Section 28: Tinder Meets Flame

Sima left early on the morning of the third day of the New Year. He departed North Zhizhi Station that evening, took a taxi back to his rented apartment, and found the refrigerator bare and the stove cold. There was nothing to eat, so he could only boil two packets of instant noodles to stave off his hunger. Worried that her son might not be eating well away from home, Xia Ting had stuffed plenty of vacuum-packed beef and mutton into his suitcase. They could be eaten as soon as the packets were opened, though they tasted better warmed up. Sima could not be bothered with the trouble. He tore the meat into pieces with his hands and dropped it straight into the steaming noodles, then wolfed everything down, broth and all, in a few quick mouthfuls. He left the dishes soaking in the sink, too lazy to wash them.

The next day, he slept until the afternoon before getting up. He went strolling along Dingzi Street, walking from the southern end to the northern end, then back again. He spent quite a bit of money and settled all three meals at once. Ever since joining the university track team, he had rarely needed to spend money on food. He received a training allowance in ordinary times and prize money whenever he placed in competitions. After returning to Changzhou for the New Year, he had also collected quite a sum in lucky money, leaving him unusually flush. Sima refused to deny himself and sampled one halal restaurant after another. Beef and mutton were filling, and he ate with great enjoyment.

On the fifth day of the New Year, Lu Youyou also returned to North Zhizhi City. Early that morning, she prepared dumpling filling and wrappers. There were two kinds of filling: chives with egg, and beef with scallions. The wrappers were store-bought; kneading dough and rolling out each wrapper by hand would have taken too much time.

That afternoon, Lu Youyou arranged to meet Sima at North Zhizhi Foreign Languages University and showed him the next stage of his training plan. First would come roughly a week of adaptive recovery, using low-intensity training to stimulate the muscles and vital systems, and rebuild his cardiopulmonary function. After that would be about ten days of intensive core-strength training, with the workload gradually increased and the emphasis placed on improving strength and endurance. Finally, there would be twelve weeks of fully enclosed pre-competition preparation. Zhao Ronghua had already made the arrangements: it would take place at North Zhizhi University of Physical Education, where food and lodging were free. The management would be military-style. Leave would be required for any outing, and in principle, no one was allowed to act alone.

The final rule was aimed somewhat specifically at Sima. Zhao Ronghua knew that he had a young girlfriend, a first-year student at Haidian University, and feared that she might distract him and affect his training. Seeing that Sima had no objections, Lu Youyou secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She told him that his recovery training would begin the next day and that they could leave things there for today. She also invited him to her home for dumplings; she had some personal matters concerning Lu Yuan on which she wanted his opinion.

Business could be discussed at the university, and private matters at home. There was nothing improper about that, so Sima readily agreed. He had heard Lu Yuan mention that her cousin was an excellent cook. Nothing surpassed dumplings when it came to good food, and he looked forward to the meal.

Lu Youyou’s apartment was close to North Zhizhi Foreign Languages University, about a fifteen-minute walk away. On the way, they passed a deli, where Lu Youyou bought four dishes to accompany the wine: mustard cabbage, radish skin, soy-braised beef, and plain-boiled mutton. She handed them to Sima to carry.

Sima asked with a smile, “So there’s going to be wine?”

“Mm-hmm. I have two bottles of imported table wine at home. I’ve never opened them. Try them, and if you like them, we’ll order a case later. When the competition is over, I’ll celebrate your success!”

“The National Championships will be full of strong competitors. Just making it to the final would be good enough. I can’t promise I’ll win a medal…”

Lu Youyou had complete confidence in him. “There’s still plenty of time. You have room to improve. You don’t need to win a medal this time. As long as you make the final, I’ll celebrate with you! We’ll take it one step at a time. First, let’s get you that first-class athlete certificate!”

The two of them chatted all the way to Lu Youyou’s home. They changed their shoes and went inside. The heating was turned up high. Lu Youyou took the deli dishes from Sima and put them in the refrigerator, while Sima removed his coat and tossed it over the back of a chair. He looked around. Though the sparrow was small, it possessed all its essential organs; the apartment was a little untidy, but full of the warmth of ordinary life.

Lu Youyou picked up his coat and hung it on the rack. With a smile, she said, “I was in such a hurry that I didn’t really have time to tidy up. I hope you won’t mind…”

“Don’t say that. My place is what you’d call a mess. If Lu Yuan didn’t clean it up, there wouldn’t even be anywhere to put your feet.”

Lu Youyou’s expression stiffened slightly. It had taken her a great deal of resolve to make up her mind, and now, at this crucial moment, he had brought up Lu Yuan again. It did not bode well.

After a brief pause, she told Sima to watch some television while she went into the kitchen to make the dumplings. Everything was ready, so dinner would not take long.

Sima sat on the sofa, flipping through the channels with the remote. He found a singing and dancing program. A female singer in full stage dress was belting out a song. Her enunciation and breath control were distinctive, and her voice had a faint metallic quality. In the middle came a children’s chorus:

“Spring departs, autumn arrives, the years flow on,
And travelers grieve their wandering.
I recall the games of childhood at home,
As though those days were only yesterday.
Three rafters beneath a thatched roof,
An old plum tree standing alone,
While beneath its branches we played hide-and-seek.
Birds called from the highest boughs,
Fish swam through the little stream—
To them we once entrusted our idle dreams.”

It sounded remarkably good.

Lu Youyou worked quickly and soon had made more than a hundred dumplings. They were large and plump, standing in rows on the cutting board like a troop of little children. After washing her hands, she took the deli dishes from the refrigerator, arranged them on plates, and set them neatly on the table before calling Sima to eat.

Sima lowered the television volume, washed his hands, and took his seat at the dining table. Lu Youyou opened a bottle of wine and poured half a glass for him. She asked what kind of dipping sauce he wanted and whether he was accustomed to sesame paste.

“I’ll do it myself,” Sima said. He poured a small dish of soy sauce, then added a little sesame oil to bring out the fragrance.

Lu Youyou laughed. People from North Zhizhi loved sesame paste, while most southerners could not get used to it. Her cousin was the same way and refused to take a second bite no matter what.

After finishing one bottle of wine, Lu Youyou opened another. When she saw that most of the dishes had been eaten, she rose and went into the kitchen to boil the dumplings.

Sima reached out and picked up the bottle. The label was in French. It was an original imported bottle from Bordeaux, a Château Lafite. One bottle like this was probably not cheap.

He had always been able to hold his liquor. The last time he had drunk strong grain liquor at Lu Yuan’s home, he had finished a bottle and a half without feeling anything. This time the wine was only fifteen percent alcohol at most, yet why did his lower abdomen feel warm, accompanied by a strange sensation?

Lu Youyou emerged carrying a large platter piled high with dumplings. Thoughtfully, she had also ladled him a bowl of dumpling broth, saying that the broth from the pot should be used to aid digestion.

Sima dipped the dumplings in vinegar and ate around fifty of them in one sitting. Lu Youyou repeatedly clinked glasses with him, gazing at him with a smiling expression, and before either of them noticed, the second bottle was empty.

Sima’s head felt hazy and unsteady. After murmuring an apology, he went to the sofa and slumped down. His mind, however, remained perfectly clear. There was something wrong with the wine. Something had been added to it.

He asked Lu Youyou where the wine had come from.

Lu Youyou fell silent. After a long, quiet sigh, she began speaking of her boyfriend, Zhang Ke. The two bottles had been a gift from one of his childhood friends. He had intended to drink them on his birthday, but then he had suddenly been assigned a business trip. On the way, he had been involved in a car accident and died in the prime of his life, leaving her all alone.

Sima gave a quiet acknowledgment. He guessed that the wine had been intended for lovers to heighten their pleasure, something to be sipped slowly, with half a glass or one glass enough to take effect. Instead, they had treated it as ordinary table wine and drained both bottles. It was not only a waste of something precious; even he was beginning to find it difficult to withstand.

The alcohol surged through Lu Youyou. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes had grown slightly unfocused. She sat down beside Sima and leaned toward him of her own accord, kissing him on the lips. Almost as if possessed, she ran her tongue lightly across them.

Then dry tinder met a raging flame, and neither of them could stop what followed. They tumbled together.

That year, Lu Youyou was twenty-three, and Sima was nineteen.