Born at the Right Time

When Gu Yiran was nine years old, his mother took him to Xia Chun’s house for the first time.

It was July, and the hot sun was hanging in the middle of the sky, spreading hot waves everywhere. Usually, people in the community took a nap after lunch, but today it was different. The door of Xia’s house was surrounded by chattering and watching neighbours.

Xia Chun’s mother, Xia Ying, was arguing fiercely with her stepdaughter, Xu Xuzhen, in the house. The two women ground their teeth and spouted the ugliest and most vicious curses. If it weren’t for the wooden table between them, there would have been a physical fight.

Xia Chun’s stepfather, Xu Guoan, didn’t take part in the women’s fight. He just sat on a chair while smoking a cigarette. After a while, he sighed and signalled Gu Yiran, who was standing silently in the corner.

Seeing his grandfather waving to him, Gu Yiran walked over there hesitantly.

Xu Guoan took out a crumpled fifty-cent note from his pocket and stuffed it into Gu Yiran’s hand. “Be good, take this and buy a popsicle from the store outside.”

Gu Yiran put the fifty-cent note into the pocket, quietly glanced at the red-faced mother who was spitting at the grandmother, and asked cautiously, “Grandpa, you and Grandma…do not like me?”

Xu Guoan: “How could it be? Your mother finally came home after a long time. Grandpa and Grandma are too happy, so why don’t we like you?”

” Really?” Gu Yiran asked in a low voice.

“Of course. Tonight, Grandpa will make sauced elbows for you and Mother.” Xu Guoan forced a smile, patted Gu Yiran gently, and said, “You can still see your aunt when she comes back tonight, she is a little older than you. When the time comes, Grandpa will let her play with you.”

Gu Yiran kept silent, nodded, and walked past the two women, who were shouting at each other, and walked towards the already crowded door. He was very thin and struggled to squeeze out of the gap between the adults.

“…Aying’s stepdaughter’s son.”

“How old is he? Maybe eight or nine years old. Xia Chun is not much older than him.”

“Tsk, her stepdaughter followed that pimp in the back street when she was seventeen or eighteen years old. Then he got pregnant and eloped with that pimp, Gu….”

“Poor thing, the mother is a s*ut, the father is a ba*tard, and he was born to suffer…”

Whispers came from above his head, and Gu Yiran listened to each word, biting his pale and trembling lips while clutching the money note. Unexpectedly, when he struggled, he fell out. Some people saw Gu Yiran had fallen down, but they just ignored him.

Gu Yiran got up without saying a word, endured the pain, patted the dust, licked the broken skin and bleeding areas on his palms, and went to the store outside the compound to buy popsicles.

When walking back after buying popsicles, Gu Yiran got lost.

The area around Xia’s home was full of winding stone lanes where every house had a door and aisle and was decorated similarly. This was Gu Yiran’s first visit here, so he couldn’t recall the direction of his grandfather’s house. He could not ask for directions because it was hot around noon and only a few people were there. Gu Yiran was initially apprehensive because of the argument between his mother and grandma, but now he was even more anxious because he had lost his way.

Only he could walk a few steps towards the intersection ahead when two big black wild dogs came snorting and drooping their big scarlet tongues, looking at him vigilantly. Seeing the two dogs, Gu Yiran felt a chill down his spine. He was most afraid of dogs.

Then he ran in the opposite direction, and the two wild dogs chased him like arrows off the string. Gu Yiran panicked and yelled for help. Seeing two large wooden wardrobes piled up in the alley ahead, he hurriedly climbed to the top with hands and feet while two big wild dogs, thumping fiercely, tried to catch him. He was very frightened and shrank into a small ball. He didn’t even dare to breathe out, and after a long time, he sobbed and cried, holding the dripping popsicle tightly in his hand.

After an unknown amount of time, the wild dogs suddenly screamed. Gu Yiran was taken aback, and when he looked down, two stones flew over and hit the wild dogs hard on the back. With their tails between their legs, the two wild dogs fled without looking back. Gu Yiran turned his head and saw the person who drove away the wild dogs.

That was the first time Gu Yiran saw Xia Chun. Fourteen-year-old Xia Chun was wearing a blue-and-white school uniform with a pair of boy’s big pants underneath, holding the bicycle with one hand and throwing the remaining stone up and down with the other hand.

“Hey kid, come down!” Xia Chun said this with a big grin.

Gu Yiran looked at Xia Chun without speaking, but he didn’t come down. Although he was only nine years old, he was still a boy, and he also had a competitive self-esteem that couldn’t be embarrassing in front of girls. Fear of dogs was a very embarrassing thing that should have been kept a secret, but now it was exposed in front of a girl he didn’t know. ‘What a shame!’ So he decided not to go down until Xia Chun left.

“There are no more dogs. Come down.” Xia Chun stood below and raised her head for a long time, but when she didn’t see Gu Yiran coming down, she thought he was scared out of his wits.

Gu Yiran remained silent, but Xia Chun wasn’t that patient. It was a hot day, and besides, she didn’t know that child. Seeing that he didn’t speak, she got on her bicycle and pedaled away.

After Xia Chun rode away, Gu Yiran realised what he had done. He met a person who could help him go back, but he missed the chance by himself.

The sun above his head was so fierce that it felt like peeling off a layer of skin after shining on his body for a long time. Gu Yiran squatted on the top of the wardrobe, hanging his head down to pick at the peeling paint on the top of the wardrobe.

Suddenly, a bicycle bell rang. Gu Yiran was stunned for a moment, then raised his head and saw that Xia Chun had come back for some reason.

She stopped the bicycle, put one foot down to support the balance, then took out a ribbon from her pocket, and tied her long black hair into a ponytail. Then she wiped the sweat off her forehead, and asked impatiently, “Which family’s child are you? Come down, I’ll take you back.”

This time, Gu Yiran climbed down.

Xia Chun let Gu Yiran sit on the back seat of the bicycle. “I haven’t seen you in this area before, whose relative are you?”

Gu Yiran tightly grasped the edge of the back seat of the bicycle with both hands and said in a low voice, “Xu Guoan is my grandfather.”

Xia Chun let out a casual “oh” at first, then realised it later, and turned her head in shock to look at the delicate white boy in the back seat.

“What did you say?”

“Xu Guoan is my grandfather, and Xia Ying is my grandmother,” Gu Yiran raised his face and said slowly again.