Drifting on a String - Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Without any dramatic worries to weigh down the days, the calendar pages turned quickly.
College life with Tao Jin fulfilled nearly all of Chen Piaopiao's fantasies. They would cup each other's faces and kiss in empty dorm rooms and stairwells, go to the bridge over the Tong River to watch the boats cruising Beicheng at night, and on a whim, they'd wear slippers to go eat crayfish. Chen Piaopiao found a place that served a type of filefish a celebrity had eaten, and the two of them took a taxi twenty kilometers just to buy it.
Chen Piaopiao teased, "You should update your twenty-kilometer story in the dorm. Change it to the twenty-kilometer filefish."
"Update it?" What for? Tao Jin was displeased. She pinched Chen Piaopiao's face between her thumb and forefinger. "To tell your next girlfriend?"
Chen Piaopiao took the opportunity to bite the soft flesh between her thumb and index finger. "I'll kill you."
Tao Jin laughed with delight. Chen Piaopiao's tongue flicked against the spot, sending a tingling numbness through her. Tao Jin lifted her wrist, offering her palm. Chen Piaopiao pressed her lips to her lifeline and gave it a kiss.
The two young women's gazes tangled once more.
Their love was secret, yet open.
Like many who were head over heels in love, Chen Piaopiao wasn't very interested in studying anymore. She would go to the library to accompany Tao Jin, read for a little while, then fall asleep using Tao Jin's arm as a pillow. When she woke up, Tao Jin's arm would be completely numb. She'd give it a soft massage, and as she did, she'd nudge Tao Jin's bicep with her chin, unable to resist giving it a couple of nibbles.
"There are people here," Tao Jin said softly, pulling her hand back.
"You're so strange," Chen Piaopiao said, lying on the table and looking at her.
"How so?"
"Other people are afraid of ghosts. You're afraid of people."
Tao Jin smiled, tapping her index finger on Chen Piaopiao's open book. "It was on this page when you got here, and it still is."
"You're strange too." Coming to the library to sleep.
Chen Piaopiao turned her head to the other side and continued playing on her phone while lying on the desk.
Tao Jin really liked seeing her like this. After they had truly opened their hearts to each other, she had relaxed so much. In front of her, she would be lazy, act cute, and occasionally be sharp-tongued or domineering.
Very rarely, she would seem like a bright, sunny girl. The reason for using the word "seem" was because Chen Piaopiao wasn't one.
She was supposed to be.
Tao Jin could tell that Chen Piaopiao actually longed for a group life and liked being admired by the friends around her. But unfortunately, her adolescence, the time when she should have been enjoying friendships the most, was the part of her life most lacking in them.
Tao Jin didn't try to comfort her with words. Instead, she would take her out to eat with her friends from time to time.
In mid-November, the club organized a trip to Fragrant Hills to see the red leaves, followed by a group dinner. Tao Jin had Chen Piaopiao sit next to her, served her food, poured her drinks, and asked in a soft voice, "Is this good?" Then she would casually pick food from her plate.
Even though they hadn't made it public, everyone knew that Tao Jin and Chen Piaopiao had the closest relationship.
She knew Chen Piaopiao loved it.
The little fox liked vanity. Although she liked Tao Jin herself more, she still cared about appearances and enjoyed the vanity of it all.
Tao Jin was happy to indulge her.
The little fox also knew how to love someone. After being satisfied, she would pretend to be drunk at karaoke and cling to Tao Jin, acting cute.
A club member asked Tao Jin, "Is she okay?"
Tao Jin smiled and ruffled Chen Piaopiao's hair. "She should be fine."
"Just don't throw up on my clothes," she said, turning to Chen Piaopiao.
But in the dim light, Chen Piaopiao kissed her neck again, giving it a little bite.
She wasn't drunk at all.
Two people from the Musical Theater Club in a relationship were natural-born actors.
Tao Jin was once again helping the student council with dorm inspections. As usual, she leaned lazily to one side, glancing around to see if the room was tidy. The upperclassmen from the student council headed for the balcony, and Tao Jin followed. As she passed Chen Piaopiao's desk, she nudged her back with her knee.
"What?" Chen Piaopiao turned around, her hand resting on the mouse.
"Pull back the curtain and let me see. Did you make your bed?" Tao Jin looked up.
"I did."
"Then open it."
"I won't."
Their back-and-forth was very quiet. Only An Ran heard it, and only An Ran was shocked. She sucked in a sharp breath, instinctively about to smooth things over, but then she saw Tao Jin nudge Chen Piaopiao's waist with her knee again. "Rehearsal tonight. Coming?"
"No time."
...This is insane. An Ran's eyes were wide enough to swallow an egg.
She ducked her head and sent a message to Chen Piaopiao, clearing her throat with a series of coughs. She reached up to rub her eye socket and heard the phone on Chen Piaopiao's desk vibrate, but Chen Piaopiao didn't react. She remained turned to the side, hand on the back of her chair, looking at Tao Jin.
"Someone's looking for you," Tao Jin reminded her softly.
"Oh." Chen Piaopiao glanced at her phone.
"Who is it?" There were several messages.
"An Ran, probably?" Chen Piaopiao asked unhurriedly. "Ranran, is that you? I saw you've been sending a lot of messages."
...
An Ran clutched her phone and shook her head dumbly. "It wasn't me."
"Oh, then it's probably someone pursuing me," Chen Piaopiao mused to herself.
Tao Jin leaned over her and squeezed her cheeks. "I'll kill you."
She finished in a whisper and headed toward the balcony.
Chen Piaopiao turned back around, suppressing a smile, and unlocked her phone to reply to An Ran: "What's up, Ranran?"
An Ran's face was as red as a boiled crab. Even a fool could see something was up. "What's going on with you and Tao Jin?" Weren't you two getting along fine? Why are you bickering like this?
"Oh, she keeps telling me to go to rehearsal, and I don't want to go."
But Chen Piaopiao went anyway. It was a rehearsal an upperclassman told her to attend, so she couldn't refuse—even if the rehearsal method involved lying on the bed and feeling the rhythm of her fingers.
Compared to rehearsing, she was much more enthusiastic about playing mahjong with the girls from Room 1105.
Unfortunately, Xiao Ma and the others didn't feel the same way.
Because there weren't enough chairs and Tao Jin didn't want to stand the whole time, Chen Piaopiao sat on Tao Jin's lap. Tao Jin had her arms around her, occasionally glancing at the mahjong tiles. As she watched, she unconsciously rested her forehead against the nape of Chen Piaopiao's neck, her lips brushing lightly against her back.
"Tao Jin, get out." Xiao Ma threw down a Two Bamboo tile, glaring at her with a look that screamed "the decline of public morals."
"What's wrong?" Tao Jin lifted her head.
"Kiss, kiss, kiss, what's with all the kissing? We're playing mahjong here," Xiao Ma said, her eyebrows shooting up.
"I wasn't," Tao Jin said, pressing her lips together. "I was just leaning on her."
"What do you mean, you weren't? You've kissed her face until it's red." Xiao Ma flared her nostrils at Chen Piaopiao.
Tao Jin let out a "pfft" of laughter, curiously leaning to the side to get a look. She asked softly, "Is it?"
Chen Piaopiao covered Tao Jin's face with the back of her hand.
"Three Characters," she said, playing a tile with her other hand.
"Mahjong," Lao Hai said, pushing up her glasses.
Xiao Ma couldn't take it anymore. She pushed her tiles forward. "I'm not playing. This is so annoying."
She didn't even want to go out with these two anymore.
The trip to Nanli came both quickly and slowly. Chen Piaopiao was very excited. She called her grandma a day in advance to tell her she was going on a trip with Tao Jin. Her grandma asked over the video call, "Is it far?"
"Not far, Grandma. We're driving. It'll only take four hours."
Chen Piaopiao dried the dishes, propping her phone up on the kitchen counter so her grandma could see what she was doing.
"Four hours? Who's driving?" Her grandma's voice was very loud, as if she was afraid Chen Piaopiao couldn't hear her.
"Tao Jin is driving. She knows how," Chen Piaopiao said, lowering her head to wash a rag, a smile playing on her lips.
The scene made her feel dazed, as if she and Tao Jin had been living together for a long time. Tao Jin would cook, she would wash the dishes, and they would video call her grandma to talk about her life and about Tao Jin.
"That's still very tiring," her grandma said with concern. "You two be careful, okay?"
"We know, Grandma. Don't worry." Tao Jin walked over, bent down to look at the camera, and greeted her grandma.
Off-camera, her hand naturally wrapped around Chen Piaopiao.
When Tao Jin smiled, it was like the arrival of a spring breeze. The more her grandma looked at her, the more she liked her. Her face bloomed like a flower, wrinkles crinkling together. "Jinjin, my, your hair has gotten longer."
"It has," Tao Jin said, tilting her head. "Grandma, do I look better with longer hair or shorter hair?"
Her grandma studied her carefully. "Longer is better. You can wear it in braids later."
"Then I'll grow it out. Piaopiao said short hair looks better."
"Piaopiao doesn't know anything. She has no style," her grandma said with a dismissive look. "Every time she picks out 'old lady clothes' for me, they're so drab."
Tao Jin couldn't stop laughing. She shot an amused glance at Chen Piaopiao. Chen Piaopiao was speechless, silently washing the dishes.
After hanging up, Chen Piaopiao let out a cold snort. Tao Jin was surprised. What's wrong?
Chen Piaopiao shoved a washed apple into her hand and muttered as she passed, "Annoying."
Tao Jin followed her out. "My name is Tao Jin."
Hmm?
"Not 'Tao-nnoying'." She leaned against the doorframe and took a bite of the apple.
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