Mud beads

Liang Dong's flight was rescheduled for the morning of the next day.

Just as dawn broke, his phone vibrated on the floor. His agent had secured a brand event for him and was urging him to go back and try on clothes.

Yu Zhu sat up, wrapped in the blanket, her hair draped over her shoulders, still looking tired. Liang Dong had already gotten out of bed and was barefoot on the floor looking for clothes.

"What time is it?" Yu Zhu asked.

"It's still early, you can sleep a little longer."

As Liang Dong spoke, he had already slipped into the bathroom. Less than five minutes later, he emerged with wet hair, a towel on his head, pulling on his pants while reaching for the charger beside his pillow. There was also an opened condom box on the bedside table.

Yu Zhu smiled first, her eyes narrowed.

Liang Dong's ears turned red, and she stuffed the charger into her bag: "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." She got out of bed and smoothed out the hem of his shirt that had been rolled up to his waist. "Weren't you supposed to rest for a few days?"

"Capitalists don't keep their word." Liang Dong fastened his watch, glanced at the time, and suddenly leaned down to hug her. "I don't want to leave."

His face was buried in the side of her neck; his freshly washed hair was cool, but his breath was hot. Yu Zhu took a step back as he hugged her, her legs bracing against the edge of the bed, and she raised her hand to touch his head.

"Okay, having a job is a good thing."

Liang Dong remained motionless.

His phone vibrated again in his pocket. He closed his eyes and hugged it for two seconds before letting go. Yu Zhu walked him to the entrance and put the glasses and hat hanging on the wall back on him. Before putting on his mask, Liang Dong leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

I'll message you when I arrive.

Yu Zhu nodded: "I'll sleep for a while on the way."

The elevator doors opened. Liang Dong stepped in, his hand blocking the door until the prompting tone sounded three times, at which point he finally withdrew his hand.

Before the door closed, he called her again, "Zhuzhu."

"Um?"

"Call me if you need anything."

"it is good."

"I love you."

Yu Zhu smiled and waved at him: "I love you too."

The corridor returned to quiet.

She went back inside and drew back the bedroom curtains. Light streamed in, revealing the bed in a terrible mess, the air still thick with the heat of the night. She stood by the bed for a moment, then bent down to gather the trash from the bedside table and toss it into the living room trash can.

The morning passed quickly. Yu Zhu watered the plants on the windowsill, unplugged the oven, tightened the gas valve, and left the refrigerator plugged in. Before leaving, she checked the window lock one last time and put the key card into her wallet.

There were two classes on Ming and Qing dynasty calligraphy in the afternoon. She took the subway from her new apartment complex back to school, arriving at the classroom just as the bell rang. The teacher was discussing Fu Shan, and a laser pointer swept across the PowerPoint presentation.

"Better clumsy than clever, better ugly than flattering, better disjointed than slick, better genuine than contrived..."

Yu Zhu lowered her head and wrote, her pen tip filling a page along the grid lines.

Moth

After class, she returned to her old neighborhood.

The sun had set behind the building, but the heat accumulated on the concrete floor during the day hadn't completely dissipated. The fruit stand had taken down half of its sunshade, leaving the remaining grapes and pears covered in a thin layer of dust. A few children, having just finished school, were squatting by the roadside playing with cards; they didn't even look up when she walked by.

Yu Laidi stood at the entrance of the building.

A silver-gray suitcase stood at her feet, the printed silk scarf on the handle now tied in a different knot. She had clearly been waiting for a while; her makeup was slightly caked by the steam, but her hair and clothes were still fairly neat. She carried two boxes of pastries from a chain bakery, the gold lettering on the paper bags gleaming brightly.

Upon seeing Yu Zhu, she smiled and said, "You're finally back. You weren't answering your phone; I thought you went to work again."

Yu Zhu stopped two steps away from her, her brows slowly furrowing: "Is it possible that you're not answering because you don't want to see me?"

Yu Laidi seemed taken aback by Yu Zhu's answer, and her smile froze for a moment. But she quickly composed herself, picked up the paper bag in her hand, and said, "Don't be angry, I bought you some food. Let's go upstairs, standing here makes us laugh."

Yu Zhu didn't move: "Just say what you have to say here."

Yu Laidi lowered the paper bag in her hand, her smile vanishing: "What do you mean?"

"That's exactly what you mean."

Someone pushed an electric scooter out of the stairwell, and Yu Zhu stepped aside to let them pass. The wheels bounced off the doorframe, and the woman on the scooter glanced back at them. Yu Laidi swallowed her words, and only lowered her voice after the woman had gone some distance.

"Are you cutting ties with your family?"

"Didn't it break up a long time ago?" Yu Zhu stood in the setting sun, her eyes slightly squinting in the light. "It's been seven years, hasn't it?"

"Is this something you can decide on a whim?" Yu Laidi's voice quickened. "From a legal standpoint, you are still a child of the Yu family. You have the blood of the Yu family flowing in your veins, and that will never change in this lifetime."

Yu Laidi's argument became increasingly convincing: "Even if you don't acknowledge it, Zhaozu is still your own brother. When you get older, and encounter any big or small matters, won't your brother stand up for you? You think 100,000 or 200,000 is a lot now, but you'll find out where that money goes later!"

Upon hearing the word "law," Yu Zhu couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Then go ahead and sue me, and you'd better sue Echizen Tooru as well."

Upon hearing the name Yuejian Che, Yu Laidi seemed to choke for a moment. She stared at her for a while, then switched the paper bag to her other hand: "Just keep pretending."

Yu Zhu's mind flashed to Cheng Fu's face: "What was I pretending for?"

"What are you pretending for?" Yu Laidi raised her voice. "You ate and lived at home first, then at the Yue family's, relying on them to get into university. Now that you've grown up, you don't recognize your own family or the Yue family anymore—you're clearly an ingrate, but you still put on this aloof act. And that guy on the phone, you won't even tell me what he does. What, are you planning to live off him for the next ten years?"

"Don't try to judge me with your own set of rules." Yu Zhu looked at her calmly. "According to your logic, the Yu family received 100,000 from the Yue family, so why don't you tell them to repay the favor?"

Yu Laidi's lips moved, as if she wanted to say that the 100,000 was to buy her, but once the calculation was done, Yu Zhu would really have nothing to do with her family anymore.

Yu Laidi's face darkened: "Weren't your parents doing this for your own good? If you had stayed in the mountains, would you be where you are today? Are you trying to outdo me in misery? Try going out to work when you're fifteen or sixteen. If I were you, I'd take not just 100,000, but 200,000!"

"Take it if you want," Yu Zhu interrupted her, pulling her backpack and walking upstairs. "If you don't want to, just refuse. Don't try to drag me into this."

When Yu Laidi saw that she was about to leave, she pushed her suitcase and chased after her.

"No, I can't explain this to you." She reached out and blocked Yu Zhu's path, her tone softening, "I'm your own sister."

"You're my own sister," Yu Zhu repeated, smiled, brushed her hand away, and walked upstairs. "I'm an ingrate."

Yu Laidi was brushed aside, her high heels sinking into a crack in the concrete floor, causing her to twist her ankle. She grabbed the gleaming stair railing, rubbing a layer of rust onto her palm.

"You really think you can get rid of your family just by changing your name and going to university? Let me tell you, you can't!" She shouted at Yu Zhu's retreating figure as she disappeared around the corner of the stairs. "You hypocrite! You ingrate! You said you wouldn't mention Mr. Yue, but all your things are still at Yueyuan. I bet you're just thinking about going back to be a rich lady someday—"

The last few words traveled through the gate of the residential complex and onto the narrow path beside the building.

Etsuya's car was parked on the side of the road, mixed in with several dusty old cars, with a crack in the rear window, and almost no one noticed it.

He looked at the building through the windshield. Yu Zhu's figure had disappeared, the lights on the third floor were on, and Yu Laidi was still standing downstairs cursing.

The driver's brows were reflected in the rearview mirror; as he listened, they gradually furrowed.

"Mr. Yue, shall we continue driving in?"

"Let's go back to the Moon Garden." Echizen Toru leaned back in his chair, rolled up the car window, and a slight upturn of his lips was reflected in the privacy film.

Moth

Yu Zhu had just finished washing her hands when her phone on the table vibrated, displaying an unfamiliar number as the caller ID.

She glanced at it for a few seconds, then pressed the answer button.

"Hello."

Echigo's voice came through the receiver, devoid of emotion: "The Moon Garden is being renovated next week. Come tomorrow and take everything from your room."

Yu Zhu was stunned for a moment, then quickly came to her senses, her fingers gripping the edge of her phone: "Do whatever you want with it."

"You don't even want the computer?"

She didn't say anything.

Echizen paused for a moment, then said in his usual tone, "If there aren't any documents, I'll just give it away."

"etc……"

Yu Zhu suddenly raised her head.

She quickly opened the laptop on the small table and went into Panpan's device management—the old computer in Yueyuan was still in the sync list.

She closed her eyes in frustration and sighed silently.

I'll go there after class tomorrow afternoon.