Ye Yiyi watched Tang Coco about to leave, a dusk-sadness sliding in like a kite string slipping from her fingers.
“Um… where are you staying now?” Her voice fell soft as drizzle under the eaves.
Tang Coco stopped, thoughts scattering like startled sparrows from a bamboo thicket. She worried she’d be laughed at like a stray dog in the rain, then shook it off like water from a sleeve; her situation fit her face, and this girl didn’t feel like the sneering kind.
“In a neighborhood.” The words landed like a small pebble in a quiet pond.
“Oh? Which neighborhood?” Her brows lifted like a thin crescent moon rising.
Coco meant to bluff, but Li Muyan waded in, stirring the water like a tossed oar.
“Uh… it’s called… it’s…” Her tongue fluttered like a moth against a paper lantern.
She wanted to say that rundown block, then realized she didn’t even know its name, memory wiped clean like chalk under rain; she couldn’t even hail a cab back.
Ye Yiyi understood at once, the truth flashing up like a fish breaking the surface.
“Coco, lying isn’t what a good girl does,” she said with a spring-breeze smile. “How about staying at my place?”
“Huh? Why? We barely know each other.” Her guard rose like a fan snapped open.
“No big reason… it’s not safe alone, and my home has room,” she said, voice warm as a sunlit courtyard. “Since we met, let’s just call it fate.”
“Thanks, but I…” Her words trembled like a reed in a stream.
“Don’t refuse,” Li Muyan cut in, playful as a cat’s paw batting yarn. “Listen to Yiyi, and take it as my apology for earlier.”
“No! Better forget it. I’m leaving.” Her tone cracked like a snapped twig.
She turned for the door, decision stiff as frost, but Li Muyan moved in a blink, a shadow sliding to block the threshold like a drawn screen.
“You!” Anger sparked in Coco’s eyes like flint struck in the dark.
“Heh-heh,” Li Muyan smiled, fox-bright under lamp light. “Just listen to us and be good; we’ll treat you like a real sister. Otherwise, I’ll tie you up and bring you back. The hotel boss knows me, and my words pull like silk ropes. If a little cleaner goes missing, no one will stir like windless reeds.”
“You actually—” The words snagged in her throat like a fish on a hook.
“Muyan! Don’t.” Ye Yiyi’s voice rang clear as a bell through fog.
“Coco, ignore her—she jokes too hard,” Yiyi coaxed, warmth pouring like tea into cold hands. “She means well. Say yes, and we’ll take good care of you. Please?”
She stepped forward and held Coco’s arm, her grip an anchor like a red string knotted at the wrist.
Coco hesitated, heart thawing like hands near a hearth; she knew Yiyi was sincere, and she felt that Li Muyan would truly tie her if pushed, rope-tight as vines. With their status as lanterns in the night, her revenge and investigation might open like a shut gate unbarred.
After turning it over and over like a worn coin, she nodded, though the thought of lodging in a girl’s home felt awkward as a pebble in the shoe.
“Then… fine… sorry to intrude. Please take care of me.” Her tone was a bow, modest as dew on bamboo.
“Oh yeah—no problem. We’re sisters now.” Yiyi’s delight burst like firecrackers in a winter sky.
“Let’s head home; night’s about to fall,” she said, as shadows pooled like ink.
“Mm, let’s go.” The words drifted light as fallen leaves.
Li Muyan was pleased, a cat catching the scent of yarn—more “fun” curled ahead like smoke.
Before leaving, Coco insisted on going to the back door on the first floor to inform the supervising woman, propriety rising like incense in a quiet hall. The two didn’t stop her; their opinion of her climbed like a kite catching wind.
Masked, Coco walked to the rear exit, with Yiyi and Muyan trailing like twin lanterns. At the door, a middle-aged woman sat at a table, thumbs dancing on her phone like beetles on a leaf, and Coco stepped up.
“Hello.” The word tapped the air like a knuckle on wood.
“Huh? You again. Finished the work?” The woman’s eyes lifted like a crane from a reed bed.
“Something came up; I can’t do this job.” Her voice fell like leaves onto water.
“What? How can that work? If you quit, where do I find someone? No, no.” Her protest flapped like a flock of startled pigeons.
“I… I’m sorry. I—” Her apology thinned like smoke in wind.
“Oh? She didn’t sign a contract,” a cool voice cut in, moonlight-clean. “Why can’t she leave?”
“Still no! Just… uh? And you are?” The woman’s words stumbled like loose stones on a slope.
She looked up to see two elegant beauties approaching, their presence like orchids in a secluded valley, and her posture straightened with quick respect, like a reed aligning in current.
“Don’t worry who I am,” Li Muyan said, her edge wrapped in silk like a sheathed blade. “Playing on your phone during work is against the rules, right? Maybe I should call the hotel owner.”
“Don’t, don’t—she can go,” the woman blurted, panic scattering like dry leaves on a gust.
“Really? You won’t stop her?” Muyan’s smile curved like a fishing hook.
“I won’t, I won’t.” Her head bobbed like a buoy on tide.
“Sorry. You can go,” the woman added, words dropping like pebbles into a pond.
Coco watched with a storm-cloud line on her face, thoughts flicking like lightning: Li Muyan, do you know anything besides twisting arms?
With that settled, the three stepped out of the hotel, city air cool as river mist. Ye Yiyi’s Porsche had only two seats, sleek as a silver fish, and this time Li Muyan generously yielded the spot to Coco, claiming she had other matters coiling like shadows to handle. So Yiyi drove Coco toward the villa district, headlights streaming like a bright ribbon through the night.
