Qiao Qiao got her gown custom made by the company tailor. She downloaded over a dozen styles online and hemmed and hawed endlessly with the tailor. Jia He propped up her chin waiting for her. When they both got tired, Qiao Qiao suddenly remembered her, “Want yours done together too?”
Warming her hands by the heater, she replied, “No need, a certain someone already said he bought me one.”
After getting used to Beijing heating, returning to Shanghai’s cold was unbearable.
Qiao Qiao jealously looked at Jia He. “I feel like you’ve changed from a young elite woman to becoming a parasite. Is there anything your Yi Wenze doesn’t prepare perfectly for you? He probably arranged everything except making you give birth to a child.”
Jia He shrank back on the sofa, smiling smugly. “Jealous?”
“Bragging already. Look at you bragging already,” Qiao Qiao raised her arms as the tailor bent to measure her sides. “I’m already married. What about you? Planning to keep it hidden long-term?”
Jia He blinked at her. “Married woman, how are you so arrogant?”
The four words successfully made Qiao Qiao pounce over as they tussled fiercely.
Actually…she somehow felt he was making preparations. It was just a gut feeling.
The courier delivered her dress when she was packing away her small decorations to avoid having to dust everything again next time she returned. A very big box that she carefully cut open with scissors, removing the plastic tape and wrapping. Inside the white box were layers of rice paper that crinkled softly with every layer peeled.
A light purple dress, loosely tied by a white satin ribbon with the designer’s signature.
Taking it out and spreading it on the bed, after staring for ages she decided if she wore this, Qiao Qiao would directly tear her apart with words…
And so, to give the almost-bride advance notice, she brought the dress along for their Japanese dinner that night.
Qiao Qiao gaped, greatly impacted. “I’m telling you, is your Yi Wenze doing this on purpose? Using my wedding as a rehearsal for yours?” Jia He sipped broth from the tea pot, innocently saying, “I truly didn’t know he picked this place so I brought it to show you…”
Dim lighting, fresh sashimi.
As she spoke, she picked up a salmon slice and nervously dipped too much wasabi from staring at Qiao Qiao. The spiciness made her tear up instead.
And so, when the server pulled the door open to change their plates, he saw Jia He with eyes brimming with tears while the person opposite faced her gloomily. Very sympathetically glancing at Jia He, he swiftly exited.
“What do you think his subtext was?” Jia He tried to divert the topic to cover up her too ostentatious dress. “Do you think he believed we were negotiating, like if one of us was the mistress?”
Qiao Qiao nearly bit her own tongue. “Esteemed screenwriter, which of us do you think looks more like the third party?”*
Jia He sniffed and tactfully kept silent.
When Yi Wenze rushed back to Shanghai that night, there was a thunderstorm.
On the call, she listened to the thunder outside as they discussed if he should come pick her up to head over. After all, her place was small without extra clothes he could change into, staying would be somewhat inconvenient.
But he didn’t mind at all. “No need for so much trouble. I’ll stay at your place.”
Jia He oh-ed. “Then when you come up later, have A Qing stop by the convenience store to buy some food. I’ve got nothing here. These two days I was eating out.”
She merely considered ingredients to make breakfast. But Yi Wenze brought up two huge bags of stuff. Such an amount they couldn’t finish in three days… She opened the fridge and organized it inside while staring at the pile of ingredients, pondering what to make him for tomorrow’s meal. Focused like this, her hands gradually grew icy cold from the chill air.
“Why are you spacing out at the fridge?” Yi Wenze closed the door behind her as he hugged her from behind. “Want to shower?”
He smelled faintly of bath wash, her favorite watermelon scent.
The odd sense of discord wafting into her nose – this was the first time he was staying over at her place. She bought this apartment five years ago and truthfully, hadn’t even had a man over… She leaned back. Successfully wrapped up in his arms at the front. Having just showered, the embrace was especially warm, still slightly damp.
“You’ve caused me huge problems,” she looked back at him. “I’m not the bride. You got me such a gorgeous dress, Qiao Qiao will shred me to pieces.” He smiled, nuzzling his face against hers without answering. Instead he asked, “Do you like it?”
Inhaling his scent, Jia He deliberately misconstrued his meaning. “I really like it. Smells sweet.”
He chuckled voicelessly. Shutting the fridge, he directly scooped her up.
Very small house, the kitchen was also cramped.
Such a romantic move successfully made her kick over the soy sauce bottle on the countertop with a loud clunk that startled her. Yi Wenze held her with one arm while propping up the bottle with the other. He softly said, “This house isn’t used to you.”
“It really isn’t,” she hugged his neck, also joking along. “This could truly be called maiden quarters. No man has ever come in before.” He smiled without responding, very carefully carrying her into the bedroom the whole way.
Because she liked reading books on the carpeted floor, she had only purchased a wide single bed back then.
Now looking at it, it did seem a bit awkward…
In the end, she didn’t dare move about all night, not even turning over. By morning when she groggily woke up, her waist and back ached so badly she nearly fainted. After barely shifting in the morning she said, “Let’s just directly sleep on the floor next time. This is too hard on me.” Yi Wenze pulled her into his embrace and started massaging her waist.
Extremely gentle pressure, warm palms, simply wonderful comfort.
She nestled against his chest very contentedly, immediately changing her tune, “I take that back, let’s still sleep on the bed.”
“Why’s that?” His hand slid beneath her sleep shirt to keep soundlessly massaging her.
She closed her eyes blissfully, mumbling that such five-star service deserved praise. He smiled without speaking until her light panting indicated she wanted to flee. Only then did he completely bare her and thoroughly service her once more.
The direct outcome was she couldn’t even be bothered leaving bed, sprawling prone atop the blankets, whimpering as she looked at him easily standing up. Jealously gritting her teeth, “Don’t you feel awful sleeping like this all night? Such strong endurance…”
He bent over smiling, just about to say something when someone suddenly knocked on the door.
It was Auntie Zhao’s voice from next door loudly asking, “Jia He, are you inside?”
Just as she was about to direct Yi Wenze to open the door, she abruptly reacted and swiftly got dressed to open it herself.
Having just crawled out from the warm covers after a bout of energetic morning exercise, she was still sweating. As soon as she pulled the door open, the cold wind struck her shivering. Auntie Zhao stood outside wielding her broom for battle. Seeing it was Jia He, she set down her things with a long sigh of relief. “You scared me to death. I thought you had burglars break in.”
Jia He blankly regarded her. “What happened?”
Auntie Zhao dutifully explained, “You just vanished without a peep for months then suddenly came back yesterday without even greeting me. Last night I heard loud crashes from over here and was terrified.”
Loud crashes?
Probably just that soy sauce bottle falling over…
But Auntie Zhao had always been like this. To this day, Jia He still remembered her classic “Wu Zhilun buying soy sauce” theory.* If speaking of surrealism, she was definitely at master-level like famous crosstalk comedian Zhou Xingchi. Jia He rubbed her eyes. She could roughly guess why the woman came. “Auntie, did the residential community collect fees again? Tell me and I’ll give you the money.”
Auntie Zhao hastily waved her hands. “No no, the neighborhood allocated ten yuan to each home. I collected yours first so here to return it to you now,” she said, taking out twenty yuan from her pocket at the same time. “I didn’t have change at my home. Is it fine for you to break this?”
“Never mind about it,” Jia He joked. “Just take it as compensation for the fright.”
“Can’t do that,” Auntie Zhao said seriously. “It’s been at my place nearly two months already. I keep worrying about it day and night, can’t even sleep well.” Seeing her persist, Jia He said to wait a moment. She had just turned to go back inside when a warmth wrapped around her – an overcoat draped over her shoulders.
“I’ll get it.” Yi Wenze said from behind her before entering the room.
A gust of wind blew past. Another gust of wind blew past.
Auntie Zhao’s expression remained frozen in a half-smile. Two fingers pinched the twenty yuan bill, too shocked to speak. Not until Yi Wenze walked back out and passed the ten yuan note to her did she stiffly tug the corner of her lips. “Nice…nice to meet you.”
Yi Wenze greeted her politely with a very gentle voice. “Thank you for taking care of Jia He all this time.”
“Should do, I should do…” Auntie Zhao took the money and waveringly held out the twenty. She then drifted back to her own home in a daze.
Jia He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, glancing at Yi Wenze. “I’m thinking this house should definitely be sold…”
Otherwise, next time she came back, everyone would surely know he had been staying here.
As the wedding approached step by step, she was practically swamped. After sending Yi Wenze off in the afternoon, she decisively registered with a real estate agent before hurrying to the hotel for wedding arrangements. She was puzzled by how the internet celebrity-chasing man* could have perfectly grasped Qiao Qiao’s wedding dreams without the slightest deviation.
The hotel’s entire lawn was reserved, no longer seeming like a wedding. More like the grounds for a wild overnight party.
Just imagining a wedding lasting twelve full hours made her despairingly contemplate murder…
The emcee endlessly introduced everything while Qiao Qiao listened earnestly. Every program and step required in-depth discussion. A single preparation meeting dragged out three full hours before finally finishing explanation of the entire ceremonial process. Jia He held a small notebook, continuously jotting down what she had to do at each point. By the end when she looked at the dozens crammed pages, she couldn’t help sighing loudly, “Just kill me now. I haven’t taken notes since graduating university…”
Qiao Qiao still had on a facial mask. She completely disregarded public location, comporting herself exactly like an actress on break.
But every woman looked forward to this day the most for her own stage and sole attention. Jia He wondered what her own would look like…
Right in the midst of chaotically imagining, Qiao Qiao cleared her throat and whispered, “Normally the bridesmaids hook up with the groomsmen. I don’t dare ask your man to be groomsman in fear of him getting chopped to death after leaving. But picking someone else, I’m afraid Yi Wenze would chop them to death. How about asking Wu Zhilun? Although not comparable to Yi Wenze, he’d still absolutely be the most envy-inducing groomsman.”
Jia He closed her notebook. “Aren’t you afraid he’d outshine the groom?”
Qiao Qiao peeled off her mask, very smugly saying, “Don’t you think Cheng Hao is quite elegant? Much better looking than Wu Zhilun over time.”
The corner of Jia He’s lips twitched. ‘Elegance’ really was an all-purpose word…
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