Chen Jinyue settled into the car. She wasn't yet familiar with the vehicle, but it had already played witness to several of her emotional upheavals.
The driver, sensing her foul mood, maintained a friendly silence. It was only at a particularly long red light that she couldn't help but glance over.
"Your sister... she’s under a lot of pressure because of what happened," Zhao Man said tentatively. "Don't be upset with her."
"I know, Sister Man. Thank you."
Chen Jinyue gave a formulaic response. Zhao Man understood she wasn't in the mood for small talk and turned her attention back to the countdown on the traffic light.
*What can I even say?* Chen Jinyue asked herself, watching the streetscape recede once more.
Should she say: *It’s not like that. It’s not that I’m upset with her; it’s that Lin Yunsheng is unhappy.*
Or: *I’ve never seen Lin Yunsheng like this. She’s never been impatient with me, and she’s never spoken to me with such force.*
Either statement would make her sound pathetic, so she chose to remain silent.
Only the radio filled the car. No one knew why a music station would play such an ambiguous song on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
The singer crooned:
*...*
*I am this car’s*
*First passenger*
*It’s not that I’m unhappy*
*The sky is blood-red*
*The stars are silver-grey*
*Where is your lover?*
*...*
As the song ended, Zhao Man pulled the car to a steady halt. Chen Jinyue got out first and led her upstairs.
It was only inside the elevator that she got a clear look at the two gift boxes: one was nuts, the other bird's nest. They didn't seem like things that required a special trip to deliver.
*Click—* She opened the door, returning to her familiar space.
A house should be this size—it allowed her to see her mother sitting on the sofa cracking melon seeds at a single glance, and to catch the look of surprise on her face at her daughter's early return.
She found a pair of slippers for Zhao Man and introduced her to her mother. "Mom, this is Sister’s colleague, Zhao Man."
Chen Fang hurriedly stood up and walked over. "Oh, Xiao Man! What brings you here?" She recognized her.
"Happy New Year, Auntie. Yunsheng is busy, so I drove Jinyue back."
Hearing this, Chen Fang looked at Chen Jinyue. "I told you not to go and bother her."
Chen Jinyue said nothing.
Seeing the tension, Zhao Man quickly handed over the two gift boxes, explaining that Yunsheng had asked her to bring them.
"Oh, thank you, Xiao Man. Have you all been busy together these past few days? Did something happen at the company?"
"Yes, there’s been a bit of trouble, but it’s not a big deal. It can be resolved."
"Oh, I see. Have you been eating well? Since I’m back anyway, how about I cook some food and bring it over to you? It’s no trouble."
"It’s alright, Auntie. Yunsheng and I have been staying at Haitao’s place these last two days. It’s more comfortable than the office, so we don’t have to worry about meals."
"Haitao? Jiang Haitao?" Chen Fang’s eyes lit up at the name.
"Yes."
"That’s good, that’s good." She smiled until her eyes were mere slits.
She invited Zhao Man to stay for dinner, but Zhao Man declined, saying she had to get back to work after resting for a bit.
Chen Fang agreed. "Alright then, I’ll go wash some fruit for you. Sit and rest on the sofa for a while." She then headed into the kitchen.
Chen Jinyue and Zhao Man sat together on the sofa. A cheerful variety show was playing on the TV; they watched it in silence, neither speaking nor smiling.
Finally, Chen Jinyue spoke first. "Do you smoke, Sister Man?"
Zhao Man was startled. "You want to smoke?"
"I don't. I’m asking you."
The question wasn't really a question; it was an invitation to the balcony. "I do," Zhao Man said, standing up.
As expected, Chen Jinyue followed her. She slid open the balcony door and stepped out first.
Since they were standing here, Zhao Man took it as a sign that Chen Jinyue was willing to talk.
"Feeling better?" she asked, lighting a cigarette and standing downwind.
She wasn't, but Chen Jinyue had something she wanted to ask.
"Yes, a bit."
"Sister Man, what exactly went wrong with your project?"
"We’re still investigating. Since it happened during the holiday, response times are slow, so the investigation is dragging."
Zhao Man was experienced; she didn't give a direct answer.
A cigarette doesn't last long, and Chen Jinyue didn't want to waste time playing word games. She pressed further, "Can you tell me about it?"
"Well... simply put, the company has a project every year to ensure commercial operations during the Spring Festival. This year, there was a problem with the market placement side—which is my department."
She looked at Chen Jinyue, the lit slim cigarette held between her fingers, not yet brought to her lips.
Chen Jinyue remembered the first time she met Zhao Man in North City. Lin Yunsheng had asked why she was there, and she had replied, *"Once your analysis results are out, we have to adjust our placement strategy immediately."*
So, Lin Yunsheng and Zhao Man were in an upstream-downstream relationship. If Zhao Man’s department made a mistake, it could easily be traced back to Lin Yunsheng.
"Is the impact significant?"
"Quite. We’re talking millions."
Millions...
"Is that why Sister is so anxious?"
If you didn't listen closely, you might have thought she was addressing Zhao Man as "Sister."
At this point, Zhao Man took a drag of her cigarette, her expression turning more serious. She said, "No. It’s because she’s unwilling to accept it."
Chen Jinyue looked at her through the layer of second-hand smoke, waiting for her to continue.
"I was just promoted. She went to great lengths to get me up there, and now I’m about to be taken down." She finished with a self-deprecating smile.
Chen Jinyue remained silent, watching Zhao Man, who was clearly holding back half the story. The cigarette burned between her slender fingers, a stack of white ash accumulating on the tip.
If the story was too long and she didn't want to continue, it was better to start from the beginning.
"Sister Man... I want to know how you and my sister met."
"And if I don't tell you? Will you start calling me 'Zhao Man' again?" she asked back with a smile.
Chen Jinyue looked at her and swallowed. Zhao Man was referring to the moment earlier when she had coldly used Lin Yunsheng’s full name.
The other woman was smiling, yet Jinyue felt a surge of nervousness. She didn't know how to respond.
Zhao Man didn't make it too hard for her. She used her free hand to gently pinch Chen Jinyue’s cheek. Her touch was light, her tone tender. "Don't bully your sister."
"...Okay." Chen Jinyue lowered her head, feeling a pang of sadness.
The cigarette was nearly finished. A small portion had been smoked by Zhao Man, while the rest had been carried away by the wind. Zhao Man put it to her lips and took a heavy final drag. The red glow of the cherry flickered—strangely reminiscent of that long red light earlier—as both women stood there with their own hidden thoughts.
She slowly exhaled the ethereal smoke and began to tell a story from long ago.
"It wasn't particularly complicated. Your sister and I were just colleagues. we’d occasionally have meetings together, but we weren't close."
"Your sister was always working hard, and she didn't like to talk to people."
"I didn't particularly like her at first. She was too dull, as if nothing in the world could interest her except work."
"And her little supervisor used to bully her. She didn't resist at all. I don't like people who just take whatever is thrown at them."
"But one day, I discovered she wasn't actually that dull. One Valentine's Day, I happened to see her leaving work on time and appearing at a flower shop."
"I was chatting with someone across from the shop. I saw her come out holding a bouquet of baby's breath, then she hailed a taxi and left. She was probably going on a date."
Hearing this, Chen Jinyue turned and leaned over the railing, her ears turning red in secret.
Zhao Man continued.
"Later, I teased her about it. I asked if she was in love."
"What did she say?" Chen Jinyue couldn't help but interject.
Startled by the abrupt interruption, Zhao Man blinked. "Hmm? She said no."
"Oh."
"And around that time, her mood became unstable. She was very depressed. But at least she wasn't as dull as before. We happened to be on a project together, so we became familiar. I would comfort her, even though I never knew what had actually happened."
Chen Jinyue buried her head in her arms, letting out a muffled "mm." Her clothes brushed against the balcony railing, catching a few raindrops left over from earlier.
"After I got to know your sister, I realized she was under a lot of life pressure. The reason she rarely stood up for herself was to keep her job. After all, for an ordinary person, getting into this company is no easy feat."
"Are you still listening?" she asked, looking at Chen Jinyue, whose head was still buried in her arms.
"Because I’m about to get to the important part."
Chen Jinyue stood up straight, her ears perking up. "I’m listening. Why are you manually highlighting the key points..."
"I’m afraid you’ll miss your sister’s shining moment." Zhao Man gave a hearty laugh.
"After a few months of this, we reached the mid-year promotion season. Even though your sister hadn't been in a good state, her previous output was obvious to everyone, so she was nominated for a promotion to supervisor."
"Sometimes I think it’s better to make fewer friends in the workplace. Otherwise, emotions can influence a lot of decisions."
Chen Jinyue turned her head to look at her, not yet understanding the meaning behind those words.
"That supervisor of hers who used to bully her—his name was Wang Chengfan. After a meeting ended, he said some suggestive things to me. You can simply understand it as sexual harassment."
Chen Jinyue’s brow furrowed.
"I have a bit of a temper, so of course I couldn't swallow that. I reported it to upper management. But your sister and I were in two different large departments. You know how leaders handle these things—a bunch of men who think a few words don't hurt anyone, and that maybe I just misunderstood. Besides, I didn't have any physical evidence."
"I was ready to resign. I felt there was no point staying in such a dump."
"But your sister stopped me."
Zhao Man paused.
"And then?" Chen Jinyue felt like this woman was constantly leaving her hanging; the suspense was killing her.
"I’m thirsty."
"..."
"Wait here." Jinyue hurried back inside, grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the kitchen, and snatched a jacket while she was at it. Under Chen Fang’s puzzled gaze, she rushed back to the balcony.
She handed the water to Zhao Man and draped the jacket over her shoulders, just as they had done on the terrace of the Western restaurant.
Zhao Man took a satisfied sip of water and continued.
"Your sister said, 'You didn't do anything wrong, so why should you leave?' I told her I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, but what choice did I have? Then she said she had experience."
"Yes, my expression then was exactly like yours is now."
"My eyes went wide. I thought that bastard Wang Chengfan had done something to her too."
"Fortunately, he hadn't."
Chen Jinyue breathed a sigh of relief, while silently complaining in her head about Zhao Man’s bad habit of splitting one sentence into two parts.
"Your sister said that on her orientation day, a lot of new hires were sitting in a large conference room. The HR head walked in and said, 'For those of you here today, if the men haven't received their medical reports yet, please register; you can submit them later once the results are out. If you are a woman, I need to apologize—you will need to delay your start date until your medical report comes in.'" Zhao Man mimicked the HR head’s voice with a strange inflection.
"Why? Fear of pregnancy?"
"Exactly. You haven't worked in China, but you must have heard of such things."
"Yes... and then?"
"Then, your sister was one of the ones who had her report, so she joined smoothly. But she actually wrote about this incident in the year-end group survey."
"Our company has a Women's Rights Protection Department. Although it’s ironic that the head of that department is a man, big companies... you can say what you want about them, but they care about appearances and are terrified of PR risks. When someone speaks up like that, they realize people remember. Even if they don't truly share your anger, they’re afraid of the story spreading on the internet."
"So, about six months later, the head of HR at the time resigned."
"Your sister felt that result had something to do with her survey. She wasn't sure, but she wanted to try again."
A place in Chen Jinyue’s heart softened.
"But I didn't want to."
"I thought it was too much trouble. Besides, she was in her promotion period. How could I let someone who barely protected herself take such a huge risk for me?"
"I still remember how that electronic signature was signed."
Zhao Man gestured in her palm as she spoke. "My name was here, 'Zhao Man.' She signed right next to me, 'Lin Yunsheng.'"
"And I got 'lucky.' The group had a subsidiary planning to go public at the time, and they were hyper-sensitive to any negative press. So that letter caught their attention again. They conducted several anonymous investigations, and based on the results, they believed I was telling the truth. I suspect other women had experienced similar things and spoke up too."
"In the end, Wang Chengfan was demoted to a small regional position and resigned shortly after."
"So? Is she cool or what?" She took another sip of water.
Chen Jinyue nodded.
"After that, my relationship with your sister became very close. She was promoted to supervisor and started leading a team; she always only hires women. Later, I came out publicly, and so the story evolved into us having an 'indescribable' relationship."
"Just like you thought at first."
"..."
"I’m sorry... Sister Man."
"Hahahaha! So you know now?" She laughed heartily again.
"Yes... you are both amazing."
"We are. We are both very amazing."
Chen Jinyue leaned back against the railing. She looked out at the city landscape. It didn't have the million-dollar river view of Yuanmao Mansion, but it felt intimate and grand.
Zhao Man pinched her cheek again. "So, don't bully your sister. If you bully her, I’ll bully you."
"Okay."
The sky gradually darkened, and the city streetlights flickered on.
She remembered herself as a child, sitting on the back of Lin Yunsheng’s bicycle, witnessing the moment the lights came on a few times back then too.
Chen Jinyue used to think such moments passed quickly, but today—as the lights came on once more—she realized those points of starlight had remained in her memory and her boiling blood for a long time.
She felt as though parts of her heart were being torn open by Lin Yunsheng, while other parts were being sewn back together by her.
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
满天星 | Baby's breath | Also known as Gypsophila.
王成帆 | Wang Chengfan | The name of the former supervisor.
晋升 | Promotion | Refers to workplace advancement.
出柜 | Coming out | Referring to revealing one's LGBTQ+ identity.
远茂府邸 | Yuanmao Mansion | The name of the high-end residential area where Jiang Haitao lives.
