CA | Chapter 6

◎Licking.◎

After Shen Yicheng left, Zhang Yi asked carefully about all of Ning Jia’s dos and don’ts. Since she had been told that Ning Jia was a senior in high school, she didn’t ask much else, afraid of taking up her study time, and the conversation ended quickly.

Knowing that Ning Jia liked to eat, Zhang Yi prepared plenty of snacks for her, mostly baked bread, cookies, and the like. They were not cold foods and wouldn’t upset her stomach, but they were easy to make one gain weight. Right now, though, Ning Jia wasn’t afraid of that.

While Ning Jia did her practice problems, she ate quite a lot. By a little after nine, Zhang Yi stopped feeding her and began preparing lunch.

Whether Shen Yicheng would come back or not, no one said. Watching Zhang Yi bustle up and down, as if she wanted to scrub every inch of the Shen residence’s stairs spotless, Ning Jia, out of kindness, asked him, “Second Uncle, are you coming back today?”

[Shen Uncle: No.]

[Shen Uncle: Eat more.]

Ah… what a gentle and kind man.

Ning Jia sent him a sticker, a white puppy nodding repeatedly on her phone, with little red flowers around it.

After Shen Yicheng exited the chat, he habitually reached to delete the conversation window, but when he thought of that white puppy, he stopped.

Ning Jia told Zhang Yi that he wasn’t coming back, and only then did Zhang Yi start making her meal.

After Zhang Yi had put the dishes on, she turned toward the studio instead. Ning Jia tensed up and said, “Auntie, you don’t need to go to the studio.”

Zhang Yi thought there might be some valuable items in there, and since Shen Yicheng had told her as much too, she didn’t go any farther. It was only after Ning Jia finished class and came back that, possessed by some strange impulse, she opened the studio door and secretly touched the jade material he had handled.

Shen Yicheng had moved back a large stone as well. Ning Jia felt it probably wasn’t some precious jade, since it was so big. Though it had no impurities, the texture wasn’t particularly fine, so it might have been something he brought back to practice on.

Touching other people’s things was rude, after all. Ning Jia only looked out of curiosity, then closed the door and continued upstairs to study.

Shen Yicheng was around sometimes and absent at others. When he came back at night, he would watch a movie, and the studio had not seen any work for a long time.

Once, Ning Jia couldn’t help asking him why he wasn’t carving jade anymore. Shen Yicheng smiled and said, “Why do you think?”

Ning Jia looked at him blankly. Shen Yicheng didn’t explain, and only after he left the table did she finally realize it, he was afraid of affecting her studies.

People in this world sought blessings from gods and Buddhas. At the very least, they burned incense, and at most, they offered sacrifices. Ning Jia was grateful beyond words, thinking that once the exams were over, she would have to thank Shen Yicheng properly. While thinking that, June arrived.

Zhang Yi was the most anxious person in the house, terrified of making a bad meal that would upset Ning Jia’s stomach and throw off her performance in the exam. Ning Jia comforted her for a long while, then looked over at Shen Yicheng, who was sitting on the sofa.

“Did you check everything?”

Ning Jia nodded.

Shen Yicheng came over and used his fingers to part her transparent pencil case. Her documents were complete, and her stationery was complete.

Ning Jia stood beside him and looked up. He was wearing a thin shirt, his neck bare, and she saw a tiny black mole there.

Ning Jia started feeling hungry again.

Shen Yicheng caught her gaze and looked down toward his own shoulder. Ning Jia hurriedly went to pack her schoolbag.

“Ning Jia.”

She stood there with her hands behind her back. “Uncle.”

“Forget it…”

Shen Yicheng thought her expression, like she was looking at him the way she might look at a chicken leg, was rather amusing. He didn’t blame her. Instead, he reached out and pressed her shoulder. Ning Jia subconsciously shrank by two inches, clearly cowed by him.

“Go to sleep. Do well on the exam tomorrow.”

Ning Jia was lying in bed, but she couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. Yet the next day, she got up at six like she’d been injected with chicken blood, then went downstairs and waited for breakfast.

Zhang Yi still cooked as usual, even arranging a platter in the shape of a 100 for her. Ning Jia smiled as she finished it all. Shen Yicheng had his suit jacket hanging from one hand and the keys in the other. Ning Jia followed behind him and sat upright even in the car.

“Nervous?”

“A little.” Ning Jia tried to sweeten her words to ease her nerves. “If Uncle sends me, I won’t be as nervous.”

He said, “Why?”

Ning Jia’s heart clenched. “Because Uncle… is kind and approachable?”

Shen Yicheng’s car came to a stop. It was a red light intersection, but Ning Jia still felt he was doing it on purpose.

She tried to add, “Because Uncle… is pleasant and refreshing to be around.”

Shen Yicheng said, “Get out. We’re here.”

Ning Jia looked at the school gate, which was still one intersection away, and got out of the car in low spirits. Shen Yicheng’s black sports car vanished down the lane like a shadow of night. Ning Jia thought about it for a long time before she finally understood that he didn’t like being called old.

Men were really strange. If they had something to say, they couldn’t just say it directly. They always made other people guess.

When Shen Yicheng came to pick her up, Ning Jia changed her tactics again. “Uncle, you look so handsome today.”

“How handsome?”

“Your…” Ning Jia looked him over from head to toe. “You’re handsome everywhere.”

Shen Yicheng smiled. “Be specific.”

Ning Jia’s head, freshly emptied after finishing an essay, was blank. Honestly, Shen Yicheng was absolutely in the handsome category. When she looked at his eyes through his glasses, they were like gemstones in a display case, and then there was that tall bridge of his nose… It was just that his smile was a little wicked. Ning Jia felt he looked better when he didn’t smile.

For a long time, she couldn’t force out a single word. She just looked at him and swallowed her saliva. Shen Yicheng only wanted to ease her tension and tease her a little. By the time they got home, Ning Jia finally squeezed out a sentence. “Uncle’s eyes are very beautiful, like colored glass.”

Shen Yicheng didn’t speak.

Ning Jia went on, “Uncle’s eyes are even prettier than amber… like the halo on the surface of a planet. Uncle’s eyes…”

“That’s enough.”

He was used to compliments, so Ning Jia’s plain, honest praise wasn’t something he could dislike.

Ning Jia obediently ran off to eat. At noon, she napped for half an hour and dreamed that she had fallen to the surface of Saturn, where brownish-yellow diamonds surrounded her on all sides. Their glitter was even more dizzying than Shen Yicheng’s gaze.

Then those glimmers turned into rows and rows of mathematical formulas, pushing her out of the illusion.

*

After the exhausting two days of exams finally ended, Shen Yicheng seemed to be in a state of total liberation too. He didn’t come home for dinner that night, and who knew where he had gone to let loose.

Ning Jia was upstairs estimating her scores, while her phone was still playing Zhou Yuyan’s complaints.

“Want to go out for a walk tonight?”

That was the conclusion after the complaints.

Ning Jia agreed, and after reporting to Shen Yicheng, she went out.

Zhou Yuyan had arranged to meet her at the milk tea shop near the school. It was bustling inside, and the KFC next door was even livelier, as if firecrackers were going off. Quite a few restaurants on that street were holding their own celebrations. Since Zhou Yuyan felt she hadn’t done well, she came to hang out with Ning Jia. The two of them sipped milk tea, chatted until they were tired of talking about the exams, and then the topic turned to men.

“I heard Zhou Yi rejected Duan Jingjing again,” Zhou Yuyan said. “What do they call a white moonlight? When you’ve been with someone like you, all the other women are just passing clouds.”

“That’s just seeing the world through a lover’s eyes.”

Zhou Yi didn’t like Ning Jia at all. He simply hated Duan Jingjing, while conveniently setting up a devoted lover image for himself.

Zhou Yuyan sighed. “What a pity. Zhou Yi looks decent enough, but turns out he’s trash too.”

“When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. Normal.” Ning Jia rested her chin in her hand and smiled. “Only Yuanyuan is a fool, still being nice to me.”

Zhou Yuyan pouted and didn’t want to bring up the reason Ning Jia was in this situation now. Instead, she asked mysteriously, “Did Zhou Yi ever kiss you?”

She puckered her lips.

Ning Jia frowned. “No, I didn’t like it.”

Zhou Yi had hinted at it, but Ning Jia found an excuse to avoid him. And not long after they confirmed their relationship, something happened at home, so there was no chance for anything. They hadn’t even hugged.

Girl talk was always unguarded. Once the topic turned to anything sexy, Ning Jia narrowed her eyes too. “What about you?”

Zhou Yuyan said carelessly, “Just so-so. We touched lips a little, but it was completely different from how TV shows make it look… Anyway, it was weird.”

Her boyfriend had been one grade above her, and they had broken up long ago.

After they finished drinking and parted ways, Zhou Yuyan’s driver sent Ning Jia back to the Shen residence. The two of them had also secretly had two drinks, not enough to get drunk, just enough to make their faces warm. Ning Jia patted her cheeks. When she opened the door, a hand pressed down on it.

She jumped up like a rabbit.

“It’s me.”

A faint smell of alcohol mixed with lingering sandalwood, as if a god had descended into the mortal world. He was wearing a properly fitted suit, with his dark gray jacket open. His tie hung down over her shoulder, ticklish and smooth.

Shen Yicheng waved her inside. Ning Jia stood by, ready to assist. When she saw him take off his jacket and lie down on the sofa, she poured him a glass of water.

“Thank you.” He said that, taking a sip. A droplet touched his lips, then fell back down.

Ning Jia hugged a bottle of mineral water and drank half of it. When she looked back, she saw him sprawled on the sofa, one hand over his forehead and the other hanging down to the floor, lying flat on his back, breathing evenly.

“Uncle?”

Ning Jia sat on the rug and shook him.

Shen Yicheng seemed to be asleep.

Another tiny wound had appeared on his hand. It looked like it had just happened. Ning Jia lowered her head and looked at the side of his thumb. That fresh red mark made plain the fact that he did not take care of his hands.

Ning Jia studied Shen Yicheng as if she were studying a Buddha statue. She reached out and placed her hand at his waist, shaking him twice as confirmation. When she saw that he really was asleep, Ning Jia went upstairs quietly. When she came back, she was holding a white silk thread.

Shen Yicheng was half-drunk and half-awake. When he saw her sitting beside him with the thin thread in her hand, he felt a little curious, but he didn’t say anything.

In the silent air, the scent of the two of them’s usual perfumes drifted together, mixed with two different kinds of liquor. Ning Jia wrapped the thread around his index finger, and after looping it once, she used her fingernail to mark the end, then hooked the point with the lead of a pencil.

She was fully focused. When her hair fell forward, Ning Jia even tucked it back twice, to keep it from brushing his arm.

Shen Yicheng suddenly raised a hand and laid it on the sofa.

Ning Jia’s movements froze for a long time. She was probably afraid he had woken up.

When Shen Yicheng no longer moved, Ning Jia measured his middle finger and thumb again. Clearly, these were two backup options.

After the measurements were done, Ning Jia put away the tools and looked quietly at Shen Yicheng for a while. She seemed about to stand up, but for some reason, she sat back down again.

She stared at the wound on his hand, lost in thought.

Maybe something in her head had snapped into place, or maybe it was precisely because there was nothing there at that moment. Ning Jia held a section of her long hair in one hand, leaned close to the back of his hand, and gently kissed the wound on his skin.

She was extremely careful, looking up at Shen Yicheng several times. He really had no reaction. Buoyed by alcohol, Ning Jia buried herself in his palm and lightly licked the wound with her tongue. There was a faint rust smell, along with the rich sandalwood scent in his hand.

Whenever Shen Yicheng came back, he had the habit of washing his hands, and the hand soap by the rack had a delicate woody fragrance. In his palm, Ning Jia didn’t dare breathe. She only allowed herself this single moment of indulgence. Then she sat up, let her hair fall loose, and kept looking at Shen Yicheng, as if confirming after the deed that she hadn’t made a mistake.

At last, Ning Jia left.

Shen Yicheng let out a long breath. He opened his palm, and under the nightlight, a faint sheen remained on the scratched area of his skin, then returned to stillness, as if it had never existed.

Only a haze of roses remained, intoxicating and dreamlike.