The ultimate blue sea

Chapter 59-Bewilderment

Then she thought about it and looked back at Qin Luo. She said, "Forget it, let's leave him a note, or else what if he didn't hear?"

When the two of them had also left, the door creaked open yet again. A figure like a mouse stealthily slipped in, pen in hand—it was Tu Tutu, up to no good. He tiptoed closer to Xu Ruchong's bed and opened his mouth in a silent malicious smile. He pulled off the felt-tip pen's cap and was about to put pen to Xu Ruchong's face when he heard a light cough behind him—Su Qing was the one who could truly come and go without a sound.

Tu Tutu's hand froze at once. Su Qing said in an equally quiet voice, "Little whelp, do you need another pinch?"

He walked over and rubbed his hands together to raise the temperature of the skin. When they weren't so cold, like Fang Xiu, he reached out to check Xu Ruchong's temperature. Then he straightened the blanket he had messed up turning over. Finally, he took Tu Tutu by the hand and proceeded out like a vassal giving orders under the emperor's name.

Tu Tutu quietly cried out in grief: "Our Imperial Presence is a puppet emperor!"

When the final round of visitors had left, Xu Ruchong suddenly opened his eyes. He lay on his side, facing the wall. The rims of his eyes were still red, but there was no sleepiness in them.

He slowly raised his head and looked at the thermos on the nightstand and the paper under it. The paper was light blue with a small decorative border. If his nose hadn't been very congested, he probably would have been able to smell a faint perfume. At a glance it was the sort of thing girls liked.

He wasn't wearing his ridiculously large glasses. His gaze seemed a little weak. The curves at the corners of his eyes were long, giving them something of a profound flavor. Xu Ruchong's expression was a little complicated. He suddenly opened his mouth and silently said to the spotless white wall in front of him, "What are you all so nice to me for?"

When Su Qing came out of Xu Ruchong's lounge, he silently took Tu Tutu towards the sixth floor. There were no clues on his face. Tu Tutu snuck a glance at him and couldn't decide how this puppet master was planning to deal with him. He could only follow, inwardly muttering "Perturbed"1 the whole way. But Su Qing only tossed him towards his room and briefly instructed: "Go in and play. Close the door. If anyone knocks, pretend you aren't here."

Tu Tutu looked at him, blinking his big eyes. Su Qing paused, then stroked his head.

Tu Tutu raised his fist and stood up straight. He said, "Go on, Seiya! Burn your Cosmo!"

Su Qing looked at him for a while, then commented: "Get the hell out. Do Athenas come as short as you?"

Then he gently closed the door and turned towards Cheng Weizhi's room.

Cheng Weizhi very enthusiastically let him in. When Su Qing walked in, he took a look at Cheng Ge—he looked the same as always, squatting to one side, immersed in his own world. He only took a glance at him, then lost interest and returned to his own business. He was holding coloring materials, which he was daubing onto a landscape painting.

Cheng Weizhi noticed Su Qing's line of sight and sighed. He said to his son, "Cheng Ge, raise your head, say hello to our guest."

Cheng Ge had some reaction to his words. He slowly raised his head and shifted his eyes to Su Qing. He raised his hand, still holding a paintbrush, and slowly waved at Su Qing. "Hi." The brush left a yellow mark on his face.

Su Qing smiled and waved back at him. Cheng Ge looked at Cheng Weizhi like an obedient child waiting for instructions for the next step. Cheng Weizhi softly said, "Will you show us what you're drawing?"

Cheng Ge reacted half a beat slow, nodded, then clumsily raised the drawing high over his head. The drawing was of a golden field of flowers. Further on was a little house. The chimney smoke and the flowers were both moving with the wind. While Cheng Ge hadn't studied, he could use distance perspective extremely well. The painting extended into the distance as though it continued to the ends of the earth, boundless, with a background of blue sky and slightly low white clouds.

"Goodness, what a good drawing. You're a regular living Van Gogh," Su Qing delivered a line of sweet-talk, then changed the subject. He turned his head and asked Cheng Weizhi, "Does he think up his own drawings, or does he draw places he's been?"

Cheng Weizhi's attention was still on his son, so he automatically went along with his subject: "Some are places he's been to, and some are things he saw in photos or on TV. Things we ordinary people may take a look and then forget, he sometimes draws—Cheng Ge, take out your other works and display them for us."

Su Qing looked on with the cool eye of a bystander and felt that the old professor was just like an ordinary father, delighted with each of his son's minor accomplishments, always wanting to show them off to others.

Cheng Ge brought over a big portfolio and cutely laid it out in front of them. Like a patient preschool teacher, Cheng Weizhi pointed to picture after picture, asking, "Cheng Ge, what is this drawing of? Cheng Ge, what is that drawing of?"

Cheng Ge's speech wasn't smooth, as though he was holding a piece of hot tofu in his mouth. He spoke indistinctly and drooled when he spoke too much. He could only get out a couple of words at a time, which were sometimes irrelevant. But the old professor wasn't in a rush, and neither was Cheng Ge.

Su Qing sat by them in silence, taking note of the interactions between the father and son, and the drawings.

Very soon, they came to the unusual drawing. Su Qing suddenly put in a word: "Cheng Ge, what place is this drawing of?"

Cheng Ge turned to look at him blankly, then repeated his question: "What...place?"

Cheng Weizhi's notice was also drawn. He gave an "oh!" and asked, "Cheng Ge, why is this drawing so grey? Did you see an old photo?"

Cheng Ge nodded—however, a nod didn't mean confirmation. When he didn't understand what someone was saying to him, he would also nod.

"Looking at a grey thing like this puts people in a bad mood," Cheng Weizhi said to Cheng Ge, enunciating each syllable clearly. "It makes them unhappy."

"Dad...is unhappy?"

"We should draw things with lots of sunshine and colors," Cheng Weizhi said, pointing to the brightly colored new work. "We draw like that, not like this."

It was unclear whether Cheng Ge understood. He looked at one, then at the other, then finally nodded in confusion.

Su Qing took the chance to say, "Then why don't you just give it to me? I just happen to be missing a couple of paintings in my room."

Cheng Weizhi, all smiles, said to Cheng Ge, "Can I give Su Qing a few of your drawings?" Seeing that Cheng Ge hadn't completely understood, he slowed down his speech. Very, very slowly, he picked up a drawing. Passing it to Su Qing, he said, "Give—to—him, all right?"

Cheng Ge nodded again.

Su Qing said, "Then I won't stand on ceremony."

Then he picked out a couple of drawings, including the grey one, and put them in his lap. He looked down. After a moment, with a hint of probing undetectable to others, he said, "Uncle Cheng, I don't know if you've heard what happened last night. I still don't especially understand—why could my double core energy crystal activate when it won't work for others?"

Translator's Note

1, 忐忑a memetic song from early 2010. No lyrics, expresses the notion of perturbation quite well.