Xu Chacha was so upset. It was such a small thing, but she cried for a long time on the phone with Wen Mubai that night. (GZH: lesbian2088, all yuri resources are available.)
"My sister has changed. She doesn't love me anymore. She's gone along with my parents. Waaaaah!"
The background on Wen Mubai's end was a dimly lit office, a studio she had just rented and hadn't yet started decorating. She was holding her laptop, her posture languid, her long legs crossed in a pleasing manner.
Hearing Xu Chacha's complaint, she smiled and comforted her, "It's because I haven't seen you for too long. You'll be back in the game in a couple of days."
"And you're right, it was clearly her own choice to participate in that dating reality show, otherwise we would see each other at least once a week."
Dating reality shows have been quite popular lately, and some people in her dorm are watching them too. But Xu Chacha never expected that Xu Yanshu, who was focused on her lab work, would also join in the fun.
That show was a special lesbian edition, with all the guests being women. At first, Xu Chacha wondered what her sister was after, but later the person in question gave her an ambiguous answer.
“Picture of a person”.
Xu Chacha immediately understood, "You just want that girl's body."
She had seen the guest list for that dating reality show, and everyone was fair-skinned, beautiful, and had long legs. There were cute and aloof styles to choose from. Out of curiosity, she watched an episode and found it quite interesting, so she added it to her watchlist.
"Auntie." With Xu Yanshu in mind, Xu Chacha suddenly had the urge to test Wen Mubai, "What if I really like girls?"
Xu Chacha has always been certain about her sexual orientation; it was the same in her past life and hasn't changed in this one. However, since she's single now, there's no need for her to come out to her family. But before telling her parents, she's more concerned about Wen Mubai's thoughts.
Just like when she was a child, she would always consult Wen Mubai first about everything.
Wen Mubai raised his head, glanced at her face on the screen, and after confirming that her expression was serious, he lowered his head again, his tone no different from usual, "Didn't you say it yourself? Same-sex marriage has been approved for decades, why care about other people's opinions?"
"I don't care, but I'm afraid you will." Xu Chacha placed her hands on her chin, and her head bobbed up and down as she spoke.
"I'll be eighteen after midnight, right?" Wen Mubai said, seemingly out of the blue.
"Hmm, what's wrong?" Xu Chacha noticed the time; it was such a coincidence that it was exactly twelve o'clock.
"Happy birthday." Wen Mubai smiled at the screen, his eyes so gentle they could melt honey. "I have something to say to yourself: now that you're all grown up, do things that make you happy."
Xu Chacha smiled as she was being led by the corner of her mouth, her eyes crinkling, "Be happy every day."
To be happy every day—this is a naive and ordinary wish that Xu Chacha has cherished since childhood, but it is actually very difficult to realize.
But so far, it seems she's been doing quite well.
After hanging up the phone, Xu Chacha couldn't fall asleep for some reason. She sat up, ran to the dressing room, rummaged through drawers and cabinets, and pulled out a box from the corner.
The box was very large; she had to stretch her arms out to hold it. She carefully opened it, and there were two layers inside. The first layer was filled with many odds and ends.
The crumpled matcha chocolate wrapper, the picture of Wen Mubai with pigtails that the old man secretly slipped into her pocket and brought back, the Polaroid camera, and the picture of Wen Mubai she took on the day of the lantern festival.
Xu Chacha squatted down, picked up the photo, and the Polaroid camera's built-in filter had a Japanese fresh and clean tone. The young Wen Mubai, whose sharpness had not yet become so apparent, was facing the camera from the side.
Behind her was a dark, long street. The dim light gave her already fair skin a cold glow. Xu Chacha was in such a hurry that she didn't even get a proper shot. Her face was turned to the side, and when she looked down at people, her eyelashes cast beautiful butterfly wing shapes on her face.
The people in the photo are frozen in time, but Xu Chacha knows that as long as the butterfly wings flutter slightly, they can capture her girlish heart.
Xu Chacha gently pulled out the second layer, which contained two framed pictures.
The smaller one is the sketch Wen Mubai drew for her when they first met. The girl was sleeping peacefully, and even the strokes of his brush for her hair were full of tenderness.
Her fingers traced the words again, and she read them softly, "May you always be enveloped in light."
Yes, it has always existed.
Xu Chacha rubbed the red string on her left hand between her fingers. She always did this little action unconsciously, whether she was thinking or unhappy. Amazingly, doing this would quickly soothe her emotions, and no matter how wronged she felt, she could slowly calm down.
The large oil painting below is Wen Mubai's debut work, and even ten years later, it is still stunning to Xu Chacha in terms of its visual expression.
She was a little puzzled as to how the woman, who was always wrapped in a gray coat, could paint such vibrant pictures.
Xu Chacha suddenly got interested, took out a blank sketchbook, found a pencil, and started drawing, imitating Wen Mubai's brushstrokes.
The reference point is that Polaroid photo. Although it's a photo that would be criticized for having photography skills worse than a straight man's, Xu Chacha likes the person in the photo and never gets tired of looking at it.
She can't draw, and doesn't even know what sketching is. When the pen touches the paper, she first draws her favorite eyes.
Those eyes always looked at others with a detached or even indifferent expression, as if they could pass straight through a person's body and land on the objects behind them, but it was different when they looked at themselves.
She was focused, possessed a warmth that could melt your heart, and occasionally had a touch of uncommon banter, but she liked it all.
Xu Chacha thought to herself with a touch of narcissism that she had finally experienced being a pampered child in her life.
“But…” she said to herself, resting her chin on the table, rubbing her nose with her pencil-stained hand, her voice muffled, “I don’t want to be a child forever.”
...
Xu Chacha didn't know how long she had been drawing; when she woke up, it was already past three in the morning.
She hurriedly kicked off her slippers and threw herself onto the bed, as if death would catch up with her if she were a second slower.
Sleeping on the table counts as staying up all night, but sleeping in bed doesn't. Next time, she'll just draw in bed; it'll save her so much trouble.
She originally intended to close her eyes and go to sleep, but she habitually picked up her phone and glanced at it; a row of little red dots were all wishing her a happy birthday.
Xu Chacha didn't look at who was listed, but instead scrolled down until she finally reached the "Dear Auntie" column.
There are no small red dots.
That makes sense, though. Wen Mubai knows her schedule and wouldn't be idle enough to send her messages in the middle of the night.
After confirming, Xu Chacha turned to look at the other messages. She had added quite a few people since enrolling in school, and including her old friends, nearly a hundred people had sent her birthday wishes.
Xu Chacha picked and chose, first accepting the red envelopes sent by Chen Qianqian and Xue Miaomiao in the group, and then forwarding them to the dormitory group of 2602.
Xu Chacha: Thank you. I'll treat you to a meal when I get back tomorrow.
Before anyone in the dorm could even send a message, the two little ones exploded.
Chen Qianqian: @Xu Chacha, is this really you? Was your account hacked?
Xu Chacha sent a question mark.
Xue Miaomiao: The owner of this account is never awake after midnight. You've hacked the wrong person. [Smile]
Xu Chacha was deeply moved by their protective behavior and then sent them a voice message.
"Sorry, this is my first time hacking an account and I'm inexperienced. I couldn't resist clicking on the red envelope. How can I transfer the money to my own account?"
Chen Qianqian: ? ? ?
Xue Miaomiao: ? ? ?
Xu Chacha: Well-behaved.jpg
Chen Qianqian: Something's really wrong with you. What's going on? I can't think of any other reason why you're staying up all night, except that you're in a relationship.
Xue Miaomiao: I second that.
Xu Chacha: I occasionally rebelled and wanted to see what it felt like to stay up all night, and now I'm experiencing it.
Chen Qianqian: How does it feel?
Xu Chacha: I feel a bit cool on the top of my head, so I'm just about to go to sleep.
The next image was a sarcastic "[well-behaved.jpg]".
Chen Qianqian said she felt subtly insulted, but had nowhere to vent her anger.
Xu Chacha sent her a 500 yuan red envelope with the message, "Calm down, rich man with lots of hair."
Chen Qianqian was even more furious, and she spammed a bunch of random, nonsensical emojis.
Ten seconds later, Xu Chacha received a new message on her phone.
[Chen Qianqian has received your red envelope]
Xu Chacha laughed a few times, then scrolled back to the dormitory group chat. There were already hundreds of messages saying "Rich woman loves you," making it seem like a massive army when there were only three of them chatting.
Xu Chacha: If you had even half this level of skill in lining up during your military training, the instructors wouldn't have been so angry that they made us run laps.
After chatting for a while, she felt sleepy again, and just then her phone vibrated again.
An anime avatar popped up; it was "Old Wu" from the etiquette club.
"Tomorrow is your birthday, I'll treat everyone in your dorm to dinner."
'Don't feel guilty, I'll treat my brother to a birthday party too.'
"You can choose the location. Looking at your schedule, you only have two classes in the afternoon. How about I wait for you at the school gate then?"
After all that, Xu Chacha couldn't help but give him a thumbs up. She hadn't replied to a single word, but it was as if he had already agreed on her behalf and arranged a time.
He even dug up her class schedule and arranged everything in advance. Although it wasn't anything particularly private, it still made Xu Chacha feel uncomfortable.
Jiang Shu's words had made her hesitate before, but she quickly gave up. Now that she thinks about it, if she doesn't really eliminate the problem completely, she will never have peace and quiet.
Xu Chacha finally posted the WeChat Moments post that she had saved in her drafts.
The caption was just two words: "longing," accompanied by a beautiful picture.
The picture shows a very famous actress whose representative works rank high on the all-time box office charts. She recently came out as gay, causing such a sensation that she was trending on social media for a whole day.
Not long after she posted this on her WeChat Moments, her phone started ringing incessantly.
Chen Qianqian: You've turned gay? Tell me, did you have bad intentions towards any of us?
Xu Chacha: Confused.jpg
Chen Qianqian: Hurry up and tell the truth. If it were me, I'd give in to you right away. [shy emoji]
Xu Chacha: Naturally curved, no partner
Xue Miaomiao: Something's not right. You definitely have someone else.
Xu Chacha: I'm asleep, don't disturb me [not listening.jpg]
She ignored all other messages, turned off the mute function, and happily went to sleep.
...
Coming out is not uncommon these days, and Xu Chacha came out quite subtly, so many people probably didn't even realize it. But once they got to school during the day, everyone started talking about it, and the effect was quite different.
Many people around Jiang Miao got to know Xu Chacha through her, and they were discussing this matter that day.
"This junior is pretty brave, isn't she? First, she embarrassed the campus heartthrob on the basketball court, and then she dumped seven or eight suitors and came out as gay?"
"This coming out of the closet was a bit sudden. Does she have a girlfriend?"
"No, I know Zhu Zhu from their dorm. I asked her and she said she's still single."
"That means you have a crush on someone." The girl's expression was intriguing. "You're deliberately coming out to give people hints."