To Covet (GL) - Chapter 42

I took out the short ropes, specifically for binding limbs, from the small box in the furthest corner of the drawer. I wrapped and tightened them, just above the lower third of her forearms.

The light seeping in from the window was so faint that I could only make out the base color of her skin; the large, blurry shadows were as crude as a sketch.

With her hands bound behind her, she had to straighten her waist. Her already modest chest lifted, and under my frank gaze, her skin gradually warmed. A light touch, and the cool air and tickle made her nipples instantly erect and swollen. It made me want to bite them, to tease them with my tongue, to slowly and carefully grind them with my teeth, just to hear her moan and beg.

A pair of clear pearls hung from the ends of the ropes, resting on her fair back.

My hand reached for her ankle. She was ticklish and twitched her leg.

I saw the faintly protruding soft bones on the top of her foot, like a silver fish. If the light were brighter, I guessed I could clearly see the blue-green veins beneath the surface of the skin.

Yu Zhouwan motioned for me to turn on the small bedside lamp. I made a shushing gesture and pointed at the door. She held her breath, and we could faintly hear Yu Hanyang loudly arguing with someone on the phone.

“May I, Sister?” I kissed her calf in the dark. “I didn’t tie the knot you taught me very well. I need to practice more with you.”

Yu Zhouwan nodded, then looked at me uncertainly. With her limbs tightly constrained, she lost her sense of security. Her bound hands involuntarily strained against the rope, pressing shallow indentations into her skin.

“Keyi, wait.”

Away from the dizzying heat of the bathroom, once her mind was clear, an intense sense of shame overtook her thoughts. She shed the blunt descriptions of desire and reverted to her timid, yet craving, indecisive self.

“I… I haven’t tried being tied up while doing it. Let me think…”

“Mhm, Sister, once the game starts, what do you call me?” As usual, I assumed her refusal was a form of masking her true feelings.

Both her initiation and her hesitation were irresistible traps, openly enticing me to dive deeper, to become the partner who satisfied her secret kink willingly—because I equally needed her presence to give myself the leeway to expose an unsavory corner of myself.

I thought I had grasped the inertia of her thinking.

Yu Zhouwan knelt on the bed. I gripped her neck and pressed her face onto the mattress.

“Cough, cough…”

Kneeling in such a shameful position, every patch of her skin was burning as if she had a fever. Her hands were bound, leaving her nowhere to brace herself to stand up.

“Please let go, I can’t bear it… I can’t breathe… Mmm…”

My palm landed on her buttock. The full, round curve rippled like water being disturbed.

A moment of numbness was followed by a searing pain. The second slap landed precisely in the same spot as the first, louder and more forceful.

Yu Zhouwan merely cried out. Before my palm could fall again, her plea for mercy was clearly laced with sobs: “Gentle… gently, that hurts… ah…”

“Sister, I haven’t even tried hard yet.”

I caressed her waist. Just as she sighed and slightly relaxed her body, another crisp slap echoed.

“Master…”

A faint sound escaped her clenched teeth.

“No…”

“No, Master, I…” Every word was so quiet I had to lean in to hear it. “I need a safe word. I suddenly felt so terrible…”

I decided to untie the rope on her wrists and held her, kissing her tearful and trembling lips until she was completely out of breath.

Yu Zhouwan coughed several times. Seeing that I didn’t respond to her words, she raised her hand to touch my face and tentatively spoke: “Key… Master… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you…”

“I don’t know why that happened. I always thought I would enjoy it,” she buried her face in the pillow, letting me undo the knot. “But I was genuinely terrified just now. It wasn’t even that tight, yet I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like I was going to suffocate and suddenly pass out.”

“It never happened like this when you did it yourself?” I stroked the marks on her body.

“Sometimes, a little, but never serious.” Yu Zhouwan avoided my gaze.

“Why?”

“It’s okay. It must be… a bit of nervousness, plus I choked. You don’t have to listen to me. Tightening it a bit more should be fine.”

She closed her eyes, waiting for my instruction for punishment, but I remained still. The warming atmosphere quickly cooled down.

“Are you mad?”

Yu Zhouwan hugged me from behind, resting her head on my shoulder.

I sighed. My desire to do it was completely gone. I took the ointment from the bedside cabinet and applied it for her.

“Do you pity me, Yu Keyi?”

She used my full name, meaning she was removing herself from the game and asking me as an equal.

She had asked me the same question a short time ago. I couldn’t answer then because I was struggling with whether to cross the line and possess her completely or retreat to the irresponsible boundary of merely satisfying myself on her body.

And it was the same now.

She gave me a chance. If I said “no,” followed it up with words of humiliation, and continued the spanking command, Yu Zhouwan and I would immediately revert to the most straightforward relationship we had at the beginning—one where I was unilaterally forcing her.

“Yu Keyi?”

“Yu Keyi?”

“Are you spacing out?”

Gao Rui tapped my assignment paper with a pen.

The entire morning flew by. On the empty mock exam paper, only one answer line had a repeatedly erased number, and the thought process was wildly different from the standard answer.

“What’s wrong?” She thought I was frustrated because the problem was too difficult. “How about you come down and buy a can of Coke with me?”

Next Wednesday was the first selection exam. The purpose was clear: to thin the ranks. Only about twenty of the most promising students would be left for the competition, and these kinds of exams would become more frequent afterward.

The scope of the exam was clearly outlined in Friday’s class—partly within the scope of the college entrance physics exam, but mostly introductory competitive physics. I’d been stuck on the basic exam material since last night, making no progress whatsoever.

“What do you want to drink? My treat.” Gao Rui nudged me with her elbow.

“Fanta, I guess.”

“I have a feeling you have a soft spot for fruit-flavored things,” Gao Rui easily flipped the can tab open with her finger. “Just a guess.”

“Not really.”

I took a sip of the soda, the coldness making me shiver.

“What’s wrong with you? Are you in a bad mood?”

Gao Rui pressed the elevator button. A group of whooping kids crowded out, knocking a large puddle of soda out of her Coke can onto the floor. She quickly squatted down with a tissue to wipe it up.

“Don’t stress too much. The first exam won’t be that hard.” She looked up at me, her subtle smile conveying comfort.

“It’s not entirely about the exam,” I pulled my neck back.

“Maybe it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder, who knows? You’ve been so gloomy these past few days,” Gao Rui returned to her seat, took off her glasses, wiped them, and stated her diagnosis with feigned seriousness. “It’s too hot in here, and the air smells bad. Want to take a walk somewhere with fresh air?”

As the semester end approached, it was easy to drift off. One day, you’d snap back to reality and realize you suddenly had a mountain of miscellaneous tasks to handle.

Our homeroom teacher emphasized that the final scores for the main subjects would be factored into the class-streaming exam. She also heavily promoted the necessity of the non-core subject proficiency exams, reprimanding every student, including Gao Rui, Xu Lanlan, and me.

“Gao Rui, have you decided whether to choose science or liberal arts?”

She leaned her head against the glass floor-to-ceiling window, nestled against her transparent reflection.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

I was surprised. I thought someone so opinionated and well-planned would have already made all the arrangements, especially since her grades would guarantee her a spot in the best-staffed science class.

“Choosing science is actually better for me. My family says the same, but…” Gao Rui stared blankly at the traffic below. “I actually don’t like science. I want to choose liberal arts.”

“I want to study Museology and Cultural Heritage.”

She wasn’t without a plan; she was just thinking further ahead than I was.

“I could still apply with a science background, but… getting into the school I want would be very difficult. They don’t recruit from science students every year, and in previous years, it’s been only one or two at most.”

I felt ashamed of myself. The furthest I could think right now was just surviving the college entrance exam, like most students. As for what major to choose, I would take my time to think about it after the final decision was made.

“If your family wants you to choose science, what major do they want you to pursue?”

“I’m not sure. Something engineering or mechanical, maybe?”

Gao Rui closed her eyes and shook her head, not wanting to continue the topic.

Since her family has so much money, the young lady can study whatever she wants, I secretly mused. Perhaps following the family’s arrangement involves the matter of future inheritance?

I leaned closer, curious to pry into her background. Gao Rui was busy doing practice problems every day and rarely spoke. She had never proactively mentioned her family. I even forgot to confirm with her whether the “twenty million” rumor was true.

Gao Rui suddenly opened her eyes and looked behind me.

“Why are you here? Didn’t you say you were picking her up from the airport?”

Yu Zhouwan didn’t answer. She placed her frostbitten, bright red hand on my face.

“My sister.” I introduced her, pulling her hand away to show Gao Rui. “This is my classmate, Gao Rui.”

“Long time no see.”

Gao Rui pushed up her glasses and gave Yu Zhouwan a slight nod, not replying to her greeting.