The Popstar & Me

Chapter 36 - Chasing Fang Yao

Chapter 36

I put the phone back down on the coffee table and swallow with difficulty. My knees are weak now. My throat feels like it is made of sandpaper, and my heart is thumping in my ears.

Mrs. Lan, Rushi, is XiaoLiLi. She's the one who has been stalking me and feeding gossip about Fang to the papers.

Is every single person in Fang's family a backstabbing gold digger? No, something didn't make sense. I reach down to my cell phone and snap a picture of Rushi's cell phone screen. This might be the proof Dr. Su needs to confront Fang about his brother.

But I didn't remember to turn my camera's sound off. It makes an earth-shatteringly loud click as I snap that photo.

Rushi is standing in the doorway of Fang's bedroom now. She's smiling at me.

"Did you find a picture worth bringing back to the states?"

"N-no," I say and pretend to fan myself off with my phone. "I'm just snapping a picture of the view from this window. It's so gorgeous. I think I'm feeling weak with awe."

"Really?" Rushi asks, lifting an eyebrow. She walks to the window and draws the curtain. "There, is that better?"

I hold my cell phone under my thigh and furiously text help into my group chat with the boys.

It's the screwdriver building. Come up to apartment 33-5

"I thought your phone was deactivated," Rushi says and kicks my phone away from me. "Oops, how clumsy."

"I don't care about your family drama," I state using my strongest no-nonsense voice. "I just want to leave Fang's things here so I can go home."

"Do you?" Rushi asks, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Is that why you told Fang to stop contacting his brother? Oh, I know, everything. My people are everywhere. You see, girls like us, like my online friends, we've loved Fang Yao since he was making crayon commercials. Do you think you can pop in here and steal him away from us?"

"From you? Aren't you married to Qing?"

"But I love Fang!" Rushi screams. "Qing, who cares about him?"

"B-but you switched Fang's medication. Do you call that love? You tried to murder him!"

"No!" Rushi howls and throws a half-empty Suntory beer can at my head. It hits the wall with splatters its yellow foamy liquid over the luscious beige leather couch. "I didn't try to murder Fang. The medicine wasn't for Fang. He was never prescribed it. Do you think Fang would trust a doctor not to let it leak that he was taking medication for his mental health? No! He was taking his brother's medication. That was Qing's bottle that I replaced with my own pills."

"You were trying to kill your husband?" I demand. "Why? Did you think you were going to get with Fang?"

"No," Rushi says with a bitter laugh. "No, but I was sick of him, and I wanted to be free. I married Qing only to get close to his brother. All those years of stalking Fang Yao from concert to concert, stage to stage, and the only Yao I could get close to was his fat, ugly hanger-on brother — Qing Yao. Yes, I married Qing to get close to his brother. I lived with him and played wife, but the disgust never faded. Now, he can't even work. What use is he?"

"You don't have to go through with it," I offer and clasp my hands together in a pleading gesture. "You can always leave Qing, meet someone new."

"No, then I'll never see Fang again," Rushi spat at me like my suggestion is pure nonsense. "I never felt understood until I heard Fang's music. The strings of fate tie me to him, even if he'll never see it. I need to be close to him, to touch him, to smell him."