"Mom, everyone else gets to laze around at home. Why is it always me you wake up to work, and never Su Qingyi?"
In March, the ancient city of Datong was already stirring with early spring. Dawn glowed faintly across grey bricks and dark-tiled roofs. Mist curled through the narrow lanes, and from a distance, the whole city looked like an ink-wash landscape come to life.
Hearing the noise, Su Qingyi pushed open her window.
Downstairs, her cousin Wang Zhenfeng was grumbling loudly, wringing out a freshly washed bedsheet and snapping it hard so it cracked in the air. The gesture was deliberate. She wanted the person upstairs to hear.
"Keep your voice down," Su Qingyi's aunt, Su Yu, snapped. "Can you even compare yourself to your cousin? She gives me three thousand every month. Other than meals, she barely makes a sound. And you? Every day you ask me for money. I ask you to watch my stall and suddenly you're too busy."
"I really am busy," Wang Zhenfeng muttered, her voice shrinking a little. "It's just three thousand. Once I find a job, I'll give you five thousand every month."
"Enough." Su Yu cut her off before the fantasy could stretch any further. "If you stop asking me for money every month, I'll thank the heavens."
She picked up the red plastic bucket and headed inside.
But Wang Zhenfeng was not done. "Isn't Uncle some big boss in the capital? And she thinks three thousand is generous? That's pocket change."
The words had barely landed before Su Yu turned around and smacked her lightly on the calf with a hanger. "Just because someone has money means they owe it to you? And don't forget, we're living in your uncle's house. When your cousin came back this time, she didn't make us move out. She even gives us living expenses. What more do you want?"
Wang Zhenfeng knew she had crossed a line.
She did not apologize.
She only snorted and looked away.
"To be fair," Su Yu continued, "does your cousin even eat three thousand worth of food a month? With her appetite, five hundred would be pushing it. She doesn't ask you to wash her clothes or run errands. All you do is set out an extra pair of chopsticks at mealtime. Why are you so resentful?"
"Then why wake me up at seven in the morning to hang bedsheets?"
"I'm about to head out to set up my stall. If I don't make you hang them now, once I leave, can you wring them out by yourself?" Su Yu twisted her ear, though she did not have the heart to use real force. "You child. You really don't know how to appreciate kindness."
"Once you leave, isn't Su Qingyi still here?"
"That's your bedsheet. Yours. She gives three thousand every month and doesn't make you do a thing. How do you still have the nerve to push your work onto her?"
"That money goes to you, not to me."
Another swat landed on her leg.
Su Yu plopped down on the back steps in exasperation. "How did I raise such an ungrateful child?"
When she looked up, she saw Su Qingyi on the second floor.
The cool, beautiful girl leaned quietly against the cedar windowsill. Barefaced, she still looked fresh as a lotus rising from water. Their eyes met. Su Qingyi's lips curved faintly, as if she had heard nothing at all.
"Auntie."
Su Yu scrambled to her feet, forcing out a stiff smile. "Why are you up so early? What would you like for breakfast? I'll make it."
"Anything is fine. I'll eat whatever you're having."
"Alright." Relieved that she did not seem to mind, Su Yu hurried inside.
Below, Wang Zhenfeng rolled her eyes so hard they nearly flipped upward. She mimicked her mother's tone in exaggerated mockery, her neck swaying dramatically.
Su Qingyi could not help laughing.
Wang Zhenfeng froze.
She had to admit, her cousin was truly beautiful. No matter how much she disliked her, she could never bring herself to say anything too harsh about that face.
"What are you laughing at?" she demanded.
Before Su Qingyi could answer, Su Yu stormed back out with the hanger. "Try mocking me again!"
"Ah, Mom, I won't! Don't hit me!" Wang Zhenfeng hopped around, pleading.
Only then did Su Yu relent. "Figure out your own breakfast today."
She slammed the courtyard door shut.
Wang Zhenfeng shot Su Qingyi a glare and snapped the clothes even harder. Instead of getting revenge, she splashed herself in the face.
Su Qingyi loved that look on her cousin. The look of someone who could not stand her but could not do anything about it.
Resting her chin in her hand, she called gently, "A-Feng."
"Ahhh! Didn't I tell you not to call me that?" Wang Zhenfeng exploded. "My name is Wang Chaoyan now."
Su Qingyi raised a brow. "Oh? Does your dad know that?"
"That's none of your business. Outside this house, you can only call me Wang Chaoyan."
She truly resented this cousin who had appeared out of nowhere. Ever since Su Qingyi returned from the capital, her status in the household had plummeted. She used to be a carefree unemployed youth. Now she was a lazy unemployed youth who asked her family for money.
Still, her cousin was not entirely useless.
When the whole family forbade her from changing her name, it was this "cheap cousin" who had replied seriously, "Alright, A-Yan."
Wang Zhenfeng's tone softened a fraction.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing. Just calling you."
Su Qingyi looked toward the brightening sky. The morning breeze lifted the loose strands by her cheek. Her face was pale and clear, tranquil in a way that made time itself feel gentle.
"Crazy," Wang Zhenfeng muttered, though her voice had unconsciously lowered.
Su Qingyi did not quite hear her. She did not argue either. In her eyes, Wang Zhenfeng was simply a little sister who had yet to grow up.
Not yet eighteen, Wang Zhenfeng had quit her hospital internship after two months, without even collecting her completion certificate. Su Yu had been furious, but helpless. She tried sending her to learn a trade, yet the girl had no interest. She only wanted to make big money, wandering the city with her phone, dreaming of becoming an influencer who sold products online.
It had been nearly half a year.
Her followers had not even reached one thousand.
When Su Qingyi went downstairs, she heard Wang Zhenfeng begging for a new phone.
The latest fruit-branded model. Even the smallest storage version cost ten thousand yuan.
Before Wang Zhenfeng could finish, Su Yu was already on her feet. "Do you know what ten thousand can buy? The fully automatic washing machine I've been eyeing for a year. I could buy four of them. I could pay your tuition for three years. And you want to spend it on a phone? Have you lost your mind?"
"But do you know why my account isn't growing? My video quality is terrible. Editing needs huge storage. My phone can't handle it. I have to delete everything every time…"
Her voice shrank smaller and smaller, until it trembled.
Su Yu did not listen. She took away the bowl in front of her. "I shouldn't have even cooked you this bowl of wontons."
Wang Zhenfeng opened her mouth to explain, but tears fell first.
Su Qingyi sat quietly beside her. She did not console her. She did not criticize her either.
Grandfather came downstairs at that moment and saw Wang Zhenfeng crying again.
"Who upset our little Feng this time?" he coaxed gently.
Instead of calming her, the words fueled her temper. She sprang up from her chair. "I'm not eating!"
She stormed back to her room.
Grandfather blinked in confusion and looked at Su Qingyi. "What happened?"
Before she could answer, Su Yu had already begun venting.
After listening, Grandfather sighed. His wrinkled face carried quiet self-blame.
Su Qingyi glanced at her phone. From beginning to end, she did not pass judgment. She handed him a pair of chopsticks.
"Grandpa, eat."
Compared to her cousin, Su Qingyi seemed almost too sensible.
Grandfather sighed again.
Everyone believed his granddaughter had been thriving in the capital. Only he knew that three months ago, she had just finished repaying the sixty million yuan debt left behind after her parents' company went bankrupt.
He had asked her how she did it.
She only said lightly, "I helped build houses."
And nothing more.
He did not know how many houses she had to build to earn that kind of money. He himself had built houses when he was young. He knew that kind of hardship was not something ordinary people could endure.
She must have suffered greatly.
Yet as her grandfather, he had been able to help with nothing. In the past, before machine carving became so advanced, his woodcarving could still bring in money. Now it barely kept food on the table. Even with the title of intangible cultural heritage attached to it.
Fewer and fewer people remained in this trade.
He sighed again.
"Stop sighing so much," Su Qingyi said casually. "You'll age faster."
A faint smile finally appeared on his face.
After breakfast, she went with him to the woodcarving workshop behind the house.
When carving once brought in real money, nearly the entire building had been used for it. Now only a small corner remained. Where stacks of timber once filled the space, there were now only a few pieces left. Most of what remained were finished crafts.
She glanced at them only once before looking away.
Silently, she took several photos of the completed works, greeted her grandfather, and left the workshop.
Back inside, Su Yu was preparing to head out to her stall. Su Qingyi asked for the key to the courtyard's electric scooter.
Before she could take it, Wang Zhenfeng's head popped out from the second-floor window. "Don't let her take the scooter. I need it later to pick up Jiang Yue."
Su Yu finally snapped. She slammed what she was holding onto the table. "Wang Zhenfeng. Don't push your luck."
"You're yelling at me for her?" Wang Zhenfeng burst out. "She's your niece. Am I not your daughter?"
She slammed the upstairs window shut.
Su Yu did not indulge her. She rushed upstairs and gave her a sound beating. The wails carried three meters in every direction. Even the neighbors peeked out to look.
Afterward, Wang Zhenfeng was much more obedient. When she came down, tear-streaked and subdued, she called out properly, "Cousin."
Su Qingyi almost laughed.
Seated on the electric scooter, back facing her, she responded softly, almost too quiet to hear.