◎ Cousin ◎

This morning, when Gu Qiao saw Luo Peiyin, she almost had to wonder whether certain moments from last night had happened in a dream. Those rough words had truly not sounded like something that would come from his mouth.

Yet the marks on her body reminded her that everything she remembered had actually happened. Fortunately, those marks were all beneath her clothing — only she and Luo Peiyin knew what had truly unfolded the night before.

Standing in the elevator, thinking back to the things Luo Peiyin had said last night, Gu Qiao couldn’t help feeling her ears go warm all over again.

Luo Peiyin noticed her dazed expression and couldn’t help but smile: “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing.”

Gu Qiao had already finalized the location for the new Shanghai shop. Once they signed the contract this morning, her work in Shanghai would be entirely complete. She had deliberately delayed her departure and, on her own initiative, suggested to Luo Peiyin that since Shanghai and Suzhou were so close to each other, why not drive over to Suzhou and take a look around? This was a rare chance for just the two of them. With the New Year approaching, the shop would still need to be running — she couldn’t be completely absent from work.

Her family, knowing she’d have to work through the holiday, had made the effort to come up to Beijing as a whole group to spend the New Year with her. They’d been delayed because of her grandmother coming down with a cold, and the original arrival date had been pushed back to New Year’s Eve. With such a large crowd around, she wouldn’t be able to spend all her time with him.

Xiao Tian, having to return to Beijing that day, had been up since the crack of dawn — barely even sitting down for breakfast — rushing out to buy Shanghai specialties, gathering New Year gifts for her parents and all her various aunts and uncles. Of course, part of it was also that she didn’t want to interrupt Gu Qiao and her boyfriend. She could see that these two had very little time together; the rare occasions they did meet, there was always a third wheel hovering at several hundred degrees of brightness.

Standing in the elevator, Gu Qiao herself found it a little unbelievable. They’d been in Shanghai together for so many days, and this was the first morning they’d be able to have breakfast with just the two of them.

The elevator stopped and another person stepped in — fully equipped with sunglasses and a hat. Without even looking at his face, Gu Qiao knew it was Lin Haichuan. Only Lin Haichuan was this guarded, as though terrified of being recognized — yet equally terrified of not being recognized.

Out of consideration for Lin Haichuan’s psychology, Gu Qiao didn’t proactively greet him. She and Luo Peiyin were headed to a new restaurant for breakfast, and if she said hello, she’d inevitably feel obliged to extend the perfunctory invitation: *would you like to join us?* — particularly since he had come along with her for the work trip. Lin Haichuan might well not want to dine with a couple, but you could never be entirely sure.

As luck would have it, the very thing she’d been trying to avoid came looking for her. Once out of the elevator, Lin Haichuan asked Gu Qiao: “Where are you two going for breakfast?”

Gu Qiao named a restaurant. Lin Haichuan showed no sign of letting the topic drop: “I heard from a friend that their soup dumplings are excellent. I’ve been here all this time and still haven’t gone.”

Having said as much as that, Gu Qiao had little choice but to ask: “Would you like to come with us?”

To her surprise, Lin Haichuan immediately said: “I was actually planning to go there too — let’s go together, then.”

Gu Qiao glanced apologetically at Luo Peiyin and found him already looking at her. She truly hadn’t done it on purpose. Who could have anticipated that he’d have absolutely no social awareness?

Lin Haichuan had no desire to be a third wheel and disturb Gu Qiao and her boyfriend’s time together. Plenty of people wanted to have breakfast with him; he might not have been in the mood to eat with anyone — but the thing was, he was about to leave Shanghai, and there were two matters he needed to ask Gu Qiao about before he went.

The first was about the divination slip.

The moment Lin Haichuan saw the news about some author’s computer being infected, he felt certain Gu Qiao had simply been dealt terrible luck and should have gone to a temple to pray before the software launched.

His good mood upon arriving in Shanghai had been swept away entirely by the computer virus. The journalists paid almost no attention to his positive press; the moment he was linked to anything negative, they swarmed in like ants — as if he were a grain of rice and they were all conspiring to cart him off. According to Lin Haichuan’s childhood experience, ants moving in large numbers was usually a sign that rain was coming. Sure enough, it rained in Shanghai that very day — but Gu Qiao had told him breezily that she’d drawn a divination slip at a temple, and it was the luckiest possible reading: *Encounter water and prosper.* She said it as if it were obviously a good omen.

Lin Haichuan was by nature a non-believer, though since he’d started acting he’d come to half-believe in something like fate.

With Gu Qiao this self-assured, he had started to half-believe it himself — that this might really be a stroke of fortune rather than a curse. As Gu Qiao updated him step by step, his responses to reporters became increasingly forthcoming, and he spoke with growing confidence. He urged the press, in the interest of protecting consumer rights, to fully support his legitimate copy-promotion signing events — the more publicity, the fewer victims there would be.

Now that the software’s sales figures had gone up rather than down, Lin Haichuan had no choice but to accept that the slip Gu Qiao had drawn was genuinely efficacious.

Lin Haichuan hadn’t been quite as oblivious as Gu Qiao had assumed — he volunteered, for instance, to take the front passenger seat, instead of the seat directly behind the driver, where he’d effectively be treating someone else as his personal chauffeur. He had at least that much self-awareness. He now understood why Luo Peiyin had insisted on staying at the hotel — at his seniority level, he was entitled to complimentary suite accommodation, and being accustomed to such comforts, of course he wouldn’t want to go through the slow process of buying a flat and waiting for renovations.

That said, a person who prioritized comfort too heavily could easily miss the opportunities that an era offered.

Gu Qiao firmly ushered Lin Haichuan into the back seat.

Lin Haichuan actually preferred riding in Gu Qiao’s boyfriend’s car — at least it was smooth and steady. When Gu Qiao was in a hurry, her driving became wild and completely reckless. He’d ridden with her twice, and on one occasion he’d genuinely felt she was about to fling him straight out of the vehicle.

“Gu Qiao, where exactly did you draw that slip? It was so accurate.” No wonder Gu Qiao had remained completely calm in the face of such a major crisis, proceeding with everything as though success were a foregone conclusion. That slip must have been powerfully efficacious — and since he’d be leaving Shanghai shortly, he needed to make a temple visit before he left.

Luo Peiyin, hearing that Gu Qiao had gone to draw a divination slip, was also somewhat curious: “What slip did you draw?”

She’d never had time to draw any slip. She had invented it entirely because Lin Haichuan was too anxious, and she knew he was somewhat superstitious — she’d said it deliberately to settle his nerves. She hadn’t expected him to take it so seriously.

Gu Qiao smiled: “Sincerity is what makes it work. If you’re sincere enough, any temple will do. And if your heart isn’t in it, no temple will help.”

Lin Haichuan remained skeptical, but after a great deal of deliberation he finally asked the second thing he’d been meaning to: “Gu Qiao, is your cousin still in Shanghai?”

He still remembered that person surnamed Zhao mentioning that Gu Qiao’s cousin could help her get a very steep discount — quite possibly below ninety percent of the asking price. That was an attractive prospect. He couldn’t afford to pay the full sum outright right now, but taking out a mortgage wasn’t out of the question. He and Gu Qiao’s cousin had no relationship whatsoever, so asking someone to negotiate that large a discount on his behalf would be unrealistic. Still — perhaps Gu Qiao’s cousin, like the developer of his previous flat, had the discernment to recognize talent and might be willing to pull strings for a significant reduction.

When Gu Qiao heard the word *cousin*, she instinctively glanced over at Luo Peiyin. She just made a sound of assent: “Yes, he’s here.”

“You have a cousin in Shanghai? I’ve never heard you mention one.”

Gu Qiao thought to herself: *Apart from you, who else would be my cousin?*

Lin Haichuan, hearing Luo Peiyin say this, was also rather curious. Presumably they’d known each other long enough to be fairly familiar with one another’s relatives — and according to the person surnamed Zhao, Gu Qiao seemed to be on quite good terms with this “cousin” in Shanghai, since you wouldn’t offer that kind of discount to a distant relative.

Luo Peiyin asked Gu Qiao: “Why are you going around mentioning this cousin to everyone but never saying a word to me about him?”

“I actually never really brought it up — it’s a misunderstanding.”

Lin Haichuan was drawn deeper and deeper into curiosity by their exchange, and temporarily forgot about the whole flat-buying business. He had been on the verge of once again urging Gu Qiao to buy a place — property values would only keep rising, and buying now was always a sound decision. Since her cousin could help her secure a discount below ninety percent, if not now, when?

Not wanting Lin Haichuan to say anything more, Gu Qiao simply came clean. She told Luo Peiyin: “Apart from you, who else would I have as a cousin in Shanghai? Our great celebrity here assumed we were related by blood. I’ll tell you the details later.”

Lin Haichuan was stunned on the spot. What kind of relationship was this exactly? Gu Qiao called her boyfriend *cousin*, and this “cousin” could buy property at a steep discount but chose not to. The flat-buying question had been entirely pushed from his mind — he was far more curious about the story between these two — but he soon realized that neither of them had any intention of satisfying his curiosity, and that his curiosity was decidedly unwelcome.

Caught in that atmosphere, Lin Haichuan’s actor’s sensitivity finally kicked in at last. Three is a very particular number — when there are three people, there is almost always one who doesn’t belong.

It was abundantly clear that the one who didn’t belong was no one other than himself.

He finally understood that these two didn’t just find his curiosity unwelcome — they found *him* unwelcome as well. Politeness alone was keeping them from saying so.

Fortunately, his mobile phone rang just then. After hanging up, Lin Haichuan smiled and said: “The papers have been announcing my presence in Shanghai, so there’s really no hiding it — I get calls all day long from people inviting me to meals. It’s not entirely proper to keep turning them down, and this particular caller is a friend. I truly don’t want to leave you in the lurch at the last minute like this, but a good friend’s hospitality is hard to refuse — I’m afraid I’ll have to take a rain check on breakfast with you two. Just let me out at the next intersection.”

In acknowledgment of this tactfulness, Luo Peiyin showed some warmth in return: “Where are you headed? I’ll take you.”

Lin Haichuan quickly declined: “No, no — the intersection is perfectly fine.”

Gu Qiao thought to herself that Lin Haichuan’s performance there had been rather unconvincing. But she was genuinely grateful for his graceful exit, which had given her and Luo Peiyin a chance to eat breakfast alone.

“Tell me what actually happened.”

“That day when I was heading out, Lin Haichuan was just about to go look at some apartments, so I gave him a lift part of the way, and we happened to run into Zhao Yue — and he brought you up.” Gu Qiao suddenly smiled. “Yesterday Zhao Yue called to congratulate me, and I told him directly about our relationship. He said he’d like to treat us to dinner — I thought it wasn’t right for just the two of us to accept when it would be just one of him doing the treating, so I said we’d take him out instead.”

“You’re right — we should be the ones treating him.”

—