As Jem held Tessa's hand as the pair walked along the Bund, a popular tourist spot, as well as something that existed when Jem was a child in Shanghai.
The city no longer looked like what Jem knew when he left it in 1872, the skyline was littered with high rise buildings that shone with neon lights that said "馬年快樂 (Ma Nian Kuai Le)" or Happy Year of the Horse, 2014. Jem tried to have a second shot at the city where he was born, despite the sorrow it brought him that his parents were killed here too.
Jem barely recognised the city when they arrived at the airport, especially after the expo, and the modernization.
Now, walking along the Bund, Jem introduced her to everything, now and before, "Now, Tessa, that's currently the expo site, but do you know it used to be a pier, where I took the ship to London." Tessa's eyebrows rose, as Jem told her what everything used to be.
After spending years with Jem, her Mandarin had improved, and she could now speak it fluently, just without the fancy idioms.
As they walked the wind ruffled Jem's hair and blew his scarf around, Tessa enjoyed Jem looking like that and gripped his hand harder, Jem turned slightly pink. And they walked, enjoying the view of the Huangpu River, when Jem noticed a street performer strumming on his guitar, Jem walked closer, and in fluent Mandarin, said, "我可以借借你的吉他嗎？(wo ke yi jie jie ni de jie ta ma?)" Can I borrow your guitar? The man hesitated and gave the guitar to him, and jokingly, he tried a phrase of his rusty Shanghainese, "Xia xia nong." Thank you.
Tessa leaned back against the railing and watched Jem's every move. Then, like a madman, Jem started to sing, strum the guitar and jump around.
Everybody, they think they know us,
They think they've got us figured out,
Waste their words just trying to tell us,
How the typical, predictable, young love turns out
But little do they know girl, we've got a fast car
A James Dean spirit and a Norma Jean heart.
This blank sheet of paper has been waiting forever,
So baby just tell me where you wanna start
You and I can fall as hard as we want
Make the story all our own and blow Shakespeare's mind,
It's ours to write, it's our love and it's our life
And right or wrong, we'll write our own storyline
We can pack for Paris, plan for Tennessee,
Oceans, mountains, hey I don't care as long as you're with me
Running like crazy, kissing in public
Who cares what the world thinks?
Girl they don't know nothing about us
You and I can fall as hard as we want
Make the story all our own and blow Shakespeare's mind,
It's ours to write, it's our love and it's our life
And right or wrong, we'll write our own storyline
Let's make the story of our lives whatever we wanna make it,
There's rules about the way this works I think it's time that we break them,
From the moment that I met you there's just one thing I've been praying
If this boy gets you girl, girl would you take my name?
'cause you and I can fall as hard as we want
Make the story all our own and blow Shakespeare's mind,
It's ours to write, it's our love and it's our life
And right or wrong, we'll write our own storyline
I said right or wrong, we'll write our own storyline
It's all in our storyline,
It's part of our storyline,
It's all in our, all in our storyline
Tessa stared at him and said the words, "他瘋了 (ta feng la)" he's mad. To the man next to her, but what Jem did next surprised her.
Jem got down on one knee, and holding a small velvet box in front of her, said, "Tessa Gray, we've been through so much, from the Clockwork Conspiracy to the Mortal war. Now, here I'm waiting if you'd want to start this story with me, let's write our own storyline together, shall we?"
"Jem, yes, let's write this together, our storyline." Jem smiled and put the engagement ring on her finger, rose up and placed his lips against hers, like they did on Blackfriars' Bridge. Then Jem held her hand tight as they ran off.
A/N: There you go, a Jessa proposal, the song is Storyline by Hunter Hayes. You can find it on youtube. It's in Shanghai, Jem's hometown. The Shanghainese is relatively accurate, as my family is from Shanghai, as well as the Chinese, my mother tongue.