The Secret of the Yoga Club: The Women's Identity is Not Simple

After finishing her yoga session, Ye Qinghan sat up from the mat and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. "That felt so good. Xiaolin, you haven't eaten yet, have you? Stay and eat with us. I bought a lot of groceries today. It's no fun eating alone without Qianqian at home." She stood up and walked towards the kitchen, untying the hem of her nightgown from her waist and letting it fall down.

The kitchen is open-plan, with several bags of groceries from the supermarket on the island counter.

Ye Qinghan put on an apron over her nightgown, and tied the apron's straps into a bow at the back of her waist.

Lin Feng walked to the sink, turned on the tap, and washed the vegetables. He chopped the ribs himself, his movements swift and efficient. Ye Qinghan watched from the side and remarked, "You can even cook."

Lin Feng said he knew a little bit, and he peeled and chopped the potatoes much faster than Ye Qinghan.

Ye Qinghan smiled and said that Qianqian was in for a treat.

Three dishes and a soup were served: braised pork ribs, garlic broccoli, cucumber salad, and tomato and egg drop soup.

Ye Qinghan took a bottle of red wine from the wine cabinet and placed it on the table. The label on the bottle was entirely in French. "This bottle of wine has been sitting here for a long time. It was bought when Qianqian's father was still alive, but we never drank it. Let's open it today."

I found a corkscrew and unscrewed the cork, my movements a bit clumsy, clearly indicating I hadn't opened a bottle of wine in a long time. I poured half a glass for each of them.

"Come on, Kobayashi." She raised her glass, and the two clinked it together. The sound of the glasses clinking echoed crisply in the quiet restaurant.

She took a sip of her drink, leaned back in her chair, and her cheeks were slightly flushed. "I'm getting promoted soon. The documents have been issued, and it'll be announced next week." She took another sip. "After so many years as a deputy, I've finally made it. But to be honest—I'm a little scared. The higher the position, the more people are watching you."

"Aunt Ye, you've gotten this far thanks to your own efforts. Others are only watching because you're standing high enough."

Ye Qinghan looked at him, her wine glass hovering in mid-air. "You're so young, yet you speak with such maturity." She finished her wine in one gulp and poured herself another half glass.

The two ate and chatted, and Ye Qinghan drank quite a bit. After finishing her third glass, she became noticeably more talkative, starting with work-related matters.

Next week, the Jiangbei Province anti-gang supervision team will be visiting Hehai City to inspect the work, and I'll be busy again. I had promised to take Shen Qianqian to the amusement park.

Hearing this, Lin Feng secretly made a mental note of it. Then Ye Qinghan went on to talk about how Shen Qianqian used to chase after her grandfather for candy when she was little.

She said that after her father passed away, she slept with his photo every day; she said that she won first place in the women's group of the police academy shooting competition last year; and she said that she didn't actually like being a leader, but she had no choice.

By the end, her eyes were a little red and her voice was somewhat slurred. She leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them again, clearly feeling the effects of the alcohol.

Lin Feng stood up and walked around the dining table. "Aunt Ye, you've had too much to drink. Let me help you lie down for a while."

He draped Ye Qinghan's arm over his shoulder and wrapped his other arm around her waist. The fabric of her nightgown was smooth, and he could feel the curve of her waist when he ran his fingers over it.

She leaned almost her entire weight on Lin Feng, her head resting on his shoulder, her hair brushing against his neck. Lin Feng helped her into the bedroom.

The bedroom was large, with a double bed in the middle. The sheets were light gray, and on the bedside table was a framed photo of the family of three, all of whom were smiling happily in the photo.

Ye Qinghan was gently placed on the bed, her body sinking into the mattress. Lin Feng pulled up the blanket to cover her, but as soon as he straightened up, his wrist was grabbed.

Ye Qinghan's fingers gripped his wrist, not tightly, but suddenly. "Don't go." Her voice was muffled, her eyes half-open.

Lin Feng turned to look at her. Ye Qinghan's lips were slightly parted, her eyes were unfocused, but something that had been suppressed for a long time was surging out from the depths of her pupils.

Ye Qinghan's fingers gripped Lin Feng's wrist, the force not strong, but sudden. Her lips were slightly parted, her eyes unfocused, but something long suppressed was surging forth from the depths of her pupils.

"Don't go," she said again, her voice muffled.

Lin Feng sat down on the edge of the bed.

Ye Qinghan's hand slid down from his wrist and landed on the blanket. Her eyes were half-open, and the fine lines at the corners of her eyes were faintly visible in the bedside lamplight.

He started muttering some indistinct words, intermittently.

"Old Shen...you're back..." Her fingers gently traced names on the blanket. "Qianqian...Qianqian has grown taller again...At the last parent-teacher conference...the teacher praised her..."

Lin Feng didn't move; the other party might have mistaken him for Shen Qianqian's father.

"After you left... the house feels so empty..." Ye Qinghan's eyelashes trembled, and there was a hint of moisture in the corners of her eyes. "Sometimes I'm so tired being all alone..."

The sound grew softer and softer, more indistinct, until it became the even sound of breathing. Her fingers stopped tracing patterns on the blanket, and her chest rose and fell slowly beneath her silk nightgown.

Lin Feng waited for a while to make sure she was asleep.

Then gently remove her hand from your wrist and tuck it under the covers. Stand up, pull the covers up to your chin, and dim the bedside lamp to its lowest setting.

He stepped out of the bedroom and gently closed the door.

The living room was quiet. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was the night view of Hehai City, with the lights of ships slowly moving across the river in the distance.

I went to the kitchen, poured a glass of warm water, found the honey jar in the cupboard, and scooped a spoonful into the glass.

I carried the honey water into the bedroom and placed it on the bedside table. In the family photo on the bedside table, all three of them were smiling happily.

In the photo, Ye Qinghan is wearing a white dress, her hair is much longer than it is now, and she is leaning on the shoulder of a man wearing glasses.

Raymond Lam gently put the photo back in its original place.

She turned and walked out of the bedroom. As she turned off the living room light, she heard Ye Qinghan turn over in the bedroom. Then came a very soft murmur, the words of which were indistinct.

When I came out of Ye Qinghan's house, all the streetlights in the neighborhood were already on.

Standing in the elevator, the words she had spoken at dinner kept replaying in my mind: "The Jiangbei Province anti-gang supervision team will be visiting Hehai City next week."

The elevator reached the first floor, and he quickly stepped out, took out his phone to check the time, and it was almost ten o'clock.

I found Hongjie's number and dialed it.