I arrived at the multi-functional coffee shop downstairs with Leyao. Although there were not many customers in the coffee shop by then, I still requested a small private room. At moments like this, I always understood Leyao’s longing for an ordinary life. It seemed that since her overnight fame, she had basically lost the freedom to be in public places. Whether this was a gain or a loss was unclear to anyone.
I ordered a very light jasmine tea. Leyao followed my order and also asked for a jasmine tea. Only after the waiter took the order did she finally take off her hat and sunglasses with a sigh of relief, and exclaimed, “Ugh! This kind of sneaky life is really no fun. Thinking back, life was better before. Today we’d go to a bar, tomorrow we’d eat at a roadside stall, no one would care about you, so carefree and easy!”
I teased her, “You’re not a monkey, so don’t miss that kind of restless life anymore!”
“I really want to rip that sharp tongue of yours off!”
I scoffed, “Who exactly is the sharp one here?… You teased me in the text message, and then scared me with theatrics when we met. Do we really have such a big grudge?”
Leyao made a face at me, but just then the waiter happened to bring our orders. She quickly bent over the table, covering half her face with her hair. Her flustered appearance made me want to laugh, but I held it in and solemnly thanked the waiter. The waiter was a bit confused by Leyao’s odd behavior and couldn’t help but look at her a few times.
I explained, “She’s on her period and is in pain.”
The waiter nodded in understanding, said a few words of concern, and then left with the tray. Leyao then sat up straight again, glaring at me and saying, “Whose period are you talking about?”
“Well then, why were you hunched over? Besides saying it’s your period, don’t you think it’s hard to explain otherwise?”
Leyao glanced at me and replied, “How much must I love you, that even on my period I still accompany you to this coffee shop to drink this kind of random stuff!”
“It’s I who am accompanying you, okay?… Alright, let’s stop messing around and talk about serious matters. What do you need help with?”
Leyao picked up her jasmine tea and took a sip before finally speaking seriously, “Do you remember when I took a little girl with me to Singapore?”
“Of course I remember. She’s from that small village, right? Her name is Yaya… What about her?”
“She couldn’t really adapt to life in Singapore, and going to school there was inconvenient. I felt that I shouldn’t let my own dislike of life in China affect her education, so after thinking it over, I decided to return to China.”
I thought for a moment and agreed. A little girl who had grown up in a remote village suddenly going to such a highly internationalized country as Singapore would definitely have a hard time adapting. I said to her, “So what do you mean now? Are you planning to send her back to that village and then go back to Singapore yourself?”
“If that were my plan, why would I come to you?… Zhaoyang, are you hoping I stay as far away from you as possible? Talking about going back to Singapore again? Let me tell you, since I said I would keep Yaya with me, I won’t go back on my word. Wherever she is, I will be there too!”
“So what exactly do you mean now?”
“I plan to find a school for her in Suzhou. I’m entrusting this matter to you. Help me find the most reliable school, but don’t look for any private schools. The atmosphere of comparison there is too heavy. Our Yaya can’t be exposed to those bad influences!”
“Why don’t you go to Teacher Wei Manwen? Isn’t she part of the education system?”
Leyao smiled at me and said, “I still think it’s more reliable to come to you. I’ve already checked it out. Now public schools enroll students by district, which means that good schools must have local household registration and housing in that area. Otherwise, you can’t get in.”
I thought for a moment and said, “It’s still possible to get in through connections. I can help you with that.”
“What connections? You just buy a house for Yaya and register the household registration, and this matter will naturally be resolved!”
I looked at Leyao in disbelief…
“Director Zhao, isn’t buying a house difficult for you now? Besides, Me and Yaya can’t keep living without a fixed residence in Suzhou, right?”
“Heaven and earth bear witness, I’m still renting a house myself now!”
“You’re just a person without quality of life. What’s strange about renting a house… Don’t talk nonsense. Just tell me plainly, will you buy it or not?”
“Dear auntie, please stop teasing me, okay?… You, a top actress, don’t you have the money to buy a house?”
Leyao didn’t bother arguing with me. She immediately took out her wallet and turned it upside down. Except for a few coins, there was nothing inside. Coincidentally, those few coins rolled under the table. Leyao, disregarding her composure, bent down on the floor to retrieve those coins, looking pitiful beyond words!
Leyao waved those few coins in front of me and said, “See this? This is all I have now. It’s only enough for Yaya and me to buy a cup of soy milk each tomorrow morning, not even enough for fried dough sticks!”
“You’re pulling my leg, right?”
Leyao mimicked my tone and said, “Whoever is pulling whose leg is the grandson!”
I looked at her again. She was wearing a sleeveless down vest, with a long-sleeved off-white T-shirt underneath, and track pants made of wool on the bottom. Her hair was messy, completely the look of a slovenly woman. I felt even more that she was deliberately dressing like this to con me. I asked, “What do you mean by wearing these cheap clothes from a street stall? What happened to all your old clothes?… Leyao, I’m warning you, don’t con me. After all, I’m still a pretty shrewd guy!”
Leyao let out a sigh full of desolation and said, “Sigh! I have no source of income. I’ve sold all my old clothes and bags to a luxury resale shop. It’s really hard to survive!… I even used to swear that I would help that village build a road to the town. Now look at me, I can’t even support myself, and my friends don’t even want to help me. The world is cold, and people’s hearts are no longer what they used to be!”
In her complaints, I suddenly became the ungrateful villain. Finally, under great psychological pressure, I said, “Temporarily helping you with your living expenses is definitely not a problem. Helping Yaya find a good school is also not a problem. But I really can’t help you with the house. That would be like keeping a mistress! Besides, I really don’t have much money. All my daily expenses are taken from the company… If you were more reasonable, you’d make a comeback quickly, take any commercial endorsement, and you’d have enough money to buy a villa. Don’t be so stubborn, okay, dear auntie?”
“Zhaoyang, you don’t understand. I really can’t go back to that circle… Now there’s no one reliable around me. Don’t abandon me, an old friend from long ago, just because of some worldly views, okay?”
I looked at her. For a moment, I had an illusion, as if after a big circle, she had come back to life again, the same old pit, the same unreliability… If I really helped her buy a house, Mi Cai would divorce me for sure, that’s for sure!
Fortunately, I was sober enough not to fall for her verbal attack! And was she really so destitute that she only had a few coins left?
That seemed unlikely. Even now, I still didn’t know who had helped her repay that huge breach of contract fee when she left the entertainment industry back then, but I was sure that there must be a very powerful person behind her! So today she came to me, half because she really needed help, like the small matter of Yaya’s schooling, and half to play around with me, like the unreasonable matter of buying a house!
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