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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 atnoon the next day.

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

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

‘Yes, it’s done. I got the workrushed and it was finished today,’ she replied as she made effort to recallwhether there were other damages to his house. She’ll have to look throughtomorrow and check again.

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

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

‘Um, can I still use my keys?’

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

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

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

‘….’ Zhengqing felt a sense of crisisah; 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 wearilydragged his suitcase to his door. He looked at his watch, it was just pastfive. He just needed to take a shower and accompany Yin Ting to dinner.

He took a deep breath and raisedhis hand to the doorbell.

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

This feeling of ringing hisdoorbell was very fresh.

There was movement behind the doorand his heart began to pound. He had a girlfriend; he was going to accompanyher 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 hisaffection for her show in his eyes. His eyes felt warm.

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

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

Zhengqing smiled, he was now also adaddy. Miao-dada ran over, Zhengqing could not help but laugh. He was wearing asplendid 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 catstruggled to get down; it was more interested in the suitcase.

Zhengqing crossed the threshold andentered his living room.

Things had changed. It was strangebut he kind of liked it.

The brown leather sofa was gone. Inits place, an even larger beige and brown fabric sofa with many cushions aswell as a blanket. Near the floor to ceiling windows was now a tall evergreentree. The tree was decorated with glittering lights, and golden bells, andpretty ribbons and cute baubles. Under the tree were a few wrapped boxes. Hisbeige curtains were tied back with their sash in a neat bow. He had neverreally cared how they looked. The bookcase in the living room had a few newthings than a few red blue yellow ornaments, it was looking very festive.

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

Zhengqing relaxed on the couch, itwas really comfortable. He pulled Yin Ting down beside him, this time sheblushed, 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 askedsurprised. 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: Theyseem to be obsessed with ‘atmosphere’)

Zhengqing thought it was lucky thathe didn’t give her his gift right away, since she wanted to have the Christmasatmosphere. 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 Tingsaid with a smile, ‘I got them ready in advance.’

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

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

Zhengqing smiled, he estimated thatthey all know.

‘I am not stupid, I must wait foryou 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, Iam reasonable. You must work, but you have also hurried back, so I am veryhappy.’

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

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

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

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

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

He went to his room.

Once his door was closed, Yin Ting swayedback and forth on the sofa, ‘We can also…’ so sure, so calm, although it wasnot like he was madly in love, but there was such self a.s.surance, ah. But theway he said it…!

Yin Ting grabbed a cushion and clutchedit 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 herface as she rolled about on the sofa, remembering his twelve points she giggledhappily (Zuben: You and I remember different things, dear) Then she wasimagining how he’d react when she gave him his gift. She giggled again. He mostlikely won’t have a gift for her. She guessed that might be the case, but itdid not matter.

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

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

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

This cat really does worry aperson, ah.

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

‘What…?’ she asked, she could notsee 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. Sohe tries really hard to do it.’ The door was very hard to open and close and itneeded 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 atthe cat, ‘Will there come a day when I come home and find the door open and myhouse robbed because the cat let the thieves in?’

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

 He stared at her as Yin Tingquickly 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 provedthat it is a smart cat.’

‘Hmm, I am really pleased,’ he saida tad sarcastically as he went to pry Dada from the door, ‘it didn’t have thestrength to open the doors before, but I will solve this problem.’ He said ashe 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 yourchair safe!”

He laughed, ‘This proves mygirlfriend is really smart.’

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

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

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

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

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

‘I am not.’ He answered with a lowrumble

‘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 stubbornlook on his face.

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

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

When it was time for dessert, YinTing took out her gift and handed it to Zhengqing. He opened it to find a pairof 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 outfrom his jacket pocket a flat, not small but not big box.

‘This is my gift to you.’

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

Zhengqing smiled but did notanswer, he simply said, ‘I hope you like it.’

Yin Tin laughed and opened thegift; 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 theirslide show.

The first picture was:

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

‘Firstly, feelings are the mostimportant thing; I like you. You said that if people like each other there’snothing inappropriate about it, and they can adjust to suit each other. But if peopledon’t like each other mutually, then everything is useless. So the mostimportant thing is; I like you.

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

The second picture was:

I have a car, no loan, a house withfive years left on the mortgage and a lot of annual dividends, and largesavings. Although, my circ.u.mstances are not as good as yours, I have enough togive you a good quality of life.’

As the eight picture came up, she couldn’thelp but cry:

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

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

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

 Yin Ting’s tears flowedfreely, ‘So hateful,’ she said through her watery smile, ‘making me cry inpublic.’

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

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

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

(Zuben: Bwhahahah! Such a dork!)

‘…’

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

[1] I a.s.sume this is a something the Chinese say aboutmarriage and babies. I couldn’t find any site that would easily confirm or denythat 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...