Boundless – Chapter 15

The first day of the new vacation, happiness.

Wen Qianshu slept in, got up and watched some TV, then looked at her homework. She really didn’t want to do it, so she mopped the floor and cleaned the house. Wen Qianshu’s mother made braised fish and stir-fried several other dishes to reward Wen Qianshu’s brain for “working hard for a semester.” As for Wen Qianshu herself, she was just the carrier of the brain, unimportant.

The second day of the new vacation, the happiness disappeared.

Wen Qianshu’s mother started waking her up early in the morning: “You’ve rested for a whole day, it’s time to do your homework.”

Brush teeth, wash face, eat breakfast, and then her parents both went to work.

Wen’s mother: “Make sure you cook the rice later, and take out the trash. There’s still some fish left from yesterday…”

She rattled off a long list of things in one breath. Wen Qianshu simply got a pen and paper to take notes, but her writing speed couldn’t keep up with her mother’s speaking speed: “Wait, wait, what else?”

“I also bought fruit yesterday, don’t eat it all by yourself, take some to Shen Ting.” The woman, who had just been bending over to change her shoes, stood up with her purse slung over her shoulder. “Shen Ting did so well on her exams this time, you should learn from her. It’s not easy for that girl’s family, yet she still works so hard. Not like you, we provide you with good food and drink at home, and you just enjoy yourself, sleeping all day as soon as the vacation starts, not doing anything.”

Wen Qianshu was stunned for a second, holding the paper in a daze: “I mopped the floor yesterday.”

The woman: “But you didn’t study.”

Wen Qianshu: “…”

2333: “Don’t struggle, you can’t win this argument.”

Wen Qianshu gave up struggling: “Okay, I’ll study today.”

The woman: “Alright, I’ll check on you later.”

Wen Qianshu: “…”

The teachers at No. 1 High School probably didn’t like to communicate with each other. Every teacher was overly diligent, single-handedly holding up the entire sky. They assigned enough homework to last the entire winter break, so by calculation, the school owed Wen Qianshu eight winter breaks.

Wen Qianshu was mentally exhausted. There was no way Wen Qianshu was going to write it alone, so she carried the fruit and her homework and went to knock on Shen Ting’s door.

Shen Ting opened the door: “Oh no, I just turned on the TV.”

Wen Qianshu squeezed in: “Let’s do homework, let’s do homework. At worst, we’ll just scribble something down.”

Shen Ting: “You know there’s an exam when school starts, right? The questions will be from the winter break homework.”

Wen Qianshu: “…”

Wen Qianshu said listlessly: “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry up and write.”

Wake up, do homework, sleep.

Wake up, do homework, sleep.

Sometimes Wen Qianshu suspected this wasn’t a vacation, just a change of location for doing homework. Shen Ting comforted her: “It’s okay, it’ll be better during the few days of the Spring Festival.”

“Your family is always so busy every year.” Shen Ting, perhaps thinking of her own divorced parents, sounded a bit down. “Not like my family.”

Wen Qianshu: “Not like your family, you still have time to do homework.”

Shen Ting laughed: “Stop thinking about homework.”

Wen Qianshu: “Why don’t we switch? I’ll stay at your place and eat your grandma’s cooking all the time? We can start today, how about it?”

Shen Ting pouted: “Hmph! Don’t even think about it.”

Since Shen Ting had said that, Wen Qianshu of course got herself ready. She was ready for the New Year visits, ready for guests at home, ready for how noisy it would be, ready for…

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, she was dragged into a minivan early in the morning, which was packed with relatives.

Wen Qianshu was still rubbing her eyes: “Where are we going?”

Her parents answered: “To the temple to pray to Bodhisattva.”

Wen Qianshu was not ready.

The van was small and crowded with many people. The air was stuffy and uncomfortable. Wen Qianshu’s little cousin was smiling at her with a snot bubble on his nose. Her eldest aunt took the cousin from her younger aunt’s arms, holding and teasing him, then glanced at Wen Qianshu twice and said to her mother: “Oh, Qianshu has grown taller again.”

Wen Qianshu couldn’t help but laugh and said to 2333: “Adults are so strange. The child is right there, but they say things about him to his parents instead.”

2333 reminded her: “You’re an adult too.”

Wen Qianshu: “I’m strange too.”

2333: “…”

Fine, I can’t win an argument against you.

The artificial intelligence wouldn’t bicker with a human.

On the other side, the eldest aunt asked: “How were the final exams?”

Her mother shook her head: “Just so-so, not as good as your Junjie.”

The aunt: “Not at all, not at all. Our Junjie didn’t do well either, not as good as last year.”

After saying that, she went back to teasing the little cousin: “Qiqi, Qiqi, you have to study hard in the future. Don’t be like your brother Junjie, doing worse and worse on exams…”

Wen Qianshu rested her chin on her hand and looked at the embarrassed “Junjie” beside her. This must be her cousin. Wen Junjie sighed: “Good sister, can you just pretend your brother doesn’t exist?”

Wen Qianshu: “Huh? Why is the air talking here?”

Wen Junjie laughed. He was sitting even more uncomfortably than Wen Qianshu, with his long legs tucked in and nowhere to put them: “Oh my god, you finally get it.”

Wen Qianshu: “What?”

“You used to get so sad when you heard our aunt talk like that, with ‘unhappy’ written all over your face.” Wen Junjie nudged her shoulder and said, “Have you finally realized you have to listen to them selectively?”

“If you ask me, we both did great on our exams. They’re just too lazy to think, they’ve been saying the same pleasantries for years without even changing the punctuation.”

Wen Qianshu: “I heard it.”

Wen Junjie: “What do you mean?”

Wen Qianshu: “She said I grew taller.”

Wen Junjie: “That makes sense. From what I can see, you haven’t grown in at least three years.”

Wen Qianshu: “…”

Wen Qianshu: “I’m so sad to hear you say that.”

Wen Junjie: “It’s okay, my mom will praise you for growing taller again next year. You can deceive yourself again then.”

The minivan drove for a long time, and the little cousin even threw up once along the way. When they finally reached their destination, Wen Qianshu’s head was spinning. She got out of the van holding onto the door, only to realize there was a mountain in front of her.

The temple was still on the mountain, so they had to climb it.

Wen Qianshu stood in the cold winter wind, feeling world-weary: “2333.”

2333 knew what she was scheming as soon as it heard her: “This is a school-life story! How are we supposed to provide a physical stamina cheat? Send you up in a spaceship?”

Wen Qianshu: “That’s not entirely out of the question. It could even make the headlines: ‘Shocking! Alien spaceship discovered at a famous scenic spot, the truth is actually…'”

2333 interrupted her: “Just walk your path.”

Wen Qianshu sighed faintly and had no choice but to go buy tickets with her student ID and the group of relatives. But just as they finished buying the tickets and were about to have them checked, someone suddenly tapped her from behind. Wen Qianshu turned around and met Jiang Mingyue’s gaze.

The other girl still had her hair in a ponytail, revealing the tips of her ears, which were red from the cold.

Wen Qianshu was a little surprised and pleased: “You came too?”

This winter was very cold; every spoken word came out as a puff of white breath. In the hazy white mist, Jiang Mingyue didn’t respond.

After a moment, she finally spoke: “Yeah.”

Wen Qianshu suddenly frowned: “What’s wrong with you?”

She took a step closer to Jiang Mingyue: “Who bullied you?”

But Jiang Mingyue grabbed her wrist, turned around, and said: “My deskmate, Wen Qianshu.”

Only then did Wen Qianshu see a couple standing some distance behind Jiang Mingyue. The man was tall and imposing, impeccably dressed. The woman had her hair in a bun and was also tall, thin, and serious.

Wen Qianshu: “Hello, Uncle and Auntie.”

As the two approached, Wen Qianshu came to her senses and said to her own family: “This is my deskmate, Jiang Mingyue.”

The two families sized each other up, exchanging greetings and pleasantries.

Wen Qianshu: “Mom, my deskmate is amazing, she got first place in class before.”

“Oh, right.” Wen Qianshu said, “There were a few problems I couldn’t solve these past few days, I was meaning to ask you.”

Wen Qianshu turned her head and said to Jiang Mingyue’s parents with a smile: “Uncle and Auntie, let’s walk together later. I can ask for help with some problems on the way up the mountain.”

“This child, how can you talk like that?” Wen Qianshu’s mother glared at her. “It’s the first day of the New Year, and you’re already bothering people.”

Jiang Mingyue’s mother: “It’s alright, it’s no big deal. It’s just a few problems, Jiang Mingyue can discuss them too.”

It really wasn’t a big deal, so it was settled.

When it was time to climb the mountain, the two families walked ahead, chatting intermittently. Wen Qianshu, on the other hand, asked a few questions one after another, deliberately walking slowly to fall behind with Jiang Mingyue. Seeing that they were about to be left behind, Wen Qianshu asked in a low voice: “What’s wrong?”

Did you fight with your family?

Jiang Mingyue took a piece of paper out of her pocket. Wen Qianshu took it. It was a neatly folded piece of paper, but it was crumpled, as if it had been balled up before.

Wen Qianshu vaguely guessed: “The notebook you left with me before?”

Jiang Mingyue nodded.

Wen Qianshu unfolded the paper and found a leaf specimen pasted on the top right corner. It was a beautiful, emerald green, round leaf. Words were written beside the leaf: “I fell from the tree, pushed by the wind, and jumped into the yard. I saw a small dog in the yard. I wanted to play with it, but I was a little worried, after all, I’m just a leaf…”

It was Jiang Mingyue’s handwriting, neat and proper.

But the paper was yellowed, and the handwriting was slightly childish, not as nice as it was now.

It was probably written many years ago.

Wen Qianshu: “Are you… writing an autobiography for a leaf?”

Jiang Mingyue: “I’ve always been writing them, for a long time.”

“When I was little, I had no one to play with, so I liked to collect leaves and imagine them traveling the world.”

She glanced at the paper, then looked away, saying a little uncomfortably: “It’s very childish.”

“Not at all.” Wen Qianshu continued to read the leaf’s autobiography. “It’s quite cute.”

She turned it over. On the back was another leaf, with a few holes in it and a serrated edge. This leaf’s autobiography was much grumpier, it seemed to have a bad temper: “I had a fight with a cloud. The cloud got very angry and sent bugs to bite me.”

Wen Qianshu felt like laughing, but Jiang Mingyue said: “You can keep it.”

Wen Qianshu stopped her laughter and chose her words carefully: “You…”

Jiang Mingyue lowered her eyes to the stone steps on the ground: “I only managed to save this one page. The rest were all torn up.”

There were many people climbing the mountain, and the stone steps weren’t narrow. But for an instant, the air seemed to freeze, and Wen Qianshu heard the sound of the wind blowing past.

Jiang Mingyue’s tone was very light, melting into the wind: “My dad thinks it’s a frivolous hobby that saps one’s will and wastes time.”

Jiang Mingyue reached into her coat pocket and took something out. She opened her palm, revealing a leaf. This one was picked in late autumn, tinged with gold, and was actually in the shape of a heart.

“I found it before the break and just finished preparing it. I woke up especially early today, wanting to paste it in. But…” Jiang Mingyue paused, “but I didn’t hide the notebook well enough, and it was found.”

The small heart-shaped leaf lay in her palm, accompanied by Jiang Mingyue’s calm voice: “We’ve fought over this many times, and I’ve promised many times to stop. This time, they probably didn’t want to tolerate it anymore, so they tore it up.”

“Maybe I won’t do it anymore. It’s meaningless, and I can’t keep it anyway.”

Jiang Mingyue: “Let’s just leave this leaf on the mountain.”

The wind blew, lifting the leaf, but Wen Qianshu reached out and caught it.

Wen Qianshu: “You must be very sad.”

It must be very sad to have your notebook torn up.

Jiang Mingyue didn’t answer, nor did she deny it.

But Wen Qianshu just knew that she was very sad.

“And you said I wasn’t honest.” Wen Qianshu looked at the leaf. “Leave it with me. I just bought a new notebook, I’ll paste it in for you.”

The summit was getting closer. Wen Qianshu folded the paper in half, pressed the leaf flat, unzipped her jacket, and tucked the paper into the pocket of her inner clothes: “I’ll take good care of it for you. I’ll give it back to you when you’re in university.”

Wen Qianshu thought for a moment and added: “I promise I won’t look.”

Jiang Mingyue raised her eyes and looked straight at her. Wen Qianshu zipped up her jacket, and seeing that they were nearing the end of the path, she changed the subject: “But I didn’t expect your family to believe in this too?”

“My maternal grandfather does.” Jiang Mingyue also looked ahead. “But he’s old and has trouble getting around, so the family comes once for him.”

Wen Qianshu nodded: “I see.”

The summit drew near, bustling with voices. The two families also separated to buy their own incense and pray to Buddha. Wen Qianshu’s mother kept nagging her: “You must be sincere, don’t tell lies in front of the Buddha, ask him to give you good grades, ask him…”

Wen Qianshu agreed repeatedly, then looked up to see Wen Junjie floundering in the sea of people: “Don’t push, please don’t push…”

Wen Qianshu laughed and pulled him over.

Wen Junjie sighed: “I can’t take this… hey, isn’t that your classmate? How is she so fast?”

Wen Qianshu turned to look and saw that Jiang Mingyue and her family were already at the end of the path.

From a distance, Jiang Mingyue put her palms together, raised her eyes, and looked at the seated Buddha above.

Wen Qianshu said to 2333: “I wonder what wish Little Moonlight made.”

2333 didn’t answer.

Wen Qianshu: “2333?”

2333: “She said, uh, because she said it out loud, I can hear it…”

Wen Qianshu smiled, feigning indifference: “Then don’t say it. She’s making a wish, I don’t need to know.”

2333: “No, she…”

The artificial intelligence’s tone was a little surprised: “She said, ‘Buddha, I wish for Wen Qianshu’s happiness.'”

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Author’s Notes:

Let me ramble a bit. I saw many people asking about the meaning of this novel’s title. It’s actually a riddle I saw before. 蟲二 (chóng èr) is the traditional characters for “風月” (fēng yuè – wind and moon) with the outer strokes removed, so it means “boundless wind and moon” (風月無邊 – fēng yuè wú biān).

(The Mid-Lake Pavilion at West Lake in Hangzhou has “蟲二” handwritten by the Qianlong Emperor, but it’s said there’s also a stone carving on Mount Tai, carved by a scholar during the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty. So I can’t verify the specific origin of this riddle, so I won’t cite it.)

Jiang Mingyue is obvious, she is the moon (月). Her name is a homophone for “将明月” (jiǎng míngyuè – to bring the bright moon). She will be the bright moon of Wen Qianshu’s life.

Wen Qianshu is the wind (風). Her surname Wen (闻) means to hear, as in “hearing the wind” (闻风). She is actually very perceptive and has a high sensitivity to others’ emotions.

The reason for using 蟲二 instead of “Boundless Wind and Moon” directly as the title is because Wen Qianshu is someone who likes to hide her true self, so the title, like her, is indirect.

As for the other meanings of this title, that would involve spoilers, so I won’t talk about it.

I’ve always liked to play around with names, it’s a boring little quirk of mine~

It’s not important, not important~ As long as everyone has fun reading the story~