Heart Flutter

Chapter 44

In the dimly lit room, only a single lamp cast a faint glow. A man and a woman were locked in a passionate kiss, their breathing heavy.

He brushed aside the stray hairs at her temple and said, “When can we finally be together in the open?”

“Very soon,” the woman replied with a smile. “Once that old man passes away, the company and the house will both be ours.”

“What about his older daughter?” the man asked.

“Don’t worry. I will never let that woman’s daughter take even a single cent from the Shen family.”

…

A clap of thunder tore through the sky, jolting Ji Yuqing awake at her desk. The curtains were half-drawn; lightning lit up the room for an instant. She had dozed off while working in the study, and the computer’s faint glow shone on her face. The time in the bottom right corner showed that it was three thirty in the morning.

Thunder boomed one crash after another, each louder than the last, as though it were right overhead, about to shatter the windows.

Tang Yan, who had been sleeping, was startled awake and could not fall back asleep no matter how she tossed and turned. Feeling parched, she reached out to grope for the glass on her bedside table. Only a mouthful of water remained, so she flicked on the lamp, slipped on her slippers, and walked out of her room with her cup.

She ended up meeting Aunt Ji in the living room at nearly the same time. Aunt Ji also held a cup, though she appeared to be drinking coffee, judging by the steam rising from it.

“Yanyan, you still weren’t asleep?” Ji Yuqing asked.

“The thunder woke me.” Right after Tang Yan spoke, another thunderclap exploded directly overhead. Lightning flickered and vanished. Tang Yan clearly saw Aunt Ji’s body tremble a little.

“What a coincidence. It woke me too,” she said, trying to sound composed.

Tang Yan took a large gulp of water and swallowed. Trying to be casual, she asked, “Aunt Ji, are you afraid of thunder?”

Ji Yuqing paused, setting one hand on the nearby bar counter. “How could I be afraid? I’m an adult, after all.” She stopped for a moment and then asked, “Are you afraid, Yanyan?”

Tang Yan shook her head resolutely. “No, I’m not.”

“Well… that’s good.” She barely finished speaking when several crashes of thunder rumbled in quick succession. Ji Yuqing immediately recoiled, wrapping her arms tightly around herself and shutting her eyes, as though trying to endure until it subsided.

“Aunt Ji, Aunt Ji, Aunt Ji…” Tang Yan called out several times, but it felt as though Ji Yuqing were stuck in a swamp and could not break free. She seemed to sink deeper and deeper, as though she were about to fall into a bottomless black pit.

“Aunt Ji, are you alright?”

She snapped back to awareness, looking flustered when she met Tang Yan’s gaze. “I’m fine…”

“Just now…” Tang Yan hesitated, worried.

“I’m fine.” Ji Yuqing forced a faint smile, as though hiding something. “Go on back to your room and get some more rest. It’s still a while until morning, so you can sleep a few more hours.”

Tang Yan nodded and turned toward her room. She had only taken a few steps when she heard a noise from the living room. Pausing at the corridor, she glanced back and saw that Aunt Ji had sat down on the sofa by herself and turned on the television, cranking the volume up rather high.

From Tang Yan’s angle, she could see only the side of Aunt Ji’s face and could not guess what she was feeling. But based on what had happened, it was clear she was afraid of thunder. Tang Yan, having lost her own drowsiness, decided to turn around, walk back to the sofa, and put her glass down. She sat beside Aunt Ji, leaving about one seat’s worth of space between them.

Surprised, Ji Yuqing turned her head. “Why didn’t you go to sleep?”

Tang Yan pursed her lips. “I couldn’t fall back asleep.”

“Must be because the thunder is too loud,” Ji Yuqing said with a small smile. “Let’s watch TV together, then. Go back to bed when you feel tired.”

“Alright.” Tang Yan nodded.

On the television, a movie called The Shawshank Redemption was playing, and Tang Yan was watching it for the first time.

“I’ve seen this movie at least five times,” Ji Yuqing murmured. “I really like its deeper meaning.”

Time slipped by quietly as the two of them watched the same movie at half past three in the morning. For Tang Yan, it was an entirely new experience, one she would find hard to forget.

Outside, thunder still rumbled and lingered, showing no sign of retreat. At last, heavy rain began to pour down on the land. In all the time Tang Yan had been in Huadu, she had only seen it rain once before—during the start-of-term military training. Back in her hometown, it had rained more often than not, even more frequently than it stayed clear.

Now the sky had finally gathered enough moisture that it all came crashing down in torrents. With the thunder rolling on, Ji Yuqing gradually relaxed. She had weathered many nights like this on her own in the past.

“Aunt Ji, do you always watch TV alone when it thunders at night?” Tang Yan asked curiously.

“In this kind of atmosphere, I like to pick a movie I enjoy. The darkness all around helps me settle down.”

Tang Yan nodded, only half understanding. Then Ji Yuqing asked her, “Why aren’t you afraid of thunder? I always thought most girls were scared of it.”

Tang Yan smiled. “When I was little, where I lived, thunderstorms came around all the time. I had to sleep alone in my own small room, which held only a tiny bed. There was one not-too-big window, and on clear nights I could see the stars and moon outside.

“I had no real entertainment. I rarely got a chance to watch TV because my aunt and cousin didn’t like me in the room where the television was. So I spent most of my time alone in that small space, taking in all the sounds of nature as if they were speaking to me. Cicadas, frogs, thunder, rain… they all became part of my life back then, so I never thought thunder was scary. I just treated it like a way for nature to talk to us.”

While Tang Yan spoke, Ji Yuqing watched her intently from the side. This child, she realized, possessed a level of maturity no one would expect. Everything she had been through while growing up forced her to become far more grown-up than she should have been.

“Yanyan, you know, you really are a child who makes my heart ache.” Unable to help herself, Ji Yuqing reached out to pat Tang Yan’s head.

Tang Yan lowered her face, feeling happy and content. She considered herself lucky to have met such a warm person as Aunt Ji.

At last, the thunder receded, the sound drifting to some far-off place. The rain continued to fall, however. By then, the film was about halfway through, and Tang Yan yawned, starting to feel tired. When she turned to look at Aunt Ji, she discovered that at some point, she had drifted off, curled sideways against the sofa.

Since it was already autumn, it would be easy to catch a cold if one was not careful, and Aunt Ji’s clothes looked thin. After thinking for a moment, Tang Yan decided to get up from the couch as quietly as possible, step by step, until she reached her room, where she found a blanket in the closet. Holding it in her arms, she tiptoed back, keeping everything as silent as she could.

When she returned, she gently placed the blanket over Aunt Ji and bent down to pick up the remote from the table, lowering the TV volume to near-mute. Tang Yan then sat back down and watched the movie by reading subtitles alone.

She had just begun to feel tired again before getting up to fetch the blanket, but all that coming and going had jolted her awake. It looked like she would have to wait until sleepiness returned. Besides, with Aunt Ji there, Tang Yan did not feel right leaving her alone.

She secretly felt a bit pleased at having a reason to stay by Aunt Ji’s side for a while longer.

She was not sure how long it had been, but Tang Yan still did not feel sleepy. Just then, Aunt Ji shifted and her head slipped from the sofa’s backrest to land on Tang Yan’s shoulder. In that instant, Tang Yan’s heart began pounding so hard she could not steady herself.

Sneaking a glance to the side, she realized there were only a few centimeters between their faces. Tang Yan hurriedly looked away and tried taking a slow, deep breath to steady herself. Aunt Ji’s breathing was calm, and each exhalation fell against Tang Yan’s neck, giving her a ticklish, almost unbearable sensation.

She could not describe exactly how it felt.

Now that they were so close, Tang Yan caught the faint fragrance of Aunt Ji’s scent. She normally did not notice it unless she was near her. It was not at all overpowering; Tang Yan remembered smelling it when Aunt Ji picked her up from the train station. She had never known exactly what that scent was, only that it smelled very, very good.

It was the kind of enticing fragrance that made a person want to inhale even more deeply, as though she had been bewitched. Tang Yan suspected she was already addicted to it.

With Aunt Ji sleeping against her shoulder, Tang Yan tried her best not to move. She kept her back straight and rigid, thinking she could hold out until dawn. As long as Aunt Ji got a good night’s sleep, she felt it was worth the effort.

But she was wrong. Eventually, she could not fight her body’s weariness. When her eyelids grew too heavy to keep open, she dozed off as well. Her head happened to tilt, coming to rest against Aunt Ji’s.

In that moment, they leaned on each other, forming a beautiful, peaceful scene.

When morning came, Ji Yuqing woke first. Outside, everything appeared calm again. Several elderly neighbors in the residential complex were chatting away, and the TV continued to play other movies from the playlist, though it was somehow on mute.

She tried to raise her arm but realized it was pinned beneath something. Opening her eyes slowly, she saw that she had indeed slept in the living room on the sofa. A blanket that she recognized from Tang Yan’s room lay over her. Tang Yan was curled up with her head resting on Ji Yuqing’s arm, sleeping sweetly like a gentle kitten.

Not wanting to wake her, Ji Yuqing gave up on getting up and closed her eyes again.