Although the water was not deep, for an eight-year-old child, it was deep enough. Gao Bei couldn’t swim and didn’t know how to struggle. Summer was chewing on an unknown grass, sitting by the side watching.
At dusk, the long-unsettled clouds were dyed crimson by the light, with no birds or human sounds, the world seemingly silent and red, the pond water clear and bright, even more desolate. It was quiet, like the last day of transmission. The only clear sound was Gao Bei splashing water, the water surface chaotic, distant places still smooth like a mirror.
Gao Bei’s shrinking bubbles became smaller, Ruoyi jumped down to drag him to the shore, but didn’t pull him up. Gao Bei was like a crab vomiting bubbles.
“You dare to drown me!” Gao Bei shouted.
Ruoyi retorted: “Why kill you! Who doesn’t know that living is harder!”
Gao Bei said: “You can talk! Living is clearly better than being dead!”
Ruoyi laughed haha: “Then let me drown you!”
Gao Bei didn’t respond, nor did he think back. He needed all his strength to swim and breathe. The water was far from being as poetic as imagined, with a raw breath of grass oil and unknown black insects everywhere. Gao Bei vomited while drinking, the hot spit spreading quickly into the cold, a feeling he had never experienced in his eight years of life, so-called life and death was probably just like this.
Ruoyi said: “My father won’t blame me. If I can’t think of the first three names of milk, he won’t blame me either, so I’ll go to your house for dinner.”
Gao Bei grabbed Ruoyi’s collar, hanging on Summer’s raft. The raft was full of mud, but Gao Bei had no choice. If not, he would only continue to sink.
Gao Bei said: “Ah Mei’s milk won’t help you. She won’t.”
Ruoyi grabbed the grass and pressed Gao Bei’s head: “Then we’ll negotiate, you go to her, I’ll go to your house.”
Gao Bei looked at Ruoyi’s expression, Ruoyi pressed Gao Bei’s body downward, Gao Bei couldn’t resist, standing up and pointing, shouting: “Just one time!”
Ruoyi said: “Who likes the second time.”
