Chapter 23
On Saturday afternoon, Chen Huan and Lu Xiaofan played tennis. After showering, they stood in front of their lockers, getting dressed. Lu Xiaofan said the girl was very nice. Seeing we didn't have any water, she offered us several bottles. Chen Huan put on her underwear under her towel, slipped her arms through her bra straps, and fastened the clasp at the back. She asked, "Who? The coach?"
Lu Xiaofan nodded and said, "The one wearing basketball shoes is quite young."
Chen Huan lowered her head, searching for her hair tie in her bag. She said she was trying to sell classes, seeing how easy it was to make money. She was taken aback by the sharp edge of her own words. She didn't know when she'd started to assume this way about people. She'd been a fitness instructor before, and had handed people water. Was she trying to sell classes? It wasn't entirely without intention, but most of the time, it was just good intentions, a matter of convenience.
Perhaps she took her designer clothes too seriously. Her shoes and bag were so polished they looked like they'd just been picked up from the store. This was the last bit of dignity she had left. Besides money, what else could anyone want from her?
Lu Xiaofan looked at Chen Huan and put away the smile on his face. She said she wanted to have a drink at the door before leaving. Chen Huan nodded.
Leaving the locker room, they ran into the female coach again. Her basketball shoes were scrubbed clean, and her hands were wrapped in dark blue wristbands, reminding Shen Huan of Doraemon. Doraemon was checking equipment. Seeing them emerge, he stood up, closed his tablet, waved, and walked towards them. Lu Xiaofan paused, but Shen Huan pretended not to notice and headed out the door.
Doraemon caught up and called out to them. Chen Huan turned around. The woman looked only about twenty-four or twenty-five, with fair skin, a snug nose, and a face so tender you could pinch water out of it. Before she could say anything, Chen Huan interrupted, saying, "We don't buy lessons."
Lu Xiaofan glanced at Chen Huan in surprise. Chen Huan knew what she meant. How could she be so rude? Chen Huan pretended not to notice. These days, she really didn't have the energy to put on a polite face.
Doraemon grinned, revealing two uneven fangs. She said, "I'm not a private trainer, I only teach group classes."
Oh. Shen Huan's voice was flat, sorry.
The woman pulled a flyer from her canvas bag and handed it to them. She said, "I see you guys come here every Saturday to ride your bikes. Next week's an event for the Anti-Cancer Foundation. For every 10 kilometers you ride, the gym will donate 10 yuan. Would you like to sign up? Registration is free."
Doraemon's eyes sparkled with a smile. Chen Huan remembered that brightness; she too had eyes like that, filled with pure, reckless dreams of tomorrow, the day after, and the next ten years. Chen Huan lowered her gaze, pretending to read the leaflet. She dared not look directly into those eyes again; she felt dwarfed by them.
Arriving at the coffee shop, Chen Huan ordered a glass of ice water. They sat down at the wooden table by the door. Lu Xiaofan said, "Have a glass of juice. Juice makes you happy." Chen Huan shook his head. "I don't drink sugar." Lu Xiaofan said, "I also want to ask you, how much weight have you lost recently? You're just skin and bones. Do you still care about sugar?" Chen Huan said, "I don't drink sugar for weight loss."
Why? Lu Xiaofan asked, to prepare for pregnancy?
Shen Huan swallowed a big mouthful of ice water. "Why would I want to get pregnant?"
"Maybe Old Li has some extraordinary talent, otherwise why would you stay with him every night?"
Shen Huan laughed so hard that tears came out of her eyes. She took a tissue to wipe her eyes, and then she started crying again. Lu Xiaofan sighed and said, "This Wu Ruifeng is really enough. My old Lou also feels that he has treated you badly. Really, he himself doesn't dare to come to see you."
Shen Huan said it wasn't about layoffs.
Lu Xiaofan asked why.
Chen Huan stared blankly at the candy store across the street. There was a large red balloon at the entrance, swaying in the wind, as if about to fly away, only to be pulled back to the ground by a string. After a long moment, when the balloon slowly settled back onto the carpet, Chen Huan finally came to his senses.
"On the day of the layoffs, Wu Ruifeng called me to his office. I thought it was just a formality, so I didn't prepare anything. I packed up my things from Ronghui and went to the Erhuan headquarters. When I got to his office, I saw the PR person... I saw Lin Jing, the PR person, sitting on the sofa, crying. Wu Ruifeng said Lin Jing had reported him. I was a little confused. I don't like Lin Jing, but I've never offended her. What excuse could she have for reporting me? Besides, if the problem really needed to be resolved, it should be HR or legal affairs. It had nothing to do with Wu Ruifeng."
She paused for a few seconds and held back her tears. Lu Xiaofan looked at Shen Huan without saying a word.
"Later, Wu Ruifeng explained it to me. Lin Jing said that Li Ting had been sexually harassing her for quite some time, but she didn't dare report it to her direct supervisor for fear of retaliation." Shen Huan swallowed the rest of her words, but Lu Xiaofan finished for her: "Now that Li Ting is in a coma and the company has changed, she's not afraid anymore, right?"
Chen Huan sat still, his eyes fixed on the ground, sniffing softly as if swallowing a breath. He continued, "Wu Ruifeng was trying to persuade Lin Jing with kind words. Lin Jing just kept crying and crying. I couldn't say anything. Really. My mind was completely blank. Wu Ruifeng glanced at me, and I nodded and said yes. He went on and on, saying that Li Ting held a high reputation in the company, was always generous and warm-hearted, and treated outstanding juniors like his own grandchildren, men and women alike. Maybe he didn't grasp the right tone. He said, 'You can ask his wife.' I nodded."
Lu Xiaofan sighed, her lips twitching, but she was speechless again. She drained the juice from the glass. Tiny fibers and pulpy residue clung to the inside of the glass. After a moment, she spoke, "Lin Jing. The one who danced jazz at the company's year-end party, right?" Chen Huan absentmindedly replied, "I think so." As she finished, she reached out her right hand to cover her face. How could she have let someone else know her name?
Lu Xiaofan continued, "I've seen her a few times in your company photos. Her neckline is almost open to her belly button. I even warned Old Lou not to look."
Chen Huan knew what Lu Xiaofan was doing, and she excused Li Ting's behavior. Lu Xiaofan threw the blame onto Lin Jing, blaming her for wearing revealing clothes because she was Chen Huan's friend and Lou Hetai's wife. As long as Chen Huan didn't mention divorce, Lu Xiaofan had no choice but to take this stance.
Six months ago, this was also Chen Huan's stance. She thought Lin Jing's shirts were see-through, and when she spoke to her superiors, she either leaned over their shoulders or leaned forward, intentionally or unintentionally. She knew all the male superiors she didn't work with, and sent them handwritten cards for holidays. Chen Huan asked Li Ting to remove Lin Jing from Yixiang. She considered Lin Jing a nuisance.
But then she thought, if Lin Jing was a problem, and nurse Yao Li was a problem, then what about herself? Hadn't she once worked for Li Ting? Her eyes fixed on the red balloons at the candy store entrance again, her eyelashes trembling, but she didn't blink.
Chen Huan spoke again, "Later, I don't remember how Wu Ruifeng dealt with her. He gave her some money, or something. Wu Ruifeng felt he had done me a great favor. He didn't report the matter to HR or the legal department. He suppressed it and helped me resolve it. Otherwise, it would have been embarrassing for everyone."
"Oh, oh." Lu Xiaofan snorted, "The timing is quite fortuitous. Li Ting had a stroke, you were laid off, and now there's sexual harassment. Does Lin Jing have any evidence?"
Chen Huan shook her head numbly. Human resources and legal affairs needed evidence, but as a wife, she didn't. She remembered Yao Li standing in the bedroom doorway, her bra unfastened. She even thought that if Lin Jing hadn't been there, a Yao Jing would have emerged. As long as she was young and beautiful, she would one day be able to climb into Li Ting's bed. That would also be her bed.
Shen Huan swallowed again, trying to suppress the nausea rising from her stomach. She didn't know why she had come to tell Lu Xiaofan all this. Was she ready to divorce? If not, what good would it do her if word of this got to Lou Hetai?
Her mind was a mess. After a long moment, she spoke again, "I thought the matter was settled. But yesterday, I got a call from Lin Jing. She said that at the second quarter summary meeting, the strategic planning team said that because of the upcoming company mergers and acquisitions and restructuring, the bottom 10% would be eliminated."
Lu Xiaofan opened his mouth slightly and took over the conversation: "Lin Jing is on this list?"
Chen Huan's eyes were red again, and she nodded: "Lin Jing said that she ranked in the middle in the performance appraisal last year, and it would not be her turn normally. She said you should not go too far. I am recording the conversation on the phone now, and I will expose it. I don't know who is real and who is fake here, but if it is really exposed, and Li Ting is not here, how can I deal with those reporters." Chen Huan took another tissue.
"Who are you trying to scare?" Lu Xiaofan cursed, and then asked, "Which strategic planning group? Isn't that just a word from Meng Zixuan?"
Chen Huan nodded, "I want to go find Meng Zixuan. I want to ask if we can take another look at what's going on with Lin Jing's assessment score. If it's not a big problem, can we wait a few days so we can sit down and have a good discussion?"
"What did Meng Zixuan say?"
Shen Huan shook his head, “He didn’t answer the phone.”
"You went to New York for a few days last week. Did you go to see Meng Zixuan?"
Chen Huan shook her head again, saying she had other things to do. By this point, Chen Huan finally understood her purpose. She'd told Lu Xiaofan all this to play it off, hoping Lou Hetai would go to Meng Zixian to plead for her. She didn't want Lin Jing to bring the matter to light, hoping to cover up her lice-ridden marriage with a beautiful veil.
What she couldn't say was that after meeting her lawyer, she went to find Meng Zixuan.
Meng Zixuan didn't answer her calls, so she waited downstairs at his Brooklyn apartment. She always did this, abandoning her dignity and integrity, regardless of day or night, waiting for him. She waited for two hours, until the front desk changed shifts. Bored, she went to the mailroom in the lobby. Then she saw the recipient posted on a box in Apartment 703.
The finger-sized sticker looked freshly applied, its surface glistening white. The writing was fresh, the ink barely dry, and neatly inscribed were two names: Miles Meng, Sylvia Booker. A perfect match.
So her name is Sylvia, Shen Huan thought. She repeated the name, turned and left the apartment building, walked a few blocks, and stepped into the subway station.
Chen Huan waited on the platform. As the train roared into the station and the sweltering wind blew out of the tunnel, she asked herself when she would finally give up. When would she finally accept that he would no longer clean up her messes? Would it be until he got married? When his children were playing with water guns? Did he still hate her for breaking up with her? She selfishly hoped he still hated her.
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