trct_60

Chapter 60: Burning with Anxiety

The next morning was bright and clear, the sky a deep, cloudless blue.

Today was the studio's official opening day. Ji Qingzhou had arranged a small tea gathering with friends, but since it wasn't scheduled until the afternoon, he wasn't in any particular rush.

With the rare chance to skip work, he lingered in bed a while longer—he'd clearly woken up around seven or eight, but stubbornly stayed lying down until just past nine before finally getting up.

By then, Jie Yu'an was already sitting on the sofa like some old gentleman, cradling a teacup and basking in the sun.

"It's so hot, don't you feel it?" Ji Qingzhou propped himself up on one arm and sat up, bending his legs to kick the thin blanket to the other side of the bed.

Feeling the cool breeze from the electric fan nearby brush gently past his neck and knees, he finally felt somewhat refreshed.

"Get rid of your thick mattress and it won't be hot," Jie Yu'an replied flatly.

"That won't do, these old bones of mine can't handle sleeping on your hard bed board…

"Let's just have A' You swap out our bedding tonight. And don't go drawing a line down the middle either, we'll lay down a thicker mattress, then a cooling mat on top. That way we've got the hard and the soft both covered. What do you say?"

Not really, that was nothing like the hard bed at all…

Jie Yu'an thought this to himself, lips parting slightly, but he said nothing.

Ji Qingzhou took his silence as agreement.

He then rolled out of bed and was heading for the washroom when the door suddenly rattled with a loud knocking, the abrupt sound making Ji Qingzhou's brow twitch.

There was no way this was Huang Youshu knocking—and the maid who did the cleaning wouldn't knock that hard either.

"Who is it?" Ji Qingzhou called toward the door, straightening the collar of his pajamas as he walked over and opened it, only to be met with a crooked, grinning face.

Luo Mingxuan stood outside the door, dressed in a light silk long robe, a folding fan in hand, beaming.

He was dressed in traditional Chinese style from head to toe, save for a cream-colored Panama hat perched on his head—the East-meets-West combination somehow still managing to look rather gentlemanly.

"Knocking on someone's door this early in the morning, don't you know any manners?" Seeing who it was, Ji Qingzhou relaxed at once, leaning lazily against the doorframe.

"Early? Didn't you say you wanted to hold a little literary salon at the studio? I've already had breakfast, made a trip to the Shanghai Daily office to pick up Wenxin and Yuan Shaohuai, and now I get here to the Jie residence only to find you're still not even up?"

"What literary salon, it's just a get-together with friends. Besides, I said noon. Who told you to show up before ten?"

"Well, I'm already here, so hurry it up, would you…" Luo Mingxuan's voice trailed off as, through the gap in the door, he caught sight of Jie Yu'an sitting on the sofa in his pajamas, and for some reason felt a strange sort of awkwardness settle over him—as though it was the first time he'd so clearly registered that these two men actually shared a bed.

He then glanced at Ji Qingzhou's slightly tousled hair, and his face reddened inexplicably. Hastily urging "Hurry up, then," he turned and scurried off toward the side staircase in a flustered rush.

"That kid, always so careless…" Ji Qingzhou clicked his tongue, closed the door, and went back to wash up.

After finishing his usual morning routine and helping Jie Yu'an get dressed, Ji Qingzhou brought him downstairs to the dining room for breakfast.

Luo Mingxuan, Qiu Wenxin, and Yuan Shaohuai had originally been waiting for them in the small sitting room, but upon hearing from the maid that the two were already having breakfast, they made their way together to the main dining hall.

Though Yuan Shaohuai worked as an editor at the Shanghai Daily with a respectable salary, and his family circumstances were decent enough, he'd still only managed to rent a small apartment in Shanghai for himself and his family—so a grand garden estate like the Jie residence was, to him, truly the height of splendor.

Moments earlier, riding in Luo Mingxuan's car as they drove in along the broad, tree-lined avenue, he'd already lost count of how many times he'd marveled aloud, and now, following the two of them through the pointed-arch corridor into the main hall, he continued sighing in admiration the whole way.

"Wenxin, if you're friends with the young master of the Jie family, why didn't you introduce us sooner? Xiao Luo's the decent one, he actually remembers his mahjong buddies when something good comes up. Today's really opened my eyes!"

"Ah, let me defend Wenxin here, it's not that he was deliberately keeping it from you. Brother Yuan only got back to the country three months ago. You've met him yourself, so you'd know he was injured and had trouble getting around, hardly left the house before. It's only in recent days that he's gotten better and started going out and about more…"

Chatting away, the three of them made their way to the large dining room in the west wing. The moment they stepped through the door, their eyes were met with a set of grand floor-to-ceiling windows.

Beyond the windows lay a stretch of sunlit lawn, sliced into a series of bright, picturesque frames by the arched openings of the outer corridor.

In front of that view, at the wide dining table, sat two people eating—one in a blue shirt, the other in a pale gray long robe. Though their styles of dress were entirely different, both their looks and bearing suited the leisurely, refined atmosphere of the setting remarkably well.

The moment Yuan Shaohuai entered, he was struck by the expansive, lushly green view through the window, and was just about to offer some words of praise when his gaze landed on the two men dining before it, and the phrase "a perfectly matched pair" suddenly surfaced in his mind.

He shook his head, brushing off the odd thought, and followed Luo Mingxuan and the other over to the table, greeting them: "Long time no see, Brother Ji, Young Master Jie."

Ji Qingzhou nodded with a smile and asked, "Why's it just you, Brother Yuan? Where are your colleagues?"

"Ju is busy with a translation, couldn't make it. Song was planning to come, but he's got his own car, so he's not riding with us. He heard from Xiao Luo that you'd invited some lady guests this time, so he said he'd bring his sister along to join in the fun."

Yuan Shaohuai had an easygoing, sociable nature—he'd been a touch reserved when he first walked in, but the moment Ji Qingzhou gave him a warm smile, his tone immediately grew animated, and he rattled on without pause: "I heard Song's sister has a particular interest in tailoring. Aren't you running a tailoring studio? I'd imagine he wants to bring his sister along to have a look around."

"Well then, Mr. Song sounds like quite the good brother."

"You have no idea. He absolutely dotes on his sister, he even named the photo studio he runs after a word that sounds just like her name."

Hearing this mentioned, Ji Qingzhou recalled it now.

The photo studio Reporter Song ran was called "Yu'er Photo Studio"—at the time, he'd thought the name rather odd, but it turned out to be a homophone of his sister's name.

"Say, why isn't there an electric fan in this dining room? It's awfully hot."

Across the table, Luo Mingxuan lounged back in his chair with an air of complete ease, scooping up salted peanuts from a plate to eat while fanning himself with his folding fan.

The hat he'd been wearing had already been tossed aside, revealing a head of tousled hair sticking up every which way, clearly untouched by any pomade.

Looks even more like a monkey now…

Ji Qingzhou thought to himself privately.

He then glanced around the room and suddenly noticed that, aside from A' You and himself, everyone present was wearing a long robe.

Jie Yu'an and Luo Mingxuan wore ones made of silk, while Yuan Shaohuai and Qiu Wenxin wore ones of ramie—all of them light and breathable.

He was the only one still in a cotton shirt, and even with the collar open and sleeves rolled up to the elbow, he still felt stifled by the heat.

Ah well, there wasn't much to be done about it—it was his own fault for never having made himself one.

Shen Nanqi had actually gone and ordered one for him at Yuxiang, but it hadn't arrived yet, and there was no telling when it would be finished.

Or, he could just wear one of the short-sleeved T-shirts he'd brought from the modern era—that would be much cooler, only he'd probably draw looks from every single person if he wore it out on the street.

Clothes like that were fine to wear around the bedroom after a shower—Jie Yu'an couldn't see them anyway—but he hadn't yet built up the nerve to wear them out to a gathering.

Mulling this over, Ji Qingzhou quickly finished the sweet porridge in his bowl, pushed his dishes aside, and picked up a glass to take a few sips of cool boiled water to rinse his mouth.

Just then, Aunt Liang suddenly appeared at the dining room door, carrying two kraft paper packages. He nodded first toward Ji Qingzhou in greeting, then turned to Huang Youshu, who stood in the corner of the room, and said, "Someone from Yuxiang delivered the newly made clothes. These two are for Young Master Yuan and Mr. Ji, take them upstairs and put them away properly."

Huang Youshu nodded quickly at this and was about to hurry toward the door when Ji Qingzhou stopped him.

"Wait, A' You, I'll take them up myself!" he said, already rising to his feet and heading for the door.

Here he'd been fretting over having nothing cool to wear, and now the very thing had arrived—truly a pillow delivered just as he was dozing off.

"Good timing to change, this shirt's too hot." Catching Aunt Liang's puzzled look, Ji Qingzhou offered the explanation, then took the two packages and called back over his shoulder into the dining room, "Jie Yuan, eat slowly. Little Monkey Luo, look after your Brother Yuanbao for me."

"Huh? Little Monkey Luo? Me?" Luo Mingxuan pointed at himself.

"Who else?"

"Tch—fine, I suppose!" Despite the nickname, Luo Mingxuan kept right on grinning, looking rather pleased about it all the same.

He then picked up the serving chopsticks and added a soup dumpling to Jie Yu'an's plate.

Though Jie Yu'an couldn't see, he seemed able to tell exactly what had been done just from the sound, and set down his own chopsticks. "That's enough, I've had my fill."

"Come on, you've only had that one bowl of porridge, your appetite really is something else… not even half of what I eat."

As he spoke, Luo Mingxuan plucked the soup dumpling right back out and popped it straight into his own mouth.

"Speaking of which, this tea gathering you're throwing, Brother Ji, did you really invite some lady guests? Who are they?" Yuan Shaohuai asked, curious.

Though the atmosphere within the Shanghai concessions was fairly open, deeply ingrained conventions weren't so easily broken—unless it was a purely Western-style cocktail party, gatherings among literary men like this one generally steered clear of inviting women.

Take the Shanghai Daily office, for instance—the little club upstairs saw a constant stream of guests, yet not a single woman had ever set foot in that third-floor recreation room, even though every man at the paper had a wife, and some even had sisters at home.

"Now don't you go getting any funny ideas, Brother Yuan!"

Luo Mingxuan raised his eyebrows high, putting on a stern expression as he warned, "The guests Qingzhou's invited are all regular customers from his shop—students, from what I hear, probably a good decade younger than you, around the same age as Song's sister, I'd guess.

"A grown man like you ought to mind yourself, don't go bringing that unsavory drinking-table behavior of yours into our tea gathering and scare the poor girls off."

"Now you're lecturing me? What unsavory behavior do I have? Me, Wenxin, and Song are all married men already. It's you, the bachelor, who ought to watch himself."

Yuan Shaohuai pointed at him, then, noticing Jie Yu'an across the table, added, "And Young Master Jie too, he must be a bachelor as well, right?"

Jie Yu'an's hand paused mid-sip of his tea, and he replied flatly, "No."

"Oh? Young Master Jie's already married?" Yuan Shaohuai pushed up his glasses in surprise, and seeing the man across from him nod in confirmation, asked, "Then why hasn't your wife come down to eat? Has she already gone out?"

"......"

Jie Yu'an fell silent for a moment, unsure what to say.

Luo Mingxuan, uncharacteristically, said nothing either. Normally he loved this kind of lively commotion the most, but at this moment he suddenly felt a pang of secondhand embarrassment on his Brother Yuan's behalf.

Why go and admit to being married at all? Wouldn't it have been so much simpler to just say he was still single? he couldn't help but think to himself.

Seeing this, Qiu Wenxin gave a light cough and stepped in to smooth things over: "His wife's still upstairs, hasn't gotten up yet."

"Ah, right, right," Luo Mingxuan said, recovering his enthusiasm after a moment's hesitation, teasing, "Brother Yuan's wife is an absolute beauty, that's why he keeps her hidden away, won't let anyone see her."

At this, Jie Yu'an rapped his knuckles warningly against the table twice.

"Haha, just joking! His wife just doesn't like meeting people, that's all!" Luo Mingxuan immediately changed his tune.

"I see…" Yuan Shaohuai nodded as though he understood, though privately he couldn't shake the feeling that something about all their reactions was rather odd.

Luo Mingxuan especially—if he was on such close terms with Young Master Jie, why did he keep referring to the lady as "his wife" instead of simply calling her sister-in-law directly?

As a newspaperman, he had a keen nose for gossip, and was just about to work his way around to asking what surname the Young Mrs. Jie went by, when a clear, bright voice sounded from the dining room door, cutting the conversation short.

"Sorry, sorry, keeping you all waiting!"

Ji Qingzhou strode into the room with light, brisk steps, saying, "All done eating? If so, we can head out!"

"Finished ages ago." Luo Mingxuan, glancing at Jie Yu'an's bowl, had just answered for him in that easy, breezy tone of his when he turned his head and caught sight of the person walking in—his breath suddenly caught, and he froze there, mouth hanging open.

Yuan Shaohuai and Qiu Wenxin, hearing the voice, likewise turned instinctively toward the door, and just as quickly fell silent themselves.

It wasn't that they'd never seen anything impressive before—it was simply that the Ji Qingzhou fixed in their minds was always dressed in a Western-style shirt and trousers, sharp and modern. Now, having suddenly changed into a refined changshan, his entire look had transformed completely, carrying an air utterly different from before, leaving them all staring, momentarily stunned.

Luo Mingxuan had seen Ji Qingzhou in a long robe before, but perhaps because they hadn't been especially close back then, or perhaps because the robes he'd worn had always been either blue or gray—cotton-linen fabric that wrinkled easily, looking creased, stiff, and rather aged, without much texture to it—it had never left much of an impression on him.

But now, in this new robe—a pale aqua-green long garment made of soft, smooth silk, cut looser than an ordinary robe—the slit hem lifted lightly with each step, the lines of the garment flowing and graceful.

Combined with the young man's smooth black hair and clear eyes, free of any shadow, the whole effect was genuinely as gentle and luminous as water at first glance.

"What is it?"

Just as the group fell into an unspoken silence all at once, Jie Yu'an suddenly broke it, asking the question, his low voice sounding somewhat out of place.

The sudden hush around the table had actually lasted less than ten seconds, but to Jie Yu'an, that silence felt strangely deafening.

Luo Mingxuan still stood there, mouth open, saying nothing, only rising instinctively to his feet, wanting to walk over to Ji Qingzhou's side to admire the outfit up close—but before he could, the man had already reached the table, resting a hand on the back of a chair, waiting for Jie Yu'an to rise.

Qiu Wenxin glanced at Jie Yu'an's slightly displeased expression and was the first to recover, saying lightly, "It's nothing, first time seeing Qingzhou in a long robe, that's all. We're just not used to it, haha, not used to it at all."

Even as he said this, Jie Yu'an knew perfectly well that a mere change in dress style wouldn't have left them all struck so utterly silent.

He pressed his lips together without any change in expression, while inside, something like a flame seemed to be burning, stirring up an unspeakable panic and unease.

"What do you mean by that, Wenxin? Do I look strange in a long robe?" Ji Qingzhou asked, glancing down at Qiu Wenxin, not having noticed the odd atmosphere from a moment ago.

"Not strange at all, how could it be strange? It suits you perfectly!"

Luo Mingxuan, finally finding his voice again, gave a thumbs-up in praise. "How come when I wear a long robe I look like a dried-up corpse wrapped in burlap, but you put one on and look this elegant and refined?"

"Really," Yuan Shaohuai agreed, "You and I are dressed more or less the same, yet you look so clear and fine-boned, comparing the two of us, we might as well be different species."

"An immortal and a monkey," Luo Mingxuan added helpfully.

"Just a matter of natural gifts."

Ji Qingzhou replied jokingly, though in truth it was because he'd made some adjustments to the measurements he'd given Yuxiang, adding extra ease to the shoulder width, chest, and arm circumference beyond his exact body measurements, so that the finished robe would be loose and breathable while also draping more gracefully.

"Well, don't go wasting those gifts, then, wear long robes more often from now on. I mean it, it really suits you." Luo Mingxuan repeated himself for emphasis.

Perhaps it was simply that Ji Qingzhou's present appearance struck him as unusually gentle and refined, but even his own voice had turned noticeably softer as he spoke.

"Sure." Ji Qingzhou answered offhandedly, then patted Jie Yu'an's arm. "All done eating? Shall we head out?"

Jie Yu'an said nothing, but as he rose to his feet, he reached out without any hesitation, his hand—sleeve and all—closing around the wrist of the man beside him.

Then, his fingers slid slowly down along the smooth silk fabric, inch by inch, until his entire right hand was enclosed within his own palm.

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