Always By Your Side

Chapter 6: Washing Your Hands and Making Soup

On Monday, Yuanyuan contacted Professor Fu. After several rounds of setbacks, his phone number was retrieved through the teacher of a colleague’s friend.

Once the call went through, Yuanyuan respectfully said: “Hello Professor Fu, I’m Chuancheng Magazine’s editor, my name is Cheng Yuanyuan. If I could be so presumptuous as to trouble you—”

The person on the other end slowly said: “Cheng Yuanyuan, we really are brought together by fate.”

Uh……

Yuanyuan was stunned, this voice, it was Fu Beichen’s!

What fate, Yuanyuan thought, actually my boss knows that I know you, so he specially sent me to talk to Professor Fu. But I feel embarrassed to trouble you again and again.

Yet the outcome was that she still encountered him first.

Afterwards, Yuanyuan earnestly explained the whole story.

Fu Beichen smiled: “Today, my father made an appointment with someone to go fishing. If you have time tomorrow, you can come over. As for whether Professor Fu is willing to accept, it’s up to you to communicate with him.”

“Thank you!” Yuanyuan had complicated feelings at the moment, but she was sincerely grateful.

“Tomorrow, come straight to my house. I’ll text you the address,” Fu Beichen said. “Right now I’m going to the airport, I have a two-day business trip.”

“Another business trip…” Then, without taking the time to think, Yuanyuan said, “Don’t overwork yourself.” As soon as she finished speaking, she vaguely felt as if she’d crossed a line.

“En.” After hanging up, Fu Beichen put his father’s cellphone back on the dining table and wrote a note to inform him of his business trip, and that someone would be coming to discuss something with him tomorrow, and he had to meet the other party by all means.

Lu Xiaoning stood by the side with Fu Beichen’s briefcase. After he had finished everything, she said: “This is the first time I’ve seen you like this.”

Fu Beichen picked up his luggage, and without responding to his assistant’s inquiry, only said: “Let’s go.”

The next day Yuanyuan ate breakfast, brought the column plan, and set off to the address Fu Beichen had sent her—Fuxin Xinyuan. 

Fuxin Xinyuan was located in a corner of H University and was a dormitory building that had been built on school grounds for the teaching staff. H University was a century-old prestigious school, and as she walked inside, Yuanyuan’s mind couldn’t help drifting to fragments of words and expressions. For example, “It is such a wonderful day, with fresh air and a mild breeze”, and “dense and tall bamboo forests, and there are clear and turbulent streams, surrounded by radiance”….It really was a gathering place for cultural people. Even the surrounding grass and trees, and the gust of wind blowing on her face all had a cultural scent. Just as she was about to take a deep breath, sighing for the “outstanding people”, a bicycle that was previously at her side had suddenly come up at rapid speed. Seeing the person on the bicycle clearly, Yuanyuan instantly felt like she was plagued by evil spirits. If not, how could she meet him so early in the morning?

Cheng Bai’s hair was gently scattering in the wind. Sunshine spilled out from among the leaves, bits and pieces of light shining on him. She hurriedly lowered her head, praying that he hadn’t seen her. At the same time, Yuanyuan finally remembered that he was a student of H University’s medical school.

Cheng Bai rode past five or six metres, suddenly stopped, and turned around. He pedaled to Cheng Yuanyuan’s side, asking: “Why are you here?”

Yuanyuan sighed in her heart, You already left, why did you still bother coming back? “I came to look for someone. Goodbye!” Amitabha, go away quickly.

Cheng Bai turned to the bicycle’s back seat and handed over the two books that he had just borrowed from the library.

“Hold it for me.”

“Ah?”

“Who are you looking for? I’ll take you there.”

“No, no need. You’re busy.”

Cheng Bai narrowed his eyes and said: “I’m not busy. Are you getting on or not?”

Yuanyuan looked at the medical book in front of her that was about to poke her face, clenched her teeth, turned around, and ran away!

What happened after that made Cheng Yuanyuan feel incessant regret!

Cheng Bai quickly rode his bicycle and caught up with her. He didn’t tell her to stop, directly and viciously pulling the strap of her messenger bag. All of a sudden she was strangled back two steps and fell on top of him. To be precise, she was lying directly on his long leg that was stepping on the pedal, and with one hand she was hugging his waist…

Cheng Bai’s face was obviously ugly: “Are you a pig? You didn’t really think your two stick legs could outrun a bike?”

Yuanyuan bowed her head with no words.

Cheng Bai looked at her coldly for a while, then finally turned around and left. Yuanyuan felt as if she had been relieved from a burden, but looking at the distant figure on the bicycle, she thought of the moment she had thrown her arms and hugged him, and closed her eyes in pain.

After that, Cheng Yuanyuan searched in gloom until she finally found Fuxin Xinyuan Building 12, Unit 1. She then pressed the bell on room 302’s iron door lock.

Three ding dong sounds rang in succession before the lock finally snapped open. Walking up to the third floor, Yuanyuan discovered that the door of 302 was open. She assumed that Professor Fu had left the door open for her, but for the purpose of manners, she still knocked on the door first.

“Please come in,” an exhausted voice sounded.

It was Fu Beichen?!

Hadn’t he gone on a business trip?

Yuanyuan hesitantly entered the house, and was immediately intimidated by the scene before her. This was really a house full of books! All around were walls of books, every nook and cranny was also full of books, and even on the coffee table, there were books.

And Fu Beichen, trapped in these heaps of books, was sitting on the only couch that was not occupied.

He was dressed in a clean, light-coloured shirt and casual slacks, his soft hair covering his forehead. He looked very cultured and refined.

“Not closing the door?” Fu Beichen pinched his eyebrows and asked in a low voice.

Only then did Yuanyuan return to her senses, touching the door lightly.

“You…”

“Last night my father accidentally fell and got injured. This morning he just finished the surgery, so he can’t talk about the column with you for the time being. My apologies, I forgot to send you a message.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Then how is Professor Fu doing now? Did the operation go smoothly?”

“It wasn’t bad.”

Yuanyuan looked at the tired Fu Beichen, and couldn’t help asking: “Did you come back overnight?”

“En,” he nodded.

It seemed that today’s mission could not be completed, but if she turned the other way and left, it seemed inappropriate. Yuanyuan was pondering over how to say goodbye so he could rest when Fu Beichen’s phone rang.

After a few words, he hung up. The corners of Fu Beichen’s mouth lifted, and pointing to the phone, he said: “My father just called. He asked me to bring him a game of chess next time. He said his leg is broken, but not his head, so if your assignment is more urgent, you can go to the hospital for a meeting.”

Yuanyuan was afraid that it might not be appropriate, after all, the time after an operation was when you needed rest. “It’s not a problem, I’ll wait and talk to Professor Fu when it’s convenient.” After speaking, the editor-in-chief Zhang Yueren’s face flashed in her mind, and her left eyelid jumped slightly.

“Have you had breakfast?” Fu Beichen stood up, looking at her as he asked.

“Ah? I’ve eaten.”

He nodded, then went to make a cup of tea and brought it over to her. When Yuanyuan took it, his index finger accidentally touched the palm of her hand.

Because Yuanyuan’s constitution leaned towards weak and cold, her hands were cold all year round, while Fu Beichen’s hands were very warm. When their hands met just now, Yuanyuan couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by that emotional stirring. But he didn’t seem to notice, saying: “I’ll go and get some food. If you’re bored, you can take a look at any of the books here.”

“Oh…”

In this way, Fu Beichen entered the kitchen. Yuanyuan was in a daze for a while, then she went to sit on the sofa, picking up a book on the coffee table—“Love in the Time of Cholera”. She discovered that there was a fiery red maple leaf pressed at the back of the book. The pressed maple leaf had a paragraph on it: “For fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days, day and night, Florentino Arisa has always prepared the answer. ‘Forever’, he said.”

And beside it, someone had written carefree, beautiful words: Eternal yearning is eternal memory, but brief yearning is endless.1

Yuanyuan froze, and then she smelled a scent of instant noodles and regained her senses. She put down the book and got up to walk to the kitchen door, only to find Fu Beichen standing in front of a cup of instant noodles, waiting for the noodles to cook.

She couldn’t help but open her mouth: “Are you really going to eat instant noodles? It’s not healthy.”

Fu Beichen turned his head and replied: “I can only make this.”

Yuanyuan heard his words and laughed. So it turned out an extraordinary person could be so powerless in the kitchen.

“Then usually…”

Fu Beichen said bluntly without concealing anything: “Sometimes I go out to eat, mostly the auntie at home cooks. But now that auntie has to go to the hospital to take care of Professor Fu.”

Yuanyuan was speechless, wavered a little, and then walked into the kitchen. She stood in front of the refrigerator as she asked: “Can I open it and take a look?”

He laughed gently: “As you wish.”

Seeing that the refrigerator had so many things, Yuanyuan asked: “What do you want to eat? Soup noodles, right? There’s vegetables, eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, meat…”

Fu Beichen really had no appetite for instant noodles, but in order to not be so hungry that his stomach hurt, he had intended to just eat them. Looking at the girl who was about to cook noodles for him, he asked in a daze: “You can cook?”

Putting on an apron, Yuanyuan glanced sideways at him. She revealed a rarely-seen look of pride: “En, just ordinary home dishes, the basics I can do a little.”

“Gizzard palm stick, flock of immortals soup.”

“Ah?” Yuanyuan turned her head. What kind of dishes were these? She’d never heard of them before.

Fu Beichen returned to his senses. After an inaudible sigh, he said: “I’m teasing you.”

“Oh, then I’ll make the decision, are tomato egg noodles okay?”

“Okay,” he said.

Yuanyuan very quickly got acquainted with the Fu family’s kitchen, enthusiastically becoming a female chef. Fu Beichen leaned against the kitchen door, watching her busy herself with the bowl of noodles. There was a faint smile in his eyes.

He waited until Yuanyuan finished making the noodles, puffing and blowing on them as she carried it to the table. Fu Beichen was indeed hungry. But when he sat down to eat, he was still in that same unhurried manner as before, without the slightest degree of disorder, full of etiquette.

“Is it okay, the taste?” Yuanyuan asked expectantly and from the bottom of her heart. With what she’d done, even her picky grandmother would praise her.

Sure enough, Fu Beichen looked up and said: “Very good.” In those inky eyes, there was a light smile.

“Really?”

“En.” He halted for a second, then sincerely said: “It quite suits my tastes.”

In a room full of books and archaic furniture, one man and one woman, one sitting and one standing, unexpectedly there was a wonderful sense of harmony. After a while, someone knocked on the door, and Fu Beichen was stunned. Because Yuanyuan was closer, she went to help open the door.

Seeing Yuanyuan, the person at the door was clearly surprised. And Yuanyuan was stunned.

She didn’t know how to describe the beauty of the breathtaking girl in front of her. She only felt that her eyes were bright, and thought that the so-called picturesque appearance should be just like this.

“Senior brother2!” The beautiful woman smiled towards Fu Beichen. She had finished breakfast before coming over. “I thought I’d gone through the wrong door!”

Yuanyuan turned around suspiciously, and finally confirmed that the beautiful woman’s so-called senior brother was Fu Beichen. She suddenly wanted to laugh, because she remembered the phrase “Senior brother, Master was taken away by the monster”!3

Fu Beichen nodded to the beautiful woman and motioned for her to come in. The beautiful woman walked in and said: “I just came back from my hometown, and I wanted to give the professor some peach slices since he loves eating them. But when I called the old man, I learned that he was hospitalized. It scared me to death. Fortunately it’s not serious, the professor told me not to go to the hospital. But he said that you were home, so I brought the things directly over. By the way, I want to look around and borrow a few more books from the professor.”

“En.”

The beautiful woman put down her things, then looked towards Yuanyuan.

At this time, the latter was planning to put away the noodle soup that Fu Beichen had finished eating.

“Senior brother, who is this?” The beauty blinked at Fu Beichen and softly said, “You’re not going to make an introduction?”

Fu Beichen didn’t have the slightest amount of an unnatural expression, even though the apron was currently still hanging on Cheng Yuanyuan’s body.

“Her name is Cheng Yuanyuan, she came to see Professor Fu. Because Auntie isn’t here I was starving to death, so she kindly made me a bowl of noodles.”

These words made the beautiful woman laugh, and Yuanyuan made a “囧” face with black lines. Fortunately, after the beauty laughed, she walked to Yuanyuan and introduced herself: “Hello, my name is Shen Yu, I’m a student of Professor Fu’s.”

“Hello.” Yuanyuan felt that some people were so radiant that there would be a sense of oppression in which people wouldn’t dare look directly at them. Shen Yu was such a person.

Later when Yuanyuan left Professor Fu’s house, Shen Yu also left. Fu Beichen sent them out. When the two got into the elevator, Shen Yu plainly said: “So you wanted to find my teacher to write a column.”

“En.”

Shen Yu smiled meaningfully and said: “It’s not very likely for my teacher to take this kind of work, however, if my senior brother takes you along, that might not necessarily be the case. My senior brother is good to you.”

Yuanyuan nodded: “Mr. Fu is a really good person.” When saying goodbye just now, Fu Beichen had said that he would take her to the hospital to see Professor Fu tomorrow afternoon.

Fu Beichen stood at the window, looking at the two figures downstairs. In fact, he was actually looking at just one. When he couldn’t see her anymore, he walked back to the sofa and sat down, gently closing the open book on the coffee table.

As for Yuanyuan’s return to the Cheng house that day, because of her “indecent” behaviour compelled by other circumstances, she was extremely careful to avoid touching Cheng Bai. Yuanyuan felt that she really was miserable. Fortunately, he seemed to be very busy. According to Auntie Zhu, he was occupied reading medical books again, and making investments.

 

This chapter, especially towards the end, was largely machine translated because I wanted to upload it quickly.

Also, Merry Christmas Eve! I hope everyone is having a nice winter break and enjoying the holidays. Unfortunately, I only have one week off before school starts again T-T I’m going to try and get as many releases out as possible during that time.

This is a poem from Li Bai’s “Three Five Seven Words/Qiufeng Ci”. (Baidu source.) Return.HELP I think it sounds so awkward to have her call him senior brother but there’s no English equivalent, basically what she’s saying in Mandarin is “大师兄”, or dà shīxiōng. It means Fu Beichen was her senior at school. Return.This is a reference to a scene from Journey to the West. I don’t really get it, but I’m guessing it was supposed to be a funny scene. Return.