August was the bane of Ming's existence.
The hot, stuffy air threatened to choke her as she trudged through the streets towards her apartment, shielding her eyes from the gently fading sunlight. Her stringy black bangs stuck damply to her face and her knapsack felt like a boulder slung over her shoulders.
Ming let out a faint groan when she reached the flight of stairs leading up to communal balcony of the apartment buildings. Grumbling under her breath, she began to climb the seemingly endless concrete steps, trying to ignore the thick, sticky sweat dripping into her eyes. She could feel her back aching in complaint under the weight of her workbooks. She didn't feel like a fourteen-year-old teenager on the way home from school; she felt like an old woman trying huff and puff her way up a mountain. All that was missing was the cane.
At the top of the stairs, she spotted somebody standing at the other end of the long balcony, leaning against the railing with their back to her. The figure traced a silhouette against the glow of the sunset, and in it Ming could make out strands of a long, silky ponytail fluttering through the warm breeze.
Her approaching footsteps soon caught the other's attention. A familiar face glanced back and then lit up brightly upon recognising her. "Ah, good evening, Miss Zhang Ming. Are you off school already?"
"For the day, yes," Ming replied, taking care to keep a mannerly tone around her neighbour. "Our teacher decided to be generous and let us go early today."
"Ah, that makes sense. Normally I don't see you around this time of evening."
"What about you? What are you doing out here?"
Wang Yao gestured airily towards a plastic basket sitting nearby, filled over the top with heaps of freshly washed clothes. Which inevitably meant... Ming's eyes wandered over to the apartment adjacent to hers, and sure enough, there was a bare clothes rack standing beside the door. On the floors above, the garments of their other neighbours were already hanging out the windows and blowing in the wind, their clean whites bathed in orange in the dying dusk. Of course; laundry day.
Yao smiled. "Do you help your parents with the laundry, young lady?"
Ming quirked an eyebrow at what seemed to her like an obvious question. "Yes, of course, all the time." What kind of daughter would she be if she didn't?
For some reason, this elicited a light-hearted chuckle from the elder. "Such a good girl, aru." There it was. The Beijing dialect was not foreign, but it still remained slightly out of place no matter how long Yao had lived in this modest suburban neighbourhood. "You know, aru, I was going to hang my own laundry out to dry this afternoon, but I ended up being distracted by the view. Even with all of the buildings, the park looks quite lovely from up here, doesn't it?"
Indeed, the bright green trees and colourful flowerbeds were a refreshing sight, a beautiful breath of life nestled beneath the smoggy city skyline. Faint rays of light caught shimmering ripples in the pond, and children ran playfully around in circles as their parents lounged nearby on weathered stone benches. "It is very nice," Ming agreed sincerely, taking in a deep breath as she admired the view with her neighbour. It was no surprise that this would be a distraction, particularly on such a fair, cloudless day.
Then, casting her eyes over the overflowing basket again, she was seized by a charitable impulse and added politely, "By the way, would you like any help with the hanging? I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind if I'm a little late, so if you need—"
"Oh no, no, no, that's not necessary!" Yao immediately threw both hands up in protest. "It's very kind of you to offer, but I will be perfectly fine on my own. I'm used to living by myself, I've done it for... for quite a while now. And besides, young lady—" Ming blushed slightly at the scrutinising, almost accusing stare suddenly fixed on her "—do you not have homework to do?"
"I—well, yes," she admitted, trying not to think of the massive pile of work she had waiting for her in her bag.
"Young people like you should focus on studying, aru. Your future is far more important than wasting time helping out an old soul like me."
Ming wanted to point out that Yao didn't look that old—hardly a day over twenty-five, despite talking like somebody closer to her grandparents' age—but she held her tongue for the sake of respect. "A-all right then, if you insist," she said, still looking a bit uncertain. Nevertheless, she heeded her elder's words and turned to leave. "In that case, I will be on my way now."
"Good girl." Yao beamed in approval and patted her on the head. "Be a good student and make your parents proud, aru."
"Ma, there's no ice cream left."
Ming's mother hardly glanced up from her newspaper. "Go down and buy some more then. You can take a break from work. Your father's wallet is in his bag."
Ming resisted the urge to groan. It was the response she expected, but that didn't mean she particularly liked it. Yes, there was a convenience store right across the street, which always saved her a long walk, but she still had leave the comfort of her air-conditioned apartment to brave the sweltering heat outside. Not fun.
At least the sky was dark now, which hopefully meant the air was a little cooler.
With her father's money in her pocket, Ming traipsed out the front door—and was promptly greeted with a blast of warm wind in her face. This time, she didn't bother restraining her groan. So much for the hope of a nice, refreshing evening walk. Maybe if she moved quickly enough, she could make it to the cool relief of the store before melting into a puddle.
She turned towards the stairs of the balcony when a brief flash of white caught her eye. Glancing over her shoulder, Ming noticed that the previously empty clothes rack next to her neighbour's door was now loaded with damp, fluttering laundry. It looked like Yao had finally gotten around to finishing the job.
Oh, wait a minute...
She stopped in her tracks. Lying innocently on the ground nearby was a small pink bra and a pair of panties.
They must have fallen from the rack; it was the only explanation Ming could come up with, though it was still a bit odd. People usually didn't hang their undergarments outside, especially not right out in the open where everyone could see them clear as day. Yao was certainly rather shameless, it seemed.
Still, she couldn't just leave the things lying there on the dirty ground, so Ming went over to hang the bra and panties back onto the rack, like the "good girl" that Yao believed her to be. I hope Auntie Wang doesn't mind me handling her clothes, she thought as she fumbled awkwardly with the delicate garments. I'll tell her to be more careful later... it might not be me who catches it next time.
"AIYAAA! Where did these come from, aru?"
The shocked yell jolted Ming's thoughts away from her math homework. Frowning, she pushed her chair back and wandered out into the living room, where her father was peering out the window from his seat at the dining room table.
"What happened?" she asked.
"It's Wang Yao," he said, glancing up at her. "It seems that he's found something unexpected in his laundry. It looked like something pink..."
"The underwear?"
"Oh, is that it? You've seen them too?" Before Ming could respond, her father continued, "Yes, I noticed them when I was coming home from work. I didn't expect him to have such things, so I wondered if he was getting married or something... which would be strange in itself, now that I think about it. I've never seen him with a girlfriend before."
A confused crease appeared in Ming's forehead. "Girlfriend...?" she repeated blankly.
"I'm surprised," her father mused. "He seems like such a nice young man. You would think a pretty woman would have noticed him by now."
There was a very long silence.
"Young... man?" Ming's voice was getting weaker with every word.
Her father glanced down at her, now looking somewhat bemused. "That's right. I don't know how old he is, but he looks like he could be in university now, doesn't he? I don't know what he's even doing here when he could be in school and putting his life to good use. I wonder how he plans on supporting a family... hey, what's wrong? Why are you making such a face? Is there a problem?"
Ming could only stare back, wide-eyed and open-mouthed in utter mortification.
Auntie Wang... no, Uncle Wang?
Ah, crap.
A/N: Based on a true story of one of my friends. Her neighbours' laundry accidentally blew loose one day, and she mixed them up with another neighbour's while trying to put them back... (Not that her neighbour was a feminine-looking man; my friend is just extremely air-headed.)
Just a note on the translation convention: in spoken Mandarin, "he" and "she" are not differentiated by gender (they sound exactly the same) which is part of the reason why it took Ming so long to realise that Yao is a guy. Also, Yao is not really Ming's aunt; "auntie" is just a respectful way for young people to refer to an older woman, whether you're related or not.