Chapter 17.3 (1/2)

Chapter 17.2 – When You Listen to Me Speak (2)

Prior to New Year’s holiday, anyone who hung around in a school would not be able to escape going to a lively evening celebration.

No matter where he was, Gu Pingsheng was always the most popular teacher. In order to ensure that he could indeed attend, the students of his faculty had specially told several of the ones who knew Tong Yan to call her and invite her as well.

She hung up the phone and silently calculated. She was clearly only twenty-two years old and a fourth-year university student, but with all these addresses of “s.h.i.+mu” and “Little s.h.i.+niang[1]” [“Little Teacher-Mother”] coming from his students, she was nearly starting to doubt her own age.

“I’m still just on interns.h.i.+p.” She ran a deep brown wooden comb unhurriedly through her hair. “Teacher Gu, after being together with you for so long time, I’ve become old and serious …”

Gu Pingsheng leaned back into the couch and glanced at his watch. “You should go have your afternoon nap now.”

He had completely ignored her protests.

In her bare feet, Tong Yan jumped down onto the floor, and amid Gu Pingsheng’s tireless voice cautioning her that she would catch a cold that way, she brought out a stack of gla.s.s bottles and an entire box of cotton swabs from the bedroom, dropping them onto the couch in a colourful display.

“Which colour do you think is nice?” she asked him.

Gu Pingsheng really did not have much of a good opinion about these sorts of unhealthy products, but he knew that girls all liked to prettify themselves and occasionally allowing some leniency was necessary.

“This rose-coloured one.” With reluctance, he made himself offer an opinion.

“Do you know how to apply nail polish?”

“No.” He gave her a look of incredulity. “Do you think I should?”

Tong Yan suppressed her grin and answered seriously, “Of course not. Mr. Gu may be a beauty, but he is not a girly man.” She opened up that particular bottle, meticulously wiped the excess nail polish from the brush onto the inner rim of the bottle, and handed the brush to him.

Gu Pingsheng fell into silence and stared at her for some time. With a grim expression, he took the tool from Tong Yan, picked up her hand in his, and lowered his head to study where would be the best place to begin.

Tong Yan suddenly stretched out her finger and hooked it under his chin.

“What other instructions does Mrs. Gu have for me?” Gu Pingsheng’s eyes curved into crescents, and his voice carried a soft teasing tone.

Tong Yan gave a pleased nod, advising him, “If you hold onto the entire hand, your nail painting is going to turn out to be a disaster. You need to prop up and hold the finger individually. Remember, make one stroke through the middle first, then swipe the brush along the two sides. Also never, never get polish onto the sides of the fingers. But if you do get polish on the sides, I got some cotton swabs and nail polish remover, so I’ll be able to clean it up.”

He gave an “oh” and continued to look down with head bowed. At last, he began to carry out his task.

She had been utterly prepared for all scenarios, but she underestimated Gu Pingsheng’s care and attentiveness. Basically, after getting through the pinky finger, he settled completely into the correct rhythm. Tong Yan stared gloomily at him. She had originally wanted to make things difficult for him, just for fun, but contrary to her expectations, this turned out to be simply child’s play for him.

However, remembering his cla.s.sic story of how he had practiced julienning potatoes, she soon relaxed and let it go. Sure enough, some characteristics in people were simply innate.

In bare feet, the two of them sat cross-legged, facing one another. He was extremely careful and detailed, and therefore, she had plenty of time to observe him. Sunlight was the best adornment. Compared to the light reflectors and strong, artificial lighting in a studio, it was much softer. She tried with all her might to find an inherent flaw in his features, and if there really was some sort of regret, then it was only one small one — he had monolid eyes.

“Are monolids hereditary?” She was waving her left hand incessantly to allow the nail polish to dry as fast as possible.

“Double eyelids are a dominant trait and monolids are recessive. Putting it a little simpler, the probability of monolids is lower.” Gu Pingsheng’s eyes swept over the remaining gla.s.s bottles, and he was struck with a sudden notion to have some fun. “Want to change to another colour?”

“Okay.” Like a good girl, she held her right hand out to him. “If that’s the case, then you must have two of the recessive gene, and I am either one dominant, one recessive gene or two dominant genes? So in the future, if we have kids and they have monolids like you, then it’s for sure your fault …”

“What’s wrong with being like me?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being like you … But if they have monolids like you but everything else looks like me, then quality would seem to have gone down quite a bit.” Tong Yan had always considered herself to be quite nice-looking. However, the eyes of the ma.s.ses were sharp and discerning, and the difference between “quite nice-looking” and “extremely good-looking” was still significant.

The two of them talked about many things, most of them very pointless, but she liked talking about worthless stuff with him. This game of turning an outstanding person into someone just as boring and nonsensical as her was something that would always amuse her and she would never tire of.

Resting herself into the soft cus.h.i.+ons, she looked at her two hands with its two different colours and sighed, “If I didn’t have you, I would definitely not even bother living. I simply can’t find anyone better than you.”

He twisted the gla.s.s bottle lid closed and set the bottle down on the dark-coloured coffee table. “Without me, you should still be able to live a life that is very good.” His voice was languid and was partially joking, partially serious.

“Yes, you can be a.s.sured that, regardless of what tragedy or calamity strikes, even without you, I will still keep on living — and live well — because I still have many people I need to take care of.” Biting down on her lower lip, she seriously pondered, why had the topic suddenly become so somber?

Gu Pingsheng bent his finger and flicked her forehead lightly with it. “That’s more like it.”

Tong Yan gathered those bottles up once again and jogged two steps away, but then she turned around and glared at him.

“That’s not right either. How come that makes my love seem so fickle?” Bending over at the waist, her brows creased into a frown as she said, “Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Even though you may be older than me by nearly ten years, that does not mean I’m going to live longer than you, right? If I’m not with you, you definitely will keep on living well, too.”

Without waiting for any response from him, she gave a smug smile and went back into the bedroom.

The summary Zhou Qingchen once provided was still clearly etched in her mind.

“… pulmonary fibrosis, cerebral infarction, and osteonecrosis of the femoral head are all common problems that may develop. And there’s also complete damage of the immune system, loss of mobility, heart failure, and all sorts of others … So basically, in one sentence: they’re alive, but they’re incurable, yet at the same time, they’re not at the point of death either. And plus, only a few years have pa.s.sed. No one knows, further down the road, what kind of other complications and side-effects will arise …”

An undying cancer. A very direct and plainspoken summary.

But never had she ever worried about anything happening to him. This was not a blind optimism, but rather, it was because she understood that life was fragile. Perhaps the one you thought most likely to leave this world first would end up being the last one remaining. Who could say with certainty?