Couple of Mirrors - Chapter 4: Giving Shelter

 

Inside the studio, Yan Wei drops a towel over Xu Youyi's head. 'The drowned rat look doesn't suit you,' she tells Xu Youyi bluntly. Xu Youyi only shivers.

They see Zhou Heng passing by outside. 'Youyi, where are you?' he calls.

'Listen to him,' says Xu Youyi. 'He sounds so anxious and sincere. There's no trace of betrayal in his voice.'

'Now that you know the truth,' says Yan Wei, towelling off Xu Youyi's hair, 'why continue to deceive yourself by saying such things?'

'So it was you who wrote that anonymous letter,' says Xu Youyi, looking up at Yan Wei.

'What anonymous letter?' asks Yan Wei.

'If you didn't write it,' says Xu Youyi, 'why does it seem like you know everything?'

'Come with me,' says Yan Wei, and leads Xu Youyi into her darkroom.

Inside, Yan Wei develops the group photographs she took earlier of Xu Youyi, Zhou Heng and Zhang Wan. In one of the photographs, Zhou Heng and Zhang Wan can clearly be seen holding hands.

Xu Youyi is shattered. She thinks back to the book launch, when both Zhang Wan and Zhou Heng spoke up for her. 'They were so good to me,' she says, clutching a hand to her head. 'How could it turn into this?' Her tears drip into the chemical bath holding the photographs.

Yan Wei tries to comfort her, patting her stiffly on the shoulder. 'Nothing has really changed,' she tells Xu Youyi. 'What is a lie now was a lie from the beginning.'

'From the beginning?' wonders Xu Youyi. She thinks back to the book launch, to the moment where Zhou Heng said, 'I'll wait for you.' and Zhang Wan responded with, 'Gross~' 

'When he said "I'll wait for you", was he really speaking to me?' she wonders. 

Then she thinks back to Zhang Wan telling her, 'Youyi, Zhou Heng is so good to you~' 

'Now that I think of it,' she muses, 'she must have secretly been sneering at me during all those moments of closeness...'

'You're right,' Xu Youyi tells Yan Wei. 'But can I have a few moments to myself to calm down?' 

Yan Wei excuses herself to go and cook them some supper, and Xu Youyi is left wondering what happens next. 'I've been friends with Zhang Wan for ten years, and married to Zhou Heng for five years. Does that all go up in flames?'

Her thoughts are interrupted by a loud 'BANG!' from another room. 'What happened?' she calls out, as she goes to investigate. She finds the kitchen in complete disorder: Yan Wei's face is covered with grime, and the pan behind her is literally on fire.

'Let me handle this!' says Xu Youyi, slamming a lid over the pan and extinguishing the flames. Then she turns to Yan Wei. 'Are you all right?' she asks, trying to brush some of the grime off Yan Wei's face. 

'Your gloves,' says Yan Wei, 'they'll get dirty.' Xu Youyi doesn't pay much attention to this. 'Aiya~' she tells Yan Wei, 'don't move.'

Yan Wei tries to explain what happened. 'I was making egg fried rice,' she says, 'but the rice stuck to the pan. I added oil and it caught fire.'

'Don't you know you need to use leftover rice for egg fried rice?' asks Xu Youyi. She tells Yan Wei to go and wash her face, while she takes over cooking duties. 'Will celery and prawn porridge be all right?' she asks, looking through the cupboards. 'Yes,' says Yan Wei.

As Xu Youyi brings the two bowls of porridge over, she spies a copy of her new book on the dining table - the copy that she signed for Yan Wei at the book launch. She picks it up.

'Were you trying to get my attention the other day?' she asks Yan Wei. 'Is that why you insisted on exchanging a bottle of milk for this book?' 

'No,' says Yan Wei, intently feeding a prawn to Good Luck. 'The book is to be given to Hongmei tomorrow morning.' She explains that Hongmei is the girl who delivers her milk. 'She likes your books very much, but couldn't afford to buy this one. I offered to buy it for her, but she said no...' In the end, Yan Wei suggested that Hongmei give her a bottle of milk, which she would try and exchange for a copy of the book.

'So that's what happened,' says Xu Youyi. 'You really are...' She cuts herself off, and urges Yan Wei to eat up. 'I was just keeping my promise,' says Yan Wei, and lifts the bowl to her lips. Her eyes light up, and she slurps up the contents of the bowl.

'You should eat more slowly,' says Xu Youyi, as Yan Wei practically buries her face in the bowl. 'Be careful, it's hot.'

Yan Wei literally licks the bowl clean, and Xu Youyi asks, 'Does it really taste that good?'

'It really is,' Yan Wei declares with a burp, as she sets down the empty bowl.

Xu Youyi giggles. 'Don't move,' she tells Yan Wei, and leans across the table to wipe a grain of rice from the corner of Yan Wei's mouth.

'I've never had a fan like you before,' says Xu Youyi teasingly, holding up the grain of rice.

'You're finally smiling?' says Yan Wei.

'Am I?' asks Xu Youyi. Her expression turns sombre. 'I thought I would never smile again for the rest of my life,' she says. 'But it was just a false impression created by my sorrow. No matter how difficult it is to forget the past, we still instinctively look towards the future...'

'Thank you, Yan Wei,' says Xu Youyi. 'I think I know what I need to do.' 

''Wait for the rain to stop before you leave?' asks Yan Wei. 'It's all right,' says Xu Youyi. 'That which should be ended ought to be ended, else it only vexes.' And with that, she steps back into the night, but this time under the shelter of an umbrella (which, one can only presume, belongs to Yan Wei).

Please view the original manhua here.

Translator's notes:

• Yan Wei literally calls Xu Youyi a 'wet chicken' (or 'chicken plunged into boiling water') at the beginning; 'drowned rat' was the closest idiomatic English expression.
• 'Celery and prawn porridge' could also be rendered as 'celery and prawn (or shrimp) congee', but since I grew up calling 粥 porridge, I'm going to cling stubbornly to that.