1. Her Right-Swipe Lover
[Bumble Chat]
Wang Meili: [smiley.jpg]
ST.: [Hello]
Old school greeting?
.....
ST.: [I'm very direct]
Wang Meili: [How direct?]
ST.: [I'm very free tonight]
Wang Meili: [That's it?]
ST.: [I want to see you]
#
#
When the doorbell rang, Wang Meili had a towel wrapped around her head and was hurriedly tossing the clothes strewn across the bed into her suitcase.
She lifted her heel, and with a clang, the messy suitcase snapped shut.
She took three steps in two, went barefoot to the door, and leaned over the peephole.
The other party was very polite. He only pressed the doorbell once and did not urge her in their Bumble chat, either.
He stood a few steps away from the door, both hands tucked into his pockets, his expression unreadable.
The corners of his lips curved upward, propping up Wang Meili’s increasingly brazen smile.
Separated by a single door, the man’s mysterious lowered gaze finally came into focus after countless scans from the fish-eye lens, clear and obscure in turn.
His eyes shot toward her, striking the bull’s eye.
He knew she was watching him.
What a formidable guy!
That gaze was like warm pine needles, scratching past the back of her throat before charging headlong toward the very center of Wang Meili’s heart.
She covered her ticklish chest, glanced back at the state of the room, and finally opened the door.
Any more delay would be ridiculous.
“Hi!” She pulled away the towel wrapped around her wet hair, tilting her head slightly. The waves of her damp curls cascaded down, coolly falling against her bare shoulders.
She cast him a coquettish glance and greeted him directly. “I was taking a shower. Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Under his hunting gaze, her voice involuntarily turned sticky and languid, as though her throat had been caught in strands of spun sugar.
The ice cold evening breeze swept in with a fluttering sound, brushing upward from beneath her trench coat and over her skin.
She shivered, breaking free from the vortex of his eyes that seemed to drag people downward.
Leaving the Bumble photo interface, leaving the fish-eye lens, moving from two dimensions and distortion into three-dimensional reality, this man grew more handsome with every step, more and more concrete in his handsomeness, increasingly cold and hard-edged, handsome enough to leave Wang Meili astonished.
From a 5 to a 10! How stunning!
Men really cannot take good photos.
He only smiled and said nothing. Wang Meili grew uncomfortable, moved aside to let him in, and filled the awkward silence with her own rambling. “Sorry, I just got back to the country and I’ve been busy with work. I haven’t had time to tidy things up yet. It’s a little messy…….”
She looked back and smiled. “Of course, I’m not exactly a very tidy person normally, either."
Her slip dress fell to her heels, silky and soft as a warm palm, swaying back and forth around her ankles as she walked.
The room really was a mess. Corrugated cardboard boxes were piled in the corner. Several had been roughly rummaged through, their packing tape torn into a disorderly mess. A utility knife lay across one of the boxes, its blade reflecting rippling silver light. The walls were yellowed and dim from years of cigarette smoke, with traces left behind by posters put up by the previous tenant.
This man seemed somewhat antisocial. A first meeting between a lone man and woman in an environment like this could probably earn them a spot in the social and legal news.
Wang Meili swiftly put away the knife, tossed it into a drawer, kicked the boxes with her foot, crossed her arms, and shot him a sideways glance. "Aren't you coming in? What's wrong?"
He did not move at all, standing at the doorway in silence like a mystery.
If it weren't for the ambiguous gaze that swept over her from head to toe without the slightest concealment, its heat raising goosebumps as it traced across her skin, his stiffness would have looked more like he found the merchandise not to his taste and was about to flee at the last moment.
"A little unexpected." He stepped into the entryway. Wang Meili told him he didn't need to change his shoes, and without the slightest pause in his movements, he pulled off his black and white cashmere scarf, folded it in half, and very naturally placed it on a sealed cardboard box, following the customs of the household.
Wang Meili: "What?"
He was concise. "No makeup."
Compared with the vivid, seductive glamour of her Bumble photos, the bare-faced woman before him looked at least five years younger. She was also thinner in person than in the photos.
If they hadn't been meeting one door at a time, indoors rather than outside, then even someone accustomed to moving among a hundred flowers would have mistaken this ever-changing rose.
"Huh?" Wang Meili wasn't completely bare-faced, either. After wrapping the towel around her head, she'd still filled in her eyebrows and put on some light pink lip balm. Of course, to an ordinary man, this counted as no makeup.
She smoothed her damp hair, firmly establishing her fresh from the bath appearance as utterly uncontrived. "I just showered and hadn't had time to put on makeup yet when you arrived."
He nodded. "That's good, too. Saves me the trouble of taking off my makeup later." As though afraid she hadn't understood, he added, "I didn't bring any makeup remover."
She feigned innocence. "I can lend you some."
Once again, they looked at each other in silence. Wang Meili was quite articulate, but that only applied to people she knew or business contacts. When it came to an online acquaintance who was only meant to last for one night, she had always been very polite about leaving the task of finding conversation topics to the man.
That was the heavy beam they were accustomed to carrying. Even if they were awkward and boring, even if they had not a single humorous bone in their bodies, they often had to squeeze out the glory of their entire lives to actively control the situation.
This man was so quiet that she was completely unprepared for it.
Maybe they needed a little music, or...... a little alcohol.
She rummaged through a box of liquor, pulled out a bottle of whisky, and said, "Let's have a drink."
"Why?" He tried to find somewhere to stand.
The one-bedroom hotel-style apartment made everything cramped. His tall frame made the room seem a shade darker.
Why else drink? Didn't unfamiliar men and women rely on alcohol to liven things up and quickly close the distance between them?
Wang Meili put on an air of mystery, talking nonsense in circles. "Alcohol can let me briefly drift outside the confines of a concrete life."
She hadn't spoken like a normal person in a long time. Even she herself was stunned by what had come out of her mouth.
"SEX can, too." He went straight for the point.
WOW! Just as she'd been warned beforehand, he really was direct.
"You came too fast. I haven't had time to warm up yet." She teased him, trying to keep the atmosphere light.
"How do you want to warm up? I can cooperate." He seemed eager to try.
"Alcohol." Gritting her teeth, she tore open the metal seal around the bottle and twisted the cap open with force. Without giving him the chance to show off his strength, she shook the bottle and asked, "Want some?"
"No."
"You don't drink?"
"I don't drink outside of work."
She let her gaze drift suggestively between the two of them and probed, "Like...... in a situation like this, you don't drink either?"
He nodded. "I don't."
"Have you done this before?"
"Mm." He avoided her gaze.
"Often?"
"What about you?"
"Often."
"I'm okay."
"I was joking." She paused. "But I've never done it in China. I rarely meet someone for the first time at home." If he hadn't emphasized twice that he was very free tonight, and if she hadn't happened to be particularly lonely tonight......
Wang Meili's impression of China had been asleep for ten years. She had come back in between, but unfortunately, the stay had been too short.
Once she threw herself back into her busy life, her memories immediately reset to zero, scattered into fragments like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The photos her classmates posted on social media made everything feel both unfamiliar and familiar.
She had slept with quite a few Chinese men, but sleeping with men in China had to be traced back ten years.
He mentioned the changes in China a couple of times, and she was quite interested. Unlike the changes in shopping malls and restaurants that her friend Qin Su had talked about, he talked about urban construction, road planning, air-quality indices.
He had a very clear purpose. The more he talked, the deeper his gaze became; the more he talked, the lower his voice sank; the more he talked, the closer his body drew.
Almost every syllable was pushing the progress bar forward.
Half curious, half testing him, she asked, "What do you do?"
"Can I not say?"
She'd been rejected?
She looked up in surprise, wanting to investigate the reason. The next second, the final centimeter between them disappeared. He took her hand and gave it a little shake, almost coquettishly.
She looked him up and down, then burst out laughing. "Why? Playing mysterious?"
"I do business." He gave her a vague category.
“That covers a pretty wide range.” She stared at his tightly pursed, thin line of lips, understanding that he wanted to protect his privacy. She shook the amber liquor casually and chatted idly, “A business that makes money, or one that loses money?”
“Profitable. You?”
“I’m not telling you!” She lifted her chin with a haughty little air. As her body moved, cold air slipped inside her dressing gown, carried in by the hem of his trench coat. She guessed that he had spent at least five minutes walking through the below-zero outdoors to get to this apartment building.
He was very polite. “Okay, then I won’t ask.”
Huh, now she was made to look like the pushy one.
Wang Meili narrowed her eyes, wanting to shoot him a sideways glare, but when she met the smile in his eyes, she pretended she couldn't withstand it and looked away.
She drained the wine in her glass, only to see a green caterpillar floating at the bottom. Her attention had been completely occupied by the handsome stranger just now. She really had forgotten to wash the glass, and she had no idea when the thing had gotten into it.
Seeing her staring blankly at the glass, he took the initiative to ask, “Finished? Do you want to warm up some more?”
“What do you think?” Her pitch rose, carrying an inviting tremor.
He took the glass from her and managed to find a sliver of empty space on the coffee table piled with picture frames and takeout containers, setting it down casually.
His hands were warm and dry, his movements strong. When his coarse hair brushed into the hollow of her neck, it triggered the second electric current of the night through Wang Meili.
The light dimmed. She voiced her teasing complaint, “You really have no patience.” He hadn't even been inside for fifteen minutes.
He brought up their Bumble conversation. “Didn't you want a nice night?”
She spat at him, “Arrogant bastard.”
“I am.” He admitted it with a perfectly calm expression.
“Taking a shower?” Wang Meili's legs went weak, and she nestled against his chest. Half from the alcohol, half from lust.
“Didn't you already shower?”
“What about you?”
“I'd just finished when you greeted me.”
“Then?”
“I'll take my second shower later.”
#
#
At first, Wang Meili didn't get into the mood. Her thoughts wandered: he'd just showered, which meant he had been at home, and he'd arrived so quickly. Could it be that he lived somewhere near her?
He did have some awareness of how to attend to a woman.
Although he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about dirty talk, when it came to the matter itself, he could reluctantly be considered patient. From her neck down to the roots of her thighs, he skimmed over most of her, not with enough intensity, but the wonderful thing was that every pause, every change of rhythm, was like the way he responded in conversation, scratching at the itch in her heart.
This wasn't bad at all.
The air was lovely tonight, and the moonlight was especially bright. Its halo scattered and gathered, drifting between dream and reality.
When it was over, he held her and asked if she wanted to shower.
She lingered by the edge of the bed, her back bare, and lazily said, “Later.”
“Oh.”
After catching her breath, she asked, “Are you going to shower?”
“I want to.”
She laughed and brushed aside strands of hair, not knowing whether they were wet with water or sweat, pulling out a sweet, faintly fishy smile. “Then go.”
He glanced at the bathroom and nodded, but didn't move.
“My place isn't even that big. The bathroom's right there.”
“I know.” It took him quite a while before he finally got up.
He went, then came back out very quickly.
From her questioning him midway through, she learned that he hadn't showered at all. He'd only gone to the bathroom.
“We'll shower together later.” The sparse strands of hair falling over his forehead stabbed toward his eyes with each movement. He shook them away, and beads of sweat fell into the wet folds of Wang Meili's body.
She mocked him inwardly: Together? For someone who barely talks, he's actually pretty clingy.
Of course, she had overthought it. This man was merely a penny-pinching businessman. Presumably, he'd gone into the bathroom, found that it hadn't been enough, and come back to ask for another round. Once the second time was over, he would shower both times together. That was what he meant.
Amid the sound of running water, Wang Meili opened her eyes, falling into a brief daze.
Her mouth felt so lonely today.
He held her with his gentle warmth, carrying the coconut scent of her body wash, his fingertips gliding across her waist. “Are you showering?”
Wang Meili glared at him irritably. “You've worn me out. I don't have any strength left.”
As was only natural, the man was very pleased with this. He rubbed the corner of his mouth with his wrist and grinned.
She rested for quite a while, ordered him to change the sheets, tied up the pungent garbage bag and put it outside the door, then finally dragged herself lazily into the shower.
When she came out, he was fully dressed and wrapping his scarf around his neck.
“You're leaving?”
“Mm.” He wasn't accustomed to staying the night.
Wang Meili's satisfied, well-fed happiness quickly collapsed.
He pulled her into his arms, breathed deeply of her coconut scent, and lightly kissed her forehead twice. “What? You don't want me to leave?”
After all, they had become physically intimate, so he was more talkative now.
She stayed silent as though throwing a little tantrum, pressing herself sullenly against him.
“Mm?”
“Mm.” She said, “I haven't been sleeping very well since I came back to China. Tonight, I want someone to hold me while I sleep.”
Saying something like that in Chinese really did sound dry and stiff.
“Then I won't leave.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up.
A lie.
He was a gentleman. He really did hold her, as though he were a boyfriend soothing his girlfriend to sleep. But as soon as her breathing evened out, he plunged straight back into the freezing night without a trace of reluctance.
#
#
The warmth along her back slowly disappeared, and Wang Meili gradually awoke from her shallow sleep.
Four in the morning. The sky was beginning to darken, while the moonlight remained clear and bright.
The spark from the lighter flared and dimmed in the night, dimmed and flared again, finally trembling its way toward the tip of the cigarette.
When he had just soothed her to sleep, she had asked him what his name was.
He said, “Does it matter?”
She said, “It doesn't. Just asking.”
He said, “If it doesn't matter, what's the point of asking?”
Wang Meili made something up. “I want to keep a diary.”
“That's quite a retro habit.”
“In my diary, I have to write down the name of the person I slept with today."
He idly stroked her smooth shoulder. “Then just give me any name you want.”
“Zhou Runfa.”
“Sure.”
“Forget it, let's go with Liang Chaowei.”
“That's fine, too.”
“Wu Yanzu?”
He sighed. “They're all pretty retro.”
“You really won't tell me?”
“You really want to know?”
She couldn't be bothered to know. “Fine, then I'll just save you as ST.” ST. was his Bumble username.
“Okay.”
“What name do you use on WeChat?”
“ST. It's what I use everywhere.”
“Okay.”
And that was it. He didn't ask to add her as a friend.
The glowing ember was pinched out, and the smoke dispersed.
She opened the window to air out the room and rolled her eyes so hard they practically disappeared into the freezing wind.
✦
Notes:
Zhou Runfa (Chow Yun-fat), Liang Chaowei (Tony Leung), and Wu Yanzu (Daniel Wu) are all known Hong Kong actors.
✦
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