The Unreturnable Refrigerator - Chapter 18.1
Chapter 18.1: Picking Someone Up
“Why are you here?”
Lu Yin quickly glanced around. The masseuse had disappeared at some point, and there were only her and Sheng Xiali in the room.
An alarm immediately went off in her head, and Lu Yin stared at the person in front of her.
Sheng Xiali was smiling faintly, allowing Lu Yin to pull on her hand. She reached out her other hand to touch Lu Yin’s chin. After Lu Yin pushed it away, she moved her hand to the back of Lu Yin’s neck.
During the movement, the delicate pearl pendant on Sheng Xiali’s slightly open collar trembled.
Lu Yin’s eyes trembled with it.
With her neck held in place, a series of red lights flashed along with the blaring alarm in Lu Yin’s heart. She twisted her neck, trying to break free from the cool hand.
But with her struggle, the hand tightened. If she moved, it tightened. If she stopped, it loosened.
“What are you doing?!”
Lu Yin gave up on struggling and looked directly at Sheng Xiali.
The curve of Sheng Xiali’s lips was a little deeper than before. It could barely be called a smile, but it didn’t look friendly.
“What, you’re not comfortable?”
Perhaps the air conditioning in the small room was too cold. Sheng Xiali’s palm was cold, and her words were as dark as could be.
Lu Yin let go of Sheng Xiali’s hand: “What? Have you taken on a side job as a masseuse?”
Sheng Xiali let out a light laugh, and the morning mist in her eyes dissipated a lot: “It’s not impossible. It depends on how much you pay.”
She paused, as if she had thought of something. She squeezed Lu Yin’s neck slightly, forcing her to look into her eyes.
“After all, I’m short on money right now.”
Twenty-five million, that was a lot to be short on.
Lu Yin stiffened her neck, looking at the smile on Sheng Xiali’s lips. She felt that her words were more of a boast. A person who could casually transfer over two million dollars was now saying she was short on money.
What kind of money was she short on?
Lu Yin didn’t want to talk about these meaningless things with this person here. She tilted her head back and tried to use both hands to pull Sheng Xiali’s hand off her neck.
As soon as she grabbed Sheng Xiali’s hand, before she could even use any force, the hand on her neck let go first, and instead, it held the back of her head. The other hand also moved to support her waist.
With both hands, Sheng Xiali pulled Lu Yin forward two steps. Lu Yin stumbled, not even having time to pull back her hands that were now wrapped around Sheng Xiali’s neck. She watched as Sheng Xiali sat down on the other empty massage bed.
And she stumbled into her arms.
Lu Yin had a bad feeling. She pulled her hands back to push Sheng Xiali away, but it was too late. Sheng Xiali’s long legs locked around her knees.
To make matters worse, the hands she had extended hadn’t even reached Sheng Xiali’s chest when they were pulled up, directly wrapping around Sheng Xiali’s neck.
Sheng Xiali’s hands also changed position, wrapping around Lu Yin’s waist.
Lu Yin felt the heartbeat coming from their chests pressed together and froze in place.
Sheng Xiali…
What was she doing…
After five years, she was actually being held tightly in Sheng Xiali’s arms again…
Fragments of memories from five years ago came flooding back.
Without any cause and effect, without any gradual progression, and without any order, they gushed out of the corner Lu Yin had worked so hard to seal away.
After all, there were so many moments of intimate embraces like this between her and Sheng Xiali.
The countless arguments, intimacies, teasing, and flirting from the past, memories of this pose were so abundant that in this instant, Lu Yin’s vision was a little blurry, as if her mind was overloaded, and her eyes were a little hot.
And there were tears she was almost unable to control.
Lu Yin took a deep breath and started struggling forcefully.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!”
She couldn’t allow herself to get lost in it. She and Sheng Xiali were long over.
Lu Yin forcefully shut the door to her memories, pushing the memories that had sprung out of the corner back in. She put her hands on Sheng Xiali’s shoulders, wanting to escape this embrace that would make her memories uncontrollable.
She was using force, and the hands wrapped around her were also using force. The legs around her knees were also squeezing tightly.
She couldn’t break free!
“Sheng Xiali, what are you going crazy for!”
Lu Yin slapped Sheng Xiali’s right shoulder. The gust of wind stirred the loose hair by her ears, and Sheng Xiali slightly tilted her head.
Lu Yin paused. Had she hit Sheng Xiali’s face?
The next second, Lu Yin came back to her senses and denied this guess. Sheng Xiali’s face showed no abnormality.
It was just that her eyes, as deep as a cold pool, with a hint of morning mist, were staring at her.
Lu Yin couldn’t help but loosen the grip of her hands, and then, under that gaze, she gradually straightened her body.
A lamp was above them, and the warm yellow light scattered, gradually falling into Sheng Xiali’s eyes.
She slightly tilted her face up, her gaze fixed firmly on Lu Yin’s face.
Lu Yin’s heart felt empty. For some reason, a picture appeared in her mind. She thought she saw a lone beast on a desolate wilderness, injured, and looking at the moon revealed from behind the clouds while licking its wounds.
A stubbornness that was used to being alone cracked open, allowing a glimpse of its vulnerability. Perhaps it also wanted a companion…
Lu Yin was in a trance, silently looking at the person in front of her.
It must have been her illusion, just like in the past, she had mistakenly believed that Sheng Xiali needed her…
Yes, it was an illusion. Lu Yin took a breath. She was just prone to overthinking. What injured and alone? Sheng Xiali was at the peak of her life right now, proud and successful.
Thinking this, her own existence in the past seemed to have been an unnecessary burden…
Lu Yin closed her eyes, hiding the loneliness in them. When she opened them again, her gaze was calm.
She no longer struggled. Just as Sheng Xiali was looking at her, she tried her best to calm her breathing and looked at Sheng Xiali.
Although she didn’t know what Sheng Xiali was going to do, she couldn’t eat her. What was there to be afraid of!
Lu Yin lifted her chin, building up her momentum.
But the distance between them was too close. Even though Lu Yin tried to tilt her head back as much as possible, in this intimate position, she could still clearly feel Sheng Xiali’s heavy breathing.
Unlike her person, the breathing was warm, scorching her face with every exhale.
After only a few moments of eye contact, Lu Yin couldn’t take it anymore. Her heartbeat once again sped up uncontrollably, with a hint of being over the speed limit.
Lu Yin gave up on her previous idea. She looked away and started struggling again. She had lost. She couldn’t remain as calm as Sheng Xiali and look at the other person in this position.
It wasn’t her fault. If she could withstand this beauty, she wouldn’t have fallen head over heels back then.
What’s more, the Sheng Xiali now, she could only describe as a “femme fatale.”
Lu Yin felt hot all over. Even Sheng Xiali’s slightly cool embrace was warmed by her. The heat rose to her face, and Lu Yin couldn’t take it anymore.
“Let go of me!”
She was about to break through with all her strength when the person in front of her, who had been silent and seemed sick, suddenly spoke.
Her voice was hoarse, but it had some warmth.
“Is it beautiful?”
Lu Yin stopped struggling and looked at the person who had spoken. She had finally opened her mouth, but what she said was so random.
Sheng Xiali smiled, took one hand back, and pointed to her face: “Is it beautiful?”
Lu Yin instantly understood. Sheng Xiali had noticed that she had been a little mesmerized when she looked at her just now.
“As if I want to look?”
Lu Yin didn’t deny it. This face was indeed beautiful. At least, in the almost one-third of her life that had passed, she had never seen anyone more beautiful than Sheng Xiali.
Every part of her was basically right where Lu Yin’s heart was.
When they first got together, Lu Yin would sometimes get up in the middle of the night to look at Sheng Xiali’s sleeping face for a while before going back to sleep.
But at this moment, it wasn’t like she wanted to look at her. This person was just being crazy and forcing her to look.
“Yes, you don’t want to look. Then what do you want to look at?”
Sheng Xiali looked at Lu Yin. The smoldering anger and resentment that she had so painstakingly suppressed turned into sharp thorns that pricked the other person and hurt herself in the process.
“The photos on your phone, huh? Oh right, you were staring at them this morning. What, did you find one you liked?”
As she spoke, Sheng Xiali’s forced calm plunged into a deep abyss of panic.
Lu Yin furrowed her brows, looking at the Sheng Xiali who was now a little more sharp-tongued, and her stinging gaze made her uncomfortable.
“Don’t you have some too? The person Cheng Siyu introduced to you is so good. Stable and family-oriented. Aren’t those the qualities you liked the most in the past?”
Lu Yin regretted saying the word ‘past’ as soon as it left her mouth. The next second, Sheng Xiali’s expression was no longer calm. It was as if the mask of pretense had cracked, and the emotions that seeped out were like erupting magma, enough to consume both of them.
“Lu Yin, sometimes I’m really curious, how do you define our past?”
Lu Yin was always surprised by Sheng Xiali’s questions. Ever since they met again, every one of her questions was unexpected.
That night her fridge was taken, she thought she would ask her why she left back then, but she asked when she had left.
Later, when they met at the studio, she thought she would ask her why she left, but she asked why she had come back.
It was the same now. She thought she was finally going to ask her about their past, but she asked her how she defined their past.
How to define it? She was asking her how to define it…
Lu Yin let out a light laugh. She called her ‘Lu Yin.’ It had always been like this. Sheng Xiali had always called her by her full name, with no hint of intimacy that would distinguish her from a normal friend or a stranger.
This included when they were at their most intimate. Their bodies were pressed together, their hearts were pressed together, but she only called her ‘Lu Yin.’
However, Lu Yin also only called Sheng Xiali by her full name. The most special name, ‘Xiaxia,’ was already taken. The remaining character, ‘Li,’ always had a hint of sadness to it. She had once asked Sheng Xiali why her family had given her that name.
Sheng Xiali said she had changed her own name. Lu Yin wanted to know more, but she didn’t say anything else.
It was always like this between them. They looked so intimate, but in reality, there was an invisible wall that set a boundary.
She probably didn’t even know as much about Sheng Xiali’s past as Song Xinlei did.
It wasn’t a ‘probably.’ It was a fact.
Lu Yin looked at Sheng Xiali, gradually calming down. If someone saw them like this now, they would think they were in an intimate relationship, talking about intimate things.
But in reality, Sheng Xiali’s gaze was stinging, and she was calling her by her full name, questioning Lu Yin and forcing her to summarize their past.
“It was a youthful impulse.” Lu Yin shrugged her shoulders, and a thorn of her own rose along her emotional defense line. “Or you can define it however you want. I don’t care.”
“I don’t care…” Sheng Xiali looked at the person just inches away, watching her indifferent expression, and ground her back teeth together. She almost gritted out her next words.
“Lu Yin, you’re always like this. You seem innocent, but in reality, no one is more cruel than you.”
Lu Yin slightly turned her head away, not wanting to see the thorns in Sheng Xiali’s eyes: “The feeling is mutual.”
As soon as she finished speaking, everything went black, and her forehead throbbed.
Lu Yin covered her forehead in pain, her eyes wide as she looked at the person who had just bumped her head against hers.
“What are you doing? Are you drunk today? Are you going crazy in broad daylight?”
Sheng Xiali stared at her intently, suppressing the thoughts that kept popping up in her mind. Her hands around Lu Yin’s waist kept tightening.
Just as Lu Yin wondered if Sheng Xiali was going to choke her to death, her shoulder suddenly felt heavy.
Sheng Xiali buried her head in the crook of her neck.
“You don’t know anything…”
A muffled, unclear sentence came from her neck into Lu Yin’s ear.
Lu Yin frowned. What didn’t she know?
She shook her shoulders, trying to move her head away, but she was caught off guard and felt another sharp pain.
“No, are you really crazy?! Why are you biting me!”
And through her clothes! Was she not embarrassed?
Lu Yin reached out to push her away, but before she could say anything, a sudden ringing sound interrupted her.
“Ding ding ding ding ding,” the ringing went unanswered, and the sound grew louder and louder in the small room.
Lu Yin’s heart also sped up for no reason.
“Your phone, your phone.”
That wasn’t Lu Yin’s ringtone. She pushed the person off her, grateful for the timely phone call.
But when she saw Sheng Xiali take out her phone and saw the name ‘Xinlei,’ she felt a wave of sarcasm.
Sheng Xiali pressed the call and put the phone back in her pocket, clenching the things in her pocket.
Lu Yin felt the legs around her knees loosen a little. She took a step back, and the legs automatically let go.
Sheng Xiali let her go…
Lu Yin couldn’t describe what she was feeling. When she couldn’t break free, she was angry that Sheng Xiali wouldn’t let go. But now that she had let go, she wasn’t happy either.
Especially after the phone call from Song Xinlei, even though she didn’t answer it.
Lu Yin felt a wave of irritation. This was so annoying. Why was she so hung up on these things? She and Sheng Xiali had no relationship anymore. It was her business who she was friends with, who she talked to on the phone, and who she gave a special name to. What did it have to do with her?
She took a step back and leaned against the other massage bed. She felt a little weak. Her legs were a little sore and numb, probably from being locked in for so long.
The lingering heat made her feel like the air conditioning in the room wasn’t cold enough.
And the ceiling was too low, the light was too orange, and the room was so small it made it hard to breathe.
Sheng Xiali looked at the person sitting across from her, head down and breathing heavily. She got up and walked over.
It was only an aisle away, and Sheng Xiali reached Lu Yin in a single step.
Lu Yin stared at the shoes in front of her and slowly looked up.
“Lu Yin, delete those photos.”
Sheng Xiali put her hands on either side of Lu Yin, and her exhaled breath hit her face directly. It tickled, and Lu Yin unconsciously moved her ears.
“What?”
“The photos Cheng Siyu sent you.”
Another puff of warm air hit her face. Lu Yin’s mind moved, and she finally understood what Sheng Xiali was talking about. She was talking about the ‘partners’ Cheng Siyu wanted to introduce to her.
“What, you’re the only one who can be picky?”
Lu Yin remembered that Cheng Siyu had also sent those photos to Sheng Xiali.
“I deleted them.”
Sheng Xiali had deleted the entire chat history in the first instance.
Lu Yin raised an eyebrow: “Didn’t find one you liked?”
Sheng Xiali knew she was being deliberate, so she simply bumped her head against Lu Yin’s again.
The force wasn’t strong, so it didn’t hurt. Lu Yin covered her head. She hadn’t expected Sheng Xiali to do that again.
Was there something wrong with this person now?
Seeing the a hint of a smile in Sheng Xiali’s eyes, Lu Yin was even more confused.
But soon, Lu Yin’s mind became a little hazy again. Compared to being forcibly held in Sheng Xiali’s arms, her leaning over and embracing her like this made her feel even more claustrophobic.
It was as if the ceiling was also lower, and the entire space was filled with Sheng Xiali’s scent.
A faint scent of lemon.
Just as Lu Yin felt this scent silently seeping into her collar, a ringing sound froze the air, and Lu Yin’s desire to take a deep breath came to an abrupt halt.
Lu Yin pushed the person who had moved closer: “Your phone.”
Sheng Xiali slightly straightened up, gripping the item in her hand tightly, and let the phone keep ringing as if she couldn’t hear it.
Lu Yin felt annoyed: “It’s so loud. Answer it!”
Sheng Xiali frowned, looked at Lu Yin, and loosened her clenched hand a little. She felt the item in her palm getting hot.
She quietly switched hands, freeing one to get her phone. She looked at it.
“It’s Cheng Siyu.”
Lu Yin’s annoyance subsided a little: “It might be something important. Answer it.”
Sheng Xiali nodded, answered the call, and after listening, replied: “Okay, I’ll be right there.”
After she hung up, Lu Yin’s phone also rang. It turned out they were going to the hotel.
After saying she would be right there, Lu Yin hung up and stood up, heading for the door.
Just as she took one step, she was pulled back.
Before Lu Yin could say anything, she felt a warmth in her palm, and something was placed in her hand.
Sheng Xiali gave Lu Yin a long, deep look and then left the room first.
Lu Yin looked at the item in her palm, confused.
She wanted to call out to her, but she had already opened the door and left.
Lu Yin looked down at her palm. Sheng Xiali had given her a key.
An old, orange-yellow key, the most ordinary kind that corresponded to the most ordinary lock.
What did this mean? Sheng Xiali gave her a key?
A key to what?
Her home key?
No, that wasn’t right. A password lock had an emergency key, but it wasn’t like this.
Lu Yin quickly opened the door to chase after her and ask, but she only saw an empty corridor and a row of green plants that extended all the way to the stairwell.
Long legs were just amazing. On second thought, she was pretty amazing for being able to catch up to someone with such long legs in the past.
Lu Yin let out a short laugh, went back to the room, grabbed her things, and slowly walked downstairs, thinking about what kind of key she had in her hand.
When she got downstairs, everyone from Sheng Xiali’s studio had already left. Lu Yin breathed a sigh of relief.
But when she saw the ‘driver’ Cheng Siyu had arranged for her, she knew she was happy too soon.
It had to be said that Cheng Siyu was a good businesswoman. Her efficiency was incredible.
The person from the photo she was trying to introduce to her this morning was already standing in front of her.
After Lu Yin was pushed into the car, she looked at the person who had rolled up his sleeve to show off his shiny watch and gave him a polite smile.
For the next half an hour of the ride, she listened to half an hour of his life philosophies mixed with Chinese and English.
It was so ridiculous that she didn’t even have time to tell Beibei about it. Her fingers flew on her phone, trying to type out some of the golden phrases.
After he had finished his speech, he probably realized they needed to interact.
“Miss Lu, you must be very busy with work?”
“I’m unemployed.”
“Miss Lu, you’re almost thirty, but you don’t look it. What’s your secret?”
“It’s natural.”
“I heard that Miss Lu went to Qing University just like Xiao Cheng. You’re a talented woman. I was only a few points away, or else I would have been your classmate.”
“Haha, what a pity. How many points were you off by?”
Lu Yin’s words might have touched a nerve. The other person started complaining about his bad luck on the college entrance exam…
Lu Yin glanced at the navigation. Thankfully, they would arrive after one more turn.
But she had underestimated Cheng Siyu’s execution. The person she had just politely rejected, she had already set her up with two more!
One on the left and one on the right. She was seated in the middle.
Lu Yin quickly messaged Yang Beibei, asking her to call her in half an hour, pretending to be a maintenance worker and saying her house was leaking.
She planned to talk to Cheng Siyu about her sexuality after she was done with her work so that she wouldn’t set her up with people like this again. She wished she could just disappear.
But for Cheng Siyu’s sake, in this kind of situation, she could only smile and deal with the situation half-heartedly.
She wasn’t the only one suffering. Cheng Siyu was in high spirits. Sheng Xiali and Song Xinlei’s studio staff were at the table next to them. Cheng Siyu would bring one person over every now and then to introduce to Sheng Xiali and Song Xinlei.
Song Xinlei’s face was dark. Anyone could tell she was unhappy.
Of course, Cheng Siyu noticed and stopped introducing people to Song Xinlei, focusing on Sheng Xiali instead.
Song Xinlei’s face grew even darker. Lu Yin smiled and ate her spare ribs. Cheng Siyu’s ability to read people in business was not good enough. Introducing people to Sheng Xiali probably made Song Xinlei even angrier than introducing people to her directly.
Lu Yin smiled, eating her spare ribs, and watched as Cheng Siyu brought two more people over to introduce to Sheng Xiali.
The two people next to her also couldn’t sit still. They said, “I’m sorry, I have to take a call,” and rushed over to find Sheng Xiali.
Lu Yin spit out the bone from her mouth. She felt like she was starting to understand Song Xinlei a little bit…
Lu Yin put down her chopsticks and looked at Sheng Xiali. She was handling the situation with ease, but she had always been like this. No matter how much she disliked something, as long as she wanted to endure it, no one would be able to tell.
This was probably why her career was so successful now. She saw that while she was talking, she had already secured a few more business deals for her design studio.
But for some reason, Lu Yin felt a little uncomfortable. If you had to endure people you disliked and things you disliked to be successful, was that really success?
Was she happy?
Whatever, what did it have to do with her?
Lu Yin was full, and Yang Beibei’s call came through. She quickly found Cheng Siyu: “My house is leaking. I have to go back. Congratulations on the grand opening, let’s hang out again soon~”