TCOR CH8

Chapter 8: Why such a hard bite?

The sound of the security door unlocking outside interrupted my thoughts and I immediately put the magazine back in its place. Soon, Shen Wunian pushed open the door, carrying a bulging brown paper bag in his arms, looking like he had just come back from a big shopping trip.

He rested the car keys in his hand on the shoe cupboard by the porch, and when he looked up he saw me. His originally expressionless and exceptionally cold face suddenly broke into a smile.

I thought you’d sleep until the afternoon, but I didn’t expect you to wake up so early,’ he said. He put on slippers, carried the paper bag into the house and put the things on the huge solid wood desk.

The bag was mostly full of food, all kinds of vegetables, meat and fruit, and two books, one in French and one in English.

You speak French?

That’s amazing, I’m having such a hard time learning English and this guy speaks three languages. I picked up the French book and leafed through it, I couldn’t understand it very well, but it looked like a detective story.

Shen Wunian took off his jacket, put a plump red apple on the table and said: ‘J’ai encore plein de secrets que tu ne connais pas, petit chaton.

I took the apple and could smell the sweet aroma of the fruit from the tip of my nose. My mouth began to salivate even before I ate it.

I hope you stay healthy,’ he said, and then he went into the kitchen with the vegetables and meat.

I knew it was a lie the moment I heard it, and I’m going to use the translation app to expose you!

I looked around and finally found my phone on the bedside table in the second bedroom where I had slept earlier.

It hadn’t been charged for two days and was running on very little power. As Shen Wunian had said, there were a couple of missed calls from Tony and… from Bai Qixuan.

He’d called a couple of times and sent a text when I didn’t answer.

“Are you feeling better? You didn’t come to the art museum today and Miss Xu said you called in sick. I’m a bit worried.

The message had been sent yesterday afternoon, overnight. He must have been worried sick that I hadn’t replied after so long.

OK, OK! I slept and sweated all day yesterday and my body is perfectly fine today!

Coincidentally, the second I finished replying to the message, my phone ran out of power and died in my hands.

Staring at the broken phone, I sighed with regret and gave up trying to decipher Shen Wunian’s gibberish.

On the washbasin, the toothbrush with the toothpaste squeezed onto it sat in the same position as yesterday, as if it had been copied and pasted.

After a moment of numbness, I unconsciously took the phone out of my pocket and found that no matter how I pressed the buttons, it would not turn on. I sighed again with regret.

Where are my clothes? After washing up, I leaned against the door frame and poked my head in to ask the person in the kitchen who was humming a song as she worked.

From the way Shen Wunian was filleting the fish, I thought he’d only just learnt to cook the dishes we’d had yesterday, and that he didn’t usually cook much himself. But today, as I watched him prepare the ingredients, he actually looked quite good at it.

The singing stopped and Shen Wunian stopped chopping the vegetables. He held up the tip of the knife and looked back at me, ‘They’re on the footstool by the bed in my room. Are you going back to school?

I nodded, ‘Well, I’m feeling better and I should go back to school. Thank you for taking care of me these past two days.

Shen Wunian thought for a moment and said, ‘I will take you home after dinner.

When you’re a guest in someone else’s home, it’s important to know when to say when and when to look after yourself. That’s why I’m always afraid of making trouble for others.

I told him that we had only known each other for a few days and that he had already helped me a lot, so I really didn’t want to cause him any more trouble.

No, no, my school is far from here, I’ll just take the tube down. This is the city centre, public transport is well developed, and although the subway takes longer, it is considered convenient.

Shen Wunian raised an eyebrow, turned his back and resumed chopping the vegetables he had just stopped: “I’ll give you a lift after dinner.” He said it again, this time in a full declarative sentence.

Looking at the man, who was humming again and seemed to be in a very good mood, I was a bit at a loss.

I’m most afraid of bothering people, and the second thing I’m afraid of is rejecting people, so enthusiastic and strong-willed people are simply my Achilles’ heel.

I opened my mouth several times, but I couldn’t bring myself to say no. I sighed and decided to let him go. If he wants to take me with him, let him. I already owe him a lot, so it’s no big deal.

Shen Wunian’s bedroom was decorated in the same style as the one I slept in, except that on his side there was a balcony you could walk out onto, where the washing machine and dryer were kept, and there was another bathroom inside.

The curtains in the room were all open, the bed was neatly made and the washed laundry was folded on the footstool at the end of the bed. The whole room smelled faintly of detergent and sunshine.

Wow… As soon as I picked up the laundry, I was surprised by its soft texture. After wearing it for so long, I never knew it could be so soft.

It was so soft that I couldn’t help but bury my face in it and rub it hard.

My mood wasn’t very clear from the start, but for some reason it suddenly wasn’t so bad because of the softness.

I carried the clothes back to the second bedroom and changed into them, folding the clothes I had taken off and putting them next to the bed. Then I opened the curtains and tried to make the bed, thinking I could at least repay the kindness in some small way. But then I discovered something incredible in the sunlight.

There was a white stain on the dark sheets, as if something familiar had congealed there, both in colour and texture.

Could it be that the night before, when I was wearing only my underwear, I had accidentally… leaked?

Stunned, I stared at the coin-sized stain for two minutes, and my body gradually began to heat up, but this time it wasn’t because I was sick.

Like a whirlwind, I removed the duvet cover, pillowcase and sheet, eagerly balled them up and threw them into the washing machine in the master bedroom, which I had learned to use without instruction.

As the machine began to fill with water and the drum began to spin according to the set programme, I witnessed the destruction of my own evidence of guilt. Only then did I collapse in exhaustion, wipe the sweat from my neck and float out of the room like a lost soul.

What are you doing? Shen Wunian happened to come out of the kitchen with two bowls of rice in his hands, and he smiled and said, ‘Come and eat.

His smile really pierced my guilty heart.

I was too scared to look at him, and with my head down, I walked over to the coffee table and sat down.

‘Thank you…’

I held out my hand to him, but he avoided it and instead of giving me the rice, he pointed his chin at a bowl of soup on the table.

Drink the soup first.

I obediently withdrew my hand and looked at the bowl of rich soup – red dates, wolfberries, slices of ginseng and a soft, white, pigskin-like object.

It’s red date, wolfberry, American ginseng and fish maw soup. I looked it up online and it’s perfect for someone like you with a weak immune system. Shen Wunian saw I was hesitating and urged me, ‘Drink it, it’ll get cold and taste fishy.

Oh!

I was so nervous that I did exactly as he said. Without even using a spoon, I picked up the bowl and downed it in a few bites in less than ten seconds.

What do you think?’ he asked expectantly.

I was like the pig in the story who devoured the ginseng fruit without even tasting it. But I was full of praise and gave it a high emotional value.

It’s really delicious, you’re a great cook! I took the chopsticks and didn’t even spare the wolfberries in the soup, sweeping them into my mouth one by one.

Shen Wunian looked very pleased and added a piece of yam to my bowl: ‘If you like it, eat more, don’t waste my hard work.

To prove that I wasn’t just flattering him and that I really thought his food was delicious, I forced myself to eat the bowl of rice, the bowl of soup and all three dishes on the table. I was full until the end of the day and didn’t feel hungry until 11 or 12 at night.

Just as I was wondering if it was the effect of the nourishing soup, I felt a bit hot and couldn’t sleep. I got out of bed to make some instant noodles.

Suddenly I saw my down jacket hanging behind the chair. I reached into my pockets and pulled out a small apple. Shen Wunian had given it to me during the day, and I had brought it back with me, reluctant to eat it.

I sniffed the sweet aroma of the apple’s skin, opened my mouth and then closed it hesitantly. I hesitated and still didn’t eat it.

It would be a shame to eat it like that.

I didn’t think about what was so shameful about it.

I put the apple on the table, took a bowl of beef noodle soup from the cupboard and ate it lukewarm from the thermos.

Although Shen Wunian told me not to force myself and that I could still take leave if I didn’t feel well, I went to the art museum early the next morning for the 40 yuan an hour I was paid.

Most of the displays in the art museum had been completed after two days’ absence, and the hanging rails of the largest works, including the one I had accidentally broken, had been adjusted.

The huge black and white photograph had been re-framed and mounted on the wall. The description of the work said that it was a ruin photographed by Xu Ao in a war zone. A few days before the photo was taken, it had been an apartment block housing hundreds of people.

It was so huge, so dilapidated, so devastated, that I looked up at it and felt for a moment how small and fragile, brutal and cold-blooded humanity really is.

I stepped back and then approached it again, studying it very carefully, also taking in the solid wooden frame.

It looked quite sturdy, but why was it so fragile in my hands? I stared at the corner of the frame and thought. After a long time I couldn’t figure it out, and in the end I could only put it down to poor quality control.

I usually ate in the museum’s cafeteria at lunchtime, it was very cheap. Bai Qixuan and Shen Wunian rarely came here, they usually went out to eat. But for some reason, the two of them suddenly appeared together in the cafeteria that day. Bai Qixuan saw me and walked over to me with his tray.

Zhong Ai, do you mind if we share a table? Bai Qixuan asked, and before I knew it, he was sitting across from me, with Shen Wunian following behind him and sitting diagonally in front of me.

You’ve just recovered from an illness, why are you eating this? As soon as he sat down, Bai Qixuan frowned as he stared at my plate.

First he gave me all the chicken on his plate, and then he picked the peppers and carrots I didn’t want off my plate.

Brother Bai, you don’t have to give it to me, I can’t eat it…”

I couldn’t help but look at Shen Wunian. It occurred to me that he knew my feelings for Bai Qixuan and that I didn’t need to pretend in front of him.

And indeed, he didn’t look surprised. Sensing my gaze, he pulled his attention away from the chicken and, as if to encourage me, gave me a small smile and pushed the bottle of orange juice in front of me.

I’ve got a sore mouth, so I’ll give you this. You’re just getting better, so you need more vitamins.

I looked at the juice and then at him: “What happened to your mouth?”

It was fine yesterday, wasn’t it?

I accidentally bit my tongue while brushing my teeth the other day. It’s quite a big wound and now it’s an ulcer. I can’t eat anything sour,’ he said.

Bai Qixuan exclaimed in surprise, ‘You bit it so hard?

Yes,’ Shen Wunian said as he looked at Bai Qixuan, his eyes falling slightly on me, ‘so hard.’