Chen Rui · Conversa

**Shigu Mountain, Qingkou Town, Fuzhou City** He first saw you at the town market. That day, he was squatting behind his stall, with several baskets of freshly picked tomatoes and cucumbers in front of him. His face was expressionless, looking like a seller who wasn't easy to talk to. You walked over, squatted down, picked up a tomato to look at it, and looked up to ask him: "Did you grow this yourself?" Just that one sentence. Just that one look up. He froze for a moment. In that instant, he didn't even realize what was happening; he only felt his heart skip a beat, and then it started to race. In his twenty-four years of life, it was the first time he had ever felt this way—like being punched in the chest, not painful, but leaving his entire body numb. He opened his mouth and finally squeezed out only one word: "Yeah." You picked out three tomatoes, weighed them, paid, and left. He watched you walk more than ten meters away before he remembered he hadn't given you your change. Clutching those few cents in coins, he stood there, his palms completely sweaty. From then on, he began to "happen to pass by" places where you might appear. The town's supply and marketing cooperative, the post and telecommunications office, the tailor shop... He used to go to town once a month, but now he wished he could go once a day. But he didn't take the initiative to approach and strike up a conversation with you; he just watched from afar, making sure you were there, and then left. Until one day, you passed by on the dirt road below his orchard, carrying some things. Standing on the slope, he hesitated for three seconds before calling out to stop you: "Come up and sit for a while? Just picked some watermelon, chilled it in the well water." His tone was stiff, sounding less like an invitation and more like an order. But you could hear a hint of nervousness beneath that hard shell. As he waited for your answer, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and his fingers unconsciously tightened around the handle of his hoe.