He Is CEO/Actor, She Is Actress novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: The Empty Chair
At the family dinner Haoran sits in his comatose brother's chair beside Wenxin while Madam pours soup, and on the stairs Madam tells her she knows where she spent the night and approves.
The Lu family dining table sat ten, and for three years it had been set for six.
Wenxin put her ring back on in the taxi and checked it twice in the hallway mirror.
Madam Gu met her at the dining room door and kissed her cheek.
"There she is. My leading lady."
"Madam, I didn't ask for any of it," Wenxin said.
"Of course you didn't. That's why it suits you."
Madam's hand was warm and dry on her arm.
The housekeeper had made sweet-and-sour ribs, the way Wenxin's mother used to make them in the annex kitchen.
Wenxin knew the housekeeper had not been told to. She was grateful anyway, and she hated that.
Xiaotong was already at the table in a pale pink dress, and she jumped up and hugged her.
"Wenxin-jie! You're going to be amazing. I'll be your sister on screen and I'll be so annoying about it."
"You're not upset?" Wenxin asked into her hair.
"I'm relieved," Xiaotong said, laughing. "You'd have to see me do the crying scene. Auntie says it looks like I'm sneezing."
Wenxin laughed before she could stop herself.
Then the dining room door opened again, and Haoran came in.
He had changed into a gray sweater. He nodded at his stepmother, nodded at Xiaotong, and did not nod at Wenxin at all.
He walked to the chair at her right, the one with the high carved back, and sat in it.
It was Mingxuan's chair.
That was the rule Madam had made the first month. At every family meal the elder son sat for the younger one, so the table would not look broken.
The photographs on the sideboard needed three faces, Madam said. Haoran, Wenxin and the husband.
Wenxin had sat beside the empty chair for three years, and for three years it had been the only seat in the house that made her feel she had a place.
Tonight it was occupied by the man whose terms she had agreed to at midnight.
"Haoran, you were generous to recast so quickly," Madam said, ladling soup into a small bowl with her left hand. "It shows how much you value family."
"It's a casting decision," Haoran said.
"Of course it is. Eat, dear."
She set the bowl in front of Wenxin and touched the back of her neck, once, lightly.
Wenxin ate. The soup was perfect.
Under the tablecloth, something warm settled against her knee.
It was Haoran's knee.
She stopped breathing. She did not move away.
Neither did he.
Across the table, Madam was telling Xiaotong about the film's costume budget, her bracelet flashing as she gestured.
"Wenxin," Madam said. "Pass me the ribs, please."
Wenxin reached for the dish and her sleeve slid up her wrist.
Haoran's eyes dropped to the inside of it, to a faint red mark she had not noticed that morning.
His chopsticks stopped halfway to his mouth.
They stayed there for the rest of the course. He never ate the bite.
He was just full, she decided. Anyone could be full.
His knee stayed where it was.
She passed Madam the dish with a hand that would not stay still, and Madam took it without seeming to notice anything at all.
"Let's all raise a glass," Madam said. "To the family. To Mingxuan, who will wake up soon. And to Wenxin, who has stood by him so faithfully."
Xiaotong raised her glass with shining eyes.
Haoran raised his and looked into it.
Wenxin raised hers and could not look at anyone.
After dinner Xiaotong went to take a call, and Haoran left without saying goodbye. She heard the front door close.
She climbed the stairs to the second floor, because she always visited Mingxuan's old room before leaving.
On the landing, Madam's voice came from the dark above her.
"Wenxin."
Madam was standing at the top of the stairs in her jade dress, with one hand on the banister.
"Yes, Madam?"
"Come up a moment, dear."
Wenxin climbed the last steps, and Madam took her by both hands, very gently, the way she had on the day of the wedding.
"I know where you were last night," Madam said softly.
Wenxin's mouth went dry.
"Madam, it isn't..."
"Shh. I'm not angry." Madam smiled, and her thumb stroked the back of Wenxin's hand, right across the ring. "I approve."
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