Chapter 32.2

Chen Zhiqian came out of the bathroom.
“Who was that?”

“Cai Jiadong, my agent. He told me to come in tomorrow afternoon at four to terminate the contract.”

“I thought you said you were filming the intro for some show?”

Fan Qi rubbed the teddy bear’s head, looking resigned.
“On my way home today, I ran into Xu Xia escorting Wang Shaoyang out. He gave me this sarcastic spiel about taking over the title sequence and making some stock-themed movie. He actually thought I’d go crawling back to act in his film. And he said…”

She stopped. What he said was too disgusting to repeat in front of Chen Zhiqian.

“What did he say?”

“”Forget it, forget it! Why am I even bothering to argue with scum like him?” Fan Qi gritted her teeth, rubbing the bear harder to vent her frustration.

Chen Zhiqian clenched his jaw. Wang Shaoyang.

He couldn’t claim Fan Qi in her past life was completely blameless. But if it hadn’t been for Wang Shaoyang, at least she wouldn’t have come to Hong Kong. She wouldn’t have ended up acting in sleazy films back in the mainland either. As for himself, he would have gone abroad on a scholarship, never met Liu Xiangnian, and avoided everything that followed.

Even though, in his past life, he had eventually forced Wang out of both Hong Kong and the mainland, driving him to Canada, the mere memory of the man still left a bitter taste.

Unconsciously, Chen Zhiqian reached out and gently rubbed Fan Qi’s head.

This girl hugging a teddy bear—she must’ve been furious today.

Fan Qi wanted to move away, but seeing it was because of the big white teddy bear, she decided to let him pat her head.

“Now that you’ve had dinner, go wash your face and brush your teeth. It’s getting late.”

Fan Qi went to wash up. Glancing at the teddy bear sitting on the chair in the living room, she hesitated—would bringing it into her room take up too much space? But it wasn’t that big, maybe only forty to fifty centimeters. If she put it by her feet, it should be fine, right?

She carried the bear onto the bed. But the moment she said she’d place it at her feet, she couldn’t bear to part with it. Instead, she tucked it on the inner side of the bed, lay on her side, and hugged it tightly. It actually felt pretty nice.

“Lights off. Time to sleep.”

Even though she had already napped for a few hours earlier, with the bear beside her, she felt she could fall asleep again.

Chen Zhiqian placed his hand on the light switch. Watching Fan Qi lie on her side hugging the bear, he shook his head and turned off the light.

Fan Qi was too well-rested from her afternoon nap and couldn’t fall asleep right away. She kept stroking the fluffy bear—it was just too adorable.

Chen Zhiqian closed his eyes, but his senses were heightened. Every small movement she made disturbed him. She was clearly still awake. He really wondered: how old had she been before she “crossed over”? Just a stuffed teddy bear, and yet she was this engrossed? She couldn’t be that young, could she? She could read complex English materials and had an impressive base of knowledge. But how was she still this childish?

Still not asleep? Chen Zhiqian turned toward her. “Fan Qi.”

Fan Qi, still cuddling the bear, turned toward him. “What?”

What? Chen Zhiqian didn’t even know why he called her. He just said, “That plush toy came straight from the warehouse. It’s been through a lot of hands. Maybe don’t keep it on the bed?”

He had a point. In the past, any plush toys she bought would always be sent to the maid to wash before being allowed on the bed.

“Mm, you’re right.”

Hearing her agree, Chen Zhiqian turned the light back on and reached out. “Give me the bear. I’ll put it somewhere clean.”

Fan Qi handed over the teddy bear. Chen Zhiqian took it to the living room, returned, turned off the light, and lay down again. “Sleep. It’s already past midnight.”

With nothing left to cuddle, Fan Qi closed her eyes. Not long after, she began to yawn. Without anything to hold, she soon rolled over—and her arm naturally rested across Chen Zhiqian’s body…

The next morning, even though Fan Qi tried to be as quiet as possible, Chen Zhiqian, who had developed insomnia in his past life, was a very light sleeper upon returning.

He opened his eyes and reached for the watch by his pillow. It was only 5 a.m. “Fan Qi, what are you doing up so early?”

“I’m going to wash the teddy bear first. You go back to sleep for a bit. We’ll go for a run later. While we’re out, I’ll leave it in the dryer. It should be half-dry by the time we’re back, and I can leave it by the west window in the living room to catch some sun. Then tonight, I can sleep with it again!”

Fan Qi cheerfully walked out. She had overslept the day before and had been thinking all night about having the teddy bear with her again tonight, so she’d woken up early.

Because Chen Zhiqian had brought her that teddy bear, she decided to listen to him and go running again this morning.

She added shampoo to a basin of clean water and soaked the bear, then went to rinse rice and start cooking porridge. With the porridge on low heat, she went back to wash the bear and spin-dry it.

Then she brushed her teeth and washed her face. By the time everything was done, it was around 5:20 a.m. She returned to the bedroom. “Chen Zhiqian, time to run.”

Chen Zhiqian leaned against the headboard. Last night, she had spent the first half playing with the teddy bear, keeping him awake. In the second half, he barely slept five hours. And now, because she was up, so was he. Awake, yes—but not well-rested. He felt drained.

Go running now?

“Not going?” Fan Qi couldn’t help but smile. Great—this meant she could sleep in tomorrow morning.

Seeing the gleam in her eyes, Chen Zhiqian immediately knew what she was thinking. Recalling the look on her face when she ate, he thought, if she didn’t keep exercising, she’d just keep eating—what if she developed fatty liver? He got out of bed. “Alright, I’m up.”

Fan Qi turned off the stove and left the porridge to simmer in the clay pot. She changed into her running shoes and went downstairs with Chen Zhiqian to jog along the street.

She’d had enough sleep last night, and she also noticed something else: unlike yesterday’s relentless pace, Chen Zhiqian had slowed down today, seemingly on purpose to match her. Now the speed felt manageable.

They ran about two-thirds of yesterday’s route, and at this pace, Fan Qi felt confident she could finish the full run. She then heard Chen Zhiqian ask, “Fan Qi, do you want some fried dough sticks?”

Her eyes lit up at the mention of fried dough. “Yes!”

“Come on. I’ll take you to a place that’s been open for thirty years.”

Chen Zhiqian led her across the street. They were now about two kilometers from home, in an older neighborhood with traditional tong lau buildings—shops on the ground floor, residences above. Most of them were subdivided rentals.

This kind of street was chaotic, but also brimming with life and warmth. Once they entered the street, Chen Zhiqian took Fan Qi’s hand and guided her through the already-bustling morning crowd.

In front of a small shop, the owner’s wife was stretching dough to fry in oil, while the husband was preparing steamed rice rolls from a drawer steamer.

Chen Zhiqian got in line. Fan Qi stood by and heard him order, “Two youtiao, and two portions of cheung fun, to go.”

“Why do they call them oil-fried ghosts (youtiao)?” Fan Qi didn’t think the question was strange. After all, the original owner of her body never ate high-calorie foods like this.

“They say ‘youtiao’ isn’t really about frying ghosts. Back in the day, there were many Zhejiang people in Shanghai, and they used to call youtiao you zha gui — which originally meant ‘frying Qin Hui’ (the traitor in history). Over time, it evolved into ‘frying ghosts.’”

“There’s even a historical reference? Your Cantonese is really good, and you even know the local history. Impressive.” Fan Qi had already noticed during their last trip to the wet market that his Cantonese was excellent — hardly any accent at all.

Chen Zhiqian paused slightly as he took the youtiao and cheung fun from the boss. He frowned, “Is that so? I started learning around the same time as you. Didn’t you pick it up quickly too? Why do I feel like it’s not that my Cantonese has improved, but your Cantonese has gotten worse?”

As soon as he said that, Fan Qi quickly changed the subject: “Let’s go, I still need to dry the teddy bear when we get back!”

She would never forget the plush bear.

On the way back, as usual, Fan Qi bought the morning paper. Upon entering the building, she instinctively headed for the stairwell and began climbing floor by floor. When she reached the tenth floor, she stopped on the landing, gasping for breath.
“I can’t… I can’t go any further. I really can’t walk anymore.”

“Then why not take the elevator?” Chen Zhiqian suggested.

Fan Qi rested for a moment, eyeing the youtiao in his hand.
“Between good food and dieting, I choose good food. But I also don’t want to get fat, so I’ll keep going!”

With that, she continued upward, and Chen Zhiqian exhaled lightly, following behind her.

Back home, Fan Qi turned on the stove to let the porridge simmer further and thicken. Chen Zhiqian unpacked the rice noodle rolls and cut the youtiao into bite-sized pieces, pouring soy sauce into a small dish.

Fan Qi brought the porridge over. Upon seeing how the youtiao was served, she sat down and said,
“If only we had some savory soy milk. That version with seaweed, dried shrimp, and youtiao… add a hot, crispy rice cake—I’d love that.”

Chen Zhiqian pushed the rice noodle rolls toward her.
“You really are picky when it comes to food.”

“As the ancestors said: ‘One should never tire of fine food, nor of finely minced meat.’”

Chen Zhiqian thought: Does she not realize she basically is an ancestor herself?

Fan Qi flipped through the newspaper as she ate. She focused on the finance section, while the side facing Chen Zhiqian featured the entertainment section. The entertainment headline read:
“Wang Shaoyang Invited to Shoot Opening for Who Is the Stock God; New Stock Market Drama in Pre-Production.”

Noticing Chen Zhiqian looking at her paper, Fan Qi flipped it around and saw the news herself.

Who Is the Stock God was an idea proposed by Mr. Liao to Tang Yuanchao. With the implementation of Thatcher’s financial reforms beginning in full this year, the securities market was undergoing a shake-up. Fan Qi wasn’t sure how this would impact Hong Kong’s financial industry, but in her memory, the UK’s financial sector experienced a dramatic transformation in the coming years—some century-old institutions collapsed, while London further solidified its status as a global financial center. Sensing opportunity in this upheaval, Mr. Liao had suggested the drama to promote Yaohua.

Whether or not she filmed the opening didn’t matter to Fan Qi. She felt it was unfair:
“It was clearly Mr. Liao’s idea, but the newspaper only mentions Changxing. Changxing is filming the opening, and he’s acting as a professional consultant on the project? Mr. Liao must be fuming. All that effort, just to hand over the credit to someone else.”

“Well, what can you do? Xu Xia has Fangxin Finance from the Nanyang Xu family and Longlin Capital from Rongyuan backing him. Otherwise, why would Liu Xiangnian agree to a marriage between Feng Xueming and Xu Miao’er?”

Fan Qi listened as Chen Zhiqian broke down the connections. The real power wasn’t Xu Xia from Changxing, but the wealthy Xu family in Nanyang, with interests in hospitality, finance, real estate, and mining. Then there was Rong Yuan, raised by the seventh miss of the inland Xu family, and his wife Zhuang Lingling. Fan Qi remembered their legendary story well—though those people lived at the top of the mountain, far from the original owner’s world.

“Now the one in charge of Yongxin Television is Yuan Hai, the second son of the Yuan family. He’s close to the Xu family. If Xu Xia wants in on the show, Yuan Hai just needs to mention it to Tang Yuanchao. What could Tang say?”

Fan Qi sighed. Mr. Liao had poured so much effort into this, only to be outdone by connections.

After finishing breakfast, Chen Zhiqian got up, collected the dishes, and washed them.

Fan Qi went to check on the big white bear. It obviously wasn’t dry yet. She placed it by the west-facing window in the living room. If it was still damp later, she’d put it back in the dryer. Either way, she was determined to cuddle it tonight.

Once they’d both gotten ready, they took the subway together. Just before Fan Qi got off, Chen Zhiqian asked,
“You heading to the film company at four this afternoon?”

“Yep!” Fan Qi wasn’t sure why he asked, but since he didn’t follow up, she figured he was just making small talk.