Together Forever

Chapter 5.2

The Real You and Me

Gu Pingsheng was not very familiar with Shanghai, so Shen Yao immediately volunteered to lead the way.

When they were near their destination, Tong Yan finally recognized that they were on Huaihai Road[1] near Shen Yao's home, and she whisperingly asked, "Why'd we head over here to Huaihai Road? Are you trying to viciously swindle Teacher Gu with this meal?"

Her impression of this place: Expensive. Very expensive.

"The places open at three in the afternoon. I want to go home and change. Too bad you're ten centimetres shorter than me; otherwise I'd lend you a pair of pants to change into." With a wink at her, Shen Yao said, "The great beauty is offering himself up. If I don't swindle him, it'd be such a waste." Once she finished saying this, she turned around and addressed Gu Pingsheng, "Teacher Gu, my home happens to be nearby. Would you like to go there for a bit? I'm not dressed very warmly, and I want to go home to change."

Gu Pingsheng had just taken the change the taxi driver had handed him. Casually slipping his wallet into the pocket of his trousers, he glanced over at the lane she was pointing to and gave a nod.

Shen Yao's home was an old, four-level house that was built prior to the Liberation[2]. On Huaihai Road where "an inch of land is an ounce of gold," its value was already sky-high.

They opened the narrow, red front door. On the first floor were the kitchen, dining area, and a bedroom. The two of them walked up the old mahogany staircase, following Shen Yao past the bedrooms on the second floor as she took them directly to the living room on the third level.

"Wait a moment." Shen Yao made a cup of tea for each of them. "I'll be back really soon."

After saying this, she went back down the stairs with sounds of "thump, thump, thump," leaving the two of them in the living room.

Since this was an old house, the room was not large and could only hold one sofa.

Side by side, they sat on it. Utterly bored, she could only focus her attention on the DVDs that had been thrown haphazardly on the table.

The topmost disc was Black Book, directed by Paul Verhoeven. Tong Yan remembered she had watched it before on Shen Yao's computer. It was about a Jewish woman who infiltrated the Germans as a spy during the Second World War but ended up falling deeply in love with a Nazi officer. In the end, when the Second World War ended and the Germans were defeated, she could only watch as the one she loved was executed. It was the inspiration for Ang Lee's film, Lust, Caution.

"You've watched it?" he suddenly asked.

"Yes." She picked it up and looked it over. It was the German edition. She reckoned Shen Yao used it to practice her languages. "It's really good. I watched it before on Shen Yao's computer. When I finished, I was really touched, and it made me reflect on how the Jews truly were worthy of pity. So many of them died in World War II, but actually, they are a very smart and hardworking people."

"Yes, the Jewish people are very smart." He told her, "Before, when I was studying for my master's degree, the person whose grades were better than mine was Jewish. Chinese people are also very smart. When I graduated from high school, there were more than two hundred people in my year, of whom nine were Chinese, but Harvard accepted only one person — a girl, Chinese. The person accepted into Yale was also Chinese. The other Chinese students went to Columbia, Cornell, and Duke, all very good schools."

There was one other one. He went to the University of Pennsylvania.

She silently added that in her mind before replying with a smile, "So, smart nationalities have to endure relatively more trials and hardships."