To Covet (GL) - Chapter 75

“Yu Keyi, Teacher Li called roll yesterday afternoon.”

When I returned, Qian Xinming was sitting cross-legged on the bed flipping through a magazine, a slice of apple dangling from her mouth.

“But don’t worry, I told the teacher you were exhausted from studying and went back to sleep. No one pursued it, but you’re supposed to report in today.”

As Qian Xinming got up to wash her hands in the bathroom, I guiltily stepped aside to let her pass.

“Where did you go? I messaged you yesterday, but you didn’t reply—you just said you had ‘business.’”

“I just went home for a bit.” I shrugged. “I was just afraid the teacher would find out where I went and intercept me halfway.”

“Aren’t you hot in long sleeves today?” She scrutinized my shirt as she handed me an apple. “The temperature shot up; it’s nearly thirty degrees at noon.”

“It’s okay. Sun protection.” I ducked my head and brushed it off with a hollow laugh.

“Why is your collar so…”

She frowned, reaching out to straighten my curled collar.

I hurriedly changed the subject: “It’s fine like that. Oh right, are we going over the test papers in class today? Go early and save me a good seat. I just got back; I’m going to take a shower.”

Qian Xinming agreed. Just before closing the door, she suddenly turned back and asked, “Yu Keyi, did you sneak out for a date or something?”

“Huh?” I quickly pulled my hand away from my collar. “No, don’t talk nonsense.”

“My intuition is always spot on.” She narrowed her eyes, searching for any sign of a lie. “When you first walked in, the expression on your face was… off. You know that look people get after a ‘passionate night’? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but you look exactly like those couples who sneak out to date and… do this and that. Are you sure you’re not—”

“Stop watching so much R-rated stuff.” I hurriedly shooed her out and shut the door.

I slipped into the bathroom, locked the door, and frantically stripped.

My collarbones and back were covered in pale pink hickeys. They climbed up my neck, unabashedly flaunting their crude intimacy. Further down, my chest was a mess of crisscrossing teeth marks mixed with fresh bruises.

She had left them by pinching and biting.

As the water hit my skin, a fine, sharp pain radiated through me. After all, last night was truly frantic; the more earnestly I begged for mercy, the harder she played. She even remembered to gnaw on the existing marks again when we woke up this morning.

I had tried to push Yu Zhouwan’s hand off my waist: “Yu Zhouwan, I have to go back to class.”

She had sat up, pinning my arms beside my ears, as a sucking itch radiated from my neck. When she finished, she mischievously licked the mark she’d left. It was like she was branding me with some primitive mark.

I couldn’t help but wonder if, besides retaliating for my lack of trust, there was an element of addiction involved—the sadistic acts and the tears in sex are truly mesmerizing. And because it was “allowed,” my responses indirectly gave her affirmation and praise.

In Yu Zhouwan’s wardrobe, aside from the shirt I used to cover the marks, there were only out-of-season sweaters and turtlenecks, which would have surely raised suspicions.

Yu Zhouwan had stayed naked, wrapped in the quilt, watching me lose my mind in front of the closet. Unable to find a practical solution, her eyes darted around guiltily.

I unpinned my hair, letting it fall over my shoulders to try and hide the “hickeys,” but a closer look still revealed the abrupt red on my skin through the strands. After a morning of developing, they had become even more prominent. I thought about buying a medical patch to cover them, but that would only look like a desperate attempt to hide the obvious.

I didn’t have a single piece of clothing that could hide my neck. This champagne-colored long-sleeve shirt was taken from Yu Zhouwan’s closet; it even had little green flowers on the cuffs. I took it off and changed into a hoodie with a large hood, which managed to cover me somewhat.

Hanging among the row of black-and-white clothes on the balcony, the bright color of that shirt was far too conspicuous.

I turned my head and lifted my phone. My wet hair partially veiled my face; the steam from the shower made my skin look paler, with droplets of water still clinging to my shoulders. I took a photo of the marks on my body and AirDropped it to Yu Zhouwan.

But then I suddenly remembered the camera in the darkness. I sent a message first, tentatively asking what she was doing. No reply. I stared at the screen for a long while until Qian Xinming urged me to hurry to class. Only then did I hide my phone and head out.

The test papers were graded incredibly fast—mostly because most people had left at least a third of them blank. I checked my total ranking for the two exams; it was alright, not exceptionally high, but enough to scrape into the middle tier and avoid being cut.

This meant I would have to work even harder in the next round.

Qian Xinming was silent, her mouth pouting in a pitiful way as if she were about to cry. Even though she had expected her results, seeing the ranking made it impossible not to feel discouraged.

I opened my mouth to comfort her, but someone suddenly tapped my shoulder from behind.

“Long time no see.” Gao Rui tilted her head. “How was the exam?”

“It was okay.” I huddled in my seat, not daring to move. My hood was adjusted to a specific angle to hide the marks; any large movement would expose my neck. “Why are you here all of a sudden? I thought you didn’t take this class.”

“I just don’t come often because I have other arrangements, but I still have a spot in the competition.” She looked satisfied with our shocked expressions. “I took the selection exam seriously. This is a city-level preliminary, after all; I have to treat it properly.”

“So, what’s the passing rate for the prelims?” I asked.

“In previous years… my teacher said it’s roughly fifty-fifty. This year’s questions were a bit too easy, so the rate might be even lower.”

The heart I had just managed to settle jumped back into my throat.

Gao Rui leaned over and put her arm around Qian Xinming’s shoulder to comfort her. “It’s fine. You weren’t that good at math competitions anyway. Besides, you’ve already won a national award in biology, so what are you afraid of?”

“But winning awards in math and physics gives you more bonus points for independent enrollment…”

They stood there chatting heatedly while I wished I could turn into an invisible person and vanish back into my bed.

“Let’s go, Keyi. I’ll treat you all to hotpot tonight. There are no classes, right?”

“I’m not going.” I looked up at Gao Rui, remembering her scrutinizing attitude from before, and quickly looked down to avoid her gaze.

“Do you already have plans with someone else?” To my ears, her concern sounded like a coded probe. “If it’s not urgent, I can have my driver take you after we eat.”

“No, that’s not it.” I instinctively wanted to shake my head in denial, but I immediately stiffened my neck, not daring to move. “I’m just tired from classes lately. I have no appetite and just want to go back and sleep.”

Gao Rui didn’t press me, but she came back for me just before class started, signaling for me to follow her to the car.

“Cover it up.” She handed me a tube of foundation and a makeup mirror. “Apply it in the car; there are too many people outside.”

Realizing what she was talking about, I immediately reached up to cover my neck, as a wave of intense heat rushed to my head in embarrassment.

“Don’t worry, it’s not that obvious. It’s just that from where I was standing, I happened to see it.” She spread her hands. “The foundation is yours. This shade is too pale for me; it looks a bit fake.”

I looked at her, making no move.

“Tsk… honestly…” She clicked her tongue, turned around, and got out of the car, leaving me alone to deal with it.

“So?” Gao Rui grabbed my arm. I was a bit resistant, but I didn’t pull away. “Are you planning to just keep going like this with her?”

“What?”

“I’m just curious. You like Yu Zhouwan so much—what do you see in her?”

Gao Rui was clearly in a good mood for gossip, but since I was the center of it, I couldn’t enjoy it at all.

“Keyi, you can’t be blinded just because someone is nice to you for a moment and then willingly do anything for them, even though…” Gao Rui’s tone sounded like a teacher lecturing a wayward student. “Forget it. You’ll understand later.”

Unfortunately, as a student, my comprehension was too poor. The topic ended abruptly.

“Is there a reason you looked for me?” I got to the point, looking around only to realize she had brought me to a secluded green space.

“Lu Xiaoting has run into a bit of trouble lately.” Gao Rui kept her hands behind her back, her tone still light. “Actually, it’s not ‘trouble’ per se, but she needs your help to solve it.”

“And you’re the only one who can do it.”

Yu Zhouwan still hadn’t replied to my messages by evening. I called her, and she only picked up just as it was about to hang up.

“Sister.”

“What’s wrong?” She sounded exceptionally exhausted. “It’s late. Is it urgent?”

“Nothing.”

Her mood was off. When I tried to probe further, she said, “I have to sleep. You should rest early too.”

If she hadn’t made that sincere promise to me yesterday, I would definitely be suspecting her right now. Well, I still am, but that’s because I want to know the reason behind her strange, cold manner of speaking.

I have a guess.

To be precise, perhaps because we share the same blood, my intuition tells me that as absurd as this guess is, it is very likely true.