Tu Li’s unexpected slap landed on Chen Yi’s rigid cheek. Though the force wasn’t particularly strong, the crisp sound made her pause, her confidence immediately dropping. Seeing Chen Yi’s grim expression and explosive anger, she felt a mix of anxiety, shame, and confusion.

She had acted out of humiliation and anger—this position of being the official girlfriend was something Tu Li had worked hard to maintain, putting in considerable effort.

This wasn’t the first time she’d seen Chen Yi at the bar. Back then, he was probably discussing business with someone, having reserved a booth for several consecutive days. Wearing a white shirt that stood out particularly well under the colored lights, Tu Li saw her opportunity. She deliberately spilled a glass of red wine on him, and he caught her “accidentally” dropping the wine glass with a grin. The conversation naturally progressed to dry cleaning costs and phone numbers. Later, they hung out together with various friends at different venues, and things developed naturally from there.

At that time, Chen Yi occasionally had a troublesome ex-girlfriend, a small-time boss’s daughter from a casino family. Tu Li had investigated their breakup reason: the ex-girlfriend had dragged Chen Yi to buy rings, but he was unwilling. In the end, he bought two matching rings, but when his ex-girlfriend tried to put the male ring on Chen Yi’s finger, he got annoyed, threw away the ring, and ended things right there.

Tu Li could understand that ex-girlfriend’s desire to claim ownership—just at the pool hall alone, Chen Yi would stay until midnight, with several beautiful women taking turns as practice partners, spending day and night with him, joking around. Many girls would come to the pool hall too, secretly coming to see Chen Yi. When he taught girls to play pool, bending over the table, showing off his smooth, athletic shoulders and back, his tight waist and buttocks, giving hands-on guidance with posture—how many girls could resist that?

Even with Tu Li watching every move at the pool hall, she couldn’t stop those girls from clinging to him. Chen Yi wasn’t stupid either—how could he coldly turn away customers? He’d lean on the pool table with both hands, a strong tobacco scent about him, looking at them with lazy, smiling eyes, making a few jokes. The young girls would blush and get excited, even pushing past her, the official girlfriend. He didn’t care if the women around him were clingy or distant, and didn’t mind if they were controlling or hands-off. He spoke little, always doing things his way, sometimes not contacting anyone for ten to fifteen days, never informing those around him of his plans.

Initially, Tu Li thought she’d just have some fun and be done with it—wild men couldn’t be relied upon. But when he slowly raised his eyes to look at someone, she couldn’t let go. Moreover, Chen Yi treated her well enough: the sex was satisfying, he wasn’t tight with money, much better than other men who just took advantage without spending anything. How could she not try to hold on tight?

Later, Tu Li cultivated relationships with Chen Yi’s friend group, occasionally probing about his movements, roughly knowing his daily whereabouts. She usually stayed humble and kept a tight grip on him. They had been dating on and off for over a year, and she felt she had a good handle on him. Even though she felt that with Chen Yi’s floating, unstable temperament, he would eventually cheat or have affairs, when she suddenly saw Miao Jing standing behind him earlier, quietly observing her with clear black and white eyes, it directly crushed her inner confidence. Without thinking, in a moment of hot-headedness, her hand had swung out.

After swinging, she felt a bit dazed.

“Thud.”

Miao Jing closed the door, and the room fell completely silent.

“What sister? I’ve never heard you had a sister at home, though there are plenty of ‘sisters’ outside.” Tu Li pressed her lips together in embarrassment and anger. Miao Jing’s room used to be empty except for storage, and considering the traces around the house, it seemed another woman had moved in. Without any warning, she had been replaced by a young girl, and what should have been a romantic night rendezvous had turned into catching someone in the act.

Chen Yi noticed her staring at Miao Jing’s room, his gaze dark and his voice erupting: “That was her room before, she lived in that room for ten years, is that enough?”

Tu Li was somewhat stunned.

“Explain yourself clearly.”

“Put your clothes on first.”

There was still someone else in the house, and water drops from her wet hair had soaked her T-shirt. Tu Li’s legs were still bare, showing too much skin. She confusedly put on her clothes, then looked at Chen Yi standing with his arms crossed, his face cold and drooping, emanating a suppressed, agitated aura.

Before either could speak, the door opened, and Miao Jing came out wearing casual clothes—a loose, plain T-shirt and pants. She held a hair dryer in her hand, her expression peaceful, her voice gentle.

“I have the hair dryer here, dry your hair. Your toiletries are in the cabinet under the sink. I didn’t know whose they were, so I put them all away.”

“I’m Miao Jing. I’ve been living here for over half a month. When I came back, Chen Yi wasn’t home, so I took the liberty of cleaning up the room.”

Miao Jing’s expression showed not a trace of shame, nervousness, or arrogant mockery. Her tone didn’t seem to be hiding anything or lying but rather was so calm it made others feel steady. Tu Li frowned, looking at her, then at Chen Yi, her questioning gaze switching between the two.

“You’re his sister? A relative or…?”

They didn’t look alike at all, and even their surnames were different.

“He didn’t tell you?” Miao Jing asked in return.

“Of course not!”

Both women, four eyes staring at him simultaneously. Chen Yi deeply furrowed his brows, his face dark, taking large strides forward to grab Tu Li: “I’ll take you home first.”

“When I came in, I heard sounds in the house. He said his sister-in-law had come. On the way back, he even said he wanted to have dinner with you, to meet and get to know each other.” Miao Jing stepped back, “You two talk, I have to go to the company early tomorrow, so I’ll rest first.”

Hearing her tone, Tu Li’s eyes grew even more confused. She wanted to seek confirmation from Chen Yi, but was cut off by his shout: “We’ll talk on the way.”

She stumbled after Chen Yi down the stairs. The car door slammed shut before she could react: “What can’t be said clearly at home?”

“Why did you come?” Chen Yi frowned, “Who told you to come over?”

“Is she your sister? I’ve never heard you mention having a sister at home.”

“Yes.”

Tu Li still felt something was off and argued with him, tossing her hair: “Why can’t I come? You said you had something at home, was this it? Why didn’t you let me know?”

Chen Yi rubbed his face with his thumb, lit a cigarette, and snorted irritably: “What’s it got to do with you? Have I ever meddled in your family affairs? Have your family members ever let me know anything?”

Tu Li was stunned, slumping in the car, lost in thought, her spirit weakened: “Who is she?”

His expression was as calm as water, showing not a ripple towards her: “My sister, she’s back in Teng City for work, moved back home.”

The car started aggressively, speeding down the road. Chen Yi dropped Tu Li off at her building, paying no attention to her, and drove away.

Back on the road, Chen Yi still went to the pool hall, returning only after closing time. When the car stopped back at his building, the second-floor lights were completely out, the left room’s curtains drawn tight. He lowered his eyes to light a cigarette, his eyelashes casting fan-shaped shadows below his eyes, lost in thought for a long while. Slowly exhaling a cloud of smoke, his toned arm hanging out the car window, his fingertip lightly flicking, revealing a point of red light floating in the dim night.

He didn’t know why she had come back.

–

Tu Li sought out Chen Yi’s old friends, asking Spike, Bo Zai, Big Head Yuan, and A-Yong. They all said the same thing.

“Miao Jing is back?”

Chen Yi hadn’t said anything, none of them knew Miao Jing had returned.

Tu Li felt half-reassured: “Miao Jing? You all know her?”

They all said they knew her but to different degrees. Some had heard of Miao Jing’s name, some had seen her a few times, some were acquainted with her, and some were quite familiar with her and had a good relationship.

“Chen Yi’s sister, but not his blood sister. No blood relation—Chen Yi’s father found a woman from out of town who brought a daughter with her to live together. It’s been over ten years, right? Miao Jing was there when Chen Yi was in elementary school. Later, Miao Jing got into university, went to study in a big city, and then lost contact, never came back.”

“Why didn’t any of you say anything?”

“Yi-ge never mentions it, it’s not a good thing, he doesn’t like talking about this stuff. Bring it up and his face goes cold. He and Miao Jing have a pretty bad relationship, Chen Yi used to often get angry at her and find her annoying.”

“Their relationship is that bad?”

From last night’s brief encounter, the two indeed weren’t close, distant in a way, unlike relatives or friends.

“Bad, about as bad as enemies, ice-cold, they don’t talk.”

Those in the know chuckled: “How bad? When Yi-ge caused trouble outside, his sister called 110 to report him to the police, putting righteousness before family relations, wanting to send Yi-ge to jail to eat prison food. Yi-ge had never been so frustrated by anyone else, it drove him crazy with anger. Later when Miao Jing left, Yi-ge was much happier.”

Tu Li asked around, getting a seven or eight out of ten understanding of the situation, knowing that Chen Yi’s so-called sister was someone with history, and it had been a misunderstanding. Last night’s scene, where she had ranted about Chen Yi’s womanizing in front of the siblings, with Chen Yi’s face turning so dark—thinking back, it was indeed quite embarrassing.

The next day, Tu Li went to the pool hall to find Chen Yi again. The hall was filled with smoke, and he was playing pool with someone, just finishing a clean shot, in a great mood. Tu Li went up with a smile to massage his shoulders and back, serving tea and water while apologizing, saying she wanted to meet Miao Jing again to apologize, suggesting they all have a meal together.

Chen Yi methodically applied chalk to his cue stick, not looking at Tu Li. He bent his narrow waist close to the pool table, making the break shot, and said coldly: “She’s on a company team building trip these few days, wait until the weekend.”

–

Miao Jing’s company organized a team-building activity for new employees, taking everyone to a farm in the suburbs for training exercises, and hiking across obstacles at a rural resort. Most members were young and strong guys, full of passion and energy, handling it easily. The few female employees gritted their teeth and followed along, with male colleagues occasionally lending a hand, and team members quickly became familiar with each other.

Miao Jing and Lu Zhengsi were from the same hometown, same major, and same department, assigned to the same group for activities, with particularly many common topics, and they got along well.

Lu Zhengsi was tall, had monolids, white skin, and two small dimples when he smiled. He was a year younger than Miao Jing, quite a steady and ambitious young man. Everyone had the title of engineer, all calling Miao Jing Engineer Miao, and Miao Jing called him Engineer Lu. Lu Zhengsi scratched his head, somewhat shyly saying to Miao Jing: “It sounds like a boiler worker, I don’t like it. Engineer Miao, you can just call me Zhengsi, or if not, call me by my English name, I’m Jack.”

Miao Jing couldn’t help but laugh: “Then I’ll still call you Zhengsi, otherwise calling you Jack in the workshop would feel a bit strange.”

After two days of team building, everyone also took home a bag of sweet melons from the farm. Lu Zhengsi happened to have some business in the city district and offered to drop Miao Jing home on the way. Seeing him covered in sweat, Miao Jing invited him up for a drink of water, saying she also had some professional materials from her previous job that she could share with him.

Lu Zhengsi didn’t decline and was about to respond when a cigarette butt fell straight down beside them. He and Miao Jing looked up to see a young man sitting brazenly on the second-floor balcony, one long leg propped on the windowsill, his casual and unruly gaze like sunlight piercing through dark clouds, falling directly on the two people below.

This man looked familiar—Lu Zhengsi remembered, he was the man who had come to pick up Miao Jing in his car at the last dinner gathering.

“Engineer Miao… is this your boyfriend?” Lu Zhengsi stopped in his tracks, his expression slightly awkward.

“No,” Miao Jing glanced up briefly and said softly, “my brother.”

Since someone was home, and this person had an intimidating presence, Lu Zhengsi didn’t go up. He handed the melons and backpack to Miao Jing, waved goodbye, and left. She went upstairs to open the door, and Chen Yi was still sitting in the balcony window. Seeing her return, he swung his long leg down and said casually, “You’re back?”

“Mm.”

“Didn’t we agree I’d pick you up? Why did you come back by yourself?”

“The company had a bus to bring us back.”

Miao Jing directly took off her sun-protective shirt, revealing a white knit tank top underneath that showed her graceful body curves. Her long hair was tied up, exposing her slender swan-like neck—her shoulders and back of her neck were bright red from the sun, burning painfully. She walked to her room with quick steps to find aloe gel, turned on the bathroom ceiling light, and stood in front of the mirror, reaching back to apply the gel.

Her delicate white fingertips touched the transparent gel, carefully and tremblingly applying it to the back of her neck. When she touched the small, reddened bump of her cervical vertebra, Miao Jing took a slight breath, her fingertips gently massaging it.

Chen Yi leaned against the chair with his arms crossed, eyes downcast: “Then I’ll go pick up Tu Li first, we’ll all have dinner together tonight.”

“Can we eat at home? I’m sore all over from exercising these past two days, I don’t want to go out.” Miao Jing’s tired face showed little expression, “I’ll cook later, you two can come over to eat.”

He paused, his tone slightly impatient: “Why bother cooking then, I’ll just bring some food back.”

“That works too.”

The bathroom door closed in front of him, with the sound of running water coming from inside. Chen Yi was about to leave when he suddenly turned back to close the door, catching a glimpse of a white fabric shadow hazily passing across the glass door.

–

In the evening, Tu Li and Chen Yi came back together, both carrying takeout boxes. Miao Jing was cutting fruit in the kitchen when she heard the noise and looked back.

Tu Li was eager to be friendly, warmly hugging Miao Jing, her voice sweet and her perfume wafting over: “Little sister Jing, hello.”

“Hello.”

“I brought you a little gift, I don’t know if you’ll like it.” Tu Li blinked, handing over a tube of lipstick, “You can call me Tu Li, Lilith, or Sister Li, no need to be formal with me.”

“Thank you, Sister Li.”

Women always have topics to discuss, and although Miao Jing appeared reserved, she wasn’t cold or antisocial. The two women talked while passing plates in the kitchen. Chen Yi stood at the kitchen door for a while, his eyes as still as a deep well, watching the two of them like this. Without saying much, he went to the balcony to smoke and play with his phone.

“That night, I was confused, I’m sorry.” Tu Li was quite forthright, bumping Miao Jing’s arm, “It was quite embarrassing, the situation became quite awkward.”

Miao Jing’s tone was calm: “It’s fine, no need to apologize, women are intuitive creatures…”

She suddenly stopped there, not continuing.

Tu Li sighed, her tone complaining: “It wasn’t intentional, your brother attracts women like bees to honey, some girls just won’t go away no matter what, I thought…”

“I understand, he was like this before. When he was in vocational high school, he always had many girls around him, they would even come to the house to find him.”

“Really?”

Miao Jing changed the subject, putting fruit into a plate and getting dishes from the cabinet for the takeout: “You bought a lot of hot dishes, we won’t be able to finish it all in one meal.”

“Your brother and I don’t like cooking, we’re used to eating out. He has this habit of ordering everything he likes, regardless of anything else. I didn’t know what dishes you like either, so I ordered a couple extra… This restaurant is quite famous, we should go eat there together next time.”

“That’s nice.” Miao Jing smiled, “Being able to order whatever you want to eat, that’s happiness.”

The two chatted, with Tu Li asking about Miao Jing’s age, how long she’d stayed in Teng City, which university she attended, and about her new job, expressing admiration.

“You’re impressive. But since you were such a good student before, why didn’t you influence Chen Yi? If he had studied well, he might have gone to university too, become an engineer or something.”

Miao Jing showed no regret: “He didn’t want to study, you can’t force these things.”

True, if Chen Yi had studied, he wouldn’t be in Teng City, he might have soared to the sky.

“So why did you decide to come back to Teng City? Big cities are so much better. I want to go dance on a bigger stage, but I don’t have the survival skills yet.”

“For my kind of work, it doesn’t make much difference where you work. After graduation, I shared an apartment with classmates, spent three hours commuting every day, ate takeout boxed meals, and often had overtime and business trips. I feel smaller cities offer a happier life.”

She’d been out there, in the top-tier metropolis, seen what she hadn’t seen before, understood what it was all about, found nothing particularly special, and that was enough.

Tu Li agreed with this.

A faint smell of smoke drifted from the kitchen, and following Miao Jing’s gaze, she saw Chen Yi leaning on the balcony smoking. Through the kitchen window, they could see part of his profile, his striking brow, straight nose, and determined jaw.

Miao Jing steadily withdrew her gaze and asked Tu Li: “What about you, Sister Li? Do you live alone? Are you still dancing?”

“I live with my parents, and I have a little brother who’s only five this year. My parents are getting older but still working, so I help take care of my brother. I did dance for a while, used to dance at tourist spots, but it was too far and the pay was low. The bar paid better but it got annoying too, so I’ve stopped dancing now. I work at a gym now, and sometimes when they’re short-staffed, I help teach a couple of aerobics classes.”

“That’s such a rich work experience, it sounds much more interesting than my job.” Miao Jing nodded sincerely, “I’m quite boring in comparison, sometimes I envy different kinds of lives.”

The sister was much easier to get along with than the brother.

After cleaning up the kitchen, the three sat at the dining table to eat, chatting about everyday matters and daily trivia. Chen Yi didn’t talk much, and Miao Jing wasn’t particularly chatty either. Tu Li kept the atmosphere lively, with topics constantly revolving around Miao Jing.

“Little sister Jing, do you have a boyfriend?”

Miao Jing shook her head.

“Twenty-four years old, you should start dating. What’s your type? I might be able to introduce someone, I know several guys at the gym with good conditions and looks.”

Chen Yi, holding a beer can nearby, frowned slightly.

Miao Jing lowered her head to peel shrimp, thought seriously for a moment, and smiled: “I don’t have a specific type, dating also depends on chemistry.”

“Oh right, have you dated before?”

“Yes.”

Tu Li laughed: “You don’t look it, you seem so pure and innocent, like the type who would go on arranged dates.”

“You can’t tell I’ve dated?” Miao Jing smiled, “I’ve had two boyfriends.”

Tu Li asked curiously: “Really? When?”

“One was a university classmate, one I met after starting work, together it was about three years.”

Chen Yi started smoking beside them, his gaze suddenly turning cold as he interjected: “Why did you break up? What was the problem?”

Tu Li pushed Chen Yi with a smile: “Why are you reacting so strongly, are you planning to break their legs?”

Miao Jing spoke methodically: “The university classmate was from a northern provincial capital, after graduation his family arranged a job for him, I didn’t want to follow him there, so we broke up. The boyfriend I met at work, his parents were university professors, had a lot of requirements, so that ended too.”

Two boyfriends, one was the most outstanding among the boys who pursued her, one was someone she had put effort into pursuing herself. They were proper relationships, with plenty of romantic moments, but Miao Jing was the one who initiated the breakups. She withdrew quickly, showed no particular pain, and ended things cleanly and decisively.

“Breaking up is no big deal,” Tu Li consoled her, “There are plenty of good men in Teng City, it won’t be hard to find another one.”

Miao Jing wiped her fingers clean, and smiled slightly, her eyes clear: “I’ve never really worried about this, there are hundreds of male engineers at the company, many of them single, finding someone shouldn’t be difficult.”

“That’s true, take your time to choose well, we can all help you evaluate.”