Chapter 4: MAMA-04

MAMA-04: Play yourself to exhaustion.

After Mi Shanxin left, Zeng Baian scolded her for a while, not forgetting to pack up the desserts Jian Wanji had ordered, saying she’d give them to her daughter, who was in a tutoring class.

Little Zheng took a call and had to return to the company, telling Jian Wanji they’d be in touch.

Jian Wanji said that wasn’t necessary; she’d already made her choice, and the final payment would still be transferred as agreed.

Watching Little Zheng leave, Zeng Baian asked Jian Wanji, “What do you mean? You actually took a liking to that kid?”

“She’s twenty. How could she possibly play your mother?”

Just then, a customer passed by, thought they were arguing, and glanced back.

“Civilized language,” Jian Wanji said. The clothes she’d changed out of were still in the paper bag. She leaned back on the sofa chair, sitting as casually as her temperament, making it hard to imagine her early major had been broadcasting.

Zeng Baian hadn’t expected her to ditch a perfectly good job either, partner up to start a business, and actually succeed.

“I’m being very civilized. Unlike you, pestering a college student relentlessly.” Zeng Baian lowered her voice. “Have you no shame, deliberately saying such strange things? You planned to get a drink thrown at you, didn’t you?”

“How could I? I budgeted for her to slap me, but forgot she couldn’t reach.”

The little girl had still held back, missing Jian Wanji’s face. Having known her for years, Zeng Baian still occasionally felt a phantom urge to tear this person’s mouth off. The smile-lip surgery played a big part in that.

Others didn’t know, but she knew Jian Wanji’s smile lips were completely fabricated.

Normally, when someone undergoes such minor cosmetic adjustments, parents object. With Jian Wanji, it was different. Her grandmother had disliked that she didn’t look enough like her own daughter, so she’d taken the girl to have it done right after her college entrance exams.

In the past, Jian Wanji only possessed narrow, squinty eyes, yet had naturally thin lips. When she smiled, it always appeared insincere.

But after getting the smile-lip surgery, the effect improved, yet she resembled her biological mother even less. For this, the elder had even taken her anger out on Jian Wanji.

After so many years, this secret was little known. Jian Wanji’s appearance and aura had completely merged. At first meeting, people only found her sincere, warm, and very trustworthy.

“You’re lucky you’re a woman. If you were the opposite gender, I’d want to haul you off to jail,” Zeng Baian was still fuming. Seeing she was about to flip the bird, Jian Wanji pressed her finger down. “Elegance. Maintain elegance at all times. Otherwise, I’ll tell your daughter you got grumpy again.”

Jian Wanji didn’t forget to compliment her friend’s wedding ring. “This diamond is beautiful. I’ll have to buy one to wear someday.”

“Buy a pair. Find some poor sap to pack you into a garbage bin.”

Zeng Baian had known Jian Wanji for so many years. She only knew Jian Wanji had clarified her sexual orientation but had never pursued any relationship.

The environment was much better now than before, yet being single seemed even more damning than homosexual. You faced the problem of having no partner in old age. It wasn’t that no one in their social circle wanted to introduce Jian Wanji to a potential match; Jian Wanji refused them all.

“Not in the mood. If I have time to find a girlfriend, I might as well find a mom,” Jian Wanji was holding her phone. Zeng Baian noticed she was searching for something and leaned in to look. “Shangzhi Education… Why are you searching for my daughter’s tutoring class?”

“Finding a mom.” Most people’s expressionless faces didn’t still have the corners of their mouths slightly upturned like Jian Wanji’s. Having known her until now, Zeng Baian still felt unable to figure Jian Wanji out. At least Jian Wanji had seen her through breakups and passionate love, but she’d never seen the other’s—a little unfair.

“What do you mean, find a mom? Just what do you want…”

“Found it.”

Jian Wanji showed her phone screen to Zeng Baian; the page was the official account’s promotional page for her daughter’s tutoring class.

This institution was quite large, a chain, with several campuses, and the environment wasn’t bad.

Just last week, Jian Wanji had even helped Zeng Baian pick up her child but hadn’t run into Mi Shanxin.

The page stated Calligraphy Training, accepting students five years and older, with an adult class as well.

Below was Staff Highlights. Calligraphy, after all, wasn’t a major subject; there were only two teachers. One was the Head Teacher, likely a retired university professor. Below was the Assistant Teacher, a student from the Peaceful University Calligraphy Department.

Compared to the Head Teacher’s imposing highlight photo, Mi Shanxin’s picture looked completely like a little kid on a spring outing check-in, even throwing a peace sign. The background was a themed wall at a calligraphy exhibition. She, as a tiny person, had the image cropped into a bust portrait, making it slightly blurry and carrying a cute sense of trying to be serious.

Zeng Baian was so speechless she held her forehead, laughing. “Are you a secret agent? How did you find out which institution she teaches at?”

She was genuinely afraid she’d one day see Jian Wanji on social news. She asked, horrified, “You didn’t put a listening device in that little girl’s backpack, did you?”

The woman forcefully suppressed her voice, sounding much like a deflating balloon. Jian Wanji was still smiling, patting her friend’s shoulder. “Don’t overthink it. I searched her vlog video earlier, ‘A Day in the Life of a Calligraphy Student Doing Grunt Work.'”

Zeng Baian’s voice was nearly cracking. “You even looked at her computer screen?”

Jian Wanji had only exchanged a few sentences total with Mi Shanxin, yet she’d managed to catch such crucial information. No wonder people used to say it was a shame she hadn’t become a police dog.

“I didn’t deliberately look. It was like sneaking a peek at magazines in class before, skimming ten lines at a glance.” Jian Wanji shrugged. Her long, wavy hair was tied low, all the more setting off her graceful shoulders and neck. A few strands of loose hair fluttered, swaying gently like her cotton-candy side-swept bangs. Combined with her squinty eyes and smile lips, she looked even more flirtatious.

“No wonder the little lass called you lecherous.” Zeng Baian didn’t want to keep chatting with her, fearing her blood pressure would spike. “You bosses just don’t do proper work every day. I’m going back to my job.”

“Leaving already?” Jian Wanji grabbed her friend’s hem. “Let’s talk more.”

“Nothing more to say to you,” Zeng Baian took her coat. “I’ve advised you so many times, and you never listen.”

She knew Jian Wanji’s relationship with her grandmother was complicated, but someone in middle age, she was no longer the teenage girl who could listen to Jian Wanji vent in the park. She had a mountain of family matters waiting for her.

Winter break was even more painful for parents. Being able to send kids to tutoring classes was the best, but unfortunately, the tutoring classes were only half-day. “I still have to pick up my kid when I get off work later.”

“I’ll go pick her up,” Jian Wanji stood up. “Anyway, my recent projects are all wrapping up; no major work.”

“Don’t. I’m afraid you’ll harass a college student,” Zeng Baian pushed her back down, warning again. “Don’t let me see you when I’m picking up my kid.”

Jian Wanji just smiled, watching her friend in her tailored suit leave.

The coffee before her was still steaming. The woman rested her cheek on her hand, drinking a couple of sips listlessly. She flipped through a few pages of her contacts, found an old classmate, and made a call.

After who-knows-how-many calls, she timed it for when Zeng Baian would be picking up her child and called the institution’s enrollment hotline, asking if the calligraphy class recruited one-on-one students.

The staff member who answered had a sweet voice. “How old is your child?”

Jian Wanji: “Thirty-nine.”

The staff member was silent for two seconds. “Ma’am, I asked how old your child is, not how old you are.”

Jian Wanji said, “Oh”: “It’s that I want to learn. Is that not allowed?”

The staff member couldn’t outright suspect her of causing trouble. “I’m sorry, I need to check…”

Jian Wanji had already looked at the institution’s business hours; there were evening classes too. “Don’t check. Can I just come to your campus to consult?”

Staff member: “That’s possible.”

Jian Wanji: “Then can I come over now?”

…

Unfortunately, by the time she arrived, the calligraphy class had already ended. The teacher in charge at the institution was surnamed Wang. She explained to Jian Wanji: “We also have adult classes. The head teacher is quite experienced, from the Calligraphy Association…”

“Can it be one-on-one?” The coat Jian Wanji had bought last-minute only came in black in her size. She rarely wore black except for very formal occasions. She liked white more than black, and liked red more than white, so her company’s logo’s main color was also red.

Joyous, fervent—this was also her employees’ impression, just like her name. It didn’t need over-interpretation; a direct translation sufficed. It was simply “Everything Great.”

Her father’s surname was Jian, her mother’s surname was Wan, it snowed that day—it was an auspicious sign.

Good thing it was Jian Wanji and not Jian Wanzhao. That nickname probably would have been “Optical Fiber,” [T/N: Wanzhao means 10,000 megabytes] sounding like it had plenty of bandwidth, more suitable for starting an internet company.

“One-on-one?” Teacher Wang was stunned for a moment. “That’s a relatively uncommon request.”

Jian Wanji said with a smiling squint: “Your official account’s enrollment brochure says so.”

She always wore a smile, the tails of her eyes lifting, wrinkles faint and shallow, attention more easily drawn to her beauty mark, though it resembled a carved stone statue’s smile, not particularly vibrant.

This required at least some life experience to perceive. Most college students newly entering the company didn’t feel that way.

They only sighed that President Jian was really quite nice, cheerful and generous, the company’s housing allowance higher than peers, even team-building activities self-chosen.

“That is what it says, but the head teacher might…” The words of the teacher in charge of enrollment wouldn’t be absolute. If time was plentiful, Jian Wanji would take pleasure in circling around someone, but Grandmother’s time was running short; her time to find a mom was equally limited.

“Could the assistant teacher do it?”

“You can accept that? She’s still a student.”

Mi Shanxin had come to teach during winter break. Teacher Wang had been in education for many years, had seen too many students, and had encountered her share of odd kids. A student like Mi Shanxin—pretty yet thin and small, with an indescribable personality—was a first.

Teacher Zhao, who had referred her, said the child had a poor family situation and was living alone now. Looking at Mi Shanxin’s on-site calligraphy and painting work, it could pass muster, so they let her come.

Originally, she’d thought Mi Shanxin’s personality was dull, her eyes like dead fish, probably wouldn’t get along with the kids. Unexpectedly, the students quite liked her, and some students who had been with the head teacher even transferred classes to have her teach.

Who had referred this woman, that even someone over-age wanted to learn?

“This teacher is a bit special; we can’t directly arrange it. Let me ask her first,” Teacher Wang gave a precautionary shot. The result was somewhat unexpected; Mi Shanxin seemed to know this Ms. Jian.

The sofa in the reception room was soft. Jian Wanji sat lazily, relying on her height and long legs. Even crossing her legs had a bit of a magazine-photoshoot flair. If she didn’t report her real age, it truly was hard to imagine she was nearly forty.

“…How come she hung up, this kid.” Teacher Wang smiled apologetically at Jian Wanji. “Sorry, Teacher Mi, she…”

“It’s fine,” Jian Wanji wasn’t surprised. “I’ll think it over again.”

This might be the manifestation of being unmarried, childless, and financially free.

Teacher Wang was still uneasy and asked Jian Wanji again: “Ms. Jian, do you and Shanxin have some kind of…”

“A bit of fate.”

She had still chosen her words carefully, wanting to say conflict, but unexpectedly, Jian Wanji summarized it as fate.

The woman’s smile was very amiable, her rolled bangs making her appear utterly harmless, smiling as she looked up and asked Teacher Wang, “Is there anything else you’re concerned about?”

“…No, nothing.”

Aside from Mi Shanxin never having a smiling face, which didn’t fit the criteria of the education service industry, and her clothes being too student-like—though excusable due to her student status—Teacher Wang had tactfully reminded Mi Shanxin to rotate her outfits.

She was still thinking positively. What if the kid just liked buying the same style and color sweatshirt?

She certainly couldn’t tell her that the little kids said she was too poor to afford clothes. That would make their company seem narrow-minded and indifferent to employees’ spiritual appearance.

“I’m off,” Jian Wanji stood up and asked Teacher Wang again, “Could you give me Teacher Shanxin’s cell phone number?”

Her voice was very distinctive, pleasant yet contradictory to her fervent temperament, like moonlight deep in the middle of the night.

Teacher Wang instinctively sensed something was off, but she was also very traditional and didn’t think in other directions.

She changed the approach. “Can I push her WeChat contact to you?”

“Of course, thank you.”

…

After eating barbecue, Mi Shanxin and Li Yin strolled around the shopping mall together. Before eight o’clock, she already wanted to go home.

Li Yin didn’t know what to say to her. “You could come stay at my place.”

Mi Shanxin shook her head. “Thank you, but no.”

Li Yin: “It’s so far for you to go back.”

Mi Shanxin had round eyes but not a really round face, mainly because she was too thin. Yet her skin was very tender, and Li Yin loved pinching her cheeks.

When her cheek was pinched, Mi Shanxin’s gaze remained the same, her voice a little airy. “That’s why I need to leave now. I can be in bed by ten.”

Li Yin sighed. “You say that as if you can actually fall asleep.”

Mi Shanxin already had little vitality. Years of difficulty falling asleep had worsened her dark circles, making her look even more listless.

Mi Shanxin didn’t deny it. “I’ll try my best.”

Li Yin was amused by her. “Try what? Don’t take too much melatonin.”

Li Yin also had online classes during winter break. She was studying law and had already decided to take the graduate entrance exam. She studied every day until she felt like hanging herself. Mi Shanxin didn’t disturb her much, relying entirely on Li Yin to initiate contact.

“Try…” Mi Shanxin hesitated for a few seconds. “To… sleep.”

“What are you mumbling?” Li Yin easily draped an arm around Mi Shanxin. “Let’s go. I’ll get a cab to take you to the metro station.”

Mi Shanxin still didn’t tell Li Yin that her method for inducing sleep was…

To play herself to exhaustion.