Lin Cheng reached out and gently steadied Jiang Li’s arm.
Her skin was soft and smooth, her shoulders even more delicate than Xu Wanyue’s. The two of them made their way carefully toward where he had parked, not far at all. Her body pressed close against his side. Lin Cheng took a light sniff. Hmm, Byredo No Man’s Land Rose.
When they reached the motorcycle, Jiang Li bowed her head first and rummaged through her bag for something. After a long moment, she looked up, a flicker of panic crossing her cheeks. “I… I think I forgot my keys when I went out.”
Lin Cheng scratched his head. “Your family can let you in, right?”
“Dad’s off negotiating some business deal somewhere else lately, and Mom’s been taking sleeping pills just to get some rest…”
The corner of Lin Cheng’s eye twitched involuntarily.
The thing was, he genuinely couldn’t tell if Jiang Li was lying. Her flustered, drunken demeanor was inexplicably endearing. His schemer radar hadn’t pinged yet, but something still felt off.
If it hadn’t been pouring rain, they would have headed home sooner, and her family could have let her in. While Lin Cheng was lost in these spiraling thoughts, Jiang Li pulled out her phone and sent a WeChat message to her mom, but got no reply. She hesitated for a second before calling, but the phone rang without answer.
Fine, then. Looked like she really had forgotten them.
“Did you bring your ID?”
Jiang Li shook her head timidly.
“Alright…” Lin Cheng thought for a moment. “Then come back to my place?”
Jiang Li bit her lower lip lightly. After a good while, her response came. “My head… feels so dizzy. I want to sleep.”
“Got it.”
Lin Cheng climbed onto the motorcycle. It took Jiang Li quite a while to manage to get on behind him. She wrapped her arms tightly around him from the back seat, her body pressed firmly against his, as if terrified of falling off. That made sense. Lin Cheng rode a bit slower than usual. Twenty minutes later, they arrived downstairs at his building. Jiang Li got off with him, and Lin Cheng naturally steadied her arm as they headed up the stairs together.
He opened the door and gave the place a cautious once-over first. Good—nobody else was home. Perfectly safe!
Lin Cheng shut the door behind them. Everything about this was perfectly reasonable. He was acting with total integrity. So why did he suddenly feel a guilty conscience, like a thief in the night? He led Jiang Li to the sofa and fetched a pair of slippers for her. She bent down, fumbling determinedly with the straps, but her hands kept slipping.
“Can’t… untie it…” She looked up at him, her expression full of grievance.
Her voice dripped with intoxication.
Just two cocktails, though.
Lin Cheng was a little baffled, but okay—he’d play along and assume she was truly drunk. He knelt beside her and undid the straps for her. Her delicate little feet were clad in boat socks, and he slipped those off too. The heels were already rubbed slightly red.
“Black Cat!”
Jiang Li spotted Black Cat lounging on the table. She slipped into the slippers and walked slowly toward her. Black Cat flicked her tail, then allowed herself to be scooped gently into Jiang Li’s arms, where she received tender strokes on the head.
Lin Cheng had sent her pictures of Black Cat during their casual chats over the past few days. Jiang Li’s eyes lit up brightly. After a while, Black Cat wriggled free from her embrace. Lin Cheng stepped over to her side. “You can sleep in my room. I’ll take the sofa.”
Jiang Li shook her head hurriedly. “No, I’ll… I’ll sleep on the sofa. That’s fine.”
“It’s no trouble. I fall asleep on the living room sofa watching TV all the time.”
But she shook her head stubbornly. “No, really… I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
“Why won’t you listen?” Lin Cheng looked at her helplessly. Her eyes turned timid again in an instant, and she bowed her head. “Then… I’ll take the bed…”
Lin Cheng reflected for a second. Had he come off too harsh just now?
Jiang Li shuffled slowly toward his room and lay down on his bed, tugging the blanket over herself with care. Lin Cheng watched as she closed her eyes and let out a breath of relief. “Get some good sleep.”
“Mm, thank you… Lin Cheng.”
“No problem.”
He turned off the light in the room for her, then headed to the sofa in the living room and switched off the lights there too. He was a late sleeper these days. He flicked on the TV to some random American drama, watched for two hours until yawns overtook him, then shut it off and closed his eyes.
Lights out!
The next morning.
Lin Cheng woke up, got out of bed, and checked his room. The door was open, but it was empty inside. He figured Jiang Li must have left already. Rubbing his eyes, he noticed the door to the study next door was ajar too. Jiang Li was sitting at the desk, cradling a short story collection by Ryunosuke Akutagawa from his bookshelf.
“Sorry about last night… for causing you trouble,” she said softly.
“No worries.” Lin Cheng shook his head and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. When he returned, she was still absorbed in the book, so intent that she didn’t notice him enter the room until he sat down across from her.
“You hungry?”
“A little.”
“Want to grab some noodles downstairs? I’ll drop you home after.”
“Mm, Lin Cheng…”
“Yeah?”
“Can I borrow this book?”
“Sure.” Lin Cheng nodded, so she tucked it into her little bag. They headed downstairs together and each ordered a bowl of beef noodles. Jiang Li murmured, “I… I can just take a cab.”
“Whatever works. Bike or cab—your call.”
After he said that, she kept her head down for a long moment before slowly looking up. “Then… can I ride with you?”
“Let’s go.”
Lin Cheng helped her put on the helmet. She sat on the back of the motorcycle, her body pressed tightly against his back out of fear. Half an hour later, he dropped her off downstairs. She got off and handed back the helmet, carefully fastening it onto his head for him.
“Then… I’m heading home?”
“Yeah, bye.”
Lin Cheng watched her wave timidly. He sat on the motorcycle, observing as she gradually walked out of sight. Just before she vanished completely, her steps suddenly turned bouncy, almost skipping.
The corner of Lin Cheng’s mouth twitched faintly.
…So, was he really just overthinking it?
Back home.
No sooner had Lin Cheng arrived than he saw a message from Jiang Li—a passage from the book he’d lent her, followed by chat about Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s life. It suddenly hit him: if he’d lent her the book, she’d have to return it next time, right?
Sure enough, a dozen minutes later, he spotted the key detail in their chat. “Thanks for taking care of me when I got too drunk last night. I’ll return the book next time I treat you to dinner. Next time, I definitely won’t drink that much.”
She followed it with a Black Cat emoji.
Lin Cheng quietly saved the Black Cat emoji. He agonized for a full five seconds over whether to tell her to keep the book, but in the end, he didn’t send it. This girl had tons of Black Cat emojis, and they came in handy.
He forwarded the emoji to Xu Wanyue. “Check out the little feet.”
“Nope.”
“Then the collarbone.”
“Nothing there either.”
“Hand, then. You’ve got to have a hand pic, right?”
Xu Wanyue sent him a photo of her hand. It was beautiful, but this time she was wearing white lace gloves. Lin Cheng’s eyes widened. “Whoa, that’s spicy!”
“Where’s the spice? It came with the Lolita dress I bought.”
“You bought a Lolita dress?”
“Xiaoxiao recommended it. We’re going to the Comic Expo next month.”
“Not bringing me?”
“Didn’t Xiaoxiao tell you?”
“…”
Lin Cheng didn’t chat much with Lu Xiaoxiao. Mostly, she sent him a ton of messages, and he just replied with uh-huh, okay, sure, no prob, wild, awesome, cool.
She was probably pissed off at Mr. Perfunctory. Good for her—getting mad meant she was sober again.
Evening.
Lin Cheng flopped back onto his bed and resumed staring into space.
He’d always been an insomniac; falling asleep was no easy feat. These past few nights, he’d tossed and turned, occasionally feeling a pang of loneliness. It was probably because Lu Xiaoxiao used to be there beside him some evenings before. Lately… lately, when he couldn’t sleep, he’d ended up chatting with Jiang Li.
They’d gone from Osamu Dazai to Wen Yiduo, from One Hundred Years of Solitude to Love in the Time of Cholera. Lin Cheng hadn’t picked up a book in ages. He had to admire Jiang Li—she actually remembered all those character names from One Hundred Years of Solitude. Normally, he couldn’t keep up with that kind of talk, but boredom made anything possible. The best part of chatting with her was her endless supply of Black Cat pictures—one popped up every couple of sentences, perfectly timed. He’d stolen who knew how many by now.
Unknowingly, three more days slipped by.
Their chat history was now endless. They’d finally moved on from books to movies. Jiang Li shared an app for watching films together with voice chat, and in the evenings, they’d connect and watch while talking.
Her voice was pleasant, soft and soothing—perfect for lulling him to sleep. And they were watching artsy films, so he’d inevitably doze off midway. She never complained.
“Slept through again last night. Your voice really cures my insomnia,” Lin Cheng messaged her by way of apology after waking up.
“Then tonight, how about I tell you a bedtime story?”
Lin Cheng’s eyes narrowed warily.
…No way.
…Women had ruined him. Here he was, chatting with one who clearly saw him as just a close friend, yet after a couple exchanges, he was imagining she might like him. Bad news. Keep this up, and he’d turn into a pathetic simp.
That evening, Lin Cheng set his phone aside and listened as she softly recounted the story of The Little Mermaid. He drifted off into deep sleep soon enough.
The next day brought more intense chatting.
Jiang Li could really talk. Didn’t she have her own life? Lin Cheng couldn’t help wondering. He’d seen so much of her daily routine through all her shares. One afternoon, sprawled lazily on the sofa watching TV, he read her latest message: she’d bought some stylish French lingerie, perfect for a little bear girl like her.
No matter how he sliced it, it felt like she was baiting him to ask for details. Nope. Lin Cheng knocked himself on the head.
“What kind?”
…She was probably just saying it casually.
Jiang Li: [Picture][Picture][Picture]
Jiang Li: Don’t share with anyone else, okay.
Jiang Li: [Black Cat bowing.jpg]
