the tulips swayed in the wind, hinting that rain might be on its way.
He stood up, smiling at the tombstone. "Mom, I'm heading off now."
Instead of going straight home, he went to his grandfather's house in the old town district.
He Suye's grandfather was a highly renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, with a lineage said to trace back to royal physicians of the Ming and Qing dynasties. He had once been the president of a university of Chinese medicine and later was transferred to the Department of Health as its director. After retiring, he lived a semi-reclusive life.
The name "He Suye" was given by him.
Upon entering, He Suye didn't go straight to the study. Instead, he wandered around the courtyard, sniffing the various medicinal herbs drying in the sun. It was his grandmother who spotted him first. "Old man, Suye is here!"
At that moment, He Suye was frowning at a particular herb. His grandfather, standing behind him, reminded him, "That's tulip root. Have you forgotten all that you've learned, boy?"
Embarrassed, he muttered softly, "I rarely use this herb in practice; I mostly think of it as an ornamental plant."
His grandfather chuckled, squatting down to pick up a piece and play with it in his hand. "It's used in Phlegm-Transforming Brain-Clearing Pills and Qi-Regulating Powder. It's bitter, neutral, non-toxic, and it moves qi, relieves depression, cools blood, and breaks stasis. It treats pain in the chest, abdomen, ribs, and sides, madness, febrile diseases with unconsciousness, vomiting blood, bloody urine, and jaundice. Look at you, not mastering your craft."
He Suye straightened up, serious. "I plan to transfer to the Chinese Medicine College for a Ph.D. in Internal Medicine of Chinese Medicine. My advisor will be Gu Ping."
His grandfather was surprised. "That old rascal! The one who always fought with me when we were kids? He's strict; his students used to call him 'Daoist Exterminator.' You're going to have a tough time, boy!"
He Suye didn't respond but quietly looked at the tulip root in his hand and said softly, "Grandpa, I brought tulips to visit Mom today."
There was a long silence before his grandfather stood up. "You haven't been home in a while. Go see your dad too. Although I'm his father and your grandfather, I can't intervene in your relationship. Even though your dad has made many mistakes... but... sigh..."
He nodded, though somewhat hesitantly. "I'll find time to go. Don't worry, Grandpa. Actually, I've made mistakes too, but it's hard to explain everything right now."
His grandmother called from the living room, "Old and young, come eat! Suye, there's your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs today!"
His grandfather hurriedly gathered the herbs, shouting at him, "Boy, it's going to rain. Hurry and get all the herbs inside before you eat!"
He Suye felt as if he had suddenly returned to his childhood, with the courtyard full of herbs and the scent of honeyed pills. He remembered stealing honey and being punished by having to dry herbs, then getting caught in a sudden downpour. He and his grandparents had scrambled to gather the herbs. Although the herbs didn't get wet, he ended up soaked and caught a cold for a few days. But during those days, he had honey every day.
The honey jar would always run out, but he believed that honey would never truly run out.
He Suye left very late, and on his way, a light rain began to fall.
After getting off the bus, there was still a distance to walk home. He wasn't in a hurry and just walked slowly in the rain. The day had been exhausting and oppressive for him, with past events replaying in his mind, leaving him feeling weak and defeated.
He wanted to get drenched in the rain to clear his mind.
Suddenly, a blue umbrella blocked his view. He turned around to see Shen Xifan, who was awkwardly smiling and explaining, "Hey, He Suye, you're too tall. I can't reach you with the umbrella. What are you standing there for? Don't you see how hard I'm trying to hold it up!"
Her slightly damp bangs clung to her forehead, and her face was filled with a bright smile. She wore a blue cotton jacket, jeans, and sneakers. In her left hand, she held a large bouquet of tulips, all a uniform shade of purple, while her right hand struggled to hold up the umbrella.
He quickly took the umbrella from her, feeling something inside him slowly melt.
Every time he saw Shen Xifan, he felt that she was happy, or at least carefree. He envied her a little. Shen Xifan loved to smile, and even when she was sick, she would grin and say, "It's fine, I'll get better. No big deal."
Her smile, framed by the large bouquet of tulips, was truly sweet.
Yet, he found the bouquet glaring. Suddenly, he felt bothered by the thought of who might have given her the flowers and blurted out, "Who gave them to you?"
Shen Xifan was taken aback, then curled her lips into a smile. "What do you mean, who gave them to me? The hotel just hosted a birthday banquet for a young lady, and these tulips were left over. I took them all. So, do they look nice?"
He Suye smiled. It was his first genuine smile of the day. "They're beautiful, really!"
She pushed half of the bouquet toward him. "If you like them, take half. They're free anyway!"
He tilted the umbrella toward her, making sure she was fully covered. "Since when do girls give flowers to boys? Silly!"
Shen Xifan glanced at He Suye, then at herself, and let out a dry chuckle. "Here's what we'll do. You hold all the flowers first, then hand half of them to me and say, 'Miss Shen Xifan, please accept these.' That way, it's both reasonable and proper!"
In the end, he really took half of the tulips home. He felt a little foolish, but strangely, it was the first time he had ever cared so much about a bouquet of flowers. He found a vase, filled it with water, and even dropped a vitamin C tablet into it.
He was a plant novice, never paying much attention to flowers or plants. He couldn't even keep a cactus alive.
But this time, he hoped the tulips would last a little longer. When they eventually withered, he planned to dry their petals and turn them into bookmarks. He thought they would look beautiful.
His mother had also loved tulips. Coincidentally, her surname was Yu, and her given name was Nianxiang, which meant "fragrance of the years."
He began to think about whether he should have a proper talk with his father—about himself, about the future.
In the corner stood that blue umbrella. The little girl lived in Unit 2, Building 7, Area F, Room 301. She had a father who seemed kind and had told him, "Young man, go home and drink some banlangen so you don't catch a cold." He hadn't met her mother, but according to Shen Xifan, she was going through menopause and loved to gossip. It was an ordinary yet happy family.
Sometimes, when he was younger, he would wonder what life would have been like if his parents weren't a department head and a head nurse. Would he have had to cook for himself? Would he have had to say goodnight to an empty house? Would he have had to awkwardly explain to his teachers why no one came to parent-teacher meetings? But he had learned to accept reality early on.
It wasn't resignation. He knew that independence was something he would have to learn sooner or later, and there wasn't much difference between learning it early or late.
He was a precocious and sensible child.
But he had once hoped that one day, his home would be filled with laughter and the voices of his parents. Now, that had become a distant dream. He felt that the sense of familial happiness Shen Xifan had was something he lacked—and something he longed for.
He wanted to get closer to her, to draw warmth from her.
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