Back home, Tang Coco’s heart felt knotted like ivy, still wondering what to do about Mo Zitong.
“Coco, back so fast?” Ye Yiyi’s voice slipped through like sunlight under a curtain.
Seeing Tang Coco step in, Ye Yiyi smiled, her hands still damp, beads of water clinging like dew to leaves.
“Mm, we just traded a few words. By the way, where’s Li Muyan?” Her tone fluttered like a light breeze.
“She got a call and dashed out again, like a swallow taking off from the eaves.”
“I see… then I’ll head upstairs.” Her feet felt heavy, sand clinging like the tide.
“Mm, go rest,” Ye Yiyi said, words soft as a quilt in winter.
Tang Coco started up the stairs, then halted like a clock paused mid-tick, and turned a question toward Ye Yiyi.
“Yiyi, are you close with Mo Zitong?” Her voice stepped carefully, like crossing thin ice.
“Mm? How do you even know that name?” Her smile froze, frost silvering the edge of her eyes.
Ye Yiyi went still, like a sparrow hearing the snap of a twig; she hadn’t expected Tang Coco to say that name.
“Heard it from a classmate.” The answer drifted like a dandelion seed.
“I… know her a little, I guess.” Ye Yiyi’s words flickered like a candle in a draft.
“Oh… I see. No worries. You should rest, Yiyi.” Her gentleness settled like a blanket warm from the sun.
With that, Tang Coco headed to her room; Ye Yiyi watched her figure fade like a shadow at dusk, thoughts rippling like rings in water.
“Sigh… it’s so tiring; being a woman is a tangle of thorns,” she murmured, bitterness curling like smoke.
Tang Coco shut the door, flopped onto the bed, and buried her head under the pillow like a turtle in sand.
Knock, knock.
Soon, the sound pecked at the door like rain on wood.
“Coco, are you resting?” Ye Yiyi’s voice threaded through the door like silk.
“Not yet. Come in, Yiyi.” Tang Coco sat up, her spine a straight reed in a pond.
“Coco, you don’t look okay. Did something happen?” Ye Yiyi pushed the door, her steps soft as a spring breeze.
“Mm… Yiyi, can you tell me about Mo Zitong?” Her question moved like fog across water.
“As I thought. Seems you two have already met.” Ye Yiyi’s face darkened, a storm cloud gathering over the ridge.
“Yeah. The person I treated to lunch today—turned out it was her.” The coincidence tossed like a coin in air.
“I see… honestly, that fits her way of doing things.” Ye Yiyi’s helplessness drifted like ash from a brazier.
“I actually met her back in middle school,” Ye Yiyi began, a page turning with the rustle of autumn leaves. “I was at a middle school in Ninghai, sea wind in the corridors.”
“Once, the school ran an exchange. I was sent to a well-known school in Yanjing,” she said, memory humming like train wheels on tracks. “During that month, I met Mo Zitong.”
“She felt adorable then, easy to like, like a spring sparrow landing on your palm.”
“We had endless topics, moonlit whispers and daytime laughter, and we became close.”
“Until the exchange ended; the curtain dropped, and the stage went cold.”
“After it ended, I had to return to Ninghai,” she said, sorrow tugging like a tide. “She hated to see me go, and I felt guilty, a pebble pressing my heart.”
“But then… something I couldn’t forgive happened,” she said, the words tasting like iron.
“On the last evening, she drank a lot, but she seemed clear, laughing with me, light as lanterns in the night.”
“I didn’t like alcohol, so I only had juice, sweet as fruit after rain.”
“We were alone in a corner, laughter ringing like chimes, when her figure blurred, edges melting like snow.”
“I blacked out. When I woke the next day, I was in a hotel room, the air heavy like stale incense.”
“She was beside me. Our clothes… scattered like fallen petals.” Her breath shook like leaves in wind.
“I checked after. Nothing… that kind of thing happened,” she said, voice tight as bowstring, “but for me, it was beyond forgiveness. I believed she’d tampered with my drink.”
“In the hotel, anger flared like a struck match, and I slapped her, sharp as lightning.”
“I hate those underhanded tricks, especially from someone I trusted, a bridge I’d already crossed.”
“She chased me, trying to explain, crying hard, tears like rain on stone, and she never admitted it.”
“Both families heard. Since we were girls, the elders didn’t dig in; everything sank like a stone into a well.”
“After that, we cut ties. I returned to Ninghai and kept studying,” she said, the days marching like ants. “Soon after, I heard she’d dropped out.”
“I felt some regret, a thorn I couldn’t pull, wondering if I’d gone too far.”
“But I couldn’t reach her,” she added, silence spreading like fog in a valley.
“Years later, I reported to Ninghai University,” she said, campus gates shining like morning. “At registration, I ran into her.”
“She’d changed a lot—both in temperament and looks—like a river rerouted overnight.”
“In the months after, she opposed me at every turn, bristling like a hedgehog,” Ye Yiyi said. “Anything competitive, she’d clash with me, wanting to decide who was stronger.”
“I tried to talk; she was like someone else entirely, ears shut like doors in winter.”
“Later, for some reason, she went abroad, and only came back these past few days,” she finished, the final note falling like a leaf.
“I didn’t expect… something like that,” Tang Coco whispered, surprise flaring like a startled bird.
“Mm… I can’t understand why she did it then. We were only fourteen,” Ye Yiyi said, head bowed, sorrow pooling like ink.
“It’s okay, Yiyi. She was in the wrong first. You don’t need to blame yourself.” Tang Coco wrapped an arm around her, comfort warm as a hearth.
“I’ll be fine,” Ye Yiyi said, but worry shadowed her eyes like a hunting hawk. “What scares me is… she seems to have set her sights on you.”
“Uh…” The sound fluttered like a bird caught mid-flight.
“It… should be fine, right?” Tang Coco said, words thin as smoke in wind.
A chill crawled in like frost. She’d thought dealing with Mo Zitong would be easy, a knot to untie. But hearing this—someone who dared that at fourteen—felt like a blade in the grass.
“And one more thing,” Ye Yiyi said, voice low as night water. “Last year, freshman year, Muyan couldn’t stand how she targeted me, so she went to confront her.”
“But she… got caught, snared like a rabbit. Mo Zitong used her, turned her into a lever to threaten me,” Ye Yiyi continued, the memory clamping like a trap.
“Damn!”
