The Unreturnable Refrigerator - Chapter 23.1
Chapter 23.1: In Bed Together
Sheng Xiali sat up, clutching the blanket. Her eyes were clear as she scanned the bedroom, which was filled with another person’s scent.
Compared to her empty, cold bedroom, this one could be called “full” and “messy.”
The long cabinet by the bed had all sorts of things on it. There were seven or eight cups filled with unknown liquids, a packet of teddy bear biscuits was torn open and half spilled out, a few cookies had fallen on the floor, and a bottle of pear juice with the cap not screwed on was leaning against a stack of books, threatening to fall over at any moment…
Sheng Xiali’s eyes twitched. Without even thinking, she leaned forward, stretched out her long arm, grabbed the bottle of juice that was still more than half full, and screwed the cap on tightly.
When she put the bottle back, Sheng Xiali saw a small part of a photo frame peeking out from behind the books.
She carefully pushed the stack of books aside, moving slowly and gently to prevent the ceramic cat figurine on the books from falling. After she moved the books, the photo was fully revealed.
It was a solo photo of an unfamiliar woman…
She looked to be in her twenties, young and beautiful, with a bright smile.
Sheng Xiali’s eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated, searching her memory for anyone who looked like the person in the photo. She seemed a little familiar, but she couldn’t remember her name or where she had seen her.
After looking at it for a few more moments, she pushed the books back and leaned the bottle against them, restoring everything to its original state.
She scanned the entire cabinet. This was the only photo frame she saw. It seemed to be the only photo in the entire bedroom.
Whose photo was Lu Yin keeping?
Sheng Xiali leaned back on the bed. As she thought, her eyes fell on the stuffed animals hanging from the curtain, and her gaze gradually softened.
She was still the same as she used to be.
She loved hanging these things on the curtains. Sheng Xiali looked at each one. After all these years, the popular stuffed animals were completely different from five years ago. There were many of the ones Lu Yin had hanging up that she didn’t recognize.
Sheng Xiali’s mood was complex, a feeling she couldn’t quite describe. Her gaze continued to move, passing by the somewhat out-of-place computer desk and finally landing on the vanity table in the corner.
The table was covered with bottles and jars. Some were still sealed, clearly unused; others were open, clearly used without the caps being put back on.
Habits were truly a force of nature.
The moment Sheng Xiali saw the pile of things, she already wanted to get up and match the caps to the bottles, screw them back on, and organize everything neatly.
Taking a deep breath, Sheng Xiali suppressed this habit she had developed from living with Lu Yin for a year and turned her head to look at the bathroom. The sound of water was faintly audible. After a long time, it suddenly stopped.
Sheng Xiali lay back down. As she moved, she hit her elbow, and a sharp pain shot through her. She looked down and saw that her elbow was bruised and a little swollen.
The pain wasn’t a big deal… Sheng Xiali’s eyes drifted to the bedroom door, thinking of the mirror in the entryway. She hadn’t noticed there was a mirror behind her at the time…
The plan had gone slightly wrong.
But she had also taken the opportunity to change her plan, and the outcome was better than expected.
Sheng Xiali pursed her lips, put her hand back under the blanket, and moved her left index finger. The feeling of Lu Yin biting it seemed to still be there.
It didn’t hurt; it just tickled.
There was a buzzing sound from the bathroom, like a distant wind, rustling her hair and tugging at her heart. Sheng Xiali, who was lying on her side, paused…
She sat up again, and after a moment of hesitation, unhooked her bra from behind, took it off, and threw it on the pile of clothes on the floor.
The sound of the hairdryer in the bathroom abruptly stopped. Sheng Xiali hugged the blanket and turned to her side.
Lu Yin dried her hair, put away the hairdryer, and unlocked the door.
A cool breeze blew into the bathroom, instantly dispersing the heat created by the hairdryer. Lu Yin’s flushed face also quickly cooled down.
But that temperature rose again by several degrees as soon as she stepped into the bedroom, saw the beige lace bra on the pile of clothes by the bed, and her gaze slowly moved up to the bare, beautiful back revealed on the bed.
Her heart started beating violently, like a tractor speeding onto a highway, running at an unsustainable speed and smoking.
Lu Yin suddenly took a step back, retreating into the bathroom, but this retreat gave her an even clearer view of the situation.
In the hazy light, Sheng Xiali, who was lying on her side, had her entire bare back exposed outside the blanket. It was plump, fair, and the slightly protruding butterfly bones looked even more stunningly sexy in the light.
Lu Yin had never seen Sheng Xiali’s back like this from this close.
It was breathtakingly beautiful, like a world-famous painting, but Lu Yin didn’t dare to admire it.
“Sheng Xiali?”
Lu Yin’s voice was a little panicked as she called out. What was going on with this person? Why did she take off her bra? Was she awake?
After several calls with no response, Lu Yin didn’t know whether to feel relieved. This person even knew to take off her bra in her sleep, probably because she also found it uncomfortable.
She also wondered whether she should be happy that at least her underwear was still on. But to be honest, covering up a little like this made it even more… Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, Lu Yin stopped her thoughts. What was she thinking?
Lu Yin turned her head to the side, trying her best not to look at the completely exposed back. She took a few steps forward, grabbed a corner of the blanket, and pulled it hard. After she had completely covered Sheng Xiali, she was still not at ease, so she tucked the blanket under Sheng Xiali’s shoulder.
Looking at the tightly wrapped Sheng Xiali, Lu Yin’s heart, which had been racing on the highway, finally slowed down as it entered the off-ramp.
She would have to wash this bedsheet after Sheng Xiali left. It felt like it already had Sheng Xiali’s scent.
Lu Yin picked up Sheng Xiali’s clothes from the floor. She might as well do a good deed. Anyway, they were going into the same washer and dryer. Two more pieces of clothing wouldn’t use much more water or electricity. Lu Yin explained to herself that she was just doing it out of convenience, and there were no emotional factors involved.
She wasn’t asking for anything in return from Sheng Xiali, but if she did want to give something back, she would praise her and say she was a decent person. If she could get her fridge back because of this, that would be even better!
Lu Yin felt Sheng Xiali’s skirt pocket. There was only a phone in it. Lu Yin put it on the nightstand.
She then felt the pocket of her own clothes she had changed out of. There was only one key in it—the key Sheng Xiali had given her.
Lu Yin looked at the key and then at the sleeping Sheng Xiali. She suddenly thought of a possibility. She probably knew where this key was from.
The key to the apartment they had rented together back then was this kind of old-fashioned key… She had left the key with the rent when she returned to Liyang…
Why did Sheng Xiali give her this key?
Thinking of the apartment they had rented before, Lu Yin’s mood was complicated. She didn’t know what it looked like now. She hadn’t gone back once after returning to Hengcheng for fear of running into Sheng Xiali.
Lu Yin looked at the person tightly wrapped in the blanket on the bed. She had never expected that the person she thought she was hiding so far from would end up being her neighbor…
She had to ask Sheng Xiali what she wanted to do with this key when she woke up.
She put down the key, picked up all the clothes, and was about to walk out when she saw her phone light up on the stack of clothes on the bed stool.
Lu Yin stacked the dirty clothes in her arms and used one hand to pick up her phone. There were several messages on WeChat. She unlocked it and saw so many messages.
Lu Yin first clicked on Beibei’s WeChat, which had the most messages, and started from the bottom. They were all her thoughts on a TV show she was watching, sometimes praising the beautiful female lead, other times admiring the proactive female supporting character.
Lu Yin smiled as she quickly scrolled down. She clicked on a picture and saw it. “Hengcheng Maldives”? What the heck? Lu Yin looked at the promotional poster. It did look like a very nice place.
She scrolled down to read Beibei’s message.
“Yinyin, I want to go play here. Are you free? You can play beach volleyball here, and I want to play. Can you teach me?”
Beach volleyball? A bikini came to Lu Yin’s mind. She guessed that Yang Beibei, who wasn’t a fan of sports, suddenly wanting to play volleyball had another purpose. She smiled and replied with a flirtatious cat emoji: “Are you planning to show off your swimsuit?”
Then she replied: “I’m okay with it. You set the time.”
Exiting the chat, Lu Yin clicked on another conversation with a message notification. An unexpected line of text almost made her drop the clothes in her hand.
“Lu Yin, a huge piece of gossip! Song Xinlei likes women! She likes Sheng Xiali!”
At Hengminghui KTV, Cheng Siyu held her phone, waiting for a reply from Lu Yin. She then went to another classmate from the same major but from the next dorm to share this shocking news.
The other person was a little skeptical, but Cheng Siyu confidently told her it was true. Song Xinlei had said it herself.
The story started when she saw Amy walk in with a bouquet of roses. She was a little shocked when she heard that Mr. Qian was a woman.
After Song Xinlei arrived, she told her about it.
Song Xinlei looked at the roses on the table, speechless for a long time. She had thought that Ms. Qian had given up, but she was even more proactive than before.
She reached out and touched the roses. The vibrant flowers were in full bloom. She thought of Ms. Qian, who was as passionate and unrestrained as these roses. She had shown her affection for Sheng Xiali so openly and unapologetically the first time they met.
Along with her jealousy, Song Xinlei also felt self-reproach. Why couldn’t she do that? Why could everyone else love Xiali so openly and unapologetically, while she had to be so careful, afraid that they wouldn’t even be able to be friends?
“What’s wrong? Be careful. Some florists don’t completely remove the thorns from the roses, and they can still prick you.”
Cheng Siyu saw Song Xinlei holding a rose, her fingers pressing so hard on the leaves beneath the flower that her fingers were a little white. It looked like the flower couldn’t take the abuse and was about to fall apart.
Song Xinlei came back to her senses and turned to Cheng Siyu, remembering her shock when she said that Ms. Qian was a woman.
“Is it weird for women to like women? What era are you living in?”
Cheng Siyu shook her head and explained: “I’m not saying it’s weird. I’m just surprised that it’s happening right next to me. I’ve just never encountered it before.”
Song Xinlei scoffed: “Well, now you have. And also, I like women too.”
After she said that, she didn’t look at Cheng Siyu’s reaction. She plucked a rose and went to find Amy. She had already told her to refuse Ms. Qian’s flowers, yet she still accepted them.
Cheng Siyu looked at Song Xinlei’s departing back, opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but her mind couldn’t process it at the moment.
Seeing her shocked expression, Yang Sanhao smiled. She wouldn’t add to her surprise and handed her a glass of wine to calm her down.
Cheng Siyu looked back at her, dazed, and felt a pang of regret: “Then I must have looked like a clown tonight. But you can’t blame me for that, right? She never told me. If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have introduced her to a date.”
She said this as if she was talking to Yang Sanhao, but it was more for herself, trying to justify her actions and wondering why she hadn’t noticed anything before.
The main thing was that Song Xinlei hadn’t shown any signs in the dorm. She hadn’t had a girlfriend or mentioned liking any girls. How could she have known?
Wait a minute. Cheng Siyu wasn’t stupid. After learning that Song Xinlei liked girls, she naturally thought of Sheng Xiali, the person she cared about the most and was closest to. So Song Xinlei’s clinginess to Xiali was love?
Cheng Siyu took out her phone, wanting to tell this earth-shattering discovery to Lu Yin.
After a long time, with no reply from Lu Yin, and after she had finished chatting with other classmates and her shock had completely faded, she finally received a message from Lu Yin.
Lu Yin: “I never told you before, but I actually like women too.”
Cheng Siyu looked at this message, her eyes wide. She suspected she had read it wrong and reread it!
What was going on? In just one night, everyone around her had turned…
Two lesbians in one dorm? Could the dorm leader be one too? Was she the only straight one?
Wait a minute, would they have a crush on her? Lu Yin was her best friend in college…
No, no way. Cheng Siyu hesitated to reply. She was very straight.
Seeing no reply, Lu Yin put away her phone. She had planned to tell Cheng Siyu anyway, so she wouldn’t try to set her up with dates anymore. She just hadn’t expected to come out to Cheng Siyu on the same day as Song Xinlei.
As for Song Xinlei liking Sheng Xiali, that didn’t surprise her at all.
She picked up the clothes and started walking out. Just as she got to the bedroom door, Lu Yin heard a phone vibrating. She took her phone out of her pocket and saw that it wasn’t hers.
Lu Yin looked back. On the nightstand, Sheng Xiali’s phone was lit up, buzzing continuously.
Lu Yin looked at the person on the bed, who was completely unresponsive. She was truly a deep sleeper. Lu Yin walked over and picked up Sheng Xiali’s phone.
Seeing “Xinlei” flashing on the screen, she scoffed. It was a feeling of both surprise and inevitability.