Captivated by You - Chapter 13.2

Chapter 13.2

Because Mo Lan slept so late the night before, she struggled to get out from bed at 10 the next morning. Or perhaps, even more accurately one should truly have said, she was woken up by the sound of the firecrackers from downstairs.

Mo Lan got up, yawned, dazedly drew open the curtains, and in an instant the sun spilled into the room.

A red banner hung by the curtains with the words “Gong Xi Fa Cai“*, Mo Lan looked through the window and saw there was a dragon and lion dance nearby Xizha, in addition there were also firecrackers, a sideshow, people coming and going, a joyful festive celebration which was a sight to behold.

(恭喜發財 – a very standard CNY greeting – May you have a prosperous New Year!)

Dragon Dance

However, this year’s New Year, there was no snow.

In the blink of an eye, another year had passed once again, indeed time passed by really quickly.

Squinting her eyes, Mo Lan tilted her head and carefully thought through all of her experiences throughout the whole year.

In fact, this whole year, she had lived a very ordinary life, and just like the years in the past, nothing much changed, it completely lacked any great waves*.

(波瀾 bō lán – fig. of a story with great momentum)

Except… for the fact that she met Gu Ye Mi.

How do one put it, the feeling of knowing Gu Ye Mi, was just like installing the spring in a toy, or like holding a pencil colouring in a picture, or it was also like opening a sliding door right before one’s eyes.

In short, it changed her life overnight. Suddenly there was a few extra motivation, it became more colourful, and also became… more meaningful.

If it was possible, she really hoped that the future years could possibly have him in it.

Even if it might be a little pretentious to say this, but at this very moment, Mo Lan’s heart did indeed truly thought so.

As she gazed out of the window in a daze and was lost in her thoughts, Xie Wan brought in new clothes into her bedroom: “You’re awake? Xiao Lan, ma has bought you new clothes, come and try it okay?”

Mo Lan turned her head around and saw Xie Wan held a long pink down jacket in her hand, it was very charming and cute.

“Every year I have new clothes, thank you ma.” Mo Lan said in a pampered voice and reached for the down jacket.

After washing up, Mo Lan in an entire set of new clothes walked down the stairs, and lifted her eyes, she saw that the living room on the first floor of her house was already full of relatives, all of her distant relatives were all present without any exception, the scene bustled with noise and excitement.

After exchanging pleasantries one after another with her close and distant relatives, Mo Lan tried to find a rubberband to tie her hair, but was suddenly dragged by An Xiaoluo to go shopping with her.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/eugenelimphotography/28307718907

Xizha was one of the most famous and well-known tourist spot in Wuzhen, and it was famous for its authentic water features and cultural heritage accumulated over a thousand years. And by chance, Mo Lan’s family lived in Xizha.

The two walked side by side on the black flagstone road, the crowd were bustling with activity, the originally narrow black flagstone road was so crowded that not one drop could have trickled through, but they were not in a hurry anyway, they simply slowly walked on the road, and enjoyed the scenery by them.

Stalls were spread over both sides of the road, the dazzling array of fireworks and firecrackers filled the eyes, and a wide variety of CNY couplets*, there were also the red lanterns that children loved to buy during Chinese New Year, sometimes you could also hear the voices of passerbys who wore thick winter clothes mutually wished each other “Happy New Year”.

(the first line of which is pasted on the right side of a doorway at New Year, and the second on the left side)

Indeed this joyous atmosphere could only be found during Chinese New Year.

Mo Lan put her hands in the pocket of her down jacket to warm up, and let out a long sigh of relief.

While in Nanjing, although her work had a relatively high degree of freedom, but living in a big city, the general rhythm of life was still incredibly fast paced, the mechanical life repeated day after day, occasionally, she have also felt a little like she couldn’t breathe.

However, her hometown of Wuzhen had always been a gentle and tranquiled place, which was very suitable as an utopia.

Mo Lan watched the old man at the booth pinching the sugar man full of interest, suddenly, An Xiaoluo who was beside her spoke softly, her voice appeared a little jittery: “Xiao Lan… my dad, he knows about me and Su Shen.”

“Ah?” Mo Lan was instantly surprised, and turned to look at An Xiaoluo, her tone puzzled, “Are you for real, I thought he was still clueless last night on the way home?”

An Xiaoluo sighed, she reached for the scarf and once again wrapped it around her neck, her expression seemed very helpless: “For real. Last night after reaching home I went to bed straightaway because I was super tired, my mobile was simply thrown in the living room, as a result my dad saw my texts with Su Shen, now he’s forcing me to bring him home, it’s so infuriating.”

Mo Lan 囧 for a moment, and suddenly thought of what Gu Ye Mi told her before bed last night. After thinking, she deliberated and considered whether to say something: “Umm, Secretly Captivated told me that, Su Shen’s viewpoint of love is more… er, rational. That is, when he is busy, he would feel that it’s okay to meet only two or three times a month, it’s not because he doesn’t like you. I think he’s possibly still focusing his all towards work at the moment. And actually… it’s quite good to have a boyfriend with strong ambitions, in the future he will earn the money to raise you, and you won’t need to worry about food and clothing.”

An Xiaoluo coldly snorted, not really caring answered: “I don’t care if he has money or not, I can earn my own money and support myself. Xiao Lan, I just want genuine love.”

Speaking of which, she halted, turned to look at Mo Lan, her eyes unexpectedly somewhat lonely: “Xiao Lan, you know, after I graduated at 23 years old I left for Nanjing to try to make a living, I haven’t had a boyfriend for the past five years, I just didn’t want to carelessly and casually start a relationship. I’ve waited for five years, with great difficulty I finally waited for somebody whom I like, but yet… it is what it is. I only wanted a simple and uncomplicated love, I don’t want to measure my dates with my boyfriend in months, you understand?”

An Xiaoluo’s eyes drooped slightly, there wasn’t even a hint of her usual high spirit, ineffably it made people felt a little fragile.

Mo Lan had never seen such a vulnerable An Xiaoluo.

She couldn’t help but softened, Mo Lan tilted her head and thought for a while, and still suggested cautiously: “Actually, cousin, I’m guessing you’ve never told him? It’s not enough that only I know your thoughts, why don’t… why don’t you find a time to go to Shanghai and look for him, then properly dicuss with him. If you don’t let all these words out, he would probably feel that you like this kind of method of dating, but, if you said it out, perhaps he would realise the problem, then he would change himself for you.”

The still as before impenetrable crowd surrounded, there was also a shadow play that used a white curtain, it was very lively.

However, An Xiaoluo’s silence was inharmonious with the lively environment around her. She was silent for a long time and Mo Lan also patiently did not speak.

“Okay, I’ll try.”

Not sure how long after that, Mo Lan heard An Xiaoluo spoke quietly, because the weather was cold, the steam that came out from her mouth when she spoke, afterwards, faintly dissipated into the air, without a trace.

When Mo Lan and An Xiaoluo returned home after enjoying themselves to their heart’s content, the women in the family were busy making dumplings, and the men were discussing whether a certain CNY couplet was stuck on a little crookedly.

Once Mo Lan who had very good cooking skills returned, she was immediately pulled into the dumpling assemble army, while An Xiaoluo who did not understand cooking quickly escaped from the kitchen, and played with her little nephew.

Mo Lan took a chopstick and placed the filling in the centre of the dumpling skin, as she was about to wrap it, she suddenly thought of something, she took a bit of peanuts from the handful on the table, and put a piece into the dumpling skin to be wrapped up.

Dumplings were an indispensable CNY food, one of the most important reasons was because dumplings had fillings, which was convenient for people to wrap all kinds of auspicious things in the stuffing, used to placed their hope for the New Year. For example, putting coins in the dumplings, symbolised prosperous wealth for the New Year, if it was something sweet instead, it was to wish a sweet and plesant life, and for Mo Lan who added peanuts*, one hoped that when the elderly ate it, that their days from now on would be healthy and long-lived.

(长生果 cháng shēng guǒ – longetivity fruit)

Not long after, the wrapped dumplings were all already arranged full to the brim on the big table.

When Xie Wan was about to cook the dumplings, An Xiaoluo appeared from out of nowhere, took her mobile phone and called out to her, “Aunty*, hold on, let me take a picture then you can cook them!”

(姑母 gū mǔ – father’s sister/ paternal aunt)

On this side when Xie Wan heard her voice she froze for a moment, over there, An Xiaoluo already swiftly pressed the shutter on the phone. Mo Lan couldn’t helped laughing, and also took out her phone to take a picture.

Xie Wan next to them looked at them rather puzzledly and shook her head: “What kind of habits do young people have nowadays? Using your mobile to take a picture before eating, I really can’t make any sense out of it…”

Mo Lan walked into the kitchen to wash her flour-stained hands, then thought about it, and routinely posted on Weibo, she wished everybody a Happy New Year, and conveniently attached the dumpling picture that she just took.

In fact, she really wanted to tag Secretly Captivated as well, and wish him a Happy New Year. But after thinking that if she did do it, her Weibo would very possibly be encircled by Secretly Captivated’s fans, then she daren’t.

However, after thinking more about it she was a little unresigned. Mo Lan bit her lower lip, looked at her phone screen for a long time, and suddenly her eyes litted up.

Got it. Tag Secretly Captivated in the comments, others shouldn’t be able to see it right.

With this thought in mind, Mo Lan tagged Secretly Captivated in the comments under the Weibo post, she typed a simple sentence “Happy New Year” and added a smiley face.

En… finally satisfied.

After waiting for everybody to finish being busy, it was also time to switched on the TV to watch the Spring Festival Gala.

Although the current Spring Festival Gala gets more boring year after year, if in case the innocent public news announced that there will not be a Spring Festival Gala in the future, probably each and every one would feel somewhat at a loss.

After all, it was a year after year of accumulated habit.

The night gradually got darker, the Spring Gala Night programme had already entered the second half, at the moment it was playing a skit, Mo Lan looked up and watched for a while, felt that there wasn’t much meaning as well, everyone would only just watch it for the atmosphere that’s all.

Everybody sat around the dining table, chatted while eating the New Year’s Eve family dinner, the atmosphere bustled with noise and excitement, all kind of dishes was placed on the table until the table nearly didn’t have enough room.

Mo Lan looked at everybody’s joyful faces, paired with the room that filled with CNY couplets, she suddenly felt very blessed.

There was the crackling sound of firecrackers going off outside, suddenly, Mo Lan’s mobile phone rang, the whole room was now chaotic, but don’t know why, Mo Lan could still accurately heard her mobile’s ringtone.

Taking the phone out of from her down jacket pocket, Mo Lan unlocked it, and found that it was Gu Ye Mi’s WeChat message:

GYM: Would you mind telling me your mobile number?

Hence, Mo Lan was stupefied.

Beside her, Mama An saw Mo Lan’s stunned face, and loudly yelled: “Xiao Lan, what are you thinking of? Come, aunty will give you a piece of fish, look at you you’re so thin, you can eat a little more.”

“Ah… thank you aunty.” She was pulled back to reality by the voice, Mo Lan lowered her head and silently scooped the rice, ate a bite, and with a little guilt placed her phone under the table, her hand discreetly reached out and sent the phone number to the other party.

The other party did not continue to reply.

When the second pot of steaming dumplings was served on the table, not long after, Mo Lan’s grandmother* ate the blessed dumpling with peanuts in it.

(外婆 wài pó – maternal grandmother)

Just as a group of people rushed to wish her grandmother, Mo Lan heard her mobile, which had no news whatsoever just a moment ago, rang once again.

This time… it was a ringtone.

Mo Lan took out her mobile phone which was always grasped in her hand, the screen displayed an unfamiliar number.

An unfamiliar number… moreover it called now…

Mo Lan suddenly felt her mouth and tongue a little dry, her heart nearly jumped to her throat, so nervous that she was nearly speechless.

Could it really be that coincidental?

Mo Lan stood up abruptly, right in front of the misgivings looks of the grownups she randomly found an excuse to leave, and scrambled all the way to the balcony.

The surroundings finally became a little quieter, Mo Lan’s fingers trembled slightly and pressed the answer button, the atmosphere on the other end of the phone was noisy, once in a while you could hear laughter and conversation.

She took a deep breath, Mo Lan with some difficulty adjusted her heartbeat, and slowly opened her mouth: “Hello, you are?”

Her voice, still somewhat trembled faintly.

When the person on the other side heard her voice, he laughed softly, his voice so pleasant that Mo Lan almost suffocated.

Then he spoke, his tone indolent and gentle as well as soft, just like a candlelight, entirely illuminated the dark room all at once: “Momo, it’s me.”

“Gu Ye Mi…” Mo Lan all at once managed to respond, her consciousness still somewhat bewildered and continued to reply.

It was really him.

Gu Ye Mi laughed, even his smile spread to some degree into his tone: “En, I’m Gu Ye Mi.” He paused for a bit, then casually asked, “Were the dumplings yummy?”

Hearing the other person asked this way, Mo Lan instantly felt her face blushed for a moment, he… should have seen her tagged him on Weibo.

“It’s quite yummy… Where are you now?”

“Am outside, having New Year’s Eve dinner with my colleagues on the same shift.” Gu Ye Mi’s tone was lazy, somewhat cold, apparently not really caring where New Year’s Eve dinner was, or with whom, “But, I think, it was surely not as yummy as the dumplings you wrapped.”

Uh oh, her face was getting redder and redder, who will save her T^T

Mo Lan opened her mouth, with great effort she tried to steady her voice: “When there’s time… I can wrap some for you.”

After finished speaking, Mo Lan only realised, it seemed that she had already said something similar before, supposing a very long time ago, she had also said before that she wanted to invite Gu Ye Mi to have a meal in her home, but she had yet to still do it.

She startlingly felt a little ashamed, Mo Lan 囧 for a moment, she decided to wait until her return to Nanjing, where she must find an opportunity to invite Gu Ye Mi over for a meal.

En… could also invite Su Shen and An Xiaoluo, four people together, then it shouldn’t be that awkward right? Conveniently, it could also ease the recent relationship dilemma between Su Shen and An Xiaoluo.

Just as she was fixated on that thought, suddenly, Gu Ye Mi’s voice lowly sounded from the phone, it carried a kind of warm feeling and steady strength: “Oh… at midnight I still want to, want to personally say at a moment like this, Momo, Happy New Year.”

Almost simultaneously as Gu Ye Mi’s words were barely uttered, Mo Lan heard a “bang” in her ear, the little nephew in the living room blubbered out “it’s midnight”, which brought about a room of full of laughter.

She lifted her head and looked out of the window, she just happened to see colourful fireworks exploded one after another in the sky, with brilliant lights and vibrant colours, in that split second it lighted up the entire horizon.

The people who stood on the ground began cheering excitedly, and celebrated continously with each other, the children carried red lanterns in their hands, a warm and happy radiance displayed in their appearance.

For a moment, Mo Lan absent-mindedly thought she saw eternity.

“Happy New Year, Gu Ye Mi.” Mo Lan held the phone, her eyes fixed on the fireworks that filled the sky, the corner of her mouth could not helped but gradually curled up into a gentle smile.

On the phone, the other party was silent for a few seconds, then he spoke, low, but very clear, it made Mo Lan’s cheeks burned up bit by bit.

He said, “Momo, I seemed to miss you a little bit.”

Mo Lan dazed on the spot, suddenly, footsteps sounded from behind her, followed by Xie Wan’s somewhat perplexed voice: “Xiao Lan, who are you on the phone with?”

Ineffably there was a feeling of being caught red-handed, Mo Lan tensed up upon hearing her mum’s voice, she flusteredly pretended and turned around, and craddled her phone close to her body.

“No, no one, just celebrating New Year with friends.” Mo Lan spoke, and tried hard to make her voice sound a little more believeable.

However, Xie Wan also did not pay much attention to this question, what she wanted to know was–

“Xiao Lan, how long is your holiday this Chinese New Year?”

Mo Lan heard her mother’s question and bit her lower lip, she remained silent for a few seconds. At first she wanted to tell her that she had a week off, but when she thought of Gu Ye Mi’s recent words, inexplicably she then couldn’t say it out loud.

She struggled in her brain for a few seconds, afterwards, she still lifted her head, and replied very quietly: “Me this year… just three days off.”

“So short?” Xie Wan sighed, but soon regained her energy, “But it’s okay, you can come back again on May 1st*.”

(Most of the world celebrates Labour Day on May 1st)

“En…” Mo Lan on one hand agreed with her mother, and on the other hand she silently repented in her heart the lie she just told.

By the time Xie Wan was called back to clean the table, Mo Lan couldn’t helped but let out a sigh of relief, she gently and cautiously put the phone up to her ear: “Gu Ye Mi… are you still there? Umm, just now my mom came over, and we spoke for a bit.”

“I’m here.” Gu Ye Mi answered quickly, his voice was like the sound of jade, distinctly cold, beautiful.

Then, his laugh lowly sounded, his voice was very gentle and soft, very touching, very… alluring: “What you just said, I heard it all. So… when are you coming back?”

What?

She definitely already embraced her phone very tightly, how could he still hear everything?

Mo Lan looked hard-pressed muddled and completely collapsed, with simply just a little desire to weep with no tears*. With regard to the matter of the duration of her Chinese New Year holidays, she had previously told Gu Ye Mi, thus, this time… she truly was caught lying red-handed T^T

(欲哭无泪 yù kū wú lèi – want to cry but can’t cry, extremely sad or helpess)