Offense - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The woman's hands clung tightly to her neck. Lian Wan heard Zhou Yanqian's voice, muffled, coming from her collarbone. "I'm not telling you."

The broken light in the stairwell remained dark. The rustling of insects chirped all around, making the woman's voice seem exceptionally serene. "It's tiring to talk. I don't want to talk."

You don't like talking to people, Lian Wan said.

I don't, she answered without hesitation.

"Are you tired today?" she asked again.

Physical exhaustion was screaming at her, yet Lian Wan still felt invigorated. She knew Zhou Yanqian was changing the subject, but after a moment of silence, she answered honestly, "I'm tired."

The woman hugged her and let out a soft laugh.

"Bye-bye, then," she whispered. "I'm going back to sleep, too."

"Okay." For some reason, Lian Wan felt like laughing too. She felt a sense of relaxed comfort and, with a quiet reluctance, touched the woman's waist again. In a tiny voice, she said, "So... good night?"

"Good night." Zhou Yanqian finally let go, stood up straight, and lifted her eyes to look at her.

Lian Wan stared into her eyes, her feet seemingly rooted to the spot, unable to move a single step.

Zhou Yanqian chuckled. "Why are you looking at me like that? Like a little puppy."

The pitiful-looking little puppy frowned and said, "I'm not a dog."

"Mm. You're not." Zhou Yanqian suppressed a laugh and took a step back. "Alright, alright, I'll stop. There are so many mosquitoes here. You should hurry upstairs."

"I'll watch you go in," Lian Wan said.

Zhou Yanqian said, "Oh." She smiled and waved. "Okay, I'm going in then."

"Mm." Lian Wan followed her with her eyes, watching her enter the second-floor door before she started heading upstairs. The old building's staircase twisted and turned. When she reached the third floor, the motion-sensor light came on again, brightly illuminating the small advertisements plastered on the wall.

The only sound was that of her own footsteps. Lian Wan kept her head down, counting the stairs one by one.

At this moment, she had returned to her familiar rhythm. Tonight had certainly been unique, but strangely, Lian Wan wasn't thinking about anything right now. It was as if the restlessness of the past few days had been temporarily soothed, and she was once again facing the life she knew.

She opened the door to her apartment, and only a room of quiet darkness awaited her. Lian Wan turned on the light, ran some hot water, washed her hair and showered, then stood on the balcony, splashing her face. A turn of her head was all it took to see the peninsula within the iron railings not far away, which was, as always, lit up.

Lian Wan wiped her face, feeling an unprecedented sense of tranquility in her heart.

The lights over there went out. Over here, Lian Wan lay down in bed. The ceiling fan above her creaked as it turned. Everything was quiet and peaceful. Lian Wan rested her head on her long, dry hair, as if she were sleeping on a grassy field in autumn.

She thought of nothing, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

But in the great scheme of things, it seemed tonight was destined to be anything but peaceful.

Lian Wan had another dream.

This time, the dream was not of that first meeting on an afternoon so bright it could melt a person. It was pitch-black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. A step back and she was leaning against the cold concrete stair railing. Only the woman in her arms was warm.

There was no drunken man in the stairwell this time, and the woman was no longer trembling. She just clung to her neck, looking at her like a docile little lamb.

Lian Wan's hands moved, recognizing the woman's presence, recognizing her docility, and her heart began to pound uncontrollably.

She lowered her head to look at her. Their eyes meeting in the darkness was like gazing at each other through a hazy night. The woman's soft body was even more captivating than she had imagined. The Lian Wan in the dream completely lost control of herself. Just as she had in past dreams, she leaned down and once again touched those curves. Her senses reeling, she captured the woman's soft lips and tongue, her breathing growing ragged.

Gradually, the woman in her arms began to tremble along with Lian Wan's breathing. Lian Wan grabbed her, pressed her down, and seized her by the neck, looking down at her as if she were in the driver's seat of her truck looking down at the scenery on the road. The section of neck writhing between her fingertips was so slender, controllable with a single hand, rendering her unable to move. The woman struggled, cried, but could never break free from her grasp.

The person held in her palm was afraid-the Lian Wan in the dream realized this, yet she felt an immense satisfaction.

The Lian Wan in the dream had become the drunk one.

The lost sequence, the swapped roles-it was all so intoxicating.

A wind picked up in the latter half of the night. The clothes-drying rack on the balcony was blown over, crashing to the ground with a clang. Lian Wan woke with a start and quickly switched off the ceiling fan.

The blades came to an abrupt halt.

The dream, still vivid upon waking, replayed in her mind. A belated sense of shame, mortification, and self-loathing washed over her like a tide. Lian Wan rolled over, burying her face in her quilt, experiencing for the first time the feeling of being unable to control her emotions.

She had completely become unlike herself. Lian Wan thought in despair that in just half a month, without her even realizing it, Zhou Yanqian had altered her thoughts, her subconscious, turning her into a complete stranger in her dreams.

The darkness bred emotions, causing the warmth and peace from earlier in the evening to vanish into thin air. Lian Wan didn't know what to do. The fatigue in her body made her feel sleepy again, but she didn't dare to sleep, afraid of having that dream again.

Lian Wan lay with her eyes open, forcing herself to stay awake until dawn.

Drivers didn't have days off. When the sun rose, it was time for work again. Voice messages in the Vehicle Team's group chat came one after another. A little later, and a voice call from Wang Zhiqiang would come blasting through. Lian Wan rubbed her dizzy head, got up to wash, grabbed a few packs of crackers from the cupboard, and left.

Toiling away, another morning on the road.

Lian Wan couldn't make it back for lunch, so she ate out. There were few customers in the small roadside restaurant. A bad night's sleep combined with a morning of concentration meant that once she relaxed, Lian Wan felt a bit of a headache. She ordered a light meal of bitter melon and pork rib soup with rice and sat down at a table, rubbing her head.

On WeChat, Zhou Yanqian sent her a voice message.

Lian Wan glanced around and saw the owner playing on his phone at the counter not far away. Still uneasy, she carefully lowered the volume before holding the phone to her ear to listen.

The woman seemed to have just woken up. Her words were still sticky and mumbled, carrying the lazy air of someone still in bed.

"Mornin'-what are you having for lunch today?"

Lian Wan listened to it several times before typing a reply. Eating out for lunch. Bitter melon and pork rib soup with rice.

Another voice message came through, in a casual tone. "Are you very busy today?"

-Yes. A little.

Lian Wan, who would be able to head back in the afternoon, replied this way.

Okay, Zhou Yanqian said. Then I'll have to go for a walk by myself.

-You're going alone?

The steaming hot food arrived. Lian Wan was starving, but she replied to this message first.

Yeah, Zhou Yanqian said. Just a casual walk... I haven't been back in so long, it feels like the town has changed a lot.

-You used to live here too?

-I lived here when I was little.

Oh. Lian Wan responded unconsciously, picking at her rice. Living here as a child and then moving away with her parents was a fairly common situation in Pingchuan Town.

She remembered the question Zhou Yanqian had avoided last night. So it wasn't that she had just come here and chosen this place; it was that she had come home.

A little bit of happiness suddenly bloomed in Lian Wan's heart. Because of this small connection they shared.

On WeChat, the chat had ended. Lian Wan put her phone aside. The afternoon drive was actually quite relaxed, but she dumped her rice into the soup and ate a quick meal of rice in broth as if she were in a hurry.

As she was leaving after her meal, she heard the owner muttering that drivers who came and went always ate so fast and had bad stomachs.

Lian Wan thought to herself, That's true.

Then she thought, The drivers in the Vehicle Team who work themselves to the bone are all trying to earn more money to support their families, get married, and have kids. In my situation, where if I'm fed, my whole family's fed, what's the point of rushing around day after day and ruining my health?

Unable to explain this rare emotional dip, Lian Wan's mood sank dejectedly.

But she still rushed, arriving at the factory on her order, only to find that the workshop laborers were fighting. None of the large trucks waiting to be loaded had been loaded, and they were all queued up, blocking the entrance.

Under the scorching sun, some drivers closed their windows and turned on the AC, the generators roaring. A driver who couldn't stand the noise started arguing with him. In the end, the whole group of people got into it. The goods weren't loaded, onlookers called the police, and they were taken to the station along with the fighting workers.

Lian Wan had no interest in watching the spectacle. She wanted to hurry back, wanted to wander around with Zhou Yanqian, wanted to know where Zhou Yanqian lived as a child, wanted to hear her talk more about herself.

But Zhou Yanqian never sent her another message on WeChat.

And she was stuck here, listening to the incessant shouting around her.

By the time everything had settled, the truck was loaded, and she had returned and unloaded the goods at the depot, it was already past four in the afternoon. Lian Wan thought to herself that this wasn't too late. With this thought, she left the depot and sent a message to Zhou Yanqian: Are you out?

Then she started walking faster and faster, eventually breaking into a run.

When she finally stood downstairs, panting, what she saw was the locked door of the shop.

The sunlight was intense. Lian Wan squinted.

Her phone chimed with a notification. She opened it to see. It was a reply from Zhou Yanqian.

-I went out a long time ago.

-It was such a coincidence, I ran into an acquaintance, so I'm just walking around town with her.

Lian Wan felt like a balloon that had been filled to bursting, only to be instantly popped.

-Okay.

After typing that word, as if the weather was too hot and she had a bellyful of fire with nowhere to vent it, she viciously kicked a nearby flowerpot.

From that moment on, the feeling of vexation followed her like a shadow.

A few days later, Lian Wan had the same dream again.

Waking up, the shame, the vexation, the fear of this version of herself and of the Zhou Yanqian who had made her this way reached its peak.

In the secrecy of the late night, Lian Wan began to fear all of it-to fear this woman who had sent ripples through her peaceful life. To fear this self of hers, □□ before desire. She resolved to escape.

When you put your mind to it, avoiding someone was so easy.

She didn't reply to messages on WeChat. After a few times, Zhou Yanqian stopped sending them. And whenever she wanted to buy instant noodles or crackers, she would take the long way to another store, just as she had before the Convenience Store opened downstairs. If that didn't work, she'd order them online. She also tried to time her returns home to avoid the Convenience Store's opening hours. After a while, she really hadn't run into her even once.

Half a month passed peacefully. Lian Wan woke up one morning to find two little red dots in her message notifications, which had been silent for days.

-You're avoiding me.

-Why?

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