Still Not Wanting to Forget 2 // I Owed You

The noise of the unrelenting rain and the sound of the person behind them talking on the phone, were completely suppressed by that one simple question.

“Have you been well?”

To be honest she had been well. No one would be in despair because their first love failed.

In the past years, she ate and slept well, went to university, started working…

In her mind there were a lot of vague answers. That she was banned from the Internet for a year. That after the ban, she found that the game account was deleted. That he was never online on QQ again. She didn’t know which university he went, not even which city he was at… There were a thousand words she wanted to say, but in the end she only answered in the most common way possible.

“I’m quite OK,” she vaguely answered, before throwing the question back at him, “How about you?”

Look, the years not only robbed her off her appearance but also her ability to be honest.

He glanced at her.

She still dared not look at his eyes, though she could feel his gaze on her. She suddenly felt cold, grumbling in her heart that he couldn’t possibly be holding a grudge against her, could he? Then she heard him saying, “Barely passable.”

Barely passable… barely passable…

In reunions between past lovers, shouldn’t it be “How are you?” “I’m fine” “I’m also quite fine”? Yet he chose to say something like that.

She didn’t know how to follow up with that answer. With a hollow laugh, she replied, “You’re too humble. Didn’t you achieve a lot of success in the past few years?”

Later, when they all stepped into the car, she deliberately chose the window seat to allow a distance of two seats with him. Cheng Chen and the producer were idly chatting. He spoke very little but she found out that he was also a resident of Shanghai. Not only that, he was already one since 5, 6 years ago. Both their residences were in the same area, only ten minutes apart by car.

The series of revelations made her slightly flustered.

The world was indeed big. Back then she was in Beijing, now in Shanghai. But no matter how she tried, she simply couldn’t find him. Yet how small was the world that now she came across him in such a way?

But how had he recognised her?

She shot Cheng Chen a quick glance. He was indicating to the driver that he had already reached.

To avoid the embarrassment of meeting again, she declined attending all the necessary procedures of the commercial including colour grading and editing.

In conclusion, she would put an end to any way or opportunity to meet Cheng Chen.

How exactly did he recognise her?

Si Nian lifted her cup. No matter how she racked her brain thinking about it, she couldn’t find the answer. She drank a mouthful of water, before continuing to the next question.

Was he disappointed after finally seeing her face? Or was he glad?

TV was broadcasting the variety show If You are the One. The host was cackling with delight but she didn’t understand what he was laughing about. Even though she knew most of the show was orchestrated, she still enjoyed the liveliness of it. Once the spotlight flashed, all the men and women on stage would say things they normally wouldn’t dare to say.

In just tens of minutes, how could there be so many incidents of love-at-first-sight...

Immersed in her thoughts about Cheng Chen, while furiously drinking hot water, she heard the doorbell. She didn’t even manage to get up before hearing people impatiently knocking on her door.

Si Nian opened the door. Outside an old couple told her with a grim expression, “Little lady, water is leaking from your house.”

“I don’t think so?” She barely finished her sentence when she glimpsed at her kitchen. Turning on the lights to see better, she saw her bowl of fruits floating on the water from the water dispenser. She must have forgotten to turn it off.

After cleaning up in a manic rush, the menacing couple grabbed Si Nian, who was still in her pajamas, and brought her to their apartment downstairs.

The ceiling of their kitchen was indeed beginning to leak. Thankfully they detected it early.

For making such a mistake, she took the initiative to offer compensation. She didn’t expect the old couple to not appreciate the offer and instead said that because of the leak, the entire kitchen was waterlogged, all their furniture in their three rooms and one living room were damp and needed replacement, that the room needed to be cleaned completely, naturally the wallpaper needed to be changed as well...

Such a demand was a total scam, wasn’t it?

But the people she was dealing with were a pair of old couple in their seventies. Not to mention their neighbours were outside watching. She didn’t even have the place to voice out. Unexpectedly, in her current bruised and battered situation, her phone rang.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in a low voice, clutching her phone.

“The footage is done, come over to confirm it.”

“Can I do it tomorrow?” She wasn’t too confident in escaping the current siege.

“Hurry over. You already asked for leave during the filming process. You don’t even want to see the final version?” the producer said. “The director is leaving early tomorrow. Even if your house is on fire or flooded, you must come. Please, Xiao M. Oh right, bring us dinner, there are 13 of us here.”

“…”

Wasn’t she now stuck between a rock and a hard place?

In the end, she made up a mysterious excuse saying she had an emergency. She was forced to hand over her house keys, and ran out of the crowd.

Right now it was the restaurant’s peak hour. She pondered for a while outside before deciding to wait in line to order. When she reached the counter, the staff broken into a smile hearing that she was ordering for 13 people and started listing what was on their menu.

She saw Shancheng duck-blood spicy soup on the menu and remembered it was Cheng Chen’s favourite.

Since she already picked the restaurant’s well-known dishes, adding another dish was no problem.

13 people’s worth of food, 4 takeout boxes. When she got into a taxi, the driver happily asked, “Is the restaurant moving? Little lady, I’m starving. After sending you off, I’ll be in a really bad state.”

When everyone saw the food, they were astonished.

One after another, they called out, “I love you!” She unintentionally glanced at the editing room. The door was half-open. From where she was standing, she could see the backs of the two persons inside. They were watching the advertisement on the monitor. There was a stark difference between the situation inside and outside. It was noisy here, but it was unbearably quiet inside.

“Director Cheng,” the producer called as he poured the soup from the container. “Look at how efficient our Xiao M is. She even dared to take-out such a large bowl of duck-blood spicy soup! I think the taxi driver would be spending the entire night getting rid of the smell.”

Cheng Chen quietly said a few words to the editor before walking out. “I like this best.”

“So coincidental?” the producer asked smiling. “This is called fate.”

Everyone else didn’t understand the meaning behind those words. They turned around and only saw the producer smirking.

Cheng Chen swiftly capped his pen and slid it inside his jeans pocket. He told Si Nian, “It’s almost done. You can go take a look first.”

She was speechless, and then seriously said, “Director Cheng, you’ve worked hard.”

After finishing her work, she finally remembered that she left a terrible mess behind at home. Her house keys were still at the hands of that old couple. Even though she had installed two doors at home for security reasons, but the keys for the outer door were with someone else. She didn’t know how many more ridiculous conditions that she had to agree to before she was able to go home…

The real problem was her cat Cola that was still trapped in the bedroom. She didn’t manage to feed her. Would she be crazily hungry now?

She was never good at dealing with disputes. She usually tried to be peaceful.

This time the old couple really demanding too much. She was going to lose 3, 4 months’ worth of salary. But if she didn’t agree, the couple would definitely make a lot of fuss at the committee every day. She would no longer have peaceful days. But if she agreed with such an obvious scam of a compensation, she would be ridiculed by all her university classmates and would have studied law in vain.

The more she thought about it, the more troublesome it felt. She leaned against the terrace rail, racking her brain for ideas.

Most importantly, if Cola was too hungry, she would definitely mercilessly scratch and tear the bed sheets and blanket.

The terrace overlooked Taikang street, through the spaces between the Paulownia trees. It was a charming and impressive sight. She stared at the crowded bar opposite of the road and sighed. Thinking about the problems she would face when she return made her even more depressed.

A few people came out to the terrace. Seeing Si Nian sprawled on the rail watching the bar, they laughed. “It seems that Miss’s nightlife is pretty happening?”

She dejectedly raised her head. Seeing that all of them had a look of content after being stuffed, her sorrow dimmed a little. She noticed Cheng Chen walking in with another man and immediately pretended to be invisible.

Cheng Chen didn’t quite like conversing. He listened more than he talked.

It wasn’t clear who first talked about pets when the producer suddenly mentioned that Cheng Chen has a Shepherd dog. Cheng Chen smilingly said, “I’m going away for a few days. I’m still not sure who to entrust it with. He doesn’t like being kept in a pet store.”

“Of course you should entrust it to Miss,” the producer quickly said. “Don’t you two live quite close to each other? It’s also convenient to send it over.”

…

He seriously said it with ease. 

Si Nian’s eyes met Cheng Chen’s for a moment, before she smiling graciously. “That’s impossible. I have a cat at home.” She tried her best to sound sincere. “She’s also the kind of cat that gets frightened easily… don’t you have other friends?”

He was holding a beer to his mouth but stopped. His lips showed a hint of a smile. “They’re all men. They’re not meticulous enough.”

All men? Ah, all… men.

Si Nian looked up, glancing at the moon.

[artwork by Bianca Morelos]