The next day, Zhu Ling, Milia, and one of the younger girls in their circle went together to get tattoos.
The younger members of their crowd, when they had money, loved spending it on tattoo lines, and they loved showing off their superiority through the number of lines they had—thinking it was cool, that it made them look connected, proof of their standing in the underworld. But Zhu Ling was an exception. She was afraid of pain and had never gotten one. A couple of days ago, she'd happened to scroll across two fresh, minimalist designs online that were unexpectedly beautiful. She'd fallen for them at first sight. One was a cherry blossom bracelet around the wrist; the other was small flowers and grass at the waist and hip. Since she had nothing better to do, she decided to get one done. She thought to herself: it's small, so it shouldn't hurt too much.
The younger girl was there to tattoo her ex-boyfriends' names—one name per breakup, one tattoo per name. Her track record was impressive so far: her left and right legs were covered in all sorts of men's names. Zhu Ling couldn't help but scold her: "You're treating your body like a notebook. One day you're going to run out of space! And you're so skinny and small!"
The girl said, "No worries. When I really run out of space, I'll just tattoo the initials of their names. Then I can fit a lot more people."
"Fine. As long as you're happy."
Zhu Ling couldn't talk sense into the girl, so she went to persuade Milia instead. Milia had come today to get a Dragon Drawing Water tattoo. She'd had a bunch of small, scattered designs inked on her body before—just little things—but this time she'd decided to go big. She'd been going back and forth with the tattoo artist for a while, and now she'd finally settled on the design.
Zhu Ling had spent some time hanging around bars and had seen those fierce, massive tattoos on the bodies of certain underworld big shots, so she said to her, "That's such a huge area—it'll cover your entire back! And it's not even that good-looking!"
The tattoo artist said to Milia, "Tattoos, over time, will definitely blur. The smaller and more delicate they are, the more obvious the blurring. It's a hundred percent guaranteed—no exceptions. So bigger designs definitely last better. Anyway, it depends on what you want. If you want to attract wealth and blessings, for good luck and protection, then I'd recommend the Dragon Drawing Water."
Zhu Ling thought about how much it would hurt, so she tried to dissuade her repeatedly, telling Milia to think it over carefully. The tattoo artist, afraid that Milia might be swayed, quietly said to her, "That old acquaintance of yours, Shang Xianzi—she got a Dragon Drawing Water on her thigh a few days ago too."
Shang Xianzi was the leader of another delinquent gang that hung around the Tianlin night market area. Not long ago, she'd stolen two of Milia's wealthy sugar daddies, and they'd already gotten into a fight over it.
The moment Milia heard that, how could she be willing to lose to her? She immediately made the decision on the spot—Dragon Drawing Water it was, and she'd get it on her upper thigh too!
Once Milia set her mind on something, not even nine oxen could drag her back. Zhu Ling said her brain was full of paste and tried to stop her again and again: "Getting such a huge tattoo on your inner thigh—how much is that going to hurt? Are you crazy?"
"I've done my research. This placement has a special meaning." Milia lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "Dragon Drawing Water, Dragon Drawing Water—water has its source, trees have their roots. I chose this spot specifically, and there's a reason for it."
The tattoo artist overheard and quickly chimed in: "That's right, that's right! Water represents wealth—drawing water means gathering wealth. The dragon's masculine strength, combined with water's fluidity, represents resilience and wisdom. A lot of people in your circle get it done this way!"
Milia went next door to pick out and finalize her design. The tattoo artist then turned to coax Zhu Ling, trying to get her to choose something bigger too. She'd originally refused to budge, but the tattoo artist was too silver-tongued, too good at spinning stories. After a few rounds of persuasion, he managed to talk her into it—not just one tattoo, but two.
One was a pair of cute pink kitten paws a few centimeters below her collarbone. The other was below her hip bone, near the pubic area—a slender little snake, about 10 to 12 centimeters in length. At first glance, it looked like the winding vines of a hyacinth; only on closer inspection could you tell it was a coiled little snake. If she wore low-rise pants, it would peek out subtly with her movements, carrying a kind of hidden sensuality and danger.
When coaxing her into the kitten paws, the tattoo artist said, "Beautiful lady, you have gorgeous collarbones. With these kitten paws added on, your cuteness doubles! Never mind other people—won't you yourself enjoy looking at it?"
When persuading her into the little snake, the tattoo artist said, "Don't be scared just because it's a snake. Look at this little snake—how much design sense does it have? How beautiful is it? I won't speak for anyone else, but if you get this little snake, it'll be absolutely stunning! If I'm lying to you, you can have your underlings kill me as a sacrifice to the heavens, and I won't have a single word of complaint!"
The tattoo artist had questionable character and was money-grubbing, but his craftsmanship was genuinely excellent—his name was well-known even in their alternative subculture circle. Zhu Ling had heard of his reputation for a long time, and her ears softened. She went along with it.
The two tattoos weren't large in area, and the designs weren't complicated either. In less than three hours, it was done. The tattoo artist had outdone himself that day and was exceptionally pleased with his two small works. He praised them sincerely: "So beautiful, so beautiful! Those two kitten paws on you—aren't they just adorable!"
Glancing at the exquisite little snake on her hipbone, he couldn't help but shower her with more praise: "Your skin is so fair, your figure so graceful—with this little snake on you, it's like the goddess of beauty herself has descended! You ARE the goddess of beauty incarnate, sis! You just got it tattooed today, so the color hasn't fully set in yet. Wait two days until your skin completely heals—THAT's when it'll be truly sexy, truly alluring and dangerous! Your boyfriend would be utterly bewitched if he saw this tattoo, absolutely enchanted! I'm a fucking genius!"
Milia's dragon-swallowing-water tattoo was a massive undertaking, and being on her inner thigh made it doubly difficult—it would take at least twenty hours, spread across several days. When Zhu Ling finished up, she saw a pile of messages on her phone urging her to come back. Conveniently, the impromptu little snake tattoo had drained her allowance, so she needed to go back to ask her dad for money anyway. She said to Milia, "I've got things to do, so I'm heading off. You guys can make your own way back later."
The skin on the inner thigh is delicate, and Milia's dragon tattoo had barely gotten started, already leaving her dazed with pain, whimpering and miserable. She and Zhu Ling always moved together, practically inseparable most of the time. Hearing that Zhu Ling was leaving, she quickly asked, "Where are you going?"
Zhu Ling said, "Where else? The wildlife park."
"What day is it today? Is it already time for the zoo visit day again? I thought you just went a couple of days ago."
Zhu Ling said, "Today's a special day with special arrangements. The zoo has two new members, and my dad called me back for a welcome and introduction event. If I go, I get a special reward."
Milia was deeply disappointed she couldn't go along: "I've got ages before I'm done here, and I can't even walk in this state. Next week, come get me when you go!"
Zhu Ling took the subway straight to her family's company. The Zhu family business was located near Meiluo City, on the 38th floor of a commercial building—an imported food company called Santa Imported Foods. The company had over a dozen employees: several warehouse keepers stationed at the cold storage, several delivery drivers, and the remaining five or six working in the office.
When Zhu Ling arrived at the office, her dad Zhu Zhangyang was there, along with his sweet partner, logistics supervisor Qian Xinyi, and all the old and new employees. Several veteran staff members saw her and greeted her in unison: "Young Miss!"
Zhu Ling said nothing, giving a slight nod as acknowledgment, then tossed her small bag onto her workstation, powered on her computer, and checked her emails.
Zhu Zhangyang looked at his daughter—her messy brown hair, her listless, gloomy makeup, her flashy and ill-fitting black leather jacket, and the assorted shiny chains of varying lengths hanging off her—and silently fumed, not wanting to say a word. Though she was his own flesh and blood, he didn't understand her at all. This child had never been close to him. She'd never quite fit in since she was young, her mind full of wild, fanciful thoughts that no one could fathom—just like her mother. When her mother was alive, she'd loved the mystical, taking interest in metaphysics, the I Ching, and other spiritual realms, studying things invisible to the naked eye.
In her sophomore year of high school, her mother and grandmother went out by car, and a single accident took both of them. The only person who understood her—and the only one she was attached to—died so suddenly in that way. She was devastated, sinking so low that she couldn't even attend school normally, forced to take a leave of absence. She completely abandoned her studies, and the years of practice in calligraphy, painting, music, and chess came to an abrupt end. But she didn't stay cooped up at home brooding—instead, she ran out and wandered around, making friends with all sorts of bad influences. From that point on, the pampered young lady transformed overnight into a defiant, rebellious girl.
But back then, father and daughter could still communicate normally, still had some semblance of a family. The deterioration in their relationship came after her father demanded she gain experience at the family company.
Seeing her idle every day, always out wandering, Zhu Zhangyang told her to come intern at the company, to learn things under the tutelage of logistics manager Qian Xinyi. His thinking was sound and practical: rather than wasting time running wild outside, she might as well learn something useful at the family business, interact more with educated, respectable people, and reduce her contact with bad influences.
And this logistics supervisor, Qian Xinyi, was exactly the kind of respectable person Zhu Zhangyang admired—beautiful, elegant in temperament, her demeanor graceful as an orchid in bloom. He hoped she could have a positive influence on his daughter, and even if she couldn't return to being the young lady she once was, at least she could be pulled back from the wrong path onto the right one.