CH 3.2

In the dozen or so days that followed, Jian Bianlin’s dad’s recovery went very well.

When the doctor did the check-up on him, he said that it was fortunate the older man had been working manual labour in the past, so his body was physically fit. “If it weren’t for this accident, I would dare say that your dad’s body is more fit than yours.”

After the doctor left, with the bed separating them, the two continued to sit and keep his father company watching television.

Jian Bianlin’s dad very much disliked wearing glasses, was hard of hearing, and also could not really see subtitles clearly. Therefore, Chu Jian’s main task was to explain things to him when he came across a part in the television program where he had not heard clearly and was unable to read the subtitles.

Midway through, Jian Bianlin stepped out. The late-night news began reporting on the typhoon that had landed in Hainan.

The images of the havoc wreaked on the streets by the raging winds and torrential downpour brought about another conversation topic. “I heard Hainan’s chargrilled oyster and strawberry conch are pretty good?”

“Mm-hmm…” Chu Jian was holding a mandarin orange and pulling off the peel bit by bit. “Strawberry conch is tasty. Stir-frying it with coarse sea salt works well, as does dipping it in soy sauce.”

At the mention of seafood, she really did want to go back to her old university for a visit.

“Do you know why I know this so well?” Jian Bianlin’s dad lowered his voice. “Back then, I thought I would have a daughter-in-law from Hainan, so I deliberately studied up on Hainan specialties.”

“……” Chu Jian nodded, mechanically stuffing the mandarin orange that she had originally peeled for Jian Bianlin’s dad into her own mouth.

When Jian Bianlin was in university, his father had found quite a few train tickets for the route between Beijing and Hainan in Jian Bianlin’s luggage. It was also during that period that Jian Bianlin had said that his girlfriend was in Hainan… Another little lie. Although no one had been hurt, simply too many of these types of things had accumulated between the two of them, invisibly piling higher and higher until, even during an everyday casual conversation such as this one, there were pitfalls everywhere.

Jian Bianlin’s dad rambled on, sometimes melancholically, sometimes lamentingly, about many things from the past. As luck would have it, right when his emotions reached a climax, Jian Bianlin walked in through the door.

A live target had just presented itself; how could Jian Bianlin’s dad willingly miss out on this chance? With a resentful cry of “Brat[1]!” he began criticizing Jian Bianlin, starting with his clothes and then carrying on from there, until in the end, he transitioned perfectly into grumbling about how much of Jian Bianlin’s time had been wasted back then by that girlfriend of his from Hainan, and it was fortunate that Chu Jian had managed to persuade him to turn from the error of his ways.

Covering his forehead with the back of his hand, Jian Bianlin closed his eyes. It was clear he had a great aversion towards this topic.

However, in his dad’s eyes, these were all silent means of rebelling.

Thus, the berating grew even harsher. Chu Jian peeled membranes off of mandarin oranges until every single wedge in her hand was completely stripped and bare. There was nothing else for her to keep her hands busy… So, she could only once more stuff them into her mouth and gobble them down, at least giving herself something to do.

“Dad, I’m going back to Beijing tomorrow.” Jian Bianlin automatically chose to ignore the rebuking. “Just now, I contacted people and arranged for a ride. I just need to trouble Chu Jian to help you with the hospital discharge procedures next Monday.”

Tomorrow? So rushed to go back? Was it because of his surgery?

“Is there something urgent?” The instant Jian Bianlin’s dad heard that his son was leaving, his brazen overbearingness was snuffed out, and he reverted back to being a poor, lonely, old man. “But I had said that when I’m out of the hospital, I’ll cook up a few dishes for you.”

“Busy.” Jian Bianlin’s reply was succinct. “When the busyness is over, I’ll bring you to Beijing.”

“Oh, oh, all right. Make sure you look after your own health.” Jian Bianlin’s dad’s entire face displayed that he did not want to part with his son.

That night, on her little bed in her home, Chu Jian unprecedentedly was struck with sleeplessness. As she tossed and turned, all she could think about was, should she get involved? Or should she just let it be and stay out of it? But in the end, she still was not able to come to any conclusion.

After Jian Bianlin left, Chu Jian stayed in Hangzhou for another half a month. Her mission every day was to keep Jian Bianlin’s dad company and relieve him from boredom during the daytime while her parents were at work. When she pushed Jian Bianlin’s dad to the supermarket, they would often run into old neighbours or old, familiar faces. Many people would be envious that he had such a filial “goddaughter” to take care of him, and in veiled or not-so-veiled comments, they would all joke that he should turn this adopted goddaughter into his real daughter-in-law.

Jian Bianlian’s dad laughed in delight, saying again and again that the brat was not good enough for her.

But in the ears of everyone, he was simply being polite and humble with these words.

After all, Jian Bianlin graduated from a prestigious university and was also a big time celebrity. No matter how you looked at it, he had much better credentials than Chu Jian, a little entrepreneur who graduated from some unknown university.

Once the follow-up examination on Jian Bianlin’s dad confirmed that there were no problems with his health, Chu Jian returned directly to Shanghai.

She did not dare ask too much regarding Jian Bianlin’s matters, so she merely charged Tong Fei to tell her if Tong Fei found out when he was going for surgery. She had already entrusted Tong Fei with this while she was still in Hangzhou, and when she returned to Shanghai, she confirmed it again. Tong Fei told her that Jian Bianlin’s work was practically booked all the way out to the year after next. With four to five events in his schedule every day, it seemed he had absolutely no thoughts of going for surgery.

Eventually, Tong Fei stopped taking this seriously. “Maybe he was just misdiagnosed. Or maybe when he went back for a follow-up, they found nothing wrong.”

Chu Jian’s heart was still rather unsettled, but feeling that she should not ask anymore, she suppressed the matter to the silent reaches of her heart.

When early November arrived, Tong Fei accompanied one of her signed artistes to Shanghai for an event and was staying in the Pudong district. She arranged to meet with Chu Jian for a private get-together.

Chu Jian happened to be free on this particular day, so she caught a ride to the hotel in the van of one of her suppliers. After she stepped out, the driver even poked his head out to kindly ask, “I’ll be heading back to Puxi in half an hour. Do you want me to drive you back?” While he was asking, Chu Jian heard someone knocking on the glass behind her and calling her name. It was Xie Bin. Replying to the driver that she would not be going back that soon, she hurried into the main lobby.

Xie Bin stubbed out the cigarette that he had taken only a couple of inhales from, and with the hand that had not held the cigarette, he reached to take from Chu Jian the paper bag she was holding. “Who’s that?”

“Supplier.”

“Oh. Single? Or married? Or divorced?”

“Don’t know.” Chu Jian was feeling rather sullen from his questions. “I’ve only met him twice.”

With an “ah,” Xie Bin asked smilingly, “You’re here to find Jian Bianlin?”

“No.” Chu Jian tried to skirt away, but her bag still ended up in Xie Bin’s hands. “I’m here to see Tong Fei.”

“Oh, right! Tong Fei is here, too.” It was obvious that Xie Bin had said this on purpose. The event organizers had reserved several entire floors in this hotel in preparation for the celebrity and fashion gala dinner tonight. If he had seen on the attendee list the name of the artiste that Tong Fei had brought, how could he not know that the agent had come as well?

But then, even if he had known, what could she do? Without giving Chu Jian even a chance to reply, Xie Bin put an arm around her shoulders and led her in the direction of the elevators. “Well, since you don’t have a room key card and she would have to come down to get you anyway, I might as well just take you right up there.”

Which agent wasn’t able to thrive on any side of the fence or use words to charm his way with anyone, be it person or even a ghost?

Chu Jian was completely unable to hold her own when met with Xie Bin’s smiling face, which carried an expression that was even cozier and close than that of her close relatives. And Tong Fei was more than happy to try to solidify a good relationship with this veteran of veterans in the industry. As a result, this afternoon’s planned little private get-together and chat between two BFFs became Chu Jian nesting alone on the couch while listening to the other two people gossip about topics wide and varied.

The content of their conversation started with griping about why the juice that had been delivered up by hotel services was not fresh-squeezed and that they should complain. It then transitioned over to talking about the countless projects that were short actors to fill the roles and how everyone was not concerned about lacking money or investors, but rather, they were worried that no matter how they fought and competed, they still could not get actors. And then, it developed into a discussion of how actors nowadays all brought their own chosen projects to you…

“I didn’t see Jian Bianlin’s name on the list of attendees!” Tong Fei finally remembered that this person who was before her right at this moment in theory should not be in Shanghai. “What are you doing here?”

“There were not enough big-name movie stars here to hype up this event, so the organizer asked us last-minute to come to the rescue.” Xie Bin shook his head regretfully. “By chance, these few days, he’s in Shanghai filming some night scenes.”

“Oh”—Tong Fei swept a glance at Chu Jian from the corner of her eye—“he’s not going to have his surgery?”

Xie Bin looked toward Chu Jian. “You don’t know?

“… I don’t know,” she mumbled.

“That thing of his is a little complicated.” Xie Bin pondered as he spoke. “He can have the surgery, or he can not have it, but no one knows just how serious the consequences of not having it will be.”

Didn’t understand. Chu Jian could not really understand what she had just heard.

“He gets recurrent abdominal pain. When you went back to Hangzhou with him, you didn’t notice anything?”

… She had not noticed anything at all.

“He’s done all the checks and tests already, any test that you can possibly think of, but they just cannot make a definite diagnosis.” Xie Bin continued explaining this difficult and puzzling illness. “The doctor’s recommendation is to go straight to surgery and open up the stomach, so they would look around for something while performing the operation. Of course, how I’m saying it right now may not be the most technically accurate, but anyway, that’s more or less the proposed treatment.”

“……”

“He had originally already agreed to it, but when he came back from Hangzhou, he refused again. In theory, you and I aren’t really at this level of acquaintance, but I really am worried about him, so I’m just going to thicken my skin and ask this one thing: Did something unhappy happen between you two in Hangzhou?”

Silence.

“This is a matter of life and death, Chu Jian.” Xie Bin’s gaze was fixed on her. “A matter of life and death.”

This discomfiting quietness caused Tong Fei’s eyes to flit all about, and she was just short of pointing at the window and crying out, “Eh? There’s a plane, eh.” But this place they were in was along the Huangpu River and was nowhere near Pudong Airport. There were no dang airplanes around… A long time elapsed until finally, Tong Fei cleared her throat and began to smooth the situation over. “Chu Jian…”

“Did you deliberately arrange it so that I would come here?” Chu Jian turned her eyes on Tong Fei.

“Yes. I’ll confess.” Tong Fei completely surrendered.

Chu Jian’s gaze took in Xie Bin, the one who had even pretended downstairs that he had bumped into her by chance, as well as Tong Fei, who had put up this show in cahoots with him. Any desire she might have had to be upset over whether she had been tricked to come here were long gone. Her silence just now was purely because she had been shocked by his illness’s degree of complication. “Your event… what time does it start?”

“Six in the evening. Make-up starts at three o’clock,” Tong Fei rushed to answer. “It’s just twelve twenty right now—still very early.”

“Is it a convenient time for me to go see him?” Chu Jian asked with a consulting look at Xie Bin.

“Of course, of course.” That was exactly what he was hoping for! He told her, “I have a key card for the room. I’ll take you there now.”

Heaven knew that the sole reason Xie Bin had taken such a roundabout tactic was so that he could take her to Jian Bianlin’s side.

The room was on the same floor. She followed Xie Bin and, in less than a minute, arrived at the door of Jian Bianlin’s hotel room.

When Xie Bin stepped inside, Jian Bianlin had just finished undoing all the buttons of his shirt, and the shirt was half-removed already. Seeing the two people walking into the room, he turned his arm over, pulled the shirt back on again, and, with his back to the door, re-fastened the buttons.

As it was an overcast day, the room had not been bright to begin with, and he had drawn the curtains closed, making it even dimmer.

The dark setting served to accentuate the quietness even more.

“We ran into each other downstairs, and then Chu Jian said she wanted to come see you.” Without batting an eye, Xie Bin picked up the suit that was on a hanger, muttering, “Why are there still wrinkles? That won’t do. It needs to be ironed some more.”

He finished saying this, but noticing that the other two in the room were holding themselves stiffly, he rattled off another few sentences. “Since we’re here to go to their rescue, we don’t need to be hurried. It’ll still be okay if we start preparing at around four o’clock. You guys chat; I’m going to leave.”

In the first place, Jian Bianlin was a person of few words, and coupled with the fact that they had not contacted each other since he left Hangzhou, Chu Jian did not know what to say to successfully, yet naturally transition into the subject of his health issues.

And now, with Xie Bin’s departure, it was even harder to kick-start the conversation.

After a long moment’s hesitation, she still was the one who spoke up first, with a conversation starter that was unrelated to his surgery and was purely to relieve the atmosphere: “You were doing a night shoot last night?”

He did not answer and rather, turned a question back on her. “Is there a reason you wanted to see me?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Jian Bianlin’s brows pulled together. In these twenty-odd years, the times she had come to find him on her own initiative were few and far between. The “credit” for this, here, undoubtedly belonged to Xie Bin. Allowing himself to fall into Xie Bin’s way of thinking, he was able to approximately guess the contents of what Xie Bin had said. “Did Xie Bin tell you that, since coming back from Hangzhou, I’ve just been toughing things out and refusing surgery?”

“……”

“No matter what he said, it was all to mislead you. The director of the movie I’ve been working on lately is someone I’ve liked since I was a teenager, and being able to work with him is a rare opportunity. Even if it were just for a cameo role, I still would not have wanted to let the opportunity go, so that’s why I left Hangzhou earlier than planned. This is the reason for delaying the surgery. Xie Bin knows this very clearly, but I’m sure he did not tell you that. As for my illness, yes, it hurts, but I can tolerate it with painkillers. Another half a month and then filming will wrap. The hospital room was also reserved long ago. Everything will be smoothly resolved. Do you get what I’m saying?”

It was not often that he said so much, and it left Chu Jian in a complete daze.

The entire way, from Tong Fei’s room 1502 to his room 1528, her mind had been in a jumble as she brooded over and over, if it really was because of their quarrel in Hangzhou that he was unwilling to go for surgery, what should she do? She had considered every possible scene, with the sole exception of one scenario that she had not expected—that Xie Bin had fibbed and tricked her into coming.

“Oh.” Aside from “oh,” she truly did not know what she could say that would take away her awkwardness. “Well, then, did the doctor say whether there are any risks to the surgery?”

Although she was feeling some displeasure, she still had not forgotten that the critical piece was that this surgery of his caused worry just from hearing about it. To open up the abdomen and look for the cause of the pain—if they could find it, then an appropriate treatment could still be prescribed, but what if they couldn’t find anything? Or what if, perhaps, they found the cause but the result was a very bad one, then what?

All sorts of questions, one upon another, surged forth in her mind.

But after waiting for a long time, Chu Jian still was not able to get a simple answer from him.

Looking at this woman who still had on a cashmere, black and white checked coat that grazed her knees, Jian Bianlin thought, if he told her that it was “very risky,” what would she do? And what would she do if it was “not risky”?

Out in the hallway, someone knocked on the door, asking whether Xie Bin was inside.

Jian Bianlin replied, “He’s not.”

“Okay.”

Chu Jian gathered her breath. “If it’s inconvenient for you to tell me about it, then just get some good rest. Don’t tire yourself out too much.”

She felt that the atmosphere between them right now was not very good and was afraid that they would quarrel again. Consciously choosing to retreat from there, she opened the door. However, she had just pulled it open by a crack when the man behind her strode over to her in a mere few steps. With a hard shove, he slammed the door back shut again. “Just now… I lied to you.”

[1]衰仔. This saying is Cantonese in origin [Cantonese romanization: “seoi zai”], and means “bad boy” or “bad kid” in a rebuking tone, especially here, where Jian Bianlin’s father is using it to address his son. Jian Bianlin and his father were originally from Guangdong, where Cantonese is the main dialect, before they moved to Hangzhou to be neighbours with Chu Jian’s family.