Chapter 5

Chapter 5: A mature woman's allure

"What is it?" Xu Si turned her head. "Oh, where do you live? Shall I take you home?" The boy had been silent ever since getting into the car, only to suddenly slap the back of his head. His gestures and expression really were unlike those of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old. Xu Si was very confident in her looks. When Zhang Ke stole glances at her, she could almost feel his burning gaze, but when she turned her eyes toward him, he did not look away in alarm like an ordinary boy. Instead, he continued to watch her calmly; his clear eyes held none of an adult's greed.

"Ah, my home?" Zhang Ke was a little startled. Of course he could not let Xu Si know he lived in the government compound, much less that he was Zhang Zhixing's son. Besides, he still had to come back later to pick up the photographs. "If I go home like this, my mom will definitely nag me. Just find somewhere to drop me off. I need to wash my T-shirt first. Oh, what were you drinking? It's all sticky."

"Fruit tea..." Xu Si pointed to the fruit-green drink bottle on the back seat. "There's a lot of sugar in it, so it gets very sticky when it spills on you. Why don't we go to my place first? You can take your clothes off and wash them..."

Zhang Ke would not have refused such a tantalizing suggestion even on pain of death, but was Xu Si, who had consigned Tang Xueqian to utter ruin, really this guileless? After all, he was the one who had bumped into her and gotten splashed with her drink. Had he run into a feisty woman, he might have gotten a scolding first. Most women would have curled their lips and walked away. Xu Si's innocent, guilty manner, however, was something only simple, kindhearted women would display.

"Aren't you afraid your boyfriend will get the wrong idea if you take me home?" Zhang Ke asked, tilting his head.

Xu Si burst out laughing, like a night-blooming cereus suddenly opening. She pointed at Zhang Ke with an utterly enchanting air. "How old are you, anyway? Who would be jealous of you? Besides, I don't have a boyfriend yet..."

Zhang Ke suddenly remembered that he was now only a sixteen-year-old boy who looked harmless to beautiful women. He watched the faint smile spilling from Xu Si's eyes, radiant and sparkling. He was a little embarrassed, but refused to concede verbally. "A beauty like you could make a man of any age very dangerous..."

"You mean I'm alluring to every man?" Xu Si used her little finger to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, bit her lip lightly, and glared at Zhang Ke. Her eyes, slightly angry and shy, brimmed with charm. "You look so quiet and delicate, but you've got some nerve. You've already learned to tease girls. If I were your big sister, I'd teach you a proper lesson..."

"You're at your most lethal like this..." Zhang Ke turned sideways, propped his arm on the dashboard, and rested his chin in his hand. Gazing unblinkingly at Xu Si's flawless face, he said with a smile, "If I had a sister as charming as you, I'd love to have you scold me every day."

Xu Si glared at Zhang Ke, only to find that he did not avert his eyes. Instead, he opened them a little wider, his burning gaze fixed on her as though determined to look into her heart. For no reason, her heart fluttered, though she felt no disgust.

Biting her lip to hold back a smile, Xu Si exchanged stares with him for a while before she could no longer stand it and turned away. She wanted to concentrate on driving, but could feel his gaze lingering on her face. Unable to bear it, she raised a hand to block his view. "Stop looking. I don't want such a thick-skinned little brother. I'm really starting to wonder whether bringing you home to wash your clothes was the right decision. You look like a little lecher..." Yet her lips were full of smiles, and she showed no intention of throwing Zhang Ke out of the car. There was a hint of flirtation in her manner.

Zhang Ke preferred to believe Xu Si was a simple woman. Though her words carried a hint of flirtation, she probably regarded him entirely as a boy who merely talked tough but was completely harmless to beautiful women. Or perhaps his delicate, handsome face was deceptive enough to keep her from feeling the slightest wariness. He thought of how she was, after all, Ding Xiangshan's mistress, and the key figure in sending Tang Xueqian to prison. If his father would not be implicated, Zhang Ke would rather ignore whether Tang Xueqian lived or died. Gazing at the exceptionally fine skin of Xu Si's neck, he felt a little reluctant.

"Hey, you say you want to be my little brother, but I don't even know your name yet." The car turned from the Xiangshan lane onto Yuanlin Road. In the rearview mirror, Xu Si saw that although Zhang Ke was gazing at her, his eyes were unfocused and he seemed lost in thought. He really did not seem like a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old. She asked, "What's your name?"

"Zhang Ke. Ke as in 'faithfully keeping one's word.' What about you?"

"You think you can learn this great beauty's name just by telling me that much?"

Zhang Ke had not expected Xu Si to make a joke like that and was genuinely taken aback. Unable to react for a moment, he tilted his head and said, "What else do you want to know?"

It suddenly occurred to Zhang Ke that even if Xu Si was Ding Xiangshan's mistress, she might have difficulties that left her no choice. Perhaps she had framed Tang Xueqian under Ding Xiangshan's coercion, and that was why she was being so friendly to a boy she did not know.

For an instant, he seemed to see a faint sorrow gathered between Xu Si's brows. Thinking of how she would end her life in prison a few years later, in the prime of her youth, Zhang Ke felt melancholy clog his heart until he could hardly breathe.

Once they left Xiangshan's shade, the heat on the road was oppressive, but as the car picked up speed, the gentle breeze felt especially refreshing. The wind stirred Xu Si's long hair, and in that moment Zhang Ke truly felt how captivating she was, how intoxicating. In that instant, he felt he ought to trust her, and told her every detail he remembered of his life before sixteen, including how his mother had forced him to give up studying board games because of his withdrawn personality, how he had just suffered a high fever, and how he had ranked third in the West District in the high school entrance examination.

Zhang Ke watched Xu Si in the rearview mirror. Her lips were pressed together as she concentrated on the road ahead, and a few fine strands of hair drifted onto her cheek. He reached out to lift them, his fingertips brushing her cold cheek.

Xu Si came back to herself and tilted her head back, drawing those strands from between Zhang Ke's fingers. Her face reddened slightly. "Hey, what are you doing? Finished talking?"

"Be my big sister?" Zhang Ke sighed softly. In his heart, he felt that his return to 1994 seemed to have been solely for the sake of saving this stunning woman. "I've honestly reported everything about myself to you, and you still haven't told me your name."

"My name is Xu Si, but I'm a bad woman. I don't deserve to be your big sister."

"These days, bad women are the ones people love. Then I'll call you Sister Xu Si, all right?" Zhang Ke's heart ached, but he deliberately adopted a teasing tone and called her that once more. "Sister Xu Si."

"Pah! Nothing decent ever comes out of your mouth!" Xu Si chided, but did not reject the way he addressed her.

"Sister Xu Si, I still don't know anything about you."

Xu Si bit her lip and thought for a long time, but could not work out what to say. She fell into thought and said nothing more, simply concentrating on driving. Zhang Ke understood. He thought that even if Xu Si wanted to find a stranger to share her helplessness with, those were not things she could casually tell a stranger. Mm.

The car headed north along Yuanlin Road, then turned left onto Taoxi Road near Haizhou University and drove into Jingsheng Garden, south of Haizhou University Affiliated High School. Jingsheng Garden was one of Haizhou's earliest commercial housing developments, and its residential environment was also the best at the time. For a while, it had been considered Haizhou's wealthy neighborhood. Before his father was dismissed from public office, his mother had constantly talked about moving to an apartment in Jingsheng Garden. Even after 2000, as more and more commercial housing developments appeared, people in Haizhou still spoke fondly of Jingsheng Garden.

Xu Si lived in an elevator-equipped apartment building at the easternmost end of Jingsheng Garden. Her apartment had one bedroom and a living room, with no sign of anyone else living there. She tossed her keys and the white envelope she had brought from the car onto the corner cabinet behind the door, changed into leather slippers, and turned to Zhang Ke, who was looking into the living room. "I don't have any slippers for boys here, so you'll have to make do. You can wear mine, or go barefoot..."

Zhang Ke glanced at Xu Si's calves beneath her dress. Her feet were small enough to cradle in one hand, and every toe peeking out of her slippers was translucent and lustrous, as though carved from pure white jade. The slippers looked a little large, but were very fancy. Zhang Ke shook his head and, without standing on ceremony, bent down, took off his shoes and socks, and stepped barefoot onto the bamboo floor.

"Sit for a while. I'll get changed first..." Xu Si handed him a bottle of drink, then turned and went into the bedroom. Zhang Ke pressed his fingers against the edge of the door. It had been latched from inside.

Standing by the door and listening to the rustling inside, Zhang Ke had no difficulty imagining Xu Si changing, yet he had no suggestive thoughts. There was not a single masculine object in the living room. It seemed the villa at the northern foot of Xiangshan was where Xu Si and Ding Xiangshan held their trysts. But rumors were now rife that Xu Si was Tang Xueqian's mistress, and she would admit as much to the investigation team. How, though, would she prove it to them? Zhang Ke looked at the white envelope on the corner cabinet. It bore the logo of a photo shop, the one in Xiangshan Forest Park. It seemed that before he bumped into her, she had been picking up photographs there.

Just as Zhang Ke was thinking of opening it to see what photographs it contained, Xu Si opened the door and came out in a plain-colored cotton dress with spaghetti straps.

She jumped when she saw Zhang Ke standing right outside. "Why do you always like standing in doorways and startling people?" Holding the dress she had taken off, she pushed him toward the living room by the shoulder. "Take off your shirt. I'll wash it for you. With a hair dryer, it'll be dry in no time."

"I wouldn't mind letting it dry slowly outside..." Zhang Ke was wearing a narrow-necked T-shirt. As he spoke, his head got stuck in the opening, leaving it completely covered by the shirt. He had Xu Si come over to help pull it off. As he brushed her arm, he felt how cool her skin was.

It was very hot outside, and the air conditioning had not yet cooled the apartment. Fine beads of sweat still dotted Xu Si's forehead, yet her skin was cool. Puzzled, Zhang Ke wanted to touch her again, but that would have been too obvious.

Zhang Ke finally struggled free of his shirt and stood bare-chested. His sixteen-year-old body was skinny, his skin pale, with neither muscular definition to be proud of nor a healthy bronze tan. Meeting Xu Si's gaze, he looked a little embarrassed. "Your skin's so cool. Sitting beside you, I wouldn't even need air conditioning."

"You're so thin." Xu Si pointed to the ribs jutting out at his sides. "But you're quite tall. I didn't notice just now..."

"You were wearing high heels just now." Zhang Ke gazed into Xu Si's upturned eyes. With her head tilted slightly upward, her forehead reached his nose. They were so close that he could almost feel her faintly warm breath against his chin. His heart stirred, and he resisted the urge to draw her into his arms as he said softly, "Sister Xu Si, you really are beautiful!"

"Stop pretending to talk like a grown-up." Xu Si lifted her eyes. She had tired of hearing compliments, but coming from the boy before her, they were not annoying in the least. She even felt rather embarrassed. Feigning anger, she swatted him with the clothes. "You little imp. What do you know about what's beautiful and what isn't?"

Zhang Ke chuckled. I'm a boy who's only just graduated from junior high now. I'd better behave like one. He did not dare keep up his glib talk. Xu Si took their clothes into the bathroom to wash them, while Zhang Ke sat on the living room sofa and turned on the television, his thoughts wandering. When the phone rang, it startled him.

Xu Si ran out of the bathroom to answer it. Zhang Ke only heard her say into the receiver, "I have a guest here. I'll come down to see you..." Then she turned to him and said, "I'm going out for a bit. Watch the place for me." Taking her keys, she opened the door and left.