Chapter 16.3 (2/2)

Since starting his job at the foreign-based law firm, the time Gu Pingsheng spent at home was much less.

Sometimes, when she got off early from her work at the courthouse, she would take the bus to the university or his office building to wait for him to go home. Gradually, the people at the courthouse who mentored her learned of this, and they all could not help laughing and saying that she truly was leading a new era of being a good wife. For other people, if they were younger, the boyfriend would drive over to pick up the girlfriend, while if they were a little older and married, once they got off work, they would rush off to pick up their children from school.

Only she was the oddball exception.

Entering into November, all the interns.h.i.+p students began discussing their results from the National Judicial Examination[1].

Though she did not talk about it, in her heart, she was extremely nervous. With her abilities and intelligence, she had no chance at all of getting into a foreign-based law firm, and therefore, the National Judicial Examination was a necessary bridge that she had to cross. The Sat.u.r.day that she could look up her score was quickly approaching. Gu Pingsheng happened to be invited to attend a conference that was being held at a vacation resort out in the suburbs of Beijing.

Before he left, Tong Yan repeatedly verified with him when he would be returning and what the conference schedule was so she could know approximately the times he would be speaking and when he would be resting.

On that Sat.u.r.day, she arose early, and while she was researching how to make milk pudding, she also tried to gauge out the time, speculating what he was doing at that moment. Would he suddenly feel unwell?

She spent the morning experimenting several times, and both the successful and unsuccessful puddings were all destroyed in her and Grandmother’s bellies.

Following dinner, she kept an eye on the time, and when there was about an hour or so before he was to arrive home, Tong Yan once again began making some milk pudding. She worked through all the steps until, finally, she had poured the cream into the moulds and placed them in the oven.

Are you nearly home?

She sent this message out, and after a while, she received his reply.

It was the detailed address of the vacation resort, so detailed, in fact, that it contained a room number. Were it not for the fact that it had come from his mobile phone number, it would have seemed more like a spam message.

She used eight or nine seconds to read through that message twice but still did not understand what he meant by it. Fortunately, a second text was very soon sent over: Just now, that was the address of the resort. Mrs. Gu has thirty minutes to dress and pretty herself up, then bring one day and one night’s worth of clothing and essentials here to have a little vacation with Mr. Gu. TK

His tone in the message was relaxed.

She asked him: But then, what about our elderly family member here at home?

Pingfan needs a quiet place to get ready for her exams. She’ll be staying in our home for the next two days. Mrs. Gu, you have another twenty-nine minutes. TK

From the looks of it, he had had this planned ahead of time.

Now that she seriously thought about it, since coming back after her final examinations, the two of them had not spent any time away from home together and especially had not stayed any nights away. They could definitely take the t.i.tle of “most model homebody couple in history” … These sudden arrangements by Gu Pingsheng had caught her completely by surprise, and it was fortunate that it was only for one day and night. Pulling out her backpack, she packed it, told Grandmother that someone was coming to take care of her, and then hurried out the door of their home.

Before she left, she still did not forget about the milk pudding she had made for him.

The resort was not very close, and she spent approximately fifty or more minutes on the road to get there.

Since the resort was comprised wholly of individual villas cl.u.s.tered together, when the staff saw the address on her mobile phone, they immediately arranged for a vehicle to take her over there. The pa.s.sengers on the vehicle consisted mainly of people who had come vacationing, and stepping into the vehicle with her were a young couple who were whispering quietly the entire time. The boy was holding all sorts of brochures, trying to find a place to go fis.h.i.+ng, while the girl repeatedly said to him, “Let me look at the yoga cla.s.s schedule.” Eventually, because of these few brochures, the two nearly broke out into a quarrel. The boy hurriedly bowed and apologized, making all sorts of animal sounds in remarkably perfect imitations, and after a full five or six minutes, the girl finally gave a light “humph,” bursting out into giggles.

Tinges of warmth and tenderness. The entire vehicle was filled with this feeling.

When the vehicle stopped in front of the place where Gu Pingsheng was staying, she hopped out and, gazing at that little villa speckled with lights, inhaled lightly.

Earlier on, the staff had described the villas, explaining that each one was composed of four separate suites.

For every forty villas, there was a.s.signed one customer service team, which waited to offer its a.s.sistance at any time by providing twenty-four-hour telephone service.

Gu Pingsheng’s room was on the first floor, and she followed the meandering gravel pathway over toward it until she was directly facing the room number. Glancing down at the number in her mobile phone and confirming that they were indeed the same, she sent him a text message: Tonight’s moonlight is quite nice. A very suitable ambiance for eloping.

After she sent the message, the room still remained quiet.

Moving forward, Tong Yan pressed her ear against the door, listening for sounds inside. There truly were no noises of movement or water, but given that there was light s.h.i.+ning out from under the door, there should be someone inside.

Even merely thinking in this way caused all the previous excitement and antic.i.p.ation to start to gradually dwindle away, and an insuppressible feeling of trepidation silently spread in her.

Her mind went blank for several seconds, but then she immediately swung off her backpack and set it down. Yanking out seven or eight leaflets and brochures, she opened them to look for the telephone number of the customer service centre.

The surroundings were too dim. She unlocked her phone and, by the light of the screen, searched frantically for the number.

First page, no. Second page, third page, fourth page … The leaflets did not have it. Neither did the brochures.

They were all filled with descriptions of many kinds of activities and events, so many that she was going mad. The more she wanted to read through carefully, the more panicked she was getting, to the point she did not even know what she might have missed. Her heart was beating so heavily it was as if it was being weighed down by lead, and every thud caused her chest to ache with pain. At last, her legs became so weak they would not support her, and leaning feebly against the door, she made herself calm down. Then, with trembling fingers, she turned back to the very first brochure …

Biting down on her lip, she kept telling herself, “Stay calm. Tong Yan, stay calm.”

Suddenly, all the light disappeared.

A hand covered her eyes.

“It’s me. Just now, I wanted to go out to meet you, but I took the wrong path.” Gu Pingsheng’s voice was directly against her ear, and his breathing was still somewhat ragged. From behind, he enfolded his arms around her and a.s.sured her, “I am fine. There’s absolutely nothing wrong. Don’t scare yourself.”

[1] Recall from footnote [2] in chapter 8.1 that the National Judicial Examination is a unified national entry exam for people practicing legal professions in China and is held in September every year.

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