Ren Xiaoxiao floored it and drove Chen Jinyue straight into the underground parking garage before leaving. Chen Jinyue had told her that dropping her off at the neighborhood entrance would be fine, but Xiaoxiao insisted it wasn't safe to walk alone in the dark and cold, so she drove her right to the elevator.
"I'm heading up then. Drive safe, and text me when you get home," Chen Jinyue reminded her.
"Got it."
Xiaoxiao didn't linger; she looped around and drove off.
Chen Jinyue checked Lin Yunsheng’s parking spot. It was still empty. A glance at her phone showed it was past nine—she wasn't back yet.
By her count, it had been two or three days since they had last seen each other.
*“Shengsheng? She usually heads out around seven or eight,”* her mother’s words drifted back to her.
Seven or eight... seven or eight...
She opened her phone, tapped into the alarm app, and scrolled through the numbers. The linear motor vibrated with precision as she toggled the time. She set it for seven o'clock and hit save.
She went upstairs, unlocked the door with her fingerprint, and stepped inside. It was much smoother this time, unlike before when she had stood there like an idiot ringing the doorbell.
After changing into her slippers, Chen Jinyue saw Chen Fang sitting on the sofa watching a variety show.
"Finished with your cards? You're back quite early."
"Yeah, my back was starting to ache from sitting too long."
Chen Jinyue sat down and leaned against her mother. "Really? Or did you just lose money?"
"Shoo, shoo! It’s cards—winning and losing is perfectly normal," Chen Fang huffed, glaring at her.
She definitely lost. Chen Jinyue couldn't help but smirk.
Chen Fang picked up a bag of melon seeds from the coffee table and reflexively offered them to her daughter, even though she knew Jinyue didn't care for them.
"Ever since New Year's Eve, my luck at the table hasn't been great," she grumbled.
Chen Jinyue shook her head at the seeds. Without hesitation, Chen Fang pulled the bag back toward herself; the offer had been more of a formality than a genuine question.
"You know, back when you and your sister were little, when I played cards—and I'm not exaggerating—I..."
"Yes, yes, you won every single time," Chen Jinyue finished for her.
Chen Fang slapped her own thigh. "Exactly! That’s what I’m saying. If it weren't for the cards, how could that pittance from the construction site have been enough to raise you two? It was heaven’s grace, truly. Don't you think?"
"Yes, heaven’s grace. Then we grew up, and you stopped winning so much," Chen Jinyue teased, poking at the sore spot.
Chen Fang shot her a look. "Pah, pah, pah! Don't you jinx me. I have a game tomorrow."
Chen Jinyue leaned back and laughed. she reached out to brush her mother's hair aside and began to knead her neck and shoulders with her fingers.
Chen Fang tilted her head. "Ah—a little to the left. Yes, right there. It’s always so stiff there."
Jinyue added a bit more pressure to the massage.
She thought to herself that there was no such thing as "heaven's grace."
If heaven had been gracious, her mother wouldn't have had to work so hard at the construction site when she was young. Back then, Lin Yunsheng was barely old enough to walk when she started learning how to look after both her mother and Jinyue. Later, after graduating high school, Lin Yunsheng had gone straight to work to help support the family.
Chen Jinyue didn't feel like her childhood had been unhappy. While they couldn't spend money recklessly, Chen Fang and Lin Yunsheng had never let her suffer. They did their best to give her whatever she wanted, to the point that her classmates always assumed she came from a wealthy family. In contrast, as soon as Jinyue graduated high school, she took the family's money and spent six years abroad. Even though the money was technically a "loan" that she intended to repay, the reality was that Lin Yunsheng, who had only been working for two years at the time, had shouldered that entire burden.
The thought made her feel uneasy again.
*But it’s not entirely my fault. Lin Yunsheng was the one who didn't want me anymore.* She unconsciously curled her lip, and the strength in her hands faltered.
"Are you getting tired?" Chen Fang turned to ask.
"I'm fine."
Chen Fang grabbed the hand that was massaging her shoulder, tucked it into her own left palm, and gave it a firm pat. "Look at your sister, busy as she is every day, she never complains about being tired. And here you are, tired just from playing."
Chen Jinyue didn't argue; she just pouted.
"Alright, alright. Go take a shower and get some rest."
"Okay." Chen Jinyue got up and went to her room. As soon as she entered, she pulled out her phone and found the alarm she had set. *06:30.* She changed the time.
She didn't sleep well that night. She had two lucid dreams, both of which took her back to her childhood with Lin Yunsheng. In a lucid dream, one can control the direction of the narrative. She tried to provoke Lin Yunsheng in the dream, but she still couldn't do it. Lin Yunsheng was always able to diffuse the tension quickly, making Jinyue go soft until she stopped caring about everything else and just wanted a hug.
When the alarm went off, she woke up instantly and hit 'dismiss.' She didn't want Lin Yunsheng to hear the sound and discover her little scheme.
At exactly six-thirty, she found she couldn't go back to sleep. She was unusually alert, her ears straining for any movement in the house—but there was nothing.
*Is she not up yet?* she wondered. About ten minutes passed before she heard a faint sound.
Lin Yunsheng’s room had an ensuite bathroom. Although Chen Jinyue had never been inside, she knew the layout. She lay in bed, blinking, calculating. Theoretically, when Lin Yunsheng opened her bedroom door, she would be fully prepared and ready to head out.
Therefore, the moment she heard the door handle turn, she would immediately follow her out. That way, she would see Lin Yunsheng. Lin Yunsheng would likely leave within a minute or two, so the time it took for Jinyue to pretend to get a glass of water from the kitchen would be a reasonable duration. It wouldn't look too forced.
Perfect. She had it all planned out.
She focused all her attention on the sounds from next door. This apartment was great in every way except for one thing where it fell short of their old house: the soundproofing was too good. Straining to hear was more exhausting than running an eight-hundred-meter dash.
Finally, after forty or fifty minutes, she heard the sound of the door lock turning.
Chen Jinyue immediately threw off the covers, stepped into her slippers, ran to her door, and placed her hand on the handle.
She took a deep breath. *Three, two, one.* She pulled the door open and walked out.
See? It worked. She saw Lin Yunsheng, who happened to be walking toward the kitchen.
But something was wrong. Why was she still in her pajamas?
How could she have dawdled for forty minutes and not even changed her clothes yet?!
Chen Jinyue froze in the hallway. Lin Yunsheng looked at her, equally surprised to see her up so early.
Lin Yunsheng watched her without speaking, her eyes full of confusion.
"Ah... I, I was thirsty, so I came out for a glass of water." Unable to bear the weight of her guilty conscience, Jinyue spoke first.
Lin Yunsheng reached out, twisted open a bottle of mineral water, poured it into a glass, and handed it to her. "Here."
—*No, don't be so efficient!*
Chen Jinyue wailed internally.
"Oh." She had no choice but to take the water. She watched as Lin Yunsheng poured the remaining half-bottle of water into the coffee machine's reservoir.
—*So she came out to make coffee.*
She was a little annoyed with herself. But she didn't know where to go now.
Going back felt like a defeat.
Staying here meant she had to find something to do.
She walked over to the refrigerator and opened the fridge door. Green vegetables, drinks, eggs, and the chicken Chen Fang had put in to defrost last night... a jumble of things.
*Why did I open this? Everyone knows I can't cook, and nobody is going to start cooking at seven-thirty in the morning!*
Lin Yunsheng watched her with interest from the side, still silent.
—*This is agonizing.*
She then pulled open the freezer door. *Is there anything in here? Please, fridge, give me something that makes me look normal.*
Great.
Inside were ice cubes, ice cream, and frozen chicken.
*Real nice. You're a real pal, fridge.*
Chen Jinyue felt her vision go dark. She debated whether ice cubes or ice cream would make her actions look slightly more rational.
There was no more time to think. The room felt two degrees colder—whether it was psychological or because the fridge was open, she couldn't tell.
*I'll just eat some ice cream. I'll say... I'll say I suddenly had a craving.* She sighed, ready to just throw caution to the wind. She was about to speak when—
"Do you want coffee?" Lin Yunsheng asked.
"Ah... yeah, yeah. I do. I was actually wanting some."
Chen Jinyue distinctly heard Lin Yunsheng give a soft chuckle, but she couldn't call her out on it. She had to pretend she hadn't heard.
"Latte?" Lin Yunsheng pressed the button to preheat the machine.
"Mhm."
"Milk." She held her hand out toward Chen Jinyue.
"Huh?"
"The milk. It's in the fridge." She pointed to the door that had just been closed.
"Oh." Gritting her teeth in frustration, Jinyue opened the fridge again, took out the milk, and handed it to her sister.
Then she retreated to a corner of the kitchen. Now she could look at Lin Yunsheng openly. It was a blessing in disguise, she supposed; even though the "disguise" had been unexpected, the result was good.
Lin Yunsheng tamped the coffee grounds into the machine and looked back at Chen Jinyue. She just looked at her without saying a word. Chen Jinyue felt a wave of inexplicable guilt.
Lin Yunsheng blinked at her. "Wh... what?" Jinyue stammered.
"Do you have something to say?" the other woman asked directly.
"No."
"Oh." The coffee finished extracting. Lin Yunsheng turned back around, and a minute or two later, two cups of coffee were ready.
She handed one to Chen Jinyue. "Thanks..." Jinyue said, and then Lin Yunsheng went back to her room.
By the time she came out again, she had changed into her work clothes. Chen Jinyue had already finished her coffee.
As Lin Yunsheng walked toward the entryway, Chen Jinyue’s gaze followed her. "Lin Yunsheng."
"Mhm?" She opened the shoe cabinet, pulled out a pair of high heels, looked at them for a moment, put them back, and switched them for combat boots.
Chen Jinyue looked down at the coffee stains remaining on the side of her cup and asked, "What time... are you coming back tonight?"
"I'm not sure yet. Why?"
"Nothing, just asking." She put the coffee cup in the sink and turned to walk back to her room.
"Drive safe."
She closed her bedroom door. About a minute later, she heard the sound of the front door opening and closing.
She collapsed onto her bed and checked the time. It was exactly eight o'clock. Since she had just drunk coffee, there was no hope of catching any more sleep.
How irritating.
She couldn't tell if she was annoyed because her plan had failed so embarrassingly, or because Lin Yunsheng was going to be back late again tonight.
What a bizarre morning. She was fuming for no reason at all.
***
Glossary:
