Chapter 39: Possession
After reading the WeChat message she received, Ye Qizhen looked up at Wen Yu. Separated by a short distance, just a simple eye contact made something in her chest thump wildly. Tang Tang didn’t lie to her; she couldn’t explain exactly what a heart flutter should be like, but once encountered, she would understand.
In the evening, inside the dorm, people were reading or binge-watching dramas. Ye Qizhen was the only one resting her chin on her hand, spacing out. She stared blankly at the sentence Wen Yu sent her downstairs—
[w]: Do you have the feeling of dating?
…
A sudden voice call from Tang Tang successfully pulled Ye Qizhen’s thoughts back to reality. She walked to the balcony to answer. They contacted each other frequently, not for anything special, just to chat casually about daily life.
“Any progress between you two recently?” As they chatted, Tang Tang naturally transitioned the topic. Ever since Ye Qizhen talked to her about relationship matters during the winter vacation, she would check in every few days.
Does it count as progress? Hearing Tang Tang ask this, Ye Qizhen immediately thought of the scene where Wen Yu tentatively held her hand. She always had an intuition… Wen Yu’s thoughts about her didn’t seem too “pure” either.
Hearing Ye Qizhen didn’t answer immediately, Tang Tang realized something. “Tsk, finally some progress?”
“No…” Although Wen Yu’s attitude was occasionally ambiguous, Ye Qizhen wasn’t sure either. She paced on the balcony and told Tang Tang, “About the same as before…”
“Could it be that you’re too secretly passionate, and she doesn’t even know you’re interested in him? Seriously, if you really like him, don’t be secretive. Ye Qizhen, trust me, as long as you’re slightly proactive or give a hint or something, no one can refuse such a good girl.”
“Thank you for thinking so highly of me.” Ye Qizhen joked listlessly.
“Hey, I’m serious. If I were a guy, I’d want to chase you too.” Tang Tang said hypothetically. She was puzzled; Ye Qizhen had a warm and sweet personality and looked pure and beautiful. She thought Ye Qizhen would be the one least worried about getting off the single list, but it was almost junior year, and Ye Qizhen was still single since birth.
Tang Tang’s words reminded Ye Qizhen: If Wen Yu was straight, then no matter how intimate they were, in Wen Yu’s eyes, it was at best just friendship…
After chatting about this and that for a few more minutes, Ye Qizhen ended the chat with Tang Tang.
The dorm turned off the lights at eleven as usual, pitch black. Ye Qizhen still hadn’t fallen asleep. Not sure if it was boredom or having too much free time, in the middle of the night, she picked up her phone and scrolled from Moments to Weibo. The consequence of playing on the phone during insomnia was naturally a clearer brain. Driven by some strange impulse, she opened the school forum she hadn’t visited for half a year. The school forum had an emotional exchange section, considered the most active, filled with various anonymous confessions and relationship troubles.
Ye Qizhen felt she must be overly idle tonight because on a whim, she also posted anonymously: Gender female, fell in love with a girl…
Perhaps these things had been stifled in her heart for too long, and she wanted an outlet, especially during the late night, a time prone to sentimentality. She roughly wrote down the process of her heart fluttering for Wen Yu and some of Wen Yu’s ambiguous actions towards her. When writing these, she hesitated at first, but on second thought, with Wen Yu’s personality, she definitely wouldn’t check the forum, plus she didn’t write very explicitly.
Probably because it was too late, no one replied. Half an hour later, Ye Qizhen clicked in to check with a bored mood and saw a new reply.
1L: Daily illusion of lesbians: She likes me too.
Ye Qizhen: …
Am I overthinking it?
***
Night, art studio.
“Are you together with Sweetie yet?” Qi Yun liked to talk to Wen Yu when bored. She suspected she had masochistic tendencies, given that Wen Yu always put on a cold face of ignoring her.
Wen Yu, as usual, had no reaction.
Qi Yun pressed again, “Curious, is dating Sweetie very sweet every day?”
Wen Yu glanced at Qi Yun indifferently, thinking: I want to know too.
At this moment, there was suddenly some buzzing discussion in the studio. Wen Yu maintained her style of turning a deaf ear to outside matters until Qi Yun reminded her beside her: “Goddess, your romance luck is here again.”
Only then did Wen Yu spare a glance out the window. She glimpsed a guy in a black jacket holding a bouquet of red roses, standing high-profile in the corridor, attracting a lot of attention. Wen Yu was unmoved. That guy was from a neighboring school and had been chasing her for a while. Although she rejected him decisively, she couldn’t control his pestering.
…
After evening classes, Ye Qizhen walked from the teaching building to the Arts Building. She had agreed to go night running with Wen Yu today. She heard noisy sounds coming from the usually quiet art studio. The closer she got, the louder the noise. When she reached the door, she stopped.
There weren’t many people in the studio. Besides Wen Yu, there were a few others busy working, but everyone had no mind for painting right now; their attention was drawn to other things.
A man and a woman, a bouquet of roses, brand-name gifts. It should have been a confession, but unexpectedly, the style changed abruptly—
Wen Yu’s disdainful reaction seemed to have angered the other party.
“…What the fuck are you pretending for? Who doesn’t know you slept around with men casually in high school… Acting pure in front of me now? I’m chasing you because I think highly of you, didn’t even disdain you for being dirty…”
Filthy slanderous words entered her ears. Wen Yu sat in front of the easel, still expressionless, as if the person being scolded wasn’t her. Compared to the onlookers around, she looked more like an outsider. She glanced sideways at the person, too lazy to respond. Just as she got up to leave first, a figure rushed up and blocked her way.
Ye Qizhen pushed the person with all her might, but the effect was minimal; instead, she stumbled back a step herself. Her small frame of 1.6-something meters appeared even more frail and powerless in front of the tall guy over 1.8 meters.
Only then did Wen Yu realize Ye Qizhen had come over.
Ye Qizhen stood straight in front of Wen Yu, picked up the bouquet of flowers next to her, and threw it directly at the person. Raising her head, she almost shouted at the top of her lungs, “What right do you have to slander her like this?! Just because she doesn’t like you and rejected you? I was her high school classmate; she is absolutely not like what you say! You don’t know anything, what right do you have to speak nonsense?”
Her voice was very loud, loud enough for every corner of the studio to hear. Speaking like this for the first time, Ye Qizhen didn’t expect her voice could be so explosive and penetrating. She just wanted everyone to hear; she didn’t want anyone to misunderstand or be prejudiced against Wen Yu anymore, didn’t want Wen Yu to fall into those invisible, hurtful rumors again.
Wen Yu was also shocked by Ye Qizhen’s appearance. After all, Ye Qizhen was always quiet and polite. Even when arguing with Guan Ming before, her cursing lacked imposing manner. But now, Ye Qizhen protecting her without hesitation seemed like a different person.
“Who are you…” The jacket guy shouted at Ye Qizhen, but before he could finish, he covered his face and cursed “Fuck.”
Wen Yu threw accurately. The palette hit the person right on the head, splattering colorful paints all over his face, making him look ridiculous like a clown. And she sneered as if watching a show, looking perfectly calm.
The jacket guy wiped his face, kicked over the chair next to him with a noisy clatter, and left defeated.
Calm returned to the studio.
Wen Yu simply tidied up. “Let’s go.”
Ye Qizhen stood in place, feeling so uncomfortable she wanted to cry. She wanted to cry when she heard Wen Yu being insulted just now. Now her eyes were hot, and she didn’t even dare to look down, afraid tears would fall. Wen Yu saw through Ye Qizhen holding back tears and silently led her out of the studio.
The old plane trees under the Arts Building were lush with branches and leaves. Their military training was in this area back then, full of memories. Sitting on the bench by the flowerbed, Wen Yu knew Ye Qizhen was worried about her. She comforted her instead, “I’m fine. I used to be talked about like this all the time, long used to it.”
She wasn’t surprised by tonight’s events either. Probably because her reputation was too bad, all sorts of crooked melons and cracked dates were among those chasing her. In the past, someone even texted asking her how much for one time. The prejudice was there; whatever she did was wrong. If many men chased her, she was called a slut; if she rejected pursuits, she was called pretending to be pure.
Watching Wen Yu’s nonchalant reaction, Ye Qizhen felt even worse. How could she be fine? Those knife-like words always hurt. So how many times of suffering did it take to become this numb and indifferent? The more Wen Yu said she was used to these things, the more heart-wrenching Ye Qizhen found it.
“I don’t care,” Wen Yu turned to look at Ye Qizhen and said with a smile.
“I care…” Ye Qizhen picked up Wen Yu’s words extremely quickly, her eyes red.
A sentence “I care” plunged Wen Yu into silence, leaving only the evening breeze rustling the plane tree leaves. No one had told her they cared about her before. It could be said that she didn’t even care about herself, indifferent to everything, living muddily and numbly every day. Even if she disappeared from this world, she felt there was nothing to miss. But after meeting Ye Qizhen, slowly, she seemed to have someone she cared about, things she looked forward to…
With no one else around, Ye Qizhen finally couldn’t hold back her tears. Facing the wind, tears slid silently from the corners of her eyes. When she spoke again, her voice had a slight choke and tremor: “I don’t want you to be talked about like that by others. You’ve already suffered a lot of grievances, I don’t want you to suffer anymore.” Not even a little bit.
Wen Yu couldn’t do anything with Ye Qizhen. She almost lost count of how many times Ye Qizhen had cried like this in front of her—an out-and-out crybaby. But the way Ye Qizhen blocked in front of her just now made her feel both silly and moved. She leaned forward to wipe the tear stains on Ye Qizhen’s cheeks, looking at her reddened eyes and asking softly, “Why are you crying when I’m the one wronged? Why care about me so much?”
“I can’t help it…” When close, Ye Qizhen looked at Wen Yu’s face greedily. Clearly not sure if Wen Yu was someone she could like, she still couldn’t help caring, couldn’t help her heart fluttering.
“Fool.” Wen Yu stroked Ye Qizhen’s cheek, looking down and laughing at her.
A cautious thought popped up in Ye Qizhen’s mind: Just for this moment, I want to secretly treat Wen Yu as my girlfriend, just possess her for a while… She brazenly rubbed her cheek against Wen Yu’s palm, then tried to close the distance, amplifying the ambiguity of the atmosphere, and asked Wen Yu with a soft smile, “Being with a fool, are you a little happier?”
Wen Yu was entranced, her heart stolen away. Her gaze wandered over cheeks and lips, wanton yet restrained, finally landing on Ye Qizhen’s eyes. “Ye Qizhen…”
“Mn.” Ye Qizhen guessed Wen Yu was going to call her silly again.
“You are so sweet.”
