Chapter 18 Part1 (1/2)
Jia He is entrusted with a surprise task. ?
Chapter 18.1 —
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The calendar on her computer showed that there was only one week left.
Prior to this, she had used a full week to repeatedly confirm with him what his parents and sister liked. Even for simply selecting a toy, she had shopped for three days. In this last week, after everything was all ready, she had actually begun to feel uneasy and could not even sit or stand in peace.
Such anxiety directly affected her quality of sleep.
At only just past seven o'clock, she was already greeting the freshly risen sun. Struggling, she pulled herself up and blearily groped her way into the kitchen to fry an egg for him. But eventually, when she caught the whiff of something burning, the person behind her took the metal spatula from her hand. ”We'll fry a new one?”
Thus… she had yet again successfully managed to turn an opportunity to b.u.t.ter him up into one of putting her idol through cruel suffering.
A delicious smelling egg was served up on the table and even paired with plain rice congee that was mild and delicate in flavour.
He handed her a pair of chopsticks. ”You have work today?”
Mustering her focus to think about this question, she answered, ”No, I don't have any work this entire month.”
Yi Wenze put a spoon into her bowl. ”Why are you up so early?”
Again, she tried her best to think. ”Couldn't sleep. Kept having dreams, one after the other.”
He smiled, not saying anything.
Jia He took a sip of her rice congee, then looked very nervously at him. ”Will your mom ask me any sort of questions? My English isn't very good; my skills are limited to listening only. And it seems my Cantonese is about the same…” Fine, she admitted it. Just now she had dreamt that she was meeting his mother, a very gentle, cultured woman, but one who spoke to her only in languages she did not understand. She had known it was a dream, but the more anxious she was, the more she had been unable to wake from it.
With languages and the type of beast that they are, frantic cramming will not make you proficient in them.
He selected a CD of cla.s.sical music, then walked back amid its strains and sat down in front of her. ”My parents were the ones who taught me my Chinese. There should be no issues in terms of communication between you and them.”
Secretly relieved, Jia He very quickly ate her egg and congee and, content now, went back to the room to catch up on shut-eye.
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She slept all the way until noon, when a phone call came in. Having not gotten any good sleep for an entire night, she was too lazy to answer it and allowed the ringtone to sing over and over again until Yi Wenze answered it. After saying a sentence of some sort, he placed his hands beside her, propping himself on them, and told her softly, ”Honey, it's a call from your friend.”
Jia He gave a couple of ”mmphs” and turned over. ”Wait until after I wake up. Then I'll talk.”
Resignedly, Yi Wenze encircled an arm around her, helping her up, while the other hand placed her mobile phone by her ear. ”She said she wants to ask you to be her maid of honour.”
Maid of honour… Maid of honour?! Her eyes flew open. Her heart was spasming from shock. Then, wrapped in the comforter, sitting on Yi Wenze's thigh, she quavered into the phone, ”Who… who's asking me to be her maid of honour?”
”Me! Me, your bestie!” Qiao Qiao's voice was charged with excitement.
Taking some deep breaths, Jia He asked tentatively, ”Is it that Weibo dude of yours?”
Ever since Xiao Xiao began calling him that, she had followed suit and had been referring to him like so for a long time already. However, this question momentarily struck Qiao Qiao wordless. And then, Jia He heard her say on that end of the line to the person beside her, ”Hey, your name's been changed for you, Weibo Dude.” After these words, Qiao Qiao continued speaking to Jia He. ”Weibo Dude got an award. To celebrate, we plan on getting married.”
Jia He fell into a long silence. She tilted her head up and looked at Yi Wenze, wanting to say something, but her brain was utterly blank.
To have a flash marriage[1]to this extent—this certainly was shocking enough.
”Only you and Xiao Xiao are qualified enough to be my maid of honour. Xiao Xiao, though, is taller than me and also prettier than me, so she's definitely the one being eliminated.” Ecstatically, Qiao Qiao gushed, ”So, congratulations, you have risen to the honour of being my maid of honour.”
Jia He first gave a reflexive ”mm-hmm,” but then very quickly her mind caught up. ”When?”
”This weekend.”
This weekend? Her sleepiness completely cleared. ”Is there enough time to book a hotel and get a wedding dress and all that stuff?”
Qiao Qiao laughed. ”Before he came to j.a.pan, he prepared everything. It's all just waiting for me to go back and be a bride.”
Every single word was spoken like all this was only natural and right, yet linked together, they formed something that a normal person absolutely would never do! Before Cheng Hao went to j.a.pan… That was a case of proposing before even dating the girl. And now it turned out that not only had he bought the diamond ring, even the hotel and gown and formalwear had all been prepared, ready when needed. Jia He's brain was basically a muddled mess, but the actual involved party felt like this was all perfectly normal.
”I'm heading back to China today. When I'm back, we'll talk in detail.”
With that, Qiao Qiao hung up the phone.
Yi Wenze set her mobile phone off to the side. ”Do you still want to sleep?”
How could she sleep anymore? She nuzzled her cheek against his chest a couple of times, trying hard to find a feeling of reality in which she could ground herself. Then she murmured, ”Qiao Qiao's getting married and wants me to be her maid of honour. It's this weekend.”
A smile could be heard in his voice. ”Do you want me to go buy a dress with you? Or should we just go directly to the company's seamstress and have her make one.”
Dress? That wasn't the main issue at all!
”Weren't we supposed to go to New Zealand?” She struggled over the words for a long time before finally stating the key point.
”We'll go after the weekend. There's no rush.”
She worked out the schedule. ”Aren't you in KL this weekend?”
He was not all that concerned. As he pulled open the comforter and helped her put on her loungewear, he replied, ”I'll try my best to hurry back.”
She beamed. Qiao Qiao and Cheng Hao both belonged to the entertainment circle. If he could attend their wedding, that la.s.s would be so delighted she would burst. In the s.p.a.ce of just this thought, he had already slipped her into a jogging suit. Very happily, she snugged in close and planted a kiss on the corner of his lips. ”Thank you.”
He had not expected that she would be this happy. ”It seems I really will need to hurry back.”
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Qiao Qiao's one sentence completely uprooted Jia He's entire week and transplanted it over to Shanghai.
It was only when she arrived at her own home in Shanghai that she realized, since becoming a couple with Yi Wenze, it had been a long time since she last came back here. Dust coated all the furniture. After taking a whole day to clean the apartment, she gave him a call. ”What do you think? Should I sell or keep my apartment here in Shanghai? If I keep it, should I rent it out or just leave it empty? It'll be a lot of trouble if I rent it out, but if it's left empty, it'll just get really dirty and I'll have to hire someone to come clean it regularly.”
She had rattled off a long string of words, but in reality she was merely giving him options ”A,” ”B,” ”C,” and ”D” from which to select.
Smiling, Yi Wenze listened to her until she had finished speaking, and then he answered, ”I have a house in Shanghai, so there are no problems with where to stay if we want to go back. As for this place of yours, just do with it as you would like.”