“It’s raining in Shanghai this afternoon. I’m just confirming if you have someone to pick you up at the station.”
The hot soup scalded her tongue. Jia He sucked in a breath but didn’t say anything.
Yi Wenze on the other end didn’t seem to be in a hurry either. She could vaguely hear Ah Qing saying something in the background, and it sounded like Qiao Qiao and Cheng Hao’s voices as well… The liveliness over there made her own surroundings feel even more desolate by comparison. It was nearing closing time now. When she had first come in, there were still two or three other customers, but now only she herself remained.
The four servers were already mopping the floor and kept walking past her, clearly hinting that they were about to close.
Jia He stirred the soup with her spoon, watching as the lone remaining meatball rolled around merrily: “Actually, it’s pretty easy to get a taxi at Hongqiao Railway Station. My home is also not far away. Teacher Yi, you should rest early. My phone is about to run out of battery, so I won’t talk much longer.”
“Alright, take care and stay safe.” His voice remained as gentle as before, seemingly even gentler by a couple degrees. Jia He was silent for a long time before finally being the one to hang up first.
She swiftly polished off the remaining food. Her phone suddenly buzzed again.
Qiao Qiao: You can do it! A room full of people were eavesdropping as you talked about rainy Shanghai.
Jia He nearly bit her own tongue. Fortunately she knew well enough to end the call herself. Everyone there was: It was quite dramatic – when you get on your train, Wenze’s manager arrives, then later on Liao Jing and Cheng Hao appear, and just now when Yi Wenze’s getting his check up, Tian Chu arrives. Anyway, all I’m doing right now is being a bystander…
Two short lines of tiny text listed endless heavyweight names.
Jia He quickly typed out a response, but immediately deleted it again and then changed what she wanted to say again. Like that, going back and forth two or three times, she still stared blankly at the empty reply screen, not knowing herself what she even wanted to ask.
“Miss,” said a server, wiping the glass partition next to her with a white cloth, “sorry, but we’re closing now.”
She thought for a bit, then still didn’t reply to the text message. She put her phone away and left the restaurant.
On the road home, there really was a heavy downpour. The elevated highway was congested and impossible to get through. Most despairing was that there had even been a rear-end collision. Jia He sat in the taxi listening to the radio’s song dedication segment, her head leaned on the window as she surfed the Internet on her phone. She kept flipping through page after page, from international news to trending threads, but didn’t dare touch entertainment news… Tian Chu’s new album was topping the charts. In passing, her old song “Sunlight” was also requested, the melody amplified wantonly in the narrow space. Even the taxi driver was humming along under his breath.
She rolled down her window slightly and took a deep breath.
For the next month, Jia He was incredibly busy.
Her new script went through several twists and turns and she had revised it so many times she almost felt a sense of resistance, to the point sometimes when she opened the word doc she couldn’t even remember the names of the male and female leads… She replaced her phone with an identical model, and her Angry Birds progress also smoothly rose back to her original level. Aside from occasional harassment calls from Qiao Qiao reporting on Yi Wenze’s recovery condition, everything was the same old routine.
Once at three in the morning, Qiao Qiao got in another fight with her Bassdar husband and called her to complain. She suddenly said, “Aren’t you curious what I saw that night in the massage room?”
Jia He blanked for a moment, having clearly already forgotten about this matter.
“Nevermind,” Qiao Qiao uncharacteristically kept her mouth shut for once. “I’ve decided to keep this to myself. Bassdar said women shouldn’t gossip too much, so I’ve decided to use you as the starting point to change myself into a better person.”
Jia He decisively hung up and went back to fabricating the male and female leads’ fourth overdone misunderstanding…
One month later, just as she walked out of the Volkswagen parking garage swinging her car keys, a car stopped right in front of her. Behind the half-opened window was Gu Yu’s face. “Jia He,” he made a little hand gesture, “wait here for me. I’ll be right up.”
Then without even waiting for Jia He to react, he drove into the underground garage.
Watching as the back of the car disappeared into the entrance, she neither wanted to leave nor stay.
Suddenly a car drove over and nearly slammed into her. Fortunately someone behind pulled her out of the way. It was Gu Yu who had just walked up. The new driver in the car extended his head out and apologized. Jia He shook her hand to indicate it was fine without saying anything, imperceptibly withdrawing her arm back.
The woman in the passenger seat had an ugly expression now. She opened the car door and walked out, softly calling out “Editor Gu” in surprise. Gu Yu also looked confused for a second, but he still smiled with ease as if they were old acquaintances. That woman cast a hurried glance at Jia He, who was supposed to be the victim but was instead standing to the side not getting involved: “Sorry, Editor Gu. My friend has just learned how to drive… Is your friend okay?”
Jia He answered first. “It’s nothing. My mistake, I shouldn’t have stood in the way at the entrance.”
The woman was still carefully apologizing. After quite a while, she finally left in trepidation with her friend, leaving the two former lovers alone.
Gu Yu lowered his head to look at her. “You’re really fine?”
Jia He forced a smile. “I’m fine. Was that your colleague?”
“Probably someone newly transferred. She doesn’t look familiar.”
Today, he was wearing glasses with a pure black metal frame that had a matte sheen, looking gentle and refined.
She still remembered when she first entered university. Gu Yu was already in his senior year and was the host for that year’s freshman welcome party. Back then, he was chatting and laughing freely with the female cohost in seven inch high heels, completely captivating the new crop of freshman girls who had just entered campus. Later, she somehow ended up becoming his girlfriend by mistake. Her greatest daily pleasure was to snatch his glasses, to see how those eyes hidden behind his lenses would look at her helplessly.
Gu Yu asked, “Are you here to buy something?”
Jia He nodded. “Qiao Qiao said the iPad1 has dropped in price. I came to take a look.”
“At the small shop behind Furama?”
Jia He made a sound of agreement, thinking up of an excuse to leave.
“Do you remember that friend I talked about last time?” Gu Yu pointed in the direction of Fuzhou Road. “I made plans to grab a casual bite with him, but we’re a bit early. I’ll go with you first to check out the iPad.”
With that one sentence, her plans were completely disrupted.
Back when they had dated, both of them were terribly busy with work, unable to meet each other for days on end. Jia He had truly looked forward to some happy coincidence where they might bump into one another, but it didn’t happen even once. And now, she had only casually dropped by to take a look around after having woken up. Yet somehow, she had gone from casual shopping to a terribly awkward outing with an old flame.
Gu Yu was very diligent in his accompaniment and was still naturally taking out his wallet to pay when they went to the checkout counter. Jia He quickly stopped him, pulling out her own wallet and shaking it at him. “Don’t just randomly buy things if there’s no occasion for it. I really don’t want to feel indebted everyday remembering that I have to repay you.”
Gu Yu waved his hand with a smile, put away his wallet, then told Jia He to do her product inspection first while he himself walked out.
The shop owner and Jia He were already well acquainted. He jokingly remarked, “Not bad at all, really not bad.”
Jia He smiled. “Don’t spout nonsense. Just a regular friend.”
After she finished speaking, she silently carried out checking the goods. A white box that opened to reveal a beautiful silver tablet. It still used Apple’s standard charging brick, simple and clean. Carefully taking it apart layer after layer, she picked up each accessory, seemingly inspecting everything extremely seriously yet not knowing what she was even looking at after staring for a long time.
By the time Gu Yu returned with two bottles of water, the shop owner had already packaged up the computer for Jia He and naturally handed it over to him.
It was past six when they finished buying everything. The sky was dimly dark outside while endless cars were congested on the roads, a nonstop river of lights.
Jia He wanted to say that she should head back now when Gu Yu had already made a call. After hanging up, he told her the people on the other end were already waiting and they should hurry over. She had no chance to refuse at all before being brought to that restaurant. There were seven or eight people sitting in the private room. When the two of them entered, all eyes invariably focused on Jia He as they smiled and asked Gu Yu to introduce her.
He led Jia He to an inside seat. “My university junior, Jia He.” After he said this, he looked again at one middle-aged man in particular. “The screenwriter I talked about last time that I wanted to introduce to you for a collaboration.”
That middle-aged man meaningfully regarded him. “I remember, you didn’t introduce her that way last time.”
“Alright, let me reintroduce.” Gu Yu sat down with an easygoing smile and took a sip of tea. “Jia He, my first love and also the woman I still can’t stop thinking about all this time. The revolution has yet to succeed; I’m still striving onward.”
The man guffawed and praised what a straightforward guy. Just then, a server suddenly opened the door and set down several steaming crab and shrimp dumpling steamer baskets, the rising steam blocking the ambiguous looks from everyone present.
Jia He gripped her teacup tightly and forced out a joke. “Stop kidding around. Didn’t you say you were pursuing Liao Jing?”
A couple people couldn’t help chuckling. Gu Yu also had an expression that was torn between laughter and grief, looking at her without saying anything. But it was the middle-aged man who spoke first. “How strange. I didn’t know you were pursuing my younger sister.”
Gu Yu brushed it off indifferently. “With just that one sentence from you, you’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble instead.”
So it was a misunderstanding…
The bantering continued. The measuring looks from everyone else gradually faded away. She secretly took out her phone and got ready to set an alarm so she could find an excuse to leave. But just as she was about to hit confirm, her phone unexpectedly started ringing.
An unfamiliar incoming call, but it was a string of familiar numbers. She blankly stared for a long time before finally picking up.
“Jia He, is this a good time?” Yi Wenze’s voice had an extremely appealing texture even over the phone. Her heart still thumped erratically at the sound.
She had wanted to call him Teacher Yi, but there were too many people here for that to be appropriate. In the end, she could only vaguely make a sound of acquiescence to signal that he could speak. Because she was worried he might have to wait too long, she didn’t even have a chance to apologize before those indistinct sounds of laughter and suggestive teasing faded away behind her.
It was very lively both inside and outside the restaurant. Only after stepping out of the front entrance was she finally able to find a quiet, deserted spot.
Yi Wenze continued waiting serenely the entire time, with a patience that seemed unbelievable, same as that time at the train station.
Jia He steadied her breathing. “Teacher Yi, I’m so sorry. I was eating with some friends earlier so it wasn’t convenient to talk.”
“It’s fine. If it’s not convenient next time, you can call me Wenze.”
“…Okay.”
She leaned against the wooden railing, watching the people coming and going on the escalator. She went on to say, “Have you recovered a bit?”
In actuality, Qiao Qiao had been very responsible. In order to give updates about his treatment progress, she nearly xeroxed Yi Wenze’s X-rays to show Jia He. She already knew he was recovering well, but at times like this, not asking about such things left her truly not knowing what she could say.
“I was just discharged from the hospital today. I’m in the car right now.”
“So fast?” She suddenly felt nervous. “For muscle and bone injuries, you need at least three months of recuperation. Didn’t the doctor say anything?” The more she spoke, the more she realized she was worrying too much. She couldn’t help but shut her mouth.
“My recovery has been very good, but I still can’t walk too early. So this time, coming to Shanghai is also to recuperate for a period.” On the contrary, he sounded as if wanting to reassure her instead.
Jia He suddenly comprehended the implication behind his words. “You’re in Shanghai?” she repeated reflexively.
There was a brief pause on the other end. “About another half an hour until I arrive,” he said. Then suddenly he asked, “Are you eating dinner right now?”
Jia He made a sound of yes. After that, she could hear Ah Qing on the other end raising her voice, saying she wanted Jia He to treat her to some good food and the like, but she had only said two or three sentences before turning silent again.
Only then did she understand. “Actually, I haven’t started eating yet. I had only dropped by to buy some things at first. I just happened to bump into an acquaintance who pulled me over here to eat.” This sounded a lot like she was deliberately finding an excuse to ask him out for a meal. Jia He couldn’t help getting tongue-tied, explaining haltingly and discontinuously. “The food here isn’t that tasty. Aside from that one friend, everyone else is a stranger I don’t know at all. Thanks to what you just said, I now have a way to escape…”
By the end, even she didn’t know what else she wanted to express anymore. She could only stop and try reorganizing her words.
By the time she fell silent, he finally spoke over on his end. “Then, do you want me to come rescue you again? I’ll treat you to some food you like to eat.”
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