Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“What do I have?” The girl's bright eyes were full of confusion.

Shi Tuo’s earlier analysis sounded so impressive, but how could the conclusion be so trivial, like it was just left unfinished.

“Talent.” Shi Tuo repeated, “You have acting talent.”

An Jiujiu: “From... where did you see that?”

Shi Tuo didn’t immediately respond, he just started fiddling with his phone again. This time, he pulled up the photo of An Jiujiu from the Northern ancient city, the one that Yang Zhengyi had noticed, the one with her dressed like a 90s university student.

An Jiujiu herself didn’t like this photo. She thought it looked strange, with her eyebrows drawn too thick, her nose shadows too harsh, and the lip line too obvious. The sun was blinding when the photo was taken, and the photographer had used a huge fan blowing straight at her head. She could barely open her eyes, so her smile looked forced.

“You look completely different in this type of commercial photo than in your daily life,” Shi Tuo said. “It’s been like this since childhood. Your commercial photos look very...”

The academic achiever paused for a moment, trying to find the right word. “Very much like the people drawn in our textbooks.”

An Jiujiu narrowed her eyes. “The people drawn?”

His expression certainly wasn’t complimenting her looks!

Shi Tuo casually grabbed a Chinese textbook, pointed to an ancient text, and then to the illustration of Laozi on the page. “Like this.”

An Jiujiu: “??”

She couldn’t even care about respecting the ancients anymore. She nearly jumped up, angry enough to shout: “This one even has a bald head!”

“It’s not about looking similar,” Shi Tuo, feeling his Chinese wasn’t sufficient, said. “It’s more like the people printed on paper—no emotions, just empty.”

An Jiujiu: “...”

She sighed in amazement. “Wow, Shi Tuo, your insults are so sophisticated now.”

They were so sophisticated that she didn’t even know how to retort.

Shi Tuo sighed. “I didn’t insult you. Being ‘empty’ might actually be a good thing for an actor.”

An Jiujiu: “What the hell do you know!”

Shi Tuo: “...”

An Jiujiu: “Hmph!”

There was silence for three seconds.

An Jiujiu used the pen in her hand to poke Shi Tuo’s hand.

Shi Tuo glanced at her sideways.

An Jiujiu smiled sweetly, her beautiful nose squeezing out a few smile lines, and she tilted her finely-shaped chin like a child.

Shi Tuo turned his eyes away.

If this was in the past, he could have given a thirty-minute speech on the importance of not ruining the mood in such moments. He loved lecturing An Jiujiu on these things; the way she would get so flustered was fun. She could argue back at anything he said, but when it came to serious matters, she could never refute him. All she could do was wrinkle her pretty face into a bitter expression.

Now, though, he was softhearted in front of that face, and couldn’t even tease her like this.

“I’ve watched some interviews with really good actors,” Shi Tuo said, pushing the sweet-smiling face slightly away, maintaining a calm expression as he continued his analysis. “Some actors are very talkative. When they talk about acting, they have a whole set of theories. Some actors don’t talk much, and when asked why they act that way, they’ll analyze the plot and the character’s design.”Chapter 6

“You don’t seem like the kind of person who can talk theory.” Shi Tuo said. “You’re more like the type who can act well even if you can’t explain the reason for it after babbling for a long time.”

“Because you’re empty, so you can embody any soul,” he added.

An Jiujiu tilted her head, thinking that he had just insulted her again, but at the same time, she felt that this deep and profound-sounding statement might actually have some truth to it.

“Of course...” Shi Tuo lowered his head and twirled his pen. “I’m just an outsider, I don’t know anything.”

An Jiujiu: “...”

She scooted her little stool closer to Shi Tuo’s side, ready to tease the prickly boy a bit, but her phone rang.

It was from Wang Shanshan.

She was told to come home before 11 o’clock today and to stop by the wonton shop at the community entrance to bring some fresh wontons back.

An Jiujiu hung up the phone and suddenly lost her playful mood. She started flipping through the materials Shi Tuo had given her, listlessly.

After finishing the homework he had to do for the day, Shi Tuo finally looked up at An Jiujiu. “What’s wrong?”

It was already 10:30, and they only had a few more minutes to chat.

Last time, An Jiujiu had openly torn through the nearly transparent “window paper” between An Huaimin and Wang Shanshan in front of the entire building. Wang Shanshan had gone to the city where An Huaimin worked and met that woman.

Their meeting was actually calmer than expected. The woman was also there working, registered in the labor market, doing washing dishes, chopping vegetables, cleaning, and various other jobs. She was younger than Wang Shanshan but not as good-looking.

She was pregnant, and when she saw Wang Shanshan, her belly was already showing. The 40-year-old woman, wearing oil-stained maternity clothes, just clutched her stomach in fear when she saw Wang Shanshan. She couldn’t say a word.

She said she didn’t know An Huaimin was married at first. After they had been together for three years, one day, she saw a birthday photo An Jiujiu had sent to him on his phone, and that’s when she realized An Huaimin was married, with a grown-up daughter.

But she didn’t want to leave An Huaimin because she had no fixed job, no city household registration, no house, and no money.

She felt she had done nothing wrong. They hadn’t had a child in the ten years they’d been together, and only recently, when An Huaimin began considering buying a house in the city, did she get pregnant.

She said she had also sacrificed, not having a child at the best time.

It was absurd.

In the end, Wang Shanshan didn’t say anything. She called An Huaimin aside and said, “Let’s get a divorce. The daughter stays with me. We can sell the house, and we’ll split the proceeds equally. Before Jiujiu graduates from college, you’ll still transfer two thousand yuan to me every month. I don’t want anything else.”

After saying all this, she went back to Wang Cheng and called her parents back in her hometown, telling them about An Huaimin’s child with another woman and that she wanted a divorce.

Wang Shanshan’s hometown was in a secluded little fishing village by the sea. In that village, a woman getting divorced was like the sky falling. So, her family quickly sent someone over.

“Your maternal grandparents are here?” Shi Tuo asked.

An Jiujiu shook her head. “My great-uncle came. He’s over 70, came by train, and my mom almost lost her mind when she got the call last night...”

Shi Tuo: “...Great-uncle?”

“They say matters like this need the maternal uncle to step in,” An Jiujiu said, feeling the absurdity herself. “He says that my mom and I, being two women, would be bullied, so he’s here to support us.”

She kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.

This great-uncle was not exactly a refined man. He didn’t flush the toilet after using it, spat everywhere, drank three times a day, and every meal had to have five dishes and one soup.

The fresh wontons she was going to buy were definitely for this great-uncle.

“Divorce is nothing like how it’s portrayed on TV,” An Jiujiu said. “Divorce is terrifying.”On TV, men and women are dressed in dazzling clothes, stamping documents in the courtroom, and then they part ways once they leave the court. In real life, Wang Shanshan, who is preparing for a divorce, wakes up early and stays late, taking care of her great-uncle. Because her name isn't on the property title, whether she’ll get half of the property depends on the man’s conscience. If his conscience isn’t enough, they’ll have to go to court.

Reality is far scarier.

“And...” An Jiujiu looked at Shi Tuo. “I only found out these past few days that my parents actually got married for love.”

Wang Shanshan used to work as an operator at a paging station, which in the mid-90s was considered a stable and good job. An Jiujiu’s looks are 60% inherited from Wang Shanshan, so it’s easy to imagine that Wang Shanshan was also very beautiful when she was young. Many men pursued her. The building where that paging station used to be is now a mobile operator’s headquarters, and the old doorman still remembers the glory days. He said that back then, Wang Shanshan was the one that many young men lined up to pursue. On winter nights, half of the young men outside would be waiting for her to get off work.

In the end, Wang Shanshan chose An Huaimin.

On one hand, An Huaimin was young, handsome, had a stable job, and was a local. On the other hand, among all the men, An Huaimin was the one who treated Wang Shanshan the best.

He was almost always at her beck and call—bringing her breakfast, bringing her supper, taking care of her when she was sick, shopping with her, remembering every holiday, and giving her all sorts of little gifts. Every romantic scene An Jiujiu had seen in love novels, her dad had done for her mom.

The final ending, of course, was the princess marrying the prince, and the prince promised to love the princess forever at the wedding.

But by the time she was eighteen, her father had already been having an affair for ten years.

“So scary,” An Jiujiu sighed. “No wonder fairy tales never talk about what happens after marriage.”

“It’s not the problem of marriage,” Shi Tuo said. “It’s that human nature can never withstand scrutiny.”

An Jiujiu bit the end of her pen and looked at him.

Shi Tuo laughed. “My parents also married for love. You can see what it’s like now...”

An Jiujiu let out a sound of realization.

Shi Tuo’s family wasn’t happy either, but he had been unhappy for a much longer time, and over time, An Jiujiu had just stopped noticing.

Shi Tuo’s parents were both from Wang Cheng. His father, Shi Dingbang, was a scholar, a researcher at a water plant. His salary wasn’t much more than the bonuses of the business department, but the job was stable.

Shi Tuo’s mother, Zhang Rou, was a university graduate from that era, majoring in Chinese. After graduation, she was assigned to a local newspaper as a reporter. However, Zhang Rou was shy and not good with words, and being a reporter didn’t suit her. To help her, Shi Dingbang used his connections to get her reassigned to an internal position, where she did proofreading and other tasks. Her salary was low, but it was stable.

When they got married, they were really in love. The first two years after their marriage were harmonious. Both of them were intellectuals, and the depth of their conversations was enough to make them soulmates.

But when Shi Tuo was in the first grade, Shi Dingbang secretly became a guarantor for a business friend who went into business. Two years later, that man ran off with over a million in debt, and Shi Dingbang, as the guarantor, was liable. The court ruled that he had to repay six hundred thousand.

Shi Dingbang appealed, but the ruling was upheld.

In the end, Shi Dingbang had to sell the old house where his father lived and moved in with his grandfather and the family.

During that time, Shi Tuo slept in the same room as his parents. His parents slept in the big bed while he slept on a folding wire bed that could be packed up during the day. At night, as long as he pretended to be asleep, he could hear his parents arguing softly.

Shi Tuo’s grandfather had many chronic illnesses—high blood pressure, diabetes, and a weak heart. One night, after an argument between Shi Dingbang and Zhang Rou, at around two in the morning, Zhang Rou suddenly had an emotional breakdown and told Shi Tuo that they were going back to her family’s home.

Shi Tuo’s grandfather, already elderly and stressed by the move, suddenly collapsed. They rushed him to the hospital, but he passed away shortly after.

After the funeral, Shi Dingbang rarely came home again.

His parents’ relationship was worse than An Jiujiu’s. They didn’t even argue anymore.

This was the main reason Shi Tuo decided to become a lawyer when he was young. An Jiujiu knew about it, but she hadn’t expected that his views on marriage and love were even more pessimistic than hers. He had outright denied human nature.

An Jiujiu declared, “I’m officially a single-principle believer from today.”

Shi Tuo smiled but didn’t respond.

Not getting a response, An Jiujiu nudged him. “Do you still plan to get married and have kids in the future?”Shi Tuo thought for a moment, neither affirming nor denying, and just said, “If we’re both still single in the future, we could stay like this and be partners.”

His tone was casual, but his shoulders were tensed as he spoke.

An Jiujiu laughed aloud. “Wow, that’s such an old cliché.”

Do childhood friends always say this?

Shi Tuo’s shoulders relaxed instantly, and he didn’t continue with the topic. “Let’s pack up and get ready to go. I’ll go with you to buy wontons.”

An Jiujiu neatly organized the materials Shi Tuo gave her and put them in her bag. She looked up and muttered with some frustration, “We didn’t finish today’s topic. Next time, you’ll have to tell me how I should adapt to that character.”

Shi Tuo: “Mm.”

An Jiujiu: “How about I perform it for you next time?”

An Jiujiu: “But it seems a bit cheesy…”

An Jiujiu: “Ah, how about I just perform it and send you a video?”

Shi Tuo: “Perform it for me.”

An Jiujiu: “Aren’t you afraid it’s cheesy? Ah, you’re so perverted.”

Shi Tuo: “…”