Having discovered that, once again, some agents had hired hordes of posters[1] to inundate the internet with comments bashing Jian Bianlin, Xie Bin was right at this moment off to one side having a clash of words with a marketing company. The van door was pushed open. Jian Bianlin, his down parka in hand, jumped out.
“You two all finished up already?” Xie Bin’s word choice and tone was not at all tasteful.
In the black of the night, Jian Bianlin stared at him until Xie Bin got the willies. After pausing for a moment, Jian Bianlin put on the down parka and, from the pocket of Xie Bin’s coat, pulled out a cigarette.
Lighting up, he went off alone to go calm down.
Xie Bin’s eyes followed after the view of Jian Bianlin’s backside, his heart filled with nervousness. He remembered that the last time Jian Bianlin lit a cigarette, it had been because he and Chu Jian had quarreled. What was going on this time? My dear ancestor[2], you’re in a relationship, but it’s like I’m along on the roller coaster ride with you.
Agitated by the feelings of frustration caught in his chest, Xie Bin opened his mouth and immediately began telling off the person who was in the phone. “Trying to help fan the flames of his popularity? Do you think I need them to help me fan any flames of popularity? Don’t you know that my company’s Jian Bianlin is a flammable and explosive material in himself? Any little hints of anything and he’s plastered all over top news and searches for days. It’s not like he’s one of those internet stars. Can you get any lower? Over-exposure and over-promoting are bad for the works that he puts out, you know? You get your *ss moving and get him off the top trending topics pronto!”
Jian Bianlin aimlessly walked around outside, wandering here and wandering there down the side of a nearby road. He had pulled up the hood of his down parka, concealing his face, and he looked just like any unimportant supporting actor who might have temporarily stepped away from one of the filming projects in Hengdian. Eventually, he sat straddling a rock that was on the roadside and watched the cars that were coming and going.
He had lost control of things just now.
There were many things that Chu Jian did not know.
Those foolish things from his days of youth. He had thought that he had hidden them from everyone, but the one person he could not deceive was the he of more than ten years later, looking back upon that time.
First year of high school had been unlike middle school. In middle school, she had always waited for him to go home together after school was dismissed, but in high school, their relationship had naturally drifted apart and they had no longer been as close. Back then, Class No. 1 and No. 9 were at opposite ends of the hallway, each adjacent to one of the two stairwells that were on the sides of the teaching building. He could not see her, so every physical education, biology, and computers class, he would seize any opportunity to leave the teaching building and then circle back by going through the stairwell beside Class No. 9, thinking that this at least gave him a chance of seeing her.
If he was lucky, one out of ten times, he would be able to run into her.
During the school sports meet in their first year of high school, their two classes had also sat at opposite ends of the bleachers. He still clearly remembered how he had deliberately taken a seat in the first row because he had wanted to watch her run the 4 x 100 metres relay. A number tag had been pinned to her back with a paper clip, and dressed in shorts on that winter day along with two or three other girls, she had shivered as she jogged by in front of him. In a very surprised tone, she had tossed a question at him. “Jian Bianlin, you’re so tall but you’re still sitting in the first row. Aren’t you worried you’ll block other people’s views?” Once she said this, before she even had a chance to hear his answer, she was already hopping off the stairs and heading toward the athletic track.
