CH 16

Chapter 16: Osmanthus Sugar

Two months have passed since the city’s Best Three awards were announced. Yue Zhishi was ridiculously happy when he saw the list of names. That day, two sentences filled his brain, circling around and around: ‘gege won the award’ and ‘of course gege would win the award’.

The seasons of spring and autumn in this city were the same — they never lasted past two weeks. Sometimes it would feel like spring turned into winter over the course of one day, with the only stubborn proof of autumn’s existence being the smell of osmanthus flowers covering the entire city, wafting continuously into the cold autumn wind.

Two big osmanthus trees were planted in the little yard in front of Yanghe Qizhe. One was the glistening, golden variety, while the other was a red osmanthus tree. During their monthly school break, Yue Zhishi and Song Yu was called by Lin Rong to pick the flowers.

The two of them were woken up early in the morning, and just so happened to coincidentally wear the matching set of sweaters Lin Rong bought for them last year. Song Yu’s was black, and Yue Zhishi’s was ivory white.

Lin Rong placed a large tablecloth on the ground around the osmanthus trees in the yard. The two boys used slender bamboo sticks to beat the tree branches on top, golden fragments copiously drifting downwards with heavy fragrance. Yue Zhishi had always enjoyed doing this since he was young — other flowers also smelled nice, but the fragrance of osmanthus flowers was different, the scent of it carrying some sweetness just like its taste.

“Enough, enough.” Lin Rong laughed as she packed up the flowers on the tablecloth. “There’s not much left on the trees, we should leave some to smell.”

The two of them stopped, and Song Yu prepared to put away his bamboo stick. He tilted his head and saw flower petals resting on top of Yue Zhishi’s fluffy hair, a layer of glistening yellow. It looked like a soufflé covered in maple syrup. He silently stretched out a hand, one end of his bamboo stick slowly wobbling over until it finally tapped on the back of Yue Zhishi’s head.

Yue Zhishi quickly covered his head and turned his head to look at him, the flowers on his head swirling away. He still managed to see the bamboo stick Song Yu quickly retracted. “You hit me.”

Song Yu had no intention of admitting it whatsoever, the stick hiding behind his back in his two hands. He stayed silent.

“Aunt Rong, gege hit my head.” Yue Zhishi chased after her and dropped the bamboo stick in his hand, the impact of it on the floor knocking up a pile of petals.

Lin Rong helplessly smiled and said, “Ahh, be careful of the flowers!”

He didn’t step on the flowers, but he slipped on a corner of the tablecloth as he ran over. Yue Zhishi’s whole body staggered forward, and luckily Song Yu managed to catch him before he fell.

Sweet perfume filled the air. The tiny petals tucked away in the fibres of Song Yu’s woollen sweater slowly cascaded down from the collision of Yue Zhishi’s body, just like the unspooling of hidden care.

“Stop messing around.” Song Yu held his elbow and helped him stand back up.

“You messed around with me first,” Yue Zhishi reasonably retorted.

Song Yu glanced at him. “I just wanted to let you know there were a lot of petals on your head.”

“Same goes for you.”

The two of them lowered their heads at the same time, each patting away the fallen flowers on his own head.

They managed to fill two large pots with the amount of flowers they knocked down, but many withered flowers and flower stems were mixed inside as well. The three of them sat at a table in the empty restaurant and started to separate their haul, chatting as they worked. The flower petals were about the size of rice grains while the flower stalks and stems were even smaller, and Yue Zhishi felt like his eyes were going to go blind from all the sifting. It felt like the plucking would never end.

“I know why these flowers taste so nice now.” Yue Zhishi rotated and stretched his neck. “It’s not the flowers that taste nice, it’s the time spent on them.”

“Hey, that’s very well said.” Lin Rong was a bit surprised. She then said, her voice filled with emotion, “The amount of time you put into food makes it more delicious. Honestly, not just food, but everything in life is like that too.”

Song Yu thought about The Little Prince he’d once read to Yue Zhishi when they were younger. Yue Zhishi might’ve forgotten all about it by now, but there was particular quote from this bedtime reading story that remained in his memories.

[It is the time you wasted for your rose that makes it so important.]

Sometimes he’d think, was that also their relationship? All that expended time and companionship have now become a permanent sunk cost.

After being sifted through, the freshly cleaned osmanthus flowers sat in a large pot, golden and beautiful. Lin Rong sprinkled a little of salt and mixed it into the flowers to remove any bitterness while Song Yu and Yue Zhishi disinfected glass jars with boiling water. The flowers were then separated into two, half to make osmanthus sugar, and the other half to make osmanthus syrup.

It was very easy to make osmanthus sugar. One thick layer of flowers was placed into a glass jar before a layer of sugar was poured on top. These two steps were repeated until there was a final layer of sugar on top. After pouring some baijiu over the last layer of sugar, the glass jar was sealed and put aside, waiting only to be put into the refrigerator at home.

“So much sugar.” Yue Zhishi stared at the jar, his face reflected on the glass.

“The two of you work so hard at school, you should be eating more sugar.”

Yue Zhishi couldn’t help but remember Senior Xu Qichen.

He had a face that looked like it needed more sugar.

The style of making osmanthus syrup was very Japanese. Equal amounts of white wine and caster sugar was mixed with three times the amount of water and boiled until the liquid became slightly thick. Lin Rong scooped up a spoonful to give Yue Zhishi to try. The sweetness was just right, so the osmanthus flowers were mixed directly into the syrup.

“I want to give Senior Xu Qichen a bottle.”

Hearing Yue Zhishi’s sudden words, Song Yu gave him a look, as if he was asking why.

Yue Zhishi hadn’t yet answered when Lin Rong, who was mixing the syrup together, also remembered the election speeches. She asked Song Yu, “Those two children also won the award, right?”

“Yes.” Song Yu squeezed half a lemon before he went to wash his hands.

“After I heard from you last time, I felt that child Xiao Xu was so pitiful.” Lin Rong couldn’t help but sigh. “It just had to happen right before he started high school. If it were another person, there would definitely be no way they would continue going to school.”

Song Yu didn’t continue the conversation, instead immediately giving Lin Rong a look. Lin Rong realised something and turned the topic of the conversation around. “But that child’s smart, so he’ll definitely end up in either Peking University or Tsinghua.”

But Yue Zhishi didn’t end up distracted. Just like Song Yu thought he would, Yue Zhishi very directly asked, “What happened to him?”

“Nothing.” Song Yu helped his mother pour out the finished syrup, his voice calm. “He got into a car accident during his high school examination period and was heavily injured.”

Both his parents also passed away.

“I see…” Yue Zhishi thought about how peaceful Xu Qichen was that day they ate lunch together. Yue Zhishi was the same age as he was when he got into the car accident. But he couldn’t put the words ‘Xu Qichen’ and ‘pitiful’ together — after all, he himself didn’t like to be called pitiful. He thought Xu Qichen would be the same.

Lin Rong changed the subject, pushing some lemon juice and a bottle of alcohol in front of him. “Okay Le Le, I’ll give you our last task for the day. Let’s finish this before I head out with your uncle on a business trip.”

Yue Zhishi followed her instructions and poured in three spoonfuls of lemon juice and two spoonfuls of the orange flavoured alcohol into the prepared sugar syrup. Once the mixture was poured into jam jars, everything was successfully completed.

The sun came out in the afternoon. Yue Zhishi and Song Yu sat at the stone table in the small yard, one silently reciting classical Chinese texts and the other doing his homework questions. Lin Rong carried out a pot of hot black tea, and Yue Zhishi drank two large cups after it was mixed with lemon slices and some of the osmanthus syrup. After also eating a small plate of leche frita drizzled with osmanthus syrup, he was fully satisfied.

The next morning as soon as he got out of bed, the first thing Yue Zhishi did was to open the fridge and see if his osmanthus sugar had started to blend together yet. The previously separate layers in the jars have actually started to melt.

“So cool,” he softly said to himself. He then followed Lin Rong’s instructions and opened each jar, stirring up the flowers inside.

One large tree spent an entire year’s worth of effort to produce yesterday’s flowers, and they’d worked through the entire afternoon — all just for these six little jars.

Last night before the couple left for their business trip, Yue Zhishi cheerfully assigned his presents. “Out of my two jars of osmanthus sugar, one is for Senior Xu, and the other one I’ll give to my friend.”

“What about your syrup?” Lin Rong asked.

“I’ll give them to Song Yu gege!” Yue Zhishi had already planned it out long ago. Song Yu had a fridge in his room. If he gave Song Yu his syrup to keep in his room, he would then have an excuse to visit him for tea.

He was a person of action. He carried his jars upstairs as he finished speaking, taking advantage of Song Yu’s absence to sneak them into his fridge.

As he pulled open the door, he suddenly noticed a row of yoghurt sitting in Song Yu’s perpetually empty fridge.

They were all cheese-flavoured.

—

On Monday, Yue Zhishi carefully carried his jar of osmanthus sugar the entire way to school, worried he might drop and break the glass jar. He planned on giving it to best friend Jiang Yufan.

After the last monthly exams, their class had switched up their seats. Yue Zhishi now sat next to the window opening into the school corridor near the back, while Jiang Yufan sat near the front, also next to a window. Yue Zhishi arrived a bit early for their morning self-study session and saw Jiang Yufan’s empty seat. Since there was no one there and the window was open, he directly stood in the school corridor and opened his schoolbag to pull the jar out.

The osmanthus sugar sparkled like crystals underneath the classroom’s incandescent light bulbs and looked especially enticing.

Jiang Yufan’s desk mate looked at it curiously. “Wow, what is this? It looks like it’ll be yummy.”

Yue Zhishi’s back was suddenly, forcefully shoved just as he was about to open his mouth. The glass jar almost fell from his hand. His back ached, and Yue Zhishi set the jar onto the desk before he looked around, eyebrows drawing together. He saw four male students surrounding a short classmate, pushing and shoving him towards the bathroom.

“Ignore them,” Jiang Yufan’s desk mate said to Yue Zhishi. “Wang Jie from the class next door is a gangster. That short guy is someone from their class, he’s skipped a grade. I think he’s called Cheng Mingming. He’s always being bullied.”

“Why?” Yue Zhishi asked, still frowning.

“I hear his family has money, and he was raised by his grandparents. Don’t know what he did though, he’s always being blackmailed by the gangsters in their class.” Jiang Yufan’s desk mate said, very disdainfully, “They should try bullying someone bigger if they have the ability. What does it say about them to be bullying someone without parents, right?”

“You’re right.” Yue Zhishi sent his bag over and placed it onto Jiang Yufan’s desk, turning over to head towards the bathroom. Jiang Yufan’s desk mate felt something wasn’t right and leaned over the window, calling at him, “Hey, wait, Yue Zhishi!”

He didn’t look back. Jiang Yufan’s desk mate was a bit puzzled — this was an obedient student with a famously good temper. How come he was being so heroic today? But he didn’t follow along, scared that if something did happen, he’d be implicated too.

A large crowd was squeezed into the bathroom, and there was even someone standing by the door as a lookout. Yue Zhishi was immediately blocked as he went over. “What do you want?”

“To wash my hands,” Yue Zhishi said.

“Come back later.” The guy recognised him, seeing he was also a well known person in the junior high department, and then said, “Can’t you tell something’s going on inside?”

Yue Zhishi, face full of innocence, asked “What is?”

The guy was made speechless by his question and awkwardly glanced backwards. Yue Zhishi took advantage of this pause, pushed away the arm blocking his way and entered. He flung away the guy’s hastily grasping hands. Yue Zhishi thought he was short because he always compared himself with Song Yu when he looked at his height, but in reality, when compared to classmates his own age, he was taller than most of them.

“What are you doing?”

Yue Zhishi thought the fierce-looking boy with the crewcut standing right in the middle should be who Jiang Yufan’s desk mate called Wang Jie. He felt it was more respectful to call him by his name, since he didn’t actually want to fight, let alone stir up any trouble.

“Classmate Wang Jie.”

Just as he expected, the crewcut twisted his head over, eyes weighing Yue Zhishi. “What?”

Yue Zhishi nodded, and then, just like someone’s alarm clock, said, “There’s only 15 minutes left before morning self-study.”

“Why the fuck do I need you to remind me? Are you the only good student here?” Wang Jie’s words were harsh, but he turned his body around. “This is none of your business.”

Seeing as his reminder wasn’t as useful as he’d hoped, Yue Zhishi slightly sighed before saying, even more straightforwardly, “Don’t bully classmates.”

“Do you think you’re acting in one of those school dramas?” Wang Jie sneered. “Don’t think you’re worth something just because some girls like you. What the fuck.” He kicked the student cowering in the corner of the room as he spoke. “You know him? Looks like he wants to help you, maybe he just wants to use you to get some fame?”

The people following Wang Jie started to gather together, looking like they wanted to hold off Yue Zhishi. But he pushed them all away, going directly to the student on the floor and helped him up. He realised the student’s pockets were flipped out, so he lifted his eyes and stared straight at Wang Jie. “Give his money back.”

Wang Jie was enraged all of a sudden and ruthlessly shoved Yue Zhishi. “Who do you think you are, daring to stick your nose in my business!”

Yue Zhishi’s shoulder blades smacked onto the wall, the pain causing him to frown once again. But he didn’t want to bother with this kind of person — and besides, with their larger amount of people, he would definitely be at a disadvantage if they started to fight.

Yue Zhishi had never done anything to show off like this since he was a child. The whole situation was new to him, and he didn’t know what to do. But whenever he met something he didn’t know how to handle, his habit was always to imitate, thinking, if this was Song Yu, how would he handle this?

The other student was very scared, shaking as he stuck closely behind Yue Zhishi. Yue Zhishi tried to make himself look more calm, like Song Yu’s usual demeanour, and said, “It’s not a big deal if you’re only hitting people. You can always say it was a small conflict to the teachers. But if it’s money you’re refusing to give back, then that’s robbery, and we can report that to the police.”

Yue Zhishi then pointed outside. “Look, plenty of people walking outside saw you do it. There are also cameras. If we really did call the police, there’d be plenty of evidence.” He blinked and asked Wang Jie, “Have you been to the police station before?”

Wang Jie’s face immediately changed. Even though everyone called him a gangster, he was still only just a junior high school student. He had yet to even enter society, let alone been to a police station. Being bluffed like this, his heart was a bit nervous even though his words weren’t: “Fuck, let’s see if you dare call the police!”

The bullied Cheng Mingming was scared enough to hide behind Yue Zhishi. Yue Zhishi tightly held onto his arm and said, “Even if he’s too afraid to do it, I can bring him to the police station. After all, I’d only need to give a testimony.”

Actually, Yue Zhishi had never been to the police station either and didn’t understand the usual procedures. He only followed what he saw in the television dramas, but seeing as Wang Jie was just a paper tiger with no real teeth, he decided to try bluffing his way through.

“You!” Wang Jie choked. He turned around and called to his ‘little bro’, “Give it to him. I don’t fucking need this small amount of money.”

The little bro threw the money down onto the floor, two bills of 100 and one bill of 50. Yue Zhishi bent over and picked them up for the student, stacking the bills up neatly. “Can you see any missing?”

“Missing your ass!”

Yue Zhishi only frowned and didn’t respond to Wang Jie’s swearing. Once Cheng Mingming shook his head and softly said everything was all there, Yue Zhishi felt everything was finished, so he started to support the scared student to walk outside. Wang Jie felt like he’d lost some face and couldn’t help but continue swearing. “So fucking unlucky…”

Yue Zhishi was too lazy to reply and continued walking. He heard one sentence as he reached the entrance.

“You’re in such a hurry to meddle in other people’s business just because your mom’s dead, fuck.”