The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 57
by Little PandaSubtle
The second physical touch.
[When I was still unable to recognize a heartbeat,
I called the feeling of facing you “nervousness.”]
Cheng Xiang followed Tao Tianran all the way back downstairs from the company, where Tao Tianran’s Bentley was parked on the side of the road.
Cheng Xiang’s heart was beating a little fast; the alcohol from that single bottle of Asahi was still playing tricks on her system. Her hand hung by the side of her jeans, thinking, What if Tao Tianran offers to drive me home? What will I do? It’s going to be so incredibly awkward on the road.
The two had walked in silence for a long time. Tao Tianran’s face looked too cold and aloof; even a chatterbox like Cheng Xiang was entirely out of moves.
Tao Tianran pulled out her car keys and unlocked the vehicle from a distance. Two beams of headlights cut through the dark night. Sure enough, she asked, “I’ve called a designated driver. How are you getting back?”
“Oh, I’ve already missed the last bus, but the subway is still running. I’ll just walk a bit further to reach the station.”
Tao Tianran gave another faint nod. “Then… goodbye.”
…Overthinking things again, Xiangzi!
Cheng Xiang swallowed the “No, no, no need to send me back” that had already reached the tip of her tongue. She waved her hand. “Goodbye.”
With her canvas bag slung over her shoulder, she ran forward at a brisk pace.
She ran quite fast at first, as if fleeing from something.
After running for a stretch, the subway station was right before her eyes, and her pace slowed instead. There were barely any people around at this hour. A towering streetlight seemed to look down upon the mortal realm, and at this time of year, insects waking from their slumber had already begun to bump against the lamp cover.
By a pear tree near the subway station, an elderly woman held a sheet of plastic tarp, gathering the fallen pear blossoms.
The air carried a warm scent. Cheng Xiang couldn’t say why, but her mood suddenly felt light. Stepping beneath the streetlamp, she spread her arms and spun in a circle, her canvas bag with its little bear pendant slapping against her plaid coat.
Only then did she realize she was smiling, and she raised a hand to rub the corners of her mouth.
She took the subway home. Inside, Director Ma was doing cross-stitch. Hearing her come in, she draped a coat over her shoulders, came out, and smacked Cheng Xiang’s shoulder. “Are you trying to die?! You said you’d come home for dinner, but then you didn’t!”
Cheng Xiang hopped out of range. “Mom, don’t copy Dad’s Haicheng accent, it sounds so bizarre.”
“Why didn’t you come back to eat all of a sudden?”
“Just…” Cheng Xiang didn’t even know why she was suddenly lying. “I had just reached the elevator when the boss suddenly called me back to work overtime.”
“I keep telling you that lousy little company of yours is no good. They don’t even pay for your five insurances and one fund1. Taking the civil service exam as soon as possible is the only sensible path.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll see, we’ll see.”
As Director Ma spoke, she suddenly leaned closer. “Have you been drinking?”
Cheng Xiang suddenly dodged away again. “What are you talking about? Drinking while working overtime—wouldn’t the boss fire me on the spot?”
“Anyway, I’m going to take a shower!” She scurried toward her bedroom, her bag still on her back.
Director Ma followed right behind her. “Take what I said about the civil service exam to heart, do you hear me?”
The next day, Cheng Xiang carried a jianbing2 into the office.
As soon as she walked in, she suddenly saw a massive bouquet of roses.
Several people were crowded around a female colleague. “Are you in a relationship? Congratulations!”
Cheng Xiang set down her jianbing and joined the chorus of smiling colleagues. “Congratulations!”
“Oh, stop,” the female colleague said shyly. “It’s nothing to congratulate me over. I’ll treat you all to a meal!”
Lying really does bring bad karma. Cheng Xiang had lied to Director Ma yesterday about being dragged back by the boss to work overtime, and sure enough, she was kept late tonight.
What’s worse than working overtime? It’s having every other colleague leave, while the boss singles you out to stay behind.
Hahaha. Cheng Xiang was practically laughing from sheer frustration.
After working past eight, she was too lazy to go eat a proper meal. She had long grown sick of the claypot rice and beef noodles in the neighborhood, so she simply slipped into a convenience store to buy a rice ball. When she went to the refrigerated display to grab a drinking yogurt, her finger took a turn. For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, she didn’t grab the green grape flavor, but picked up a random strawberry one instead.
When she returned to the office, the smell of shredded pork with green peppers in the hallway out front surprisingly hadn’t fully dissipated yet. The office’s main lights were already off, leaving only a warm yellow desk lamp lit on her desk.
She sat down in her computer chair, her heels propping against the floor as she spun halfway around. The plastic wrapper rustled loudly as she tore open the rice ball. Taking a large bite, she thought, If I hadn’t lied to Director Ma last night, would I have been spared from overtime tonight?
But why did she lie to Director Ma?
Cheng Xiang pinched the half-eaten rice ball, catching a stray grain of rice with her lips just before it could fall. Meanwhile, she opened WeChat on her phone. Tao Tianran lay quietly in her contact list, her alias changed to 「TTR」.
It was an inexplicable state of mind. She hadn’t mentioned Tao Tianran to Director Ma, nor had she told Qin Ziqiao, and even her contact alias was only implicitly written as 「TTR」.
It was as if this were a secret outside of her daily life.
Someone far removed from her life. Her own private secret.
At that time, she hadn’t thought about having any kind of development with Tao Tianran at all. Even when she saw the female colleague’s massive bouquet of roses, she didn’t associate it with Tao Tianran in her mind.
Tao Tianran was like… like a high-end restaurant one would never visit in daily life.
You would go once in a while, feeling very excited and carrying an inexplicable nervousness. You would tuck away your usual sprawling-on-the-sofa posture and sit up straight, pretending to be reserved. Yet in your heart, you knew very well that you wouldn’t go often, because the distance was simply too vast.
And going there once required a long time of mental preparation, for fear of showing awkwardness.
And Tao Tianran was different from Luo Yan.
She simply rested quietly in Cheng Xiang’s contact list, never taking the initiative to send her random things.
Naturally, Cheng Xiang wouldn’t actively reach out to her either. But just when Cheng Xiang was about to feel that a life without her was the norm, she popped up again.
Last time she had sent an address; this time, she sent a picture.
It was a photo she had taken: two tickets to a play performing at the 「Wutong」 tiny theater.
The play performing this time was titled 《The Tide》.
Cheng Xiang tapped the photo and zoomed in. She could see her marble-grey office desk, which also caught a corner of a charcoal-grey carpet—it looked very high-end at first glance. Zooming in a bit more, she could see a fountain pen resting beside the two tickets.
She couldn’t tell the brand, only that the dark ink-color had a flowing luster.
Cheng Xiang suddenly realized that she still didn’t know what kind of work the yujie3 did. But this office, at first glance, was backed by a handsome income—so different from her own office building, where the corridors were piled high with cardboard boxes.
Tao Tianran had only sent over the photo of the two tickets without a single accompanying word.
Cheng Xiang pursed her lips and chose not to reply.
After ten minutes, she picked up her phone to check; Tao Tianran still hadn’t spoken.
An hour passed, and she picked it up to look again. Tao Tianran still hadn’t spoken.
Cheng Xiang ground her teeth against her lip. What did this person mean?
She tossed her phone aside. If Tao Tianran wasn’t going to speak, then neither would she.
She waited until it was time to leave. Her colleagues packed up their bags precisely on the dot. “Xiangzi, you’re still not leaving?”
Cheng Xiang took her sweet time gathering her things. “Yeah, yeah, heading out right now.”
“If you don’t leave now, watch out or the boss will come out and catch you for overtime,” her colleague half-joked.
Cheng Xiang suddenly stood up and snatched her bag. “I’m leaving, I’m leaving, I’m leaving! Wait for me!”
As she walked with her colleague to wait for the elevator, her mind drifted back to the two tickets Tao Tianran had sent.
It was for an avant-garde play starting at eight o’clock tonight.
But Tao Tianran really hadn’t sent another word all afternoon.
Cheng Xiang went downstairs with her colleague, waved goodbye, and glanced toward the roadside. Not a single flashy Bentley was parked there.
Turning around to walk toward the bus stop, she was calculating in her head whether to buy some snacks when her phone vibrated inside her canvas bag.
Cheng Xiang picked up without even looking. “Hello?”
Her fixed social circle was quite narrow. The only people who would call her were three types: Director Ma, Qin Ziqiao, and various loan ads.
“Hello,” a clear, pure voice answered from the receiver, spilling out into the evening glow.
Cheng Xiang suddenly stopped in her tracks. It was the height of the evening rush hour, so much so that the person behind her couldn’t stop in time and bumped right into her back, grumbling, “Are you out of your mind?”
Cheng Xiang apologized hastily. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”
The person on the other end of the phone softly hummed, “Hmm?”
Cheng Xiang lowered her voice. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
A brief puff of air followed, like an elusive laugh from Tao Tianran on the other end.
Would someone like Tao Tianran actually laugh? But Cheng Xiang had indeed seen her laugh before, leaving one in a daze.
Tao Tianran was a deeply intriguing person.
She would quietly lie in Cheng Xiang’s contact list, only to suddenly pop up just as Cheng Xiang was getting used to her absence. When they were together, she actually didn’t talk much, yet she would suddenly call out of the blue.
Who suddenly calls a semi-familiar person? People usually just send WeChat messages, okay?
Having called, she fell silent again. Cheng Xiang listened intently; there was the sound of car horns on the other end, making it sound like she was driving.
She didn’t speak, and Cheng Xiang didn’t speak either, standing by the subway entrance and staring at the egg burger stall.
Until she said, “I’m on my way to your office.”
Cheng Xiang’s fingertip toyed with the little bear on her canvas bag. “Oh.”
“The evening rush hour, it’s a bit congested.”
Cheng Xiang murmured in response again, “Oh.”
Standing at the subway entrance was blocking the way, so she moved to the side, standing next to the shrubbery by the entrance.
Tao Tianran asked, “So, are we watching the play together tonight?”
Cheng Xiang found once again that Tao Tianran was different from others. She didn’t beat around the bush asking if you were free; she just went straight to the point.
You could accept. Or you could refuse.
Cheng Xiang thought about it for a moment, then asked, “Did your friend have something come up and couldn’t make it?”
The other end fell silent for a few seconds, then Tao Tianran said softly, “I didn’t invite anyone else.”
“Then…” Cheng Xiang tugged at a loose thread on her canvas bag again. “Let me pay you for the ticket.”
Tao Tianran seemed to check her navigation. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Are you off work?”
“Ah, yeah.”
“Wait for me a little bit?”
“…Alright.”
Hanging up the phone, Cheng Xiang thought, Why is it that every word Tao Tianran says, though not strong in tone, somehow leaves me not knowing how to refuse her?
Cheng Xiang walked back downstairs to the company. After a moment’s thought, she slipped into a convenience store, bought a bottle of drinking yogurt, and picked an empty seat from the row of stools facing the floor-to-ceiling windows.
She loved eating the crisp green grapes in her drinking yogurt; clicking them between her teeth, they seemed to bounce cheerfully.
She liked green grapes. She liked popping candy. She liked fireworks. She liked bumper cars.
Sitting on the round stool by the window, she swung her legs, occasionally looking down at her phone. Exactly ten minutes later, the glacier white Bentley glided to a halt at the curb.
Cheng Xiang didn’t go out for a moment.
Tao Tianran opened the car door and walked around. She seemed completely impervious to the cold, wearing a lightweight, ankle-length long trench coat over a swallow-feather grey suit set, paired with slender high heels.
The twilight spread down, making it hard to see her face clearly, but her slender ankles felt excessively pale.
Standing under the dim neon lights of this office area, she looked left and right, pulled her phone from her pocket, and held it to her ear.
Cheng Xiang silently counted in her mind: Three, two, one.
Right on cue, her phone on the long convenience store table began to vibrate. Cheng Xiang waited a moment before answering. Tao Tianran’s excessively cool voice sounded: “Hello.”
At that moment, the bespectacled man to Cheng Xiang’s left was furiously hammering away at his keyboard, revising a PowerPoint presentation.
The girl to her right was eating a cup of hot and sour tonkotsu instant noodles.
Cheng Xiang sniffled and said, “Hello.”
“Where are you?” Tao Tianran asked.
“I’m…” Cheng Xiang let out a soft laugh. “Wait a moment, okay?”
She hung up, grabbed the half-finished bottle of drinking yogurt, and walked out of the convenience store. Her pace was very slow at first, but seeing Tao Tianran standing by the Bentley, she felt that wasn’t very good, so she quickened her steps and ran over.
From a distance, Tao Tianran watched Cheng Xiang run toward her.
The twilight fell around her like a mist, her fine, soft, chestnut-colored, medium-length hair floating lightly. The neon lights became a slightly illusory backdrop behind her. There was always a shallow smile on her face, even when she ran, revealing a tiny dimple near the lower left of her cheek.
Today, she wore a navy blue hoodie, its two white drawstring cords bouncing against her chest with every step.
Vivid, fresh, and bursting with a flourishing vitality.
Tao Tianran gently let out a breath from her chest, an uncontrollable sourness rising in her eyes.
She wasn’t someone who was easily moved.
But it was enough. Watching this scene of Cheng Xiang running toward her full of life under the twilight, it was truly enough.
Quietly evening her breath, she watched Cheng Xiang arrive before her, the canvas bag on her shoulder swaying back and forth as she grinned and said, “Hi.”
Hahaha, mimicking Tao Tianran’s cheesy opening line.
Tao Tianran lowered her eyes, glancing at the yogurt bottle dangling between Cheng Xiang’s fingers.
Cheng Xiang thought, I forgot to bring a bottle of yogurt for Tao Tianran, though I don’t get why such a cold, aloof yujie drinks the same kind of yogurt as me.
In truth, Tao Tianran really used to drink this brand of drinking yogurt.
Because Cheng Xiang liked it, she always bought a lot to keep in the fridge at home. Tao Tianran would occasionally grab a bottle; she found it too sweet at first, but eventually got used to it.
Cheng Xiang hid the yogurt bottle in her hand behind her back a bit, first asking, “How much were the play tickets?”
Tao Tianran seemed to think about it, then asked, “How about you treat me to dinner instead? Coincidentally, there’s still an hour before the play starts.”
Uh, Cheng Xiang was caught a bit off guard.
For someone like Tao Tianran, what could there possibly be to eat near her company?
She asked, “What do you want to eat?”
Tao Tianran: “Malatang.”
Cheng Xiang: “…Huh?”
This, this, this… such a cold and aloof yujie, both drinking green grape yogurt and eating malatang4?
Cheng Xiang thought about it, “How about we go eat salad? There’s one near our company. I heard from a colleague that it’s decent.”
The colleague hadn’t said it was decent. Her exact words were: “A plate of leaves and three slices of beef, charging me seventy-eight yuan—ridiculously expensive!”
But she felt that this kind of vibe suited a yujie a bit better, right?
Tao Tianran asked, “Do you like eating salad or malatang?”
“Malatang.” Cheng Xiang smiled, raising her hand to rub the tip of her nose. “My absolute favorite is malatang.”
For some reason, with Tao Tianran looking at her like that under the streetlamp, she didn’t want to lie.
Tao Tianran nodded. “Then let’s eat malatang.”
Cheng Xiang suddenly became happy. “You really want to eat malatang? Isn’t that a perfect coincidence? Let me tell you, there really is an especially delicious one near our company.”
Tao Tianran nodded, speaking softly, “Is that so? Such a coincidence.”
“Yeah.” Cheng Xiang grinned. “There really are a lot of coincidences between us.”
She led Tao Tianran, “This way.”
It was past seven, and office workers were coming out of the office buildings one after another, casting glances in their direction. To be precise, they weren’t looking at the two of them, but at Tao Tianran beside her.
Cheng Xiang asked, “How did you think of eating malatang? Have you eaten it before?”
“I’ve eaten it,” Tao Tianran said.
She actually had? This surprised Cheng Xiang a bit. “When?”
Tao Tianran merely let out an “mm.” “Previously.”
…Talk about a conversation killer.
The neon lights reflected off the grey concrete ground, like ripples spreading after rain. Cheng Xiang pointed to a red-topped tent ahead. “Right here.”
“Do you come here often?” Tao Tianran asked.
Cheng Xiang grinned. “Actually, no. Even though this is my favorite near the company, I don’t come often. Normally, I just eat sliced noodles or claypot rice. I only come here when my mood is especially bad, or when working overtime makes me want to die. I always feel like if I eat it constantly, would I end up thinking it’s not as delicious?”
Tao Tianran listened to her in silence, then suddenly said, “It won’t.”
“Hmm?”
“If you truly love something, no matter how long you spend together, you won’t get tired of it.” Tao Tianran paused, then added, “Maybe it’s quite the opposite.”
Eh? Cheng Xiang was a bit bewildered. What was this big sister suddenly waxing philosophical for?
Finding life philosophy in a bowl of malatang… Do all elites do this?
A semi-transparent curtain hung outside the red tent. Cheng Xiang lifted it to let Tao Tianran inside, explaining, “They only hang this up when it’s cold. Once the temperature rises a bit more, they’ll take it down. In the summer, you get a lovely cross-breeze sitting here, and if you have a glass bottle of Coca-Cola—mind you, it must be Coca-Cola—that is pure bliss.”
Office workers sat in groups of twos and threes around the malatang stall, and they all turned to look at Tao Tianran.
Fearing Tao Tianran might feel uncomfortable, Cheng Xiang stole a glance at her out of the corner of her eye. She, however, looked entirely calm.
Cheng Xiang dragged over a low plastic stool. “Sit here.”
She acted with a strong sense of ownership, as if Tao Tianran were visiting her home.
She also dragged over a small stool for herself, quietly curling her lips into a smile. Tao Tianran surely hadn’t noticed that the plastic stools at this stall had prints on them—kitties, puppies, and little rabbits. Among them, the puppy’s face was a bit yellow, the little rabbit’s mouth was a bit too sharp, and the kitty’s was the best-looking.
She had picked the kitty one for Tao Tianran, and another kitty one for herself. Hehe.
Tao Tianran brushed back the hem of her trench coat and sat down. Cheng Xiang was genuinely worried that her obscenely expensive coat would drape onto the floor. Inside the square, grid-partitioned pot, meatballs, konjac, and shiitake mushrooms bubbled as they cooked.
Tao Tianran suddenly leaned slightly closer to Cheng Xiang, whispering, “Kitty.”
Cheng Xiang’s hand froze as she was scraping the splinters off her disposable chopsticks.
Tao Tianran… had actually noticed.
She nodded and grinned. “Yup, kitty.”
It was very wondrous. Despite the tent being full of people, they seemed to be sharing a secret language that only the two of them understood.
The landlady greeted Cheng Xiang warmly, “Girl, you haven’t been here in a while.”
“Hey, Auntie.” Cheng Xiang curled her lips, the shallow dimple on her left cheek appearing again. “Could you warm up two bottles of soy milk for us? Make them extra hot, since the weather is still chilly, right? And please boil two bowls of glass noodles—the thin ones, not the sweet potato ones…”
Stopping mid-sentence, she asked Tao Tianran, “You eat carbs, right? You’re so thin, I hope you aren’t doing that super popular keto diet thing on the internet—is that what it’s called?”
“I eat them,” Tao Tianran said.
“That’s good, that’s good.” Cheng Xiang quietly leaned in closer to Tao Tianran. “I’m on great terms with Auntie. She secretly told me that we should eat thin glass noodles instead of sweet potato ones. Quite a few sweet potato noodles have edible glue mixed in, which isn’t good for your health.”
She sat back up and attended to Tao Tianran, “Don’t eat those meatballs and things, they’re mostly starch. I love eating them, hehe, but I reckon you won’t be used to them. Just grab things like shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, radishes, and lotus roots. They wash things very cleanly here, so you won’t get an upset stomach.”
“Oh, wait a second, let me pour some boiling water to scald your bowl.”
She naturally reached over, took the stainless-steel bowl in front of Tao Tianran, swirled some boiling water inside, and splashed it onto the concrete floor beside them.
Tao Tianran’s gaze softened.
She had been to many malatang stalls with Cheng Xiang in the past, but she had never been to this one near her company. Cheng Xiang always used to say: who goes near their company for a date? It’s like doing unpaid overtime. But now, wherever Cheng Xiang had been, she wanted to go too.`
Whenever Cheng Xiang ate at a malatang stall, she would always buzz around, busy as a little bee.
Tao Tianran suddenly asked, “Are you like this with other people too?”
“What?” Cheng Xiang was busy rinsing her own bowl.
“When eating malatang with other people, do you also take such good care of them?”
Cheng Xiang froze for a moment, then curved her lips into a smile. “Let me tell you, I actually rarely bring anyone to eat malatang. Because I like to eat it myself, it’s like my own private secret base.”
Tao Tianran’s lips curved up very lightly, then flattened again.
As Cheng Xiang set the smoothed chopsticks across the bowl, she snuck a glance at Tao Tianran, only to lock eyes with her.
Her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Whether it was because of the warm red top of the tent, or the steam smoking out from the iron pot, Tao Tianran’s gaze at this moment seemed very soft—soft to the point of tenderness. And when Cheng Xiang looked at her, she didn’t avoid her gaze, but simply looked at her like that.
Cheng Xiang touched the tip of her nose, suddenly feeling a bit hot, and picked up the drinking yogurt on the table to take a sip.
This sip was a bit too big, and the yogurt reached the bottom, the straw making a gurgling sound. Embarrassing to death.
Cheng Xiang quickly placed the yogurt bottle back on the table, hearing Tao Tianran ask her, “Do you want another?”
“No, no, no.” Cheng Xiang repeatedly waved her hands. “It’s not that I want to drink yogurt, I was just… having nothing to do.”
Tao Tianran asked, “Is staying with me very boring?”
When she lowered her cool, clear voice, it somehow sounded a bit aggrieved—subtle and understated, just a tiny bit, scraping against one’s heart.
“No, no, no.” Cheng Xiang felt like a repeater. “I’m just… sigh, to be honest, I’m a bit nervous being with you.”
Tao Tianran didn’t ask why she was nervous; she just smiled gently again.
What was she smiling at… Cheng Xiang quietly opened her palms and rubbed them against the knees of her jeans, feeling that her palms were sweating.
She said to Tao Tianran, “If you want to eat meat, how about you try the ham sausage? It’s not that fake, and it’s not the brand that had a food safety scandal before either.”
Tao Tianran: “Okay.”
“You can’t eat spicy food, right? Don’t add that chili oil, it’s super spicy. Add some sesame paste instead, but don’t add too much either, or it’ll get cloying.”
Tao Tianran: “Okay.”
…What’s so “okay” about it.
Cheng Xiang realized belatedly—was she talking a bit too much? But she couldn’t help it; she was the daughter of the Neighborhood Committee Director, so she just loved to worry. It was a family trait.
After eating, she scanned the QR code to pay the bill, and Tao Tianran stepped outside first. When Cheng Xiang walked out and looked, she found Tao Tianran standing in the convenience store buying chewing gum.
Elites really do pay attention to the details!
Tao Tianran walked out, saw her standing outside the tent, and walked over while unwrapping the chewing gum, asking her, “Want some?”
“Yeah.”
For some reason, Cheng Xiang suddenly recalled what that female colleague in her office who started dating had said one day: “Eating chewing gum like crazy after a meal means this person wants to kiss you!”
Sigh… what kind of nonsense am I thinking.
Tao Tianran pulled out a stick of chewing gum and handed it to her. Cheng Xiang opened her palm, and Tao Tianran gently placed it inside, her slender white fingertips scraping across her palm lines before quickly pulling away.
So cold.
That was Cheng Xiang’s very subtle second physical touch with her, following their handshake.
It was still just as cold. Cold enough to make one want to ask her, “Are you cold?” Cold enough to make one feel that her hand should be held by a very warm palm.
But Cheng Xiang merely asked, “Are you cold?”
Tao Tianran looked at her, unwrapped the silver foil of the chewing gum, and fed it into her mouth. A cool mint flavor drifted over. Cheng Xiang was slightly shorter than her, and with Tao Tianran wearing high heels, Cheng Xiang stood in front of her, smelling her cool, mint-scented breath.
And her swaying, fair, and delicate chin.
Then she heard Tao Tianran say, “A little.”
Footnotes
- 'Wǔxiǎn yījīn' refers to China's mandatory social security benefits: pension, medical, unemployment, work injury, and maternity insurance, plus a housing provident fund.
- 'Jiānbǐng guǒzi' is a popular northern Chinese breakfast street food made of a savory crepe, eggs, crackers or fried dough sticks, scallions, and sweet bean sauce.
- 'Yùjiě', a modern slang term derived from Japanese '姉御' (anego/onee-san), referring to a cool, mature, elegant older sister archetype in modern fiction.
- 'Málàtàng' is a popular street-food dish consisting of skewered ingredients cooked in a boiling, spicy, and numbing broth.
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