To Covet (GL) - Chapter 3

Yu Zhouwan gave me her metro card, but she used her own travel card to buy a ticket.

“It gets really crowded during rush hour. You’ll need to stand by the door in advance if you want to get off,” she kindly reminded me.

I stood still in the crowd and gave a casual “mm-hmm,” but my voice was swallowed by the roar of the subway.

Yu Zhouwan attended the best private high school in the city; I knew it the moment I saw the school crest on her uniform, which read “Linzhou Foreign Language School.”

While other schools were desperately ramping up college pressure for their senior year students, she had a ton of free time to do whatever she wanted. She even had the luxury of spending a whole afternoon on a sketching trip. Only the young masters and mistresses of a private school could enjoy that kind of treatment.

The subway took a massive turn, and I, who had been leaning casually on the handrail, lost my balance and stumbled a couple of steps.

I instinctively twisted my upper body, dodging Yu Zhouwan’s hand as she reached out to grab my shoulder.

“No need.”

I glanced at her with my head half-bowed. Yu Zhouwan’s perfect smile froze for a moment. She turned her face away and stared at the flickering station display light.

This polished facade would crack sooner or later.

I looked at my own vacant, soulless eyes in the reflection on the glass door, contemplating how to confront their family of three and stir up chaos in this house.

I didn’t have to get involved in all this. Although my grandmother was getting on in years, we managed to get by together.

She didn’t understand why my mother and I were so fixated on finding this irresponsible father. She only reluctantly agreed to it for the sake of my future. Yu Hanyang was afraid I’d cause a scene and embarrass him, disrupting his harmonious family life. So, in the end, I agreed not to mention anything about Yang Chun, and in return, he promised to be a proper father and provide me with the best financial support until I graduated from college.

The best conditions? I tilted my head and looked at the water-stained exterior of the dorm building from behind the fence. It was a far cry from what his precious daughter had.

Yu Zhouwan treated me to a lavish dinner and even bought DQ and fruit tea while we were shopping.

The dark blue admission letter in my bag was wrinkled. I sucked on my ice cream spoon and flipped through the student handbook and new student information booklet. Overall, Qizhong was a good school. With my grades, I would have been at the bottom of the class, even if I got in. I don’t know who Yu Hanyang pulled strings with, but I, a student with connections who hadn’t taken the entrance exam, was effortlessly placed in the honors class.

“Are you not going to eat it?” Yu Zhouwan looked regretfully at the scoop of ice cream melting into a puddle. “It’s mango.”

“It’s too cold. No, thanks.” I acted tired and slumped in my seat, my fingers quickly scrolling through messages I’d missed during the day before starting to read some pointless trending topics.

Whether she did it on purpose or by coincidence, I suddenly remembered a small, forgotten incident from ten years ago.

On the first day Yu Zhouwan came to my house, she ate the only mango ice cream cup in our fridge.

I cried and threw a fit at my mom’s feet. Yu Zhouwan didn’t say a word. She quietly went downstairs, bought another one, and handed it to me. I stubbornly refused to eat it. She stood outside the door until the ice cream melted and then put it back in the fridge.

It was such a trivial thing, yet for some reason, I remembered it so clearly at this moment. The image of little Yu Zhouwan, standing helplessly in front of my mom and me, holding a paper cup covered in thick yellow syrup, gradually merged with the shadow of the girl sitting opposite me now.

“Aren’t you hungry? You’re not eating.” I asked her.

It’s probably because my face is making her lose her appetite. I looked up at the glass ceiling.

Yu Zhouwan and I were so similar that strangers could recognize we were related, but I inherited my mother’s large, listless eyes and pointed eyebrows. Plus, the sudden growth spurt had made me incredibly thin, so my cheekbones stood out when I sucked in my cheeks. I had a naturally fierce look, and with my face always a blank slate, my expression barely changed all day.

As Yu Zhouwan shook her head, the hair draped over her shoulders fell behind her, revealing a pair of shiny earrings on her earlobes. “I had a lot of snacks at school this afternoon, so I’m eating less tonight.” She seemed a little flustered with my constant staring. Her hands, which had been resting relaxed on the table, moved back to her lap.

Private high schools weren’t very strict about students’ appearances. She had applied a light layer of loose powder, and even though it was mostly worn off by sweat, her clear, youthful skin and vibrant face were still captivating.

“Can you take the metro back on your own later?” She had been typing something on her phone when she suddenly frowned, nervously lifting her wrist to look at her watch. “I just remembered something urgent at school that I forgot about. I’m going to be late. I have to go.”

She looked so desperate that I couldn’t refuse.

“You can call me if you need anything.”

When Yu Zhouwan stood up, a gentle, fragrant breeze swept past me.

I wandered around the area for a bit, bought some necessary stationery, and charged my phone at a coffee shop for a while before finally sauntering back home just in time for the last bus.

“Wanwan didn’t come with you?”

Yu Hanyang and Shi Yunya were sitting at the dining table, cutting up a watermelon. When they saw me come back alone so late, Shi Yunya put down her fruit knife and stared intently at me.

“She had to go back to school for something.”

It wasn’t that I was deliberately being rude to her; I was genuinely overcome by a wave of exhaustion.

Yu Hanyang offered me some fruit and snacks, but I waved him off, threw my bag aside, and went straight into the bathroom to turn on the hot water.

“It’s so late. What could she possibly have to do at school?”

I messily rubbed a dry towel over my hair, eavesdropping on the conversation outside through the mist-filled bathroom door.

“She’s not answering her phone either. This girl, I hope nothing happened to her,” Shi Yunya said, pulling on a batwing shirt as if to go out. She was truly panicking. “Don’t stop me. Aren’t you worried about your own daughter?”

“Of course I’m worried! She’s a young girl and might be out there alone, but you’re so frantic…”

I took out the hair dryer, set it to the right temperature, and sat on the high stool in front of the mirror with my legs crossed, listening with interest as the couple blamed each other. Just as a full-blown argument was about to break out, the lock on the front door clicked.

Yu Zhouwan was back? I checked the time; it was almost 11:30.

When I finished and came out, Shi Yunya was already clearing the mess from the table, Yu Hanyang was lying on the couch watching TV, and Yu Zhouwan’s door was tightly shut.

It was as if the argument I’d heard through the door had never happened.

Something felt off, like I had fast-forwarded through a part of a TV show and missed something important.

“Why did you take so long in the shower?” Yu Hanyang asked, sounding annoyed. “Someone else is waiting to use it.”

“There’s one in your room, isn’t there? It’s not like you can’t shower there.” I twirled a strand of my hair and shot his words right back at him without a second thought.

The moment I lay down on the bed, the heavy sense of fatigue disappeared. I tossed and turned, staying awake even after all the lights in the house went out.

“I’m going to ask you one last time. Did you really go back to school?”

The muffled voices outside startled me, and all my sleepiness vanished. The clock on the wall had already passed midnight.

“Yes.”

“Don’t lie to your mother.”

“I’m not.” Yu Zhouwan’s voice kept changing locations; I guessed she was pacing back and forth. “I told you I was staying after class for something, so why don’t you believe me?”

“You told me before that evening study hall was a waste of time and that you were going to find a tutor to help you on your own.” It didn’t sound like Shi Yunya was angry with her daughter. “I’m not like other parents who put so much pressure on you. You can do whatever you want. Anyway, you’ll have a university to go to. I’ll send you abroad when the time comes.”

Yu Zhouwan didn’t answer. The two of them continued to exchange some other insignificant pleasantries. I lost interest and went back to lying in bed.

After that late return home, she started getting home before 7 p.m. every day.

She would send me a message asking what I wanted for dinner before she came home. After I gave the same answer—”fried chicken”—for four days in a row, she finally couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you getting tired of it?”

“I like it,” I said, sprawled on the couch watching anime, not even bothering to put on gloves as I grabbed a chicken wing and shoved it into my mouth.

Most of the time, I was alone at home. Yu Hanyang and his wife were busy with work, so I had the most interaction with my sister, Yu Zhouwan.

My impression of her had improved quite a bit. Regardless of whether her politeness was genuine or just a forced courtesy, we got along fairly well, which raised my perception of her “perfect girl” persona to a new level.

Of course, I was more curious about Yu Zhouwan’s room. She locked her door before she left every day, and she immediately locked herself inside as soon as she got home. I had been in every other corner of this house, but her room was still off-limits.

I wondered if she was doing it to guard against someone.