Yi Wenze had day shoots. After discussing with him, Jia He booked a flight ticket to return that night.
He left very early. Jia He hazily slept a bit more before finally going around noon to check out.
The front desk took back the room card and inputted information, then subtly glanced at her. Jia He could only pretend to be oblivious and kept bowing her head to look at her phone. “Miss, you can sign the bill now.” When the bill was slid in front of her, she finally put down her phone to take the pen. But then discovered the front desk’s subtlety had already turned into blatantly gossipy expressions.
Jia He picked up the bill for no reason and swept a glance. Then she instantly understood. The list of expenses had a bright and clear… box of that.
Staring at that bill for a full three seconds, she finally scribbled a random letter as a name…
Her flight was at 8 PM at night. She had free time the entire afternoon, so in the end she still went to Jinli [old street] to eat.
As she strolled and stopped to eat and browse around, every time she came to Chengdu for work she would come here. Xiao Yu always mocked her for only going to places locals don’t go – commercial streets meant for tourists. But it’s so nice here. After a round trip, she could eat most of the Chengdu snacks she had been eyeing. It perfectly suited lazy people like her.
Saves time, saves effort, and saves transportation fees too.
Until she couldn’t eat anymore, she found a cafe corner to sit at and listlessly browsed webpages on her laptop. Despite not being able to sunbathe, the surrounding air still carried sunshine’s scent everywhere. She clearly had sweat beading all over her skin yet still felt it was enjoyable.
She read some international news for a while but ultimately couldn’t concentrate. Before she knew it, she had unconsciously opened up his Weibo feed. People’s mindset was always so strange. Ever since dating him, she became even less daring to check out news related to him and his Weibo feed. Always clinging onto worries, afraid she might catch a glimpse of something.
Very little updates probably because his new filming kept him too busy.
The latest post was from 6 AM this morning.
Very simple line:
After so many years I always believed illusions and reality would have discrepancies. Never expected reality to actually feel more perfect instead.
From beginning to end, she silently read over that one line more than a dozen times.
The implications were too obvious so the reply numbers exploded past the 3,000 mark in just that short morning. Yi Wenze became famous too early so most of his fans were adults. Compared to leaving curious and confession type messages, most were instead leaving warm blessings. All sorts of simple words merely asking if good news was imminent and when it would be announced.
Jia He scanned a few and already didn’t dare look anymore. She curled up on the sofa entirely, chewing her fingernails while her eyes blankly wandered. Then she would suddenly blush for no reason and have to hurry to cover her face to calm herself down.
Oh no, oh no… what am I thinking about in broad daylight?!
The server happened to be coming over with coffee and got badly startled by her. “Miss, are you not feeling well?”
On the contrary, Jia He was the one caught off guard by him. Only then did she react that she was publicly fantasizing in broad daylight. She quickly straightened up her back and politely cleared her throat, “It’s nothing, thanks.”
Just because of that simple short line, her entire afternoon was ruined. After staring at a separation scene on her screen for four hours, she finally completely gave up on the possibility of working productively. She simply closed her laptop to go pay.
The skies had already darkened somewhat when she exited the doors. The street lights on both sides swayed about while three or two people occasionally brushed past her shoulders. She considered whether to just head to the airport first when her awaited phone call for the entire day finally rang.
She tried hard to suppress her excitement, her voice came out so gentle it could squeeze water out. “Finished filming?”
He mmed: “Had dinner?”
“Not properly. But I’m pretty much already full,” she aimlessly strolled about while smelling the drifting fragrances in her surroundings. Still wanted to see if she could possibly stuff anything else in. Every time she came to Sichuan it was always like this… refuse to stop until eating to the point of death. “What about you? Had dinner?”
“Not yet. Almost back in Chengdu. Where are you?”
Jia He halted fiercely, “Didn’t you stay outside the city? How come you came back again?”
“Wanted to see you so came back,” Yi Wenze’s voice was neither light nor heavy, yet perfectly gripped her weakness. Jia He clenched her phone somewhat at a loss for words. After some time she finally softly said, “I’m at Jinli [old street].”
Over there, A-Qing was asking where to go. Yi Wenze replied with Jinli. A-Qing immediately yelled out too perfect, can eat until stuffed full in one go! Jia He silently thought, she and I really do have a common language.
“Around 15 minutes. Find a spot to wait for me first,” After speaking, he added another line, “There’s quite a lot of people with me.” Jia He ah-ed, “Who is it?” He chuckled, “Everyone from filming crew.”
Jia He thought for a bit. “Then I’ll go find a bigger restaurant first.”
When he arrived, there really were more than 10 some people. Seeing him walk in, Jia He busily stood up. Not until he grabbed her hand and smiled to introduce her to the director beside him as his girlfriend did she finally loosen up somewhat. The director laughed like Maitreya Buddha. As he shook her hand, he sighed and said we’re actually acting as extras for your sake right now!
Jia He awkwardly smiled. She fiercely squeezed Yi Wenze’s hand.
“How come you just came back,” Once everyone started eating, she quietly asked him. “Won’t it interfere with proper matters?”
How devoted Yi Wenze was to his acting career wasn’t just one or two days of rumors. Past reports were all about how he struggled in filming, how he traveled all over for promotions until even getting stomach bleeding from exhaustion. For him to specially make a trip halfway across like today and take so many people out for a meal definitely wasn’t something he was capable of doing.
He smiled. “Some special occasions still need exceptions made.”
She bit the meat on the bamboo skewer while recalling that Weibo post again. Then she decisively lowered her head to pretend to be dead.
Sichuan foods will always whet people’s appetites.
By the end, everyone was happily eating and even cracking jokes on Jia He. A male producer put on a serious business face to jokingly say while looking at her, “Before joining filming, my wife couldn’t sleep properly almost every night after hearing Master Yi would participate. She kept asking me to get her his autograph photo. And also said she definitely had to find out who this publicly reputed romantic rival was so she could thoroughly shatter her girlhood dream.” He threw down a bamboo skewer on the table and clutched his chest with an extended sigh. “Today I’ve finally completed my mission.”
Another person also joined in on the fun. Laughing as he said, “How odd. My girlfriend said the same thing too.”
Jia He rarely had people joke with her like this. For a moment she was somewhat at loss for handling this. Just when she thought it was about time to leave after checking the time, she took chance to say she had to go first with Yi Wenze.
As soon as everyone heard, they immediately booed for her to stay behind since Yi Wenze had night shoots tomorrow anyways. It was perfect chance to stay in Chengdu today.
Jia He quickly explained, “It’s because there’s night shoots that he needs proper rest today,” after speaking she felt her words sounded off. So she immediately supplemented, “I also have filming to report on early tomorrow morning. So won’t keep you all company anymore. Bye for now, let’s meet again if there’s chance in the future.”
That male producer immediately laughed. “Do come visit the set often, screenwriter. Only then can I feel reassured.”
After he spoke, that woman who had been silently sitting in the corner finally had some flux in expression. But Jia He merely smiled and finally appropriately cracked a joke this time. “Can’t feel safe leaving him outside. My goal is to have him hidden away.”
Everyone roared loudly with laughter and praised what an expected line from a screenwriter.
Yi Wenze on the other hand lightly smiled, giving her a deeply meaningful glance. “Always waiting on standby for you.”
In order to keep him company, Jia He had practically squeezed just shy of being late to call a taxi. By the time she arrived at the airport, she depressingly discovered the flight was delayed again as always. She sat in the waiting area and watched the jet bridges for boarding still remain empty. She felt even more resentful… the plane hasn’t even arrived yet!
Just as she was about to take out her phone and prepare to send a complaining text, someone suddenly sat down beside her.
“What a coincidence?”
That familiar voice. She turned her head, “So coincidental. Returning Shanghai?”
Awkwardness was inevitable. That day he was right downstairs at her residential building yet didn’t even come down to say hi, now it had already been months since seeing him. Gu Yu only nodded, “You too returning Shanghai?”
“No,” Jia He shook her head. “Returning Beijing. Still work to do.”
After she spoke, the two didn’t say anything else. Just then Yi Wenze called. She said excuse me for a moment and stood up to walk farther away. It wasn’t as noisy over there anymore. Probably in the car. But since there were too many people on his side still, Jia He said a few sentences with him before saying it wasn’t convenient to keep talking. She’ll see him after getting back to Beijing.
After hanging up, Gu Yu still hadn’t left. She naturally couldn’t act too obvious. Could only return to sit at her original spot.
She swept a glance at the tarmac and indeed the plane had arrived. Large groups of people were currently walking out from the jet bridge. She finally saw some hope of boarding. Deep down she prayed for it to hurry up and board faster so she wouldn’t have to continue sitting around so awkwardly.
“Very high viewership ratings for your show,” Gu Yu suddenly said. “I vetted some interview requests a few days ago. Someone wants to feature on you.”
Jia He reacted for a bit and then smiled to say, “No way. That exaggerated? I’m not valuable enough for that yet.”
Screenwriting industry in Mainland China was simply weak. Aside from those skilled at self-publicity and truly instantly gaining fame, it really was hard to easily gain sporadic featured interviews like celebrities to help raise their fame.
Before Gu Yu could reply, the boarding broadcast suddenly sounded. It was for the flight to Shanghai.
So great… Jia He immediately pointed toward the distant boarding gate. “That’s your flight right?”
Gu Yu mmed and stood up, “But I cancelled that interview. I guessed in the past you probably wouldn’t have liked to flaunt yourself much.” Jia He awkwardly pulled her lips into a smile. “Thanks. I really am that kind of person though.”
He lugged his luggage up. It was as if he only suddenly recalled something. He turned back to look at her again. “A friend of mine seemed to be preparing a project. He asked me about you a few days ago. What do you think, interested?”
“My schedule is packed for the latter half of the year,” she decisively shook her head. “If needed I can recommend better options than me to him.”
Such an obvious rejection. Any intelligent person would understand.
Gu Yu very calmly swept a glance at her. Yet in the end, didn’t say anything else.
Jia He continued sitting woodenly there watching meal carts being pushed onto the plane. Her phone happened to ring again. Yi Wenze’s name flashed on the screen. She felt it was somewhat strange for him to call again and picked up doubtfully to respond. It was very quiet over there. For a moment she grew somewhat nervous, afraid something might have happened. She hurriedly asked again, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“No,” his voice passed over very calmly. “Just closed the door earlier.”
Jia He oh-ed. Somewhat sourly said, “Not someone knocking on your door again right?”
“My dear wife,” Yi Wenze slowly drawled out. “The main reason I specially brought so many people today was so you can return home with peace of mind.” Hearing him call her that, she instead deflated first. “Who let you call me that…”
She lowered her head to stare at the Minions on her bag. She started feeling anguished for no reason over half her face currently swollen. Not only meeting him today, he even let the entire filming crew see her like this. When they returned, they would definitely secretly gossip. Yi Wenze’s girlfriend is so-so at best…
His voice sounded somewhat faint as if the signal wasn’t too good.
It took some time before finally coming through clearly. Vast and empty, as if he was outdoors. “Jia He?” Jia He mmed. She remained somewhat resentful over her little swollen cheek. Yet his voice had already softened. “Some matters should be done by me. Don’t compete over them with me next time.”
Leave a Reply