To Covet (GL) - Chapter 50

Even though the other person couldn’t possibly see the scene from across the internet, I still felt a baseless guilt, as if someone had stumbled into an intimate moment.

This was especially true because she was the person Yu Zhouwan had explicitly emphasized I should not get too close to.

“The seats were taken by the other class, I couldn’t get back to mine.” The teacher from the next class led the choir students off the stage. I quickly hid my phone in my pocket.

“Then follow me,” Gao Rui pulled me and sat down in a large empty section in the front row. “The view is good here.”

Three or four rows away from the stage, avoiding the ear-splitting speakers, I worried the original seat owners would return.

While looking around, my gaze met Gao Anqin’s as she turned around to take the scoring booklet. She politely smiled at me, and I felt obligated to return the gesture.

“Is that your mother?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

“Did you suddenly decide not to be the host because she was coming?”

Gao Rui gave me a sideways glance and nodded. She wore a light layer of eyeshadow, her eye corners sparkling, and a formal black women’s suit. She looked perfectly fine to host on stage.

“Why?” I saw a dark silhouette running back and forth below the stage, stopped and admonished by the security guard.

Undeterred by the security, Xu Lanlan’s mother was overly excited about photography, persistently taking pictures of her daughter on stage, even though Xu Lanlan was just arranging props.

“I don’t like it.”

“Does she have high expectations for you?”

“No,” the lights dimmed, and the auditorium instantly darkened as the performance began. Gao Rui shushed me. “She likes to be the center of attention, but I don’t. That’s all.”

Wasn’t it a happy thing to be the focus of your mother’s attention? After I finished the final announcement, Lu Liang ordered a few of us to collect the microphones from the stage and count them.

By the time I remembered to look for Gao Rui, the bell for the end of evening self-study had already rung. The only people left in the classroom were the students on duty.

I pondered Gao Rui’s sudden, incomplete words, unable to figure out why she was so resistant to the fact that her mother was in the audience.

A week later, I saw Gao Anqin again at the school committee’s speech. I was dozing off at my small desk. Gao Rui was doing practice problems. She didn’t look up once while Gao Anqin gave her impassioned speech on the stage.

“Did you take the test paper I left on your seat?” Her pen moved quickly. “It’s last year’s winter camp questions, and it’s confidential. Don’t let anyone see it.”

“Okay.” I answered readily. “By the way, is your mother a teacher? She talks with the same tone as our homeroom teacher.”

“She’s not anything.” Gao Rui wasn’t forthcoming. “Just an online store owner.”

Then why was she a speaker for the school committee? I muttered to myself. I had thought she was a leader from the Bureau of Education; she certainly had the air of one.

But, of course, I couldn’t say something so tactless. The speaker on stage finished her address.

I applauded along with the people around me, having completely missed what she said—it was likely just some inspirational talk about the upcoming ten-school joint exam.

“How come I didn’t see your family here? They didn’t come to the parent-teacher meeting either.”

“I forgot to tell them.”

“What about your sister?” After leaving the auditorium, she no longer had to keep her voice down. “When I was little, my brother sometimes attended parent-teacher meetings for my parents.”

“She’s busy with exams lately, so she doesn’t have time.”

Brother? I suddenly remembered Yu Zhouwan mentioning once that Gao Rui had a brother, twelve years older than her.

That would make him nearly thirty. Was the “last will and testament” in that news article his?

“What does your brother do?” I felt my questioning was no different from nosy gossip—first probing about her mother’s profession, then her brother’s, determined to dig up all her family secrets.

“He used to be with the China Construction Engineering Bureau… Later, he resigned due to illness.”

“And then, he’s currently…”

“He passed away at the beginning of last year. Suicide.” Gao Rui didn’t avoid the topic at all. “Mental illness is always hard to treat. He couldn’t control himself.”

If the news headline wasn’t a sensationalized title, it meant her brother also had a very poor relationship with their mother.

Two children in the family disliking their mother made my impression of the meticulously groomed Ms. Gao even worse.

I couldn’t help but compare her to Shi Yunya. Although I felt indifferent toward Shi Yunya, no matter how strict she was with Yu Zhouwan, her daughter still showed attachment to her mother, unlike Gao Rui now.

Even when Gao Anqin was instructing her with a long list of things, she did nothing but nod in a manner that suggested taking orders.

“That… you must be little Yu, Yu Keyi, is that the name? Rui Rui mentions you often,” Gao Anqin turned and tried to be friendly with me. “We’ve met before, downstairs at the library. I was busy with family matters then and didn’t get a chance to properly meet you.”

“Come over to our house sometime. Auntie will treat you to a meal. Tell Auntie what you want to eat in advance. Auntie will cook personally; I can make any dish.”

“Thank you, Auntie.” I nodded absently in agreement.

“Good! Bring your sister along. How about the week after next? It’ll be after your exams.” Gao Anqin clapped her hands, and the matter was settled just like that.

I secretly pinched Gao Rui’s sleeve for help. She glanced at me with her hands in her pockets, completely indifferent to whether I refused or agreed.

“Ah… I need to go back and ask. My sister has exams, so she might not be free.”

“It’s okay. Just you come then.”

Gao Anqin pinched my cheek, familiar as if we had known each other for a long time.

Quite the chatty neighborhood busybody. She wasn’t overtly irritating. I unwrapped a packet of bubblegum and offered it to Gao Rui, becoming even more curious about the environment she grew up in.

“I don’t eat this kind of thing.” She refused.

Lying in bed at home, I realized how exhausting the day had been. I kept my eyes propped open long enough to upload the photos Xu Lanlan sent me to the cloud drive. I was too lazy to edit them, hurriedly selecting nine to post on Moments, and then fell asleep.

I woke up needing to pee and heard my phone ding. I groggily went to the bathroom. I came out with a hot face towel on my face and was startled by the shadow standing in the doorway, instantly losing all sleepiness.

“What are you doing? Standing here late at night, scaring people.”

I snapped at Yu Zhouwan, but she suddenly pressed on my shoulders, placing her face in the hair behind my ear.

“There’s a scent that doesn’t smell very good.” I heard her sniffing softly near my ear.

“I sprayed a lot of hairspray today to keep my hair in place on stage.” I lifted my hair to my nose. It wasn’t that noticeable. “I’ll just go wash my hair.”

I scrolled through the photos on my Moments. The one in the center was a group photo of Xu Lanlan, Gao Rui, and me after we got off stage.

Because we were standing in a narrow aisle with people passing by, the three of us were standing very close. In fact, just as Xu Lanlan’s mother was taking the picture, a group of people from a stage play came off the stage, pushing and shoving.

Gao Rui nearly got hit by a prop being carried, so I had put my arm around her for the photo. At first glance, we looked quite intimate.

Scrolling down the chat history, besides the praises from my aunt, uncle, and old classmates, I saw a message from Yu Zhouwan posted around ten o’clock: “Did you have a performance today?”

She had asked almost immediately after I posted the photos.

“Yes, but I was the host, not an actress.”

Yu Zhouwan was sitting cross-legged on the bed, writing on her tablet. The screen lit up, but she didn’t even glance at it.

“Were you happy?”

I saw her reply after I got out of the shower.

“It was okay. Just extremely tired.”

I tiptoed to her bedroom door. Yu Zhouwan was sitting on the balcony with her back to me. I suddenly put my arms around her waist. She jumped. “What’s wrong?” She quickly turned off her phone screen. “Aren’t you going to rest?”

“Did you wear perfume today?”

I hugged her waist and bit her shoulder. I only let go when I heard her gasp in pain.

“No. I went shopping with friends after the exam and tried some on casually.” Yu Zhouwan tried to push my arms away, but I tightened my grip. She seemed a little impatient. “Stop touching me. I’m going to sleep.”

“Let’s sleep together.” I ignored her resistance.