The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 56
by Little PandaFingers
“To climb from my place to your waist.”
[I fear you, you are strange and miraculous.]
Cheng Xiang wasn’t in the restroom for very long—only a matter of minutes.
By the time she ran back and sat down at the table, facing Luo Yan, she found herself even more at a loss for how to open her mouth.
She had no choice but to clear her throat and execute a zero-frame startup1. Sigh, why were there so many moments tonight that required a zero-frame startup? “Actually, what I meant was… you’re a really, really good friend.”
After she spoke, she added, “An exceptionally good one.”
Luo Yan smiled, raising her glass to take a sip.
Setting it back on the table, she finally said, “We haven’t even gotten to know each other properly, and you’ve already ruled me out.”
“Ah, I…” Cheng Xiang was utterly tongue-tied and could only repeat herself. “I really do think you’re wonderful.”
Luo Yan leaned back in her chair and looked at her. “That’s exactly where the problem lies, isn’t it? I’m too good, which means I’m not the one who can actually stir your emotions.”
Resting her chin on the heel of a hand adorned with an intricate bracelet, she added, “I’m genuinely a little curious. You seem like such a good-tempered girl. Who could you possibly think of as ‘bad’?”
Luo Yan had meant it half-jokingly.
But Cheng Xiang’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
It was a bizarre sensation.
Who could possibly stir up so many of her emotions?
For whom would she twirl an umbrella on a rainy day, only to fall silent and watch the water droplets slowly slide down the canopy?
For whom would she lie on a dental chair having a tooth pulled, tears suddenly rolling from the corners of her eyes—not from pain at all?
Could… such a person even exist?
She merely offered Luo Yan a small smile.
Luo Yan said, “Why are you acting so silly?”
“Huh?”
“Clearly, no such person has shown up yet, right? If you were smart, you’d at least try spending some time with me first.” Luo Yan curled her lips playfully.
“Ah,” Cheng Xiang laughed, scratching her head. “That’s true. Actually, I’ve never seemed very bright since I was a kid.”
Luo Yan asked, “Shall we go?”
Sigh, Cheng Xiang felt guilty all over again.
So she asked Luo Yan, “Do you want to eat anything else? I can ask the server to bring the snack menu. Why don’t you order some melon and ham? It’s on me.”
Luo Yan laughed again.
Cheng Xiang also felt she was being rather silly.
Luo Yan had only just started showing interest, yet she had already rejected her. She didn’t know any smoother way to express her embarrassment and apology.
The two of them walked out of the bar.
Luo Yan asked, “Will there be such a person?”
“What?”
“That person who makes you feel they’re ‘bad’.”
Cheng Xiang looked up at the moon hanging in the night sky. She opened her mouth and closed it again, as if swallowing a mouthful of cold moonlight that now churned inside her stomach.
“I don’t,” she said softly, “know either.”
When the two of them walked out, Yi Yu was busy eating melon2 behind the bar. “Hey, hey, hey! They’re leaving. Did they hit it off?!”
“Teacher Tao, are your eyes bothering you tonight? Why do I feel like you keep glaring at me?”
Tao Tianran tapped her knuckles on the bar counter and ordered another drink.
“Stop focusing so much on drinking. Tell me, did they make it official or what?”
“No.”
“How do you know? I think their prospects look great!”
Tao Tianran stood up, scanned the QR code to pay, picked up her Hermès Bolide, and walked out of the bar.
“Why are you leaving already? You just ordered that drink! At least chat about some gossip with me before you go!”
Cheng Xiang returned home. After taking a shower, she sat cross-legged on her bed with a towel draped over her shoulders.
Every time she tried to mimic female leads in TV dramas by wrapping her hair beautifully in a towel, she failed.
She lowered her head, staring at her phone.
In her contacts, a new entry had been added: 「TTR」.
When she opened WeChat and linked it to her contacts, Tao Tianran’s account popped up under the 「New Friends」 section, prompting her to add Tao Tianran as a friend.
Cheng Xiang examined the tiny profile picture closely.
There was nothing there—just a blank white space, like an empty field of snow.
It practically looked like a fake account.
Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Cheng Xiang pondered: should she actually add Tao Tianran?
Cheng Xiang simply felt that Tao Tianran was very unique, much like her name, “Tianran,” which meant natural. She wasn’t the kind of person who belonged in Cheng Xiang’s life. She felt miles away from office buildings smelling of stir-fried shredded pork with green peppers, crowded buses, and the cracked flowerpots in the siheyuan3 courtyard.
While Cheng Xiang was still hesitating, a new notification flashed on her screen.
Tao Tianran requested to add her as a friend!
Instinctively, Cheng Xiang yanked the towel off, tossed it aside, threw her phone down next to it, and buried her face in the crook of her elbow, her legs kicking up into the air twice.
Outside, Director Ma banged loudly on the door. “Xiao Xiang! Did you neglect to blow-dry your hair again? Let me tell you, when you get older, you’re going to get migraines!”
“Coming!” Cheng Xiang took a deep breath and sat up.
Opening the door, she went into Director Ma’s room to get the hair dryer.
Director Ma followed behind her, giving her pajamas—damp from the tips of her wet hair—a light pat. “Look at you. Such a big kid, yet so utterly carefree. Tell me, who on earth is ever going to fall for you?”
Cheng Xiang whipped her head around.
“Oh? Why are you looking at me like that?” Director Ma raised an eyebrow. “Could it be that someone actually does like you?”
Cheng Xiang thought, At least someone has feelings for me, hmph.
Director Ma laughed at her own thought. “Even if someone does, would you even know what to do? You’re already in your twenties, but I swear you still haven’t opened up to romance yet. Tell me, who could you possibly like?”
“That’s hard to say.” Cheng Xiang shuffled into the inner room in her slippers. “Your daughter has very high standards.”
After work the next day, Cheng Xiang went to find Qin Ziqiao.
“What’s with that face?” Qin Ziqiao asked.
“I told the lawyer sister.” Today, Cheng Xiang wasn’t sitting in her computer chair. Instead, she was clutching a throw pillow, curled up on the sofa like a dried shrimp.
“Told her what?”
“That she’s a really good friend.” Cheng Xiang emphasized once more, “An exceptionally good one.”
Qin Ziqiao gave her a sidelong glance.
“What?”
“Not bad, Xiangzi,” Qin Ziqiao let out a brief snort of laughter. “You’ve actually unlocked the achievement of handing out a good person card4.”
Cheng Xiang sat up on the sofa and threw the pillow at Qin Ziqiao. “You’re mocking me!”
Qin Ziqiao raised her arm in a blocking motion like some martial arts master, and the pillow fell to the floor with a soft plop.
She asked, “So what happened next? Has the lawyer sister messaged you since then?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“How does it feel?”
“To be honest,” Cheng Xiang clutched her chest, “I feel a tiny bit disappointed.”
“You!” Qin Ziqiao rolled her eyes at her. “You’re just never satisfied.”
“Really,” Cheng Xiang said. “I’m only telling you the truth because it’s you. I do feel a little empty, a little disappointed.”
They both laughed.
Cheng Xiang stretched out her legs and looked at her feet. She was wearing a pair of toe socks today, and her toes wriggled back and forth.
Qin Ziqiao spoke up, “Why aren’t you asking me anymore?”
“Asking you what?”
“Ever since high school, whenever you saw someone around us dating, you’d sigh and ask me why you never fell for anyone. Then you’d start questioning if there was something wrong with you.”
“Yes.” Cheng Xiang nodded solemnly. “You too. You’ve never fallen for anyone either. I suspect there’s something wrong with you as well.”
“Get lost.”
“Ha!”
“But this time, you aren’t asking me? You’re not dragging me into those endless questions about what kind of person you’ll eventually fall for?”
Cheng Xiang blinked twice, picked up the pillow again, and hugged it to her chest.
“I’ll know, right?”
“Know what?”
“If I really meet someone like that one day, I’ll know, won’t I?”
Qin Ziqiao stared at Cheng Xiang, her eyes narrowing slowly.
“Cheng Xiang.”
“Why are you suddenly using my full name? You scared me.”
“Is there… something going on?”
“Huh—?” Cheng Xiang waved her hands frantically. “No, no, no. What could possibly be going on?”
She still hadn’t accepted Tao Tianran’s WeChat friend request.
She couldn’t even explain why to herself. She just felt that Tao Tianran was someone far too distant from her actual life.
So distant she felt almost unreal.
Over the next few days, at Kunpu.
In the conference room, a designer crossed her arms tightly. “Did a late spring cold snap hit?”
“Brr, I feel cold too.” Yi Yu immediately called her assistant over. “Go check if the heating is broken. Can it be repaired? If not, replace it.”
“Big Boss, this office building has central air conditioning…”
“Then replace the whole building for me!”
Only Tao Tianran sat silently to one side with a cold face, holding a Montblanc fountain pen, only to put it down and reach for her phone.
She opened WeChat and took a look.
It was completely quiet. There was no notification of her friend request being accepted.
Once the meeting wrapped up, Tao Tianran stopped Yi Yu. “I deleted you from WeChat.”
“You what?”
“Try adding me again.”
“Oh.” Yi Yu sent Tao Tianran a friend request. “Why?”
“Testing to see if there’s an issue with my phone.” Tao Tianran looked down at WeChat, then walked away clutching her phone.
Yi Yu jumped up and down behind her, shouting, “Hey! At least add me back!”
Having worked overtime, Cheng Xiang was eating lunch in the office that day.
That was the worst part about eating takeout in the office—the smell of stir-fried shredded pork with green peppers in the hallway was so strong that whatever you ate tasted like it.
Clutching her phone, Cheng Xiang planned to find a trending drama to watch. Habitually opening WeChat, she saw Tao Tianran’s friend request.
She didn’t know what had possessed her, but with a tap of her finger, she accepted it.
Wait! This, this, this—why is there no recall option for accepting a WeChat friend request?
Cheng Xiang scrambled in a flurry. A few of her colleagues had ordered stir-fry together, and someone called out to her, “Xiangzi, if you don’t eat now, they’re going to snatch up all the meat.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m eating.” Cheng Xiang’s gaze didn’t drift toward her lunchbox at all.
A colleague asked, “Is your phone really that interesting?”
“Just… looking at something random.”
Now, she and Tao Tianran were WeChat friends.
Tao Tianran’s profile picture was just a solid white block, and her display name was a simple “Tao Tianran.”
Cheng Xiang clicked into her Moments.
She couldn’t tell if Tao Tianran had blocked her from viewing them or if she simply never posted anything. It was entirely blank.
It looked even more like a fake account now.
Just as she was chewing on the tip of her chopstick, deep in thought, Tao Tianran suddenly sent her a message.
Huh? Had she noticed that quickly?
Tao Tianran had sent a link to an address, asking: 【Is this near your office?】
The area around Cheng Xiang’s office was packed with narrow alleys, like a spiderweb. Some shops were truly difficult to find.
Why did Tao Tianran keep heading toward her office anyway?
Still, this district did have quite a few artsy little shops.
Taking a look, Cheng Xiang picked up her phone, pressed the voice message button, and whispered back, “Yeah, it is. Are you going there?”
On second thought, she wondered why she had sent a voice message out of nowhere.
She tapped ‘Recall’, then stood up and walked over to the printer. “Hey, Sister Liu, is the printer out of paper?”
“Oh, yes, it’s all used up. I ordered some online, but it hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Ah, all right then.”
Returning to her desk, Cheng Xiang pulled out a tissue, uncapped a gel pen, and began to draw with her head lowered.
Tao Tianran held her phone.
Cheng Xiang had sent her two responses.
The first was a voice note—her voice soft and small—which was immediately recalled.
The second was a photo. To be precise, it was a hand-drawn “map” by Cheng Xiang.
For some reason, it had been drawn on a tissue. The black ink from the gel pen had bled in varying shades onto the paper, giving the “map” a clumsy yet adorable quality.
Yet it was detailed, clearly marking the locations of florist shops, convenience stores, and fruit stands along the way.
With this “map” in hand, Tao Tianran should have no trouble finding her way.
Her assistant knocked and poked her head in. “Teacher Tao, the Big Boss is looking for you.”
Tao Tianran walked into Yi Yu’s office.
“Going to the bar tonight?” Yi Yu stood up and slung an arm around her shoulder, only for Tao Tianran to brush it off.
Yi Yu pouted. “Let me hitch a ride with you. My car was sent in for repairs.”
“Don’t you have other cars?”
“Their license plates are too high-profile.”
“How did the car get damaged?”
“Sigh, wasn’t that paint of mine supposed to be scratch-proof no matter what? Well, I recently acquired a raw diamond, and I just thought, if I scratched the paint with a raw diamond…”
Tao Tianran got the picture.
In two words—itchy hands.
She turned toward the door. “I’m not going to the bar tonight.”
“Hey! Why is it that the moment I want a ride, you decide not to go? Aren’t you going to wait for your little mouse?”
“Not a little mouse, a fancy rat5.” Tao Tianran looked back. “The one you can wait for is a rabbit. Apparently, you can’t wait for a fancy rat.”
The more annoying her work got, the more she wanted to slack off.
She quietly looked up the address Tao Tianran had sent.
And discovered it was a tiny theater.
It was called 「Wutong」, a very artsy kind of place. The miniature stage was only about five square meters, with a total of three rows of seats wrapping around it in a semi-circle.
Tao Tianran was actually going to a place like this?
“Xiao Cheng!”
Sigh, her boss was back.
Cheng Xiang worked all the way until 8:30 PM before she could finally log off. Director Ma sent her a voice note: “Are you coming back for dinner?”
Cheng Xiang held down the voice recording button and gave her usual response: “What’s on the menu?”
“Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and shredded pork in sweet bean sauce. But let me tell you, there’s not much shredded pork left.”
Cheng Xiang thought about it. “Fine, I’ll head back.”
Going downstairs, she still wanted to buy a bottle of yogurt to tide herself over.
For some reason, she habitually glanced toward the roadside—and that Bentley was actually parked right there.
Tao Tianran was leaning against the car.
Cheng Xiang pursed her lips and walked over. “What’s wrong? Couldn’t find it?”
Under the moonlight, Tao Tianran looked down at her. “Yeah.”
“And here I thought I drew the map clearly enough.” Cheng Xiang grinned.
Tao Tianran’s gaze drifted to the tip of her nose, which was slightly scrunched up. “Maybe I’m… a little foolish.”
Wow—Cheng Xiang could hardly describe the feeling in her heart at that moment.
How could anyone understand the contrast of someone who looked so incredibly sharp calling herself foolish?
Cheng Xiang reached out and fiddled with the little bear pendant hanging from her canvas bag. “How about I lead the way?”
“Won’t that take up too much of your time?”
“No, not at all. It’s close by.”
“Then… thank you.”
“This way.”
Cheng Xiang led Tao Tianran forward.
Ah, you acted too impulsively, Xiangzi. Friendly as she was, for the first time she regretted offering to lead the way, because walking together, they really had nothing to talk about.
So Cheng Xiang feigned curiosity. “What kind of place is this address you’re looking for?”
“A small theater.”
“A theater? Do they put on plays?”
“They put on some avant-garde plays. But tonight, it’s a poetry reading.”
Wow, how artistic.
Cheng Xiang nodded. The two of them continued walking, falling back into silence.
There was only the shifting intensity of the moonlight, and their light, rhythmic footsteps.
They passed a twenty-four-hour convenience store. They walked past a cafe glowing with warm yellow light. They passed a flower shop that was closing up, withered roses discarded by the roadside in a display of decadent romance.
For some reason, Cheng Xiang’s mind suddenly drifted back to high school, when self-study class dismissed at night.
Riding her bicycle all the way home back then, she would always pass through many narrow alleys just like these.
It had been the exact same kind of night back then—just as quiet. She used to imagine what kind of person she would meet in the future.
Cheng Xiang led Tao Tianran all the way to the entrance of the theater. “We’re here.”
Tao Tianran nodded. “Thank you.”
Cheng Xiang licked her lips, really having nothing left to say. So she waved her hand at Tao Tianran. “I’ll head off now, then.”
With her bag slung over her shoulder, she walked ahead until she reached the pool of light beneath a streetlamp.
“Xiao Xiang.” Tao Tianran’s voice sounded from behind her.
She looked back.
Tao Tianran’s slender figure leaned lightly against the gray brick wall of the theater entrance. Only then did she open her mouth to ask, “Do you want to come inside and take a look?”
It felt like a spontaneous whim.
Like nothing had been planned.
Cheng Xiang blinked.
It took her two seconds to ask, “Are tickets expensive?”
The moment the words left her mouth, she wanted to bite her tongue off.
The corner of Tao Tianran’s mouth twitched up imperceptibly before smoothing out. “You just need to buy a thirty-five-yuan beer.”
“Oh, oh.” Carrying her canvas bag, Cheng Xiang walked back toward Tao Tianran.
Tao Tianran watched her.
“Aren’t we going in?” Cheng Xiang tilted her face up slightly to look at Tao Tianran, offering a wide grin. There was a streetlamp directly above Tao Tianran’s head as well, casting its light over the tiny mole near the corner of her eye.
“Oh.” Tao Tianran reached out to push open the wooden door, waiting for Cheng Xiang to step inside before following her in.
This was Cheng Xiang’s first time in a place like this.
At the entrance sat a small wooden table, behind which a young-looking girl was seated. Tao Tianran walked over. “Two drink tickets, please.”
Standing behind her, Cheng Xiang hurriedly pulled out her phone. “I’ll pay for my own, I’ll pay for my own.”
Tao Tianran didn’t object, and the two of them scanned the codes to pay thirty-five yuan each.
As they walked inside together, Cheng Xiang noticed that no one had handed them any drinks.
Tao Tianran explained, “The drink cooler is inside. We can pick them out ourselves in a bit.”
“Oh, oh.” Cheng Xiang nodded. “Do you come here often?”
“Not particularly often.”
“You seem really familiar with the place.”
Yes, she was a little familiar with it.
Once, in the past, Tao Tianran had opened Cheng Xiang’s computer to look for a file and accidentally clicked into a hidden folder, expecting she might run into adult videos or something similar.
Instead, what popped up was an Excel spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet listed various shops, mostly artsy little spots near Cheng Xiang’s office. Each was color-coded and annotated by Cheng Xiang: ‘Go on Valentine’s Day’, ‘Go on April Fool’s Day’, ‘Go on Labor Day’.
Though Tao Tianran still didn’t understand why anyone would go to a miniature aquarium on Labor Day.
She had skimmed through them, memorized several of the shop names, and closed the file.
In reality, they had never visited those places afterward.
Sometimes it was because either she or Cheng Xiang had to work overtime and couldn’t make it. Other times, she had taken Cheng Xiang to upscale restaurants to eat steak or escargot.
Cheng Xiang’s happiness had been somewhat shy back then. She had sat neatly at the table draped in white cloth, pressing her lips together, her fingertips lightly touching the gleaming silver cutlery before her.
Now, Tao Tianran had dug them up and brought Cheng Xiang here.
Leading her to the drink cooler, she asked, “What do you want to drink?”
“Can we choose anything?” Cheng Xiang scanned the two shelves inside.
“Yes.”
Cheng Xiang looked very well-behaved, appearing slightly indecisive.
Tao Tianran suggested, “Have an Asahi.”
“Why?” Cheng Xiang recalled the drinking yogurt Tao Tianran had given her. “Is it because the alcohol content is low?”
Tao Tianran leaned in slightly closer, her cool breath brushing against the side of Cheng Xiang’s neck. “Because it’s expensive.”
Cheng Xiang suddenly laughed.
Her neck felt so ticklish that she wanted to raise her hand to rub it, but she barely managed to restrain herself.
She said to the young woman tending the cooler, “An Asahi, please.”
Meanwhile, Tao Tianran ordered a Yanjing—the contrast was striking.
The two of them went to sit in the audience section.
Taking a seat on a long bench made of dark teakwood, Cheng Xiang asked, “Can we sit anywhere?”
“Yes.”
Cheng Xiang sat down, and Tao Tianran took a seat right beside her.
The distance between them was neither too close nor too far—the kind of space where a slight shift of a knee wouldn’t bump into the other person’s leg.
And yet, it wasn’t distant either. At this range, whenever Tao Tianran spoke to her, she would lower her voice slightly.
Cheng Xiang asked, “By the way, what’s being recited tonight?”
She figured it would be Shelley, Dickinson, or someone of the sort.
Ugh, Cheng Xiang felt a bit uncultured.
Instead, Tao Tianran said, “Time.”
“Time?”
“Yes. Any poem centered on that theme.”
“Oh.” Cheng Xiang nodded, clutching her beer bottle. Interesting.
The phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated, making her flinch.
She pulled it out to check, only to find a fifty-nine-second voice message from Director Ma.
Slipping out of Tao Tianran’s line of sight, she hid her phone against her right thigh and tapped 「Speech-to-Text」.
Director Ma rambled from the neighbor’s cat being about to give birth all the way to asking her to buy a bottle of soy sauce on her way home. There was absolutely no connection between any of her topics.
Cheng Xiang stealthily typed out a reply: 【Uh, Mom, I won’t be back for dinner.】
Director Ma replied instantly with another fifty-nine-second voice note.
Cheng Xiang instinctively wanted to cover her ears, as if Director Ma’s shrill voice were already ringing in them: “You promised you’d be back, and now you’re not! Don’t you know the heating is blasted in the house? If you don’t put the food in the fridge, it’ll spoil easily! What is wrong with you, child? You’re completely out of line!”
Cheng Xiang typed her reply: 【I’ll buy you two bottles of soy sauce tomorrow—one light, one dark—all right?】
Slipping her phone away, she sat up straight again, transforming back into a poised, artsy young woman of the modern metropolis.
People filtered in in twos and threes, and the seating was quite sparse.
The event began right on time. After the host went on stage to deliver a brief opening speech, members of the audience went up one by one.
Cheng Xiang held her beer, taking occasional sips.
This was her first time attending such an event. Aside from applauding whenever someone finished reciting, she didn’t know if she should behave as if she were watching a movie—leaning over during the highlights to whisper her thoughts to Tao Tianran.
Tao Tianran didn’t speak either.
Until the host walked back on stage and asked, “Is there anyone else signed up to recite tonight?”
Tao Tianran stood up.
Cheng Xiang was stunned.
The host smiled. “Please, go ahead.”
Tao Tianran leaned down, tucking a stray lock of black hair behind her ear as she whispered to Cheng Xiang, “Keep an eye on my beer for me, hm?”
Cheng Xiang had noticed that she loved saying “hm.”
With all sorts of intonations. All kinds of tones.
Her Yanjing bottle was placed into Cheng Xiang’s hand, carrying the faint warmth of her fingers.
The tone she used when she leaned down felt like she was speaking to a small child. Actually, her request was quite strange; she could have easily left the beer on the bench. Who would ever think of stealing it?
Once Tao Tianran left, a space opened up to Cheng Xiang’s left.
A small stage, a dark red leather bar stool, and a beam of light somewhere between ivory and almond-white cast down.
Tao Tianran sat within that pool of light.
Her white shirt was perpetually crisp, outlining her straight shoulders, but her face looked delicate and refined. Her left high heel rested on the rung of the stool, and her sleeves were casually rolled up to her elbows.
She adjusted the microphone. The theater’s sound system wasn’t particularly good, emitting a sharp, static-hissing crackle.
She began to speak in a low voice:
“I really want to kiss you
I see your lips are like a strawberry
I guess they must be sweet and red
At the thought of kissing you, my heart leaps
I fear you, you are strange and miraculous6
You dare not look into my eyes either
Your back to me, a cascade of black hair
My hand reaches out and hesitates, like a timid little animal
To climb from my place to your waist—this short distance7
Took me a whole hundred years.”
The poem wasn’t long. Tao Tianran stepped down from the stage and sat back down beside Cheng Xiang. Cheng Xiang noticed several people secretly staring at Tao Tianran, but she simply extended her hand toward Cheng Xiang. “How’s my beer? Is it doing all right?”
Not good, Cheng Xiang thought. Your beer is not doing well at all.
The scent of its alcohol is wafting over me, a bit too strong, making me feel a little dizzy as I look at you beneath the lights.
Tao Tianran was the very last speaker. When the event ended, they walked out of the bar together. A young girl ran up to Tao Tianran, her face flushing red before she even spoke, and asked if they could exchange contact information so they could meet up the next time there was an event at the theater.
Cheng Xiang, not quite understanding her own state of mind, immediately backed away three feet.
From a distance, she heard Tao Tianran tell the girl, “I’m sorry, but it’s not very convenient.”
Her tone was polite, yet cold.
Then she walked back over to Cheng Xiang’s side and asked, “What are you hiding for?”
“Huh? Hahaha, I just didn’t want to get in your way.”
Tao Tianran countered, “Have I gotten in yours?”
“Hm?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be adding a new older sister’s WeChat every week?”
My, she was teasing her.
Cheng Xiang smiled and shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
They walked slowly beneath the streetlamps. Cheng Xiang asked, “Why did you go up on stage to recite a poem?”
“Is it that surprising?”
“A little.” Cheng Xiang nodded. “You don’t really seem like the type.”
Tao Tianran paused before speaking. “It’s because I’m not very good at talking. Perhaps all I can do is read more poetry.”
Under the glow of the streetlamp, her gaze fell upon Cheng Xiang’s thick eyelashes. Her long, slender fingertips twitched slightly, only to be pulled back down with restraint.
Cheng Xiang felt a tickle on her cheek, only now realizing that a stray lock of hair had fallen loose.
Tucking the lock of hair back herself, she glanced at Tao Tianran’s cool, pale fingers. She was suddenly reminded of how Tao Tianran had looked just now under the stage light.
That cool, crisp voice, pressing out a low, husky whisper:
“My hand reaches out and hesitates, like a timid little animal.”
Footnotes
- 'líng zhēn qǐ shǒu' (零帧起手) is Chinese gaming and internet slang for taking immediate, unhesitating action with absolutely zero preparation time.
- 'chī guā' (吃瓜), literally 'eating melon', is a popular Chinese internet slang term used for spectating drama or gossiping as an amused bystander.
- 'sìhéyuàn' (四合院) is a traditional courtyard residence consisting of a symmetrical compound with buildings on four sides, typical of historical Beicheng housing.
- 'hǎorén kǎ' (好人卡), literally 'good person card', is modern slang for politely rejecting or friend-zoning a romantic prospect by saying they are a good friend.
- 'huāzhī shǔ' (花枝鼠) translates to fancy rat, a domesticated pet rat. Used here as Tao Tianran's private, affectionate internal metaphor for Cheng Xiang.
- 'wǒ hàipà nǐ, nǐ mòshēng ér shénqí' (我害怕你，你陌生而神奇) is a line expressing the vulnerability and intimidation of a sudden, deep emotional connection.
- 'cóng wǒ zhèlǐ pá dào nǐ yāojiān, zhè duàn duǎnduǎn de jùlí' (从我这里爬到你腰间，这段短短的距离) is a deeply romantic poetic line about overcoming immense time and distance to reach a loved one, symbolizing the struggle of her time loops.
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