Chapter 13 Part1 (2/2)
People had always complimented her on her slender legs, which made her look especially nice when she wore skirts, and these last few months, whenever she went shopping, she would always automatically buy a lot of dresses and skirts, long ones, short ones, various styles and colours. Xiao Yu had been so shocked at this she had even teased that Jia He was going to open an online shop on Taobao. In truth, Jia He had merely been planning that, for the entire upcoming summer, she would have dresses to wear when she was with him and she could wear them for him to see.
Two dishes and a soup. Her cooking was actually very good, but the last dish had obviously been stir-fried for too long and tasted a little overcooked.
This was the meal before he was to leave and it had turned out like this. She was somewhat dejected. This afternoon when he was not around, she had specially gone out and bought three day's worth of groceries. From the looks of things, it was all going to go to waste. They had finished dinner before she asked him whether he wanted her to see him off. In the sitting area, where he was grabbing his luggage, Yi Wenze answered, ”Sure. Since you don't have a car in Beijing, you can drive mine.” As Jia He watched him carrying over his luggage, only now did she perceive that the suitcase should have already been set there last night and not even been opened. She, though, had not even noticed it this entire time.
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After seeing him off and returning home, she at last carefully studied that work schedule. To her surprise, she discovered that he had even thoughtfully made an annotation in red letters beside these next two months, informing her that he had ”relatively more night scenes.” Usually at least one-third of a movie consists of night scenes. Since he had specially notated this, then there likely would be even more than that.
However, as she spent half the day repeatedly mulling over these four words, she inexplicably came up with lots of thoughts. For instance, he had just recovered from his injury; with such a filming schedule, would he physically be able to hold up? Or for instance, would this mean that it would be more problematic if she wanted to go to the filming site to visit him? …
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Tune of Yong'an began broadcasting on satellite television, and the response it was receiving seemed quite good.
It happened that that drama being adapted from a novel was very pressed for time, so she completely fell into crazy, round-the-clock workaholic mode. One day, Xiao Yu truly reached her wits' end and was totally fed up. Carrying in the clothes that had been hanging out on the balcony, she asked Jia He, ”I'll say, have you sold off all those skirt and dresses that you bought? How come this whole month you've just been going back and forth wearing the same two outfits? Even I've gotten aesthetic fatigue.”
Since prying open her eyes today, Jia He had been typing away, and only when she heard these words did she spare a glance at Xiao Yu. ”See how a good line from a drama or movie can have a huge influence? The words 'aesthetic fatigue' are soon going to be added into the Cihai Dictionary[1].”
Then she turned her head back and continued typing.
Xiao Yu felt that trying to talk to Jia He was like a chicken trying to talk to a duck. She could do nothing but dump the clean clothes onto the couch. ”That drama of yours is doing pretty good. Every day when I'm at work, I hear people discussing the plot, to the extent that I'm going to be schizophrenic soon. I honestly want to stick a note on my head that says,”—she ripped open a bag of potato chips—”'I don't watch corny, melodramatic TV dramas. Don't talk to me about some Yi Wenze guy.' ”
The two large words ”Yi Wenze” flashed in front of Jia He's eyes.
With this brief break in her thought process, she completely forgot what she had been writing.
”I haven't seen you talk on the phone more than a handful of times. Don't tell me that because of all these restrictions from your professions, you've forgotten how to date and be in a relations.h.i.+p?” Xiao Yu took out a whole watermelon from the refrigerator, cut it in half, and plopped one of the halves by Jia He's hand.
I wish.
Gloomily, Jia He picked up a spoon, traced a circle with it into the watermelon, and then neatly scooped out that entire circular piece. ”Most of what he's filming are night scenes. He sleeps during the day and then has to film at night.”
With an ”oh,” Xiao Yu pointed out, ”Then just phone in the afternoon.”
”But I can't figure out for sure which day he's filming during daytime.” Jia He took a bite of watermelon, an icy-coldness permeating through her mouth, but instantly the chill caused pain to shoot through her teeth. Oh no, she needed to see the dentist again. ”There was one time I called him in the afternoon but he was on the set. Let's not even mention how embarra.s.sing that was.”
Giving her a pat on the shoulder, Xiao Yu commented with grave sincerity, ”It's not easy being the wife of a celeb, so not easy.”
Actually, she had been counting the days and was now deliberating that it was time to go visit him on the set. However, to be on location with the cast and crew on location for work reasons and to visit the set were two completely different things. Once she thought about the fact that, if she showed up on the film set, there were no guarantees on whether she might run into people with whom she was acquainted, or she might see him shooting all sorts of dangerous stunts or scenes of pa.s.sion, she started to get cold feet. In the end, though, after destroying half a watermelon, she still sent him a text: Are you still in Sichuan?
After sending it off, she waited rather nervously, but even after a long, long time she received no reply.
Disappointment flashed through her before she helped herself find a reasonable explanation: He's filming, he's filming. He must be filming.
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Thanks to that half a watermelon, she ”successfully” ended up sending herself to Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Actually, the dental department here was just average, but this was the closest one to her. After registering for an appointment, she sat down in the waiting room. The hospital was bustling and very noisy. She felt restless, unable to settle her heart, which made her tooth ache even more. All this time she had been holding her mobile phone, worried that when he had the time to return her message, she would not see it and end up missing his break time.
Even when the dentist was examining her, the phone was still in her hand. The dentist looked at her, annoyed but also finding her comical. ”La.s.s, are you waiting for a call for a telephone interview?”
Hastily answering no, Jia He finally put her mobile phone into her bag and lay down on the examination bed. After a series of checks, it was determined that the tooth that had steadfastly held its ground for three years at last needed to be completely extracted. When the dentist said that he was fully booked for today and asked whether she wanted to book something for tomorrow, a text message alert happened to ring out.
She hurriedly told the dentist, ”Sorry, this is really urgent,” and then pulled out her phone from her bag.
Three very simple words: Yes, still here.
Jia He vacillated briefly. I want to go see you.
She waited for a long time, but there still was no reply. The dentist, taking a look out the door, reminded her that there were still other patients and instructed her to make an appointment with the nurse to extract the tooth tomorrow. Not having received a reply from Yi Wenze, Jia He dared not make any promises and hence could only ask whether it would be all right if she waited a few days. This dentist likely had never seen this type of patient who kept changing what she wanted, and he was not really able to keep a smile anymore. His face stony, he told her to go to the nurse to book an appointment, in pa.s.sing also warning her that if she did not extract the tooth, these next several days most certainly would be painful.
Of course they would be painful. Right now it was already so painful she could die.
As it was the afternoon, the number of people in the clinic had dwindled until, apart from herself and a few elderly ladies, there were no others. Seeing that the dentist would be getting off work soon, the nurse walked over and inquired about the situation for each of them. Jia He considered for a moment but in the end did not book an appointment.
It was the time when people were getting off work, and the roads were absurdly congested. With great difficulty, she s.h.i.+fted her way a little at a time into a gas station. Just as she was poking her head out to speak to an attendant, her mobile phone began to ring, but when she was, out of reflex, about to answer the call, the boy attendant quickly said, ”Mobile phones can't be used here.”
With this reminder, she finally remembered this safety point. Hesitantly, she rejected the call.
A short while later, a text message came in: I'll be in Chengdu tomorrow. Press conference.
Tomorrow, hmm… Hissing noises came from Jia He as she sucked air through her teeth. Honestly, this was hurting to death. She sent her reply: Okay, I'll go to Chengdu tomorrow.
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[1]辞海. Cihai, which literally means ”sea of words,” is an authoritative Chinese dictionary and encyclopedia.
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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