I am the Odd One Out Chapter 3

This delicate and lively woman fell ill the next day, lying on the kang of Leo Lin's house, with a soaked handkerchief on her forehead, and her long hair falling down from the edge of the kang, like willow silk by the water in the south. Her brother, with a frown on his face, sat on the edge of the kang and talked to her in a fast tone for a while. Then he walked up to Leo Lin and said worriedly that his sister was sick. He described his sister's condition, saying that she felt dizzy for a while when she woke up in the morning, and fell before she even reached the door after getting off the ground. He said that he touched his sister's forehead and it was as hot as a freshly roasted sweet potato. His voice was helpless, and he said to himself that he could only go on the road alone. He carefully asked Leo Lin if he could temporarily take in his sister? He said that when he found his uncle in the capital, he would come back to pick her up. Leo Lin nodded. The elder brother walked to the kang and spoke a few words to his sister again in fast words that Leo Lin could not understand. Then he picked up his baggage, picked up his gown, stepped out of the yard, and walked from the path onto the main road. , heading north in the light of sunrise.

Leo Lin remembered that when he was half asleep last night, Mia's smile always appeared in front of his eyes, and his delicate face fluctuated slightly in his sleep, as if floating on water. Later, a yellow road slid towards him, and he saw the delicate face walking away on the road. He suddenly woke up, and emotions of restlessness and loss surged into his heart, accompanying him through the long night. After dawn came, Mia stayed, and daytime also came in Leo Lin's heart.

Leo Lin walked up to Mia and saw Mia's closed eyes opened and her raised lips also opened at the same time. Mia said:

"Give me a bowl of water."

In the afternoon of this day, Mia got down from the kang, took out the clogs from her bag and put them on her feet, and started doing housework. At dusk, she sat on the threshold, looking at the crops in the fields with a smile under the red light of the setting sun. Leo Lin is back.

Leo Lin walked up to her. She got up and went into the room with Leo Lin. She handed him the bowl of water prepared on the table, then turned and walked away. Leo Lin heard a strange noise in the house, and then saw the clogs on Mia's feet. She made a crisp knocking sound when she walked around the house. Leo Lin's surprised look made Mia laugh. She said they were called clogs. Leo Lin said he had never seen clogs. Mia said that girls in their hometown all wear clogs, especially in summer evenings. After washing their feet by the river, they put on clogs and walk on the stone roads in the city. The clogs make a sound, like the sound of a xylophone. Leo Lin asked what the sound of the xylophone was. Mia couldn't answer for a while. She lowered her head and thought about it, then walked around the house. After the crisp sound of the clogs disappeared, she said:

"It's like the sound of a xylophone."

Leo Lin saw that the house had been tidied up and the food was placed on the table. Mia stood aside with a smile, as if waiting for something. Leo Lin seemed to have come to someone else's home. Everything in front of him made him feel uneasy. He felt that Mia, who was standing opposite, felt the same uneasy feeling. He sat down on the stool, and Mia also sat down. He picked up the chopsticks, and Mia Pick up the chopsticks too. Mia's face was filled with blush. Leo Lin thought that she had recovered from the illness in the morning. He was a little surprised. Mia's recovery was as sudden as her sudden illness.

After that, time passed quickly. Several times when Leo Lin walked home along the field ridge, he saw Mia sitting on the threshold. She held her cheek with her hands and was lost in thought, looking into the distance with blurred eyes. Leo Lin thought that she was expecting her brother to arrive. The man wearing a royal blue gown should appear on the dusty road.

After they sat down at the dinner table, the brother named Alex became a frequent topic. In order to comfort Mia, Leo Lin always said that Alex should have arrived in the capital and would pick her up soon. After saying this, a picture like this appeared in front of Leo Lin. Mia, wearing a floral cheongsam, followed her brother and slowly walked away on the road at sunrise. On her small feet were a pair of aconite socks and a pair of clogs. . Later, Leo Lin was filled with melancholy. Once this southern woman who had been with him for a long time, this little beauty who cooked for him and washed his clothes, left him, he didn't know what the rest of his life would be like.

One day later, Mia sat down in front of the loom left by Leo Lin's mother. She fiddled with it for a long time. This was her first time playing with the loom. By dusk, she was finally able to master it. Weaving loom. When Leo Lin came back from the fields and walked into the yard, he heard the sound of the loom and had a momentary hallucination, thinking that his mother was in the house. Then he guessed that it was Mia. He crossed the threshold of the house and saw Mia sitting in front of the loom, her face flushed and beads of sweat hanging on her forehead. When Mia saw Leo Lin coming in, she immediately stood up and went to greet him, telling him over and over again that the sound of this loom was much louder than the looms in her hometown, just like the braying of a donkey was much louder than the braying of a sheep. She said She was startled at first, thinking that she had broken the loom, but then she said that she had learned to weave.

She laughed while talking, her eyes sparkling. This was the first time Leo Lin saw Mia with such an expression. A woman who walked around the house with only the sound of her clogs, a woman who did not laugh out loud but kept a smile in the corner of her mouth, now her face was radiant.

Leo Lin felt that his mother's loom made Mia feel at ease. After that, he no longer saw Mia sitting on the threshold, but heard the continuous sound of weaving. The loom, which had been silent for five years after her mother's death, began to buzz in the hands of another woman. Leo Lin no longer mentions Alex, the name is fading away. Mia seemed to have forgotten her brother. When she was not cooking, washing, and doing housework, she would be immersed in the squeaking sound of the loom. Leo Lin began to take down the thread-bound books from the shelves, wipe the dust off them with his sleeve, and read them at his leisure. He sat down between the small table and the small stool, and would see Mia covering her mouth and smiling. He knew that his body was not in harmony with the small table and stool, and he would laugh a few times. Mia saw a table and stool adapted to Leo Lin's body in the carpentry, and wondered why he used a child's table and stool.

Such days are peaceful and warm, but sometimes Leo Lin feels anxious. Looking at Mia's figure in front of the loom, he wonders why there is no matchmaker to propose marriage for her?