Su Yiyi was away on a business trip.
After that night, which felt like a typhoon had swept through, the apartment was left with only a suffocating silence and utter devastation.
Lan Yucheng huddled at the foot of the bed, her body still bearing the marks of the previous night’s frenzy. A sickeningly gentle scent, left by Su Yiyi’s last attempt to comfort her, also lingered.
Self-loathing and a deeper, more profound fear of losing control almost consumed her. Su Yiyi’s compliance and pity made her feel more hideous than any resistance ever could.
She needed an antidote.
Immediately.
“System!” Her voice was hoarse, tinged with the urgency of someone who had narrowly escaped death. “Bring her to me! I need to see her now!”
[Detected that the攻略者’s emotions are extremely unstable, and the relationship with the攻略目标 Su Yiyi has entered a high-risk stalemate.] Little Sprite’s voice carried a hint of strange pleasure. [Given your ‘outstanding’ performance recently in ‘triggering intense emotional fluctuations in targets,’ a temporary emotional anchor access has been specially approved. Duration: 168 hours. Please utilize it properly to stabilize your core state.]
Seven days! Lan Yucheng’s heart pounded wildly, as if a dying person had seized the last oxygen mask.
A flash of light. The familiar scent, a mix of gardenia and milk, which made her soul tremble, instantly filled the cold space.
Qing Xinxue’s figure materialized from an ethereal state. She seemed to have just awakened from a lazy dream, her eyes still hazy, but upon seeing Lan Yucheng, they immediately sharpened, becoming keen and ardent.
“Cheng-jie?” She tilted her head, like a cat sensing its prey’s unease. Drawing closer, her fingertips lightly brushed over the faded red marks on Lan Yucheng’s neck, remnants of Su Yiyi. Her gaze abruptly darkened. “Who did this?” Her voice was soft, yet it carried the dangerous calm before a storm.
Lan Yucheng did not reply. Instead, like a drowning person clutching a piece of driftwood, she lunged into Qing Xinxue’s embrace, holding her with all her strength. She buried her face deep into Qing Xinxue’s neck, greedily inhaling the scent that could soothe her soul.
“Xiao Xue… Xiao Xue…” She murmured incoherently, tears silently streaming down her face—tears of grievance, of lingering fear, and most of all, of the immense ecstasy of having something lost now found.
“There, there, I’m here now.”
Qing Xinxue instantly understood. Her arms wrapped around Lan Yucheng, gentle yet firm. She rested her cheek lightly against Lan Yucheng’s ear, her voice soft, yet imbued with a reassuring power. “There’s nothing to fear, Cheng-jie. It’s just us here now. I’ll stay with you and slowly erase all those uncomfortable memories.”
****
For the next seven days, Lan Yucheng temporarily isolated herself from the outside world. She and Qing Xinxue remained in the apartment, as if performing a silent ritual together. They tidied up, they lingered, sitting quietly side-by-side in the morning light, and speaking in hushed tones in the evening. Little by little, the unsettling atmosphere that once pervaded the space was replaced by a new, peaceful presence.
Qing Xinxue’s companionship was meticulous and devoted. She read a book to Lan Yucheng by the sofa where Su Yiyi used to sit. In the bathroom, which had once been filled with a foreign scent, she replaced the toiletries with crisp, clean soap that both of them enjoyed. She even placed a small, warm-toned night light, which Lan Yucheng liked, by the bed in the other bedroom, saying softly, “From now on, I’ll stay with you here. This will be Xiao Xue’s light, okay?”
Lan Yucheng, like a traveler who had finally found her way home, gradually relaxed her taut heartstrings during this tranquil ‘ritual.’ Amidst their ordinary daily interactions, in their gentle conversations and the occasional shared smiles, the chaotic emotions of the past were quietly soothed. A stable and warm connection began to re-establish itself and grow within her heart.
****
On the afternoon of the seventh day, only a few hours remained until Su Yiyi’s scheduled return.
The afternoon sunlight was clear and bright, spilling into the room through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Lan Yucheng stood by the window, gazing outside, embraced by Qing Xinxue’s warmth from behind. Qing Xinxue’s chin rested gently on her shoulder, her hands loosely circling Lan Yucheng’s waist, their fingers intertwined.
The sunlight outlined their figures with a soft halo, and the air was filled with nothing but tranquility.
“Feeling better?” Qing Xinxue’s voice whispered in her ear, gentle as a breeze.
“Mm.” Lan Yucheng leaned back, settling completely into that reassuring embrace, her gaze clear and peaceful. “This is my home, and also… where Xiao Xue is.”
She turned around, meeting Qing Xinxue’s eyes, a genuine and relieved smile gracing her lips.
“I know. It will always be, from now on.” Qing Xinxue smiled too, raising a hand to gently tuck a strand of Lan Yucheng’s sun-kissed hair behind her ear.
*Click.*
A faint sound of a key sliding into the lock and turning, like a thunderclap, shattered the steaming silence!
The entrance door was gently pushed open.
Su Yiyi, travel-worn and carrying a luggage bag, yet with a hint of wanting to give a ‘surprise’ by returning early, froze at the doorway.
The smile on her face instantly solidified, her pupils violently constricted. She stared in disbelief at the two figures in the living room, by the floor-to-ceiling window, intimately entwined and bathed in sunlight.
Lan Yucheng, whom she had so carefully protected and considered fragile due to ‘trauma,’ was now held in the embrace of another strange, alluring woman. On her face was a flush of indulgence and intoxication that Su Yiyi had never seen, and from her lips escaped a blush-inducing moan.
*Thud.*
The exquisite gift Su Yiyi had bought for Lan Yucheng slipped from her hand, falling to the floor with a dull sound.
This sound startled the two immersed figures.
Lan Yucheng sharply turned her head, meeting Su Yiyi’s eyes, which were filled with shock, despair, and a sudden, shattered, ashen emptiness. Her mind went blank, the intense euphoria instantly doused with ice water, leaving only boundless panic and shame, making her instinctively want to break free.
But Qing Xinxue’s arms tightened around her like iron bands. Far from showing any panic, she intimately rested her chin on Lan Yucheng’s bare shoulder, raising her eyes to meet Su Yiyi’s gaze.
The flush of passion still lingered on her face, yet a supremely seductive, provocative, and openly mocking smile played on her lips.
Her gaze slowly swept over the gift on the floor, then returned to Su Yiyi’s face, which was as pale as paper. Her red lips parted slightly, her voice husky and imbued with a condescending, cruel pleasure:
“Oh, you’re back?”
“It seems…”
“You’ve taken ‘good’ care of things, haven’t you?”
“But now, there’s no longer any business for you here.”
“You can leave.”