Chapter 41
People always found ways to entertain themselves.
Lin Qianqian’s favorite pastime was teasing Lu Yin, even inventing secrets where there were none, just to have an excuse to bother her.
Like now, as she sat on the sofa, watching Lu Yin come home from work, hanging her bag and jacket on the coat rack.
“Why are you staring at me?” Lu Yin asked, noticing her cold tea on the coffee table.
“Dr. Zhong came by this evening,” Lin Qianqian said. “She was asking about Ming Yao.”
Lu Yin paused, then nodded. “Did she say anything else?”
“No,” Lin Qianqian said, feigning innocence. “I thought you knew. Where were you today, anyway?”
“Organizing some things. I told you,” Lu Yin said.
“What kind of organizing takes all day?” Lin Qianqian asked, walking over to Lu Yin. “Are you hiding something from me?”
She leaned closer, sniffing Lu Yin’s clothes. “Let me check for other women’s perfume.”
Lu Yin poked her forehead, pushing her away gently.
Lin Qianqian caught Lu Yin’s finger, holding it in her hand, then leaned in again, hugging Lu Yin and kissing her cheek.
“Sister, can you leave your keys with me tomorrow?” she asked, her gaze searching Lu Yin’s face. “I lost mine, and I want to get a new one made.”
“You lost your keys?” Lu Yin frowned. “It’s not too late. We can go to the property management office now.”
Lin Qianqian shook her head. “I’ll do it tomorrow. Will you be home from work at the usual time tomorrow night?”
“I’m not sure,” Lu Yin said, Lin Qianqian’s embrace making it difficult to move, but she saw no intention of Lin Qianqian letting go. They were practically attached at the hip.
Lu Yin washed and dried the teacup, put it away, then opened her laptop. As she was about to go to the loft, she asked, “Have you eaten?”
“Yes,” Lin Qianqian said, following her up the stairs, her shorter legs struggling to keep up. “What are you working on?”
“Just some miscellaneous tasks. I’ll do them now so I have more free time later,” Lu Yin said, setting her laptop down and looking at Lin Qianqian. “You should go to bed early.”
“Make some room for me. I have work to do too.”
The New Year’s projects had been assigned, and she wanted to finish them early so she could take some time off.
Her boss was lenient, prioritizing quality over quantity, allowing employees to take time off if they finished their work ahead of schedule.
Lu Yin was free now, and Lin Qianqian wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.
Finishing her work before Christmas would be ideal.
The table in the loft was small, and they sat on the floor, their laptops almost touching.
Lin Qianqian opened Photoshop, copying files from her USB drive.
She glanced at Lu Yin, who was focused on her work, seemingly oblivious to Lin Qianqian’s presence.
“Is it a bit cramped?” Lin Qianqian asked.
“Not really,” Lu Yin replied, her attention unwavering.
Lin Qianqian typed for a few minutes, then lost interest.
She looked towards the cabinet, wondering how to get the key from Lu Yin.
Lu Yin glanced at her. “Not very focused on your work, are you?”
Lin Qianqian turned back to her laptop. “I’m taking a break.”
“You must have been caught slacking off before.”
“No one cares at my company,” Lin Qianqian said, grinning, then picked up her phone. “Do you want some milk tea, Sister? Buy one, get one half off.”
Lu Yin didn’t reply.
“Fine, I’ll have both,” Lin Qianqian said, browsing the menu. “How much longer will you be working?”
“Almost done. Half an hour, maybe.”
Silence fell over the loft again, punctuated by the sound of rain against the window. Lin Qianqian crawled over to the window.
“It’s raining hard,” she muttered. “The weather hasn’t been great lately.”
The rain would delay her milk tea delivery. She stared out the window, watching the raindrops stream down the glass, her mind wandering.
When Lu Yin finally closed her laptop, Lin Qianqian looked up.
“Are you finished?” she asked. Lu Yin nodded. “Can I leave my laptop here? I don’t want to carry it downstairs.”
Once Lu Yin left, she could explore the loft freely.
“Sure,” Lu Yin said. “Go to bed early when you’re done.”
Lin Qianqian watched her go downstairs, pack her laptop, retrieve her pajamas from her bedroom, and head to the bathroom.
She quickly returned to the cabinet, retrieved a toothpick from her pocket, knelt down, and inserted it into the lock.
She turned it carefully, afraid of breaking it.
The lock was small, the toothpick fragile.
The lock wouldn’t budge, and her fingertip turned red from pressing against the toothpick.
Lin Qianqian leaned against the cabinet, her legs sprawled out, defeated.
She didn’t understand her obsession with this cabinet. She had already seen what was inside.
But locked things held a strange allure, a mysterious appeal she couldn’t resist.
After a few minutes, she tried again, the toothpick still stubbornly refusing to cooperate.
She was tempted to find a hammer and smash the lock.
As she struggled with the lock, she heard footsteps behind her and quickly turned around.
Instead of Lu Yin’s disapproving gaze, she heard a faint cracking sound.
The toothpick…
Had broken inside the lock.
“Your milk tea arrived,” Lu Yin said, her hair still damp, a towel draped over her arm.
Lin Qianqian placed the milk tea on the floor, her body shielding the lock.
She hadn’t been checking the delivery app, assuming the rain would delay it.
“Do you want to dry your hair?” she asked, trying to change the subject. “It’s dripping.”
Lu Yin dried her hair with the towel, her gaze fixed on Lin Qianqian.
“Let me see,” she said.
“See what?”
Lu Yin knelt down. “The lock.”
“What lock?”
“Don’t play dumb,” Lu Yin frowned. “If you don’t remove the toothpick now, what will you do when you need something from the cabinet?”
Lin Qianqian shifted slightly, watching Lu Yin retrieve a thin piece of wire and expertly remove the broken toothpick from the lock.
Lin Qianqian, afraid of angering Lu Yin further, didn’t know what to say, silently observing Lu Yin’s expression.
She took the towel from Lu Yin’s arm. “Sister, let me dry your hair,” she offered, kneeling down and looking up at Lu Yin, her expression a mixture of guilt and apprehension.
Lu Yin’s silence was enough to make her panic.
The last time she had been scolded was after the company dinner, the bucket of ice water a sobering experience she didn’t want to repeat.
“I just wanted to see what was inside. I wasn’t trying to do anything bad,” she confessed.
Lu Yin took the towel and went downstairs.
“Sister…” Lin Qianqian followed, watching Lu Yin enter her room and close the door.
She knocked on the door, hearing the whirring of the hairdryer.
Feeling dejected, she returned to the loft, her milk tea forgotten, her work abandoned.
She waited for Lu Yin, her mind racing.
The more she worried, the more convinced she became that the cabinet contained something Lu Yin didn’t want her to see.
She knew she shouldn’t pry, but she couldn’t help herself.
After fifteen minutes, she pressed her ear against Lu Yin’s door. The hairdryer was off.
The door suddenly opened, and she stumbled forward, falling into the room.
Lu Yin caught her, and Lin Qianqian offered an awkward smile.
She watched Lu Yin go to the living room, pour herself a glass of hot water, and sit down on the sofa.
“Sister,” she called out.
“What?”
Hearing Lu Yin’s response, she grinned and sat down beside her.
“So, about that…” she said, wrapping her arms around Lu Yin’s neck, then trailing off as she noticed the notebook in Lu Yin’s hand.
She recognized it as the same one that had contained the key, the pages filled with lists of art supplies.
She flipped through it. No key.
“Sister, let’s play a game.”
“What kind of game?” Lu Yin asked, picking up a pen and making notes in the notebook.
“When I was abroad, my friends and I would play a game called Cat and Mouse during Christmas. Everyone would turn on their location sharing, and one person would be the cat, chasing everyone else, the mice, using their phones to track them.”
Lu Yin checked a few numbers in the notebook, then continued writing.
“But since it’s just the two of us, we can play hide-and-seek instead,” Lin Qianqian continued, undeterred. “To make things easier, we can play inside the apartment. How about it?”
“Why do you suddenly want to play hide-and-seek?” Lu Yin asked, looking at her.
Lin Qianqian quickly looked away. “It’s a Christmas tradition. Since I’m back, you have to play with me.”
She glanced at the calendar. “Christmas is less than a week away. Let’s finish our work early and celebrate together, okay?”
Lu Yin paused, her pen hovering over the notebook.
She heard Lin Qianqian’s words, but her mind twisted them into something else entirely.
—Sister, show me your true self. You only have a week left.
“Please?” Lin Qianqian tugged at Lu Yin’s arm. “It’ll be boring otherwise. I’m buying reindeer antlers this year. You’re paying.”
“Okay,” Lu Yin said, snapping out of her thoughts.
She checked her notes, noticing a few errors.
She sighed and turned to a new page.
“You agreed to that, but what about the other thing?” Lin Qianqian pressed, not satisfied with a single victory. “Hide-and-seek! Are we playing or not?”
“Fine,” Lu Yin said, giving in, unable to concentrate with Lin Qianqian’s constant interruptions. Lin Qianqian rewarded her with a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Sister, you’re the best! I love you!” Lin Qianqian said, humming happily.
Lu Yin wasn’t angry about the toothpick incident, agreeing to all her requests. Lin Qianqian felt a surge of relief.
If brute force didn’t work, she would resort to cunning.
She had less than a week to find the key and practice unlocking the cabinet while Lu Yin was distracted.
Lu Yin might be in control now, but she couldn’t stop Lin Qianqian’s scheming.
This time, she would be the dominant one. Little Lu Yin would be putty in her hands.
Lin Qianqian giggled at the thought.
“Go to bed,” Lu Yin said, pointing at the clock.
“I’m going, Sister,” Lin Qianqian whispered in her ear. “I’ll be waiting for you in your bed, naked. Hurry up!”
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