The next day, I went to work as per normal, Jiang Chen went to accompany his parents and Li Wei, in that time period he made a phone call to me, and said he was in some garden looking at sculptures. The moment I heard the word 'sculptures', the artist cells in my bones began to hoot and howl wildly, supposing that my artist cells had mouths.
I asked Jiang Chen, what kind of sculptures were they? He said, humans, animals.
I then asked him, what materials were used then? He said, metals, plaster.
I asked him again, are the lines elegant then? He said they weren't straight lines.
I ultimately was left without choice, I could only tell him, then you tell me about a sculpture which left the deepest impression on you. He said, there was a bronze statue of Qu Yuan* with his head raised and chin facing the sky that left a very deep impression on him, because the colours were very trippy. (T/N: Qu Yuan: a famous statesman and poet from the Warring States (he lived around 300 years B.C), famous for his patriotism and classical poetry, and for being really depressed and anxious due to his concerns about his State (Chu). He famously is said to have committed suicide in a river after hearing about the capture of the capital of Chu. We celebrate his death anniversary every year (Dragon Boat Festival), where we race dragon boats (a tradition originating from the act of searching for his body in boats) and eat rice dumplings wrapped in leaves (which originated from the rice people threw into the river back then as an offering to his body and to distract the fish from his body.)
The moment I heard that I was very excited, I questioned closely, asking in what way were the colours trippy? He said the entire bronze statue was a golden copper colour, but there was a circle of ash gray at the Qu Yuan's raised chin.
I pondered for a moment, and explained to him that that was most likely to highlight Qu Yuan's beard, in artistic expression, using something as a foil to another was a very important type of technique. What you saw was an entire bronze statue of Qu Yuan, perhaps that artist was actually using an entire bronze stature to highlight that circle of white beard hairs, perhaps it was a symbol, to symbolise that the truth was unafraid of time and hardships and so on.
Jiang Chen said, Chen Xiaoxi, you have allowed me to understand that art is really connecting.
I said humbly, you're too kind, you're too kind.
He then said, artists really don't have it easy, in order to symbolise that theme you said, he most likely thought of many methods, only then could he get the birds and pigeons to perch on Qu Yuan's chin every day and poop.
You see, how difficult us artists have it, we even have to take care of the toileting locations of birds and pigeons.
In the afternoon, we had a meeting that lasted the entire afternoon because of the manhwa, the thing I hated most in this life was having meetings, not 'one of (the things I hated) most'. I always felt that with a group of people sitting foolishly in a circle, there at least ought to be a bonfire lit in the middle or something……
Our company never held meetings, really with only three people, Fu Pei also was ashamed to say the two words "hold meeting", but the other company was different, when we reached their conference room, we jumped in shock, there were a circle (of people) densely packed and sitting round an oval table, seated sparsely surrounding them were even some girls holding big black books, looking like secretaries.
The meeting was smelly and long, there was a whole mass of conversation about the tentative plan for the manhwa, then after a long time (it turned out that) there was not even a single member in this meeting who knew how to apply screentones, they were merely doing it as a mere formality, in any case, it was all good as long as the manhwa I drew in the end had a prop that was their company's reading machine.
After the meeting was over, Fu Pei took the initiative to suggest that he wanted to upgrade the office equipment for me, he said that he was going to change my computer, my scanner and my drawing boards and et cetera completely to the newest ones. Even though when I drew comics, I was accustomed to first use pens to draw, then scan it to the computer for colouring, with regards to the matter of wasting company funds, I was still extremely passionate.
As it was almost time to get off work after the meeting was over, Fu Pei simply sent me home.
I did not anticipate that I would meet an Wu Bosong leaning against the door, smoking as he lowered his head at the entrance of my house, but there were too many matters in the world that I hadn't anticipated, I too hadn't anticipated that Obama would still be able to become the American President without my support.
Hearing footsteps, Wu Bosong raised his head, the moment he raised his head, I was so shocked that I took two steps back. Just two or three days ago, (the Wu Bosong) I saw was still radiant with happiness, how was it that all of a sudden, his facial hair was stubbly and unkempt, and he was so dispirited and aged that he seemed like dried radish that had been pickled.
I could roughly guess what had happened, I could only make an effort to pretend to be calm as I said, "You've waited for very long, have you? Why didn't you call first?"
He said, "I did call, you didn't answer."
I fished out my phone, only then did I discover that I had turned it on silent mode while having the meeting in the afternoon, I hurriedly explained, "I turned it on silent mode and forgot to change it back."
Then I fished out my keys to open the door while greeting him, "Before you come it, put out that cigarette, why do you appear to be so haggard?"
The moment Wu Bosong entered the door, he sat on the sofa motionless, I searched out a teabag, made a cup of hot tea and stuffed it into his hands, then I used the most intellectual, most understanding, least gossipy tone of voice to say, "What happened to you? What happened?"
He fixated his gaze on the tea in his hands and said, "Ranran wants to break up with me."
I bit my lip, took a deep breath and asked, "And?"
"And don't you know it all already?" He raised his head and looked at me, "What kind of frame of mind did you use to look upon this relationship of mine? Enjoying the show?"
I suppressed my anger and said, "If you must speak like this, I feel that I have no need to listen."
"I'm sorry." He sighed, "It's not directed at you."
I waved my hands, "Then what do you intend to do following this?"
"I don't want to break up." He said, "Ranran said that person is already beginning to have suspicions, she's very afraid that if he knows, he will do some things to me, you know that person……"
I knew, plus with me being born as a normal citizen, my hands were tied.
We sunk into a period of silence, at last Wu Bosong's eyes lit up and he said, "I'll take her with me and leave, we'll return to New Zealand."
I pointed out the most important point he had overlooked - if Hu Ranran would leave with him.
He said, "Why won't she leave with me?"
I said, "Because her home is here, her parents are here, she doesn't dare to be certain that after she leaves with you, the people in her family won't as a result meet with some terrible things."
The light in Wu Bosong's eyes slowly dimmed, "I can't even protect my own girlfriend, am I very useless……"
I really didn't know how to comfort him, that set of silly talk that I normally used to deal with Jiang Chen also seemed to be not very suitable, you think about it, if at this time I said that actually you too aren't very useless, at least you can speak English and so on, I felt like he could possibly splash the hot tea in his hands at me.
The scene sank into him incessantly repenting and lamenting remorsefully, with me incessantly repeating that no, no, you're thinking too much. And the most sorrowful thing was that, we both knew that this sort of conversation wouldn't help the situation at all, but the only thing we could do was to repeat ourselves like this.
When Jiang Chen came in, he saw two people sitting in the living room lost in thought with lifeless eyes. After he finished greeting Wu Bosong, he walked over, patted my head and said, "Why didn't you answer the phone? Have you eaten?"
Only then did I realise that the two of us had sat opposite each other wordlessly for an hour or two, yet we still hadn't thought of a way to resolve the matter at all.
Wu Bosong stood up and said that he was going to go back, Jiang Chen clapped his shoulder and said, let's go, let's go eat first, leave after we're done eating.
We ate at the Sichuan cuisine restaurant downstairs, Jiang Chen had already accompanied his parents and had eaten, I ordered a basin of pickled vegetables with fish, Wu Bosong ordered a dozen beers, Jiang Chen and I both accompanied him to drink, because at this moment, the only thing left that we could help him with was most likely accompaniment.
After two glasses went down into his stomach, Wu Bosong began to say dishearted words of wanting to give up, he even began saying words about how actually, he also didn't really love Hu Ranran that much, and Hu Ranran was also not considered to be a good woman and so on.
Our hearts were filled with indignation, yet we had no words to reply him with, so again we could only accompany him and continue to force ourselves to drink alcohol, Jiang Chen's stomach wasn't good, I didn't let him drink a lot, Wu Bosong was busy talking long-windedly and also didn't drink much alcohol, hence the result was that I somehow unfathomably drank till there were two Jiang Chens and two Wu Bosongs appearing in front of my eyes.
But my consciousness was actually very clear, it was just my movements that were a little sluggish, I supported myself by holding on to Jiang Chen's shoulder, and passed the greater part of my weight onto his body, then closed my eyes and listened to their conversation.
Jiang Chen told Wu Bosong, I know you will still find people to love, but they all won't be this one. I don't know if you can live your days like that. I've tried it before, and I can't, that sort of feeling is very strange, I don't know how to describe it to you. There won't be any sort of heart-tearing and lung-cracking pain, but there will be discomfort. In medicine, we have a formulation called Numerical Rating Scale for pain, namely NRS, if you divide pain onto a scale from 0 to 10, a total of 11 numbers, with 10 being the most acute and severe pain, and 0 being no pain, that sort of discomfort is probably only a zero point something (rating) of discomfort, but it is classified as chronic pain, it will remind you of its existence at all times.
Wu Bosong scowled and said, can you draw an analogy that I can understand?
I wanted to nod my head with all my might and say, Wu Bosong, we truly are close confidants, this matter of conversations ascending into a professional perspective was truly very perplexing.
Jiang Chen supported my head that was lying askew on his arm, only then did he say, "It's roughly as if you are always wearing a pullover sweater backwards, you'll always feel faintly uncomfortable, and feel that your neck is strapped unbearably tight, while this sort of discomfort is negligible, but you just are unable to ignore it."
This was the first time I heard Jiang Chen talk about his feelings so concretely, even though his analogies – be it his analogy of the pain rating scale or his analogy of the pullover sweater - were all considerably unknown*, but I still felt very moved. My clear consciousness wanted to express how moved I was to him, but my body that had been numbed by alcohol clearly was not prepared to support t, because every word that was spat out from my mouth was only indistinct murmuring of a drunkard, and my action of wanting to hug him lastly also merely evolved into me lying paralysed on his body in a drunken state, blowing alcoholic breaths. (T/N: the original term is '冷门' (cold door), which kind of refers to sleepers/neglected things. E.g., if you call a university course 'cold door', it means not many people choose to study it/know about it; or if you call a film 冷门, it's a very niche film with not many people choosing to watch it.)
Afterwards, Wu Bosong said a nonsense statement, and Jiang Chen too parroted that nonsense statement. That nonsense statement was, "Xiaoxi is drunk."
Xiaoxi, aka me, had her body drunk but her mind was not drunk, as a matter of fact, I was still looking at this world with abnormal clarity, it was just that they all didn't know.
After exiting the restaurant entrance, Wu Bosong said he was going to leave, then he left, his shadow rustling as it was lengthened and shortened by the streetlights. I'm really sorry friend, I can't help you much.
Jiang Chen crouched in front of me, and pulled at my hand, making me lie on his back. He said, little drunkard, I'll piggyback you back. He used such soft intonation, I've really never heard it before.
The journey back home wasn't long, Jiang Chen walked very slowly and steadily. I pulled at his hair, bit at his neck, he only laughed as he propped me and jolted me up for fear that I would slide downwards. I used my index finger to poke at his dimple that came out when he laughed, then I changed fingers and used my middle finger to poke it, then I changed to my ring finger, then my pinky, then my thumb, he didn't dodge or duck out of the way, he only laughed till his dimple deepened further.
Translator's Corner:
My favourite chapterrr!!! I love Jiang Chen’s analogies here, which the drama totally glossed over in one sentence sobbles ;-; Thanks Xri for letting me translate this chapter hehe!!