Chapter 8 Part1 (1/2)

My Darling (我的曼达林) -- Chapter 8.1

by

Some housekeeping stuff first. I am heading to China and, as of next update, will be gone until the end of July. Same vacation procedure as last time, so many of you will be familiar with this.

While I am away, you will still get your updates. I have translated the subsequent chapters already and scheduled them to post at the usual posting times of Tuesday/Friday evenings, N. American time. (Forgive me if there are more errors than usual. I’ve tried, but with so many posts to prep, I’m sure I let a lot slip through the cracks. Another round of edits will occur when I return.) Since I’m in China, I may have sporadic access (or no access!) to the blog, so I will not be replying to comments like I usually do. Of course, please don’t let that stop you from commenting. I still promise to read every single one when I’m back but won’t be able to respond individually to them because of sheer volume of backlog. I will be back a few days after the very last chapter for this story is posted. You can put in an @hoju if there is something you specifically want me to respond to when I’m home. Peanuts is also on vacation for the next while, but she has offered to help me keep an eye out to make sure technology actually works and everything gets posted at the correct times. Thanks, Peanuts!Next/previous chapter links and index may not get updated until I get back. Thanks for your patience on that.

That’s it! See you all in a month-is.h.!.+

An evening of reminiscing, and also, the significance of the ring! And LOL at the last thing that Jian Bianlin says in this chapter.

Chapter 8.1 -- Your Smile that is Even More Enchanting (1)

The lightbulbs that hung from the limbs of a tree outside the corner store were bright, and Chu Jian needed to s.h.i.+ft her gaze away from their radiance. The backs of her ears burning hot, she tossed back a sentence of ”I'm not even going to pay any attention to you” and ran back down the lane along the way she had come.

Surrounded by the veil of the night, Jian Bianlin could not help letting out a laugh.

Too anxious. You're too anxious, Jian Bianlin.

The old saying was right: When people are extremely happy, they, indeed, will forget themselves.

Stretching and moving his arms about for a little bit, he very contentedly brought his hands behind his head and linked them together to prop up his head as well as his neck that was achy from filming for an entire day.

Staring after Chu Jian's backside, he truly felt that even just her action of walking was incredibly adorable&h.e.l.lip;

When the two returned empty-handed and stepped again into the small restaurant, the uncle-like restaurant owner was gnawing on chicken feet. Seeing that the two had come back, he beamingly prattled, ”Good thing I saw that your bike was still here; otherwise I would have thought that you had run off.” Saying this, he brought out their food and laid it out. On that table, if it was not a chicken dish, then it was an egg dish, but Jian Bianlin still savoringly enjoyed the food. This was the first meal he had consumed this whole day.

It had been rather late when he arrived on location at noon, and he had still needed to get the ”tattoo” hand-painted onto his back. That had been an intricate and painstaking piece of work where he had been unable to move in the slightest, so he had not told the makeup artist that he had not even had the chance to have a drink of water.

Concerned that it would be unsafe if he brought her back at too late an hour, Jian Bianlin scarfed down the food until he was half-full. Gulping down a couple of mouthfuls of warm water to help his stomach feel better, he went over and exchanged a couple of words with the uncle-like restaurant owner. The uncle gave a ”hee hee” of laughter, then picked up his coat and walked out. Soon, he returned, having bought the item that Jian Bianlin needed&h.e.l.lip;

After a single glimpse at that item, Chu Jian did not dare look that uncle in the eye anymore.

Forcing herself to put on a pretense of composure, she picked up the last piece of chicken with her chopsticks and put it into her mouth. Slowly, she separated the meat from the bone with her teeth before bowing her head and spitting out the bone. Of course, beneath that table where a third person could not possibly see, she gave a fierce stomp on Jian Bianlin's foot.

So hard. He was wearing military boots. It was destined that he would feel no pain from that, but he did feel something.

He lifted his eyelids to look at her. She glared back at him. But then, her face flushed first, and she s.h.i.+fted her eyes away to look elsewhere.

When they later returned to the little inn, the production cast and crew had also just finished eating.

The place that they were staying in was a little inn that had been completely reserved by the film team. Although it was called an inn, it was so simple and basic that it really was not all that different from a farm dwelling. There was no specified dining room. Everyone ate on the first floor, where several large, round tables had been pulled together, and that was it. Chu Jian was not paying attention when she walked through the door and ran into the dried chili peppers and corn that were hanging outside the doorway. So she, the one who had wanted to sneak in quietly, ended up creating a huge noise.

The people who were sitting at those several large tables all, one after the other, looked in her direction.

Chu Jian was thin-skinned. Now that her presence had been discovered, she was too embarra.s.sed to simply return quietly to their room, so nudging Jian Bianlin, she insisted that they take a seat at Xie Bin's table.

”What good stuff did you get to eat?” Tong Fei nibbled on her chopsticks. ”You left us all here with nothing to eat but the air, eh?”

Chu Jian swept her eyes over the leftovers on the table. Although the meal was basically finished, she could still tell that the balance between meat and vegetables had been well-coordinated and reasonable. Besides, she had eaten yesterday's lunch, and it was obvious that the film team's hired cook was skilled in his trade.

”Does it even matter what they ate? When you have love, even water satiates.” Xie Bin was gleeful as he quipped, ”Isn't that true, eh, Xiao Yu?”

Xiao Yu immediately chimed in, ”That's right, Ge!”

Everyone laughed.

Just now, when the two were not here, by everyone's request, Xie Bin had summarized briefly that this girlfriend who was by Jian Bianlin's side was Jian Bianlin's first love. The two were childhood friends and would marry sooner or later, so there was no need to keep their relations.h.i.+p a secret from all the staff and crew. The two words ”first love” truly had shocked quite a few people. Those sitting in the room had all experienced many years of ups and downs within the entertainment circle, so they had seen all the weird and wacky romantic relations.h.i.+ps that could exist.

All except this type. This type of relations.h.i.+p that Jian Bianlin had was one they had never seen before.

And so, everyone began to recall all the little details between the two of them since the commencement of filming, and as they thought more and more, they began to sentimentally reminisce about their own experiences. What does one's first love represent? It is not simply ”love;” it also embodies ”youth.”

Therefore, even before Chu Jian and Jian Bianlin had stepped into the room, the conversations had already been going at a high, and their appearance only pushed everyone up another level.

Work the following day was not going to begin until the afternoon and no one had to rise early, so by the end, every table had opened up quite a bit of alcohol. Eventually, the drinks went to everybody's heads. Never mind the older people who were more senior in experience; even Xiao Yu, a relative newcomer, had grabbed the Macau-native Lin Shen and poured out his story on how he had come into the industry, plus all those darn ups and downs and setbacks that he had experienced.

There were not as many stories of glory and glamour as one would think. The more wealth that is ama.s.sed in an industry, the more pragmatic and hard-nosed that industry is.

At the doorway, there were even two people who had broken out into tears from their conversation&h.e.l.lip;

As Chu Jian watched the drunken antics and overflowing feelings of all those people in the foyer and outside the door, many memories of the things that had happened in her days of youth were called up in her mind--memories regarding Jian Bianlin.

At the very beginning of high school, there was one time when she was riding her bicycle home with one of the girls in their school who lived nearby her. They had just gotten out the gates of the school when they saw Jian Bianlin walking and pus.h.i.+ng his bicycle, and furthermore, his tire was flat&h.e.l.lip; At the time, she had even wanted to go over and ask him whether he wanted to go home together with them, but then two girls, each pus.h.i.+ng a bicycle, came chasing after him. ”Jian Bianlin, did your bike break down?” Out of curiosity, Chu Jian had thrown a couple of extra glances in that direction.

The female cla.s.smate who was riding beside Chu Jian burst out in laughter, and tugging on Chu Jian's arm, she had commented, ”Nowadays, it's so entertaining to watch girls try to pursue a guy. That guy there from Cla.s.s No. 1, his bike tire's valve stem core has been pulled out every day, just to create the opportunity to walk home together after school and talk to him.” Chu Jian had been dumbstruck when she heard this. That certainly was original and creative.

Later, in the second semester of that first year of high school, this type of occurrence had become so commonplace that it no longer brought any surprise.

The boy who had drawn the most gazes in both the middle and high school campuses had been he.

One time, when it was her turn to stand at the school entrance and inspect school badges, she had seen his surname ”Jian” blatantly written in thin pen on the uniforms of two girls. Chu Jian had discovered the one in the morning. It was a girl dressed in the frog-green uniform of the middle school, and the character had been written on the cuff of her sleeve. The cla.s.smate standing beside Chu Jian while they were on watch duty had discovered the other one during the noon break. That cla.s.smate's reaction had been like she had just discovered the New World, nudging Chu Jian with her elbow and exclaiming, ”Look, look!” This time, it was the red and white uniform of the high school campus, and the small words ”Jian Bianlin” had been written in paint marker right on the collar.

Every school has a few boys like this who fill this type of role.