The room key was tossed carelessly onto the table. The girl’s high heels tapped lightly across the floor as she walked to the bed and sat down facing him, supporting herself with both arms behind her. Her toes stretched forward, her posture graceful and alluring.
“I already showered. Are you going to wash up, handsome?”
Xue Bao Tian’s steps were hesitant. Every step forward seemed ready to retreat half a step. He dawdled his way to the sofa and sat down. Usually sharp-tongued and eloquent, he found his words strangely awkward now. “…I showered before coming.”
The girl wore a crossbody bag. As she slipped it off her shoulder, it brushed against one of her earrings. The dangling ornaments chimed softly, sparkling in the light. She patted the spot beside her. “Then… shall we start?”
Xue Bao Tian stared at the slight depression left by her hand on the soft mattress. His fingers hooked absentmindedly at a loose thread on the fabric sofa cover. “No rush. Let’s chat a little first. Are you from one of the ethnic minorities?”
The girl clicked her tongue, looking somewhat impatient. “Han Chinese. I came here with relatives when I was a teenager.” Her thick lashes lifted. “You like building some emotional connection first, handsome?”
“Yeah… something like that.” Xue Bao Tian pulled a cigarette from his pocket and held it up between his fingers. “I saw you smoking earlier, so I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
He offered the cigarette to her. “Want one?”
The girl pursed her lips and accepted it. After glancing at the brand, one eyebrow lifted in faint disdain.
Taking a deep drag, Xue Bao Tian finally settled some of the discomfort in his chest and crossed one leg over the other. The peacock spread its feathers once more. “I didn’t used to smoke this stuff. You can imagine the best. You’re just a little unlucky. Didn’t catch me in my glory days.”
Holding the cigarette, the girl gave an absentminded hum. “That’s a shame.”
Seeing that she did not believe him, Xue Bao Tian became energized. Clamping the cigarette between his teeth, he pulled out his phone and beckoned her over. “Come look at this. Your buddy here was the highest spender at nightclubs three years running. Gold-tier VIP.”
The girl strolled over and perched on the sofa armrest. Leaning down to look at the screen, she asked, “How much money is that?”
Her polished fingernail hovered over the decimal point behind the string of numbers. After counting it out, she gave another casual hum and rested an arm on Xue Bao Tian’s shoulder. Without much interest, she nodded. “Not bad.”
“Baby, just how much of the world have you seen?” Xue Bao Tian looked genuinely surprised. “Looks like I really misjudged you today.”
The girl considered it for a moment before realization dawned. Taking the cigarette from her lips, she asked, “Wait, that’s RMB?”
“What else would it be?”
“Vietnam is right next door. I thought it was Vietnamese dong. Sorry, handsome. I’m used to it.”
Laughing, Xue Bao Tian put away his phone and brushed her arm off his shoulder. “No need to apologize. That’s all in the past now.” He raised the cigarette in his hand. “Now this is all I can afford.”
“Rich or poor, you’ve still got to enjoy life.” The girl stubbed out her cigarette and slowly moved closer. “Brother, finished building emotional connections yet? Shall we start?”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Turning sideways on the sofa, Xue Bao Tian widened the distance between them. “How old are you? You’re an adult, right?”
The question pleased her. Sweeping a hand through her hair, she replied, “Twenty-one. Twenty-two after New Year.”
The same age as Yan Ye.
Xue Bao Tian’s heart jumped.
Fuck. Why did I think of him?
He hurriedly shoved the cigarette into his mouth, steadied himself, forced Yan Ye’s name out of his mind, and asked, “No husband or boyfriend, right? I don’t do that kind of immoral crap.”
The girl burst into laughter. “Brother, you’re pretty funny. No husband, no boyfriend. But if you want to hear it, I can call you one later.”
She began unbuttoning her shirt and casually asked in the same offhand tone, “What about you? Am I helping you cheat?”
His feet immediately drew back, his spine stiffening.
It felt as though Yan Ye’s powerful hand had slapped him directly across the heart.
Noticing his strange expression, the girl paused. “Did I actually hit the mark?” she asked with a laugh. “Don’t worry. I don’t carry that much guilt about these things. Life’s about being happy.”
She had already undone the button at her collar and grabbed the hem of her shirt to pull it upward, but before she could lift it far, Xue Bao Tian tugged it back down.
“Easy, baby, easy.” Xue Bao Tian clung desperately to her shirt. “Let me think. Let me think.”
The girl looked utterly speechless. “Think about what?”
Had he ever specifically told Yan Ye not to fool around outside? Xue Bao Tian was hardly a model citizen, and whatever he and Yan Ye had could not exactly be called a proper relationship. But if he had demanded that Yan Ye keep his hands clean while he himself ran around doing whatever he wanted, then that would be crossing a line.
He thought about it for a long while and vaguely remembered something. He could not recall the exact words anymore, only that he had probably warned Yan Ye, sharp-tongued as ever, that while whatever existed between them lasted, Yan Ye was not allowed to make him lose face.
“Handsome, have you figured it out yet?” The girl pulled another cigarette from his pack and placed it between her lips. Flicking the lighter, she looked at him mockingly through lowered eyes. “If you weren’t this good-looking, I’d have left ages ago with how pathetic you’re acting.”
Seeing that he still sat there silently with his eyes lowered, she slung her bag over her shoulder, cursed in a dialect he could not understand, and turned to leave.
“Re long bao, ma de ri kuan.”
Elio’s Notes: The girl is swearing in a local dialect. The source glosses the phrase roughly as “idiot” and “acting crazy.”
Before she reached the door, the man behind her finally spoke.
“Hey, wait.”
Xue Bao Tian extinguished his cigarette. His gaze wandered awkwardly, and he seemed unable to get the words out. “Baby… could you let me… look at your chest?”
The girl turned around and frowned at him. “What?”
Xue Bao Tian gestured vaguely toward her bust. “Just one look.” The fingers resting on the sofa curled one by one. “Just one look.”
The girl had plenty of experience and understood immediately. Her gaze dropped lower. “Can’t get it up? Some kind of male problem? You using me as a test subject?”
Holding her cigarette, she walked back step by step and leaned over the sofa armrest. “Handsome, if you’ve got the ability, then hook up. If you don’t, stop wasting other people’s time. Understand?”
Xue Bao Tian never lost his temper at women, and he knew he was in the wrong. He could only nod awkwardly. “I know. My fault.”
Over the past few nights, Xue Bao Tian had made several more attempts. He had gone through one fantasy goddess after another. He had practically rubbed himself bald and still had not managed it once. Yan Ye had apparently entered menopause early and had lately been alternating between indifference and outright ignoring him. Yet the moment that bastard touched him a few times, the utterly useless thing in Xue Bao Tian’s pants immediately started stirring again.
After thinking it over, he found an explanation. Looking through a screen simply lacked realism. He needed to see the real thing with his own eyes if he wanted to restore his masculine confidence.
Steeling himself, he said to the girl, “How about… I pay you, and you let me… take a look?”
The girl laughed and took a drag on her cigarette. “What, you think I’m selling myself? Handsome, I’ve slept with plenty of people, but I don’t sell!”
As her lips moved, the cigarette burned down a little further. The faint ember at its tip was barely noticeable in the daylight, but Xue Bao Tian’s expression still stiffened as he instinctively shifted backward.
“Scared of this?” Catching that fleeting reaction, the girl removed the cigarette and slowly leaned toward him with a teasing smile. “Handsome, how about this? Let me burn you once, and I’ll let you see my chest.”
Xue Bao Tian immediately raised a hand to block the cigarette. It was not that he was scared. Yan Ye had not even been willing to burn him, so why should anyone else get to? Besides, if someone else left a cigarette scar on him, that bastard who was sometimes surnamed Yan and sometimes surnamed Zhang would probably skin him alive.
The girl and the cigarette moved closer and closer. Gripping the hand holding the cigarette, Xue Bao Tian said calmly, “Baby, know your limits. Don’t make me hurt you.”
The cigarette was inches away. The girl’s breath brushed his ear. Before Xue Bao Tian had even finished speaking, the inn room door was suddenly kicked open from the outside with a deafening bang!