After the college entrance examination, others might go traveling, relax, eat and drink, play games all night long, and have fun… but Sheng Xia was different.
Actually, he felt no difference between before and after the college entrance examination. His life remained the same. When he had free time, he would write, draw, play the guitar, and sing every day. No one and nothing could influence him, and he wouldn’t be affected by other things.
Others might worry about not getting into college, not finding a good job, not having a good future… but Sheng Xia had never worried about these issues. From childhood to adulthood, he was never asked for his grades. He lived an average life, somewhat restricted but also with a certain degree of freedom.
He rarely thought about… the future, tomorrow, ideals, those distant things. His world was small and simple. As long as he had food and clothes and could sing, play the guitar, and listen to music, he was satisfied. And more importantly, he… never thought about those things, it was unnecessary anyway.
This afternoon, he carried his bag as usual and went out. He ran into Zhao Wu as soon as he stepped out.
Zhao Wu helped straighten his collar and instructed, “If that woman from Beijing asks you to serve tea, don’t bother with her. I’ve asked Longxia to take care of her rent. If she still asks you…”
“Mom.” Sheng Xia interrupted her, pointing to a few people with backpacks on the other side, “Go check it out. The front desk girl seems to be using the restroom, they might be coming to stay.”
While Zhao Wu hurried towards the people with backpacks, Sheng Xia carried his bag towards the direction of ‘Maze’.
When he arrived at the shop, he noticed that everyone was busy. Wang Jie and Li Rong were busy setting up, while Xie Hong was discussing performance details with several people he didn’t recognize. He listened to a bit of the rehearsal from the side and felt that he didn’t quite like the band’s tune. It was so dull in the middle of the afternoon that it made him want to fall asleep.
In the midst of the busyness, Xie Hong noticed him and walked over, calling out to him, “Sheng Xia—”
Sheng Xia, who was sitting alone on the side with headphones on, drawing, stopped and took off his headphones when Xie Hong spoke to him, “What’s up, Hong jie?”
Xie Hong pointed to his left cheek with a somewhat amused expression, “What’s with this big pimple on your face! Did you eat something too spicy?”
“I didn’t eat anything spicy, maybe it’s just because of the hot weather,” Sheng Xia replied somewhat embarrassedly, tilting his head to the side, “Is it really noticeable?”
“It’s pretty obvious on your fair skin,” Xie Hong seemed amused, leaning in to take a closer look at the unusual pimple on Sheng Xia’s face, “Don’t hide, it’s normal for a young person like you to have acne! Just drink more water these days. Before you go on stage tonight, I’ll have Wang Jie cover it up for you, don’t worry.”
“Do I need to perform alongside them for their special event?” Sheng Xia asked, somewhat puzzled. “It doesn’t seem appropriate, and besides, I don’t know how to sing folk songs.”
In fact, he didn’t quite like being the opening act for Xie Hong. For the sake of the business at the shop, he had to sing songs that he wasn’t particularly fond of.
Sheng Xia was willing to come to Xie Hong’s livehouse frequently for a significant reason: it allowed him to go on stage. Xie Hong was happy to use Sheng Xia’s attractive face to attract customers.
When there were no performances, he could play and sing his favorite songs by himself. There might not be many decent audience members, but he enjoyed singing, singing the songs he liked.
Xie Hong smiled, “Just sing those old songs like you used to. Trust me, you’ll definitely have a great time tonight. You’ll see…”
Before she could finish her sentence, a few people ahead shouted for her to go over and check the sound system. She ruffled Sheng Xia’s hair one last time and hurried over.
After taking off his headphones, Sheng Xia began to feel overwhelmed by the noise. The sounds of rehearsals on stage, the loud calls of the staff, the bustling chatter of the crowd… he had stayed up late last night listening to music and watching movies, so he hadn’t slept well. At this moment, he felt dizzy.
He sighed, knowing that staying here didn’t make much sense, so he grabbed his bag and left.
He brushed past tourists in the scorching sun, avoided a family taking photos, and slowly made his way through the foreigner street, swaying under the sunlight.
Finally, he stopped at the entrance of the ancient city and found a place to squat down. Beside him were some local aunties selling fruits in the shade, chatting loudly in the local dialect about how bad business had been lately.
Sheng Xia sat there for a while, staring into space, before slowly taking out a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his backpack, lighting one up. As he smoked, he observed the tourists around him.
He only moved to the ancient city with Zhao Wu after he started high school. Because the school was inside the ancient city, Zhao Wu bought a guesthouse in the ancient city early on for the convenience of his studies. After he entered high school, he moved in with Zhao Wu.
Meeting Xie Hong was also a coincidence. At that time, he was in his first year of high school, and Xie Hong had just settled in the area and happened to take over a friend of his mother Zhao Wu’s bar. Both parties were negotiating contracts in the courtyard of Sheng Xia’s guesthouse. That day, he happened to be playing the guitar and singing in the attic, but halfway through, Zhao Wu called him downstairs. He stuck his head out and asked, “Mom, am I too loud?”
At that time, due to his severe myopia, he could barely see an unfamiliar woman standing next to Zhao Wu. Her voice sounded like she was laughing, “Hey handsome, your singing is so nice! Sister will be opening a bar on the next street in a while, come over when you’re free!”
Sheng Xia sneaked off to ‘Maze’ without telling Zhao Wu, once, twice, three times, ten times… Gradually, he became familiar with Xie Hong, and whenever he had holidays or free weekends, he would run to ‘Maze’.
It had been so long, and he had graduated.
Many things and people seemed to have changed, but this tourist city always had so many visitors, regardless of the season.
Sheng Xia had become accustomed to seeing so many different faces and hearing unfamiliar accents every day. With so many people coming and going in the ancient city every day, someone who brushed past him today would probably be blurry in his memory tomorrow.
He looked at the blue sky in front of him, exhaled slowly, and prepared to take out his headphones to listen to some music.
But the next moment, his attention was drawn to someone nearby.
The person was tall, carrying a black travel bag and a guitar on his back. He wore a black mask and hat, looking dusty. At first, he hesitated at the city gate, scanning around for a moment before finally walking towards Sheng Xia.
Sheng Xia watched as the tall figure approached him directly—he couldn’t see the person’s face clearly, and the lowered brim of the hat obscured his eyes, especially for Sheng Xia, who had severe myopia. But for some reason, Sheng Xia felt that this person was special. It was so hot, yet this person was dressed all in black, exuding a very stern aura.
Not someone here for sightseeing.
He watched as the tall figure came closer, stopped in front of him, towering over him and casting him in shadow, blocking the sunlight falling on him.
For a moment, his heart seemed to… inexplicably and briefly stop.
“Excuse me, how do I get to a livehouse called ‘Maze’ in the ancient city? I couldn’t find it on my navigation.”
Very standard Mandarin. His voice was quite pleasant, low and magnetic. In today’s terms, this person was a “bass”.
Because the person was so tall and Sheng Xia was still squatting, he had to strain his neck to look up at the person’s eyes.
Although he didn’t recognize him at all, Sheng Xia inexplicably felt a little embarrassed being stared at by this person. He took another drag of his cigarette, pretended to prop up his face, and covered the left side of his face with a pimple with his hand.
Raising his hand, he pointed in a direction slowly, “Go straight ahead, turn left at Foreigner Street, then when you see a shop selling hand drums, turn right at the end of that street.”
“Thank you.”
After saying this, the person left.
After the person walked away, Sheng Xia flicked his cigarette, looked at the blue sky and white clouds in front of him lazily, and opened his backpack. He wondered why that person had chosen to ask him for directions. Clearly, when he was in school, he was often told by classmates that he didn’t look like a local because of his appearance and skin color.
Perhaps he was here to see the performance tonight?
But this doubt quickly flashed through his mind. After all, it would be someone he had no intersection with.
Sheng Xia selected a song, crossed his legs, leaned against the wall behind him, took out his pen and notebook, listened to the song, and continued drawing the universe explosion he hadn’t finished drawing before.
The universe couldn’t actually be drawn; it was too vast. But in Sheng Xia’s mind, the “explosion” could be described with colors, materials, and emotions. Such as deep blue, red, gold, such as scattered nebulae, such as the fiery light and falling stars in the sky, such as anger and sadness.
In his headphones, Sheng Xia was singing, “Who tore through the sky, scattering stars.”
He wrote down this lyric at the center of the explosion.
Inside his headphones was the universe, and the scene he was painting on paper was also the universe, while before him was the bustling street of the ancient city.
The scene in front of him was blurred in his vision, and in a trance, he seemed to see…
Not far away, the grapes sprayed with water from the sieve at the small fruit stall exploded in his sight, followed by the mulberries and watermelons beside the grapes, bursting with purple and red fruit pulp, sticky and sweet, merging with the explosion of the universe in his mind, becoming a summer fruit explosion.
Sheng Xia flipped over to the next page of his notebook and began to write—
“The forms of material existence… neutron, proton, electron, fruit.”
Next to “fruit,” he drew a bunch of grapes.
“After the explosion, it continues to expand, with decreasing temperature and density, cooling… molecules and atoms combine into gas, condensing into nebulae.”
Next to “nebulae,” he drew a cloud.
“The evolution process is probably: nebulae → stars, galaxies → universe.”
The tip of his pen paused beside the word “universe.”
After a moment’s hesitation, he began to draw the universe in his mind beside the word “universe”—
Strangely, his mind was empty, with only one person standing there.
That person was tall, carrying a guitar, wearing a mask, carrying a bag… and his eyes were very bright.
As Sheng Xia instinctively outlined the silhouette of that person, he was startled, not understanding why he had drawn a stranger who he had only seen once next to such an important “universe.”
He frowned and erased the outlined silhouette with an eraser. But when it was cleaned off, Sheng Xia didn’t know what to use to represent the universe anymore.
Inside his headphones, that person kept singing repeatedly—
“Who tore through the sky,”
“Scattering stars.”
He looked up. This time, there was no universe explosion in front of his eyes, only a clear blue sky, fluffy white clouds, and the scorching sun.
Just the fullness of summer.
After the college entrance examination, others might go traveling, relax, eat and drink, play games all night long, and have fun… but Sheng Xia was different.
Actually, he felt no difference between before and after the college entrance examination. His life remained the same. When he had free time, he would write, draw, play the guitar, and sing every day. No one and nothing could influence him, and he wouldn’t be affected by other things.
Others might worry about not getting into college, not finding a good job, not having a good future… but Sheng Xia had never worried about these issues. From childhood to adulthood, he was never asked for his grades. He lived an average life, somewhat restricted but also with a certain degree of freedom.
He rarely thought about… the future, tomorrow, ideals, those distant things. His world was small and simple. As long as he had food and clothes and could sing, play the guitar, and listen to music, he was satisfied. And more importantly, he… never thought about those things, it was unnecessary anyway.
This afternoon, he carried his bag as usual and went out. He ran into Zhao Wu as soon as he stepped out.
Zhao Wu helped straighten his collar and instructed, “If that woman from Beijing asks you to serve tea, don’t bother with her. I’ve asked Longxia to take care of her rent. If she still asks you…”
“Mom.” Sheng Xia interrupted her, pointing to a few people with backpacks on the other side, “Go check it out. The front desk girl seems to be using the restroom, they might be coming to stay.”
While Zhao Wu hurried towards the people with backpacks, Sheng Xia carried his bag towards the direction of ‘Maze’.
When he arrived at the shop, he noticed that everyone was busy. Wang Jie and Li Rong were busy setting up, while Xie Hong was discussing performance details with several people he didn’t recognize. He listened to a bit of the rehearsal from the side and felt that he didn’t quite like the band’s tune. It was so dull in the middle of the afternoon that it made him want to fall asleep.
In the midst of the busyness, Xie Hong noticed him and walked over, calling out to him, “Sheng Xia—”
Sheng Xia, who was sitting alone on the side with headphones on, drawing, stopped and took off his headphones when Xie Hong spoke to him, “What’s up, Hong jie?”
Xie Hong pointed to his left cheek with a somewhat amused expression, “What’s with this big pimple on your face! Did you eat something too spicy?”
“I didn’t eat anything spicy, maybe it’s just because of the hot weather,” Sheng Xia replied somewhat embarrassedly, tilting his head to the side, “Is it really noticeable?”
“It’s pretty obvious on your fair skin,” Xie Hong seemed amused, leaning in to take a closer look at the unusual pimple on Sheng Xia’s face, “Don’t hide, it’s normal for a young person like you to have acne! Just drink more water these days. Before you go on stage tonight, I’ll have Wang Jie cover it up for you, don’t worry.”
“Do I need to perform alongside them for their special event?” Sheng Xia asked, somewhat puzzled. “It doesn’t seem appropriate, and besides, I don’t know how to sing folk songs.”
In fact, he didn’t quite like being the opening act for Xie Hong. For the sake of the business at the shop, he had to sing songs that he wasn’t particularly fond of.
Sheng Xia was willing to come to Xie Hong’s livehouse frequently for a significant reason: it allowed him to go on stage. Xie Hong was happy to use Sheng Xia’s attractive face to attract customers.
When there were no performances, he could play and sing his favorite songs by himself. There might not be many decent audience members, but he enjoyed singing, singing the songs he liked.
Xie Hong smiled, “Just sing those old songs like you used to. Trust me, you’ll definitely have a great time tonight. You’ll see…”
Before she could finish her sentence, a few people ahead shouted for her to go over and check the sound system. She ruffled Sheng Xia’s hair one last time and hurried over.
After taking off his headphones, Sheng Xia began to feel overwhelmed by the noise. The sounds of rehearsals on stage, the loud calls of the staff, the bustling chatter of the crowd… he had stayed up late last night listening to music and watching movies, so he hadn’t slept well. At this moment, he felt dizzy.
He sighed, knowing that staying here didn’t make much sense, so he grabbed his bag and left.
He brushed past tourists in the scorching sun, avoided a family taking photos, and slowly made his way through the foreigner street, swaying under the sunlight.
Finally, he stopped at the entrance of the ancient city and found a place to squat down. Beside him were some local aunties selling fruits in the shade, chatting loudly in the local dialect about how bad business had been lately.
Sheng Xia sat there for a while, staring into space, before slowly taking out a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his backpack, lighting one up. As he smoked, he observed the tourists around him.
He only moved to the ancient city with Zhao Wu after he started high school. Because the school was inside the ancient city, Zhao Wu bought a guesthouse in the ancient city early on for the convenience of his studies. After he entered high school, he moved in with Zhao Wu.
Meeting Xie Hong was also a coincidence. At that time, he was in his first year of high school, and Xie Hong had just settled in the area and happened to take over a friend of his mother Zhao Wu’s bar. Both parties were negotiating contracts in the courtyard of Sheng Xia’s guesthouse. That day, he happened to be playing the guitar and singing in the attic, but halfway through, Zhao Wu called him downstairs. He stuck his head out and asked, “Mom, am I too loud?”
At that time, due to his severe myopia, he could barely see an unfamiliar woman standing next to Zhao Wu. Her voice sounded like she was laughing, “Hey handsome, your singing is so nice! Sister will be opening a bar on the next street in a while, come over when you’re free!”
Sheng Xia sneaked off to ‘Maze’ without telling Zhao Wu, once, twice, three times, ten times… Gradually, he became familiar with Xie Hong, and whenever he had holidays or free weekends, he would run to ‘Maze’.
It had been so long, and he had graduated.
Many things and people seemed to have changed, but this tourist city always had so many visitors, regardless of the season.
Sheng Xia had become accustomed to seeing so many different faces and hearing unfamiliar accents every day. With so many people coming and going in the ancient city every day, someone who brushed past him today would probably be blurry in his memory tomorrow.
He looked at the blue sky in front of him, exhaled slowly, and prepared to take out his headphones to listen to some music.
But the next moment, his attention was drawn to someone nearby.
The person was tall, carrying a black travel bag and a guitar on his back. He wore a black mask and hat, looking dusty. At first, he hesitated at the city gate, scanning around for a moment before finally walking towards Sheng Xia.
Sheng Xia watched as the tall figure approached him directly—he couldn’t see the person’s face clearly, and the lowered brim of the hat obscured his eyes, especially for Sheng Xia, who had severe myopia. But for some reason, Sheng Xia felt that this person was special. It was so hot, yet this person was dressed all in black, exuding a very stern aura.
Not someone here for sightseeing.
He watched as the tall figure came closer, stopped in front of him, towering over him and casting him in shadow, blocking the sunlight falling on him.
For a moment, his heart seemed to… inexplicably and briefly stop.
“Excuse me, how do I get to a livehouse called ‘Maze’ in the ancient city? I couldn’t find it on my navigation.”
Very standard Mandarin. His voice was quite pleasant, low and magnetic. In today’s terms, this person was a “bass”.
Because the person was so tall and Sheng Xia was still squatting, he had to strain his neck to look up at the person’s eyes.
Although he didn’t recognize him at all, Sheng Xia inexplicably felt a little embarrassed being stared at by this person. He took another drag of his cigarette, pretended to prop up his face, and covered the left side of his face with a pimple with his hand.
Raising his hand, he pointed in a direction slowly, “Go straight ahead, turn left at Foreigner Street, then when you see a shop selling hand drums, turn right at the end of that street.”
“Thank you.”
After saying this, the person left.
After the person walked away, Sheng Xia flicked his cigarette, looked at the blue sky and white clouds in front of him lazily, and opened his backpack. He wondered why that person had chosen to ask him for directions. Clearly, when he was in school, he was often told by classmates that he didn’t look like a local because of his appearance and skin color.
Perhaps he was here to see the performance tonight?
But this doubt quickly flashed through his mind. After all, it would be someone he had no intersection with.
Sheng Xia selected a song, crossed his legs, leaned against the wall behind him, took out his pen and notebook, listened to the song, and continued drawing the universe explosion he hadn’t finished drawing before.
The universe couldn’t actually be drawn; it was too vast. But in Sheng Xia’s mind, the “explosion” could be described with colors, materials, and emotions. Such as deep blue, red, gold, such as scattered nebulae, such as the fiery light and falling stars in the sky, such as anger and sadness.
In his headphones, Sheng Xia was singing, “Who tore through the sky, scattering stars.”
He wrote down this lyric at the center of the explosion.
Inside his headphones was the universe, and the scene he was painting on paper was also the universe, while before him was the bustling street of the ancient city.
The scene in front of him was blurred in his vision, and in a trance, he seemed to see…
Not far away, the grapes sprayed with water from the sieve at the small fruit stall exploded in his sight, followed by the mulberries and watermelons beside the grapes, bursting with purple and red fruit pulp, sticky and sweet, merging with the explosion of the universe in his mind, becoming a summer fruit explosion.
Sheng Xia flipped over to the next page of his notebook and began to write—
“The forms of material existence… neutron, proton, electron, fruit.”
Next to “fruit,” he drew a bunch of grapes.
“After the explosion, it continues to expand, with decreasing temperature and density, cooling… molecules and atoms combine into gas, condensing into nebulae.”
Next to “nebulae,” he drew a cloud.
“The evolution process is probably: nebulae → stars, galaxies → universe.”
The tip of his pen paused beside the word “universe.”
After a moment’s hesitation, he began to draw the universe in his mind beside the word “universe”—
Strangely, his mind was empty, with only one person standing there.
That person was tall, carrying a guitar, wearing a mask, carrying a bag… and his eyes were very bright.
As Sheng Xia instinctively outlined the silhouette of that person, he was startled, not understanding why he had drawn a stranger who he had only seen once next to such an important “universe.”
He frowned and erased the outlined silhouette with an eraser. But when it was cleaned off, Sheng Xia didn’t know what to use to represent the universe anymore.
Inside his headphones, that person kept singing repeatedly—
“Who tore through the sky,”
“Scattering stars.”
He looked up. This time, there was no universe explosion in front of his eyes, only a clear blue sky, fluffy white clouds, and the scorching sun.
Just the fullness of summer.
