Chapter 5 Part3 (2/2)
Jia He smiled. ”Don't speak blindly. We're just ordinary friends.”
After saying this, she looked down and wordlessly inspected the item. The white box, when opened, held a pretty silver tablet as well as, as usual, Apple's standard charger, simple and clean-looking. Going through layer by layer, she carefully opened up everything and picked up each accessory, giving the impression that she was very seriously inspecting it. However, though she spent a long time examining things, she actually did not even know what she was looking at.
<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only
When Gu Yu returned with two bottles of water, the shop owner had just finished wrapping up the tablet computer for Jia He, and putting it into a paper bag, he handed it to her with natural motions.
By the time she finished her purchase, it was already past six o'clock and the sky was fading into hazy darkness. Countless cars were stuck in traffic on the road, stretching along and forming a river of lights.
Jia He wanted to say that it was time for her to go home, but Gu Yu was already making a phone call. When he hung up, he informed her that the other person was already waiting and they might need to move a little quicker to head over there. Without even getting a chance to decline, she was taken to that restaurant. Inside the private dining room sat seven or eight people, and when the two of them stepped inside, without any exceptions, every one of those people fixed his eyes on Jia He, grinningly telling Gu Yu to make the introductions.
He directed Jia He to sit on the inside. ”This is my junior schoolmate from university, Jia He.” Saying this, he turned to look at a middle-aged man within the group. ”She's the one I told you about last time, the screenwriter I wanted to introduce you to for you to collaborate with.”
The middle-aged man gave him a meaningful look. ”I remember that's not how you introduced her to me last time.”
”Fine, I'll re-do the introductions.” With a laugh, Gu Yu took a seat and had a sip of tea. ”This is Jia He, my very first girlfriend and also the one whom, to this day, I cannot forget. My mission still is not accomplished, though, and I am still working hard on it.”
The men all burst out in guffaws and commended him, ”Laddie, you sure are frank enough.” At this moment, a server suddenly pushed the door open and set several bamboo steamers of xiaolongbao[2][soup dumpling] filled with crab meat and pork onto the table. Their piping hot steam served as a curtain, isolating everybody's knowing and hinting gazes from her.
Gripping a teacup, Jia He managed to force a joking tone and say, ”Don't say such silly nonsense. Aren't you trying to woo Liao Jing?”
Someone could not hold back a couple of chortles. Gu Yu, as well, had an expression that was somewhere between tears and laughter as he looked at her without speaking.
Rather, it was that middle-aged man who spoke first. ”That's weird. How come I didn't know you're trying to woo my sister?”
Gu Yu was unfazed. ”Your one request of 'look after her for me' has brought a lot of trouble on me.”
So it was actually… a misunderstanding.
The conversation and laughter carried on as before, and those a.s.sessing gazes on her gradually subsided. She secretly took out her phone, intending on setting an alarm to create an excuse for her to leave this place. Just as she was pressing the confirm b.u.t.ton, her mobile phone unexpectedly began ringing.
It was a call from a number not in her contacts list, but that string of digits was familiar to her. She stared at it for quite some time, stunned, before finally answering the call.
”Jia He, is this a convenient time for you?” Through the phone, Yi Wenze's voice had a lot of texture, and it still caused her heart to throb uncontrollably when she heard it.
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She had originally wanted to greet him with ”Teacher Yi,” but with so many people present, it was not really a good place to do so. In the end, she merely uttered a neutral ”mm-hmm” and motioned to Gu Yu to make way for her so she could get out. Out of worry that Yi Wenze would be waiting too long, she did not even have time to say ”pardon me” before she left behind her the unfamiliar laughter and cheerful chatter and also the veiled teasing and heckling.
It was very lively both inside and outside of the restaurant, and she had to step out of its front doors before she finally found a quiet spot without other people.
The entire time, Yi Wenze quietly waited, just as he had that time when she was at the train station, so patient it was somewhat unfathomable.
Jia He steadied her breathing. ”Teacher Yi, sorry about that. I was having dinner with my friend just now, and it wasn't convenient to talk.”
”It's all right. Next time, if things are inconvenient, you can call me Ze.”
”… Okay.”
Leaning against a wooden railing and watching the people coming and going on the escalators, she continued, ”Are you better now?”
Actually, Qiao Qiao was very conscientious. In order to be able to explain the situation of his medical treatments to Jia He, she practically wished she could photocopy Yi Wenze's X-rays and give them to her. Jia He knew that his recovery was going very well, but in such a time, if she did not ask about this, she honestly did not know what she could say.
”I was just discharged from the hospital today and am currently in the car.”
”So soon?” She abruptly grew anxious. ”Injuries to sinew and bone require at least three months of recuperation. The doctor didn't say anything?” But while she was still speaking, she realized that she had overstepped her bounds a little with her worry. Automatically, she shut her mouth.
”My recovery has been going very well but I still can't start walking too early, so this trip to Shanghai is for me to recuperate a bit.” It was as if the situation had been reversed, for his tone was like he was comforting her instead.
All of a sudden processing the meaning of his words, Jia He unconsciously reiterated, ”You're in Shanghai?”
”About another half an hour and then I'll be there.” There was a pause on his end. Then he suddenly asked, ”You're having dinner?”
Jia He had only just said an ”mm-hmm” when she heard Qing declare with a raised voice that Jia He needed to be a host and take them to have some good eats. However, only two or three sentences came from her before silence at once took over again.
Only now did Jia He catch on. ”I actually haven't started to eat yet. Originally, I just wanted to buy something, but then I happened to run into someone I know and that's how I got pulled here to have dinner.” Words like these sounded like she was deliberately making up justifications so that she could invite him to dinner. For a moment, Jia He's words stuck in her throat, and she falteringly explained, ”The food here isn't very good, and aside from that one friend, they're all people I don't know. Luckily, thanks to your one sentence, I was finally able to escape from there…”
In the end, even she did not know what she should say next and could only stop and reorganize her words in her mind .
Now that there were no more words coming from her, he finally spoke up on his end. ”Well, then, would you like me to rescue you one more time? I'll take you to eat something that you do like?”
<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only
[1]Raffles City is a large, high-end shopping centre. In Shanghai, it is in the bustling heart of the city.
[2]Xiaolongbao is a Shanghainese specialty, a pork dumpling steamed in a bamboo basket. It's standout feature is that contained within the dumpling is a ”soup,” which is actually the broth from the meat produced from steaming. The one being served in the story is crab meat xiaolongbao, which is a variation on the traditional plain pork ones, adding orange crab roe on top of the meat filling.
Additional Comments:
”I was just discharged from the hospital today and am currently in the car.” Teacher Yi was just discharged and now he has headed straight for the city Jia He is in. Hmm…
Just this past summer, I actually specifically, just for this novel, went to the Raffles City in Shanghai mentioned in this post, scoped out the parking garage, standing across the street to take pictures of it (yeah, yeah, I'm a fanatic, taking pictures of a parking garage), even walking down into it, and checked out Fuzhou Road. Unfortunately, I could not find the electronics store. Perhaps it is now closed?
Here's the photo that I took of the entrance to the parking garage. ? Does that help you to visualize? When Jia He was waiting for Gu You to come out, she would probably have been standing somewhere to the right of the security guard under the umbrella, since she nearly got run over by a car trying to enter the parking garage. In the direction to the left of the photo is Fuzhou Road.
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