He asked her if she would submit.

In this moment of passionate entanglement, while taking advantage of her behind the backs of the roomful of friends downstairs, while Fang Xuan persistently knocked on the door outside. Her grip on his arm grew even tighter, her forehead pressed firmly against him, sweat forming on her neck. Under his forceful movements once more, she gasped, her long hair at the back of her head swaying.

But her chest felt incredibly hot, scorching hot—it was the intense emotion that erupted in the instant of uniting with the person she’d longed for day and night. It spread from her chest cavity to her lower abdomen, her entire body burning and tingling, unprecedented and irresistible. Then she gave Jin Yiken a slap. He turned his chin aside for a second, but the next second he had both her hands pinned down, pressing them against the sofa. Outside the door, Fang Xuan finally gave up, leaving one final sentence: “I’m DMing you on Insta!”

Fang Xuan left, but Jin Yiken didn’t leave. He looked like he had no intention of leaving the entire evening.

The party downstairs, now missing its host, continued non-stop with unceasing noise. Long Qi spent the following hours entangled with him in this house. They shamelessly “copulated” in the master bedroom with the lights off. The moonlight was weak, falling on Jin Yiken’s shoulder muscles and arms. This time he was more ruthless than ever before, very good at tormenting her. Her hair became damp and sticky against the side of her neck. Looking at him in the darkness, she had only one thought—that she might die with him on this bed. Her gasps gradually leaked out choked sounds, which were immediately muffled by his arm.

She was blocked from breathing properly.

Supporting herself against his chest, both their skin scorching hot abnormally, speaking incoherent love words, then kissing passionately and intensely. Later he held her shoulders tightly, she was nearly spent, calling his name, clutching his neck, then buried by the distant clamor from downstairs, covered by the continuously vibrating phone calls on the nightstand. Her long hair scattered messily, soaking a large patch of the pillow.

This sudden onset of lovemaking didn’t end until the city welcomed dawn.

This ancestor Jin Yiken had fallen asleep.

The steam from the bathroom drifted into the master bedroom, making the air half cold and half hot. She sat on the edge of the bay window, her hair not completely dry, dripping water. Her arms rested on her knees, holding a cigarette between her fingers, half-smoked.

Her arms, shoulders, and thighs all had numerous bruises. She hadn’t let him off easy either—she’d scratched a bloody mark on his neck near his ear. But overall, she still suffered more. Her legs were still weak with phantom strength even now, and she still couldn’t sleep.

This kind of craziness that nearly killed her had happened once before.

One of his buddies had the habit of taking certain “pills”—the kind of thing that devoured willpower, numbed nerves, and manufactured false superficial pleasure. The more hyped up the occasion, the more people used it to add fuel to the fire. Jin Yiken hadn’t been interested before. He played around, but he kept his priorities straight and maintained his bottom line. The only time was after he’d fought with her and was in a irritated mood, at an underground party where he touched that stuff.

It was that time when he took her to another province for her birthday.

He hadn’t touched it since. Long Qi had used blocking him for a week to get his handwritten apology and guarantee letter in return—over five thousand characters. At the time, it wasn’t about caring for his health; she just hated how after eating that stuff he’d be especially energetic, would torment her, and wouldn’t know when to be gentle. She couldn’t stand it.

And now it seemed he’d gotten into this stuff again abroad. Everything he did to her yesterday was like drug effects. Once this thought emerged, she couldn’t stop it. Dou Junyun’s answer to “you know what road is easiest to take with an ex” floated in her mind as she slowly tapped ash from her cigarette.

Was he really here to reconcile with her, or was he just taking that ex’s road?

But the sad thing wasn’t the matter itself, but the vague realization that even if it was the latter, she still couldn’t refuse Jin Yiken’s next time so decisively. She really liked him.

Her phone screen was lit, with a boarding reminder text from the airline, and a message from Lao Ping sent at five in the morning reminding her not to oversleep. Today she had to record an outdoor variety show in an island city. She’d booked a seven o’clock morning flight and would stay there for five days.

Downstairs had already gone silent, falling quiet from dawn without a sound. When that shrewd Jin Yiken came, he’d been holding car keys, so most people thought he’d left.

Deviously cunning.

She stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray, chin resting on her knees, lost in thought, contemplating. Then she smoothed her hair again and removed the bathrobe wrapped around her body, heading to the dressing room.

When she left, she didn’t wake Jin Yiken. The suitcase rolled across the floor, the door clicked shut—all these sounds still didn’t wake that guy. She stopped briefly when passing the 26th floor.

His door was still open. The place was deserted, the table full of bottles with debris everywhere on the floor. She’d originally just wanted to come close the door, but in the living room she saw Wu Jiakui sitting alone on the sofa. She was supporting her forehead, hair covering the side of her face. Her mind was still clear. Following the sound, she slowly looked toward the doorway, eyes slightly narrowed with a trace of post-drinking confusion. Seeing Long Qi, she smiled silently.

Then she got up from the sofa, walking toward her direction with a stumble every three steps. She still carried an air of pride, more intense than usual. Her eyes were clearly slightly red, yet she gave a cold laugh. Long Qi didn’t mince words, hands in her pockets: “Don’t wait anymore, he’s upstairs.”

“So did you two get back together or not?”

Long Qi didn’t answer this question.

A sound came from the bathroom. Ban Wei, looking completely blacked out, slowly emerged from inside. The clock’s hour hand pointed to six. Long Qi prepared to leave. Behind her came a sound—Wu Jiakui had knocked a ceramic piece from the cabinet at the entrance onto the floor. It shattered everywhere.

Ban Wei was scared half sober.

Wu Jiakui reeked heavily of alcohol, one hand supporting herself on the cabinet. Ban Wei asked what was going on, but she turned a deaf ear and said: “Tell him I’m angry.”

……

“I won’t.” Long Qi replied.

Acting as if she’d been caught cheating.

Later she rushed to the airport right on time, catching up on three hours of sleep on the plane.

During this time Lao Ping talked a lot. He’d had a good sleep and was incredibly energetic, insisting on telling her about the several scheduled activities in the island city. She couldn’t handle it. Her whole person hadn’t recovered from the all-night ordeal yet and couldn’t listen to any nagging, telling him to wake her up after the plane landed.

Before Lao Ping let her off, he asked about the bruise on her knee: “How’d you get this?”

Turning his head to instruct the female assistant: “Cover it with powder after we land, so it doesn’t get caught and speculated about again.”

Long Qi, supporting her forehead, said nothing, lazily looking out the cabin window. Her powered-off phone kept spinning on the blanket. Lao Ping even pushed her head: “Told you to sleep early and you wouldn’t listen, now you’re all listless.”

“Can’t I have a sex life?”

Lao Ping pointed at her once and tossed her an eye mask.

After landing and turning on her phone, she still received no new messages. It was now ten-thirty in the morning. She sat in the car heading to the hotel, half-asleep the whole way. After three hours of supplementary sleep, her entire body felt even more sore, as if overdrawn, weak beyond measure. But her mind was still full of the love words Jin Yiken had whispered in her ear at the time. Remembering his breathless tone when speaking, her chest itched again. Annoying to death. She simply sat up and unlocked her phone screen.

“What are your plans for our relationship now?” After typing this question with a question mark, she deleted the entire sentence. Her finger hesitated on the screen for a few seconds before switching to another sentence: Are you awake?

Delete again.

The car moved smoothly, swaying slightly. She typed a third sentence: I know why you came looking for me, if it really is that, you shouldn’t again…

She didn’t type out what came after “again,” still deleting the entire sentence. Rubbing her forehead, she finally tapped out two words: Scumbag.

One-click send.

Exiting the messages page, she locked the phone screen and called to Lao Ping: “Didn’t you want to tell me about the schedule?”

The afternoon schedule was a variety show recording at a local university. This variety show was a currently popular large-scale outdoor competitive reality show, inviting artists with buzz or in promotional periods. Each episode had seven or eight guests participating, and she was the only female guest in this episode.

The university had many students. Those with and without classes all came to watch. There were also numerous fan support stations from various artists who’d rushed from outside the school. Her car started being surrounded and intercepted from the moment it entered the school gate. The walk from getting out of the car to the recording location was also difficult, protected by four or five program staff members. Real-time messages and videos were uploaded to Weibo one by one. More and more people came upon hearing the news. The entire scene was incredibly hyped.

The recording location was a temporary venue built on the campus playground, surrounded by barrier fences. The photographers and director team all stood uniformly three or four meters in front of the venue. She wore very simple white T-shirt and jeans, long curly hair draped over her shoulders. Before appearing, she’d already greeted several senior artists. After appearing, several male guests all applauded. Each one was more excited than when greeting individually, joking that at this moment the subtitle team should be making special effects behind her—four big characters: Legendary Beauty.

They also said the show couldn’t continue recording, they just wanted to stroll campus streets with her.

She laughed.

This program had many game checkpoints. The university was the first stop. During recording, there was a fixed program team specifically following her, cameras filming twenty-four hours. All guests were given the task of finding something like a card—if they didn’t find it, they wouldn’t eat.

But Long Qi wasn’t the type to earnestly follow rules and play games.

Her whole person was weak as anything, and she was supposed to search the entire campus for cards—where would she get that energy? So throughout the entire recording process she was lazy as water. Lao Ping had specifically instructed her to show extra effort here, but she didn’t. She specialized in sabotaging those older brothers who’d found cards, watching from the side as they fought like snipe and clam, then openly profiting as the fisherman. Quite clever. She quickly accumulated enough cards to eat, but she couldn’t find the designated eating place. She won the game but couldn’t find it.

That was somewhat frustrating.

But the fans who’d been chasing her all along were thoughtful. They’d specifically brought soup dumplings, lying in a takeout box, still warm. When she passed by, they shouted her name loudly, reaching out to her, wanting her to take them. At that time, recording was approaching the end. She was returning to the main venue with program staff. The sky had also darkened. Lights were on along the university’s tree-lined path. She glanced in the direction of the girls following the sound.

Lao Ping subtly pushed her. She replied: “I’m recording, can’t take it.”

The girls hadn’t expected her to actually respond across the distance. Excited, they also reacted quickly, taking out chopsticks and shouting one after another: “Just eat one here, Qiqi, eat one, don’t go hungry!”

This really tempted her.

Her steps turned, actually heading toward them. The girls let out a burst of delighted shouts. As she approached, they frankly praised “so beautiful, so beautiful, she’s so beautiful in person.” Before she arrived, they’d already unwrapped the chopsticks. She said thank you. A bunch of people said no need to thank, no need to thank. The female fan wearing a mask and holding the takeout box had a face flushed red with excitement, her hand picking up the soup dumpling trembling. She said: “It’s okay, take it easy.”

While speaking, she raised her hand to tie up her hair. The girls rushed to say “Qiqi, keep it up,” “You’ve worked hard, Qiqi,” “Eat more, Qiqi,” using phones to record her. While recording, they also covered their mouths and said quietly “oh damn, she’s really so beautiful, how is she so white in person”…

“Is there vinegar?”

“Yes yes yes yes! Qiqi, do you prefer eating crab roe soup dumplings or Wuxi xiaolongbao?”

“Wuxi xiaolongbao.”

But she’d only bitten half the soup dumpling when Lao Ping pulled her, smiling at the girls: “Thank you, we’re recording a show.”

Then dragging her away, instantly five steps away from them, saying: “It’s already evening, what are you eating? You still have to be on camera tomorrow. Also, whatever fans bring, you say you like to eat? What they brought was crab roe soup dumplings.”

“Annoying to death.”

She shook off his hand.

Later, this short video of her eating soup dumplings was posted on the fan support group’s official Weibo.

A girl who was there commented: Long Qi in person is really beautiful! It’s the shocking, bewitching kind. Her voice when talking to you up close is also amazing! A combination of aloof and lazy, ah ah ah, super has that feeling. The part where she got caught by her manager uncle was also very funny! Even though she was busy recording the show, she still remembered to say thank you to us. I’m devoted to my Goddess Qi for this lifetime!

She saw these comments on her phone handed to her by the female assistant in the car back to the hotel.

Her own phone was still slowly spinning in her hand. So far, not one of the several unread messages was from Jin Yiken. Her mood was dejected. She said to Lao Ping: “I want to eat Wuxi xiaolongbao.”

“No can do.”

She vengefully kicked at the back of Lao Ping’s seat. Lao Ping still ignored her. Later she remembered the video Fang Xuan was going to send her and logged into Instagram. Just entering the main page, she happened to refresh to a photo update from a girl.

This girl was the girlfriend of one of Jin Yiken’s circle of buddies.

She’d spoken a few words with her at a gathering before—a rich girl with a good personality, not pretentious. So she’d mutually followed her Instagram account earlier. She’d uploaded a status five minutes ago—three photos of her boyfriend playing night basketball, looking like the outdoor basketball court inside Yiming Bay.

Long Qi looked, supporting her forehead, her fingertip sliding past the first two images. Both were photos of guys playing basketball on the court. When she slid to the third image, sure enough she saw Jin Yiken in full athletic gear inside. It was a back view, but she recognized him at a glance from the back of his head and that height.

He was playing basketball.

Hadn’t even replied to that message calling him scum, and was out playing night basketball with people.

And he’d already been playing for a while—the back of his tank top collar was soaked with sweat from his back. The tattoo near his ear was very prominent. Standing next to him was that girl’s boyfriend. Both were tall, walking toward the hoop one in front of the other. That guy was walking backwards, facing him, grinning and talking to him. Light slanted across Jin Yiken’s shoulder, stretching a long shadow on the court.

Well then, plenty of energy.

Even Wu Jiakui’s anger hadn’t affected him. He was still eating well, drinking well, and playing exciting things. There was no sign he intended to give her an explanation, as if that session in the early morning today really was a mutually understood “hookup.” She looked at this photo for a full thirty seconds, then forcefully locked the screen. Lao Ping just happened to see a soup dumpling shop along the street and asked: “Look, do you still want…”

“Want what.”

Lao Ping and the female assistant both turned to look at her. She said again: “Look at what.”

……

But that image of Jin Yiken’s back under the lights kept flashing in her mind.

After returning to the hotel and washing with hot water, she still couldn’t cleanly dismiss that photo. At nine in the evening, Lao Ping and a female program editor stayed in her room communicating about tomorrow’s matters. A stack of program flow sheets was placed on the small round table. Lao Ping chatted endlessly with the other party. Long Qi idly listened from the side, sitting on the sofa with her left leg crossed. The bruises on her leg were more obvious than in the morning—blue patches and purple patches.

While scrolling through WeChat Moments, she came across a status from Assistant Wang beside Zang Xipu. It was work-related content, and the location was also in this island city. Scrolling down a bit more, she discovered Lao Ping had already fawned over him in the comments section, clamoring about getting together. Later she scrolled for a while more. Still, there were no people or things that could capture her attention. After exiting the WeChat page, she once again was possessed to click into that girl’s Instagram.

Jin Yiken’s photo was still hanging there.

This back view really was…

The restlessness from earlier had now settled, but a lingering itch emerged again. The suite floated with a faint smell of smoke. Her fingertip explored the edge of the phone body for a long time. At the same time, Lao Ping’s phone on the coffee table vibrated.

Lao Ping didn’t even look, bringing it to his ear. The topic he was discussing stopped.

Long Qi’s attention was still on her phone.

After listening for a few seconds, Lao Ping gestured to the female editor, got up and went outside the suite to take the call. It didn’t take long—about half a minute—before he returned. He chatted a few more sentences with the female editor, saying there were no problems with the flow and such, dismissing the other party. Very deliberate. Long Qi sat motionless on the sofa, glancing at Lao Ping. After the female editor closed the door, Lao Ping immediately extended his index finger, tapping at the top of her head: “What did you do yesterday?”

“What?”

“Planning to hide it from me, huh?” Lao Ping continued waving his index finger in the air, his other hand holding his phone, switching to the call log, showing her the most recent incoming call. “Recognize this number?”

Above was a string of phone numbers without a saved name. But she was particularly sensitive, recognizing at a glance that it was Jin Yiken’s newly changed phone number. Lao Ping asked: “What’s the situation with you two?”

Her chest cavity instantly went up and down in turmoil. She dropped her lazy state, her body involuntarily sitting up a bit: “Why is he calling you?”

“Are you two together again?”

“What did he say?”

“…He asked for the hotel name and room number where you’re staying, told me to send him a location.”

“Did you send it?”

“I did. From his tone, it didn’t sound like he wanted to come beat you up.”

……

“And then?” After three seconds of reaction, her mouth dry, she asked, “What else did he say?”

Lao Ping gave her a sideways look: “Didn’t you clamor all day about wanting to eat Wuxi xiaolongbao? He said he ordered two baskets for you, should arrive in about fifteen minutes, told me to receive them.”

Looking at Lao Ping, she made no sound. Lao Ping was still nagging, but the itch she’d been suppressing inside broke free of its cage at this moment. Her mind felt a bit stuffy, a bit hot. Then her phone dinged again with a sound. She looked over. Jin Yiken hadn’t replied to her “scumbag” text message. He’d directly skipped steps and sent her a WeChat friend request.