粟米的先生是个年长粟米十岁的爱尔兰后裔,在本市一家知名风险投资公司工作,近年来的几个投资都投得很准,时机掌握准确,已经被公司高层内定为今后合伙人的接班人候选。先生大学时代即崇拜中国文化,欣赏中国古典美人的婉约风韵。十年前在一个朋友的圣诞Party上初遇粟米,惊为天人,认定粟米是他生命中的东方丽人,三个月后就递上提芬妮钻戒向粟米求婚。因为自己长粟米十岁,稍有老夫少妻之嫌,先生婚后百般呵护迁就粟米。正如一句西谚所说:Happy wife, happy life. 婚后,家中所有事务不论大小都是粟米说的算,凡事只要粟米开心就行。这回先生为了安慰焦急的粟米,一口一个honey,把粟米抱了又抱,亲了又亲,答应她本周会呆在家上班以便全面监工,一定确保所有收尾工作在本周完成,粟米方才舒了一口气。
可爱的Johnny很快带给粟米一个惊喜:他居然为粟米打听到了一家小小的电影院,里面前前后后加起来才十余排座位吧。这家电影院专门放映国际影片,艺术类的,前卫的,有争议的,其中不乏中国导演张艺谋和陈凯歌的作品。当然,他们偶尔也去别家影院看当时放映的流行大片,比如谭恩美的《喜福居》,李安的《喜宴》和《饮食男女》,大鼻子Tommy Lee Jones和一个上海籍女星演的越战电影《Heaven and Earth》等等。总之,只要电影是和中国或亚洲有关,Johnny都陪粟米去看。于是,许多个礼拜五均约定俗成地成为粟米和Johnny的亚洲电影节之夜。
“Very early in my life, it was too late. At eighteen it was already too late. At eighteen I aged. This aging was brutal...Let me tell you again: I’m fifteen and a half.”
“Years after the war, after the marriages, the children, the divorces, the books, he had come to Paris. He had phoned her. He was intimidated; his voice trembled, and with the trembling it had found the accent of China again. He told her — he had told her that it was as before, that he still loved her, that he would never stop loving her, that he would love her until his death...”