Sleeping Together
Lin Yan didn’t answer her, holding half a roasted sweet potato in her hand, feeling unsure about what to do. In the dim candlelight, there was a hint of moisture in his eyes.
Song Yuhang noticed that she wasn’t speaking and didn’t rush her; she had plenty of patience.
However…
Her eyes darkened slightly. The soft touch had been so delightful; she was both thrilled and wanted to experience it again.
She thought, this time it had to last longer, even longer. The sensation of truly kissing was even more wonderful than the gentle touch of fingertips.
With these thoughts in mind, she indeed took action. Unexpectedly, Lin Yan gave her no opportunity for a surprise attack. She pushed her away and then turned to run.
Song Yuhang chased after her. Just as they reached the bamboo grove, the elderly woman happened to be carrying firewood into the area. The two of them rushed past her like the wind.
Song Yuhang chased after her. Just as she reached the bamboo grove, the rain had started to subside. She grabbed her, saying, “Lin Yan!”
Lin Yan turned around and, as if electrocuted, shook her off, avoiding her like a snake. She took two steps back and bumped into the bamboo. Rainwater poured down on them, drenching both of them.
Song Yuhang still wanted to approach, but Lin Yan’s voice suddenly became sharp. She called out, “Song Yuhang, are you insane?”
She had to stop and said, “I’m not insane; I’ve thought it through.”
“Thought it through? Lin Ge is my brother, and you’re his girlfriend. What are you thinking? What are you thinking?” Lin Yan became somewhat agitated, with a hint of redness in the corners of her eyes.
“I’m not his girlfriend. I didn’t agree to that,” Song Yuhang shook her head honestly and took a step forward, trying to reach out to her.
Lin Yan hesitated for a moment and instinctively dodged, “Then what about the time you spent together on Qixi (Chinese Valentine’s Day)?”
Song Yuhang realized that she had misunderstood and smiled bitterly, “That was just a regular gathering of friends, I had no feelings for him.”
Lin Yan felt a complicated mix of emotions, a moment of heartache for Lin Ge, and a fleeting sense of joy at her explanation, although she knew it was wrong.
She was torn between love and family.
“Being uninterested? Do you know how Lin Ge feels about you? What would he think of us like this? Song Yuhang, not many people treat me well, Lin Ge is one of them, and I don’t want to hurt him.”
Perhaps her inner struggle was too evident in her eyes. Song Yuhang felt a pang in her heart, turned away to compose herself, and quickly turned back.
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“Lin Yan, when we return to Jiangcheng, I’ll talk to him and make everything clear.”
Lin Yan retorted mockingly, “What did you say? What did you say? That you like his cousin, want to kiss her, and want to sleep with her? If I were Lin Ge, I’d be fucking…”
Her words suddenly stopped as she realized that something was amiss. The words had already left her mouth, and she wished she could bite her own tongue.
Song Yuhang had a smile in her eyes by now. “See, you understand too. It couldn’t be clearer.”
She paused for a moment and continued, “I feel that you’re the same way towards me…”
Before she could finish, Lin Yan picked up a bamboo branch and hurled it at her, drenching her with rainwater.
“Bullshit!”
Song Yuhang raised her hand to shield herself, wiped the water off her face, her eyes burning, and her smile open.
She wasn’t angry; the more Lin Yan reacted this way, the more it confirmed that she had hit upon her true feelings.
“Alright, if you think I’m talking nonsense, then I’ll give you an example,” Song Yuhang became more serious. “Just now when I kissed you, you could have dodged, but you didn’t…”
As she recalled that moment, she held Lin Yan’s wrist, slightly tilted her head, and saw a mix of surprise, joy, excitement, and a hint of affection in Lin Yan’s eyes.
It was as if all the beauty of a lifetime had been poured into this moment.
Song Yuhang licked her lips, as if savoring the moment, and said, “In that instant, I felt your pulse, and your heart rate exceeded a hundred beats per minute. Your vagus nerve was extremely excited, causing your heart rate to accelerate.”
She was now in a highly excited state, no better than Lin Yan.
“As adrenaline rises, pores expand, blood flow increases, which is why your face turned red, and then your body produces a hormone called phenylalanine, leading to a feeling of joy… Lin Yan, you’re a forensic doctor, I don’t need to explain much, do I?”
Lin Yan couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Song Yuhang, can’t you use your professional knowledge somewhere else?!”
Song Yuhang blinked, with a slightly innocent look, “There are also microexpressions, behavioral psychology, and other things that support my conclusion. Do you want me to explain it slowly to you…”
Lin Yan roared, “Get lost, shut up!”
Song Yuhang obediently closed her mouth, keeping silent.
Lin Yan, looking at how she obeyed her words, became even more frustrated. Why was this person so stubborn?
Song Yuhang was the most stubborn one, the number one stubborn mule in the world!!!
She was so angry that her face felt hot, but she found herself unable to refute what Song Yuhang said. Lin Yan couldn’t take it any longer and turned to leave.
Song Yuhang caught up with her again, grabbing her wrist, with a hint of caution in her eyes, “Where are you going? It’s not safe to go down the mountain now…”
Lin Yan took a deep breath and Song Yuhang spoke up just as she was about to explode in anger, “I’m sorry, I was abrupt.”
Song Yuhang scratched her head, looking somewhat troubled, “It’s the first time I’ve developed feelings for someone, and the person happens to be a girl. I don’t know how to handle this… Don’t be angry. If you don’t like this, I won’t kiss you in the future.”
Lin Yan felt her temples throbbing and felt like she was on the verge of being driven to anger.
“Is this the matter of kissing or not?” She lowered her voice, her anger evident.
“What kind of relationship do we have? Why do you assume that I also like you? Yes, I admit I have those physical instincts you mentioned, but that doesn’t mean I have a chemical reaction with you, do you understand?”
Song Yuhang gradually tightened her lips, and her gaze turned colder.
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Lin Yan looked away from her, speaking with difficulty, “I’ve had those instincts with every lover I’ve been with. You…”
She struggled to say, “At best, you’re just one of them.”
Song Yuhang released Lin Yan’s wrist and regained her composure completely. She asked, “What will it take for you to agree, to confront your feelings?”
Without waiting for Lin Yan’s response, she walked impatiently among the trees, then abruptly stopped in front of her.
“The issue you raised about Lin Ge, I’ll handle it properly, so don’t worry.”
Lin Yan moved her lips, and Song Yuhang leaned forward, covering her mouth. Her eyes dimmed slightly.
“Stop talking, I’m feeling a bit sad,” Lin Yan forced a smile and then stepped back, distancing herself from Song Yuhang.
“Although I don’t know how to treat you well or how to get closer to warm your heart, I won’t give up.”
“Whether you see me as your colleague, friend, comrade, or lover, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t reject me, give me the right to pursue you. Lovers can also become official, can’t they?”
A trace of bitterness was chewed out of the smile that habitually hung on Lin Yan’s lips.
Her heart softened, and her eyes welled up, but she looked away, bit her lip a few times, and held back the tears.
Song Yuhang came over to pull her, but she maintained her boundaries, gently tugging on her sleeve.
“Let’s go, get some sleep… Tomorrow… we still have a case to handle.”
* * *
Jiangcheng City.
Another heavy rain showered the city in the evening.
Bai Ling got up to close the windows. Just as she had closed the only window in the shabby tile-roofed house, she heard a series of rapid coughing sounds coming from her mother lying in bed.
She hurried over, fetched a cup of warm water, and helped her sit up, saying, “Mom, have some water. Are you feeling unwell again?”
As soon as she finished speaking, her mother’s cough suddenly became sharp. She spat a mouthful of blood into the cup.
Panicked, Bai Ling patted her mother’s back, “Mom, Mom, what’s wrong with you? I’ll go get you some medicine… get you some medicine…”
The water cup fell to the ground as Bai Ling frantically searched through drawers, looking for a thin strip of pills. However, when she tried to put it in her mother’s mouth, she found her jaws tightly clenched.
Her frail mother lay on the bed, less substantial than the teddy bear she had found in a garbage heap. Her eyes rolled back, foam came out of her mouth, and her body convulsed. A foul odor emanated from beneath the bedsheets.
Bai Ling cried out, “Mom! Mom! Hang on a little longer. I’ll go get help!”
She pushed open the iron gate and ran out into the alley, knocking on doors one by one, shouting, “Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Uncle, Uncle, please help my mom…”
“Go away, go away! Where did this beggar child come from? Get lost, get lost!”
The lights in one household flickered on and off.
Bai Ling, braving the pouring rain, ran to the next house, crying and shouting, “Auntie, Auntie, please save my mom. She’s not doing well… not doing well…”
A woman gave her a disdainful look and slammed the door shut with a loud bang, saying, “Are you crazy?!”
“Uncle, Uncle… can you please help take my mom to the hospital? She’s not doing well, she’s not… please, please…”
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She knelt in the rain, bowing to her neighbors, knocking her head against the ground. The man threw a couple of hundred yuan out from behind the rain curtain, with a reluctant expression.
“It’s not that Uncle won’t help you… you’re our neighbor, and my wife often gives your family vegetables, right? But it’s bad luck to have someone die halfway through. Uncle drives a taxi, after all…”
He seemed unable to bear to watch any longer and closed the door, but his wife pulled him inside, and the house resounded with arguments and shouting.
“You’re meddling again! Meddling again! And you even gave her money?! Are you eyeing that little slut, huh?! Are you?!”
The sounds of the woman’s crying and the man’s furious roars, accompanied by the clatter of pots and pans falling to the ground, striking hard against her heart.
Bai Ling stood up, turned to run, then turned back to pick up the two hundred yuan bill floating in the water. She clutched it tightly and rushed into her home.
“Mom, Mom, I’ll take you to the hospital, to the hospital!” She said, tears streaming down her face. She wrapped her mother in a bedsheet, put a raincoat on her, and tied it tightly around herself.
Years of suffering from illness had already reduced a middle-aged woman in her forties to a state barely recognizable. Bai Ling ran while carrying her, frantically trying to flag down a passing car.
“Help! Help! Driver, stop the car… stop the car…”
She shouted hoarsely in the rain, getting splashed with mud by passing vehicles.
She sat down in the mud, holding her mother, using her hand to touch her cold face. Tears mixed with raindrops fell down like broken beads.
“Mom… Mom…” She could hardly speak. “You have to hold on… you can’t die… you promised… if you die, I won’t have any family left in this world…”
“Mom… Mom… look at me again… look at me…” She pressed her face tightly against her mother, crying incoherently.
Seeing that the rain was getting heavier and no one was stopping their vehicles, some even honking and cursing at her to get out of the way, Bai Ling, with her heart ashen, lifted her mother and took slow steps forward.
At that moment, a car stopped in front of her, and a man holding an umbrella got out. He was dressed in black, his face obscured.
She raised her eyes to look at him, “Mister…”
The man uttered only two words, “Get in.”
In the hospital, the lights in the emergency room went out, and the doctor came out to announce the final result.
Bai Ling dropped to the ground, clutching the doctor’s legs, wailing, “Please save her, save her, I beg you, I beg you. In my next life, I will work hard to earn money for you, be your servant, be your servant…”
In the deep corridor, the man pushed a wheelchair with a child sitting in it. The child turned around and said, “She’s very pitiful.”
The man smiled, ruffled the child’s freshly shaved head, and said, “Living in this world, who isn’t pitiful? But it doesn’t matter. She will soon be free, and you, my little princess, will be reborn.”