“I’m afraid that you will be alone, so I came to accompany you for dinner on New Year’s Eve.”
When Xiang Yu and Jin Fubai previously talked, she said her parents are abroad all year round and that they often don’t come back during Chinese New Year.
He had remembered this past event. Maybe it was just because he was good at remembering things and it didn’t mean that she was special in his heart, hence, there was no need for her to be moved about. Xiang Yu concluded in this manner.
In fact, with Xiang Yu’s character, it was not easy for her to agree to Jin Fubai’s call.
In their position, for her, eating with him was actually a disturbance. Firstly, she was worried that she would be unable to control her heartbeat; secondly, she felt that it was meaningless for them to be together after having broken up.
So, when he asked to join her for dinner, she turned around decisively, walked towards the apartment building in a stride, and replied without looking back, “No!”
When the doors of the building closed, she heard Jin Fubai vaguely say behind her in an affectionate manner, I’ll wait for you.
Wait then, anyways, I won’t wait!
When she opened the door there was no one at home, and even the sound of her taking the slippers out of the shoe cabinet and throwing them on the floor was very loud. This kind of silence almost smashed Xiang Yu’s confident and still mood. She closed the door in silence, took off her puffer jacket and walked to the kitchen.
At noon, she had only eaten a bag of potato chips and some Shatang tangerines at the Mahjong hall. When she had gone upstairs just now the corridors were filled with dishes prepared by other people for their New Year’s Eve dinner which made her really hungry right now. Fortunately, there were frozen dumplings made by Aunt Chen in the fridge.
The fridge’s light was not on when Xiang Yu opened it to take out a drink, and the juice in her hand was warm. She knew she was doomed. Sure enough, the kitchen’s power was cut off and the dumplings in the fridge turned into lumps sticking together.
She called the property management and followed the instructions of the staff, pushing the switch for the electricity in the kitchen and then she cleaned up all the mess in the fridge. After a busy cleanup, Xiang Yu was even more hungry.
Probably because today was a special day, the shops of the takeaway app were closed. Xiang Yu remembered that there was a convenience store on her street open until the night of New Year’s Eve every year. Maybe some stores are still open and with her luck, she can buy something to eat.
After tossing around for a long time, she had forgotten Jin Fubai’s “I’ll wait for you”. As she ran back carrying canned sardines in tomato sauce, instant noodles and ice cream she was shocked when she heard a call from behind her.
“Xiang Yu.”
Jin Fubai leaned in the back seat of the car with the door open. He just looked over deeply, without saying anything else.
The street lights were suddenly lit and Jin Fubai’s figure was hidden in the darkness, looking lonely but inexplicably gentle.
The convenience store is very close, and Xiang Yu had only worn a sweater. She trotted over, pulled out a box of ice cream from the plastic bag and handed it over, “Happy New Year Jin Fubai, you go back, don’t wait here.”
When Jin Fubai took the ice cream, he gently shook her fingertips, “What if you regret it.” After that, with a gentle and familiar tone he said, “Wearing so little, your hands are cold.”
“…The walk wasn’t too far.”
He said, “You also bought ice cream to eat.”
It sounded like he cared about her so much, caring more about her body than she did.
Xiang Yu didn’t know what to say, so when she opened her mouth, she said nothing. She took the plastic bag from the convenience store and left. Up until this moment, she was quite calm.
But sometimes her mood would break down, and it really only took a moment.
At that last moment, she was humming and boiling hot water, waiting for a bowl of fragrant shrimp and fish noodles. Then at the next moment, the can lid cut her finger, and as she watched the drops of blood drip down she suddenly felt unhappy.
But it could only be said that the timing of Jin Fubai’s appearance was on point, and he also asked to have dinner with her on New Year’s Eve. The setting sun sank completely into the horizon leaving only the afterglow of twilight and thousands of lights in the street lit up.
Some windows were hung with coloured lights, and since some people didn’t draw their curtains you could see people walking around in the living room. Xiang Yu put the can on the table and the metal can hit the glass table top with a “ding” echoing the empty home.
Because of the emptiness, she got up, went to the balcony, opened the window and looked down.
Under the street light, Jin Fubai was standing by the car and smoking a cigarette. As if feeling something he raised his eyes with his cigarette and smiled at her.
No one wants to spend New Year’s Eve alone. So, Xiang Yu lay on the window and asked him, “Jin Fubai can you book a restaurant right now?”
He suddenly smiled, “Of course.”
She didn’t know if it was an exaggeration to say or not, but many of the popular hotel restaurants in Beijing were fully booked as early as a month before New Year’s Eve. But Jin Fubai was able to find an elegant restaurant in a lively place like this to have dinner with Xiang Yu.
There was a small bridge in front of the restaurant with water flowing under it and the eaves of the corridor winded. There is an echo in their footsteps, and Xiang Yu almost took him back to her house from this old place. It turned out not to be, it was just a private and highly classified restaurant.
This kind of restaurant was “internally operated”, and not everyone could eat at it. But those who could eat at this kind of restaurant were not necessarily good people.
She met several men in the corridor and one of the older men took the initiative to come and talk with Jin Fubai. Behind this man was a younger man with pink hair and lip studs, his eyes lingering on Xiang Yu.
Jin Fubai remained silent and stood in front of Xiang Yu. He held Xiang Yu’s waist and gently moved into the private room, his tone intimate and affectionate, “She’s hungry, we’re going to eat first, Uncle Zhao, we’ll talk another day.”
When he showed his sovereignty, the person called Uncle Zhao turned his head, glared at the pink head and nodded quickly, “Okay, okay, go eat first.”
Jin Fubai took Xiang Yu into the private room, helped her sit on her chair and explained his behaviour, “Seeing that he has that kind of empty look and tried to hide it, he is either an alcoholic or a drug addict, pay attention to your safety.”
He was talking about the pink-haired man just now, but he was too gentle and considerate, and Xiang Yu didn’t want him to continue with these kinds of words.
She took a seat, turned her head and said, “Later, don’t order expensive and noble dishes. We are going to split the bill for this meal. My bonus for the end of the year is only 1200.”
“Mmm, you have the final say.”
It’s very strange, on a day people can sometimes feel lonely and find it unbearable, but now there was just Jin Fubai who was sitting opposite her and even though they barely talked, this night suddenly became less unbearable.
The restaurant was very unique, without the oily smell of dishes, it was instead permeated with the fragrance of a plant. Every dish served is accompanied by a poem: Dried bamboo shoots, “Surround the stove to have a taste of the snow bamboo shoot, carbon burning to learn about the Japanese cherry”; fish, “Green bamboo hats, green woven raincoat, no need to return the slanting wind and drizzle”; lightly sautéc lotus root, “floating like a dream, for happiness”…
The artistic concept is beautiful but there are no particularly expensive dishes which was unlike Jin Fubai. It seemed that he had listened to her, and really didn’t order that kind of “expensive and noble dish”.
One was a soup dumpling with a soup base made from abalone, scallop, and shrimp and the filling from sea cucumber and pork. There are only five small dumplings in a bowl, and the price is 166 which was quite expensive.
Xiang Yu scooped it up, took a bite of it and then squinted comfortably. Opposite her, Jin Fubai asked, “Would you like some rice cakes?”
The owner of the place had just delivered rice cakes, saying that it holds good meaning and that with each passing year, they will become more successful, resulting in a joyful atmosphere.
Xiang Yu is a salted fish and in fact, she doesn’t care if she will be ‘more successful’. However, the dishes spread on the table were hot, the lamps caged in carved paper were softly lit in the room, and the lighting, nice. Adding Jin Fubai looking like a caring boyfriend who held a small plate of rice cakes before handing it to her.
Suddenly Xiang Yu recalled a cheesy pick-up line–
“You look like my boyfriend.”
She was taken aback by her own thoughts, choking and coughing constantly. The caring person opposite her handed a hot drink to her, “Do you need some water?”
Xiang Yu frowned and looked at it, “Jin Fubai, did you wake up on the wrong side of bed today?”
“Huh?”
She looked awkward, “The two of us are just having dinner on New Year’s Eve together. I can’t bear you being so considerate.”
“This isn’t something you need to do, I’m afraid you shouldn’t—” Jin Fubai smiled, “—I can only offer to be particularly attentive.”
Xiang Yu was wary, “What can you do for me?”
Jin Fubai got up, walked over and sat down on the chair beside her, turned sideways, putting his elbows on the table, “How about we stay together and wait for the New Year?”
Their close relatives are not around, so it’s okay for them to split the bill and sit together at a table for the New Year’s Eve dinner. It’s not much either to sit at the same table together to wait for the new year and split the bill….. In theory, it was like this.
But Xiang Yu felt a little sceptical, this person appeared affectionately in her street and now he is with her, being considerate in every action. In this case, with them staying overnight together, can she really spend tonight safe and sound?
Xiang Yu didn’t hide it and stared at Jin Fubai suspiciously.
Jin Fubai in her vision suddenly bent his lips, “Why are you looking at me like this? Do you see me as a wolf, have I done anything that you haven’t agreed too? Think about it, true or not?”
She couldn’t think about it. Otherwise, she would be reminded of some exciting scenes.
Afterwards, he answered two phone calls and the latter one was probably him talking with his grandmother as he spoke in Cantonese.
Xiang Yu suddenly remembered that night not too long ago. He hugged her and said in Cantonese, I like you. She lost her mind for a long time and when she returned to her senses, she only heard him say “…The two of us can make it work.”
Xiang Yu stared blankly, “What happened?”
The person on the other side smiled, holding a glass of wine in his hand, and his finger went back and forth pointing at both of them, “I said that in the past few days, we have had no relatives around us, so it’s better to spend it together. “
“Oh, New Year.”
Jin Fubai smiled, “Otherwise, what were you thinking about?”
Author: 殊娓
http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5163285
Note: Back at university, I won’t be uploading for a while.
RiahTrans 
Pingback: Chapter 19: Reunion | RiahTrans
Pingback: Chapter 21: A Wish | RiahTrans