The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 13
by Little PandaHotel
Only one room was booked.
[The Ferris wheel, the carousel, and I,
are all existences unwilling to move forward.]
After the plane landed, Tao Tianran didn’t pause for a moment. She left their luggage at the front desk and immediately took Cheng Xiang to a dinner banquet.
Gangdao was truly cutthroat1. Even at nine in the evening, it was a noisy hour of feasting and neon lights.
Tao Tianran hailed a cab, and she and Cheng Xiang sat together in the back seat.
Cheng Xiang watched the fleeting, postcard-like scenery outside the window. A sliver of the window was rolled down, and the wind that slipped inside carried the faintly salty scent of seawater.
Life was truly bizarre.
She had finally made it to Gangdao. The streets she had seen in movies since she was a child flowed past her, and the person sitting next to her was still Tao Tianran.
She had assumed someone like Tao Tianran wouldn’t initiate a conversation, so she was surprised when she asked, “First time in Gangdao?”
“Mm?” Cheng Xiang rubbed her fingertips against the seat upholstery. “…Mm.”
Tao Tianran nodded. She looked out through the windshield at the streetlights ahead, watching pedestrians gradually make their way across the crosswalk.
Cheng Xiang turned her head to look at her face, which was illuminated by the red traffic light.
For a fleeting second, she almost blurted it out—”What are you thinking about?”
But she swallowed the syllables back down.
After getting out of the car, Tao Tianran headed straight for the private dining room.
“Um,” Cheng Xiang reminded her, “aren’t you going to touch up your makeup?”
Tao Tianran frowned slightly. “If you’re going, hurry up.”
Cheng Xiang ducked into the restroom and let out a shallow breath at the vanity mirror.
It wasn’t that she really needed to touch up her makeup.
It was just that the entire ride—the red lights and green lights, the gray clouds and white nights—had sent her emotions on too wild a roller coaster.
She reapplied a layer of powder, twisted open her mascara, and, most importantly, applied a layer of crystal-clear lip gloss, perfectly suited to illuminate the night. When she walked out, Tao Tianran was waiting for her by the door. Her coat was already off, draped over her arm. Having finished replying to a message, she still hadn’t looked up, her fingertips tapping rhythmically against her screen.
Only when she heard Cheng Xiang’s footsteps did she lift her eyes. “Let’s go.”
Her gaze was darker than the corridor’s pretentiously atmospheric spotlights.
Cheng Xiang found it incredibly strange. Yu Yusheng was undoubtedly a pinnacle among striking beauties, stunning enough to light up anyone’s eyes. Yet, why was Tao Tianran’s gaze still so completely devoid of ripples when she looked at her?
Cheng Xiang didn’t know whether she felt a little more devastated or a little more relieved.
Stepping into the private room, Tao Tianran draped her coat over the back of a chair and offered a brief explanation for their late arrival.
There was zero flattery in her tone when she said “sorry.” Before the table full of men could even greet her, she pulled out a chair and sat down, flicking a glance at Cheng Xiang to signal her not to just stand there like an idiot.
As a jewelry designer, she was surprisingly plain. She wore a white shirt with a crisp collar, the sleeves rolled up to her forearms because of the cabin heating, revealing two slender wrists. Around one of them was a black hair tie, the one she had used to tie her hair up while eating on the plane.
Even now, there was a faint crease in her long, straight black hair from the hair tie. She carelessly pushed her hair back over her shoulder, the silver of her pinky ring flashing in the light.
Truth be told, Yu Yusheng was also a first-class beauty. When she walked in, her amber cat-eyes gathered all the brilliance in the room.
But Tao Tianran… as long as Tao Tianran was there.
She would always be the focus of everyone’s gaze, the absolute end of aesthetics, like a human sighing at their own insignificance before a vast sheet of ice.
A middle-aged man in a slightly too-tight shirt choked on a peanut and coughed.
Someone laughed, smoothing things over. “Nowadays, Gangdao doesn’t have any pretty girls, so Boss Luo got a scare2.”
As Cheng Xiang took her seat, she thought, That’s nothing. Tao Tianran had people fainting from her beauty back when she was sixteen.
Tao Tianran didn’t react at all to the Cantonese. Cheng Xiang shot her a glance.
She had absolutely no intention of explaining that she was a Gangdao native, and even less intention of explaining her family background.
This was Cheng Xiang’s first time seeing Tao Tianran socialize at a dinner table, and she found it novel.
“Socialize” wasn’t quite the right word, because she wasn’t sycophantic. After a round of pleasantries, a man across the table picked up a decanter. “Miss Tao looks like she has a vast capacity for liquor.”
Tao Tianran covered the mouth of her glass. “My apologies. I’m allergic to alcohol.”
Seeing that the man holding the decanter was struggling to save face, Cheng Xiang picked up her own wine glass and leaned forward. “Come, come, I’ll drink a cup with you.”
Tao Tianran kicked Cheng Xiang’s stool.
The kick was far from light; Cheng Xiang nearly toppled over.
Yet her tone to the men remained cool. “Sorry, she can’t drink either. She’s on her period.”
She pressed directly down on Cheng Xiang’s wrist, then rapidly withdrew her hand.
Cheng Xiang pulled her hand back, gently brushing the patch of skin Tao Tianran had just touched.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Taking advantage of the clinking glasses across the table, Cheng Xiang slipped it out to take a look.
It was from Tao Tianran’s Assistant: 【Shianne, are you with Teacher Tao?】
【Yes.】
【Could you please let Teacher Tao know? The hotel booking was too last minute. I negotiated for a long time but only managed to book one room. You’ll have to make do. Sorry, sorry!】
Cheng Xiang’s eyelid twitched.
Tao Tianran shot her a glance.
Cheng Xiang tilted the phone beneath the tablecloth. Tao Tianran lowered her eyelashes, then lifted them again, giving a very faint blink.
That meant she had seen it, and—she had no objections.
!!!
Cheng Xiang’s mind instantly exploded!
Was Tao Tianran always like this? Just casually sharing a room with female colleagues on business trips?!
To make matters worse, Tao Tianran chose that exact moment to lower her voice near her ear: “Don’t space out.”
Cheng Xiang gritted her teeth and hoisted up a smiling face, suddenly feeling that the bald middle-aged man across from them looked exactly like a braised egg.
When the meal concluded, the other party invited them for a second round.
Tao Tianran politely declined, stating she would see them at their company tomorrow.
The two took a taxi back to the hotel. Along the way, Cheng Xiang restlessly tapped the seat. When Tao Tianran looked at her, she merely claimed she really needed to pee.
They went to the front desk to check in. This was the company’s partner hotel, and the staff respectfully informed them that their luggage had already been sent up to a room with an excellent view overlooking the harbor.
View, what view! Cheng Xiang was entirely preoccupied with Tao Tianran. If Tao Tianran’s sexual orientation isn’t public, and she occasionally has to share rooms with female colleagues on business trips, wouldn’t they get really close?! Huh?!
Tao Tianran stuffed her ID back into her Hermès Bolide bag and said coolly to Cheng Xiang, “You go up first.”
“Oh… ah?” Cheng Xiang asked. “What about you?”
“I have something to do.” Tao Tianran had already turned to walk out of the hotel, her coat still draped over her arm.
Cheng Xiang let out a sigh of relief. As she went up, standing in the elevator car, her eyelid continued to twitch in time with the jumping floor numbers.
Once she reached the room, she paced around twice with her arms hugged tightly around herself like a quail.
She picked up her phone and sent Qin Ziqiao a WeChat message: 【So.】
Qin Ziqiao replied quickly: 【Mm.】
After all, the two of them had a pact: if “Yu Yusheng” successfully took Tao Tianran down, Qin Ziqiao would go burn joss paper at Cheng Xiang’s grave—The day the King’s armies secure the Central Plains in the north, / At the family sacrifice, do not forget to tell your old man3.
…What the hell.
Cheng Xiang: 【When it comes to seducing people, how do you actually do it?】
Qin Ziqiao: 【I’ve been single since birth4 all these years, and you’re asking me?】
Cheng Xiang had no choice but to analyze it herself: 【I feel like Tao Tianran’s type is a Scumbag Alpha5.】
【…Huh?】
【Think about how much emotional intensity Xiao Xiang gave her back in the day, and she had zero reaction.】
【…And so?】
【You have to match her pheromones6, then her glands will finally react.】
【Speak human.】 Qin Ziqiao only liked reading post-apocalyptic sci-fi novels; unlike Cheng Xiang, a hardcore ACG fan, she wasn’t well-versed in all this jargon.
【Speaking human means we should stop playing the feelings game. Maybe direct seduction will be more effective.】
【Maybe.】 Qin Ziqiao added another sentence: 【Xiao Xiang lost out in the past because she didn’t have a chest.】
【Who didn’t have a chest???】
【I wasn’t talking about you, why are you getting so worked up?】
【…When did I get worked up?】 Cheng Xiang tossed her phone aside.
People really just tied their own hands. The one clamoring to conquer Tao Tianran was her, but the one getting nervous was also her. Actually, Cheng Xiang didn’t think this idea was necessarily foolproof. After all, back when the two of them were intimate, Tao Tianran didn’t exactly seem overly addicted either.
Tao Tianran wouldn’t make a sound, nor did she pant much; she just looked down at her with dark, heavy eyes.
But…
Don’t tell me it really was the fault of my bad figure back then?
Should I… verify it?
With complicated feelings, Cheng Xiang went into the bathroom to shower. She wrapped herself in the hotel’s high-thread-count Egyptian cotton bathrobe and dabbed two touches of solid perfume behind her ears.
She certainly didn’t plan for anything to happen with Tao Tianran tonight; after all, Tao Tianran wasn’t a genuine Scumbag Alpha with real glands. It was just that, firstly, her plan to get close to Tao Tianran needed to be laid out gradually. Secondly, if Tao Tianran actually gave another woman a second look…
Heh, heh. Cheng Xiang gritted her teeth and squeezed her fists tight.
Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she burst into a bitter, silent laugh.
What could she even do?
She was already dead.
Looking somewhat dazed, Cheng Xiang walked to the window and gazed out at the Gangdao night. Using someone else’s body to get close to Tao Tianran was tantamount to drinking poison to quench her thirst7. Winning was a loss, and losing was an even greater loss. She had come to terms with this long ago.
The room’s view was indeed superb, facing directly out over the harbor.
The sky-blue waves were like ink rolling up stories of the past, and the dim yellow streetlights scattered along the shore were the dust covering those stories.
Cheng Xiang’s gaze froze.
She hadn’t expected it—by a bench down at the harbor, someone was sitting.
Tao Tianran had already put her coat on, transforming into a tiny drop of ink in the dark night.
Cheng Xiang took a step closer to the window.
The night across Victoria Harbour was loud and chaotic. Lights spilled down from the mid-levels, and the famous Ferris wheel rose and fell, tracing the outlines of someone’s hidden thoughts. It made Tao Tianran’s side—with just a single bench and a single streetlight—seem all the more stark and lonely.
Cheng Xiang saw that on the bench beside Tao Tianran sat a bottle of red wine.
She pressed the pads of her fingers against the window pane, watching her own blurry reflection overlap with Tao Tianran’s figure from behind. For a split second, she felt the urge to run downstairs and find her. But as her eyes focused on her reflection in the glass, she realized with a start—
That was no longer Cheng Xiang.
It was Yu Yusheng—a breathtaking, unfamiliar face.
Cheng Xiang backed away, backing up until she collapsed onto the single bed nearest the window, haphazardly pulling the blankets around herself.
When Tao Tianran returned to the room two hours later, only a dim floor lamp was left on.
Cheng Xiang was still wrapped in that bathrobe. She was awake, she just didn’t know how to turn around.
There was some rustling from Tao Tianran’s side. She didn’t go into the bathroom, and then the floor lamp clicked off.
Tao Tianran went straight to bed to sleep.
Cheng Xiang waited a long time before moving inch by inch, turning around as silently as she possibly could.
She wasn’t sure if Tao Tianran was asleep, but Tao Tianran’s side-sleeping silhouette became a silent, isolated mountain in the night.
Tao Tianran still had her shirt and trousers on perfectly fine. The blanket was only draped lightly over her waist. Looking at her from behind, she appeared even thinner. Her prominent butterfly bones8 stood out like wings in flight. Cheng Xiang knew that if she could look right through that shirt, she would see two tiny, ink-black moles next to her shoulder blades—positioned exactly like the two at the corners of her eyes.
Cheng Xiang stared at Tao Tianran’s back for a long time before turning away again.
When she opened her eyes next, it was broad daylight. Rubbing her long curly hair, she sat up. Tao Tianran was standing by the window drinking coffee. She had already changed into a clean shirt and trousers, her ink-black hair falling over her shoulders with the sleek, damp look of having just been blow-dried.
Cheng Xiang threw a glance at the bathroom. A faint wisp of steam wafted out. It seemed Tao Tianran had just finished taking a shower. The hotel’s soundproofing was excellent; it hadn’t disturbed her at all.
“Morning,” Cheng Xiang said, her voice hoarse.
“Morning,” Tao Tianran replied, but she didn’t turn her head.
It wasn’t until Cheng Xiang realized something and pulled her loose bathrobe tightly closed, tying it securely, that Tao Tianran finally turned her head. “Meeting at eight. Hurry up and wash.”
“Teacher Tao is already done showering?” Cheng Xiang asked. “How early did you get up? Are you like this every time you share a room on a business trip?”
Tao Tianran crossed one arm, holding her white porcelain coffee cup as she looked back out the window. “What else would I do?”
Cheng Xiang rubbed her fingers twice against the pure white bedsheets.
“Oh,” she said softly.
Footnotes
- A modern Chinese slang term (juǎn), literally 'involution,' referring to an intensely competitive, rat-race culture where everyone works increasingly harder just to maintain their current position.
- This dialogue is rendered as a phonetic approximation of Cantonese (the local language of Gangdao) in the original text. The speaker is teasingly explaining that Boss Luo was simply stunned by her beauty.
- A humorous reference to a famous classical poem by the Song dynasty poet Lu You. The original lines mean: 'The day the King's armies secure the Central Plains in the north, / At the family sacrifice, do not forget to tell your old man.' Qin Ziqiao is jokingly equating seducing Tao Tianran to a lifelong, impossible crusade, demanding to be notified at the grave when it finally happens.
- An abbreviation of the internet slang 'mǔtāi dānshēn' (single since the mother's womb), meaning someone who has never been in a romantic relationship.
- 'Zha A' (Scumbag Alpha) is internet slang drawn from the ABO (Alpha/Beta/Omega) or Omegaverse fiction subgenre. A 'Scumbag Alpha' refers to a dominant partner who is highly attractive, callous, and emotionally unavailable or toxic.
- Internet slang terms drawn from ABO (Omegaverse) fiction. 'Pheromones' (xìnxī sù) and 'glands' (xiàntǐ) refer to biological mechanics used to describe a purely physical, irresistible attraction. Cheng Xiang is using fanfiction terminology to rationalize why emotional appeals won't work.
- A Chinese idiom (yǐn zhèn zhǐ kě) meaning 'to drink poison to quench one's thirst'—seeking a desperate, temporary relief that will ultimately result in ruin.
- A poetic Chinese term for pronounced, elegantly shaped shoulder blades that resemble the wings of a butterfly.
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