Don’t be So Proud

“Do you’ve pictures of men?”

The old nurse’s elderly face instantly became the color of pork liver, and she was in a such a state of shock that she could not speak. After a long time, she finally pointed at Shen Xi and spoke a sentence: “You… pervert!”

Shen Xi knew the old nurse had gotten the wrong idea about her and hastily began to explain, “Please don’t get the wrong idea. I have special reasons for…”

What “special reasons” could there be? It could only be that reason.

The old nurse was conservative and had a hard time accepting such a thing, but so as to be able to finish up her work as soon as possible, she took a deep breath, then still fulfilled Shen Xi’s “special” request. From a drawer, she pulled out a stack of buff muscle-men pictures and tossed them to Shen Xi in disgust. “There are just these. No other ones.”

“These will be enough.” Shen Xi hurriedly took them from her and had a seat in one of the clinic chairs, where she began in all seriousness to select from those photos. The photographs were basically all men with muscular, ripped bodies. Shen Xi frowned. She liked the poised, elegant, clean-looking type of boys, such as Lin Yu Tang. Even He Zhi Zhou would do, although the aura he emitted was rather cold, which turned people off.

If all there were for her were these photos, she might as well just grab a mirror… Shen Xi flipped with pickiness back and forth through the stack, unable to find one to her satisfaction.

Imagining that she might have to do some “self-stroking” while facing the mirror, Shen Xi’s entire face instantly turned red. Then she continued, with head bowed, to try to select photos. On the other side, the old nurse could not take watching this anymore, and her pair of bulgy eyes narrowed into a slit to stare coldly at Shen Xi.

Shen Xi also felt terribly wronged, but frustrated out of being unable to do anything, she selected one from within the pile that could be considered most pleasing to her eyes. All of a sudden, a chilly voice sounded out from beside her. “What are you choosing?”

When Shen Xi turned around, she saw He Zhi Zhou sitting beside her.

When did he get here?!

Feeling guilty, Shen Xi hurriedly put the pictures away. He Zhi Zhou merely fixed a cold gaze on her. After a while, he stood, pointed at Shen Xi, and addressed the old nurse, “I’m sorry. He is not He Zhi Zhou.”

“What?” The old nurse’s eyes widened.

At the same moment, a handsome young lad carrying a bag on his back rushed in and pointed at his nose while saying, “Nurse, Auntie, I am He Zhi Zhou. I’m really sorry I’m late.”

Old nurse: “…….”

Shen Xi: “……” Pointing at her own nose, she was about to walk over and figure out what was going on. Out of the nowhere, though, she felt a pain on her back. Behind her, He Zhi Zhou had already used force on her. With blinking eyes, Shen Xi suddenly clued in to what was going on. Walking forward, she patted the shoulder of the lad who had come rushing here to the rescue. “If I had known that you could make it, I wouldn’t have had to come. All right, then, since you’re going to do it yourself, I can leave now. Don’t forget to treat me to dinner for this some time later. Okay, let’s leave it at this. Take your time. See you later!”

After saying this, Shen Xi swiftly fled from the testing centre. Having managed to smoothly escape from a calamity, her mood was so high she felt as if she was going to explode. But,just who was that boy? Shen Xi turned back and looked at He Zhi Zhou, who was behind her. “Big Brother He, if you had a plan to pa.s.s off someone else as you, why did you still need me to come?”

He Zhi Zhou gave a couple of sarcastic laughs. “I really can’t imagine, if I hadn’t come, would you really have gone inside with those pictures of some men?”

Hmph! Shen Xi threw a glare at He Zhi Zhou. “Do you think I wanted to? I don’t like doing things like that!”

Not wanting to bother to squabble any further with Shen Xi on this, He Zhi Zhou stood quietly under a parasol tree by the roadside.

The testing centre of the affiliated hospital was in a quiet zone of the city’s downtown. The front entrance faced a parasol tree-lined street with architectural elements in the style of the Republican period [period in China between 1912-1949], a scene of luxurious foliage and lovely shade. Here, in this late afternoon, the densely layered palm-sized leaves shielded out the last of the sun’s afterglow. The song of the cicadas was noisy. The branches of the trees were obscured by their leaves.

Shen Xi plucked away the parasol leaf that was blocking her gaze and asked He Zhi Zhou, “So who is that inside?”

He Zhi Zhou leaned languidly against the gray-speckled trunk of a parasol tree. “My younger cousin.”

No wonder there was some resemblance! Shen Xi asked another question. “Does he know?”

He Zhi Zhou gave a slight nod, but what came from his mouth could cause a person to choke in fury. “Otherwise what do you think? Do you think the men of our family will just so easily come here and do something like that?”

Screw him! It would seem the men of other families could “so easily” come here and do that… While Shen Xi was thinking this, she suddenly felt a pain on her knee. Hurriedly, she used her parasol leaf to fan at it.

He Zhi Zhou thought she was hot and very naturally moved to stand on her left, blocking the last of the sunlight that had been shining on her. However, the result was, when Shen Xi saw this, she hastily gave him a tug. “Come stand over this way. Don’t get tanned.”

He Zhi Zhou was so incensed he could barely breathe.

All of a sudden, the boy whom He Zhi Zhou had brought with him at last stepped out of the building. There were no hints of fatigue on his face, and he looked to be especially energetic and in high spirits. Sure enough, the bodies of the young were particularly strong. Shen Xi observed that he was dressed from top to bottom like he was rich and important, but overall, he had that self-important, pretentious air of teenagers.

Could it be this was a second-generation rich kid [parents are rich] who had second-year middle school syndrome [internet slang: soph.o.m.oric, pretentious, conceited, but immature behavior that begins manifesting in approximately the second year of middle school]?

Regardless, Shen Xi was still very grateful to him. Very cheerily, she greeted him, “Hi! You’re so fast!”

The youth’s face that previously had been energetic and high-spirited instantly paled. He truly had never thought that, after toiling so hard on this task, he would not even get a word of praise. Okay, that was fine, but then to have the comment… “so fast”?!

The youth looked over at his older cousin, hoping that his cousin would do some justice for him.

A smile tugged at He Zhi Zhou’s lips and it contained a hard to come by hint of naughtiness. “Indeed, it was a little fast.”

AAAAAH! This pure and innocent youth was about to go insane! Fuming, he glowered at his older cousin, yet was unable to handle staring at the face that his older cousin currently possessed. In the end, in a state of mental derangement, he turned his face to the sky and said, “Do you have any human goodness? You told a student whose only in his third year of high school to do such a thing.”

He was no longer able to even face this world.

“Whoa. You’re only in third year of high school?” Shen Xi jumped in conversationally.

The youth nodded. “Yup.”

“Third year high school and you know how to stroke things out?” Shen Xi asked tentatively.

Why wouldn’t you know how to stroke things out in third year high school?! The youth was so infuriated he was gnashing his teeth. However, in his mind, he could at last be certain about one thing: this person who looked exactly like his older cousin was truly not his older cousin.

Shen Xi thought the boy was angry because of He Zhi Zhou. Seeing that he was not saying anything, she comforted, “Your cousin was a little inconsiderate with this request, but… what’s done is done. You can just treat it like you were doing something to relax and de-stress, right?”

The youth turned his head away crossly. “Just who exactly are you?”

Shen Xi pointed at He Zhi Zhou. “I was originally who he is now, but now I’m your cousin. Here, hurry and call me ‘big brother’ for me to hear.”

AAAAAH! The youth looked at those two faces and his mind once again unhinged. He asked He Zhi Zhou, “So what are you two going to do? You can’t just forever be like this, right?”

He Zhi Zhou patted the boy on his shoulder. “That is something you don’t need to worry about. It’s no use for you to worry anyway. Go back and prepare for your exams.”

The youth who had been exploited and now tossed aside expressed that he was extremely displeased. He had not even gotten to leave his name. And so, he said to Shen Xi, “My name is Zhong Yu.”

“Which ‘Yu’? ‘Yu’ as in ‘jade’ [玉]?” Shen Xi did not know which character it was.

Zhong Yu had always liked his own name and simply could not accept how Shen Xi was desecrating it now. Right as he was about to open his mouth and tell Shen Xi that it was the “zhong yu” [钟毓] in the idiom, “zhong ling yu xiu” [钟灵毓秀 a place that contains a spiritual aura and produces men of talent], Shen Xi was already speaking first. “Oh, I know! It’s the ‘yu’ in Yu Ting [毓婷 name of morning after pill/emergency contraception], right?”

“Yu Ting, my a.s.s!” After Zhong Yu finished bellowing this out, he wordlessly turned and flagged down a taxi. Right now, all he wanted to do was to go home and have his [maternal] grandfather give him a new name…

Shen Xi gazed at Zhong Yu’s sullen backside that was departing and waved after him. “Add oil [“you can do it,” “keep at it”], Zhong Yu!” Upon saying this, she broke into a grin. She honestly felt Zhong Yu was really fun.

With a glance at Shen Xi, He Zhi Zhou told her, “Let’s go.”

Shen Xi cheerfully agreed. Up ahead, there was a metro station, so she suggested to He Zhi Zhou, “Let’s take the metro back.”

He Zhi Zhou had no objections.

Walking out from the parasol tree-lined street, it was the downtown area of the old part of S City. At the crossroad, cars and people came and went. If someone was charging along heedlessly, he would pull her close to himself, his action so subtle, though, that Shen Xi did not notice anything unusual.

He Zhi Zhou thought, since he was dating her, he could not give her any less than what other boyfriends did.

“Need to have a drink of water?” Up ahead, there were quite a few men lined up in front of a shop that sold cold beverages to buy a drink for their girlfriend. He Zhi Zhou’s glance had taken in the thin layer of sweat on Shen Xi’s forehead, so he halted his steps to ask her this.

Shen Xi was holding a flyer that a young girl had handed her. It was advertising a newly-opened barbecue restaurant not far from where they were. She did not want to drink water. She wanted to drink cold beer and eat some barbecue.

Shen Xi handed the barbecue restaurant flyer to He Zhi Zhou. “Look, it’s only 66 yuan per person. It’s all buffet-style and even throws in cold beer.”

The food that He Zhi Zhou hated most was barbecue. Simply getting a whiff of the smells made him feel ill. However, when he saw Shen Xi’s eyes gazing anxiously at him, although he did not agree to her request verbally, he was already walking in the direction of the barbecue restaurant.

Too awesome!

Feeling happy, she joyfully bounded over and picked up He Zhi Zhou, spinning him in a circle. Caught completely off guard, He Zhi Zhou felt as if his blood had rushed to his brain. He really wished he could strangle her.

As the barbecue restaurant was doing a promotional event today, its business was hopping and there were not many good seats still available. There were only two seats beside an aisle left. Shen Xi darted forward with large strides, then thoughtfully pulled out a chair for He Zhi Zhou.

He Zhi Zhou reluctantly sat down, but after a little while, he still took on the role of a man, asking Shen Xi, “What would you like to eat? I’ll go get it for you.”

Shen Xi was a little barbecue expert. As she arranged the food on the grill, she told He Zhi Zhou, “This diamond-shape grilling is my invention. It makes the food especially flavourful.”

Sigh. He Zhi Zhou extended his hand to help.

Head bowed, Shen Xi, looking as if she knew what she was doing, mixed together a sauce: oyster sauce, malt sugar, hoisin sauce, five-spice powder, minced garlic, cooking wine… After she had prepared her own, she mixed up a lighter-tasting sauce based on He Zhi Zhou’s tastes for lighter flavours.

With a food lover by his side, He Zhi Zhou also began to gradually blend into the whole barbecuing atmosphere.

Shen Xi grabbed some chicken hearts and, with a pair of tongs, began one at a time to string them together on a skewer. The delicious food in front of her made her mood very relaxed, and unconsciously, she began humming an old song of The Little Tigers. While she was stringing chicken hearts onto the skewer, she sang, “Woo, woo-oo-oo… woo-oo-oo… woo-oo-oo-oo… Take your heart and my heart and string them together…”

Love sung by Little Tigers, a boy band of the late 80s, early 90s consisting of Nicky Wu, Alec Su and Julian Chen (the line that Shen Xi sings is the first line of the song)

String them together, grill them together…

His appet.i.te suddenly gone, He Zhi Zhou set down the skewer he had been holding. When he saw the skewer of chicken hearts that Shen Xi had finished preparing in her hand, his stomach began to churn.

“I’ll grill this one in a bit for you,” Shen Xi said.

“No, don’t. You can keep it for yourself.” Taking a drink of juice, He Zhi Zhou was about to stand and head to the bathroom, but then from behind him, a enthusiastic and familiar-sounding cry rang out.

“Beautiful Maiden Shen!”

Shen Xi and He Zhi Zhou turned around.

Monkey, Brawny, and Lin Yu Tang could be seen standing five metres away from them. Monkey pulled back down the corners of his lips somewhat. “Leader, you’re here, too?”

Shen Xi was a little displeased. “Is it strange that I’m here? It should be strange if I’m not here, you know?”

Well, yes. Monkey turned his eyes onto Lin Yu Tang, then shoved Brawny out into the middle of them, hoping that his body could block some of the view. However, it turned out Lin Yu Tang did not need Brawny to obstruct the view at all. This time, he did not bother even taking a glance and simply turned around straightaway and left.

“Hey, Third…” Brawny stared after Lin Yu Tang, who had turned and left with no hesitation. As both Leader’s and Third’s roommate, he felt caught in the middle. Originally, he had tended to want to side with Third a bit more, since he hated men who stole someone else’s girlfriend. But sometimes, when he saw how cute Leader was while girlfriend-poaching, he could not bear to condemn him, either.

Sure enough, playing cute was always the winning way to go! Even stealing someone’s girlfriend became understandable. Could this be one of Leader’s tactics?

Monkey’s thoughts were also in the same vein as Brawny, and in the end, he sighed, “Leader, we’re done eating and we’re heading back first. You and Beautiful Maiden Shen make sure to take care and be safe. As for Third, there’s us to take care of things. You guys enjoy your food!” To be a roomie that went back and forth between two sides—Monkey felt that things were not at all easy for him.

Shen Xi did not try to convince them to stay, waving her hand and saying, “You guys take care and be safe on the way back, too.”

Afterward, although Shen Xi still continued eating happily, her mood still ended up being affected by Lin Yu Tang. After drinking two gla.s.ses of beer, her face glowed a bright red color as she said to He Zhi Zhou, “I actually have a terrible shortcoming. Do you know what it is?”

Looking calmly at Shen Xi, He Zhi Zhou answered, “You have too many faults. Can’t guess which one.”

Shen Xi breathed in a deep breath and woundedly sprawled on the table like a big dog.

He Zhi Zhou poked Shen Xi with his knife and fork, asking unconcernedly, “What’s wrong?”

Shifting away slightly, Shen Xi did not speak. He Zhi Zhou was accustomed to a talkative Shen Xi, so seeing her like this truly made him feel rather uneasy. Picking up a skewer of prawns—Shen Xi’s favourite—he wordlessly began to grill it.

After a while, when she smelled the delicious aroma, Shen Xi finally opened her mouth and spoke. “Big Brother He, do boys all like girls who are smart in their studies?”

He Zhi Zhou flipped over the prawns that were on the grill. “No, they look at the face.”

Shen Xi’s heart instantly was healed, and content now, she said, “Thank you, Big Brother He.”

“……” He Zhi Zhou had never seen such a narcissistic woman before. Setting the prawns that were now done grilling onto Shen Xi’s plate, he instructed, “Eat first. After you’ve eaten, I’ll take you back to school.”

When Shen Xi was done eating, He Zhi Zhou handed a package of moist towelettes to her in pa.s.sing. Shen Xi sat with a manner like she was someone’s master, wiping her mouth, while He Zhi Zhou was the one who went to pay… This scene was completely taken in by the eyes of a boy who was helping his girlfriend carry her purse, and he could not help crying bitterly, “Know what other people’s girlfriends are like? Like that!”

That evening, when Shen Xi returned to dormitory room 921, Lin Yu Tang was once again not there.

As Monkey signed himself in, he also put a checkmark next to Lin Yu Tang’s name. Shen Xi asked Monkey, “Where’d Lin Yu Tang go?”

“He has a friend who is having a birthday, so he went to a bar to celebrate.”

Shen Xi picked up a basin of dirty clothing and went to the laundry room. The gurgling water from the tap splashed onto her shirt. Regarding certain things, to say she did not feel saddened would be a lie.

Before, Lin Yu Tang had never liked lively surroundings. He hated meaningless socializing.

But people all change—change for the better or for the worse; change to become more mature or more able to clearly perceive and comprehend things.

Shen Xi was reminded of her cousin [堂姐 “tang” older female cousin; their fathers are brothers] who lived in another country. This older, female cousin had gone abroad because of the emotional wounds she had suffered from a painful love. The reason was, several years ago, she parted ways with the boyfriend she had dated for ten years. They had both been each other’s first love and had started dating in middle school. They had met too early, loved too early. During the time they had dated, the boyfriend had shown in many ways that he did not understand love, how to love. After ten years of continually separating, then coming back together, their hearts had grown weary and at last, they ended in breakup.

During the Lunar New Year period this year, this older cousin had returned to the country. Her ex-boyfriend now had a new girlfriend. Cousin had hugged Shen Xi and cried, saying her heart could not let go, truly could not let go.

“I fell in love with him during his most immature time, when he did not how to love. And my love was for ten years. I was by his side for ten years, by his side as he slowly became mature and outstanding. In those ten years of breaking up and getting back together, he finally learned how to take care of a girl’s feelings, how to be romantic and considerate. But when he’s finally grown up to become like a strong, reliable tree, another woman comes and enjoys the fruits of someone else’s labour.

“Xi Xi, I don’t want you to be like me.”

……

As she scrubbed a stinky sock on the washboard, there was melancholy in Shen Xi’s heart that was not negligible amount.

It was not until the following afternoon that Lin Yu Tang at last returned, and when he came back, he collapsed straight into bed.

Shen Xi came back upstairs after eating lunch. Only she and Lin Yu Tang were in the dormitory room. Seeing Lin Yu Tang lying on the bed, she walked over and touched a hand to his forehead to determine if he had a fever.

Lin Yu Tang did not detect anything and remained fast asleep.

Outside, thick dark clouds covered the sky, an indication that there would be thunder and rain. She hurried to the balcony to bring in the airing laundry. When she had taken down half of the clothes, two knocks on the outside of the dormitory door were heard.

She had intended on going back in to open the door, but remembering that the door was actually not shut tight, she simply lifted her head to see who would come in.

And then, she saw Ling Chao Xi.

A push-to-open door and curtains separated the balcony and the dorm room. Ling Chao Xi could not see outside, but Shen Xi could see inside. Meanwhile, Lin Yu Tang had woken up, and he seemed very surprised to see Ling Chao Xi in his dormitory room.

Ling Chao Xi stood before Lin Yu Tang’s bed, a hint of a smile on the corner of her lips. With traces of self-mocking and also traces of seriousness in her tone, she uttered, “Yesterday, after Da Ding called me and said you were unhappy, everything about me felt out of sorts. On impulse, I bought a train ticket and came here, a standing ticket for the entire trip. Lin Yu Tang, I knew you would find this very unexpected, but I still wanted to come see you, to see if you’re okay or not…”