The variety show downstairs didn’t wrap up filming until evening.
Jian You had her assistant book a restaurant early on. After filming wrapped, she went to have a meal with Teacher Zhao. On her way back, she remembered there was no chef in the small courtyard and that the production team’s boxed meals were greasy. After some thought, she decided to get two dishes as takeout for Yun Chu.
But she didn’t expect to find that Yun Chu was already asleep.
The staff members were speaking in low voices downstairs as they set up the venue for the live stream in two days. When they saw her return, they all greeted her, “Hello, Teacher Jian.”
Jian You nodded, the paper bag in her hand swaying slightly. “Where’s Yun Chu?” she asked.
“Teacher Yun?” a staff member replied. “She said she had a bit of a headache, so she went to bed.”
“…Did she eat?”
“She just had some fruit.” The staff member suddenly noticed the bag in Jian You’s hand. The logo was from a restaurant in town. Her shipping radar went off, and she blurted out, “Teacher Jian, did you bring food for Teacher Yun?”
Jian You gave a slightly stiff “mm.” “If she’s asleep, then never mind.”
“Maybe she’s not asleep yet,” the staff member said, her eyes lighting up. She didn’t mind playing Cupid in the slightest. “It’s hard to fall asleep with a headache. Why don’t you go up and see?”
“Go up and see?” Jian You said thoughtfully. “Alright.”
So she ambled upstairs. The door to Yun Chu’s room was ajar, and the light was off. Only the light from the hallway spilled in, faintly revealing the slight mound where Yun Chu lay sleeping.
She was truly thin, just a small bundle under the covers.
Jian You stood in the doorway, wanting to enter but unable to take a step. The parts of the room untouched by the light were like an abyss, as if one step forward would send her plunging into it, to be swallowed whole.
Jian You swallowed, her palm tightening on the doorknob. She was about to close the door.
But Yun Chu stirred in the bed, her voice thick with sleep. “Is that you, Teacher Jian?”
Jian You froze.
Yun Chu pushed the blanket aside slightly and reached over to turn on the bedside lamp. A warm, orange glow enveloped her. Only a few buttons on her long-sleeved pajamas were fastened, revealing a smooth, pale shoulder. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. “Teacher Jian?”
The last syllable was drawn out with a syrupy sweetness.
Jian You walked in. “I brought you something to eat. I heard you had a headache. Did you take any medicine?”
“I did,” Yun Chu said with a yawn. “I just took a nap and feel much better. But,” she rubbed her stomach and whispered, “I don’t really have an appetite right now.”
“Then don’t eat if you don’t feel like it.” Jian You put the paper bag on the table and sat on the edge of the bed, feeling Yun Chu’s forehead. “It’s good you don’t have a fever.”
“Mm.” Yun Chu felt dizzy sitting up, so she lay back down, her left cheek pressed into the pillow. She quietly watched Jian You, who was bathed in the lamplight. It belatedly dawned on her that Jian You had been standing at the door because the room was dark. “Teacher Jian,” she said.
Jian You, who had been wondering if she should go downstairs, subconsciously hummed a response. “What is it?”
“Teacher Jian, why are you afraid of the dark?” The pain made her thoughts sluggish, allowing words she would normally never say to slip out easily. Before she could regret it, the question was already hanging in the air between them.
Jian You didn’t answer.
That’s right, Yun Chu thought. Something like that must come from a painful past. Who am I to have the right to listen? A throbbing pain pulsed in her temples and radiated to the back of her head. She curled deeper into her blankets.
Jian You looked down at Yun Chu.
A fine sheen of sweat covered Yun Chu’s face, dampening her bangs and plastering them to her forehead. In the hazy lamplight, her eyes were closed, her damp lashes trembling slightly. There was a kind of disheveled beauty to her.
She looked as if she had fallen asleep, completely unguarded.
Jian You took out a tissue and pressed it to Yun Chu’s forehead. Her lips moved. “Yun Chu, have you ever read my Baidu Baike page?”
Of course, Yun Chu had.
Yun Chu had read every word of Jian You’s Baidu Baike page, from her personal introduction and life story to her filmography and achievements.
“Then do you remember what it says in the ‘Life Experience’ section?”
The ‘Life Experience’ section stated that Jian You was born on an island. Her parents divorced when she was four, and custody was awarded to her father, who had been unfaithful. Later, after her mother fought for custody and her father had a new child, Jian You finally returned to her mother’s side. From a young age, Jian You had excelled academically and displayed immense artistic talent, but because her family was poor-
“I was four the year my parents divorced. The island wasn’t exactly small, but it wasn’t big either. In any case, I didn’t see my mother for that entire year.” Jian You’s tone was flat, as if she had recounted the story so many times she’d grown numb to it. She continued calmly, “My stepmother was actually quite good to me. My dad had tricked her; she didn’t know she was the other woman.”
Yun Chu slowly opened her eyes.
“I remember her holding me, her belly large with pregnancy. She said, ‘Don’t you worry, I’ll treat you like my own daughter.’ Can you guess what I was thinking?”
Yun Chu blinked.
Without waiting for an answer, Jian You went on, “I thought to myself, How is that possible? Stop being so fake. I was only four at the time. Thinking back on it now, what a precocious little girl. Later, she had her baby…”
It was a very cute baby girl, kicking her chubby white legs in her cradle. Her stepmother rocked the cradle and said to her, “Youyou, this is your little sister.”
A person’s energy is finite, especially when trying to care for an infant and a child not yet five years old. Her father showed his true colors-drinking, gambling, and staying out all night. Whenever his wife complained, he would take his anger out on Jian You.
A burden. A dead weight. The daughter of the ex-wife who was destroying their family’s harmony.
Before he left the house, he would lock her in the attic. If her stepmother asked, he’d say he had taken her to kindergarten. There were no lights in the attic. At first, she was terrified and pounded on the door relentlessly, but the sea breeze that summer was too strong. Her cries for help and the sound of her fists against the door were swallowed by the wind. She curled up in the darkness, unable to see a single sliver of daylight.
“I thought about telling my stepmother. But then I figured, if my own father didn’t care about me, why would she? We weren’t related, and she had her own child now. How could she possibly care? Or maybe she even condoned it.”
And so it went, day after day, until summer ended and my mother came to take me home.
“It’s not that I’m terrified of the dark.” Jian You removed the sweat-soaked tissue and tossed it into the trash can. She looked into Yun Chu’s eyes. “I just don’t want to see that helpless little girl in the darkness.”
Yun Chu’s eyes were rimmed with red. “Teacher Jian…”
“Go to sleep,” Jian You said, tucking her in. “Sleep, and forget all of this.”
Yun Chu obediently closed her eyes.
Her heavy eyelids grew drowsy. Unconsciously, her fingers hooked around Jian You’s pinky and held on for a moment before Jian You carefully slipped her hand free and walked out.
The staff had already left, and the living room had been restored to its usual state.
Jian You put the paper bag in the refrigerator and sent a message to her assistant director: “I’ll finish writing the script and send it to you tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, you can lead the main creative team through the first table read.”
The assistant director, also a workaholic, was still at the studio working overtime. He was shocked. “So soon?”
Jian You: “Yes. I’m inspired.”
Assistant Director: “Go for it, Director Jian!”
Assistant Director: “I’ll notify everyone now, then.”
Jian You: “Don’t call Yun Chu.”
Assistant Director: “But she’s the female lead…”
Jian You: “She’s with me now. I’ll go over it with her. We’ll join you for the third table read.”
Assistant Director: “Got it!”
Assistant Director: “Enjoy your romance!”
Jian You: “…”
Upstairs.
Yun Chu had a dream. She dreamed she went to that island and walked along a scorching road into a house. She heard the cries of a baby, interspersed with the gentle, coaxing voice of a woman.
She went upstairs.
Dust motes occasionally drifted down from the wooden floorboards. A candle appeared in her hand, its flame flickering as she moved. She pushed open a door, and the candlelight spilled into the room, casting the shadow of the little girl in the corner onto the wall.
The little girl looked up. Her face was smudged with dust, but her features were delicate and lovely. She looked at Yun Chu with frightened, questioning eyes.
Yun Chu crouched down and smiled at her.
“The light is here,” Yun Chu said.
From now on, Cinderella would forever be bathed in light, a princess so dazzling she would shine even without her glass slipper.
Yun Chu was woken by the ringing of her phone.
Groggy with sleep, Yun Chu fumbled for her phone with her eyes still closed and declined the call. A moment later, it began to ring again, persistent. Yun Chu raised her hand and answered it.
The voice on the other end was cautious. “Yun Chu?”
Yun Chu pulled the blanket over her head. “Sister Jing, what is it?”
Chen Jing breathed a sigh of relief. “I sent you a message, but you didn’t reply. I was worried something had happened to you!”
“What’s going on?” Yun Chu asked.
Chen Jing said, “Oh, it’s Christmas Eve, isn’t it? Don’t forget to post on Weibo. You’ve been so busy you haven’t posted anything for your fans, and they’re getting impatient.”
“It’s Christmas Eve today,” Yun Chu said.
She shot up in bed and slapped the blanket. “It’s Christmas Eve!”
Chen Jing: “…What’s gotten into you?”
Yun Chu: “I can spend it with Teacher Jian!”
She excitedly threw back the covers but froze the moment her feet hit the floor. Fragmented memories from the previous night came rushing back-Jian You’s calm voice, her heavy past. The thoughts made her stop in her tracks.
Hearing only silence, Chen Jing asked, “Yun Chu? Yun Chu?”
“Huh?” Yun Chu snapped out of it. “I… I’m going to wash up. I’ll talk to you later.”
She hung up and rushed downstairs. The production crew had already started their day, continuing the work they hadn’t finished yesterday. Seeing her run down, a staff member quickly put a finger to their lips. “Teacher Yun, not so loud!”
Yun Chu glanced toward Jian You’s room. “Where’s Teacher Jian?”
“Someone from Teacher Jian’s studio called the show’s director today,” a staff member explained. “They said Teacher Jian was up all night writing her script and is catching up on sleep now. They asked us to keep it down so we don’t disturb her. Let her get some rest.”
Yun Chu nodded. “…Okay.”
Jian You slept for the entire day. When she woke up, the living room had been transformed with Christmas decorations. A row of bells hung on the wall, a fire crackled in the fireplace next to a huge Christmas tree, and the long dining table had been moved into the living room. Everything was neat and orderly.
Yun Chu was sitting on the carpet nearby, editing a Weibo post. She wrote a long, chatty message, and after publishing it, she even added two of her own comments.
Hearing footsteps, she turned around. “Teacher Jian, Merry Christmas Eve!”
Her smile was bright and sunny, as if she had truly forgotten everything from the night before. That’s for the best, Jian You thought. She hadn’t wanted Yun Chu to remember anyway. She walked over. “You too.”
“Teacher Jian,” Yun Chu said, “you haven’t seen the rundown for tomorrow’s live stream yet, have you?”
“…No.”
“I have,” Yun Chu said, mysteriously producing a box from beside her. “There’s a segment tomorrow where everyone makes a wish related to the show and puts it in this box. For example, something like, ‘I want to keep dating so-and-so after the show ends.'”
Jian You let out a slow “oh,” wondering why Yun Chu was telling her this.
“But,” Yun Chu said, “well-behaved children get to make two wishes.”
Jian You walked over to the counter to pour a glass of water. “And who is the well-behaved child?” she asked casually.
Yun Chu replied, “The person who spends Christmas Eve with me.”
Jian You was about to ask who that was when she suddenly realized. She looked at Yun Chu, who was holding the box out to her. “Teacher Jian, you get to make two wishes.”
“Tonight’s wish is on me.”
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