14

A dry leaf swirled and fell from the branch, and the original verdant veins of the leaf were now twisted together like a messy ball of thread. In the gaps between the dead leaves, there was a hint of light smoke curling up. A black shiny military boot stepped down heavily with a dry cracking sound.

“How much longer are you going to stay here?” The military boot stomped around on the thick layer of dead leaves with a fine crunching sound, “About time.”

“Another week, it’s not ready over there.”

“You’ve rarely been delayed in the same place for so long, is it because of that woman?”

“Silent Night, you’re rarely this talkative either.”

Silent Night gave a giggle, “You think I’m long-winded.”

“A little.”

“It’s rare for us to run into each other, consider me concerned about you” Jing Night pulled out a cigarette from the silver cigarette case, lit it up, and inhaled deeply, “You haven’t answered me yet, is it because of her?”

“Who?”

“Stop pretending, Ayan, you know who I’m talking about.” Jingyue impatiently raised her elbow and stabbed the other, “The one who follows Hua Xian.”

He frowned, “The one beside Hua Xian?”

“The girl with the round head, round face, round eyes, and looks like a pink gummy candy.” Silent Night rolled her eyes, “Just now she called you scum.”

“Oh, her.”

“Oh what the hell, I didn’t think you’d like that type.” Silent Night was indignant, “I always thought you’d like the more mature, hot body type.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hmm what hmm.” Silent night squinted and exhaled a mouthful of smoke, cozy and satisfied expression like a cat with a full stomach, “If you really like it, then grab it, it’s no fun to just look at it.” Played the cigarette ash, “But then, it can be seen that surnamed Hua likes her very much, I’m afraid it’s not too easy na …… rare to have the same look at the eyes, but also have to use the robbery. At that time they will again go to complain that we bully them, tsk, and children, really can not get along with them.”

“Don’t cause trouble.” He skimmed the deadbeat someone, “I don’t want to keep cleaning up your mess.”

“Got it,” Shizuku muttered as she twisted her head slightly defiantly, “I hate them, what do they know. They’re just going to make a little money, play a few smart mouths, and talk high and mighty every day in the office with the cold air blowing. Now it’s just one more person watching their backs, so what’s the point of complaining?”

“It’s supervision.”

“It’s all the same.” Silent Night huffed, “Ayan, be honest with me, you have a woman, right?”

He pocketed his hands in his pants pockets, and after a long moment of silence, he nodded, “Count on it.”

“It’s not the type that’s so round that you can’t separate your arms and legs, right?”

“No.”

“Then what’s it like?” Silent Night hopped onto the hood of the SUV and crouched in a rogue-like fashion.

“Taller than you, hair longer than you, skin whiter than you, breasts bigger than you, legs longer than you, waist?…… Well, you’re a little thinner than she is.”

“Do you have to compare me with her?”

“Both are women, there exists comparability.”

“You have not always taken me as a brother, this time remember that I am a woman.” Jing Night moved her wrists a bit uncomfortably, “Ah Yan, is it true that apart from pedophiles, all men like women with a feminine flavor?”

“Want to hear the truth?”

“…… No need!”

The white congee bubbled in the casserole, she stirred it twice with a spoon and turned off the heat to bring it to the table. Taking the radish kimchi she’d made a few days before out of the refrigerator, she diced the five-spice tofu, dotted the shredded snow peas with a pinch of dry-fried sesame seeds, and scooped a small dish of sugar-rolled peanuts onto the table.

When she used to live on her own, she either didn’t eat in the morning or ate in a hurry. A bowl of rice could be passed off with a marinated egg or a doughnut, and when there were no more side dishes, she would stir the soy sauce into the rice to get it into her stomach. After arriving here, she had to cook Cantonese congee in the morning, and she had to prepare more than three kinds of side dishes, or else she had to look at the bottom of the pot and face the rice.

Slowly, it became a habit.

At the other end of the table, the man was well-dressed, flipping through the newspaper in a relaxed manner. After she scooped up the porridge and pushed it over, his eyes still did not leave the newspaper, and the spoon in his hand stirred the hot porridge unhurriedly. The white porcelain bowls and spoons can still collide in the sticky porridge, but not sharp.

The atmosphere was a harmony that had never existed before.

Ya Xiao slowly blew on the porridge, sizing him up without a trace. This man’s mood in the past two days was unprecedentedly good, so good that she suspected he wouldn’t say anything even if she gnawed on roast chicken in front of him. Her gaze drifted unconsciously to the storage room that was separated from the kitchen by a wall, and she gulped unnaturally.

“Have you been in touch with your friends lately?”

A voice popped up from behind the newspaper and she choked, “Ahem …… what?”

“A girl named Iida-chan or something.”

“Doughnut?” Her back straightened, “What happened to her?”

“Met two days ago, asked me for someone.” His face was hidden behind the newspaper, his voice calm, “Have you been in touch with her lately?”

She smiled to herself, “Contact? How can I contact her? There’s no cell phone, no internet, how am I supposed to contact her?” The last time they spoke was sometime after she was brought here by him, can’t remember what they were arguing about. She struggled and yelled like a frenzied wildcat, cursing his ancestors. He yanked her wrists and threw her to the floor, her screams nearly stabbing through the ceiling as he leaned over. The nail on the ring finger of his right hand snapped open in the struggle, turning the skin over and bleeding like a fountain. His collarbone also still bore the marks, thin and long, from the scratching of her nails.

He was in the middle of tearing her clothes off when the group called. He stopped when he heard the ding-dong ringtone and reached for the phone, pressing the answer button and pressing it to her ear. She could barely speak then, and with her best friend’s mumbled voice echoing in her ears, she felt nothing but embarrassment and shame. Offhand, he was still going up and down on her, teasing her with malice. The heavy breathing, the wet hickeys, the unrelenting temptation, the fiery pain in her back as she was dragged along the carpet …… Even now, when she thinks back on the scene, her hands still tremble slightly.

Even though a considerable amount of time had passed, even though she had slowly familiarized herself with him, even though at certain moments in the past she had felt him close and intimate. But the body is honest, it remembers all the official sensations, the pleasures, the pains, the imprints that are burned into it even if the sensations fade yet they are still there.

She’d almost forgotten that she was sitting before a tyrant, a fact that never changed.

“Want to see her?” He stirred the white porridge, the newspaper already folded and set aside, “Schedule a time to meet her if you want.”

What was this? A reward for being obedient for so long? She laughed coldly in the bottom of her heart, but she couldn’t see any joy or anger on her face, “Got it.”

He moved his eyes to the rim of the porcelain bowl, as if catching the heat that had faded to transparency, “Let me know when it’s set, and I’ll send you there.”

She frowned, “No need.” It was a little disconcerting to be so polite all of a sudden. Besides, it was hard enough being in the same room with him, but to switch to a car with even less space, she’d probably have to lose a few years of her life, “I can take a bus, a taxi will do.”

“Whatever.” He responded carelessly, then looked up at her as if he remembered something and smiled.

She immediately understood, “Don’t worry, I won’t steal food behind your back.” There was still some of the roasted flavors left over from Monsoon’s delivery, and she had to dispose of them as soon as possible, lest he improvise and sniff out the smell in the storage room one day. At that time, she could just claim death without having to defend herself.

“Have you ever wondered,” his voice rang out, “why I don’t let you get into meat.”

“Because you don’t eat it, so I can’t either.” That’s what she remembered him saying, brash and overbearing, deciding everything about her.

“You won’t ask me the reason?”

“It’s a matter of personal preference, not much of a reason, I guess.” She cocked her head and gave a middle-of-the-road answer, “It’s like some people don’t eat cilantro and some people don’t eat egg whites.” Just because the man would bring up these has-beens with her today didn’t mean he was in such a good mood that he could talk to her about anything, and the self-consciousness of moderation was something she still had.

“If you can think of it that way ……,” he mused, and in a few moments he smiled, a rare crescent moon bend, “it’s possible.”

When he met with the group, he still followed her, and unabashedly parked his car within her reach, rather like an open-mouthed demonstration.

Even across the street, through the thick glass, she could feel his eyes on her like a hawk’s gaze. For him, she was similar to a small rabbit, just one swoop, her life would be over. It’s always hard to be in a good mood when your life is threatened. Her face was already in a bad shape, but now she was looking more and more gloomy.

I can see that the group is very careful, I think the last argument so that she is still wary, just have a ride without a conversation, halfway to receive a call from her boyfriend. Without saying a few words, the original wrinkled face instantly stretched out, like a water-saturated flower, moist and bright.

It looks really happy.

The happy smile was too blinding.

She pursed her lips, the dark emotions hidden in her heart were like black vines that kept growing and twisting around her heart, and there was a kind of indignation that wanted to be sent out but had not yet been sent out that was slowly accumulating. This kind of indignation cascades, is a vicious beast called jealousy.

It is irritable, bossy, irrational, and domineering.

Once you let it out of the gate, it will be out of control.