Summer #25

Don't Turn from Summer (莫负寒夏) by Ding Mo (丁墨)

Chapter 25

Chief Zhang, who is the host today, smiles: “This is a friend of mine, Miss Xue. Like Chief Lin, she is also back from America to start her own business. I took the liberty to invite her to our dinner.”

Miss Xue stands up and holds out her hand to Lin Mochen: “Nice to meet you, Chief Lin. I’m Xue Ning. You can call me Serena.”

Lin Mochen smiles lightly and shakes hands with her, “Nice to meet you, Serena.”

Xue Ning also responses with a little smiles, “I heard about you when I was in the U.S., Jason.”

Chief Zhang, who’s standing by them, interrupts, “Oh? Miss Xue graduated from Cornell University. Do the two of you happen to be alumni of the same university?”

Lin Mochen replies, “I graduated from Columbia University.”

Someone else nearby says with a smile, “Both from famous foreign universities. Super! Super!”

Xue Ning smiles and then holds out her hands to Mu Hanxia: “Manager Mu, nice to meet you!”

At the first glimpse of her sitting alone in the corner, Mu Hanxia is already amazed by her outstanding appearance. Now when formally greeted, Mu Hanxia still feels somewhat stunned.

Xue Ning is so beautiful. Black silky hair, a face creamy white as a polished jade, clear eyes, and rosy lips, it’s the kind of beauty that’s unusually fair-looking, graceful and gentle. It’s hard to tell the brands of her clothes, but apparently their texture is superb, and style delicate. Besides, her disposition is fabulous. Her eyes are like the polished black gem and make your heart skip a bit when they gaze at you. Mu Hanxia holds her hand in hers, feeling like holding a soft piece of jade.

Meeting her tender eyes, Mu Hanxia’s heartbeat quietly speeds up a little. She smiles, “Serena, nice to meet you!”

“Chief Lin, Miss Xue, please take the head seats.” says Chief Zhang.

Xue Ning glances up at Lin Mochen. He bows slightly, beckoning her to go first. Xue Ning lowers her eyes smilingly, withdrawing a glance that’s already extremely charming. They walk over to the table together.

A sudden but strong thought pops up in Mu Hanxia’s mind: they look like a perfect match for each other!

Wines are toasted, the hosts and guests talk and laugh so loudly.

From Mu Hanxia’s perspective, Lin Mochen, whose face is slightly red from the wines, looks more handsome and imposing among the group of business people. He occasionally exchanges a few words smilingly in a low voice with Xue Ning by his side. What they’ve been talking about, she can’t tell. But Xue Ning’s cheeks are also red, her eyes bright with flowing colors.

Chief Xie, who has finished drinking with everyone else at the table, wants to drink with Xue Ning. Xue Ning waves her hand and says that she doesn’t drink. But Chief Xie won’t give up and just keeps urging. Xue Ning frowns slightly, and Chief Zhang tries to help: “Xie Lin, can’t you take it easy?” Then Lin Mochen picks up his glass of wine and smiles, “Chief Xie, you are prejudiced. You only drink with the beautiful lady.Why don’t you drink with me, your business partner?”

Xie Lin chuckles and dries the glass with Lin Mochen, which puts an end to the incident. Xue Ning pours a hot cup of tea, hands it to Lin Mochen, and asks in a low voice, “Jason, are you doing OK?”

Lin Mochen smiles lightly, “I’m fine.” But Xue Ning grabs his arm and squeezes it a little, signaling him to drink no more. Lin Mochen glances at her hand, smiles, and nods.

Mu Hanxia is smiling all the time and interacting with those sitting beside her. However, even though it’s so noisy around her, she just feels a little absent minded. She feels like a bottle of bitter water was spilled in her heart, the light bitterness spreads all over quietly. But a few times, she feels Lin Mochen’s eyes rest on her.

Somehow, the education experiences of those two are brought up again. Someone suddenly asks, “Manager Mu is so young and so talented. You must have graduated from some famous university too, right?” And everybody looks in Mu Hanxia’s way.

Mu Hanxia pauses a little and says, “I don’t...”

Lin Mochen interrupts her suddenly, “I’m lucky that I could invite someone so talented as Manager Mu to help me. Diploma is just unimportant and irrelevant here.”

People are all taken aback, but then nod in agreement with smiles. Then the subject is changed to something else.

Mu Hanxia speaks no more. She looks up and meets Lin Mochen’s eyes. They gaze at each other for a moment before looking away.

When the dinner is over, they go downstairs. Chief Zhang arranges a car to send Lin Mochen and Mu Hanxia to the hotel they are going to stay. Xue Ning also has her own driver waiting. Her car is a Bentley.

They wait for the lady to go first. Xue Ning walks to her car and then turns around, “Jason, about the favorable policy for start-ups...”

Lin Mochen walks over and starts talking to her again.

Mu Hanxia remains where she is, looking up at the fountain at the hotel entrance that’s like a crystal curtain, as well as the glowing neon lights. She is somewhat lost in her own thoughts.

After a while, Lin Mochen walks back and the Bentley is gone. He gives Mu Hanxia a glance and says, “Let’s go.”

The driver is from Chief Zhang, so they can’t talk too much in the car. Lin Mochen keeps his eyes shut all the way, and Mu Hanxia just stares at the night view of Lin City outside the window. When they arrive at the hotel, Mu Hanxia goes to check in first, then they take the elevator upstairs.

There’s no one else in the elevator. So it feels quiet and empty. Lin Mochen starts, “Go to bed early. We have a lot of things to do tomorrow.”

Mu Hanxi: “Mmm.”

Seeing her extreme quietness, Lin Mochen speaks no more.

“Ding...” They step out the elevator and go into their own rooms.

The hotel was reserved by Lin Mochen earlier, a five-star one. Mu Hanxia has never stayed in such a good hotel. It’s so splendid, so clean and elegant. But she lies in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. After a while she suddenly realizes the problem -- she’s hungry. The kind of dinner they had, how could it fill her stomach?

She sits up, gets out of the bed, and leaves the room.

Lin Mochen takes a shower first after he gets into his room. Then he lies in bed and picks up the cellphone. What he sees first is the number Xue Ning left him just now. He remembers the pretty and graceful image of Xue Ning. Although he doesn’t know her background, she must have a strong one since Chief Zhang and others treated her so politely as an important guest. What’s more unusual is that she is a woman who gives people a comfortable feeling.

After a moment’s quietness, he then sees Mu Hanxia in his mind. She was extremely quiet and a little preoccupied today at the dinner. He drops the cellphone and picks up the internal phone, dialing the number of next door. Before the call gets through, he already has a habitual smile showing at the corner of his month.

But, nobody answers the phone.

--------

There’s a small street near the hotel. The night lights have just been turned on and all kinds of food stands are ready for business, their aromas flowing into the nostrils of people passing by. Mu Hanxia feels so familiar. She finds a relatively clean stand and sits down. She orders some kebabs and beers, chats with the owner, leaving all the messy tangles out of her worries. She feels so relaxed.

But when she is half-way through with the food, she receives the message from Lin Mochen: “Where are you?”

Mu Hanxia stares at it for a while, then replies: “I’m having a midnight snack.”

“Address?”

She sends him the address.

Shortly after, he walks over from the street intersection. With a piece of potato in her mouth, she glances at him under the dark night sky. He no longer wears the suit. Instead he has on a navy blue casual outfit, unexpectedly handsome and radiant.

Mu Hanxia doesn’t even want to give a second look.

He comes to her table, glances around, but sits down at last.

“What’s the matter?”

He looks at her coolly: “You run around in an unfamiliar city so late in the night. What if something happens?”

Mu Hanxia smiles slightly: “Sorry. This is so close to the hotel and there are so many people. Based on my rich midnight snack experience, nothing will happen. And you...would you like some food too?”

“No, thank you.”

Mu Hanxia doesn’t try to persuade him any more. Instead, she orders the eggplants that he likes. After a few minutes, the eggplants are grilled and sent to the table. She takes out a pair of unused chopsticks, split the sticks apart and rubs them carefully before handing them over to him: “Give it a try? The taste is good here.”

He glances at her, takes over the chopsticks and gives it a try.

They just sit there and enjoy the food like this, neither mentioning the dinner this evening or Xue Ning. In the soft street light, the smoke rises leisurely from the barbecue stand. Some people pass them on bicycles. Mu Hanxia looks up and smiles at him from time to time, enjoying the food enormously.

Lin Mochen came unperturbed but didn’t expect he would eventually sit at the street side like a young fellow, eating barbecue food with her. And it feels so natural. In his heart, he feels so calm, so at home.

After finishing the food, Mu Hanxia takes out her purse to pay, but Lin Mochen pays with his money. They walk side by side along the small path dappled by street light, walk along the big street so quiet in the deep night, and then walk to the brightly lit hotel entrance. Mu Hanxia suddenly recalls the last night they met in Jiang City, when they walked silently together for quite a distance just like this. But then he mercilessly gave her a stab in the back.

If this guy doesn’t say anything, you will never know his heart.

At the door of Mu Hanxia’s room, she looks up at him smilingly: “Good night, Jason.”

Lin Mochen gazes at her, his eyes as dark as the night sky.

“Good night, Summer.”

(I guess there are some readers who are following the story. I apologize to you for the slow progress of translation. I have been so busy lately and will stay busy for a while. So the translation may not come out as frequently as before. But I will try to find time for at least a few more chapters, hopefully until the couple formally establish their romantic relationship. Again, thank you for visiting my blog space and bearing with my less-than-satisfactory English. -- Palmtree H.)