Chapter 9.1 “I like you, but I like Shanghai more”

Chen Maidong looked sideways out of the window, but didn’t answer her words.

     “Hey Dongzi, this should be your profile, it looks good.” Zhuang Jie suggested to him, “When you go on a blind date, keep turning your face away like this. These days, the girls all have their profile picture looking away, too.”

     Chen Maidong ignored her, and asked her, “What did you sing to my grandma that day?”

     “When?”

     “At my house that day.”

     Thinking back to that day, Zhuang Jie suddenly remembered that this bastard had said she was frivolous. First she simply said: “You deserve to be single.” Then she continued: “I sang the Peking Opera ‘Passing Shaoguan’.”

     “You can sing Peking Opera?”

     “My grandfather was a performing artist of Peking Opera. I have listened to him singing since I was a child, and I learned to hum parts of it.” She herself self-proclaims to be a performing artist, and her grandfather actually only worked in a drama troupe in his early years.

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&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;“Ebyv eke usw pkdt ycswv kd Vyppkdt Fbystwyd?”

&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;“G pvsau ycswv Ew Hkmw’p qyvbla yde casvbla clkdt jkzzle cu Ikdt Vkdt sq Ubw. Ew Hkmw oyp nbyple yde jkzzle cu Ikdt Vkdt sq Ubw vs Fbystwyd obld bl oldv vs svbla nswdvaklp vs yhldtl bkp qyvbla, yde vbld bkp byka vwadle obkvl shladktbv.” Hbwydt Kkl nzlyale bla vbasyv yde pydt psqvzu: “R, Ew Zwyd, byhl y tsse eyu. R yx zkjl y clalyhle est, obs kp qwzz sq alpldvxldv vs vlzz, R yx zkjl y okze tsspl xswadkdt kd vbl pju, R yx zkjl y eaytsd pokxxkdt kd y pbyzzso clynb, R yx zkjl y qkpb poyzzsokdt y bssj zkdl, R yx zkjl y csyv vbyv zspv kvp aweela kd vbl oyhlp, vbkdjkdt ycswv xl Tlyavcasjld, bso nyd R zssj qsaoyae vs vsxsaaso vsdktbv.”

&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;“R twlpp bkp byka vwadle tayu vbyv dktbv. Rv’p vbl rssa xyd’p qywzv.” Hbwydt Kkl pyke, “R wple vs vbkdj vbyv Ew Hkmw oyp alyzzu cye obld R oyvnble, ‘Mbl Plla yde vbl Uywzeasd’.

&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;“Rd ‘Mbl Plla yde vbl Uywzeasd’, vbyv oyp Xcsk.”

&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;“Xcsk? Rpd’v vbl sdl okvb vbl obkvl clyae yde obkvl lulcasop Ew Hkmw?”

&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;“Mbyv’p Xcsk rzyule cu Dw Kkdfkydt.”

&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;…

&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;&dcpr;“Fsaau, R qsatsv.” Hbwydt Kkl vbswtbv qsa y zsdt vkxl, cwv nswzed’v alxlxcla obknb qkzx yde vlzlhkpksd eayxy Ew Hkmw bye clld kd.

     The station was announced ahead, and Zhuang Jie was about to take the suitcase, but Chen Maidong beat her to grabbing it. Zhuang Jie asked back: “Why did you let me do it all alone when I first got in the car? You just watched me, a disabled person…”

     “Are you changing trains at the station?” Chen Maidong asked her.

     “I’ll take the subway to meet Xixia first, and then return to Shanghai in the evening.” Zhuang Jie tried to take the suitcase back from him.

     “I’ll take you to the subway.” Chen Maidong pulled her suitcase out to the station.

     Zhuang Jie looked at his straight back, followed behind him without saying a word. The two went to the subway in silence, and when they reached the waiting area, Chen Maidong put the suitcase on the ground, looked at the train display screen.  The next subway was still two minutes away.

     Zhuang Jie put her hands in her pockets, stared at the ground for a while, and didn’t want to ask if he came here to see her off, suddenly she shook her head and smiled, then looked at him generously, “Hey, Chen Maidong, I have taken quite a liking to you.”

Chen Maidong looked at her sharply, only to hear her, the demon, say right after: “But I like Shanghai more.” Then he scoffed, as she continued, “I won’t stay in Nanping Town, it’s like being in a cage for me.”

     Chen Maidong laughed and just ignored her words… No reaction, damn it.

     Zhuang Jie kissed him suddenly. As if  just a simple kiss wasn’t enough, she grabbed his neck and pressed harder into his lips. Chen Maidong kissed her back defensively, holding her waist tightly with both hands. Zhuang Jie slid her arms around his neck, kissing him more boldly and passionately. It wasn’t until the train warning bell rang that she pushed him away and got onto the train quickly with her luggage in hand.

     As the train sped away, so did the emotions she felt. She reached out and touched her swollen lower lip, ugh- this bastard definitely did it on purpose.

     Chen Maidong also wiped off blood from the corner of his mouth. He stood there for ten minutes. He lowered his head and edited her WeChat contact name. He wrote and deleted, wrote, deleted and deleted again, until he finally deleted her WeChat all together. He immediately booked a ticket back to Nanping Town.

     It doesn’t matter, he decided he didn’t care.

     He went home, changed into a suit, and got on his motorcycle to go to the funeral home. Grandma Chen called him from behind, “Aren’t you going to give your mother a call?”

     “She’s not back.”

     “If you want her, call her…” Grandma Chen continued.

     “I didn’t even think about calling her.” Chen Maidong was a little curious, not understanding where grandma got this idea, all of the sudden.

     “God only knows.” Grandma had always said that if he didn’t want his mother to leave in the past, he should have asked his mother to stay, and he should have rolled and cried. Only children who can cry well can get what they want.

     Chen Maidong just wrote down a simple sentence, “If you are meant to leave, you will leave.” He hit the gas pedal and left.

……………..

     Wang Xixia made an appointment with Zhuang Jie to go shopping, and she said while picking out clothes, “Why don’t you go back tomorrow…”

     “No, I would never hear the end of it.” She looked in the mirror of the counter and applied lip balm to avoid the wound on her mouth. Her mouth would dry out when the seasons changed, and the skin would peel off when it dried.

     “It’s not like you bit the wound yourself.” Wang Xixia teased her.

     “Chen Maidong bit it.”

     “Who?”

     “Chen Maidong.” Zhuang Jie put on the lip balm, “He did it on purpose, bastard.”

     Wang Xixia frowned disapprovingly, but said nothing.

     “We were fine. I couldn’t help but kiss him when he walked me over.”

     “Do you like him?”

     “I do.” Zhuang Jie replied, “But it’s useless. He won’t go to Shanghai, and I won’t move back home.”

     “Chen Maidong is a nice guy.” Wang Xixia wanted to smoke, motioned to the door and said, “Let’s go and chat outside.”

     The two went to the smoking area outside the mall. Wang Xixia rolled up her sleeves, lit a cigarette and said, “Xu Qinghe asked me to watch a movie, so I’m going.”

     “Who is Xu Qinghe?”

     “The blind date that my brother introduced to me.”

     “Sure, that person should be pretty good. I’m pretty sure about him.” Zhuang Jie lit a cigarette, as well.

     “He’s okay, not annoying.” Wang Xixia replied with her voice a bit unsteady.

     “That’s good. Just take things easy. If you insist on starting a family, he is a good candidate.” Zhuang Jie said.

     Wang Xixia nodded, put her elbow in her hand and smoked silently for a while. Then she wiped her face suddenly, and wiped away the tears that flowed out. Then the person squatted down, covering her face with her hands and crying in collapse.

     “Okay, okay.” Zhuang Jie couldn’t squat, she simply sat on the ground, patted her back and said, “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

     Wang Xixia also sat directly on the ground, and when she was tired from crying, she took out another cigarette from her pocket and said, “If everything goes well, I want to get married this year.”

     “Okay, I support you.” Zhuang Jie said.

     “You want to get married, too.”

     “Okay, I’ll get married too.” Zhuang Jie laughed at her.

     Wang Xixia chuckled, took a puff of cigarette and said, “I just want a companion, otherwise I don’t know if I can keep…”

     Zhuang Jie stroked her back and nodded, “I understand.”

     “I still want to have a baby.”

     Zhuang Jie asked, “Boy or girl?”

     “A boy and a girl; twins.”

     Zhuang Jie echoed: “That’s a good idea. Although, I am personally against twins.”

     “Let’s raise them together and order them twin clothes.”

     “Then won’t we get confused or mix them up?”

     “Come on! If we mix them up, it will be more exciting!” Wang Xixia said desperately.

     Zhuang Jie laughed and called her perverted.

     People around looked over at them, wondering what the two women were doing sitting on the ground. Wang Xixia yelled out, “What are you looking at? Haven’t you seen lesbians before?”

     Zhuang Jie stood up first, then pulled Xixia up and said, “Your butt is on the ground, let’s sit on a chair instead.”