Please Be More Serious Chapter 41

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n the night of the twenty third, Zhengqing called Yin Ting and informed her that he was booked on a flight at noon the next day.

Yin Ting screamed excitedly down the phone, Zhengqing could not help but laugh. Then she sighed and said, ‘The cooking lessons have not been successful, otherwise I would have personally made you a romantic western style meal.’ (Zuben: What? Steak and potatoes?)

‘Ah that’s alright, thank you for the thought,’ he said a little nervously, ‘Is my kitchen okay?’

‘Yes, it’s done. I got the work rushed and it was finished today,’ she replied as she made effort to recall whether there were other damages to his house. She’ll have to look through tomorrow and check again.

‘I will land at two o’ clock, but I will have to go to the office first and give my report and hand in the doc.u.ments. Then I’ll come home.’ He told her.

‘Alright, I thought so,’ she said as she thought, she would have more time, ‘I will wait for you at home, since you don’t have your keys.’

‘Um, can I still use my keys?’

‘Of course, of course.’ Yin Ting said with a little guilty p.r.i.c.k to her conscience.

‘I haven’t had time to arrange a restaurant for us to eat. I’ll see if I can make a reservation somewhere.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve already arranged it,’ she said excitedly, ‘and if you can’t come back it won’t be wasted, I’ll take my dad.’

‘….’ Zhengqing felt a sense of crisis ah; it seems the boyfriend can be replaced by the father at any time. (Zuben: Yeah, don’t try to get between a girl and their loving father.)

The next evening, Zhengqing wearily dragged his suitcase to his door. He looked at his watch, it was just past five. He just needed to take a shower and accompany Yin Ting to dinner.

He took a deep breath and raised his hand to the doorbell.

It was the first time that he’d ever had to ring his own door bell. Because he had no family who visited, his house only ever had him in it. There was never anyone else to open his door. If he was outside the door, there would be no one inside. It would be quiet and lonely.

This feeling of ringing his doorbell was very fresh.

There was movement behind the door and his heart began to pound. He had a girlfriend; he was going to accompany her to eat Christmas dinner. He suddenly felt nervous.

His girlfriend.

There was a timid intimate feeling.

The door opened, ‘Welcome home,’ she said in a loud vibrant voice. At Yin Ting’s sweet smile, his heart warmed.

His girlfriend. His family. (Zuben: Really, rein in your heart, bros!)

‘I’m back,’ he said letting his affection for her show in his eyes. His eyes felt warm.

‘Come in, its cold outside,’ she said tugging him in, and pulling out indoor slippers. He noticed a new set of slippers, they were red matching his blue ones, and they were very festive.

Yin Ting dragged his suitcase into the house as she closed the door, while shouting, ‘Dada! Come see daddy, he’s back!’

Zhengqing smiled, he was now also a daddy. Miao-dada ran over, Zhengqing could not help but laugh. He was wearing a splendid attire, he was dressed like Santa Claus, and he looked really chubby, ‘Miao, you’ve gotten really fat.’ He said as he help up the cat. The cat struggled to get down; it was more interested in the suitcase.

Zhengqing crossed the threshold and entered his living room.

Things had changed. It was strange but he kind of liked it.

The brown leather sofa was gone. In its place, an even larger beige and brown fabric sofa with many cushions as well as a blanket. Near the floor to ceiling windows was now a tall evergreen tree. The tree was decorated with glittering lights, and golden bells, and pretty ribbons and cute baubles. Under the tree were a few wrapped boxes. His beige curtains were tied back with their sash in a neat bow. He had never really cared how they looked. The bookcase in the living room had a few new things than a few red blue yellow ornaments, it was looking very festive.

‘Do you like it? She asked tentatively. She pulled him to touch the couch and let him sit in it. The fabric seemed to be made of the best cotton, and memory foam on the inside. ‘It was cheaper than the leather one. And the seat covers can be changed, so I bought another set; red and brown, so they go with your colour scheme. Do you find it comfortable? The fabric is difficult to scratch.’

Zhengqing relaxed on the couch, it was really comfortable. He pulled Yin Ting down beside him, this time she blushed, but she cosied up next to him.

‘Very nice, I like it,’ he said.

Yin Ting grinned happily and said, ‘There is a true gift, oh,’ as she pointed to a box under the tree.

‘Did you buy all of that?’ He asked surprised. The boxes were also very nicely decorated with wrapping paper.

‘Of course not, I only bought one, and I will give you when we eat, the atmosphere would be nice.’ (Zuben: They seem to be obsessed with ‘atmosphere’)

Zhengqing thought it was lucky that he didn’t give her his gift right away, since she wanted to have the Christmas atmosphere. He would wait till dinner.

‘The rest are from my brother, Yufei, Gu Yingjie and Zhuzhu-jie. They are small gifts that they sent over,’ Yin Ting said with a smile, ‘I got them ready in advance.’

He laughed at her expression and asked, ‘So when you were receiving the gifts, did they know about us?’

Yin Tin blushed but said, ‘I did not say anything. It is Christmas. Whether they know or not, they sent gifts for you. Of course, one expresses thing differently to different people. Who knows what they thought. They handed me the gifts, and I delivered them.’

Zhengqing smiled, he estimated that they all know.

‘I am not stupid, I must wait for you to come back and we can tell them face to face.’

‘Yes yes, it is not good of me.’

‘It is not that you’re not good, I am reasonable. You must work, but you have also hurried back, so I am very happy.’

‘I am also very happy,’ he replied, thinking that her face was really cute, would it be too much too quickly to kiss her?

‘Would you like a cup of tea or do we leave now? I reserved for half past seven, but there would certainly be traffic.’ Yin Ting said reminding him of the time.

‘No I won’t have tea, I’ll quickly take a shower and change clothes,’ he said as he got up quickly and went to get his suitcase. He turned back and asked; ‘You know Yufei is pregnant?’ He had heard from colleagues at work. Yufei confirmed and also told him she was getting married to Yingjie.

‘I know,’ Yin Ting said nodding, she was clearly very happy for her friend, ‘Yingjie telephoned to show off to everyone. They built the fruit of virtue.1’

 Qiu Zhengqing nodded and calmly said, ‘We will too,’ then took his suitcase to his bedroom. He pa.s.sed the kitchen on his way and took a glance in. It had really been renovated. He turned to Yin Tin with a raised eyebrow, Yin Ting giggled.

He went to his room.

Once his door was closed, Yin Ting swayed back and forth on the sofa, ‘We can also…’ so sure, so calm, although it was not like he was madly in love, but there was such self a.s.surance, ah. But the way he said it…!

Yin Ting grabbed a cushion and clutched it to her face feeling shy.

He’d only been gone half a month, when did he become so handsome? She really liked him.

She clutched the pillow, hiding her face as she rolled about on the sofa, remembering his twelve points she giggled happily (Zuben: You and I remember different things, dear) Then she was imagining how he’d react when she gave him his gift. She giggled again. He most likely won’t have a gift for her. She guessed that might be the case, but it did not matter.

She was lolling on the sofa, lost in thought, when she turned around and saw Zhengqing all dressed up standing in the living room watching her.

She squeaked and jumped up, and quickly sat in a lady like manner. Although it was kind of too late, she must still display composure. How did he bathe so quickly, or had she been fooling around too long?

Zhengqing tried very hard to hold back the laughter. He has thought there was too little time to wash, so he dressed and rushed out only to find his girlfriend giggling and rolling about the sofa and his chubby cat hanging off the study door handle.

This cat really does worry a person, ah.

He pretended not to have noticed Yin Ting’s silliness and turned to Miao-dada, ‘What is he doing?’

‘What…?’ she asked, she could not see the door from the sofa so she came to his side to have a look.

‘Oh he’s trying to open the door.’

‘…’

‘It’s the only door he can’t open. So he tries really hard to do it.’ The door was very hard to open and close and it needed a bit of muscle strength to open, so no matter how much Miao-dada tried, it could not open the door.

‘…’ He looked at her then back at the cat, ‘Will there come a day when I come home and find the door open and my house robbed because the cat let the thieves in?’

‘…ah…’ Yin Ting also thought of the problem but then whispered, ‘But think of the advantages, the cat can also…’

 He stared at her as Yin Ting quickly scrambled for an excuse, ‘It isn’t me who taught him how to open doors, really. When I come over, it is already out of its room. Besides, it has proved that it is a smart cat.’

‘Hmm, I am really pleased,’ he said a tad sarcastically as he went to pry Dada from the door, ‘it didn’t have the strength to open the doors before, but I will solve this problem.’ He said as he took Miao-dada back to its room, and locked the door.  

‘It really likes leather surfaces,’ she explained, ‘and your study has a leather chair. So I locked the door properly, ah.’ Yin Ting said fiercely, her expression was like “I fought to keep your chair safe!”

He laughed, ‘This proves my girlfriend is really smart.’

Yin Ting looked up at the word ‘girlfriend’, it sounded nice to hear. (Zuben: Finally?)

After getting the cat settled for the evening, the two of them left the house for their dinner.

In the building where the restaurant was, they took the elevator to the restaurant. As they moved up, Yin Ting was deep in thought wondering how to express intimacy with Zhengqing. When it was time to go, did she put her hand in his and pretend it was all natural and casual. Or did she wait for dinner then hold his hand? Or should they go for a romantic walk in the evening? That would certainly be more natural…

While deep in thought, her hand was suddenly enveloped by a bigger warm hand.

Yin Ting’s heart was pounding as she glanced surrept.i.tiously at Zhengqing, he was staring intently at the elevator panel. Yin Ting tried not to grin, but smiled. She grabbed onto his bicep with her free hand, and laughed, ‘You’re shy.’

‘I am not.’ He answered with a low rumble

‘You are.’ She teased.

‘No,’

‘You are, definitely!’

‘What is there to be shy about? Holding my girlfriend’s hand is perfectly justified.’ He said with a stubborn look on his face.

Yin Ting laughed, she was so happy, really happy.

The restaurant looked good as they entered. Around them there many other couples enjoying each other and their meals. Yin Ting and Zhengqing were both excited and shy; they didn’t talk much as they ate their very nice dinner, but couldn’t help looking at each other and couldn’t help but laugh

When it was time for dessert, Yin Ting took out her gift and handed it to Zhengqing. He opened it to find a pair of drop shaped cufflinks; he liked them so much he immediately put them on.

‘Very nice, I like them.’

Yin Ting was very happy.

At this time Zhengqing took out from his jacket pocket a flat, not small but not big box.

‘This is my gift to you.’

A little excitement bubbled up in Yin Ting, ‘Is that your little notebook?’ she joked.

Zhengqing smiled but did not answer, he simply said, ‘I hope you like it.’

Yin Tin laughed and opened the gift; it was an electronic photo frame

‘Nice, we can put our pictures!’ she said, but Zhengqing reached over and clicked the on b.u.t.ton.

The pictures began to run their slide show.

The first picture was:

(Zuben: I can’t believe I have to type this out again)

‘Firstly, feelings are the most important thing; I like you. You said that if people like each other there’s nothing inappropriate about it, and they can adjust to suit each other. But if people don’t like each other mutually, then everything is useless. So the most important thing is; I like you.

He had re-written the negotiations by hand on a clean sheet of white paper and took photos of them and made them into a slide show on the electronic photo frame.

The second picture was:

I have a car, no loan, a house with five years left on the mortgage and a lot of annual dividends, and large savings. Although, my circ.u.mstances are not as good as yours, I have enough to give you a good quality of life.’

As the eight picture came up, she couldn’t help but cry:

‘The eighth point, how long would I like you? There are two conditions. First; you like me. Second; we work together diligently. If we meet the above conditions, we should be together a long time.’

Ninth, tenth ... Yin Ting wiped her tears till she saw the thirteeth.

‘Thirteenth point, I am not with you all the time, so please be sure to take care of yourself and don’t make me worry.

 Yin Ting’s tears flowed freely, ‘So hateful,’ she said through her watery smile, ‘making me cry in public.’

Zhengqing silently handed her a paper napkin. (Zuben: Paper napkin? What kind of shoddy establishment are they in? Cloth serviettes, if you please.)

 Yin Ting took the paper napkin, as she complained, ‘So hateful, how could you come up with this gift.’ This gift was much better, so romantic. She had misjudged him. So romantic, he must be the first.

‘Well, it’s nothing. I got the inspiration at a meeting where they were showing me things on PowerPoint.’

(Zuben: Bwhahahah! Such a dork!)

‘…’

Only her proper gentleman can see inspiration in a PowerPoint presentation, right?

[1] I a.s.sume this is a something the Chinese say about marriage and babies. I couldn’t find any site that would easily confirm or deny that for me.

N.B.: If you choose to comment, don't be worried they don't show up right away. Comments get moderated and I publish them as soon as I can. 

Thanks for reading. Be well :)

❀ Chapter 42...