Rose Lock - Chapter 11

Returning to the room, Gong Yan placed the woman in her arms onto the bed. The bedding on the bed was slightly ruffled, and the high heels were neatly placed on the floor.

The high-slit qipao (cheongsam), due to her lying flat, exposed large patches of tender white skin. Gong Yan frowned and unclasped the decorations from her hair, her necklace, and her pearl earrings, as wearing these things would be uncomfortable after all.

However, unexpectedly, just after removing the head decorations and as Gong Yan bent over to undo her necklace, her wrist was suddenly seized. She lazily glanced down, only to see Hua Manyi’s drunken face, her eyes bleary as she looked at her, uttering a soft moan, “What are you trying to do?”

Her tone made it sound as if Gong Yan had committed a great crime.

“You’re drunk,” Gong Yan said, expressionless.

“Heh… wouldn’t that just make it easier for you to act?” Hua Manyi scoffed. “You pervert, don’t you even look at what you look like? Am I someone you can touch?”

Gong Yan: “…”

Gong Yan’s eyes chilled. She pulled her hand away. “You rest well. I’m going out.”

“Don’t!” A sudden, urgent sound came from the bed. Before Gong Yan could react, her wrist was again grasped by a pair of slender hands. She was forced to turn back.

Hua Manyi began to look at her with a peculiar expression, a hazy mist of grievance in her eyes. “Gong Ma… don’t go, I know it’s you…”

“I don’t want to accompany them drinking… they touch me, thinking of ways to take advantage of me…”

As she spoke, Hua Manyi began to cry, taking Gong Yan’s hand and pressing it against her face. “Really, they’re so disgusting, I feel so dirty, wuwuwu…”

Outside the window, fine snow drifted down. The warm fire from the room’s stove rose up. The woman under the lamp smoked a cigarette, the smoke curling up in the light and shadow. Gong Yan looked at her with complex emotions for a long time. In her palm was Hua Man Yi’s delicate skin, mixed with sticky teardrops.

“I understand,” she finally replied in a deep voice after a long while.

Perhaps she didn’t hear or chose to ignore it, but Hua Manyi twisted her willow brows and slowly moved the hand on her face downwards, until it covered the prominent curve of her chest. “It seems a bit bigger… I’m so uncomfortable. Can you help me rub it?”

“Hua Manyi!” The woman’s face immediately turned ugly when she touched the softness. “Don’t push your luck.”

“How am I pushing my luck, wuwu…” Hua Manyi responded logically, making one doubt whether she was truly drunk. However, the flush on her face, her occasionally clear and occasionally confused eyes, and the nonsense she was speaking made it genuinely difficult to associate her with sobriety.

After a long stalemate, the woman on the bed seemed to concede. Right under Gong Yan’s eyes, she forcefully rubbed herself twice, then cooed, “Then can you pour me a glass of water? I’m so thirsty…”

Gong Yan had no choice but to manage the situation; she couldn’t just leave her be. She turned to pour a glass of water and handed it to the bedside. “Get up and drink.”

Hua Manyi looked at the cup swaying close to her. She tried to reach for it, but knocked into something. She only heard the woman by the bed suddenly call her name.

“Hmm?” She was confused, but only realized what had happened when she felt the wetness on her chest. Instead, she answered in a very calm, muffled voice, “The water… spilled.”

Hua Manyi began the difficult task of unbuttoning the qipao. Unfortunately, the buttons were too tight, and her hands were clumsy, so she couldn’t undo them. She started to feel distressed, pouting her lips aggrievedly. “Wuu—can’t unbutton it…”

Gong Yan, with a headache, placed the water cup back on the bedside table. “Hua Manyi, why are you so childish?”

When she had a headache, Gong Yan wanted to smoke. She raised her hand only to realize she had already extinguished her cigarette, and since this wasn’t her room, there was no new cigarette to smoke.

The woman on the bed was still crying, struggling with the buttons as she cried. Seeing that she was about to tear the expensive, high-slit qipao, Gong Yan finally couldn’t help but grab her hand. “I’ll do it.”

The buttons were undone one by one. Her gaze fell clearly upon the purple-embroidered dudou (a traditional Chinese undergarment) wrapping the beautiful, full shape of her breasts. Perhaps they really had grown, as the dudou was quite tight, and the protruding tips were even visible.

Gong Yan glanced at it, her expression unchanged, and completely removed Hua Manyi’s clothes, tossing them onto the chair. Perhaps she was tired, as Hua Manyi stopped making a fuss. Gong Yan stared at her delicate face with an inscrutable gaze for a while, then suddenly let out a cold snort from her throat, covered her with the quilt, turned, and went out.

…

Early the next morning, Hua Manyi had a splitting headache and a parched throat. The wall clock pointed to six o’clock; it was still early, and likely no one was up yet.

Hua Manyi prepared to get out of bed. The quilt slipped from her straight collarbone, revealing her naked body. She was stunned for a long while, her mind frantically recalling last night’s events.

She was drinking with Young Master Li, and after getting drunk, she vaguely heard Young Master Li repeatedly calling her name…

Could it be that…

Hua Manyi found the thought unacceptable and was trembling with rage. She was about to get out of bed to find someone to settle the score, but after taking two steps, her peripheral vision caught sight of the ashtray on the bedside table.

She had bought this ashtray and kept it there just in case “Gong Ma” ever came to her room so she could be prepared. She hadn’t used it yet, but how did a cigarette butt end up there?

She remembered that the man named Li did not smoke. Did that mean that Gong Ma had come to her room last night?

Could she have been the one to take off her clothes?

Yes, that must be it. There were no marks on her body, so it was impossible for that kind of thing to have happened. Moreover, since Gong Ma had been in her room, it was even more impossible.

The more Hua Manyi thought about it, the more certain she became. Her hangover headache also vanished. She retreated back under the quilt, feeling the warmth of the blanket against her skin. She didn’t know why she was happy, but she was inexplicably joyous.

She lingered in bed for a while until she became thirsty. Only then did she get up, get fully dressed, and prepare to go out to get some hot water.

The thermos was empty, so Hua Manyi simply carried it downstairs to the kitchen to fill it. As she approached the kitchen, a very faint, small weeping sound drifted out. Hua Manyi frowned in confusion and wanted to go forward to investigate, but her steps halted at the doorway.

The crying from inside the door came from Xiao Xiao.

“Your mother wants you to marry, what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do!”

“Xiao Xiao, don’t cry. If you cry, Elder Sister will be sad.” The other voice belonged to Sister Fu Ling.

“I don’t need you to manage me, go away, go away! Go marry your good husband, wuwuwu…” Xiao Xiao seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown, desperately suppressing her emotions, likely fearing she would disturb others.

Sister Fu Ling sounded as if she were about to choke up. “Xiao Xiao, do you trust Sister Fu Ling?”

Xiao Xiao didn’t reply, only sobbed.

“If you trust me, three months, I will definitely return to your side in just three months.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

No one spoke after that, only making strange sounds. Hua Man Yi couldn’t figure out what kind of sounds they were. Driven by curiosity, she peeked her head out from behind the door.

With just one glance, she was stunned. She saw the usually passionate and energetic Xiao Xiao held in the arms of the gentle and refined Sister Fu Ling, and the two of them were kissing.

Hua Man Yi quickly covered her mouth, her eyes wide open. She reviewed the conversation she had just overheard and finally understood why Xiao Xiao was crying so miserably.

She abandoned the thought of getting water and quickly ran back upstairs, closing the door. For a moment, she was unsure whether she was shocked because someone close to her liked women, or because she had encountered for the first time such a feeling that was never acknowledged by the world.

But she clearly understood that she didn’t seem to be repulsed, and was even a little delighted. Yet, she immediately felt ashamed of this “lack of repulsion.” In middle school, her Chinese teacher had taught that knowledge about this subject was considered a disgrace, contrary to human ethics. At the time, she hadn’t paid it much mind, believing such feelings could never happen to her.

However, when a certain person’s image floated in her mind, she felt that if it were that person, the girl she loved would definitely be very happy, because that woman was outstanding, she was proud, and no one could suppress her.

Hua Man Yi thought deeper and deeper, and suddenly snapped awake in one moment, belatedly realizing that she had somehow developed many inexplicable, complex feelings for that person.

And they were growing wildly.

When she sang, she would unconsciously anticipate the sight of that woman in the audience, lazily smoking a cigarette and watching her. When drinking with people, she would anticipate whether that person would feel pity for her… She even recalled this morning, wanting to know if “Gong Ma” had any different thoughts about her and her body while taking off her clothes last night.

Hua Manyi suddenly remembered a time when Sister Fang had blamed her for being too dependent on Gong Ma, saying she couldn’t speak ten sentences without mentioning her. That was after Gong Ma had criticized her for her poor dancing, and she was like a student desperately seeking approval. But at that time, Gong Ma was like a profit-driven capitalist, treating everyone the same.

Hua Man Yi couldn’t figure it out. The after-effects of the hangover swept over her. She felt sick to her stomach and dizzy. She decided to put this matter aside for the time being, not think about it, and returned to bed to continue sleeping, both physically and mentally exhausted.

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