The Lost Lamb's Trap - Chapter 23.2
Chapter 23.2: Stars
Duan Jiayang woke up with a pounding headache. Her arms and legs were difficult to lift, and the back of her head ached so much she couldn’t move. She lay flat for a few minutes, reaching for her phone, but first felt something soft. She thought for two seconds.
She had a sensitive feeling that it was a person.
Duan Jiayang was sluggish for a moment, not daring to move. Her head throbbed intensely, and she stared at the ceiling. She vaguely remembered her dad knocking on the door yesterday. Her mind was a complete mess. She quickly propped herself up and sat up, stretching her neck to look forward, and saw… Lin Ke.
Her head buzzed with pain.
This was more terrifying than her dad putting someone in her bed. Duan Jiayang wrapped herself in the blanket and jumped down. No, if she did that, Lin Ke would find out. Duan Jiayang pulled the blanket and got out of bed, her feet getting caught. She fell face first, tripping over.
Her body and forehead hit the floor, making her dizzy.
The person on the bed woke up. She rolled over to look at Duan Jiayang. Duan Jiayang quickly got up from the floor and backed away repeatedly. “Why are you here!”
Lin Ke propped her chin on her hand, looking at her with a deep gaze.
“Lin Ke!” Duan Jiayang called out to her.
She let out a soft “mm.”
Lin Ke propped herself up on her arm and lay on her side, not yet fully awake, her eyes closed as she breathed. She was wearing Duan Jiayang’s pajamas, a slip dress, with one strap slipped off her shoulder, revealing her delicate collarbone.
She looked at her and suddenly smiled.
Duan Jiayang’s scalp tingled. She couldn’t tell what that smile meant. Lin Ke hooked the strap and pulled it up, letting the thin strap rest on her narrow shoulder.
“We… we…”
“Slept in the same bed, and then…” Lin Ke got out of bed and walked barefoot to Duan Jiayang’s side. Duan Jiayang backed away until she couldn’t retreat anymore.
Lin Ke’s red lips were slightly pursed.
The wind puffed up the curtains. Duan Jiayang’s back pushed the curtains back to their original position. Lin Ke came closer to her. “Do you have surveillance cameras in your house? You might need to delete some footage. We kissed from the garage to the stairs, and from the stairs to the bedroom.”
She pointed to her own lips.
“You were the one who initiated it.”
Duan Jiayang’s whole body was trembling. She couldn’t bear to imagine that scene. The wind on her back was cold and chilling.
Duan Jiayang leaned against the curtains. Her brain felt like it wasn’t getting enough bl00d, unable to send the correct signals… She didn’t know what she had done or what she had said. Lin Ke didn’t look like a proper gentleman who would do nothing.
What should she do?
What can she do?
Duan Jiayang pretended to be calm and said, “Oh, so it was a one-night stand.”
Lin Ke just said, “Don’t be afraid. Just delete the surveillance footage.”
Finally, Lin Ke moved aside, and Duan Jiayang went to take a shower. She lifted her arm and smelled herself. She didn’t smell that bad.
She had no memory of what happened yesterday.
Duan Jiayang went downstairs with a headache. Surveillance footage was usually uploaded to a phone, but she didn’t like watching it, so she had never asked for the account.
Duan Jiayang went to the housekeeper and said she lost her keys, asking him to show her the footage. The housekeeper said okay. Duan Jiayang used his phone to check. She estimated the time and scrolled through. The footage was very clear. After getting out of the car, they hugged each other. She was hugging Lin Ke, rubbing against her. It looked like she was the one who was desperate.
Lin Ke just held her waist. She bit Lin Ke’s ear.
This wasn’t a match made in heaven. They went from the garage to upstairs. Lin Ke wasn’t a normal person.
Duan Jiayang deleted all the footage in one go. She touched her ears, her ring, and her bracelet.
They were all there.
She took out her phone. There was a message from Gu Siyu, but she couldn’t understand what Gu Siyu meant.
Gu Siyu: “What’s the relationship between you three? It seems a bit weird to me. JPG”
Could it be that Lan Yao also came?
Duan Jiayang’s legs trembled.
When Duan Jiayang came back, Lin Ke was still leaning against the window, not moving.
She was well hidden. The people downstairs hadn’t noticed her at all.
Duan Jiayang turned around, took a paper bag from the cabinet, and handed it to Lin Ke. Lin Ke didn’t take it, so she placed it on the tatami mat next to the bay window.
“I wore your clothes last time. I’ve already thrown that set away. This is a new set to give back to you.”
Lin Ke’s eyes looked at her calmly. “Should I buy you a set too?”
“No, that’s not necessary. I have a lot of clothes. Of course, you don’t have to return that set either. You can post it on your Moments if you want. I won’t reply to you anyway. If people think you’re an exhibitionist, that’s your problem.”
Lin Ke walked over and picked up the bag to look at it. A white suit, with a low-V white tank top underneath and white pants.
It was her style.
Duan Jiayang was impeccable in her dressing and grooming. Although she wasn’t good at anything else, she was meticulous in her eating and drinking.
“Are we even?” she asked.
Duan Jiayang said yes. “We’ve kissed, and we’ve slept together. It didn’t feel anything special. There’s nothing particularly exhilarating to remember. Our bodies and minds don’t fit, so there’s no need to get tangled up anymore.”
“Okay.” She was unexpectedly good-tempered, crossing her long legs and resting her hand on the armrest of the chair, agreeing to everything she said. Duan Jiayang was a little surprised, but she immediately took advantage of it, acting even more indifferent than her.
The curtains were drawn. Lin Ke took the clothes and changed in the bedroom. They suited her perfectly. The all-white outfit was exactly her usual style. The clothes were structured, and she looked dashing. Duan Jiayang turned her back to her and went into the walk-in closet to change. She chose a vintage dark green French-style dress, looking down at the zipper on her waist in the mirror.
The door opened. Lin Ke stood behind her, her chin a few millimeters from Duan Jiayang’s shoulder. The mirror reflected both of them, showing no distance at all. Duan Jiayang wanted to push her away, but they had already been intimate yesterday. Being shy now would be overdoing it, losing the previous composure.
She didn’t care anymore.
Only by not caring could they each retreat to their own boundaries.
Lin Ke asked her, “Who taught you all this?”
“Lan Yao? Your dad?”
She definitely didn’t know Gu Siyu.
“Or was it the person who called yesterday and said I was ‘epilepsy,’ and who wouldn’t give you to me when I asked for you?” Lin Ke said, pausing. “You called me ‘epilepsy’.”
Lin Ke’s lips were curved in a smile. Duan Jiayang couldn’t understand. In the mirror, her narrow, long eyes were smiling, as if savoring those two words. “What’s so exciting about it? I was insulting you.”
“You didn’t insult He Xiao.”
What a pervert. Did she think an insult was a sign of affection?
Duan Jiayang had no memory of yesterday’s events. She only remembered Gu Siyu saying that the way to end a entanglement was to be even. What was hers was hers, and what was yours was yours. If you didn’t want it anymore, you should return everything to them.
Even if you wore it, you should return it to the person after taking it off, down to the last thread.
She couldn’t be as decisive and resolute as Gu Siyu. Her upbringing wouldn’t allow her to do something like take off someone’s clothes after wearing them and returning them. So she chose to buy a clean new set to give back.
“Was it her?” Lin Ke was still asking.
Duan Jiayang said, “Can’t I think of it myself? Am I that stupid in your eyes?”
Lin Ke was silent for a moment. Then her chin rested on her shoulder. “If you thought of this yourself, then… I might get angry.”
With that, Lin Ke gently pulled up the zipper on her waist, hooked her hair, moved it from her left shoulder to her right, and lowered her head to kiss her neck. Duan Jiayang shivered with sensitivity.
She said, “Xiao Yang, you’re always like this. You push me far away, but you’re afraid I’ll be pushed over, and you’re afraid I’ll run away and you won’t be able to find me.”
Duan Jiayang tilted her head back. Her skin tightened with Lin Ke’s breathing. Her closed eyelashes trembled slightly. She hugged her arms, letting that hand zip up the zipper to the top.
Lin Ke was especially clingy today, smelling her scent.
“Xiao Yang.”
“This dress… doesn’t look good.”
The dark green vintage dress suited her temperament very well. When she wore it to an event with her dad, everyone praised her. The zipper that had been pulled all the way up was now pulled back down to her hips. The soft, light fabric slid down her waistline, making a muffled sound as it fell to the floor, revealing her alluring and enchanting curves. The white bra showed a tight and enchanting arc. The moon peeked out from the thin fog, showing half its silhouette. Lin Ke’s fingers played with the lace on the edge of her waistline. Her skin, like jade, glowed. She caught the moon and told her the truth: “We didn’t do anything yesterday.”
“It’s normal for you to be frustrated.”
Duan Jiayang was completely tense and trembling.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she felt a surge of shame she had previously cast aside. Her body trembled slightly. She could no longer convince herself to be calm and unrestrained while Lin Ke looked at her. Because of her feigned composure, Lin Ke was taking advantage of her and touching her without any hesitation.
Lin Ke looked at her in the mirror, her fingers touching her skin, just as she had ruthlessly taken over her youth, now taking over her.
What about the boundaries?
What about the boundaries she had so painstakingly drawn?
A few strands of hair fell on her face. A few more were hooked behind her ear by Lin Ke. Lin Ke’s voice was low. “Today, wear a white dress, like me.”
Lin Ke chose a new one for her, white from the inside out. The fabric was tight and cool. Duan Jiayang lifted her long legs and feet. Her pink fingers trembled when they touched Lin Ke’s hand. Lin Ke was kneeling, holding the dress and pulling it up her legs to her waist. Lin Ke wrapped her hands around her and said:
“There’s no way we can be even. We can’t.”
She couldn’t let go, and she couldn’t end the entanglement.
She deserved this.
…
Duan Jiayang went to the balcony and shouted for people to go to the back of the house to look for something. She took Lin Ke downstairs. She walked down the steps, her long legs swaying slightly. Lin Ke didn’t sit in the passenger seat and went to the back. Duan Jiayang quickly started the car and drove out of the house.
“By the way, your dad knocked on the door yesterday,” Lin Ke said.
Duan Jiayang remembered that.
She looked in the rearview mirror. Lin Ke’s expression hadn’t changed. She was looking at her phone, tapping the screen twice. “Your dad said he’ll transfer me out for a business trip in a couple of days. You can take the opportunity to transfer from the department to the translation department. He told you not to drag your feet and to do it quickly, in case I set my eyes on you, you won’t know how you died.”
The light turned red.
Duan Jiayang stomped on the brake.