The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 53
by Little PandaBelated Realization
“Were you angry when you left the bar?”
[Sometimes I can’t help but think, a bit sentimentally:
If I lost all my memories one day, would you still recognize me?]
When Qin Ziqiao arrived at the entrance of the bar, she looked left and right but couldn’t spot Cheng Xiang. So, she sent her a WeChat message: 【Where are you?】
Cheng Xiang sent her a voice note: 【Look to your left.】
Qin Ziqiao turned her head to the left and found Cheng Xiang hiding under a tree, waving at her. “Over here, over here!”
Qin Ziqiao walked over. “What are you doing?”
“Look at the people going into this bar.” Cheng Xiang pointed from a distance. “Don’t they look like they’re here to shoot a music video?”
Qin Ziqiao took a glance.
“I was thinking,” Cheng Xiang said, “maybe we should have gone home first to change our clothes. But…”
Qin Ziqiao chimed in. “But neither of us has anything in our closets trendy enough for a place like this.”
They both laughed.
“Come on, let’s go.” Cheng Xiang pulled Qin Ziqiao along. “Let’s go check it out. Who cares? It’s not like anyone knows us anyway.”
It was the first time in Cheng Xiang’s life she had ever entered a bar.
She gripped Qin Ziqiao tightly. Qin Ziqiao whispered, “Why are you holding onto me? I’ve never been to one either.”
“Your face is grumpier, which makes you look more imposing.”
“…Hey!”
The most rebellious thing Cheng Xiang and Qin Ziqiao had ever done in their lives was back in their second year of high school. They had huddled in a corner of the school building, trying to learn how to smoke, and had nearly choked themselves to death.
Cheng Xiang had held the half-burned cigarette, looking completely bewildered as she asked Qin Ziqiao, “Seriously, what’s so great about smoking this stuff? Wouldn’t we be better off eating Wang Wang ice pops?”
Now, Cheng Xiang sat at the table in the furthest corner of the bar, lowering her voice to ask Qin Ziqiao, “What do you think this bar looks like?”
“What do you mean?”
“I think it looks like the Cave of the Coiled Web1.”
“Huh? I don’t see it.” Qin Ziqiao looked up in confusion. Although the bar was named “Afterglow,” it featured a stark black-and-white metallic, industrial-grunge aesthetic, with cool, restrained white spotlights. It was a far cry from the Cave of the Coiled Web she remembered from the childhood television adaptation of Journey to the West.
“I mean,” Cheng Xiang said, touching the tip of her nose, “there are so many enchantresses.”
“Pfft.”
“Seriously. Have you noticed that everyone here is a girl?”
“Huh. Actually, you’re right.”
“Could this place be…”
“A lesbian bar.”
Cheng Xiang was so startled she smacked Qin Ziqiao’s arm. “You just blurted it out like that!”
“?” Qin Ziqiao rubbed her forearm. “What is there that can’t be said?”
“Well… I don’t really know either.”
Cheng Xiang just felt it was too far removed from her usual life.
Her usual life before had been about comic books hidden in classroom desk drawers, secretly eating zhajiang noodles during morning self-study, and sneaking away with colleagues after using the restroom to gossip in a hallway smelling of stir-fried pork with green peppers.
In short, she couldn’t even summon the energy to be “bad.”
This bar was… well, compared to her routine of always staying cooped up at home drawing comics, it was just a bit too… too stimulating.
She quietly raised her eyes to scan her surroundings. Her gaze collided with that of a tall, mature woman sporting a Cleopatra bob, who curled her lips in a smile.
“Oh…” The back of Cheng Xiang’s neck flushed crimson, and she hurriedly lowered her head.
Unable to resist, she peeked back up. The woman was still smiling at her, pulling her friend’s arm and whispering something while looking in Cheng Xiang’s direction.
Cheng Xiang felt a bit disheartened and called out to Qin Ziqiao, “I think they’re laughing at me for being a country bumpkin.”
“Ignore them. We’re just here to open our eyes to the world, and then we’ll leave.”
“We’re never coming back?”
“What would we come back for?” Qin Ziqiao nodded toward their surroundings. “Are you even one?”
This was something Cheng Xiang had truly never considered.
Back in school, there had been upperclasswomen and underclasswomen who tried to get to know Qin Ziqiao through her. With Qin Ziqiao’s cool expression, her hime-cut, and the ear cuff clipped to her left cartilage, she really looked quite intimidating to those who didn’t know her.
When Cheng Xiang asked Qin Ziqiao if she wanted to add them on WeChat, Qin Ziqiao would tell her, “Help me turn them down.”
“Why me?”
“Because I’m introverted.”
So… Cheng Xiang had no choice but to tell those girls, “Look, Qin Ziqiao is only interested in three things in this world.”
“Which three?” The girls’ eyes would sparkle, clearly planning to cater to her tastes.
Cheng Xiang counted them off on her fingers. “Feeding capybaras2, growing green onions, and reading hard sci-fi post-apocalyptic novels.”
“…”
Gradually, no one tried to get to know Qin Ziqiao anymore.
Qin Ziqiao had breathed a sigh of relief. Cheng Xiang, on the other hand, had been deeply vexed. “How come I don’t have any?”
“Any what?”
“People I’m interested in, people I actually want to get to know.”
Sitting in the bar now, Cheng Xiang felt like she was experiencing a real sense of her “sexual orientation” for the first time. But when Qin Ziqiao asked if she was, well… she had never liked anyone before, let alone imagined what it would be like to be with a girl.
Should she try imagining it right now?
But… whom would she imagine?
Cheng Xiang rested her folded hands on the bar counter, her thumbs twiddling around each other. Suddenly, the memory of that slender figure leaning against the Bentley Bentayga flashed through her mind.
The thought gave her quite a fright.
She had no idea if that woman was even into girls! It was just… how to put it? Her aura was incredibly strong, aloof yet piercing. But piercing was different from being sharp; sharpness projected outward, whereas being piercing was an inward intensity, hidden beneath a reserved exterior. When she spoke to someone, she would only casually raise her cold, thin eyelids.
She was drop-dead gorgeous.
If she were to be with her…
Hahaha, Cheng Xiang wanted to laugh again. What on earth was that? They didn’t even know each other.
Just then, a waiter approached with the menu. “Ladies, what can I get you to drink?”
Cheng Xiang took the menu and looked at it, pretending to be calm while giving Qin Ziqiao a look first.
Qin Ziqiao took a glance: a single drink cost between 130 and 150 yuan.
This completely exceeded Cheng Xiang’s expectations. She had estimated a drink would be around seventy or eighty yuan, which she could manage with the thirty-percent discount.
She exchanged looks with Qin Ziqiao, the meaning clear: Should they leave?
Qin Ziqiao shot back a look: Let’s go, pretend you’re getting a call.
The waiter spoke up again. “Ladies, if you don’t need anything, I’ll take the menu back. We don’t have a minimum charge during our grand opening period.”
Wait, what did that mean?
She was looking down on her!
At that time, Cheng Xiang hadn’t been working for very long, and she truly had no money in her pockets. When someone lacked money, what they feared most was losing face—especially a girl like her who had grown up in the alleys.
She unhurriedly held onto the menu. “Who said I don’t need it? I’m choosing right now.”
Her eyes slowly traced down the column of 130-yuan options, and then she ordered two of the 150-yuan ones.
Qin Ziqiao kicked her under the table.
Once the waiter walked away with the menu, Cheng Xiang said to Qin Ziqiao, “Did you hear what she said? She was totally taking a jab at us!”
Qin Ziqiao sighed. “I’m going to the restroom first.”
“Stay in there a bit longer.”
“…?”
“A single drink is a hundred and fifty yuan. Even with the thirty-percent discount, it’s insanely expensive. Make the most of the public facilities here.”
Qin Ziqiao rolled her eyes and laughed.
Cheng Xiang laughed too. The two of them had been like this since childhood—unsophisticated and easily intimidated.
After Qin Ziqiao left for the restroom, Cheng Xiang sat by the high bar counter, her feet resting on the rungs of the black-painted bar stool, finding the industrial-style stool a bit hard on her rear.
The two drinks were served. The one she had ordered, 「Love Before Midnight」, was a gradient of blue and purple. It was hard to tell if gold leaf had been scattered into the liquid, but the tiny shimmering specks floated and sank like stars. Qin Ziqiao’s drink, named 「Van Gogh」, was a vibrant splash of warm orange-pink, packed with ice cubes.
Cheng Xiang pulled out her phone.
The drinks might not taste good, but they were definitely beautiful. Did anyone come to such an expensive place just to drink? No, they came to take photos to post on Moments!
She spun the glass around, taking over a hundred photos from every conceivable angle.
When she finally put her phone away, Qin Ziqiao still hadn’t returned.
She really was making the most of the restroom…
Cheng Xiang licked her lips. She was actually quite thirsty, but she didn’t know if the bar charged extra for plain water. She wanted to take a sip of her drink but figured she should wait for Qin Ziqiao to return so they could drink together.
Feeling a bit bored, she glanced around—she had a bit of confidence to scan her surroundings now, after all, she had ordered a drink—a hundred and fifty yuan a glass!
But when she looked, her heart skipped a beat.
Cheng Xiang froze and quickly lowered her eyelids.
She toyed with the side of her glass, the condensing droplets leaving her fingertips cool and damp.
She thought she saw that yujie3.
She wasn’t entirely sure. The bar was dimly lit, and she wasn’t particularly familiar with the woman’s face. Still, she felt there was a strong chance it was her. The woman wore a white button-down shirt, her posture tall and slender even while seated. Her shoulders and back looked delicate, and her elegant, refined features bore no trace of a smile. Looking at her from a distance, she didn’t resemble a painting—she resembled a poem.
Unlike her and Qin Ziqiao sitting at a corner table, the yujie sat at the bar’s main counter. The bartender seemed to know her and was speaking to her. She loosely held a glass on the counter, her eyelashes half-lowered, not showing whether she was actually listening.
Could there really be such a coincidence? Cheng Xiang thought.
The woman certainly hadn’t noticed her, and Cheng Xiang had no intention of going over to say hello anyway. They had only crossed paths once; they didn’t even know each other. It would be crazy.
She kept her head down, scraping her fingertip back and forth against the side of her glass, thinking, Why isn’t Qin Ziqiao back yet?
A soft patter of footsteps sounded as someone came to a stop in front of her.
It certainly wasn’t Qin Ziqiao; Cheng Xiang was too familiar with the stride of her lifelong friend.
For some reason, she suspected it was the yujie.
Because a thin shadow fell over the counter, accompanied by a subtle, fresh fragrance. It was hard to describe—like climbing a snow-capped mountain and encountering a spring stream that had just broken through the ice, trickling down a snowy path untouched by green moss.
“Hi.” The voice that spoke was equally cool.
Cheng Xiang looked up. “Ah?”
She didn’t have social anxiety—not in the slightest. Yet for some reason, the tip of her tongue pressed against the back of her teeth.
She didn’t say, “What a coincidence,” because she wasn’t even sure if the yujie had walked over because she recognized her. Perhaps she hadn’t recognized her at all, and had only approached because in a room full of trendy people, Cheng Xiang was the only one who had shed her bulky down jacket, leaving it draped beside her to reveal a faded, slightly pilling, out-of-season blue-purple athletic sweatshirt with a checkmark on the left breast.
She couldn’t possibly want to ask where she bought this sweatshirt, could she? Hahaha.
It was the yujie who spoke first. “What a coincidence.”
Cheng Xiang breathed a sigh of relief for some reason and grinned. This opening line, truth be told, was a little cheesy.
The yujie asked, “Are you alone?”
Hahaha, even cheesier.
“No, I’m with a friend. She went to the restroom and has been gone for quite a while.”
The yujie indicated the empty seat opposite her with her gaze. “May I sit for a bit?”
“Ah? Oh, sure, please sit.” But why did she want to sit down?
The yujie glanced down at the glass in Cheng Xiang’s hand. “Are you drinking?”
What a question. What else would someone drink at a bar? AD Calcium Milk4?
It wasn’t even that color, anyway.
Cheng Xiang said, “Yes.”
“Do you usually drink?”
“Occasionally I’ll drink beer with friends, but not often.”
The yujie raised her chin slightly. “The drink you ordered has a pretty high alcohol content.”
“Ah?” Cheng Xiang paused for a moment. “Really…”
“There are no low-alcohol drinks in this bar.”
Well, what else could she say? Even if she wanted to change it, she couldn’t.
Cheng Xiang smiled at her. “I’ll just make do then. It’s only one glass, it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“You don’t have to drink.”
“Then what should I drink?” She hadn’t seen any juice or anything on the menu earlier.
“How about yogurt?”
“Hahaha.” Cheng Xiang laughed. “You’re very funny.”
The yujie raised her hand and placed a small, round, cartoon-branded tub of yogurt on the counter.
It was the exact cartoon-branded green grape drinking yogurt that Cheng Xiang loved most. The very same flavor the yujie had been sipping when she leaned against the Bentley Bentayga on the day Cheng Xiang first saw her.
The yujie tapped her knuckles lightly against the counter. “Your friend should be back soon. I’ll head back over.”
“Ah? Oh, okay.” Cheng Xiang swallowed the “goodbye” that had risen to her lips. There probably wouldn’t be another chance for them to meet again anyway.
The yujie walked away, taking her cool fragrance with her.
So… what had she even come and sat here for?
In the distance, Cheng Xiang spotted Qin Ziqiao walking back from the direction of the restrooms.
For some inexplicable reason, she suddenly reached out, grabbed the yogurt and the straw from the counter, and stuffed them into her canvas bag.
Qin Ziqiao returned to the table. “This bar is insanely popular. The line for the restroom was so long.”
“Oh, really?”
“What are you doing?”
“Taking photos.” Cheng Xiang nudged her chin toward the two glasses. “Pretty, right?”
“No matter how pretty they are, they’re not worth a hundred and fifty yuan. Rich people are so easy to swindle.” Qin Ziqiao climbed back onto her stool. “Nothing happened while I was gone, right?”
“What could have happened?”
“True. It’s not like anyone would hit on you.” Qin Ziqiao teased.
“Haha.” Cheng Xiang touched the tip of her nose. “Hahaha.”
Cheng Xiang had never kept a secret from Qin Ziqiao in her life.
But this time, for some inexplicable reason, she didn’t mention the yujie for the time being.
“Wanna taste?” Qin Ziqiao lifted her glass.
“Then I’ll count one, two, three.”
“What’s with the need for ceremony?”
“Come on! It’s a hundred and fifty a glass!”
She swallowed the liquid, and it burned the back of her throat, making her choke slightly.
Cheng Xiang held back a cough, pretending to look profound as she said, “This is the taste of life.”
“Pfft.” Qin Ziqiao let out a rare laugh, though her face remained deadpan. “And what does life taste like?”
“A taste of complete barrenness,” Cheng Xiang shrugged.
After taking two sips, Cheng Xiang asked, “Are we just going to drink this straight?”
She scanned the room.
She noticed that quite a few people were indeed just drinking like that. Some also had nuts and melon with ham.
Qin Ziqiao spotted a QR code on the table. “We should be able to scan that to order food. Give it a scan.”
Cheng Xiang scanned it. Such a tiny plate of nuts was eighty yuan—it scared her to death.
Forget it, forget it. She raised her glass and clinked it against Qin Ziqiao’s. “We’ll just drink it straight.”
On the other side.
Tao Tianran returned to the bar counter. Resting her chin on one hand, she had put down her glass and instead picked up two or three almonds from the nut dish, holding them in her palm as she watched Yi Yu shake the cocktail shaker behind the bar.
Yi Yu suddenly set down the shaker. “I finally figured out why you egged me on to open this bar!”
“Mm?” Tao Tianran raise her eyelids slightly lazily.
Yi Yu pointed at her. “You just saw that I was too idle! You figured that instead of me tossing diamonds around for fun at the company, I might as well come to a bar and shake cocktail shakers for fun!”
Tao Tianran shot her a sidelong glance.
“But what about you, beautiful?” Yi Yu leaned in closer. “You sit here every single night. With your figure and face, my business has been booming. But weren’t you working overtime every day before this?”
Yi Yu squinted. “Is your workload not saturated enough lately?”
Tao Tianran countered, “Typical capitalist rhetoric.”
“But seriously, you’ve been coming here for a whole week straight. Every single night. You’re not exactly someone who enjoys crowds.” Yi Yu crossed one arm, resting her other hand’s thumb against her chin. “What are you doing here? Waiting for someone?”
Tao Tianran had been staring down at her glass the entire time, but now she looked up. “Who am I waiting for?”
“Well…” Yi Yu clicked her tongue, rubbing her chin as her eyes swept across the bar. “Let see… I don’t think there’s anyone here who fits your type.”
Even though her bar’s decor perfectly hit the latest trends, and the girls here were all slender-waisted, long-legged, and impeccably made up, making Yi Yu squint with satisfaction.
But this wasn’t just anyone; this was Tao Tianran—Teacher Tao.
She wasn’t merely a flower on a high peak5—she was an icy wasteland where not a single blade of grass could grow. She was a gemstone buried tens of thousands of meters beneath the geological crust, entirely unmoved by the mortal world.
Yi Yu’s gaze finally landed on the only two girls who wore simple sweatshirts and had no makeup on. One had a hime-cut and a very sour face, while the other… how to put it? She looked like a little animal.
She had delicate eyes and brows; the moment she spoke, she would smile, the cute little rolls beneath her eyes plumping up. She looked incredibly cheerful.
“Pfft,” Yi Yu said. “You couldn’t possibly be waiting for her, could you?”
Tao Tianran followed Yi Yu’s gaze and looked over. She paused for a moment before slowly pulling her gaze back, giving Yi Yu a cold look.
“Hahaha.” Yi Yu waved her hands repeatedly. “I’m just joking. Hey, look.”
She called to Tao Tianran again. “Look over there.”
“What is it?” Tao Tianran raised her hand to brush her long, straight black hair over her shoulder. “Aren’t you paying a bit too much attention to her?”
“I’m not the only one paying attention to her.” Yi Yu chuckled. “I’m telling you to look—someone went over to strike up a conversation. Heh, does everyone prefer this cute type nowadays?”
Tao Tianran’s hand, which had been brushing her hair, paused before dropping back down to grip her glass on the counter.
“Actually, you know what…” Yi Yu was still watching the scene unfold. “That girl might look pretty average at first glance. But if you look closely…”
“She’s not average?” Tao Tianran asked.
“Not at all! She’s incredibly sweet and obedient-looking.” Yi Yu curled her lips. “Hey, are you going to look? The one who approached them is inviting them to sit at their table.”
Thud.
Yi Yu’s shoulders shook. “Why did you put your glass down so hard all of a sudden? You startled me.”
“Oh,” Tao Tianran said expressionlessly. “My hand slipped.”
Just moments before, someone had approached Cheng Xiang’s table. “Hello.”
Cheng Xiang looked up. The person who had walked over was a woman with her hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a simple white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her outfit was minimalist, but she wore elaborate ear cuffs and studs, and her left wrist was stacked with layers of bracelets.
She wore no makeup but had an effortless sense of style, and unlike the other trendy patrons, she didn’t seem cold or unapproachable.
Cheng Xiang said, “Oh, hello.”
“Is this your first time here?”
Cheng Xiang said honestly, “Yes.”
The woman smiled. “You don’t look like regulars.” She pointed toward another table. “My friend and I are also here for the first time. Would you like to share a table?”
Cheng Xiang quietly glanced at Qin Ziqiao.
Qin Ziqiao’s look said: Up to you.
So Cheng Xiang nodded, “Sure.”
The two of them stood up and followed the woman to the other table. The moment she sat down, Cheng Xiang immediately regretted it—a total big shot was sitting there, her aura so massive it nearly scared her to death.
Like the yujie from earlier, she also had long, straight black hair. But her features weren’t as thin as the yujie’s; she had an oval face with a classic, gentle warmth, and this soft, refined look actually highlighted her icy coldness even more.
The woman in the white shirt pointed to herself. “I’m Emilia.” Then she gestured toward the striking figure beside her. “And this is my boss, Giselle. She only recently returned to the country.”
No wonder, Cheng Xiang thought. Her presence really is on a different level. Sitting there, she looks like an official inspecting the local populace.
“Uh,” Cheng Xiang scratched her head. “I don’t have an English name. My name is Cheng Xiang.”
She gestured toward Qin Ziqiao with the corner of her eye.
“I don’t have one either,” Qin Ziqiao said coolly. “But the animals I care for do.”
“What are they called?” the woman in the white shirt asked with a smile.
“Capybara.”
Pfft. Cheng Xiang nearly burst out laughing. That was literally just the phonetic translation of water pig. But the capybara Qin Ziqiao raised really was named Capybara, while the other one was named “Beautiful”—though she had no idea why anyone would name a capybara “Beautiful.”
The woman in the white shirt asked Cheng Xiang, “Is Cheng Xiang your real name?”
“Yes, it is.”
“That’s such a grand name.”
“Ah, you mean it sounds like the high official ‘Prime Minister,’ right? It’s actually not,” Cheng Xiang waved her hand. “It’s the character for ‘alley.’ Like a narrow lane or a hutong. It’s actually a very modest name, but my mom used to worry that the homophone sounded too grand. When I was little, she was terrified that I’d fall ill or something, believing that a name too grand makes a child hard to raise6. Even though I’m fully grown now, whenever I go out, she’s still constantly worried I’ll get into a car accident.”
Cheng Xiang was a chatterbox, and once she started talking, she tended to ramble.
“Alright, let’s skip the English names then. I’m Luo Yan,” the woman in the white shirt said, pointing to herself. She added, “But my boss might not find it convenient to…”
Instead, the big shot sitting in the corner took the initiative to speak. “Qiao Zhiji.”
“Oh, hello, hello.” Cheng Xiang nodded hurriedly.
“Please, sit,” Luo Yan welcomed them. “My boss just got back to the country and wanted to look around. Because of our line of work, we need to maintain a basic understanding of different sectors of society. Don’t be stiff. She won’t ask you any questions; just chat normally among yourselves.”
She pushed the fruit platter and nuts on the table toward them. “Help yourselves.”
Wow, there were free nuts to eat.
Cheng Xiang again glanced at Qin Ziqiao from the corner of her eye.
Qin Ziqiao kicked her lightly under the table. Cheng Xiang pursed her lips, holding back a smile.
Could she really be doing this just for a plate of free nuts? Was she really that pathetic? Clearly, she was doing this to observe the habitual movements and gestures of people of different ages and backgrounds, okay? It was useful material for her comics!
She asked Luo Yan, “What industry are you guys in?”
Luo Yan laughed. “You really have never been to a bar, have you?”
“Huh?”
“Actually,” Luo Yan said gently, “it’s usually best not to share your real name, and try not to reveal too much personal information.”
“Oh, really?” Cheng Xiang grinned. “Sorry about that.”
Kids who grew up in the hutongs were just like that—sometimes their sense of boundaries was a bit weak. This was especially true for her, given that her mother, Director Ma, was an overly enthusiastic neighborhood committee director.
“It’s fine.”
The four of them—or rather, the three of them—chatted for a while. Seeing that it was getting late, Cheng Xiang and Qin Ziqiao stood up to say goodbye.
As they passed the main bar counter in the center, Cheng Xiang cast a swift glance over, only to find that the yujie was no longer there.
When had she left? Cheng Xiang hadn’t noticed at all.
As they walked out of the bar, someone chased after them. “Cheng Xiang.”
Cheng Xiang looked back—it was Luo Yan.
Luo Yan approached her, holding her phone. “Is it convenient to add each other on WeChat?”
“Ah?” Cheng Xiang was slightly dazed, habitually glancing at Qin Ziqiao again.
Luo Yan smiled. “It’s good to be wary of strangers, but we’ve already exchanged real names, haven’t we?” She reached into her jeans pocket, retrieved a cardholder, pulled out a business card, and handed it to Cheng Xiang. “Let me introduce myself formally. Luo Yan, attorney at Beicheng Jianshi Law Firm.”
“Ah.” Cheng Xiang hurriedly accepted it.
She looked at the card—it was so well-made, and even had gold foil lettering.
Cheng Xiang rubbed her palm against her jeans. “Um, sorry. I don’t have a business card.”
Just her tiny, crappy company in that office building smelling of shredded pork with green peppers.
“It’s fine,” Luo Yan chuckled. “That’s why I said we should add each other on WeChat.”
“Alright then.” Cheng Xiang pulled out her phone, touched the tip of her nose, and scanned the QR code to add Luo Yan.
“Well, I’ll head back inside to find my boss.” Luo Yan glanced at Cheng Xiang’s WeChat profile picture, a slight smile brushing her lips as she walked back into the bar.
Cheng Xiang stood at the entrance of the bar for a couple of seconds, then carefully nudged Qin Ziqiao. “Tell me.”
“What?”
“Does this count as being hit on…” Cheng Xiang pointed at herself in disbelief. “Being hit on? Me?”
“Although I really want to say no,” Qin Ziqiao frowned, “I think… it seems like it is.”
“Ugh…”
She didn’t feel even a shred of pride or smugness; it was just surprise, pure surprise.
On the other side, Tao Tianran received a phone call from Yi Yu. Yi Yu said, “I just had a belated realization.”
“Mm.”
“Were you angry when you left the bar?”
Tao Tianran poured a thin stream of red wine into a decanter. Dressed in crescent-white silk pajamas with long sleeves and trousers, she sat up straight against the back of the sofa. “Why would I be angry?”
“How should I know why you’re angry? It’s just that looking at your face, I got a feeling.”
“You can tell just by looking at my face?”
“Haha, hahaha. Well, you really shouldn’t be able to. Anyway, your face is always so cold. Hanging up, hanging up.”
Hanging up the phone, Tao Tianran poured herself a glass of wine and leaned back against the sofa once more.
She recalled the final glance she had cast toward Cheng Xiang’s table as she left the bar. Cheng Xiang had been chatting with an unfamiliar woman in a white shirt, and…
She had been smiling so incredibly happily.
Footnotes
- 'Pánsīdòng' (盘丝洞) refers to the Cave of the Coiled Web from the classical novel 'Journey to the West', inhabited by beautiful spider demons. In modern slang, it describes a place filled with attractive women.
- 'Kǎpíbālā' (卡皮巴拉) is the phonetic Chinese rendering of capybara, often used online to represent a state of supreme, unbothered chill.
- 'Yǔjiě' (御姐) is a modern subcultural slang term derived from Japanese 'onee-sama', describing a cool, mature, elegant, and independent older sister figure who possesses a sophisticated and magnetic charm.
- 'AD Gàinǎi' (AD钙奶) is a highly popular sweet, yogurt-like children's milk beverage in China, produced by Wahaha, representing a nostalgic childhood drink.
- 'Gāolǐng zhī huā' (高岭之花), literally 'flower on a high peak', is an idiom referring to an untouchable, aloof beauty who seems completely out of reach.
- 'Míngzi dà bù hǎo yǎnghuo' (名字大不好养活) is a traditional Chinese folk belief that giving a child a name that is too grand or noble (like 'Prime Minister') will invite misfortune or bad health, making them difficult to raise safely.
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