TBTTSP - Chapter 37
Chapter 37: Shang Yi Has a Story (15)
Shang Yi followed the sound and found Li Zhaodi hunched over the glass coffee table, curled up tightly like a shrimp ball, reading a book and crying.
What kind of Qiong Yao novel did she read to end up crying like this? Shang Yi wondered.
She was still in Zhang Xu's body. A glance at her watch showed it was noon. She had woken up slumped over in a small pavilion at the hotel entrance. It seemed Xu Wanqing had likely spent the morning outside, watching the endless stream of traffic.
The moment Li Zhaodi saw her, she immediately stopped crying. She stood up silently, but her face still wore an expression that screamed, "Wow, you're actually back."
"I didn't know. I really didn't know that woman wasn't Shang Yi. I just said... I've been reading a lot of books lately..."
Huh?
Shang Yi stood there, arms crossed and utterly bewildered. Unable to muster an appropriate emotional response in front of Li Zhaodi, she opted for a preemptive cough.
As Li Zhaodi spoke, her voice became choked as if a ball of cotton were stuck in her throat, muffling her words until they were unintelligible. She began to cry loudly, startling the front desk staff into coming over to check on her. Shang Yi sent them away and dragged her back to the room.
Shang Yi didn't say a word on the way. Zhaodi would later say that her expression at that moment was so murderous she looked like someone leading a cow to the slaughterhouse. And so, Li Zhaodi had also remained silent, head bowed and submissive, putting on the air of someone easy to bully as she was pulled into the room.
On the way, Shang Yi's brain finally caught up. "That woman" probably referred to Xu Min. Hadn't Xu Min just stormed back to Pingdu yesterday, planning to dig up some dirt on her?
Xu Min had actually impersonated her to deceive a child.
But how could Li Zhaodi know about Xu Min? And why the apologetic expression? Had someone blamed her?
Could it have been Xu Wanqing this morning? No, if Xu Wanqing recognized Xu Min, she wouldn't have been foolish enough to open the door for her that last time.
It couldn't have been Zhang Xu, could it?
Zhang Xu had said she saw Xu Min the day before yesterday, and yesterday Ugly Boy had said Xu Min was with Zhang Xu.
"Yesterday, I..." She deliberately trailed off, waiting for Li Zhaodi to continue. The little girl wasn't cunning, but she wasn't brave either. She immediately turned and ran off, her braids bouncing like a deer's tail, the very picture of a lively young child.
A moment later, Li Zhaodi returned with her schoolbag. She unzipped it and pulled out a large stack of octavo-sized notebooks. The paper was crisp, thin, and translucent—its main virtue being its low price. They were the standard homework notebooks from their primary school.
She sat on the sofa while Zhaodi stood before her. Zhaodi opened a notebook and showed it to her. Neatly written inside was:
Transportation: 5 yuan
Meals: 19 yuan
...
At the bottom was Li Zhaodi's signature, complete with a proper-looking thumbprint and the date.
"What's this for?" Shang Yi was baffled. While it was commendable for a child to keep such detailed accounts, wasn't it a bit unreasonable under the circumstances? Was she trying to collect a debt? One that Zhang Xu owed?
"I've written down all my expenses for the time I've been here. I'll definitely pay it all back."
"...Who's been bullying you?" Shang Yi heard the unspoken meaning in her words.
Children are often more sensitive than adults imagine. Their minds are delicate and soft, and living under someone else's roof makes them easily wounded.
It was like a sensitive child staying at a relative's house. If they sensed the relatives genuinely liked them, they would act a little less like a stranger; acting too distant might even hurt the relatives' feelings. But if the relatives were merely putting on a false front, the child would sense that too and be careful with every step, afraid of making a mistake and being a nuisance. They wouldn't dare touch the other children's toys or ask for a second bowl of rice.
Zhaodi was like that child staying over at a relative's, and something had clearly upset her.
And Li Zhaodi was also very proud. Sensitive and proud children always have a hard life, striving to do everything perfectly so that no one will dislike them or give them a cold shoulder.
"No one," Li Zhaodi said, shrinking her neck and putting her hands behind her back. She was clearly lying.
"Okay, I'm sorry..."
Shang Yi was certain that Zhang Xu must have had some sort of misunderstanding with Li Zhaodi. Imitating a young girl, she shook Zhaodi's arm and said in a sweet voice, "It was all a misunderstanding. I was just too worried at the time..."
"Is everything okay?" Zhaodi's eyes were red, and her voice had grown a little hoarse. "The uncle in the suit said I might have leaked a commercial secret... and that's why you were angry with me... I really didn't know..."
"Well now, commercial secrets! Who's been scaring you like that!"
A voice suddenly piped up from behind. Shang Yi stood up straight and slowly turned around. Xu Min was striding over brazenly, reaching out to stroke her face.
...? Is Xu Min nuts?
Shang Yi was about to open her mouth and curse, but she suddenly remembered she was in Zhang Xu's body and forced herself to swallow the profanity.
Zhang Xu wasn't angry when Xu Min flirted with her like this? Judging from the recording Ugly Boy sent yesterday, Zhang Xu is sharp-tongued and says the most shocking things. So why would she just let Xu Min touch her face? What kind of witty comeback should I fire back at Xu Min now?
Li Zhaodi might be easy to fool, but Xu Min wasn't always so gullible. What was she supposed to say?
It was then she realized that the timid, cowardly Zhang Xu she was used to might have another side to her.
"I'm leaving. Here."
Xu Min pulled a cell phone from her bag and handed it over. "My number's in it."
"I don't want it," Shang Yi replied instinctively.
Xu Min wants to stay in touch with Zhang Xu? No way. I have to nip this in the bud.
"Tsk, you're too good for it? Fine, fine. I'll mail it to you tomorrow."
"You're leaving?"
"If I don't leave now, I'll just be waiting for Shang Yi to crucify me. She's a real master at winning people over. A lowly Bronze like me can't go head-to-head with a King!"
Shang Yi remained skeptical, but she still managed a slight smile. "Alright then. You should go."
"After all we've been through, we've even been to the police station together. Aren't you being a little too cold?"
"..." Shang Yi didn't know how to respond, so she just gave her a huge eye-roll.
Xu Min stared at her for three seconds, then suddenly burst out laughing like a lunatic. "Alright then, I'm really leaving. Stick with me from now on. I'll cover everything—food, drink, women, gambling. You'll definitely discover I'm way better than Shang Yi."
"In your dreams."
"Tsk. You've already kneeled, you've already kowtowed. What will you have left to beg her with next time? Bye-bye, kid. You'll definitely live to see the day Shang Yi's empire comes crashing down. I'll buy you a beer when it happens."
Shang Yi was stunned into silence by those keywords, watching as Xu Min walked out of the hotel like a madwoman.
She had heard it, and of course, Li Zhaodi had heard it too. The girl burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I really didn't know."
"It's fine."
She wasn't the one who had kowtowed, so saying "it's fine" still left her with a guilty conscience.
She started typing a question in the shared cloud notebook she used with Zhang Xu. Something like: Why the hell did you kneel to her? You're embarrassing me. Or maybe: I'm not worth it. Don't debase yourself like that.
She wrote and deleted, then wrote and deleted again. In the end, she didn't know what tone to take with Zhang Xu. She reread all the previous diary entries—the ones with clumsy prose that seemed perfunctory but were actually written with great detail and care. She copied them and sent the file to Ugly Boy, telling him to save and print it so she could look at it again when she was back in her own body.
In the end, she sent a message to Ugly Boy:
Tomorrow, Xu Wanqing and I are coming to see Zhang Xu. It's time she got to know me a little.
P.S. I've sent you the password to Zhang Xu's notebook. Remember to forward her daily diary entries to Xu Wanqing.
In the relationship between the three of them, Shang Yi knew the most. Her cloud notebook with Zhang Xu was a secret from Xu Wanqing, and her communications with Xu Wanqing were a secret from Zhang Xu.
Now, she wondered if it was time to be more honest.
For instance, to deal with her tangled, messy relationship with Xu Wanqing, she had to take Zhang Xu into account. She needed to re-evaluate this whole soul transmigration business and draw some clear boundaries.
In the beginning, her only plan was to keep the situation under control: take the orphaned Zhang Xu under her wing and pull Xu Wanqing close to live with her, making everything easier to manipulate. But gradually, strange emotions had begun to surface—a need to bestow her overflowing sympathy, a desire to vent her lonely love.
Now, she had to consider letting the other party in this relationship make their own choice.
Li Zhaodi was currently recording the cost of the cup of black tea from earlier, muttering to herself. The tear tracks on her face hadn't dried, and her expression was still full of self-blame and sorrow.
She walked over slowly, gently took the tattered accounting notebook from her, and flipped through a few pages. Pointing to a line, she said, "You don't owe me anything, of course. But if you insist on paying me back in ten years, then fine. You can pay it back over fifty years. And get rid of this line item for interest. Go ahead and calculate how much you'd owe in ten years at five percent interest. Just paying back the principal is enough. And actually, I've been keeping a notebook of my own..."
Shang Yi pulled out a notepad and quickly wrote: Today, Zhaodi helped me save a seat. Owe her ten yuan.
Today, Zhaodi helped me deal with the annoying Xu Min. Owe one hundred yuan.
Li Zhaodi's lips trembled as she fought to hold back her tears, her expression as if she'd just bitten down on an iron plate. She stared at her with wide eyes. "This doesn't count."
"Do you know there are people online who run errands for you? They charge a hundred yuan just to save a seat at a bar," Shang Yi said, patting her head. "When you're rich, I'll come live at your house and eat all your food. You won't be able to chase me away even if you try. If we're keeping such meticulous track of things now, doesn't that make us seem too much like strangers?"
"But you're not Zhang Xu," Li Zhaodi said, her lips trembling as she fought back tears.
"How am I not?" Shang Yi frowned.
"I know you have dissociative identity disorder. I don't know where this personality came from... You're very nice, and you speak so reasonably... but you're not Zhang Xu. Zhang Xu is a blockhead; she could never say such gentle things."
Being mistaken for a split personality was actually a good thing. She had even instructed Zhang Xu to stick firmly to that story.
"But isn't it all Zhang Xu?"
"I've read books about it. No. Maybe your name is Xiao Hong, and there's another personality named Xiao Li. Whatever your names are, the original personality is the only one named Zhang Xu... You probably appeared because she was so traumatized when her parents died. But it can definitely be cured. When you're gone, none of the things you said will count."
A child's mind was indeed far more complex than adults imagined.
"The thing is... my godmother likes you. I just hang around the village every day. Have you ever seen her pay any attention to me? No, right? She only started spending money after I became good friends with you. She... her family was the same way... they favored boys over girls. So, she really wants to help you, because she also regrets having had a difficult childhood... Do you know what I mean?"
Shang Yi reined in the emotion in her voice, trying to distance herself from the narrative as much as possible.
"Really?"
"You've actually helped me a lot. Without you, I'd never get into Pingdu No. 2 Middle School. You're such a good student; I'm just riding your coattails!"
At the mention of academics, Li Zhaodi's tears gave way to a smile. It was clear she was very proud of her studies.
Shang Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Looking out the window, she happened to see an advertisement for an after-school tutoring center.
"...My godmother says you're very smart and that you should develop your talents. She can't stand to see girls lack ambition. So, a while ago, she told me she wants you to sign up for that... youth programming class and... Taekwondo lessons. To arm your mind and arm your body. What do you think? I haven't given her an answer yet."
"Isn't that expensive?"
"Well, she's paying for it anyway. She's not short on cash, so it'd be a waste not to spend it. I think it's a great idea. You should go!"
Through a mix of coaxing and white lies, Shang Yi, on a whim, scheduled a full slate of extracurricular activities for Li Zhaodi. She also arranged for the real Shang Yi to come and visit her the next day, meaning the classes would have to start tomorrow.
This gave her a legitimate reason to send Zhaodi away. It was a bit of a personality-splitting maneuver, but it would ensure no other trouble would arise.
She needed to come and see Zhang Xu and discuss things that Li Zhaodi couldn't overhear.
With that settled, she fell into a peaceful sleep. Zhaodi, however, was too excited to sleep. A little after ten, she came over hugging her pillow and asked if they could sleep together.
"Ah, sure..." She just hoped Zhang Xu wouldn't kick the girl out of bed when she woke up, even if Li Zhaodi had called her a blockhead.
She shifted to the side, and Zhaodi squeezed under the covers. "You're like a big sister."
"You have a sister?"
"I'm talking about the feeling! Don't you understand what a feeling is? How can you be as dense as Zhang Xu?"
"There's nothing wrong with being dense," Shang Yi said, defending Zhang Xu. "And I'm not dense."
Zhaodi curled up closer to her and whispered, "Is Zhang Xu's godmother your godmother, too? Does your godmother know you have split personalities?"
Kids really would ask anything.
"She doesn't know. Shh, this is our secret. I'm afraid she won't like me anymore if she finds out."
Zhaodi quickly shut her mouth, taking the words back.
"So, are you not taking any after-school classes?"
"I have to catch up on my own schoolwork!"
"I can teach you, but what if your personality learns it, and the original Zhang Xu personality can't?"
"Let her worry about it herself."
Drowsy, Shang Yi fielded the energetic child's questions until her mouth was dry.
She woke again at four-thirty in the morning to Ugly Boy calling her for breakfast.
She stumbled out of the bedroom to find Xu Wanqing already seated across from her.
"You're not tired?" she asked casually. Xu Wanqing replied softly, "It's summer. The sky lightens too early. The sun has risen."
"Oh." She collapsed at the table and began to peel an egg.
"If you are too busy, I can lend this item to you."
Xu Wanqing extended her fingers, and a tiny black hard shell dropped onto the tabletop.
"What is this thing?"
"I have recalled it carefully. In recent days, I should no longer have needed to soul-travel to Zhang Xu's body. The reason I no longer have to leave my body is entirely due to this item, which I obtained by a twist of fate. If you are too busy, I will lend it to you. Perhaps it can anchor your soul. Look at how sleepy you are..."
"So you're saying when you suddenly fainted before, it was because you had removed this thing?"
"I was testing whether the item truly had such a miraculous effect." Xu Wanqing pushed it toward her. Shang Yi studied it. The object was no bigger than a pumpkin seed but was quite heavy. It had been polished by the years to a fine patina and felt cool to the touch.
Xu Wanqing had already produced an Immortality Pill; Shang Yi wasn't at all surprised that she was now producing this.
"Oh. So you're saying that you and your... soul from five hundred years ago... are in sync?"
"I think not. But perhaps there was some connection. Now, however, only the present me remains."
Wait a minute. That meant Xu Wanqing hadn't soul-traveled into Zhang Xu at all yesterday morning!
She shot to her feet. "Ugly Boy, what time are we going to Pingdu today? Have you told Zhang Xu?"
"I have. We'll meet with him at eight-thirty, then head to the airport at nine-thirty. We have enough time."
Shang Yi breathed a sigh of relief. Xu Wanqing rested her chin on her hand and watched her for a moment. "May I accompany you?"
"To see Xu Ancheng? Sure. I'll let you see what kind of patron I serve."
"Younger Sister Shang..." Xu Wanqing's tone was one of both reproach and resignation. Ugly Boy glanced around, then checked his watch. "I'll call you when it's time. Old Girl has already gone ahead to clear the venue. Sis, there's one more thing. Um, the day after tomorrow is the... fourteenth anniversary of when you met him."
"The anniversary of when we met? Is there an anniversary for the first time we slept together?"
"Yes. The thirteenth of next month is the thirteenth anniversary of the first time you slept together."
It was hard to tell if Ugly Boy was being brutally honest or deliberately provocative, recounting Shang Yi's romantic history with a man right in front of Xu Wanqing.
Shang Yi had clearly asked the question while glancing at Xu Wanqing to gauge her reaction. But Xu Wanqing remained impassive, showing none.
"I don't have to soul-travel the day after tomorrow, which is good. Pick out a gift for me from somewhere, and book a table for two. Don't tell him, got it?"
She really did take Xu Wanqing with her to meet the Big Boss. Their meeting was just a chat about recent business; when they talked shop, there was nothing personal to discuss. Xu Wanqing and Ugly Boy sat to one side, Xu Ancheng's assistant sat to the other, and the bodyguards waited outside.
"Minmin's run off again. That girl. She doesn't even offer to share your burden, just leaves you to tire yourself out all alone."
After they had discussed business, the old man showed no sign of leaving and began to chat about personal matters.
"Young people are ambitious. She wants to see the world before she comes back. She'll understand your good intentions sooner or later."
"Hmph. Still young? She's turning thirty this year!"
"Time really does fly. In the blink of an eye, even Minmin is thirty," Shang Yi said, affecting the air of a seasoned elder.
"Sigh, and I'm already eighty..." the man lamented, rubbing his face with both hands as if exhausted. "It's a good thing I met you. You don't mind that I'm old."
"Who says so? Hey, there's an old man being improper over here!" she said, putting on a coquettish smile to banter with him. She deliberately leaned to the side, showing Xu Wanqing just how she "entertained her clients."
After seeing her like this, she'll definitely stop liking me. She was acting so cheap, her flirtatious glances and seductive posture making her every movement, down to her fingertips, seem designed to ensnare a man's soul. Her voice was as bewitching as a deadly fox spirit's.
"They say that in marriages between old men and young women, the woman is always after money. But you're the only one who refuses to marry me. I've already got one foot in the grave. When I die, half my assets will go to my wife. Countless women would kill for that opportunity, yet you're the only one who doesn't covet such things."
The old man said emotionally, hugging Shang Yi tightly and burying his head in her chest. "If I just give you money," he whispered, "you'd probably think I'm vulgar and don't understand a woman's heart. It might even make people mistakenly think you're only with me for my money."
"Hmph. I love money more than anything. Whatever you have in your pockets, hand it over."
Her fingers threaded through the old man's white hair as she stroked his head gently. She lifted her eyes slightly. Across from them, the assistant hid a meaningful smile behind his wine glass. Behind her, Xu Wanqing remained silent.
The old man dazedly pulled out his wallet and gave it all to her. She smiled, opened it, and pulled out a hundred-yuan bill, which she tucked into his collar. She took out the rest of the cash—there wasn't much—and gave it to the waiter as a tip. All that remained in the now-empty wallet was a radiant photo of herself and two bank cards. Shang Yi held it open for him to see, then placed it on the table. "This won't do. You're too poor. I'm leaving you. I'm off to the beauty salon. I'll call you later. Be good."
She stood up, still smiling. The old man clutched her hand, reluctant to let her go. She patted it reassuringly, then picked up her bag and left.
Outside, Ugly Boy opened the car door. She got into the passenger seat, not in the same row as Xu Wanqing.
When they arrived in Pingdu, Zhang Xu sent a message saying Zhaodi hadn't left for her after-school class yet, so Shang Yi and the others waited in a separate room.
Ugly Boy went out to meet up with Old Girl, leaving only Shang Yi and Xu Wanqing in the room.
"You don't love him," Xu Wanqing said in a low voice.
"Who? You mean Xu Ancheng?" Shang Yi chuckled as if she had heard a joke. "After observing for so long, you've finally reached a conclusion?"
"May I ask you for something?"
"What is it?"
"That... portrait... ah, perhaps, the one that goes... click..."
"A photograph?" Shang Yi remembered Xu Ancheng's old-fashioned habit of keeping his lover's picture in his wallet to prove how much he loved her.
"Yes, that's it."
"What's the big deal about that? Didn't you buy a cell phone?" Shang Yi took Xu Wanqing's phone, opened the front-facing camera, and snapped a picture of the two of them.
Xu Wanqing's eyes widened as she stared at it for a long moment, stroking the phone with an expression of pure wonder. She quietly zoomed in and out on the photo several times. Then, her finger accidentally swiped back to the camera interface, and with a click, she took a blurry picture of the curtains.
"Oh!" She grew flustered. While she had used an iPad before, it was only to open e-books that Ugly Boy had found for her, or to have him search for topics of interest, archive the webpages, and load them onto her e-reader. She had never actually taken a proper picture.
Shang Yi silently watched Xu Wanqing's frantic attempts for a moment before taking the phone and swiping back to their photo together. Only then did Xu Wanqing let out a sigh of relief.
"This object is truly marvelous."
"What's so marvelous about it..." Shang Yi showed her how to take a picture with the phone. Once Xu Wanqing nodded and said she had learned, Shang Yi handed the phone back to her.
Sure enough, Xu Wanqing aimed the phone at her, holding it with trembling hands. Shang Yi sat up straight and struck a suitable pose, lest she be turned into a reaction meme.
She sat there for a long time, but Xu Wanqing still hadn't taken the picture. Finally, Shang Yi couldn't help but laugh. "Xu Wanqing, is there actually something you don't know how to do? Well, that's a rare sight."
The moment she broke into a smile, Xu Wanqing pressed the shutter.
"There!" Xu Wanqing declared proudly, clutching the phone to her chest. Shang Yi propped her feet up and studied Xu Wanqing's blissful expression, which made her look like she was high on drugs. A sense of melancholy washed over her.
"Let me see?"
"Now I have one, too. You smiled very nicely."
"..." So she was waiting for me to smile just like in that other photograph.
It was surprisingly well-taken. She was smiling slightly, her legs pressed together primly, looking straight at the lens as if she were very happy.
Xu Wanqing leaned over to look at the photo with her, glancing at Shang Yi's expression from time to time.
With a flick of her finger, she deleted both that photo and the previous one of them together.
Xu Wanqing swiped left and right but couldn't find the pictures anywhere. Her eyes widened, and she stomped her foot in frustration. "What... what am I to do?"
"Don't take pictures of me."
She forced the words out, her expression as cold and hard as a stone in a latrine pit.
She tucked her hands under her thighs and pressed down hard, keeping them from getting restless and doing something they shouldn't.
"I was not taking a picture of you, I was merely borrowing this object to capture your likeness..."
Shang Yi finally lowered her head. "Xu Wanqing, how can I say this... I'm another man's woman right now. I can't convince myself to do otherwise."
"Why are you bringing this up?" Xu Wanqing seemed to be playing dumb, clearly not wanting to argue about the topic.
"Because I really like you right now," Shang Yi admitted, conceding defeat. "But I've also told you, I really, really love money. I'll do anything for it. I'm another man's woman. I can't cheat on him, no matter how much I like someone else."
"Then what about that Manager Sun, oh, and his assistant, Mr. Wang from Shenzhen, Boss Fu from Shanghai..." Ugly Boy appeared at just the right moment, rattling off a list of men Shang Yi had fooled around with behind the Big Boss's back.
"Go to hell— Right? You see? I'm just that kind of awful woman. But I'm being serious now. I don't want to just play around. I don't want to be some ungrateful vulture waiting for Xu Ancheng to kick the bucket so I can enjoy his fortune. And I especially don't want to trick you into bed only to dump you a few days later. So I'm dying from this contradiction. You... you just don't—"
"But I have not done anything."
"You just have to stand there and I want to drag you to bed. Even if you were wearing a padded winter coat from the Northeast and a pair of rotten bathhouse slippers, the mere sight of you would make me go into heat on the spot. My heart pounds like some young kid who's never been in love."
Ugly Boy immediately excused himself.
Xu Wanqing, having never heard such vulgar language, was momentarily stunned.
"You haven't done anything. It's my own problem. I can't get past my own hang-ups. I'm the one who's a hot-headed, schizophrenic mess who can't let you go but also can't reciprocate your feelings. So you see? I'm just an indecisive, neurotic wreck with a terrible temper. Your only mistake was getting tangled up with me. Why do you like me? What is there to like?"
Shang Yi grabbed the phone and swiped through it furiously. The photo album was mostly empty. She raised the phone, snapped a picture of the dumbstruck Xu Wanqing, handed the phone to her, and pulled open the door to leave.
A moment later, she heard Xu Wanqing ask Ugly Boy in a small voice, "What does it mean to 'go into heat on the spot'?"
"It's... well... Aiya, it's not proper for a grown man like me to explain it to you. It's too embarrassing!" Ugly Boy said, feigning coyness.
"I understand 'go into heat,' and I understand 'on the spot.' I just do not quite understand them when put together."
"It just means my sister... hasn't been with a man in a long time. She's a little... lonely..."
Ugly Boy began spouting nonsense, tarnishing her reputation.
She finally pushed the door open again. Xu Wanqing had a look of sudden enlightenment on her face. When she saw Shang Yi, her eyes curved into crescents.
She kicked Ugly Boy out of the room and leaned against the doorframe. Xu Wanqing took two steps closer.
Shang Yi didn't quite understand what conclusion Xu Wanqing had come to, but being kissed by the ancient woman's soft lips didn't stir much feeling in her. She was trembling, shivering uncontrollably, her body feeling as if it were lost and homeless in a cold, violent storm. All she could do was cling to Xu Wanqing's slender, soft frame and turn her head away. "Zhang Xu sent a message. Zhaodi's gone. We should go see her."
"I am willing to help you..."
She stumbled backward. She couldn't handle this woman from ancient times. Her body went so limp that she could only lean crookedly against the door, as if she might collapse at any moment.
"Don't listen... Ugly Boy was talking nonsense," she protested haltingly. "I'm not in heat!"
"There is no need to be shy, Younger Sister Shang. I, too, have been a wife. I am familiar with such matters..."
"Have you ever been with a woman?" Shang Yi grabbed Xu Wanqing, took a step back, braced herself with her right leg, and pushed Xu Wanqing away. "Xu Yijiu! Even if I am sexually frustrated right now, it's the middle of the day! We modern people don't just... just hop into bed in broad daylight with nothing else to do!"
A clatter sounded from outside the door.
She turned her head. Zhang Xu was standing not far away, picking up a thermos she had dropped. She hunched her shoulders timidly. "S-sorry to interrupt..."
"Come on in." Shang Yi couldn't have been more grateful for the interruption. She immediately let go of Xu Wanqing and grabbed Zhang Xu. "Let me introduce you. This is Xu Wanqing."
"Hello..." Zhang Xu put down the thermos, her hands trembling.
"Sit down, we'll talk." Shang Yi tugged Zhang Xu's sleeve, pulling her to one side. "I owe you one."
"You... you're my godmother. Should I call her god-father? That doesn't seem right. She's only sixteen, President Shang! You..."
"She's over five hundred years old."
Zhang Xu immediately fell silent, her eyes wide as if she had seen a ghost. She sat on the sofa, trembling all over.
"Hello, I am Xu Wanqing."
"Hello... It's... it's nice to meet you. I'm Zhang Xu..."
Zhang Xu took out her ID card and presented it with both hands, shaking like a leaf.
Shang Yi took out some sunflower seeds and started cracking them. Xu Wanqing was looking up at her, her eyes filled with an affection that Shang Yi couldn't bear. She lowered her head and cracked the seeds noisily, clutching the shells in her fist.
Comments
Post a Comment