To Covet (GL) - Chapter 26

After drying my hair, I went to the kitchen fridge and got a peach. The cool, sweet juice quenched my thirst and cooled the flush of heat on my face.

“Keyi,” Shi Yunya suddenly called my name. “Do you have time to chat? Do you have any homework to write?”

I pulled out a chair and sat across from her with the bowl of peach in my hands, which was a silent agreement.

“A client of mine has a family business that grows these. He sent over quite a few, so I brought a box home. If you like them, I can bring more tomorrow.”

“They’re okay,” I said, peeling the thin skin off the peach. “I like soft peaches. They’re sweet, delicious.”

“How are things at school lately? You just finished your exams. I heard you did well on both of them,” Shi Yunya leaned forward, moving closer to me. “Your teacher called your dad and asked if you still wanted to attend evening self-study. If not, you need to go there to sign a leave slip and get it stamped.”

“I’m not going.”

“Your dad still wants you to go, but I told him that every child has a different learning style, and it’s best if you’re efficient at home,” Shi Yunya smiled warmly. “It was the same with Wanwan when she was little. She had to be locked alone in her room to focus on reading. The moment I supervised her, she would start to daydream.”

“Keyi, tell me, are all men like this? They have no mind for their children. Your dad doesn’t understand what a child needs for their studies. He even suggested to me before that Wanwan’s weekly art classes were a waste of study time,” she said with a light laugh. “Your dad also told me that he separated from your mother a long time ago. Is that true?”

I tilted my head, carefully considering her choice of words. I didn’t know if “separated” meant an emotional split leading to living apart or a formal divorce.

Shi Yunya withdrew her hands, which had been clasped on the table. “Don’t be nervous. Auntie isn’t trying to interrogate you. You know your dad and I had a fight today, so I just want to hear your perspective.”

“Auntie can tell you don’t like him. You two barely talk. But Wanwan is very fond of you, and I believe you’re a good kid.”

She spoke as if a father was an indispensable figure in a family without a divorce. Through her thick glasses, I couldn’t guess her true purpose for suddenly seeking out a conversation—this woman who was, in name, my stepmother.

“What I mean is, did he never live with you and your mother?”

“No, he and my mom fought a lot, so my mom moved out with me.”

“From a very young age?”

“No. I was eight or nine. Before that, we lived together.” Like a normal family.

“What did he do for work before?”

I was even more confused. If she didn’t know about Yu Hanyang’s past, how did she decide to marry him?

I certainly didn’t think Shi Yunya was stupid enough to blindly fall into the trap of a great love, but maybe she was.

I suddenly realized this was the first time I had talked to Shi Yunya for this long since I moved here four months ago.

“He was an accountant at his friend’s factory, but then he quit and started doing odd jobs on construction sites, looking at blueprints and things.”

I was telling the truth. To be honest, before Yu Hanyang lost his secure job, our family was relatively respectable. We had spare money for me to pick extracurricular classes. Later, the money he brought home got less and less. Finally, he was stealing money from Yang Chun. Forget extracurriculars; being able to buy groceries for one meal was a luxury.

I was sure Yu Hanyang had embellished his past for Shi Yunya, but I wasn’t in a hurry to tell her. Less is more, and I believed he would expose himself more and more.

“Keyi, do you think Auntie is very serious and hard to talk to?”

Shi Yunya poured a glass of water and added a slice of lemon. I took it and thanked her.

“I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding between us, but I don’t know how to fix it. You and Wanwan have completely different personalities. You hide everything well.”

Shi Yunya took off her glasses and wiped them.

“Maybe I’m talking too much today. Auntie is worried. As you saw, Wanwan is mad at me because your dad and I fought in front of her friends and embarrassed her.”

“Auntie is begging you, can you please help me talk to her? Wanwan doesn’t like to make friends easily. I know her; she’s always been concerned about her image and is afraid to show weakness in front of others. But she’s really close to you. I suppose it makes sense, after all, you are blood sisters.”

A rapid stream of words was thrown at me. I felt a nervous pressure from being forced into a serious conversation and subconsciously squeezed the seam of my pants.

Yu Zhouwan has been spending a lot of time with me lately and hasn’t argued with Shi Yunya about coming home late again. I guessed that Shi Yunya connected these two things, and while they did have a causal link, it wasn’t what Shi Yunya thought.

Facing Shi Yunya’s sincere expression, which had replaced her usual imposing aura, the image of Yu Zhouwan’s flushed face and fingers glistening with fluid while we were having sex in the tub flashed through my mind. Whatever she said after that, I completely zoned out.

She suddenly stopped and sat up straight. Under her unwavering, earnest gaze, I nodded guiltily.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” Yu Zhouwan asked, rubbing her eyes. “Didn’t you say you have an important meeting tomorrow morning?”

Before the last part of her sentence, I thought she was talking to me.

“I can’t sleep because I’m thinking, so I came out to sit in the living room for a while.”

“Then remember to take your melatonin. Two pills are enough.”

I couldn’t detect any sign of discord between the mother and daughter. My relationship with Yang Chun at its closest was like this.

Shi Yunya put the chair away and went to the living room to look for the melatonin.

Behind her back, Yu Zhouwan gripped my wrist, bit the peach in my palm, covering the teeth marks I had left, and the juice flowed down my fingers and knuckles.

“Wanwan, where did you put my melatonin?”

I hooked Yu Zhouwan’s finger—the one that had been in my warm, wet vagina just minutes ago, thrusting and pushing me to the clouds. Now, her clean finger was sticky with the sweet juice from the peach. I gently bit it, tasting, sucking, and swirling it with my tongue. In an instant, it was covered in a glistening liquid, just like when she had pulled it out of my body.

“The top corner of the cabinet.”

She deliberately lowered her voice to avoid showing any sign of trembling. She rubbed the pad of her finger against my palate, which tickled.

“Did I finish the previous bottle?” Shi Yunya muttered to herself as she got a stool to climb up and look. I let go of Yu Zhouwan’s hand. When Shi Yunya turned around, she only saw two people sitting on the same side of the dining table with remarkably similar expressions.

“Maybe Dad took it. He asked me about it a few days ago. I thought you wanted to take it before bed, so I put it on the nightstand to make it easy for you.”

“Aren’t you going to sleep yet? It’s almost 11:30.”

“I’m going now.”

I pinched the flesh on Yu Zhouwan’s side. “Let’s go open your presents.” My hand moved up from her waist and, with lightning speed, cupped her breast. I pressed and twisted it in my palm, deliberately teasing her.

She quickly covered her mouth.