The Unreturnable Refrigerator - Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Voice Call
Lu Yin quickly flicked off the cigarette ash. In her shock, she pressed play again.
Soon, Sheng Xiali’s clearly teasing and lively voice sounded again.
The video was very short, less than ten seconds. After it ended, Lu Yin pressed play again.
Once, twice, three times… Lu Yin got over her shock and confirmed that she had not misheard. Sheng Xiali had indeed said, “Kuaikuai, say hello to your mom.”
It really was Kuaikuai.
And she, was indeed its “mom.”
A self-proclaimed title, as they were of different species.
After Lu Yin bought Kuaikuai and brought it home, she decided she would be its mom.
Sheng Xiali laughed and graciously accepted the new member of the family.
Mainly because in her mind, a turtle wasn’t too much trouble. It could be kept in a small box.
After all, there was already too much stuff at home. If Lu Yin had gotten the idea to get a cat or dog, she couldn’t even imagine what the house would turn into.
She poked the turtle, which had retracted its head, and asked Lu Yin: “If you’re its mom, then who am I?”
Lu Yin was on the internet, searching for how to raise a turtle. Without looking up, she said: “You’re its mom’s friend, so of course you’re its aunt, Aunt Sheng.”
Lu Yin smiled after saying that. She was doing it on purpose.
Sheng Xiali clearly knew she was doing it on purpose. She put the turtle down, climbed onto the bed, and wrapped her arms around Lu Yin, applying a little pressure. She poked Lu Yin in the waist, where she was most ticklish, and threatened: “Think about it carefully, who am I to it?”
Lu Yin couldn’t help but start trembling the moment Sheng Xiali touched her waist.
She was extremely ticklish. She squirmed with her laptop, trying to get away from Sheng Xiali’s hands.
Sheng Xiali not only didn’t let go but also lifted up Lu Yin’s shirt a little and poked her. She bit Lu Yin’s ear and said seriously: “Last chance.”
Lu Yin squirmed even more, and her laptop fell out of her hands. It wasn’t her fault. Sheng Xiali had control over her two most ticklish spots: her waist and her ears.
Unable to resist the tickling, Lu Yin laughed uncontrollably, wiping her tears as she grabbed Sheng Xiali’s hands and buried her ear in Sheng Xiali’s shoulder, begging for mercy.
“I surrender, I surrender. I’ll think about it. I’ll think about it carefully.”
Sheng Xiali let go of Lu Yin’s waist and turned, enveloping her.
She looked as if she wouldn’t let Lu Yin go until she gave a satisfactory answer.
Although her waist was no longer being touched, Lu Yin still felt ticklish, and it felt as if Sheng Xiali’s warm breath was still on her ear, heating up her face.
On her hot face, a wisp of Sheng Xiali’s hair fell. Lu Yin suppressed her laughter and the ticklish feeling, twirling the strand of hair and looking as if she was thinking seriously.
“If you don’t want to be its aunt…” Lu Yin paused, her eyes twinkling with a smile, “Then you can be its sister.”
Before Sheng Xiali could react, she let go of the hair, quickly wriggled out of Sheng Xiali’s embrace, and tried to escape the bed that was about to become a dangerous zone.
Bzzzzzzzz.
A vibration in her palm abruptly interrupted Lu Yin’s memories.
Lu Yin came back to her senses, patted her hot face. Why was she thinking about all this…
When she looked down and saw the pink sky profile picture on the voice call screen, the memory she had just forcefully cut off almost continued.
What? A voice call from Sheng Xiali in the middle of the night?
Was she crazy, or had Lu Yin’s memory glitched?
Sheng Xiali had just sent a video, and that was 8 hours after she had sent the original message. It had only been a short time since Lu Yin hadn’t replied, and she was already calling?
Did something happen?
Lu Yin hesitated whether to answer. The next second, the phone’s vibration suddenly stopped.
The other person had hung up…
Lu Yin let out a big sigh of relief. But before she could finish, the voice call came in again.
The pink sky profile picture seemed to vibrate along with the phone.
Lu Yin took a deep breath. It better be important. Otherwise, she was going to curse Sheng Xiali out.
“What do you want?” Lu Yin answered, skipping the “hello” and going straight to the point.
There was no sound on the other end. After waiting for a bit, just as Lu Yin was starting to wonder if it was a prank, the other side responded.
“Not sleeping?”
Lu Yin took a deep breath to calm her urge to curse: “What a stupid question. If I was asleep, would I be sleepwalking and answering the phone? Just tell me what you want already.”
A laugh came through the phone and into Lu Yin’s ears. The laugh was low, husky, and had a slight, lingering upward inflection.
Lu Yin involuntarily tensed up.
“Do you want to come and see Kuaikuai? It’s gotten a lot bigger.”
The voice was also husky, low, and a bit sticky, like sweet red bean sauce drizzled over shaved ice.
It was completely unlike Sheng Xiali’s usual sharp voice, which was full of authority.
Had it been too long since she had heard Sheng Xiali’s voice on the phone? Why did it sound like this, like the summer night breeze was laced with the smell of alcohol?
Wait, alcohol.
Lu Yin asked hesitantly: “Are you drunk?”
“No.” A firm negative came from the other side, without a moment’s hesitation.
Lu Yin also asked without a second’s doubt: “How much did you drink?”
The other person replied quickly: “Just a little bit.”
Perfect, case closed. Lu Yin’s heart settled.
99.999% chance that Sheng Xiali was drunk.
The remaining 0.001% chance was that she was crazy.
She knew it. Why else would Sheng Xiali suddenly call her in the middle of the night and ask her to come and see Kuaikuai…
This person was really something. Not only was she a lightweight, but she was also a bad drunk.
The first time she discovered this was after Sheng Xiali came back from a dinner with her colleagues. When she kissed her, Lu Yin could smell the alcohol.
When she asked how much she had to drink, she said “just a little bit.”
When she asked if she was drunk, she said “no.”
The person who claimed she wasn’t drunk held onto her and wouldn’t let go, and even sang her “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”—the “counting ducks” version.
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are, come and count the ducks, two, four, six, seven, eight…”
Thinking of this, Lu Yin couldn’t help but almost burst out laughing. She quickly covered her mouth to stop herself from making a sound.
That was also the first time Lu Yin saw a childlike side of Sheng Xiali.
Before that, she had always seemed invincible, born mature and steady.
It was also at that moment that Lu Yin felt that maybe Sheng Xiali needed her very much…
Now she knew it was all an illusion…
“So, are you coming?”
The lazy, drunken voice on the phone sounded again, interrupting Lu Yin’s memories.
Lu Yin stopped smiling, took a deep breath, and raised her voice into the phone.
“If you’re drunk, go to sleep. What’s wrong with you, calling me in the middle of the night? I’m hanging up!”
She didn’t want to be in the same room as a drunk Sheng Xiali. Some memories were flashing in her mind, and Lu Yin felt like she couldn’t get rid of them.
She looked at the cigarette in her hand, which had burned out at some point. Lu Yin lit another one and took a deep drag.
It was so annoying.
The night breeze could carry away the smoke, but it couldn’t take away the melancholy of the night.
Sheng Xiali looked at the call ended screen, her eyes clear, but they gradually became as cold as the night air.
She turned to look at the turtle in the pond and said mockingly, “You’re useless, too. Your mom doesn’t even want to see you.”
As she spoke, she gently stroked the turtle’s head, which was peeking out of its shell. Her voice was even softer now.
So low that it was almost a whisper to herself.
“You’re not even as useful as a fridge.”
…
Click. The ceiling light went out, and the balcony was plunged back into darkness.
Only a sliver of moonlight from outside stretched the lonely shadow.
Lu Yin walked back inside in the dark. After returning to her bedroom, she plunged into bed, covering her head with her blanket.
Sheng Xiali’s call had left her a little restless. She wondered how drunk Sheng Xiali was to call her. She hoped she hadn’t just passed out on the floor.
It didn’t matter. She was a grown woman. Didn’t she have any common sense? Anyone who couldn’t hold their liquor and drank too much deserved what they got.
Lu Yin turned over and stopped thinking about Sheng Xiali. She thought about Kuaikuai and felt a little guilty.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see it. She had thought about it often over the years.
Lu Yin sat up in bed. What if she asked for Kuaikuai back?
She could pay the “child support” for all these years.
Probably not. Sheng Xiali wasn’t short on money now. She wouldn’t even give her back the fridge, so why would she give her Kuaikuai?
She had to figure out the password!
Lu Yin opened her phone’s memo app, wrote down all the passwords she had tried, and then wrote a few more combinations she thought were possible.
[666666] didn’t work. Maybe it was [888888]. She was a company owner now. Business people liked the number eight for prosperity.
Lu Yin’s frustration was gone, replaced by a surge of motivation. She was determined to go and rescue her “children” who had been kidnapped! She wouldn’t rest until she succeeded!
Just as she finished writing down the three combinations to try tomorrow, her phone vibrated.
Lu Yin’s eyelids twitched. No way, again?
With a racing heart, she opened WeChat. Thankfully, it wasn’t Sheng Xiali.
Looking at the name on the new friend request: Cheng Siyu.
Lu Yin remembered Song Xinlei saying she would push her WeChat to her earlier in the day.
She accepted the request, and a message came in immediately.
Cheng Siyu: “Lu Yin, is that you? It’s Cheng Siyu. Long time no see.”
Cheng Siyu: “Song Xinlei just sent me your contact card. I thought it was a client she was introducing. She’s still the same, never saying what she means the first time. She always makes you have to ask her.”
Cheng Siyu: “I was so busy during the day, I just asked her now. She said it was you. You’re not asleep, are you? I’m just so excited. I haven’t heard from you in so many years.”
…
Lu Yin smiled as she watched the screen-filling messages. She had been worrying about how to reply to the first message without sounding too distant, but looking at the flood of messages, she felt her worries were unnecessary.
Cheng Siyu was still as fiery as she used to be.
Lu Yin sent a smiling emoji and replied: “It’s me, Lu Yin. Long time no see.”
As soon as she replied, a bunch of cute kissing and hugging emojis came back.
Cheng Siyu: “I missed you so much. Where have you been all these years? Why did you suddenly stop using all your accounts?”
Cheng Siyu: “You don’t know, I was sad for a long time.”
Cheng Siyu: “Where are you now? How did Song Xinlei get your number? Have you been in touch all these years?”
After that, she sent a cat emoji with squinted, suspicious eyes, and another one of a cat holding a broken heart.
Lu Yin laughed. She was still trying to figure out how to answer the question about her sudden departure, and Cheng Siyu was already on to the next question.
Lu Yin sent a hugging cat emoji: “I went to Lichang after graduation. I was too busy back then. I just ran into Song Xinlei today.”
The last time they met, she didn’t recognize her.
Cheng Siyu replied with a smiling emoji: “I knew it. How could you be in touch with her and not me? We used to be the best of friends.”
Lu Yin smiled. Their college dorm was a quad room. Her bed was next to Cheng Siyu’s, and she was one of the few friends Lu Yin had in college.
Cheng Siyu’s messages quickly filled the screen again: “So you’re in Hengcheng now too? That’s great! I’m in Hengcheng too. We can have dinner together sometime.”
Cheng Siyu: “But I’ve been so busy lately. My new store is opening next week.”
Cheng Siyu: “Oh, right, my new store is opening. Are you free? You should come and show your support.”
She also sent a promotional video. Lu Yin opened it and saw that it was a well-established wellness and leisure center. The video said that this new store in the west of the city was their third.
Lu Yin checked the address. It was also in the same commercial complex as Sheng Xiali’s studio. She hadn’t expected Cheng Siyu’s career to be so successful.
The address wasn’t far, but it was a little too close to Sheng Xiali’s studio…
Then she thought again. She didn’t owe Sheng Xiali any money. Why should she hide from her? Besides, if she saw her, she could just pretend not to know her.
She was free next week. She was a very idle person who didn’t get a lot of business these days.
Lu Yin replied: “I’ll be there for sure. I’ll send you a big flower basket.”
The other person replied quickly: “The opening day flower baskets are all arranged. Sheng Xiali arranged them all. If you want to claim one, I’ll put your name on it.”
Lu Yin was very surprised to see Sheng Xiali’s name.
Cheng Siyu remembered that Lu Yin wasn’t familiar with Sheng Xiali and sent a voice message to explain.
“I don’t know if you remember Sheng Xiali, the one we knew from college. She’s super successful now. She has a design studio. She did all the interior design for all my stores. She even arranged the opening of the new store. She’s really incredible, so different from Song Xinlei.”
Lu Yin was indeed surprised that Cheng Siyu and Sheng Xiali were in contact. Maybe it was because of Song Xinlei.
Cheng Siyu saw that Lu Yin hadn’t replied and thought she didn’t remember. She tried to recall their only interaction.
Cheng Siyu: “In our freshman year, Sheng Xiali was in our volleyball class, remember? She taught us how to play volleyball.”
Of course, Lu Yin remembered. That was the beginning of her and Sheng Xiali talking.
And also the source of the animosity between her and Song Xinlei…