Chapter 6: The Opening

The reeds along the riverbank grew in thick clusters, crowding together by the water.

Their plumes were pure white, fluffy tufts like cotton balls, brushing the ear whenever a fitful breeze passed and carrying the faint, intermittent chirping of birds.

Rows upon rows of reeds stood at the edge where water met sky, under a blue expanse dotted with drifting white clouds, steeped in the fragrant mood of the season turning from summer to autumn, silently witnessing the story of three people moving through them.

"We’re here. This is it." Zhou Zhuang led the way through the reeds, down a small slope, and came to the boundary where the low grass met the riverbank, the day’s destination.

"A little boat drifting through deep reeds" - if there were a boat here too, it would be a perfect place for a getaway.

After the foot-squeeze warning from Zhou Zhuang, Su Shiyi didn’t do anything else to make his heart jump into his throat. Once out of the car, she turned into his little shadow, trailing after him with She Yujun like a pair of curious kids, asking one question after another. When she saw a clump of reeds, she even plucked off a plume and used it like a feather duster to roughhouse with her best friend.

The slightly damp, cool air by the river was full of the two women’s laughter.

For a moment Zhou Zhuang felt dazed. The childlike scene before him made it seem as if the wanton, shameless sides he had seen in Su Shiyi had never existed at all - as though he had imagined them.

That woman could switch her acting on and off at will. If she entered a competition, she’d win Best Actress without question. That was the evaluation he gave her in his head.

The three of them picked a willow tree near the river as today’s campsite.

Sunlight filtered through the slender, threadlike leaves, scattering dappled patterns across the ground. Even as the afternoon heated up, it still didn’t feel too hot.

Lying in the shade of the tree, with a cool breeze blowing straight at them, even sleeping there for a day would have been a decent pastime.

The dew that had gathered on the grass that morning still hadn’t fully dried, so the ground was a little damp. Zhou Zhuang took out a moisture-proof mat and laid it down first, then spread a cloth blanket over it, and the makeshift camp was ready.

"You two play for now. I’m going to check the fish trap and see if I can catch anything. I’ll come back later and start the fire." Zhou Zhuang said to the two girls, who were unloading snacks from the bag one after another.

Preserved plums, snack sticks, rice crackers, caramel biscuits... the endless variety of packages made his eyes spin.

He knew his girlfriend loved snacks. At mealtime she was a birdlike eater, full after just a few bites, but with these little things she could keep stuffing her mouth nonstop, a stomach perfectly adapted to them.

Su Shiyi looked like that kind of person too. Most likely, the natural gifts he had worked hard to get today would end up in her stomach.

"Wait, I’m going too." Su Shiyi tossed the bag lightly onto the blanket and caught up with Zhou Zhuang, who was heading toward the river.

"I’m not joking. Come on, teach me. You’re not afraid I’ll steal your tricks, are you?" Seeing the questioning look Zhou Zhuang shot her, she tilted her head and gave a playful explanation.

Without caring about his reaction, she took out a hair tie and pulled her shoulder-length hair into a neat, capable ponytail before continuing toward the gurgling river.

He glanced back at his girlfriend, who was still fussing with the snacks, sorting them into neat little categories in an obsessive, almost compulsive way, with no sign that she intended to come along.

So relaxed about it? Zhou Zhuang thought with mixed feelings. Still, only he had seen Su Shiyi’s true nature, and only he would have to face the danger.

He only hoped she was genuinely interested. This was a good chance to confront her alone. With that resolve, he headed for the bank.

She had already taken off her shoes, one foot idly swishing through the clear, reflective water.

Her wet stockings clung tightly to her graceful, delicate feet, and the tool she had used back in the car now laid bare the full beauty of her legs. The soaked temptation made Zhou Zhuang feel hot all over as he watched.

He coughed softly to signal that he was there. The girl noticed him, turned with a smile, and the water droplets on her feet sparkled in the sunlight.

"Come on, show me something new."

"Aren’t you going to take off your socks?" The river wasn’t deep - the water only came up to her knees - but wearing soaked socks would probably still feel awful.

"Do you like me wearing them or taking them off?" she asked softly, but the words landed like a firecracker going off.

"Whatever." It wasn’t hot out, but sweat was already beading on his forehead. That question was far too suggestive; he didn’t dare play along, and after a beat all he could do was touch the bridge of his nose and give a perfunctory answer.

"Then wait a second. Taking off stockings is troublesome."

Her hand reached under the hem of her skirt, and the flash of spring flesh made him too afraid to look directly.

She slowly slid the stockings down with both hands, revealing the pale skin of her thighs, the contrast stark against the still-covered parts.

Half-hidden is more alluring than fully revealed. That partial exposure only made people want to touch her more. Zhou Zhuang’s sidelong glance was drawn in by the seductive sight, and something below began to stir.

"This is so hard to take off. Why don’t you help me tear them open?" Sensing his sneaking look, Su Shiyi slowed her hands, bit her lower lip, and tempted him aloud.

If a lover said that in bed, it might actually be pretty arousing. But at this moment it struck him like a thunderclap, snapping him fully awake - and even making him angry.

First, he was furious at this shameless vixen for being so brazen and loose-lipped, for teasing him again and again. Second, he hated himself for not having refused her righteously and decisively, for striking a bet with her, and for never telling his girlfriend about it.

And now he was actually being tempted by her brazen behavior. He was practically choosing moral decay for himself.

Was he really just a lustful, hypocritical man with no bottom line?

Zhou Zhuang’s mind swung like a roller coaster from anger to regret to self-doubt. His face darkened, and he stopped answering her, taking off his shoes and socks before stepping into the water.

His change in attitude was unexpected. Su Shiyi covered her mouth, stared at his back for a moment, and knew when to stop. She didn’t keep up the act. She quickly finished taking off her stockings and walked toward him in the middle of the river.

"Are you angry?" she asked before reaching him. It gave him a little time to react, and gave herself some room to observe him.

"No." Zhou Zhuang was picking up stones and using them to reseal the crude fish trap he had set earlier.

The slightly cool river water helped calm him down too.

He didn’t feel as awful anymore, but hearing Su Shiyi’s voice still made him not want to deal with her.

"Stubborn. Your face is almost the same color as Bao Zheng’s now." Seeing that there wasn’t much anger in his tone, she boldly drifted over until she was right in front of him.

"I just realized that whenever I talk to you, or whenever we’re together, I’m never really calm. That’s not what I think a normal relationship between people should be like."

He picked up a large, smooth river stone and dropped it heavily into place, blocking the final gap in the trap - and, in a sense, sealing the gap in his own heart too.

"We made a bet, sure, but this isn’t a slave contract. Can you act a little more... normal?"

He didn’t say anything like "don’t be so slutty," words that would have sounded insulting. He chose to respect her, while also suppressing the rising heat in himself.

Just like he’d said, whenever he talked to her, he lost the calm he usually had.

"Then tell me, which part of our agreement said I wasn’t allowed to tease you?" Su Shiyi of course knew what he meant by normal, but with normal methods, how could she ever pry open his gap?

"Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell someone about this?" Unable to argue back, and growing more embarrassed and angry by the second, Zhou Zhuang was ready to give up on correcting her behavior.

Since the girl before him couldn’t be dealt with through normal reasoning, he might as well stop pretending.

"Go ahead. Then see whether people think I seduced you, or whether they think the two of us were love-struck and sneaking around together, or whether they think you’re the one with impure intentions." She looked completely unconcerned, mocking his childish idea, and then delivered the final blow.

"Especially your girlfriend... how do you think she’d see you after that?"

Yu Jun...

That girl in pure white, clean as water, who had left countless exclusive marks in his heart - would she understand something so absurd?

If he hadn’t experienced it himself, he wouldn’t have believed that a beautiful woman he’d only just met a few days ago could keep seducing him like this. Just as Su Shiyi said, if he exposed the whole thing, most people would think he had been the one to initiate it. No matter how you looked at it, the woman would be the one getting the short end of the stick, while he would be the one taking advantage and acting innocent.

From the very beginning, this had never been a fair game. She knew his cards, dared to keep upping the stakes, while he had too many concerns and could only fold, even while helping her keep the bet hidden from everyone else.

The more he cared about his girlfriend, the less he dared to risk overturning the table and ending this farce.

"Zhou Zhuang, did your stone pile collapse?" She heard a splash and, seeing that he still hadn’t reacted while staring blankly, pointed at the crude trap and called it out.

It had been several months since he’d last been here. Long-term erosion by the current, combined with the soft mud on the riverbed, had already left the unstable contraption on the verge of collapse. The stone he had just placed became the final snowflake before an avalanche. The surrounding stones were now all crooked and toppled, and the opening was even larger than it had been before he tried to seal it.

He picked up two more stones and tried to repair it again, but his mood was fraying and his movements had lost all order. He grabbed and released the stones over and over, only for them to tumble back down, and the trap just kept getting worse. In the end, all his effort turned into a helpless sigh.

"Forget it. Let’s not bother. Let’s go back."

In Su Shiyi’s eyes, Zhou Zhuang’s disappointed back gradually receded. A faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. Although he hadn’t caught any fish today, it seemed like her fish had taken the bait instead. A sly light flashed in her bright eyes, and no one knew what she was scheming.

"You’re back so soon?" She Yujun looked a little surprised when the two of them came back. Normally Zhou Zhuang would have spent at least an hour messing around in the river.

"It didn’t go too well." His tone was full of frustration he couldn’t hide.

"It’s fine. We brought a lot of food today, and I picked up some firewood just now. See if this is enough?" She softly comforted her boyfriend, pointing to a large pile of dry grass and broken wood beside them, sounding proud of her find and clearly trying to shift his mood.

"Yeah, plenty... I’ll start the fire first. You two keep playing." He forced out a smile. His girlfriend’s thoughtfulness only made him feel even more guilty. If he couldn’t break the chains in his heart, avoidance was the instinctive choice.

After clearing a bare patch of ground, he pieced together a fire pit out of stones and dry grass. A random flame began to dance there, crackling sharply, and the sound felt like it was being seared into his own heart. Zhou Zhuang had never felt so dispirited.

Getting close to Su Shiyi was no different from playing with fire. One careless move and he’d be burned to ash.

The fire pit in front of him could be controlled by setting a barrier and regulating how much wood was added. With her, all he felt was utter helplessness.

Basic boundaries, moral rules, and common sense seemed not to exist in that woman at all. Zhou Zhuang could hardly imagine what she had gone through to end up like this.

And yet, in front of his girlfriend, she wore a completely different mask. From the way She Yujun had spoken earlier, she already seemed to believe her. How was he supposed to expose her without making it obvious?

His hand absentmindedly prodded the stick in the fire until it caught, and a burst of searing pain shot through him. He quickly threw it into the flames.

The dry stick was swallowed by the fire at once, and only then did he notice the potatoes he had thrown under the fire earlier and forgotten to turn. The side that had been in the flames was blackened to charcoal and utterly inedible.

"You don’t seem to be in good shape today. Is it because of me?" Su Shiyi’s voice came from behind him.

Her eyes looked at the blackened potatoes he had dug out, then drifted to the face he turned toward her. Her tone sounded concerned, but the teasing smile on her face betrayed her real purpose.

"A question answered with another question." Zhou Zhuang shot back irritably, then put down a few more potatoes and got ready to thread some sausages onto a rack to roast.

"I want to hear you admit it yourself."

She plopped down right beside him. She was so close their legs were almost touching. He frowned and shifted away, and she stayed right with him, keeping that ambiguous distance.

"What are you doing?!" He couldn’t take it anymore and turned sideways to glare at her.

"What are you worried about? Your girlfriend isn’t here." Her hand settled on his shoulder. Noticing his quickened breathing, she smiled seductively and explained, "She got her period today. She just went to the bathroom to change her pad, so she’ll be gone a while."

No wonder she hadn’t followed them into the water today. She must have been worried about catching a chill.

Still, learning about his girlfriend’s period from another woman was a pretty damning sign of what a lousy boyfriend he was...

The more he thought about it, the more something felt off.

"Did you deliberately send her away? There’s no one else around here..."

"I said it already. Yu Jun is shy, you know that." Su Shiyi cut him off, and the reason she gave left him with nothing to dispute.

Then, suddenly, a wicked smile spread across her face.

"But I already knew she couldn’t get in the water today."

"You..."

That final sentence made it clear she’d been prepared from the start. The carefully chosen outfit and makeup made it obvious she had come to seduce him. Her claim that she wanted to learn was just a pretext so she could be alone with him and create a chance to get close. He had expected some of it, but still found himself speechless from the shock.

"Coming here with us today - that was your idea too, wasn’t it? You told Yu Jun?"

"I didn’t do anything like that. I just played pitiful and borrowed a little favor in advance. For a kind girl like her, repaying kindness is only natural."

That woman was terrifyingly clever.

She kept herself clean from the source of it all, calculated every step of the process, and even had a firm grip on the fact that he didn’t dare risk mutually assured destruction. How was he supposed to break through her disguise? Zhou Zhuang felt bleak.

It was like a person who couldn’t swim suddenly falling into an endless ocean, the terror and helplessness of being swallowed by water leaving him blank.

"Don’t you think today is exciting? Secretly flirting with another woman in front of your girlfriend? How does it compare to last time in the classroom?"

She stood up and straddled his thighs, lips finding his ear. The little succubus licked the shell of his ear twice before whispering to him at point-blank range.

"I really... love this kind of excitement. Want to do it again? We still have time."

They had plenty of time. The nearest public restroom was a half-hour round trip from here.

With the soft, tender body in front of him, the waves of temptation brushing his ear, the familiar heat surging through him, and his painfully hard cock, Zhou Zhuang was nearly ready to nod.

He pinched himself hard. The pain dragged part of his reason back from the edge. Pushing the girl away, he stood up and steadied his breathing.

"Do you think you can do that to your boyfriend and still call yourself decent?"

The words "boyfriend" seemed to hit a raw nerve. She steadied herself, and the flushed excitement on her face was gradually replaced by anger.

"Hmph. He’s just like you - all fake decency with his mouth, acting like he’s the standard for morality, while in reality he’s doing all the dirty work. He can’t resist temptation at all, and his so-called bottom line is nothing but an excuse to avoid responsibility. I’ve done right by him. But has he done right by me?!"

What do you mean, just like me? I’m not that filthy... Zhou Zhuang listened in speechless exasperation, though it did sound exactly like some messy cheating drama.

"He cheated on you?"

"Sort of..." She paused, her lowered eyes refusing to meet his. He couldn’t tell whether she was sad or happy.

"Forget about him. Right now it’s our time. I’m going to get revenge on him, and you can do whatever you want to me - anything. Anything at all."

Zhou Zhuang could of course hear exactly what she was implying. He had only just barely escaped her control, and there was no way he would follow her lead again and let himself be dragged into another unknown trap.

"Then do you still love him?"

"I do. No one loves him more than I do. For him, I’d be willing to die."

Her answer came much faster than expected, without any hesitation at all, and it was beyond his expectations. It didn’t sound like a lie.

"Then... you still want revenge on him?" Zhou Zhuang really couldn’t make sense of her thought process. Was it that the deeper the love, the deeper the hate? If she was willing to die for him, shouldn’t she just want him dead instead?

"He doesn’t want me anymore. What else can I do..." Su Shiyi gave a tragic little smile and looked up at the clouds in the distance. In the layers of white, old scenes seemed to surface, rolling and shifting with the changing strength of the sunlight, a faint sheen gathering at the corners of her eyes.

She closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and finally relaxed her clenched hand. No tear tracks ever crossed her face. She returned to calm. Realizing that Zhou Zhuang had unknowingly pulled the conversation off course, she decided to take control back.

"I think I understand him now." She turned back to Zhou Zhuang with a seductive smile.

"What do you mean?" Seeing that familiar expression, his eyelid twitched violently, and a bad premonition rose in him.

"A wife is not as good as a concubine, a concubine is not as good as a stolen one, and a stolen one is not as good as one you can’t steal."

As she spoke those baffling words, one hand slipped up to his face when he wasn’t watching.

"Want to try it with me?"