After Being Widowed For Ten Years - Chapter 3

For a fleeting moment, Pei Chongxi suspected that the An Rong standing before her was not an illusion at all, but a genuinely living person.

However, An Rong had already fallen off a cliff and died ten years ago today. Her corpse had been completely reduced to ashes by a raging fire.

Back then, the incident had even made the social news headlines.

“Sister Pei, why aren’t you saying anything?”

An Rong sat awkwardly on the stool. Her bright, watery, and lovely eyes blinked as she looked up at Pei Chongxi.

“Go change your clothes first.”

Pei Chongxi pulled her mind back to reality.

In that brief moment of trance, the corners of her mouth curled upward into a self-deprecating smile.

“Perhaps all of this is fake,” Pei Chongxi thought to herself. “But a fake reality is still much better than a true one without An Rong in it.”

An Rong nodded blankly.

She didn’t mind changing her clothes in front of Pei Chongxi.

Lifting her skirt, An Rong mumbled to herself, “Your house is so big. Where is the bathroom? Where is the laundry room?”

An Rong scratched her hair, feeling more and more that having a wealthy best friend was truly a wonderful thing.

Pei Chongxi pointed toward a specific direction.

Her shadow like, intense gaze remained fixed on An Rong’s back the entire time.

An Rong said, “You’re already so grown up, why do you still like to stare at me just like before? We are both girls. Could my body possibly have anything more or less than yours?”

With a sharp clack, An Rong shut the bathroom door.

In the spacious living and dining area, Pei Chongxi stood alone, her figure looking quite frail.

She looked down at the freshly cooked mini wontons, and then shifted her gaze back toward the brightly lit bathroom.

The warm, yellowish light glowed through the frosted glass, and she could hear the splashing sound of running water.

Pei Chongxi’s gaze almost solidified into a physical entity, something invisible compelled her, forcing her to stare fixedly at the spot where An Rong was.

One step, two steps, three steps.

With a soft click, the door was pushed open to reveal a tiny crack.

An eye peered through the gap, taking in the mist-filled bathroom.

The girl in the shower area didn’t notice that the door had been opened at all. She was currently occupied with studying the various high-end and complex buttons on the shower head.

She washed herself very quickly, scrubbing her body clean in just a few movements before wrapping herself in the bathrobe that had been prepared beforehand.

That bathrobe belonged to Pei Chongxi. The fabric was a few centimeters too long, making her look entirely like a child who had secretly put on an adult’s clothes.

It was her An Rong, without a doubt.

Pei Chongxi’s pitch-black pupils scanned An Rong up and down, moving from her cheeks, which were flushed red from the hot steam, all the way down to her slender, delicate neck, then to her exquisite collarbones, and continuing downward…

Everything was frozen in time at the most beautiful age of eighteen.

An Rong’s figure had always been on the very slender side, no matter how one tried to nourish her, she just wouldn’t gain weight.

Perhaps this was also because the two of them had always lived under tight financial constraints, never eating any lavish meals or health supplements to nourish their bodies.

The slender girl’s skin was exceptionally fair. No matter how much she was exposed to the sun during physical education classes, she would never tan, at most, her skin would turn a little red.

There were some old scars on her body, all of which matched perfectly with the memories etched deep inside Pei Chongxi’s mind.

Separated by the thin mist, Pei Chongxi’s heartbeat accelerated more and more.

Her gaze, which felt almost tangible, finally caught the attention of the person inside the bathroom.

An Rong suddenly raised her head and locked eyes directly with a pair of pitch-black pupils.

“Ah!” An Rong let out a small cry.

After her initial surprise, she patted her chest and said, “If you wanted to take a shower, you should have just come in and washed with me. You used to always pester me to scrub your back.”

An Rong didn’t display any panic about being peeped at.

The water heater in the rental apartment they used to share had a limited capacity. Only by showering together could they conserve water and time, often finishing their baths in less than five or ten minutes.

Furthermore, they were both girls. Even back when they lived in the school dorms, they used to wash in the large public bathhouses where dozens of completely naked girls would crowd together and scrub each other’s backs. Being looked at a couple of times was truly more than normal.

The corners of An Rong’s eyes curved gently, though a trace of bewilderment lingered within them.

So, it must be an illusion.

Pei Chongxi stood rooted to the spot.

She suppressed the urge to smoke a cigarette to numb her nerves with nicotine, and pressed her throbbing, aching temples.

With every additional glance she stole at An Rong, her temples felt as though they were being pierced by a sharp needle.

“Everything is an illusion.”

After murmuring this, Pei Chongxi turned her gaze away and distanced herself from the bathroom.

She stopped in front of a cabinet, tilted her head back, and swallowed two white pills.

Pei Chongxi suffered from severe insomnia and some mental health issues.

The doctor had told her that taking the medication according to the prescription would keep her condition from worsening, but sometimes Pei Chongxi couldn’t remember whether she had taken too many or too few pills.

Just like right now, perhaps it was because she had missed her medication that she was seeing illusions.

Seeing that there was no one outside, An Rong scratched her damp hair in confusion as water droplets trickled down.

“So you didn’t want to shower with me after all. Then what were you doing standing at the door and staring all that time?”

An Rong couldn’t figure it out either.

Instinctively, she felt that she should just be together with her sister, and she didn’t find anything wrong with being peeped at.

After all, the two best friends had done even more intimate things than this before.

An Rong tossed her white dress into the washing machine.

Because the washing machine was far too advanced, An Rong fumbled with it for quite a while before she finally managed to get it running successfully.

Stepping into a pair of slippers and wearing Pei Chongxi’s personal bathrobe, she returned to the dining room.

The mini wontons in the white porcelain bowl were still steaming hot, but Pei Chongxi was nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe she’s busy.”

An Rong didn’t think too much of it. After all, Pei Chongxi was so wealthy now, and rich people were supposed to be busy.

That was how it was always portrayed in movies and TV dramas.

An Rong devoured the mini wontons with loud slurps, letting out a long sigh as she finished every last drop of the soup.

She walked into the kitchen, practiced and familiar, washed the bowls and chopsticks, and placed them neatly on the drying rack.

The vast, empty house felt somewhat eerie at this moment.

An Rong mumbled a sentence to herself, “She really is rich. If I were to live here all by myself, I would definitely be terrified.”

An Rong looked here and there, completely at a loss for what to do for a moment.

Right at that moment, a voice echoed behind An Rong like a ghost.

“Your bedroom is over here.”

Pei Chongxi pressed her head, which was beginning to grow dizzy and dull from the effects of the medication, and spoke in a low, hoarse voice.

She was wearing a black silk camisole dress. With her pale complexion, she still looked like an ethereal, eerie female ghost that had just crawled out of a grave.

Combined with the liquor bottles littered across the floor, the scattered cigarettes, and the thunder and lightning outside the window, An Rong couldn’t help but feel a faint worry that her best friend might have recently suffered a broken heart or lost her job.

Walking up the stairs, An Rong’s gaze locked onto the necklace wrapped around Pei Chongxi’s dangling left hand.

An Rong spoke with a hint of anticipation, “You’ve kept this necklace all this time.”

All of a sudden, the footsteps ahead ground to a halt.

The slightly yellowed pearls were wrapped around her pale, bloodless wrist. The necklace was very long, leaving a bit of slack even after being wound around three times.

A low “Mm” echoed from above, after which there was no further response.

A tidy bedroom appeared before An Rong’s eyes.

Pei Chongxi stood at the doorway, her deep, dark eyes glued to the tips of An Rong’s hair from beginning to end.

An Rong’s hair had already been blown dry, and it now cascaded softly and fluffily over her shoulders and back.

She was wearing a sleeping robe that belonged exclusively to Pei Chongxi, and it seemed as though even the robe carried a faint scent of alcohol.

Abruptly, An Rong was pushed against the door panel.

Pei Chongxi leaned down and leaned in close to her sleeping robe, taking a sniff.

Pei Chongxi’s strength was immense, but as she pressed An Rong against the door panel, her hand instinctively shielded An Rong’s shoulder blades, ensuring she wouldn’t be hurt by the impact.

Since it’s an illusion, it shouldn’t matter, right? Since it’s an illusion, An Rong probably won’t blame her, right?

Just let me indulge in my recklessness this once.

Countless surging thoughts, fueled by the medication, eroded and completely occupied Pei Chongxi’s mind, driving her to commit a very wicked act.

Her soft lips pressed against An Rong’s neck, tracing downward along her throat, before finally leaving a hickey right on An Rong’s collarbone.

An Rong was frightened out of her wits, not daring to struggle in the slightest.

She blinked her eyes, thrown into utter panic but not daring to flee.

“Sister Pei, Pei Chongxi…! Let go of me, don’t be like this! You can’t do this!”

Back when the two of them were still in high school, the societal atmosphere was not very open. Such matters between women were still considered extremely niche, and could even be categorized as a form of mental illness.

If it were ever exposed to the public, expulsion from school would be inevitable, and even if one had a job, they would surely be dismissed by their employer.

Right now… it should be just like before, just messing around, right? Normal fooling around between girls.

An Rong mumbled under her breath, trying to persuade Pei Chongxi to leave.

But Pei Chongxi paid no heed to any of it. Without a single hint of hesitation in her movements, she pressed another kiss onto her other collarbone.

Immediately afterward, a scalding hot tear landed on An Rong’s collarbone, only to be instantly covered by another kiss.

“It’s getting late, get some rest early. An An, see you tomorrow.”

After saying this, Pei Chongxi turned and walked away.

The entire corridor was plunged back into silence.

A change of clothes and some personal toiletries had been neatly arranged and placed in the bathroom connected to the bedroom.

An Rong mumbled a line, “How strange.”

She then scratched her head. Overcome by drowsiness, she ultimately pushed all these unanswerable questions to the back of her mind, turned around, buried herself into the duvet, and fell asleep.

She shared a close relationship with Pei Chongxi. It should be within the normal range for Pei Chongxi to mess around with her like this, right?

After all, they weren’t lesbians, it was just a bit of harmless fooling around between best friends.

The next morning, An Rong opened her eyes on the king-size bed and let out a forceful yawn.

Shuffling into her slippers, she climbed out of bed. The house was completely empty, with nothing but a bowl of mini wontons left on the dining table.

An Rong wasn’t in a hurry to eat.

She wanted to go outside to see how society had developed, since ten years had already passed.

An Rong placed her hand on the front door handle and pressed down.

With a sharp click, the handle refused to budge downward any further. The door was locked tight.

The door leading to the underground garage had not been spared either.

An Rong furrowed her brows.

She didn’t have a phone, so she had no way of contacting Pei Chongxi.

After pacing around the massive villa in a full circle to no avail, she finally stood helplessly beside the dining table.

Pressed beneath the white porcelain bowl containing the mini wontons was a small note:

“The outside world is very dangerous, don’t go out. If An An needs anything, let me know at any time, and I will prepare it for An An.”

An Rong: ?

Dangerous? What danger? Ten years ago there were always rumors of wars outside, did a war finally break out now?!