The Alley Was Always This Long – Chapter 8
by Little PandaIt Turns Out
Tao Tianran’s eyes revealed appreciation.
[Have you ever seen me?
Someone like you surely wouldn’t understand.
“Looking at me” and “seeing me” are two entirely different things.]
By the time Cheng Xiang left Hide, she had finally managed to greet Yu Yusheng’s group of beautiful friends.
So… so trendy… Cheng Xiang’s ‘fear of beautiful women’ and ‘fear of trendy people’ were acting up simultaneously.
The one with the charmingly sweet voice was easy to identify. She had to be the ‘Miss Wen the Glamorous Twin-Tailed Cockroach’ who had contacted Yu Yusheng.
Pfft, she really is wearing twin-tails.
She asked Cheng Xiang, “Going for a second round1?”
“Where to?”
“To eat foie gras.” She pulled up the orange app2 to show Cheng Xiang. It was hard to tell if she was from Hong Kong Island or Guang Province, but she spoke with an accent that stood out sharply amidst the sea of Beicheng dialects.
Whoa, Cheng Xiang took one look. Such a thin slice layered on burnt toast, paired with red wine—how could that possibly fill anyone up?
So she waved her hands repeatedly. “Not going, not going.”
When Qin Ziqiao came out of the bar after using the restroom, she saw Cheng Xiang waiting for her at the entrance.
The Eldest Miss wore a soft satin shirt and wide-legged trousers, paired with ultra-thin high heels. She looked like an indolent, charming older sister with legs two meters long. Wrapped in a light, ink-black cashmere coat, she stood by the roadside… hopping up and down from the cold like a monkey.
Her heel had gotten stuck in the narrow paving seams of the brick sidewalk. With what sounded like a low curse, she clumsily grabbed her ankle and tried to pull it out.
And then, the heel of that red-soled stiletto… just snapped off.
“…” Qin Ziqiao walked over. “You didn’t leave with your friends?”
Cheng Xiang laughed heartily. “Tell me, this is a shoe worth tens of thousands, so how did the heel just pop off with one pull?”
“How should I know?” Qin Ziqiao rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I’ve ever worn shoes worth tens of thousands.”
Cheng Xiang limped toward the side of the street. “It’s fine, I’ll just buy a pair.”
Qin Ziqiao raised her eyes and caught sight of the signboard: Feiyue.
Right before the shop owner pulled down the rolling shutter to close up, the Eldest Miss dashed in and bought an eighty-nine-yuan pair of Feiyue3 Shaolin Soul track shoes. Wearing them with her exceptionally mature, elegant outfit, she stood by the street wrapped in her coat and asked Qin Ziqiao, “Going for a second round?”
“Where to?”
“Malatang, of course!” Cheng Xiang laughed.
Malatang4 was a godsend in the northern winters. Under the dim, yellowish glow of a bare lightbulb, even the warm red plastic tent set up over the stall felt tender and inviting.
Qin Ziqiao sat on a flimsy plastic stool, watching this Eldest Miss with a net worth over a hundred million gulp down starch meatballs while sniffing back snot, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster’s.
“Burp~” Cheng Xiang let out a breath of pure satisfaction. Fine sweat had beaded on her forehead.
In the past, whenever she and Qin Ziqiao finished singing karaoke or working overtime—and if their schedules aligned—they would always come eat malatang.
Qin Ziqiao poked twice at a fishball coated in sesame paste with the tips of her chopsticks. “Let me ask you something.”
“Hmm?”
“Earlier at the bar, you were leaning so close to Tao Tianran. What were you saying?”
“Idle chat.” Cheng Xiang had noticed that the former Yu Yusheng had a habit of loosely tossing her hair, so much so that she now shared the same little tic. Her cat-like eyes curved into a rippling smile.
“You know Xiao Xiang used to be with Tao Tianran, right?”
“Mhm.” Cheng Xiang tapped the end of her chopsticks against her plastic-lined stainless steel bowl, her lips curling up. “She was so foolish. Making such a scene that everyone knew.”
“Are you interested in Tao Tianran?” Qin Ziqiao asked bluntly.
“And if I say… yes?” Cheng Xiang tilted her head, sweeping her cloud-like curly hair over one shoulder.
“Get up.” Qin Ziqiao stood straight up and grabbed Cheng Xiang’s wrist. She scanned the QR code to pay, then dragged Cheng Xiang toward the road.
A DiDi5 pulled up. She immediately shoved Cheng Xiang into the backseat, got into the passenger side, and slammed the door.
Cheng Xiang could tell that Qin Ziqiao used to be a little intimidated by Yu Yusheng. After all, both she and Qin Ziqiao used to be rather cowardly in the past! Whenever they saw a hot, filthy-rich beauty, they always felt like she belonged to a completely different world.
But just now, Qin Ziqiao’s motion of shoving her into the car had been done in one seamless breath—except for the fact that Cheng Xiang had felt her hand trembling slightly.
Cheng Xiang grabbed the back of the passenger headrest and asked Qin Ziqiao, “Where are we going?”
“Hey, where are we actually going?”
Qin Ziqiao refused to answer, staring blankly out the windshield.
Cheng Xiang shrugged. She crossed her arms and leaned casually back against the seat. Two strands of curly hair fell in front of her eyes, but she couldn’t be bothered to brush them away, simply gazing out at the night beyond the window.
It wasn’t until the car stopped that Qin Ziqiao got out and yanked her from the backseat.
“Wait for me here.” Qin Ziqiao only dropped those words before turning to head upstairs.
Cheng Xiang took a look. Qin Ziqiao had brought her to her rental apartment.
Less than five minutes later, Qin Ziqiao came back down and hurled something into Cheng Xiang’s arms. Out of sheer momentum, Cheng Xiang took a step back.
Looking down, she found that the object Qin Ziqiao had chucked at her was the bag she had bought for her earlier.
“Take it back!” Qin Ziqiao panted heavily. The elevator in this building was always too crowded, and unwilling to wait, she had just sprinted up to the seventh floor and back down in one go.
Cheng Xiang dangled the bag from her fingertips, swinging it carelessly. Her tone was just as nonchalant. “What’s this for?”
“Don’t ever come looking for me again!” Compared to Cheng Xiang’s attitude, Qin Ziqiao realized her own earnestness felt like an absurd joke.
But she simply couldn’t stop the violent heaving of her chest. Tears burst from her eyes. “Stay away from me!”
Her voice cracked as she screamed. She raised her hands to cover her eyes, but massive tears continued to spill through her fingers.
What the hell… Even after Cheng Xiang had died, she hadn’t cried once. She had been so tough—even on the day of Cheng Xiang’s funeral, she had spent the entire time comforting Cheng Xiang’s parents without shedding a single tear.
Cheng Xiang bit her lip slightly. She stepped closer and patted her on the back. “Hey…”
Qin Ziqiao threw her head back and roared at her, “Tao Tianran belongs to Xiao Xiang!”
Cheng Xiang froze.
“Tao Tianran belongs to Xiao Xiang!” Qin Ziqiao continued to scream, her voice tearing. “Even if Xiao Xiang is gone, Tao Tianran still belongs to her!”
She squatted down and began to sob, heavy tears splashing against the pebble-paved ground.
Cheng Xiang stood there for a long moment. Finally, she bent her knees, crouching down beside her, and asked in a very soft voice, “Does Tao Tianran feel the same way?”
Qin Ziqiao turned her head to glare at her.
She was smiling. Her eyelashes were lowered, gazing at the reflection of the cobblestones like a star on the verge of burning out.
As she lifted that stunningly beautiful face, the arch of her eyebrow carried a vivid, lively charm. “Hey, aren’t you the least bit curious if an icy wasteland like Tao Tianran could ever be cracked open by someone?”
Qin Ziqiao choked on a sob.
“I think…” Cheng Xiang casually brushed aside her cascading curls. “Xiao Xiang would be very curious.”
“Hiss…“
Didn’t they say drinking good alcohol wouldn’t give you a headache? Liars. All of them were liars.
When Cheng Xiang woke up early the next morning, she pressed the heels of her hands against her throbbing temples. Both her and Qin Ziqiao’s alcohol tolerance was utterly abysmal; they only ever drank to chase an artsy, sentimental vibe.
Nibbling on shredded squid, they could spend half the day nursing two cans of twelve-percent fruit cider.
Thinking about it now, she had definitely drunk too much last night. Constantly tripping over the hem of her pajamas, she made her way to wash up, before dressing herself to look somewhat presentable for work.
Tao Tianran had clearly been drinking last night too, yet this morning, her face was as crisp and pristine as an untouched glacier.
Cheng Xiang ended up crossing paths with her in the narrow corridor outside the pantry, and she simply couldn’t resist shooting her a glare.
The group chat was blowing up again: 【Ahhh did you guys see?! Shianne was making eyes at Teacher Tao!】
? Cheng Xiang: Where did I make eyes at her?
【How did Teacher Tao react?】
【Teacher Tao had NO! RE! ACTION! Family, you know what this means, right? Avoidance means there’s definitely something going on!】
Cheng Xiang: …
Someone placed a cup of coffee on her desk. Looking up, she saw her assistant smiling at her. “We’re holding the first draft meeting for the new designs on Friday. You still remember the theme you proposed, right?”
“Yeah.” Cheng Xiang nodded. “‘Regret.'”
“You have a week. It’s just a rough draft—more than enough time for you.” The assistant waved her hand. “I’ll go get back to work.”
Cheng Xiang turned on her drawing tablet.
Fortunately, she used to be a concept artist, so she was thoroughly familiar with drawing tablets. But… how exactly did one do jewelry design? Her closest relationship with jewelry design consisted of secretly flipping through a few of Tao Tianran’s professional textbooks.
Ever since transmigrating into Yu Yusheng’s body, she hadn’t retained a single shred of the original owner’s memories. Did she retain her professional skills?
Regret…
Cheng Xiang pondered the theme she had proposed, gripping her stylus and sketching aimlessly.
Aside from the “marine snow” she had brought up last time, speaking of regret, there was the snow that had fallen on Earth for three hundred million years.
Before that, the tides had shifted colors, and cyanobacteria had breathed in rhythm. Even now, looking at the fossilized stromatolite skeletons of cyanobacteria remaining off the coast of Western Australia, no one knew what kind of dreams they had dreamt during three hundred million years of deep freeze.
And no one knew what kind of dreams Cheng Xiang had dreamt as she lay on the crosswalk during the season’s first snow.
Cheng Xiang accidentally glanced at her drawing tablet. “Holy…”
She had never experienced this kind of feeling before. In the past, it had been incredibly difficult for Cheng Xiang to translate the inspiration in her head onto the canvas. Her artistic fundamentals hadn’t been strong enough to catch her own wild, soaring imagination.
For the first time, whatever flowed through her mind appeared flawlessly at the tip of her pen.
She thought of cyanobacteria, and so the prototype of a cyanobacteria-like necklace took shape beneath her stylus, pieced together from crushed fountain-green diamonds. Would anyone ever use the word “sorrowful” to describe a necklace? Yet as Cheng Xiang looked at it, the only word that came to mind was “sorrow.”
It was older than amber, for it preserved a memory from before the birth of all other life. In that era, it rejoiced and grieved alone, while the heavens and the earth remained entirely oblivious.
Like a prolonged, solitary, unrequited love.
Like the old her.
Cheng Xiang set down her stylus and pursed her lips.
She spent a week finishing the draft. For the first time, she tasted the joy of having the ability to perfectly execute her inspiration.
Friday’s first draft meeting arrived.
Tao Tianran only entered after everyone else was seated. Technically, all the designers were on the same level; whether one was considered ‘senior’ or not mostly just dictated the price difference for commissions.
Yet everyone tacitly agreed that she possessed this privilege. She was the most popular, and therefore the busiest. Entering with hurried steps, she strapped the watch she had taken off while drawing back onto her slender wrist, her head buried in the tablet her assistant held out for her.
Her legs were so long that her assistant had to fast-walk to keep up. She murmured something, and her assistant jogged back out of the room. She pulled back her rolling chair and sat down, her long eyelashes lowered as she continued to ponder over something. Realizing that everyone was watching her, she finally raised her eyes and offered a single word, “Apologies.”
Her wrist, so slender that the faint blue veins were visible, rested against the edge of the table. A fountain pen spun in a circle between her fingers before she caught it, her fingertips tapping twice against the table.
It was as if she were asking why the meeting hadn’t started yet—her time was incredibly precious.
These first draft meetings were always hosted by the designers in rotation. The host for this session spoke up: “Who wants to go first?”
Cheng Xiang looked around and saw no one offering, so she raised her hand. “I’ll go.”
She didn’t know her colleagues’ skill levels, but according to her past workplace experience, going later meant dealing with the pressure of a grand finale.
Or, to use an old Chinese saying: die early, reincarnate early6.
She let out a small breath, connected her laptop to the adapter, and projected her screen onto the large monitor.
“This is my design draft.” She scratched her head, unsure of how to continue. A three-hundred-million-year dream was far too artistic; even she felt pretentious just thinking about saying it out loud.
Her gaze habitually fell upon Tao Tianran’s shoulder.
Tao Tianran still looked immersed in her previous work, her lowered eyelashes revealing a hint of nonchalance. But when she raised her head, the two small moles at the corner of her eye were bathed in the glow of the screen.
Her glance had initially been careless, but then her gaze snagged, shooting straight toward Cheng Xiang.
Cheng Xiang’s heart skipped a beat.
“What is this?” a colleague asked, looking at Cheng Xiang’s design draft.
“Cyanobacteria,” Tao Tianran suddenly spoke up from far across the room, the nib of her Montblanc pen tapping lightly against the table. She wasn’t smiling; her delicate eyebrows had simply arched upward.
Everything about her was delicate and fine. Fine eyebrows, narrow eyes, a nose bridge that was sharp and elegantly thin, and lips so thin they resembled a single dot of cinnabar. It made people think she could slice right through the world with such sharpness.
That was the very first time Cheng Xiang had ever seen appreciation revealed in Tao Tianran’s eyes.
So it turned out, she was capable of appreciating someone too.
It was just that—Cheng Xiang lowered her head, wiping away a speck of dust on the conference table with her fingertip—that person had never been her.
The author has something to say:
The fire in the crematorium is going to burn so fiercely after this~ Just thinking about it gets me excited.
Oh right, I’m taking a break from updating tomorrow. Why? Because my math is terrible and I miscalculated the word count. I need to control the word count for the editor’s recommendation list on Thursday… (awkward yet polite smile)
Classmates, make sure you arrive in the classroom on time this Thursday! I’ll be waiting for you!
Footnotes
- A slang term (xùtān) meaning to go for a 'second round' or continue partying at another venue after the first gathering has ended.
- A colloquial reference to Taobao, China's largest online shopping platform, known for its iconic orange logo.
- Feiyue (Fēiyuè) is a classic Chinese athletic shoe brand, known for its affordable and durable canvas sneakers.
- A popular Chinese street food (málàtàng) originating from Sichuan, where customers select assorted skewers of meat and vegetables to be boiled in a spicy, numbing broth.
- DiDi (Dīdī) is a major Chinese ride-hailing and vehicle-for-hire service.
- A common idiom (zǎosǐ zǎo chāoshēng) used humorously or fatalistically to mean 'getting it over with quickly' when facing an unpleasant task.
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