Page 20

"Hello? Who is this?"

Xiang Changge: "..."

Was she doing this on purpose?

"It's me, Xiang Changge. You should get up now."

"Say something."

Xiang Changge: "I am."

Yu Qing, still in bed, glanced at her phone in confusion and switched to speakerphone. She said hello several more times, but still couldn't hear anything.

Finally, she frowned and hung up.

"Who is it, calling so early? Can't they let me sleep?"

Yu Qing grumbled irritably, tossed her phone aside, and turned over. Just as she was about to go back to sleep, she felt something pressing against her ear.

Right—she'd worn earplugs to bed last night to keep Xiang Changge at bay. No wonder she couldn't hear the call.

As soon as Yu Qing removed the earplugs, her phone vibrated again.

This time, it wasn't a call. The number from before had sent her a text.

"Miss, take out your earplugs. It's time to get up and have breakfast."

Yu Qing: "!"

She stared at the message with wide eyes as if she'd seen a ghost. After reading it, she thought she must have misread, so she rubbed her eyes and read it twice more.

Then she looked at her free hand. The two earplugs lay obediently in her palm.

Wait, how did Xiang Changge know she'd slept with earplugs in? Had she installed a surveillance camera in her room?

Yu Qing hurriedly scanned the room, searching for anything out of place.

And how had Xiang Changge gotten her phone number?

Just as Yu Qing was about to put her phone on airplane mode and go back to sleep, another message came in: "You wouldn't want me to call a locksmith, would you?"

Threatening her again?

Yu Qing finally snapped. She tossed the phone aside, threw off her covers, and stormed out of bed, intending to give Xiang Changge a piece of her mind.

Maybe she'd gotten up too quickly. The moment her feet touched the floor, her head spun and her legs gave way. She nearly fell to her knees, but managed to grab the bed in time.

She sat back down and waited for a while. Only then did the dizziness slowly fade.

Sitting blankly on the bed, her black hair falling over her shoulders, Yu Qing lowered her head. After a long while, a mocking smile appeared on her pale face.

Her body was truly exhausting.

Xiang Changge waited outside the door for another ten minutes or so before she heard the lock click. Then a bloodless little face appeared in the doorway.

Yu Qing, dressed in a white nightgown, leaned against the doorframe. Its square neckline exposed her sharply prominent collarbones. Her expressionless face was clouded with gloom. Maybe she hadn't slept well, or maybe she was unhappy with Xiang Changge.

Perhaps it was both.

She stared at Xiang Changge for a while, blinked, then turned and walked back into the room without a word.

Xiang Changge followed her inside.

The room was filled with the slightly bitter, astringent scent of mugwort. Mixed with the air-conditioning, it took on a chill. The smell seemed to shoot straight into the chest, like a mouthful of mint.

Just as when Xiang Changge had left the night before, only two reading lamps were on. Heavy curtains were drawn tightly across the windows, keeping out every trace of daylight.

Xiang Changge adjusted the air conditioner on the wall, raising the temperature, then went to the window and opened the heavy curtains, leaving only the sheer ones. Through them, the pale gray and muted green of the morning sky showed faintly.

When she turned around, Yu Qing had already sat back on the bed. She hadn't lain down, only leaned against the headboard with her eyes closed and head tilted back, resting her head against the soft pillow.

Xiang Changge had expected to find her furious. Instead, she saw someone who seemed neither sad nor happy, someone who couldn't summon any interest in whatever others did to her, lost in her own thoughts and feelings, as if the whole world had been shut out.

They stayed in silence for a long while: one sitting against the headboard, the other standing beside the bed.

Looking at the frail, lifeless woman, Xiang Changge pushed the thought of keeping her alive, even if it meant imprisoning her, to the back of her mind.

If possible, she'd rather Yu Qing stay alive with at least a little fight in her.

"Let's play a game."

Xiang Changge's calm, gentle voice suddenly rang through the quiet room.

At her words, the melancholy beauty slowly opened her eyes. Her cold gaze settled on Xiang Changge.

Author's note:

Today, Xiang Changge wore a white shirt in a conservative style, its sleeves rolled up a few times. A silver watch circled her fair wrist, giving her a very professional air.

But when Yu Qing's gaze dropped, she noticed two bulges on either side of Xiang Changge's pants pockets, shaped as if she had an egg tucked into each one. They broke the composed, capable impression she gave.

Yu Qing's gaze lingered on them for a moment, her expression peculiar, as if trying to figure out through the fabric what was hidden inside. After a brief pause, she raised her eyes to Xiang Changge's face.

She said nothing, expressing her confusion only with her gaze.

Xiang Changge was watching her, too.

From the book, Xiang Changge knew that Yu Qing had hated the restrictive life she'd been forced to live as a child, as if she were an experimental subject.

But for her parents' sake, she had accepted it.

After all, it was the only way she could live a little longer.

And so, after her parents died, she'd endured for long enough. She seemed to break free of her restraints—or perhaps simply give up—and stopped taking care of her body.

Didn't she know that skipping meals and staying up all night were bad for her health? She just thought it didn't matter, and let herself go.

There was nothing left in the world for her to look forward to or feel attached to. To her, each day now was just something to get through.

At first, Xiang Changge had only wanted Yu Qing to follow the schedule she and the system had made, gradually fixing her routine and improving her health.

She knew Yu Qing wouldn't simply cooperate, but she had plenty of ways to get her to accept.

But now, seeing Yu Qing leaning against the bed, struggling even to breathe, her face pale and the corners of her eyes tinged with a sickly red, Xiang Changge could tell that despite her obvious displeasure, Yu Qing couldn't bring herself to express it and had ultimately decided to let things happen as they might. Suddenly, she found herself saying:

"Let's play a game."

It was also a chance to give Yu Qing a choice.

A choice on the surface, and only for a short while—one that would really let Xiang Changge put her plans into action with a little more justification.

Xiang Changge explained, "You don't want to get up and eat right now, but I want you to get up and have breakfast. Since we can't agree and neither of us wants to give in, let's play a game."

"If you win, you can go back to sleep as you please. If I win, you have to get up and have breakfast."

The room fell quiet for a while after Xiang Changge finished speaking.

After a long pause, Yu Qing's pale lips moved slightly. Three words slipped out, light but cold: "Why should I?"

On the surface, Xiang Changge was giving her a choice. But when you got right down to it, it all came down to three words: Why should I?

So what if she didn't want to eat or get up? Why did she have to do what Xiang Changge wanted? Couldn't she make her own decisions about her own life?

Xiang Changge's expression didn't change. Her tone was calm. "Because we don't agree, and because you can't fire me."

Yu Qing realized that Xiang Changge had a strange kind of power.

A moment ago, she'd been so low that she wouldn't have bothered escaping even if an earthquake had struck. But one sentence from Xiang Changge was enough to make her feel energized.

Not only that, but she even felt an inexplicable urge to pin the woman in front of her down and beat her senseless.

What a maddening person, able to set you off with nothing but her mouth.

Yu Qing laughed in exasperation. "What if I refuse?"

Xiang Changge shrugged. "Then I'll have to take care of you."

Yu Qing: "..."

Take care of her?

What did she mean?

Perhaps she saw the confusion in Yu Qing's eyes. Xiang Changge kindly explained, "I mean, I'll personally help you wash up and feed you breakfast."

Yu Qing pressed her lips together. Her dead-fish eyes, full of disdain for the world, fixed on Xiang Changge. If looks could turn into knives, Xiang Changge would have been chopped to pieces like fruit in a slicing game, juice and peel flying everywhere.

As if she couldn't sense the murderous intent in Yu Qing's eyes, Xiang Changge calmly met her gaze.

After who knew how long, unable to imagine being "taken care of" like a child, Yu Qing was the first to look away.

"What are we playing?"

Yu Qing asked quietly.

Xiang Changge was suddenly very democratic. "Anything you like."

"Games, chess, puzzles... anything."

Yu Qing thought about it.

She wasn't interested in games, but she played chess now and then.

"Then let's play a game of chess."

Xiang Changge nodded. Seeing Yu Qing's phone at the foot of the bed, she went over, picked it up, and handed it to her.

Yu Qing looked down at the phone being offered to her, then glanced up at Xiang Changge. "What for?" Hadn't they agreed to play chess?

Xiang Changge said, "Unlock it. We'll play on your phone."

Yu Qing frowned. Though she didn't quite understand what Xiang Changge meant, she unlocked her phone anyway.

The first thing Xiang Changge did with Yu Qing's phone was send herself a friend request through Yu Qing's WeChat without batting an eye. Then she opened a mini-game.

When the phone was back in Yu Qing's hands, the screen showed a two-player game of Gomoku already in progress.

Yu Qing glanced at it and couldn't help looking at Xiang Changge in shock. "This is chess?"

She'd thought that if they were going to play chess, it would be something like Go or Chinese chess. She hadn't expected Xiang Changge to choose Gomoku.