Chapter 52: “Girlfriend” Part 2

Chi Buyu mulled it over in silence, dangling her empty hand in the harsh sunlight.

“This is Miss Liang, a colleague from that project we worked on together,” Cui Qijin said, noticing Chi Buyu’s peculiar expression but having no clue what was going through her head.

A colleague. Chi Buyu lit up with a sweet smile and waved at Miss Liang. “Hi! Nice to meet you!”

She even reached out for a handshake.

Cui Qijin moved like lightning, yanking Chi Buyu’s half-extended hand back. Ignoring her bewildered look, she hauled her to the shade of a nearby tree and planted her there.

With a polite smile to Miss Liang, she said, “This is Chi Buyu.”

Chi Buyu pouted, unsatisfied. She poked her head out from behind Cui Qijin and prodded her shoulder. “That’s it?”

Cui Qijin awkwardly shoved Chi Buyu’s sun-exposed face back into the shade and adjusted the glasses perched on her nose.

“I…”

She faltered for just a second. From behind, Chi Buyu latched on like a crab, tugging her fingers with pincer-like grips.

Cui Qijin seized the pesky claw, stroked her inexplicably warm neck with forced calm, and announced,

“My girlfriend, Chi Buyu.”

Chi Buyu beamed, satisfied at last. She let out a soft “hmph,” released her, and bounced back out of the shade. Bold as brass, she pointed at Cui Qijin and declared to Miss Liang,

“My girlfriend, Cui Qijin.”

Miss Liang nodded, eyes crinkling in amusement. “Hello, Cui Qijin’s girlfriend… and…”

She turned back to Cui Qijin for a fresh greeting. “Hi, Chi Buyu’s girlfriend.”

Cui Qijin felt helpless, nodding stiffly. With saintly patience, she stuffed Chi Buyu back into the shade.

But Chi Buyu wouldn’t behave. She mischievously extended her pale hand, waving it in and out like a wobbling matryoshka doll, testing Cui Qijin’s limits.

Driven to distraction, Cui Qijin simply positioned her own shadow to fully shield her. In a flat tone, she warned, “Chi Buyu, too much sun will make you look ugly.”

Chi Buyu snapped her hand back at once.

Miss Liang had fallen quiet after the introductions, watching their antics like a heartwarming cartoon. Noticing how their fingers kept drifting toward each other amid the playfulness, she piped up out of the blue,

“If you two get married, will you invite me?”

Both heads whipped toward her.

Cui Qijin’s face registered shock, as if she’d misheard. “What marriage?”

Chi Buyu’s expression turned bafflement. “What! Marriage!”

Miss Liang spread her hands apologetically. “Sorry, I just came from a wedding—must be catching. You two seem made for it.”

The words hit like a thunderbolt. The pair, who moments ago had been tussling, now stood bolt upright.

Cui Qijin clapped both hands over her neck, her face wiped blank. After a beat, as if her words had short-circuited, she managed a polite, “Long time no see. How have you been?”

Chi Buyu ducked obediently into the shade, her ears blazing red like overripe tomatoes. She stayed silent.

Miss Liang figured Cui Qijin was asking her. “Doing all right. Hey, we haven’t crossed paths since that last business trip, right?”

Cui Qijin was distracted, clutching her neck in a bid to cool the flush, desperate not to embarrass herself before an old contact. “Yeah, probably.”

Miss Liang recalled something.

“Oh, right—wasn’t it in Sanya last time? Right before our flight back, you suddenly—”

“No.”

Cui Qijin cut her off cold. Meeting Miss Liang’s startled gaze, she slowly lowered her hands from her neck and stated firmly, “You got it wrong. We went to Hong Kong last time.”

Chi Buyu blinked in confusion, glancing from Miss Liang to Cui Qijin. “What Sanya? What Hong Kong?”

Miss Liang eyed Cui Qijin—her stare was steady and sincere, the picture of someone smoothing over an innocent fib.

Then Chi Buyu—Cui Qijin’s adorable girlfriend, who clearly wasn’t piecing anything together from the snippet.

Miss Liang decided she was out of her depth for the moment.

With mild regret, she said, “My mistake. Sanya was another colleague’s trip. Cui Qijin and I went to Hong Kong.”

Cui Qijin exhaled subtly in relief.

Chi Buyu scrunched her nose, on the verge of speaking up, when Ran Yan and Chen Wenran leaned over the second-floor railing and hollered,

“Shuishui, your phone’s ringing!”

“Coming!”

Only then did Chi Buyu realize she’d bolted down to find Cui Qijin without grabbing her phone.

She pursed her lips.

To Miss Liang, she said, “Gonna take that call real quick.”

Then, buzzing with excitement to Cui Qijin, “Wait right here. Dinner together tonight!”

Cui Qijin nodded. Chi Buyu scampered off, glancing back every three steps. Cui Qijin watched her waddle away like a chatty goose, thudding up to the second floor before vanishing.

Cui Qijin kept her eyes fixed upward.

She glanced familiarly at the railing, catching the Drunk Ghost Couple pull faces and duck away. Tilting her head, she waited a good ten seconds until Chi Buyu popped out and waved down.

“Taking the call now!”

Cui Qijin finally smiled. She looked away.

Miss Liang had been studying her gaze, so Cui Qijin explained a touch awkwardly, “She’s full of these little quirks.”

“You’ve got them too,” Miss Liang replied. “You know it’ll take her ten seconds to poke her head out, but you just stand there, neck craned, doing nothing else while you wait.”

“No,” Cui Qijin reflexively denied doing anything so foolish.

“You can’t fool me—I majored in psychology in undergrad.” Miss Liang reached for a cigarette but pocketed her lighter at the sight of Cui Qijin’s pensive face. She asked,

“Why not let me tell her about the Sanya business trip?”

“Last time, I tracked her down in Hong Kong,” Cui Qijin said, puzzled by her own changes, by how sharing this no longer felt impossible.

“I told her I was there on business, just swinging by.”

“Truth is, right before our flight out of Sanya, you spotted something on your phone in the dead of night. You switched tickets to Hong Kong and ditched me along with your luggage.”

Miss Liang chuckled. “Lucky I checked, or I’d have thought you were cheating and planned to spill when she came back down.”

Cui Qijin smiled, unaware she’d glanced up again, instinctively scanning the second floor for a familiar head. Miss Liang’s question drifted to her:

“Why keep it from her? Shy?”

Cui Qijin stared at the railing. The sunlight stung, but she’d been waiting—waiting for Chi Buyu to come find her. Now, she waited for Chi Buyu to lean out and holler her name—Cui Muhuo!

Just like old times.

“I don’t know either.”

Cui Qijin was still puzzled by it all. Actually, thinking it over like this, there was no harm in telling Chi Buyu. And yet, she hadn’t said a word from the start—and just moments ago, when she’d nearly been found out, she’d instinctively tried to deny it.

She suspected this was her usual way of dodging things. She didn’t like putting her “love” out there first, only to find herself tossed into a lineup of “options,” pulled this way and that. She hated waiting. She hated being chosen. Better to withdraw entirely, keep her heart locked away, and never become just one more option waiting for someone to pick her “love.”

Yet in truth, she’d done so many things she’d once dismissed as “stupid.” Changing her flight in the dead of night over a single news report, rushing off to another city? Darting around a fire scene like some fool, then—straight out of a movie—mistaking someone for her target, slapping the wrong shoulder, and freezing there in stunned apology? And finally, upon finding the person she’d truly come for, forcing herself to stay cool and collected, rooted to the spot for more than ten full minutes before daring to step forward?

All while stubbornly refusing to tell her, refusing to admit any of it—afraid her overflowing “love” would spill out and give her away…

Was this foolishness… or courage?

“Truth is, we’ve only been together a few days, but she always makes me feel like we’ve been in love forever. It just seems too soon for feelings like that, so I hope you’ll keep it under wraps for me.”

“What secret?” Miss Liang perked up, clearly hooked on anything “love”-related.

Cui Qijin didn’t take the bait. “You’re playing dumb, and we both know it.”

“Fair enough.” Miss Liang waved it off. “Saying stuff like ‘a few days together feels like a lifetime of love,’ then asking me to keep your secret? Sounds like you’re just drawing more attention to it by trying to hide it, Miss Cui.”

Cui Qijin adjusted her glasses, offering no comment.

Miss Liang went on. “Though it sounds unbelievable, feelings like that are pretty common in love.”

“Really?”

Cui Qijin wasn’t so sure she understood love at all. Perhaps it was like a bank of dark clouds—or towering thunderheads. For so long now, including this very moment, she’d been lost in the fog, desperate to shove every last cloud aside.

“Before, I thought I should hate her. Seeing her forced me to confront my own cowardice, my insecurities, my selfishness, my weakness. But now… it’s different. Seeing her, I see my bravery too. My confidence. My selflessness. My strength.”

“Someone once told me you need reasons to hate someone, but no reasons to love them. So I came up with all these justifications to prove I didn’t like her. But maybe, from start to finish, there was just the one real reason.”

Cui Qijin stared up at the second floor, murmuring to herself as if working through a thorny riddle. She didn’t mind Miss Liang overhearing her step-by-step reasoning; after all, Miss Liang would never cross paths with Chi Buyu again, and she figured Miss Liang would keep her secret.

“Wow~”

Miss Liang clapped once, exaggerating her reaction for effect.

“Maybe that’s what love is.”

The words hung in the air like a trailer for what came next.

The very next second, Chi Buyu burst out from inside—like she was staging some grand ceremony. She waved wildly from the second-floor landing, bellowing “Cui Muhuo!” at the top of her lungs, then spun on her heel with a huge grin and bolted for the stairs. Even the hem of her dress fluttered behind her.

Cui Qijin figured Miss Liang must think her ramblings were boring, hopelessly lovestruck nonsense. But she didn’t care. Her eyes drifted downward, catching Chi Buyu’s shadow bouncing into view, step by step, from the stairwell. The shaft of sunlight followed, dipping lower with each bound.

She watched Chi Buyu leap from the narrow, shadowed staircase. She watched her dash straight toward her. In that instant, it felt like every storm cloud in the sky had parted. Cui Qijin smiled—then heard herself whisper,

“So this is love.”

The words floated away like a wisp of cloud. But Chi Buyu raced right up to her, carrying that wisp back on the breeze.

Chi Buyu’s phone screen, clutched tight in her fist, lit up by accident. The image was blurry, but clear enough: the photo she’d just snapped of Cui Qijin. Chi Buyu didn’t notice. She glanced at Miss Liang, waggled the hand half-hidden in her sleeve, and murmured,

“You two are taking forever to wrap up.”

The screen dimmed after thirty seconds. Cui Qijin looked away and reached for Chi Buyu’s hand. “We’re done. What do you want to eat today?”

Chi Buyu scrunched up her nose. “Can’t decide. Let’s play Point Soldier Point General.”

Cui Qijin shot her a look. “Then you come up with the options first.”

Chi Buyu’s cheeks turned pink, her face lighting up like a kindergartener’s as she tugged at Cui Qijin’s hand. “Come onnn—why can’t Chi Buyu’s girlfriend just prepare the options so Chi Buyu can pick with Point Soldier Point General?”

Cui Qijin surrendered to the tongue-twister. She suspected Chi Buyu would keep calling her that for ages. Touching her ear, she deadpanned, “Options: barbecue, Sichuan cuisine, Thai food, or beef noodle soup.”

“No Sichuan—I can’t handle the peppercorns—” Chi Buyu grimaced, ready to protest more.

But then she realized they’d all but ignored Miss Liang for ages. Tugging guiltily at Cui Qijin’s sleeve, she whispered,

“Should we say goodbye to Miss Liang? Or does she want to join us for dinner?”

Miss Liang, still mulling over Cui Qijin’s earlier words, doubled over laughing at that. “As if I’d third-wheel with a lovey-dovey couple for dinner.”

Chi Buyu flushed, grinning until her eyes crinkled shut, and put on her best grown-up politeness. “Sorry, Miss Liang—we must look ridiculous.”

Cui Qijin mustered a polite smile, slipping back into her public facade: cool and distant in company, but privately devoted to the point of obsession.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, the sun dipping between them like half a perfectly rolled iced mango. Lined up at the edge of the asphalt road, they shimmered in golden light, waving their mismatched hands—one high, one low—in crisp farewell to Miss Liang as she opened her car door.

Miss Liang dangled an unlit cigarette from her fingers. Before shutting the door, she winked and quipped,

“If you two tie the knot, you better invite me. Thanks!”