My Mister Ostrich

Chapter 18

Gu Mingxi’s face was so hot you could cook pancakes on it. He said, “Auntie Zhong, goodbye,” and quickly walked inside.”

—

Pang Qian was in Gu Mingxi’s family’s bathroom using her first sanitary napkin in he life, her thoughts all in a mess.

She’d imagined the situation of her first period numerous times. Maybe it would be like Wang Tingting’s, coming quietly when she was home by herself. Maybe it would be like Sun Mingfang’s, coming a little when she went to the bathroom at school, and then having to put on a facade of calmness and buy a sanitary napkin from the school store. Not knowing why or how, she’d suddenly grown up. Or the worst was Zhang Wei. Zhang Wei said that her first period came in fifth grade, when she was attending the school’s spring outing. She’d scared a group of boys there. She also thought that she’d gotten some kind of illness, and sat in the park, crying out loud.

After hearing those stories, Pang Qian even laughed out in amusement. But right now, she couldn’t smile at all. She rejoiced that she wasn’t at school, meeting with this kind of awkward thing with other students around. But then she also lamented that she’d made a scene of herself in front of Gu Mingxi.

Still, she was reliever.

Gu Mingxi, thank goodness it was Gu Mingxi.

Her light colored pants were thin, the red liquid seeping out a bit. Although it wasn’t very obvious, she still wanted to hurry home to change her pants.

Before leaving, she went to say to Gu Mingxi’s parents’ room to say goodbye to him. The boy had his head down as he was cleaning up the floor. His ice cream had already melted, leaving a puddle of white. Pang Qian’s ice cream had also dripped on the floor. And there was also a slight red mark there.

Pang Qian was very embarrassed. Gu Mingxi was standing on the ground, left foot planted on the floor, right foot pressed down on a rag, continuously wiping. After the cloth was soaked, he wanted to wring it out. He could only lift the toes of his right foot up and carry the rag partly on the top of his foot as he walked slowly to the bathroom.

Pang Qian felt somewhat impolite and wanted to help him. She bent over to grab the rag from his foot, “Let me help you clean it.”

Gu Mingxi quickly recalled Zhong Xiaolian’s words and pulled his foot back. In a very serious manner, he said, “No, you can’t touch cold water. Hurry and go home. Also, these couple of days, don’t eat cold foods like popsicles, fruit, and cold drinks. Oh, also you can’t eat spicy foods.”

Pang Qian twister her lips and looked at him. “Gu Mingxi, you even know about these things?”

Gu Mingxi’s face reddened again, then explained, “I heard Teacher Jia say it, okay?!”

Pang Qian suddenly realized, “Oh… So you listen to Warm Harbor too!”

Gu Mingxi, “…”

Pang Qian covered her bottom and left shyly. After she left, Gu Mingxi made several trips back and forth between the master bedroom and the bathroom, and then finally finished cleaning the floor. Then he thought of the disk in the VCD player.

He lifted his big toed to the eject button. After a long time, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down a few times, and he put his foot down.

Gu Mingxi closed the curtains in the room and plugged the TV cord back into the outlet. He sat on the floor and thought for awhile, and then he carefully pressed the play button on the VCD player.

Soon, the image that left people restless appeared.

Gu Mingxi lowered the volume on the TV but didn’t want to mute it. In the quiet room, the moans of the man and woman were suppressed but clear. Gu Mingxi sat in front of the TV, very close to the screen. His neck was turned up, completely absorbed.