36 – You’re Not Special
Go! You’re not going to go? Do you believe me when I say I’ll call my mom over to wash your underpants?!
Pang Qian carried her umbrella and led Gu Mingxi back to her house.
When they returned to the Golden Compound, Old Zeng greeted them warmly, “Is Mingxi coming to Fattie’s house for New Year’s greetings?”
Gu Mingxi lowered his head, and Pang Qian smiled as she said to Old Zeng, “That’s right, Grandpa Zeng. Gu Mingxi came to my house for dinner.”
As they walked up the stairs, Gu Mingxi suddenly stopped in his steps.
Pang Qian turned back to look at him, “What’s wrong?”
He lifted his head to look at Pang Qian, standing on the landing. He said quietly, “It’s New Year. Going to your house in this state doesn’t seem very suitable.”
“What’s there to be suitable about?” Pang Qian ran down the stairs and pushed at his back, pus.h.i.+ng him up the stairs. “You’re still so polite with my parents! Hurry up, your clothes are all wet.”
Seeing Gu Mingxi at the door, Pang Shuisheng and Jin Ai’hua were both very startled. But they quickly calmed themselves. Pang Shuisheng brought Gu Mingxi to his room to help him change out of his wet clothes. Jin Ai’hua went to the kitchen to prepare dinner for the two kids.
Pang Qian hadn’t eaten lunch or dinner yet, so she was starving. She slipped into the kitchen to find something to eat and was caught by Jin Ai’hua.
“What’s going on with Gu Mingxi?” she asked her daughter. “Why is he carrying such a big bag? Weren’t you at his house in the afternoon already?”
Pang Qian held a crispy chicken tender in her hand, and she finally whispered, “His dad is out of town. And his mom…seems to have gone back to her family home for some reason.”
“Why didn’t Mingxi go with her?”
Pang Qian blinked and just said, “The plane tickets were too expensive?”
Jin Ai’hua actually believed it. She asked, “Then why didn’t Mingxi go to his grandparents’ house?”
“Mom, you don’t know. Gu Mingxi’s (paternal) grandparents have never liked him. He didn’t want to go.”
Jin Ai’hua frowned as she asked, “Did you tell him to come to our house?”
Pang Qian hesitated, then she nodded. “It’s just a few days, Mom. Gu Mingxi doesn’t have anywhere to go. Don’t be too mean.”
Jin Ai’hua put her arms on her hips and glared. “When have I ever been mean to him?”
Inside his room, Pang Shuisheng helped Gu Mingxi take off his wet clothes. He found out that everything was completely soaked, and Gu Mingxi’s body was very cold. Pang Shuisheng dried off his body and hair with a towel. Then he went through his dresser and found a package of new underpants. “Men’s boxers. But kid, just put them on for now.”
Standing naked in front of Pang Shuisheng, and even having him help put on underpants, truly made Gu Mingxi feel very awkward. But this wasn’t the time to say that he’d wear them himself. Pang Shuisheng helped Gu Mingxi put on a pair of his pajamas. Because he was shorter than Gu Mingxi, his pants hung off the ground when Gu Mingxi wore them. Pang Shuisheng said, “Tomorrow, I’ll go buy you a new pair of pants.”
Gu Mingxi smiled, “No need, Uncle. Since I use my feet to do things, it’s not that convenient if they’re too long.”
The two of them walked out to the living room, where Pang Qian was helping Jin Ai’hua set the table. Pang Shuisheng and Jin Ai’hua had already eaten. He pat Gu Mingxi’s back, “You and Qian Qian eat. Uncle and Auntie will go watch TV. Take your time to eat. Make sure you eat a lot.”
“Uncle.” Gu Mingxi felt very apologetic. “I’ve really brought too much trouble.”
“Silly kid, don’t be all polite with me. Just treat this as your own home, got it?” Pang Shuisheng tousled Gu Mingxi’s hair, then pushed him to sit down at the table. He said to Pang Qian, “Qian Qian, get Gu Mingxi a bowl. And some chopsticks!”
Pang Shuisheng and Jin Ai’hua went to their room and closed the door, leaving Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi alone in the living room.
Pang Qian had a lot of experience eating with Gu Mingxi. The table in her house was pretty tall, which made it more difficult for Gu Mingxi to eat. Pang Qian carefully helped him add food to his bowl and served him soup. He lowered his head and pushed the food into his mouth. He was clearly very hungry. After he finished a bowl, Pang Qian helped him get another one. Then Gu Mingxi slowed his eating pace.
Pang Qian put some stir fried beef into his bowl. He lifted his eyes and looked at her, “What did you say to your parents?”
Pang Qian repeated what she told Jin Ai’hua. Gu Mingxi nodded, “Mm, thanks.”
“…” Pang Qian asked in a quiet voice, “What’s going on with your parents now?”
“Did you hear everything when you were at our house earlier?” Gu Mingxi held his chopsticks in his toes and slowly picked up the food in his bowl. “They fought before too, but it was never as bad as today. Before… Although I didn’t hear clearly, I still knew that my dad had another woman outside.”
Pang Qian’s eyes grew bigger, “Huh?”
“Mm. A few days ago, my mom even came to ask me, if they got divorced, who I would go with.”
This news was really too intense for Pang Qian to take in. After all, in Pang Qian’s eyes, Gu Guoxiang and Li Han were a loving couple who treated each other with great respect. She never would have thought that Gu Mingxi’s family was on the edge of collapsing.
She asked, “What did you say?”
“At the time, I didn’t know how serious their argument was, so I just said I didn’t know. I also said I didn’t want them to get divorced.” Gu Mingxi’s eyes drooped, his thick eyelashes blinking slowly. “My mom definitely has feelings for my dad. As for my dad… I think… That he still likes my mom. It’s just…”
He shrugged his right shoulder and Pang Qian looked at his empty sleeve. “I don’t have arms. He just really wants a healthy child.”
“But, but…” Pang Qian felt very anxious for some reason. “You’re really amazing. You do well in school, and you’ll definitely be able to get into a good university. You also draw really well. Your English is great, and you could work in translating.”
“So what?” Gu Mingxi smiled bitterly. “My dad was watching the news before. It was talking about how when students get admitted to university, a lot of parents would hold a teacher appreciation dinner, right. Anyway, it was to celebrate getting into university. Get a few tables at a restaurant and that. When my dad saw the news, he told me that after I get into university, he won’t hold one of those.”
Pang Qian was dumbfounded.
Gu Mingxi said, “He also said that when I get married, unless I wear prosthetic arms, he wouldn’t invite his friends to the banquet. Once, when he drank too much, he even said that he himself wouldn’t go to my wedding. He didn’t want to have to face all the stares and criticisms that my wife’s family would have.”
Pang Qian clenched her teeth and Gu Mingxi let out a sigh. “Sometimes my dad really confuses me. Pang Pang, sometimes I also wonder if, because I don’t have arms, I’m inferior or shameful. Whenever we go out, my dad will walk farther away from me, as if he were scared that others might think I were his son.”
“No way!” Pang Qian called out impatiently. “Gu Mingxi, don’t have such nonsensical thoughts. Look, your mom never thinks like that. My parents don’t think like that either. And there’s me! I really, really, really have never, never, never, thought that you were anything special.”
Her nervous expression, along with her serious tone as she said the three “reallys” and three “nevers,” really made Gu Mingxi laugh out loud. His eyes were clear and sparkling, his lips upturned, two canine teeth slightly visible. He smiled as he said, “I know. Hurry up and eat. When we finish eating, I still have to work on the winter homework a.s.signments.”
The topic changed too suddenly, leaving Pang Qian stunned. “Win-winter homework?”
“Mm, I brought it over,” Gu Mingxi said seriously. “There will be another diagnostic test when school starts back up. You’re not planning to get last place again, are you?”
Pang Qian quickly made a bow to him. “Pei pei pei! Don’t curse me from the start of the year!”
When she finished eating, Pang Qian went to wash the dishes. Pang Shuisheng called Gu Mingxi to take a shower, and then explained their sleeping situation that night.
Although Pang Shuisheng’s house had three rooms, since no one had used one of them for a long time, it had already become a storage room. It was stuffed full with Pang Shuisheng’s work tools. There was no way anyone could sleep inside there. Since there wasn’t a sofa in the small bedrooms, Pang Shuisheng let Gu Mingxi sleep in Pang Qian’s bed. And Pang Qian was relegated to sleep on the floor in the master bedroom.
Pang Qian hadn’t yet expressed her opinion, when Gu Mingxi already disagreed strongly with the arrangement.
He just said, “Pang Qian’s a girl. I’m a boy. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
Pang Shuisheng was in a difficult situation. “Where are you going to sleep though? The living room is on the way to the washroom, so if you sleep there, how can anyone walk past?”
Gu Mingxi knew this was true, but also didn’t have any ideas. Pang Shuisheng told Jin Ai’hua to tell Pang Qian that she’d been sleeping with her (mother). Pang Qian refused saying, “I don’t want to! Mom snores really loudly!”
After some discussion, Pang Qian said nonchalantly, “Just let Gu Mingxi sleep on the floor in my room. We slept in the same room when we went to Shanghai and it was fine.”
Pang Shuisheng shot a lot at Jin Ai’hua. She was extremely unhappy, but after considering Gu Mingxi’s character, she clenched her teeth and agreed.
They all went and busied themselves. Pang Shuisheng and Jin Ai’hua helped Gu Mingxi set up a sleeping spot in Pang Qian’s room. Two thick cotton mattress pads were laid on the floor, along with a duvet and a wool blanket. When they finished, they returned to their own room.
When Gu Mingxi went to shower, Pang Qian helped him tidy up his bag. She really admired him. Gu Mingxi’s winter break homework was wrapped up in a plastic bag, so it wasn’t touched by the rain at all. But the clothes he brought along were soaked.
“Fool.” Pang Qian took out his clothes, one piece at a time, and then tossed them into a washbasin. She brought it over to the was.h.i.+ng machine, and was about to ask her mom to help her wash it the next day, when she heard a strange sound from the bathroom.
Pang Qian walked over to see. The bathroom door was open, and Gu Mingxi had already finished his shower. He still wore the pajamas that Pang Shuisheng had given him. He stood with his left leg, and his right foot was in the sink, was.h.i.+ng his clothes. His toes gripped onto a clear bar of soap as he started was.h.i.+ng the wet clothes he’d changed out of.
There were two basins next to his left foot. One had his jacket, sweater, and pants inside. The other had a cotton s.h.i.+rt and pants. In the sink there was a pair of socks and underpants. He was struggling to wash his clothes because the soap was both large and slippery. He couldn’t keep a hold of it, and it would often slip into the sink.
His body swayed a bit, his two s.h.i.+rt sleeves swinging continuously. When he turned and saw Pang Qian, he smiled a bit embarra.s.singly. “You came at just the right time. Pang Pang, help me bring that chair over. If I sit, I can wash my clothes in the sink.”
Pang Qian said, “Don’t wash it. My mom will wash it together in the was.h.i.+ng machine tomorrow.”
Gu Mingxi said, I’m not was.h.i.+ng the outer clothing, I can’t. But I wanted to wash my underclothes myself… And the was.h.i.+ng machine isn’t as sanitary.”
Pang Qian looked at him, then looked at the clock on the wall. It was already past 9 o’clock.
“Wait for you to finish, and then you’re still going to do homework? Please.” Pang Qian rolled up her sleeves. “It’s just a cotton s.h.i.+rt, a pair of socks, and a pair of underpants, right? Move aside, I’ll help you wash it.”
How could Gu Mingxi agree to that. “No need. Just help me bring a chair over, I can wash it myself.”
“You’re so annoying!” Pang Qian reached for a towel, then helped him dry off his right foot and pushed it to the ground. Gu Mingxi nearly lost his balance, his left foot jumping back a bit. He shouted angrily, “Pang Qian!”
“This is my house, what I say goes!” Pang Qian pushed Gu Mingxi out of the bathroom. “Go to my room. I’ll come when I’m done was.h.i.+ng this. You scared me. I have a pile of homework I still haven’t done.”
Gu Mingxi stood there, not moving.
Pang Qian turned around and glared at him. “Go! You’re not going to go? Do you believe me when I say I’ll call my mom over to wash your underpants?!”
Gu Mingxi turned and slipped away.
