Mud beads

My suitcase got stuck on the threshold on the first floor.

Yu Laidi lifted the wheel twice, the wheels hitting the concrete edge with a thud. The stairwell had just been mopped, the base of the walls was still wet, and the fishy smell of the mop water mixed with the fumes from someone frying chili peppers, lingering all the way to the corner on the second floor.

"You live here?" She looked up at the stairs, her surprise barely concealed in her voice.

The motion-activated light illuminated one floor, while the floor above remained dark. The plaster bulged from the handrail, leaving square white marks where the small penis had been. Yu Zhu took the box and lifted it sideways: "Third floor."

Yu Laidi followed behind. Her stilettos couldn't make her way down the worn steps, and she had to hold onto the railing when she reached the second floor. The iron railing was covered with a layer of sticky dust, and when she looked down, she saw the black marks on her palms and frowned.

"Why don't you stay in the perfectly good Yueyuan Garden? Why are you renting a place here?"

Yu Zhu frowned but didn't reply. She lifted her suitcase up the last few steps, took out her keys, and opened the door.

No one had entered the room all day, and it still carried the warmth of a small room that had been closed for a long time. She opened the window first, then turned the floor fan on the wall to its maximum. As the fan blades spun, the two pages of notes pressed against the corner of the table were turned with a snapping sound.

Yu Laidi stood at the door without going in immediately.

The room was indeed very small. There was a bed, a desk, a cream-colored chair, and a microwave and rice cooker on a low cabinet against the wall. The distance from the foot of the bed to the bathroom door was only enough for two people to pass each other. Outside the window, there was a clothes rack in the next building, and several children's school uniforms were blown against the glass by the wind.

She bent down to change her shoes, her gaze lingering on the shoe cabinet.

There sat a pair of white wool slippers with pink embroidery on the uppers, a Dior autumn/winter collection. Yu Laidi had saved the same pair on a shopping app, hesitated for half a year, and finally thought it was too expensive. Yu Zhu was dressed casually, but the edges of her slippers were already floppy, clearly not something she wore just for show.

Yu Laidi touched her toes together and looked up at the chair in front of the table. The back of the chair was beautifully curved, and the metal nameplate was hidden under the seat cushion, inconspicuous. She had seen the same chair in a beauty blogger's video, and one of them would probably be enough to pay half a year's rent here.

"This chair is quite nice," she said with a smile. "It must be expensive, right?"

Yu Zhu took off her shoes and pushed her suitcase into the house: "I don't know, it shouldn't be expensive."

"Was it a gift from Mr. Yue?"

Yu Zhu paused for a moment. She put down the box, straightened up, and said seriously, "He and I have nothing to do with each other now."

Yu Laidi glanced at her, remaining noncommittal. She placed her handbag on the desk, her fingers tracing the small white table lamp on the corner. The room was shabby, but the things inside weren't entirely shabby; a few expensive items she recognized were scattered around. This contrast caught her attention more than Yueyuan.

"Can I take a shower?"

Yu Zhu pointed to the bathroom: "The hot water is on the left, it'll take a while to cool down."

Yu Laidi opened her suitcase and took out a transparent toiletry bag and a silk nightgown. Before entering the bathroom, she glanced at the slippers again, and the corners of her lips slightly turned up.

The bathroom door closed, and the sound of water soon began to run.

Yu Zhu placed Yu Laidi's high heels by the door, clearing half of the desk. She wasn't used to having another person in the room. The metal chain handbag was next to her textbooks, the chain coiled and gleaming. There was also an open suitcase beside the bed, clothes packed in several mesh bags, and perfume bottles tightly wrapped in velvet bags.

My phone suddenly vibrated.

It was a video call from Liang Dong.

Yu Zhu glanced at the bathroom, turned off the screen, and only answered the voice call.

"Not home yet?" Liang Dong's voice was slower than usual.

It was very noisy on his end, with both men's and women's voices, as if a drinking party had just ended.

"I'm at home." Yu Zhu held her phone in one hand and changed her outer pants with the other. "Have you been drinking?"

"I had a little to drink at the wrap party," Liang Dong chuckled, her voice gentle and soft. "I'll be back tomorrow and can rest for a few days."

"Okay." Yu Zhu sat on the edge of the bed, her smile still lingering, then her gaze fell on the bathroom door. "When will you arrive?"

"This afternoon, I'll check the flights when I get back to the hotel," Liang Dong said, her voice lowering. "I miss you so much. I want to see you as soon as I get off the bus."

Yu Zhu did not answer immediately.

The sound of water was still coming from the bathroom. She glanced at it again and said softly, "My sister is here and staying with me. I don't know when she'll leave."

"Your sister?" Liang Dong regained some composure. "Then I'll treat her to dinner tomorrow."

"No need, she has other plans."

"That's not appropriate—"

"She has something going on at her company," Yu Zhu said immediately. "Let's see how things go tomorrow, okay?"

Liang Dong responded. He wanted to say something more, but someone next to him urged him to get in the car. He hurriedly told her to let him know when they arrived, and then hung up the phone.

In the bathroom, the water flow from the showerhead had decreased at some point.

A few seconds later, the sound of water rushed down again, even faster than before.

Yu Zhu put her phone face down on the bed and got up to find a hairdryer for Yu Laidi.

Moth

It was almost 11 o'clock when the two of them finally lay down.

The bed was narrow, so Yu Zhu slept on the inside, her shoulder against the wall. Yu Laidi's body lotion had a strong, sweet floral scent, which was dispersed by the fan and then gathered again beside the pillow. The curtains weren't fully drawn, and the light from the downstairs barbershop shone through the gaps, flashing red and blue intermittently.

Yu Laidi initially talked about trivial matters at home.

Yu Dahai's back is getting worse; he can't stand up after squatting for a while. Liu Guizhen had two teeth extracted two years ago, and her new teeth can't handle hard foods. They've sold all their chickens, ducks, and geese; raising them is now prohibited.

"Mom sometimes talks about how you loved eating the flatbread she made when you were little." Yu Laidi lay on her side, her voice softening. "After you left, there really was one less person in the family."

Yu Zhu stared at the wall without saying a word.

She didn't remember liking the flatbread made by Liu Guizhen. The freshly baked ones were given to Yu Zhaozu first, and the rest were put into a bamboo basket. They would harden the next day before she could soak them in noodle soup. When she was a child, she ate everything. As long as something could fill her stomach, she didn't have the right to choose whether she liked it or not.

When Yu Laidi received no response, she turned over and said, "Zhaozu is a grown man now. You definitely wouldn't recognize him if you saw him now."

The fan swung around, causing the class schedule on the bedside table to tremble slightly.

Yu Laidi continued, "He learned interior design last year and found a job back in the county this year. He's also dating someone; the girl's family is well-off, and she's an only child."

Yu Zhu closed her eyes, feeling increasingly agitated.

Yu Laidi didn't realize it and continued, "The woman's family thinks that we need a house to get married. House prices in the county aren't low these days, and with his meager salary, when will he ever save enough for a down payment?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhu finally couldn't help but open her eyes, sit up in bed, and reach out to turn on the bedside lamp.

"Sister," she looked at Yu Laidi, "what exactly are you trying to say?"

The light shone on Yu Laidi's face after she removed her makeup. She looked even more like Yu Zhu now, except that her eyes and brows held a shrewdness and vitality honed by time. She paused for two seconds, then sat up and pulled up the strap of her nightgown, which had slipped down to her shoulders.

"What can I say? It's all the same old family drama." She sighed, a genuine annoyance on her face. "My parents call three times a day, pressuring me to give Zhao Zu a down payment. Do you think it's easy for me to earn money? Rent, food, favors—everything costs money! They just ask for 100,000 yuan; do they really think I'm an ATM?"

Yu Zhu was silent for a moment, then asked, "You agreed?"

"Am I crazy to agree? I'm not even settled yet!" Yu Laidi looked at her, her furrowed brows slowly relaxing. "But Zhaozu is getting married, and we older sisters can't just ignore it—I was thinking, you're also a daughter in the family, let's discuss how much to contribute together."

"Me?" Yu Zhu laughed angrily. "What am I planning?"

"Don't be so hasty," Yu Laidi said quickly. "Don't assume your family is scheming against you just because you hear about money. Mom and Dad asked us to each contribute 100,000 yuan, but I didn't say you would definitely get that much—it's true that I went on a business trip, and it's true that I came to see you."

Yu Zhu looked at her, took a couple of breaths, and then asked, "Do you think I'm rich?"

Yu Laidi shifted her gaze from her face, circling the small room: "You're attending a prestigious university; you won't have to worry about making money in the future. You only have one family member; how can you just cut ties with them for a little money? Besides, Mr. Yue hasn't neglected you all these years—"

Yu Zhu wanted to lash out when she heard the phrase "cutting ties over a little money," but when she heard the second half of the sentence, she forgot all her anger from the first half.

"What does this have to do with him!" she cried, her voice rising. "Why do you always drag me into this!"

"Keep your voice down, what's all the noise about!" Yu Laidi said in a low voice, as if afraid the neighbors would hear. "Why do you have to be so particular? If he's willing to give it to you, just accept it. You've known him for so many years, and he's willing to let your sister live in his house and even has someone clean her room every day. Even a fool can see what he's thinking about you."

After hearing her words, Yu Zhu felt utterly exhausted. She grabbed the thin blanket from her stomach and covered herself up a little more: "Impossible. Go back and tell them, don't even think about it. I don't have a single penny, and even if I did, I wouldn't buy Yu Zhaozu a house."

Yu Laidi stared at her, the warmth on her face fading slightly: "Pandi, one cannot only think of oneself. Zhaozu is, after all, your own brother."

The pressure of that name actually calmed Yu Zhu down.

"I left home when I was thirteen. Later, he didn't take care of anything for me, from school to meals to medical care," she said. "I didn't have to take care of his house either."

Yu Laidi pursed her lips, and after a moment, she sneered, "Fine, now you're confident. You have such a big tree to lean on, yet you insist on renting this kind of place to make yourself look high and mighty. What's so high and mighty worth? Once that person gets married, you won't even have a place to cry."

Yu Zhu pulled the blanket up onto the bed, turned over, and faced the wall: "I have a boyfriend."

Yu Laidi paused.

The signlight downstairs just went out, and the red and blue light filtering through the curtains disappeared. Only the bedside lamp remained in the room, illuminating the wrinkled sheets between the two people.

"The one on the phone?" Yu Laidi asked.

Yu Zhu turned her head.

"I overheard a couple of things while I was showering," Yu Laidi chuckled, her tone softening. "What does he do for a living?"

Yu Zhu did not answer.

Yu Laidi leaned back against the pillows, a hint of something unreadable flashing in her eyes: "Does Mr. Yue know?"

Yu Zhu reached out and turned off the bedside lamp.

"His opinion doesn't count."

Darkness descended. Yu Laidi didn't ask any more questions. She turned over so her back was to Yu Zhu, the movement a little heavy, causing the mattress to sink in. A long time passed, but her breathing remained conscious.

Yu Zhu lay against the wall all night, sleeping intermittently. When she woke up, it was almost noon. She heard rustling sounds behind her. Yu Laidi was already sitting in that milky white chair, touching up her lipstick in front of her phone's camera.

"I have other plans at the company this afternoon, so I need to go to the northern suburbs."

Yu Laidi packed her nightgown into her suitcase and zipped it up. She had changed back into the clothes she wore yesterday, her hair was curled again, and there was no sign of her not having slept well.

"I won't be coming over tonight; the client has arranged accommodations." She put on her shoes. "You go about your business; don't worry about me."

Yu Zhu nodded, feeling a little relieved: "Okay."

Yu Laidi left quickly, and Yu Zhu stood by the bed watching her walk away before taking out her phone to send a message to Liang Dong.

My sister is gone.

She typed slowly, and finally a smile appeared on her face: I'll go over first.

Liang Dong replied quickly with a photo of himself checking in.

Moth

Twenty minutes later, Yu Zhu came out of the residential area and got into a ride-hailing car.

When Yu Laidi saw Yu Zhu come out of the small coffee shop across the street, she put down her iced Americano and quickly went out to hail a taxi.

The car door closed, and she patted the back of the driver's seat, her voice urgent: "Driver, follow that white car in front."

The driver turned around and smiled: "Sis, are you filming a TV drama?"

Yu Laidi paused for a moment, then smiled and raised her hand to tidy her hair behind her ear: "My sister is going to meet someone she met online."

The white car weaved through the midday traffic towards the TV tower. The buildings in the old city grew shorter and the roads gradually widened. Forty minutes later, the car stopped in front of a new residential area.

"This area is newly developed, and it's strictly controlled; you can't drive in." Seeing that Yu Laidi didn't speak, the driver turned around and laughed again, "Your sister's online friend isn't bad."

Yu Laidi frowned as she sat in the car, staring intently at Yu Zhu's back.

Yu Zhu got out of the car and took out a black access card from her bag. The security guard greeted her through the glass and then opened the side door for her.

There are no water features or sculptures at the entrance to the residential complex; only a dark bronze plaque is embedded in the stone wall. The driveway inside the gate descends into the ground, where two uniformed security guards stand by the guard booth, while incoming vehicles line up in another lane to register.

The driver then asked, "How so?"

Yu Laidi did not answer.

She mentally recited the name of the neighborhood, then looked down at her phone, opened the map app, and took a screenshot.