Chapter 1 part3 (2/2)

The young girl who was doing the inventory count with Chu Jian seemed to have a specific program that she wanted to watch, and holding the remote control, she flipped through channels for a long time.

”Jian Bianlin!” The girl at last found what she wanted to watch and let out an excited cry that gave Chu Jian a fright…

There, holding a small die-shaped nail charm in her hand, she looked up to see Jian Bianlin on the screen.

He was at the airport?

Jian Bianlin was not wearing anything to hide his countenance and merely walked with a completely deadpan face into the pa.s.sageway. Another popular idol artiste was walking side by side with him, and compared to Jian Bianlin, this person's dress—a hat worn with its brim facing backwards and black sungla.s.ses—was much more like that of a celebrity. As he walked, he would smile and greet nearby fans.

Only in such instances was Chu Jian truly able to feel that Jian Bianlin was an artiste.

This scene only very briefly flitted across the screen, and then the picture quickly jumped to a television talk show. Oh, so this was the real point of the program.

He was sitting on a couch, leaning forward slightly as he listened attentively to the host of the program ask him what the meaning was behind his name.

”Is it a stage name? That's why it is so awkward to say and sounds so strange?”

After he finished listening to her questions, he replied forthrightly, ”When I was born, my father's desire was very simple and honest. His hope was that, in the future, his son would guard this nation and would do so without recognition or being made known to anyone. And so, what he wanted was for me to be like the most ordinary of trees in the forest that stand guard at our borders. That is the meaning behind 'Bianlin[3]' [the border’s forest].”

The host of the show laughed. ”Your father's wish and your current profession are vastly different. Was he disappointed at all?”

”In the beginning, he was a little.” He nodded. ”Now he's much better about it.”

The host seemed to feel that interviewing him was really quite pleasant since he spoke plainly about everything. As a result, she immediately tossed out a key question. ”A lot of your fans want to know what your att.i.tude is toward love and relations.h.i.+ps. Just look, you're so popular, but you still have zero scandals and romantic rumors attached to your name; you rarely accept projects that are romance films; and you don't do TV dramas, so the number of scenes that you act opposite actresses is pathetically small. It's impossible for people to not be curious.” The host grinned. ”Do you have any special requirements that you look for when choosing your significant other?”

”The person I like…” These opening words of a sentence were blurted out completely unthinkingly.

And then, he stopped.

Chu Jian was also listening with rapt attention and ended up misplacing the miniature die she was holding into the shelf cube unit that was meant for feather charms.

Die and feather nail charms (image credit:  and )

This feeling of anxiety was too familiar.

Back then, when the teacher had called them into a small office to ask them whether they were early-age dating[4], he had also paused like this for a very long time… Finally, he had shaken his head and said no. It had been in the frigid winter, but because of him, she had nervously broken out in a sweat all over, worried to death that her parents would be requested to go in for a parent-teacher talk.

Now, the expression of that person on the small television screen had become serious, and his eyes were fixed on a faraway spot on the floor. ”I wish that she…”

Another pause.

Even the host was eagerly hanging onto his words because of the suspense.

In the end, with eyes down, he unexpectedly gave a hard-to-come-by smile in front of the camera and shook his head gently, not answering the question anymore.

[1]新东方 New Oriental, which actually has the full name of 北京新东方教育科技 New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., is the largest provider of private educational services in China. Services provided range from supplementary after-school cla.s.ses school subjects, test preparation cla.s.ses, kids programs and summer camps, online courses, consultation for international study, etc. See

[2] The Senior High School Entrance Examination is a compulsory examination in China, administered annually, taken generally by students in their final year of middle school as a pre-requisite for entrance into senior high school level education.

[3] Jian Bianlin's father wanted him to be like the most ordinary of 边防林木 ”bian fang lin mu” which literally means ”the trees of the forest that guards the border,” and Jian Bianlin's given name, 边林 Bianlin, is derived from the first and third characters of that.

[4]早恋 ”zao lian.” What I have called ”early-age dating” is, in China, dating under the age of 18 and especially when still in non-post secondary education. It is generally highly frowned upon.

Additional Comments:

I guess if I were to describe it, sometimes a person’s presence in your life has almost become a habit. To Jian Bianlin, his feelings for Chu Jian were early, and loving her has become engrained into him. To Chu Jian, she never thought beyond friends.h.i.+p, so she’s used to only viewing him as a friend and cannot fathom any other relations.h.i.+p with him. Of course, there are more pieces to their twenty-plus years of history together, and you will get lots more of those pieces throughout the story.

The nail charms had me hung up for a while. In the Chinese text, it only mentioned that Chu Jian was holding a “miniature die” and did not mention anything about it being a nail charm. I kid you not, I dug around about this for hours, trying to figure out why in the world a nail salon would be stocking miniature dice. (I guess this gives you an indication of how often I get my nails done. LOL.) The term “nail charm” in the English translation was added at my discretion as a means of clarification, and I included some pics, just in case your knowledge of nail aesthetics is at a similar level to mine. (I can’t be the only one who had no idea, right?! LOL)

Completed:

1 of 1 Prologue

3 of 36 Chapter segments

0 of 1 Epilogue

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