The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 79
by Little PandaThin Lips
“How will you thank me?”
[You are in the eye of the world’s wind,
sitting very peacefully.]
A cold wave declared the arrival of winter in Beicheng. Next up, Cheng Xiang’s birthday was just around the corner.
Cheng Xiang squatted on the computer chair in Qin Ziqiao’s room, clutching a throw pillow to her chest. “I want to tell my mom about me and TTR.”
“Are you crazy?”
“No, look. She and I have been together for a while now.”
“…My friend, my advice is to hide it for as long as you can. You know what your mom is like when she flies into a rage, don’t you?”
Cheng Xiang scrunched up her nose and laughed. “I might really be crazy. I want to bring her home for Chinese New Year.”
She had already asked Tao Tianran. Tao Tianran said she would not be returning to Gangdao for the holidays, and she hadn’t gone back for the past several years either.
Cheng Xiang simply couldn’t imagine it: how could anyone spend Chinese New Year all alone?
She tossed the pillow in her hands toward Qin Ziqiao, who caught it instinctively.
“What should I do? I really want to tell her. I can’t help but want to tell her.”
She wanted to say, “Mom, I’ve found someone I really, really like.”
She wanted to say, “I’m bringing her home for the holidays.”
She wanted to say, “Let’s wrap dumplings together. The Spring Festival Gala is getting more boring every year, but the mandarin oranges are so warm and sweet when you heat them up on the radiator.”
“Isn’t it still early for the holidays?” Qin Ziqiao reasoned. “Take your time. Your comic is starting to gain some traction, isn’t it? Wait until things are a bit more stable on your end before you say anything.”
“Sigh—” Although she knew Qin Ziqiao was right, Cheng Xiang’s heart was itching with restlessness. She paced over to the balcony with her hands clasped behind her back, only to freeze. “Qin Ziqiao!”
“Why are you using my full name?”
“Where are your scallions? How did this whole row of scallions you planted end up completely bald?”
“Fried them with eggs.”
“What?!” Cheng Xiang rushed back inside, chopping the air with her hand as she came to a halt in front of Qin Ziqiao. “What’s wrong with you?!”
“What do you mean, ‘what’s wrong with me’?”
“You can’t hide it from me!”
The three things Qin Ziqiao valued most in life were apocalyptic novels1, capybaras, and the scallions she grew with her own hands.
“There’s really nothing going on.” Qin Ziqiao stuffed the pillow back into Cheng Xiang’s arms. “If you open your mouth any wider, I could fit this entire pillow in there.”
“She’s doomed, she’s doomed, she’s doomed.” Those were the first words out of Cheng Xiang’s mouth when she arrived at Tao Tianran’s apartment.
Pacing around the living room with her arms crossed, she finally looked up and declared, “My friend is broken.”
“I think I know why,” Tao Tianran said softly.
“Huh? How would you know?”
“The Big Boss2 is going abroad.”
“Where to?”
“Africa.”
“For how long?”
“Two years. It’s not certain if she’ll return afterward. Many of her family members are in Europe, so she might just go straight there.”
“When is she leaving?”
“In a week.”
“Hold on, hold on.” Cheng Xiang whipped out her phone.
“What are you doing?” Tao Tianran caught her by the wrist.
“I have to tell Ziqiao!”
“She knows. Why else would she be reacting like this?”
“Oh, right.” Cheng Xiang realized her anxiety was making her lose her head. “So… has Ziqiao talked to her about it?”
“Probably not.”
“How do you know?”
“I went to see the Big Boss today to review a proposal. She was in her office, using a newly acquired jadeite stone as a golf ball.”
“Are those two saw-mouthed gourds3 or what?!” Cheng Xiang was genuinely anxious now. “I’ve got to call her and talk some sense into her.”
Tao Tianran pursed her lips.
Cheng Xiang paused. “You think I shouldn’t?”
Tao Tianran said softly, “They’re both adults, aren’t they?”
To Tao Tianran, interfering in other people’s lives was a completely foreign concept to her. When she was young, she lived with her maternal grandmother. Her mother occasionally came to visit, but her grandmother never smiled at her daughter—two deep, stern lines remained etched beside her nose.
After she went to sleep, she would hear her mother in the next room asking her grandmother, “You clearly disapprove of me, so why don’t you ever step in?”
“That’s your own life,” her grandmother replied coldly. “You make your own choices, and you’re responsible for them.”
“It has always been like this,” her mother’s voice trailed off.
“What did you say?”
“When I was little and you were away doing business all year round, you said the exact same thing.”
A towering wall stood between Tao Tianran’s grandmother and mother. Having watched this since she was a child, she too had seemingly grown accustomed to interacting with others in the same distant manner.
“Are you saying I’m meddling too much?” Cheng Xiang held her phone, falling into thought.
In truth, Qin Ziqiao had indeed never been willing to talk to her about Yi Yu. Even when Cheng Xiang tried to bring up the subject, Qin Ziqiao would always dodge it.
It was not until Cheng Xiang returned to her own home that Tao Tianran received a call from her, accompanied by a rustling sound over the receiver.
Tao Tianran asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting changed,” Cheng Xiang said. “I’m going to Ziqiao’s place right now.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I still have to go.” Cheng Xiang tiptoed to her door and pushed it open. Slipping out of the siheyuan4, she began to run through the depths of the hutong5. Her voice rang out clearly in the night air. “She’s my best friend. Even if she thinks I’m overstepping, even if she’s annoyed and fights with me, it doesn’t matter. I just don’t want her feelings to end up in vain.”
Those words suddenly struck a chord deep inside Tao Tianran’s heart.
Cheng Xiang took a bus to Qin Ziqiao’s apartment building and called her. “Are you asleep?”
“No. What is it?”
“Open your window.”
“Huh?”
Qin Ziqiao pushed open her window and saw Cheng Xiang standing down below, waving up at her. “Come down.”
“You aren’t going to make me drag myself out for a late-night snack right now, are you?”
“How about we go find Yi Yu?”
“…Are you out of your mind?”
“Seriously. Before Tao Tianran and I got together, every time I wanted to say something to her, I’d overthink it until I lost my courage. But if you just grit your teeth, close your eyes, and clear your head, the words will just come out.” Cheng Xiang asked, “Do you want to come down now? If you don’t want to go find her, I will stay on the phone with you.”
Cheng Xiang tilted her small face upward, gazing up through the dark night.
Qin Ziqiao gripped her phone, falling into a long silence.
“Tao Tianran, Tao Tianran, Tao Tianran,” she suddenly muttered.
Cheng Xiang was taken aback.
“Why do you have to bring up Tao Tianran with every breath you take? It’s seriously annoying. Do you think everyone in the world is like you and Tao Tianran? You’re just a…”
Qin Ziqiao cut herself off.
Cheng Xiang paused. “You were going to call me love-brained6, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
Qin Ziqiao hung up.
Cheng Xiang sniffled and rubbed her phone between her palms. Her phone was a bit old, and the battery always grew hot after a long call.
She slipped the phone back into her pocket and walked slowly toward the bus stop.
In her head, she quietly counted how many times she and Qin Ziqiao had fought since they were children.
Lost in thought with her head down, she didn’t pay attention and nearly collided with someone.
Muttering an apology as she looked up, she saw Tao Tianran’s cool, elegant face bathed in the glow of the streetlight.
Cheng Xiang managed a faint smile. “Why are you here?”
Tao Tianran reached out and gently brushed a finger against the corner of her brow. “Are you sad?”
“Ah, is it that obvious?” Cheng Xiang forced another grin. She was clearly trying to smile, wasn’t she?
“So you did fight?”
“Yeah.” Cheng Xiang hung her head. Since Tao Tianran had already seen through her, she let the forced smile drop from her lips.
“Did she say something hurtful?”
Cheng Xiang looked up, a self-deprecating smile returning to her face. “Actually, I know what she’s thinking. She thinks my words are too cheap and easy. After all, I’m not her. I didn’t go through what she did when we were kids—shuffling back and forth between her dad’s house and her mom’s, never knowing how long she could stay, always having to pack up her backpack and leave at a moment’s notice…”
“But still,” Cheng Xiang suddenly stopped in her tracks and stomped her foot hard, “that doesn’t mean I’m not angry! We’re best friends! How could she talk to me like that!”
Cheng Xiang suddenly pulled out her phone, bowed her head, and began typing furiously with a pitter-patter of rapid taps:
【Do you know why human eyes are on the front of our heads? Argh, never mind, I won’t use those cheesy internet quotes. You can look back or look forward, and you can blame your dad or your mom in your heart all you want, but I just want to tell you that finding someone you like is really not easy. Once you miss them, you don’t get another chance. You’re afraid of getting hurt, right? Who isn’t? Don’t look at me like this—I’m terrified too! How about I treat you to malatang afterward, okay?! Even if you cry so hard your nose runs, you can just blame it on the spice! But giving up without even trying—what the hell is wrong with you!】
【You have to try! You have to throw caution to the wind and just try!】
Cheng Xiang had typed the message so frantically that she barely used any punctuation. It was as if she were speaking in a single, breathless gasp—it nearly choked her!
With a sharp whoosh, the message was sent. Without a second thought, she locked her screen and shoved the phone into Tao Tianran’s hand.
Tao Tianran: “Hmm?”
“See if she’s replied,” Cheng Xiang said, her voice nasal with unshed tears.
“No,” Tao Tianran said after checking the screen. She raised her eyes to look at Cheng Xiang. “Are you crying?”
Cheng Xiang’s tears began to fall softly.
Tao Tianran’s thumb gently brushed against her cheek. “Crying for someone else?”
Cheng Xiang let out a sudden wet laugh. “It’s not that I’m incredibly sad or anything. It’s just that every time I fight with her, I always feel like I didn’t argue my point well enough, you know?”
“When we fought in kindergarten, it was because she stole my fried egg. Her parents started fighting all the time right around then.”
“When we fought in fourth grade, it was because she became obsessed with apocalyptic novels and stopped paying attention to me. That was when her parents got divorced.”
“When we fought in middle school, it was because I ate lunch with another girl in our class. She got mad, and I thought she was being petty. We deleted each other’s numbers and cut ties for exactly two days and nine hours, only to end up crying on the phone with each other in the middle of the night to make up. Pfft, thinking about it now, we were so dramatic.”
“I just…” Cheng Xiang cast her thick eyelashes downward. “I really feel bad for her.”
That night, Tao Tianran returned to her apartment.
She grabbed a whole bottle of red wine. Still too lazy to look for a decanter, she poured herself a glass, sank onto the sofa, and sat in the darkness for a long time.
She pulled out her phone. The screen suddenly lit up, piercing her eyes. Tao Tianran squinted and began typing:
【More often than not, time will not wait for you.】
She had said this line once before.
After sending the message, she leaned her head back against the sofa.
Her phone began to vibrate: zizi, zizi.
Tao Tianran answered with her eyes closed. “Hello.”
Qiao Zhiji was silent for a brief moment before she spoke. “Do you speak from personal experience?”
“Trust me, I do,” Tao Tianran said, and then she hung up.
The next day, Director Ma stopped Cheng Xiang. “I made some pickles7. Doesn’t Ziqiao love them? Take some over to her.”
“I’m not going.”
“What, did you two fight again?”
“Who’s fighting with her?” Cheng Xiang reached out. “Fine, give it here.”
Carrying the food container from Director Ma, Cheng Xiang boarded the bus to Qin Ziqiao’s place. Just as she stepped off, an electric scooter suddenly lunged straight toward her.
Cheng Xiang hugged the container to her chest and took a sharp step back. “What the hell?”
The riders were three delinquent youths, squeezed like a sandwich onto the tiny scooter, smirking at her.
“Idiots,” Cheng Xiang muttered under her breath, quickening her pace as she walked away.
When she reached the entrance of Qin Ziqiao’s building, she hesitated again.
She reached up to scratch her ear. Sigh. People really did become less and less adept at reconciling the older they got—it always felt so sappy.
Besides, Qin Ziqiao still had not replied to her message.
After a brief moment of indecisiveness, she decided to head upstairs anyway. After all, these were Qin Ziqiao’s favorite pickles, weren’t they?
She set the container down in front of Qin Ziqiao’s door, rang the bell, and quickly ducked to the side out of sight.
A moment later, the padapada of slippers sounded from within.
Qin Ziqiao pulled the door open, picked up the container, and stood in the doorway for a short while. In the end, she said nothing, shut the door, and went back inside.
Hmph. Cheng Xiang curled her lip.
On the day of Yi Yu’s departure, a rare torrential downpour swept through winter-laden Beicheng.
Cheng Xiang was staying at Tao Tianran’s place, sitting cross-legged on the sofa clutching a cushion. She stared blankly at a bowl of washed cherries resting on the coffee table.
She asked Tao Tianran, “Your boss’s flight is tonight, right?”
“Yes.”
“With rain this heavy, I wonder if the flight will be canceled,” she muttered.
After sitting in a daze for a couple of seconds, she suddenly jumped up and dialed Qin Ziqiao’s number.
Before she could speak, Qin Ziqiao’s voice came through from the other end. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s no time for that right now, Qiaozi!” Cheng Xiang cried out, exasperated. “Go! Hurry up and go!”
This was the exact reason she had called.
No matter how much Qin Ziqiao fought with her, she was going to scream: “Go! Hurry up and go!”
Without looking back. Resolutely. Charging straight ahead.
“I’m trying to hail a ride-share, but there are seventy-eight people ahead of me in the queue.”
“Then, then, then…” Cheng Xiang stomped her feet in anxiety alongside her.
Tao Tianran stood up, walked over, and lightly patted the top of Cheng Xiang’s head. “Let’s go.”
“You’re going to drive us?” Cheng Xiang giggled in delight, grabbing Tao Tianran’s hand and dragging her toward the entryway. “Then let’s hurry!”
At the same time, she spoke into the phone to Qin Ziqiao: “Don’t worry! Teacher Tao and I are coming to pick you up right now!”
As they ran out the door, Cheng Xiang giggled again.
Tao Tianran shot her a sidelong glance.
Cheng Xiang dramatically cupped her own face. “You are so swoon-worthy, Tao Tianran! How can you be so incredibly dreamy!”
Tao Tianran ignored her.
Cheng Xiang chuckled to herself. Although Tao Tianran was quite petty and even got jealous over Qin Ziqiao, she knew Tao Tianran would definitely drive Qin Ziqiao to the airport.
Because this was the person she loved.
A very, very good person.
The car plunged into the curtain of rain and drove to Qin Ziqiao’s neighborhood. Qin Ziqiao was already waiting at the gate. She closed her umbrella and climbed into the back seat; the moment she put the umbrella down, a massive wet patch spread across the floor mat.
Cheng Xiang was sitting in the back waiting for her, and she gave her a playful slap on the back of her hand.
Qin Ziqiao returned the gesture with a light tap on Cheng Xiang’s hand.
Cheng Xiang asked, “Is she at the airport yet? Has her flight been canceled?”
“It’s not canceled. I checked.”
“Good, good, good.” Cheng Xiang nodded, biting her lip. She was worrying herself sick over this. She felt like her personality took after her mother’s—perhaps she really was cut out to be a Neighborhood Committee Director.
Qin Ziqiao leaned forward slightly toward the front seat and murmured, “Thank you.”
Tao Tianran merely nodded in response.
Cheng Xiang noticed that she was keeping both hands firmly on the steering wheel today, her eyes locked onto the road ahead. The lines of her shoulders were slightly tense.
Turning her head to look out the window, she saw the torrential rain painting the world as if it were a vast ocean.
Tao Tianran glanced in the rearview mirror. Cheng Xiang was sitting in the back, checking her phone repeatedly, looking even more anxious than Qin Ziqiao.
The moment the car pulled up to the drop-off zone, Cheng Xiang urged Qin Ziqiao, “Hurry, hurry, get out of the car!”
Inside the departure terminal, the overhead announcement was already chiming: “Will passenger Yi Yu, traveling on flight ET605, please…”
Yi Yu tapped her toe lightly against the polished marble floor, muttering under her breath, “I know my name is beautiful, but can you please stop shouting it over the speakers…”
Just as Cheng Xiang was about to step out of the car with Qin Ziqiao, Tao Tianran stopped her. “Can you stay and keep me company while I park?”
“Ah? Oh, okay, okay.” Cheng Xiang assumed Tao Tianran was telling her not to play the third wheel.
In reality, Tao Tianran felt a deep, lingering unease in such heavy rain.
After all, the last time Cheng Xiang had met with a fatal car accident, it had been on a rainy night just like this. She did not want Cheng Xiang to leave her sight.
The two of them walked into the terminal building, and Cheng Xiang trotted all the way to Yi Yu’s security checkpoint.
Yi Yu had one arm draped over Qin Ziqiao’s shoulder, leaning in close to whisper something into her ear.
Catching sight of Tao Tianran in the distance, she didn’t wait for her to approach. She waved, grabbed her carry-on suitcase, and made her way through the security gate.
Cheng Xiang ran up to Qin Ziqiao. “Why did she leave already? Did… did you tell her?”
Spectating this drama made her feel as nervous as if she were the one confessing.
“Yes.”
“Then… what did she…?” Cheng Xiang closely studied Qin Ziqiao’s face.
“She’s still leaving.”
“Oh…” Cheng Xiang wondered if pulling Qin Ziqiao into a sob-fest right here would draw a crowd of onlookers.
Well, whatever. She was just about to wrap her arm around Qin Ziqiao’s shoulders.
With a cool expression, Qin Ziqiao continued, “She has business she has to handle in person. But… she told me to wait for her to come back.”
In truth, Qin Ziqiao had left out two words.
The exact words Yi Yu had just whispered in her ear were: “Wait for me to return, so I can sleep with you.”
Right now, Yi Yu was strutting off with her suitcase, swaying her hips triumphantly. She had never been the gong8 before—how thrilling was that?! But seeing that she was really running out of time, she finally broke into a run, dragging her suitcase behind her.
“Ah!” Cheng Xiang grabbed Qin Ziqiao’s hand and jumped up and down on the spot. “Ah!”
Qin Ziqiao gave her shoulder a gentle shove.
Cheng Xiang’s eyes curved into crescent moons as she trotted back to Tao Tianran’s side. “I knew it!”
With a little skip of joy, she repeated, “I knew it!”
By the time they left the airport, the rain was beginning to taper off.
After driving Qin Ziqiao home, Cheng Xiang followed Tao Tianran back to her apartment.
They had agreed that Qin Ziqiao would cover for her, claiming she was sleeping over at her place tonight. Heheh.
Tao Tianran leaned back against the sofa, looking somewhat distracted.
Cheng Xiang picked up a cherry and tapped it against her lips. “Tired?”
Tao Tianran looked up, fixing her gaze on Cheng Xiang.
The moment she opened her mouth to speak, her thin lips brushed against the deep crimson cherry. “How will you thank me?”
Cheng Xiang let out a sudden laugh. “You’re losing your cool factor, Tao Tianran. You were the one who volunteered to drive Ziqiao to the airport. How can you turn around and demand a reward?”
Tao Tianran’s thin lips lacked color, and resting against that deep, dark crimson, they presented an almost pathological temptation. She let out a slow, soft murmur, bit the cherry into her mouth, and deliberately peeled the flesh away from the pit with her tongue.
Then she asked, “Can’t I?”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, emphasizing the two tiny moles at the outer corner of her eye.
Cheng Xiang’s heart skipped a beat.
When Cheng Xiang buried her face in the soft down pillow in the bedroom, Tao Tianran’s fingers slid in from the side, slipping into her mouth.
Leaning down to press against her back, Tao Tianran’s other hand reached in just as deeply.
Some thank-you gift this was. Tao Tianran bit down on Cheng Xiang’s earlobe, thinking to herself that this was nothing more than an excuse to ensure Cheng Xiang would not refuse her tonight.
She must never refuse her, no matter how many times.
The rain tonight was too cold, reminding her of that fatal car crash on a stormy night in a previous loop. Her fingers desperately needed to be wrapped in familiar warmth, craving the sensation of being accepted, enveloped, and squeezed.
To let her feel that Xiao Xiang was truly, vibrantly alive.
She buried her head, remaining completely silent, but her movements never ceased.
She’s something else, Cheng Xiang thought to herself. This woman is truly something else.
Her waist, which was already subjected to long hours of hunching over a desk drawing comics, really could not take this kind of strain.
Finally, Cheng Xiang could not help but ask her own mother, Director Ma, “Mom, do you know any famous old doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine?”
“What for?”
“Just… my waist hurts from hunching over my desk drawing comics every day.”
Director Ma did not know any famous old doctors, but word of this somehow reached Qin Ziqiao’s mother, who in turn passed it along to Qin Ziqiao.
Qin Ziqiao called Cheng Xiang. “I know a famous old doctor.”
Cheng Xiang grew wary. “I don’t want a veterinarian.”
“No. Well, to be precise, it isn’t someone I know personally; it’s someone Yi Yu knows. Oh, you don’t have her on WeChat. I’ll have her send the contact card to Teacher Tao.”
When Yi Yu sent the old doctor’s contact card to Tao Tianran, she attached a message: 【Who knew you had it in you, Teacher Tao?】
Tao Tianran was in a meeting at the time. With a frosty expression, she placed her phone face down on the conference table.
While Yi Yu was away from the country, a major incident occurred.
Qiao Zhiji filed a lawsuit against Yu Yusheng’s older brother, Yu Yuce.
The business under Yu Yuce’s control had run into financial issues. A rival company hired Qiao Zhiji as their legal counsel, and she accepted the case.
Once the news broke, it shocked the entire city, spreading across the internet like wildfire.
Yi Yu sent a WeChat message to Yu Yusheng: 【You don’t have to come into the office for the time being. Your leave is approved.】
Yu Yusheng replied: 【No need.】
Yu Yusheng’s life went on looking entirely normal.
At the company, she took on two more major clients, crafting a custom pink diamond necklace and a green jadeite lizard brooch. When she had free time after work, she still went out to bars or KTV lounges with her old circle of friends.
She drank quite a lot.
Late one night, as Yu Yusheng walked out of a KTV private room with her friends, she saw someone leaning against the side wall of the corridor.
Someone with sharp eyes recognized her. “Isn’t that the lawyer suing your brother? She has been really famous lately. I even saw an interview with her in 《Style》 magazine.”
“She’s probably just using the lawsuit against your brother to hype herself up.”
“Talk about a small world. Yusheng, go give her a piece of your mind.”
Yu Yusheng merely said, “You guys head out first.”
As her friends left, they each shot Qiao Zhiji a glaring look as they passed.
Qiao Zhiji remained expressionless, completely unmoved.
Yu Yusheng walked over to her.
Qiao Zhiji raised her eyes. “I recall you’re actually quite rebellious, aren’t you?”
Her almond-shaped eyes possessed a classical, elegant charm. Only when she raised her gaze like this did a hard-to-catch, alluring gleam flash beneath her stern expression, resembling a dangerous temptation.
“To you, kissing a lawyer who is actively working against your family would be considered a transgression.”
“This time,” Qiao Zhiji asked, half-veiling her eyes, “who will be the one to break the rules?”
Yu Yusheng suddenly reached out and wrapped her arms around Qiao Zhiji’s slender waist beneath her tailored blazer.
Qiao Zhiji pulled her along with the momentum, and the two of them slipped into an empty room nearby.
Qiao Zhiji’s suit was highly sophisticated, yet she offered no struggle or resistance when Yu Yusheng wrapped her arms around her waist and pressed her against the wall. The piercing lights of the corridor were suddenly shut out as the surrounding darkness enveloped them like a rising tide.
Qiao Zhiji pushed the door closed behind them. Tilting her head slightly, she leaned in close to her ear and murmured, “I booked this private room; no one will come.”
Drowning out her final syllable, Yu Yusheng bit down on her bottom lip.
In truth, Yu Yusheng had drunk quite a lot tonight, and a fire was burning in her stomach. She failed to control her force when she bit down on Qiao Zhiji’s lower lip, and in an instant, a faint metallic taste of blood welled up.
The closed door shut out the howling, off-key singing from the corridor. The silence inside the room formed a stark contrast. Qiao Zhiji reached out in the pitch-black darkness to wrap her arms back around Yu Yusheng’s waist, their lips tangled together.
In her hazy, intoxicated state, Yu Yusheng thought: This is the person I have loved since I was eighteen.
This time, I will be the one to break the rules.
She leaned in close to Qiao Zhiji’s ear, the fabric of Qiao Zhiji’s suit rustling as Yu Yusheng pressed herself forward. She asked, “Your place or mine?”
Footnotes
- A popular genre of Chinese web fiction focusing on survival, resource-scavenging, and base-building after an apocalyptic event.
- A corporate title (da laoban) for a company head, often used playfully by subordinates.
- A translation of 'juzui hulu', an idiom referring to someone who is close-mouthed, tight-lipped, or unwilling to speak up about their feelings.
- Traditional Chinese courtyard residences (siheyuan) typical of old Beicheng.
- Narrow lanes or alleys (hutong) typical of northern Chinese cities.
- A translation of 'lian'ainao', a popular modern Chinese internet term for someone who is completely consumed by romance or acts foolishly for love.
- Traditional Chinese pickled vegetables (paocai), often made with cabbage or radishes.
- The active or dominant partner (gong, the 'top') in a same-sex relationship, counterpart to 'shou'.
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