Throughout that day, Jin Fubai’s eyes overflowed with passion as profound as the ocean, causing her to fall in deeply. When he asked Xiang Yu to move in with him, she only had a slight indecision. She put the plastic CD box on the bed gently and nodded in response, okay.
The movie she picked was heartwarming. It portrayed a special kind of romance, the protagonists were teenagers, but their feelings were pure and brave, you couldn’t say that it was not love. In the room illuminated by the TV screen Xiang Yu leaned on Jin Fubai’s warm chest as her mind wandered.
In fact, when Jin Fubai asked her to move in with him, she knew he was actually challenging her. Challenging her to approach him, challenging her to see what it was truely like to be with him. And if after, she would still dare to love him.
After the weekend Xiang Yu continued to work and packed during her time off. Almost everyday after work Jin Fubai would pick her up and on some days he would accompany her for dinner. He never urged her to move, leaving Xiang Yu with ample time to think.
Xiang Yu had a certain characteristic, she didn’t like to make a hassle of things. When she graduated from university she gave away many items to her roommates. She never liked to carry around a lot of things, and she didn’t even take a suitcase when she went to the US. It was also the same this time around too. In fact, she didn’t have a lot of things to pack regardless and even if she went empty handed Jin Fubai would buy her anything she needed.
They both knew that “packing” was just a buffer for Xiang Yu to adjust. She didn’t know if she was brave enough.
She had seen Chu Jue in the US and listened to him criticising her. She remembered the day before Jin Fubai returned to China he was silent and downcast. At night, she tossed and turned restlessly in her dreams. She was not able to let the matter go, and her imagination ran wild.
At the beginning of September Xiang Yu stood in Zhou Lie’s office and the flowers on the 7th floor opposite had remained as red roses for over ten days. She knew Jin Fubai was concerned she was delaying.
It was just that he respected her and was willing to be patient with her.
On that same day Xiang Yu held the miniature telescope and thought: people yearn for love but they are always bounded by timidity and cowardice, wouldn’t it be better to love wilfully once. It’s better than having regrets in the years later and recalling the lost moments would ache.
On a sunny Saturday, Xiang Yu packed up a 29-inch suitcase with her items. She sat on the suitcase and called Jin Fubai, “When will you come to pick me up? I’m all packed.”
Jin Fubai had just got up when he received her call and was standing by the window smoking a cigarette. After listening to her, he laughed with the cigarette in his mouth. The laughter carried on, cigarette ashes scattered on the window sill and the room filled with an agarwood incense. He said, “I will pick you up, wait for me.”
The refreshingly breeze picked up outside, it was the beginning of autumn again. Jin Fubai still remembered his feelings towards Xiang Yu in October last year.
How did it start, there were millions of way to spend time and Jin Fubai usually doesn’t even think about them. It was always like this, it was as if he wasn’t even bothered with life. But one time at Li Chi’s noisy venue he watched the light reflect on the liquor and suddenly wondered whether Xiang Yu could be a way for him to get rid of boredom.
It had started so casually. He said to her, follow me.
In one year, they haven’t bided farewell nor have they quarrelled nor have they ever wanted to rationally wave goodbye to each other, yet how did it develop into this? Jin Fubai even ran a red light on his way to meet Xiang Yu.
He was eager to pick her up.
When Jin Fubai drove the car into the street to Xiang Yu’s house the sun was shining. Xiang Yu wore a pair of sunglasses sitting on the suitcase as she waved to him from a distance. Her hair was now a little longer and fluttered in the wind. Due to the sun, her hair was dyed a golden coffee colour.
Jin Fubai stopped the car in front of Xiang Yu, one arm carrying her and the other her suitcase. “Let’s go, come home with me.”
The car drove out of the complex and the road became more and more unfamiliar. After playing two rounds of snake, Xiang Yu raised her eyes and stared at the unfamiliar environment around her for.
She asked blankly, “Where are we going?”
“Going home.”
“…This is not the way to the Li Chi’s Hotel.”
Jin Fubai sneered, “What kind of home would his shabby place be. “
Xiang Yu had never been to Jin Fubai’s house and hasn’t heard of him having a home in Beijing. But thinking about it, with his status, who wouldn’t own a few properties, would he really stay at a hotel every day?
On the way Xiang Yu jokingly imagined scenes like lakes of wine and forests of meat and so on. She even wondered whether Jin Fubai had hired Li Chi when decorating his house to create a mix of luxury.
‘lakes of wine and forests of meat’: an idiom referring to a place of debaucheries/lavish area
After she arrived, she discovered it was just an ordinary high-end community. She also encountered a few faces that were on TV often when she walked into the area. Xiang Yu was very excited and pulled Jin Fubai to ask him if there were any male celebrities, if she were to meet one, she would like a signature.
Jin Fubai glanced at her. “I don’t know.”
The decoration style of his house was simple, without any unnecessary decorations it looked a little cold. There were not many books in the study, instead, it resembled a store that rented out compact disc in her childhood with a wall full of discs. These discs are different from the ones in Li Chi’s hotel, many of them were signed by actors and directors.
Xiang Yu curiously walked around Jin Fubai’s house with her hands behind her back like a female boss inspecting work.
Jin Fubai leaned against the wall and asked with a smile, “Boss, are you satisfied?”
Xiang Yu who was walking to the bathroom door put on an act and nodded, “It’s okay.”
She pushed open the bathroom door and was taken aback, this bathroom really made one feel embarrassed. It was the first time Xiang Yu saw a bathroom in a person’s house which had glass walls, it was floor-to-ceiling windows only visible from the inside. Standing in the bathroom, one could see the green garden in the community and the cars on the street.
She turned her head and asked him, “Don’t you feel like people will see you when you take a bath?”
“Haven’t experienced it yet.”
Jin Fubai didn’t know much about this house, it seemed he hadn’t come here in a long time. After walking around a bit he found a cup and poured her a cup of room-temperature water.
“The weather is so hot; I want to drink it iced.”
Jin Fubai stared at her, “Was it not you who rolled around the bed when you were on your period?”
It was a coincidence, just a few days after Jin Fubai came back Xiang Yu experienced stomach cramps again and sweated all over. This time Jin Fubai was even more over the top, he brought the professor to the hotel and had him give Xiang Yu an injection.
The professor pushed up his glasses and said, Miss Xiang should avoid eating raw or cold food and pay attention to the type of food. When the professor left Xiang Yu saw the Haagen-Dazs raspberry ice cream, the imported rum and raisin frozen treat and the vanilla cocoa ice cream cones she had in the refrigerator in the suite now all lying in the trash and she felt very wronged.
If it wasn’t for her period that day, she really wanted to choke Jin Fubai to death.
Today Xiang Yu was not weak so she was very courageous. She squatted next to the suitcase and licked her dry lips. “If it’s not iced, I won’t drink it.”
Jin Fubai didn’t say anything. After a few seconds, Xiang Yu took out a pile of clothes and felt him pat her on the shoulder. Xiang Yu raised her eyes subconsciously and her chin was held by his hand, a kiss falling on her lips.
He passed the water into her mouth and commented with a smile, “Stubborn.”
Xiang Yu held the water in her mouth, swallowed it reluctantly, and muttered, “I’m stubborn, so what?”
Jin Fubai chuckled lightly, and then coaxed the person, “I was wrong, you are charming, especially charming.” He took the clothes in her hand, walked to the closet and opened the door, putting her clothes next to his. Then he turned to ask her, “I feel like I should get you a walk-in wardrobe.”
Xiang Yu didn’t know how to answer him. This house is not new and she didn’t know how long she would live in it. If he made a walk-in wardrobe specifically for her wouldn’t that be too great of a task?
After packing up her luggage Xiang Yu collapsed tiredly on the bed and Jin Fubai suddenly said the bath was changed to a jacuzzi last year and he didn’t know if it would work well. Xiang Yu jumped up excitedly, with no slippers on she ran in and shouted that she would help him try it out.
It turned out that it was a trap. She was pressed on the floor-to-ceiling glass of the bathroom and eaten clean. They didn’t turn on the ventilation, with hot water continuously fallling, the mist hang in the air as they made love.
Jin Fubai didn’t forget to tease her as he moved. He smiled in her ear and in a low voice he said, “Look out the window, didn’t you ask if there were any male celebrities in this community? Maybe you can see them now.”
There was traffic outside the window and many people were in the shared area. Some were walking their dogs and some were running. Xiang Yu was placed against the glass and she felt that even being 20 floors high, with one-way windows, as long as someone looked up they would be able to see them.
She, who was rarely shy had her face flushed, she gritted her teeth and asked, “Jin Fubai, I want to go back to the bedroom…Ah!” The response to her was a deeper movement.
They spent the first day at Jin Fubai’s house in this kind of comforting and warm atmosphere. Even after dinner, they walked in the garden downstairs hand in hand and sat in the pavilion watching two stray cats eating cat food given by people. They were like all other ordinary couples.
Maybe because of a change of residence, Xiang Yu became more sensitive in her sleep. She woke up at night to the area beside her empty, Jin Fubai was not there.
A soft white light seeped through the cracks of the bathroom door and someone was faintly speaking. A woman’s voice? Speaking a foreign language?
Xiang Yu walked towards him sneakily, the sound inside had stopped, and Jin Fubai only let out a muffled groan. It was that kind of nasally sound that would come about, engh. It was difficult to not let one’s imagination roam.
She opened the door and went into the bathroom. Frowning like an empress who had caught a couple in the middle of an act, her tone was a little weird, “You have tossed me like that and you are not satisfied yet? Watching the video to deal with it by yourself?”
Jin Fubai was sitting on the edge of the bath with his bathrobe open, and there was something wet on his fingertips. He raised his eyebrows, smiled vilely and rubbed the thing on his hand against Xiang Yu’s face, “What am I dealing?”
Xiang Yu thought it was that kind of thing, her eyes widened and she wanted to raise her hand to hit him but suddenly smelled a sweet mint fragrance and her face felt cold. She blinked, “What is it?”
“Ointment.”
“…Ointment?”
Jin Fubai smiled happily and asked her, otherwise, what do you think it is?
Xiang Yu ignored him, looked around and found a bottle of imported green ointment on the sink. There were no Chinese characters on the bottle and she couldn’t recognize which country it was from. Jin Fubai’s cell phone was placed next to the ointment and the paused screen showed that he was looking at instructions on ointment.
Really… She misunderstood him.
She cleared her throat, without mentioning the misunderstanding just now, she picked up the ointment and pretended to be stupid, “What is this ointment for?”
“Sprain.”
This person was so vigorous before going to bed, and now he was putting ointment on his injury? Xiang Yu looked at Jin Fubai carefully and there was still a bit of moisture on his left shoulder.
Could it be he strained himself when he picked her up with one arm this morning? That should be the case. He had also lost a lot of weight when he came back this time, maybe he was too busy abroad and had no chance to exercise?
Jin Fubai frowned. “Accidently twisted it in the wrong direction, just needs some medicine.” What wording!
Xiang Yu felt that this kind of ointment was slow to work and sweating at night might result in it coming off. She asked Jin Fubai if there was something to bandage the ointment and he said maybe in the first aid kit. She brought the kit, placed the ointment on some transparent dressing, leaned behind Jin Fubai and pointed on his shoulder, “Here?”
“Yeah.”
Xiang Yu stuck the dressing on him. She rubbed her sleepy and tart eyes, mumbling casually to herself, “Why didn’t you say it before going to bed? I would have applied it for you if you said so, must you toss from side to side in the middle of the night.”
Jin Fubai turned his head blankly and refused to answer this question.
Xiang Yu stared at him for half a second and then suddenly chuckled, “Jin Fubai, are you afraid of losing face?”
Author: 殊娓
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