Goddesses and Puppies

Just like Xu Mushen, Su Jiali had grown into her looks. Her girlish prettiness had evolved into a beautiful elegance. She was dressed in a long flowing skirt and a turtle neck, and her long hair was pulled back into a low, casual bun. Her heart-shaped face had simple understated makeup on and a pair of pearl earrings glistened in the light coming from the shop front.

Wen Rui had thought about how he might feel if he ever met her again. He'd wondered if he would still like her, whether he would still crave her undivided attention as much as he had back in high school. But now that he was finally seeing her, he realised that his heart was quiet in his chest.

No pulse racing, no beat skipping, no nothing besides its regular slow and steady thud.

Was it because this Su Jiali was as unfamiliar to him as everything else in this world now? He could see faint traces of the girl he used to sit behind in class but they were masked over by the changes in her face, her dressing, her demeanour. She was still lovely to look at but this dissonance between the girl he used to know and the woman she'd become was impossible to shake off.

So all those warnings the third year form teachers had delivered about early relationships were true. Teenage first love hardly ever lasted. All the strong emotions that Wen Rui had once thought he'd harboured for her amounted to nothing more than, than what? Memories of the years spent growing up together?

Somehow, he found that he was all right with that.

Su Jiali was still curiously regarding him like she was trying to decide if the young man huddled in a corner with the familiar eyes was Wen Rui or not. Wen Rui realised that his mask was covering half his face. He nodded at her.

"Hi."

She smiled and walked over before remembering that he was a celebrity, expression turning cautious as she looked around them. She didn't seem to have anyone with her and the rest of the crowd appeared too caught up in their lives to pay attention to their interaction, so Wen Rui didn't stop her from approaching.

"It's been a while," she said, with a hesitant smile. Wen Rui didn't know if she'd ever found out that he used to like her. Possibly she'd already known since the second year, he hadn't exactly been subtle. But neither of them had ever broached the subject, at least not up to Wen Rui's memories of the day she'd confessed to Zhou Ye.

"Yeah," he replied. "How have you been?"

Su Jiali tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Good," she replied. "I've been well. And you?"

Their conversation was polite, almost painfully so. Gone were the days of playful banter between them as classmates. Wen Rui wasn't sure if he'd kept in contact with her while still in university but judging from his WeChat message statuses, he hadn't spoken to a lot of his old classmates in a long time.

"I'm good." He wasn't going to bring up all the troubles he'd faced with the amnesia, they weren't nearly close enough for that.

Su Jiali nodded again. "I…" she hesitated. "I saw the news on Weibo about Zhou Ye and you," she said.

Wen Rui had to will himself to remain relaxed. He didn't like Su Jiali anymore, he was pretty sure of that much, at least, but he didn't like the idea of her bringing up Zhou Ye out of the blue. Was she still in contact with him? Why did he always have to be mentioned alongside Zhou Ye?

He waited for her to elaborate, unsure about how to contribute to the conversation. The silence that ensued was awkward. Su Jiali reached up to adjust the scarf around her neck.

"I didn't realise that you've both become such good friends," she settled on in the end.

Wen Rui nearly chortled. Good friends? No, they'd skipped right past that and straight into 'till death or divorce do us part' territory.

But it wasn't like he could tell her that…right?

"Kind of," he replied without going into further detail.

The corner of Su Jiali's mouth turned downwards. Wen Rui knew that she was struggling to find something to say but he couldn't bring himself to help her. The little prince that he'd been had enough social graces to not put her on the spot but this bizarre caricature he'd turned into wouldn't care. He found that he was somewhere in-between the two.

"That's good," she said finally as she tried to smile. "I never thought…never mind. I wish you both the best."

That was an odd way of phrasing it. Wen Rui didn't understand what she meant. Wish them the best with what? Their budding friendship?

"Thanks?" was his confused reply.

She didn't seem to want to linger anymore, reaching into her purse to pull out her phone. "My friend should be reaching soon," she said. "I won't bother you anymore, keep in touch?"

He nodded. "You weren't bothering. Keep in touch."

They didn't exchange WeChat contacts. But they could find each other's contacts from their class WeChat group if necessary.

Su Jiali turned and walked over without looking back. Wen Rui didn't watch her leave.

——————————

The apartment was still empty by the time he reached home. After taking a hot shower, Wen Rui snuggled down under the covers with a copy of his script. It was already heavily annotated, with highlights and even colour codes in different shades of neon to tell them which emotions to express and when.

But he couldn't concentrate. Meeting Xu Mushen had gone better than expected but bumping into Su Jiali left his mind racing.

Just a couple of weeks ago, he'd been crazy over her. And now, it was like she was a stranger to him. This left him blindsided like he was no longer in control of his emotions.

Oddly enough, the only person who gave him a sense of reassuring familiarity was Zhou Ye. The same snark, the same dismissive attitude, and even the same almost tyrannical brand of concern. Except, instead of going, "Idiot, did you forget to bandage that wound" whenever Wen Rui fell on the outdoor court and scraped his knees, Zhou Ye now said, "Idiot, did you forget the keys to the door" instead.

Maybe, if they'd shared the same door back in high school too, he would have heard Zhou Ye saying this sooner rather than later.

He didn't know what to think anymore.

Wen Rui wasn't sure how long he spent staring at the ceiling and not getting any work done. But his spacing out was rudely disrupted when a loud crash resounded through the apartment.

He jolted upright and leapt out of bed, rushing to the door. The first thing he thought about was the paparazzi going one step too far this time and breaking into the house. But he didn't think any of them, no matter how extreme, would be willing to risk the jail term this would entail if caught.

The second thing that came to mind was a burglar but this was unlikely too since the apartment had a top-notch electronic security system installed and it wasn't yet blaring his ears off. Still, to err on the side of caution, he grabbed a driver club from the golf bag in a corner of the living room and crept stealthily towards the noise, coming to a complete halt in the entrance of the hallway as he stared at the 'trespasser' in open disbelief.

There, sitting on the black and white Persian hallway runner, was none other than Wen Rui's contract husband. He had an elbow propped up on his knee as he scrubbed a hand over his tired face, confusion flashing across his features as he stared at the mess around him like he had no idea how he had gotten into its midst. Even from a couple of metres away, Wen Rui could smell the scent of liquor radiating off him and surrounding him was the toppled coat rack, a broken Ming antique vase and a potted plant that had seen better days.

…so Zhou Ye really had been at some sort of function. Wen Rui hadn't been old enough to drink back then but he'd seen the way people were forced to accept toast after toast at these events. Especially the younger ones, who had less leverage. There was almost an unspoken social rule that if you were of a lower generation, a less prestigious position, or had a favour to ask of someone else, then you would drink when asked to, to show your respect to the party offering the alcohol.

But Zhou Ye was the crown prince of the Zhou Group. Who on earth would dare to get him drunk?

That was a question for another time though. Right now, he had to figure out how to heave this clumsy lout off the floor and back into his room before coming down to tidy up again. If he left it till Auntie showed up in the morning to clean the place, the poor matronly lady might open the door in the morning and think she'd walked in on a crime scene.

"Come on," Wen Rui muttered, balancing the golf club against the wall before going over to try and haul Zhou Ye up by the armpits. It was a poor decision on his part, almost resulting in him spraining his back. Zhou Ye didn't move an inch. It was humiliating.

He was suddenly glad that Zhou Ye was drunk enough to gaze up at him with a helpless innocence that was so different from his usual cutting gaze. Wen Rui found his heart melting. With his tousled hair, vacant stare, and slight childish head-tilt, Zhou Ye resembled an overgrown puppy.

"Can you stand up on your own?" Wen Rui asked.

It took Zhou Ye a whole thirty seconds to process that sentence. Wen Rui was about to give up and find another method when hands fisted tightly in the front of his pyjamas, strong enough to rip off the first two buttons and expose a sliver of a pale chest.

Wen Rui scowled. "Oi," he muttered, "cut it out—"

Long arms wrapped themselves around Wen Rui's neck as he was pulled into a tight embrace.