Drifting on a String - Chapter 47

Chapter 47

The cafeteria's self-serve hot pot had improved; the soup base was much more fragrant than before, so they had it again. Papayas were no longer in season, so the papaya milk was off the menu. Chen Piaopiao chose a strawberry milkshake, eating hot pot and watching the snow with Tao Jin.

When she first arrived, the academic building opposite still had oily green vines, but now they were shrunken and withered, their wrinkled faces catching snowflakes.

The supermarket started selling tanghulu and sugar-coated hawthorn balls, five yuan a bag. Chen Piaopiao couldn't eat more than two before finding them too sour, so she gave the rest to Tao Jin. The strawberries on campus were sold in small plastic basins. Chen Piaopiao was easily drawn in by this kind of "free gift," but after buying them twice, she discovered they were useless for anything besides holding trash like sunflower seed shells.

She returned to her dorm, washed the strawberries, and shared them with everyone. Then she wiped her hands and went downstairs toward the tree-lined path.

She was still unwilling to accept it, but she didn't want Tao Jin to have to cater to her emotions, so she didn't show anything. After their meal, the two parted clingingly, and she said she had to go back to rush some homework.

Chen Piaopiao put on a pair of woolen gloves and dug through the snowdrifts under several nearby trees. Her gloves got completely soaked, which was even colder than using her bare hands. She hissed to ward off the chill, took off the gloves, shook off the snow, and puffed out her cheeks to blow warm air into her palms.

It was really gone.

She walked back, carrying the soaked gloves, lost in a habitual daze.

Regret, sadness, anger—she felt none of it. Whenever her emotions grew complex, Chen Piaopiao would just zone out.

Back in the dorm, she washed the gloves and hung them to dry, then filled a basin with hot water to soak her hands and feet. The scalding water left a red line on her ankles. She opened Taobao, and the homepage pushed various perfumes to her based on her browsing history. Only then did a sense of grievance belatedly well up, rolling into her chest along with the heat from the soles of her feet.

With a sigh, she decided to wash her hair.

After rinsing, she realized she hadn't brought her conditioner. She went back to her desk to get it, but the phone on her desk suddenly started vibrating.

She looked up. Amid the buzzing, the two characters for "Tao Jin" were displayed in the center of the screen.

Chen Piaopiao squeezed the dripping ends of her hair, casually wrapped it in a towel, and picked up the phone with her damp fingers. "Hello?"

"Come to the window in the hallway. I want to show you something." Tao Jin's voice was crisp and clear; you could tell she was outside.

Holding the phone, Chen Piaopiao pattered into the hallway and leaned out to look down.

Tao Jin was standing next to a heart-shaped pile of fallen leaves, her face tilted upward. She must have been smiling, though Chen Piaopiao couldn't see clearly.

Chen Piaopiao squinted and asked in a soft voice, "Did you pile those?"

"I don't know who did," Tao Jin said, glancing at it and confessing, "I'm just borrowing it for a moment."

Her heart felt deathly sweet, even sweeter than the tip of the strawberry she had just bitten. Chen Piaopiao's dimples seemed to catch the dancing sunlight. "Is this all you wanted to show me?"

"No," Tao Jin gestured to her pocket, her right hand hidden inside. "I found something. Come down now. I'll hide it in the leaves, and you can come dig for it."

Copying her? Chen Piaopiao bent over with laughter. "My first snow was very romantic. These leaves are dirty. And besides, why are you giving me a heads-up?"

"Because I'm afraid of losing it again," Tao Jin said quietly into the receiver, her face turned to the side.

It was like she was whispering in her ear.

Chen Piaopiao wanted to say, Tao Jin, are you trying to coax me? But she didn't. Her eyes were filled with a snow-like rock candy sweetness. She touched her head and negotiated, "I'm halfway through washing my hair, and I haven't dried it yet. How about in a little while?"

Tao Jin sounded troubled, a slight nasal tone in her voice. "I have to go to rehearsal soon, in the Small Lecture Hall."

Chen Piaopiao thought for a moment. "Then you go ahead. I'll come find you after I finish washing my hair and getting ready."

"Okay."

After hanging up, Chen Piaopiao leaned against the window, watching Tao Jin walk toward the academic building until her figure disappeared. Only then did she pull back, crying out, "Ouch," and clutching her elbow. The window frame was too hard, leaving two deep red marks on her forearm.

She didn't mind and ran back to the hot water room to continue washing her hair.

After blow-drying her hair and washing her face, Chen Piaopiao waited by herself for a while, heading to the lecture hall only when she estimated the rehearsal was about to end.

It had indeed ended. The tiered classroom was quiet, with only a small section of lights on over the stage. The wine-red curtains were piled to the sides, framing a stage constructed of black and brown, with a large expanse of deep red seats behind it. Tao Jin's coat was tossed on a desk in the front row, while she herself, wearing a thin, form-fitting sweater, sat on the stage, head down, sketching.

She recalled the contents of the rehearsal while adjusting the set design on paper. She wasn't skilled at drawing, merely sketching a few lines for reference. She was so focused when she worked that she didn't notice Chen Piaopiao until she was right in front of her.

Chen Piaopiao always felt that Tao Jin was made for the stage, because she was especially beautiful when the spotlight hit her.

Like the shimmering, rippling play of light on a whale's skin—dreamlike and illusory, possessing a lonely, endangered kind of beauty.

Tao Jin turned her head and looked at her, the curve of her nose and lips like a masterpiece sketched by light and shadow.

She was drawing the stage, and the stage was drawing her.

"Finished washing your hair?" She spoke, and the scene came alive with color and fragrance.

For a second, Chen Piaopiao felt a pang of regret, as if she had shattered a timeless, famous painting.

"Yeah. Have the others left?" She followed the sound of her own echoing footsteps and stood below the stage. The question didn't need an answer, so Chen Piaopiao asked her second one, "What was the thing you mentioned?"

Tao Jin smiled, came down from the stage, casually brushed off her pants, then lifted her coat and pulled a bottle of perfume from the pocket.

It was the one Chen Piaopiao had wanted to give her—the pure, flawless white cedar.

This... Chen Piaopiao rose onto her tiptoes, concealing the loosening grip on her heart.

"Things like this usually don't get lost so easily. I asked a friend in the student union to check, and it just so happened a student found it and turned it in to the counselor. I went and picked it up. Take a look, is it yours?" Tao Jin handed it to her.

Chen Piaopiao's gaze softened, her eyes falling on the perfectly intact packaging.

"No," she said, shaking her head and looking at Tao Jin. "I bought the 50ml one."

This one was 100ml.

Besides, it was impossible for a second person to lose the same perfume at the same place on the same day. "You bought this."

No wonder Tao Jin had so readily let her go back to the dorm just now. She had gone out to buy perfume.

A very unfamiliar emotion clogged her throat, making it hard to swallow. Chen Piaopiao lowered her eyes, tracing the overlapping shadows of herself and Tao Jin.

Tao Jin's fingers twitched. She unconsciously repeated, "50ml?"

"Yeah. I don't have money. I wanted to buy you the biggest and the best one too, but I couldn't afford the 100ml, so I could only buy the 50ml." Chen Piaopiao pressed her lips together, the tip of her tongue pushing slightly against them before quickly relaxing. She looked up at Tao Jin frankly.

Breaths rose and fell between them, but a frown creased Tao Jin's smooth brow. She probably didn't know what to say. She had only wanted to buy a new bottle to make Chen Piaopiao happy, but she hadn't expected the size to be wrong, and... it seemed to have made the little fox even more upset.

"Did you buy it?" Chen Piaopiao took it anyway, looking from the perfume to Tao Jin.

"Yes."

Chen Piaopiao clutched the perfume box, silent for three or four seconds. A small voice piped up, "Oh, so you admit it."

"What?"

Tao Jin heard the fox's stifled laugh, which seemed to wiggle along with a pair of imaginary little ears, enlivening the air.

Chen Piaopiao looked up with a smile, tilting her head at her. "I tricked you. I bought the 100ml one."

"I don't have money, but I'll still buy you the biggest and the best." She suppressed a smile, still looking very demure, but she subtly raised an eyebrow.

An inch of pride, an inch of slyness.

Tao Jin froze, then turned her face away, letting out a sigh mixed with a laugh. The head-on tension instantly dissipated. Three seconds later, her gaze shifted back, and she reached out to poke Chen Piaopiao's forehead with her index finger.

A soft "hmph," barely audible.

Chen Piaopiao broke into a happy laugh. She cradled the perfume, rubbing it a little, before stuffing it back into Tao Jin's arms. "It's for you. I'm giving it to you again. Don't be angry."

She knew why Tao Jin had done this, and it made her happier than receiving a hundred gifts.

She felt like she could go work for another ten years.

Tao Jin smiled too, her eyes sparkling. She enveloped the ecstatic little fox with her gaze, giving her a visual hug, then said, "There's more."

"Huh? What else?"

Tao Jin said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "You gave me a gift. Don't I need to give one in return?"

Oh? Such a good deal existed? Her own gift got lost, Tao Jin spent money to replace it, and now she was getting a return gift on top of it.

They both had a tacit understanding not to expose the pretense, acting out a clumsy play beneath the theater stage, the kind only people in love would perform.

"What return gift?"

Tao Jin had her sit on a desk in the front row, then bent down and pulled a paper bag from the shadows under the seat. She took out the box inside and placed it between Chen Piaopiao's legs.

It was square, clearly a shoebox, with "UGG" written on it.

Chen Piaopiao had never worn snow boots before; they weren't needed in the warmer climate of Xindu. But she knew the brand from seeing its ads all the time.

"Snow boots?" Little parentheses bloomed at the corners of her mouth, her surprise as subtle as her voice.

"Mhm," Tao Jin's hand dropped to touch her red, frozen ankles. "Still wearing flats. You haven't bought boots, have you?"

"I didn't expect it to snow so soon." Chen Piaopiao held her breath as she opened it. There was a fresh scent of leather and fur. She reached into the boot shaft; it was fluffy and so warm.

Her knees knocked together gently of their own accord, and her dangling feet swung back and forth. Tao Jin took in all these small movements. At this moment, Chen Piaopiao was most like a carefree young girl.

Chen Piaopiao picked them up to check the color, then the size. She held them against her leg to gauge the height of the shaft, then stuck her hand inside again, "wearing" them with her hand.

Although she didn't say anything, it was obvious she absolutely loved them.

"Then I won't be cold in class tomorrow."

Chen Piaopiao tried to say something, but the words "thank you" just wouldn't come out. She searched her heart seven or eight times, only managing to awkwardly utter that one sentence.

"Piaopiao."

Tao Jin gazed at her, blinked slowly, and suddenly said her name.

"Hm?"

"From now on, if you're cold, you have to tell me. If you're hungry, you have to tell me. If you're unhappy, sad, bored, or being bullied, you have to tell me all of it."

Tao Jin said this to her softly, earnestly.

The words were plain, with barely any rise or fall in intonation, but Chen Piaopiao felt that Tao Jin had just given her the entire world.

Get instant access to all chapters now.

Previous Table of Contents Next