Chenxi and the Foreigner Read Online Free Page A

‘I know, love! Rather than go to the college every day we could get one of the teachers to come out here to teach you. At the apartment. And get that boy, Chenksy, too, to translate.’
    â€˜Dad! I said I’ll see how I go. I’ll be fine, OK?’
    â€˜Yes, see how you go, love. Just remember to take my work number with you, and plenty of money in case you have any problems.’ He wiped his mouth on his handkerchief. ‘And don’t worry about cleaning up, the aiyi will do it.’
    After he left, Anna wandered to the sitting room window that looked over the front entrance of their building. From here she could see anyone who came into the building or left it. She watched her father get into the back of his navy car with tinted windows and thought how absurd it was that he complained of putting on weight. If he rode to work like the other sixteen million inhabitants of Shanghai, he would be as skinny as they were. Instead, he preferred to pay a fortune to ride a stationary bike in an exclusive ‘foreigners only’ gym.
    Seven-thirty came and went, then eight o’clock, then nine. Anna had never been a patient person. She liked looking forward to something, but she hated waiting. By nine-thirty she knew Chenxi wasn’t coming. Classes had started over an hour ago and, with a forty minute bike ride ahead of her, Anna wondered if she would get to see any of the first lessons at all.
    Why wouldn’t he come? They had spent a pleasant afternoon together the day before—at least she thought so—seeing the sights of Shanghai in the air-conditioned comfort of a taxi. She had felt giddy sitting so close to him in the back seat, absorbing the smell of him, studying his beautiful face. She had gone to bed that night dreaming of him, feeling sure he would have done the same about her. If you were attracted to someone, weren’t they necessarily attracted to you? But Chenxi’s face gave away nothing. The picture of that warm apologetic smile in the taxi before he disappeared into the traffic materialised constantly in Anna’s mind.
    She wasn’t sure why she was so obsessed with him. After all, she barely knew him. But there was something about him that pushed all reason out of her mind. He was so mysterious, so unselfconsciously handsome. She had never felt like this about anyone before. Perhaps he had a girlfriend? Was that why he wasn’t coming? If so, he should have made it clear from the start. Surely he could feel Anna’s attraction towards him? So why did he smile at her that way? She started to feel angry again.
    Wasn’t it an honour for him to be chosen out of all the students at the college to look after her? Her father said that any other Chinese student would have cut off his right arm for the opportunity. And all that F.E.C. he’d given Chenxi? According to her father it was virtually impossible for a student in China to get hold of the foreigners’ currency— other than by illegal means. Local Chinese currency was supposed to have the same value as the F.E.C., but it couldn’t be exchanged outside China. So one yuan in F.E.C. could be traded for up to twice as many local yuan on the black market . Not only that, but with F.E.C. a Chinese could buy foreign goods and have access to places where only foreigners were allowed. Chenxi should be grateful for the opportunity they were offering him! Anna stood up, frustrated and irritable. Should she go to the consulate pool after all?
    She was deciding whether to exchange the bamboo and wolf hair paint brushes in her bag for her bikini, when the doorbell rang. Of course he had come, why wouldn’t he? She flung the bag over her back and skipped to the door, but a key fiddled in the lock and it was opened before she had a chance to reach it. Both women found themselves face to face with a stranger.
    The aiyi was the first to speak, ‘Oh, sorry, sorry. Daughter? You Mr White