–Tonight, I won’t be back for dinner. Something came up with the student council, so I’ll be staying at school.– I typed this message on my phone screen and hit send.
Almost instantly, a reply came: –Is that so? Suit yourself. I’ve already ordered takeout for myself, so even if you came back now, there’d be nothing for you to eat.–
‘That guy…’ I thought, a bitter smile touching my lips, feeling a slight sting in my heart.
“Oh? Who are you chatting with? Another girlfriend?” An Yueyin leaned in, her curiosity piqued.
“No, just my sister.” After gently pushing away the girl’s adorable little head, I quickly tucked my phone back into my pocket.
“Honestly, you’re so stingy. Looking won’t kill anyone.”
“Not looking won’t kill anyone either. Besides, weren’t you going to shower? Why are you still here?”
“Because that guy kicked me out, honestly! It would save so much time if all three of us showered together. The bathroom is huge anyway, and the tub could easily fit four or five people,” she complained.
‘No, that’s highly problematic,’ I thought. ‘Regardless of what kind of mindset the person who designed a bathtub of that size had, are you really that fixated on a threesome? That’s far too difficult for a beginner.’
“Hey, do you think she hates me?”
“Huh? Why would you think that?”
“Because she doesn’t want to shower with me. Does that mean she doesn’t want to be friends with me?”
‘What kind of logic is that?’ I mused. ‘If that were true, then countless men would probably be eager to be your friend.’
I was about to tease her, but seeing her serious, somewhat timid expression, I swallowed the words I was about to say. ‘What’s with this girl? She appears so lively and assertive on the surface, but in reality, she must be afraid of loneliness, right?’
“It’s fine,” I reassured her. “Bingying is just… not used to exposing her body to others.”
“Oh? Why not?”
“I’m not sure, maybe it’s a personal habit.” Though, to call it just a habit might be an understatement. “For example, she never participates in the school’s swimming classes.”
“Oh? Really? That’s impossible! She has such an enviable figure… Or maybe she can’t swim?”
“No, that’s not it. She’s an excellent swimmer, good enough to join the provincial team.” I unconsciously recalled that night, Bingying playfully frolicking in the moonlit pool, as beautiful and graceful as a mermaid. I had to admit, watching her like that, my heart had stirred like the ripples on the water.
“Oh? Didn’t you say she never even took swimming lessons? How do you know she swims so well?” An Yueyin cast a suspicious gaze my way.
‘Ah, I accidentally let it slip.’
“You two are a couple, aren’t you?”
“No, no, we’re not! Anyway, what about you? You seem to have some stories too, don’t you? If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind telling me a bit?” I said, brushing her off and forcefully changing the subject.
‘After all, it’s just to pass the time.’
“Oh? Well, it’s not really something I can’t talk about. Actually, my father, well… how should I put it? He was originally a hooligan from the slums, just like Mr. Wei Feihong, the boss here.”
‘It sounds like I’m about to hear something significant.’
“Because he was brave and dared to fight, he earned the appreciation of his boss and became an executive. Later, when the boss died, he naturally became the new boss.”
‘A rather typical story opening.’
“After that, he continued to thrive in the underworld, and his reputation gradually grew. Although he experienced several government crackdowns on gangs, he was quite observant of certain rules. He never dabbled in drug trafficking or anything like that; he just collected protection fees. He would even genuinely send people to protect those businesses from other ruffians. Because of this, he managed to survive.
“Eventually, other large gangs were eradicated, and his gang became the biggest in the area.”
‘This person is quite clever.’
“Then, after a confrontation with another gang that he ultimately annihilated, my father found their stolen goods stash. There, he discovered a kidnapped girl: my mother. She was probably only seventeen at the time. The moment he saw her, my father fell in love.”
‘What the heck? How did this gangster story suddenly turn into a romance novel cliché?’
“Afterward, the gang members started fighting amongst themselves over my mother’s beauty. Everyone who had once been united became like enemies. The gang elders noticed the situation was spiraling and wanted to kill my mother.”
‘Are these elders out of their minds?’ I thought. ‘How is this any different from saying, ‘Water drowns people, so I must fill every pool in the world’? Although the fact that An Yueyin is here proves her mother survived, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of worry for that young girl.
“Only my father consistently opposed this, overriding all objections to protect my mother. But by then, the gang had almost completely disintegrated.”
‘I just said you were smart; how did you suddenly become so foolish?’
“However, he didn’t do it to keep my mother by his side. Though it pained him greatly, he decided to send her back to her hometown. Because my father was a hooligan and hadn’t had much schooling, he couldn’t understand my mother’s language and didn’t know where her hometown was.”
‘Wait, your mother was a foreigner?’
“Then my father abandoned his gang and embarked on a journey with my mother. After enduring various hardships, their feelings for each other intensified rapidly. Ultimately, my father did send my mother back to her grandparents’ home.”
‘How delightful, how delightful.’
“But my grandparents were famous wealthy individuals in the area. They vehemently opposed my father, a mere hooligan, being with my mother. They even had him deported for illegal trespassing. Before he left, my father used his broken English to promise my mother that he would definitely return to marry her.”
‘That’s quite the clichéd, dramatic development… I suppose the next part is that after a few years, your father worked hard, became a CEO of some company, and then returned to marry your mother, right?’
“No, that’s not it. Later, my grandfather passed away from cancer, and my grandmother, overcome with grief, followed him. So, my mother inherited their fortune, traveled across the ocean to China, found my father who was still working as a bricklayer at a construction site, and married him.”
‘Oh my god, it was the other way around!’
“Then your father and mother must be very happy now, right?”
“No,” she said softly. “My mother passed away during childbirth when she had me.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. My father loves me dearly, so I’ve never felt like I was different from anyone else.” The girl sat on the bed with a cheerful “Heave-ho,” swinging her legs to an invisible rhythm and smiling. “It’s just that my father is a bit overprotective. I had female tutors teach me at home throughout elementary and junior high. I only went to a high school owned by my father when I reached senior high.
“But you know he used to be a hooligan. That so-called high school was actually just a boarding place for the children of other hooligans. He’s a very nostalgic person, you see; even after becoming successful, he didn’t forget his old friends. He brought them all into his company, working as security guards or something.”
‘I see,’ I thought. ‘No wonder your classmates were all so fierce.’
“Because everyone knew who I was, they wouldn’t talk to me, which made me a little lonely. Since I hadn’t really interacted with others before, I deliberately imitated my father’s secretary. Although more men started looking at me, I somehow became even more afraid to speak.
“But I secretly overheard my father saying something about how men and women become friends after sleeping together once… So, I came here with that man to find friends!” An Yueyin declared, a look of innocent joy on her face.
‘No,’ I thought. ‘I don’t think he meant ‘friends’; I think he meant ‘friends with benefits.”
“Sure enough, I made two friends today!”
‘Is that so…’ I mused. ‘No wonder she’s been so proactive; she was actually longing for friends? Her earlier attempts to act mature were just because she genuinely didn’t know how to socialize, right? Deep down, she must have been scared too.’
“Hey, we’ll be friends forever, right?”
“…Perhaps.”
‘After all, there are plenty of examples of friends turning into enemies.’
“…Surely it would be better if the three of us just did it once together? I heard my father say that once a man sleeps with a woman, he’ll never leave her.”
‘No, your dad was telling you a fairy tale, wasn’t he?’ I thought. ‘In reality, there are plenty of people who are heartless after the fact.’
“Oh? Is Luo Tianchen that kind of person?”
“Of course not! Ah, alright, alright, we’re friends, okay? Girls shouldn’t always talk about ‘doing it once’ all the time! Honestly.”
‘You really defeat me.’
‘That’s why I’m worst at dealing with girls like her. She is, Ye Siya is, and…’
Yue…