The Lost Lamb's Trap - Chapter 35.1

Chapter 35.1: Stars (1)

Lin Ke walked past Lan Yao, forcefully pushing her away. Lan Yao also precisely grabbed her hand. The two were at loggerheads.

Lin Ke couldn’t let Lan Yao kiss her.

When Gu Siyu left, she whispered in Duan Jiayang’s ear and told her that if the two of them started fighting, she shouldn’t try to mediate. Instead, she should run first to avoid getting hit.

Gu Siyu walked away quickly, and Duan Jiayang spoke just as fast, “She’s not going to kiss you, Lin Ke!”

She called out to Lin Ke to stop her, but the words seemed to be an encouragement to Lin Ke.

She was saying to her: I won’t kiss her, Lin Ke.

She was comforting her.

The moment Lan Yao tried to get close to Duan Jiayang, Lin Ke pushed her away. Lan Yao’s shoulder scraped against the wall, and she quickly punched Lin Ke’s shoulder.

Both of them had studied martial arts. It seemed neither of them was willing to let the other go.

Duan Jiayang gripped the room key card. She grabbed both of their hands and forcefully pulled them apart. “That’s enough, both of you go back. I’m tired!”

With her intervention, the two-person war escalated into a more intense struggle.

Both sides grabbed her wrists, trying to pull her into their arms. Lin Ke coldly looked at where Lan Yao was holding her. She reached out and pulled, not allowing Lan Yao to touch her. After several attempts, she couldn’t pull away. Lin Ke let go of Duan Jiayang’s hand and grabbed the arm that Lan Yao was holding. Then she suddenly reached out to pinch Lan Yao’s neck. Duan Jiayang immediately lunged to block, and Lin Ke’s hand brushed past Duan Jiayang’s cheek.

“Stop it…” Duan Jiayang squeezed between them, her arms spread out, blocking the front and the back, not allowing them to fight. She faced Lin Ke. “Stop it, go back to your own rooms, stop it, really…”

Lin Ke only saw her open arms as a sign of an embrace. She moved forward, her hands wrapping around Duan Jiayang’s waist. Lan Yao didn’t stop her movements either. The two of them continued to fight over her at almost the same time.

Duan Jiayang was being tortured by two pairs of eyes, as if she was being cut in half. But both of them wanted to get more, and her body was about to be torn apart.

The embrace around her waist, the tugging on her hand, her body felt like it was being dismembered. She couldn’t tell whose hands were touching her or where to hide.

Lin Ke pulled her into her arms, and she was met with her unique jasmine scent. Lan Yao’s hands were also busy. She reached over and grabbed her, her grip strong and forceful.

She didn’t know whose hand was pinching her thigh, and with a sudden tug, she was pulled away. The two of them were about to start a brawl. When Duan Jiayang tried to intervene again, a fist landed on her stomach without any warning. Duan Jiayang’s hands propped her up against the wall, and her body slid down. “It hurts…”

Sure enough, that saying was right.

She was doomed.

The two of them, their eyes red with fury, didn’t even notice.

Duan Jiayang propped herself up and walked toward them, trying to persuade them. This time, when they waved their hands, a solid slap landed on her face. The two of them were stunned.

She herself was gasping in pain. The two of them had sobered up and turned their heads to look at her. Duan Jiayang propped herself up against the wall to pick up the key card on the floor, and she said softly, “Then you guys can fight.”

Lin Ke stepped forward and held her by the waist. She pushed Lin Ke’s hand away. Lan Yao took her hand, and she propped her hand up against the door. Duan Jiayang put the key card against the lock.

She squeezed inside sideways. Both of them tried to push their way in to touch her. Duan Jiayang’s arms were pressed tightly against the door, like a lamb on a cutting board being chopped up by two knives, turning into a blurry pulp.

“Don’t touch me!”

Lin Ke let go first, afraid of hurting her.

They didn’t know where they had hit Duan Jiayang or who hit her. But Duan Jiayang saw it all clearly. She straightened her back and pushed the door open, making herself look strong and intimidating. She pressured the two raging people outside. She was clutching her stomach, her intestines twisted into a knot. Her face was pale, and her brows were tightly furrowed. The tension outside eased. She pushed her arm forward to close the door.

The pain made her crouch down.

The footsteps outside were still there. It seemed they had started fighting again. Duan Jiayang felt even more pain. She cursed herself a thousand times, knowing she deserved it.

She didn’t know if the two people outside were hurt, but she was definitely severely injured on the inside. She had been slapped twice, and her stomach hurt so much that her legs were trembling.

Duan Jiayang thought to herself, she shouldn’t have gotten involved. She should have let them fight. Let them fight to the death, and the one who survives can get married.

Fight, just fight.

Let everything be destroyed.

The voices in her ears were tempting her.

What does it have to do with you?

They were the ones who wanted to like someone like her.

They were the ones who were going to suffer.

“It hurts…”

Duan Jiayang propped herself up against the door. The pain kept her just sober enough.

She looked through the peephole. No one was outside. She leaned against the door for a while, then stood up and gripped the doorknob, ready to turn it. But if she opened the door, whoever rushed in would only make things more chaotic.

She would stand up and check every once in a while, afraid that they had died outside. Half an hour later, there was a sound outside the door. She sat down on the floor.

The door was knocked. Lin Ke said, “The medicine is on the doorknob, Little Lamb. Can you open the door? I want to see how you are.”

This scene was just like the boy who cried wolf.

The door was knocked again. “It’s me, Lan Yao. Jiayang.”

Jiayang, “home lamb.”

Little lamb, a lamb that was eaten clean.

They were anxiously concerned about the lamb inside.

The lamb sat on the rug by the door, leaning back. Her eyelashes trembled, and she closed her eyes, not opening the door.

She pretended she was fine.

The two people outside were talking. With her back pressed against the door, she could vaguely hear their conversation.

She first heard Lan Yao’s words. Lan Yao said, “You know she’s not happy with you, and she doesn’t want to be with you. Who are you disgusting by doing all this?”

“I’m disgusting you.” Lin Ke’s words were forceful and intimidating. “If you like her, and you see that she’s torn and unhappy, why don’t you let go?”

Everyone is selfish. Lan Yao knew that their entanglement was still her pursuing her, because she had hope and felt that she could win her.

She didn’t stop because she felt she had a chance.

Lan Yao questioned her, “You’re the one who should stop. She’s been rejecting you. If it wasn’t for you, she would have slowly opened up and been with me.”

Lin Ke’s eyes were cold and frosty. At this moment, she smiled and said, “Because she likes me.”

Lan Yao also smiled. She provoked her, “How do you know she doesn’t like me? Even a little bit of affection is still affection.”

Lin Ke wasn’t angry. She stood there silently.

The hallway was quiet. Her expression was saying: “But… you lost.”

Both of them had things they couldn’t say to Duan Jiayang, so they consciously kept a distance from the door and only spoke when they were further away.

Lin Ke kept bringing up Lan Yao, making Duan Jiayang feel ashamed and provoking her sense of shame, and then she would cling on more.

Duan Jiayang felt indebted, so she would push Lan Yao away. Would Lan Yao shamelessly cling on like her?

If you can’t be shameless, then don’t pursue her.

Just let go.

But she still had a chance to cling to her.

Lin Ke’s words were soul-crushing. “You don’t love her as much as I do. Because of this, she won’t choose you. As long as she doesn’t choose you, I win.”

That night, she thought about it all night and reminded herself: treat her gently.

Gently placing a knife on your opponent’s neck and slowly cutting… that’s how you use gentleness, right?

Either of them could have stopped this, but neither was willing to. They both thought they would have the last laugh, so they were serious and competitive.

Lin Ke lowered her eyes, and a shadow loomed over her. She spoke her mind clearly. “If you really loved her that much, you would have made a move in the six years I was gone. Instead, you waited until you had a good opportunity to pursue her. You started adding more and more chips when you decided to give it a try, and only then did you realize you liked her more and more, is that right?”

Lin Ke’s way of speaking was very clever. She treated Lan Yao’s affection as a business, and the two of them were competitors. She laid everything out clearly.

Lan Yao admitted it frankly. “Yes. So what?” Then she looked at her mockingly. “What about you? Why did you make her wait for six years? She’s very comfortable with me. If you hadn’t gotten involved, we would have been happy together.”

Both of them were people who had been in the workplace for a long time. Every word was a pearl, and they were at each other’s throats.

Lin Ke’s eyes were filled with intense jealousy and envy. “I’m not like you. You have a huge advantage. I had to climb step by step, to a height where Duan Litian couldn’t get rid of me, to a height where I could compete with everyone and make her belong to me.”

The things she said to Duan Jiayang were always “I am yours.” She branded herself as belonging to Duan Jiayang, making it impossible for her to get rid of her. But when someone else came to compete, she would show her claws.

“You don’t like her that much. You don’t love her so much that you can’t live without her. So give her back to me.”

The two of them were different.

One of them was completely dark. She disdained the light.

The other one had light above her head. Lan Yao didn’t back down as much as Lin Ke had expected. Her voice wasn’t as cold as Lin Ke’s. She planned seriously, and she said, “When she’s with me, I will do everything to make her happy. She will have a normal relationship with me, not one where she feels like she’s constantly falling. Is that enough?”

She was gentle and patient, and she could take good care of a person.

Neither of them would give in to the other. They both knew of each other’s existence, but this was the first time they had actively warned each other.

“I love her very much now,” Lan Yao said.

“Do you love her so much that you can’t live without her?” Lin Ke pressed. “Think carefully before you answer. What if you have someone else in your life in the future? Then the love you talk about will be a lie.”

“Do you know what kind of love she needs?”

“To love her and only her for her entire life?”

“Can you fall with her when she wants to fall?”

Lan Yao said, “I can.”

Her words were firm and serious, like a vow.

Lin Ke looked at her seriously, speechless.

Lan Yao’s chest rose and fell. She didn’t back down.

The lights in the hallway were on, and the shadows were deep and shallow.

When the light came on, the surroundings were illuminated. It seemed someone had won. When it went dim, the surroundings were plunged into darkness. Nothing was clear, as if someone had lost.

No one slept all night.

Duan Jiayang sat on the floor all night, wondering where things went wrong to have gotten to this point.

Every step was wrong, to an absurd degree.

She shouldn’t have agreed to let Lan Yao pursue her. She should have rejected her on the spot.

When Lin Ke came back, she shouldn’t have gone to welcome her. She should have had her dad send her to a place no one knew about.

She closed her eyes, as if she was back in that night. All sorts of scenarios played out in her mind. Lin Ke was going back to Mount Ta. Lan Yao said she was here to steal her “home”… Mount Ta. She shouldn’t have, shouldn’t have taken the Mount Ta project.

She wanted to cry, but no tears came.

She also wanted to blame someone else and push all the responsibility onto them. The blind dates weren’t her idea, and the entanglement wasn’t her idea. Every time she wanted to refuse, she would be coaxed with all sorts of sweet talk.

Everyone knew she was stupid, but they all said they were giving her the best options. Every time she went forward, the promised “highway to heaven” would turn into a rope bridge. When she staggered forward, and was about to reach the top, she would only see a dead end. So, everyone would say, “Who told you to walk that way? If you had done this and that, you would have arrived.”

After a long time, she put her hand on her forehead. She lay flat for two hours. She picked up her phone and started typing, wanting to say something. Unknowingly, she had written about five hundred characters. When she focused, she saw that she had received two messages.

She deleted all the messages.

She didn’t need anyone to care about her. She felt she deserved it.

On Monday, Lan Yao and Lin Ke had work. Lin Ke also had work. They had to leave in the morning. Duan Jiayang extended her stay for two days online. She stayed inside and didn’t come out. When she was hungry, she ate the local specialties she had bought.

When she came out, the two people were gone, and the medicine on the floor was still there. She hadn’t used any of it.

Duan Jiayang lifted her shirt and looked down. There was a large bruise on her abdomen. It still hurt. She couldn’t even touch it.

She carried her suitcase out herself, hailed a cab, and bought a plane ticket. She landed an hour later. But she sat in the airport for the entire afternoon.

When she got home, Duan Litian was doing some renovations, installing something. He looked up and asked her a couple of questions. She didn’t reply. She went to her room and tidied herself up.

The next day, she went to work. She didn’t go to the design department, and she didn’t reply to Lan Yao’s message.

She hadn’t given away any of the things she had bought on her trip. She didn’t answer any messages or calls.

Those few days, Duan Jiayang stayed at the company every day. She learned from her team, contemplated things, took classes, and even acted like her dad’s boss, supervising her subordinates.

She also saw Lin Ke, but she didn’t talk to her. Lin Ke looked like she hadn’t been hit much. She hadn’t asked Lin Ke for advice, and Lin Ke hadn’t helped. Lan Yao had seen her many times since they lived in the same place. Lan Yao also looked fine.

She suspected that the two of them also had internal injuries, but she didn’t want to care. She herself was in a lot of pain.

Duan Jiayang didn’t contact them. In private, she could see their various hints. She was so busy that she had no time. She spent her time on the project. She was either working or going to dinner with everyone.

She did every step seriously. She tried her best to ask the people on the project. She personally went to all the tests. When everyone said it was okay, they sent her the documents. She seriously signed her name on them: Duan Jiayang.

In the evening, they went to a celebration dinner. Everyone was toasting Duan Jiayang. Her assistant helped her drink two glasses, but she handled most of it herself. In the evening, the family driver drove her home. Duan Litian was on the treadmill. She looked at his bulging belly and gagged. It was disgusting.

She wondered if she would become like that one day.

Duan Litian came over with a smile. “Come to my office tomorrow. I’ll take you to the meeting and give you a promotion. You can be a director…”

Duan Jiayang said, “Oh,” and went back to her room and fell asleep.

On Saturday, she got a facial at a beauty salon. On Sunday, she chose a black suit with a low V-neck. It didn’t go down to her abdomen because the bruise on her stomach was healing and had spread out in a large circle.