Les Interprètes

Qiao Fei

Jia Yang told me, I only want you to be happy.

I looked at his face, it was the same as the time I had first seen him, gentle, faint, and a little sad, my heart was like it had been bound with a thin whip, but I didn’t think that here, my performance would become tender, I only put my hand on his hand that was pressing my shoulders, I said: “Being with you, I am happy.”

“I’m so hungry, can we go for a walk? If I think of something I need to buy, I’ll tell you and let you buy it for me.”

“All right.” He nodded.

I stood up and we left Cartier (jewelry shop). Then we found the closest Kentucky Fried Chicken. My heart secretly swore that I would never again say such heavy words to him.

I have always been a secular person, it has a tacky taste and pleasure.

I liked to eat chicken drumsticks and a roll of onion and Beijing duck, if the sauce came out accidentally, I would lick my fingers clean.

When Jia Yang drank his milkshake he asked me: “Later when you become a great interpreter, don’t be like this at the state banquets.”

“What? You despise me?”

“Yeah.”

I inclined my nose and laughed.

At Kentucky Fried Chicken we sat in a seat in front of the window. The autumn sunlight came through the window onto our bodies, which let one feel warm and lazy. Jia Yang reached out a hand to wipe away a small bit of pasta sauce.

This moment made people want to linger.

Someone lightly knocked on the window in front of us.

Cheng Jia Yang

The person who came was Mr. Liu [1], he waved outside, and then pushed the door to come in. I shook his head, sitting: “Hi, how coincidental.”

“Yes, I pa.s.sed by outside and it looked like you.”

His car was parked outside, I asked: “Did you come here by yourself? Did no one wait for you?”

“Don’t be anxious.”

I know that as a person, if you’re not anxious, I’ll be anxious.

“Jia Yang, why don’t you introduce us.”

Liu looked at Qiao Fei, amused.

“I am Cheng Jia Yang’s friend.” Fei said.

I looked at her.

“Same. My surname is Liu.”

She nodded her head: “h.e.l.lo.”

“You look very familiar.”

“Maybe. The world is a small place.” She stood up, “I need to go wash my hands.”

Fei walked over to the kitchen and turned, her figure was gone.

Mr. Liu asked: “She’s only a friend, not a girlfriend?”

I had no way to respond, I was also searching for this sentence from Fei.

Liu patted my shoulder: “I’ll be going now. If there’s time I’ll contact you, and we can go around[2] together.”

Fei returned after a long time, her ice cream melted, she stirred it with a spoon: “Go buy me a bucket.”

“Don’t eat anymore, you’ll get fat.”

“Humph, Humph.”

She looked at me, amused.

Women, women.

“Let’s go, I’m a little tired.”

We left Kentucky Fried Chicken, I drove, and we went on our way. A way that involved no talking. As of now I didn’t really care, I was only thinking about what she had said to Mr. Liu, that she was my friend.

Right now it was a Sat.u.r.day afternoon, usually, we would still have spent the next half of the weekend together, but I drove to the school and said: “I suddenly thought of something, I forgot to do something. You can go to school first.”

Fei still held the bra she had just bought, she quietly sat for a while and then looked at me: “Hey, why didn’t you tell me earlier. My cla.s.smates wanted me to go with them to the reservoir to play.”

“I forgot.”

“All right, then call me.”

“Mm.”

She got off the car and bouncily walked to her dorm.

I drove away right away.

I returned to my home on the outskirts, my parents weren’t home, Jia Ming was in the small side room watching a movie.

It was one of Stephen Chow’s old films, the grumbling and devious Tang Sen said to the Monkey King: “Do you want it? Wu Kong, if you want it, speak, if you don’t say anything how will I know, so even though you look at me with sincerity, you should still tell me what you want. Do you really want it? Then go take it! Didn’t you want this a lot? So did you really think……”

I walked into my own room, and poured a cup of water. I opened the window, and our almond yard grew to be longer than the second-floor window, golden leaves floated into my room.

At this moment I felt regret at leaving her.

If my heart was unhappy why didn’t I tell her?

[1] If you’ve read any ancient Chinese books, Gong Zi means n.o.ble/wealthy man. Liu is mentioned throughout the book as a Gong Zi. Because this is very obvious that Liu is someone of good standing given Cheng Jia Yang’s company, I have always translated it to Mr. Liu for a modern take.

[2] The original text said 帕提. I looked it up and it said something about the Parthenon so I just translated it to ‘around’