Chapter Eight (Part 2 of 2)

The swish-swoosh and splashing sounds of water stopped before Chen Yu Bai knocked on the bathroom door.

‘I’m leaving now,’ Chen Yu Bai said coldly.

Chen Yu Bai drove to An Xiao Li’s home. When he arrived he stayed in his car and called her. He waited for a while before he saw her went flying downstairs whilst looking at him. On the last step, she lost her footing and tumbled to the ground.

A gentle wind swept by and leaves fell to the ground onto An Xiao Li. Chen Yu Bai sighed, got out of his car and stepped toward her. He held her shoulders and pulled her up.

‘You’re really a dummy,’ Chen Yu Bai said gently and helped brushed dust and leaves off An Xiao Li.

An Xiao Li cried out when she stood after knocking her foot on the last step of the stairs. Chen Yu Bai helped her stand steadily. Then he knelt down and checked her legs and feet for injuries. He didn’t find any sc.r.a.ped skin but her knees were red and dusty. He blew the dust off her knees and took out his handkerchief to gently wipe the dust off her knees. He stood and knocked her head. ‘You don’t even watch where you’re walking.’

An Xiao Li was giddier than usual. Chen Yu Bai bent his head and sniffed her breath. He raised his eyebrows. ‘Did you drink?’

‘Yes,’ An Xiao Li said. She nodded her head and without thinking blabbed more. ‘Sang Sang pressured me.’

Chen Yu Bai pushed his gla.s.ses up and didn’t say anything. He silently recited Qin Sang’s name and smiled coldly. He’d deal with Qin Sang later.

Chen Yu Bai and An Xiao Li walked around her former IT college. The lamp posts lit amber lights onto the footpath and all the young couples who were walking on the footpath created a romantic atmosphere. There were large trees in between the lamp posts. The cool wind rustled the tree leaves. It was a refreshing night after a hot day.

Initially Chen Yu Bai pulled An Xiao Li’s wrist and walked along the footpath. She felt that he was taking her for a stroll so she walked beside him and touched his hand. He realised what she wanted and held her hand and they walked side by side.

An Xiao Li silently walked with Chen Yu Bai for a while and couldn’t stand the silence. ‘Before were you really in bed?’

An Xiao Li thought that Chen Yu Bai was joking with her before but wasn’t certain so she asked.

‘No,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

‘Oh,’ An Xiao Li said.

An Xiao Li ran out of conversation starters. She went back to walking silently with Chen Yu Bai. He was the usual handsome ice glacier under the amber lights. It could be that she was tipsy but she felt that he was more distant with her than usual like he was… cagey?

Chen Yu Bai and An Xiao Li walked for a long distance. When they wanted to go back to her home, she was tired and lazy. She nagged him and pulled his arm for him to piggyback her. He sighed and lowered his back. ‘Get on.’

An Xiao Li felt happy on Chen Yu Bai’s back. She sang and mumbled nonsense in his ear. He looked into the distance and smiled. He let her be because she was being herself.

‘Little Bai, what’s in your heart?’ An Xiao Li asked.

Chen Yu Bai piggybacked An Xiao Li for a long time before he saw the college gate. She pinched his bright red ear and asked him the same question but he still didn’t answer her.

An Xiao Li sighed. ‘Little Bai, you always don’t say anything. If I was smart like Sang Sang it’ll be good, because each day I won’t need to guess what you’re thinking.’

At the college gate, Chen Yu Bai let An Xiao Li come down from his back. He adjusted her wrinkled shirt and saw that she was a tipsy dummy. He couldn’t hold back and pulled her close to him, bent his head and bit her lips.

In the past An Xiao Li felt that the crude couples who kissed in front of the college gate ruined the scenery. But tonight she understood being a crude couple had its own charm.

‘Don’t be smart like Qin Sang. I don’t like a girl who’s smart like that,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

An Xiao Li heard someone ushered the students to go back to their rooms then she noticed the couples around her were separated. But what Chen Yu Bai said to her sounded like it came from a faraway place.

That night despite Mac’s snoring, An Xiao Li grinned in her sleep and had sweet dreams.

The next day was An Xiao Li’s last day living at the college. Xuan Tu and Mac found jobs at a different district. Qin Sang drove to the college and picked them up to go to the port. Qin Sang and An Xiao Li said their farewells to Xuan Tu and Mac before they boarded their ship. Afterward Qin Sang and An Xiao Li went back to the college and collected An Xiao Li’s luggage.

An Xiao Li did look for new accommodation but her monthly salary from the ice glacier was bare minimum. If she rented a house then she’d need to survive on one packet of noodles each day. But she heard that the ice glacier’s IT company offered affordable accommodation for their unmarried employees so she filled out an application. Before her application was approved, Qin Sang offered her temporary stay at Qin Sang’s house.

Qin Sang drove An Xiao Li to Qin Sang’s house. When they were cleaning Qin Sang’s house, An Xiao Li’s phone rang. It was Chen Yu Bai, he didn’t greet An Xiao Li but asked her where she was.

‘I requested to take leave for today already,’ An Xiao Li said.

An Xiao Li felt it was strange, yesterday she told him she had plans for a whole day and that was why she wasn’t at work.

Chen Yu Bai was waiting below An Xiao Li’s room and the secret glances he received from the female students around him got on his nerves. He gritted his teeth. ‘I know. I asked you where you are now.’

‘At Sang Sang’s house. I’m staying here temporary until my application is approved then I’ll move out,’ An Xiao Li explained.

Qin Sang wanted An Xiao Li to stay at Qin Sang’s house longer. But An Xiao Li understood Qin Sang’s non-human nature and knew that if she stayed for a long time it’d affect their friendship and neither of them would feel comfortable around each other anymore.

During An Xiao Li and Qin Sang’s first year of college, Qin Sang stayed with her, Xuan Tu and Mac for a week before Qin Sang quietly moved out. An Xiao Li explained to Xuan Tu and Mac that Qin Sang wrote at night and didn’t want to disturb their sleep. But An Xiao Li noticed that each time she, Xuan Tu and Mac joked around and laughed, Qin Sang would leave the room because Qin Sang wasn’t comfortable being overly-friendly with others.

Occasionally An Xiao Li thought that was a sign of Qin Sang’s vulnerability – Qin Sang was scared of being hurt that was why Qin Sang locked herself in a vase and let the world believe that Qin Sang was a resilient person.

An Xiao Li was in a daze looking at Qin Sang cleaning around the house. It wasn’t until she heard the disconnection sounds of her phone that she realised she was talking on the phone with Chen Yu Bai.

An Xiao Li felt like a third wheel when Li Wei Ran dropped by Qin Sang’s house. An Xiao Li put up with their lovey dovey husband and wife role play and held back her jealousy until Li Wei Ran left.

Qin Sang helped An Xiao Li cleaned the guest room for An Xiao Li. Then they laid on the bed in the guest room to rest.

‘I feel that Li Wei Ran is a good man,’ An Xiao Li said.

‘Um,’ Qin Sang said.

An Xiao Li rolled her body and laid her head on Qin Sang’s stomach. ‘I’m jealous.’

‘Xiao Li,’ Qin Sang said. She pushed An Xiao Li off her and closed her eyes. ‘The different kinds of love are boundless.’

‘I want the kind of love that you and Li Wei Ran have,’ An Xiao Li said.

‘Um,’ Qin Sang said.

‘Prince Chen isn’t that kind… but he’s compatible with you. But if you want you can find someone else, I could be wrong,’ Qin Sang said.

‘Qin-Sang!’ An Xiao Li cried out and pulled her own hair.

‘I’m not an immortal. How am I supposed to know what will happen in the future? Back then I felt that he was compatible with you,’ Qin Sang said.

‘Now that you got a taste of sweet love, you know that he’s not the mature and honest man for me,’ An Xiao Li said.

‘Um… the truth is I thought about the same thing,’ Qin Sang said. She opened her eyes and brushed An Xiao Li’s messy hair. ‘But after I’m hurt from loving Li Wei Ran, I’ll think differently. That’s why Xiao Li, it depends on the circ.u.mstances. Love, isn’t it just going with the flow?’

An Xiao Li pressed her face against the pillow and thrashed on the bed like a dead fish. ‘Qin Sang, you’re an erotic writer, why make yourself out to be philosophical? It’s cheesy to death.’

Qin Sang grabbed a pillow and pressed it down on An Xiao Li’s neck to let An Xiao Li suffocate. ‘Aren’t erotic writers human too?’

At night Li Wei Ran came back to Qin Sang’s house to drive Qin Sang and An Xiao Li to eat dinner at a restaurant.

An Xiao Li was in awe of the unique restaurant. She sat with Qin Sang and Li Wei Ran in a small private room. The air conditioner was turned on and the steam from the hot pot floated up her nose. The goat meat slices were cut thinly like paper. She dipped a slice of goat meat in sauce and gobbled it. Then she drank water that was set at thirty-seven degrees. At first her body was cold then it turned hot, the goose b.u.mps on her body came and went three times, it was an extremely refreshing sensation.

The refreshing sensation didn’t last long for An Xiao Li, because she was a third wheel again. Li Wei Ran and Qin Sang were feeding each other the goat meat in a sickening way whilst talking about their day.

‘Today were you still busy planning the next six months work schedule?’ Qin Sang asked.

‘Um, another two weeks and I’ll be done. Then I’ll go to third brother’s IT company,’ Li Wei Ran said.

‘Oh? Why?’ An Xiao Li interrupted the lovebirds’ conversation.

‘It’ll just be a standard rotation in management. It won’t affect any employees,’ Li Wei Ran explained.

‘What will happen to my co-workers and my current CEO?’ An Xiao Li asked.

Li Wei Ran pa.s.sed a napkin to Qin Sang and carelessly answered An Xiao Li’s question. ‘Are you asking about third brother? At Liang’s company third brother’s decisions are prioritised first, he’s the one that delegated the work plans to me. Didn’t he say anything to you?’

‘Hehe… he told me already. Of course he did, he tells me everything,’ An Xiao Li lied.

Li Wei Ran felt that An Xiao Li’s tone was strange. He turned to Qin Sang and saw Qin Sang shook her head so he didn’t ask anything else.

The more An Xiao Li ate the more the goat meat tasted colder like her heart. Perhaps, it was the same feeling as the female lead in one of Qin Sang’s novels.

Heartache, monkey fart! An Xiao thought if she didn’t need the ice glacier anymore, it’d solve her heartache.

An Xiao Li ate until her belly was a balloon. She burped and her eyes were bright with decisiveness.

End of Chapter Eight (Part 2 of 2)