Life Plan

Chapter 12, I Know It's You

At night, Liu Chichi dreamed of the summer when their friendship ended.

After a week of Liu Chunhong's hunger education, Liu Chichi's complexion actually improved.

Liu Chunhong, who hadn't heard any apology from her daughter, finally noticed the change in her daughter. She quietly followed Liu Chichi, hiding in the noisy crowd, and watched as Hao Jia handed out the steamed buns.

She knew this girl; she had been pulled up from the bottom of the class to the top ten by Liu Chichi, word by word. She didn't understand why her daughter was wasting so much time. She had advised her daughter many times to focus her energy on studying, and even when making friends, to only associate with the top students.

Just as the steaming hot buns were placed in front of Liu Chichi, Liu Chunhong suddenly jumped out and grabbed Hao Jia's hand: "Oh, so it was you who corrupted my daughter."

Nine-year-old Hao Jia was terrified when she saw Liu Chunhong's angry face. She twisted her body trying to break free, but she was no match for the strength of an adult. She could only forcefully pull her hand away, tears of fear welling up in her eyes.

While grabbing Hao Jia, Liu Chunhong reached out and tapped Liu Chichi's head hard: "So that's why you're being disobedient now! You've been hanging out with these shady characters! Trying to eat someone else's food, are you a beggar? Have you no shame?"

Liu Chichi gripped her schoolbag strap tightly. Her mind had gone blank the moment she saw Liu Chunhong, but now she was suddenly jolted awake. Ignoring what her mother was saying, she saw Hao Jia struggling and instinctively lunged forward to grab her mother's hand.

To pry her mother's hand open, Liu Chichi used all her strength. In the struggle, her fingernails scratched her mother's hand, leaving a thin, long bloody mark.

Liu Chunhong was stunned, as if she had never expected her usually obedient daughter to treat her this way. She blamed Hao Jia for all of this.

She's the one who corrupted her daughter!

"It must be you who instigated my daughter! She's even learned to hit people now!" Liu Chunhong angrily picked up Hao Jia, lifting her like a chick. Hao Jia stood on tiptoe in terror and cried out.

It wasn't Liu Chichi's intention to hurt her mother. Still stunned by the bloodstains, Liu Chichi got up again after hearing Hao Jia's cries. But her mother, who was already on guard, reached out and grabbed her sleeve.

The summer school uniform was thin, and when Liu Chunhong exerted force, the stitches on one sleeve burst open.

Hearing the sound of her clothes tearing, Liu Chichi instinctively stepped back, and the seam at her shoulder came off immediately. She quickly covered her neckline.

The nine-year-old girl already had a concept of gender and privacy. She looked around at the crowd of onlookers, including her parents and classmates.

Those complex gazes fell on her, and she crouched down in fear, covering her shoulders and burying her head between her legs.

Don't look at me, don't look at me.

A sharp ringing in her ears rang in her mind, and at that moment Liu Chichi wished she could die immediately.

She couldn't hear Hao Jia crying.

Hao Jia's parents finally arrived. The usually smiling, kind-hearted man was still wearing an apron, and his face flushed with anger: "Let go of my daughter!"

Hao Jia's mother rushed over, easily moved the five-tiered steamer, pushed Liu Chunhong aside, and hugged her daughter in her arms, coaxing her softly.

Liu Chunhong stumbled from the push, but after regaining her footing, she charged forward again, showing her bleeding hand: "Look at the kind of child you've raised! My daughter was such a well-behaved child, and now she dares to hit her mother!"

"That's what you deserve! You don't even feed your child, and you even kidnapped my daughter!" Hao Jia's father rolled up his sleeves.

Noticing the man's actions, Liu Chunhong, fearing a beating, took two steps back. "Country bumpkins are so uncultured, they hit people at the drop of a hat. And you're saying it's not because you didn't raise them well?"

Hao Jia's mother pulled her angry husband back, saying that her daughter was still young and it wasn't worth breaking the law for someone like that.

Liu Chunhong grabbed the other intact half of Liu Chichi's sleeve, but couldn't pull it up, so she used force.

Afraid her clothes would be completely torn open, Liu Chichi quickly stood up, overwhelmed by intense shame. Liu Chunhong still gripped her sleeve, her voice stern: "Did I give you any food?"

Liu Chichi could only clutch the collar in front of her, half of her back exposed, burning hot in the morning sun, as hot as her face. She finally managed to squeeze out a single word through gritted teeth: "Yes."

Why aren't you eating?

I'm a picky eater.

As the accusing gazes around her gradually shifted to Liu Chichi, Liu Chunhong smiled with satisfaction. She pointed at Hao Jia and asked, "Then who is she?"

"My...deskmate."

"She helped you lie to me, didn't she?"

Liu Chichi clenched her teeth, a metallic, sweet taste rising from her gums. But her mother wouldn't allow her silence; the sound of fabric being torn rang out again. Liu Chichi tried to dodge, but the sound of threads snapping apart amplified in her ears, and tinnitus returned, piercing her ears painfully.

She lowered her head and squeezed out a single word: "Yes."

Hao Jia was frightened and asked to stay home to rest that day, while Liu Chichi was required by her mother to go to school on time.

At the two-person table, Hao Jia sat by the window, while Liu Chichi sat by the aisle. Everyone was avoiding her today; Hao Jia's chattering voice was absent from her left side. Only the rustling of the cedar trees in the wind drowned out the whispers.

If only I were a leaf, sprouting in spring, growing in summer, turning yellow in autumn, and dying before winter arrives. Before falling, I would dance and twirl, landing wherever the wind stops, languid and carefree, never venturing beyond my natural habitat.

Or it could be a tree branch that breaks off at the tip and falls cleanly to the ground.

She doesn't see you in the cold winter, nor does she show you her indifference.

After enduring a class while clutching her half-ripped clothes, Liu Chichi was called to the office by her homeroom teacher, who had borrowed a sewing kit. The teacher clumsily sewed the two pieces of fabric together.

Liu Chichi's face turned bright red. To ease the embarrassment, the homeroom teacher tried to make conversation: "The quality of these clothes is terrible. We need to raise this issue with the school leaders."

Thinking she had caused trouble for her homeroom teacher, she immediately apologized, "I'm sorry, teacher."

"That's not what I meant..." The homeroom teacher shook her head repeatedly, then said softly, "But you still have to listen to your mother. Being picky about food is bad for your health."

"Mmm." Liu Chichi's voice was light and slow, as if it were floating away. "I will be a good girl."

That evening, Liu Chunhong made peanut sauce noodles. Liu Chichi looked at the bowl of noodles and thought to herself, "If only I had eaten it that day."

That day, Liu Chichi went to visit her old friend with her mother and stayed overnight. The next morning, her friend served them noodles with homemade peanut sauce.

Liu Chichi remembered that she would feel itchy when she ate peanuts. In order not to offend others, she cautiously ate a few bites and stopped eating when she felt a little hot.

Liu Chunhong tried to persuade Liu Chichi to eat several times, but Liu Chichi always said she was full. Liu Chunhong even put some food to Liu Chichi's mouth, but Liu Chichi pushed it away.

She said, "Mom, I feel very uncomfortable eating this."

Liu Chunhong, however, thought she was doing it on purpose, trying to embarrass herself in front of her old friend. She gave her friend an awkward smile and then continued chatting as if nothing had happened.

Before leaving, she asked her old friend for a bottle of peanut butter, and then every day, for every meal, she made peanut butter noodles for Liu Chichi. The usually obedient Liu Chichi didn't understand why her mother insisted on making this. She told her mother many times that it would make her feel unwell, but her mother didn't care.

This was the first time she had defied her mother, preferring to go hungry rather than eat.

Now, when this plate of peanut sauce noodles was served again, Liu Chichi finished eating it. She carefully picked through the food on the plate until not a single scallion was left, and only then did she see her mother's satisfied smile.

My arms are so itchy.

The dream became bizarre and distorted. She saw many butterflies fluttering around, sometimes landing on her, their wing scales pricking her skin and causing a sharp itch. The lights flickered, the dining table was round, and her hands were ten carrots.

She opened her mouth and cried out for her mother, but a butterfly seized the opportunity and flew into her mouth, making it impossible for her to breathe. Suddenly, Liu Chunhong appeared, crying and saying sorry.

Liu Chichi woke up from her dream with a start.

She drew back the curtains and watched the sky transition from deep blue to pale purple, then to a bleak white, before finally bursting forth with vibrant orange light from the horizon.

Separated by a pane of glass, the heat was kept out of the air-conditioned room. I turned on the screen, and my phone immediately started buzzing with messages, with various group chats popping up one after another.

Overwhelmed with 99+ messages, the pinned contact only sent one sentence—

[Liu Chichi, I know it's you.]