Mou Mou Extra: Habits

Author: Mu Su Li

English fan translations: Treasure Chest Subs

Raws and Translation: Merchie
Editor: asckj1

This chapter is an extra chapter from the print edition of Mou Mou novel (Sheng
Xia)

“Moving is the most annoying chore in this world. It’s unrivaled.” Gao Tianyang had
once said something like this.

That was during the second month after his and Chili’s “honeymoon trip”. The two
had settled nicely into their new house in Beijing. This year’s Valentines’ Day had
been difficult for many couples. The timing was unfortunate; it just so happened that
there were tons of meetings, and it was the busiest Monday of the year. Because Chili
had a case to take care of, she had to take a business trip to Shenzhou. And so, Gao
Tianyang, who could not stand being alone, grabbed a few of his brothers and forcibly
started a WeChat group video call in order to pass the time while he was left by
himself. (Merchie: omg Chilli’s a lawyer)

That WeChat group had been created while they were sightseeing; there were seven
people in total. It had initially been named “The Eating, Drinking, and Merrymaking
Squad”. Later, while they were climbing a tower in Prague, the name had been
changed to “Last One’s a Grandson”. And after everyone had reached the top of the
tower, it turned into “Song Sirui and His Grandparents”.

But since Carp and Little Chili were not keen on the idea of being called grannies, in
the end, it was reduced to “Four Grandpas”, which had been its name ever since.

The video call invitation rang several times; Song Sirui, who had no jetlag, and
Small-mouthed Xu, who was currently in Australia and had almost no jetlag, both
picked up the call one after the other.

1
Song Sirui said “Hello?” a few times. Once he made sure that the call was not lagging,
he began to curse: “Hey, Gao Tianyang, there must be something wrong with you. It’s
Valentines’ Day, but you’re not video-calling Chili? What are you dragging us here
for?”

Gao Tianyang: “I did. She’s at a banquet right now. She ordered me not to be mushy
and not to stir up any trouble, in case it disrupts her thinking process. If the result of
the case ends up going south, it won’t end well for me either.”

Song Sirui spat, “Tch! I’m also at a banquet. I’m hanging up.”

Gao Tianyang: “A banquet, my ass. I can see your takeout box.”

Song Sirui’s lips moved as he cursed silently.

Gao Tianyang said snarkily, “No, no, no, don’t you flip your camera! Do you think I
can’t see that there’s only one pair of chopsticks if you flip it?”

Song Sirui snatched up the chopsticks, “I…”

Small-mouthed Xu had his earbuds in, laughing as he watched the show.

Song Sirui: “Next year, on this date, can I hope that Little Chili will lose her mind and
punch your mouth into oblivion?”

As he spoke, he @ (tagged) Chili and sent a text repeating these words.

Two seconds passed before Chili replied in the group chat with one word: Yes.

Gao Tianyang immediately followed up with a meme before he fell to his knees with a
thud.

Small-mouthed Xu was howling with laughter.

“You’re both single. Look at Small Mouth,” Gao Tianyang was quickly sending
messages of appeasement in the chat but his mouth was still spewing nonsense , “He’s
so mild. Learn from him.”

2
“Learn from your grandma1.” Song Sirui twirled his chopsticks in the other direction
and continued eating his bachelor’s dinner. He chewed on a chunk of chicken and
asked incoherently, “Weren’t you ranting about how you had to work 007 overtime2
hours? What, is it over?”

“Almost. I just submitted the project plan at noon. Obviously, that’s why I can relax
tonight and send dog food3 to you guys remotely.”

Song Sirui’s chunk of chicken slipped out of his mouth: “You said you’re doing what?
Sending dog food?”

Gao Tianyang: “Mn.”

Song Sirui: “If I’m not mistaken, you dragged four people into this video call earlier,
right?”

He looked at the avatars of the two who had been unable to connect to the call and
asked Gao Tianyang, "It's fine if you feed me dog food, but did you have to drag them
along too? Haven’t you had enough for dinner?”

Small-mouthed Xu burst into laughter again. Although he was not an expert, he could
take on a supporting role in this comedy show. He immediately gave Song Sirui a
thumbs-up: “I was just about to say that Old Gao’s operation is way too idiotic.”

“Now that’s what you don’t understand about this.” Gao Tianyang wagged his index
finger seriously, "Do you think I’d knock on their door just to find myself a little
excitement? Absolutely not. What I’m doing here is gathering intel on the enemy!”

Since the other two had not connected to the video call yet, he used the opportunity
to spout a stream of nonsense: “Yesterday, I talked with Tian-ge. After New Year’s
Day, he was swamped with work and two of his projects just happened to overlap with
each other. The subject of one of the projects is still in England, Sheffield or

1
This is difficult to explain. When people say something like “... your grandma”, it’s the same energy
as “..., my ass”.

2
The 007 working system is a brutal overtime work schedule used in China; hours are from 12 A.M. to
12 P.M., 7 days a week.

3
发狗粮 (fā gǒu liáng): “Sending dog food”. To flaunt one’s romantic relationship, especially in front of
single people.

3
whatever. They always borrow a laboratory from one of the universities there
anyway.”

“And then?”

"Then, he was dragged away to attend a conference in California last week. Yesterday,
he was still at a hotel, so he’ll be landing in England tomorrow morning. He wasn’t on
a direct flight, so it’ll have to take him more than 10 hours to arrive, won’t it? Once
you factor out the time—”

"It's been factored out." Song Sirui was gnawing on his ground pot chicken4 again and
said casually, "From the beginning to the end, won’t there still be some time left
over?”

Gao Tianyang: “...”

Small-mouthed Xu could not help himself from saying: “Old Song, Sheng-ge’s in New
York.”

Song Sirui: “Oh yeah.”

If Sheng Wang were to turn around and go back again, that would take another five or
six hours. Forget about all the rushing around, he would not even have time to sleep…

It really was unlikely.

Song Sirui played with his fingers and understood Gao Tianyang’s confidence behind
sending them dog food. It was a shame that Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang had not
connected to the call and had not eaten it; only he and Small-mouthed Xu had to
suffer through it.

“Oh yeah, have you two finished cleaning up your house? The photo Chili sent me of
the living room full of luggage really shocked me.”

4
地锅鸡 (di guō jī): “ground pot chicken” (literal translation). A chicken stew that is served in many
regions, including Jiangsu. It is served with pieces of dough that are similar to dumpling skins. The
dough is stuck to the edges of a pan while also being soaked in soup. This makes it crisp and allows it to
absorb the stew’s flavor.

4
"We’ve cleaned it up. I'll show you guys." Gao Tianyang grabbed his phone and walked
from one room to another, showing everything off as he complained, "Moving has
almost caused some psychological trauma.”

Just as he was muttering “That year, when I ran 3000 meters after running 1500, and
when I played basketball after running 3000 meters, it wasn’t as exhausting as
moving. My body and mind were drained, let me tell you. Chili and I were regretting
it. We should have just stayed in an unfinished house5–” At this moment, a voice cut
through the group chat: “What unfinished house? Who would be minimalistic enough
to live in an unfinished house?”

"Hey!" Gao Tianyang and the others were stunned for a moment when they saw
another person appear on their phone screens, “Sheng-ge!”

It was morning for Sheng Wang. The weather was nice; rays of sunlight were shining
over his back. His skin had always been fair, and he was also wearing a white sweater,
which made his entire body blindingly bright.

He probably noticed that his brothers had all squinted their eyes, so he quickly
changed angles. The overexposed colors slowly faded and his figure became clearer.

He must have just taken a shower; he had wiped his hair but it still was not dry, and a
messy patch of crow-black hair was covering part of his face. Judging by the
curvature of his lips, he was in quite a good mood at the moment.

The shuffling of slippers sounded a few times. Sheng Wang grabbed his phone and sat
down in a bar stool in the kitchen. One could tell at a glance that he was at home.

“You still haven’t gone to work yet?” asked Gao Tianyang.

Sheng Wang pointed at the screen and said suspiciously: "Old Gao, your motives are all
wrong.”

Gao Tianyang became nervous: “What do you mean?”

Somebody was incredibly sharp: “You knew that I usually go to work at this time, but
you still dialed a video call?”

5
毛坯房 (máo pī fáng): “Unfinished house”. It is a house that is completely bare; no door frames,
furnishings, wallpaper, etc.

5
Song Sirui immediately complained: “I’m telling you, he did it on purpose. He took
advantage of the fact that Tian-ge isn’t here, and was spouting some nonsense about
stuffing our mouths with dog food, including you. Oh, no, especially you. You weren’t
here earlier, Small-mouthed can testify to this.”

Small-mouthed Xu nodded, “I can.”

When Sheng Wang heard him say “Tian-ge isn’t here”, his lips moved and he was
about to interject. Unfortunately, Song Sirui spoke quickly, his words clustered
together, his mouth motoring off, and he did not get the chance. He might as well just
keep his mouth shut and be an audience member watching this public shaming session
without a care in the world. After Song Sirui was done complaining, he said
contemptuously, “Sheng-ge, what do you say? Just what kind of conduct is this?”

The young master threw wood into the fire: “It’s quite vile.”

Song Sirui: “How should we deal with him?”

The young master nodded in agreement: “He’ll get his retribution.”

Gao Tianyang: “...”

"I was wrong." He admitted his mistake insincerely but quickly. “Everyone, I was
wrong. I should have– Ss, look at the time. Sheng-ge, you still aren’t going to work
yet?”

Gao Tianyang’s thoughts were always jumping all over the place. While he was in the
middle of apologizing, he caught a glimpse of the time in the upper left corner. After
factoring in the time difference, he feared that this video call of his really had taken
up too much of Sheng Wang’s time.

"It’s fine. For the moment, I have an extra half day-off.” Sheng Wang poured himself a
cup of water.

Gao Tianyang pricked his ears up like a dog: “Huh? You’ve adjusted your work
schedule6?”

Before they could begin to gossip about his reasons for changing his work schedule,
the sharp-eyed Small-mouthed Xu asked, “What happened to your hand?”
6
调假 (diào jiǎ): Basically means to work more in order to get more days off.

6
As Sheng Wang was in the process of getting water and drinking it, a part of his sleeve
scrunched up and happened to expose his left wrist. For some reason it was covered
in a large patch of red and there were quite a few tiny wounds. Perhaps it was
because the color clashed with his skin tone too much; it was quite a frightening
sight.

"Oh." Sheng Wang glanced at it, “Don’t mention it. Yesterday, someone blew up a
glass bottle at work. I happened to be looking for her to discuss something and
unconsciously pulled her out of the way.”

The girl was fine, but the hand he had used to block the impact had met with
disaster. A patch of skin had been burned and a number of small cuts had appeared
due to the shards of broken glass.

One could only blame him for his big heart.

At that time, the girl was terribly guilty. His original intent had been to comfort her.
He flushed the injury with cold water and told her “It’s fine”. The result of that was
returning home that night and discovering a fat blister.

Gao Tianyang and the others grinned when they heard this. It wasn’t because of the
severity of the injury, or how troublesome it was. It was because they understood this
person’s virtue– during the sports festival in high school, his foot had been sprained
really badly, but he was still in the mood to hop all the way to the finish line.

Gao Tianyang: “Did you apply ointment?”

Sheng Wang: “I did.”

“Oh.” Song Sirui said, “That’s good, at least you know to keep medicine on hand.”

Sheng Wang laughed dryly. "Last night, the landlady saw it. She grabbed some
ointment and forced me to apply it. The old lady has the same temper as Jing-jie.”

Gao Tianyang and the others laughed. Once they were done laughing, their faces
straightened back out and they said in their minds: Indeed, he had to be forced to
even apply medicine. As expected of him.

7
Small-mouthed Xu took a few more glances at his wrist and asked doubtfully,
“Sheng-ge, did you pop the blister with a sterilized needle? It might be better if you
pop it before applying ointment.”

For the past few years, he had been in and out of the forest; he had taken care of his
fair share of injuries, big and small. He was much more experienced than Sheng Wang
and the others and was also much more meticulous.

Sheng Wang answered immediately, “I did.”

One could tell at a glance that there was something off about his behavior.
Small-mouthed Xu leaned close to the camera and stared for a while: “No way, it
doesn’t look like you popped it with a needle to me. It looks like you just peeled the
skin off.”

Sheng Wang: “...”

Sheng Wang: “It was… a little thin. I wasn’t paying attention and it ended up like
this.”

Gao Tianyang and the others: “...”

So he really had peeled it off.

Small-mouthed Xu’s expression was filled with both surprise and admiration: “So you
just took a shower with this exposed piece of skin and didn’t get scalded?”

Sheng Wang opened his mouth. He was about to provide an explanation of “actually,
no”, but before he could say a thing, Gao Tianyang tapped Jiang Tian’s profile picture
and sent him a second invitation since he was unable to connect earlier: “No, I really
have to report this. We can’t cure you, but your ge can.”

Sheng Wang: “...”

That really was not necessary.

Not even two seconds had passed after Gao Tianyang pressed the invite button, when
Song Sirui whispered a reminder of “Tian-ge’s schedule is so rushed. Maybe he’s
catching up on sleep”. Then, buzzing sounds suddenly began to ring through all four
people’s screens.

8
As Gao Tianyang’s phone beeped, a “bzz” sounded from the other end. With every
beep, there was a “bzz”, their frequencies overlapping constantly.

A question mark slowly appeared above three people’s heads.

They all froze and directed their gaze toward Sheng Wang’s screen. They saw the
person on the screen reach out and grab a phone off the kitchen counter.

Everybody: “...”

Gao Tianyang waited for the video invitation to hang up automatically with an
expression that screamed “What the f***?!”. With a “ding”, the phone Sheng Wang had
grabbed also stopped vibrating.

Immediately afterward, the faint shuffling of slippers sounded again. But Sheng Wang
himself was still sitting in the bar stool; he merely turned his head and looked
somewhere off screen…

Then, Gao Tianyang and the others heard Jiang Tian's voice growing nearer from afar:
"Is someone calling me?”

The angle of Sheng Wang's gaze changed along with the voice’s volume. He held the
phone and passed it over to the side, tilting his face upward as he said, “No, Old Gao
invited you to a video call.”

A hand appeared in the camera and took the phone. The owner of this hand leaned
over the edge of the kitchen counter. Using Sheng Wang’s screen, he greeted Gao
Tianyang and the others.

His hair was also wet and a white towel was draped over his neck. It appeared that he
had taken a shower while Sheng Wang and the others were in the video call.

Gao Tianyang and the others were blindsided by this greeting: “Tian-ge… you’re
here?!”

Gao Tianyang: “Why are you here?”

It was completely crazy.

9
Wasn’t it difficult enough to get any sleep when his schedule was so full that it was
about to explode?

Jiang Tian replied, "After I was done with everything, I caught a red-eye flight and
arrived here early in the morning.”

Gao Tianyang thought, No, please don’t be vague about the big issue. Anyone who's
been to primary school can figure out what kind of flight you took. Is that what I
asked?

Perhaps the expressions of this group of comrades, especially Gao Tianyang, looked
too shocked. Sheng Wang raised his scalded hand and explained: “The main thing is
that there are too many undercover agents lying in wait around me, like the landlady
downstairs.”

He was utterly innocent and helpless: “The old lady was even faster than you in
reporting it. Last night, all it took was a single phone call.”

Only God knew that last night, he had happened to dream about an exam and had
even dreamed of himself turning on a small lamp and frantically doing practice sets
on his bed in the Fuzhong dormitory in order to catch up. Just as he was about to
finish, a faint knock suddenly sounded at the door.

He almost thought that the dormitory was being burglarized again. In the end, when
he woke up in terror, he saw his ge looking back at him.

At that moment, his dream really had taken him back to his high school days.

The other three people on the screen seemed to be cutting out and were frozen as
JPGs for a long while. They finally closed their mouths and gave a thumbs-up:
“Respect.”

Sheng Wang laughed. This young master’s mind was full of evil ideas as he pondered
over Gao Tianyang’s goal in video-calling them today. Just as he was about to take the
opportunity to force an answer out of him, he felt something touch his head— a white
towel carrying the faint scent of shampoo covered his soaking-wet hair.

He heard his ge say to Gao Tianyang and the others, “You all chat first. I’m taking him
away to dry his hair.”

10
Just after, Young Master Sheng was kidnapped by a monster.

They were gone for a long while. On the screen, Gao Tianyang “Ah”d, slapping his
hands as he said, “Why did you guys call me underhanded? Why did I start this video
call, ah? Just what was I thinking? Huh?”

Song Sirui gave an accurate evaluation: "Because you’re a dumbass.”

Gao Tianyang: “...”

Small-mouthed Xu roared with laughter.

As always, these people could still quarrel nonstop no matter how many years had
passed. They seemed raucous and loud, but they were nothing more than faint
background noise.

The young master sat cross-legged on the carpet in the living room, leaning against
the sofa, obediently applying ointment to the back of his glorious paw, allowing his ge
to blow-dry his hair.

This was a habit that Jiang Tian had nurtured in him.

In the past six months, he seemed to have gradually formed a bunch of strange little
habits. Every day, when he blow-dried Sheng Wang’s hair or cooked, he would always
say “Wang-zai7, good morning” or “Wang-zai, good night”. (Merchie: aweeee)

It was not as though he had never done these things before. It was just that… these
things were slowly becoming ordinary to him, the most natural part of everyday life.
It was the kind of reflex action that was as normal as eating when hungry or drinking
when thirsty.

It was difficult to describe that subtle difference, but the young master had always
been sensitive in this area. There had been times when he could not help it and had
stirred up a bit of a fuss when he asked. But his ge’s ‘cold outside, warm inside’
personality was god-tier,and so he could never obtain a single bit of information.

***

7
望仔: Sheng Wang’s nickname. 仔’ is a suffix that is used in young people’s names, mainly sons. By
extension, 仔 can also refer to a young animal.

11
It was after a long time had passed, so long that he had already grown accustomed to
these things and had almost forgotten that he had once been puzzled over these
matters, that he finally caught a glimpse of a clue.

At that time, Jiang Tian had already graduated and Sheng Wang had also changed
jobs. The two had returned to China and had settled down in Beijing. After moving in,
there were so many odds and ends between both humans and cats and they had
thoroughly experienced Gao Tianyang’s complaints about how moving was “the most
exhausting chore in the world”.

Abiding by the customs of their hometown, for their housewarming, they had to treat
their close friends and neighbors to a meal; only then would there be an exciting,
lively atmosphere. So, in June of that year, during an overtime compensation break,
they took Old Man Ding for a trip back to Jiangsu.

Although most of their close friends were in Beijing, when it came to their
“neighbors”, they still recalled the people and places of the past. They still thought
of Fuzhong’s South Gate, Happy Convenience Store’s modest storefront, and the
winding path of Parasol Walk.

Sheng Wang did not quite remember how the conversation started. He only
remembered that it was on an afternoon. They had gone to Old Man Ding’s old house.
As they cleaned the place up, they chatted with Uncle Mute through hand gestures
and typing.

Old Man Ding had been especially energetic that day. There seemed to be more of a
spring in his step, and he had only gotten confused a few times. It seemed that as
long as he was in this old house that he had lived in for decades, incessantly passing
time could automatically return to a period from many years ago.

The moment he walked in, he retrieved the broom that was leaning against the wall
and swept away the creepers and vines that were blocking the sunlight. He swept the
entire yard, gathering all of the fluff and dead leaves into a dustpan, before
depositing them next to that old tree trunk. Then, he picked up the green plastic
watering can that had been placed atop the low wall, filled it up, and watered the
soil in each of the crooked flower pots.
Finally, he put down the watering can, shook the water off his hands before walking
through the yard, and entered the kitchen. He wiped his hands on the towel that was
hanging by the wall and opened the fridge…

12
Only at this moment did a trace of doubt and pause appear in his actions.

Because there was hardly anything in the fridge. It was not filled to the brim like it
had always been so many years ago. The old man had already reached inside; he was
stunned and did not know what he should take.

At this moment, Sheng Wang entered the kitchen. He looked at Old Man Ding standing
dazed in front of the fridge and felt at a bit of a loss. He hurriedly improvised,
“Grandpa, we’ve eaten everything and forgot to buy groceries, so the fridge is a bit
empty today.”

Old Man Ding said "oh", and after a while, he finally remembered that there was no
need to cook today; they had made a reservation at a restaurant and were treating
guests to a meal. Fortunately, the old man was not a sentimental person; after he
snapped out of his confusion, he would stop worrying. Every day, he was cheerful and
full of laughter, and his temperament had improved immensely.

He closed the refrigerator and immediately waved his hand, laughing as he spoke,
“Right, right, we’re going out to eat. We’re going out to eat today.”

After he finished mumbling to himself, he walked out of the kitchen. When he passed
Sheng Wang, he patted him and said, “It’s a habit now. An old habit…”

Before, when he had inquired about the progression of the old man’s condition, Sheng
Wang had always noticed the truth of that statement. It was said that after the
elderly slowly grew muddled, sometimes, people who once had a mild temperament
would become very stubborn and rude. On the other hand, those who had once had
bad tempers would begin to smile every day; one could not be sure of anything. But
there was one thing that was certain– they would slowly, slowly forget many things
and many people; the only things that could be preserved forever were the simple,
little things that they repeated every single day… that was their intimate, persistent
muscle memory.

At that moment, Sheng Wang suddenly remembered those little habits that Jiang Tian
had embedded into his life little by little. In an instant, there was finally an answer to
the puzzlement and curiosity he once felt.

13
In the little courtyard, Old Man Ding was ordering Jiang Tian to cool the watermelons
they had bought for Uncle Mute in the well water. As he gave unnecessary
instructions, he complained about how the watermelons were too big or too small.

Jiang Tian endured his chattering as usual. When he finished cooling the watermelons
and stood up, he looked up toward Sheng Wang out of habit.

The first chirps of the cicadas this summer seemed to ring out at that moment, and
from then on, they continued without pause.

For a long time, Sheng Wang had always heard Gao Tianyang and the others sigh about
how time was passing too fast; a day was gone within the blink of an eye, then a year.
Then after blinking again, many years had already flown by.

It was so fast that it was terrifying.

But the moment the song of the cicadas sounded, he suddenly changed his mind. It
was as though words like ‘time’, ‘growing up’, ‘getting old’, and even ‘forgetting’ did
not feel so scary anymore.

Look, summer has just arrived, but they still have a long future ahead.

14