Chapter 36: Do You Remember Our Promise? (1)

5 April 2023 | kaiyang

As soon as the plane landed, I turned my phone on and I saw a notification of a message from Cheng Yujin. Tapping on the notification, I opened his message:

Have you arrived safely?

Seeing his name appear at the top of our chat, I quickly lowered the brightness of my screen, afraid of prying eyes. I replied:

Yes, just arrived.

After sending the message across, I waited for a few moments for a reply, but when none came in, I gave up on waiting and prepared to disembark the plane.

On my way home, I couldn't help but check out the trending topics on Weibo. When I saw that none of the topics were related to me, I felt at ease again. The lawyers had worked quickly the day before to enable Haixing Media and I to release a joint statement on Weibo against the plagiarism allegations. My pen name was still on the hot search yesterday, but today it has been buried under other trending topics, including a new dating scandals involving other celebrities whom I was not familiar with.

Returning home with my issues resolved, I felt a sense of comfort and peace. The centrepiece at tonight's dinner was my dad's specialty—fish soup. Seeing the steaming milky white broth, I could already taste the rich and flavourful soup. I was in the middle of enjoying the taste of home when my mom looked at me admonishingly.

"Where have you been the past few days?"

I raised my head to see my parents and my younger sister staring at me in waiting silence.

"I told you that I had to go on an urgent work trip."

"I know," my mom said, "but you didn't bother to call back to let us know that you were fine?"

"Sorry for worrying you," I apologised, placing some vegetables into her rice bowl. "I was really busy this trip—I was with my superior most of the time, and met many public figures and had many activities planned."

I smiled nervously as I explained, thinking to myself that what I had said wasn't really a lie. I did attend a work trip—in relation to my secret writing career—and Cheng Yujin was in some way my superior—we had a working relationship that was never formally terminated—and I did meet quite a few famous singers and actors during my trip.

"Look at you, you are becoming a workaholic. When will you have time to date? " she tutted, then looked towards to my dad to back her up for what she was about to suggest next. "Looks like we'll have to arrange blind dates for you. Your father said that Zheng-zong has mentioned multiple times about wanting to arrange a blind date for you and his son—who is around your age."

Zheng-zong was the chief executive officer of a listed company in which my dad worked as a vice president. My parents had been using Zheng-zong's son as a threat for years, but till now I still didn't know what his name was or whether he was truly as single as his father said he was. I only knew that people called him xiao Zheng-zong and I'd only caught a glimpse of him once over a video call when my dad rang me up to prove that he was indeed about to hop onto a private jet with him.

Rolling my eyes inwardly, I shook my head and smiled smugly at my mom. "That won't be necessary. Your daughter—me—has already arranged a blind date for herself." I took out my phone and opened my messages with Ye Haonan. Due to my recklessness a few days ago, Ye Haonan had seriously and sincerely arranged a meeting for me and his good friend over dinner this Saturday.

My mom worriedly questioned me about the identity of my blind date as my sister remarked at the side that it was strange that someone who was allegedly tall, rich and handsome would have to be set up on a blind date; and my dad cautioned that a kind and good-natured man was more important than looks, wealth or status. I simply told them that my blind date was a friend of my high school friend.

"Jie, what about Qian Sicheng? Isn't he your crush?" asked my younger sister, Lu Yubin, at the mention of my 'high school friend'.

"Oh, I didn't mention? Qian Sicheng is already attached," I answered matter-of-factly, "plus, I don't have a crush on him."

"How can that be? Didn't you chase him all the way to university?" Lu Yubin questioned in her usual teasing tone.

I harrumphed in rebuttal. "I didn't go to a university in another city because I didn't want to be apart from my beloved family."

"But, Mom and Dad are rushing you to get married and move out sooner."

"They say that, but the truth is: they can't bear for me to marry and move out so soon."

My mom broke in just as our typical sisterly bickering started growing argumentative. "When you were in university, you were still young. But now that you are 26 years old, you should already be dating and planning to get married. Even Sicheng has found himself a girlfriend."

"Mom, I'm not even concerned; so, why are you so concerned?" I sighed.

"It is precisely because you aren't concerned about yourself, that the people around you are concern on your behalf," my mom said, a pressing urgency in her voice which I wasn't quite able to comprehend.

My phone screen lit up with a notification of a message from Cheng Yujin. From the message preview, he was asking whether I was free for a call as he wanted to let me listen to the yesterday's recording.

Grinning to myself, I excused myself from the table saying that I had to take a call, dashed to the kitchen to wash my empty dishes, before hurrying into my room. As my bedroom swung shut, my mother complained exasperatedly in the background: "Look at her, zipping off again to be a corporate slave"; to which my father said in an attempt to calm her down: "Yujuan knows what she's doing—she even arranged a blind date for herself this weekend. We don't have to be overly worried about her."

In the comfort of my bedroom, I replied Cheng Yujin that I was available to speak, and shortly after I received a call from him.

"Hi Yujuan, is it convenient to do a video call now?"

"Sure," I readily agreed, intoxicated by the sound of his magnetic and gentle voice in my ear.

Turning on our front cameras, Cheng Yujin's smiling face appeared on the screen of my phone. His hair appeared to be slightly damp as his see-through dandy-cut bangs hung over his thick brows. Based on his background and the casual t-shirt he wore, I guessed that he was at home and had just emerged from a shower. He confirmed my deduction as he held his phone up to give me a quick preview of his home recording studio.

After apologising that he was not able to reply sooner as he was stuck in back-to-back meetings the whole of today, he played the recording of his song. It was strange to hear my singing voice as a recording, but after Cheng Yujin replayed the track three times, I got used to it.

"Do you have any plans this weekend? I'll be in Shanghai for a period of time from this Friday, to settle matters at our Shanghai office," asked Cheng Yujin.

Averting my gaze, I admitted with slight embarrassment, "I—I have a blind date this Saturday evening."

"Blind date?" he repeated, eyes widening in surprise. To smother his disbelief, he asked laughingly: "Why do you need to go on a blind date when you are still so young? Are your parents rushing you to get married?"

I let out an airy short laugh, which sounded more like a resigned sigh. "My family and friends are pressuring me. For some reasons, the people in my post-95 friend circle are getting married young, so everyone keeps chasing me to start dating."

At the end of my reply, I wondered whether my words may be insensitive to Cheng Yujin who was already at an age where he should already have a young family. However, he was not at all bothered by what I said. Instead, his attention was placed elsewhere.

"Who is your blind date? Did your family set it up for you?"

"No, he is a friend of a friend. My high school friend's good friend."

"Oh. Where will you be meeting? Blind date venues are quite important."

"My friend said that it'll be at an Italian restaurant at Ritz-Carlton. Now that I think about it, I'm starting to be concerned that the dinner will be expensive. If we go AA, it's going to burn a hole in my wallet. It's not that I can't afford it—but I just don't feel like it's worth the money."

"Well, you can still decide to call off the blind date," he ventured with an unapologetic smile.

His suggestion stole me like a temptation. It was not that I had not contemplated doing so, but if I backed out of the blind date without a justifiable reason, I didn't think that it would sit well with my conscience.

"But, I'm afraid that it wouldn't be very nice to my high school friend."

Cheng Yujin's voice suddenly sounded somewhat distant, but the shift in his tone juxtaposed his words of concern. "When you are meeting strangers, you have to remember to be extra vigilant and ensure that you regularly update your family on the location."

I smiled at him as he appeared as if he was sulking. "OK. I'll provide you with regular updates."

His lips curved up in a faint smile and he queried further: "Tell me more about your blind date. Do you know what kind of person he is?"

"I only have a bit of information. His name is Gao Yanjun, 28 years old, did his graduate and postgraduate studies at the Imperial College of London, is now working as a researcher in his father's pharmaceutical. He doesn't smoke, doesn't do drugs, has never been married before, does not have any children. His hobbies are going hiking and training judo," I recounted what Ye Haonan had shared with me about his friend.

"That's quite a bit of information," Cheng Yujin remarked in a slightly sardonic tone. "He sounds like he could be nice. Are you looking forward to meeting him?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I have zero expectations. I'm going for it to humour my family and friends. Who knows if the other party will even be interested in me—we don't have any common interests." Growing tired of speaking of my blind date, I changed the topic. "How long will you be in Shanghai for?"

"I've no plans to return yet. Perhaps we can meet again for a meal."

As the night deepened and peaceful silence fell upon the world around us, we continued our conversations with racing hearts, hushed voices, suppressed laughter and smiles. And I found myself wishing something insolent and unacceptable—that this lovely moment would go on forever and never end.

*

That night, it was only after Cheng Yujin reminded me that I had work the next day, that we waved goodbye to each other and hung up the phone. Falling into a deep slumber with a smile, I soon found myself having a sweet dream, which picked off from my previous dream of my life as a professional singer.

It was November 2021. (Tianquan.)

At the end of the practice session, I remained in the recording studio to wait for Cheng Yujin. After each practice session, he would show up to listen to that day's recordings and provide feedback and critique. However, today's feedback session was going to be different. I was going to confront him today for breaking his promise.

During the practice session earlier, I had unintentionally eavesdropped on the musicians talking about Cheng-zong. Someone mentioned that he had overhead Cheng Yujin telling Gao Yi that he went on a blind date, and that he was going on a second date tonight.

When Cheng Yujin stepped into the recording studio, I was the only one around. I sized him up, noticing that he was not wearing his glasses and was dressed quite formally today. He wore a grey suit jacket over a white shirt with the top button left unbuttoned, and matching grey trousers with black leather shoes. As he walked past me to sit at the workstation, light woodsy and citrusy notes wafted through the air.

"Why are you the only one left today? Where is Pang-zi?" Cheng Yujin asked, swivelling around in the chair to search the room for our sound engineer.

I marched up towards him with a glower. "You broke the promise! You were supposed to say when you were seeing somebody. That was our promise," I exclaimed, feeling irrationally angry. "I had to overhear other people's conversations to find out that you went on a date?"

Getting over his initial surprise at my sudden outburst, Cheng Yujin looked upwards at me, his face clouding over and brows furrowing. "It was just a blind date. It's not a relationship."

"Relationships can start from blind dates!" I retorted.

"Why are you so concerned about me? After his divorce, Gao Yi is now in a new relationship. It's not like he told you about it," he rejoined with a deadpan expression on his face.

"I couldn't care less about Gao Yi's relationship," I snapped, taking a step closer towards him. Lowering my voice, I pleaded earnestly: "I only care about you—because the person I like is you."

Leaning down, I brushed my lips against his—fleetingly, delicately. Pulling myself back, I dashed towards the exit, my cheeks burning from my audacious act.

The next second, a hand reached out from behind me to grab my hand which was pulling on door handle, and another hand came from above my head to push the door shut. Startled, I turned around as Cheng Yujin caught me to him and laid a light, gentle pressure on my lips—once, twice. As I raised my head slightly, his warm lips fell upon mine again, urgent and impatient. My mind went blank and my eyelids lowered in surrender to the moment as I gave him back all his kiss.

But a moment later, I drew back and stared at his reddened lips. "Why did you do that?"

Cheng Yujin gazed tenderly at me and whispered under his breath: "It's because I like you too."

"If that's the case," I said, slightly breathless, "does it mean that I can be your girlf—"

The door opened as Pang-zi returned to the recording studio; and we broke apart in fear of being caught.

"—dess? Can I be your goddess?" I ended my question, flushed and flustered.

As Pang-zi stared at us in confusion, Cheng Yujin suddenly burst out in embarrassed laughter.

***

Author's Note:

Out of fright, Lu Yujuan ends off her question awkwardly with "goddess" instead of "girlfriend". 

Girlfriend is  女朋友

Goddess is 女神

—> "Does this mean that I can be your girl—(friend)?" "(god)—dess?"

—> "那我现在是不是能做你的女—（朋友）" "（女）—神？"