Chapter 5 Part2 (1/2)
My Darling (我的曼达林) — Chapter 5.2
by
Chu Jian observes that Jian Bianlin has changed a lot, but have you guys noticed that even she has changed?
Chapter 5.2 — Age-Old Jealousies (2)
The two sat into the vehicle. The entire journey back to the hotel, neither spoke.
Jian Bianlin instructed his a.s.sistant, Xiao Yu, to accompany Chu Jian back to her room while he rode the car back and rejoined the film cast and crew. When Chu Jian returned to her room, there was still a feeling of anger that seemed wedged in her chest.
”Jie[1] [literally ”big sister”], could I borrow your computer to use for a bit?” Xiao Yu smiled, ”Xie Zong[2] told me to look at something.”
Nodding, Chu Jian opened up her computer and turned it so that the screen was facing the young a.s.sistant.
Before long, the sounds of a video could be heard. There was singing, and it sounded very lively.
Xiao Yu chortled at the computer screen and called, ”Jie, look. Those fans are so funny.”
Xiao Yu turned the computer back toward her.
Inside the video, Jian Bianlin, his upper body bare, was dancing beneath the light to the strong beat of the music. The footage was shot from a far angle and seemed to be a recording taken by a fan. She could approximately make out his action of biting down on his lower lip as well as the faintly discernible, thin layer of sweat on his chest and over his waistline…
”His birthday event last year. Is he hot or not, Jie?”
The picture jumped to another one. On another stage, he seemed to have just finished a dance segment, and as he turned away, his two fingers tugged the back of his waistband up …
Next, it was the airport, summertime. Two nearby fans had somehow caught his jacket and tugged it down slightly, exposing his collarbone…
His a.s.sistant was cackling with mirth because the editing of the video was simply too awesome.
It was all sorts of shots where he had had a wardrobe malfunction or shown skin.
”Fans nowadays are so amazing.” Xiao Yu grinned. ”This video has several hundred thousand clicks on it already. Ha ha. Back when I was young and following celebrities, there was no stuff like this. Back then, the internet still wasn't such a big thing.”
The young a.s.sistant was still chattering away, joking around in a WeChat group chat with some people in their company. Everyone in the chat was animatedly commenting that even though this video was made by fans, they could still turn it into something big.
Their discussion fell into the public relations category. In this day and age, attaching a label and defined manners and behaviours to an idol was practically the norm. However, Chu Jian reckoned that even this young a.s.sistant would not believe her if she stated aloud that this was the first time she had ever watched in detail something like this that was part of Jian Bianlin’s normal life as a celebrity…
Perhaps because she had grown up with him, when she saw stuff like this, she would feel a little weird, especially… shots of this type where he was so ”exposed.” Watching him through a camera lens dance with a naked upper body was honestly a bit awkward, you know. Even more awkward was that this young a.s.sistant of Jian Bianlin's was particularly fond of sending voice messages, and he was firing them off one after another. ”I think our Jian Ge's body really is just gorgeous, and his waist is so narrow. Hey, Xie Zong, how about we get a 'waistophile' thing going?”
Likely because he did not view Chu Jian as an outsider, the young a.s.sistant did not even bother at all to keep the group's voice messages private from her as he listened to them.
This one sentence really excited quite a few people, and they one by one began to throw their banters back.
”Ha ha ha ha ha! Knock it off! That term just sounds bad. But Jian Ge's body is truly top of the tops. It's totally got stuff worth ogling,” someone replied to him.
”In his fans' own words: especially l.u.s.t-invoking.”
”No, no. I think the best one isn't in here. This video is missing one.” Xie Bin guffawed, ”The best ones are when you tease the viewer by showing something just peeking through, but at the same time, it seems like you're not quite showing anything either. Last year, he had one scene in a movie that later ended up being cut. The director specified that he only wear a suit jacket with nothing underneath it. When I have a chance, I'll go back and ask for that clip to show you guys. There's nothing cool about watching a ruffian doing things that ruffians do, but when the normally refined, serious, gentleman-type does a few ruffian things, that's the killer!”
Someone even went as far as directly sending back an audio message that contained a string of uncontrollable laughter.
Feeling embarra.s.sed from listening to all this, Chu Jian retreated off to the side to watch television alone.
She flipped through channel after channel but was unable to find one that she could watch with a settled heart. Glancing at her mobile phone, she discovered that Jian Bianlin had sent her a WeChat message a few minutes ago.
6th floor of the hotel, far east end of the white walkway that's on this side. Come down.
… So just this, and now things were considered okay between them?
Clasping her mobile phone, Chu Jian waged an internal battle for a while. Forget it. She was not going to bother quibbling with someone who was ill.
Outside, the sky was already completely dark.
The lamps illuminating this raised area were all hidden in the bushes lining the path. From time to time, several men and women wearing bathing suits and wrapped in bathrobes would walk by her. Sensuous views, oh my, such teasing, sensuous views.
All those skin-showing images from earlier on—the contours of his waistline, his collarbones, and many other shots—were still clear in her mind, and the joking banter of the people in his company still seemed to be ringing by her ears.
And now, to have views like these suddenly come at her. Although outdoor swimming pools and manmade beaches were very common to see, nevertheless, at this particular time, they still triggered some thump-thumping in her heart.
Though she did not even know what she was thump-thumping about…
Following the instructions to the location that he had given, Chu Jian searched for a few minutes and then successfully found him.
Jian Bianlin certainly knew how to find good places. It was absolutely an isolated corner, around a bend, not easily detected by nearby eyes, and no one would pa.s.s by it. With one hand in his pants pocket, he was watching something tiny crawling slowly on a vine. He could not really discern what it was. He was doing this purely out of boredom as something to pa.s.s the time.
”How about we go upstairs?” Chu Jian walked up to him, still feeling that this was unsafe.
She was always aware of the things around her. Several years ago, when Weibo first launched and Jian Bianlin still was not yet popular, he had pulled her out in the middle of the night to go have a meal with Xie Bin. To their surprise, one of his pathetically few hardcore fans at the time had actually managed, through a folding screen, to steal a blurry, yellowy photograph of the side view of his face. From then onward, she was constantly nervous and jumpy. This was likely a psychological scar left from her student era, and she was especially afraid of being gossiped about …
She was not certain whether it was because the trees' shadows were masking him in the veil of the late night, but it seemed difficult to determine Jian Bianlin's emotions, whether he was happy or angry as he said, ”We'll go up in a little bit.”
”Oh, okay.” So what were they going to do now, then?
The atmosphere was weird.
Chu Jian looked at him. Still, no expression could be seen on him. Of course, under other circ.u.mstances where she was not mad, this would not bother her; after all, she had been accustomed to this for twenty years already… She just found it odd. Ever since he was little, he was obviously someone who was occasionally cold and aloof and lacked expression on his face, yet when he was acting, he was always very much in character. How did he manage to do that?
Jian Bianlin glanced around at their surroundings. This location truly was quite good. He had been strolling downstairs here for more than twenty minutes.
This particular place was a shared rooftop terrace between several upscale hotels. Aside from some villas, there were only the individual pools and manmade beaches of the various hotels. There were relatively fewer people here, and entry could only be gained by swiping a key card, so at least it was safer than the casino or shopping area downstairs.
Closing his hand into a loose fist, he covered his mouth and gave a cough.
Pulling out a lighter from his pocket, he then fished out a small item from a cardboard box beside him that was sitting on a stone bench on one side of the covered walkway. The production crew’s site was such a good place. Anything that you wanted could easily be found there—even though this particular thing was a little silly.
Before Chu Jian had even gotten a good look at what he had pulled out, she saw the faint, flickering flame of the lighter spring up from his palm and light that item.
Sparks flew out in every direction.
With the glow emitted by the sparks, Jian Bianlin observed her carefully, trying to come up with something he could say that would be appropriate for this moment. However, after contemplating deeply on this, in the end, he still did not utter even half a word. He placed into her hand that item that was going hiss hiss and sending out sparks. ”Don't you like these? The production team was using them today. I noticed that they all seemed to like them, so I brought a few back for you. When this one’s done burning, there are still more.”