Xie Mingjun was a great kisser. She hooked an arm around Dong Yin and pulled her up into a kiss.
Dong Yin’s face flushed bright red. She felt like she was going to suffocate.
Xie Mingjun finally leaned back a little, the corner of her mouth quirking as she looked at Dong Yin and laughed.
There were still people on the sofa back then. Zou Yuxi was slumped to one side. Dong Yin’s lips moved, and she kept climbing up, reaching to hook her arms around Xie Mingjun’s neck.
Xie Mingjun simply dragged her into the bathroom next door.
Dong Yin was pushed against the counter. Her back slammed into the cold sink. Before she could cry out in pain, Xie Mingjun’s hand closed around her waist and lifted her up to sit on the counter.
Dong Yin stared nervously at her. Her hands braced on the counter; her palms were icy, her whole body trembling. It was the first time she had ever tried to seduce someone. Usually she was so timid she didn’t even dare meet people’s eyes.
Xie Mingjun didn’t speak. One hand rested flat on her back. Her gaze swept over Dong Yin, like she was gauging whether this face was worth biting into—or silently asking if she was hurt.
The pad of her finger slid over Dong Yin’s lips, rubbing lightly at the plump center. She bent down, her voice cold.
“Show me what it looks like when you let yourself go.”
Dong Yin didn’t know how. She had no idea how to “let herself go.”
Xie Mingjun gave a short, cold snort.
In that instant, Dong Yin suddenly wanted to cry. Tears rushed to her eyes. Her very first attempt at seduction was thrown right back in her face. She felt like a total failure.
Of course Xie Mingjun knew she didn’t know how to seduce anyone. She was doing this on purpose to embarrass her. A flicker of anger rose in Dong Yin’s chest. She opened her mouth and bit down on Xie Mingjun’s index finger, using a lot of strength. The pain made Xie Mingjun’s brows crease.
Dong Yin stared at her, tears trembling in her eyes. Even her vision of Xie Mingjun wavered, but she still refused to let go, teeth sunk into her finger as if she really meant to bite it off.
She couldn’t see what kind of expression was on Xie Mingjun’s face. All she knew was that when Xie Mingjun finally pulled her finger free, the next second she didn’t hit her—instead, she sealed that biting mouth with her own lips. Compared to earlier, this “lesson” clearly had her more excited.
Xie Mingjun licked along her lips, like she was marking out territory, first drawing the border. Then she gripped Dong Yin’s shoulders, adjusting her posture bit by bit before slowly deepening the kiss.
This kiss was different from the last time. Dong Yin tasted blood.
She had always thought kissing was supposed to be sweet—that was why couples in love liked to kiss, liked to make out anywhere, anytime. Now she understood: there was no such thing as “sweet” or “not sweet.” It all depended on whether it was driven by desire or just careless perfunctoriness.
This kiss had no flavor at all, bland to the point of discomfort. Dong Yin didn’t even dare breathe. Only when she’d held her breath for so long she was about to pass out did Xie Mingjun finally draw back just enough to let her catch a little air.
The door swung open.
Their third kiss was interrupted. Zou Yuxi stood in the doorway. He was completely drunk, swaying on his feet, one hand on the doorknob as he stared at Dong Yin and Xie Mingjun. He blinked several times.
It all happened too fast. All three of them froze.
Dong Yin reacted the fastest. She reached up and hooked her arm around Xie Mingjun’s neck, whispering,
“Xie Mingjun, I…I still want to kiss…”
She leaned in and pressed her lips to hers, pecking carefully at Xie Mingjun’s mouth. Xie Mingjun stared for a few seconds, then began to kiss her back.
Zou Yuxi just stared dumbly at the two women wrapped around each other, unable to say a word for a long time. Then he scooped up some water in his hands and slapped it onto his own face.
He was probably trying to sober up, but no matter how hard he tried to clear his head, all he could see was his lackey, his little simp, Dong Yin, forcing a kiss on his aloof, icy girlfriend.
Like a piece of mud smearing a pure white cloud.
“Xie Mingjun!”
Zou Yuxi shouted from the side, suddenly a little more sober. But Xie Mingjun couldn’t respond.
Dong Yin’s lips were stuck to hers.
This kiss wasn’t sweet at all, but it was soft. Her mouth tasted faintly of peach. It just so happened this was the perfect season for peaches. Their mouths brushed and parted, like they were taking bite after bite of fruit.
Dong Yin clung to her neck, panting lightly. Kissing was exhausting, like sprinting eight hundred meters on a single breath.
Xie Mingjun pinched her chin. Dong Yin’s eyes were red; she’d just been kissed to the brink of tears.
This version of Dong Yin looked fragile and pitiful, very small and weak. Xie Mingjun’s finger pressed at the corner of her eye and rubbed. Sure enough, tears welled up and spilled out.
“…Xie Mingjun.”
Dong Yin called her name.
Xie Mingjun didn’t answer.
They were kissing so intently that when Zou Yuxi yelled “Xie Mingjun” a few times and then called for “Dong Yin” a few times, his intention to stop them just sounded like a cheer squad in the background. Neither of them responded. After a while, he actually wobbled off on his own.
By the time the kiss finally ended, Xie Mingjun was gripping Dong Yin’s jaw hard, looking at her with a mocking gaze. Dong Yin could tell she wasn’t curious—she was laughing at how childish Dong Yin was.
Dong Yin spent the rest of that night in the bathroom. When Xie Mingjun left, she locked the door behind her, leaving Dong Yin trapped inside with no way out. She sat on the sink counter the whole night. This time, after being bullied, she didn’t even feel like crying. She just kept touching her lips, unable to sort out what she was feeling.
It wasn’t until the next day that the door was suddenly shoved open. It was Zou Yuxi. His expression was complicated, staring at Dong Yin like he’d caught someone cheating—not exactly that, but there was no better way to describe it. Because what he’d seen yesterday was Dong Yin forcing a kiss on someone. It was Dong Yin forcing the kiss; it was his girlfriend, Xie Mingjun, who was being kissed.
Dong Yin was still sitting on the counter in the exact position Xie Mingjun had left her in. Zou Yuxi’s expression grew even more tangled. The scene overlapped halfway with a dream he’d had.
“Xie—Xie Mingjun… Where is she? No, I mean… Dong Yin, why are you here? Why are you sitting on the sink…”
Zou Yuxi was stammering, nothing like the smooth, confident way he usually called her his simp.
Dong Yin licked her lips.
“What’s wrong?”
Her mouth hurt. It had been chewed up by Xie Mingjun.
Zou Yuxi caught the little movement and wanted to ask, but didn’t dare.
“What happened? Why are you here? Weren’t you drunk and passed out outside?”
Dong Yin said,
“Someone carried me in.”
“Huh?”
“And then locked me in here from the outside.”
“Oh.”
Zou Yuxi let out a breath. By now he was used to seeing Dong Yin get pushed around. Still, he hurried to add, softening his tone,
“Who was it? How could they bully you like that? Come down, that’s dangerous… Dong Yin, do you remember who locked you in?”
“I don’t.”
Dong Yin climbed down from the sink.
Zou Yuxi went over to turn on the tap. He cupped water in his hands to wash his face. Once didn’t clear his head, so he did it again and again until his face was rubbed raw and red.
Water splashed onto Dong Yin’s clothes. She backed up a little.
She heard Zou Yuxi let out a long sigh.
So this was what the pleasure of revenge felt like.
It really was kind of satisfying.
Dong Yin decided that from now on, she should just do whatever she wanted. That would probably feel even better—get back at the scumbag, and then steal his pretty, good-at-kissing girlfriend.
Out in the living room beyond the bathroom, Xie Mingjun was sitting at the dining table. She wasn’t smoking this time. She was doing her makeup, painting lip tint onto her thin lips.
Calm, quiet, acting like Dong Yin was invisible. She seemed to have completely forgotten that she’d locked Dong Yin in the bathroom the night before.
Dong Yin stood there for a while, then took small steps toward the little dining table. She pulled out the side extension. Holding up her mirror, Xie Mingjun pressed her lips together to even out the color. Her lips were split too.
She ignored Dong Yin. The fingers she was using to hold the lipstick—index and middle—were both wrapped in bandages, plain brown ones without any patterns.
Dong Yin stared at her fingers for a long time, then lifted her gaze to her face.
Xie Mingjun was very beautiful, every feature delicate. The outer corners of her eyes tilted up, sharp and cutting. Her lips were thin; when she pressed them together, there was a natural harshness in her expression. She’d changed into a new dress. Yesterday it had been a sexy black number. Today it was a wine-red V-neck dress, cinched tightly at the waist, showing off a soft, curvy figure.
Through all of this, she still paid Dong Yin no mind, busying herself with her own things. Dong Yin finally spoke in a small voice.
“Xie Mingjun, your lips are split. You shouldn’t wear lipstick. I just looked it up on Baidu…”
The lipstick paused for a second in Xie Mingjun’s hand. She turned her head to look at Dong Yin.
“…Forcing a kiss on someone else’s girlfriend is also not allowed. That’s common sense.”
She insisted on finishing her lipstick, then packed away her makeup and stood up. As she walked past behind Dong Yin, she lowered her voice and said,
“Yesterday was just a small punishment. You gonna remember the lesson?”
But.
Which punishment was she supposed to remember?
The one where her lips got bitten open, or the one where she got locked in the bathroom?
Xie Mingjun left early. As soon as she finished her makeup, she walked out of the villa. A luxury convertible was parked outside. She opened the back door, and the driver pulled away without her saying goodbye to anyone inside.
After she left, Dong Yin didn’t stay either.
She slung her bag over her shoulder and left the party villa. They’d chosen some place out in the suburbs—it was a pain to get anywhere from here. Dong Yin followed the map, searching for a road. It took her half an hour just to find a bus stop. The September heat was blazing. The air was filled with cicadas shrilling loud enough to make her ears ache. She kept fanning herself with her hand.
Later, Zou Yuxi asked her again who had locked her in the bathroom, even hinting at whether it had been Xie Mingjun. Dong Yin answered honestly,
“Yeah. It was Xie Mingjun.”
Zou Yuxi sighed.
“Yeah, that’s just how she is. Her family’s pretty rich. Any time someone upsets her, she has to get them back, take revenge… She’s just very spoiled. You should avoid her. Best not let her know we’re close. I don’t get along with her that well either…”
He sounded dejected, almost pitiful. Before, Dong Yin would definitely have rushed to comfort him. This time, she stayed quiet, lost in her own thoughts.
So that’s what kind of person Xie Mingjun was.
She’d only just found out.
Zou Yuxi asked,
“You’re not mad, right?”
Dong Yin answered a completely different question.
“Is she really that bad?”
Zou Yuxi kept sighing.
“She’s been spoiled rotten. I’ve already decided to break up with her for good, but she keeps making a fuss. It’s kind of annoying… Anyway, let’s not talk about her. You’re really okay, right? Let me treat you to a meal. I’ll apologize on her behalf.”
Dong Yin said she didn’t need that. Then she added,
“Don’t be sad. If she misunderstands anything between us again, and you find it hard to deal with her, just tell me. I’ll help you handle her.”
She’d been hanging out with this group for a long time, but among all of them, she’d interacted with Xie Mingjun the least. Because Xie Mingjun was cold and distant—and when she did talk, her words could be pretty cutting.
The whole matter ended there, without any obvious follow-up. Whatever was in Zou Yuxi’s head, Dong Yin didn’t know. Day after day, she just kept thinking about going to find Xie Mingjun. In the end, they spent another two weeks often running into each other, getting used to seeing one another.
And now, here and now, Xie Mingjun was asking her whether her feelings were real or fake.
Dong Yin looked at her, nodded, and said,
“They’re real.”
“I really like you.”
Right after she said it, the dorm room door opened. Dong Yin’s roommates had come back from the supermarket, each one hauling half a watermelon.
“Dong Yin, give me a hand…”
The one speaking was Meng Mochou, who slept in the bunk next to hers. When she didn’t see Dong Yin coming, she lifted her head and only then noticed there was someone else in the room.
“Xie Mingjun?”
Meng Mochou frowned in confusion, then glanced between her and Dong Yin, even more puzzled. One of them was sitting in a chair, the other standing beside her. The mood between them was off.
The girls behind her were still complaining.
“Hurry up, I’m dying here. Master Mochou, get inside already.”
As she lugged the watermelon in, Meng Mochou muttered under her breath,
“Xie Mingjun’s here.”
“Xie Mingjun?”
“No way. What’s she doing here?”
One by one, everyone filed into the room. They lived six to a dorm. Four roommates had just come back; the last one was out with her boyfriend. Seeing Xie Mingjun, the girls fell silent, each carrying their bags back to their own bunks. Usually when they came back, the room would be full of noise and chaos. Now everyone was quiet, even picking up plastic bags and opening cabinet doors as gently as possible.
Xie Mingjun stayed exactly as she was, facing Dong Yin, her gaze as disdainful as ever.
“Go on,” she said. “Say it again, and I’ll think about whether to believe you.”
So embarrassing.
With all her roommates here, Dong Yin felt a little self-conscious.
She spoke softly.
“Zou Yuxi’s trash. He flirts with everyone. He’s a total player. He’s not gentle—he just wears down girls’ feelings. I’ve seen through him now. Don’t fall for his act.”
Xie Mingjun kept staring at her.
Dong Yin said,
“Be with me instead.”
All the roommates were eavesdropping. Someone’s watermelon slipped from her hands and smashed onto the floor, red pulp splattering across the white tiles.
Everyone was shocked, stunned that Dong Yin could be this shameless. Wasn’t she the one who liked Zou Yuxi? How was she now going after his girlfriend? Didn’t she feel even a little ashamed?
But seduction was like that—awkward the first time, easier the second.
Xie Mingjun didn’t curse her out, and she didn’t push her away.
That just made Dong Yin feel like she could be even bolder.
She climbed onto Xie Mingjun’s lap. When she wasn’t pushed off, she went on, even more daring.
“Xie Mingjun, I like you. Be with me.”
“I’m better than Zou Yuxi. You can bully me however you want—lock me in a bathroom, yell at me, whatever. I’ll still be obedient. Anything I don’t know, I’ll learn.”
