◎ Talent Wasted on Small Tasks ◎
Upon learning that Gu Qiao and Luo Peiyin were in contact, Madam Luo suppressed the questions rising within her and reframed them: “Is it you who contacts your cousin more, or is it Xiao Jia who contacts your cousin more?”
Gu Qiao found the question strangely phrased, but she decided to answer honestly: “He and Xiao Jia contact each other more.” Whether measured by how often she contacted Xiao Jia, or how often Xiao Jia contacted Luo Peiyin, both exceeded the frequency of her own contact with Luo Peiyin.
In truth, being with Luo Peiyin never felt quite as natural as being with others. She felt she had changed a great deal over these two years — yet her changes seemed to provoke no admiration or surprise from her cousin. She had even glimpsed that surprise in her aunt’s eyes. And so she had simply accepted the coat he had draped over her shoulders, the more expensive gold bracelet, and his dissatisfaction with her apartment — even though she thought her current apartment was quite nice.
Even without that ease, she still wanted to see more of him.
Madam Luo was relieved. She told Gu Qiao: “Your cousin’s mother is in Singapore. Even when he finishes his studies in America, he’ll most likely go to Singapore.” Madam Luo said just enough. What concerned her more at the moment was Xiao Jia: “Does Xiao Jia have any plans to study abroad?”
Gu Qiao immediately understood her aunt’s meaning: “You’re overthinking it. Xiao Jia and I are just friends.” She also understood the unspoken hint about her cousin — and she didn’t like it.
Madam Luo had not expected her stepson to appear so abruptly at home. She had assumed Luo Peiyin would stay in Shanghai a few more days with his mother. Luo Bo’an almost never mentioned his ex-wife, and Madam Luo’s knowledge of Luo Peiyin’s mother was limited.
Luo the Fourth was very pleased to see his second elder brother home — because the second brother had once again brought gifts from Shanghai. The gifts had come from the second brother’s mother; it was something Luo the Fourth had asked his own mother for many times, and she had finally promised to give it to him for his birthday next year. Yet here it was, arriving from someone else’s mother’s hands. Even Madam Luo had received a gift from Madam Liao — the latest model Chanel handbag. Since deciding to invest in China, Madam Liao had resolved to fully bury the hatchet with her ex-husband’s household; she had no intention of forgoing any relationship that might prove useful. When her son had to return early, she had specifically asked him to bring gifts.
Luo Peiyin had not, however, accepted any gift from his mother intended for Gu Qiao. He did not want his mother to have any connection with Gu Qiao at this point.
Luo the Fourth felt a touch of awkwardness on his cousin’s behalf — everyone in the family had received a gift except her. Gu Qiao herself felt no discomfort at not receiving a gift; it would hardly be expected for her cousin’s mother to send one all the way to her. Her first reaction was to marvel inwardly at how generous her cousin’s mother was. Her second reaction was even greater surprise: that two people could maintain such a cordial relationship even after divorce.
She was fairly certain she could never achieve such a thing. If she ever parted from someone in the future, she was determined to have absolutely nothing more to do with them for the rest of her life.
Madam Luo, having received such a generous gift, felt a touch of unease as well — receiving a present from her husband’s ex-wife was, however one looked at it, a slightly irregular thing. She maintained her composure with the capable air of a stepmother and called the housekeeper, Sister Zhang, to ask her to prepare two extra dishes for dinner.
“Please don’t trouble yourself. I have plans this evening and won’t be eating at home.”
Madam Luo smiled: “Oh, I just remembered — Gu Qiao said earlier that today is Xiao Jia’s birthday. You must be going to celebrate with him.”
“Cousin, what a coincidence — come along with me, you can ride in my car!” Gu Qiao had originally told Xiao Jia she would arrive early, but because she wanted to wait for Luo Peiyin, she had just called to push back the time. This was the second thing she had said to Luo Peiyin at the Luo household, aside from their initial greeting.
Luo Peiyin automatically took the driver’s seat. On the passenger seat, he noticed a box wrapped in colorful paper with a large bow tied on top.
Without Gu Qiao saying a word, Luo Peiyin could guess the gift was for Xiao Jia.
Gu Qiao’s wrapping was far too ceremonious — which made the gift he had brought back for her look rather insufficient by comparison.
Gu Qiao settled into the passenger seat, placing the gift box on her knees. Luo Peiyin wound his scarf around her neck. Gu Qiao suddenly felt her entire neck enveloped in warmth from another person. His scarf was not the one she had given him — at first glance, it was clearly far more expensive than the wool scarf she’d once knitted.
As Luo Peiyin drove, the gift box in Gu Qiao’s arms kept catching the corner of his eye.
“Put that box in the back seat.”
“It looks big, but it’s actually quite light.”
These past few days, Gu Qiao had been turning Luo Peiyin’s embrace over and over in her mind. She had sensed something consoling in it. She didn’t need his consolation at all — what she needed was his admiration, even his reverence.
Gu Qiao shared her outlook on the coming times with Luo Peiyin. For small business owners like herself, the future held tremendous opportunity for growth. She believed in herself, and she hoped to convince her cousin to believe in her too.
Passing a shopping center, Luo Peiyin asked Gu Qiao to wait in the car while he ran inside to buy something. He was back quickly, carrying a bag, and returned to the car without making her wait long.
Luo Peiyin asked Gu Qiao to continue where she had left off.
She was speaking with such enthusiasm that interrupting her would have felt criminal.
In the end, it was the pager that interrupted her.
“Do you need to call back right away? There’s a phone booth just ahead.”
“No need — it’s Xiao Jia. He’s telling me not to rush.”
If Luo Peiyin remembered correctly, Gu Qiao’s pager was still a numeric pager, not a text display one. How did the two of them manage to communicate through numbers alone?
“Did you get a new pager?”
“No, still the same one.” But Gu Qiao immediately caught what Luo Peiyin was really asking. “We’ve assigned numeric codes to common phrases. When someone sends a number, we both know what it means.”
The car stopped at a red light. Gu Qiao showed Luo Peiyin the back of her pager. She had taken good care of it — it looked no different from when Luo Peiyin had given it to her. On the back was a small piece of paper covered in different numeric codes.
With a businessperson’s eye, Gu Qiao analyzed that the coming years would belong to text-display pagers. If Luo Peiyin weren’t in America, with no need for a Chinese text display pager, once her business grew large enough she would send him one as a return gift.
Gu Qiao mentioned to Luo Peiyin that she was planning to go into the pager business with Xiao Jia in the future. She expected him to praise her foresight — but she didn’t get the response she was hoping for.
Luo Peiyin said to Gu Qiao: “Xiao Jia probably wouldn’t be interested in something like that. It would be using a great talent for a small task.” Then he turned it back on her: “Don’t you think so?”
Gu Qiao lowered her eyes, turning over those four words — *great talent for a small task* — in her mind. Her red earrings seemed especially vivid in that moment.
The car fell suddenly silent. Gu Qiao said nothing more.
—
When Zhao Yue pulled up outside Xiao Jia’s building, he thought his eyes were deceiving him. The person climbing out of Gu Qiao’s yellow Dafa van — was that really…?
He had been on the same flight as Luo Peiyin, returning from Shanghai. At the airport, Luo Peiyin had asked him to drop off a gift for Xiao Jia, saying he wouldn’t be coming tonight. Zhao Yue had been generously received by Madam Liao during his time in Shanghai. Though he’d spent these past six months trailing his brother and considered himself experienced and well-seasoned — Madam Liao’s scale of things had still caught him off guard.
But when he confirmed that the man climbing out of Gu Qiao’s yellow Dafa van was indeed Luo Peiyin, Zhao Yue swallowed the words “how did you end up here?” right back down his throat.
How were these two still in contact? Hadn’t this already been consigned to history?
Back in the spring of 1990, Zhao Yue had indeed noticed that Luo Peiyin seemed a little different when it came to Gu Qiao — especially when Xiao Jia mentioned her name in front of Luo Peiyin. But only a little different.
Zhao Yue had a flexible moral code. In these times, when neither party was married, everyone was free — poaching a friend’s girlfriend wasn’t something he considered a great offense. But if that friend was an honest, unassuming person, that was a different matter. And Xiao Jia was precisely the honest, unassuming type that Zhao Yue had categorized as such — a man who never fought or grabbed for anything.
The way Zhao Yue saw it, Luo Peiyin had known Gu Qiao first. If there had been anything between them, it should have happened long ago. Since it hadn’t — and then once Xiao Jia developed feelings for Gu Qiao, Luo Peiyin was also starting to feel something — well, that was somewhat inappropriate. If Xiao Jia’s affection for a girl had gone unreciprocated by Luo Peiyin, Zhao Yue wouldn’t have bothered interfering. But Xiao Jia was blameless — he really shouldn’t have to suffer two blows from the same source.
When Zhao Yue sensed that Luo Peiyin had feelings for Gu Qiao, yet genuinely had no relationship with her, he felt it was necessary to say something. Two things, and no more.
“Xiao Jia is actually reconsidering whether to study abroad, all because of his cousin. Before, he was always dead set on going.” The implication: *Can you say the same?*
“If I were a woman, I’d choose Xiao Jia too.” Zhao Yue said it half-jokingly — and only because it was Luo Peiyin he was saying it to. He knew Luo Peiyin was confident enough in himself not to be wounded by it; he wasn’t short of people who liked him. He just wanted to give him a gentle reminder: any sensible person in this situation would choose Xiao Jia. It wasn’t fair to let a young girl do something foolish for his sake. Both of them were very young, but if Gu Qiao chose Xiao Jia, the shape of their future together could almost be foreseen — you could even imagine the neighborhood committee one day presenting the two of them with a “Model Family” certificate. With Luo Peiyin, it was very hard to picture any particular outcome. As for simply enjoying the journey — Gu Qiao was so busy scrambling to make a living, she probably wouldn’t have the luxury of that kind of romantic leisure.
Zhao Yue said nothing more than those two things. He trusted that Luo Peiyin shared his unspoken principle: don’t take advantage of decent, honest people. Setting aside morality entirely, Luo Peiyin’s own pride wouldn’t permit him to do such a thing.
Zhao Yue didn’t believe that such a choice would be particularly difficult for Luo Peiyin. He had too many options; giving up one wasn’t much.
Though Gu Qiao and Xiao Jia had a close bond — especially during Xiao Jia’s illness with myocarditis, when Gu Qiao visited him frequently at home — despite the closeness, there had been no real development between them. That had been somewhat unexpected to Zhao Yue as well. But Xiao Jia was different from before; he no longer discussed this subject with Zhao Yue. Zhao Yue’s own thoughts were entirely occupied elsewhere lately, let alone tending to other people’s romantic affairs.
Zhao Yue pressed down his questions and told himself: perhaps the two of them had simply returned to a cousin-and-cousin relationship.
Zhao Yue looked at Gu Qiao’s gift, and the familiar smile crept across his face: “Cousin, you’ve brought such a grand gift — you’ve made the rest of us look bad.”
“Stop it.”
Zhao Yue laughed: “How did your manner get to sound just like your cousin’s?”
—