He used a little more strength and the two of them pressed closer together.
Too fast ba… No, too fast.
Jia He closed her eyes for a moment then opened them again, “That…”
They were too close. His breathing blew onto her face over and over. Very hot. From her face to her palms, her body… Jia He felt the hand he had placed on her waist seemed somewhat scalding.
How to put it? How to say? Who could tell her how to say it?
“Do you still want to keep sleeping?” He lowered his head, an extremely close distance, practically speaking while nudging her nose.
These words were too subtle… Luckily there was finally the key word of “sleep”. Jia He tried her best to keep her voice calm and attempted to pull the conversation topic away, “Are you still drowsy?”
“I’m already awake.” His reply was concise and to the point.
“Then… not sleeping anymore?” She tentatively checked.
He didn’t seem to have any objections, “What do you want to do tonight?”
The question was tossed back.
Her brain was filled completely with impure words. How did it keep turning back to ambiguity no matter how she went around it? Whether sleeping or doing…
Luckily, the phone suddenly started happily singing out mum’s special ringtone which saved her life. She moved her arm, wanting to take the chance to get up but Yi Wenze had already conveniently picked up the phone from the tea table to hand to her, successfully shattering her plan to escape. Jia He could only awkwardly smile and say ‘it’s my mum’ before swiftly taking the call with a greeting sound.
“Where are you? When are you coming back?”
Jia He randomly said, “Won’t be coming back today,” after speaking she felt it wasn’t right so she promptly followed up, “I mean, coming back later.”
“Why didn’t you give me any notice? I’ve already cooked the dishes,” mum complained, “What’s going on with this director of yours? It’s fine on weekdays but even weekends you have to meet.”
Jia He guiltily mmm-ed, “It was my bad. I was late for two days.”
“Say to your director, something came up at home today,” mum’s voice suddenly quietened, “Gu Yu came.”
Jia He’s heart lurched, “What’s he here for?”
Mum seemed very excited, “Said he came to see me and your dad. Look at how nice this kid is. Back when you dumped him, he wasn’t resentful at all. Seems he’s still thinking of you. I specially kept him to eat dinner to stall for you. You have to come back faster ah–”
Jia He was struck speechless. Retribution for lying had arrived.
Back when she broke up with him, afraid that mum would be upset for her, she had only said it was her own problem like her feelings faded for some reason. Mum scolded her for a good few months afterwards. She had felt she handled it quite wisely then since it was better than mum knowing her precious daughter got dumped and feeling pained for months. But now she realized you truly can’t lie.
The key issue was with such a close distance, Yi Wenze had definitely heard it all clearly.
Silence. Very quiet.
He was still very near to her, so close that she didn’t even dare say anything more.
Mum called Jia He’s name from that side. Only then did she very gloomily open her mouth, “Go ba–” She had only blurted out two words without the ensuing “ck” of “go back” coming out before her mouth was unguardedly sealed. Yi Wenze hooked his arm around her waist and turned them over to press her under him. His lips lightly then heavily brushed hers, caressing inch by inch without any rush yet very focused…
From the phone, mum called out twice while grumbling about why there was suddenly no signal.
Meanwhile over here Jia He had already thoroughly lost her voice. The room was too dark that she couldn’t see anything. She only felt the two of them sunk deep into the sofa. From heart to body, she was completely restrained without any chance to speak. She didn’t know when the call got cut off until the phone screen went dark, thoroughly snuffing out that last trace of light.
Her breathing was rushed. Her brain was full of how to explain herself and whether he was angry or not until his fiery palm slid over the skin at her waist. Only then did she sober up a little and struggle to push him up, gasping in two breaths, “That, about Gu Yu’s matter, I’d like to give an explanation.”
Yi Wenze lowered his head to look at her. This angle and this gaze, heavens, just let her die ba!
This wasn’t a set. This wasn’t an idol drama. What’s with you being so dedicated, Idol…
“I didn’t tell my mum the truth back then,” Jia He took in another light breath. She still felt somewhat oxygen deprived in her brain, “I was afraid she’d feel hurt. Her precious daughter raised for over 20 years getting deceived just like that… So I said I was the one who didn’t want him anymore. And mum felt I wronged him.”
Truly no face left ba. Gotten dumped yet still trying to keep face…
Yi Wenze laughed, “But isn’t this the truth?”
Jia He got choked up. She seriously recalled it again before softly muttering, “Actually it really was me who said it first.”
But the nature was completely different ba!
“So,” his smile deepened, “what does this have to do with what we were doing just now?”
Silence. She awkwardly kept silent.
Even if I’m shameless, using an excuse to interrupt is fine. But do you have to expose me so directly like this, Idol?
The sofa sank a little more. By reflex, Jia He wanted to close her eyes but discovered he was already sitting up. Her heart thudded loudly and she instantly hugged the blanket to leap up from the sofa, “Where are you going?”
He couldn’t be angry ba? This matter really was a bit excessive. That Gu Yu randomly eating his fill and going to my house to do what? Causing my idol to misunderstand me…
“Didn’t you say you weren’t sleeping anymore?” He took a look at his watch.
Jia He brooded. It seemed she did say that earlier.
Yi Wenze looked back at her, “Or do you still want to keep going?”
……
“Of course I don’t want to,” Jia He swiftly denied then regretted it, afraid he would think it was because she heard about Gu Yu that she didn’t want to. She hurriedly explained again, “Actually it’s not that I don’t want to…”
Yi Wenze looked at her, indicating for her to keep talking.
Jia He felt like crying. No matter how she said it, it was wrong ba. How could she possibly continue?
In the end, it was still him who showed her mercy first and simply laughed, “Hungry?”
Jia He was granted amnesty and swiftly nodded, “Very hungry, starving to death already.”
He stood up and passed her his coat, “Auntie Mai is in Tianjin. We’ll drive over tonight.”
“So rushed?” Jia He looked at him in bafflement. Weren’t they going to Tianjin?
Yi Wenze stood and walked to the closet to pick out clothes, taking out a casual shirt, “Suddenly had a craving for Tianjin snacks.”
“Actually there are places in Beijing that sell Tianjin snacks too…”
When Jia He was halfway through speaking, she suddenly had an unpleasant thought. Could it be her idol intentionally wanted to bring her away? She took a peek at Yi Wenze and saw him very naturally taking off his suit jacket. Her vision instantly turned black as she bolted up from the sofa, “I’m going to drink some water.” After speaking, she didn’t wait for his reaction and directly stomped off in her little heels, wildly running out of the room.
Even when she reached the pantry, her heart was still going thump thump rapidly.
In the darkness, the water dispenser’s light flashed on and off. She fumbled for half a day before finding the switch and turning on the wall lamp.
From the corridor outside, it seemed someone was speaking with a very loud voice, commenting on today’s auditioning actors and also the next drama. Jia He picked up a glass cup to get water and discovered a very serious discrepancy. He was only changing his outfit… Why did she have to run? Why did she run?
She was in total disorder. At 26, nearly 27 years old, yet she was still acting like a pure maiden in love.
Was this embarrassing? Still embarrassing? Or embarrassing…
Yi Wenze very quickly finished changing. By the time the two went downstairs, Wu Zhilun was sprawled on the window ledge making a call. Seeing the two people leaving, he called out to Yi Wenze, “Where you headed? Include me if going to eat.”
Yi Wenze raised his head to look at him, “Going to Tianjin.”
Wu Zhilun nearly dropped his phone, “Wasn’t it supposed to be tomorrow? It’s already 2011, you guys going on elopement?”
Yi Wenze made a shushing gesture and got into the car, boarding first.
Jia He also sat in the car. Just when she was about to slam the door, Wu Zhilun called out again, “Wait 10 minutes for me!”
Right when Jia He was hesitating, Yi Wenze had already signaled her to shut the door. Then he decisively started the car and sped off.
It was currently the season for white willow fluff flying everywhere. Jia He had only opened the window for a while before getting a face full of white fuzz blown in. She gloomily shut the window, slowly and gingerly taking out her phone as she wanted to call mum. But then she discovered she had no idea about specific schedule plans either and could only take a look at Yi Wenze, “Around when will we… come back?”
“What time do you want to?”
“Don’t you have a plan?” Jia He blankly looked at him.
“Just a small job taking around half a day. No other plans for now.”
“Don’t you have work in Beijing?” Jia He continued probing.
Today was Saturday. Tomorrow was Sunday. Yet here I still have that meeting to continue attending come Monday…
“I’ve finished up most things today so can rest for two days.”
Jia He was tearful.
It really was like elopement. Nothing brought and no plans made.
No wait, he just said it’d be fine to rest for two days earlier. Clearly it was premeditated with plans already made.
After some time, she still couldn’t let it go and kept asking, “But going to Tianjin to meet Auntie Mai, surely it’s for proper business ba?”
Just give a rough timeframe ba. With mum rarely having the chance to get me back in Beijing while I’m away on a business trip, yet now I go mysteriously missing without a single word of notice, she’d definitely flay me alive once I got back. And there’s still mum feeling wistful about Gu Yu. With me not in Beijing, who knows what that old lady might do…
“It’s for promoting my movie.”
Jia He ah-ed, “Then what am I going for?”
Yi Wenze had one hand casual on the steering wheel while his other hand helped brush the willow fluff out of her bangs, “It’ll get busy later on so whenever we can be together, I’ll bring you along as much as possible.”
Wearing that snapback cap caused some very light shadows to appear on the upper half of his face which made those pair of eyes seem even more profound.
Jia He had originally wanted to say she didn’t bring a change of clothes but as she saw him smile at her and await her reaction, as she saw the satisfaction on discovering she didn’t oppose it before he turned back to continue driving, that entire process was actually so smooth that she hadn’t squeezed out a single word.
Too much pressure, too much pressure! Even heroes can’t make it past a beauty pass, much less a small-time screenwriter like me.
It was already like this now so how would the days afterwards pass? How to get through them ah…
It wasn’t until the car exited the Third Ring Road that she finally resigned herself to taking out her phone. She decided to tell mum she suddenly had an outstation business trip. Then think of some other excuse to ask Director Liu for leave. She was right in the middle of racking her brains for an appropriate reason for leave when she discovered the road seemed very familiar. No matter how she looked at it, it seemed to be the way home, She observed closely for half the time before softly checking, “Weren’t we going to Tianjin?”
Yi Wenze very lightly mmm-ed, “Going to your house first to get some spare change of clothes.”
Going to… my… house?!
Jia He instantly jolted upright, “No need ba! I’ve got my credit card right here! I can just buy more when we get to Tianjin. I’m not very fussy at all, very casual, super casual!”
He laughed, “It’s fine. It happens to be along the way.”
Jia He held her phone as stars started popping in front of her eyes.
One Southeast. One Northwest. Very along the way? Very along the way…
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