CH 16.3

The heater in the room was turned to a very warm setting in the first place and he had also switched on the central heating, so the two both ended up bathed in perspiration. She was so hot that she only grabbed a spaghetti-strap dress before rushing off to take a shower. When she came back out again, drying her hair with a bath towel, he grabbed her, tugged her onto the bed, and made her sit down. Digging out a round-necked sweatshirt that she normally wore in the winter, he pulled it over her head for her. Next was a pair of jogging pants.

His motions as he dressed her were extremely deft. Jia He practically could only gape in awe as he moved and positioned her this way and that. This was five-star superior treatment!

At the end, when he saw that the sweatshirt sleeves were a little too long, he even helped her to roll them up one fold. Sniffling, she said softly, “It’s good now.”

Then, she watched as he straightened back up, stepped up beside the desk, and dialed an internal number on the phone. “A-Lun, you can come on over now.”

Huh?Jia He nearly toppled off the couch.

Wasn’t that basically just admitting, without even needing to be grilled, that the two of them had been in the room but just didn’t open the door?

Because she had put on such warm clothing immediately after showering, she was starting to sweat again. Hearing knocking on the door, she jumped straight up and declared, “I’m going to go get you guys something to drink.” With that, she dashed to the coffee station. Her eyes swept this way and that. Floral tea, black tea, Pu’er tea—which one would be good? Eventually, she decided to brew coffee; that way it would take a little longer…

Outside, they were already laughing and talking. When the coffee was done brewing and she was carrying out two cups of it as well as a cup of tea, Wu Zhilun finally ceased the conversation. Holding a bag in his hand, he said to her, “I originally came here to deliver something and then, in passing, see if there are any good eats here. Is this it? Is this how you’re going to treat me?”

At first Jia He’s conscience had been terribly uneasy, but with these words from him, she was a little baffled. “What does that have to do with me?”

Flashing his teeth, Wu Zhilun looked at Yi Wenze. The latter merely took the glass cup that Jia He handed to him, smiling but holding his silence. Jia He also handed a cup of coffee to Wu Zhilun before taking from him the paper bag that he had been holding. She saw that written on it were a few simple words: “Yi Wenze, With You.” Somewhat uncertainly, she looked again at Yi Wenze, but still he did not say anything.

Wu Zhilun, on the other hand, gave a couple of coughs. “You two still aren’t done being mushy? How does that saying go? Oh right! ‘Making eyes at one another.’ ” After knowing him for so long, Jia He had learned already that his Mandarin was actually very good. Each time he said things like this, he was definitely making fun of her…

Jia He set the paper bag onto the table. Purposely ignoring Wu Zhilun, she tugged on Yi Wenze’s sleeve, her eyes shining as she asked, “You’re going to release a single?”

This was huge news, aaaah! He hadn’t sung for so many years.

Smiling, Yi Wenze gave a nod. “Happy?”

She swiftly nodded. “Of course.”

With a grin, Wu Zhilun told her, “I took time out of my extremely busy schedule to write the lyrics.” He picked up the paper bag again and wagged it in front of Jia He. “Harmonious Family Prospers, let me tell you, Yi Wenze truly has a lot of huge shortcomings. For example, he only cares about his woman and not his bro, or for example, he’s incredibly lazy and likes to toss everything to me to do.”

The words “cares about his woman and not his bro” were emphasized particularly forcefully and caused Jia He to bow her head once more and take a fierce drink of her coffee, nearly scalding her tongue off. Finally, she heard Yi Wenze speak up, but his words were directed at Wu Zhilun. “How do you feel about it?”

Beaming broadly until his eyes became slits, Wu Zhilun answered, “Very good. Extremely good. The song you wrote with the lyrics I penned. And also, you’re willing to sing. I bet we won’t even need any real marketing and PR and it’ll still be a big hit.”

Their conversation that followed was all about the publicity work for the single. Jia He’s head felt like it was in a fog as she listened to them. While she was completely unaware, the song had already been recorded and gone through post-production, and very soon such substantial publicity work for it would be starting up.

After Wu Zhilun left, she, while washing the cups, casually asked him, “After this single, are you going to be releasing a new album?”

He took the cup that she was handing to him and set it on the shelf. “There are no plans for that yet.”

Giving an “oh,” Jia He sighed, “What a pity.” She did not even need to listen to it to know that this song would become a hit, and riding the momentum to release a new album would be the way to go. Although she did not really know much about the music recording market, that day at the concert, when Yi Wenze began singing, she had instantly known that he was born to be a star. Even just singing someone else’s song, he was so able to…

While these thoughts were running through her mind, she also remembered those words that he had said at the concert. Her reaction time now finally catching up, she retrospectively felt so much happiness in her that it was going to bubble over. Back and forth, over and over, she washed the same cup for a long, long time. When she at last pulled her mind back to the present, she noticed that he was leaning against the edge of the counter, watching her with great amusement. Only then did she shut off the water and stuff the cup into his hands. “Let’s sleep.”

In the subsequent three days, Yi Wenze flew to four or five cities back-to-back. Jia He would have her mobile phone in hand, occasionally checking her text messages. As she was treating the trip to New Zealand as a matter of highest priority, she had practically pushed all her work to the next month. When Xiao Yu brought over the piece of calligraphy, which had already been mounted, Jia He unrolled it and admired it for a long time. Even though she was not well-versed in this artform, she still raised her thumb and sighingly praised, “It’s so good,” over and over more than ten times.

Xiao Yu sat in the living room, looking around at all the furniture. Rather pained, she asked, “You were the one who picked out all of this?”

Jia He gave her a very wary look. “You’re not allowed to say it doesn’t look nice.”

Leaning back into the couch, Xiao Yu heaved a long sigh. “I remember someone once made the assessment that, if you compared amongst all the celebrities, Yi Wenze’s taste and style are considered extremely good. Such a pity, such a pity.”

Jia He was wiping the glass balcony door, but when she encountered some high spots, she had to hop to reach them. Even so, Xiao Yu still ended up taking the cloth from her and helping her to wipe a couple of places. “Since when did you become so diligent? With that little place of yours in Shanghai, you had a cleaning lady comepart-time to do the cleaning for you. Now that you’ve returned to Beijing, you’ve immediately adopted such good, womanly virtues?”

Seeing how she was able to wipe every corner clean with just a bend of her arm, Jia He was terribly jealous. “I can’t hire anyone now. I’m afraid people will gossip or make irresponsible remarks.”

Xiao Yu glanced at her. “It’ll be better once you’re married.”

With an “mm-hmm,” Jia He took the rag back from her, tossed it into the sink on the balcony, and began washing it. Right when she was wringing it out, she heard the forever-unflappable Xiao Yu let out a shriek, giving her such a fright that she immediately dashed back into the living room. “What’s wrong, what’s wrong?”

Holding her laptop computer, Xiao Yu slowly lifted her eyes to look at Jia He. “Explosive news.”

Jia He’s heart dropped, and because of the scare she had just gotten, apprehension flooded her. “Don’t scare me.”

“It has nothing to do with you.” Very slowly, Xiao Yu turned the computer around to face Jia He. “How big do you think the diamond in this ring looks to be?”

Jia He took a seat beside her. It was a screenshot taken from a video. Due to this question, Jia He brought her gaze directly onto the diamond ring inside the picture. She tried hard to make an estimation based on the size of the box and hand, guessing, “More than two carats, probably? It’s bling enough.”

“Do you know this guy?” Xiao Yu pointed at the man inside the video.

Only now did Jia He look at that man. So familiar-looking… “I remember now. That’s Cheng Hao. Back when Tune of Yong’anwas being filmed, he was one of the assistant directors on the team.” Since finishing up and leaving that production back in March, she had not seen him for half a year already.

“Does he know Qiao Qiao?” Xiao Yu continued to guide her words.

“Yeah. Back then when we went out to eat or went singing or stuff, they’d frequently be together.” Jia He continued, “But they shouldn’t be that well acquainted, I think? I don’t really hear Qiao Qiao mentioning him.”

Xiao Yu gave an “mm,” her calm restored. “Qiao Qiao’s been proposed to. This boy is truly so sincere. He actually did it on Weibo… Just look at the number of reposts…”

“Huh? No way!” With a quivering finger, Jia He tapped the play button on the video.

In the picture, Chen Hao was holding up the ring box and staring into the camera as he said, “Qiao Qiao, happy birthday. For the time being, I can’t afford a 10.25-carat diamond. This diamond ring is only 2.25 carats. I searched around for it for a long time.” Taking the diamond ring out from the box, he cleared his throat and reported, “I’m at the Tokyo International Film Festival right now. I’m not sure whether this time I’ll come out successful, but regardless of whether I win or not, I hope that you will marry me.”

The scene in the video appeared to be by the seaside. There was even the noise of the wind.

As Jia He watched this, her nose unwittingly began to tingle. So touching. But… She looked over at Xiao Yu, then looked at video, then looked back at Xiao Yu. “She’s always been a must-inform-you-that-I’m-dating fanatic. There’s no way she wouldn’t have told me if she and Cheng Hao were dating.”

Xiao Yu nearly sprayed out a mouthful of water. “So that means they weren’t even dating and he’s proposing?”

The two exchanged a crafty look. Then, simultaneously, each reached for her own mobile phone, and simultaneously each dialed Qiao Qiao’s number. In the end, it was Jia He who succeeded in getting through first. On the other end, Qiao Qiao picked up and, sniffling, said, “Hello?”

Jia He’s eyes immediately gleamed. “You’re so touched you’re crying?”

Decisively pressing the speakerphone button, Jia He set her phone onto the table.

“Huh, what?” There was a heavy nasal tone to Qiao Qiao’s voice. “I’m freezing to death here. At an outdoor shoot.”

“You still don’t know?!” Jia He skimmed her eyes over the number of reposts. Very good. In only twenty minutes, it had already broken nine thousand, yet the person actually on the receiving end of the proposal still didn’t even know.

The person on the other end of the line resignedly gave in. “If you have anything, just hurry up and say it. I have another call coming in.”

“Well…” Jia He decided she would first take this gradually, step by step. “Have you gotten a new boyfriend lately? Since that bass-playing jerk?”

Qiao Qiao was silent for a moment. “Are you too happily in love that you’re now coming to comfort the dumped and jilted one?”

Jia He felt sheepish. What does this have to do with me?“You honestly don’t have one? Or maybe a little budding thing of something, you know, a little ambiguous relationship where the only thing missing is for someone to say something?” There had to be some sort of signs, right? Otherwise, wasn’t this bro just committing suicide?

“Of course not. What, are you going to introduce someone to me?” Qiao Qiao was about to go crazy here.

“There’s one thing I need to tell you, but you have to stay calm.” Jia He shot a look at Xiao Yu. The meaning was very clear: Here, you be the one to give her the shock.

Xiao Yu cleared her throat. “Hey, you, dating fanatic, I’m going to tell you something unfortunate. Get yourself a little further away from people, and find yourself a quiet, secluded place.”

Qiao Qiao gave a “Huh?” and asked, “The two of you are together right now?” There was a momentary quiet before she cried out again,“I know! The two of you are finally feeling bad that it’s my birthday today but you guys actually didn’t even send me a text giving me well wishes. Do you know, since twelve o’clock yesterday, just how many artistes have sent me texts? They’re so busy and they still remembered, while you guys, two people who are basically sitting around and doing nothing but waiting to die, actually forgot to give me a text.”

Jia He looked shamefacedly at Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu spoke up, interrupting her. “Do you know Cheng Hao?”

“Yeah, I do,” Qiao Qiao promptly answered. “Jia He does, too. We worked on Tune of Yong’antogether. Later, he wasn’t with our company anymore. What? You’ve taken a fancy to him?”

Xiao Yu felt awkward as well. She threw a glance at Jia He before calmly stating into the mobile phone, “He’s asked you to marry him.”

Quiet. Extremely quiet. Jia He’s heart was clenched and dangling in her throat when the person on the other side finally spoke. “Today’s my birthday, not April Fool’s Day. I haven’t seen him for half a year already. I’ve even lost his mobile number.”

“Go onto your Weibo. It’s been forwarded over to you for ages already. The 2.25 carat is really dazzling, especially in the natural light.” After Xiao Yu finished swiftly summing things up, the person on the other end of the line immediately hung up.

A few minutes later, the phone was vibrating again on the table. Jia He took a deep inhale, more exuberant than if she were being proposed to. When she pressed the answer button, all that could be heard were sobs and sniffles. The female lead of this whole thing was already unable to speak. “You say… is this… a practical joke? …”

Xiao Yu replied very collectedly, “Based on how the number of reposts has broken ten thousand now, I think there shouldn’t be anyone who would play this sort of joke on himself.”

The two listened to Qiao Qiao’s bawlng for a long while. At last, Jia He could no longer restrain herself and asked, “Hey, what do you plan on doing then?” She contemplated seriously on this for a moment. “But, gee, that Chen Hao. You and he haven’t even dated, but he’s already first proposing. That’s just putting you on the spot.” Even though it was very romantic, you still needed to see if person on the receiving end wanted this or not, right?

“I think…” The person on the other end of the call hesitantly uttered a sentence that was even more shocking: “I’ve fallen in love with him.”

Jia He felt that her brain had already exceeded its capacity. Xiao Yu, though, merely remarked, “Uh-huh. If you apply now for a visa, it should still be approved in time for you to make it for the tail end of the film festival.” Those two action-taking doers rapidly exchanged a few more words.

The call was already hung up before Jia He clued in to what Qiao Qiao was going to do. At once, she gaped at Xiao Yu. “No way. She’s being rash and hot-headed and you’re encouraging her? She’s going to Tokyo?”

“If a man, under no certainty of success, is willing to gamble his own pride and face to do this, then marrying him should be a pretty good thing,” Xiao Yu opined neutrally. “Not every woman will encounter such a situation. With anyone you’re with, there’s a chance of splitting up anyway, so why not choose this guy who is so foolhardy but also a man of talent? You know, if he does win an award, then it’s not going to be just ten thousand something people witnessing this.”

Dully, Jia He nodded her head, then nodded it again. Why did everything Xiao Xiao say always make so much sense?

Even after Xiao Xiao left, Jia He was still exhilarated when she thought about this turn of events, and so she decided to give Yi Wenze a call. Very excitedly, she described those highlights of how that silly man had not even dated the girl before he proposed and how Qiao Qiao had instantly fallen in love after she was proposed to. On his side, Yi Wenze merely smiled as he listened, commenting at the very end, “There are indeed two Chinese films that have been nominated this time. I hope that he will come out successful.” Very mild, very coolheaded.

Immediately, Jia He lowered her banners and ceased her hurrahs. “Oh.”