The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 75

Temptation

“Do you want to move into my place?”

[You are like ocean waves, you are like clouds.

            

I don’t really want to describe what you are like,

I only want to describe that you are everywhere in the world.]

---

The car drove out of the service area and continued toward the city.

            

They drove all the way to the entrance of Hundred Flowers Alley, where Cheng Xiang got out. Tao Tianran opened the trunk to help her with her luggage.

While slinging her backpack over her shoulders, Cheng Xiang nagged Tao Tianran, “Hurry on home now. If you have any appetite when you get back, make sure to eat a little something, okay?”

Tao Tianran replied, “Okay.”

            

Cheng Xiang pursed her lips and smiled. Sometimes, she found Tao Tianran rather well-behaved—especially when that usually indifferent face of hers agreed to whatever Cheng Xiang said.

She waved to Tao Tianran. “I’m off then.”

“Okay.”

            

Cheng Xiang ran forward a couple of steps, then turned her head back to look at Tao Tianran. “Get in the car.”

“Mm.”

Cheng Xiang simply stood still under the streetlamp, pressing her hands against the straps of her backpack, indicating that she would only leave after Tao Tianran got into the car.

            

Once Tao Tianran got in, Cheng Xiang looked down with a soft laugh and ran toward the depths of the alley with her backpack on her shoulders.

What on earth was so funny about the boss ran away with his sister-in-law¹ anyway? Ridiculous.

Yet the backpack swayed on Cheng Xiang’s shoulders. Over her other shoulder, she was carrying her usual canvas bag, its Little Bear Pendant bouncing against the strap. In her other hand, she clutched a bag of dried walnuts she had bought for Director Ma at the foot of the mountain.

            

The early summer night breeze did not disturb; the air held lingering, late-season willow catkins, drifting down alongside the petals of wisteria and begonia.

The alley of the night was already sleeping peacefully. Only Cheng Xiang ran faster and faster, stepping on her own shadow with a smile on her lips. As she ran under a streetlamp, she could not help but spin around. Two of the walnuts in her hand tumbled out. She let out a soft cry of surprise and hurriedly bent down to pick them up.

Chasing the walnuts to the base of a utility pole, Cheng Xiang crouched down to gather them, but ended up simply wrapping her arms around her knees and laughing.

            

She had felt this exact way before.

The first time she had kissed Tao Tianran, after she watched her drive off, she had run wildly through the alley just like this, all by herself. Back then, pear blossoms had been drifting through the air, landing on her shoulders like snow that defied the seasons.

She wanted to laugh out loud. She wanted to shout. She wanted to run. She wanted to dream.

            

This was the second time Tao Tianran had made her feel this way. Because Tao Tianran had given her a gentle push on the shoulder, telling her to chase her own dreams.

---

After getting into the car, Tao Tianran did not drive away immediately. Instead, she sat in the driver’s seat, watching Cheng Xiang’s retreating figure.

The alley was deep and quiet. Whether it was the pear blossoms of late spring or the begonias of early summer, they looked like snow as they fell.

            

Tao Tianran remembered a deep winter day before. It had not snowed that day, but the sunlight had been so blindingly bright it felt surreal. She had stood beneath a tree outside the funeral parlor, patches of un-melted snow piled in the bushes around her feet.

She had squinted, staring at the funeral parlor in the distance.

Everything was in muted shades of black, white, and gray, carrying the low murmur of conversations and muffled, grieving sobs. Only the painting displayed at the entrance was full of color. It was Cheng Xiang’s painting—a self-portrait of her own back, arms stretched wide as she ran forward in a comically awkward manner.

            

In Cheng Xiang’s own words, she looked like she was trying to catch a nonexistent chicken. Yet that posture also looked as though she were reaching out to embrace a gust of wind.

Beside the portrait was a line of text in Cheng Xiang’s handwriting, the font slightly cartoonish. Cheng Xiang had written: 「I want to embrace this world to my heart’s content」.

She was the most curious girl Tao Tianran had ever met, her eyes always wide with a naive, innocent wonder.

            

When she painted that portrait and wrote those words, she surely never could have imagined that her young life would be cut short so abruptly at the age of twenty-five, nor that the occasion where the most people would see this painting would be at her own funeral.

Tao Tianran drove away.

Returning to her apartment, she did not turn on the lights or take a shower. Navigating the stairs in the dark from memory, she collapsed onto her spacious bed, raising an arm to shield her eyes.

            

She was not even sure whether the truck that had nearly hit Cheng Xiang today had been a mere accident, or some sort of premonition.

---

When Tao Tianran walked into the office on Monday, she found Yi Yu and a group of employees busy in the conference room.

She walked over to take a look.

            

Yi Yu was bent over at the waist, blowing up a balloon. “Even with a strained back, my lung capacity is untouched. Ha! Impressive, right?”

“Big Boss, why are you always straining your back lately? What kind of exercise are you doing?”

“Haha.” Yi Yu tied a knot in the balloon she was holding. “Hahaha.”

            

The assistant noticed Tao Tianran. “Teacher Tao.”

Yi Yu looked back as well. “There’s my beautiful girl. You’re here! Today is Shianne’s birthday. Look at what we’ve set up.”

Yi Yu was very idle. Because she had so much free time, every employee’s birthday party in the company was celebrated on a grand scale—except for Tao Tianran’s, because Tao Tianran had strictly refused.

            

Currently, more than half of the conference room was covered in balloons. There was also a collection of life-sized cardboard cutouts, which had the faces of popular television show protagonists replaced with Yu Yusheng’s face.

Bending her waist, Yi Yu reached for the remote. “Come, come, Teacher Tao. Watch the video we edited for Shianne.”

Tao Tianran leaned against the doorframe of the conference room.

            

This year marked Yu Yusheng’s third anniversary at Kunpu, so the video was edited with exceptional care. They had gathered photos from Yu Yusheng’s WeChat Moments and those she had shared with colleagues, compiling them into a mock documentary of her growing up.

At three years old, Yu Yusheng was sitting on the ground, wailing. At eleven, she was taking equestrian lessons. At fifteen, she wore a private school uniform, her face already carrying a hint of early, alluring charm.

At eighteen, with the college entrance examination looming, Yu Yusheng lay sprawled across a desk covered in practice papers, holding up her phone for a selfie. Her eyes were lazy and curled with a soft smile.

            

Perhaps no one else noticed, but in the corner of the photo, a single hand holding a red pen was captured.

Yet Tao Tianran knew that it belonged to Qiao Zhiji.

Before, Tao Tianran had never been able to perceive the hidden emotions of someone in a secret love. It was only half a year after Cheng Xiang’s death, on a quiet afternoon, when she was searching her bookshelf for a reference book.

            

《Research on Ancient Chinese Mythology》. Just as she pulled it from the shelf and flipped through a few pages, a photo had slipped out.

Tao Tianran had bent down to pick it up.

Cheng Xiang had not cared much for most of the books in her collection, but she must have found this one somewhat interesting. She would flip through it occasionally when she came over to water the plants, and had used a photograph as a bookmark.

            

It was a photograph from high school.

With the exams drawing near, Cheng Xiang was holding a bottle of Assam Milk Tea, laughing. The photo had likely been snapped on a whim by Qin Ziqiao. In the background, other boys were chasing each other around the classroom. And in the corner of the frame, partially captured, was Tao Tianran—

—her snow-white elbow, as she slept face-down on her desk.

            

Back then, Tao Tianran was not yet a part of Cheng Xiang’s actual world. Cheng Xiang had simply gathered fragments of her with utmost care, pasting one piece in her sky, another on her grass, until her entire world was filled with traces of Tao Tianran.

Yi Yu hobbled over with her bent back to ask Tao Tianran, “Well? Touching, isn’t it? Shianne has had that striking, half-foreign look since she was a kid. It’s really something else!”

Tao Tianran did not pay much attention to Yu Yusheng’s excessively alluring, cat-like features.

            

She was only thinking: So vibrant.

After her frozen, still-water heart had been pried open by Cheng Xiang, she had begun to perceive this kind of raw vitality. The Cheng Xiang who suddenly ran through the midnight alley was vibrant; the eighteen-year-old Yu Yusheng, slumped over a pile of test papers with a tiny blemish on her forehead, was also vibrant.

So vibrant that Tao Tianran could not bear to imagine either of them vanishing from this world.

            

Yu Yusheng spent the morning meeting with a client. When she stepped into the office at noon, she was immediately pushed into the conference room by her colleagues.

“Honestly…” The moment she saw those ridiculous cardboard cutouts of herself, Yu Yusheng burst into laughter.

Yi Yu, who had been wearing medicated plasters all morning, could finally stand somewhat upright. She pushed a cake trolley into the room, singing, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”

            

A colleague flipped off the lights in the conference room right on cue.

Amid the warm, flickering candlelight, Yu Yusheng smiled, pressing her hands together to make a wish. Tao Tianran, who disliked crowds, leaned quietly against the doorframe. When Yu Yusheng opened her charming, feline eyes, her gaze cut straight through the crowd to meet Tao Tianran’s.

Tao Tianran felt her heart skip a beat.

            

In that fleeting second, she felt that Yu Yusheng looked profoundly exhausted.

But the lights flicked back on almost immediately, and Yu Yusheng’s expression returned to its usual playful, clever smile. The moment before felt like nothing more than Tao Tianran’s illusion. Yu Yusheng handed a slice of cake to her. “Teacher Tao, have some cake.”

“Thank you.”

            

Yu Yusheng quirked an eyebrow and lowered her voice. “What are you thinking about? Figuring out how to celebrate her birthday?”

Cheng Xiang’s birthday was at the end of the year.

And that was only half a month away from the date of her fatal accident.

            

Once the birthday celebration concluded, work resumed as usual for the afternoon.

The conference room was cleared in short order to prepare for Qiao Zhiji, who was coming by to review the design proposal.

Qiao Zhiji walked in with her phone in hand, only hanging up the call as she sat down. She tapped her index finger against the tabletop, a habitual gesture to prompt everyone to get things moving. She was exceptionally busy and had no time to waste.

            

Tao Tianran and Yu Yusheng sat opposite her.

Yu Yusheng presented her design sketches to Qiao Zhiji.

Once she finished demonstrating the physical rendering of the 3D simulation, Yu Yusheng laid down her laser pointer. “These are my initial thoughts. Are you satisfied, President Qiao?”

            

Qiao Zhiji’s almond-shaped eyes had remained impassively lowered throughout. Only now did she lift her gaze. “What do you think?”

Yu Yusheng paused. “You’re asking me?”

“Yes, you.” Qiao Zhiji tapped the table once more, her impatience showing.

            

“I think… it’s quite good.”

“Why?” Qiao Zhiji asked, her eyes fixed on her.

“Because,” Yu Yusheng said, her throat tightening slightly, “the phoenix tree leaves at the top of the brooch are made of small yellow diamonds that gradually transition into Zambian Wharton green diamonds. The gradient from yellow to green feels like time flowing backward.”

            

Qiao Zhiji lowered her head and let out a soft, mocking laugh.

“Does time ever flow backward?” She murmured, then stood up. “Since you think it’s good, then let’s proceed with this design.”

She picked up her bag and started toward the door.

            

After taking a few steps, she turned around, pulled an envelope from her Birkin Bag, and walked back to place it on the desk. She slid it over to Tao Tianran. “By the way, this is an art exhibition curated by one of my clients. It opens tomorrow, but the preview is tonight. Here are two VIP passes for you, Teacher Tao. If you’re interested, you can take a friend.”

“Thank you.”

Only then did Qiao Zhiji look up coldly at Yu Yusheng. “What about you? Are you going?”

            

“Me?”

“Or do you have more important things to do on your birthday?”

Without waiting for Yu Yusheng’s reply, she gave Tao Tianran a slight nod and walked out.

            

“Hey,” Yu Yusheng called out suddenly.

Qiao Zhiji turned back.

Still looking down at her laptop, Yu Yusheng asked, “Don’t I get a ticket?”

            

“You don’t need one.”

---

After work, Tao Tianran drove to Hundred Flowers Alley.

Cheng Xiang, canvas bag on her shoulder, was stamping her feet on the spot in tiny, light steps. The moment she spotted Tao Tianran’s car, she jogged over and pulled open the passenger door. “Let’s go, let’s go.”

            

Once the car merged into the traffic, Cheng Xiang slipped the canvas bag off her shoulder and sighed. “Wow, you have no idea how terrifying my mom was today. I told her the company went bankrupt and that I didn’t want to look for another job right now. She practically used a zero-frame startup² to unleash her ultimate on me.”

Tao Tianran switched on her turn signal, watching the traffic on her left. “Then… do you want to move into my place?”

“Huh?” Cheng Xiang was slightly dazed. “Whoa, don’t say something so dominant in such a casual tone.”

            

“Is it bad?”

“It’s actually a bit swoon-worthy, hehehe.” Cheng Xiang smoothed back her bangs. Is Tao Tianran inviting me to move in together? Hehehe.

“So, do you want to?” Tao Tianran tapped the brakes at a red light and turned to look at her.

            

“Don’t tempt me.” Cheng Xiang turned to look out the window. “If you keep looking at me like that, I won’t be able to resist saying yes. Anyway, my mom is just a nag. You don’t have to worry. Back in high school when I wanted to study art, she refused no matter what. But the moment I went on a hunger strike, she softened up.”

“Haha, I was so dramatic back then, wasn’t I?” Cheng Xiang grinned, unable to resist turning back to look at Tao Tianran. “I even fainted. You should’ve seen me—I looked so incredibly stupid.”

I’ve seen it, Tao Tianran thought.

            

When they arrived at the exhibition hall entrance, Tao Tianran asked Cheng Xiang if she wanted to grab dinner first.

“I’m not really hungry, actually.” Cheng Xiang rubbed her stomach. “I stayed inside all day, so I didn’t get much exercise. What about you? How about I go with you to eat first?”

“Let’s eat after the exhibition.” Tao Tianran had been in three meetings that afternoon and had exhausted her mind. She did not have much of an appetite either.

            

“Alright then.”

They went to the ticket gate. Tao Tianran pulled the invitations out of the envelope and handed them over. Cheng Xiang chuckled. “Your job is so nice. You get to meet so many different clients.”

Tao Tianran accepted the brochures handed to her by the staff and passed one to Cheng Xiang.

            

“Wow, how romantic,” Cheng Xiang said, looking down at the folded pamphlet.

The name of this exhibition was 《The Ocean of Time》.

According to the brochure, they would walk through a corridor designed to look like a passage through time. The deep blue water above and beside them came from the sixty-four seas of the world.

            

There were sixty-four seas in the world in total.

When Cheng Xiang and Tao Tianran stepped inside, the lights suddenly vanished, plunging their vision into an abrupt darkness. The carpet underfoot was remarkably soft, giving them a floating sensation as they walked.

Then, their hearing—sharper than their sight in the dark—captured the rushing sound of rolling waves.

            

Slightly unsettled, Cheng Xiang instinctively reached out to steady herself against the corridor wall, but Tao Tianran caught her fingers in her palm. Swapping positions, Tao Tianran took her hand and led her forward.

Rather than walking, it felt as though they were passing through one sea after another.

On this night before the official opening, there was no one else around, allowing them a private experience. The sea was like emotion, holding a person even as it enveloped them.

            

The waves were like a lover’s whispers, sweeping up one’s heart.

Gradually, whether due to faint lighting along the corridor walls as they passed the first marine exhibit, or simply because their eyes had adjusted to the dark, they began to perceive a soft glow.

The water transitioned from a pale sky blue to a deep shark-skin gray, then shifted further into a profound oak-jay blue.

            

The sound of the tide surged rhythmically in their ears.

After walking for an unknown stretch of time, Tao Tianran leaned back against the side wall of the corridor and came to a stop.

Cheng Xiang asked, “What’s wrong?”

            

“Tired,” Tao Tianran replied, her breath soft.

Cheng Xiang stifled a giggle. “Cough, I don’t know if I should say this.”

Tao Tianran looked at her.

            

“Sometimes… you’re actually quite delicate.”

Tao Tianran had been loosely holding her fingertips. Now, she slid her long, slender fingers between Cheng Xiang’s, locking their hands together.

Cheng Xiang looked up at the curved arch of the corridor and raised the brochure in her other hand, reading by the faint blue glow cast by the water. “This part you’re leaning against is called the Kara Sea.”

            

“Where is it?”

“Oh, it’s incredibly far.” Cheng Xiang checked the brochure again to confirm. “It’s on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. They say it’s the youngest sea in the world, formed during the deglaciation of Earth’s last ice age.”

“Is that so?”

            

Cheng Xiang smiled. “According to the brochure, the reason this exhibition was curated is because many years ago, someone promised someone else that they would take her to see the sea.”

“Just a simple promise like that, and now… this. All sixty-four seas of the world.” Cheng Xiang poked out her tongue.

“Do you find it impressive?” Tao Tianran tilted her head, slightly lifting a heel within her shoe.

            

“No, no,” Cheng Xiang said, her lips curving up.

She found Tao Tianran highly amusing. Her competitive streak was incredibly strong.

When she could not cook sweet and sour ribs properly, she had gone out and bought ten kilograms of ribs to practice in secret at home. Now, just because Cheng Xiang praised someone else’s exhibition, Tao Tianran’s eyes grew cold and aloof, yet her tone sounded as if she were ready to construct a sixty-fifth sea for the world.

            

Cheng Xiang laughed. “I only meant that it’s nice for us to borrow a little bit of someone else’s romance.”

She glanced left and right. “So there really isn’t anyone else here, right?”

“Mm.”

            

Cheng Xiang gently rose on her tiptoes.

The sight of Tao Tianran leaning her shoulders back against a sea made her want to kiss her. Her leg brushed against Tao Tianran’s knee as she leaned in, pressing her lips first to her chin, and then to her lips.

Pressing close, she felt Tao Tianran’s cool, gentle breath and closed her eyes. “The Bering Sea, the Andaman Sea, the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea… I can’t remember all the other seas written in the brochure.”

            

“So there really are sixty-four seas in the world, Tao Tianran.”

Tao Tianran closed her eyes as well. Neither of them slipped out their tongues; they simply kept their lips pressed together. The shimmering reflections of the water shone through Tao Tianran, rippling across Cheng Xiang’s face.

Tao Tianran asked, “Do you want to go?”

            

“Huh?”

“To those sixty-four seas.”

Cheng Xiang smiled, her breath soft. “Can we really visit all of them?”

            

“We can.”

“But the brochure said some of the marginal seas in the Arctic Ocean are frozen for ten months of the year, with only a two-month window for passage.”

“We can still go.”

            

“Then,” Cheng Xiang murmured, rising slightly on her tiptoes as she interlocked her fingers with Tao Tianran’s right hand, “let’s just go to sixty-three.”

“Why?”

“It’s better to leave a little regret,” Cheng Xiang smiled, her eyelashes trembling slightly. “I’m afraid that if everything is too perfect, it won’t last.”

            

“There is no such thing.”

“What?”

“Between you and me, we won’t leave any regrets at all.” After saying this, Tao Tianran cradled the back of Cheng Xiang’s head, leaning down to kiss her deeply, parting her lips to claim her tongue.

            

The deep kiss was so sudden that Cheng Xiang felt a momentary rush of breathlessness. She reflexively opened her eyes a fraction. In the shimmering ripple of light, it felt as though bright sunlight from the ocean’s surface was piercing straight into her gaze, making her eyes sting.

Cheng Xiang closed her eyes once more, returning Tao Tianran’s kiss.

Will we make it, Tao Tianran?

            

Will we be both perfect and long-lasting?

But why is it that in the very first moment of liking you, my tears instinctively fell?

With her eyes closed, she couldn’t tell if what she heard was the rushing of the waves, or the other’s heartbeat.

            

When Tao Tianran finally broke the kiss, Cheng Xiang felt a trace of self-consciousness and pursed her lips. She stole a glance at Tao Tianran, who was still leaning against the glass wall, her thin lips glistening slightly.

Cheng Xiang raised a hand to brush her own lips.

Trying to change the subject, she said, “There really isn’t anyone else here.”

            

“Mm.” Tao Tianran stood up straight and took her hand again, leading her forward.

“Hehe.”

“What is it?”

            

“I guess we’ve kissed in the deep sea now.”

As they stepped out of the exhibition hall, they heard unexpected footsteps. Cheng Xiang instinctively tried to pull her hand back, but Tao Tianran held her fingers fast.

The person walking in wore a tailored gray striped suit despite the summer heat, with high stilettos. The hand carrying her Birkin Bag was also clutching her phone. The distant blue light of the sea illuminated her indifferent face, making her look less like an exhibition visitor and more like she was heading into a board meeting.

            

Tao Tianran greeted her flatly, “President Qiao.”

Qiao Zhiji nodded slightly in response.

Ah, Cheng Xiang remembered now.

            

She had seen this big shot once before, at the bar called “Afterglow”. She was Luo Yan’s boss, named Qiao Zhiji. Because the name was so unusual, Cheng Xiang had a vivid memory of it.

They merely brushed shoulders with Qiao Zhiji.

Cheng Xiang whispered to Tao Tianran, “Is she the one who gave you the tickets?”

            

“Mm.”

“I didn’t expect her to come.”

“Why?”

            

“Well, she looks like she wouldn’t be interested in romance at all. I thought she’d be the type to give all her tickets away. Oh, by the way, how did she get tickets?”

The lights inside the gallery had been too dim, so Cheng Xiang had not noticed that on the back cover of the dry-leaf-shaped brochure, the name 「Qiao Zhiji」 was printed in the most inconspicuous fine print under the curator column.

Tao Tianran thought to herself that Qiao Zhiji might not be romantic, but she was a woman of her word.

            

She had once promised an eighteen-year-old girl that she would take her to see the sea.

There was a souvenir display cabinet near the exit, though nothing was available for purchase yet. Cheng Xiang said she wanted to take a look.

Tao Tianran’s phone buzzed with a work message, so she stood to the side to wait. When Qiao Zhiji looked back and saw Tao Tianran standing alone, she walked over.

            

Tao Tianran was slightly surprised.

Qiao Zhiji, much like herself, was clearly not the sort of person who enjoyed making idle conversation.

Qiao Zhiji walked up to her, leaning in slightly. She carried a subtle, woodsy scent that seemed to maintain an intentional distance. She whispered a single phrase into Tao Tianran’s ear: “Thank you.”

            

Tao Tianran’s pupils contracted. For some reason, a sudden wave of unease rose from the depths of her heart.

By the time she snapped out of it, Qiao Zhiji had already walked away with her bag.

Cheng Xiang came bouncing back, chattering away, “There’s a little globe that’s actually really interesting. It’s a keychain, and it doesn’t show any landmasses at all—it only marks the sixty-four seas of the world…”

            

“What’s wrong?” She looked at Tao Tianran. “Is your blood sugar low again?”

“No.”

“Ah, it’s my fault, my fault. You’ve been in meetings all day—that takes so much energy. We really should have eaten first.” She pulled Tao Tianran’s hand. “Let’s go, let’s go.”

            

Outside the gallery, a twenty-four-hour cafe glowed, its warm yellow lights looking like a solitary island in the middle of the city.

They went inside and took a seat by the window. Cheng Xiang asked, “What do you want to eat? How about pasta?”

“Sure. What about you?”

            

“I want waffles, hehe.” Cheng Xiang pursed her lips and smiled, looking slightly embarrassed by her sweet tooth.

Tao Tianran ordered a coffee. When the food arrived, the waffles were drizzled with thick honey and piled with berries. Cheng Xiang picked up her knife and fork, silently repeating “such a sin, such a sin” in her head.

They sat side-by-side in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. Cheng Xiang took a bite of her waffle and looked outside. She noticed that her own and Tao Tianran’s reflections were cast against the massive pane of glass, with the city streets serving as a backdrop, like a double exposure.

            

She swayed slightly, and the figures in the glass swayed along with her.

It was a rather wondrous feeling.

It felt as if she had detached herself, observing “Cheng Xiang and Tao Tianran” from an objective perspective.

            

Tao Tianran’s phone, resting on the side, vibrated.

As Tao Tianran looked down to unlock it, Cheng Xiang instinctively cast her gaze down, catching sight of her own chat window pinned to the top of Tao Tianran’s WeChat.

Cheng Xiang’s WeChat display name was 「Xiangzi」, but the nickname Tao Tianran had saved for her was 「Xiao Xiang」.

            

Cheng Xiang’s feet swung lightly against the rungs of her barstool. She had not pinned Tao Tianran on her own WeChat. She preferred scrolling down every time, finding Tao Tianran’s name at a glance among all the other chats.

Tao Tianran’s WeChat name was simply 「Tao Tianran」, while Cheng Xiang had her saved under the initials 「TTR」, as if even her name were unspeakable, like a hidden secret.

Cheng Xiang returned her gaze to the glass window. So right now, what she was looking at was “Xiao Xiang and TTR”.

            

She rolled her shoulders, and the girl with soft, fine hair in the reflection mirrored her movement. Her hair had grown a bit long, brushing against the collar of her French striped T-shirt. The ends were slightly messy, and her lips naturally curved upward even when she was not smiling.

Beside her, the other woman wore a crisp, structured shirt that highlighted her sharp, square shoulders. Yet her face was elegant and clean, her long hair gathered neatly behind her head, making her look highly professional and mature.

After replying to the work message, Tao Tianran looked up, her gaze joining Cheng Xiang’s on the reflection in the window.

            

The silver handle of the waffle fork had warmed in her palm. Cheng Xiang softened her voice and asked, “Tao Tianran, what is it that you like about me?”

They were clearly such completely different people.

Tao Tianran’s eyes remained fixed on the glass window. She noticed her own shoulders were slightly tense.

            

How long had it been?

Ever since the day she had accepted Cheng Xiang’s confession, when Cheng Xiang had asked what she liked about her, she had never said the words.

At first, she had only wanted to tease Cheng Xiang. As time went on, she became accustomed to the sound of Cheng Xiang’s slippers pattering padapada³ toward her whenever she came home. The reasons behind her love had been buried in the flow of daily life, until she no longer knew how to express them.

            

Until that bright, sunny winter day, as she stood outside the funeral parlor staring at the vibrant colors of Cheng Xiang’s back in that painting, she realized she would never have the chance to say those words again.

It turned out that the most merciful lost and found⁴ in the world was simply getting back what had been lost.

She stared at Cheng Xiang’s reflection in the glass. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me.”

            

“Really?” Cheng Xiang smiled, her dimples showing. “So, are you going to tell me?”

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