Forget it.
She got out of bed and walked barefoot into the bathroom. The woman in the mirror looked a mess—her hair was tangled, her eyes a little swollen, a small patch of skin had come off her lip, and the marks on her body stood out under the light.
She stared at her reflection, and suddenly remembered the things she’d been crazy enough to say last night.
Shen Qingyu covered her face. Aahhh!
As hot water poured from the showerhead, she stood beneath it with her eyes closed, trying not to think about anything.
But some images kept surfacing against her will.
His hands.
His lips.
His voice.
Shen Qingyu turned the water down a little.
When the cold water ran over her, the images finally faded somewhat.
After her shower, she came out wrapped in a bathrobe and stood by the window.
The sweetness of the honey water still lingered on her tongue, masking the bitterness of her hangover.
Outside, the California sunshine was lovely.
She picked up her phone from the nightstand, unlocked it, opened WeChat, and messaged her best friend, Xu Yunshu.
【Xu Yunshu, I’m coming home in three days.】
Xu Yunshu had been her high-school classmate and had been her closest friend for years. They’d been famous at school for being top students, and both had earned places at Jing University. Xu Yunshu’s parents were professors there, and she came from a comfortable family. She now worked at the university as an administrative teacher.
The reply came almost immediately.
Xu Yunshu: 【You’re finally coming home to keep me company!】
Shen Qingyu: 【Sigh. My Mother’s making me come home for an arranged marriage.】
Xu Yunshu: 【Auntie is making you get married???】
Before Shen Qingyu could reply, Xu Yunshu called her on WeChat.
She answered.
“Your Mother—Auntie, I mean. Is she serious?”
“Completely serious.” Shen Qingyu leaned against the window. “She said the man is the son of a good friend from when she was young, and told me to come home and meet him first. I said I wasn’t coming back. She said she’d cut off my allowance, and I could forget about buying bags, jewelry, or limited-edition clothes.”
There was a two-second silence on the other end.
“Then you definitely have to come back.” Xu Yunshu’s voice suddenly turned unusually solemn. “Those things are your lifeline.”
“Xu Yunshu.”
“Hehe. All right, seriously, who is he? What’s his background? Anyone Auntie likes must be somebody special.”
“Pei Huaijin. Have you heard of him?”
“What?! Pei Huaijin?! Of course I have! He’s the famous CEO of Pei Group, Jingbei's Crown Prince.” Xu Yunshu sounded excited. “Do you know how many rich young women in Jingbei want to marry him? Everyone says he’s the most eligible bachelor in the city.”
Shen Qingyu said, “Why do you sound just like my Mother…”
Xu Yunshu studied her expression, then suddenly softened her tone, earnest and gentle. “Come on, Qingyu. I know you don’t want an arranged marriage, but Pei Huaijin has a really good reputation, apart from the fact that he’s not interested in women.”
“Not interested in women?” Shen Qingyu repeated.
“Right. Supposedly he’s never dated anyone, and he doesn’t even have a rumored love interest. Everyone around him knows he’s disciplined and proper, and completely devoted to work. Do you know what that means?”
“What?”
“It means he’s pure! You’ve never dated anyone either, and you don’t have a rumored love interest. You two are like blank pages matched with blank pages.”
Shen Qingyu said nothing.
Xu Yunshu giggled. “Anyway, just listen to Auntie and meet him once. Have dinner together. If you don’t like him, that’s that. Your Mother can’t really tie you up and send you to the Pei family, can she? Your dad would never allow it.”
“Mm.”
“Oh, right.” Xu Yunshu suddenly remembered something, her expression turning teasing. “You say Pei Huaijin isn’t interested in women. Could there be something wrong with him in that department?”
“…I don’t know,” Shen Qingyu said, her voice a little dry. “It has nothing to do with me.”
“How could it not? If you actually marry him someday…” Xu Yunshu began.
“Oh, it must be the middle of the night where you are. You should get some sleep. I won’t keep you.” Shen Qingyu cut her off.
“All right, all right. Then I’ll come meet you at the airport in three days. Send me your flight number, and I’ll bring a huge sign that says, ‘Welcome Home, Dr. Shen!’”
Shen Qingyu laughed at her. “You don’t have to go to the trouble. My Mother said she’ll pick me up.”
“Okay, then I won’t get to see you the very moment you arrive.” A hint of regret crept into Xu Yunshu’s voice. “Once you get home and recover from the jet lag, we’ll get together properly!”
“Sure. Bye.”
“Bye!”
.
Three days later, at San Francisco International Airport.
Shen Qingyu sat in the first-class lounge, holding a cup of half-finished coffee and watching the planes take off and land beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows.
She thought she had already come to terms with what happened that night.
She’d labeled it “a moment of impulse.”
The only time she’d lost control in twenty-six years.
It was over. She’d turned the page. It wouldn’t happen again.
When the boarding announcement sounded, she stood, picked up her bag, and headed for the gate.
The first-class seat was spacious. A flight attendant brought her champagne, but she declined and asked for warm water instead. As the plane took off, she watched San Francisco’s lights grow farther and smaller until they disappeared beneath the clouds.
Then she put on her eye mask and went to sleep.
When she woke up, she’d be there.
Fourteen hours later, the plane landed at Jingbei International Airport.
As Shen Qingyu walked out, she spotted her mother at once.
Jiang Manlin stood at the front of the crowd, wearing a beautifully tailored gray coat and an Hermès scarf around her neck. She held up a small sign that read, “Welcome home, my darling daughter.”
Shen Qingyu paused.
Holding that sign was probably the most uncharacteristic thing her mother had ever done. The senior partner at Jingbei’s largest law firm, the renowned “Jiang Manlin” of the industry, was holding up a sign like a fan waiting to greet a celebrity.
The moment her mother saw her, her eyes lit up.
“Qingyu!”
Jiang Manlin shoved the sign aside, hurried over, and wrapped her in a tight hug.
“You’re finally home! Mother’s missed you so much!”
The embrace made it a little hard for Shen Qingyu to breathe, but she didn’t pull away. She smelled her mother’s familiar perfume, the same one she’d worn before Shen Qingyu went abroad—comforting and reassuring, a signal that she was home.
“Mother,” she mumbled.
Jiang Manlin let her go and looked her up and down. Her brows immediately furrowed.
“Just look at you! You’ve lost so much weight!” Her mother squeezed her arm, looking worried. “Couldn’t you get used to the food over there? I told you to come home sooner, but you insisted on staying there…”
“Mother, I haven’t lost weight…”
“Haven’t you? Your face is a whole size smaller!” Jiang Manlin ignored her protests, took her hand, and led her out. “Come on, let’s go home with Mother and get you a proper meal.”
Shen Qingyu let herself be led along as the driver took her suitcase.
“I had Auntie Liu make lots of your favorite home-cooked dishes,” her mother continued, her delight impossible to hide. “Sweet-and-sour ribs, shrimp with glass noodles and garlic, steamed hairy crabs, and that corn and pork rib soup you loved when you were little. Auntie Liu went to the market first thing this morning to buy fresh corn. It’s so sweet.”
As Shen Qingyu listened, her nose suddenly began to sting.
All those years abroad, she’d rarely missed home. Not because she didn’t miss it, but because she didn’t have time to. Coursework, papers, internships—one thing after another, keeping her constantly on the go. Every so often she’d have a spare moment and think of the food at home, but that was all.
She’d thought she was used to it.
But hearing her mother chatter on about those familiar home-cooked dishes brought the feeling of home rushing back to her.
“By the way, your dad has a case he can’t get away from today, so he won’t be back until this evening,” her mother said. “He told me to say he’s taking you out to dinner tonight, to your favorite Japanese restaurant.”
“You don’t have to go to so much trouble…”
“What trouble?” her mother said with a smile. “You’ve been gone so long. Your dad’s missed you terribly, even if he won’t say it. Let him take you out. He wants to.”
Shen Qingyu smiled.
The moment they stepped out of the terminal, cold air rushed over them. Jingbei was much colder than San Francisco in November, and the coat she was wearing was clearly too thin. The wind made her shiver.
Her mother noticed at once, unwound her own scarf, and wrapped it around Shen Qingyu’s neck.
“I told you to wear more when you came. Look how lightly dressed you are!” Her mother chided her as she tied the scarf. “Jingbei isn’t as warm as San Francisco. It’s so easy to catch a cold this time of year. I’ll buy you some thicker clothes…”
Shen Qingyu lowered her eyes to her mother’s fingers. Her hands were well cared for, but there were still fine lines around the knuckles, marks left by years of holding a pen and typing on a keyboard.
The scarf still held her mother’s warmth, snug against her neck.
“Come on, the car’s over there.” Her mother finished arranging the scarf and led her onward. “Auntie Liu said she’s making a whole tableful of food today to welcome you home.”
As Shen Qingyu listened, the corners of her mouth lifted without her realizing it.
When she got into the car, she looked back at the terminal.
The vast glass façade reflected Jingbei’s gray-blue sky. A plane passed overhead, trailing a long contrail.
Jingbei. She was home.
Shen Qingyu turned away and settled into the car.
It pulled slowly away from the airport and merged into Jingbei’s traffic.
Her mother kept chattering beside her, telling her about the new restaurants that had opened in Jingbei, how Auntie Liu had been feeding a stray cat, and how her father had recently taken on a major case and was so busy he was hardly ever home…
Shen Qingyu leaned back in her seat and watched the familiar streets slide past outside. She really was home.
She closed her eyes, and suddenly the man from that night flashed through her mind.
Shen Qingyu’s eyes flew open. Why was she thinking about him again? Don’t think about it!
She told herself it was already behind her.
The car headed toward the city center, toward home.