Chapter 1
◎Three years as classmates, two years as deskmates. ◎
An old classmate called and asked me to have a chat.
He always speaks very directly and to the point.
"I need you to play the role of my wife."
Li Yuzhong and I haven't seen each other for a long time, but we both know what we've been up to. I recently lost my job; to be precise, participating in a lifestyle variety show got me a lot of flak, and now I'm in the embarrassing situation of not getting any scripts. Li Yuzhong always finds out about me very easily.
"Do you want to say whatever you dream about?" I asked calmly, suspecting he'd forgotten my personality because we hadn't seen each other in so long, but he wasn't the type to talk nonsense. I said, "Just tell me what's bothering you, even though I certainly can't help."
“I’m not joking,” he said seriously. “We’re good friends, that’s how it was in school, and I want to find someone I can trust to play the role.”
"I won't act."
"Five figures a day."
After a moment of silence, I asked, "Who is Father-in-law trying to fool?"
"My maternal grandmother."
I fell into an even deeper silence.
Li Yuzhong's maternal grandmother treated me very well, taking care of me from childhood to adulthood. Especially when she knew that my family couldn't take care of me while I was in school, she would always ask the Li family's servants to cook two meals and have Li Yuzhong bring them to me. You could say she was my "bread and butter provider".
I hesitated for a moment, then said, "It'll cost more."
-
It's been so long since I last saw Li Yuzhong.
When was the last time we met? High school, after high school graduation. Yes, that's right, we had our graduation performance back then, otherwise it would be hard to see each other. I was quite well-known at school then, and as a pretty girl, I was admitted to the performing arts program at a top university in China. Sigh, how naive I was back then, thinking I could overcome any obstacle. If I could go back in time, I might very well advise myself not to enter the entertainment industry.
All of this is just awful!
So much so that when I met Li Yuzhong on the street corner, he called my name several times, "Li Juntong, Li Juntong," but I acted as if I didn't hear him. My stage name is Li Xintong, and I really can't suppress the "Jun" in my name. It's been a long time since anyone called me that.
"Li Juntong".
On his third attempt.
I heard it.
My eyes shifted back from the bare branches of the trees not far away. Autumn gives one a feeling of dryness and a kind of restless, unfounded irritation.
When I saw Li Yuzhong, this was my only feeling.
I really don't need to bother him.
Three years as classmates, two years as deskmates.
"Classmate!" I smiled shyly, like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties meeting a long-lost friend, and staggered toward him, covering my lips with the back of my hand. He stared at me with a look that seemed to say, "Haven't you changed at all over the years?"
“You really…” he paused, “haven’t changed much.”
"You too?" I patted his coat; the fabric was as high-quality as ever. He has better fashion resources than me, no joke. I added, "Time hasn't left any marks on your face. Which cosmetic clinic did you get done? If it's not too expensive, please recommend me."
"...I won't do that."
I laughed out loud: "I know!"
We chatted on the street without going into a restaurant because I had just lit a cigarette. He lit one too. To our surprise, he thought I wouldn't smoke, and I thought he wouldn't smoke either, but we both smoked quite skillfully. I remembered how we used to badmouth the headmaster, saying that he always went to the restroom to smoke, and that students had heard the lighter going off, but Old Deng still denied it.
"That's just the kind of person he is."
Li Yuzhong spoke somewhat vaguely.
He held a cigarette between his lips, one end biting a spark, the other end shrouded in smoke. It was clearly harsh and unpleasant for him to speak like that, but he insisted on doing so. His core character was conflicted; he couldn't join in the conversations of his classmates, no matter how hard he tried.
Li Yuzhong was considered a "marginal figure" in high school.
I can only remember things from high school, things related to him. I can't remember the earlier times clearly, and we didn't have much contact after college and after I entered the workforce. Fortunately, he hasn't changed. I was afraid he would be corrupted by the harsh realities of society and become a smooth-talking, manipulative person.
That would be very unlike Li Yuzhong.
Li Yuzhong was indeed straightforward. After I finished my cigarette, he also stubbed it out and said to me, "I need a wife to deal with my grandmother and the rest of my family. If you're interested, let's go inside for a meal and talk it over in detail."
I said, "If I don't help you, you can't treat me to a meal?"
"I did not mean that."
"I know you didn't mean it that way." I thought to myself, teasing him is quite fun. But I also need to be careful about the boundaries. After all, our relationship is no longer the kind where "I unilaterally think we're good friends, but it could be a nuisance to him." Now it's just pure harassment.
We went into the restaurant. We sat down and ordered, but there wasn't much to choose from for just the two of us. We handed the menu to the waiter, and Li Yuzhong and I exchanged glances. I thought he was the one who should make the request; he should start the conversation. But he remained silent, just staring at me.
"How should we act?" I asked bluntly.
"Just act the way you're supposed to."
"You still have no clue!" I scolded.
“I mean… acting is your forte, so just act however you want, and I’ll play along, as long as our family doesn’t find out.”
That's more like it.
I said, "You should have said so earlier. Every time, I have to rack my brains to figure out what you're thinking. If I guess wrong, you're unhappy, and I'm unhappy too. After all these years, you still ask me to do this every time we meet, which I find very strange. I thought you would find someone you knew better to do it."
"...Then you're not going to do it?"
"Hey, I didn't say that!" I sighed. "Alright, you're so stubborn and don't know how to talk properly. You should have been more polite to me."
"Five hundred thousand a month."
“Godfather,” I said.
"..."
He said, "Let's eat the vegetables first."
-
I asked, "How did you know I needed money?"
He paused with his chopsticks, "Are you short of money?"
This is how he lies, it's hilarious. He's the kind of person who wouldn't show surprise even if he were. Terrible acting, terrible classmate. And he even hired someone to play his wife? What kind of insane person would do something like that?
Only someone with a mental illness would take on this kind of job.
Me.
I'm really at my wit's end. I'm broke, I just had a falling out with my company about terminating my contract, I have no work commitments, and I'm so bored I could till the fields. Now there's a job for me, it's like getting a script for a married woman to act in, and the monthly fee is 500,000.
What else is there to say?
I'm willing to do anything, no matter what.
I adopted a highly professional attitude: "Where's the script? What kind of wife am I supposed to play? Is there a character outline?"
"...I haven't decided yet."
"I don't know how long I'll have to act?"
How long can you keep this up?
Without hesitation, I said, "Five hundred thousand a month. I'll act for as long as you want, but the condition is—can you afford to pay me for that long?"
"I can afford it for a long time."
"How long is 'a long time'?"
He turned his head away, his dark eyelashes fluttering gently. The soft light cast indistinct shadows. My alarm bells went off immediately, fearing that the "long time" he mentioned was a hundred or two hundred years. He was rich, but I didn't want to look like a fool, dumbfounded.
"Stop!" I cleared my throat. "I hate rich people, stop talking! Let me think about this. First, we need to come up with a story about us reuniting after many years and falling in love again, one that your family can believe, and it needs to have the intimacy between lovers, not just staring at each other blankly like before. Also, I need to know at what point we really need to get a marriage certificate, uh, a real one?"
Will this affect your career?
"That's unlikely..." With my current status, even suicide wouldn't make headlines. All the big stars are scrambling for trending topics like crazy; it's not my place. If it were really revealed that an 18th-tier actor like me was secretly married, it would likely worsen my reputation.
"Then I'll take it." He nodded slightly, as if trying to convince himself. Come on, I thought to myself, am I really that bad? Besides, we really had a good relationship, otherwise he wouldn't have come looking for me. I also suspect he hasn't been with any other woman all these years.
He's such a boring person.
hehe.
"When should we go pick it up?" he asked.
I said, "What's the rush? The normal procedure is to meet the parents first, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. Let me introduce you. This is my girlfriend, Xiao Li, who is my high school classmate. Then I'll say, 'Hello Uncle, hello Aunt, Grandma, it's been so long, I've missed you so much!'"
"...You're quite skilled at your job."
"After two or three rounds of this, we can announce the good news of our engagement so that our families can prepare. Then, we'll get married, have the wedding, have a honeymoon for two or three weeks, and then we can go our separate ways normally, since we're both very busy with work, until you stop."
He listened and said, "Hmm."
"Your grandmother has been pressuring you to get married for over a year or two. Isn't she in good health? Is it really necessary to go through all this trouble to deceive her?"
"She's always causing trouble, she's a nuisance."
“There’s no point in faking a marriage and having someone pretend to be your wife.” I frowned. “Never mind, I really don’t understand you.”
Hearing the last sentence, he lowered his brows, glared at me, and gave me a hard look. I knew he would get angry if I said anything derogatory about Li Yuzhong. But what I said wasn't wrong, and he wouldn't really take it to heart. The way he sulked was exactly the same as when he was in high school.
I don't understand you, but you've deliberately not wanted me to understand.
I said to myself.
In short, I still need to do some research on how to play the role of Li Yuzhong's wife. I have somewhere to go in a while, but the rain is quite unfortunate, and I didn't drive. If Li Yuzhong could give me a ride, I can ask, and he certainly won't refuse.
“Let’s go to the square across the street,” I said. “I really need to pick up the bag I reported for repair. They’ve been urging me several times, but I’ve been too lazy to go out lately.”
"Hmm." He turned the car key.
I added, "This bag broke in a really strange way. It was a gift from my ex-boyfriend. The day I broke up with him, the chain suddenly broke."
“Unfortunately.” He lightly applied the brakes.
"I didn't tell you I broke up with you, did I?"
"No."
"Then I won't say anything more."
I'd already said I wouldn't say anything more, but just before getting off the bus, he asked me again, "Is your ex-boyfriend... still that Chi Jiansheng? Or someone else?"
"It's him, no one else," I said without hesitation. "Don't worry, I'll handle things very clearly. At least while I'm pretending to be your wife, I won't look for anyone else. I'll do my job for every penny I get paid. By the way, do you have an umbrella in your car? Could I have one?"
“…Yes.” He handed it over.
I took it, and the instant my fingers touched it, a jolt of electricity shot through me, then shot back. It all happened in a mere fraction of a second. I had this feeling, after all, our relationship wasn't as close as it used to be; we weren't exactly inseparable anymore. And another thing was, he wasn't my deskmate anymore, but a real, unfamiliar adult male with whom I had an exchange of interests. I don't want to say that he's actually gotten even more handsome.
"Let's get started, and contact me when we have a clue," I said.
"Okay, just call me." He nodded.
"Okay." I replied curtly, befitting his style. I'm not the heartless type; we're old classmates, and we haven't seen each other for so many years. We sat down and barely exchanged a few words before it all turned into social niceties. But there are things outside of those social niceties, things I'm not inclined to dwell on.
Three years of classmates
We were deskmates for two years.
One year left,
We could barely be considered cohabiting.
I really shouldn't be so shy.
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