Moreover, Shu Dong's phone hadn't gone through all night, and Yu Zhiyi had no idea what they were up to. A lone man and a lone woman—he had never seen Shu Dong look so alluring...
The more he thought about it, the more his anger burned. Rage intertwined with resentment and betrayal; how could Yu Zhiyi possibly sleep?
After a brief wash, Yu Zhiyi began packing his things, accidentally waking Zhang Chao, who was still asleep.
Zhang Chao, sleeping on the top bunk, groggily rolled over and looked down. "Big bro, going on a date so early..."
"I have to go home for something. I might not be back for a few days." With a grim expression, Yu Zhiyi kept his back to Zhang Chao as he continued packing.
"What's wrong? Something happen at home?" Instantly losing his sleepiness, Zhang Chao sat up and checked the time. It was barely six o'clock.
Yu Zhiyi zipped up his backpack. "It's nothing, just a small matter. Go back to sleep."
"Oh." Zhang Chao fell back onto the bed as drowsiness crept back over him. "Aren't you supposed to have lunch with Yufei today? Did you tell her you're going back?"
Just as he was about to walk out, Yu Zhiyi paused at Zhang Chao's words. His eyes were dark and lifeless. "Yeah, I'll tell her later."
***
Shu Dong slowly regained consciousness, feeling as though her head was about to split open with agonizing pain.
Keeping her eyes closed, she fumbled blindly around her pillow for her phone, but after searching for a long time, she couldn't find it. Gradually, Shu Dong opened her eyes and waited a moment as the events of the previous night came rushing back in fragments...
Drinking together, playing games, and finally even taking Yu Zhiyi's video call...
Shu Dong slapped her forehead. What on earth was she doing?
While battling remorse, Shu Dong's peripheral vision accidentally swept across the clock hanging on the wall, and her heart skipped a beat!
Ten o'clock! She was going to be late for work.
Shu Dong climbed out of bed to look for her phone on the sofa, but the moment her feet touched the floor, her legs felt weak, and she stumbled, almost falling to the ground.
The phone was indeed on the sofa. Shu Dong prepared to send a message to Brother Lin first, but when she opened WeChat, the first thing that caught her eye was Song Feng...
"I asked for leave for you. Sleep well."
Shu Dong stared blankly at the words. She had completely forgotten that the two of them had added each other on WeChat yesterday. Above this message, the screen was filled with dice, reminding her of what had happened last night.
As for her profile picture, it was very pretty, but Shu Dong was still not used to it.
After a moment, Shu Dong changed it back to that train.
Normally, Shu Dong would have rushed frantically to the shop, but now, she didn't want to.
The curtains blocked out the sunlight, leaving the room in dim light. Shu Dong lay back down on the bed, her arm resting lazily across her forehead.
She had lived so hard and struggled so desperately before, yet life hadn't gotten any better. So she didn't want to be that tired anymore; drifting along and just getting by wasn't a bad option.
She was no longer sleepy, left only with a hangover headache. Shu Dong closed her eyes and let her mind go blank, wanting to cast everything out of her thoughts.
***
There is a very strange phenomenon—
After a man and a woman finish making love, the woman's lower back feels as though it has been run over dozens of times, and she feels like she might fall apart walking down the street, while the man is fresh and refreshed. After a man and a woman share ambiguous little drinks, the woman is knocked out by a hangover and dizzy, while the man is fresh and refreshed.
At this very moment, the fresh and refreshed Boss Song was practicing calligraphy. Although he had slept very late, he had woken up even earlier than usual.
Today, Song Feng didn't look downstairs; instead, he kept glancing at his phone from time to time, unsure whether he was waiting for Shu Dong or Yu Zhiyi...
At the thought of Yu Zhiyi's face from last night, Song Feng felt utterly delighted.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with using Shu Dong as a knife between the two of them. There was no right or wrong, no morality or lack thereof—there was only whether Song Feng was willing, and whether he felt like playing.
And right now, he very much felt like playing.
If Yu Zhiyi lived his life honestly and minded his own business, enjoying the college life he was so proud of, and they kept out of each other's way without meeting, Song Feng wouldn't pay him any mind at all. But the guy kept popping up every few days, swaggering in front of him with the air of a victor—that was something Song Feng simply could not tolerate.
Besides, he had time to kill, and Song Feng was very interested in teaching stray cats and dogs a lesson.
It had been a long time since Song Feng had shown such eager anticipation for anything. Driving Yu Zhiyi to the point of a nervous breakdown just thinking about it made him feel almost impatient...
The smile in Boss Song's eyes held a cruel, playful, and languid amusement. Idly toying with his phone, he flicked through the screen absentmindedly when suddenly, a familiar image flashed past.
He scrolled back up, and a familiar little train came into view. Song Feng frowned...
She was awake?
The very first thing she did upon waking up was change the little train back?
Couldn't she even say thank you?
Nominally, he was her boyfriend, after all.
***
In the past, she wouldn't receive a single phone call for days on end, but today, calls came one after another. Ever since she woke up, they hadn't stopped—from Yu Zhiyi and Aunt Zhang.
Shu Dong simply switched off her phone.
She didn't fall back asleep. After eating a simple meal, Shu Dong headed to the tattoo parlor.
"How come you're here?" Brother Lin had just come down the stairs when he saw Shu Dong walking into the shop.
"Staying at home wasn't doing anything either." Shu Dong smiled.
With matters weighing heavily on her heart, her smile didn't reach her eyes, merely forcing upward symbolically. Coupled with staying up too late and the hangover, her complexion was somewhat pale.
Although Brother Lin was thick-skinned, he was a man of the world, and having looked after Shu Dong like a younger sister, he could more or less guess what was going on, from Song Feng coming to the shop yesterday afternoon to asking for leave on her behalf this morning.
"Not many people today, you didn't need to come. Take the day off and go have fun." Brother Lin pulled a bottle of cola from the fridge and handed Shu Dong a bottle of mineral water.
Shu Dong caught it. Originally, she hadn't planned to come to the shop, but she was afraid Brother Lin would be overwhelmed on his own. Yet if she were actually asked to do anything, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to manage it either...
Tattooing required absolute patience and concentration, which suited Shu Dong's former temperament, but lately, she found it hard to calm her mind or maintain any focus.
Stepping out of the tattoo shop, Shu Dong glanced around her surroundings, suddenly unsure of where to walk...
Her life was just like this; her entire world consisted of these two streets.
She had no close friends, no immediate, loving family. Aside from that rented apartment, there was only this tattoo shop... Suddenly, her empty world felt blanketed by dark clouds, pressing down so heavily that it was hard to breathe, making her want to stop breathing altogether.
Life really had become devoid of any joy.
Shu Dong let out a cold laugh, turned the street corner, and walked down the stairs into Fengsu Internet Cafe.
***
Boss Song was brewing goji berries in his thermos. Seeing the person who suddenly pushed open the door, he narrowed his eyes. "Slept well?"
Covering the short distance, Shu Dong walked slowly up to the counter, handed him her ID card, and murmured softly, "Yeah."
Glancing at the ID card she passed over, Song Feng didn't take it. A roguish smile lingered at the corner of his lips as he raised his eyes. "Your boyfriend is treating you to play."
Shu Dong frowned, failing to process this new label for a moment. Then, thoughts of last night rushed in... She must have been drunk back then, right? Otherwise, how could she have agreed to such a foolish thing?
Shu Dong still placed her ID card on the table. "No need, thank you."
Noticing her aloofness and detachment, Song Feng smiled. "What, waking up and refusing to acknowledge people?"
"..."
For a moment, the little punks in the internet cafe shook their heads like rattle drums, looking at one another, but they only shook, not daring to make a sound.
Meanwhile, at the other end of West Street, Chen Hui was collecting payments when his phone vibrated incessantly. Picking it up and seeing the messages sent by his subordinates, he hopped on his electric scooter and headed straight for the internet cafe.
Shu Dong lacked the energy to entangle herself with Song Feng and stopped wasting effort on pointless resistance. Taking his account username and password, she walked toward her usual corner.
Watching her retreating back, Song Feng chuckled and shook his head. What a heartless little thing; had he known, he wouldn't have left last night.
While she was still clueless, he might as well bully her properly.
***
Her head felt heavy and still ached slightly. Shu Dong didn't feel like playing games today, nor did she want to go home and sit alone, so she casually opened a movie.
Song Feng didn't deliberately watch her, but in the few times he glanced up over the hour, he noticed her expression hadn't changed once, and even her posture seemed identical.
Like a sculpture, like a puppet, like a walking corpse without a soul.
Song Feng put down his pen, wanting to see what on earth she was doing. The seat next to hers was empty; Song Feng pulled out a chair and sat down. Yet despite the loud commotion, she didn't even turn her head to look.
Boss Song felt somewhat defeated. Was he really that unappealing?
"Want to go to the cinema?" Finding out she was watching a movie, Song Feng forcibly removed her headphones, manufacturing some presence of his own.
The cinema?
Actually, Shu Dong knew Song Feng was beside her, but her brain felt rusted, unwilling to move. Yet those three words pierced her heart like icicles, shocking her numb senses back into feeling.
The boy who had promised to go to the cinema with her would never come back.
His perfection was merely a bubble and a shadow built out of lies and hypocrisy, but now the bubble had popped. Perhaps the Yu Zhiyi she liked didn't even exist in this world.
With her frequent dullness, silence, and coldness, Song Feng naturally knew what she was thinking—and whom she was thinking of.
This finally irritated Song Feng slightly. He turned her shoulders around, his gaze turning chilly. "Want to go to the cinema?"
Her shoulders ached where he pinched them, but Shu Dong raised her eyes expressionlessly. "No."
"Dongdong, I'll go with you."
Suddenly hearing a breathless voice, Shu Dong and Song Feng turned their heads at the same time to see Yu Zhiyi standing nearby, though nobody knew when he had entered.
As for Yu Zhiyi, seeing the two of them leaning close together, his fists slowly clenched.
He had called her phone, but no one answered. When he went to the tattoo shop, Brother Lin said she wasn't there. Yu Zhiyi had wanted to check her place, but suddenly realized he didn't even know where she lived—and then, his gaze had locked dead onto the tattoo shop...
The sight of the two of them leaning together was too blinding. Yu Zhiyi reached to pull Song Feng away, only for Song Feng to brush his hand off with a lift of his arm.
Pulling out a chair, Song Feng watched Yu Zhiyi's forced composure with great satisfaction. Casually draping an arm around Shu Dong's shoulder, he smiled. "You should call her sister-in-law. No need for introductions, right?"
"Is that so?" Yu Zhiyi smiled coldly, his gaze fixed on Shu Dong. "How come Dongdong looks less than willing? Is this just another one-man show of yours?"
Song Feng twitched the corner of his mouth, his fingers tapping lazily against Shu Dong's shoulder. "Babe, he says you're reluctant."
Her gaze on the giant screen was unfocused. Ever since Yu Zhiyi walked in, Shu Dong hadn't glanced at either of them. But at this moment, the casual tapping of Song Feng's fingers on her shoulder stirred her restless heart—and made Yu Zhiyi tighten his fists further...
"Dongdong, I want to talk to you alone."
Before Shu Dong could speak, Yu Zhiyi took the initiative. From her persistent failure to answer his calls up to now, Yu Zhiyi already had a guess about her answer; he didn't want to be this humiliated in front of Song Feng, nor did he want to see Song Feng's triumphant smile.
"What is there that I can't hear? Right here is fine." Song Feng smiled, stroking Shu Dong's head, leaving Yu Zhiyi no room for negotiation.
It wasn't that he feared Shu Dong getting hurt; he was simply worried Shu Dong might ruin the rules of the game. Song Feng couldn't gauge how important Yu Zhiyi currently was in Shu Dong's heart, but women were soft-hearted by nature, and she was no match for Yu Zhiyi's crafty tricks. What if Yu Zhiyi offered a casual apology and she forgave him? The one ending up looking foolish would be himself.
Having set up the game himself, how could Song Feng let such a thing happen?
Looking at Yu Zhiyi, Shu Dong was exceptionally calm. "You should go."
She had thought that seeing him again would make her unable to hold back her tears, unable to stop herself from demanding answers. But when he was truly standing right before her, she couldn't utter a single word.
The tranquility that follows the settling of dust—she could truly and clearly feel that they were never people of the same world.
Yu Zhiyi's jawline was tightly clenched, his eyes bloodshot. No one knew whether his rage stemmed from Shu Dong's betrayal or from suffering yet another crushing defeat in front of Song Feng.
Even though he knew in his heart that she had changed, hearing it with his own ears was another level of disbelief. Up until now, he still didn't know where things had gone wrong.
Clearly, she had always liked him.
"Dongdong, why?" At this moment, Yu Zhiyi's bloodshot eyes somehow appeared immensely affectionate. "Can't you even give me a chance to speak?"
There is a cheap streak deep inside human nature: when someone belongs to you, you do not cherish them; yet when they bear another's name, you discover a beauty in them you never noticed before... Of course, there was also another possibility—his plea to stay was merely driven by resentment, completely unrelated to love.
And that was precisely what Yu Zhiyi was experiencing now.
Therefore, when you discover your significant other is cheating, if you want revenge, you needn't expose them; simply inflict the exact same treatment back upon them. Of course, once things reached that point, the relationship itself would have long become unrecognizable.
Seeing Yu Zhiyi's expression, Shu Dong suddenly felt something was off. She felt as though she had been sucked into a whirlpool between the two of them. The boy before her was someone she had genuinely loved, someone who had brought her hope—even though it ultimately ended in utter destruction. Still, it shouldn't be like this...
Shu Dong slowly stood up from the chair. Even if the ending wasn't perfect, it at least required a dignified exit.
"I'll go downstairs with you."
Song Feng frowned, but the next second, he smiled again. Looking at Yu Zhiyi... he pressed Shu Dong back down into the chair. "Not allowed."
His strength was immense, sending a trembling jolt of pain through her every time. Amidst the pain, Shu Dong felt a momentary daze... She couldn't understand Yu Zhiyi, but she understood Song Feng even less.
His gentleness and kindness were real, but the merciless pain inflicted right now was real too. He could scoop you up in his arms when you were drunk and tuck you safely into bed, only to drive two more daggers into your scarred and battered heart.
Can a person truly possess such extreme dualities? Yes, they can. Song Feng certainly could.
Shu Dong suddenly realized that she was merely a tool to Song Feng.
Then how was he any different from Yu Zhiyi?
Shu Dong gazed at Song Feng's back, but his eyes never once fell on her. He was looking at Yu Zhiyi. That's right—his target had never been her...
Shu Dong suddenly figured it out. Song Feng and Yu Zhiyi were still different; Song Feng didn't deceive her. He had made it crystal clear to her from the start that they were merely in a relationship of mutual utilization.
"You go downstairs and wait for me first." Shu Dong looked at Yu Zhiyi.
Never expecting things to take a turn, nor expecting her to defy Song Feng directly to his face, Yu Zhiyi suddenly felt a rush of relief inside. "Alright, I'll wait downstairs."
The delinquents playing games in the internet cafe were mere background noise. Left alone in the corner, Song Feng's face turned pitch dark.
Women truly lacked brains; he stabbed you once and then handed you a piece of candy, and she completely forgot the pain beforehand.
"Such a true and profound love—it truly moves me." Song Feng sat back down in the chair, pulling the corner of his mouth into an unmistakably mocking sneer.
Shu Dong understood what Song Feng meant. But she had no intention of forgiving Yu Zhiyi; she simply wanted this matter to reach a proper conclusion.
When the truth came to light, Shu Dong had been unable to accept it, and she too had wanted to make Yu Zhiyi taste the feeling of being betrayed. But now that she had done it, she felt no sense of joy whatsoever. She suddenly wondered: how was her current self any different from Yu Zhiyi?
She had turned into the very kind of person she despised.
"Can I take it back?" Shu Dong looked toward Song Feng.
Song Feng raised his eyes, the corners of his lips curving upward. "Sure."
His eyes were as calm as a midnight sky. While Song Feng said "sure," his gaze practically said: *Go ahead and try taking it back.*
***
President Hui rode his electric scooter over in a flurry, but the moment he parked the bike, he froze. Why did the person standing next to Shu Dong under the old willow tree a dozen meters away not look like Boss Song at all?
The news he received clearly stated that Boss Song had slept with Shu Dong yesterday!
Unable to wrap his head around it, Chen Hui headed upstairs and pushed open the door to find Boss Song lounging in his chair with a rather unpleasant expression.
"Got caught stealing someone else's girlfriend?"
Acting like a concerned father, Chen Hui patted Boss Song on the head, while the little punks playing games silently lit a stick of incense for Chen Hui in their hearts.
Song Feng was in no mood to mess around with Chen Hui and swatted his hand away. "Where are they?"
"Downstairs." Chen Hui glanced out the window; the two of them were still there. "Not going down to take a look?"
"No."
After a lapse of a week, Song Feng picked up his game console once more—it was still Super Mario. He didn't look downstairs, nor did he intend to go down. He simply wanted to find out just how foolish Shu Dong really was, and just how deeply she liked Yu Zhiyi.
***
"When did you get together with him?" Left alone together, Yu Zhiyi was much more distant, his eyes overflowing with disdain and a lingering trace of resentment.
He couldn't quite fathom how someone who had been borrowing money for him just a few days ago had suddenly turned things into this current state.
Shu Dong didn't speak. She wanted to see if, at this stage, this clean-looking boy before her would finally come clean and offer an apology.
Shu Dong looked at him. "Don't you have anything you want to say to me?"
Yu Zhiyi gave a cold laugh. "Shouldn't you be the one explaining things to me?"
He was still wearing his white T-shirt, and the sunlight streamed down from behind him. Squinting, Shu Dong couldn't clearly make out his face, nor could she understand how a person could be so filthy.
Perhaps she should have listened to Song Feng and stayed upstairs. At this moment, Shu Dong didn't want to linger for even a single second longer; she turned around to head back to the tattoo shop, only to be grabbed by Yu Zhiyi.
"Don't be with him." Yu Zhiyi wasn't trying to win her back; he was simply struggling because he refused to lose to Song Feng.
"Why?" A layer of frost coated Shu Dong's eyes.
"Because he's using you—using you to humiliate me." Yu Zhiyi was baffled. Was this cold girl in front of him really the same person who had scraped together money for him a few days ago? He softened his voice inexplicably, adding a cajoling tone to his delivery. He felt that as long as he treated her a little better, Shu Dong would become utterly infatuated with him just like before.
"Then what was your purpose for being with me?" Under the blazing glare of the midday sun, an aura of icy detachment emanated from around Shu Dong.
Yu Zhiyi was startled, recalling her abnormal behavior these past two days... Could it be that she had found out something?
"Because I like you." Yu Zhiyi's expression didn't change; she couldn't possibly know—she had no way of knowing. With that thought, Yu Zhiyi's heart gradually settled back down.
The final weak flicker of a flame went out alongside it. You could never wake someone who was pretending to be asleep, let alone expect someone rotten to the core to admit their wrongs.