FY - 27

Si Wen looked down at her from above: “Get up.”

Zhou Yan got up, holding the cigarette. She wanted to take another puff before throwing it away, but Si Wen pulled her wrist towards him and finished that puff for her.

Discarding the cigarette butt, Zhou Yan looked up.

Si Wen was very tall, more than ten centimeters taller than her. She always had to look up at him.

She just looked at him, not speaking, until he frowned.

Si Wen shifted his feet, avoiding her gaze.

Zhou Yan found it amusing. Was he shy? What part of him under that suit hadn’t she seen? Hadn’t she licked? When she used to be shy and couldn’t bring herself to do it, it was he who forced her.

So, men were all animals who thought themselves gentlemen once their pants were on?

Thinking that, Zhou Yan smiled, silently.

Si Wen didn’t hear it, but he saw it. His long arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her close: “What are you thinking?”

Zhou Yan smelled his familiar scent, like an intoxicating drug, clouding her reason: “I’m thinking of you.”

Her eyes were captivating, as if drunk, or perhaps mad. Si Wen’s sharp eyebrows surprisingly softened, “Did you take drugs?”

Zhou Yan shook her head: “Didn’t you tell me not to? I haven’t taken any since.”

Si Wen touched her lips. Their soft touch made his breathing hot: “Are you obedient?”

How ridiculous. Zhou Yan laughed: “You’ve supported me for four years, do you think I’m disobedient?”

For four years, Si Wen had been dominant. Their relationship revolved around his pleasure. As a toy, Zhou Yan was mostly obedient. Sometimes, when she was hurt, she couldn’t understand it, but as long as Si Wen called for her, she would act as if nothing had happened.

But even habitual compromise had exceptions.

The relationship between a human and a dog depends on how much affection the human is willing to invest in the dog. The dog has no choice.

But if the human is too lenient with the dog, the dog will surely take advantage.

This is a natural law.

Zhou Yan was a dog, and yet not a dog. She was more like a keen African leopard.

Having perceived Si Wen’s broadened bottom line towards her and detected his pleased expression, her usually submissive face began to transform. Those small, usually restrained paw pads of hers now unsheathed sharp claws, lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

This was something she could control, and also something she couldn’t. More often, it was an instinct. Just like the instinct she sometimes had to feel sad because of Si Wen, or to want to escape when she was hurt.

When two living beings are close, they can sense each other’s emotions.

Si Wen was in a better mood than yesterday.

Zhou Yan let herself be reckless. She was very skilled, after all, it wasn’t her first time.

Before, she had, while feigning drunkenness, spat in his wine glass and changed his phone wallpaper. After he told her to “get lost” a few times, she really did get lost, until he got angry and sought her out. She would also stand tall, boldly asking him to help her take off her clothes.

And pulling his arm, leaning into his embrace.

Also including pulling him down for a kiss last night and calling him “husband.”

Si Wen put his finger into her mouth, his fingertip touching her soft tongue. His body also seemed to be on fire.

Zhou Yan bit his finger, a smile playing on her lips, her beautiful eyes seducing him.

The temperature between them rose continuously as if in a sauna. The kids who had been fooling around nearby stopped their bragging and started whistling at them: “Kiss! Kiss!”

“Don’t be a wimp, man, stick your tongue in, suck her!”

Si Wen stopped, walked straight over, his gaze very unfriendly.

Zhou Yan stepped back two paces, leaning against the wall. She took out her cigarette pack and lighter from her bra, pulled one out, lit it, then put the rest back. She smoked with her left hand, her right hand supporting her left elbow. During this process, her eyes never left Si Wen.

Si Wen walked among the group of children. He said something to them that made them scatter like they’d seen a ghost, quickly fleeing the alley.

When he returned, Zhou Yan felt the streetlights particularly favored him.

Reaching her, Si Wen took the cigarette from Zhou Yan’s mouth, extinguished it on the wall, and tossed it in a parabolic arc into the trash can.

Then he put his arm around her, bent down close to her lips: “Where were we?”

The smell of smoke in Zhou Yan’s mouth was too strong, and she tried to dodge.

Si Wen didn’t allow it. He cupped her face, intending to breathe in her breath.

Zhou Yan, half-embraced by him, also asked: “What did you say to them just now?”

Si Wen, with that annoying dog-like demeanor of his: “Why should I tell you?”

Zhou Yan looked up: “Don’t kiss me if you don’t tell me.”

Si Wen tilted his neck. Veins bulged, and it cracked twice, sexily making one wet.

“You tell me,” Zhou Yan still foolishly demanded an answer.

Si Wen grabbed both her wrists with one hand, and with the other, he took off his tie, tied it on her, and pulled hard. Zhou Yan was pulled towards him, and he bent down just in time, blocking her lips, turning and grinding.

Zhou Yan was caught off guard by a tongue swirling around, but she quickly adapted.

This was a kiss without the slightest hint of lust, different from every time before.

Si Wen stopped just short, pulled away from her, and looked at her swollen lips under the streetlight: “Don’t bargain with me. Remember that next time.”

Always calculating. Zhou Yan ignored him, trying to free herself from the tie.

Si Wen didn’t allow it. He pulled the long end and walked towards a brighter area.

Zhou Yan was like a criminal, being led away from a crime scene by a law enforcement officer for some offense. Yet, Si Wen didn’t look like a just person at all; he looked more like a criminal, embodying the idiom: “a wolf’s ambition.”

Zhou Yan laughed, completely unaware of her current situation.

Si Wen didn’t hear her laugh, but he could just feel her laughing, and that feeling made him comfortable.

He led her past his car.

Zhou Yan raised an eyebrow. Not going home? “Where are we going?”

Si Wen spoke as if to himself: “To eat.”

Zhou Yan remembered there was still some food in her fridge: “Should I make you something when we get back?”

Si Wen stopped.

Zhou Yan didn’t stop and bumped into his back.

Her nose hurt, and she raised both hands to touch it.

Si Wen turned around: “Do I have to eat your cooking? Can’t I eat something someone else made?”

Zhou Yan said nothing more.

She didn’t particularly want to serve him either; he hadn’t paid her a housekeeper’s salary.

Si Wen threw the tie at her: “Hold this!”

Zhou Yan took it. She didn’t understand what she had been laughing about earlier. What was there about this old bastard that was worth her happiness?

Si Wen saw she was unhappy, and his eyelashes fluttered.

For four years, Zhou Yan was more like a walking corpse in front of him. All her interesting expressions and behaviors were in places he couldn’t see. Just as he heard through the eavesdropping earphone, she cleverly handled others’ approaches, but never his.

Occasionally, when she drank too much, or if a wire was crossed, she would reveal some aspects in front of him, but they were all fleeting like a bloomed epiphyllum.

Unlike just now, she was actually throwing a tantrum. In front of him. A very clear tantrum.

Zhou Yan walked past him, took two steps, and didn’t feel him follow. She turned to look at him, and indeed, he was still in the same spot.

She didn’t speak, just stood and waited for him.

Si Wen came back to his senses and turned to continue walking.

As he passed Zhou Yan, he took her hand.

Zhou Yan’s pupils widened. She could almost perceive the change in her expression.

She looked down at her hand. Si Wen was holding it. Did he intend to grab the tie and accidentally grabbed her hand instead?

She didn’t ask.

He didn’t explain either.

The two walked to the city moat. As they crossed the bridge, a hawker shouted at them loudly: “Ten yuan! Twenty yuan!”

Zhou Yan tilted her head to look. The hawker, as if seeing a business opportunity, stepped forward to promote: “Look at these rings! All rhinestones!”

Zhou Yan had never bought diamonds and didn’t know what rhinestones were: “Made of glass?”

The hawker handed one to Zhou Yan: “Made of crystal, looks just like a real diamond. Twenty yuan, not expensive, want one?”

Zhou Yan took it in her hand, looked at it, didn’t like it, and gave it back.

The hawker wasn’t deterred. He stepped back two paces and beckoned: “Then look at something else. Look at this hair clip, it’ll definitely look good on you.”

Zhou Yan picked up a hair clip, clipped it in her hair, and asked Si Wen: “Does it look good?”

Si Wen didn’t speak, but his expression clearly said: Ugly.

The hawker saw Zhou Yan was interested and strongly recommended: “Miss, you’re already beautiful. This clip will make you look even better. If this gentleman doesn’t like it, you can wear it for others to see.”

Si Wen took the flimsy clip from Zhou Yan’s hair and threw it back at him: “She wouldn’t dare.”

The hawker had a belly full of flattery, but seeing this man’s grim face and formidable aura, he held his tongue.

Si Wen lost his patience and pulled Zhou Yan off the bridge.

After crossing the bridge, Zhou Yan’s eyes still roamed, looking left and right at Qizhou’s largest night market.

Si Wen stopped, and she stopped too. Her hand was still in his.

She looked at him, wanting to ask what was wrong, but he preempted her, taking off his cufflink, lifting a strand of her hair, threading the cufflink through it, and then threading it again to secure it in her hair. Right where she had clipped the other clip earlier.

This sequence of actions was so fluid that before Zhou Yan could react, his hand had already moved away.

Si Wen had no intention of explaining this gesture.

Zhou Yan, however, didn’t let him off the hook: “Are you giving this to me, or are you borrowing my hair to hold it for a while?”

Si Wen answered indirectly: “This one, twenty thousand.”

Zhou Yan’s heart fluttered: “I won’t give it back.”

Si Wen ignored her.

Zhou Yan said again: “You won’t get it back even if you ask.”

Si Wen still ignored her.

Zhou Yan leaned her head closer: “I’m really not giving it back.”

Si Wen frowned, pulled her forward, trying to end the topic.

But it didn’t work. What ended the topic was a barbecue stall.

Zhou Yan wanted to eat.

Si Wen’s attitude was very clear: “I don’t want to.”

“Just watch, okay?”

“What?”

Zhou Yan didn’t repeat herself. She turned to the owner and ordered: “Boss! Five skewers of beef heart artery!”

The boss immediately started grilling: “Coming right up!”

According to Si Wen’s nature, he would have long since walked away and left Zhou Yan in such a situation. But he didn’t; he even waited until the five skewers were grilled.

Zhou Yan took the grilled heart artery in her hand, took a bite, and asked him: “Want some?”

Si Wen didn’t eat.

Zhou Yan looked at his aristocratic demeanor, so natural, as if there was an insurmountable chasm between them, deep and out of reach. A mischievous thought popped into her head. She pulled his shirt collar, yanked it down hard, and pressed her mouth against his, getting barbecue sauce all over his mouth.

Si Wen was enraged. He snatched the remaining skewers from her hand and threw them all into the nearby trash can.

Zhou Yan looked at him.

Si Wen ignored her gaze, paid the money, and dragged her away. His actions were rough.

He allowed her small emotional outbursts, but not excessively.

Wei Lian, who had been eating skewers in the shadows, watched as Si Wen treated Zhou Yan like his dog.

He bit his skewer, leaving a row of teeth marks.

Zheng Zhi had just seen the two of them but didn’t understand why Wei Lian was so bothered. “Still sulking? This Si Wen case needs to be investigated slowly. Even if seeing him gives you a headache now, you’ll just have to bear it.”

Wei Lian looked at Zhou Yan’s retreating figure and suddenly understood the question he had asked Zheng Zhi earlier.

If someone who never meddles helps the police solve a case, doesn’t that mean she at least has a sense of justice? And her values are at least sound?

No. It was because Zhou Yan knew that in the eyes of those criminals who traded in ova, assaulting or harming her was not as useful to them as taking her eggs. She knew the importance of money to them, and she calculated that they wouldn’t harm her in the slightest.

That’s why she came.

Otherwise, even if her superior assigned her, she might not have done it.

She wasn’t righteous, nor was she willing to act selflessly. She was just good at weighing pros and cons, at assessing importance.

He knew the answer, and logically, he should have been happy. But why was he so sad?

Knowing that she treated people so rationally, that she would never give him an extra glance out of impulse, why was that so disheartening?

He had long since lost to Si Wen’s power and influence over her life and death. He thought he could at least contend for a moment, that it would be good if she looked at him twice more. But in the end, her clear gaze informed him that what he wished for, she would never do.

Why was that so heartbreaking?

The only thing to be happy about, perhaps, was that someone who lived so clearly wouldn’t fall in love with Si Wen either?

But why did she only smile at Si Wen? Her heartfelt smiles, he had never received.

He downed a small glass of clear liquor. Drowning his sorrows in strong alcohol only deepened them.