Summer #28

Don't Turn from Summer (莫负寒夏) by Ding Mo (丁墨)

Chapter 28

The dark clouds are lingering on the horizon. The room is also gloomy. Mu Hanxia wraps herself tightly into the quilt and sneezes. She feels so dizzy. The colleague in the next room comes in and asks: “Summer, what’s the matter?”

“Seems I’ve caught a cold.”

The colleague reaches for her forehead: “Ah, you’re having a fever. Do you want to go see the doctor?”

“Please bring the thermometer and the fever reducer for me. They’re both in the second drawer.”

“OK.” The colleague says as she takes them over, “You are so considerate, having these things all prepared.”

Mu Hanxia replies with her slight hoarse voice, “Of course, what a considerate person I am...” The colleague chuckles at her joking words.

In fact, this habit was formed since she started to live alone. The work in supermarket was tough and she was self-teaching the college courses at the same time, so she couldn’t afford to get sick or ask for leaves. But she has always been strong and healthy. Now she finally gets sick, probably because she has been so very busy with the opening of new stores.

The colleague figures that her situation isn’t too bad, so she goes off to work and asks for a sick leave for her. Mu Hanxia takes her medicine and feels even dizzier. Before she dozes off, she suddenly thinks of Lin Mochen. She wonders somewhat perversely, will he worry about her?

Not knowing how long she has been sleeping, in the drowsiness, she feels a cool hand touching her forehead. She struggles to open her eyes and sees the soft light in the room. His eyes are right below the light, gazing at her a little displeased.

“Why not go to see the doctor?” he asks.

“None of your business.” She stubbornly replies.

He is quiet for a few moments. And Mu Hanxia can hardly keep her eyes open in her drowsiness.

After a while, she feels her hand grabbed by someone.

After another while, the room goes dark and quiet.

Her heart is like a vast deserted plain, with only wind blowing low across the ground.

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Everybody can see that the boss is in a bad mood today. While inspecting the workshops, his face is constantly overcast. If someone comes to talk to him or report something, his response still sounds normal, but the attitude is tepid. So quickly nobody ventures forward, leaving him alone in front of the production line.

Lin Mochen looks with a cold face at the final products coming out from the production line. Very good, he’s very satisfied. But when he thinks of Mu Hanxia, who’s sick in bed, he just feels some kind of anxiety growing quietly within himself. But these feelings are like the rocks beneath the water surface, they won’t get above the quiet surface. After a while, he laughs at himself, takes a deep breath, adjusts his mood, and goes to the production management department to check the production progress.

It is past 11 o’clock at night when the security guard comes with the alarm

“Chief Lin! Some hooligans are at the factory gate, breaking things and making trouble!”

Everyone is stunned. Lin Mochen asks: “Have you called the police?”

The security manager answers: “Will call at once!”

Lin Mochen then tells a manager beside him in a low voice: “Go give Deputy Huang a call.” “OK.”

Although the accident happens all in a sudden, the responses have been orderly. When Lin Mochen and his people come out from the workshop, all the lights in the factory have been turned on and are shining brightly. It undoubtedly has some intimidating effect on the gangsters at the gate. Lin Mochen’s people look around and only see about 30 guys crowding the gate with iron rods in their hands. But they haven’t broken in.

Of course, the main reason why they haven’t broken in is that there are about 20 security guards blocking the gate. Even though the number of guards are a little fewer, they are all very tall and strong with a fierce look. And they also have iron rods or hammers in their hands... The two groups stand on the two sides of the gate, cursing and scolding each other. A group fight may break out at any moment.

“Thank god Chief Lin was foretelling.” The security manager says, hardly over with the shock, “we got in touch with the district police station a few days ago, and he insists that we double up our security staff, and increases the number of guards on night shifts. Turns out you saw this coming this early on.” Hardly has he finished his words, there rush in over 20 workers at the news, each of them having something in hand. The security instantly gains in momentum, their yelling and scolding drowning those of the mob outside the gate.

Lin Mochen smiles slightly and says, “To deal with hooligans, certainly we will do it their way. A loser like Xie Lin, what other tricks can he play? Tell them, don’t really fight. Keeping them under control is good enough. The police is coming any moment.”

“Yes, sir.”

The night is dark, and the situation is settled.

Just as Lin Mochen turns to go back in, someone nearby puts down his cellphone and says anxiously: “Bad news, Chief Lin, some hooligans went to the employee apartments and vandalized stuff there!”

Now Lin Mochen is stunned. Someone asks: “What’s the matter?”

“When our two female colleagues who live in the apartments went home after work just now, they saw some gangsters surrounding the building. They didn’t dare to go closer, so they went back to hide in the office.”

“Is there anyone else in the apartments?”

“Not sure. But there shouldn’t be any.”

Lin Mochen is silent for a few seconds and says coldly, “Who says there isn’t any?” The others don’t know what he is saying, but his face is already covered with coldness and he starts toward the back gate of the factory.

Out of the gate, there is a quiet road, with only street lights soundlessly shining. Lin Mochen walks swiftly along the road, his expression getting worse and worse. He foresaw what would happen at the factory, but didn’t think about the apartments. He dials Mu Hanxia’s number but nobody answers. He then call the other female colleagues but nobody knows how she’s doing right now.

Lin Mochen didn’t drive his car to work today. He walks some more before he finally gets a taxi. He calms down in the taxi, calls his assistant to call police immediately and to bring some more people over. After that, he calls Mu Hanxia again and again, but still no one answers.

In a little while, he’s outside the apartment building.

There’s a police car nearby, surrounded by some residents. Two police officers are asking them something. There’s wood club on the ground, as well as a garbage can that’s kicked over. Looks like there has been a fight.

Lin Mochen ignores the police officers and goes directly into the building and upstairs.

The door is ajar and there are many traces of hitting on it. Chill rises from Lin Mochen’s heart. He pushes the door open and goes in, but there’s nobody in there. He rushes into her room. The quilt is in disorder. She must have got up and left in a hurry.

When several other colleagues arrive, they see Lin Mochen standing in Mu Hanxia’s room with an extremely grim face.

“Where’s Hanxia?” Someone asks.

The girls who shares the apartment with her starts to cry, “What happened to her? Just now I heard the police say that they captured a cellphone, something the gangsters grabbed from a girl.”

“Don’t worry, she won’t get into danger! The police have arrested those gangsters, but they haven’t seen her.”

“So where’s she? She still has fever and may still be dizzy.”

Lin Mochen suddenly turns and walks out of the door.

Back to the factory again, it’s in a great commotion with the police vehicles, sirens, the escaping hooligans, the chasing police officers, as well as the security staff and workers among them.

Lin Mochen avoids them and goes in through a side door. He asks the first employee whom he knows, “Have you seen Mu Hanxia?”

The employee is all bewildered: “No. Chief Lin, it’s so messy here. You’d better stay away from it.”

Lin Mochen doesn’t reply and just walks farther into the factory with big strides.

The night is so noisy. Some people are walking around. The yelling and calling can be heard from the distance. There’s not a corner that’s quiet in such a big factory. Lin Mochen goes through the workshops, and then turns to the offices, but still doesn’t see her. The anxious flame in his heart is getting more and more violent.

He then walks toward the few rows of workshops deeper in the back. Just as he gets onto the shadowy path, there he sees the familiar figure of hers standing. He abruptly stops and stares at her from the back, She coughs lightly and then starts to walk on. Her footsteps sound very heavy.

Two workers walk toward them. Mu Hanxia calls out, “Have you seen Lin Mochen, Chief Lin?” Not every worker knows the boss of the company. They shake their heads, confused, “Who?”

Mu Hanxia is a little frustrated. She coughs a little more and says, “Please lend me your cellphone for a moment. I’m Mu Hanxi, the marketing manager.”

They give her the cellphone with a little hesitation. One says, “Well, Manager, are you OK with the wounds on your face? Don’t you need to go to the hospital?”

Mu Hanxia says: “I’m fine.”

Lin Mochen can’t see her front. He can only vaguely hear what they are saying. He sees her covering her mouth, coughing badly, and then picking up the phone.

The phone in his pocket begins to vibrate. The vibration goes on and on. He doesn’t pick up but just stares at her. Lin Mochen is under the spell of some complicated and unspeakable emotion. That emotion has been twirling in his heart for too many days. He doesn’t want to pick up the phone. He only wants to keep his eyes on her to see what else she is going to do. He sees her return the phone to the workers and continue forward.

Lin Mochen passes the two workers and follows her. On this quiet path, there are only the two of them.

At last, at the door of a workshop, she stops and goes in.

This is the final product packing workshop. At this time, there’s no one in it. Only the row of night lights on the wall are shedding gentle light. Lin Mochen stands outside for a while before he also goes in. He only gets into the door when he sees that she has climbed onto a huge stack of clothes and sit right at the top with her back toward him and talking to herself.

“Lin Mochen, you are so hard to find.” She sighs.

Lin Mochen doesn’t move, but the corners of his mouth goes slightly up.

She raises her hand and covers her forehead, appearing to be a little uncomfortable. Lin Mochen can imagine that the forehead must be very hot. He also sees part of her cheek. It is blue and black and swollen. The sight instantly makes Lin Mochen’s expression turn cold again.

“You will be fine. Such a shrewd one like you...” She is murmuring, “But I’m just afraid that Xie is coming specially to you for the revenge.”

She suddenly lies down slowly onto the pile of clothes, then her hand slowly moves down to cover her eyes.

“Don’t let anything happen to you... I’m really muddy-headed. I can’t find you, but I can just stay here to guard the products for you...”

Lin Mochen looks at the light overhead that’s shining on both of them like streams of flowing water. She is lying there in the clothes in a rather disorderly manner, completely still. Only the thin shoulders of hers shake slightly with the constant coughing. Lin Mochen has never been someone whose emotions get affected easily, but right now he can’t help but imagine that she could have hidden in the apartment, but instead came out because she’s worried about him. He can’t help but imagine that she fought with the gangsters and got away with a bruised face and the cellphone robbed. In such a bad situation, she still came looking for him.

She is not a stupid woman, how much help can she be when she does all this?

She just wants to find him, to be with him.

When she worries about him.

Lin Mochen suddenly realizes, as if enlightened by a shower of wisdom, that he himself is the one who’s been muddy-headed.

All these days. How ridiculous, and how stupid.

It’s not that he can’t see the affection hidden in her eyes, or that he hasn’t realized the tiny and silent undercurrents between them―ever since their first encounter the night of the car accident―quietly but steadily.

But, he just chose not to proceed. Both his sense and sensibility were against it.

Because, ever since he was born, everything he’s got is the best. The best family financial background, the best collage, wealthy friends, the quickly accumulated fortune, and so on. So many women were eagerly after him, but he was seldom touched by them.

Because he wants the best and believes himself deserves the best. The best woman who matches with him in every aspect. He has been waiting for that woman to show up. He even thought about starting with Xue Ning, because looked from all aspects, Xue Ning was a very good match. But somehow, he just didn’t want to make the move.

Whereas, even though he realized his attraction to Mu Hanxia, he just thought this feeling was easy to give up. He was reluctant to give her his heart.

But why, when he gazes at her back, he doesn’t think there will be any other woman who is better than her?

There won’t be anyone, before her or after her.

Although exhausted, Mu Hanxia hasn’t completely fallen asleep. While she is half asleep, she suddenly feels the stirring behind her―someone has also climbed up the pile of clothes. She is immediately fully awake out of scare and is just about the turn to look, when she hears a low voice calling, “Summer...”

Mu Hanxia is stunned as he hugs her from the back. Mu Hanxia’s whole body freezes, but he just hugs her even more tightly, neither saying anything nor letting her loose.

For a few moments, Mu Hanxia can’t say a word. She looks up, only to see the two closely tangled shadows on the wall beside her. That’s him holding her in the arms in such a chilly winter night.