To Covet (GL) - Chapter 4

Perhaps because we’re both girls, Yu Zhouwan, as my sister, didn’t avoid me. She would walk around the house barefoot in her loose nightgown—when Shi Yunya wasn’t around, because Shi Yunya would give her lessons, talking at length about the importance of proper behavior.

When we didn’t have to go out, she would lie on the sofa with me, the TV playing in the background, me playing games on the tablet Yu Hanyang bought, and her curling up in the armchair reading a book.

We maintained a friendly roommate relationship.

The only time I couldn’t control my bad tone towards her was one sleepless night. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep, sat on the floor by the bed until my legs were numb, and tiptoed to the living room, curling up on the sofa.

This wasn’t my home. The bigger the house, the more frighteningly empty it felt. The narrow sofa was just right.

I was on the verge of sleep when I suddenly heard the sound of the door lock opening, followed by footsteps. I sat up, hugging the blanket, and a blinding phone light shone directly at me.

Yu Zhouwan was holding a tissue box, her earphones dangling by her hair, her eyes red as a rabbit’s.

“You’re loud.” Only after the words came out did I realize my tone was unkind.

“Sorry.”

She apologized before me, drank a glass of water, and wiped away her tears.

“What’s wrong?”

“You always say things like that, we always have ineffective conversations.”

I was momentarily embarrassed. She was talking to someone on the other end of the earphones and hadn’t noticed me at all.

“Who are you calling in the middle of the night?” Shi Yunya stood silently in the doorway of the bedroom, arms crossed.

Yu Zhouwan hurriedly turned off the screen and took off her earphones.

Shi Yunya slowly walked closer and noticed someone hiding under the blanket on the sofa. In front of an outsider, she didn’t explode, but forcefully dragged Yu Zhouwan into the room.

“Yu Zhouwan, why are you lying to me? I’m your mother.”

Yu Zhouwan stormed out of the room at dawn.

I pretended to be asleep under the blanket.

When she came back, the sun was high in the sky.

“You can actually go out for a walk. There are many shopping malls here, and the park scenery is quite good.” Seeing me still disheveled under the air-conditioned quilt, she tried to persuade me to get up and move around, putting down the keys in her hand and deliberately tugging at the corner of the quilt.

“No, it’s too hot.” I took out the remote control to change the channel and lay down in a more comfortable position.

She didn’t stay home for too long, typed on her phone for a while, sprayed on sunscreen, and went out again.

“Back to school?”

She hummed in response.

Hearing the sound of the door locking, I jumped up from the sofa, heard the sound of the elevator closing, immediately opened the door and ran down the stairs, not forgetting to pull the flattened hat out of my suitcase before leaving.

Bus 177 went directly to the school. I pressed down my hat and took out my phone to call a car.

The temperature of over 30 degrees Celsius made everything in sight heavy and sticky, like it was soaked in grease, rippling with light golden water patterns.

Interfering with other people’s lives was generally forbidden. The excitement of tension and voyeurism prompted me to take the first step.

I intuitively felt that her going out again was related to last night’s phone call.

Yu Zhouwan had her secrets.

And I wanted to know them.

Although Linzhou Foreign Language had summer tutoring classes, not many students directly went the college entrance examination route. Nearly two-thirds of the students were preparing to study abroad, so the school offered IELTS and TOEFL tutoring classes with specially hired foreign teachers. Standing under the shade of the trees at the school gate, I could hear several groups of students chatting about their grades and picking their favorite offers. It seemed they were under a lot of pressure.

I, a strange one without a uniform, was waved away by the security guard after standing at the school gate for a few minutes, so I had to choose a nearby bookstore to sit in.

The afternoon class started at 1:40. I glanced at the time, it was 2 o’clock, and bus 177 had already passed two shifts.

I even wondered if I had missed Yu Zhouwan in the crowd at the school gate because I didn’t see her at all.

“Yu Keyi?”

I thought I was hallucinating and turned my head following the sound.

“Lanlan,” fortunately, her workbook was on the small table in front of her, otherwise I wouldn’t have recognized who it was, “You’re here too?”

Xu Lanlan was one of the few people I met after receiving the class roster that day. Her childhood friend was at Linzhou Foreign Language, so she successfully got a campus card and dragged me into the school with a group of students after class.

“Linzhou Foreign Language is really good. They don’t force all students to attend all evening self-study classes. With an application, you can go home at 7 o’clock at the latest.” Probably seeing my ignorant expression, Xu Lanlan took the initiative to talk about the full schedule of high school life, “Unlike us, we have evening self-study until 10:30 in the first year, and we have teachers supervising us, and our grades are still not as good as theirs.”

I nodded in agreement with everything Xu Lanlan said.

As expected, Yu Zhouwan was a perfect student outside. I stood in the shade with my arms crossed and saw her photo high up on the commendation window, with a string of unnamable awards behind it, shining brightly.

I pretended to be ignorant and went to the class to inquire, “She didn’t come this afternoon,” the sister at the back table closed her magazine and yawned, “Why don’t you ask Teacher Feng?”

“Yin Si’en, you’re stupid,” the girl copying the test paper next to her made a face, “Teacher Feng’s internship is over, where are you going to find her sister?”

“You know I never listen to physics class,” Yin Si’en picked up the magazine and pretended to hit her, “But I didn’t say anything wrong. They do have a very good relationship. I saw Zhouwan and Teacher Feng going out together often before.”

After the Linzhou Foreign Language class bell rang, the gate was no longer accessible. I waited in the school library until the first dismissal bell rang and came out with the students who were going home early.

Yu Zhouwan came back before me and leaned on the sofa, flipping through a thick vocabulary book.

“Went for a walk?”

She could hear even the slightest sound of me closing the door.

“Yes, went out for a walk.”

She glanced at the blinding sunlight outside the window, then looked at me.

“Where did you go?” I leaned against the door frame and asked her.

“Back to school,” she continued to outline the key points without looking up, “I left something behind.”

The sudden lie made me feel a little uncomfortable. Afraid of saying too much and making a mistake, I didn’t ask any more questions and simply went back to my room to play games on the tablet.

After finishing the game’s long storyline, I got up to get a drink of water and found that Yu Zhouwan had fallen asleep with a parchment-bound book, her legs half bent on the armrest, her calves surrounded by the soft curves of the sofa pillow, like a flawless piece of jade.

I got up and adjusted the air conditioning direction. The room door was still locked, so I had to get a towel from my room and put it on Yu Zhouwan.

Yu Zhouwan was sleeping soundly. I guessed she hadn’t slept well all night because of the quarrel with Shi Yunya, so it was normal to be sleepy in the afternoon.

She moved unconsciously in her sleep, and the blanket slipped to the ground.

I stepped on the carpet in the living room. Everything was silent except for the rustling of clothes.

Then I wanted to squat down to pick up the towel, but this unintentional move made me accidentally see the secret hidden under her rolled-up clothes.

There were many bruises and deep pink scratches on Yu Zhouwan’s skin from her back to her waist, extending down to the place covered by her waistband. I thought she had been subjected to violence and abuse, and my heart skipped a beat. I didn’t dare to disturb her directly, pretending I didn’t see anything, but my eyes glanced at her skirt—because there were several dark red bruises slightly larger than fingernails, hidden in the hidden area on her inner thigh.

s3x was a tempting forbidden fruit for teenagers. When my fingertips touched the bruises on my neck, left after crossing the line, containing hints and temptations, I clearly felt that the bl00d also flowed into my body.

It seemed that all the guesses were heading towards an untouchable area.

Knowing that Yu Zhouwan’s purpose of going out was related to “stealing the forbidden fruit,” I couldn’t help but gloat. What if she had a mother like Shi Yunya? With Yu Hanyang’s inferior bloodline, the children raised were bound to be less than innocent. A little carelessness would lead them to fall into the abyss of desire.

I considered myself to be of low character, but I didn’t expect Yu Zhouwan’s unsightly dark side to be exposed so easily.

The previously vague resentment gradually solidified into a clear shape, and I conceived an adventurous and absurd plan—

I wanted to use Yu Zhouwan to destroy this family.

The next day, Yu Zhouwan still said she was going to school. I sent an iMessage at the time point of the last class, saying I would wait for her at the stairs on the first floor of the east side after school.

Yu Zhouwan read the message but didn’t reply, but she still showed up on time after class.

“How did you get in?” Seeing me sitting on the steps at the door, she wasn’t surprised. She immediately walked over, grabbed my arm, and pulled me up. “Don’t sit here. The steps are too cold, and it’s crowded, you’ll get bumped.”

“I came to the city library to find information. Did you finish class?” I rubbed my eyes, pretending to be clueless, “Don’t you have evening self-study? Let’s go back together.”

Yu Zhouwan probably didn’t expect me to suddenly cling to her today. “You go back first, I have something to do.” She pinched my face, like coaxing a child.

At home, we never reached the level of heart-to-heart talks, maintaining the necessary psychological social distance. But now I suddenly changed my nature, and she subconsciously felt something was wrong, awkwardly shaking off my hand.

“What is it?” I pouted and grabbed her wrist, again and more forcefully. “My classmate recommended a restaurant to me today. Let’s go eat together tonight?”

“The club has an activity, I can’t leave.”

After saying that, she felt that this excuse was untenable and added, “And I have a one-on-one evening tutoring session. Go eat by yourself.”

Even the most insensitive person could see the resistance behind Yu Zhouwan’s clumsy acting. I sneered in my heart, but still maintained a lost expression on my face.

“We can make another appointment next time.”

Yu Zhouwan thought I was throwing a tantrum and bent down to whisper an apology.

After she turned around, I didn’t rush to leave. I took two steps back and stood in the shadow of the concrete pillar.

The phone kept popping up a low battery warning. I swiped it open and saw the photo album page, which contained a blurry back view, as if it was a mistake caused by the volume button and finger collision.

Yu Zhouwan’s back was very straight. When she stood there, the white school uniform shirt outlined the clean and neat lines of her shoulders and back.

I intuitively and certainly believed that Yu Zhouwan must have fallen into some kind of inescapable danger, but I was not in a hurry to help her. Instead, I followed her from the school gate again with the purpose of finding out.

Yu Zhouwan jogged through the small door on the west side. I seemed to hear the friction of branches brushing against her clothes. Because the sound of dry leaves on the grass was too harsh, I just lay on the railing of the teaching building and watched. Then she got into a car and disappeared from sight.

I locked myself in my room and took out a tape-wrapped printer from the interlayer of the box.

I touched the cracks on it with some regret. If it hadn’t been casually rummaged through, Yang Chun probably wouldn’t have found the photos I had carefully collected, and wouldn’t have smashed this inferior printer to pieces.

I later pieced it back together.

Now no one could restrain me.

It was badly damaged, laboriously spitting out a piece of paper covered with black vertical lines. I tore it up and threw it into the trash can, pressing the start button again. I carefully picked out the clearest photo from a pile of scraps and placed it on the bottom of the deformed and peeling paint iron box. Then I pulled it out again, as if worried it would be stained by other photos. But I couldn’t help but run my fingernail tips back and forth over it, over Yu Zhouwan in the photo, until it became wrinkled, gray, and fragmented, and the image could no longer be seen.