The Love in That Summer
愛在那個夏天
She was fond of Strauss, KFC, and Brazil Espresso. Dressed in decent grey skirt suit, she wasbusy working in a modernized office. That was herlife before meeting me. Ever since our dating all thosehave vanished.
It was in 1997 when I started my so-called “greatbusiness”. She followed me wholeheartedly. Thatsummer came early. Flowers dyed the town dazzlinglyred. We stayed in the outskirts, in a small room of acondo known as an illegal structure of this city. Windblew through all the four walls into the room, thenhome of her and me.
In order to save money, we walked to our storedowntown every day. Lunches were always simple likedoggie food, worth no more than 1.5 yuan for eachof us. We walked back home at the end of the day,so beat that all we wanted was collapse into bed. Itseemed that we make it through one whole year thisway.
Those days were bitter. Business was my totem;love was her belief. Both supported us from fallingapart.
We walked home late one day. She sat at thebed edge, washing her feet in a bucket on the floor. Iwent to the landlord for boiled water to make instantnoodle. When I got back carrying a thermos bottle,she fell back into the bed sound asleep, feet in water.She must have been extremely exhausted. One of herhands was under her body. I heard her light snore. Itiptoed to the bed and tried to flip her over so that shewould be in a more comfortable position. I stared ather face, which was a young and pretty one and yetso wearied and exhausted. I saw one mosquito on thispretty face.
That summer my city was like a huge steamerbox. We put off one day to another the plan to buy amosquito net, just to save money. I knew mosquitoeswere flying all about in our room, but I seemed not tobe bothered. So exhausted when I got back each day, Idoubted if I would wake up even though someone cuta piece of flesh off my body, let alone mosquito bites.
That mosquito stayed at her forehead, sipping herblood greedily. She was still sound asleep, not feelinganything. Perhaps she was in a sweet dream in whichour business was turning better. There came anabrupt throb of my heart. I reached to wave my handat the mosquito. But it was not at all scared. I wantedto bat it to death. I raised my hand up high, but itcould not descend. I was afraid of waking her up —she was really worn out.There lay a weak mosquito between her andme, doing harm to her right now. I froze there, handin the air. I did not know what to do. I was worried.Suddenly, I began to get deeply fed up with myself. Ihated me. On the night of that summer, I stood by herside, feeling extremely guilty of her, of our love. Themosquito finally flew away. I forgave it, but I couldnever forgive myself.
In the daytime I went by a peddler’s stall andsaw a pink mosquito net priced 16 yuan. Thatamount could be spent on a lot of dealings at thetime. I headed back home without buying it. Aftershe fell asleep, I got out of bed, stood by her side, andwaved away mosquitoes with a hard paper board asa weapon. I was her temporary mosquito net all thatnight through. After a while she woke up to find whatI was doing. She gazed at me, and ten minutes latertears flooded her face.
The next day saw a pink mosquito net in myroom. We were both silent working together to fix iton our bed. In my mind I had presented the net as agift to her. I did not tell her that it was a gift. I wasfeeling that it was like a rose in full bloom. It was mycompensation to love. Then I realized that nothingcould really make it up. It was her birthday that day.
Years went by. I earned 160,000 yuan, orprecisely we earned 160,000 yuan. We did a lot ofshopping, but never a mosquito net any more. Wedid not need any mosquito net, living in a very welldecorated apartment, where no mosquitoes could flyinside. Nevertheless, I always feel that all my money,and all my belongings are far less important than the16-yuan mosquito net, which was invaluable to her,to our love.
That summer was past. We had no choice but tolove each other.
decent adj. 得體的；相當好的
exhausted adj. 疲憊的
mosquito n. 蚊子
guilty adj. 內疚的，有罪的
flood v. 湧到；充滿
她喜歡聽施特勞斯，喫肯德基，喝巴西特濃咖啡，穿著得體的灰色套裙在現代化的寫字樓裡忙碌。但那隻是她遇見我之前的生活。後來，自從她與我相戀，這一切便消失了。
那是在1997 年，我開始了自己所謂的大事業，她跟著我，義無反顧。那個夏天來得很早，花兒染得城市一片肜紅。我們住在市郊，一個屬於該城非法公寓的小屋，四壁透風。那是我倆暫時的家。
為了省錢，每天我們步行至市區的店鋪，午飯總是像狗糧一樣簡單，每人不超過一塊五毛錢，晚上再步行回來，疲憊不堪隻想倒在床上。好像整整一年，我們都是這樣熬過來的。
那是一段艱苦而心酸的日子。那時，事業是我的圖騰，愛情是她的信仰。這就是支撐我們沒有倒下去的全部。
有一次，我們很晚纔步行回家。她坐在床沿用水桶洗腳，我去房東那裡討開水泡面。當我提著暖水瓶返回時，發現她已經躺倒在床上睡著了，雙腳仍在水裡泡著。她一定是累壞了，一隻手還壓在身子底下。我聽見了她輕微的鼾聲。我踮著腳走到床邊，想給她翻下身，好讓她睡得更舒服。我盯著她的臉，那是一張年輕美麗的臉，此時卻寫滿疲憊。在這張俊俏的臉上，我發現了一隻蚊子。
那個夏天，我所處的城市像個巨大的蒸籠，可為了省錢，我們把買蚊帳的計劃一推再推。我知道屋裡到處都飛著蚊子，但我似乎未受干擾。每天回來後那樣勞累的身體，睡下了，別說蚊子，就算有人從我身上切下一塊肉，我都懷疑自己能不能醒來。
蚊子落在她的額頭，貪婪地吸食著她的血。她依然睡得很香，毫無察覺，也許正做著生意好轉的夢。我的心猛地抽搐了一下。我伸出手，向蚊子揮去，但蚊子對我的恐嚇毫不理睬。我想用手拍死它，手揚起來，卻不忍落下。我怕驚醒了她——她真得累壞了。
我與她之間，有一隻弱小的蚊子，此刻正叮咬著她。我僵在那裡，就那樣手舉在空中，不知該做些什麼，心焦著。突然間，我開始對自己產生了一種深深的厭惡。我恨自己。在那個夏天的夜晚，我站在她身旁，感到極度內疚，對她，對愛情。蚊子最後飛走了。我原諒了蚊子，卻決不能原諒自己。
白天經過一個小攤，我注意到一個粉色的蚊帳，標。這在當時可以做許多事。我回了家而沒有買它。那天在她睡著後，我起了床，站在她身旁，我把一個硬紙板當做武器一樣揮動著，不讓蚊蟲靠近她的身體。那整晚，我成了她臨時的蚊帳。後來她醒了，看到我的行為，她盯著我看，10 分鐘後，她便淚流滿面。
第二天，小屋裡掛上了粉色的蚊帳。一起掛蚊帳時，我們都一直沒有說話。在我心裡，我是把蚊帳當成禮物送給她的，但我沒這樣說。我覺得那像一朵盛開的玫瑰，就算是我對愛情的補償。但後來我意識到，其實什麼也補償不了。那天，是她的生日。
多年過去了，我賺了16 萬，或者確切地說我們賺了16 萬。我們買了很多東西，卻沒有再買一床蚊帳。我們已經不再需要蚊帳了，精裝修的房間，已經飛不進一隻蚊蟲。可是我總覺得，我所有的錢，所有的這些東西，都遠不如那個曾經隻值的蚊帳重要。那對她、對我們的愛都是無價之寶。
那個夏天過去了，我們別無選擇，隻能相愛。
……
