CH 4.1

A-Qing kept on with her rambling, first using Mandarin to express her grievances, and then when she had something she truly did not know how to convey, she would switch to Cantonese. The main gist of her words was merely to gripe that their agent, Mai Jie, had not informed them ahead of time, and if the media caught the two meeting up here in Hengdian, it would be another explosive story.

Jia He brought her hands together and blew a breath of warm air on them, not really listening to what she was saying.

The snow was falling even more fiercely. Every person on site was about to freeze to death, but the director’s emotions were riding on a crazy high.

This particular scene, in the first place, was supposed to be a snowy one, so to be able to authentically capture that on camera was, of course, the best-case scenario. Furthermore, Yi Wenze and Liao Jing’s mood and emotions were very much hitting the right spot, and hence, this heaven-sent beautiful weather was not for naught and they soon wrapped up work for the day.

Tian Chu waited until the fans who came to the site had left, and then she strolled up to Yi Wenze, removed her mask, and greeted him. Her appearance here was tantamount to a huge bomb. For a moment, the minds of all the staff and crew were unable to catch up. Looks were tossed between them as they pretended that nothing was out of the ordinary, but they were still unable to resist stealing glimpses of those two people.

Only Yi Wenze appeared as if he had known that Tian Chu would be coming, not showing any expression of surprise.

Seeing this scene, Jia He at last could breathe a sigh of relief, and pulling out her mobile phone, she began “fighting monsters” on it.

Only a moment ago, she had been concerned about her idol’s reaction to this, but now that she thought about it, she had just been over-worrying. The splitting-up and reconciling that occurs in the entertainment circle were things everyone should be long accustomed to. Perhaps the divorce story that had suddenly burst onto the scene was merely a type of warm-up promotion for Tian Chu’s crossover into acting. As these thoughts crossed her mind, she tapped her phone’s screen too early. Whoosh! The little yellow bird flew out. Yet another time that she had failed to pass the level…

“What are you playing?” Her idol’s voice was suddenly heard above her head.

Jia He hesitated briefly. “Angry Birds.” After stating the name in Chinese, she even specifically searched through her memory for the English name so that, if Idol did not understand the translated, Chinese name, she could quickly supplement with an explanation.

There was mirth in Yi Wenze’s expression, though he did not actually smile. “Which level are you on?” By now, he had already removed his costume and was simply wearing a black down jacket, his head lowered to look at the screen of Jia He’s mobile phone. Owing to his close distance to her, she could even feel his warm breath when he spoke. For some reason, this made her feel restless and jumpy. She hurriedly adjusted her smile and replied embarrassedly, “I’m just at the beginning of the third episode. I don’t play very well at all.”

With a chuckle, Yi Wenze comforted, “Just play a few more times and you’ll get better.”

Before he had finished what he was saying, A-Qing, who was beside them tidying and gathering things, was already adding in a voice brimming with pride, “A-Ze plays really well. He’s one of those awesome players who can clear entire levels with just one bird.”

Immediately, Jia He turned a worshipful look on him. “How many levels in a row can you pass using just one bird?”

This game was not hard, but to clear entire levels using just one bird was a matter of skill and technique. To date, the highest record on the Internet was fifteen consecutive levels, and that was enough to shame Jia He to the point that she wanted to go back and do her reincarnation into this life all over again.

Yi Wenze smiled. “If no surprises happen, I can get through forty-three levels in a row.”

Jia He could not help sighing to herself, sure enough, her idol was an idol. Without even batting an eye, he had crushed that record of fifteen levels that she had revered…

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Beaming, A-Qing made a victory sign and then, proudly carrying all the items that she had gathered up, walked out from there first. By this time, Tian Chu happened to have finished her conversation with Director Jiang, and striding over, she stretched out her right hand to Jia He. “Hello.”

Her every motion and expression radiated grace.

“Hello.” Jia He gave her hand a light squeeze. Different from actresses who filmed through the entire year, Tian Chu’s hands were delicate and smooth, with a slight warmth to them.

This person before Jia He had clean, defined facial features that exuded a feeling very similar to that of someone of mixed blood. She gave a silent sigh. While she was thinking that she should say something to dispel this feeling of unacquaintedness, Tian Chu had already released her hold. “Jia He, you look really familiar.”

Looking at her in puzzlement, Jia He searched carefully through her memories but in the end came up with nothing… Back when she was a journalist, she had been responsible for the finance column, and then later when she switched careers and became a screenwriter, the people she met were all actors and actresses. She truly had never had much interaction with singers. She had seen Tian Chu on television countless times, but Tian Chu saying that she had seen her before was probably just a mistaken perception.

Seeing that she did not reply to this, Tian Chu turned her head slightly and glanced at Yi Wenze, her eyes conveying an inexplicable feeling.

The location in which the three of them were standing at this moment was a covered walkway with a row of warm, yellow lanterns lit down it. Yi Wenze was leaning his side against one of the walkway columns, a paper lantern by chance behind him, lightly tracing out the outline of his figure.

He seemed as if he did not see the look from Tian Chu, and rather, his eyes were on Jia He as he said, “Let’s go eat first. Even if there are things to say, there’s no hurry to say them all at this time.” Besides the fatigue that came from seven continuous hours of filming, his voice also still carried the appropriate warmth.

“Ah, okay,” Jia He agreed straightaway, while in passing stuffing her mobile phone into her coat pocket.

She nearly forgot; her idol had been worked hard all the way until now and still had not eaten dinner yet.

But as Jia He brushed a glance over Tian Chu, who had a displeased expression, she became aware of a serious problem: no matter how you put it, she was an outsider, and to tag along with them like this to bum some food was not really right to do. While she thought this, she swiftly searched for Qiao Qiao’s whereabouts. However, she discovered that on the entire set, apart from the three of them, there remained only the people who, in the snow, were busily tidying away the equipment…

“You two, go ahead. I had already arranged to have dinner with the other cast and production team. They’ve been waiting for a long time already, too,” Tian Chu suddenly said, putting on her face mask again as she spoke. She then took one more look at Jia He. “I’m going to be in Hengdian for the next two to three months anyway. There will always be other chances.”

Jia He could not see her expression, but she could perceive the dour air of her words. She took a peek at Yi Wenze. Her idol’s demeanour was still lukewarm as he leaned against the column and in Cantonese stated one sentence to Tian Chu. “The day after tomorrow, three o’clock in the afternoon.”

There was a brief moment of hesitation from Tian Chu. Replying, “All right,” she turned and walked out of the covered walkway. Her high heels stepping across the layer of accumulated snow left behind two lines of fine, delicate shoe prints, stamped into the stretch of snowy-white, perfect, and also hurried.

As Jia He gazed after her backside, she was somewhat perplexed. The fact that Tian Chu just now had waited for so long meant she absolutely had not planned to simply say two or three sentences and then leave. So then, why did she suddenly go? Throughout the entire dinner, Jia He secretly observed Yi Wenze but was unable to find an answer. However, thanks to the care that he would every now and then show her, she managed to destroy half a plate of mantouwith cooked pork…

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When she was back in her hotel room, the first thing Jia He did was pull up all the news surrounding Yi Wenze’s divorce and carefully investigate her idol’s true reason for the divorce. This divorce case had caused such an uproar, but the two involved parties actually were very amicable in their interactions. That truly did not make any sense. With the way the world worked now, even Vivian Chow[1], in order to make her showbiz comeback, had had a scandal about a third wheel in her relationship. Tian Chu and Yi Wenze both had new dramas coming out. Could it be this was all just fake, sensationalized news for publicity?

While she was facing the screen, meticulously reading, her phone, out of the blue, began vibrating furiously. She picked it up without really looking. It was, unexpectedly, Gu Yu’s voice.

“Jia He, have you gone to sleep yet?” The voice on that end seemed somewhat floaty and gave off a slight feeling of drunkenness.

Jia He was briefly startled, and it was a long while before she replied, “No.” Clamping her phone between her ear and shoulder, she began one by one shutting down the more than thirty news windows.

Both of them paused; neither spoke first. Inside the room, there was only the clear, clicking sound of the mouse, occasionally interspersed with the noise of tapping on the keyboard. In this first personal phone call after five years, all that remained between two people who had once been deeply in love but had experienced betrayal were these.

After some time, Gu Yu at last let out a sigh. “You’re looking at your computer?”

Jia He gave an “mm-hmm,” answering, “I’m reading some news.”

“Why aren’t you sleeping yet?”

“Habit.” Nonchalantly, she said, “For me, at this hour of the day, I have just finished dinner and am getting into my nightlife.”

Gu Yu’s voice had always been very magnetic, and now, coupled with a touch of drunkenness, it sounded very much like that of a host of a late-night radio program, carrying with it an ever so faint sense of seduction. Jia He had once been terribly smitten with his voice, but in this moment, somehow, she all of a sudden remembered Yi Wenze’s Mandarin that was spoken with a slight Hong Kong accent, warm and gentle and not showy as it, sentence by sentence, analyzed which type of coffee was suitable for her. She could not restrain her heart from wafting slightly, and her mind wandered a little.

“Your dad and mom’s health is still good?” Gu Yu interrupted her thoughts.

“Not bad. Dad goes fishing every day. Mom just learned how to play Happy Lord[2], and several times a day, she reports to me her ‘battle results.’”

“What about Grandpa and Grandma?”

……

“[Paternal] Grandpa’s health is still okay. [Paternal] Grandma passed away last year.”

Standing, she went over to the window and looked out at the buildings, some taller, some shorter, in the distance. She began mulling over what the purpose of this phone call might be. Yes, at the time of their breakup they had agreed they were still friends, but those were textbook farewell words spoken by every couple when they were parting ways. Here, in the middle of the night, this phone call that she had answered was both long-distance and roaming, and so this sort of aimless chatter was actually really expensive…

“You need to make sure you pay attention to your own rest.” Gu Yu carried on talking. “That day, I saw that you didn’t have much energy at all.”

That day? If he hadn’t suddenly appeared, she would not have been forced to crawl out of bed at seven in the morning, which therefore caused her whole day to be spent in a state of muddleheadedness and dizziness. In the face of this exhortation that had slight tones of closeness and familiarity, Jia He did not know for the moment how she should reply, and hence she decided to simply keep silent.

Seeming as if he realized he had spoken some words that were not very appropriate, Gu Yu gave a light chuckle. “Don’t mind that. I drank a bit too much and now I’m a bit longwinded. Just now when I was having dinner with some friends, I remembered that you’re a screenwriter, so I recommended you a bit to them. By chance, one of them wants to do some investing in television dramas, so he might want to ask for a list of your works to take a look at. Maybe there will be a chance for collaboration.”

Jia He was quiet for a short time before putting on a smile and saying, “Thank you. When I get a chance another day, I’ll send it to you in an email.”

“Sure,” Gu Yu replied. “It’s still the same email as before. You know it.”

It was a Yahoo account; the ID was “jiahemyever.”

That account was one she had forced Gu Yu to register. That had still been back in her young, immature days. Now that she thought back on it, it was so cheesy it was enough to get a person’s hackles up…

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A few cars drove by outside the window. Due to the snow, the shine of their lights was very hazy…

Jia He did not really know what she should do; she only wanted to quickly end this topic. So, her mouth actually acted quicker than her brain, blurting, “Oh, right, while we’re here, there is one thing I can get the gossip on from you. It’s about Yi Wenze.”

There was a slight hesitation on the other end of the line. “Go ahead, ask.”

“My idol’s… Yi Wenze’s divorce news, is it true?” Before she had even finished saying this, she was already so embarrassed she wanted to bang her forehead into the glass. That was just too low. She actually used her idol’s gossip news to shift the topic.

After a terribly long silence, Gu Yu slowly countered, “Why don’t you just ask Yi Wenze directly?”

She was just a fan; how could she even dare ask her idol such a sensitive question?

Awkwardly, Jia He responded, “I’m not acquainted with him to that degree. Sorry about that. I only remembered that you work in news media but actually forgot that you’re the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine, not some sort of weekly entertainment news publication.”

Just as she was about to tell him to forget it, on his end, he had already given a couple of chuckles. “I had thought that after you became a screenwriter, you’d become indifferent to celebrities and idols.”

Jia He had no words to respond to that.

Gu Yu seemed to have just gotten into a taxi, and he stated an address to the driver before he carried on, “This issue’s interview feature is on Tian Chu. I only heard a few sentences from the people working for me. Even though she made her debut in Hong Kong, her family is actually from Zhejiang. The two have had a mutual agreement of divorce for half a year already. They’ll be making use of a spare moment in their schedules during filming in Hengdian to complete the formalities.”

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[1] Hong Kong singer and actress, Vivian Chow, has been known for her sweet, graceful, ladylike demeanour and personality. In 2008, she and her longtime boyfriend, Joe Nieh, announced their breakup after Nieh was photographed kissing another woman at a club. However, within a week, they were back together, and very, very shortly after, they registered their marriage. (Side note: as of 2019, the two are still married and celebrated their 10-year anniversary.)

[2] 斗地主. Dou Dizhu, which literally means “fighting the landlord,” is a very popular card game in China. There are many different video-game versions of Dou Dizhu, with Tencent’s Happy Lord being the most popular. Happy Lord was released in 2008. In the game, you can earn “happy beans,” which are a form of game currency.