Inside a cramped sedan, Ming Shu gripped Su Chuiyun’s hand tightly, feeling the softness and longing buried deep within her heart.
“I never thought you would come.”
Ming Shu leaned against Su Chuiyun’s shoulder like a small bird seeking shelter, despite being slightly taller than her. As an older woman, this display of coquettishness was doubly seductive.
“I was afraid you’d be bullied,” Su Chuiyun said, patting her back. “Take this. It’s yours.”
Su Chuiyun pressed a car key into Ming Shu’s palm. “I snatched it off your brother’s waist. This car must have cost you a fortune, didn’t it?”
Ming Shu looked up, searching Su Chuiyun’s eyes as if trying to detect any other emotion. Su Chuiyun should have mocked her or looked down on her, she certainly wasn’t supposed to be this gentle.
A shy, cat-like purr escaped Ming Shu’s throat. “It was money I owed the Ming family. Now, the debt is cleared.”
The driver only wished he were deaf. He silently raised the privacy partition, sealing off the lingering, intimate whispers in the backseat.
They arrived at the familiar garden late in the afternoon. The orange glow of the sunset spilled over the bamboo grove, casting long shadows. Beside a small stone pond stood a peach tree, though it wasn’t flowering season, the tree was heavy with fruit. The green, unripe peaches swayed in the wind, much like the flickering, uncertain palpitations hidden deep in Ming Shu’s heart.
Ming Shu carried Su Chuiyun into the drawing room. The girl in her arms clung to her neck affectionately. “Sister, your earlobes are burning.”
Ming Shu’s voice was hoarse. “Can you really not see?”
Ming Shu had wondered this more than once. When she was with Su Chuiyun, she often forgot that the girl had a visual impairment. At the same time, she felt a pang of self-reproach for having gone abroad back then; if she had stayed in the country, perhaps she could have looked after her little sister better. Even though she was the one being “bullied” in this relationship, Ming Shu still felt her own efforts had fallen short.
“Mm…”
Su Chuiyun’s small, sharp teeth nipped at Ming Shu’s earlobe. The faint scent of gardenia in Ming Shu’s hair made Su Chuiyun lean in closer to inhale.
“Last night in the bathroom…” Su Chuiyun whispered into her ear, “Does Sister do that often?”
Ming Shu’s back pressed against the sofa. Her usually neat long hair was now a mess, and she gasped for air like a moon white koi fish tossed onto the shore. Su Chuiyun acted like an interrogating judge, high and mighty, seizing total control over Ming Shu’s emotional rights.
“Ming Shu, answer my question.”
Even though Su Chuiyun was three years younger, Ming Shu found it impossible to dodge the question.
“Not… not often.”
“Which hand did you use?”
Su Chuiyun mischievously pinched Ming Shu’s left hand, then her right. Unfortunately, the nails on both hands were trimmed short, making it impossible to tell.
By now, Ming Shu was on the verge of tears. Her phoenix-shaped eyes were vacant and aggrieved as she stared at the carvings on the ceiling. In this elegant, refined garden, her mind was filled with the most lewd thoughts.
Ming Shu’s lips trembled as she whispered two words.
Su Chuiyun leaned in closer. “What was that?”
“The right hand,” poor Ming Shu whispered.
Ming Shu was completely flushed not just her face, but her entire body beneath her clothes had turned a shade of pink. Su Chuiyun removed the rimless glasses from Ming Shu’s nose, idly playing with the frames that usually gave Ming Shu an air of quiet restraint.
Ming Shu closed her eyes, letting the little blind girl grope and explore blindly. She was already regretting provoking Su Chuiyun at the front door. She had always known how wicked Su Chuiyun’s temperament could be.
Su Chuiyun unbuckled the cumbersome carbon fiber splint and tossed it onto the floor. She covered Ming Shu’s eyes with one hand and cradled Ming Shu’s right hand with the other, pressing her lips against it. She kissed the inside of the wrist, the protruding veins on the back of the hand, the knuckles, the ring on the nameless finger, and finally the fingertips.
Ming Shu silently pleaded for her to stop, unaware of how tantalizing she looked in this state.
“I can help you,” Su Chuiyun offered kindly, like a service to a patron. “May I?”
Ming Shu had been the one to initiate this, yet at this stage, she became bashful. A long life of repression made it difficult for her to speak of her impulses. Her dry lips moved slightly. “Do you… do you know how?”
Indeed, did the “original” Su Chuiyun know how?
“I don’t. Since I can’t see, Sister can hold my hand and teach me.” Su Chuiyun flashed an innocent smile.
Ming Shu closed her eyes in a mix of desperation and shame.
“Good sister, I can’t let you keep resolving it alone in the bathroom. It’s too unfair to you.”
Ming Shu didn’t do it often, only during those early years of suppressing her secret crush and during the lonely nights in a foreign land. In the quietest hours of the night, she would breathe out the broken name of her lover. She had dreamed of Su Chuiyun helping her, rather than being alone.
Now that Su Chuiyun was sitting on her, Ming Shu felt afraid. Su Chuiyun had once said she was a cold and uninteresting woman, what if Su Chuiyun didn’t like her…
“Okay,” Ming Shu said, the corners of her eyes stained crimson. “Wash your hands first.”
A cool breeze brushed past the window, making the bamboo leaves rustle. Outside, the yellow camellias were gradually blooming next to a magnolia tree, their flowering periods coincided, allowing them to blossom together. A snow white cat with emerald eyes darted past the lattice window, peering curiously inside.
Ming Shu sobbed quietly, her fingers gripping Su Chuiyun’s clothes tightly.
“Don’t cry, Sister. It breaks my heart.” Su Chuiyun brushed away the tears with her lips. “You look so beautiful like this. I love it.”
Ming Shu asked softly, “Compared to Song Xi?”
“There is nothing between us. She only wanted to swindle me out of my money.”
“…”
Ming Shu gave a small huff. “You like me more, right?”
She acted like a wise older sister teaching her younger sister a lesson, yet time and again she wanted to sink her teeth into Su Chuiyun’s neck. In the end, she only left faint marks, her little sister was in poor health, and she couldn’t bear to actually bite her.
“Of course I like Sister Ming Shu more. Sister, demonstrate it one more time. I didn’t catch what you just taught me.”
Su Chuiyun mischievously craved Ming Shu’s scent. “Sister is the best teacher in the world.”
Having been thoroughly “devoured” and forced to give a lesson, Ming Shu closed her eyes in a state of total collapse. Her lifetime’s worth of shame had been exhausted in this single moment.
Su Chuiyun said tenderly, “Sister, let me cherish you from now on, alright? I won’t let anyone bully you again. On every rainy night, I will hold you.”
She was more soul-stirring than the most perfect lover. Amidst the sweet words, Ming Shu felt like crying again.
“Alright. And I will find the best doctors to treat your eyes.”
Su Chuiyun: “…” That’s repaying kindness with a grudge, isn’t it?