Read Online Chenxi and the Foreigner by Sally Rippin - Free Book Online Page A

Anna smiled distractedly, she kept a watch on the front gate. She had told Chenxi in the afternoon that if he was going to maybe come, then maybe he should come in. She couldn’t wait for him all night out the front.
    A group of young people meandered through the gate, foreign students, and Anna’s father nudged her. She looked them over perfunctorily and spied one whom she guessed to be the French student her father was keen on. He had thick, curly brown hair, an attractive face, and was well dressed in cream linen pants and a silk shirt. But any interest she tried to summon up was banished by thoughts of Chenxi.
    Anna excused herself from the conversation and wound her way through the sweaty bodies towards the trestle table set up as a bar. She jabbed a piece of cheese on the end of a toothpick and knew that she had been noticed. She picked up a flute of champagne and felt the French man sidle up behind her. He leaned in front of her to take a glass of beer, bumping her arm.
    â€˜Oh, excuse me!’ he said in mock surprise.
    Anna smiled, impressed at his smooth pick-up. He fitted her stereotype of a Frenchman.
    â€˜My name is Laurent. Are you a student here?’ he continued without missing a beat.
    â€˜Anna. I’m studying Chinese painting at the Shanghai College of Fine Arts.’
    â€˜Oh?’ he said, feigning intense fascination. ‘You’re an artiste!’
    â€˜I hope to be.’
    â€˜I know that college. It’s across the river from where I study at East China Normal University. I study Mandarin. You should come over and see us there one day.’ He gestured to include the other students he had arrived with. ‘We have great parties!’
    â€˜I should,’ Anna replied without promise and looked towards the front gate again. Chenxi was either very late or he wasn’t coming.
    Laurent noticed. ‘Are you waiting for someone?’
    â€˜Mmm,’ she nodded. ‘A classmate.’
    â€˜Boy or girl?’ he said with a teasing smile.
    Anna decided that Chenxi wasn’t coming. Anyway, it had been a while since she had played this game. It was a game she knew. With Chenxi she was never sure where she stood.
    â€˜Does it matter?’ she said.
    Laurent grinned, accepting his role. ‘That depends.’
    He took out a packet of Marlboro from his shirt pocket and offered her one. Anna knew smoking was about more than just cigarettes. It was a ritual, an ice breaker, an intimate little club. Chinese men never did deals without exchanging cigarettes. People who had never smoked didn’t understand that in giving up smoking it wasn’t the letting go of the cigarettes that was the hardest part.
    â€˜Smoke?’
    â€˜I’ve given up,’ said Anna regretfully.
    â€˜Shame,’ said Laurent. He flicked a match across a matchbook and held it to the cigarette hanging from his lips, his shoulders hunched up and his eyes squeezed. The flame created a little golden halo of light to frame his attractive face. He knew it.
    Laurent puffed, shook the match out and drew back deeply before fixing Anna’s eyes. ‘What about hashish?’
    â€˜Well…I guess I’d give anything a try,’ Anna replied, hoping she sounded nonchalant.
    Laurent smiled, delighted, and patted his trouser pocket. ‘Shall we go for a walk then?’
    â€˜I’ll just tell my dad I’m getting a breath of fresh air. I’ll meet you at the front gate,’ Anna said. Laurent didn’t seem to worry about leaving the people he had come with.
    Anna told her father she would find her own way home. He smiled approvingly towards Laurent and thrust some more notes into her hand.
    â€˜OK, love. You’ve got the spare key, haven’t you? Have fun.’
    When Anna and Laurent reached the front gate of the consulate they heard a terrible commotion: angry voices and among them one she recognised. Chenxi! She pushed through the crowd and saw