At night, I had a nightmare, I dreamt that there was only Jiang Chen's mother and I sitting facing each other in an empty room, his mother was fixing her gaze on me, her face full of profound mystery, as if she was watching an insect that was pinched between her index finger and her thumb.
I woke up with a start, Jiang Chen was sleeping beside me in a state of intoxication, the moonlight shone in from outside the window, draping a translucent milky white gauze over the entire room.
I stretched out my hand and lightly brushed aside the hair that was stuck to Jiang Chen's cheek, and said in a low voice, "Actually I'm really scared of your mother, what's to be done?"
He remained fast asleep, I sighed and sat to the bedside, I used my feet to fish up my slippers for a long time yet could not fish them up, only then did I remember that I had been directly carried on the shoulder by Jiang Chen from the bathroom to the bedroom……
Aiyo, embarrassment in the middle on the night was really……
I pinched my face, thinking that it was really moronic of me to be thinking about some p*rnographic garbage at this sort of time.
I went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water, went to the doorway of the bathroom and found my slippers, then drew my slippers and went to the balcony to watch the streetlights while drinking my water. The sky was about to brighten, and Jiang Chen's clothes that had been thrown downstairs by me were still dispersed in a scattered manner on the tarpaulin that had been put out by that family on the third floor. When Jiang Chen knew about it, he scared me by saying that he wanted to throw all my clothes away, I had his credit card in my hand, so I wasn't scared in the slightest.
"Xiaoxi."
I turned round, Jiang Chen was crossing his arms and leaning against the balcony door. I couldn't see his expression clearly in the dark, he said, "What are you thinking about?
This was the second time tonight that he had asked me what I was thinking about, yet I was still thinking about whether his mum would think that I wasn't fit to be with him.
I shook my head, "I had a nightmare."
He walked over and encircled my waist from behind my back, "What did you dream of?"
"Demons and ghosts."
He hugged me tightly, the warm body temperature slowly passing from his body to my back, he said, "Chen Xiaoxi, you can't just run away when you get scared."
I jokingly said, "Then that would depend on your mum's degree of firepower this time round."
He suddenly used the web between his thumb and his index finger to seize my chin, turned my face around with great force, and kissed me sideways from behind. I could sense his uneasiness, when the tip of his tongue entered searchingly, it even trembled slightly, it was as if this sort of trembling carried a tiny electric current, that electric current attracted me to move a little nearer, and move a little nearer again. I turned my body around and wrapped my hands around his neck, lightly using the tip of my tongue to touch his lips briefly. He seized the opportunity to sweep and catch my tongue, and dragged it into his mouth, sucking with great exertion till the back of my tongue turned numb, I had a sort of misperception, I felt like it was as if he wanted to swallow me down.
As our lips and tongues were tossing and turning about, I heard him saying fiercely, "Chen Xiaoxi, if you run away again this time, we won't have a next time, I'll do as I say."
I wanted to say, this mister, how are you able to say such a large chunk of words while pasting yourself to my mouth? I also wanted to say, this mister, your usage of such an intense and bossy style of expression is inconsistent with the cold, detached and unperturbed image you have all along, by behaving like this, you're not staying in character, it's very unprofessional of you.
When Jiang Chen let go of me, I had to clamber onto him in order to steady my legs that had gone weak, he pinched my face and said, "Your eyes are full of mist."
I didn't understand, mainly because the difference between this sentence and the content expressed in the previous sentence was too great, his line of thought was too flighty, I kind of couldn't keep up.
The next day, I spent my entire time at work in a muddleheaded state, so much so that even when Fu Pei told me that he had concluded negotiations regarding the matter of publishing the manhwa, and had even negotiated for a price that was not bad, I merely pulled at the corner of my mouth to express that I was actually very happy, it was just my facial expression being a letdown.
When I was about to get off work, I received a phone call from Jiang Chen, he said that he couldn't get away, and had me go to the airport to receive his parents. This made me feel like it was very unreasonable, what was unreasonable was the location at which I was to receive them - the airport, what kind of people would choose to use such a means of transportation as an aeroplane for this sort of distance between two places that was like this - "Take-off - sing a pop song - land"? The answer was this: people who are afraid that others won't know that they were rich.
Fu Pei very kindly sent me to the airport, of course I felt like it was possibly because he had a premonition that I was about to become a slowly rising nova in the manhwa world, so he had to curry favour with me now.
I kept on being very nervous before meeting Jiang Chen's parents, I was so nervous that there were a few times where I had the impulse to be nauseous whenever I took a deep breath. I even comforted myself by saying that if nothing else worked, I could just pretend to be pregnant, she could not want a daughter-in-law, but she couldn't not want a grandson, right? Or perhaps the moment we met, I could just carry out a segment of repentance that was excellent in voice and expression for my youthful ignorance back in those days…… In short, I built myself up a lot in my heart, telling myself that I must not feel hurt because of her, I must persevere in the principle of currying favour with her, the moment she finished hitting the left side of my face, I would move the right side of my face close in……
But the moment I saw them, all my tension was thoroughly dispelled. To draw an analogy, I originally hoped that her hatred towards me would be able to be resolved with one slap, but I didn't expect that she would feel a need to give me a flying kick to dissolve her hatred, and yet I wasn't willing to be given a flying kick, so let's just let it be.
I've used such an exquisite analogy, yet I still hadn't said clearly what exactly had happened, specifically, Jiang Chen's mother brought along a woman, unfortunately, I knew that woman, and for a very long period of time, I detested her. This women was called Li Wei. During the high school phase, she kept on hovering around Jiang Chen's side with the posture of a deceased soul that lingers on and refuses to disperse, everytime I saw her, I would think, aiya, how is this woman even less reserved than I am……
I believed that Jiang Chen's mother didn't possess such remarkable abilities to the point where she knew that I silently hated Li Wei in my heart, but I also believed that Jiang Chen's mother wasn't so pointless as to bring Li Wei here to tour the town's constructions, most importantly, I believed that the expression in Jiang Chen's mother's eyes when looking at me did not have something we call benevolence.
But sham gestures of politeness was necessary, I reverently and respectfully said, Hello Uncle and Auntie, I am Chen Xiaoxi, Jiang Chen has something on and can't come, he asked me to come and receive you all to bring you all to the hospital and meet up with him.
Jiang Chen's dad nodded his head, "Hello."
Jiang Chen's mother emitted a subtle syllable from her nostrils that lay between a "mm" and a "hmph".
Contrariwise, Li Wei came and pulled at my hand very enthusiastically, saying, "Xiaoxi, long time no see, you've become prettier."
I chuckle hollowly, "You're still so pretty."
I thought darkly that her saying 'you've become prettier' was hinting that I was very ugly in the past, so rightly and inevitably, I hated her even more.
Though I hated Li Wei, I still had to admit that Li Wei was very pretty, even more, there was a whiff of cleverness that appeared through her beauty, to use the words that Situ Mo used to assess her husband's beautiful female colleague who was a scientist - this matter of having equally good looks and wisdom, was certainly very loathsome.
On the taxi, I strived hard and searched for two topics of conversation, wanting to close the distance (between me and) the elders, these two topics were, separately, whether they got motion sickness on the plane and whether the airplane meals were tasty or not. Actually, I still had a lot of topics of conversation, such as - were the air stewardesses pretty? Did they have good figures? Were their skirts short? But looking at how their enthusiasm at participating in my two previous topics of conversation wasn't great, I too didn't say much anymore.
When we were about to reach the hospital, I made a phone call asking Jiang Chen to come out and wait at the lobby, but when we reached, we still didn't see him, hence I called him again, he said he was on his way.
After roughly a minute, Jiang Chen appeared at the lobby wearing his white coat, when his line of vision swept to Li Wei, he halted for a moment, and looked at me questioningly, I shrugged my shoulders.
Jiang Chen and his parents seemed to be a little distant, but this was understandable, Jiang Chen's temper was strange, and the two elders in his family were even stranger.
A few simple sentences were said, Jiang Chen's mother said, "Let's find a place to eat."
Jiang Chen took off his white coat and passed it to me, I folded it properly and stuffed it into my purse, he took the travel bag in Li Wei's hand. The whole journey, Li Wei had been hugging the travel bag tightly, it was as if she was afraid that I would dash up to her and grab it and run away. Plus, the travel bag was so big, I suspected that there was a dead corpse hidden inside, or perhaps an adulterous husband.
Along the way, Jiang Chen explained to me in a soft voice, Li Wei's father was the Education Bureau Chief in our town, and was good friends with his father. This I understood, the town mayor and the bureau chief would definitely be good friends, just like how the class monitor and the academic rep normally would collude together*. (T/N: there is nefarious intent in the original Chinese idiom for this)
When we were eating, it seemed as if Jiang Chen's mother suddenly called to mind my existence, "Where is Miss Chen working at currently?"
"You can just call her Xiaoxi." Jiang Chen lifted his head and said a sentence.
I replied hurriedly, "At a design company."
"Is it a foreign enterprise or a state enterprise?"
I swallowed my saliva, "Private enterprise."
"Oh, and how is its scale?"
I said, "Three people."
Everyone present except for Jiang Chen all stopped moving their chopsticks and looked at me in astonishment, this caused me to suspect if I had just a moment ago articulated unclearly and said "kill a person" instead of "three persons". (T/N: In Chinese, three persons is "san ge ren" while kill a person is "sha le ren", which I guess sounds similar.)
After quite a while, Jiang Chen's mother said again, "Has Miss Chen considered changing jobs?"
I felt like what she wanted to ask more was, has Miss Chen considered changing boyfriends, but I'm sorry, this madam, I've pestered your son for too many years, if I gave up halfway, it would appear as if my personal character had no perseverance.
Hence I shook my head and said, "No." I thought for a bit and supplemented, "I like this job a lot."
She already no longer took the trouble to conceal her expression of disdain in her eyes, she directly omitted me and told Jiang Chen, "Jiang Chen, Li Wei has quit her job and is preparing to take the entrance exam to become a postgraduate student in your school, so she intends to stay in X City for a while, in any case, there's an empty room at your place, let her stay at yours, your Uncle Li and co will also be more at ease."
Jiang Chen didn't even lift his head, "It's not convenient."
"How is it not convenient?" She slapped her chopsticks on the table with a bang, the sound was so loud that I suspected that she had profound internal force*, I even suspected that later on, when the waiter tidied up the table, he would have to dig out the chopsticks from the table. (T/N: a concept in Chinese martial arts, where one trains up their 'internal force', allowing them to increase in strength and power)
Because I was letting my imagination run wild, so I wasn't in time for the favourable opportunity of being a peacemaker, instead, it fell into Li Wei's hands in vain, regarding this, I was very grieved.
Li Wei smiled and pulled Jiang Chen's mother's hand, saying, "Auntie, don't be angry, indeed it's not particularly convenient, I'll just stay at a hotel, anyway it's not that long a period of time."
I kicked Jiang Chen underneath the table, he raised his head and looked at me in puzzlement.
Uh…… Actually, I also didn't know why I wanted to kick him, it's just that I suddenly felt like the atmosphere had arrived……
Jiang Chen's mother was unyielding, "How is it not convenient? You and Li Wei have grown up together since young, the elders all trust you both, plus, letting a girl stay at a hotel alone is too unsafe."
I, holding on to the spirit of there being no time to lose, immediately followed after the end of her words and boot-licked, "Yes, it's very unsafe."
However, it seemed like my identity was not suited to say such words, because the moment I finished speaking, the entire dinner table sunk into silence again. Hence, I withdrew my head and decided that following this, I wouldn't speak anymore even if I was beaten to death.
"Why not you think about who was the one who bought the house?" Jiang Chen's mother slapped the table and said, "Don't tell me I don't even have the right to invite a friend over to stay?"
Jiang Chen didn't say anything more, he only took down the purse that I had hung up on the chair, and searched out his house keys from inside, after which he passed them to Li Wei and said, "What my mum said is also not wrong, indeed it isn't safe for you as a girl to stay outside, these are my house keys."
The plot had turned around so rapidly, Jiang Chen's sudden sensibility caused Jiang Chen's mother who was still giving a performance of being angry to stare blankly on the spot.
Jiang Chen then fished out his car keys from his pocket and passed them to Li Wei, "I remember that you have a driver's license, having a car here is more convenient when going out."
This time, Li Wei didn't dare to stretch out her hand to receive (the keys), she looked towards Jiang Chen's mother with an expression of one crying for help, Jiang Chen's mother also looked towards Jiang Chen's father, Jiang Chen's father said in a deep voice, "Jiang Chen, what are you doing?"
Jiang Chen placed the keys by Li Wei's hand, his tone of voice was actually very placid, "This was also not my car to begin with."
My heart had risen up to my throat, underneath the table, my hand desperately pulled at the lower hem of his clothes, I thought to myself, if you want to rebel and so on, don't choose a time when I am present at the scene, those who don't know will think that it's me who instigated you.
He gripped my hand and glanced at me, this glance was a meaningful one, but I didn't understand it, when I did understand it was already too late to stop (him).
He said, "Dad, Mum, I've already told you before, Xiaoxi is my girlfriend, I'm living with her now, we want to get married, I hope to get your consent."
"I don't consent." Jiang Chen's mother said.
I thought to myself, I too don't consent, I haven't been proposed to yet……
Jiang Chen clenched my hand tightly, and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't consent, back then, you too didn't consent when I took the entrance exams for university and was choosing my major, plus you also didn't consent to me becoming a doctor."
My emotions were lying in between "please shut your mouth and don't cause trouble for me" and "stand up, applaud and say, 'So handsome!'", I was very conflicted.
Jiang Chen's parents were soon about to flip out, however two knocking sounds came through the door of the private room, the waiter entered and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
Only then did I discover that the service light of the private room was lit up.
"(I'll) pay the restaurant bill." Jiang Chen passed his credit card over to the waiter, I too didn't know when the credit card that had all along been in my purse had gotten into his hand.
After the waiter retreated and left, Jiang Chen said, "Li Wei, I've given you all the keys, you also know the route to my house, after you're done eating, I'll have to trouble you to send my parents back to rest, I have an operation tonight, tomorrow I'll take leave and bring you guys out to roam around again."
After he finished speaking, he too didn't care about his mother swatting the table saying, you sit down for me, he pulled me up with one hand, "Send me to take the metro, I don't have a metro card."
As I was being dragged away by him, I turned around and said, "Uncle, Auntie, goodbye."
Jiang Chen walked on ahead, I followed blindly behind him, holding on to the credit card. After walking for about 20 minutes, he halted his footsteps, I accelerated my footsteps and walked to his side to be side by side with him.
He held my hand and walked slowly ahead, "Chen Xiaoxi, when I was small, they often quarrelled."
I comforted him, "My parents often quarrelled too, my mum even said that he wanted to use the vegetable knife to cut my dad up into minced meat and wrap dumplings."
He lowered his head and glanced at me, "You're talking nonsense, right?"
I rubbed my neck, "You can even see that. Though I want to say, that sort of display of yours just now, has caused me to be under great stress."
He ignored me, and continued speaking, "Often, I would be practising on the piano in the piano room, and they would be just outside, cursing each other, desperately insulting each other's eighteen generations of ancestors, or desperately using their spoken words to insult and question each other's ability to propagate the next generation. As someone who shares the same ancestors as them, and is also their next generation, I was under great stress."
I lifted my head and patted his shoulder, saying, "Being flippant is not your style, it can't help you modify your image into an uninhibited vagabond."
He pinched a handful of my face, "It's really frustrating, you say, why don't they get a divorce?"
I analysed it matter-of-factly, "If they get a divorce, it'll be difficult for them to account to their work organisations."
He laughed, "How do you know that it'll be difficult to account to their work organisations?"
I said, "When I was small, I felt that my mum was very fierce, and advised my dad to marry someone else, it was him who told me that it'll be hard to account to his work organisation."
Jiang Chen again stretched his hand out to pinch my face, "How is it that matters as big as the sky all become so hilarious once it reaches you?"
This probably is what they call - innate talent.
"Let's go, we'll take the metro home." Jiang Chen let go of his hand that was holding on to mine, and wrapped his hand around my shoulder, "I have no money and no metro card……"
Coincidentally, it was the time people got off work, the metro was squashed till it was like cans of salted fish, my back was pressed against the carriage wall as I stood, Jiang Chen was standing in front of me, his two arms propped up at the two sides of my body, helping me block out the crowds of people.
I raised my head and looked at him, squinting my eyes as I kept on smiling, he was unable to make head or tail of my smiling, "What's up?"
I said, "Hey, on television, if the male and female leads were on a congested vehicle, there would definitely be such a posture, using your body to keep off the crowds, you're so romantic."
He had an expression of "I really can't stand you" all over his face.
I stood up straight, and leaned over, and hugged him beamingly, my face was plastered against his chest, and my two hands were hugging his waist, as they interlinked behind his back.
I said, "Jiang Chen, can I not take leave to accompany your parents tomorrow, I have to discuss the contents of the manhwa with the client tomorrow, plus I haven't been looked down on by other people for a very long time, I have to recuperate."
Actually, I was thinking that if I was present tomorrow, I didn't know how much more awkward the scene would get, I might as well not appear and dampen their spirits.
He nodded his head, and said, "Okay." He paused, then said again, "It's been unfair for you."
I shook my head, and looked at his eyes as I said, "Jiang Chen, I love you so much."
He was a little uneasy as he moved his eyes away, and let out a "mm" in a low voice.
After about five minutes, he suddenly lowered his head and asked me, "What's to be done? I have no house and no car now."
I pretended to be in deep serious contemplation, only after a while did I smile and say, "How about this, if you tolerate me eating a lot and not doing any work*, I'll tolerate you having no house and no car." (T/N: A Chinese idiom meaning being a parasite)
He laughed and lowered his head, using that side of his cheeks that had a dimple to lightly rub against my cheek.
Translator's Corner:
The showdown of Jiang Chen & Xiaoxi vs Jiang Chen’s parents has finally arrived!! I love the image of them taking the metro together, and Xiaoxi chasing away Jiang Chen’s blues with her nonsense ahaha.
Speaking of Li Wei, I was reminded of a detail that I read about on Weibo a few months ago (with regards to the drama). Remember how Jiang Chen couldn’t remember his schoolmates’ names and didn’t know who Li Wei was initially? Well halfway through the drama, while he did eventually know who Li Wei was, unfortunately he still spelled her name wrongly in his contact list on his phone. (It should be 李薇 not 李微). Don’t know if it was intentional on the production team’s part but haha it sure adds an interesting touch 😛 And is pretty in character too 😛