After Being Widowed For Ten Years - Chapter 7

An Rong could not break free from Pei Chongxi’s restraints at all.

She could only listen as the person above her spoke. “I know you’ve always wanted to leave me. I will give you a phone, and a bank card. But before that…”

After a brief silence, Pei Chongxi suddenly carried An Rong into the bedroom and pinned her directly down onto the soft bedding.

An Rong almost screamed out loud.

Following the sudden sensation of falling, her back was greeted by an incredibly soft bed. Blinking her eyes, she didn’t sense any danger, instead, she found the whole thing rather baffling.

It was true that she really wanted a smartphone and some money, but Pei Chongxi had earned all of those things herself.

“What does that have to do with me?”

Pei Chongxi pressed her lips right against An Rong’s ear and murmured, “An’an, let’s sleep together just like we used to. Alright? Sleep with me for a night, and I’ll give you everything you want.”

With the pearl necklace wrapped around her wrist, Pei Chongxi was in constant, agonizing fear that this hallucination would leave her. But how could a hallucination be forced to stay just because she wanted it to?

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of Pei Chongxi’s lips. She held An Rong down by the shoulders, tucked her into the blanket, and then wrapped herself around the girl completely like an octopus.

The woman’s body was warm, radiating a sweet, fresh scent of lemon. This was a stark contrast to her usual style, instead, this slightly childish lemon fragrance suited An Rong’s preferences perfectly.

An Rong couldn’t help but sniff at her. Warmed by body heat, the lemon scent lost its bitterness and gained an indescribable sweetness, prompting An Rong to take a few more deep breaths.

“Didn’t you used to love sleeping in the same bed with me? Just pretend we are back in our old rented room, alright?”

The woman’s palm stroked down An Rong’s back, gentle and slow, as if soothing a child.

From beginning to end, An Rong did not struggle. She simply figured that patients with illnesses were probably emotionally fragile. Plus, even though Pei Chongxi earned a lot now, judging by her lifestyle, she must be heavily exploited by her boss.

I might as well just take good care of her, An Rong thought with a sigh, reaching out to pat Pei Chongxi’s back in return.

In a place hidden from An Rong’s sight, Pei Chongxi’s eyes were half-closed, and the bitter smile on her lips never faded. A tear rolled from the corner of her eye, quickly disappearing into the pillow.

Just take pity on me… don’t vanish.

For the past ten years, there was hardly a single night where Pei Chongxi could sleep peacefully. Sleeping only two or three hours a night was common. Though she could catch intermittent catnaps during the day, it never exceeded five hours in a full twenty-four hours cycle.

Chronic insomnia and a tightly wound nervous system forced her to rely on heavy amounts of caffeine and alcohol to stimulate her nerves, while nicotine intake kept her body in an unnaturally hyper-alert state.

This was a suicidal way to live, and Pei Chongxi knew it. She had never planned on living a long life anyway. On more than one sleepless night, she had thought that it might be better to just choose a good day to end it all.

She had driven out to the winding mountain road where An Rong’s traffic accident occurred more than just a few times.

Once, she had even pressed her foot against the accelerator. As long as she slammed it all the way down, the Porsche, the car An Rong used to say she loved, would crash right through the guardrail, plunging straight into the depths of the mountains, before turning into a roaring blaze with a loud bang.

But in the end, Pei Chongxi always abandoned the idea…

In the past, she and An Rong had been too poor. They were so poor that they had nothing left but a pair of restless, genuine hearts, they had nothing else.

An Rong used to constantly ramble about what she would do once she struck it rich. They were joking words, but Pei Chongxi remembered every single one of them in her heart.

The sleepless night finally came to an end.

An Rong’s body was warm and soft to the touch. She softly hummed a song, singing a lullaby, but before she could finish a few lines, she managed to lull herself to sleep instead.

Pei Chongxi finally closed her eyes completely.

A Memory of Snowy Days

It was a snowy day, and the Lunar New Year was quietly approaching.

The house Pei Chongxi rented near the school was old and dilapidated. The northern wind howled fiercely against the window, causing the entire frame and glass pane to vibrate.

Seventeen-year-old Pei Chongxi had scavenged some old newspapers to tape over the glass. She stood on her tiptops, using her teeth to bite off pieces of the tape. Standing on the bed with her arms crossed, she looked at the glass, which was supposed to let light through but was now covered by the gloomy gray newspaper and let out a heavy sigh.

An Rong had found a part time job handing out flyers at the entrance of a restaurant. It was already nine o’clock in the evening, past her clock-out time.

Pei Chongxi waited and waited in the room, but instead of An Rong, she greeted the elderly auntie who lived diagonally across from them.

“You two young girls aren’t going home for the New Year? Aren’t your families worried about you?”

Pei Chongxi brushed the dust off her hands. She was wearing a winter school uniform issued by her school. She didn’t own many clothes, and in the winter, the school uniform was her only decent outfit.

Pei Chongxi nodded and said, “We’re not going back. An’an’s home is far away, and my parents passed away when I was young. Next semester is going to be busy with schoolwork, so I’d rather save some time for studying.”

The auntie let out an sigh of pity, fetched a bag of still-warm meat buns from her apartment, and handed them to Pei Chongxi.

“Here, take these. You young girls are at the age where you’re growing, you need to eat more good food.”

Cradling the burning hot buns against her chest, Pei Chongxi smiled and thanked her. Still unable to wait out An Rong’s return, she decided to go out and look for her.

The snow outside was quite deep. The snow that had been cleared in the afternoon had already piled up to the ankles by evening. Pei Chongxi walked unevenly through the drifts until she reached the food street.

Suddenly, she heard a loud thud behind her. Turning her head, she saw a neighbor from upstairs throwing their trash down onto their windowsill. Fortunately, it was winter, so the trash didn’t emit a foul, rotting stench.

Pei Chongxi and An Rong lived on the second floor, right above a small flat platform where the uncivilized neighbors upstairs would dump things. In the past, An Rong would yell and curse up at them, but after doing it so many times to no avail, they just gave up.

Pei Chongxi quietly withdrew her gaze and kept walking forward, keeping the buns warm in her jacket.

An Rong was holding a stack of flyers. Her hands were already red and swollen from the freezing cold, yet the smile on her face still carried a teenage innocence and enthusiasm.

“Come take a look! The roasted fish shop has a 12% discount today! Get free beer for orders over a hundred yuan!”

“Sir, take a look at this, our shop is having a promotion.”

A flyer was offered to a middle-aged man. The man kept his hands stuffed in his pockets and walked straight past without giving it a glance. An Rong pulled the flyer back with a smile, only to promptly hand it to a family walking together.

The family actually took it, but after taking a couple of steps, they crumpled the flyer into a ball and threw it onto the ground.

An Rong continued to hand out flyers one by one in the bitter cold.

Pei Chongxi stood beneath a streetlight not far away. She watched An Rong’s flush-red face and her fingers that could barely bend anymore. Just as she was about to step forward, An Rong spotted her and quickly waved her hand to stop her.

So, Pei Chongxi remained standing under the streetlight. The same icy wind blew against her face.

An Rong wore the uniform of the roasted fish shop. With every word she spoke, a cloud of billowing vapor erupted from her mouth. She stood there handing out flyers for over half an hour, and Pei Chongxi waited under the streetlight for just as long.

It wasn’t until closing time arrived and An Rong received her ten yuan for overtime that she bolted toward the streetlight where Pei Chongxi stood like a joyful puppy.

With a smack, she threw her arms around Pei Chongxi in a tight embrace.

An Rong vigorously rubbed her face against Pei Chongxi’s. “You said before that you wanted to buy sketch paper. I don’t know how expensive that stuff is, so why don’t you take this first?”

Pei Chongxi looked down at the grease-stained ten yuan bill, hesitating for a long time before taking it. An Rong simply stuffed the ten yuan into Pei Chongxi’s pocket herself.

“Let me smell you, why do you smell so good? Mm, it smells like meat buns.”

An Rong nuzzled around Pei Chongxi like an affectionate puppy, finally tracking the scent to the bag of buns hidden inside her jacket.

“Wow, it’s from the auntie next door!”

Pei Chongxi nodded. “Take them and eat. You can use them to warm your hands too.”

She tried to return the ten-yuan bill along with the buns, but An Rong refused to take it, stubbornly shoving the money back into Pei Chongxi’s pocket.

“If you hadn’t split the rent with me, I’d still be living in the school dormitory right now.”

An Rong cradled the buns in both hands, reluctant to eat them just yet. Her hands were starting to itch from the frostbite. As they passed a green belt, she plucked a bit of freshly fallen snow to rub onto her knuckles, saying, “Sometimes I think, maybe we should just move back into the dorms.”

Pei Chongxi interrupted, “Didn’t you say someone from the boys’ dorm next door stole your clothes?”

An Rong sighed. “Clothes are just material possessions…”

Pei Chongxi shook her head. “If we lived in the dorms, we probably wouldn’t have buns to eat.”

An Rong caught another whiff of the savory meat fragrance and said with bright eyes, “True. And if I lived in the dorms, I wouldn’t be able to stay with you every single day.”

A convertible sports car sped past them down the lightly snowing road.

Pei Chongxi and An Rong looked at each other. An Rong shuddered and asked, “Aren’t they cold?”

Pei Chongxi replied, “There’s a heater in there, so they shouldn’t be cold.”

An Rong asked, “What brand is that? How many flyers do you think I have to hand out to afford one?”

Pei Chongxi pondered for a moment. “Looking at the logo, I think it’s a Porsche. It might be a bit difficult to buy one just by handing out flyers.”

“Oh,” An Rong murmured. “Well, we’re still young. Maybe we’ll be able to drive a convertible in the snow in the future too.”

Pei Chongxi retracted her gaze from the road. “That sounds a bit silly.”

The two girls looked at each other and burst into laughter.

“Once I get into a good university,” An Rong mimicked Pei Chongxi’s usual tone, “and then find a good job… Sigh, with my pig brain, getting into a good university might be a bit of a stretch.”

A Haunting Discovery

Pei Chongxi was fast asleep, looking as though she hadn’t slept properly in eight hundred years.

An Rong woke up in a daze and stumbled out of bed in the dark to pour herself a glass of warm water. Just as she was about to turn back to bed, her shin suddenly caught on a cabinet handle.

An Rong stumbled forward a couple of steps. She whirled around, glaring at the handle with wide eyes as if it were an assassin, while patting her chest in relief, thank goodness she hadn’t woken Pei Chongxi up.

Anyone with eyes could see how exhausted Pei Chongxi currently was. If she were startled awake, falling back asleep wouldn’t be an easy task.

An Rong bent down to close the cabinet door.

Right at that moment, the clouds outside parted, revealing a bright, full moon. The pale moonlight illuminated the interior of the cabinet, revealing stacks of old newspapers piled together.

Under the faint light, An Rong clearly read the text printed on the paper:

[A Mountain Bus Plunges, Resulting in Fatalities, Case Under Investigation]

An Rong flipped to another page of the old newspaper, where the same news coverage continued. Squinting her eyes, she read the text line by line…

“No survivors…”

Tucked between the newspapers was a black and white photograph of An Rong herself.

An Rong’s heart froze.

The person on the bed rolled over, instinctively reaching out toward the spot where An Rong had just been lying.

“An’an…”

An Rong hurriedly shut the cabinet door, quietly slipped back onto the bed, and wrapped her arms tightly around Pei Chongxi.

“Shh, be good. I’m right here.”

No survivors… what on earth does that mean?