MAMA-30: It’s Not Certain Who’d End Up Playing Whom.
“Do you even have one?” Jian Wanji walked ahead. “You talk as if you do.”
She didn’t give Mi Shanxin a chance to interject. “Could it be that you and your friend really do have something going on?”
People were coming and going on the path, and Jian Wanji weaved through them, light as a butterfly. Mi Shanxin, inherently slow and unhurried, significantly dragged down Jian Wanji’s pace.
For instance, Mi Shanxin never argued. First, she couldn’t keep up with others’ speed of speech. Second, her brain seemed to process at a different speed too.
When dealing with people adept at veiled insults, she didn’t bother to overthink whether they were being sarcastic, taking their words purely at face value.
She truly had no spare energy to guess hidden meanings.
Even now, sensing Jian Wanji’s subtle evasion, Mi Shanxin couldn’t be bothered to dig deeper.
She only answered the surface question. “No, the guy sitting with her is her boyfriend.”
“Is that so? I couldn’t tell.” Seeing Mi Shanxin still looking cold and indifferent, Jian Wanji thought it was completely different from how she was in bed—whimpering, humming, and groaning. “But something seemed a little strange to me. Keep an eye out.”
Mi Shanxin shook her head. “That’s too exhausting.”
“I like people who say things plainly.”
She either kept silent or shocked everyone with her words—definitely fitting the message she was conveying now.
“Then I spoke plainly and you still threw coffee at me.” Jian Wanji recalled their first meeting and still felt that Frappuccino was ice-cold in her bones.
“That was well-deserved.” Mi Shanxin walked through the door Jian Wanji held open and discovered this private room was partitioned. Beyond the screen, shadowy figures moved, their voices muffled. There should be only two women.
The dishes Jian Wanji had ordered for Mi Shanxin had all been served. The fish head tofu pot was bubbling—the dish Mi Shanxin hesitated over when looking at the menu.
Because someone had outright rejected it, she hadn’t brought it up.
Where on earth had Jian Wanji started spying from? Mi Shanxin couldn’t help but stare at the woman taking her seat.
The old elm wood table clearly used to be a recycled door, still bearing uneven scars where a lock had been pried off. Jian Wanji pushed her obstructive sleeves up her arms, rinsed the tableware for Mi Shanxin, and after the tea was poured, asked, “You’re not eating yet? Are you a trained puppy, only allowed to eat once someone says you can?”
Mi Shanxin glanced at her twice, ignored the mockery, and asked, “Did you bug me?”
Jian Wanji choked on her tea, coughing fiercely. On the other side of the screen, Sui Yuqian listened with relish, toasting her colleague.
She had a high alcohol tolerance. When they worked together, only Jian Wanji could out-drink her.
Back in the early days, securing investments was all done over drinks. No matter how much she hated it, she had to attend those meetings.
After climbing higher and gaining some say over whether it was alcohol or soft drinks, Jian Wanji stopped drinking.
If a senior insisted, she could use her partial gastrectomy as an excuse, sipping a few mouthfuls of juice to accompany them.
The genmaicha tea here had a burnt flavor. Mi Shanxin didn’t like it. Jian Wanji asked, “Then how about some Wangzai milk? Coconut juice? Or freshly squeezed corn juice?”
“Did you really put a bug on me?” Mi Shanxin shook her small bag. Jian Wanji could only reply, “How could I? That’s illegal.”
“You don’t exactly look like someone who obeys the law,” Mi Shanxin said bluntly.
Perhaps because it was just the two of them at the table, Mi Shanxin was much more relaxed. Sui Yuqian behind the screen had been holding back laughter for so long that her colleague sensed something was off and asked in a low voice, “Are they really relatives?”
Sui Yuqian shook her head, making a shushing gesture.
“Why would you say that about me?” Jian Wanji leaned back, her long hair falling loose. She gathered it carelessly behind her head. “I’ll be heartbroken.”
“Mamas say that to their daughters, too,” Mi Shanxin rationalized her slander, then praised the food in front of her. “The braised pork is delicious.”
Jian Wanji asked, “Your mother says that to you?”
After several days of sleep aid, as a human comforting tool, Jian Wanji’s advantage was that she could chat with Mi Shanxin.
She was naturally talkative, fond of chatting. Even the driver sister who took Mi Shanxin home every day complained that the boss loved to talk.
Once, when escorting Jian Wanji to some event, they got so caught up in conversation they were nearly late. She really wished the boss could have some self-awareness—either equip herself with a mouth gag or equip the staff with one.
Poisoning her into muteness seemed a bit cruel, after all, everyone depended on her wages to live.
“That’s not true.” Mi Shanxin’s new clothes, a stark contrast of black and blue, made her skin appear even paler. Her hair clip was a blue butterfly. In the antique-style screen partition, she resembled an exotic doll.
Jian Wanji deleted the image of Mi Shanxin’s teary-eyed expression that surfaced in her mind, her smile not fading in the slightest. “Then where did you get your sample?”
Usually, Mi Shanxin didn’t say a word. Combined with her occasional explosive remarks, Jian Wanji could completely imagine her silently but vigorously complaining in her heart during gatherings just like the one earlier.
Only holding back for the sake of her best friend.
“Everyone… most people have mamas,” Mi Shanxin bit into the braised pork, her voice slightly muffled, “don’t they?”
Her voice wasn’t sweet and clear. Compared to her youthful looks, her voice seemed to show maturity first.
If you heard her blindly, you might think she was a tall, cool, aloof girl. Who would imagine a sweet little bean with a bowl-cut and short bangs, lacking any highlights?
“How would I know,” Jian Wanji still ate very little, as if no amount of sumptuous food could stir her appetite. Her outgoing personality seemed more like a cover for her true inner indifference. “Aren’t you just playing my mother?”
Violent coughing, along with wild laughter, erupted from behind the screen.
Mi Shanxin frowned. Jian Wanji finally had enough. She stood up and pulled open the screen behind her, revealing another table of guests in the same private room before Mi Shanxin’s eyes.
Two women, looking about Jian Wanji’s age. One had a collarbone-length cut, the other’s hair was even shorter, just reaching her ears. The latter was tilting her head back to drink water to stop her coughing.
The woman with her back to the screen turned and apologized to Jian Wanji and Mi Shanxin. “Sorry, I just couldn’t hold it in.”
Jian Wanji: “If you can’t hold it in, get lost. Can’t you have a little respect…”
Sui Yuqian cut her off. “Respect your Little Mother, right?”
She was still laughing. “By that standard of seniority, I should call her Student Shanxin…”
Mi Shanxin looked at her curiously.
Jian Wanji didn’t give Sui Yuqian a pleasant expression. “Don’t push it.”
Sui Yuqian had no choice but to change her address. “Hello there, little sister. Sorry for interrupting your meal with your good-for-nothing daughter.”
She cleared her throat slightly. “I’m Jian Wanji’s friend, Sui Yuqian.”
Jian Wanji made a “hmph” sound. The other woman was still sorting out the relationship between Little Mother and daughter. Her impression was that Jian Wanji’s parents were both dead. What kind of Little Mom didn’t come with a father? But she had nothing of the sort, so where did this come from?
And they needed to act it out? Why hadn’t she realized Jian Wanji had this kind of terrible kink before?
Mi Shanxin just said, “Oh,” and then, “What should I call you?”
She was disrespectful without being annoying, perhaps because her outfit made her look too much like a doll. Her natural eyes had the effect others needed colored contacts to achieve—deep and dark, innocent and pure, clearly from a different world.
“Sui Yuqian,” Jian Wanji answered. “Yuqian as in ‘before the rain’ for Dragon Well tea.”
“The other one is the restaurant owner. Our expenses today will all be charged to her account.”
She was the one who had brought Mi Shanxin here, intending not to let her sit through a meal where she couldn’t eat her fill and wasn’t happy.
This was the girl she tried her utmost to please every night, yet she still had to fake smiles for others’ sake. Jian Wanji felt deeply uncomfortable. This was the first time emotion had overridden her reason, leading to this situation.
“Sorry, I wanted to open another room, but there were no seats left.” Jian Wanji more or less understood Mi Shanxin’s dislike of crowds. At meals with more than three people, she would proactively lower her presence. Except when being a calligraphy teacher—that was work.
Even though they had an employment relationship, today was a holiday. Jian Wanji wasn’t the kind of boss who demanded unlimited overtime. She just wanted her to have a peaceful meal.
Her apology was sincere. Mi Shanxin swept her gaze over Jian Wanji’s unsmiling brows and eyes. The helplessness lingering there seemed directed at her uncontainable friend.
Jian Wanji was always very casual, very uninhibited with true friends. The frivolity Mi Shanxin previously judged was more a kind of relaxation, a lack of need for pretense.
She was different from Li Yin.
“It’s okay.” The girl shook her head. She sat on the low stool added for the temporary table, her long skirt hem covering her legs, making her look even more like a seated palm doll. She looked toward Sui Yuqian and the woman treating them. “Thank you, big sisters, for treating me to the meal.”
Sui Yuqian laughed even more happily. “We’re ‘big sisters,’ and Jian Wanji is the ‘daughter.’ Then shouldn’t you call us Great-Aunties?”
“Get lost. Stop taking advantage of me. How does that make you Great-Aunties? That’s way too many generations apart.” Jian Wanji cursed loudly. Sui Yuqian didn’t reply to her but waved Mi Shanxin over. “Come here, little sister. Let big sister tell you some embarrassing stories about your daughter.”
Without a hint of the unease Jian Wanji worried about, Mi Shanxin simply picked up her plate and went over.
Jian Wanji had a terrible headache. She called a server over to move the dishes while simultaneously stopping Sui Yuqian from pouring Mi Shanxin wine. “What are you doing? Look at her age.”
Sui Yuqian’s eyes weren’t slanted and upward like Jian Wanji’s, but slightly downturned, with a stylish monolid look. “She’s an adult. Why can’t a college student drink? When we were in college, we were already training our alcohol tolerance.”
Jian Wanji snatched the wine bottle away. “No. Her doctor said she can’t drink this stuff. Coffee and milk tea are absolutely forbidden too.”
The woman beside them asked, “Can’t have caffeine?”
Jian Wanji made an “mm-hmm” sound. Mi Shanxin said quietly, “I can drink. I drank with friends after high school graduation.”
Jian Wanji asked, “Did you fall asleep?”
Mi Shanxin thought for a moment. “I could still sleep back then. It wasn’t this bad.”
“So the insomnia is recent?” The restaurant owner’s smile was different from Jian Wanji’s. She wore a ring, and a photo on her phone’s lock screen that had lit up earlier showed a couple’s picture. She might already be married.
Mi Shanxin nodded. Jian Wanji poured all the huadiao wine from the bottle into Sui Yuqian’s glass. “Drink yourself to death, then.”
Sui Yuqian poured half into Jian Wanji’s glass. “Half for each of us.”
Jian Wanji refused. “I’m not drinking. I still have to drive her back.”
“There are designated drivers. I’ll find one for you.” Sui Yuqian didn’t care.
“But didn’t Sister Wanji have stomach surgery before? I thought she’d quit drinking completely.”
“Xuan Xiu, you wouldn’t understand,” Sui Yuqian said. Unlike Jian Wanji, who liked to casually put an arm around shoulders, she never shifted from her spot. Her cheeks were flushed from drinking, yet one couldn’t ignore her slender wrists, with several prominent scars on the back of her hand. “She can’t quit. She still secretly drinks and smokes.”
“Stop slandering me.” Jian Wanji poured the wine back. “Drink it yourself. I want to live a few more years.”
Sui Yuqian: “Didn’t you drink at a gathering just a few days ago? Not that I’m accusing you of not giving face.”
She sighed heavily, as if betrayed. “Even friends who start a business together eventually go their separate ways. I’ve known this for a long time… Sigh… Sigh…”
Her sighing was too exaggerated. Even Mi Shanxin could tell it was fake. The corner of Jian Wanji’s mouth twitched. She glanced at Mi Shanxin’s suspicious gaze. “Ignore her. I truly don’t drink unless necessary.”
“Little sister, listen to her. She says ‘unless necessary,’ implying I’m her ‘unnecessary.'” Sui Yuqian seized on the word choice to expand the point. “I’ve known her since junior high—same class, same floor in senior high, same dorm in college. After graduation, we started our business together…”
“Did you two ever date?”
Mi Shanxin suddenly asked this question. The atmosphere plunged to freezing point. Sui Yuqian stopped her act. Jian Wanji seemed speechless to the extreme, stood up, and said, “I’m going to change clothes and pick up my mom’s clothes as well.”
She said “my mom” so naturally, as if a real mother of hers was present.
The fake mother watched her close the door, then turned to ask Sui Yuqian: “Did you date?”
The two remaining women exchanged glances, both sensing the kind of curiosity hidden beneath the young girl’s manner.
Sui Yuqian said, “Of course not.”
The restaurant owner covered her mouth, laughing. “Maybe they were the same role?”
“I don’t quite understand your circle, but my impression is that Sister Wanji has always been single, and Sister Yuqian… you’re always the one getting dumped?”
Mi Shanxin stared seriously at Sui Yuqian. “Why? You look like the one who would dump others.”
This wasn’t the first time Sui Yuqian had heard such a statement. She hummed in acknowledgment. “Sadly, I’m the one who gets dumped.”
“Work’s too busy, no time to maintain a relationship. Jian Wanji doesn’t date for the same reason.”
She stared at her wine glass and Jian Wanji’s, as if reminiscing about lost youth and lovers who had gone separate ways. “This older sister here got out quick. She’s already successfully transitioned.”
The short-haired woman wearing round earrings waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, stop it. Nothing’s certain yet. Who knows when we’ll even break even.”
Mi Shanxin wasn’t interested in their business matters. She asked, “What does it mean, that she doesn’t date?”
“Is she also afraid of being dumped?”
Sui Yuqian wasn’t particularly beautiful and had a somewhat flat nose, but her fair skin added considerably to her presence.
Jian Wanji was standard in every aspect—no major flaws, but somewhat boring because of it. Both women were the type whose distinction lay in their overall aura.
The restaurant owner didn’t know the details, but Sui Yuqian knew about the contract between Mi Shanxin and Jian Wanji. “And what do you intend to do about her?”
The end-of-life daughterly service, the occasional need to play mother and daughter with Jian Wanji.
The layered mother-daughter relationship was the outer shell; deeper inside was Mi Shanxin’s additional condition.
Jian Wanji was to be her X tool.
This was a contract even Sui Yuqian, who prided herself on high erotic intelligence, couldn’t have conceived of. Yet it was the younger party who had set these terms.
Her own friend was the one executing it—older in age, but lacking in experience.
In truth, it was uncertain who was playing whom.
Sui Yuqian didn’t believe what Zeng Baian had said: that this girl was a blank piece of paper, very innocent, and it was Jian Wanji who was coercing her.
But Jian Wanji had exposed her greatest weakness.
When facing her only elder, she easily lost her reason, turning back into the child forcibly sent back all those years ago.
Filial piety shackled with kindness and obligation, and because she had been treated that way, she couldn’t escape resentment, only growing more tormented.
She long ago had no feelings left for her deceased birth mother. Her mother was an illusory shadow, nothing more than a tool to torment Grandmother.
Whether Mi Shanxin, as a tool with high resemblance, had tormented Wan Qingqing, Sui Yuqian didn’t know. But she could more or less sense her friend’s subtle disintegration.
Jian Wanji was a superficially magnificent but structurally unsound building. Even if her appearance and assets could build her a hundred feet tall, collapse could happen in an instant.
It’s only been a few days. It seems Jian Wanji is the pure-hearted high school girl here, so easily caught.
The room fell silent again for a few seconds. Soon, the restaurant owner went out to take a phone call, leaving only Sui Yuqian and Mi Shanxin.
Mi Shanxin’s aura wasn’t sharp or flighty. She seemed to ponder for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t intend anything in particular.”
“Right now, I just want to make good use of this time and enjoy sleeping well.”
