MTB - Chapter 1
Chapter 1: She Chose Freedom
Yun Yang would have had a free and happy first semester of her junior year. That's what she'd always believed—if she hadn't met that woman named Tang Yuelou.
It was during the summer break after her sophomore year. Many students stayed on campus at Z University for the summer, some taking classes with foreign instructors, some doing internships, and others, like Yun Yang, who simply didn't want to go home. It was in the middle of that summer that Yun Yang met a woman in a bar.
Beicheng's Changshan District was often called "University City," home to a cluster of institutions of higher learning and research bases. The area was very safe. Many of the schools along University Road in the city center didn't have curfews, and at eleven o'clock at night, a time that should have been dead silent, many students' nightlife was just beginning.
That night, Yun Yang had gone out to celebrate a friend's birthday. Afterward, a few of them moved on to a bar. Having had just enough to drink to be tipsy, she was at the bar complaining to the familiar bartender about a clingy ex. After a Negroni, she inadvertently met the eyes of a woman in a booth diagonally across from her.
The woman's white silk shirt was unbuttoned to the second button, gentle and elegant. But perhaps because her features were so exquisite, this unstudied languor became a unique kind of flamboyance under the dazzling lights. Yun Yang wasn't sure if it was a drunken illusion, but she felt the woman was looking at her.
She didn't seem to enjoy this kind of setting. She showed little interest while playing dice and was made to drink many penalty shots. When her friends threw their arms around each other and went to the dance floor, she pushed her hair back and leaned against the sofa, revealing one side of her snow-white collarbone.
After their eyes met for the third time, Yun Yang picked up her glass and sat down beside the woman.
This was how Yun Yang and Tang Yuelou first met. Everything that followed was a matter of course, including falling in love and breaking up—a matter of course in Yun Yang's eyes, at least.
"Yangyang, are you single now?" Guan Yan asked, surprised. "What about... the last one, that woman? Weren't you two together for a month?"
"Twenty-eight days."
"That's not important. Didn't you say she was great?"
"She was too much. We just broke up the day before yesterday." Yun Yang put down her bag, straightened the pleats of her skirt, and complained, counting on her fingers, "No staying up late, no drinking, no smoking... Who could stand that?"
Guan Yan burst out laughing. "Maybe older people just like to take care of others?"
"This goes way beyond taking care of someone! Not even my family is this controlling."
She wasn't telling the whole story... In fact, that wasn't the most crucial issue. The biggest problem, Yun Yang thought to herself, was that she'd suddenly realized one day that she didn't seem to mind this kind of control, which went beyond the proper boundaries for a "casual partner."
Tang Yuelou was nine years older than her. Yun Yang had once thought that if anyone could fulfill all her fantasies about an "older lover," it would have to be Tang Yuelou. With Tang Yuelou, Yun Yang never had to worry about a single thing, from what to eat for every meal to where to go on a weekend date. Plus, she was beautiful and sophisticated, perceptive and fun. She would indulge Yun Yang's whims when she was in a bad mood and could even offer guidance on a tedious social practice paper.
The two of them maintained this vague, unlabeled but substantial relationship for a month. Under such circumstances, it seemed perfectly reasonable to develop a sense of dependency, the feeling of "I could spend the rest of my life with her."
However, no one could understand what this feeling meant to a scumbag who played the field and had no intention of settling down. One day, Tang Yuelou was out, and Yun Yang discovered she had run out of her toner and lotion. While texting Tang Yuelou to ask her to buy another bottle on her way back, she rummaged through her own bag for a sample to use in the meantime. That's when she unintentionally found an unopened pack of mint cigarettes.
She froze for a full five minutes, realizing she couldn't even remember the last time she had pulled an all-nighter at a club. Yun Yang quickly scrolled through her endless chat history with Tang Yuelou and felt she was showing signs of sinking into this for good—and alarm bells went off in her head.
Between a girlfriend she could depend on and her freedom, she chose freedom without a moment's hesitation.
"Right, what did she do again, that woman?"
"She's an artist. She also opened a shop that sells porcelain. What was it called..." Yun Yang thought for a moment. "Dianqing, I think?"
"...You've got to be kidding me. You were with her for a month and you don't even know that? Were you even trying? Don't tell me you've forgotten her name too?"
"There was no need to try. I never planned on being with her anyway." Yun Yang raised a hand to play with her nails. For some reason, she suddenly remembered the collar of Tang Yuelou's snow-white shirt from the day they first met. She paused, then added nonchalantly, "It's not like we'll ever see each other again. Whatever."
At least, that's what she truly thought right now—even though she had simply tossed out a "Let's break up," immediately blocked all of Tang Yuelou's contact information, and hastily packed her things to leave without a word.
Such a hasty breakup was, of course, very irresponsible. Guilt... maybe a little. But when it came to "breaking up," Yun Yang was an old hand.
If she felt guilty about every ex, her life would be exhausting.
"That's so you." Hearing this scoundrel's logic, Guan Yan couldn't help but give her a thumbs-up.
With five minutes left before class, the lecture hall was nearly full. This was a famous elective at Z University called Appreciation of Traditional Chinese Art. It was a course taught in rotation by several professors from the Chinese Department; six professors would each teach two sessions. There was no homework, no attendance, and the grading was generous. It was only offered in the fall semester and was always packed every year. Yun Yang had gotten into this class with the help of some ambiguous love interest who had been pursuing her. When Guan Yan heard about it, she was shocked and teased Yun Yang not to let people register for classes for her so casually. What if some spurned admirer, bitter from unrequited love, decided to deliberately sabotage her GPA?
Yun Yang, however, was completely unconcerned. "Aren't all classes the same? Even the toughest grader wouldn't deliberately give someone a low score, right?"
At the time, Guan Yan had been expressionless, remarking that only someone with a 4.0 GPA could say something like that. Yun Yang accepted this readily, confessing that for her, a 4.0 GPA was part of a scumbag's self-cultivation.
"Wait, I've never heard of the professor for the first class. A new teacher," Guan Yan squinted at the PPT projected on the screen. "Tang, Tang Yue-what... Tang Yuelou?"
A jolt went through Yun Yang.
This person's closet was full of shirts, and she always managed to wear the most common styles with a charm all her own. When she walked up to the lectern wearing the same silk shirt and dark skirt from their first meeting, Yun Yang felt like she'd been struck by lightning.
Guan Yan's reaction was similar to the students around them. She sucked in a sharp breath. "Wow, she's beautiful!"
Only Yun Yang stared rigidly back at the woman, her mind, apart from shock, completely blank.
"Hello, everyone." Her teacher, her ex whom she had just unilaterally broken up with, Tang Yuelou, let her smiling gaze rest on Yun Yang's face for only two seconds. "I am Tang Yuelou."
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