The Most Majestic You
Chapter 4 Part 1
“No!” She instinctively denied.
Xu Jimo then spread open the tissue to cover the lower half of her face and stared at her eyes. “Really?”
Qianxi, with only a pair of eyes revealing, nodded forcefully. “But why cover my face?”
Xu Jimo put the tissue next to her hand. “Because eyes do not lie.”
Qianxi didn’t pick up the tissue, she simply lifted her arm and hastily wiped her face. She turned her head around to calm herself down enough to recover her normal facial expression. “Ok, it’s ok now.”
Her face had turned red from crying and her eyes were bloodshot, but she still had smile on her face.
It was probably bad timing for him to make this trip, yet it might also be the right time.
Xu Jimo crumbled the tissue with his fingers making rustling noise.
Finally, he said. “Then let’s go.”
“En.” She nodded.
But in the end they didn’t go because Qianxi’s cell rang.
“Excuse me. One moment.”
She picked up the phone and switched to English automatically. Her tone was polite, intonation was steady. The very last time Xu Jimo had any contact with English was when he took the CET6 (College English Test) in his freshman year. He had already forgotten most of it. He could barely make anything out of Qianxi’s fluent conversation, that contained complex terms, about her plan to study abroad.
As the conversation went on, the glow on Qianxi’s face started to dim gradually. In the end, she was simply listening. She bent her head so low that he couldn’t see her face. Then, she hopelessly begged. “Please give me another chance.”
But from the sound of the whimper, she must have failed.
This phone call lasted for a full half an hour.
After Qianxi hung up the phone, she nearly forgot what she was doing before the phone call. She looked around absent-mindedly and was startled to see Xu Jimo sitting nearby. “You haven’t left?”
He smiled. “Finished?”
“Uhm.”
Xu Jimo carefully looked her over------though she seemed still moody, at least she wasn’t crying and her expression was calmer than a while ago. Shouldn’t it be a very important issue for her to spend half an hour begging piteously?
Did it not matter to her that she had failed?
Qianxi observed his countenance, then shook her cell like nothing had happened to her. “Are you curious about this?”
He admitted it silently, but didn’t ask.
She curled her lips and told him plainly. “That’s the professor of my dream school in America. He really liked me during the interview and welcomed me to work at his laboratory with great vigor. But it’s no use now, because my parents rejected the university’s offer for me and it’s already passed the deadline. I emailed him asking for help. I hoped he could reverse it, but he said that there’s nothing he can do now.”
“I didn’t have much hope going in, so it’s not worth feeling bad about.” She lowered her head as she scratched the cell screen lightly back and forth with her finger nail.
She raised her head to look at him after a while. “I’m sorry. I’m going to resign from Yinyuan soon, I’m afraid that I can’t help you with anything. I should have told you earlier, but I was a little disoriented just now. I’ve kept you waiting for so long. I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Xu Jimo continued on purpose in case she didn’t believe it. “I didn’t hold much expectations originally, so I don’t feel very bad, either.”
Qianxi broke into a snigger and laughed through her tears. She looked up at the moon which was already high in the sky and said, “Can I borrow your identity card? I can introduce the people who are in charge of other investment institutes to you in return.”
Xu Jimo took out a card from his wallet and asked, ‘What do you want to do with it?”
Qianxi took it quickly. “I ran away from home. I don’t have my identity card with me because I left in a hurry.” She tapped her finger on the card which was not easy to come by. “I can’t register in a hotel without it.”
“Do you think that the receptionist at a hotel can’t tell whether you are a man or a woman?
“......oh, you are right.”
Xu Jimo took it back again. “Let’s go, I will take you to a hotel.”
It was around eleven o’clock at that point, the streets outside were entirely empty in the small community. Qianxi walked on Xu Jimo’s long shadow cast by the street lights. She walked with a complicated mood….to check into a hotel room.
It didn’t sound right no matter how she worded it.
This was the first time in her life that Qianxi had run away from home. She was a well known obedient child. Even during her most rebellious teenage years around middle school, she had never really rebelled against her parents. Only ghosts knew why she suddenly became so rebellious when she was already well into her twenties!
They arrived at a hotel as she was busy in her thoughts. Xu Jimo asked for a single room. Qianxi insisted to pay for it herself, but soon discovered that she carried very little cash and was barely able to scrape enough money for one room. The receptionist continuously tapped a ballpoint pen, impatiently waiting for her to count each and every coin, rolling her eyes at her.
She felt that there had never been a worse evening than today.
She turned around and found that Xu Jimo had disappeared.
A person walked slowly through the golden colored revolving glass door. He carried a bag with the logo of a convenience store.
“Take it.” Xu Jimo opened the bag for her to look inside. It was filled with drinks and foods.
Qianxi raised her head in confusion.
“I don’t know if there is anything you don’t eat, so I bought a little bit of everything.” Xu Jimo was thinking if there was anything missing. “Do you need me to leave some cash for you?”
Qianxi shook her head like a rattle-drum. “No. I can go back home tomorrow to get my stuff.”
He was stunned. “Don’t you plan on going home?”
“No.” She spoke firmly as she took the bag. “I’ll keep the food and pay you back. You are such a nice man, you’ll surely get sponsors. Good luck to you.”
She waved her hand and tactfully implied that he could go. “Thank you for today.”
Xu Jimo was wise enough to move back two steps. “Then, good bye.”
“En.”
Uh... curious what's next <3
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapter :)
ReplyDeleteLike Xu Jimo and Qianxi already, thanks for translating..
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