The stifling silence did not end until they returned home.
Lou Fan took the shopping bag from Qin Peiran’s hands. “If we wash and tumble-dry it now, we can use it tonight, and you won’t have to squeeze into the same bed with me.” As soon as she finished speaking, she felt her mouth had been too fast; the last sentence clearly had no need to be said.
“Mm.” Qin Peiran acknowledged and entered the kitchen. “I’ll cook tonight.”
Lou Fan was looking for a pair of scissors while holding the bedsheet packaging. Hearing this, she raised her head, her pretty eyes surprised for a fleeting moment, and then narrowed them abruptly. “Why are you being so well-behaved?”
Who would have thought that Lou Fan’s warm face pressing against a cold shoulder would receive no feedback whatsoever? Qin Peiran walked straight into the kitchen without looking back, not even giving her a single smile.
That’s not right. She had originally wanted to say something coaxing to lighten the mood, so why did the atmosphere feel even colder? Lou Fan was utterly baffled, failing to figure out what she had said wrong.
Whatever, she’s eighteen, the rebellious phase, Lou Fan comforted herself. Anyway, she was the one who had insisted on dragging the kid home. To put it in the words of Little Swallow from My Fair Princess, even if Consort Xiang did nothing at all and just stayed in the room scenting it, it was still a good thing.
To Lou Fan, Qin Peiran might just be that Consort Xiang; as long as she stayed in front of her, this house didn’t feel quite so desolate, not to mention having such a gorgeous face wandering around in front of her every day. The more Lou Fan thought about it, the happier she became, a smile pressing at the corners of her lips.
Her hand groped through the corner of the drawer, and she finally found a pair of blue-handled, round-headed scissors she hadn’t used in a long time.
“Hm?” She placed the shopping bag on the sofa, raised the blue-handled round scissors toward the window, and lifted them up.
The sunlight in this season remained intensely blazing until six or seven in the afternoon. Through the glass window, Lou Fan clearly saw the silver-glistening details of the steel scissor body, along with a barely perceptible strand of thread attached to the scissors.
An extremely thin strand, yet the material and color were both painfully familiar to Lou Fan.
How could this be? The two fingers pinching the thread exerted force, her fingertips turning white and deformed under the pressure.
Thinking back to how Qin Peiran had stood outside her door last night holding the bedsheet, looking all pitiful and forlorn.
Was it all an act?
“Do you eat spicy food?” A head suddenly poked out from the kitchen doorway. Qin Peiran was holding a spatula while her other hand shook a small cluster of millet chili peppers. “Should I put in less?”
“Anything’s fine.” Lou Fan hastily tossed the thread in her hand into the trash can, picked up the scissors and shopping bag in one hand, and walked toward the washing machine. “I can handle spice, just make it to your own taste.”
How could that be? Lou Fan felt ashamed of her own assumption from a second ago; how could she possibly think that way about Qin Peiran.
Leaving aside the fact that they had spent four years living under the same roof in her previous life, Lou Fan knew best what kind of person she was.
Furthermore, Qin Peiran simply had no motive to do such a thing.
Lou Fan tossed the unpacked three-piece set into the washing machine, dropped in a laundry detergent pod, and while the washing machine whirred noisily, she pressed both hands against the counter and drifted off with downcast outer corners of her eyes.
Perhaps she should be sitting in front of her computer, revising the meeting minutes due on Monday, or reading a few more pages of a book to prepare for next month’s accompanying translation business trip.
Instead of staring at the washing machine finishing its cycle, and then standing and waiting for the dryer to finish drying, thinking about nothing at all, or perhaps having a chaotic mess in her mind.
Once the bedsheets were dried, Lou Fan carried them without a moment’s pause to the second bedroom.
“I’ll do it myself.” Halfway through making the bed, the door to the second bedroom was pushed open. Qin Peiran stood at the threshold, having already unbuttoned her apron, and the appetizing aroma of food drifted in from outside. “Eat first.”
“No need, you eat first.” Lou Fan tightened the fastening cords on the bedsheet, patted the fluffy quilt, and seeing that Qin Peiran had no intention of leaving, smiled at her. “Taking care of a little kid is only natural and right.”
Lou Fan wouldn’t let Qin Peiran interfere, but Qin Peiran didn’t leave either; she simply leaned against the doorframe, quietly watching Lou Fan make the bed bit by bit.
When Lou Fan finished making the bed and conveniently opened the window for ventilation, she saw that the person was still standing at the door. Between laughter and tears, she pushed her toward the living room. “Why is it so hot standing here? Go to the living room and enjoy the air conditioning.”
With that, she closed the door to the second bedroom and pressed Qin Peiran down onto a chair in front of the dining table.
Lou Fan had long known that Qin Peiran could cook. She only had a grandmother at home, who later fell ill, and until her passing, all household chores were handled single-handedly by Qin Peiran.
Yet in this lifetime, since Qin Peiran hadn’t brought it up proactively, Lou Fan hadn’t mentioned it either. Looking at the table full of home-cooked dishes that were full of color, aroma, and flavor, she feigned surprise and ruffled Qin Peiran’s hair. “I thought you’d at most whip up some scrambled eggs with tomatoes. What, did you secretly learn this from some restaurant?”
They said three years made a generation gap, and the two of them were separated by three whole generation gaps. Clearly, her words had nothing wrong with them, yet Lou Fan watched with her own eyes as Qin Peiran’s face turned dark again.
Qin Peiran raised her head, pulled down the hand Lou Fan was messing up her hair with, but didn’t let go. Her eyes seemed to carry a trace of forbearance, her lower eyelids furrowing to stack up a shallow crease.
With an expression akin to cross-examination, Qin Peiran lowered her voice and spoke: “How long are you going to treat me like a child you’re coaxing?”
“Hm?” Lou Fan wanted to retract her hand, but found it gripped too tightly, so she had to relax her strength instead. “What’s wrong?”
Qin Peiran only stared at her, her eyes holding yet another thread of grievance-like emotion.
A moment later, her tightly pressed thin lips parted slightly. Lou Fan seemed to hear a sound like a sigh, very soft, so small it couldn’t be verified, and so Qin Peiran spoke amidst that sigh: “I can cook, and I can make the bed. All of these things are a matter of course. I’m not a kid. I…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Lou Fan burst out laughing. Her free hand lowered right in front of Qin Peiran’s face, hooking her index finger to give a light flick on the tip of her nose. “Just turned eighteen, just finished the gaokao, and on Monday I still have to send you off to school with a schoolbag on your back. If you’re not a kid, what are you?”
Qin Peiran released the hand gripping Lou Fan, pushed the dining bowl in front of her forward, and stopped continuing the topic. “Let’s eat, the food is getting cold.”
When she woke up the next day, Lou Fan didn’t see Qin Peiran anywhere. Fortunately, they could still reach each other on WeChat; the other person only said she had some matters to attend to and would be coming home a bit late today.
“This temperament.” Lou Fan sat in front of her computer, glanced at her emails, and then lowered her head to open Qin Peiran’s Moments.
A single horizontal line, nothing at all.
In her previous life, Qin Peiran truly hadn’t posted anything, but in this lifetime Lou Fan didn’t dare to be sure.
Being blocked by her wasn’t entirely out of the question.
She scrolled through their chat history again, pitifully scarce. Aside from necessary communication, there were only transfer records. In her previous life, at least there were some kiss or hug stickers.
“Tsk.” Lou Fan put down her phone, removed the thin-framed glasses she only wore while working, and massaged the bridge of her nose. “Still, it’s quite nice like this.”
She put her glasses back on, clicked on a newly received work email, and spoke to no one in particular: “It should have been like this long ago.”
On Monday, Lou Fan woke up even earlier than usual, first dropping Qin Peiran off at school for her early morning class, and then driving to the company.
“What time are you getting off work tonight?” Qin Peiran rested one hand on the car door, bending forward slightly, and asked with little emotion.
She hadn’t tied her hair up today, letting it hang loose on both sides, which instead lent her a slightly more mature feel.
Lou Fan replied casually, “Six o’clock, if there’s no overtime.” Her peach-blossom eyes curved into an arc, a black mole embellishing the upturned corner of her eye. She always unconsciously spoke in a coaxing, spoiled tone. “What, are you coming to pick me up?”
Qin Peiran closed the car door and walked away without looking back.
Lou Fan: “Hah.”
Why had this child’s temper turned out like this?
Arriving at the company, Lou Fan overheard others discussing and only then remembered that today was the day two colleagues handed in their resignations. Just like in her previous life, Lou Fan didn’t disturb them much and simply sent wishes of bright futures to each of them.
“Then we’re heading off first.” Lu Siyuan hugged a cardboard box and knocked on Lou Fan’s desk as she passed by.
Yu Huai stood at the doorway, accepting several large bags from a dusty delivery rider. Seeing this, Lu Siyuan hurried over and joined Yu Huai in handing out the milk tea from the bags to every colleague.
“Siyuan, wuuuu.” The newly hired intern hugged Lu Siyuan and refused to let go. “What am I going to do without you?”
Lu Siyuan glanced at Yu Huai, who smiled with lowered head and gently placed a warm cup of milk tea on top of the intern’s head. “Just go ask Lou Fan if you don’t know something.”
The intern hurriedly loosened her grip on Lu Siyuan’s waist to protect the milk tea on top of her head. She glanced at Yu Huai and then wailed to Lou Fan, “Lou-jie, I’ll count on you to shield me from now on.”
“Fine, but I’m not as easygoing as Siyuan.”
After handing out the milk tea, those who were leaving couldn’t be kept. Lou Fan opened Yu Huai’s Moments; the latest post was still a selfie the two of them had taken when they went cycling in the park.
She hadn’t paid attention in her previous life, so she didn’t know when the two of them had deleted her. Lou Fan stared blankly at her phone for a long time, suddenly recalling the term ichigo ichie, meaning once in a lifetime.
It was an ichigo ichie with Yu Huai and Lu Siyuan, and the same went for Qin Peiran.
Lou Fan only thought with wishful thinking that in this lifetime, she had chosen a different path and perhaps could spend much longer getting along with Qin Peiran as a friend.
Two people left that day, and the entire company worked overtime until past eight in the evening before getting off.
Walking to the parking lot, she strikingly saw a familiar figure standing beside her car.
Just like under the dim yellow street lamps outside Yongfu Hui, that was the shadow that would forever wait for Lou Fan to come home.
A faded black T-shirt and black cargo pants wrapped around Qin Peiran’s slender frame. The long hair she had left loose that morning before going out was impatiently tied up, with a few messy strands hanging in front of her ears.
Lou Fan walked over and hooked those stray strands of hair behind her ear. “Why did you come?”
“I…” Qin Peiran was just about to speak when she saw a young girl coming up behind Lou Fan. The girl looked barely twenty-something, with chestnut-colored curls resting level with her shoulders, and she blinked mischievously while making a shushing gesture toward Qin Peiran.
Stepping stealthily, she drew closer, abruptly slapped Lou Fan’s right shoulder, and quickly darted to the left side.
Lou Fan had already seen Yan Li from the car window. Calmly turning to the left, she threw a punch straight at the top of the girl’s head: “What are you doing?”
“Ouch!” Yan Li cried out exaggeratedly, clutching her head for a long time before daring to open one eye from between her fingers to look at Lou Fan, then sizing up Qin Peiran beside her.
“This is…” Yan Li waved her finger between the two of them. “Your younger sister?”
Fine, younger sister it was again. Lou Fan sighed. “Mm, a distant cousin.” With that, she introduced the other party to Qin Peiran: “Yan Li, a new intern at our company, probably not much older than you.”
Nodding to each other, that counted as introductions. It was getting late, and Yan Li waved goodbye to the two of them while jogging over to find her bicycle, finally tossing out a super loud “See you tomorrow!” before pedaling away.
“Get in the car.” Lou Fan tilted her chin toward the passenger seat.
“Mm.” Qin Peiran pulled open the passenger door, but paused before getting in.
“What’s wrong?” Lou Fan had already fastened her seatbelt. Seeing Qin Peiran only step one leg into the passenger seat while frowning and gazing into the darkness in the distance, she looked over too.
It was too dark to see anything clearly.
Lou Fan leaned over, hooked her finger, and tapped the other’s lower leg. “What? Don’t want to come home with me?”
“No.” Qin Peiran bent down and got into the car.
It wasn’t until they rounded a corner and the headlights illuminated that corner of darkness, which naturally held nothing, that Qin Peiran finally withdrew her gaze from outside the window. “Thought I saw someone there.”
“Hm?” Lou Fan yawned.
“Always felt like there was a person over there.”
“There are plenty of companies in this office building, having people around is normal.” Right after she finished speaking, her phone gave a ding, indicating a WeChat message.
Lou Fan held the steering wheel with one hand while pulling her phone out of her pocket with the other.
“This kid…” Looking at her phone, she pinched the voice message bar and sent a voice message back: “Stop thinking about work at night, nobody’s paying you overtime, we’ll talk at the company tomorrow.”
Putting down her phone, Lou Fan continued driving, but faintly felt the atmosphere inside the car had turned strange again.
It wasn’t until the car entered the residential compound that Lou Fan heard Qin Peiran speak: “That intern, is she under your charge?”
“No.” The compound parking lot was quite narrow. Lou Fan divided her attention between avoiding all kinds of randomly parked cars and bizarre pillars while answering Qin Peiran’s question. “She was originally handled by my colleague, but since she resigned today, I’m just taking care of things until the company makes arrangements.”
Thinking of Yan Li’s WeChat message just now, Lou Fan couldn’t help adding, “Don’t let her usual childish demeanor fool you, she’s actually quite reliable when working.”
“Is that so?” Qin Peiran looked out the window, her ring finger and middle finger tapping together rhythmically on the car door. “After all, she’s not a student anymore, right?”
That logic was a bit peculiar. Lou Fan frowned. While focusing on checking the rearview mirror to back into a parking space, she replied casually, “True, since they’re already working, people have to grow up a bit.”
Shifting into park, Lou Fan was just about to unbuckle when she heard Qin Peiran speak in a tone that sounded either like a rebuttal or teasing: “Then you still need someone to pick you up after work. Are you an adult or a kid?”
“I…” Lou Fan was left speechless with amusement. Wasn’t it Qin Peiran herself who had proactively come to pick her up? Just as she was about to retort, she saw Qin Peiran unbuckle her seatbelt, place her left hand between the two of them, and narrow the distance.
The darker it was, the brighter Qin Peiran’s eyes shone. Staring at Lou Fan with those slender, sharp eyes, she asked, “Using a graduation certificate to define adults and children, elder sister, are you really mature?”