Chapter 11 Striving to Be First

Chapter 11: Vying for First

The rain kept drumming against Mou Wen's window, and against her new home. She sat bolt upright in bed.

"Mou Wen?" Xie Chong's voice came through the phone again. The rain pattered softly, and so did his voice.

Mou Wen finally snapped back to reality and asked, "Who is this?"

"Xie Chong."

"Who's Xie Chong? Never heard of him!" Mou Wen got her revenge on the spot without a second's hesitation, hung up, and then cracked up rolling around on the bed.

God, that felt good! she thought. So that's what playing it cool feels like.

Xie Chong's call came in again. Mou Wen picked up, this time not teasing him, and happily greeted him: "Mr. Xie! I knew you still remembered me!"

Xie Chong was standing by the roadside, his big umbrella covering him like a tent, the sound of rain especially clear. The rain had soaked his pants and shoes. He felt completely drenched, like he'd been dropped into London.

Mou Wen's post-prank joy poured directly into his ears, and his rain-ruined mood perked up too: "What were you laughing like a big idiot for?" he said. Before Mou Wen could fire back, he asked, "When did you get back?"

"I came back today!" Mou Wen said.

"Today?" Xie Chong was somewhat surprised—on the very first day of her return, they'd run into each other again like it was fate. Xie Chong remembered their last meeting—he'd been drinking then too, and they'd shared a plate of fried rice at a roadside stall on a winter night. So ordinary, yet here it was, surfacing on this rainy night.

"Yes, today." Mou Wen said happily: "I saw someone under an umbrella who looked like you, so I went over to say hello. Unfortunately, you didn't recognize me and got dragged off by someone."

"I'm not senile—how could I not recognize you?"

"Oh, aren't you?"

"?" Xie Chong wanted to take a dig at her, but the people at his table were peeling off one by one in their cars. The rain was heavy, and they quickly said their goodbyes to Xie Chong. He had to cut off mid-sentence and make nice with them.

Mou Wen waited quietly.

Xie Chong's raspy voice, soaked in the heavy rain, sounded almost fermented—like it had a kick to it. She listened to him talking to others, trying to tell if it sounded different from how he talked to her.

It was different.

Xie Chong was so polite.

He kept saying, "Today was wonderful, let's meet again," "I'll visit another day," "Stay in touch"...

So this was his other side.

In places she couldn't see, he lived a whole other life—so many sides to him.

Mou Wen found all that schmoozing tedious, so she hung up.

Xie Chong finally got rid of everyone. He let out a long breath, picked up his phone, and saw that Mou Wen had already hung up.

He called her again and asked, "That alley where you used to live—do they still sell fried rice when it rains?"

"They do. Working folks don't let the rain stop them." Mou Wen said.

"Want to go grab some?" Xie Chong asked: "Do you still live there?"

"I moved to the other side of the street." Mou Wen said: "Over the footbridge, in the complex next to the supermarket."

"You in?" Xie Chong had only asked on a whim, not really expecting anything.

But Mou Wen answered without missing a beat: "Let's go!"

Mou Wen was eager to catch up with Xie Chong.

She knew she'd thought of him countless times over the past days. She'd originally wanted to slowly let him fade from her memory. Because Beijing had so many people—she'd have her real first client, second client, hundredth client, and meet more people... All of that would water down her memories of Xie Chong and eventually make her forget him.

But then she ran into him again.

On her first day back in Beijing, she saw him standing in the rain. The umbrella hid his face, but she knew it was him in a second.

Mou Wen couldn't say no. She was already off the bed, hair still dripping: "Let's go! I'm heading out right now!"

Xie Chong was stunned.

He had very few friends, and the only one who'd say yes that fast was Qian Song. Mou Wen didn't hesitate for a second—she even sounded excited.

"It's raining, you know..." Xie Chong reminded her.

"Cut the crap!" Mou Wen said: "Hurry up! Meet me under the footbridge!"

She hung up, dried her hair with her beat-up old hairdryer, then changed into a white tee and knee-length shorts, grabbed her umbrella, and headed out. The rain was still falling. She ran through the puddles, and little "water flowers" bloomed wherever she stepped.

She ran up the footbridge and saw the car lights on the road flickering in the rainy night, like a nearsighted person taking off their glasses—everything went soft and blurry. Yet on the roadside across the bridge, Xie Chong stood alone, sharp and clear against all that blur.

He stood there holding his umbrella, waiting for her.

Mou Wen felt like it had been ages since she'd last seen him. Back then, she hadn't even graduated, and he was still her client.

Mou Wen jogged up to him and stuck her hand under his umbrella to say hi: "Hi!"

Xie Chong reached his hand out from under the umbrella, mimicking her: "Hi." Then he lifted his umbrella and, sure enough, there was Mou Wen's smiling face.

"Let's go." He said just that one word, then turned and walked off.

They each carried their own umbrella and headed to the back alley, where a row of "big umbrellas" stretched out. People stood under them, dodging the rain, chatting, or eating. The skewer stand was still there, the charcoal lamb skewers were still there, the sauce-slathered flatbread was still there, and so was the fried rice.

They each grabbed a plate of fried rice and sat on little stools to eat.

Xie Chong's legs kept invading Mou Wen's space, so she kicked him off.

Xie Chong suddenly asked her, "Don't they have cell towers in your hometown?"

"What do you mean?" Mou Wen had no idea what he was talking about and shot back: "Do you know cell towers can reach even uninhabited areas? How could my hometown not have them? You looking down on me?"

"Yep."

Xie Chong thought: You've got towers, and you still yell like that.

"So where in Inner Mongolia is your hometown? That place is huge."

"Yakeshi." Mou Wen answered.

"What?" Xie Chong didn't catch that: "Where?"

"Did your brain not get a tower installed..." Mou Wen finally got revenge for her hometown, raising her voice a notch: "YA! KE! SHI!"

Yeah, that's exactly how she'd yelled back then. Xie Chong wondered if she reverted to a primitive state the moment she left Beijing—shedding her civilized clothes and picking up sticks to rub together for fire. That had to be it.

He got lost in his own imagination and couldn't help but laugh out loud. He looked up from his fried rice and saw Mou Wen staring at him like he was a weirdo. So he shrugged: "I've been drinking. Don't mind me."

Mou Wen copied his shrug.

She asked Xie Chong if he had already moved to Wanliu and if he was happy with the place. Xie Chong said he had been there a few times but hadn't stayed yet.

"Why?" Mou Wen was a bit surprised. "How can you stand it? When I buy new clothes, I can't wait to wear them. A new house! How do you not go crazy?"

Xie Chong asked her seriously, "If you bought new clothes every day, would you still be that excited?"

That stumped her.

Because she rarely bought clothes. She had worn the same ones for years and couldn't bear to part with them, so every time she did buy something, she was thrilled.

Then she understood what Xie Chong meant: Mr. Xie was basically saying he had so many houses that he wasn't eager to move into a new one. God, he's annoying, Mou Wen thought.

How could I forget he's such a nitpicky pain in the ass?

"Wanna see it?" Xie Chong suddenly asked again.

"See what?"

"Your work."

"Now?"

"Got a problem with that?"

Mou Wen said nothing.

He was a single man, she was a single woman—on a rainy night like this, going to his place would feel pretty intimate. She didn't know what he was thinking by inviting her, but he seemed so casual and aboveboard that it seemed all her worries were groundless.

Xie Chong sipped his water while watching Mou Wen, waiting for her answer.

"Let's go," Mou Wen said. "Let's take a look." It was the first renovation project of her life, and she wondered what Xie Chong had turned it into. She had the chance to revisit the place, and she couldn't refuse.

Xie Chong stopped mid-sip. He hadn't expected Mou Wen to trust him so completely, without any guard up. She didn't even worry he might take her somewhere private and hurt or humiliate her.

"Let's go." He stood up and walked back into the rain.

Mou Wen wasn't scared Xie Chong was a bad guy, because she knew he wasn't. But she began to fear something else. What had been uncertain in her heart suddenly became clear—she realized that in all that time, the reason she kept thinking about him was because she liked him.

They walked all the way to the underpass, and Mou Wen saw Xie Chong's car slowly pull up from the roadside. She said "goodbye" to him and dashed up the stairs of the footbridge.

Xie Chong followed her up, even overtaking her. Their umbrellas were dripping like crazy, each one trying to express its own feelings. In the middle of the bridge, Xie Chong blocked her way.

She almost stumbled into his arms. Their umbrellas had already collided, squeezed out of shape.

"You planning to run all the way to my place?" Xie Chong teased her. "Are all you Yakeshi folks this fit?" Then he added, "Can't go today—I forgot my keys."

"Oh. Too bad." Mou Wen let out a quiet sigh of relief, and Xie Chong did too.

Xie Chong's eyes drifted to the road below, where a long line of cars snaked off into the rainy night. Beijing in the rain looked as beautiful as an oil painting. If only it didn't get so windy when it rained.

A sudden gust of wind nearly flipped their umbrellas. They both gripped theirs desperately, but Mou Wen's flimsy umbrella turned inside out, the ribs all twisted out of shape. The wind nearly blew her over.

"Holy shit." Xie Chong grabbed her arm and pulled her under his umbrella, saying with delight, "You're about to fly!" He snatched her umbrella and handed his to her.

Mou Wen didn't refuse his kindness. She figured Xie Chong's brain was already soaked in rainwater, so getting a little wet wouldn't hurt. Who else would say "you're about to fly" at a moment like that?

"How's the new place?" Xie Chong asked.

"Great, I love it."

Mou Wen told Xie Chong about her new home: the little flowers she put on the windowsill, the separate kitchen, a clean single bed... Her bed was by the window, and from it she could see the sky.

"Even though it's raining today, the rainy sky is beautiful too."

Xie Chong walked quietly beside her, listening, occasionally turning his head slightly to look at her. Her face lit up as she talked about the things she loved, and she happened to look at him too, her eyes full of hope for a new life.

Yes, in Mou Wen's heart, coming back to Beijing was the start of a brand-new life.

The rain fell heavily, but their steps were slow. Mou Wen was like a machine gun, eager to spill everything from the past few months to him. Xie Chong, for his part, listened quietly.

Even when they'd already reached the entrance to her building.

She showed no sign of stopping, and he didn't either. Luckily, the rain was loud enough that their conversation wouldn't wake anyone.

Xie Chong's phone rang. The driver said he'd overstayed at the curb and would loop around to pick him up. Only then did Mou Wen realize how much she had been talking. She said a little sheepishly, "Ah... I sound like a machine gun."

Xie Chong said, "Even a machine gun runs out of ammo." He was just joking—he didn't think Mou Wen's rambling was a problem at all. On the contrary, he loved listening.

They were no longer client and designer. Their conversation had moved past the house, drifting into everyday stuff. Strangely, the shift felt so natural, like no effort was needed.

Xie Chong felt like Mou Wen gave him a sense of friendship.

He really didn't have many friends.

The driver returned, and Xie Chong had to leave. Mou Wen offered to walk him to the gate of the complex, but Xie Chong declined. He said, "You walk me to the gate, I walk you back, you walk me again—back and forth till sunrise."

Mou Wen laughed.

She swapped the umbrellas back and headed home.

She lived on the first floor. After entering, she turned on the light, ran to the window, and pressed her face against the glass to see if Xie Chong had left.

Xie Chong saw a face suddenly pressed against the window and jumped back, startled.

Mou Wen opened the window a crack and, in a ghostly voice, she slowly said, "Good—bye——"

Xie Chong's skin crawled, and he hurried off.

He disappeared into the dark, rainy night.

The driver asked where he wanted to go. He said Wanliu.

He had his keys, but the moment Mou Wen said she was coming, something inside him had resisted. Wanliu held a special meaning for him—it had been left empty, waiting for a true owner to move in.

Since returning from the UK, he had only come once, to drop off some cookware and bedding. But he had just left them in the living room, never even opening them.

"Wanliu?" The driver was a bit surprised. "You rarely go there. You said you didn't like it."

"It's too late tonight. Don't want to bother."

He tidied up briefly and slept in the new home for the first time. Strangely, he slept very well.

He felt something new forcing its way into him, trying to change him.

His phone lit up with a text message. He opened it—it was from Mou Wen:

"So happy I ran into you today! Looking forward to seeing you again!"

Mou Wen was practicing using Xie Chong's polite, business-like tone to talk to him, because she had edited the message for a long time—every tone she tried felt a little too flirty. Only Xie Chong's own style was just right.

That polite, distant tone—it was perfect!

# Them