SH – Chapter 57

01 Proposal

After the stage play’s tour came to an end, Yun Chu submitted reports, filed applications, and used a combination of threats and bribes to finally get a half-month vacation from Chen Jing. As Chen Jing approved it, she lamented in anguish, “Focus on your career, girl! A woman has to have her own career, you know! Half a month off! Do you have any idea how much money you’ll lose!”

Yun Chu, blissfully planning her vacation itinerary, gave her a perfunctory reply, “I’m not short on money.”

Chen Jing: “…”

The pain in her heart intensified.

She asked curiously, “Isn’t Director Jian preparing for a new drama? Even if you’re on vacation, you can’t just be dating!”

Yun Chu sent over her vacation schedule.

Chen Jing opened it, read two lines, and couldn’t help but roast her, “How could you fill an entire page with a schedule of just eating and sleeping?”

Yun Chu sent a smug emoji. “It’s called having a sense of ceremony!”

Chen Jing quickly approved the leave. “Happy vacation!”

That day, Yun Chu posted on Weibo: “Starting a half-month vacation today! Don’t miss me too much!”

The accompanying picture was a shot of her back as she stir-fried vegetables in a kitchen.

【I’m already dead from shipping just from seeing this picture.】

【What… are you shipping?】

【Teacher Jian definitely took this picture, and this has to be Teacher Jian’s house! She says it’s a vacation, hehe, but it’s just a honeymoon!】

【How could you let my little princess cook…】

【Her family owns a restaurant, what’s wrong with her cooking? I’m more worried her bad cooking will poison our princess!】

【Can you all stop fighting? The little couple is being all sweet and lovey-dovey, what’s the point of you all bickering? Do you even know what love is!】

【Not to be that person, but Yun Chu was a guest on an episode of The Most Beautiful Restaurant and nearly blew up the kitchen. Can she really cook now? I don’t believe it! Unless she does a livestream!】

【Support! Livestream, livestream, livestream!】

【I strongly support this, not because I want to see Jia Jian Cheng Chu being all lovey-dovey, but mainly because I want to see Yun Chu cook.】

【You all know what you really want to see.】

【Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, she actually started a livestream! And she’s using Jian You’s account! Sisters, let’s go!】

Yes, she had started a livestream.

Yun Chu was still bothered by the netizens’ comments about her blowing up the kitchen and vowed to clear her name and shed that stereotype. So Jian You put down her script and said thoughtfully, “Then let’s do a livestream?”

Yun Chu rolled up her sleeves. “Let’s do it!”

Yun Chu’s phone was upstairs, so Jian You used her own account to start the stream. She became Yun Chu’s human tripod, leaning lazily against the kitchen doorframe, mulling over script revisions while listening to Yun Chu chatter with the viewers. “Didn’t expect this, did you! I really started a livestream! Today, I’ll show you all what it means for a culinary god to descend to the mortal realm!”

As she finished speaking, the spatula in her hand fell into the pot.

The bullet comments were instantly flooded with “hahahaha.”

Jian You couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

【Hahahahahahaha, Yun Chu is such a comedian! So cute, so cute!】

【Baby is dressed like a little mochi ball today! I really want to squish her cheeks, sob, let Mommy cook for you!】

【So cute so cute so cute.】

【Did I just hear Jian You laugh???】

【Damn, I was wondering about this composition, this love-filled camera angle. Turns out it’s our great Director Jian behind the lens!】

【I can’t survive this shipping.】

【Dying of laughter, Yun Chu just glared at the camera: “No laughing!”】

【And then the camera shook a little.】

【To think I’d live to see Jian You’s camera shake. She must find her incredibly cute.】

【Reminds me of a line from a fanfic: I am the most professional photographer in the world. I’ve only ever taken one failed photo. It was when you smiled at me as I pressed the shutter. My heart skipped a beat, my hand shook, and the evidence was captured.】

【Even though the scene is hilarious, it’s not stopping me from shipping them to death.】

Yun Chu retracted her mock-glare and calmly picked up the spatula, trying to save face. “My hand was just tired, so I put it down to rest.” She waved at the camera. “Come film me chopping vegetables!”

The camera zoomed in.

【Yun Chu’s got some skills, her knife work is so professional?】

【Did she go train at New Oriental or something?】

【Is this the same Yun Chu who blew up the kitchen on that variety show?】

【Yun Chu isn’t blowing up the kitchen anymore. My youth is over!】

【Can we get another shot, I want to see Jian You’s reaction…】

【I can’t believe I’m staying up in the middle of the night to watch someone chop vegetables.】

【Doesn’t Jian You have a live-in housekeeper? Aunty, could you please start another livestream and film Jian You for me? I would be eternally grateful.】

【Don’t make things difficult for the aunty!】

“Mm,” Jian You suddenly spoke. “Aunty went home to rest, so she can’t livestream me.”

【Holy shit????】

【Is Jian You chatting with us? Hahahaha.】

【No, she’s showing off their love.】

【Jian You: Don’t you feel pathetic not having a wife to cook for you?】

【I’m so pathetic I’m laughing out loud.】

【Ahhh, since Director Jian is reading the comments, can I ask a question! Can you tell us a fun story about you and Yun Chu!】

Jian You looked at Yun Chu through the camera. Her hair had grown quite long and was tied back in a simple ponytail. Beneath her thin bangs, her pretty little face was focused and serious. She wore a light pink apron they had bought together while grocery shopping. Jian You hadn’t wanted to buy it at first. “Wen Yi wouldn’t wear this, would she?”

“Who said it was for Wen Yi?” Yun Chu held it up against herself. “Look how cute the little panda on it is. It’s for me!”

Jian You made a sound of realization. “You want to do it in the kitchen?”

Yun Chu: “?”

She blushed. “What are you talking about! I meant I want to cook! Where did your mind go!”

Jian You belatedly blushed as well, hastily tossing the apron from Yun Chu’s hands into the shopping cart and walking ahead. “I was also thinking about you cooking in the kitchen.”

But then it was Yun Chu’s turn to be relentless. She followed behind Jian You, muttering, “You were totally thinking something dirty! Hmph! You’ve changed! How could you go there? But if you really want to, it’s not impossible, you know. How about you wear it?”

In the end, Jian You was the one who wore it.

For a rare moment, Yun Chu got to see Jian You lose control.

They did it standing up. Provoked, Jian You gripped the counter, rising onto her tiptoes with nowhere to run. Afraid of being heard, she could only cover her mouth. When she finally reached her peak, her mind went blank, but she didn’t forget to praise Yun Chu. “You’re amazing, baby.”

Her thoughts had wandered far, and into the gutter. Jian You pulled her mind back and, with a soft “mm,” answered the question from the comments. “Xiao Chu is on vacation recently, but I still have to go to the studio to work, so there aren’t really any fun stories.”

“If I had to say something… mm, I really like it when she picks me up from work.”

【Director Jian: Let me just casually show off our love for you all.】

【I’ve already fainted from shipping.】

【Picking her up from work! I love this kind of everyday romance, sob.】

【Does she drive to pick you up! How come I’ve never run into you! Tomorrow I’m going to stake out the studio building and get a picture of our little couple’s beautiful love!】

“Just at the entrance to the alley.”

【???】

【Just at the alley entrance counts as picking her up from work???】

【Why not pick her up in bed…】

【Listen to the contentment in Jian You’s voice, she’s truly happy. Don’t be so love-struck!】

【How are you so easily satisfied, my little princess! She should be picking you up from your office! Ahhh!】

【Give it up. How could Director Jian bear to let Yun Chu travel so far to pick her up? What if she gets tired!】

Jian You watched the bullet comments fly across the screen. She thought about how she really did love it when Yun Chu came to the alley entrance to pick her up from work. Sometimes it would be drizzling, a light pitter-patter, and Yun Chu would be all bundled up, waiting for her at the mouth of the alley, stomping in puddles as she waited.

One, two, three. She would walk up to Yun Chu, and Yun Chu would look up in surprise. “Ah, you’re back!”

Her voice would be muffled by her mask, but her eyes would be sparkling, unable to hide her delight.

And so she would kiss Yun Chu through the mask and say, “I’m back.”

Yun Chu would take her hand, counting her fingers one by one before lacing them together, then pull her hand into her coat pocket as she led her home, chattering all the while.

It was all trivial things.

“Liuyue and Ludeng got into a fight today. Liuyue came running upstairs to me, whimpering. I was half-asleep, so I just hugged him and fell back asleep. When I woke up, Ludeng was curled up in Liuyue’s arms. I went downstairs and Wen Yi told me they had fought. How did they make up so quickly?”

“I read several scripts today, all ones that Sister Jing had screened, but I still didn’t find any I liked.”

“Grandma came over for lunch and praised Wen Yi’s cooking. She tried to poach her! But I talked her out of it. I said she could just come to our place to eat every day.”

“Teacher Jian, I’m so sleepy.”

She felt a sense of tranquility, a tranquility detached from the secular world. Ahead was her small courtyard with her cat and dog, with gentle lights and a soft bed, and she was holding the hand of the person she loved, walking home slowly under an umbrella in the light drizzle.

“Yun Chu,” Jian You called out suddenly.

Yun Chu, her back to her, was busy at the stove. The sound of the range hood mingled with the sizzle of stir-frying. Amidst the flurry of activity, she turned her head to answer, “Yes!”

“Why don’t we get married,” Jian You said.

Clang- The spatula fell into the pot again.

【Holy shit????】

【I didn’t mishear that, did I!!!! I’m not dreaming, am I!!!】

【What the fuck???】

【She just proposed????】

【This!】

【Even though it’s a bit sudden, I have to be honest, this scene is so heartwarming. It’s actually the perfect moment for a proposal QAQ】

【I’m actually fucking crying. I just witnessed the Jia Jian Cheng Chu proposal live!】

【It’s not me shipping the CP, it’s the CP force-feeding me!】

【Yun Chu is stunned.】

【She hasn’t moved for half a minute hahahahahahaha.】

【Am I the only one worried about the food in that pot that no one is stirring…】

【I think I can smell something burning through the screen.】

【Who cares! I ask you, who cares!】

【Yun Chu, stop staring! Say yes! Say yes!】

【I’m a little curious about Yun Chu’s expression.】

Yun Chu had no expression.

It was too sudden, she thought.

Same-sex marriage was legal now, and she had thought about proposing to Jian You on some romantic spring day. There would be balloons, fireworks, and lots and lots of beautiful flowers. In short, it would be as romantic as possible, something they could reminisce about for the rest of their lives.

She had never imagined a scene like this.

She was in her pajamas and slippers, wearing an apron with a goofy, black-eyed panda smiling on it. The range hood hummed above her, the food in the pot was half-cooked and messy, and Jian You had just said, “Why don’t we get married.”

It wasn’t romantic at all.

But all she wanted to say was yes. She wanted to say, yes, let’s get married. She wanted to say, let’s be together forever. She wanted to say, I’ll still love you when we’re old.

Tears suddenly began to fall, and once they started, she couldn’t stop them.

Jian You placed her phone on the counter, walked into the kitchen, and hugged her from behind, coaxing her softly, “Don’t cry, baby.”

Yun Chu shook her head, crying. “Why are you still calling me baby?”

Jian You: “Hm?”

Then she smiled. “Don’t cry, wife.”

The livestream audience: “???”

【I’m telling you, the black I see before me is not black, and what is this white you speak of? What is this curtain before my eyes that I’ve forgotten to open!】

【What baby! What wife! Is there something I’m not allowed to see? I can pay!】

【Requesting pay-per-view content!】

【Another day of crying over someone else’s love story.】

【She said yes, right? Tell me, this is very important to me!】

【Dying of laughter, #JianYouProposesToYunChu is already trending like crazy, and the two people involved are still busy crying.】

【I think I heard Yun Chu say: Do you smell something burning?】

【She finally remembered the pot of food, huh… I told you they wouldn’t get to eat Yun Chu’s cooking today!】

【Hahahahahahaha, everyone on the trending topic is going crazy shipping them, while the subjects themselves are in an emergency kitchen rescue. Hahaha, even without a picture, I can imagine it just from the sounds.】

【Livestream viewership has surpassed fifty million.】

【The whole world now knows that Jia Jian Cheng Chu blew up their kitchen while getting engaged.】

【Don’t make me laugh to death.】

Soon, the livestream was cut off.

Half an hour later, Yun Chu posted on Weibo: @Jian You V is my wife from now on! (ps: please forget about that pot of food thank you, I’ve quit the kitchen)

【I screen-recorded it.】

【Everyone, please stop spreading the story about Yun Chu burning the food. Spreading the story about Yun Chu burning the food is not good for her, so please, everyone, do not spread it!】

【Yun Chu: I’m so grateful to you.】

【Sob, that’s my wife, that’s my wife!】

【Going to bed happy!】

【Passerby, since you’ve clicked in, why not check out our #SuperTopic Jia Jian Cheng Chu! A real couple, no fake sugar, just pure sweetness. You won’t regret joining!】

Another half an hour later, Jian You posted on Weibo: @Yun Chu V, good thing I already had the rings ready. It was on a whim, but also long premeditated.

【Are you even going to let people sleep!】

【Get married! Get married right now! Lock it down!】

【@Yun Chu, take good care of my wife.】

【I’m actually going to cry.】

【She can’t even cook for you, sob, she won’t take good care of you, my princess!】

【Yun Chu can’t cook, but she owns a restaurant, thank you.】

【I’ll see myself out.】

【My CP is getting married!】

02 First Kiss

At the end of the year, Jian You and Yun Chu returned to Bei City. Initially, they stayed at their respective family homes, but after a couple of days, they started visiting and staying over at each other’s places.

Teacher Zhang remarked to his wife, “She never used to want to go out when she came home, just holed up in the study reading all day. Now she can’t sit still for a moment. It’s a good thing our two families live close, otherwise, all that back and forth would be such a hassle.”

Yun Chu’s parents also sighed, “A daughter can’t be kept, after all. Her eyes and heart are full of her Teacher Jian.”

Later, Teacher Zhang and his wife met with Yun Chu’s parents as Jian You’s family. After some discussion, they decided that even though the couple didn’t return to Bei City often, they could still buy a house. For one, it would appreciate in value, and for another, they would have a place to stay when they came back, saving them the trouble of running back and forth. And so, buying a house was put on the agenda.

Yun Chu sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the floor plans sent by the sales office. She liked all of them. She asked Jian You, “What kind do you want to buy?”

Jian You was wearing glasses and typing. She had to give a debriefing at the film academy tomorrow and was writing her year-end summary. She glanced over and said, “I’m fine with anything.” After a pause, she added, “Just one bedroom is enough. We don’t let guests stay over.”

“Why not?” Yun Chu asked, feigning ignorance.

Jian You gave her the answer she wanted. “Because I only want to be with you.”

Yun Chu smiled and wrapped her arms around her neck. “I’ll go to the academy with you tomorrow, too.”

Jian You hummed in confusion. “Don’t you want to sleep in?”

“It’s been too long since I’ve been back,” Yun Chu said.

It had been too long.

It was already winter break, and the students had long since rushed off campus. In the bleak north wind, the campus seemed a bit deserted.

The faculty debriefing was held in the school auditorium. It could hold three thousand people, but the faculty only filled the first three rows. Not wanting to be discovered, Yun Chu waited until everyone was seated and the meeting had begun before quietly slipping in and taking a seat in the last row.

She started to get sleepy as she listened and sent a message to Jian You.

Xiao Chu Xiao Chu Has a Wife: When’s your turn?

Xiao Chu Xiao Chu Has a Wife: 【sleepy.jpg】

Wife: I told you to sleep in.

Wife: It’s still a while. Should I have the driver come pick you up?

Xiao Chu Xiao Chu Has a Wife: I want to wait for you!

Wife: 【When you don’t know what to say, just give your wife a hug.jpg】

Xiao Chu Xiao Chu Has a Wife: But I want to go for a walk.

Wife: I knew it.

Wife: Where should I find you when I’m done?

Xiao Chu Xiao Chu Has a Wife: Let’s leave it to fate!

Wife: ?

Xiao Chu Xiao Chu Has a Wife: Use my location.

Wife: Go on.

So Yun Chu slipped out again. She had lived here for four years, after all. No matter how much it changed, she could always find a familiar spot. She had only intended to walk around randomly, but she ended up wandering to the academic building.

It was the same classroom from her acting class.

Just like back then, the layout hadn’t changed much. The blackboard was the same, the lectern was the same. Even on the wall where Jian You had pushed her, there was still a love poem written by who-knows-who. It was romantic and simple, yet perfectly fitting for the scene, and the handwriting was elegant.

It was that poem by Tsvetaeva: “I want to live with you in a small town, sharing endless dusks and the ceaseless sound of bells.”

Yun Chu’s fingers traced quickly over the wall.

Suddenly, she heard the door being pushed open.

Her hand paused slightly. As if she knew who had arrived, she smiled.

Just as she was about to turn, a hand suddenly pushed her shoulder. Caught off guard, Yun Chu stumbled backward, and an arm wrapped around her waist. A faint, familiar scent washed over her, the same as her own. They shared the same bottle of shower gel; it was a scent she had claimed as hers.

A hand cupped the back of her head and, with a little pressure, forced her to tilt her head up, their breaths mingling.

In an instant, they were back in that acting class, all those years ago.

Jian You had also walked in through that door, stepping into her world for the first time, so close to her. So close that if either of them moved forward by a single centimeter, their lips would meet. So close that she couldn’t hide her racing heart, which was screaming with affection and excitement.

That year, Jian You had only patted the back of her head before letting her go.

But this time.

Jian You’s lips fell upon hers.

She said, “Found you.”

She said, “Have you learned how to kiss yet?”

She said, “Let me teach you.”

-For a lifetime.