The next day, in order to satisfy the good intentions of Jiang Chen who had, in high spirits, said that he wanted to send me to work, I had no alternative but to wake up an hour earlier than I normally did, this was the price of love.
Last night, towards the latter half of the night we kept on discussing the issue of pillows, Jiang Chen insisted on sleeping on my pillow, saying that the new pillow had a smell of washing powder. I proposed switching pillows with him, yet he said that this wasn"t good, it would make it seem like he wasn"t considerate of his girlfriend.
I said, you have never been considerate before, besides there aren"t outsiders here, if I don"t say and you don"t say, just be inconsiderate then.
He said, with this mouth of yours, who knows, you might go onto some forum and publish a post, or write a novel or draw a cartoon to praise me, then once the sofas and benches* come and twist the forum thread, you would then begin to write boldly and with conviction "My Awful Boyfriend doesn"t even give me a pillow to sleep". (T/N: sofas/benches - Chinese internetspeak, often used when replying to the original forum post. The first replier often says "sofa" (meaning they got to sit on the sofa), while the people who reply after that say "bench" (since the sofa already has someone sitting on it, they can only sit on benches after that))
I said, it"s really unfair for you to put it this way, if I do post on a forum, write a novel or draw a cartoon, what I depend on are my two hands, it"s got nothing to do with my mouth, you can"t malign a good body organ.
Afterwards, we slept till daybreak with our two large heads crammed on one pillow. I supposed s.n.a.t.c.hing pillows was a type of illness, it ought to be treated.
"Hey, I"ll buy an air conditioner and put it at your place, alright?" Jiang Chen suddenly said while stopping at the traffic light.
I was distracted for a moment, what a familiar phrase.
"Hey, I"ll give you a set of drawing tools, alright? Hey, I"ll give you that set of manga that you"ve wanted for a long time for your birthday, alright? Hey, I"ll treat you to a meal today, alright? Hey, I"ll place my allowance for living expenses at your end, okay……" These were all things that Jiang Chen had said to me during university every time he wanted to provide material a.s.sistance.
I asked him, "Is "alright?" a fixed sentence pattern of yours?"
He obviously didn"t get it, he thought for a long time before saying, "Back then, we had a saying, those in the arts faculty are all being kept*, back then I was afraid that you would think that I was keeping you, and would think that I wasn"t respecting you enough, after that it became a habit." (T/N: "kept" as in how a man keeps a mistress and provides her with financial and material support)
I was silent for a very long time, finally I really couldn"t help but say, "How are you respecting me……"
"Why?"
"Keeping me is only worth a set of drawing tools, a set of manga and what not, it should at least be a diamond as big as my fist."
Jiang Chen"s complexion suddenly darkened, it felt like our friendly conversation had inexplicably broke down.
When the car had arrived downstairs of our company, I asked him cautiously, "Are you being angry?"
He said, "That"s right."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "It"s rare that I want to respect you for once, yet you"ve made it out into a joke."
I scratched my head and asked, "Then how long are you preparing to be angry for?"
Jiang Chen parked the car by the side, turned around in his seat and glared at me, "Must you infuriate me to the point of death?"
"No." I explained, "I"m afraid that if you are angry for too long, you"ll forget about buying the air conditioner for me, the weather is so hot…… Plus you love to sleep on the same pillow as me…… Or is it that even though you are being angry, there will still be an air conditioner set to my house in the afternoon? I"ll give my house keys to you?"
Jiang Chen glared at me for the duration of a century, finally he gave a long sigh and said, "Indeed I worried too much back in the day, what do you have that is worth respecting."
Nah, this big brother, it"s really rude of you to speak this way.
At noon, Jiang Chen gave me a call during my lunch break, saying that the air conditioner had already been installed properly. I vigorously praised his efficiency at getting things done, then proposed that I would reward him well tonight, on that end of the phone, he "ee"-ed and "oh"-ed, and laughed really erotically, I felt really wronged, what I meant was that I would buy delicious food for him……
I got off work first, I bought a large pile of delicious things and ran to the hospital to meet Jiang Chen when he got off work.
This pile of delicious things included two cups of ice-cream, but till the point when the ice-cream melted into two cups of muddy liquid, I still did not manage to have Jiang Chen and I feeding each other bite after bite like I had envisioned. This was because, at the hospital entrance, I ran into Wu Bosong and that girlfriend of his who was the purest woman in the world - Hu Ranran.
My mouth was open so wide it could at least cram in a fist.
Wu Bosong came over and clapped my shoulder, "Why, are you astonished by your sister-in-law"s good looks?"
I closed my mouth slowly, and was dragged by him to face Hu Ranran, he said, "Ranran, this is my best friend Chen Xiaoxi. Xiaoxi, Ranran, my girlfriend."
Hu Ranran"s complexion was as white as paper, she moved the corners of her mouth a few times to try and break out into a smile, but she didn"t succeed.
I stared at her, I guessed my expression currently was one of alarm.
"Hey, what"s going on?" Wu Bosong clapped me again, "Do you know each other?"
"We don"t know each other." Hu Ranran rushed to speak, the expression in her eyes was that of total pleading as she looked at me.
Wu Bosong looked at me puzzledly, I forced a smile, "I thought she looked a little familiar, it"s possibly because she"s too pretty."
Wu Bosong asked, "You came to find Jiang Chen?"
I nodded my head, my eyes fixed on Hu Ranran, "How about you guys? Why would you arrange to meet at the hospital entrance? Does Miss Hu have a friend who is ill?"
Hu Ranran avoided my gaze, "I don"t, we just arranged to meet here."
"Oh, then that"s great," I said, but even I could tell that my tone of voice was rather peculiar.
Wu Bosong appeared to be thinking about something, but he too didn"t pursue the matter, he only crooked his finger and tapped my head, "Did you sprain your tongue, be more courteous to my wife."
I curled my lip, "Fine, you want your wife and don"t want your friends."
Wu Bosong ignored me, and held Hu Ranran"s hand. He used a tone of voice that was so intimate til I wanted to vomit and said, "Let"s ask Xiaoxi and her boyfriend to eat with us, okay?"
Hu Ranran"s face continued to be pale, but she gently and agreeably nodded her head, "Okay."
Tut…… This old woman and this old woman"s husband might not necessarily be willing to eat with you guys.
Jiang Chen started when he saw Hu Ranran, and looked at me in puzzlement, I shook my head, he smiled and sat down.
Wu Bosong introduced the two of them again, Jiang Chen smiled and nodded his head and said, "h.e.l.lo."
Hu Ranran lowered her head and also said, "h.e.l.lo."
This meal progressed in a strange atmosphere, the only one who was comparatively more at ease was Jiang Chen, the evidence was that old man ate his own portion and still ate half of mine, he even insisted on taking that two ice creams in my plastic bag that had melted into liquid to throw away, even though I kept on emphasising that once I put it back into the fridge, it would become a good lad again after one hour.
Just before we separated, I specially exchanged phone numbers with Hu Ranran, saying that if we were free, we should exchange our insights into being someone else"s girlfriend.
The moment I got onto Jiang Chen"s car, I began to pitter-patter and say malicious words about Hu Ranran, Jiang Chen also didn"t respond, only till I was tired of talking did he say, "What are you being so stirred up for?"
"She and that Secretary Zhang! They…… Aye, I"m so angry I could die!"
"What"s it got to do with you?" He said.
He had a point, but we often believed that we had the right to criticise others, and I had this shortcoming.
I said, "Before this, I didn"t have any opinion of Hu Ranran, but she"s together with Wu Bosong! Wu Bosong! How can I turn a blind eye to this?"
Jiang Chen glanced at me coldly, "Why can"t you?"
I didn"t know how to explain it to him, I could only repeatedly emphasis, "He is Wu Bosong! He is Wu Bosong! Plus, he doesn"t know anything, he is Wu Bosong! Wu Bosong!"
I believed that if anyone heard me, they would definitely think that Wu Bosong was the new leader of the country who had just taken office.
Jiang Chen suddenly pressed the brakes violently.
With all my might, I steadied my body that had almost flown out, then slowly turned around to look at him, "You had better tell me that there was a dog or a ghost that had appeared in front of us or something, if not I"m going to strangle you to death."
Jiang Chen ignored me, his face darkened as he said, "Must you have such a big reaction to Wu Bosong dating?"
I explained and said, "The main point is not that he is dating, it"s who he is dating, you don"t know, Wu Bosong"s family has quite a complicated story, I feel that he is more suited to have a simpler relationship."
Jiang Chen sneered, "What relationship is simple? One with you?"
Ah? Ah!
I first stared blankly, after that I was suddenly enlightened. I pointed at him and said disbelievingly, "You, you can"t possibly be jealous…… You weren"t jealous of Su Rui…… You"re jealous of Wu Bosong…… Are you out of your mind?"
Jiang Chen pulled a long face and didn"t answer me, I too didn"t bother about it, mainly because the shock I had received was too great. You think about it, normally Jiang Chen exhibited a face of "I am an adult, I never get randomly jealous", so I as his girlfriend, though I undoubtedly wanted to be unreasonably jealous when I saw the granddaughter of that Secretary Zhang, when I saw that expression on his face that was so open and candid that he could act as a People"s Liberation Army uncle, together with that image of his that was forever magnanimous and forever reasonable, I was too embarra.s.sed to do so.
The car stopped at the side of the road for a good ten minutes, I reminded him, "That, let"s go home before being jealous, okay?"
Jiang Chen lifted his hand up, I suspected that he wanted to point his middle finger at me, but he didn"t, he only started the car.
I attempted to explain him as the car advanced en route, "Wu Bosong wouldn"t like me, if he did like me we would have gotten together in high school, so don"t let your imagination run wild."
His face became even more sour, that"s right…… That"s exactly the effect I wanted.
Translator’s Corner:
Ah hah! Wu Bosong’s love line that never saw the day of light in the drama is finally here~