The Moon Festival Cousin Switch novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Last Quiet Night
The night before the Double Ninth was clear and cool.
Mengyao sat cross-legged on the bed with the grey scarf across her lap.
She held a needle up to the lamp and squinted.
"Thread it," she said.
"I'm trying."
"You're threatening it. Be gentle."
Anqi, sitting opposite, wet the end of the thread between her lips and tried a fourth time.
It went through.
She let out a small triumphant breath, and Mengyao clapped.
"A translator," Mengyao said. "Four languages in your head and a needle defeats you."
"Two languages. And the needle is the harder one."
"Now fold the end over. Small stitches, like you're counting."
Anqi bent over the scarf with her tongue between her teeth.
The twigs of osmanthus on the nightstand had dried and still smelled sweet.
Outside, a few late firecrackers popped a long way off, for no one's wedding.
Her stitches came out crooked and enormous.
Mengyao watched them with great tenderness.
"It's perfect," she said.
"It looks like a fence."
"It's the most beautiful fence I have ever been given."
Anqi put the needle in the cushion and laid the scarf aside.
She looked at the woman across from her, in a faded T-shirt and the chestnut hair sticking up at the back.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to stand up," she said.
"What?"
"At the dinner. I have kept my chair for twenty-six years. It's the only thing I've ever been proud of." She smiled a little. "Tomorrow, if you need me to, I'll stand."
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