Out of 365 days a year, Lin Yingtao and Jiang Qiaoxi spent less than 50 days together.
Feelings of insecurity occasionally surfaced.
In the summer of 2011, Morgan Stanley Hong Kong’s interns gathered for group photos, which were later posted online. Lin Yingtao saw them in her high school class group chat. The boys discussed how beautiful the investment bank’s women were, while the girls remarked that Jiang Qiaoxi looked unchanged since high school. Someone asked, “Didn’t someone say he had fallen on hard times and was tutoring in Hong Kong?”
“Oh, he’s probably just doing part-time work for fun,” someone replied.
Fei Linge chimed in, saying he had recently visited Hong Kong and met Jiang Qiaoxi at the ICC in Kowloon, where Morgan Stanley’s offices were located. “He said he’s not planning on further studies for now and might return to the mainland in the next few years.”
A classmate suggested adding Jiang Qiaoxi to the group chat, as they hadn’t seen him in years.
Fei Linge responded, “I asked, but he’s in Hong Kong and doesn’t use WeChat.”
Lin Yingtao zoomed in on the group photos on her phone.
Fashion magazines often claimed that Asian men in suits tended to look disproportionate, with large heads and small bodies, appearing somewhat foolish. But Jiang Qiaoxi was different. In high school, he had stood out even in the most ordinary blue and white uniform, tall and striking. Now, in a shirt and trousers among a group of investment banking elites, he looked incredibly handsome.
She messaged Jiang Qiaoxi on WeChat: “Have you finished your internship?”
Jiang Qiaoxi didn’t reply, probably busy with work.
That evening, his black-and-white profile picture finally popped up.
He sent her an image.
“What’s this?” Lin Yingtao asked.
“My payslip,” he replied, adding a cool smoking emoji.
Lin Yingtao’s TOEFL results came out: with 103 points. After studying hard for so long, she immediately told Jiang Qiaoxi.
He responded, “Keep it up, and we’ll be able to go out together in the future.”
“Where to?” she asked.
“Wherever we want, we can go together,” he replied.
At the end of the first semester of her senior year, Lin Yingtao was drinking cola at KFC in Beijing South Station when she spotted Yu Qiao, who was taking the same train back to their hometown.
Yu Qiao, who recently returned from Canada, notably wasn’t wearing a down jacket despite the cold, opting for a windbreaker instead.
“How cold is it over there?” Lin Yingtao asked.
Yu Qiao replied, “Cold enough to put blankets on airplanes.”
“Blankets on airplanes?” Lin Yingtao laughed.
Yu Qiao remarked, “It must be quite warm in Hong Kong!”
“Hong Kong is scorching!” Lin Yingtao grumbled, glancing at the queue. “Aren’t you going to order?”
Yu Qiao shook his head at the long line.
He helped himself to Lin Yingtao’s fries and chicken nuggets.
On the high-speed train home, Lin Yingtao and Yu Qiao argued about how much they had spent on KFC in Qunshan back in 2000.
“A spicy burger and cola was just ten yuan,” Lin Yingtao insisted. “Du Shang, you, me, and my dad – four of us went.”
Yu Qiao mused, “After more than a decade, the Electric Power Construction Corporation hasn’t raised salaries much.”
Lin Yingtao glanced at him. She had never been clear about how much her parents earned.
Yu Qiao suddenly said, “It’s fortunate none of us stayed at the construction site…”
The Qunshan small dining table group planned a gathering during the winter break. Qin Yeyun and her boyfriend were traveling in Japan and couldn’t attend.
In their senior year, everyone was anxious about their futures.
Du Shang, in his five-year undergraduate program, complained about the three-year residency ahead, working as cheap labor. “No way, I’ll have to take the postgraduate entrance exam next year,” he grumbled while eating his lamb paomo.
Yu Qiao was texting a classmate when Cai Fangyuan asked him, “How did you choose China Eastern Airlines back then?”
“The base is close to home,” Yu Qiao replied.
Lin Yingtao, nibbling on lamb skewers, told Du Shang, “I’ve seen the news about serious hospital violence. Be careful when you go to work.”
Du Shang shrugged it off: “Hey, even if I go, I’ll hide in the back. I’m a doctor now; surely I won’t get beaten up again!”
Lin Yingtao took out her phone and captured a photo of everyone laughing together. She sent it to Jiang Qiaoxi, but before he could reply, Cai Fangyuan suddenly asked from across the table, “Hey Lin Yingtao, when are you getting married?”
Lin Yingtao looked up, startled. “Huh?”
Her reaction caused the three boys to burst into laughter. Du Shang frowned at Cai Fangyuan, “What are you asking? Yingtao’s still so young.”
Cai Fangyuan was puzzled, putting down his lamb skewer. “Hey, Jiang Qiaoxi told me last winter break that he was going to propose to you. It’s been a year, and he still hasn’t?”
Lin Yingtao’s face turned bright red.
In early 2012, Lin Yingtao spent her second New Year in Hong Kong. On the airport express, she hugged Jiang Qiaoxi’s waist and asked what they would do if the 2012 doomsday predictions came true.
They had already fallen for one “doomsday” scare before.
Jiang Qiaoxi stroked her hair, letting her face rest against his chest. “Then let’s leave fewer regrets behind,” he said.
Jiang Qiaoxi still had to intern during the winter break, but he seemed to have arranged with his supervisor to leave work on time every day for these two weeks. However, he often worked at home at night. Sometimes Lin Yingtao would wake up in the middle of the night, wearing her spaghetti strap nightgown, to find Jiang Qiaoxi still sitting at the small dining table, his back to her, poring over data.
Lin Yingtao got out of bed and put on her slippers. She walked behind him, feeling sorry for him.
She hugged his neck.
Jiang Qiaoxi’s hands paused on the keyboard. He lowered his eyes and held onto Lin Yingtao’s arms around him, then felt a gentle kiss brush against his cheek.
After three months apart, was it long or short? Every time they reunited, their first intimate encounter would leave Lin Yingtao feeling sore. She didn’t know if it was because she still couldn’t fully adapt to Jiang Qiaoxi, or if it was because he had been separated from her for so long, with the constant pressure from work, making him prone to being overly passionate.
She curled up in bed, flipping through Jiang Qiaoxi’s CPA study books. She asked him about the difference between CPA and CFA.
Jiang Qiaoxi, fresh out of the shower, sat back in bed. With his long fingers, he made a final check of his phone emails, then took the book from Lin Yingtao’s hands. He turned off the bedside lamp and pulled her into his arms. “Our little injured one, let’s get some sleep,” he said.
Lin Yingtao lay in the darkness with her eyes open, her face pressed against his chest. After a while, she asked, “Are you asleep?”
Jiang Qiaoxi smiled with his eyes closed: “Yingtao, seeing you uncomfortable, don’t tempt me.”
On Sunday, Jiang Qiaoxi returned from the company and took Lin Yingtao to the hospital.
His older cousin was sitting in a wheelchair, playing bridge with some old classmates who had come to visit. His fingers were still not very agile, but the cousin insisted that playing bridge could exercise his brain activity and increase the sensitivity of his fingers.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood at the door of the ward, unbuttoning his suit jacket and putting his hands in his pockets. He said to Lin Yingtao with resignation, “He just loves to play cards.”
The cousin saw Jiang Qiaoxi bringing little sister Lin and was very happy. He put down his cards and asked a classmate to bring over the walker, demonstrating to little sister Lin how to use it to get out of bed and walk. Jiang Qiaoxi watched from the doorway and couldn’t help but go over to give him a steadying hand.
“Have you been practicing properly?” Jiang Qiaoxi asked with a frown as he helped his stumbling cousin back into the wheelchair. “Or have you just been playing cards?”
The cousin was impatient and complained to Lin Yingtao about Jiang Qiaoxi, saying that ever since this little cousin started his internship and earned a high salary, he was no longer as lovable as before.
“Just showing off and acting cool! Not even graduated from university yet, what’s there to pretend to be an adult about!”
Lin Yingtao agreed, “I feel the same way!”
Jiang Qiaoxi stood to the side, listening to their accusations without retorting.
The cousin’s wife scolded from the side, “It’s good that Qiaoxi is keeping an eye on you! Otherwise, you’d just play cards all day!”
The cousin looked up at his wife pitifully, “I’ve been bedridden for three years, three years without playing.” He then looked at Lin Yingtao with a “sister, see how miserable I am” expression.
In the past, without his older cousin, Jiang Qiaoxi seemed unable to process many things in his life. He heavily relied on this “life mentor” to the point where he would be at a loss without him, unable to move forward.
Now, he had grown up himself. Though sixteen years younger than his cousin, he had become the belief and pillar supporting his cousin’s persistence in rehabilitation.
Lin Yingtao sat beside the cousin’s wife, looking at photos of their little nephew and the dog Lassie on her phone. From the corner of her eye, she glanced at Jiang Qiaoxi, who had rolled up his shirt sleeves and was bending down to help his cousin exercise with the walker. Jiang Qiaoxi no longer called him “brother” but “Jiang Ruocheng,” treating him as a peer, insisting that he must persevere.
The cousin’s wife gave Lin Yingtao a key to their house. Lin Yingtao went there on Monday, bringing brown sugar and jujube bits she bought from the supermarket. She used her cousin’s steamer to make jujube buns following her mother’s recipe.
She left half at the cousin’s house for them to try her cooking.
When Jiang Qiaoxi returned from work, he saw Yingtao sitting at the dining table waiting for him. On the table was a plate with four round little buns, shaped like four little rabbits with ears drawn on them.
On the morning of Chinese New Year’s Eve, Jiang Qiaoxi went to the company for a while and soon returned. Lin Yingtao was still curled up in bed, rubbing her eyes as she watched him loosen his tie and lean down over her.
Lin Yingtao turned her head and said coyly, “Stop it, Mom and Dad are going to video call us.”
It was snowing in their hometown. Lin Yingtao sat next to Jiang Qiaoxi, frowning at the computer screen. She could barely see her parents’ faces, only the large snowflakes swaying outside the window.
Lin Yingtao said, “Dad, Mom, I want to talk to you!”
But Lin’s father said off-screen, “Qiaoxi hasn’t seen snow in a long time, right? Look how heavy it’s snowing!”
Lin Yingtao felt Jiang Qiaoxi’s arm gently wrap around her from behind.
“Yes, Uncle Lin,” Jiang Qiaoxi said with a smile, raising his voice, “You and Auntie be careful when you go out these days!”
Lin’s mother said from the edge of the frame, “Who’s going out? It’s too cold in the city these days!”
Lin Yingtao said, “Dad! Jiang Qiaoxi has seen snow on TV before, close the window quickly, I’m getting cold just looking at it!”
After finishing their New Year’s greetings with her parents, Lin Yingtao leaned back into Jiang Qiaoxi’s embrace, frowning as she said, “Dad is so silly.”
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his head and said, “Don’t you like Uncle Lin very much?”
Lin Yingtao looked up at him, “Dad sometimes acts like a child.”
It was January 22, 2012. Lin Yingtao suddenly realized that Jiang Qiaoxi’s birthday was just over a month away.
She said, “I wish I could stay in Hong Kong for another month.”
Jiang Qiaoxi asked, “Why’s that?”
Lin Yingtao replied, “In another month, it’ll be your 22nd birthday.”
Jiang Qiaoxi blinked, then suddenly said, “That’s right, I’m almost twenty-two.”
He lowered his eyes to look at Lin Yingtao.
Sitting in his arms, Lin Yingtao felt a bit uneasy under his gaze.