Do you want to drink it? I asked him while putting my hand, which was carrying that packet of juice, towards him. Yuan didn't say anything. I thought that he wasn't going to drink it, so I opened the packet of juice and put the straw inside it, and I was just about to drink it, but Yuan snatched it from my hands suddenly and then started drinking it like he was thirsty for years. I am looking at him very shockingly. And he drank that juice and finished the whole packet of it within a blink of a second.
I was shocked by this behaviour of his, literally shocked, because it made me remember his dramas where he eats everything whatever other person gave to the female lead of that drama out of jealousy. But it's not just a random drama life, it's real life. Did Yuan also behave like the characters that he played on screen in his dramas? Does that mean he is getting jealous from Ji Juan because he is behaving exactly the same that he used to do in mostly all his dramas? I asked it to myself.
Then Yuan handed me that empty packet of juice in my hands and said, "Thanks, I have been thirsty for a while and forgot to bring water or anything to drink. It really helps me."
I am still in shock while holding that empty packet of juice in my hand. Ji Juan is already staring at Yuan, and when I looked at him he smiled forcefully and said, "It's totally alright, Mr Xu needed it more than you. Don't worry, your juice is pending on me. I'll treat you with it on some other day, if not today then definitely on another day," Ji Juan said this to me.
I smiled at him and said, "Thanks, Mr Ji Juan, but there is no need to treat me with it. I mean, it's just a matter of a packet of juice. When we'll reach Beijing then we'll go to some grocery store and then we can have juice over there. There is no need to spend money on treating me with the juice in some huge kind of way, it's just simple."
He smiled. "You really thought about saving my money, which has nothing to do with you. Now I get it, I sooo get Mr Xu," Ji Juan said this to him.
While I was still processing why he said this to Yuan—I am the one who is talking to him, why did he put it up to Yuan? Oooo, I literally am not getting what the two of them are talking about, but I am not able to understand anything, so I just leave it to them only.
Time passed like this only between the three of us where no one was ready to break the ice, so then I thought that I should be the first one who breaks that ice. Then I asked them, "Do you guys ever play any board game?"
"No," Ji Juan said it.
"How can there be someone living here who hasn't played any board games? Everyone knows it pretty well, it's very common," I said.
Ji Juan smiled and said, "Yes, I do know about it. But how can we play here, the board game?" Ji Juan asked me.
Then I smiled and showed him my phone and said, "Open the link on WeChat that I sent you just now." When he opened it, it was an invitation for playing the online Chinese chess game on the phone.
Ji Juan smiled and said, "The kiddo inside this twenty-three-year-old girl always amazes me," he said it while smiling.
I smiled too.
And then Yuan said immediately, unexpectedly, that "I also wanna play it," and this amazed me, him saying that. I didn't know that he was interested in playing it too.
"Send me the invitation," Yuan asked me.
I nodded my head and sent him the invitation for the game, but before we could even start it, we had reached Beijing as so many hours had passed and our chaos didn't even make us realise it.
"Oooo, seems like destiny didn't want us to play the Chinese chess game online. We'll play it offline then somewhere," Ji Juan said.
"So this game is on you, isn't it?" Yuan said to Ji Juan.
Ji Juan smiled and said, "Mr Xu, I think you like putting everything on me, isn't it?"
Yuan smiled and said, "No, just you like taking everything on you, so I am just helping you out in doing your favourite things that you like to do," Yuan said to him.
The cold war between them—I can sense it, yes I can sense it, the tension between them—I can't break it. I said, "Let's get down, the train has already reached its destination. Let's get down from it," I said to them.
"Why are you afraid that this train might start going somewhere else and take you there?" Ji Juan said to me while coming slightly closer to me.
Yuan came in front of me and him, just like stepping in between us and covering me with his own body. I am behind Yuan and he is standing in front of me facing towards Ji Juan and said to him, "If your useless talk is done, then can we get outside from the train?"
"Useless talk," Ji Juan repeated that word while laughing a little and said, "Of course, Mr Xu, as you say."
Then the three of us got out from the train and stood on the station where we were waiting for Director Li's assistants to let us know what we were supposed to do. Then Yuan said that Director Li had booked rooms for us in the hotel. "Let's head there," he said.
Then Yuan booked the cab and here we were heading to the hotel. When we reached the hotel, the receptionist asked us about our IDs which we gave to her, and after seeing our IDs the receptionist handed over the keys of our rooms.
Ji Juan took his keys and said to me in a little low whispering type voice, "I am heading to my room, I urgently need to use the washroom."
I smiled at him after hearing it and said, "Okay, go."
Ji Juan rushed to his room, and there it was only Yuan and me standing over there. Then I noticed something on the keys—that the room number in my keys was 2921, which is quite surprising because it's both of our birth dates—twenty-nine October, Yuan's birthday, and twenty-first January, mine. Isn't it quite surprising that I got the keys having the same number of our birth dates? Yes, it is, it really is.
Then I saw Yuan's keys, which were having the same number as mine—2921.
"Are we going to share the room together?" I asked him.
Yuan looked a little shocked too after seeing the same room number on both of our keys, so he just turned back and asked the receptionist about it. Then the receptionist said, "Sir, it's not the same room actually. Our hotel is a little bit unique, so it provides connected rooms. If your room is connected to someone, then it shows you the same room number on the keys. It's not the same room, it's the connected room where with a door you can reach the other's room. It's our speciality and couples book these rooms very much."
I am hearing whatever she is saying to Yuan. Then I think that why do couples book this connected room instead of booking one room? I am still not getting the uniqueness of this hotel.
Then Yuan asked the receptionist, "But if this is the speciality of your hotel, then why are you giving us this? We haven't even pre-booked it for this room."
The receptionist replied with her smiling face, "Today we are full, all the rooms are already booked and we are left with this only. We only give this room when someone pre-books it, but in your case the person who booked these rooms said, 'Book the rooms no matter how much the cost is, just book whatever is available here,' and you both are the ones who got the keys of this connected room."
"Okay, thank you," Yuan said to the receptionist and came to me and held the handle of my suitcase, heading towards the room.
Then I said to him, "Yuan, I'll take it on my own, you don't need to."
Then he looked at me from top to toe and said, "You are forty-seven point five kgs, quite underweight, and you are saying that you'll carry this bag on your own? Have you seen your hands? It might break."
"I am not that slim," I said to him. "In fact I need to work harder to get forty-five kg or forty-two kgs weight. I am still weighing five kgs more than my goal, so let me carry this bag, it should be added to my workout."
Yuan looked at me—he really did—and said, "Are you out of your mind? You are already in the category of underweight and still you are saying this."
"You don't know, Yuan, we have to look so lean and slim. You are not a girl, you don't know it," I said to him.
"I'll make you understand this later properly, not now."
"Okay fine, then hurry up, I need to do my one and half hour workout also."
Yuan looked at me—he really did—and said, "You are insane, you really are. You are doing this much long workout daily even after having this much weight? Your health will get affected. I'll make you understand this, silly girl," he said.
"Okay fine, let's move to the room then and make me understand it later," I moved forward after saying this to him.
Then we headed towards the elevator to reach the second floor of the hotel where our room was located. The moment we both stepped into the elevator, I got a little bit scared because I have phobia from elevators since childhood. Yes, I haven't stuck in it ever, but I have seen many news reports of people getting stuck inside it which always makes me scared of elevators. From that time I haven't stepped inside elevators since then, but today I am stepping inside it.
I won't let Yuan know about this fear. What will he think about me—that how much stupid I am? No, I won't let him know. No, no, act Zhao Shiza, you should act. What will he think about me, that I am still so kiddish even after getting this much older? No, no, I won't let him know about this fear.
The elevator arrived in front of us. We both stepped inside it. My heart is beating faster than usual the moment we entered the elevator. Yuan pressed the second number button to reach the second floor. The elevator doors closed and the moment they closed I flinched a little. Yuan noticed it—I think he did—but then I acted back normally.
Finally we reached the second floor. Thank God it didn't cost much of my strength. The moment the elevator doors opened, I got outside from it so fast like I am participating in a China Olympics race. I don't know about earlier but now he definitely sensed that something was weird in my behaviour, but he didn't say anything.
He just headed inside the room and said, "If you need anything you can call me. I am going to take a shower, I am really tired," he said and went inside the room.
Tired—of course he is. After all he travelled so much in just one day from Shanghai to Shenzhen for New Year's celebration with his family, then from Shenzhen to Shanghai, then from Shanghai to Beijing here by train because of me. He must be very tired, and he acted like a bodyguard in the whole journey in the train. He must need some rest. I haven't heard him saying "tired" even after doing so much before, but today he said that.
While thinking all this in my mind, I also headed inside my room, and the moment I entered inside the room I saw…