milestones: vol. ii

by RuanChunXian

Summary:

PART 2 OF MILESTONES: A series of ficlets, depicting moments in Yu Tu and Jing Jing's relationship. Mostly written for the annual Three Sentence Ficathon. Not always in three sentences. Not in chronological order. See Chapter Index for table of contents.

Chapter 1: outside observer

Summary:

Prompt: Outsider POV of main character's nonsense

Their families had lived in the same building since forever, so Li Ming had known Yu Tu for far too many years to bother counting, and in all those years, he had seen girls fall like mayflies in love with Yu Tu but he had never seen Yu Tu truly fall for anyone before; even when Yu Tu was together with Xia Qing when they were all in university in Beijing, sometimes Li Ming felt they were more like a study group than boyfriend and girlfriend. In any case, because of this, Li Ming did not immediately pick up on how strange it was that Yu Tu suddenly became rather interested in the fact that Qiao Jing Jing was joining their impromptu class reunion, until Yu Tu had arrived in the room, his eyes zeroing in on their local celebrity and even as he accepted the offered beers, he barely took a perfunctory sip before he was making his way forward to actually kneel in front of Qiao Jing Jing. 

Li Ming had known Yu Tu for far too long, long enough to know how pretentious Yu Tu really could be, and nothing could have proved that better than the fact that, here he was, chasing this girl he had apparently rejected all those years ago in high school to their class reunion over ten years later, to kiss her in front of all their classmates, like some male lead in an idol drama, and somehow, that actually worked - or at least, Li Ming exasperatedly assumed it worked, going by the obscure rumours of Qiao Jing Jing’s lovelife being passed around online that could be easily deciphered by people who knew the two people in question; in any case, it wasn’t as if Yu Tu had the decency to keep Li Ming updated on what was going on in his life. 

Chapter 2: sleep (or lack thereof)

Summary:

Prompt: Who needs to go to sleep, when I got you next to me?

“Your flight is early tomorrow, shouldn’t you get some sleep?” Yu Tu asked softly as he scattered kisses across Jing Jing’s shoulder, making her sigh contentedly. 

Jing Jing snuggled close to him and he could see her smile in the dim light of the bedroom as she said, “I can’t sleep, I’m too happy to waste time sleeping.”

Yu Tu chuckled, leaning in to brush his lips against the edge of hers, before saying, “In that case, we might as well put this time to good use…”

Chapter 3: edging

Jing Jing found very soon into their relationship that Yu Tu had meant it wholeheartedly when he said he would be very proactive in their relationship, and truthfully, Jing Jing was only too happy to give in and follow his head, even when it led her right to here, with flames engulfing her entire body as she gasped helplessly for breath while he pushed and pushed her to the brink, only to pull away at the last second, making her whimper, begging for relief. 

“I really wonder now where you learnt these tricks,” Jing Jing gasped through the hazy fog of desire, as she felt Yu Tu’s lips curl into a smile against her skin, “I really don’t believe that you don’t have much experience as you said…”

“No experience is needed for this, Miss Qiao,” he said, lazily pressing kisses everywhere but where she wanted him, “after all, you already know I’m very smart - “ he kissed her again, making her squirm even more impatiently - “and you make all of this all too easy to learn…”

Chapter 4: childhood stuffed animals

The first time Yu Tu visited Jing Jing’s room in her parents’ house in Yixing, he couldn’t help but laugh at the positively giant white stuffed rabbit on the windowsill, saying, “I think I didn’t realise until now just how many stuffed rabbits you have, from here to Shanghai, I guess I should be flattered?”

“Who said it was because of you?” Jing Jing asked to utterly no use, because of course it was because of him. 

Yu Tu clearly thought there was no debate about it too, because he only laughed again and ruffled her hair to her indignation, even if he did follow it up with placing a consoling kiss on her cheek. 

Chapter 5: airport encounters

Summary:

Prompt: In-Universe Fandom

Yu Tu was making his way back to the car after seeing Jing Jing off on yet another flight, when, arriving at the lift leading to the airport parking lot, he found himself suddenly surrounded by a gaggle of young women talking excitedly among themselves, but upon seeing him, suddenly cried out in almost freaky unison, “Jiefu!” 

Yu Tu, who had only been thinking about whether he should take the same lift with this crowd or wait for the next one, now stared at them in astonishment, asking, “Are you talking to me?”

“Yes, we’re Jing Jing’s fans,” one of them said excitedly with a wide smile on her face, “we’re here to see her off too!” 

There was little choice other than to get into the elevator with them, where they broke out into all the predictable gushing over how nice it was that he was seeing Jing Jing off to the airport, how cute they were together, and his looks. After nearly two years of being together with Jing Jing, he still was not quite used to how enthusiastic her fans could be, though he supposed he should be glad that they had decided to be enthusiastic about Jing Jing’s relationship with him too. He had seen enough of the entertainment industry now to gather that for a popular actress like Jing Jing, dating against her fans’ taste could be quite bothersome, for everyone involved. 

“Thank you all for your support,” he said, smiling, “but it is very late and it’s cold out, you all should be careful getting back.” 

They all assured him that they would, and Yu Tu ended up getting out at an entirely different level than where the car was parked and wandering around for some time to make sure he wasn’t being followed. As much as he knew Jing Jing didn’t mind her fans showing up at the airport to see her off or to greet her when she arrived, it would be much too troublesome for any of them to know the license plate to Jing Jing’s car.

---

“Did you run into a bunch of zhanjie at the airport?” Jing Jing asked him when she called him after she had landed. 

“Your updates are fast,” he observed.

She laughed. “They’re all gushing about it on Weibo, you don’t mind, do you? There isn’t a photo or anything but then again I think they know I’d ask them to take it down if there was a photo.” 

“If there’s no photo, is there anything we can do if I do mind?” 

“Not really, but do you?”

“Not really. I mean, they were there to see you really, and they’re not calling you Laopo anymore…” 

Jing Jing laughed even harder now. “Are you still annoyed about that? I’m sure some of them still refer to me as their wife, it’s just a little obnoxious to do it to your face, isn’t it?”

“Well, I’ll take what I can get,” Yu Tu said with a mock pitiful sigh.

 

Chapter 6: RPF (crack!)

Summary:

Prompt: your OTP reading fanfiction where one of their characters is involved with someone other than each other (crackfic!)

“Where did you even get this, and please don’t say you go looking for fanfic of me on the internet,” Jing Jing asked, after she had recovered from the full body cringe of her boyfriend showing her a fanfic depicted her in a romance with the male actor who played opposite her in her latest drama; she supposed as fanfics went, it was quite tame (thank Heaven for small favours…). 

“Zhai Liang sent it to me, apparently he thinks it’s funny or something,” Yu Tu said, and Jing Jing supposed she should be glad he was actually laughing. 

Though she really didn’t want to know why her boyfriend’s university roommate had links to RPFs of her.

Chapter 7: code-switching

Summary:

Prompt: They're fluent in so many languages they forget which one they're using

“Why are you speaking to me in English?” Jing Jing asked, laughing. 

Yu Tu blinked at her through the phone screen as if not realising that was what he had been doing, before shaking his head, saying, “Habit, I guess I’ve been wired to speak it all day at this conference…”

“I mean, we could,” Jing Jing said, smiling. 

Yu Tu chuckled and shook his head. “You should be glad I didn’t end up speaking to you in Russian instead.”

It was Jing Jing’s turn to stare at him now. “You speak Russian?”

“Very badly, but it helps in aerospace research to be able to read Russian.” 

Jing Jing was still flabbergasted, and then couldn’t help but let out a mock resentful sigh. “That's even worse, it's a completely different writing system! Are you sure you don’t have some superpower where you split yourself into two or something, because I don’t know how you have time to learn all of this…”

Chapter 8: signature

The first time Yu Tu saw Jing Jing’s signature was months after they had gotten together, on a proof of delivery photo for a package that had apparently been delivered to his apartment and Jing Jing had signed for. 

“That doesn’t look like your name,” he texted her with the photo; signatures were always difficult to decipher, but he was pretty sure the first character was his surname. 

“You don’t think I sign for delivery with my celebrity autograph or government signature, do you?” she texted back.

“Those are different?”

“I’m not signing contracts with the same autograph they plaster on every billboard and advertisement with my face on it in the country; and of course I have a different name for online shopping, there’s no way I’m having packages delivered to Qiao Jing Jing.”

Figuring that was the name behind the signature on his package, he asked, “What is your online shopping name then?”

“Yu Xiao Qiao ☺️”

Chapter 9: another singles' day

Summary:

Prompt: comfort food or comfort with food

It was nearly 5pm and Da Meng looked up from his computer to find Yu Tu starting to pack up his things; he frowned and said, “Why are you preparing to go so early already? I thought we were all going to dinner together?”

Yu Tu laughed and said casually, “You guys go and have fun, I have other plans.”

Da Meng stared at him in astonishment. “It’s Singles’ Day, we’re all single, what plan do you have other than joining us in eating our feelings?” He paused and thought for a moment and then narrowed his eyes. “Wait, you didn’t come to the Singles’ Day dinner last year either. What’s going on?”

Yu Tu just smiled and picked up his bag, only saying goodbye to everyone before leaving the office with all of his colleagues staring after him in bewilderment. 

Chapter 10: a fortuitous meeting

Summary:

Prompt: in-universe academia

Jing Jing looked up as someone gave a surprised exclamation beside her, and found that the waitress who had entered their private dining room was looking at her in astonishment.

“Shimu!” the waitress said, making Jing Jing stare at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, then turned to her parents-in-law whom she had taken out for dinner to see if the waitress was talking to them, but no, the young lady was still looking at Jing Jing.

“Are you talking to me?” she asked, laughing. 

The young lady blushed and nodded. “Qiao Laoshi, hello, I’m Yu Laoshi’s research student at Shanghai Jiaotong University.” 

“Oh, you’re Xiao Li?” 

“You know my name?” Xiao Li exclaimed. 

“Yu Laoshi told me that one of his students was from Yixing,” Jing Jing said. Then, she turned to introduce Yu Tu’s parents to her, before turning back to Xiao Li, adding with a wide smile, “Being Yu Laoshi’s student, you must have suffered.”

Xiao Li waved it away. “No, no, not at all.” 

This only made Jing Jing laugh harder. “You think I don’t know what a serious and cold-hearted taskmaster he can be as a teacher?” 

Seeing that even her teacher’s parents were laughing as well, Xiao Li managed to join in with a sheepish chuckle. 

“Actually, it’s fortunate that I run to you here, Qiao Laoshi, you’ve reminded me that I still owe Yu Laoshi a draft paper.”

“He’s on a business trip, I don’t think he has time to chase after your paper right now,” Jing Jing said. 

Xiao Li smiled but then finally remembered her job. “I should not disturb you anymore and let you order…” 

After they had ordered their food, and before Xiao Li left the room, Jing Jing added, “When we’re back in Shanghai, let me invite you to a meal as an apology for the suffering Yu Laoshi is undoubtedly putting you through.” 

Xiao Li only laughed and nodded to Jing Jing’s suggestion, before leaving to room to finally place their dinner order to the kitchen.

Chapter 11: curtainfic

Summary:

Prompt: Curtainfic
(a term used to describe fan fiction focusing on domestic tranquility, such as the characters in a romantic pairing "shopping for curtains" (literally or figuratively) and building a home together.)

Jing Jing knew that her pregnancy was public enough knowledge now that it was almost guaranteed that photos of her and Yu Tu shopping for baby things would probably dominate the hotsearch before the day was out; but then it wasn’t like she could keep it a secret forever and there were certain things that couldn’t just be bought online without inspection. 

“I like this one,” she said, running her hand over the edge of a crib they were examining, “but we’d have to build and assemble it ourselves when it arrives, which might be a little troublesome.”

Yu Tu gave her a side-eyed look, saying in a mock-offended voice, “I’m an actual rocket scientist, Jing Jing, I’m sure I can build a crib.”

Chapter 12: it’s not rocket science

“People like seeing the two characters being a couple in the drama so they expect the actors to also act like they are in that same relationship when they go out and promote the drama, it’s pretty basic, actually,” Jing Jing said, “it’s not like it’s rocket science.”

“No, I actually understand rocket science,” Yu Tu said, “what I don’t understand is why people can’t tell the difference between characters in a drama and actors in real life.” 

“Well, to be honest I’ve been in this industry for over ten years and I still don’t get it either,” Jing Jing said with a shrug, “but I did tell Ling Jie that she should veto any couple hype requirements in my upcoming contracts so we don’t have to worry about that in the future — it’s not just because of you, I also don’t feel like pretending to flirt with actors born after the year 2000 and that’s the age of the majority of the actors who act with me these days for some reason.”

Chapter 13: 狐狸晶

Summary:

Prompt: fox (metaphorical or demonic or ordinary)

Yu Tu and Jing Jing were supposed to meet Pei Pei, who was in Shanghai for a worktrip, at Jing Jing’s apartment so that they could go out and celebrate Jing Jing’s birthday, but it seemed that Jing Jing was running late returning from wherever she had spent the day, and Yu Tu ended up letting Pei Pei into the apartment. 

Now, Pei Pei was in Jing Jing’s bedroom changing out of her work clothes, and her phone on the living room coffee table rang. 

“Jing Jing just called you, I answered to let her know that I’ve let you in,” Yu Tu said when Pei Pei emerged again. Then, he laughed and asked, “Why is Jing Jing’s contact name on your phone Hulijing (狐狸晶)?” 

“It’s because of Feng Jiu, her first major role as a nine-tailed fox spirit, of course,” Pei Pei said. “You don’t expect me to have her saved as Qiao Jing Jing and attract interrogation from every random person who might catch a glimpse of it, do you?”

“I suppose I see your point.”

“What is she saved as on your phone?”

“Jing Jing.” 

Pei Pei laughed. “That and the fact that you have her as your phone wallpaper, it’s like you want your relationship to be discovered.” 

Notes:

狐狸精 is the fox spirit. 晶 is the character in Jing Jing’s name.

Chapter 14: rocket surgery

Summary:

Prompt: "it ain't rocket surgery!"

“Baba, the Fatty Five rocket needs surgery,” Xiao Qiao declared the moment Yu Tu stepped into the house. 

In the living room, his wife laughed and answered the enquiring look he was directing at her, “She and Xiao Heng were playing earlier and knocked the model down, I told them they needed to wait for you to come home to teach them to put it back together; and then she heard me reading some of my new script and asked what surgery meant and now she thinks any act fixing anything is surgery.”

Yu Tu laughed before letting Xiao Qiao drag him to the box that contained the pieces of the model, saying along the way, “You should be more careful, this is the rocket that took Baba’s Search for God probe into space.” 

Jing Jing gave him a long look, and teased, “Sometimes from the way you talk, Engineer Yu, I think Search for God is another child you had, and certainly not with me.” 

Yu Tu just grinned at her. “Doesn't Xiao Qiao always say she wanted a big brother instead of a little brother?” 

Chapter 15: secret pregnancy

Jing Jing is sure going out to buy a pregnancy test with a mask over half of her face and a hat pulled over what is left of her eyes is no doubt screaming to the world that she has something to hide and is inviting people to take a second look at her. She could have just asked her assistant to buy the test for her instead of venturing out herself, but she isn’t sure she’s quite ready to share the possibility with even Xiao Zhu just yet. 

She doesn’t breathe with relief until the entire day has passed and no speculation about Qiao Jing Jing being pregnant appears online, as that is the only way she could confirm that the cashier at the pharmacy probably didn’t recognise her. 

---

Two weeks later, Jing Jing is attending a variety show, where another guest Zhang He shares that he has studied traditional medicine, and knows how to take people’s pulse. Jing Jing has no idea what possesses her to jokingly offer her own wrist — as physically close as they are, she sees the moment Zhang He’s eyes widen and he gives her a slightly panicked look before waffling through some joke about how he can’t detect anything. 

It isn’t until her pregnancy becomes semi-public that Zhang He finally texts her, “Jie, so during that time we were on Hi6, you really were pregnant?”

Chapter 16: doomed by the narrative

Following online discussions and theories of your drama while it was still updating was always a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it was delightful to see how invested so many people were getting into it, and amusing to see all the different theories they would come up with regarding how the plot might proceed. On the other hand, it did make Jing Jing feel guilty when the audience seemed to come up with so many possible happy endings for her character whom she knew was already doomed by the narrative, and she could see their devastation and disappointment coming from miles away but could not say anything to warn them of it. 

Chapter 17: spring migration

Summary:

Prompt: Lunar New Year

“Am I just getting old and less patient, or does spring migration traffic just get worse every year?” Jing Jing wondered, staring at the long line of cars at a complete standstill in front of them.

“This still is better than the crowd at the train station,” Yu Tu pointed out. “Although last year, when I took the train from Yixing back to Shanghai to pick you up, both stations and the train were practically deserted, which was a novelty.”

Jing Jing laughed. “I guess that’s what happens when you travel in the opposite direction of everybody on new year’s day.” 

Yu Tu turned to smile at her, and then said, “Oh, there’s Ding Chao Qun,” as he nodded in greeting.

Jing Jing turned to find that the driver of the car in the lane next to them was indeed their old high school classmate, Ding Chao Qun, who had apparently so far only caught sight of Yu Tu, as he was startled to recognise Jing Jing when she turned around.

Jing Jing rolled down her window as Ding Chao Qun also rolled down his. “Ding Chao Qun, hi.”

“Yu Tu, Qiao Jing Jing,” Ding Chao Qun said, “are you guys also going back to Yixing? Together?” 

Jing Jing exchanged an amused look with Yu Tu at the disbelief in the last word. 

“Obviously,” Yu Tu said, laughing. Then, to who Jing Jing guessed was Ding Chao Qun’s wife, who had leaned forward to look over into their car at the sound of Jing Jing’s name, Yu Tu added, “Li Wei, hi.”

“Oh, Wei Wei, you’ve met Yu Tu, but Qiao Jing Jing was also our high school classmate,” Ding Chao Qun said to his wife. Then, to Jing Jing, he added, “This is my wife, Li Wei.”

After the greetings were exchanged, Ding Chao Qun continued, “I wasn’t at last year’s class reunion, if I’m not seeing you two together now I might not actually believe the gossip.”

Jing Jing laughed. “I only wish the world was as ready to be disbelieve it as people around me all seem to be.” 

They managed to speak of a few inconsequential things before it seemed like the traffic in front of them had started moving again. 

“Happy new year!” Ding Chao Qun said. “Hey Qiao Jing Jing, if you’re over at Yu Tu’s sometimes, you guys should come over to our house for a meal or something since we’re so nearby.”

“Sure,” Jing Jing said with a smile, even as Yu Tu laughed.

“You speak like we see a lot of each other, even with living close to each other,” he said as the car moved forward. “Happy new year!” 

Chapter 18: pushing beds together

Even after pushing the twin beds in the hotel room together, there was no way around the fact that they were two beds pushed against one another with a dip right in the middle that was not too conducive to cuddling after months of being apart, and the blankets were still both for single beds. Jing Jing couldn’t help laughing, however, when she returned to the room the next day, before Yu Tu of course, and found that whoever did the housekeeping in their room during the day had helpfully added a double mattress topper and replaced the twin sheets and blanket with doubles, thereby improving the situation immensely. 

She took a photo of the bed and sent it to Yu Tu to give him a laugh whenever he got out of his endless meetings before returning to the room, and accompanying the photo was a text: For a hotel in a top secret government base mostly for employees to stay in, the service is quite top notch – where do I leave a 5 star review?

Chapter 19: sharing domestic chores

“I will literally buy you a dishwasher just so that I don’t ever have to do dishes at your house ever again,” Jing Jing declared. 

“If you hate it so much, why did you do the dishes with me all those times I was at your place instead of just using the dishwasher that you do have?” Yu Tu asked. 

“Well,” Jing Jing replied sheepishly, “I had to pretend a little at the beginning, right? I would have looked so wasteful if I ran the dishwasher for two lunch boxes…and your impression of me would definitely have plummeted if I told you Xiao Zhu comes and does my dishes. So can I please buy you a dishwasher?” 

Her words only made him laugh. “I don’t have room in here for a dishwasher. It’s fine, I’ll do all the dishes if you just take care of the laundry, which I hate, okay? I mean, you’ve practically taken over my wardrobe already, and your expensive clothes are less likely to be ruined if you don’t need to depend on me to remember which of them are dry-clean only.” 

Jing Jing wanted to say no one liked doing laundry either, but given that they were practically moving in together, this was for now a fair compromise in terms of division of labour. 

Chapter 20: digging for bamboo

“Wait, have you actually never done this before?” Jing Jing asked with a laugh the first time Yu Tu came with her to visit her grandparents over the holiday and predictably all her cousins dragged them out to dig bamboo in the mountains, and she found out that Yu Tu was surprisingly terrible at managing to dig up the bamboo shoots without breaking them in half. 

“Both sides of my family have always been in Yixing, Jing Jing,” he said, “and this is more complicated than I thought.”

Jing Jing laughed even harder, and teased him, “I wouldn’t have thought before, Classmate Yu, that you would be such a city boy, but I am glad to find out that you are bad at something.”

Calling Yixing a city with this meaning of the word was a bit of a stretch, so Yu Tu didn’t dignify this taunt with an answer.

Chapter 21: miscommunication

“Ma, I’m outside the gate, why is the house all dark and empty?” Jing Jing asked as soon as her mother picked up. 

“You’re in Yixing?” her mother exclaimed. “Your dad and I are just about twenty minutes from your place in Shanghai! You told us you were working and couldn’t come home for Spring Festival this year so we thought we’d come up to surprise you!” 

“Oh no, my plans changed and I thought I’d come home to surprise you!” Jing Jing groaned. “Now what?”

Notes:

Happy lunar new year! ❤️🐍

Chapter 22: scarf

Summary:

Prompt: knitting for a loved one

“Oh, give me that,” Jing Jing said, snatching a bundle of navy blue wool from Yu Tu’s hands. They were in the storeroom of her parents’ house in Yixing – they had finally resolved to clean it out and get rid of things that had no use anymore, and Yu Tu had volunteered to help. 

Yu Tu raised an eyebrow at the rather flushed look on Jing Jing’s face as she clutched at the ball of knitted wool. Jing Jing sighed when it was clear that her strange reaction only ended up rousing his curiosity at what would otherwise look like an ordinary item.

“Do you remember that time in high school when suddenly all the girls were obsessed with learning to knit?” 

“No…should I?” 

“Probably not.” She stretched out the bundle in her arms and it turned out to be a…rather lumpy knitted scarf. “I might have knitted this in high school, thinking I’d give it to you as a present after we…got together. But then you rejected me…”

Yu Tu’s gaze softened at the mock childish pout Jing Jing was giving him now. “I’m surprised you kept it after that.”

“I did shove it in a box and never thought about it again,” she pointed out. “Anyway - “ 

She was clearly about to throw it into the file of stuff they were setting out to throw away when Yu Tu took it gently from her hands, folding it and carefully putting it aside in the ‘Keep’ pile. Jing Jing watched the whole thing and then burst out laughing. 

“If you want, I can knit you a new one and it’d look much better now. Especially at the beginning of my career, there was a lot of down time on set to practice. This one was my first attempt and it’s tellingly atrocious - “

“I think it has character,” Yu Tu said with a smile. “Besides, it’s cute that you learned to knit for me.”

“Who said it was for you?”

Chapter 23: kissing in the snow

Summary:

Prompt: old teenage hopes are alive at your door

Jing Jing supposed it was appropriate that their first real kiss (that brush of the lips for show in front of all their classmates really didn’t count) was in front of their old high school classroom, where she spent so many daydreaming of Yu Tu (instead of paying attention to her Physics teacher, as Yu Tu rightly pointed out). In that moment, as his lips touched hers, tenderly at first but growing almost immediately more ardent, Jing Jing truly felt like she was seventeen again imagining all her dreams coming true. 

All her dreams were coming true, and that was the last coherent thought she had before she simply wrapped her arms around Yu Tu and let herself sink into the kiss, ignoring even the beautiful sight of a flurry of snow falling all around them. 

Chapter 24: mint chocolate chip ice cream

Jing Jing squealed as she spotted something in the freezer of the supermarket, so much so that several people turned to glance at them, making her tug at her mask self-consciously.

“What is it?” Yu Tu asked, turning his body to hide her from view. 

His girlfriend emerged from the freezer, holding a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream, to Yu Tu’s surprise. “It’s my favourite ice cream flavour, I don’t know why it’s so difficult to find.”

“Maybe because it tastes like toothpaste?” Yu Tu suggested. 

Jing Jing pouted at him.

“Are you sure you’re going to finish that entire thing?” he asked, chuckling but did not protest when she put it in the cart. “Because just so you know, I’m not eating any of it.” 

“You’re not allowed any anyway, this is mine.”

Chapter 25: tea and wires

Summary:

Prompt: What is in this tea?

“It’s ginger and brown sugar,” Xiao Zhu said before Jing Jing could even ask after pulling the thermos away from her lips and staring at it; she had expected water, and what she just drank decidedly was not, “Yu Laoshi texted me this morning that you told him that you’re scheduled for wire work today but you’re also due to start your period so you’re probably going to have an uncomfortable time, and asked me to prepare it for you.”

The majority of their relationship so far had been long distance, so it was unexpected that Yu Tu could have become this familiar with her cycle - Jing Jing had certainly not told him her period was starting (what did he do, put it in his phone calendar that one time she mentioned it off-hand to him and just assumed she was predictable?) - and that he had also deduced that the discomfort of it could not be improved by a whole day of being tossed around on a wire that had been pre-scheduled a month in advance so could not be moved. Jing Jing sipped the tea again, smiling as the sweetness and warmth spread all over her, though she couldn’t tell whether it was because of the tea or thoughts of him. 

Chapter 26: old acquaintances

“Ge, do you know someone called Xia Qing?” 

Jing Jing looked up from where she had been engrossed on her Weibo feed on her phone to look curiously at Yu Tu’s phone mounted on the car dashboard, from where Xiao Liu’s voice was blaring out of the speaker. The corner of her lips twitched as she glanced at Yu Tu, who met her eyes with perfect calmness.

“Why do you ask?” Yu Tu asked his cousin. 

“You know I just started this internship, right?” Xiao Liu said, blithely unaware of the minefield he was potentially stepping into. “Well, she’s my supervisor and I found out that she’s from Yixing too. I started talking to her about it and then realised she’s your age and also went to Qinghua and eventually it came out that she was your classmate both in university and high school! Ge, you really had such an impressive classmate? She - ”

He continued to gush for a while longer about Xia Qing’s no doubt impressive achievements. Along the way, Yu Tu only made vague noises to indicate that he was listening, while Jing Jing was shaking with the effort to contain her laughter. 

“Is that all the reason you’re calling me?” Yu Tu interrupted impatiently at some point. “To tell me that you met my old classmate?”

“Don’t you want an update?” 

“Not really.”

“Really?” Opposite to what Yu Tu probably intended, his words only seemed to have piqued new interest in Xiao Liu. “She was very interested in how you’re doing.”

“What do you mean?” Yu Tu asked warily. 

“Well, she didn’t say she was, but she did ask after you, in a way that felt like she really wanted to know,” Xiao Liu said. “She asked if you were still at the research institute and joked about how she wasn’t invited to your wedding, which means that the two of you weren’t close - “ 

Jing Jing couldn’t hold back her laugh anymore, and had to muffle it in her sleeves. It didn’t seem as if Xiao Liu realised she was listening to this entire conversation. 

“ - that means that she knows about you and Saozi, right?” Xiao Liu continued, but didn’t wait for Yu Tu’s response. “Anyway, I didn’t say much about that obviously but she was really interested.”

Yu Tu made another non-committal response. “Hmmm.” 

Xiao Liu apparently was too used to his lack of talkativeness because he didn’t question it, and simply rambled off for a while more. 

“Anyway, gotta go,” he said eventually. “Bye!” 

Jing Jing managed to wait until Yu Tu pressed the button to hang up before laughing out loud. 

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask Xiao Liu to not discuss you with Xia Qing,” she commented eventually. 

“Wouldn’t that have raised more questions? It’s not like he can say anything that interesting that she probably can’t ask about elsewhere if she really wanted to know.”

“I guess that’s true,” Jing Jing said. 

There was a moment of pause when she looked back down at her phone and it seemed as if the entire conversation was no longer relevant.

It wasn’t until they stopped at a red light that Jing Jing looked up again, turning to Yu Tu.

“I do wonder though,” she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief, “is this yuan jia lu zhai (enemies meet on a narrow road) or you yuan wu fen (destined to meet but fated not to be)?” 

Yu Tu shot her a mock glowering look. “What do you want it to be?” 

Jing Jing laughed. “As petty as it sounds, I suppose I would have to say the first.”

Chapter 27: the morning of the night before I'm wide awake and thinking of you

With her messages late last night, Yu Tu knew Jing Jing was trying to close the doors on any continued connections between them, and a part of him wondered if he should simply respect those wishes – it was, after all, the decent thing to do, considering all the pain he had undoubtedly put her through over the years, unknowingly and knowingly. 

But then, he couldn’t shake the lines of QQ chat he had read from his mind, which were proof of how much effort Jing Jing had put into getting to know him, trying to get close to him, and how completely oblivious he had been to it all. Such determination and persistence when they were teenagers – juxtaposed against his callous and baseless assessment of her then as being incapable of determination and hard work – surely deserved more reciprocation from him now. He had thought his letters would be enough to touch her heart, but he saw clearly now how vulnerable she must have felt, baring her heart to him both in high school and in that dark alley. His letters, written in the comfort of privacy, could hardly be equal. 

It would be one thing if he knew irrefutably that she no longer had feelings for him. But he knew now more than ever that this was plainly not true. If anything, the way she had so coldly rejected his letters was proof. 

If it truly didn’t matter to her anymore, she would have blocked him already. 

So if there was even just a sliver of hope, how could Yu Tu not do more, and try again? As hard as she had tried, once and twice, to get close to him, and he had first been too oblivious and then too much of a coward to take her hand. 

Even if it was for nothing, for her to only tell him that he had squandered his chance forever. If that was how it was supposed to end, then he would at least want to see her face when she said it, knowing that it would break his heart a thousand times more painfully. 

With this thought in mind, Yu Tu picked up his phone. 

“Xiao Zhu, Jing Jing is still in Shanghai, right? I want to surprise her, can you tell me when she’s going back to Yixing?”

Xiao Zhu, bless her, was too innocent and too much of a romantic to even think about the possibility that Jing Jing might not want all her secrets spilled to Yu Tu. 

Chapter 28: misguided acts of service

Jing Jing’s phone was jumping with messages. Picking it up and seeing who was messaging her, she couldn’t help but sigh. 

Yu Tu glanced over to see the name on Jing Jing’s phone, and said simply, “You don’t have to answer, you know.”

Jing Jing only gave him an exasperated side-eye look. 

“I’m serious.”

“I can’t just not answer,” she protested, “otherwise I’m sure your aunt will just message you about it.”

“Let her, and let me handle her then,” Yu Tu said, shrugging. “I still think you shouldn’t have said yes to this in the first place.”

This now-persistent debate between Yu Tu and Jing Jing started back during lunar new year, when Jing Jing had met Yu Tu’s extended family for the first time. During one such family gathering, Yu Tu’s san biaogu, his father’s cousin, had, completely out of the blue, asked Jing Jing to help her daughter, Fan Fei Fei, enter the entertainment industry. Put on the spot in front of the entire family, Jing Jing didn’t think she had much choice other than to say she would put Fan Fei Fei in touch with Ling Jie. It had felt like the only appropriate answer at the time, considering Jing Jing had no idea by just looking at her whether Fan Fei Fei could possibly succeed in the entertainment industry. Oh, she was pretty enough – she was distantly related to Yu Tu, after all – but since when did the entertainment industry actually lack beauty? The question was, did she have any talent and – sometimes this was even more important than talent – would she have any luck in the industry? 

Even Jing Jing could not make that call – that was all Ling Jie’s avenue. 

When Yu Tu found out later that Jing Jing had promised to put his younger cousin in touch with Ling Jie, Jing Jing could tell he hadn’t been happy about it. It wasn’t until Ling Jie told Jing Jing privately that there could be no question of her signing Fan Fei Fei on, that Jing Jing understood why Yu Tu apparently thought it was a hopeless endeavour from the start. According to Ling Jie, the girl had apparently assumed that being vaguely connected to Jing Jing would be enough to magically land her on top traffic without her having to do much work, and did not seem interested in learning anything about what it would actually take to succeed. Clearly, Yu Tu had predicted this and thought both Ling Jie and Jing Jing had been wasting their time from the start. 

Still, now, Jing Jing could not help but push her side of the argument, “It was the first time I attended a gathering with your entire family, you and your dad weren’t there and your aunt asked me for help, you wanted me to say no?”

“You should have said no. Ma would have backed you up.”

Jing Jing gave a huffy, humourless laugh. “You think your mother doesn't have enough to deal with that she needs to take on standing up for me in front of your dad’s side of the family?”

At least by only committing to putting Fan Fei Fei in touch with Ling Jie then, Jing Jing was giving herself an option of making Ling Jie the bad cop. Ling Jie had, in the end, played this role brilliantly and very politely advised Fan Fei Fei that she was not yet ready to enter the entertainment industry, not until at least tried to understand the stakes of what she was walking into and stopped assuming it would be a magical journey to fame and riches. 

Jing Jing had expected it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying when apparently Fan Fei Fei and her mother refused to take ‘no’ from Ling Jie for an answer, and were continuing to badger Jing Jing to interfere. 

Yu Tu was of the opinion that she should just ignore the badgering and let him deal with his own overbearing relatives instead. Even now, he argued, “I’m just saying, it’s a thankless job even if Fan Fei Fei isn’t so flaky. You’ve already told them Ling Jie has refused to sign Fan Fei Fei on until she has some goal more realistic than becoming famous, you should just consider your favour done. If San Biaogu gives you any grief, just let me handle it.”

Really, Jing Jing would be much better off listening to him. Yet she still couldn’t shake her own stubbornness for some reason. “That’s just going to give both of us a reputation with your family. You for coddling me and me for being snobby or something.”

Yu Tu sighed and said with reluctant patience, “Jing Jing, you think my family don’t know how Fan Fei Fei can be? She’s always been like that her whole life, jumping from one thing to another. Literally no one but her mother is going to blame you for not wanting to deal with her until she actually gets a grip. And honestly, how often are we going to see them anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jing Jing insisted, “I don’t need anyone in your family to dislike me.”

“You can’t make the whole world like you, Jing Jing.”

Jing Jing glared at him. “Sometimes, with the way you talk, I wonder how anyone likes you.”

Yu Tu laughed, unbothered by her huffiness. “You like me, that’s all I need.”

Chapter 29: sharing drinks

Summary:

Slight AU where Yu Tu and Jing Jing got together after the Glory of Kings match, and still went to the class reunion over lunar new year

Jing Jing paused mid-sip of her drink to find half of the room staring at her, and a few who weren’t paying attention were getting tapped insistently on the arm by the person next to them. 

“What’s - going on?” she asked, looking around at her classmates, bewildered. 

Next to her, Pei Pei snorted. Then, she leaned in close to Jing Jing and stage-whispered, “You just drank from Yu Tu’s glass.” 

Jing Jing blinked and looked down to realise too late that it was indeed Yu Tu’s drink she had picked up after finishing her song. 

They had arrived at the class reunion “separately” – that was, they entered the karaoke room separately – and had kept apart for most of the hour they had been here, mostly to try and hide the fact that they were together. Then, Jing Jing had been persuaded to sing a song, and somehow during that time, Yu Tu had moved from where he had been sitting with his former deskmates to nearer where Jing Jing and Pei Pei were, which probably explained why his drink was near enough hers that she had easily picked it up instead when it turned out that her glass was empty. 

She supposed it was more the fact that Yu Tu did not make any protest at her stealing his drink that drew their classmates’ attention. 

And now, the involuntary laugh he let out and the way he was looking over at Jing Jing with twinkling eyes clearly made something click in Li Ming’s mind. 

“Yu Tu and Qiao Jing Jing, are you two together?!”

Chapter 30: dangling feet in the water

It was 5am, and the sky was just beginning to redden in the distance; the only reason Jing Jing was even awake at this hour was the hope that no one else would also be awake, and she and Yu Tu would get the just-opened hotel pool to themselves. 

Jing Jing kicked her legs in the water as she watched Yu Tu swim from the other end towards her, water flowing over his body like silk as he cut through it. 

“Did you get up so early just to sit on the side of the pool?” he asked with a smile when he reached her and pulled himself up so that he was half out of the water and resting his arms folded on her thighs. 

Jing Jing pushed wet hair off his forehead and said with a smirk, “I’m just enjoying the view.”

She really should have seen it coming, but she still couldn’t help letting out a yelp of surprise and flail as she had to grab his neck for support when Yu Tu tugged gently at her legs, pulling her into the water with him.

Chapter 31: I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night

“Yeye, where’s Yu Tu?” Jing Jing asked as she wandered into the living room of her grandparents’ house to find only her grandfather still there, but he was also clearly getting ready to retire for bed. 

“I thought he was upstairs with you,” her grandfather replied.

Jing Jing frowned in confusion. “I thought he was down here talking to you; he’s not upstairs.”

He wasn’t answering his phone either. Jing Jing assured her grandfather that her boyfriend was probably fine, and Yeye should go to bed, but to herself, she couldn’t help but wonder where Yu Tu had disappeared to. After all, this was the first time he was visiting her grandparents’ house, which wasn’t that big to begin with, so where could he have wandered off to? 

Jing Jing was debating whether she should actually worry or not, when her phone buzzed - Yu Tu was calling her back.

“Where are you?” she asked immediately. 

“In the back garden.”

“Where?” Jing Jing pressed when she had gone out into the back garden and still saw no sign of him. Granted, up here in the mountain at this hour, it was pitch-black outside. No one in their right mind would be out at this hour. 

“Up the hill,” Yu Tu replied, and now Jing Jing could hear him both through the phone and his voice from somewhere above her, but more faint. “Do you want to come up?”

Why? Jing Jing couldn’t help wondering to herself, but Yu Tu had already turned on his phone flashlight to show her where he was. Of course, this did nothing to actually light her way – even the light from her own phone barely helped. But seeing as it was clear that Yu Tu wasn’t about to come down, Jing Jing climbed up after him with a resigned sigh.

“What are you doing up here?” she asked as she took his hand and let him tug her up to a spot beside him. 

“The view up here is nice,” he said.

Jing Jing looked around and then stared at him incredulously over the palmful of light from her phone. Without the phone, what view was he even talking about?

Yu Tu laughed and reached over to turn off the flashlight on Jing Jing’s phone, plunging them into darkness. 

“What are we doing?” she asked. 

“Give your eyes a moment to adjust,” Yu Tu said, putting his arm around, pulling her closer to him. 

Jing Jing blinked, but slowly her eyes did adjust to the darkness. 

“Look,” Yu Tu said, tilting her chin up with his fingers. 

Jing Jing smiled involuntarily as, in the dark, the starry night sky above became clearer to her, unobstructed up here on this high point. 

“This is what you came up here to look at?” she asked, her voice soft with affection. 

Yu Tu reached for her hand and entwined their fingers together. “Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked. 

It was, but before she could enjoy this really rather romantic view, she couldn’t help but air her previous grievances. “When I was small, my dad would tell me there were wolves up this hill, to stop me climbing and getting hurt I guess. And then you suddenly disappeared. I thought that you must have gotten lost and eaten by the wolves.” 

Yu Tu chuckled and pressed a kiss against her hair. “Sorry, I should have told you where I went, but I didn’t exactly plan to come up here, I just stepped outside and saw the sky and couldn’t resist coming up here for a better view.” 

“It really is beautiful,” Jing Jing admitted, “especially you’d never see any stars in Shanghai now with all the artificial lights. I forget that you can actually see them here.” 

“You can get pretty spectacular views of the starry sky out in the desert where we do fieldwork as well,” Yu Tu said, “but out there it can just feel desolate. Here, it’s peaceful.” 

It really was, Jing Jing thought, as she leaned her head against Yu Tu’s shoulder and sat back to enjoy this peaceful silence of the starry night. 

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of YAMG Ficlets
• Part 37 of Chang'e and Her Jade Rabbit