Chapter 40

They had been apart for so long, and the rift from their last parting had already taken root. The distance between them had never been repaired, so when they met again, the atmosphere was even colder than expected.

Lin Baixin did not reach out. She merely glanced at Song Chu, half-shielding Yu Min behind her, and replied at an unhurried pace, “Miss Song.”

There were still plenty of acquaintances around, so that one greeting was enough to avoid publicly embarrassing the other party; at the same time, it carried none of the familiarity friends should have, making her seem a little cold-blooded.

Song Chu did not mind. Perhaps she had long anticipated this scene, because she did not show the slightest irritation; the smile on her face did not change at all. Instead, she turned to Yu Min, whom she was meeting for the first time, and tried to be friendly. “This little sister looks kind of familiar. Have we met somewhere before?”

Whether she was remembering Yu Min from outside the office last time, or simply making polite conversation, it was hard to tell.

Yu Min stood on Lin Baixin’s side. She lifted her eyelids and looked at Song Chu; without Lin Baixin’s cue, she did not answer, and remained unusually composed.

Song Chu would not let the atmosphere die there. She handled herself with ease and took the initiative to say first, “Hello, my surname is Song, Song Chu. I’m Lin Baixin’s friend. I don’t know whether she’s mentioned me to you. This is our first time meeting, and before this I never got the chance to visit Senior Lin. I only just got back, so I’ve been a little busy. Another day, I’ll treat you both to a meal, and we can all get together properly.”

Just then, the host who had organized the gathering came over to smooth things over. Seeing that all of them had arrived, they greeted everyone one by one.

“Why are you all standing at the door? Hurry up and come sit down. You’re the last ones. Come on, over here—Boss Lin, Song Chu, you two… the three of you come this way. Perfect, there are exactly three empty seats here. Sit together.”

The host did not know Yu Min, so after asking around, they learned about her relationship with Lin Baixin. Song Chu listened in as well; when she heard that Yu Min was now being looked after by the older sister, Lin Baixin, her gaze lingered on Yu Min. She looked her over openly a few times, unable to see anything in Yu Min that resembled Lin Baixin as a relative, and a trace of scrutiny flashed in her eyes.

There were no other empty seats. Since they were the last to arrive, they could only squeeze together.

Song Chu had only returned to the country not long ago, and her appearance drew quite a few looks. People came over to exchange pleasantries and show their faces out of old ties. Whatever had happened back then, Song Chu had never wronged anyone else, and nobody would distance themselves from her because of it. Besides, Lin Baixin, the person involved, was right here; everyone tacitly treated this as a sign that the two of them had already made up.

Yu Min sat in the middle of the three seats and was the first to move, getting there before Song Chu.

Song Chu had wanted to sit next to Lin Baixin, but unfortunately she was a step too late and was dragged off by someone else to chat. By the time she turned back, Yu Min was already sitting squarely in the center.

Lin Baixin sat to Yu Min’s left; on her other side was an older sister Yu Min knew. The older sister waved to them and said, “You’re here.”

Yu Min greeted her and still remembered her name. “Sister Lu Ning.”

Lu Ning replied, “Minmin, long time no see.”

With only one seat left, Song Chu had no choice but to make do.

The meal was especially unpleasant. With someone blocking the middle, Song Chu’s original plans fell through. She had initially thought she could at least exchange a few words with Lin Baixin, but reality did not go her way; until the very end, the two sides had not exchanged a single word and had no chance to speak.

In front of everyone, Song Chu remained calm the entire time. Only when Lin Baixin and the others were about to leave did she step forward in time to stop Lin Baixin and say she wanted to talk to her alone.

“Another day,” Lin Baixin refused flatly. “I don’t have time today. I still have things to do.”

Song Chu gave a light laugh. “Two or three minutes is enough. I won’t take up much of your time.”

Lin Baixin was indifferent and gave her no opening to keep pushing. Song Chu was unfazed; she simply blocked her path and, quite good at adapting on the fly, said, “Then how about this? I can drive you, or ride back with you if it’s on the way. We can talk in the car, okay?”

“I’m taking Aunt Hong home. I can’t take you,” Lin Baixin said.

Song Chu found another angle and went to discuss it with Aunt Hong. She asked her own designated driver to send Aunt Hong home first, then naturally rode with them.

Whether Lin Baixin agreed or not, Song Chu was very good at finding herself a way forward once there was one.

Aunt Hong accepted Song Chu’s favor, saw her to the roadside, and also came over to chat with Lin Baixin for a while. With Aunt Hong there, Lin Baixin could not do anything about it and could only let Song Chu get in the car, so that no one would be embarrassed on the spot.

This time Yu Min had not been on guard. She was seated in the far inside of the back row; in front of her was the designated driver, and the front passenger seat was empty. Yet Song Chu insisted on squeezing into the back, and got her wish to sit beside Lin Baixin.

When Song Chu got in, Yu Min could not help tensing up. She resisted the other woman; in the next instant, however, she met Lin Baixin’s face, and seeing that Lin Baixin did not stop Song Chu, Yu Min stiffened, half-rising before sitting back down again.

Lin Baixin took the middle seat, while Song Chu sat by the car door.

Along the way, the atmosphere in the car was even stranger than at the dinner table; the air felt like it was about to freeze solid. Lin Baixin turned into a mute, while Song Chu acted as if nothing were wrong, talking to herself in a broken stream. She said that this time, after returning to the country, she had settled in Kyoto and would not be leaving again. She said that over this past year and more, her life overseas had been pretty good. Away from her parents and the control of her family, life outside had been freer than she had originally expected.

Then, as if deliberately opening old wounds, Song Chu also talked about what she had done in the past. Revisiting old mistakes, she still sounded relaxed. Suddenly, she said, “Actually, I’ve always wanted to talk to you about this, but I never got the chance.”

Yu Min stared out the window and tried as hard as she could not to listen to all this nonsense. Outside, the streets were bright with lights; neon signs glittered and flashed. Her face was almost pressed against the cold glass, and her breath fogged it with a thin layer of moisture.

She could ignore everything else and pretend not to hear it, but when Song Chu said this, Yu Min still could not help herself. Even though she did not move from her original posture, she unconsciously pricked up her ears to listen.

“At the time, I was immature and too impulsive. Back then, how should I put it… maybe I just wasn’t good at handling things. You know, that period was when something happened in my family, and it also happened to be graduation season. I was a mess every day, and in a daze I ended up confusing my feelings for you… You were very good to me, and I depended on you. At that time I wanted so badly to hold onto you, and that eventually led me to mistake that for feelings.” Song Chu spoke very sincerely, in an entirely serious tone, and looked at Lin Baixin. “I’m very sorry for the mistakes I made in the past. Trying to make up for them now is useless. This time I came to you just to make things clear; I won’t let you have this kind of trouble again. We’re still friends, what do you think?”

Lin Baixin leaned back in the seat, about to close her eyes and rest, when this barrage of words hit with too much force to be brushed off.

She had thought Song Chu would keep pestering her this time too, but instead the other woman had gone the opposite direction. She did not play by the usual rules; instead, she had actually changed her usual behavior and apologized to her.

Song Chu finished in one breath. She looked serious, as though she were not lying.

“I have a partner now. Next time I invite you all to dinner, I’ll bring him along so you can meet him,” Song Chu said. Worried that Lin Baixin might not believe her, she added, “He’s someone I met in the United States; I guess he counts as a coworker. He’s very nice. He helped me a lot, and he also made me realize… what real feelings actually are. I was the one who got it wrong before.”

There was a long silence in the car. Lin Baixin did not reply at all, and Yu Min, sitting beside her, heard every single word. Song Chu had phrased things tactfully, but Yu Min understood all of it. Her lashes trembled; the lights from the street reflected in her eyes. Because she was facing away from the two of them, no one could see the expression on her face at that moment.

Clinging to the window, Yu Min’s breathing slowed. Song Chu’s words did not relax her; instead, her heart suddenly tightened.

That might have been retreating in order to advance; even someone as clueless about love as Yu Min knew that much. It was just a line.

The road was not long, and the drive took less than half an hour, but Yu Min felt as if half a century had passed. When Song Chu got out of the car, Yu Min sat in the corner like a transparent person and did not say a word from beginning to end.

Song Chu was quite friendly. After getting out, she even said goodbye to her. Yu Min’s hands felt as if they were filled with lead, and her mouth seemed to have stuck shut. She looked at the other woman without knowing how to respond; this time, she was not polite at all.

This kind of situation was irritating. Lin Baixin had a headache; she did not know how to take the bait, and she also did not know how to defuse it. She had no experience with any of this.

Not noticing anything off about Yu Min, Lin Baixin was thinking about other matters. When she got home, she still had other things to do, so she went into the study and stayed there alone for a while.

Lin Qi had not attended that dinner party. She had another engagement, but the next day she heard about it from somewhere else and came rushing over for gossip. Lin Baixin refused to reveal anything, so Lin Qi went to Yu Min instead and asked in a low voice, “Did your sister blow up when she got home last night? There wasn’t a fight, right?”

Yu Min shook her head. “No.”

“Looking at her, she probably didn’t either. Ah, I heard that in the end Song Chu went back with you in the same car; tell me, what happened afterward?”

“Nothing happened.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Mm.”

Lin Qi was the clingy sort, a chatterbox with too much free time and a love of poking into other people’s business. Yu Min told her the truth, but Lin Qi firmly believed that she was brushing her off. There was no way Song Chu would give up; just from the way Song Chu had confessed back then, not a single word she said could be trusted. That was not the kind of thing that could be done on impulse.

Recently, Yu Min had kept hearing about Song Chu this and Song Chu that; somehow, from her original confusion, she was now starting to feel annoyed. She did not like hearing the people around her keep bringing that person up. She was bottling up an indescribable frustration, but she could not openly lose her temper; that would make things look very wrong. So she could only tell Lin Qi, “Don’t ask anymore. That’s Sister Baixin’s business. It has nothing to do with us.”

Lin Qi said, “Oh, I’m just caring a little, helping your sister share the burden.”

“She doesn’t need it.” Yu Min answered stiffly. After hesitating for a moment, she could not control her usually steady temper and snapped at Lin Qi in frustration, “You’re all so annoying. I hate it.”

Lin Qi had been scolded for no reason and noticed something was off. Her reaction seemed overly intense; she did not understand what Lin Baixin’s private business had to do with Yu Min getting angry. Tilting her head, Lin Qi stared at Yu Min from left to right, looking straight at her, as if trying to read something from her face.

“What are you doing, Minmin? Why are you so worked up?”

Yu Min retorted, “I’m not worked up.”

“You are. Look, now you’re at it again, getting worked up all over again,” Lin Qi said. “What, are you anxious on your sister’s behalf?”

Yu Min could not outtalk Lin Qi. She pressed her lips together and avoided the other woman. Perhaps because part of her thoughts had been exposed, she no longer had the confidence to keep arguing, so she turned and walked away, ignoring Lin Qi.

Lin Qi was left baffled. She did not think she was stirring things up at all. Then she ran into Lin Baixin and shoved the blame onto Lin Baixin, asking shamelessly, “So, did you do something to upset Minmin?”

Lin Baixin was puzzled. “What?”

Lin Qi said, “How would I know? Anyway, she’s mad at you. Go soothe her, quickly.”