Come Sit At My House - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

That night, after Luo Qingmeng finished her homemade coconut chicken, she read for a while and then went straight to bed. But as she lay there, she inexplicably started to get insomnia. So, she got up again and read a novel for a while, her fingers constantly wanting to check her phone for messages.

According to her logic, since Qiu Shuxue ate her food tonight, she should be bothering her.

Could it be that she felt bad about eating her food and was being a good person today?

But Qiu Shuxue wasn’t that kind of person. She was like a snake, especially liking to coil around her. The kinder she was, the more she should be clinging to her.

The next day, Qiu Shuxue still didn’t come to bother her. Luo Qingmeng couldn’t figure it out. Fortunately, she didn’t stay up too late last night. After she finished the book, she was speechless for a while, hugged her pillow, and fell asleep.

In the morning, Luo Qingmeng tidied up the garbage in the house and put it outside the door, ready to take it downstairs. She went to get her bag and change her shoes, and then when she went to get the garbage, she was surprised.

The garbage was gone.

Luo Qingmeng first looked at the security camera at the door. When she was changing her shoes, Qiu Shuxue came and took the garbage. She frowned, her expression saying, “I knew it,” but she quickly realized something was wrong.

She hurried to the elevator. When she got downstairs, Qiu Shuxue was just throwing away the garbage on the side. Qiu Shuxue noticed her and turned to look at her. “Hmm? What’s wrong?”

Luo Qingmeng’s emotions were too complex. Qiu Shuxue understood her emotions almost instantly. She said, “Sister… you didn’t think I would go through your garbage bag to see if there was anything to collect, did you?”

Luo Qingmeng choked, speechless. She had indeed had that thought. Qiu Shuxue didn’t press her and just smiled gently. She walked around the side and stood with her, saying, “Let’s go.”

It was closer for them to walk from the back door. Qiu Shuxue was also carrying a bag. When she was looking for her key, Luo Qingmeng glanced at it. It was a Hermès bag in almond green. She found her car key and looked at Luo Qingmeng.

Qiu Shuxue said, “…Hmm? Still thinking about it?”

“No.” Luo Qingmeng came back to her senses and shook her head hard.

“But…” Qiu Shuxue squeezed the car key and thought seriously, “If, next time, you throw away clothes, I might go through them.”

“You…” Luo Qingmeng’s cheeks immediately felt hot from anger. The word “pervert” was held on her lips for a while.

Qiu Shuxue smiled faintly. Luo Qingmeng knew she was mostly joking. How could a person as pretty and clean as her do something so disgusting?

But… Qiu Shuxue wasn’t a normal person either.

She liked widows and secretly got involved with married women.

Truly…

The first time was new, the second was familiar. Luo Qingmeng had gotten used to riding in her car. This morning, she didn’t put up a useless struggle. She rode in Qiu Shuxue’s car to work. When they arrived, she got out, and Qiu Shuxue rolled down her window and waved at her. “Have a good time saving money, sister.”

When Luo Qingmeng got to the bookstore, Chen Xin and Aunt Cai were already there. Everyone had arrived quite early and had finished their morning tasks. Now, all their eyes were on her.

“Sister…” Chen Xin came over and called out to her.

Luo Qingmeng knew what she wanted to say in her heart. She pretended to be silent and casually scrolled through the work group chat. The group was eerily quiet yesterday, and the boss didn’t say what book they should promote today.

She looked at the work log. A new batch of books had arrived a few days ago, and they would be delivered from the warehouse around 11 a.m.

“Sister…” Chen Xin called again.

Luo Qingmeng looked up and frowned at her. Chen Xin immediately swallowed her gossip and said, “I just wanted to ask what book we should promote today.”

Luo Qingmeng looked at the newly arrived books. The one on top was The Strait Gate by the French writer André Gide. She hadn’t had time to read it and didn’t know the content. She didn’t like to recommend things randomly. She said, “Let’s stick with yesterday’s.”

“Oh, okay, okay.” Chen Xin went to hang up the sign, turned her head to look at her, and sighed. Her expression seemed to be saying, “As expected, her marriage has problems. She’s not even enthusiastic about books anymore.”

Luo Qingmeng bit her lip. She sat down and picked up the book in her hand, trying to ignore everything.

The store was empty in the morning. At 11 a.m., she was scheduled to put the books away. She looked at her phone. Qiu Shuxue hadn’t sent any harassing messages. She went to have lunch, and everything was still quiet. Chen Xin said, “Sister, you’ve been checking your phone. Is it because of you and Li An…”

Luo Qingmeng turned and walked away, sitting behind the cash register. She lowered her head and continued to read her book.

In the book, there was a passage describing the protagonist’s love for the female lead, Alissa: [I was intoxicated in love and pity, intoxicated in the mixed and vague stirrings of passion, devotion, and virtue, calling out to God with all my might, willing to give up any of my own life goals…]

The male lead witnessed his aunt’s infidelity. He comforted his hurt cousin. The initial love was written as straightforward and devout, brave and lonely. Luo Qingmeng now only saw it as the boy’s heroic outburst of “s3x,” completely devoid of love.

Luo Qingmeng propped her chin and thought, Is Qiu Shuxue the same way with her? Because she witnessed Li An’s infidelity and cheating, did she have a heroic outburst towards her? But because Qiu Shuxue is an adult, she’s expressing her sexuality directly.

The more she thought about it, the more she frowned. What am I thinking? Why am I always thinking about Qiu Shuxue when I read? This is not a good habit!

Luo Qingmeng closed the book and started to get busy with work. In the afternoon, it got crowded, and the peak period lasted until 7 p.m. She had planned to take a break later, but the boss came. Maybe it was because “being a widow right after getting married” was too explosive. The boss also wanted to know the inside story and subtly expressed her desire to hear the gossip.

Luo Qingmeng had just accepted the boss’s fruit, so she couldn’t ignore her. She forced herself to read The Strait Gate for a while. She had just overturned her understanding of the male protagonist’s love for Alissa, believing it had nothing to do with s3x, when the boss called her name. She replied to the boss, “That’s not true. The situation in the store was very complicated, and I just said that to get the customer to sign up for a membership.”

“I’ve been through a lot, Qingmeng. Tell me.” The boss insisted on helping her with her troubles, leaning on the cash register. “You don’t seem like the type to make that kind of joke.”

Luo Qingmeng gritted her teeth and just said something to get her off her back. “He’s an eunuch, he can’t be intimate. He’s not even as good as a gay man. He’s also sick all over. It’s disgusting.”

“Ah, really…”

Luo Qingmeng said, “He also has a terminal illness and won’t live past the fifteenth of next month. He got hit by a car and died. What a scumbag… Okay, a customer’s here. I need to get back to work.”

The boss was just getting into it and regretfully said, “Then we’ll continue later.”

“…”

Luo Qingmeng kept telling herself, She’s the boss, she’s the boss. After a long time of self-consolation, the boss still didn’t leave.

When it was time to close the store, the thing Luo Qingmeng was most worried about happened. The boss said, “Qingmeng, let me drive you home. I’m not busy tonight anyway. Take my car.”

Chen Xin said with a smile, “I’m so jealous. Sister Qingmeng has people driving her around these days.”

The boss laughed. “Oh, who else?”

Luo Qingmeng glanced outside. Qiu Shuxue hadn’t arrived yet. She retorted, “No one.”

“Let’s go, let’s go,” the boss said.

Luo Qingmeng could only follow the boss out. She had been wondering why Qiu Shuxue wasn’t bothering her today. She put on her coat as soon as she got outside. Just as she buttoned it up, she saw someone standing at the bubble tea shop in front. Who else could it be but Qiu Shuxue?

Qiu Shuxue was only holding one cup of bubble tea. The other cup was still being made by the employee. Qiu Shuxue heard the movement and noticed her. She turned her head and then her gaze fell on the boss, her eyes narrowing slightly.

The boss was immersed in the gossip and asked Luo Qingmeng, “What are you going to do? Are you living together or by yourself? How did you divide the assets in the divorce?”

Luo Qingmeng frowned and sped up, following the boss into the elevator. She couldn’t help but say, “He bought the house before we got married, so it’s all pre-marital property. He has less money than I do. He said he would compensate me, but I can’t even see him now.”

“That man is so despicable.”

The more Luo Qingmeng thought about it, the angrier she got. Isn’t he? Every time she thought about it, she felt awful. At that time, her own situation wasn’t great either. She didn’t think too much, just thought they would live their own lives well and didn’t care about these things.

Now, she cursed Li An’s future, “You bastard, you’ll be childless, get cancer, and get a bunch of diseases from cheating.”

She had been holding it in for so long with no one to talk to. She only told her a little, leaving out the part about the mistress.

The boss drove her to the area next to the subway station. Looking at the complex, she said, “This is nice. You live here? I’d have to think twice about buying a place here.”

“I’m sharing a place,” Luo Qingmeng lied. She was unbuckling her seatbelt, ready to get out, but the boss said, “Let me drive you a little further. There are no cars ahead, and it’s such a short distance.”

Luo Qingmeng said no. She didn’t want the boss to know where she lived, and she didn’t want others to know that she was living next to the mistress to get revenge on the cheating man and woman.

She got out of the car and thanked the boss. The boss seemed to have more to say, but Luo Qingmeng hoped she wouldn’t. The gossip was enough for now.

The boss’s car drove ahead, turned around, and left. She walked toward the complex, feeling annoyed. She was afraid the boss would tell other people. She sent a message to the boss: Please don’t tell anyone. Thank you.

She entered through the back door. The garage was on the first basement level. She didn’t know if Qiu Shuxue had come back yet. When she got to her floor, she pretended not to care and opened her door.

She went inside and immediately checked the security camera. She watched for half an hour but didn’t see Qiu Shuxue. She checked her phone again, and Qiu Shuxue still hadn’t replied to her.

Luo Qingmeng made dinner and then checked her phone again. Still no messages. She forced herself to focus only on her own things. She took out the unfinished book, The Strait Gate. She had started reading it because the synopsis was about a sad, deep love, but as she read, she ignored the love between the male and female leads. She felt more and more sorry for Alissa, who was living under the huge shadow of her “mother’s infidelity.” She started to cry, especially at the part where the female lead died. Reading the female lead’s diary, her sympathy turned into sadness. Alissa had Roger’s unwavering love and her sister Alice’s concern. But she, Luo Qingmeng, had nothing. Her lonely soul was always wandering. Every time she poured her passion into something, it was extinguished in the cold wind.

Luo Qingmeng had a habit of taking notes in her books. She would do it from beginning to end. She wrote on the last page in her neatest handwriting.

“Alissa, I wish I could be you. Someone loves me, and someone will love me even after I die, believing my virtue is irreplaceable.

Dear Alissa, you are not like your mother…”

When she came back to her senses, she realized she had written a whole page. She stopped writing and cried for a while, sitting on the floor with her back against the sofa, letting the night spread, and wiping her own tears.

After she finished crying, she looked at her phone. It was still quiet.

Luo Qingmeng washed her face and immediately went to rest. She was a little afraid of dreaming about Alissa, and even more afraid of dreaming about herself.

She tossed and turned in bed.

She vaguely felt the door open, and someone came in from outside. The footsteps were very light. She couldn’t move her body.

Luo Qingmeng watched the person who came into the room. The room was dark, but Qiu Shuxue expertly turned on the light. She leaned against the door, her eyes curving slightly. She said, “Sister, why aren’t you asleep yet? And why are there so many tears?”

“Why are you here? Why… why did you come without asking for my permission?” Luo Qingmeng looked at her, breathing rapidly.

Qiu Shuxue said, “Oh, that. There’s a limited number of additional messages, so I couldn’t send you one. Oh well,” she sighed. “What a shame.”

Luo Qingmeng also frowned. Why did she also feel that it was a little bit of a shame? It was so strange. And… and…

Qiu Shuxue stared at her intently, like she was looking at a fish on a cutting board. She said, “Sister, can I give you a kiss?”

“What are you doing now?”

Qiu Shuxue walked while talking. She sat on the edge of the bed. She lowered her head, her voice getting softer and softer. “I couldn’t bother you tonight. I missed you so much.” She got closer to her, her forehead resting on her neck. She said softly, “The more I think about it, the more I want to get close to you and touch you.”

She reached out to touch her clothes.

The words were so blunt that Luo Qingmeng flinched. She hummed in a low voice. She tried to hide and not get lost in it, but she couldn’t break free. Soon, she let out a soft “ah,” opened her eyes, and became sober. She was panting heavily, her body covered in a sticky layer of sweat.

…It was a dream.

But how could she have a dream like this?

This dream felt so absurd. She put her hand on her face and used her other hand to pull her pajamas down from her waist.

Her chest was heaving. A huge sense of pressure came crashing down.

There was still no message on her phone.

Qiu Shuxue… why was she so quiet?

Could it be that Li An was at her place, and they were having an affair?

The more she thought about it, the more absurd it became. Luo Qingmeng’s mind was filled with images. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. She really wanted to go and knock on the door and cause a disturbance.