The calendar on her pc confirmed that there was just one week left.

Previous to this, she had used a full week to repeatedly affirm with him what his mother and father and sister appreciated. Even for merely deciding on a toy, she had shopped for 3 days. On this final week, after all the pieces was all prepared, she had truly begun to really feel uneasy and couldn’t even sit or stand in peace.

Such anxiousness immediately affected her high quality of sleep.

At solely simply previous seven o’clock, she was already greeting the freshly risen solar. Struggling, she pulled herself up and blearily groped her means into the kitchen to fry an egg for him. However ultimately, when she caught the whiff of one thing burning, the particular person behind her took the metallic spatula from her hand. “We’ll fry a brand new one?”

Thus… she had but once more efficiently managed to show a chance to butter him up into one in every of placing her idol by way of merciless struggling.

A scrumptious smelling egg was served up on the desk and even paired with plain rice congee that was gentle and delicate in flavour.

He handed her a pair of chopsticks. “You could have work at the moment?”

Mustering her focus to consider this query, she answered, “No, I don’t have any work this whole month.”

Yi Wenze put a spoon into her bowl. “Why are you up so early?”

Once more, she tried her finest to suppose. “Couldn’t sleep. Saved having goals, one after the opposite.”

He smiled, not saying something.

Jia He took a sip of her rice congee, then appeared very nervously at him. “Will your mother ask me any kind of questions? My English isn’t superb; my expertise are restricted to listening solely. And it appears my Cantonese is about the identical…” Wonderful, she admitted it. Simply now she had dreamt that she was assembly his mom, a really mild, cultured girl, however one who spoke to her solely in languages she didn’t perceive. She had recognized it was a dream, however the extra anxious she was, the extra she had been unable to wake from it.

With languages and the kind of beast that they’re, frantic cramming won’t make you proficient in them.

He chosen a CD of classical music, then walked again amid its strains and sat down in entrance of her. “My mother and father had been those who taught me my Chinese language. There must be no points by way of communication between you and them.”

Secretly relieved, Jia He in a short time ate her egg and congee and, content material now, went again to the room to compensate for shut-eye.

She slept all the way in which till midday, when a telephone name got here in. Having not gotten any good sleep for a whole night time, she was too lazy to reply it and allowed the ringtone to sing over and over till Yi Wenze answered it. After saying a sentence of some kind, he positioned his arms beside her, propping himself on them, and informed her softly, “Honey, it’s a name out of your pal.”

Jia He gave a few “mmphs” and turned over. “Wait till after I get up. Then I’ll speak.”

Resignedly, Yi Wenze encircled an arm round her, serving to her up, whereas the opposite hand positioned her cell phone by her ear. “She stated she needs to ask you to be her maid of honour.”

Maid of honour… Maid of honour?! Her eyes flew open. Her coronary heart was spasming from shock. Then, wrapped within the comforter, sitting on Yi Wenze’s thigh, she quavered into the telephone, “Who… who’s asking me to be her maid of honour?”

“Me! Me, your bestie!” Qiao Qiao’s voice was charged with pleasure.

Taking some deep breaths, Jia He requested tentatively, “Is it that Weibo dude of yours?”

Ever since Xiao Xiao started calling him that, she had adopted swimsuit and had been referring to him like so for a very long time already. Nevertheless, this query momentarily struck Qiao Qiao wordless. After which, Jia He heard her say on that finish of the road to the particular person beside her, “Hey, your title’s been modified for you, Weibo Dude.” After these phrases, Qiao Qiao continued talking to Jia He. “Weibo Dude acquired an award. To have a good time, we plan on getting married.”

Jia He fell into a protracted silence. She tilted her head up and checked out Yi Wenze, desirous to say one thing, however her mind was completely clean.

To have a flash marriage[1]to this extent—this definitely was stunning sufficient.

“Solely you and Xiao Xiao are certified sufficient to be my maid of honour. Xiao Xiao, although, is taller than me and in addition prettier than me, so she’s undoubtedly the one being eradicated.” Ecstatically, Qiao Qiao gushed, “So, congratulations, you might have risen to the honour of being my maid of honour.”

Jia He first gave a reflexive “mm-hmm,” however then in a short time her thoughts caught up. “When?”

“This weekend.”

This weekend? Her sleepiness utterly cleared. “Is there sufficient time to guide a lodge and get a marriage costume and all that stuff?”

Qiao Qiao laughed. “Earlier than he got here to Japan, he ready all the pieces. It’s all simply ready for me to return and be a bride.”

Each single phrase was spoken like all this was solely pure and proper, but linked collectively, they fashioned one thing {that a} regular particular person completely would by no means do! Earlier than Cheng Hao went to Japan… That was a case of proposing earlier than even relationship the woman. And now it turned out that not solely had he purchased the diamond ring, even the lodge and robe and formalwear had all been ready, prepared when wanted. Jia He’s mind was principally a muddled mess, however the precise concerned occasion felt like this was all completely regular.

“I’m heading again to China at the moment. Once I’m again, we’ll speak intimately.”

With that, Qiao Qiao hung up the telephone.

Yi Wenze set her cell phone off to the aspect. “Do you continue to need to sleep?”

How may she sleep anymore? She nuzzled her cheek in opposition to his chest a few instances, making an attempt arduous to discover a feeling of actuality through which she may floor herself. Then she murmured, “Qiao Qiao’s getting married and desires me to be her maid of honour. It’s this weekend.”

A smile could possibly be heard in his voice. “Would you like me to go purchase a costume with you? Or ought to we simply go on to the corporate’s seamstress and have her make one.”

Gown? That wasn’t the primary subject in any respect!

“Weren’t we speculated to go to New Zealand?” She struggled over the phrases for a very long time earlier than lastly stating the important thing level.

“We’ll go after the weekend. There’s no rush.”

She labored out the schedule. “Aren’t you in KL this weekend?”

He was not all that involved. As he pulled open the comforter and helped her placed on her loungewear, he replied, “I’ll attempt my finest to rush again.”

She beamed. Qiao Qiao and Cheng Hao each belonged to the leisure circle. If he may attend their marriage ceremony, that lass can be so delighted she would burst. Within the area of simply this thought, he had already slipped her right into a jogging swimsuit. Very fortunately, she snugged in shut and planted a kiss on the nook of his lips. “Thanks.”

He had not anticipated that she can be this comfortable. “It appears I actually might want to hurry again.”

Qiao Qiao’s one sentence utterly uprooted Jia He’s whole week and transplanted it over to Shanghai.

It was solely when she arrived at her own residence in Shanghai that she realized, since turning into a pair with Yi Wenze, it had been a very long time since she final got here again right here. Mud coated all of the furnishings. After taking a complete day to wash the condominium, she gave him a name. “What do you suppose? Ought to I promote or preserve my condominium right here in Shanghai? If I preserve it, ought to I lease it out or simply depart it empty? It’ll be a whole lot of hassle if I lease it out, but when it’s left empty, it’ll simply get actually soiled and I’ll have to rent somebody to return clear it frequently.”

She had rattled off a protracted string of phrases, however in actuality she was merely giving him choices “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D” from which to pick.

Smiling, Yi Wenze listened to her till she had completed talking, after which he answered, “I’ve a home in Shanghai, so there are not any issues with the place to remain if we need to return. As for this place of yours, simply do with it as you want to.”

She knew it, knew that if she requested him, he would definitely give this reply.

After a protracted second of silence, she purposely gave a protracted sigh. “I’ll simply preserve it. If sooner or later we divorce, I’ll nonetheless have some property of my very own.”

“How about we signal a prenup?”

A prenup? She had truly considered this explicit matter as properly. It will be a bit of fairer to him that means.

“Positive.” Her reply was given with seriousness. “Ought to we discover a lawyer? Or simply have the legislation division in your organization assist us draft up the settlement?”

After a fair longer silence, he had a drink of water and acknowledged, his tone heat, “No want. I can do it. One sentence and that can be sufficient.” His voice turned mild. “Within the occasion of divorce, Yi Wenze shall depart the wedding with nothing.”

Shocked, Jia He sat on the sofa and listened to the sound of her heartbeat, every thump turning into increasingly more obvious.

Ultimately, she lastly gave a bit of chuckle. “I’m not signing that even when you beat me to dying. If you find yourself on the streets, there’ll be tens of hundreds of followers who will hack me to dying.”

He chuckled, then informed her softly, “Honey, I must board the aircraft now.”

The matter of what to do with the condominium could possibly be put aside in the intervening time, however the automobile did should be offered.

When she purchased the MINI cooper, she had needed to ask Xiao Yu to specifically order it in for her, for it was a restricted version. On the time, she truly had not needed to spend the cash on it and Xiao Yu had spent a very long time persuading her, however now that she was having somebody promote it for her, she found that there truly was a bonus to it being a restricted version. She had initially thought that it will not be offered and off her arms till she got here again from New Zealand, however to her shock, two days later there was already somebody wanting to check the automobile.

She had not pushed it very a lot, so although she had had the automobile for 2 years, the variety of kilometres on it was lower than that of different individuals’s automobiles that had been purchased for 2 months.

The potential purchaser, a younger woman, was thrilled as she examined it, sighing over and over that purchasing this automobile was price it. She requested in passing, “That is such a tough automobile to even order in. Why would you need to promote it? You haven’t put very a lot mileage on it both.”

Whereas Jia He was nonetheless pondering on what good clarification she may give, Qiao Qiao, spooning out some ice cream and feeding it into Jia He’s mouth, grinned on the woman, “She discovered herself an impossible-to-get, so this restricted version just isn’t useful to her anymore.”

That younger woman was very envious. “An impossible-to-get? Sooner or later whenever you promote that one, bear in mind to return discover me first.”

Holding her silence, Jia He tossed a look at Qiao Qiao. The latter, although, had already completely dissolved right into a match of laughter that was about to provide her inside accidents.

On the finish, once they had been doing the automobile inspection, Qiao Qiao lastly gave a light-weight sigh. “It was simply in the course of the early spring of this 12 months that I stated that if I may someway occur upon a man who’s sizzling and devoted and a ‘yu choy,’ I’d surrender on that bass participant. By no means had I assumed, oh, by no means had I assumed. I actually did surrender on him, however Ol’ Man Heaven gave that sort of man to you as a substitute.”

Her remark introduced out giggles of amusement from Jia He. “How about we change?”

Qiao Qiao mulled on this briefly, then placed on an expression of “Oh, please, let me off the hook!” She stated, “Overlook it. To kiss the idol of the entire nation after which do some for-mature-audiences-only stuff with him? … Forgive me, this little girl that I’m, for being unable to simply accept that.”

In actuality, Jia He had as soon as had these similar ideas. However that particular person simply needed to be Yi Wenze.

He was too good. He had virtually swept away all of the obstacles and shattered each little bit of her fear and uneasiness.

Throughout their telephone name that night time, she casually talked about Qiao Qiao’s musings, after which she all of the sudden requested him, “You wouldn’t have some kind of bizarre baby fetish, proper? Once I was in center faculty, I actually was not fairly. My hair was quick, and I didn’t wish to put on skirts both.”

Yi Wenze was at the moment ready for a connecting flight, and there was a faint sense of fatigue in his voice. “Are you making an attempt to say that I needed to lift a Loli for myself?”

Jia He laughed. “It truly does seem to be it.”

Yi Wenze appeared to sigh. “My youthful sister is certainly going to love you a large number.”

Jia He requested him, “Why is that?”

“She defined that idea to me for a very long time and informed me that I needed to inform it to you.”

Jia He was unable to carry again her chortles. “Inform her, I get it, and I even have grasped the essence of it.”

The 2 spoke a number of extra sentences about some arbitrary issues, earlier than she remembered that he nonetheless had not informed her the true purpose but. She, in reality, simply needed to ask him, why? Why me? Why not another person? Over these a few years, of the individuals with whom he had labored, simply the variety of screenwriters alone was in all probability too nice to depend. If she actually had been to evaluate, out of all of his followers, she was completely probably the most introverted and reserved sort, and there actually was nothing about her or that she had accomplished that was very touching.

She lay on the window seat, each her ft resting on the windowpane. Earlier than lengthy, because of the temperature distinction between the inside of the house and the outside, two moist prints had been stamped on the glass. This complete time, Yi Wenze had been discussing work issues with somebody beside him. She waited for a protracted whereas earlier than he lastly requested, “You’re nonetheless not going to mattress?”

In a uncommon expression of displeasure, she countered, “I’m nonetheless not accomplished asking.”

He chuckled. “Go forward, ask.”

“Why did you select me?”

On his finish, there was a momentary silence, as if he was considering.

Slightly voice on the backside of her coronary heart grumbled, Do you actually need to consider it for therefore lengthy?

“You’ve requested me this earlier than.” He gave a light-weight chuckle. “If I posed this similar query to you, how would you reply it?”

Jia He had not anticipated that he would toss the query again to her. Many causes popped up in her thoughts, however ultimately they had been all dismissed and he or she may solely reply vaguely, “Really, it’s actually not since you’re my idol. As for why… I can’t say both.”

He appeared to have already predicted that this is able to be her reply. “This query must be talked about nose to nose. However after we do see one another, there’s no want anymore to speak about it.”

Jia He gave an “oh.” The underlying which means of that sentence was very apparent: she must burn away in her curiosity.

[1]闪婚“shan hun.” A “flash marriage” or “blitz marriage” is a comparatively latest time period in China describing {couples} who’ve dated one another for a really quick time period and even simply met earlier than shortly getting married. The phenomenon is turning into increasingly more widespread in China as {couples} really feel pressured to get married for monetary causes, similar to rising housing prices, or, typically, as a consequence of age (and stress from mother and father).