Chapter 55: Meeting an Online Friend in Person

Clank... Clank...
The train produced a rhythmic sound, even more rhythmic than Liu Jing's heavy snoring.
Choo-choo...
With the train whistle blowing, Beijing West Railway Station arrived, and Liu Jing woke up.
"Mom, I guessed right. Give me the money." Xixi extended her small hand, looking extremely smug.
She had made a bet with her mom on when the blockhead would wake up. Mom said he wouldn't wake up unless called. Xixi insisted he would wake up on his own when they arrived.
Clearly, she had won.
"Put it on the tab." Sister Li got up from the sleeper berth and began to pack up.
They were in no rush to get off; Beijing West was the terminal station, so there was no need to squeeze and shove to leave the train.
"Wait..." Xixi dug out her schoolbag, took out a notebook, and wrote a line of text: "August 16, 1997. On the train, Mom lost a bet and now owes An Feng 2 yuan. Mom's total debt: 182 yuan."
Liu Jing glanced over, curious to see what she was writing.
"July 13, 1997. Dad smoked at home, violating family rules, fined 3 yuan. An Feng made a meritorious report, rewarded 2 yuan, which Mom failed to cash out. Mom's total debt: 180 yuan."
"May 22, 1997. An Feng failed to finish her homework, fined 5 yuan. Mom's total debt: 178 yuan."
...
"March 17, 1997. Mom returned 200 yuan to me, and I bought..."
"February 7, 1997. Chicago, USA. Grandpa gave 20 yuan of lucky money, Grandma gave 2 yuan of lucky money, Aunt Wenqiong gave 50 yuan of lucky money, Sister Min gave 200 yuan of lucky money. The blockhead stole 20 yuan from me, and Mom took 250 yuan, claiming she was saving it for me. Mom's total debt: 379 yuan."
...
This girl had way too many little notebooks, Liu Jing complained inwardly, "When did I ever steal 20 yuan from you? Master here has plenty of money, why would I steal from you?"
"Anyway, the twenty yuan Grandpa gave me disappeared, there was nobody else at home, and you were the prime suspect." Xixi's view of Liu Jing was always guilty until proven innocent, and if there was suspicion, she convicted him on the spot.
"Are you being reasonable at all? Where's the evidence?" Liu Jing asked, exasperated. Who acts like this?
"Nope, not being reasonable." Xixi blinked her eyes. Did you ever use reason when you bullied me back then?
"I..." Liu Jing clenched his fists.
How did I end up knowing someone like this? What heavy karma.
Can't beat her, can't scold her, what on earth is one supposed to do? Good thing the two of us aren't in the same school anymore. This girl gets harder to fool the older she gets, turning everything upside down.
"Hurry up and pack. You two stop running around." Sister Li was long used to this and methodically packed their luggage.
Her trip to Beijing this time wasn't for personal matters, but to handle Liu Jing's affairs.
Thinking back on it now, she still found it surreal that she had actually agreed to come.
Time rolled back half a month. Liu Jing had agreed to collaborate with Jackie Chan.
The low salary Jackie Chan mentioned was only relative to Jackie himself; the remuneration he could secure for Liu Jing was 200,000 US dollars.
This was considerably higher than the pay for the two films in which Liu Jing had starred.
*Rush Hour* was scheduled to start filming in December, with locations in Los Angeles and Hong Kong, and Liu Jing needed to join the crew early for training.
The principal had rejected his request to skip a grade and clearly wouldn't agree next year either.
Liu Jing decided to throw caution to the wind and prepared to take a sick leave starting in November, extending all the way through April of next year.
During this time, apart from filming, making commercial appearances, and shooting advertisements, he needed to finish the first two volumes of *Those Stories About the Qin Dynasty* as soon as possible.
Once the agreement between Liu Jing and Jackie Chan was reached, they treated Jackie to Wuhan delicacies that very evening, visited the Yellow Crane Tower the next day, and saw Jackie off at the airport on the third day.
On the way back, Liu Jing hesitated, looking like he wanted to say something but holding back.
Under Sister Li's persistent questioning, he finally confessed his unspeakable dilemma.
A group of his CFido netpals was holding a meetup in Beijing, and Yun Taikang had promised to attend this offline gathering.
When he made the promise, he had completely forgotten that he was just a child, thinking only of meeting some technical experts to help him build a website.
No matter how grandly one talked on the BBS, showing up in person as a nine-year-old child would be entirely too shocking.
Liu Jing didn't want to miss the meetup, nor did he want to expose such a shocking truth, so he came up with a win-win strategy.
He would have Sister Li pose as Yun Taikang, while he tagged along as her child. Wasn't that the best of both worlds?
Actually, his optimal choice was Teacher An, but unfortunately Teacher An was currently in France and, due to her status, it was inconvenient for her to attend the gathering.
Sister Li had initially disagreed, but after Liu Jing wore her down with endless pleading, she finally relented.
To prepare for this, Liu Jing put Sister Li through specialized training; she couldn't afford to know nothing at all about computers.
To his surprise, Sister Li became hooked on the internet, registered her own screen name "Beautiful Traveler," and spent her days immersed in the BBS, causing the family's phone bill to skyrocket.
Sister Li went from being passive about the meetup to quite enthusiastic, and Xixi cried and screamed that she refused to be left behind in Wuhan and insisted on coming to Beijing as well.
Later, Sister Li reconsidered: the girl was about to enter junior high school, so taking her out for a trip could just serve as a birthday gift.
The three of them didn't check into a hotel, nor did they stay at her godfather's place, heading straight for the courtyard house in Shichahai.
This was Liu Jing's home in Beijing, as well as the home of Sister Li and Xixi, with everyone having their own private room.
Having been unoccupied for a while, a layer of dust had settled over everything. Merely cleaning it took more than half a day, and that was with Zhang Min's help.
Zhang Min had been in Beijing recently; her beauty salon had opened a branch in the city, and she was busy with that.
Last year, she and some friends had co-founded quite a few businesses, including beauty salons, fashion boutiques, celebrity photo-transfer T-shirt shops, and karaoke bars.
Most of these ventures operated at a loss, with only the beauty salon turning a decent profit.
Liu Jing couldn't possibly help out, and as for Xixi, she would only be a hindrance.
In the end, a helpless Sister Li lifted all restrictions on Xixi: go watch your cartoons, all you want.
And all she wanted she certainly got; Liu Jing had bought numerous discs, filling an entire cabinet.
With absolute freedom to watch shows, Xixi decided she wouldn't care about anything else.
As long as there was no earthquake and she didn't pass out from hunger, she wasn't stepping outside.
Yet this freedom to watch shows ultimately yielded to an empty stomach, and she eventually tagged along to go eat.
Jingxing Film and Television's registered address was in Beijing, and its office space was located here as well.
After finishing work, her maternal aunt rushed over hurriedly, bringing everyone out for sliced mutton hotpot.
"Yun Taikang? Uh, this screen name... is quite something." Zhang Min put down her chopsticks, utterly astonished.
Given the relationship between Zhang Min and the An family, Sister Li hadn't hidden the matter of the internet meetup from her.
Zhang Min wasn't curious about the gathering; in her view, no matter how bizarre something was involving the blockhead, it couldn't be considered bizarre anymore.
What surprised her was the screen name Liu Jing had chosen.
"Yeah! When Dad heard about it, he was so angry he almost flew back from France." Xixi gloated, beaming with joy.
She suddenly found the hotpot she had been forced to eat much more appetizing.
Ever since she was little, Dad scolded her, Mom scolded her, and the rotten blockhead scolded her; she was always the one getting scolded.
Her parents were very strict with her, yet uniquely lenient toward Liu Jing. When she was young, she always felt it was unfair, suspecting she was the adopted child.
After that run-away-from-home incident, she had realized a lot and grown up considerably. It turned out that in their hearts, she mattered just as much.
From then on, her hostility toward Liu Jing completely vanished.
Even though Xixi's mindset had shifted, it didn't stop her from enjoying a good spectacle.
Imagining Liu Jing getting beaten by her old man with an old slipper, she giggled out loud.
"Uncle An just has too narrow a perspective. Taikang can be a place name, an era title, a precious sword, or a person's name. He just had to associate it with himself—isn't that asking for trouble?" Liu Jing stuffed more mutton into his mouth. Beijing hotpot was truly authentic.
"I wonder who's the one asking for trouble." Sister Li sneered.