Chapter 122: Pulling
Scorching. Stinging.
He was stunned for a few seconds before he slowly withdrew his index finger.
After a while, his gaze moved down, and he stared at a small patch of fair skin at the base of his finger. The skin, which had been licked by a fire snake, had turned red, and a burning sensation was pulling at his long-paralyzed nerves. He was as if he had been pulled up from the deep water, and he had suddenly come back to life.
“Be careful. The pearls are very hot when they’re just taken out.”
Lin Keke lifted the door curtain and came in from the front desk. She saw the half-spilled basin of pearls and rushed over, quickly turning off the sputtering flame on the stove.
She had one hand on her hip, and her delicate eyebrows were tightly furrowed. She said with some lingering fear, “That’s too dangerous. Forget about the pearls. What if someone gets burned? Su Yu… why have you been so absent-minded these past two days? Are you too tired? Do you want me to ask my aunt to give you a day off?”
“No need. I’m fine. It’s almost the New Year anyway. It’s only a few days.”
Su Yu shook his head and refused. He put his finger under the cold water to rinse it. The water in the deep winter was so cold that it was as if it would freeze in the next second. He took a deep breath and exhaled the turbid air that had accumulated in his chest.
“That’s right. Is… are you having a fight with your girlfriend?”
Lin Keke turned her head and looked at Su Yu. Her short hair, which was behind her ear, was drooping and was covering half of her cheek. “I think you two have a pretty good relationship.”
“No. I just haven’t been resting well these past two days. I’ll have to trouble you to prepare the materials. I’ll go to the front desk.”
He curled his lips into an arc. His long, black hair, which had not been trimmed for a long time, was drooping on his forehead and was parted on both sides. His eyes were gentle. He took out the remaining pearls and carried them out. His back was straight, and he looked as if he had dispelled the gloom and had cheered up.
Near evening, there were few customers in the shop. Before closing, a couple came in and ordered two cups of pearl milk tea. He was at the front desk, skillfully mixing the milk tea. The ingredient list had been on the side for a long time and had not been used.
The two cups of milk tea were packed in a bag and handed out, in exchange for a “thank you.” He watched as the couple dragged their suitcases and went home, laughing and joking. The brilliant golden and hazy sunset was mixed with the cold air, and a warmth was rising.
He suddenly chased after them. The deserted and bleak street was filled with a cold wind, and the withered leaves were withering. The wind had messed up his hair. The couple had disappeared at the end of his vision. He let go of his clenched fist and turned the “open” sign in front of the door to the other side.
Su Yu turned around and was about to go back to the shop to tidy up. It was Friday today, and he didn’t want the dining table to be too perfunctory on his rare day off. He had to rush to the wet market to buy ingredients before it closed. But the phone in his pocket suddenly rang, and his heart suddenly tightened. He seemed to have anticipated something and answered the phone and held it to his ear, as if the voice in the microphone would dissolve in the air and would be scattered if it was too far away.
“Ah Yu, are you off work?”
Hearing that familiar tone, Su Yu subconsciously softened his voice.
“Yeah, I’m off work. I’ll go and buy groceries in a while. Are you cooking this time? What do you want to eat? I’ll go and buy it.”
“Um… no need.” She coldly cut off his enthusiasm, but her voice was filled with a suppressed fatigue. “I have to work overtime tonight. I might be back very late. You can just cook something for yourself. Don’t worry about me.”
Su Yu opened his mouth. “You have to work overtime again?”
“It’s almost the New Year. A lot of work has to be finished.”
The reasonable explanation suddenly became a cold and dark gun muzzle. He couldn’t resist. It seemed that he could only raise his hands and choose to compromise. The cold wind blew in, and his throat was hoarse. “Then… take care of yourself. Don’t stay up too late. I’ll leave a light on for you at night.”
“Okay. My colleague is calling me. I’ll hang up now.”
“By the way, do you want to buy some New Year’s goods in a few days…”
The mechanical prompt tone interrupted his unfinished words. He swallowed, and his long, slender fingers held the phone and slowly gathered it. The biting north wind was still noisy, and it was buzzing in his ear, as if it were a sharp weapon, piercing his eardrum, tormenting him, and tearing at him…
She seemed to be always busy. She had also suddenly become busy at a certain point in the past. She had countless work every day, and she couldn’t refuse the social engagements…
The baseness of people is that the things that are on and off are always the most heart-stirring.
He suddenly couldn’t tell if he was moving forward or backward. On the one hand, he was trying to accept a new life. On the other hand, he seemed to be being caught up by the familiar past bit by bit. Those dark and painful but irresistible things seemed to have pulled him back again.
…
A crisp mechanical sound cut through the silence at night. After the lock popped open, the dim white incandescent light from the corridor seeped in, illuminating a square patch of the floor at the entryway. A pair of pink slippers were at the entrance, as if they were specially waiting for her here.
Xia Qiange stepped into the entryway with her thin-soled high heels. She hung her heavy bag on the coat rack. Her chestnut-colored coat was half-wet, and the moisture had soaked the fabric into a large patch of a dark color. She supported herself with the shoe cabinet and used the mat under her feet to get rid of the mud and sand on the soles of her shoes. She lowered her eyes slightly and kicked off her shoes with her heel. Her half-wet hair was dark and was bouncing with her movements, and it was stuck to the corners of her lips. She used the tip of her tongue to pick out her hair, and her every breath was filled with a wet and misty air.
It had been raining late at night. She had held an umbrella, but her clothes were still wet.
Xia Qiange was half-kneeling at the entryway. She opened the shoe cabinet, and a pair of white sneakers, which had been washed clean and were in a corner of the shoe cabinet, suddenly jumped into her view. For a moment, she forgot to put the high heels in her hand into the shoe cabinet.
She bit her bloodless lips, and her pale and transparent hand gently scraped against the thin layer of calluses on her heel. She seemed to have not worn these shoes for a long time. She had locked them in the cabinet, and it seemed that she had also lost something with them.
Her simplicity, her innocence, her kindness… these things that were praised by others and were beautiful enough, she had all abandoned them without any hesitation. It was not that she was so disdainful, but it was more like the determination of cutting off one’s tail to survive.
Greed is an innate and inferior nature of human beings. But suppressing one’s nature is her instinct. She pursues things that make her even more crazy and craving, and she will not hesitate to linger on anything else.
She always maintained an absolute rationality, like a poisonous spider that had carefully laid a web. She had enough patience to wait for the prey to struggle until it was exhausted.
Her prey would never know that all her madness and obsession were hidden under this perfect and calm skin.
She had already tried her best to act like a normal person, and she had always tried her best to hide her violent and tyrannical, inferior nature.
She had to restrain herself, to be like an ordinary person.
Xia Qiange propped herself up with her arms and pulled this tired body up from the ground. The pair of white sneakers were stuffed by her into a deeper part of the cabinet. When she lowered her head, the tip of her nose slid over her collar. She seemed to have smelled the fishy and corrupt smell of the mud on her body.
