The rain was not comparable to the heavy rain in Changsha where they met last summer. It was just that the drops were so dense it drenched Jin Fubai’s face. He impatiently brushed his hair exposing his forehead and his wet shirt stuck to his skin. Cutting a sorry figure full of anxiousness it made her emotions stir.
Standing in the traffic, Xiang Yu waved and jumped, calling him, “Jin Fubai! I’m here!”
Hearing this, Jin Fubai suddenly looked back, looking straight at her. They stared at each other on an unfamiliar street overseas through the misty rain. They had not seen each other for a long time and as a result, their eyes brimmed with emotions in the rain.
Xiang Yu watched Jin Fubai throw the police megaphone in his hand back to the police and strode towards her. He pulled her wrist to leave, pulling Xiang Yu back to her senses, “I haven’t paid for the taxi yet.”
Standing in the rain Jin Fubai exchanged a few words with the taxi driver and took out his wallet, paying the taxi driver.
He turned around and embraced Xiang Yu. Through the noisy and congested traffic, the police sirens and the rainfall he gently guided her into the car.
Jin Fubai remained silent the whole way as the car drove out of the road to the airport. Xiang Yu went over to him in the hotel’s elevator and hooked his finger, tentatively asking, “Are you upset at the fact that I am here?”
Jin Fubai looked back, his gaze fell deeply into her eyes and said, “I heard that there was an accident with a Chinese person on the road to the airport and thought it was you.”
Before Xiang Yu could say anything, he grabbed her waist and she almost fell on his chest. She raised her head and her lips were blocked by his kiss.
In this country this hotel was probably not Li Chi’s property. The decoration style is simple and Xiang Yu was not used to it. Jin Fubai didn’t live in a suite but the place was surprisingly spacious. Xiang Yu who was held by him was placed down as he took off his shirt soaked in rainwater.
Xiang Yu had her back towards him as she felt Jin Fubai push her skirt up to her waist and hold her from behind. This was probably the craziest of all their love affairs.
Afterwards, they hugged each other and lay on the bed. Jin Fubai held up the white dress that was wet from the rain, squinting, he asked Xiang Yu, “In Changsha last year did you wear this?”
Xiang Yu’s whole body was exhausted as she nodded weakly and said yes.
During the four months that Jin Fubai was absent, although they did not meet, he called and sent messages to her almost every day but since they didn’t meet, there were many topics to talk about. They stayed awake late into the night as Xiang Yu told Jin Fubai about the trivial things in her life. She talked for a long time before suddenly stopping, “These trivialities, are they boring?”
Jin Fubai chuckled in her ears, “Very interesting, keep talking.”
Maybe it was because he was infected by Xiang Yu, he also talked about his family business but Xiang Yu didn’t understand it. Nevertheless, she was quiet. She listened carefully and only remembered Jin Fubai’s sigh in the night. He said his inability to reverse the outcome of a desperate situation roughly described the situation.
In the early morning, Xiang Yu woke up a little dazed. Hearing the phone ringing by the bed she subconsciously picked the phone up and put it to her ear, “Who?”
There was a gentle elderly on the phone. The elderly coughed a few times and with a voice full of surprise she said a few words in Cantonese. Xiang Yu’s mind cleared up and she held the phone in shock.
Fortunately, Jin Fubai came out of the bathroom at this time. She had a stressed look on her face, she covered the speaker and said to him with an agitated voice, it’s not good. I received a call from your family, it seems to be your grandmother, she’s speaking Cantonese but I don’t understand…
Jin Fubai didn’t have any special emotions. He smiled, took the phone in her hand and spoke a few Cantonese words to the person on the phone.
When he hung up, Xiang Yu asked nervously, “Is it your grandmother, did she say anything?”
Jin Fubai, the hooligan had put on a nightgown loosely after showering and deliberately changed clothes in front of her. As he slowly buttoned his shirt, he smiled and said, “It’s nothing, my grandmother asked if you were her grandson’s future wife. She asked you to come and sit with her if you have time.”
Xiang Yu was taken aback, “Then did you agree?!”
“Aren’t you the future grandson’s wife?” He said this sweetly, and Xiang Yu’s heart beat fiercely a few times but she didn’t respond again.
After that day, Jin Fubai didn’t have much time to accompany Xiang Yu.
Jin Fubai abroad is also not the same as in China. Sometimes when she drinks water at night or goes to the bathroom, she discovers Jin Fubai has come back. Maybe because he worried about waking her up he didn’t come to bed to sleep. Instead, in his suit he leaned on the sofa with his eyes closed.
His eyebrows were always frowning with what seemed like an endless amount of sorrow. And in all his sorrow, he never let her in.
Xiang Yu would come over to sit on his lap at night and help him untie his tie.
Often, Jin Fubai would suddenly open his eyes, full of hostility and defensiveness. When he saw that it was Xiang Yu, his eyes softened, he looked at her affectionately and pulled the tie in her hand, kissed her lips and wrapped the tie around her wrist, “Did you want to do something spicy?”
During those moments in bed, he had an unspeakable fierceness and Xiang Yu was tossed so hard that she couldn’t even bother to leave the hotel and ate at the hotel’s restaurant.
He spends very little time with her but never ignores her. One day, Xiang Yu was sitting in the restaurant. A waiter spoke to her in another language to say Mr. Jin has arranged lunch for you.
Xiang Yu didn’t expect that the lunch Jin Fubai arranged for her was the bone broth she was obsessed with when they were in Changsha. Opening the soup’s lid the fragrance smelt delicious. She took a spoonful of it to taste it and the taste was exactly the same as she remembered.
She didn’t know whether Jin Fubai invited the cook to come abroad or used other methods. She was reminded of the words “Mounting a house for thousands of miles for a concubine’s smile, no one knew it was due to lychees”. It was an ancient poem by Du Mu, to win Concubine Yang’s heart Xuan Zong travelled far and wide to send fresh lychees to Concubine Yang.
Xiang Yu thought jokingly she was being treated as a “noble concubine”. She sent this message to Jin Fubai, and Jin Fubai replied, saying, you only want this much? Just a noble concubine?
Later, Xiang Yu ate the soft and sticky hibiscus decorative border on the side and reflected. Firstly, why did she think about being a noble concubine? The second was to reflect on herself. After more than ten years of school, once she graduated, she only remembered the “scandalous” verses and can’t remember the entire poem?
When she was thinking about this a shadow was cast over the table. Xiang Yu raised her eyes and saw a man standing by her table in a suit and leather shoes, looking to be Chinese.
The man looked at Xiang Yu and smiled. He asked politely, “Miss, can I sit at this table with you?”
She was sitting at a two-seated dining table, did this man want to sit opposite her and have a meal? Obviously, the restaurant was only half full, why did he want to sit at the same table with a stranger?
Xiang Yu had just eaten the hot bone broth soup with hibiscus flower and her mind was filled with a satisfying comfort. She was not alert thinking he was just an ordinary person trying to hit on her. So she propped her cheek up with one hand, put down the silver spoon in the other, shook her fingers and casually refused, “I’m sorry, someone is sitting here.”
The man turned a deaf ear to her refusal, pulled the chair out and sat opposite Xiang Yu, “I heard you live in room 404?”
Xiang Yu realized then that the man in front of her might not be simple when he said her room number. She glanced at him calmly and couldn’t make out his purpose, so she could only ask, “If so?”
“Nothing.” The man laughed, the fine lines stretched around the corners of his eyes looked harmless but his words were sharp, “Miss Xiang, what is your relationship with Jin Fubai? Are you his lover?”
If Xiang Yu was more sensitive she would have realized that he said Jin Fubai. Not Mr. Jin.
There were many people in the hotel’s restaurant. Xiang Yu felt she had watched too many spy movies as she glanced towards the safety exit and then said, “No, I am Jin Fubai’s girlfriend.” Jin Fubai had been affectionate with her for the past few days which gave her the courage to say such things without showing a guilty conscience. Rather she was neither humble nor overbearing.
The man raised his eyebrows slightly, not expecting her answer. He was silent for a few seconds before spitting out a few words in another language with a smile. It was like a ridicule but the irony was heavier.
Xiang Yu was not good in the language but she still understood such simple words. He said, wow true love.
When most people encounter such a situation felt like they are either encountering a rival or found the other person meddling. But Xiang Yu didn’t have any special emotions. She was still drinking the soup and only glanced at the man opposite, nodded, and said with certainty, “Bingo, we are sincere.”
Xiang Yu’s mood wouldn’t be affected because of other people’s deliberate words and deeds. What’s more, she is experiencing the life of a “noble concubine” today, drinking the bone broth soup with hibiscus flower Jin Fubai brought from more than 10,000 kilometres away.
How could she not continue to eat it?
The man on the opposite side spoke several times. Xiang Yu acted like she couldn’t see him, scooped the soup to her lips, and even played snake.
The man probably didn’t think Xiang Yu had such a calm temper. He froze for a while and suddenly smiled, “No wonder Jin Fubai likes you. Interesting.”
He talked about a man’s interest in a woman very frivolously and Xiang Yu didn’t lift her face, “Listening to your tone, you don’t have a partner, right?”
“People like us don’t need a partner; do you understand?”
“Okay, there is a pitiful person who doesn’t have a true love.” Xiang Yu continued to play snakes.
The man finally stopped sitting down, got up and walked to Xiang Yu. He leaned in and said in a low voice in her ear, “Miss Xiang, if you say that true love is abandoning one’s family and betraying relatives then I can’t agree.”
Xiang Yu’s snake hit its tail, dying. She put her phone down and smiled, saying with a bright expression, “Who would want to be family with a dog?”
That was a singular sharp moment in her 22 years. There are such noisy people who are not even deeply involved in the matter.
It was only after many years later Xiang Yu saw a face on TV and she knew he was the heir of a well-known domestic company surnamed Chu. It was just at that time she didn’t know the young President Chu, but of his younger sister, Chu Linlang.
When Jin Fubai came out of the villa, the sky was already dark. He wanted to go to the hotel to find Xiang Yu and casually found an excuse to leave. After a few steps, the driver followed, “Mr. Jin.”
“What? My grandmother hasn’t fallen asleep yet?”
“The old lady is asleep, it’s about Miss Xiang.”
Jin Fubai turned his head, “Talk.”
“In the afternoon Miss Xiang had a little incident., Chu Jue found Miss Xiang and he said something to Miss Xiang.”
The Chu family has always wanted to marry the Jin family. If Chu Jue found Xiang Yu, it would be weird if he said anything good. Based on the situation Jin Fubai constantly felt uneasy on the way to the hotel.
Pushing open the door to the room he saw Xiang Yu in the lounge. She knelt on the sofa and rested on the backrest to look at the scenery outside the window.
He had told the hotel staff to move the sofa to the window. Xiang Yu has always played games in the hotel these days and he was worried she would feel bored. Fortunately, there was a beautiful crown-shaped tree outside the window and the scenery was not too bad.
She lay by the window looking at the moonlight outside, her hair blew in the breeze when she looked back and her eyes were stained with the colour of the lights from outside the window. She smiled at him. Jin Fubai was silent for a moment thinking she was going to say something serious but she only said, “Jin Fubai, the moon in the sky is so beautiful, like freshly cut nails.”
- Very neat and smooth.
Jin Fubai laughed in surprise and leaned over to kiss her from behind, “Did you meet something unhappy in the afternoon? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Xiang Yu softly said in between the kiss, “No, I only met an irrelevant person.” After a pause, she said, “The bone broth and hibiscus flowers are delicious. It’s a pity you were not there, this was the most unhappy thing for me today.”
There was a lot of tenderness in her eyes, it was enough to soothe all of Jin Fubai’s feelings of impatience.
Jin Fubai twisted the buckle on her back through her clothes and put his hand in, “Maybe I’ll have time tomorrow afternoon to take you out for a walk?”
“Okay.”
“If I don’t accompany you, you won’t go out, huh? Not afraid of being suffocated in the hotel, so lazy now?” he said as he continued to twirl his fingers, rubbing her.
Xiang Yu smiled in his arms, “I’m here to accompany you, not to travel. I don’t want to go out if you are not there. It has nothing to do with being lazy.”
But on the next day, Jin Fubai still didn’t have time to accompany her. For the whole day, Xiang Yu heard no news of Jin Fubai in the hotel.
He came back late at night wearing a black suit with a black shirt underneath. Like a night-time killer in a movie, he quietly opened the door of the hotel, walked in and sat on the sofa.
Xiang Yu slept restlessly that day. Maybe it was because she drank too much coffee while playing games in the afternoon, and she couldn’t get into a deep sleep. So when Jin Fubai came back even if his movements were light, she felt it.
Instinctively she felt that he was in a very bad mood, worse than the late night when it was raining outside.
Without turning on the light or wearing shoes, Xiang Yu walked to Jin Fubai in the dark and snuggled into his arms, “What’s the matter?”
His body was covered in the ice-cold night and she pressed her warm body against his to help him keep warm. For a moment she felt like a wife who had been married to him for a long time.
Jin Fubai hugged her waist, rarely did he not take the opportunity to take advantage of her. He only buried his head in Xiang Yu’s neck, his voice hoarse like a patient with a severe cold. He said, “Xiang Yu, stay with me for a while.”
Jin Fubai smoked half a pack of cigarettes that night but remained silent. Xiang Yu accompanied him until the sun rose to the horizon outside the window and the sun shone slightly through the lush canopy into the hotel room did Jin Fubai take out his phone from the pocket of his pants. It turned out his phone was turned off the whole time. Many missed calls and messages flooded in the moment it turned on.
Xiang Yu didn’t close her eyes all night, her mouth was a little dry and she licked the corners of her lower lip before asking him, “Jin Fubai, should I rebook the ticket and stay with you for a few more days?”
Jin Fubai kissed her on the forehead. “No, I can’t spare the time to come over anymore. Go back and wait for me.”
Jin Fubai didn’t take her to the airport personally. When Xiang Yu washed he had already changed into another all-black suit, wearing a tie. After getting dressed, Jin Fubai took Xiang Yu’s hand and comforted her simply, “Trust me, don’t think about it. Wait for me to come back.”
Xiang Yu turned around and standing on her tippy toe kissed the side of his face, “Okay, I will wait for you.”
Xiang Yu didn’t know what had happened to Jin Fubai then. It wasn’t until a week after returning to China when she was using her computer to scan the news at work she happened to see the notice of a person’s death: The co-founder and chairman of company xxx in the top 100 suffered an emergency abroad and was unable to be rescued. On June 31 2013, she unfortunately passed away at the age of 85.
June 31st was the date she returned to China. Xiang Yu typed the unfamiliar name of the deceased in the notice into the search engine and saw the background information of the deceased elderly. On the top, it said she is Cantonese.
In the introduction, there are photos of her when she was younger. She was dressed in a formal suit and sat with a few men. She had sharp eyes and a determined look, she was a strong woman. The sharp inner corners of her eyes looked very similar to Jin Fubai.
But Xiang Yu had heard her voice, gentle and kind.
When Xiang Yu was at the hotel that day, she answered Jin Fubai’s call. The elderly spoke softly in Cantonese, asking her if she was Jin Fubai’s girlfriend and she had also said she wanted her to sit with her sometime later. Unexpectedly, such an elderly would suddenly die.
Yet, Jin Fubai didn’t disclose the loss of a close relative to her. In his most fragile and gloomy moment, he just smoked cigarettes and stayed up all night. Fortunately, she had the opportunity to be by his side that day.
Xiang Yu suddenly regretted that she did not stay abroad for a few more days to accompany Jin Fubai.
It was late summer when she saw Jin Fubai again. At that time Xiang Yu had managed to relax at the company, sitting in front of the computer at the front desk all day, her shoulders and neck felt somewhat unbearable. Jin Fubai was not in the country and she had a lot of free time so she simply brought an annual card to the tennis court to play tennis when she had time.
She had a meal with Tang Yuchi that day and he sent her to the entrance of the tennis court. Tang Yuchi raised his jaw, “Hey, a woman is wearing the same outfit as you.”
Xiang Yu exited out of the car in curiosity. Such a coincidence, she saw the girl who asked her about her clothing brand at Li Chi’s venue in winter, it was Miss Almond-eyed. Miss Almond-eyed waved goodbye to a man smiling very sweetly.
Miss Almond-eyed saw Xiang Yu getting out of Tang Yuchi’s car and she seemed to want to say hello but she shyly withdrew her hand as if considering something. The girl didn’t pay attention to her facial expression and her smile became a little strange.
Xiang Yu still took the initiative to speak to her, “We meet again, we matching today.”
Miss Almond-eyed’s eyes lit up like a chirping little sparrow, jumping over to talk to Xiang Yu. “I found these clothes in the shop that you gave me the name of. The clothes in this shop are really pretty! Are you here to play tennis too?”
“Yeah, you too?”
“Yes, yes, I also came here to play tennis.” Miss Almond-eyed was very excited. “Last time I talked to you a few older sisters said that I shouldn’t talk to you saying you would be annoying.”
“Why would I be annoying?”
“Because Mr. Jin…” Miss Almond-eyed hesitated for a moment and said in a low voice, “Because Mr. Jin’s status is too high. I am following President Qu and I have to talk to those of similar status to President Qu. Otherwise, it would be bad for him, someone would say that he…”
“President Qu, is he the one who sent you here?”
Miss Almond-eyed nodded with red ears, “Yes, he is very good. Today he even brought me a bracelet.” She stretched out her thin wrist and a chain of diamonds gleamed on it.
Perhaps it was because she often met Miss Almond-eyed when playing tennis there were gradually rumours in the circle that Xiang Yu had finally “fallen out of favour” and was abandoned by Jin Fubai. So she could only mix with some “low-grade goods”. Xiang Yu had heard of these rumours vaguely but she didn’t care.
The only thing that worried her was at the end of August Jin Fubai had finally returned from abroad. When Xiang Yu finished playing tennis that day, she turned around with a racket and suddenly saw Jin Fubai sitting on a chair in the rest area with his legs wide open, drinking half of her mineral water.
Xiang Yu ran all the way over and grabbed the water bottle, “You are drinking it all, what will I drink?”
Jin Fubai’s eyes were full of smiles, “I rushed to see you when I got off the plane and you won’t even let me drink from the same bottle?”
“What are you doing? You’re back today? Didn’t you say next week?”
“I missed you so much I came back early.”
Xiang Yu was carried by him and placed on his lap. Upon closer inspection, she discovered Jin Fubai lost a lot of weight. She remembered the notice of that person’s death, the night he was smoking in silence while abroad and the news of him holding his close relative who passed away but he had never shown a weakness.
Xiang Yu’s eyes were red and she called him, “Jin Fubai.”
This person hadn’t had the slightest idea of telling his grievances to her. He rubbed her buttocks and looked down at her tennis skirt, “You didn’t play very well but the clothes look good.”
Xiang Yu held back her tears and hit him, “Why are you so perverted! Forget it if you’re not serious!”
Jin Fubai smiled and leaned into her ear, “When you jumped up, guess what I saw?”
Author: 殊娓
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