Chapter 5 Part2 (2/2)
Over on his end, Yi Wenze seemed to hear this, and he did not speak the entire time until Jia He had stepped into the train car and blown out a light breath. Then only did he ask, ”You're on the train now?”
”Mm-hmm.” Phone in hand, Jia He skirted around people. ”Sorry, Teacher Yi. I'm just going to find my seat first.” Because she had gotten on later, the train was already slowly starting to move.
”Sure.”
She walked over to her seat. A grown boy in the adjacent seat, seeing her pet.i.te physique that obviously would be unable to lift her suitcase, at once rose and lent a helping hand. She said a thank you to him and then sat down by the window. ”I'm good now.”
”How long is the train ride?”
”Two hours, I think. Around that.”
”I have a friend here who just came from Shanghai.” The voice on the other end of the line became a little fuzzy and cut in and out. Jia He pressed the phone hard against her ear before she could make out, with difficulty, what he was saying. ”This afternoon—”
Silence. The call had completely cut off.
<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only
Dumbfounded, Jia He stared at her mobile phone. It was fully charged…
Noticing the look on her face, the grown boy next to her immediately laughed. ”Little girl, once the high-speed train gets going, mobile reception becomes really bad.”
Jia He glanced at him. He was obviously a newly-graduated university student, but now, just because her build was small, he was actually calling her ”little girl.” ”Because its speed is so fast?”
That person nodded, picking up the magazine in front of him and beginning to thumb through it. ”It'll be no problem. Once you get off the train, you can just call back. Your boyfriend will definitely understand.”
Jia He had no words she could say.
Seriously, the ills of high technology. The speed had not gone up by all that much, but the price had, and with it, even mobile phone reception went out the window and flew to outer s.p.a.ce. Setting her phone on her leg, she began speculating what Yi Wenze had wanted to say, but in the end she simply had no idea. When the train had been travelling for nearly half an hour, most of the people had dozed off and only some younger people were talking in quiet tones. She wanted to sleep but was unable to actually fall asleep, so she decided to simply buy a cup of Nescafé instant coffee and completely refresh her mind. And so, with a piping hot cup between her palms, she turned her head sideways and looked out at the nighttime scenes.
A text message all of a sudden came in on her phone. She offhandedly tapped it open. There was only a simple row of words: Probably reception isn't very good. My calls haven't been able to get through this whole time. I'll call you when you're off the train.
She read it over three times in a row before her mind was able to somewhat catch up and process.
The boy next to her was already asleep, and his magazine lay to one side, haphazardly spread open. Jia He picked it up and began browsing through page by page, all the while, as she read, sighing that truly this was a university new grad, for he had even brought a tabloid magazine. She was flipping and flipping through when her attention was drawn to a large photograph on one of the pages. It was a photograph of Tian Chu with that Taiwanese singer. As before, the headline was eye-grabbing and shocking: K Ge[Big Brother K]has for the first time broken his silence. Claims that his relations.h.i.+p with Tian Chu is only an ordinary working one.
She looked it over carefully, then turned to the next page. It was the standard gossip news format, chronologically listing out the history of the romance between Tian Chu and Yi Wenze. The Hong Kong paparazzi truly showed the spirit of delving into the heart of things, digging up each and every detail of these last two years and then, at the very end, even stating those things that Gu Yu had told her, that according to friends, the two had already signed an agreement of divorce half a year ago but still had not completed the formal process yet.
The few times she ran into Tian Chu and also her high-profile appearance at the hospital perhaps truly were signals that the two were getting back together…
”Hey, little girl, you like Yi Wenze, too?” That grown boy had suddenly woken, and catching sight of her staring at that piece of news on Yi Wenze, he could not help remarking with a laugh, ”Based on your age, you should like Super Boys[2] or guys like that. Your taste sure is unique. When he became famous, I was still only in primary school. Who would have thought that he'd be popular all the way to now? Too bad he doesn't have the momentum that he used to and has to rely on scandals and gossip to fight for a spot in the public eye.”
Jia He wordlessly flicked him a look. ”When he became famous, I was already graduating from middle school.”
A sheepish ”ah” slipped from the boy's lips, and disconcertedly he raked his fingers through his hair. ”Sorry about that, big sister.”
Fine, she did admit that his one address of ”big sister” gave her a huffy feeling that made her feel stifled in her chest, but she had brought it on herself…
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And so, all the way to Shanghai, her phone was in her hand like this, never once leaving it.
She was considering whether she should call him back but was also worried that Yi Wenze would already be asleep. Hence, she could only comfort herself, he definitely needed rest after having just undergone a surgery. She did not have any matter that was proper business either, so it would be best to just not ask for rejection.
Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station did not really have any people in it at night, feeling cold and forlorn. Most of the fast food restaurants in the main hall were already closed. Jia He was truly famished, so she simply chose a shop that had hot soups and ordered a meatball soup and a zongzi[3][sticky rice dumpling]. When she sat down to eat, a call from Yi Wenze suddenly came in on her phone.
”My apologies. The doctor came in just earlier to do some check-ups.”
”No worries, no worries.” She was in the middle of chewing half a meatball, caught in this awkward moment where it was neither up nor down in her mouth, and the words she spoke came out m.u.f.fled.
”You're eating?”
”Mm-hmm. I didn't realize until I got off the train that I was really hungry, so I just found a random place to eat.” Jia He speedily swallowed her meatball. ”Teacher Yi, why don't you hurry and get some rest? I actually didn't really have anything; I just wanted to ask how you were doing.” And then who would have thought that, thanks to the high-speed rail, one question of ”How are you doing?” ended up being dragged out from Yiwu to Shanghai before it was officially asked.
”It's no problem. I still have friends with me here.”
Friends? Then all the more she should not disturb him…
Jia He very sensibly chose to fib. ”Actually, it's because my phone's out of battery. We'll chat another time. Wis.h.i.+ng you a speedy recovery.”
”All right.”
All of a sudden, Jia He remembered that half a sentence. ”Oh, right… What did you want to say to me earlier? You know, right before I lost reception?”
<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only
[1] 清明节 “Qingming Jie” literally means Festival of Pure Brightness, and is also sometimes called Tomb-Sweeping Day. It occurs 15 days after spring equinox, which puts this festival on a day somewhere between April 4 - 6, usually. Qingming Festival is a traditional festival of China in which a day is taken to pay respect to ancestors and sweep their tombs.
[2] Super Boy was a talent show program produced by Hunan TV, first airing in 2007, with subsequent seasons in 2010 and 2013. Contestants were generally young men, most just barely into adulthood.
[3]A zongzi is a sticky rice dumpling. Glutinous rice is stuffed with filling, then wrapped in leaves, generally bamboo or reed, and steamed or boiled.
Zongzi (Image credit” ”My mom's Taiwanese zongzi”, by Joy, original posted in , image used under )
This story was translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only. All forms of reproduction, redistribution, or re-posting are not authorized. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the copy is unauthorized and has been taken without consent of the translator.
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