To Covet (GL) - Chapter 60

She seemed to have something she wanted to say to me, but she didn’t know how to start. When I tried to meet her gaze, her eyes constantly darted away. Just then, my uncle opened the door and came home. He patted my shoulder and went out.

I lay on the bed with the cookie tin box nestled in my arms, surrounded by the unfamiliar scent.

There was a finger-width gap beneath the bedroom door. I could clearly hear my aunt asking him if he had eaten dinner. My uncle complained that the construction site had a lot of layoffs recently and that his salary would be delayed until after the New Year.

My aunt said the price of salted goose had gone up and she couldn’t buy New Year goods. My uncle argued that they weren’t that particular, and the fish and pork dried by my grandmother were enough for the family to eat until the year end. Such trivial matters came one after another.

The metal box in my arms pressed against my arm. It had started raining in Sucheng in the evening, beating against the window.

The three people outside suddenly fell silent, like a radio station that had lost its signal. I tiptoed up, almost unable to resist confirming through the door gap if they were still there.

Walking to the desk, I once again observed the photos under the glass panel one by one. They seemed to possess some kind of magic, making me stop and look at them repeatedly, piecing together a complete past from these old traces.

I moved the dusty dictionary. There were a few black-and-white photos in the corner that were clearly newer than the others; they must have been placed there recently.

The subject of the black-and-white photo had a face that was both strange and familiar.

Compared to my memory of her, the Yang Chun captured by the camera had full cheeks, was young and vibrant, with fashionable short hair. She didn’t look much older than I am now.

During the next few days in Sucheng, the New Year atmosphere grew thicker by the day. Although there were no relatives to visit, the sense of ritual still had to be fulfilled. I helped my aunt and grandmother buy Spring Festival couplets, melon seeds, peanuts, and other goods.

The only somewhat interesting thing was that my grandmother insisted on buying a red, shawl-style cloak from a shopping mall for me, refusing to leave without paying for it.

To match the garment, I followed my aunt to choose a pair of small black leather shoes and dug a pair of leggings out of my suitcase, putting together a respectable New Year outfit.

Since Yang Chun and Yu Hanyang separated, it had been a long time since I specifically bought new clothes for the New Year.

Passing the deserted small park, my aunt, holding plastic bags full of things, suddenly stopped.

“Everyone has gone back to their hometowns for the New Year. The city is very deserted.” My grandmother couldn’t help but murmur, urging us to hurry up and leave.

It wasn’t until the morning of New Year’s Eve that my grandmother suddenly remembered she had forgotten to put up Spring Festival couplets and window decorations at the apartment they used to rent. She asked me to call the landlord for help.

My aunt had told me that she originally wanted to terminate the rental agreement before the New Year, but my grandmother disagreed, insisting on staying there from time to time as well.

The landlady was kind-hearted. She had agreed with my aunt and uncle that she would clean the apartment once a month when my grandmother wasn’t staying there.

However, since the landlady had had surgery and was not well, her family had gone back to her daughter’s house in the south early, so she hadn’t visited at all.

To ease the old lady’s worries, I didn’t mind making the extra trip. I quickly took the subway and transferred to the bus, rushing back to the rental apartment.

The room, which hadn’t been lived in for months, smelled faintly of dust.

This place held many traces of Yang Chun’s life. I understood my grandmother’s feelings. Even if those things were moved and she left this place, she would lose her soul, unable to sort things out, like a large pile of garbage. But if she didn’t move them, as she got older, many things would be forgotten. That’s why she preferred to save money and scrape together the rent for this shabby place every month.

I left the door open for ventilation, swept the floor inside and out, quickly mopped it once, and found many expired medicines and empty bottles. I bundled these up with the waste foam and plastic paper and threw them into the outside trash station.

I found a roll of clear tape in a drawer and went back to the door to put up the couplets. Turning around abruptly, I was startled by the figure standing at the doorway.

I noticed that Yu Zhouwan particularly liked collecting various knee-length coats. They were loosely draped over her, giving her a lazy, comfortable look.

The echoes in the old residential building corridor were particularly clear. People on the first floor could hear the sound of the top floor door key turning, and people on the top floor could clearly hear the panting of those climbing the stairs below.

But Yu Zhouwan had appeared at the door so silently. She was wearing boots; there were no footsteps, and no panting from climbing the stairs. I was certain the sound of me rummaging through things had masked her approach.

She stood at the doorway with her hands in her pockets, neither asking permission to enter nor moving out of my line of sight.

“What are you doing here?” I thought at this hour, she would be celebrating the New Year at home with Shi Yunya and the others.

Yu Zhouwan examined the furnishings in the room from the doorway. I walked straight out the door to put up the Spring Festival couplets, and she moved back to stand by the stair railing, silently watching me tear off old paper and wipe the door panel.

“Yu Keyi, are you not planning to go back for the New Year?” she asked me.

I tore off a piece of tape, pondered for a moment, and didn’t think the word “go back” fit with Linzhou.

“No plans,” I shook the couplet paper to smooth out the air bubbles. “We’ll talk about it after the New Year.”

“Are you the only one at home?”

“No, no one lives here anymore,” I took two steps back to check if it was aligned properly. “I came back to clean up and put up a couplet.”

“No one was here when I came yesterday.”

Her belt brushed against the plaster on the wall. Following my line of sight, she looked down and saw a patch of grayish-white, but only looked, not reaching out to wipe it away.

“Come in and sit for a while.”

I closed the door, flipped the main switch back on, and boiled a kettle of water.

Yu Zhouwan sat primly on the faded sofa, truly looking like a reserved guest.

“You came yesterday?”

“Mhm,” Yu Zhouwan replied. “I didn’t find anyone, so I thought you had gone out.”

Her hair was neatly held in a shark clip at the back of her head. When she reached for a tissue, her clothing brushed past my nose, carrying a pleasant fragrance.

“Who are you living with now?”

“Me? With my grandmother. I’m staying with my uncle and aunt for the time being.”

I self-consciously assumed Yu Zhouwan was looking at me, but after wiping the water off the glass cup with a tissue, she was just staring blankly at the coffee table in front of her.

“Then why are you here? I won’t go back to Linzhou with you. I need to spend time with my grandmother and them.”

“I know.”

Yu Zhouwan nodded.

She didn’t get up very quickly. Before kneeling on the sofa, she didn’t forget to brush away a stray strand of hair. I knew what she wanted to do, but my body reacted first, instinctively leaning back due to my resistance to someone else’s closeness.

She leaned in and kissed me, licking my lips, carefully sucking at the tips of my lips. Seeing that I didn’t refuse, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. Her tongue easily slipped inside, a cool, sweet breath melting in my mouth. Thinking that Yu Zhouwan had included “candy” as an option in planning this alluring kiss, I couldn’t help but want to laugh. However, she impatiently gnawed at my lips, expressing dissatisfaction with my inexplicable amusement in this way.

“Sister…”

In the brief moment our lips parted, I grabbed her fingers and wiped the moisture from the corner of my mouth.

“I want…” I heard her panting request.

Yu Zhouwan buried her face in the hollow of my neck.

“Keyi, don’t you miss me at all? Sister thinks about you masturbating every day… mhm…”

She randomly nipped at my neck, then reluctantly held my lips in hers again. I closed my eyes. The sweetness of the candy gradually faded, replaced by the soft intertwining of our tongues. I heard the kettle in the kitchen continuously bubbling before boiling. The white steam suddenly raised the temperature of the surroundings.

My awareness of the outside world gradually faded, replaced by an uncontrollable daze in my head.

“Mhm…” I knew the trembling sound I made was too wanton, but I couldn’t control my actions anymore, only passively cooperating with her viscous kiss.

I inadvertently raised my hand and touched Yu Zhouwan’s ear. It was surprisingly hot, just like the rest of her body.

“Sister,” I took her hand, unzipped her pants, and slipped her hand under the waistline and onto my lower abdomen. “Touch me here… I’m already wet…”

Author’s Note:

Not finished yet! Since we finally meet, of course we’re going to do it big time.