MTB - Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Mercury in Retrograde
Tang Yuelou wasn’t angry. She shook her head, her words spoken at a leisurely pace, in a tone that was hard to place—somewhere between helplessness and indulgence. “You don’t have to be so tense. You know that’s not what I mean.”
Tense? Yun Yang was inexplicably annoyed. When had she been tense?
“I don’t mean anything else either, Teacher Tang.” She always put heavy emphasis on the word “Teacher.” “If there’s nothing else, my friend and I will be leaving. I have something urgent to attend to.”
The word “friend” was also heavily emphasized, implying her relationship with Zheng Yufan was anything but simple.
From the very beginning, however, Tang Yuelou had shown no reaction to the occasional intimacy between the two. Hearing this, she simply nodded politely at Zheng Yufan and said, “Alright. I’ll see you next week, then.”
“Ah, what a shame,” Yun Yang said, her mood lifting despite her failed provocation. “Because of a scheduling conflict, I was just about to drop your class. It’s such a pity we won’t be able to see each other again, Teacher Tang.”
She said this, but her face clearly screamed, “It’s great that I won’t have to see you again.” Tang Yuelou smiled regretfully. “Yes, a pity indeed.”
Yun Yang: “?”
She had been ready for eight hundred rounds of open attacks and veiled barbs, and this was it?
Just when she thought her fears of “potential retaliation” were all in her head, Tang Yuelou continued, “We didn’t get to say a proper goodbye this time, either.”
Yun Yang: “…”
“Either?” Zheng Yufan keenly caught the key word, but a complex, unspeakable glare from Yun Yang silenced her. She immediately understood. “It’s nothing. Senior Sister, I’ll hold your spot in line. You two take your time… no, I mean, hurry up and finish talking. The administrative office is about to close.”
“Don’t…”
Before she could get the word “go” out, the person was already gone. All her plans for the evening were ruined, and she figured her progress with Zheng Yufan was probably ruined too. A headache began to throb in Yun Yang’s temples. She frowned. “What exactly are you trying to do?”
“Why did you delete me on WeChat?”
More than one person had told Yun Yang she looked a bit “fierce.” Not in a menacing way, but when she wasn’t smiling, her gaze was somewhat sharp, making people hesitant to approach. Of course, it could also be that all beautiful women possessed such an aura. At first, Yun Yang felt quite innocent about it; she was just slightly nearsighted and sometimes couldn’t see people clearly from a distance without her contacts.
Later, she got used to it and even thought that looking a little fierce wasn’t so bad—it automatically filtered out unwanted suitors.
But no amount of fierceness could stand up to someone half a head taller than her.
As Tang Yuelou approached, Yun Yang took half a step back. She could smell the lingering base notes of a perfume on the other woman, a mix of agarwood and sandalwood that seemed to beckon one closer. It tickled the heart, just like the gaze that fell upon her.
It was strange. This person didn’t have an aggressive appearance, but perhaps because her rhetorical questions always carried a hint of a challenge, she gave off an inexplicable sense of pressure. Yun Yang subconsciously wrinkled her nose and averted her gaze, feeling a little unnatural.
“Am I not allowed to? We have no relationship whatsoever now.”
Hearing “no relationship whatsoever,” Tang Yuelou raised an eyebrow slightly. “So you left a few days ago without saying a word, and now you’re telling me this?”
“Fine, you’re right. That was my fault,” Yun Yang said, taking a deep breath and trying to keep her voice down to avoid attracting attention. “Then I’ll say it formally one more time. Miss Tang Yuelou, let’s break up. Is that clear enough for you?”
They stood in a stalemate for who knows how long. The once-bustling hallway gradually quieted down, with only the occasional sound of laughter drifting by. The smile on Tang Yuelou’s face finally faded. She leaned against the stair railing and said calmly, “I don’t want to fight with you. I just hope you’ll reconsider, Yangyang.”
When they were passionately in love, Yun Yang had adored this nickname. But now, Tang Yuelou’s tone and gaze made her feel like nothing more than a bristling cat in the other’s eyes. With negotiations having failed, she frowned in annoyance. “Are we that close? Who gave you the right to call me…”
“…Senior Sister?” Zheng Yufan peeked her head around the corner. Both of them looked over at once, and she felt extremely awkward. Steeling herself, she said, “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but the administrative office is about to close. Are you still going to drop the class?”
Yun Yang gritted her teeth. “Yes!”
Fuming, she turned to leave, but Tang Yuelou reached out an arm to stop her.
“What do you want now?” Yun Yang’s frustration had reached its peak. She suppressed her anger and asked.
“You left something at my place. Remember to come get it.” In front of an outsider, Tang Yuelou had reverted to her gentle, smiling facade. She clearly had no intention of making a scene in public. She just smiled gracefully, a smile filled with an indecipherable, profound meaning. “Goodbye, Yun Yang.”
The decision to date Tang Yuelou had been far too rash, Yun Yang thought for the thousandth time.
They had been together for a month, and she was only now beginning to understand this person—starting from their breakup. If she had known earlier that Tang Yuelou was a teacher at Z University, she would have never, ever entertained any fantasies.
…Perhaps not never. Yun Yang felt a little conflicted. She admitted that Tang Yuelou was good-looking, but besides that, she had no other redeeming qualities.
It was already midnight, but she lay in bed, unable to fall asleep no matter what. Zhang Jia was writing something again, her keyboard clattering away. Across the room, Shen Mengmeng was on the phone with her boyfriend, laughing about something.
It had been like this since the semester started. A few days ago, it was Zhang Jia and Shen Mengmeng playing games on voice chat with others. Yun Yang had even lost her temper over it yesterday. The four of them in the dorm had never gotten along well. With Guan Yan out staying with her boyfriend tonight, there was no one to vent to. Yun Yang couldn’t take it anymore. She slammed her hand against the bed’s guardrail. “Can you be quiet?!”
The dorm fell silent for two seconds, then Zhang Jia let out a disdainful sneer. “Aren’t you still awake? We’re not even being that loud, are we?”
“If you two weren’t making any noise, I’d be asleep by now.”
“You go to bed way too early. It’s not even twelve yet. My assignment is due after midnight.”
“Ha,” Yun Yang laughed, exasperated. “I already warned you yesterday when you were playing games on voice chat at midnight. You had an assignment given on Monday, but you just had to wait until the last ten minutes to do it. What, you can’t find inspiration unless no one in the dorm is sleeping? Can’t type without smashing the keyboard? Don’t you know you’re not supposed to disturb people’s sleep in the middle of the night?”
“You’re so high-maintenance,” Zhang Jia said with an eye-roll. “If you can’t stand us, then move out. You’re always staying out anyway. Do you really think this dorm is a hotel?”
“Say that again?!”
“Stop fighting, keep it down,” Shen Mengmeng interrupted their argument, explaining to her boyfriend in a soft voice, “It’s my roommates, they’re fighting…”
Zhang Jia kicked her desk leg, making a loud bang. Yun Yang felt her head buzzing with anger. She desperately wanted to get out of bed and have it out with her, but she worried about disturbing the other dorms. She rolled over, turned up the volume on her headphones, and shut her eyes in frustration. She silently told herself she would settle the score tomorrow and forced herself to calm down. Just then, her phone screen lit up with a new message.
It was from the manager of the milk tea shop where she worked part-time.
Ever since her father had remarried the year before last, Yun Yang had barely used any money from her family. She wasn’t earning much at the moment, but it was enough to be self-sufficient. She was in a state where she couldn’t spend lavishly, but she was still reasonably comfortable. However, it wasn’t payday yet. The manager had sent her half a month’s wages, explaining that for various reasons—mainly financial—she had decided not to keep the shop open anymore.
In short, the shop was closing down.
Yun Yang felt she must be in Mercury retrograde lately.
The manager sent a long, essay-like message, a tearful and blood-soaked lament that made Yun Yang feel almost too sympathetic to read. She even ended up comforting the manager. Finally, the manager said she was terribly sorry and that she happened to know of a shop that was hiring, asking if Yun Yang was interested.
Zhang Jia was still clattering away on her keyboard, but Yun Yang was worried about finding a new part-time job immediately. She instantly pushed her ill-mannered roommate to the back of her mind and replied that she was very interested.
Manager: That’s great QAQ
Manager: I’ve already spoken with Teacher Tang. I’ll send you her WeChat contact now, you can talk to her yourself!
Teacher Tang? Yun Yang had a vague, bad premonition… When she saw the familiar WeChat profile that was sent over, her vision nearly went black.
The combination of all these frustrations finally reached a breaking point. Listening to Zhang Jia’s incessant typing, Yun Yang forced herself to stay calm for a moment before getting out of bed with a blank expression.
Amidst Zhang Jia’s shriek, Yun Yang directly unplugged her power strip.
“If you pull this crap in the middle of the night again, I’ll cut the cord.”
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