To Covet (GL) - Chapter 10

If she had even a hint of a sharp edge to her personality, she would never have let me blackmail her in such a shameless, despicable way. I would have been grabbed by the hair, thrown on the floor, and kicked out of the room for my vile actions.

But just as I suspected, even though the surface of her skin was trembling from emotion as if she was being electrocuted, she still knew she was in a position of weakness. No matter what choice she made now, every blade would pierce her perfectly in the end.

Light makes things that have been hidden in dark, ugly corners restless.

Initially, I didn’t want to get Yu Zhouwan involved. I saw her as my kind—a victim of her parents’ choices. But now, with what was happening—even though I knew I would be roped in as well—I didn’t plan on relying on this family, so I didn’t care. For Yu Zhouwan, however, she would be pushed into an irreversible abyss.

Lesbian. Incest. These two simple words would be enough to nail her to a cross and torture her forever.

“No,” she said, still choosing to make a last stand as she clutched the blanket to protect herself. “Yu Keyi, I’m your sister.”

“Oh, right. I also have a video. Do you want to see it?” I said, rubbing the photo paper in my hand. “Shi Yunya is outside. I can go give her the photos right now. What do you think?”

She tried to grab them but failed. She then shook off my hand, turned her back, and yanked the door open. She ran right into Shi Yunya, who had come to see what the commotion was.

Yu Zhouwan immediately wiped her face with her sleeve. Shi Yunya hadn’t even had a chance to speak when she saw Yu Zhouwan slam the door and lock herself in the bathroom. Shi Yunya gave me a faint glance and my half-hearted yawn. The look of concern on her face immediately vanished. Her attitude wasn’t a complete reversal, but it was a clear contrast.

“Did you two have a fight this early in the morning?” Shi Yunya looked at the closed door again and again with worry. Instead of solving the problem, she was more concerned about how this would affect Yu Zhouwan’s state. “Come out and eat breakfast. Don’t be late.”

In this house, Shi Yunya and I were transparent to each other. We didn’t even bother with basic greetings. In the past few days, the housekeeper had called in sick, so she had to make breakfast herself. This also meant she was forced to be at the same table as me for at least twenty minutes. I’d rather eat a pancake from the school gate than an omelet and a bowl of noodles.

“Did you two sleep together last night? Did you sleep well?”

In front of Shi Yunya, Yu Zhouwan was appropriately polite toward me, just as she had been taught to be with everyone. As a result, she couldn’t understand when her daughter and I had gotten so close that we were sleeping in the same bed.

I lowered my head, pretending to be too busy chewing to answer. I subtly glanced at Yu Zhouwan. She saw me looking at her and turned her head, humming in a vague response.

Maybe what happened that morning ruined her appetite. Shi Yunya asked her about the joint exams and the IELTS writing test next month, but Yu Zhouwan didn’t even finish half an egg. She grabbed her backpack and rushed out.

Yu Zhouwan ran very fast. I immediately put down my bowl and chopsticks and went after her. The elevator door was already open.

“See you tonight, sis.”

The morning hallway was incredibly quiet. Even though I spoke in a low voice, Yu Zhouwan’s footsteps faltered.

“Don’t be late.” This was a reference to her final decision.

She pulled back her foot from the step outside, turned to look at me with resentment, then quietly jogged away, disappearing between the shadows of the intertwined bushes in the neighborhood’s flowerbeds.

Yu Zhouwan still didn’t come home on time, but this time, she didn’t go see Feng Jia. She went to a health-conscious restaurant.

She sat at the innermost table. Across from her was a girl I had never seen before, wearing the same uniform. The two of them ordered a dessert each and talked as they ate.

From across the street, I could only see Yu Zhouwan’s profile. She was laughing, looking completely different from her usual gloomy and reserved self.

Unfortunately, since I wasn’t being discreet with my gaze, Yu Zhouwan quickly felt my eyes on her. The moment our eyes met, she grabbed her backpack and turned to leave, but we ran into each other right at the entrance.

“Wait,” I said, taking a step to block her. “I’m hungry. I’m going to get something to eat.”

“Wanwan, who’s this?” The other girl came out after paying, confused to see me blocking the entrance. “Do you two know each other?”

“I’m her sister.” I affectionately took her arm.

The girl and Yu Zhouwan exchanged glances. She couldn’t understand where Yu Zhouwan, an only child, had a sister she’d never met before. Maybe a relative or something. She stopped looking confused and stared blankly as I got a fruit box to go and left with Yu Zhouwan.

“What time are you planning on going back?” I asked, looking at the clock on my wrist—it was exactly 9 o’clock.

Yu Zhouwan was silent.

“Are you going to see Feng Jia?” I asked, adjusting my backpack strap.

“Don’t bring her up again,” this was the only time Yu Zhouwan had ever cut someone off. “What gives you the right to interfere in my business with Feng Jia? And I don’t care about those photos. If you insist on telling everyone the fake story you made up, that’s your own shamelessness, Yu Keyi. You need to take a good look at yourself.”

After saying that, she was fuming, as if she was declaring war on me, the villain.

I rolled my eyes. It seemed that after a whole day of thinking, Yu Zhouwan had come to the conclusion that I was a creepy pervert who took private photos of people to blackmail them.

Whether it was photos or fragmented memories in my mind, I enjoyed my prying and cherished everything I saw and heard.

Using them as a tool to butter up others was a disgusting act.

“You look so happy when you’re with other people.”

I said to myself, but Yu Zhouwan looked up and saw the photo on my phone screen. Her face immediately darkened.

“You’ve never smiled so happily at home or with me, have you, big sister?”

Yu Zhouwan leaned away from me in disgust. She walked ahead of me after we got off the subway. She used her fingerprint to open the elevator door and walked out in one fluid motion. If I hadn’t run so fast, she would have locked me out.

If I thought about it, Yu Hanyang was always so fake, Shi Yunya treated me like I was invisible, and Yu Zhouwan was the most considerate person in the family. What I was doing would be considered heartless to others.

“Why are you like this…” She closed her eyes in despair. She had found her own answer for what I was.

“Because you’re pretty, of course,” I said, squeezing her slender waist.

I finished organizing my books and test papers and took a shower. In the two hours I was gone, Mr. and Mrs. Yu had both returned home. Yu Zhouwan’s door was still closed and locked.

The hour hand passed one number after another. I walked out of my room to the low hum of the refrigerator and the air conditioner.

The sound of my knuckles knocking on the wooden door was magnified infinitely. The lock turned after a few minutes. It was as if something was thrown up in the dead of the night, then fell into another unknown space, and finally, returned to gravity, hitting the ground.

Yu Zhouwan didn’t turn on the light. I felt my way to the edge of the bed, and she rolled over, making room for me.

“Just tell me what you want,” she said. Not immediately shutting the door in my face was the most dignified thing Yu Zhouwan could do.

I lay down next to her.

There was still a thorn in my heart. The thrill I felt from controlling Yu Zhouwan’s emotions last night was gone, as if I had a sharp blade in my hand, ready to stab a fragile balloon and watch it explode, but instead, I hit a high-density diamond. It only left a harsh scratching sound and nothing else.

Yu Zhouwan sighed, resting her head on the pillow.

“You promised me,” I said, almost whispering in her ear, as I straddled her thighs. I pressed down on her shoulders with one hand and pulled up her pajama shirt with the other. “I want to sleep with you now.”

I put my weight on her, with my knees pressed against her hips, so no matter how she struggled, she wouldn’t get away.

I reached for her pajama buttons, my fingers sliding from her neck to her chest. The first button popped out of the hole, but she suddenly grabbed my hand and pushed it away.

“No,” Yu Zhouwan said, slowly realizing what I was trying to do. “Keyi, don’t touch me. You know this is molestation, don’t you?”

“What’s wrong with me wanting to touch you?” I chuckled softly. “If you feel wronged, you can go tell someone. Go knock on Shi Yunya’s door and tell her I molested you.”

I pushed her hands away from her chest. Yu Zhouwan tried to stop me again. I was getting impatient with the back and forth. I reached into the drawer of the cabinet, fumbling for a piece of cloth. It wasn’t until I felt the soft padding and the cold metal clasp that I realized what it was, but at this moment, I was desperate to tie her wrists together.

Yu Zhouwan stopped struggling. Even her legs were still. But her breathing got heavier and heavier, as if the oxygen in the air was getting thinner, and she was on the verge of suffocating.

I unbuttoned her second button.

She didn’t wear a bra to sleep. My hand slid down without any obstruction. I reached the third button, and it popped.

The creases in her clothes were pressed down, but after the third button, my hand finally had room to move. I was at a loss, clumsily moving my entire palm over her stomach, so every touch made her skin tremble with a minuscule, invisible motion.

I heard her sniffle. I wasn’t sure if she was too nervous to breathe properly or if she was so ashamed of her sister’s touch that she was crying.

“Yu Zhouwan,” I whispered her name, but she didn’t answer.