In a blink, Lunar New Year also passed.
Though Jian Bianlin wanted to see more of Chu Jian, it was not possible, lest his father detect any hints of something. The ice was finally broken in their relationship of many years, and he feared making any misstep. So, he suffered like this all the way until the Lunar New Year period was over and he went to join his next cast and crew on filming site. Chu Jian had arranged with him that on the day he was leaving, she would drive his car to take him to his company's office.
They had agreed to meet in the underground parking garage. Jian Bianlin arrived first and turned on the heat to warm up the car for her. After a little while, he felt that it was too hot inside the vehicle, so he turned the temperature down again slightly.
From the elevator landing, Chu Jian ran over, one hand on top of her purse and the other holding down her hat. When she pulled open the car door, she was still gasping lightly. "Right before I headed out, I was setting up wi-fi for your dad. The ethernet port in your place isn't very stable, so I connected him to my home's wi-fi."
He nodded. With both hands turning the steering wheel, he drove the car out.
The temperature in the vehicle was likely too comfortable, because before long, Chu Jian's eyes were beginning to narrow, and after another dozen or so minutes, she was completely asleep. When, from the corner of his eye, Jian Bianlin saw her leaning back with her head crooked to the side, it felt a little like... a wrinkle had occurred in the space-time continuum.
It was the return trip back from the spring outing of their first year of high school. After every row, from front to back, of every bus had been filled, the students of Class No. 9, as the last of all the classes in the entire grade, were all separated and stuffed wherever there was room in the other classes' buses.
Chu Jian and a few other girls had been allocated to Class No. 1's bus.
That evening, while they were driving back beneath the heavy curtain of night, Jian Bianlin, as the class prefect, had been doing a head count with the teacher. Walking to the back row, he saw her, her head leaning against the glass of the bus window and her eyes closed, but he was not certain if she was simply tired or feeling ill. He had hesitated over whether or not he should go over to pat her and ask whether she was sleepy or unwell. As a result of this little thought, he had stood beside her for more than one minute.
So, what had he done back then? It would seem he had changed seats with a boy in his class who was sitting across the aisle. In his new seat, there was only a girl from Class No. 9 separating him from Chu Jian. For the two-plus-hour bus ride, inside that bus interior that was without lights, he had gazed at her under the not-very-bright moonlight as she rested against the bus window, her soft hairs tucked behind her ear. Her hairstyle had been short. Ever since she was a child, she had worn her hair short. If it grew a little longer, she would tuck it behind her ears, and if it were a little shorter, it frequently would be in complete disarray from sleeping on it, such that one day, this part would stick up and another day, that part would be squashed flat.
That night, she had slept soundly. Her forehead, in rhythm with the rocking and jolting of the bus's motions, would bump a little bit against the glass...
Uncomfortable. He had felt uncomfortable from simply seeing her forehead resting against such hard glass.
If by chance the brakes on the bus were suddenly slammed, her head would collide into the window.
Taking advantage of a red traffic light, Jian Bianlin reached behind and grabbed a throw cushion from the backseat. He nudged her awake and handed the cushion to her. Chu Jian was a little dazed, and only after he instructed her to lean against it to sleep did she understand. With a smile that caused her eyes to disappear into squints, she laid her seat down and, hugging that cushion, continued dozing.
