Offense - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

As her thoughts wandered, the sky had unknowingly darkened, and the streetlights along the road lit up one by one. This stretch of road was full of flying sand and gravel, and it was the only route from the town to the county, so it was the most congested time of day. Lian Wan stepped on the brake, watching as an electric scooter barely scraped through the gap between cars and slipped away in an extremely dangerous maneuver.

The light turned red. A chorus of horns blared, yet the night felt quiet. Lian Wan reached out, picked up the bottle of mineral water beside her, twisted it open, and took a sip.

Her mind was calm, but her skin was hot and dry, much like the fiercely noisy road at this very moment. Her head and face were covered in sweat, and the dust from the furniture factory still lingered in the air, slightly acrid.

The day's work wasn't over yet. Lian Wan drove the truck to another factory to unload its cargo, then backed out. After a great deal of effort, she found a parking spot on the street, got out, and walked a short distance to a small roadside restaurant.

The restaurant wasn't large, but it was packed. The lighting was dim, and the floor and tables were covered in dark, greasy grime. The acrid smell of chili peppers hitting a hot wok in the kitchen wafted far outside. When Lian Wan walked in, everyone, whether sitting or standing, couldn't help but look up. She, however, looked at no one, simply tossing the keys in her hand and asking the kitchen in a cold voice, "Any tables left?"

Waves of hot steam billowed from behind the curtain, and a young woman's voice answered, "Yes, would you mind sitting outside?"

She was holding a clay pot. Lian Wan nodded, stepping aside slightly, and grabbed a stool from against the wall to head outside.

Before long, the person from inside followed her out and set up a new table.

"So sorry about this." The owner of the shop was quite young, around thirty, with a well-proportioned figure and nimble movements. She spoke to Lian Wan as she set up the table. "Still haven't eaten at this hour, just got off work?"

Lian Wan steadied the table, nodded, and said, "Yeah." Most of the time, she wore her emotions on her face, which made her seem particularly distant.

"A plate of dry mixed noodles," she said.

Fortunately, the woman was running a business and didn't mind her coldness, replying with the same enthusiasm, "Would you like soup with that?"

"Yes."

"It'll be ready soon." The young woman smiled at her and said in a gentle voice. Her teeth were very white. Under the dim yellow streetlight, her cheeks, steamed by the kitchen's vapor, took on a hazy, tender quality that was, at first glance, a bit dazzling. As if her soul had been captivated, Lian Wan suddenly realized that living, breathing women were all different from one another. Zhou Yanqian was the moon in the sky, but the woman before her was solid and real. She stood before you, radiating warmth—her arms, her chest, her thighs—her curves were each alluring in their own way.

For a fleeting moment, she seemed to see in the woman's face the very same expression and charm as Zhou Yanqian.

Realizing this, Lian Wan looked away, slightly uncomfortable. She forced herself to calm down, sat, and stared blankly at a corner of the table.

Tonight seemed exceptionally hot; there wasn't a hint of a breeze. A yellow dog with its tail held high walked dejectedly along the base of the wall. Lian Wan shifted her stool, and a fresh sheen of sweat immediately broke out on her arms.

The dry mixed noodles arrived, served again by the young owner. After what had just happened, Lian Wan didn't dare look at her now. She didn't know how to explain this change in herself. Towards a strange woman like this, she couldn't tell if her feelings were admiration or an offense, let alone where they came from or who inspired them. Desire was still an exceptionally foreign concept to her.

Unavoidably, she thought of Gu Yan.

I was never like this before. I never used to feel anything, Lian Wan thought. She was exceptionally certain about her past self.

The days of the past had turned her into the Lian Wan of the past. So the Lian Wan of today—did Zhou Yanqian turn her into this?

Lian Wan felt lost. But her stomach, which had been busy all day, was honest. She finished the entire plate of noodles and the large bowl of vegetable soup, leaving nothing behind.

On WeChat, a few drivers she knew were making plans to go out and have some fun. Lian Wan watched their suggestive banter in the group chat. She knew what they were planning to do, and at times like this, she felt disgusted. The sordid images their words conjured up made her feel a sense of revulsion for herself in that fleeting moment earlier.

Even now, she was still unwilling to pluck the moon from the sky and hold it in her palm.

The moon should hang high in the sky, maintaining that posture. If it occasionally leaned down to kiss her cheek, Lian Wan felt that was more than enough.

Even though she and Zhou Yanqian had already done so many intimate things, Lian Wan still thought this way.

This thought was especially strong when they were apart.

Lian Wan walked on, her thoughts in a state of anxious turmoil. Feeling a sense of loss, she walked past two streets before finally returning to the hotel where she was staying for the night.

The elevator was broken, and the wooden stairs creaked with every step.

For a hotel in the county, the bedsheets were clean enough, and the water in the bathroom was sufficiently hot. The kettle had a thick layer of scale, and the air conditioner worked intermittently, emitting a considerable hum.

Lian Wan was drenched in sweat and didn't bother with anything else, heading straight into the bathroom for a shower.

By the time she had finished her shower and was lying clean and dry on the bed, she noticed the sound of footsteps clattering outside her room.

It was a rare moment of rest. Lian Wan had no intention of moving. She just closed her eyes, and waves of drowsiness washed over her.

She was woken by the vibration of her phone.

Lian Wan fumbled for her phone and stared at it for two or three seconds before realizing it was a video call from Zhou Yanqian.

The air conditioner had stopped again at some point, and the room was sweltering. She ran a hand through her semi-dry hair, sat up, and leaned against the headboard, hesitating for several seconds before pressing the answer button.

The video connected. The lighting on Zhou Yanqian's end was also very dim. She seemed to be lying on her stomach, her nose gently pressed against the screen, which softened the contours of her face. Everything below her neck was indistinct, swallowed by the gloom, impossible to see clearly.

For some reason, Lian Wan quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Buoyed by the relaxation that came with that breath, she spoke first. "Hello?"

Because she had been sleeping, her voice was heavy and nasal, her words muffled, almost like she was pouting.

Zhou Yanqian laughed at the sound. Unlike her usual bright demeanor, her smile this time was very faint, the corners of her mouth lifting just a little, like a single, flickering candlelight in the darkness. Her voice, however, was drawn out. "Were you sleeping?"

"Yeah." Lian Wan saw her own face on the screen and self-consciously covered her nose.

"Are you done with work?"

"Almost," Zhou Yanqian replied nonchalantly. She studied Lian Wan intently for a moment, then stretched out her arm, bringing her face closer until it was almost touching the screen. She frowned slightly. "Busy day today?"

Only then did Lian Wan notice that her arms were bare, with only two thin straps on her shoulders.

That slender neck swayed right before her eyes. Lian Wan stared, unable to look away, until Zhou Yanqian asked again in a sweet, coquettish voice. She opened her mouth, but the words that came out were just a single, honest syllable, uttered in a low voice: "Tired."

"Mmm…" Zhou Yanqian's voice was laced with a cloyingly sweet smile. "Oh, you poor thing…"

"Come back and let big sister pat your head," she said teasingly, her voice full of laughter.

She even opened her palm toward Lian Wan, making a little gesture.

The woman's five fingers were slender. On the screen, whether intentionally or not, the blankets were layered, but everything that should be revealed was revealed, subtly and without fanfare. The interplay of light and shadow made the white parts whiter and the dark parts darker, like the negative space in a landscape painting. The woman's posture as she lay on her stomach made everything all the more alluring.

The breath Lian Wan had just released was caught in her chest once more.

And yet, the person on the other end seemed oblivious, still smiling at her with the corners of her lips turned up.

An innocent dodder flower, Lian Wan's mind raced with thoughts. Zhou Yanqian's wrists were so thin; she could circle one with a single hand. She wasn't very strong—Lian Wan had learned this fact before. This scene, this posture… she had dreamed of this before.

But being watched by Zhou Yanqian, Lian Wan felt a sense of guilt, of pity. Her desire was an unburned, blank slate. No one had ever taught her how to handle herself in a moment like this—was this right or wrong? What was permitted, and what was not? As Lian Wan's body and mind wrestled with each other, Zhou Yanqian simply continued to smile at her from the other side. The smile was so thin and light it seemed about to float away, and so all debate was temporarily suspended. Lian Wan felt she had to catch her first.

A twenty-two-year-old's body could be ignited by a single spark. Lian Wan's breathing grew ragged. She restrained it, not wanting anyone to notice. The curves, the rises and falls, the smile, the parted lips and teeth… of all the women in the world—Gu Yan, the restaurant owner from dinner—they were, in fact, nothing more than belated fantasies presented to her by Zhou Yanqian.

—She was the beginning of everything about women in Lian Wan's life.

That night, the hotel's soundproofing was poor. The headboard in the next room banged against the wall. The air conditioner in Lian Wan's room worked, then failed again. Zhou Yanqian fell asleep while still on the call with her, her breathing on the other end as faint as a cat's, yet Lian Wan broke out in a sweat just listening to it.

The moon fell from the sky and plunged headfirst into her dream—a body like white jade, with flesh and bone made of water, meltingly spread open in her palm.

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