Drifting on a String - Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Tao Jin didn't finish her sentence, but Gaogao and Chen Piaopiao both understood.
Those two words made it seem like Tao Jin understood, too.
Chen Piaopiao's heart suddenly started to race, as if she were holding a mouthful of the popping candy she loved as a child, setting off tingly fireworks on her lips and tongue.
Gaogao waggled her eyebrows twice and silently mouthed to her: "Should I tell her?"
Chen Piaopiao licked her lower lip, her mouth dry. Then, she tilted her head and gave a harmless smile. "I am."
Understood. Gaogao immediately replied to the message: "Yeah, she's in my lesbian chat group. She is. What's up?"
Having just outed someone so unexpectedly, it was impossible not to feel awkward. She twitched her nose and passed the fries to Chen Piaopiao.
Chen Piaopiao picked up a fry and ate it unhurriedly. Just as she put half of it in her mouth, Gaogao's WeChat chimed.
"Does she know you're telling me this?"
Gaogao gave another awkward tug at the corner of her mouth and looked at Chen Piaopiao.
Chen Piaopiao swallowed the rest of the fry and shook her head.
Understood again. Gaogao continued typing on WeChat: "She doesn't. Are you coming or not? It's in the Xierli alley, Whale."
After sending it, she let out a low "tsk." It was all so strange. She felt like three big words were stamped on her forehead: Tool Person. A proxy for sending telegrams and writing letters home.
This time, Tao Jin's reply wasn't slow, but she didn't answer "are you coming or not." She only said: "Don't tell her."
Well, damn. Gaogao let out an awkward laugh. Those big, 24-karat, perfectly-sighted eyes were staring right at her, and Tao Jin was saying—don't tell her.
Don't let Chen Piaopiao know that Gaogao told Tao Jin.
But Tao Jin had always been a good person. She was probably worried that Gaogao had violated someone's privacy and that the person involved would be upset. Gaogao figured Chen Piaopiao would probably understand, too.
It seemed like she wasn't coming.
Gaogao sighed, ended the conversation, and placed her phone face down on the table. Then she clinked glasses with Chen Piaopiao. "Sorry, little schoolmate. I accidentally outed you."
"But don't worry, Tao Jin is fine with this kind of thing." She shelled and ate two peanuts.
There was a hidden meaning in her words. Chen Piaopiao was curious. "She..."
Gaogao chewed on the peanuts a couple of times and raised an eyebrow, a little smugly. "You see this bar? Whale, as in the animal."
Her meaning... Chen Piaopiao's ears grew hot.
"This is my friend's bar, but I came up with the name. Back then," Gaogao let out a "pfft" of a laugh, "I had a crush on Tao Jin."
A mouthful of alcohol burned in her throat. Chen Piaopiao almost couldn't swallow it, squinting as she tried to process that sentence.
Gaogao laughed freely, seeming to find it all amusing. "Hey, you get it. Lesbians, when we like someone, we have to go through eight hundred mental twists and turns. No one else would have any idea how it's related to her, but really, it's her WeChat profile picture, and isn't 'Whale' (Jīng) a homophone for 'Jin' (Jìn)?"
"When I told my friend back then, she slammed the table in approval. She didn't know Tao Jin, but she said that my completely unrelated train of thought was the perfect representation of a lesbian's winding, eighteen-bend mountain road journey to find love. It was so representative that she used the name."
So that was it. Chen Piaopiao let out the breath she was holding and picked up another fry.
Gaogao's friend... the whale... At first, she had thought, she had thought...
But looking at Gaogao's expression, it seemed she was over it now.
Gaogao caught her gaze, gave a carefree laugh, and shook her head. "I got over her a long time ago. That was even before I broke up with my ex."
A true Aries sister—comes on strong, leaves just as fast, a real whirlwind.
"Sigh, where was I?" Gaogao tilted her head back, thinking for two seconds. "Oh, right. I was telling you, she's not against this stuff. I confessed to her, and her reaction was pretty good. Don't be afraid that she'll look at you differently or anything. She's not like that."
"Mhm." The side of her cheek felt a little itchy. Chen Piaopiao scratched it with her finger and asked in a soft, quiet voice, "So when you confessed, what did she say?"
"Her..."
Gaogao recalled, "I was pretty reckless back then. I cornered her in the hot water room. She saw there were a lot of people and suggested we go to the stairwell to talk."
"But I could tell from her expression that I didn't have a chance, so I started crying while I was talking in the stairwell, hahahahaha." Gaogao laughed. She was young then, just a freshman. "She even comforted me. She said she was happy that I liked her, that it meant she was outstanding in my eyes."
"But she was very sorry that she couldn't return my feelings."
Tao Jin had said this with extreme gentleness and tact, like moonlight slanting through a crack in the window that day. As Gaogao recounted it, she unconsciously lowered her voice.
She fled in disarray, feeling like she'd lost face. Afterward, whenever she saw Tao Jin on campus, she would take a detour. Then one time at the convenience store, Tao Jin greeted her openly, smiling and saying, "What a coincidence."
Later on, Gaogao got a girlfriend. Her girlfriend was on good terms with Tao Jin and often asked her out to eat with them, so they became familiar again.
"But, let me tell you, to this day, Tao Jin never asks me to go shower with her." Only her roommate.
Gaogao burst out laughing.
Chen Piaopiao smiled too, resting her chin on her hand and picturing Tao Jin through Gaogao's words.
"So," Chen Piaopiao chose her words carefully, "you don't know if she's gay either."
Gaogao frowned. "I don't know, but I don't think so."
She seems super straight.
Chen Piaopiao lowered her eyelids. A feeling of disappointment, like a slowly growing vine, tentatively spread through her heart.
"Oh," Gaogao said suddenly, "now that you're out to her, she probably won't go showering with you either."
"Pfft."
Chen Piaopiao couldn't help but chuckle, raising a hand to her nose as she laughed softly.
Her emotions were complex. Despite a hint of defeat, talking about Tao Jin with someone else—exploring her past, guessing her thoughts, predicting her actions—put her in a good mood for no particular reason.
It was a bit like the psychology of a fan. When you discuss your favorite celebrity over and over with a "fellow stan," the celebrity's vividness and cuteness can be magnified dozens of times over.
Because her image had been nourished by affection, that fondness was an eternal filter.
Chen Piaopiao gazed at the whale logo, missing Tao Jin.
The candlelight on the table flickered, casting a shadow on a napkin. Suddenly, it was obscured by another long, slender shadow. Chen Piaopiao smelled alcohol and the scent of Black Opium. A moto bag was tossed onto the sofa next to her, and the first thing she saw was a pair of boots.
Ankle boots, Guidi. There were many knockoffs of this style online, but the pair on her feet had an excellent texture.
Then came black denim shorts, a black T-shirt, and a slightly loose, short black jacket—an all-black outfit, yet worn with a great sense of layering.
Looking further up, Chen Piaopiao froze. The newcomer had the same chin-length bob as Tao Jin, even tucked behind her ear on the same side. But this person's eyes and brows were sharper, and she wore a light smoky-eye makeup.
Her hands were in her pockets, her eyes half-lidded. She bent her knees and tapped the edge of the table. "Back here messing around again? No discounts."
She was speaking to Gaogao.
Her voice was magnetic, with a habitual drawl, as if she'd just woken up.
Gaogao smiled and had her sit down beside them, then introduced her to Chen Piaopiao. "This is that friend I was just telling you about."
"The bar owner, Le Chu."
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