Chapter 42

Gu Feiquan finished the last cigarette in his pack on the balcony, and cigarette butts had piled up at his feet.

He found a broom and dustpan in the corner, swept the butts into them, and shut the terrace door behind him.

Gu Yanqiu sat alone in her room for a while, sorting through the clues she already had. After that burst of anger, she decided to take Gu Feiquan’s words with a grain of salt for now. After all, Gu Feiquan was He Songjun’s son, and He Songjun was the kind of woman who thought she could conceal her feelings but was actually easy to read at a glance; proud and insecure, she had never been anyone Gu Yanqiu considered a rival. Gu Feiquan was different. Before he joined the Gu family, he had already made a name for himself at a company; aside from his background, his own conditions were excellent among his peers, and even his personality had inherited some of Gu Huai’s qualities, often leaving Gu Yanqiu with the feeling that she had no idea what he was thinking.

If Gu Huai had not truly intended to support Gu Feiquan—Gu Huai had said as much to Gu Yanqiu—then her life in the Gu family would have been even more difficult.

What exactly had Gu Feiquan meant by those words on the terrace? One should speak well of the dead; deliberately provoking her was probably just a way to drive a wedge between her and Gu Huai. Gu Yanqiu was willing to think of it that way, but facts were not something she could deny just because she wanted to.

The timing of Gu Huai’s marriage to Gu Yanqiu’s mother was certain; it had happened twenty-eight years ago, and by then Gu Feiquan had indeed already been born. So did her mother know that Gu Huai already had a child? If she didn’t, why had Gu Huai deceived her? If she did, why had she agreed to marry him? The years of apparent devotion between them should not have been fake.

Had Gu Huai married He Songjun again out of guilt? Where had He Songjun been when Gu Huai got married?

Gu Yanqiu pressed her temples and glanced at the darkening sky outside the window. The trees were hazy and indistinct; it was as if some long-slumbering beast lurked there, silently watching her, waiting for the right moment to spring, pin her to the ground, and swallow her whole.

"Dinner’s ready, Xiaoqiu." A knock sounded at the door, pulling Gu Yanqiu’s gaze back.

It was the Gu family’s housekeeper, who had been working at their home for several years.

"Coming."

When Gu Yanqiu opened the door, she saw her heading upstairs. She was probably going to call Gu Feiquan. Gu Yanqiu glanced up the stairwell and, hearing Gu Feiquan’s voice from above, stepped downstairs.

Gu Huai and He Songjun were already seated at the dining table. Because of what Gu Huai had said earlier, Gu Yanqiu felt a fresh sense of estrangement from him and sat farther away than before. Seeing this, Gu Huai sighed inwardly. Gu Feiquan and his mother were the same; by chance, the two of them had ended up sitting much closer together.

But there was no eye contact between them. The housekeeper brought out several plates of lobster and placed them before each of the four. Gu Huai said, "Everyone eat."

He Songjun, wearing gloves, picked up a lobster, broke off the claws, and placed them neatly in a clean bowl and plate. With nimble fingers, she peeled out a whole piece of meat, dipped it in vinegar, lifted her hand halfway, then stopped and set it on the plate in front of Gu Huai.

When Gu Huai ate, the laugh lines beside his mouth deepened.

He Songjun peeled another one for her son. Gu Feiquan lowered his head, the corner of his eye drifting carelessly toward Gu Yanqiu. She was absentmindedly trying to crack open a lobster shell with her chopsticks; the shell was tightly wrapped, and after a long while she still couldn’t get a complete piece out.

Used to be Gu Huai who peeled them for her. Looking at the scene before her, she found it hard to swallow anything.

Then, suddenly, a piece of plump white lobster meat appeared on the plate in front of her.

Gu Yanqiu looked up. Gu Huai was wearing a pair of disposable gloves, and he smiled at her gently. "Eat."

Gu Feiquan tightened his grip on his chopsticks and forced himself to focus on nothing beyond the few feet of space directly in front of him.

"Feiquan, you eat too."

Gu Huai treated him with the same fairness and peeled one for him as well.

He had not forgotten He Songjun either.

From the outside, it seemed like a harmonious family of four. Only the people inside knew how bizarre the scene truly was. Gu Yanqiu put down her chopsticks and stood up. "I’m full. Enjoy your meal."

She nodded to the three of them and turned to go upstairs.

The piece of lobster meat remained untouched.

He Songjun put on a show of concern. "What’s wrong with Yanqiu? How can she skip dinner? Aunt Zhang, please hurry and send some dishes to Yanqiu’s room."

Aunt Zhang looked at Gu Huai and did not move.

He Songjun was so angry she nearly ground her teeth. In this house, she only looked like the mistress in charge; in reality, the servants, including the housekeeper who cooked for them, had never once treated her like the true mistress of the house!

Gu Huai shook his head. "Let her be. Put this plate of lobster away; if she comes downstairs later, heat it up for her then."

"Okay."

With that, Aunt Zhang removed the lobster from Gu Yanqiu’s place setting.

"Feiquan."

"Dad." Gu Feiquan looked up.

"Is work going smoothly for you lately?"

"Yes. Two projects are almost done, and there are new ones being discussed now," Gu Feiquan said, his whole demeanor changing when he spoke about work. He seemed about to continue, but Gu Huai’s expression made it clear he was not looking for a long conversation.

Reading the room, Gu Feiquan asked, "Do you need something from me, Dad?"

Gu Huai asked, "Would you be willing to go to the head office?"

Gu Feiquan frowned slowly. "That..." He had only just gotten this branch office role onto the right track and was ready to make a real name for himself; why was he suddenly being transferred to the head office?

He Songjun and Gu Feiquan were too far apart to do anything under the table, so she could only make frantic eye signals at him where Gu Huai couldn’t see: agree, agree.

A trace of doubt flashed through Gu Feiquan’s mind, but he still replied, "I’d like to finish the two projects that are almost done. I handled them personally, and the clients only recognize me. Handing off the other work will also take some time."

"How long do you need?"

"At least a month."

"All right."

The father and son’s exchange was simple and unfamiliar. He Songjun’s eyelids were nearly twitching from all the blinking, yet Gu Feiquan did not spare her a glance.

After dinner, He Songjun went to Gu Feiquan’s room and, frothing with anger, berated him from head to toe.

"Has pig fat clogged your brain? Or are you already an old fool despite being so young? Your father told you to go to the head office and you still want to drag it out for a whole month. What if he changes his mind? What if you make him unhappy with this attitude?"

She jabbed his forehead with a finger. "You—you’re going to anger me to death one day."

Gu Feiquan dutifully explained to her, his tone flat and unchanging: "Didn’t I say my reason at the table? My projects aren’t finished. The clients for those two projects only recognize me; no one else will do. What do you want me to do, abandon months of hard work just like that and go to the head office? By then the quarterly and annual reports we hand in will be a joke, and the head office will demote me. Would that make you happy?"

Gu Feiquan went on, "Gu Huai is a businessman. No businessman doesn’t care about profit. If I don’t show him my value, will he still make use of me?" There was one thing Gu Feiquan did not say aloud: Did she think Gu Huai was some feudal emperor? That because he favored some woman, he would name that woman’s child as crown prince? Even if that were the case, she herself didn’t count as the favored one.

But he couldn’t say that. If he did, He Songjun would slap him.

"Mom, can you stop jumping on me before you even figure out what happened? I have my reasons for doing things this way. I’m not a child anymore; I know what I’m doing."

Most of what He Songjun heard was enough for her to understand, and she was at a loss for words. But she would never let her son outshine her in temper, so she argued irrationally, "I’m your mother. What’s wrong with me lecturing you a little?!"

...There it was again.

Gu Feiquan apologized to her, coaxed her out of his room, then lay on his bed and thought over Gu Huai’s purpose in transferring him to the head office and what kind of position he would be given.

***

The cat in the garden crouched in the shadow of a tree, letting out soft mews.

Gu Yanqiu looked through the gauze screen at the shadow in the dark when a knock suddenly sounded at the door. She turned toward it and asked, "Who is it?"

"Me." It was Gu Huai.

Gu Yanqiu got up to open the door, then looked down the stairs again. The stray cat from somewhere or other had vanished.

As soon as she opened the door, Gu Yanqiu smelled a familiar fragrance. Gu Huai was holding the plate of giant lobster she had barely touched that evening and lifted his brows with a smile. "Won’t you let me in?"

Gu Yanqiu stepped aside. Gu Huai set the lobster on the table, pulled over a chair, moved it aside, and sat on the floor. Then he said to Gu Yanqiu, "Come here. Dad will peel the lobster for you. You barely ate anything tonight."

Gu Yanqiu hesitated for a moment, then sat down.

She did not like vinegar, nor did she like dipping things in strange sauces. Gu Huai did not wear gloves; he peeled the lobster shell with his bare hands. His technique was practiced, and in just a few strokes he had peeled out a whole one. Gu Yanqiu reached out to take it, but Gu Huai avoided her hand and brought it directly to her mouth.

"What, acting distant with me now? Growing estranged from your father?"

The moment Gu Yanqiu bit down on the lobster, she also bit Gu Huai’s finger. She glared at him with her phoenix eyes.

Gu Huai’s expression turned reflective, and he smiled. "That look is exactly the same as when you were little and I confiscated all your candy."

"You’ve got a new wife and son now. Why are you still coming to me?" No matter how much Gu Yanqiu endured, when she faced Gu Huai she could not help but reveal a resentful side of herself. "Sometimes you make me feel like you haven’t changed at all; other times, you feel so strange to me."

Gu Huai lowered his eyes and, with the finger she had bitten, continued removing the vein from the lobster. "What your eyes see is what it is. The Gu family will always be your home, and I will always be your father."

I’ve never changed toward you or your mother.

"Why did you marry He Songjun, and why did you bring her son into the family?" Gu Yanqiu had lost count of how many times she had asked that question. Every single time, Gu Huai had answered with silence.

"Did my mother know you already had a child before she married you? If she didn’t, why did you lie to her? If she did, why would she agree to marry you?"

"Gu Feiquan said my mother was a homewrecker." When she said the last two ugly words, Gu Yanqiu used up immense effort. After a brief pause, she questioned Gu Huai in a cold voice, "Was she?"

The loose muscles on Gu Huai’s face twitched. He lifted his eyes and, finally, no longer kept silent. His voice was sharp as he denied it: "No!"

"Then what was it?"

After a brief moment of losing composure, Gu Huai collected himself and said, "Finish the lobster first, or you’ll be hungry tonight."

"Will you tell me if I finish it?"

"Yes."

Gu Yanqiu did it herself.

Father and daughter went to the bathroom to wash their hands. The moment Gu Huai stepped out of the bathroom, Gu Yanqiu couldn’t wait to say, "You can tell me now."

"Let me clean up the plates."

Gu Yanqiu followed closely behind him every step of the way, as if afraid he might run off. Gu Huai calmly wiped the chair clean of lobster sauce, then went downstairs to wash the dishes.

At last, he called Gu Yanqiu into the study, and there Gu Yanqiu learned the truth from thirty years ago.

"Thirty-one, maybe thirty-two years ago, I was a senior in college. Near graduation, I met Feiquan’s mother. She was the one who confessed to me; she was a junior at my university. I was young then, with a fire burning in my heart, and I had no real experience with feelings. The moment she confessed, I agreed. At first we really did have a pretty good time. Feiquan’s mother was gentle and obedient; I thought that probably this was how my life would be. I’d marry her, have children, and spend my whole life with her."

Gu Huai told a cliché story; it was both real and absurd.

After graduation, Gu Huai threw himself into the wave of entrepreneurship with a few close friends. He Songjun, as his capable wife, supported him from behind the scenes, and both of them thought that was how it would end. He Songjun only waited for the day after she graduated, when Gu Huai would marry her with great fanfare. But heaven never went according to plan. In the year He Songjun was a senior in college, Gu Huai met Gu Yanqiu’s mother.

"She was very beautiful; beautiful enough to make every man who saw her lose his senses. Back then she was just like you are now, always turning a string of Buddhist prayer beads in her hand, speaking lightly, looking at people lightly, as if she were hiding a very long, very long story that made others want, against their will, to understand her."

Gu Huai fell for someone else. Without complaint or hesitation, he ran to Gu Yanqiu’s mother. What the newly graduated He Songjun received was not "Let’s get married," but "Let’s break up. I’m sorry."

Back then, Gu Huai did not know that He Songjun was already carrying his child.

"At first your mother always kept her distance from me. She didn’t like anyone, treated everyone the same, and especially after she found out I had a girlfriend, she avoided me like the plague. It was me who kept pursuing her shamelessly after breaking up with Feiquan’s mother; only then did she agree to marry me."

"She wasn’t a homewrecker, and Feiquan’s mother wasn’t wrong either. From beginning to end, the one who was wrong was always me."

Gu Huai said, "If you want to blame someone, blame me."

Gu Feiquan had not been wrong. Gu Huai had fallen for someone else and indirectly done the equivalent of abandoning his wife and child. Gu Yanqiu looked at him coldly; this was the father she had revered for so many years.

Gu Yanqiu clenched the fist at her side.

"You’ve really disappointed me, Dad."

Gu Huai closed his eyes in pain and heard the study door shut.

He walked to the window. Not long after, the lights of a car came on in the courtyard; a white Maserati’s engine roared to life and drove out toward the gates of the Gu residence. Gu Huai braced a hand on the windowsill and watched Gu Yanqiu leave all the way.

After a long while, as if only now able to breathe, his chest rose and fell violently several times. Supporting himself, he staggered a few steps and bent over the desk, coughing hard.

Still coughing as if the world were coming apart, he moved toward the desk, finally pulled out several tissues, covered his mouth and nose, and forced the sound down. Once he could control himself a little, he used the phone on the desk to dial a number.

After it rang a few times, someone picked up.

"Old Jiao... cough, cough, cough."

"Why are you coughing so badly? Did you go to the hospital?" Old Jiao—the Gu family’s former driver—asked anxiously.

"I went. Cough, cough. Nothing serious."

"Why are you calling me at this hour? Didn’t we already talk at noon?"

"Yanqiu can’t be kept in the dark anymore." Gu Huai rested a hand on his throat, then on his chest as he tried to steady his breathing. "I’m guessing she’ll go looking for you in a few days. Do you remember what I told you before?"

"I remember, I remember."

"Just say it the way I told you."

"But... you clearly aren’t..."

"Just do as I said. What’s the point of dragging out all those old matters?"

Old Jiao sighed.

"I’m troubling you."

"What trouble? If it hadn’t been for you back then, I’d have starved to death already. How could I have what I have now?"

"If you’re free, come to Yanning. We can have a couple more drinks together."

"All right."

"Go keep your wife and daughter company. It’s summer vacation now, isn’t it? The child’s at home; spend more time with her."

"Hey, what do you mean, me keeping her company? She can’t be bothered to keep me company. Kids these days all have minds of their own, and with their computers and phones, they don’t even look at this old man."

The two chatted a little longer before Gu Huai finally hung up.

He coughed into the tissues for a while, then got up and locked the study door, checking it several times before turning back and bringing over a ladder. He climbed to the top of the bookshelf and took down a few books.

Those volumes were stored in thick boxes like a thread-bound Complete Library in Four Sections edition. Gu Huai blew away the almost nonexistent dust on top, then slowly lifted the lid. Inside were not the Complete Library in Four Sections at all, but one handwritten sutra after another. Gu Huai found a pair of gloves in a drawer and put them on, then carefully opened the topmost book. The writing inside was elegant and refined, unmistakably the hand of a woman.

So the relics left behind by Gu Yanqiu’s mother had not been thrown away after all; he had secretly hidden them all away!

***

Gu Yanqiu pressed the accelerator to the limit. If not for the fact that the road was empty and deserted, with no cameras or traffic monitoring, her license would have been suspended by tomorrow.

After speeding like that for a while, she slowly eased off the gas and pulled over to the side of the road, dropping her forehead onto the steering wheel.

Lin Yuewei had excellent luck; she was signed away directly by one of the mentors. Rumor had it that the mentor had negotiated with the show’s production company for quite some time over this matter, both sides wanting her. This mentor was the famous Best Actress who ran her own studio so successfully that she could practically scoop up international and domestic awards by the armful. She herself was openly lesbian and had a fixed same-sex partner, also in the industry; on the day same-sex marriage was legalized, she registered their marriage certificate with her partner and posted it on Weibo in a high-profile show of affection that caused quite a stir.

Most entertainment companies were based in Yanning, so after Lin Yuewei stayed a few days in S City to handle follow-up matters, she would return to Yanning and become a signed artist of that Best Actress’s studio. Her future was plainly boundless.

Shao Yasi did not have Lin Yuewei’s good luck, but she was not doing badly either. She was signed by another mentor, and the remaining eight each had their own destinations; there was no need to go into them here.

Lin Yuewei had just finished the work the production team gave her—since she was leaving anyway, they might as well squeeze out a little more value, and Lin Yuewei was not the petty type. It was only a few more days, so let them toss her around. Besides, the company behind the show had ambitions to make a real mark in the entertainment industry and had already achieved some preliminary results. In the future, they were bound to run into each other again; better to endure a little pressure than to make enemies.

Having worn high heels for an afternoon and evening, Lin Yuewei’s heels were rubbed sore. When she got back to the hotel and sat down to take her shoes off, she saw that the skin had already broken and tiny threads of blood were seeping out. Lin Yuewei was not picky, and she couldn’t afford to be picky in a hotel either; she slipped on her sandals and went into the bathroom, turned on warm water, and hissed through her teeth while rinsing. After drying her feet with tissues, she called the front desk for a bandage.

She sat with her legs apart, looked at her heels, and then her gaze drifted to the index finger of her left hand. The small cut there had already scabbed over and would soon fall off without leaving a trace.

Then she suddenly thought of Gu Yanqiu, crouched before her that day, holding her hand and carefully applying medicine to it as if facing a great enemy. Facing a great enemy was an embellishment she had added herself; it made her happier to think of it that way.

And also... her lips, lightly pressed together; full, glossy.

Lin Yuewei swallowed and looked around before closing her eyes.

No one was here; it would be fine if she imagined a little. No one would know.

"Namo hārdātnā dānyehē namoshāliyépólú jié dì shuōpóluóyé..."

The solemn, compassionate chanting of the Great Compassion Mantra suddenly rang out in the room. Lin Yuewei jolted her eyes open and blurted, "Buddha, I was wrong."

Buddha did not appear; her phone was ringing.

Lin Yuewei listened for a couple of seconds, not even reacting at first. Only when the phone kept vibrating did she grab it from the bedside where she had carelessly tossed it on entering the room and look at the caller ID.

Oh; this was the ringtone she had set for Gu Yanqiu, and she had almost forgotten.

Why was Gu Yanqiu calling her? Hadn’t they just spoken this morning? Could she have somehow sensed her "filthy" thoughts? That seemed a little much, didn’t it?

Even so, when Lin Yuewei answered, she felt a bit guilty. "Miss Gu, what’s the matter with calling me so late?"

"Nothing." Gu Yanqiu realized that in the midst of her absentmindedness she had actually dialed Lin Yuewei.

"Then... did you dial the wrong number again?"

"No."

"Oh."

It was probably Lin Yuewei’s imagination, but Gu Yanqiu’s voice sounded a little hoarse, as if she were suppressing some emotion.

"What are you doing?" Gu Yanqiu threw out the first line of conversation.

She leaned back in her chair, rolled the car window down, and looked out into the distance. From where she was, the road stretched all the way to S City, where Lin Yuewei was.

I’m thinking about some weird stuff.

Of course Lin Yuewei couldn’t say that honestly, so she said with great righteousness, "I’m doing acting training." Imagination was also a kind of acting training; if you couldn’t imagine, you couldn’t immerse yourself. Perfectly reasonable.

"Miss Lin is very hardworking. You’ll surely accomplish great things in the future."

Lin Yuewei said speechlessly, "The way you’re talking to me right now sounds exactly like what all those people older than my dad say when my parents drag me out to pay New Year’s greetings during the Spring Festival."

"Is that so?" Gu Yanqiu said. "Then what does praise from someone your own age sound like?"

Before Lin Yuewei could answer, Gu Yanqiu said with a smile, "You’re very beautiful; you’re very cute; you’re very smart; or maybe you’re very... sexy?" Her voice carried a low undertone, and through her clear timbre it sounded as if she were whispering right next to Lin Yuewei’s ear.

Lin Yuewei’s heart skipped a beat immediately.

Then Gu Yanqiu asked her in her normal tone, "I wonder which one Miss Lin likes?"

"I don’t like any of them!" Lin Yuewei said angrily, resenting her own unpromising heart.

"Then what do you like?"

"If I tell you what I like, will you give it to me?"

"Naturally."

"Including you?"

The moment Lin Yuewei blurted it out, both of them froze.

Gu Yanqiu: "I..."

Lin Yuewei cut her off at once. "I said that wrong. Let me try again—does that include the thing you like most?"

Gu Yanqiu considered it and said, "That depends on what it is."

"For example, the prayer beads on your wrist."

"No."

"See?" In truth, Lin Yuewei was panicking badly. Heaven knew how she had just managed to say those three words; her mind was in complete chaos, and she was chatting purely on instinct now.

"I have something else. I can give you a string; it’s top-grade small-leaf red sandalwood, and the scriptures on it were carved by my own hand. Do you want it?"

Don’t!

A voice in Lin Yuewei’s heart was screaming, but when the words reached her lips, she somehow left out the first "don’t" like some ghost at work. "...Want it."

"I’ll bring it with me when I come to see you the day after tomorrow."

"Th-the day after after after tomorrow?" Lin Yuewei suddenly started stammering.

How could it be so soon?

"Didn’t I already tell you?"

"You... did say it."

"Why is Miss Lin so surprised?"

"No reason. I just saw a cockroach and got scared," Lin Yuewei lied without missing a beat, not even pausing to think.

"Is the cockroach still there?"

Lin Yuewei stared at the spotless floor in front of her and answered with a straight face, "Yes, it’s crawling back and forth in the corner. Are you afraid of cockroaches?"

"I’m all right."

"I’m telling you, southern cockroaches are especially huge; they even have wings and can fly. Have you seen pictures online?"

"...No."

"Then I’ll send them to you. No one should be sending MMS these days anyway, right? What’s your WeChat?"

"..."

Gu Yanqiu was stunned by her barrage of moves.

Lin Yuewei’s heart was pounding like a drum. She thought that if Gu Yanqiu didn’t pick up on that sentence, she’d pretend she had never said it. One second passed, two seconds passed, three seconds, five, ten; the only answer she got was silence.

Sure enough, Gu Yanqiu was still the same as when they had first agreed on the contract; she didn’t want too much to do with her. She couldn’t even get a WeChat ID. Since they had made a promise, then it should be kept; what was the point of her shamelessly pressing on like this?

Gu Yanqiu said, "I sent you a text."

Lin Yuewei replied absentmindedly, "You sent me what text?"

"My WeChat ID. Add me; remember to fill in the verification message."

"Okay." Having achieved her goal, Lin Yuewei immediately began to play hard to get. She picked at the bedsheet with her hand, as if that would ease her sudden nervousness. "Did you call me tonight for something?"

They had chatted for so long, and not a single proper thing had been said.

"Nothing much; I just wanted to ask whether you’d arrived in S City and whether you were getting used to it."

"..." Lin Yuewei, who had already been in S City for more than ten hours, said, "Isn’t your reaction time a little too long?"

"It’s okay, I guess."

"Hey, Gu Yanqiu, do you think I’m an idiot? Someone really easy to fool?"

Gu Yanqiu laughed softly. She also thought that excuse sounded rather far-fetched; she simply missed Lin Yuewei, that was all.

"I’m giving you three seconds. Hurry up and confess."

"..."

"Three, two, one."

"Family stuff. I was in a bad mood and casually tapped one name in recent calls."

Lin Yuewei understood and did not ask further. Since Gu Yanqiu was unhappy, she decided to cheer her up and tease her. "Then you just casually tapped me; does that mean the two of us are especially fated?"

"Mm." Gu Yanqiu responded. She had scrolled through the list one by one and confirmed it several times before dialing; fate was firmly in her grasp, and no one could take it away.

If Lin Yuewei said this to Jiang Congbi or any of her other close friends, she’d either get a crisp "get lost," or they’d cling to her with coy, sparkling eyes and say, "Aww, if we’re this fated, should we do something even more fated? Come on, give me a kiss," just to disgust her.

But Gu Yanqiu was different. She answered so seriously; she was always so serious, serious about her own matters, serious about keeping her promises, serious about living.

Without realizing it, Lin Yuewei suddenly withdrew her casual probing. A serious person deserved to be treated seriously.

"Why did you suddenly go quiet?" Gu Yanqiu had not heard Lin Yuewei’s voice for a long while and asked.

"Nothing, I almost fell asleep just now," Lin Yuewei said, though her eyes were still wide open.

"Are you sleepy?"

"A little."

"Then go to bed early. Is there anything else you want to bring? I can take it over with me."

"No, thanks."

"Good night."

"Good night."

Gu Yanqiu put away her phone, restarted the car, and let the night wind blow across her face; most of the gloom in her heart vanished.

Lin Yuewei tossed her phone back to the pillow and lay down with her body tilted backward, both hands tucked behind her head, staring at the ceiling and thinking about nothing in particular. After a while, she sprang up all at once, grabbed her pajamas, and rushed into the bathroom.

Before bed, she stared at the WeChat ID Gu Yanqiu had sent her in the text message for a full ten minutes. She searched it over and over in "Add Friends," entered the verification code, and each time, just before sending, she backed down.

The screen remained on the add-friend page. She turned on airplane mode, flipped the phone over, pulled the blanket over herself, and closed her eyes to sleep.

No one knew how long passed before a hand reached out from beneath the blanket in the darkness, emerged and withdrew, and dragged the phone back under the covers. It turned off airplane mode, switched on wireless, sent the friend verification, turned airplane mode back on, locked the screen, and returned the phone to the bedside table; the whole sequence was as smooth as running water.

Lin Yuewei threw off the blanket. It was midsummer, and she had still worked herself into a full head of sweat in an air-conditioned room. She picked up the phone and repeated the same actions, checking to see whether the friend request had been accepted. It had not.

Familiarity bred speed; Lin Yuewei sent it again.

Then she put the phone back.

Tossing and turning; the blanket offered no sleep.

She repeated this until five in the morning. After a brief sleep, Lin Yuewei woke with a start, her first instinct being to check her phone; it still hadn’t gone through. She was squinting and planning to go back to sleep when, before her eyes, the phone popped up a chat window.

[System message: Xi Gu has accepted your friend request; you can now chat]

Lin Yuewei woke instantly. She looked at the time and typed rapidly: [Two Wood: You got up this early?]

She waited a minute before Gu Yanqiu replied: [I woke up suddenly. There’s still an hour until I get up. Are you still asleep? Or did you just wake up?]

Lin Yuewei had slept on and off all night, and the room light had been on the whole time. Her head hurt, and the brightness hurt her eyes too, so she typed: [I just woke up. I’m going back to sleep]

[Okay]

This time, Lin Yuewei really fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.

Gu Yanqiu gathered her long hair and loosely tied it back with a hair tie. She sat on the sofa for an hour, then changed into a short-sleeved shirt and shorts and went out for a run.

On Tuesday, after letting Ran Qingqing know the day before, Gu Yanqiu went to the Lin family’s home in the morning.

Ran Qingqing welcomed her warmly, told her to sit down, cut fruit, asked after her health, and insisted she stay for lunch. Gu Yanqiu said three times that she was taking the high-speed rail at noon and really could not delay, and only then did Ran Qingqing give up.

When Gu Yanqiu stood up for the third time, Ran Qingqing pressed her back down. "No rush; sit a little longer first."

Gu Yanqiu’s train wasn’t urgent, but she was urgent about picking up something for Lin Yuewei. Looking at the second floor that was close at hand yet seemed impossibly far away, she said helplessly to Ran Qingqing, "Lin Yuewei asked me to bring her something; it’s in her room. Please just let me go up."

"Oh, oh, you should have said so earlier."

Gu Yanqiu: "..."

You could have let me say it, though.

Ran Qingqing got up and said, "I’ll take you. Her room is messy; you won’t know where she put it."

Actually, Lin Yuewei had already told Gu Yanqiu exactly where it was, but since Ran Qingqing had said that, she could only follow her.

Ran Qingqing found the rabbit in a storage box. "Is this it?"

Gu Yanqiu checked and said yes.

Ran Qingqing smiled. "Yuewei has always had a mind of her own, very mature. The only thing she’s kept all this time is her love for rabbits; that still makes her look like a child."

"Doesn’t she also look like a child when she’s arguing with you?" Gu Yanqiu curved her eyes.

"She does, she does." The more Ran Qingqing looked at Gu Yanqiu, the more she liked her. "If our Yuewei really can make it all the way with you, that would be a tremendous blessing."

"Auntie..." Gu Yanqiu looked at her.

"You’re embarrassed? Hahaha."

Gu Yanqiu’s ears warmed slightly; she went downstairs ahead of Ran Qingqing so she wouldn’t say anything else to tease her.

After picking up the rabbit, Gu Yanqiu saw there wasn’t much time left, so she took her leave of Ran Qingqing. "Aunt Ran, I really have to go now or I’ll miss my train."

Ran Qingqing said, "Wait."

Gu Yanqiu: "???"

Ran Qingqing pulled over a pink suitcase that had been sitting in the corner the whole time and pushed it in front of Gu Yanqiu. "These are some clothes and food I packed for Yuewei. Please take them to her for me."

Gu Yanqiu: "..."

Gu Yanqiu wanted to refuse on Lin Yuewei’s behalf. As a fellow child, she understood her mother’s feelings very well; a mother worries when her child travels a thousand miles. But after all, her identity was awkward, and she wasn’t the real son-in-law of the Lin family, so it was hard to turn it down. In the end, she could only carry the suitcase onto the car as well.

Five hours later, Gu Yanqiu appeared at S City’s high-speed rail station with a suitcase in each hand.

The phone in her pocket suddenly rang. Gu Yanqiu answered in surprise, "Miss Lin?"

Lin Yuewei said, "Turn around."