To Covet (GL) - Chapter 58

“Yu Keyi?”

I heard a light knock on the door.

I pulled the door open. Gao Rui was standing there, barefoot on the floor, fiddling with a clothes hanger near the mirror.

“You’ve been in the bathroom for ages,” she rubbed her sleepy eyes. “Are you done? Can I use the restroom first?”

“Did I wake you?” I asked her.

“No, I’m a light sleeper. I woke up when you were getting your things earlier,” she yawned. “It’s easy to be like this in a strange place. I had a late-night snack last night, so I didn’t sleep well the whole night.”

“Who is it next door?”

Hearing me talk to someone else, the heavy breathing in my headphones was instantly cut off.

“I plan to order timed delivery food, so we can eat right after we wake up. What do you want to eat?”

“Ah, anything is fine,” I paused briefly to think. “Preserved egg and lean meat congee, I’d like that.”

Speaking with my back to Gao Rui, I saw in the mirror that she was meeting my gaze through the makeup mirror as I looked up.

“What about her?” I turned my head to look at Qian Xinming, who was sleeping spreadeagled. “Should we order an extra portion?”

“Qianqian is a dead sleeper. I’ll just leave her a sandwich and a drink.”

Qian Xinming had enthusiastically bought several cans of fruit wine yesterday. She drank less than half a dozen before passing out and was still sleeping deeply.

I set the cans on the nightstand. The faint, sweet smell of the wine drifted out again.

“I thought you had already gone out.” Yu Zhouwan’s tone was somewhat sticky. In my imagination, she had wrapped the blankets even tighter, resting on the fabric soaked with steam and sweat, feeling both dissatisfied and wronged by my malicious play, carrying anxiety and suspicion.

I heard the sound of Yu Zhouwan swallowing nervously, like fine grains of sand rolling in my ear.

“I’m still in the room. It’s too cold outside.”

“Then… did you let someone else listen just now?”

I knew she was worried that others might pick up on this extremely vulgar conversation through the invisible Bluetooth connection. Her heavier panting and quiet whimpers made me suspect she might pass out the next second inside the airtight blanket.

“Of course not. I locked the door just now.” And turned on the tap.

Yu Zhouwan hummed softly, not sounding entirely convinced, but probably just too tired.

I belatedly realized that when I was talking to Gao Rui, my tone sounded noticeably stiff because she had interrupted the intimate atmosphere and my response was caught in my mouth.

However, putting myself in her shoes, since I was the one who woke someone else up, out of guilt, I took over from Gao Rui when she asked what I wanted to order, telling her: “How about I place the order?”

“Sister?”

Curling up in the blanket, I realized I hadn’t heard anything in the headphones for a while, and then I noticed she had hung up the call.

“Are you tired?” I typed and sent. “I’m wearing headphones. No one will hear.”

She didn’t reply.

I randomly scrolled through different notification interfaces on other apps. Having been in the dark for so long, the glowing screen was straining my eyes.

“Have you ordered?”

Gao Rui accidentally pressed down on the blanket behind her. I was daydreaming, but instantly sat up as a reflex.

“Not yet. You choose first.”

Before handing her the phone, I first disconnected the Bluetooth and set it to silent.

“Were you just on the phone? With whom?”

I immediately went on high alert, my nerves tense.

“Ah, you heard? Was I talking loudly just now?”

“No, because you were wearing headphones,” she pointed to my ear, a playful, cheerful expression on her face. “I guessed. It couldn’t have been that you were secretly crying in the bathroom while listening to NetEase Cloud Music, right?”

I secretly let out a huge sigh of relief.

The thought that my shameful private affairs might be discovered by an outsider nearly caused me to panic and lose my composure.

Fortunately, I was lying with my back to her, so she couldn’t see anything. I feigned grogginess and vaguely said: “Mhm, chatted with my sister for a while.”

“Yu Zhouwan?”

“Mhm. There’s been a lot going on at home lately. She’s not in a good mood and can’t sleep. I was comforting her.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I almost couldn’t stop myself from twitching my lips. The words I said were technically not a lie, yet they were worlds apart from the truth.

If the masturbation to climax over the phone call counted as a form of comfort.

Thinking this, the image of her hazy eyes and her fragmented pleas just before ejaculation flashed in my mind. I couldn’t help but curl my body tighter.

“Are you and Yu Zhouwan always on good terms?”

“It’s okay, average.”

“Really? If it was truly ‘average,’ you wouldn’t be calling at five in the morning, would you?” Gao Rui opened a can of fruit wine and asked if I wanted a drink. She frowned after taking a sip; the alcoholic taste after the fruit’s sweetness was slightly sour. “My brother and I rarely talked back then, let alone called each other. Even though we were full siblings, we barely saw each other.”

“I feel like you never liked him.”

Although I was sitting up, my mind couldn’t help but repeatedly savor the flirting over the phone. In the eyes of others, I was just staring blankly, shaking the can in my hand.

“Is it because your family favored your brother, right?”

I couldn’t find a good topic to talk about with Gao Rui. In fact, every time I mentioned this person whose name I didn’t even know, I would remember Gao Rui’s deadpan confession that she had personally killed her brother, which gave me the chills.

Gao Rui nodded: “Yeah, my parents only wanted to give him all the good things, regardless of whether he was capable or not. All the good things went to him. Me… well, my grandparents forcibly made my mother have another one, and I was an IVF baby after many failed attempts.”

“Then what did his death have to do with you?”

I couldn’t believe Gao Rui had personally done it. Such bizarre and absurd realities couldn’t possibly happen so conveniently near me.

“Suicide. He took a lot of pills that day,” Gao Rui finished the whole can of fruit wine. “When the medication started taking effect, just before he was about to die, he realized he was terrified of death and regretted it. He wanted to call 120.”

“Do you really not hate Yu Zhouwan, Yu Keyi?” She threw the can far away into the trash bin. It hit the edge with a thud and fell onto the floor. “You’re not biological sisters. Maybe what I’m saying isn’t entirely accurate, but her mother… I forget her full name for a moment… should be considered the third party who broke up your family, right?”

“Oh, so you knew everything.”

I wasn’t particularly surprised. Shi Yunya had been networking in Linzhou for so many years. Her connections spread far and wide. She had often taken Yu Zhouwan to various events before, so it was impossible for a “daughter” the same age as Yu Zhouwan to suddenly appear out of thin air.

“Of course I know. My parents had dinner with her several times before. They’re not friends, but they should be considered acquaintances,” Gao Rui was carried away by the gossip, completely ignoring Qian Xinming, who was sleeping soundly next to her. “Do you want to know a secret about Yu Zhouwan? You’ve only been in Linzhou for a few months. No one has probably told you.”

I glanced at my phone. The message bar was empty.

“What is it?” Although I already knew Yu Zhouwan’s “other side,” there was still a different feeling to prying with a gossipy curiosity.

“These are just my subjective impressions, hearsay. I don’t have proof. You absolutely must not tell her,” Gao Rui slyly narrowed her eyes, shedding her usual cold detachment, adopting the demeanor of a girl gossiping over tea. “I heard that even though her mother seems easygoing when dealing with others, she is actually a complete control freak…”

“I can tell…”

I hadn’t interacted much with Shi Yunya, but she was exceptionally concerned about Yu Zhouwan’s daily schedule. If there was even a slight deviation from her expectations, she would immediately show strong displeasure, though she had never physically struck Yu Zhouwan.

“See, you can tell too,” Gao Rui picked up the can on the floor. “She installed many surveillance cameras at home and put a tracker on Yu Zhouwan, ensuring she knows exactly what she’s doing 24 hours a day without any blind spots.”

“Huh…?”

I got up to pour water and nearly lost my composure. The newly poured hot water spilled onto the back of my hand, making me flinch from the burn.

Gao Rui looked up at me with eager eyes, clearly satisfied with the change in my expression.

“That’s true. She told my mom herself at the time.”

Gao Rui beckoned to me. I noticed her slow reaction and innocent expression, then glanced at the pink elephant can in the trash, knowing she was briefly tipsy from the alcohol.

“Also… ah, I suddenly remembered her full name. Was it Shi Yunya or Shi Yayun… I remember she never loses her temper, but I don’t know why Yu Zhouwan is always so afraid of upsetting her. She’s genuinely terrified.” Gao Rui babbled to herself.

“Gao Rui.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Gao Rui took the milk I offered. “One more thing. Yu Zhouwan and I were in the same art class back then. She never played with anyone else. Her mom probably didn’t allow it.”

I listened to her chattering about a lot of trivial past matters until Qian Xinming was woken up. She laboriously opened her eyes a slit and asked how many minutes were left until class.

“Gao Rui, you still haven’t told me…”

“Told you what?”

“Did you really… your brother…” Qian Xinming went to wash her face. I still kept my voice as low as possible.

“Yes,” Gao Rui admitted frankly. “It was just my brother and me at home. He wanted to call 120, but because of the pills, he couldn’t speak or walk normally anymore. He could only crawl on the floor.”

“And then?”

“He tried to ask me for help, crawling to knock on my room door. I ignored him. Later, he stopped knocking. I opened the door and found he wasn’t moving anymore.”

Gao Rui bit the straw. Seeing my stunned reaction, she let out a scoff.

“I know he wasn’t dead yet, but even if he was saved, he might have become mentally impaired,” Gao Rui shrugged, as if discussing some trivial matter. “So, I granted his wish and let him pass away with dignity.”

“Yu Keyi, do you think I’m a murderer?”

I stared into Gao Rui’s eyes, uncertain if the milk had sobered her up at all.