To Covet (GL) - Chapter 3

Yu Zhouwan gave me her subway pass and bought a ticket with her transportation card.

“It’s crowded during rush hour. You need to stand by the door in advance to get off the subway,” she reminded me gently.

I stood still in the crowd, casually humming in response, but my voice was drowned out by the roar of the subway.

Yu Zhouwan attends the best private high school in the city. I knew this when I saw the “Linzhou Foreign Language” school badge on her uniform.

While other schools were desperately spreading pressure about college entrance exams as senior year approached, she had plenty of free time to do what she wanted, even having the leisure to spend an afternoon sketching. Who else but the young masters and misses of private schools would have the privilege to enjoy such treatment?

The subway took a sharp turn, and I, who was just casually leaning on the handrail, lost my balance and staggered a few steps.

I instinctively twisted my upper body, avoiding Yu Zhouwan’s hand that was reaching to put her arm around my shoulder.

“No need.”

I glanced at her with my head half lowered. Yu Zhouwan’s perfect smile froze instantly. She turned her face away and continued to stare at the flashing station indicator lights.

A facade, it will eventually crack.

I stared at my lifeless eyes with the whites showing on the bottom in the reflection on the glass door, thinking about how to confront their family of three alone and turn this house upside down.

I didn’t have to get involved in these things. Although my grandmother was old, we could still manage to live together.

She didn’t understand why Yang Chun and I were so determined to find this irresponsible father, but she reluctantly agreed for the sake of my future. Yu Hanyang was afraid that I would make a scene and embarrass him everywhere, disrupting the harmonious family atmosphere. In the end, I agreed not to mention anything related to Yang Chun, and he agreed to do what a father should do, providing me with the best financial support until I graduated from college.

The best conditions? I looked up at the water-stained dormitory walls through the fence. It was still a far cry from his precious daughter’s living conditions.

Yu Zhouwan treated me to a lavish dinner, and bought DQ ice cream and fruit tea while shopping.

The dark blue admission notice in my bag was crumpled. I ate the ice cream with a spoon and flipped through the enrollment brochure and freshman registration information. No. 7 Middle School was generally a good school. Based on my grades, even if I had passed the entrance exam, I would have been at the bottom of the class. I didn’t know how many connections Yu Hanyang had pulled, but I, a backdoor student who didn’t take the entrance exam, entered the experimental class effortlessly.

“Aren’t you going to eat it?” Yu Zhouwan stared at the melting ice cream ball with some regret. “It’s mango flavor.”

“It’s too cold, I don’t want it.” I pretended to be exhausted and slumped in my seat, quickly swiping through the missed messages from the day and then started browsing meaningless trending topics.

Whether it was intentional or coincidental, I suddenly remembered a forgotten little thing from ten years ago.

On the first day Yu Zhouwan came to my house, she ate the only bowl of mango ice cream in our refrigerator.

I hugged my mother’s leg and cried, and Yu Zhouwan didn’t say a word. She quietly went downstairs, bought another one, and handed it to me. I stubbornly refused to eat it, and she stood outside the door until the ice cream melted, then put it back in the refrigerator.

It was originally just a trivial matter, but I don’t know why it suddenly came back to me so clearly at this moment, especially the image of little Yu Zhouwan holding a paper cup full of sticky yellow syrup, standing helpless in front of us mother and daughter, gradually overlapping with the shadow of the girl sitting opposite me.

“You don’t eat anything, aren’t you hungry?” I asked her.

Perhaps she found my face unappetizing. I looked up at the glass ceiling.

Yu Zhouwan and I had a striking resemblance that strangers could recognize at a glance, but I inherited my mother’s large, listless eyes and sharp eyebrows. Coupled with the rapid growth during puberty that led to extreme thinness, I could see my prominent cheekbones by simply sucking in my cheeks. I looked fierce, especially since I had been expressionless all day.

Yu Zhouwan shook her head, and the hair that had been hanging over her shoulders slid behind her, revealing a pair of shiny earrings on her earlobes. “I ate a lot of snacks at school this afternoon, so I’ll eat less tonight.” Always being stared at by me, she felt a little uneasy, and her hands, which had been relaxed on the table a second ago, returned to her lap.

Private high schools weren’t too strict about students’ dress. She had applied a light layer of loose powder, and although it was almost gone due to sweat, her youthful skin and vibrant face still looked charming.

“Can you take the subway back by yourself later?” She was typing something on her phone screen, but suddenly frowned and nervously raised her wrist to check her watch. “I just remembered I forgot something urgent at school. I’ll be late, I have to go first.”

Her urgency didn’t allow me to refuse.

“You can call me if you need anything.”

Yu Zhouwan stirred up a fragrant breeze as she stood up.

I wandered around the neighborhood, bought some necessary stationery, and charged my phone at a coffee bar before taking the last bus home.

“Wanwan didn’t come back with you?”

Yu Hanyang and Shi Yunya were sitting at the dining table, sharing watermelon. Seeing me come back alone late at night, Shi Yunya put down the fruit knife in her hand and stared straight at me.

“She went back to school for something.”

It wasn’t that I was deliberately giving her a bad attitude, but that I was truly overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion.

Yu Hanyang invited me to eat fruit and snacks. I waved my hand, threw down my schoolbag, and went into the bathroom, turning on the hot water tap.

“What could be so important at school so late?”

I haphazardly rubbed my head with a dry towel, listening to the movement outside through the bathroom door, which was filled with steam.

“She’s not answering her phone. This girl, could something have happened?” Shi Yunya grabbed a batwing shirt and prepared to go out. She was really anxious. “Don’t stop me. Aren’t you worried about your own daughter?”

“Of course I’m worried. She’s a young girl, I don’t know if she’s alone outside, but you’re too panicked…”

I took out the hair dryer, adjusted it to a suitable setting, and sat on the high stool in front of the mirror, listening with interest to their mutual accusations. Just as they were about to quarrel, the door lock suddenly opened.

Yu Zhouwan was back? I estimated the time, it was almost half past eleven.

When I finished cleaning up and came out, Shi Yunya was already cleaning up the mess on the table. Yu Hanyang was lying on the sofa watching TV, and Yu Zhouwan’s door was tightly closed.

It was as if the quarrel I heard through the door had never happened.

I felt something was wrong, like I had skipped a scene by pressing the fast-forward button while watching a drama. I felt like I had missed something.

“Why did you take so long in the shower?” Yu Hanyang was a little unhappy. “Someone else is waiting.”

“Don’t you have a bathroom in your room? You can shower there.” I flicked my hair and retorted without thinking.

When I lay in bed, the heavy feeling of exhaustion quickly disappeared. I tossed and turned, still awake even after all the lights outside were turned off.

“I’ll ask you one last time, did you really go back to school?”

I was startled by the rustling sound of voices outside, and all sleepiness vanished. The wall clock showed it was past twelve.

“Yes.”

“Don’t lie to Mom.”

“I’m not.” Yu Zhouwan’s voice kept changing. I guessed she was constantly moving. “I told you I had something to do after self-study tonight. Why don’t you believe me?”

“You told me before that self-study at school was a waste of time, and you wanted to find a tutor.” Shi Yunya didn’t seem to be angry with her daughter. “I don’t put as much pressure on you as other parents. You can do whatever you want. Anyway, you’ll get into college. Mom will send you abroad.”

Yu Zhouwan didn’t answer. Then the mother and daughter exchanged some innocuous pleasantries. I found it boring and went back to bed.

After that late return past eleven o’clock, she came home before seven o’clock every day.

Before she came home, she would send me a WeChat message asking what I wanted for dinner. After I gave the same answer, “fried chicken,” for four consecutive days, she finally couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you tired of it?”

“I like it.” I lay on the sofa watching anime, too lazy to even wear gloves, and grabbed a chicken wing to stuff into my mouth.

Most of the time, I stayed at home alone. Yu Hanyang and his wife were busy with work, and I had the most interaction with my “sister” Yu Zhouwan.

My impression of her had improved a lot. Regardless of whether her politeness was insincere or just good manners, the interactions were quite pleasant, which refreshed my understanding of the “perfect girl” label.

Of course, I was also more curious about Yu Zhouwan’s room. She always locked her door before leaving and immediately locked herself in her room when she came home. I had been in every corner of this house, but her room was still a forbidden zone.

I wondered if it was to guard against someone.