Chapter Seventy-One: Wolf Blood Boiling

The waiter brought over a plate of fruit, some sunflower seeds, and two mugs of draft beer. Ren Jiaxuan took a sip of her beer while Dong Yanyan picked a grape and tossed it into her mouth. “I want to sing Andy Lau,” she said.

“Your sentence is incomplete. I want to sing songs by Jeff Chang!” Ren Jiaxuan replied lazily, enunciating each word.

“I want to sing Emil Chau, Emil Chau!” Dong Yanyan scrolled through the song list as she spoke. Ren Jiaxuan snatched the remote from her and grinned, “Then Emil Chau it is! Whichever song comes up, whoever can’t sing it drinks!”

What a joke! Those Emil Chau songs—she’d been listening to them for almost twenty years. In the first ten years, they were so popular that everyone knew them; in the following ten, people kept singing them until everyone was sick of them. Who wouldn’t know them by now?

Dong Yanyan’s eyes lit up as the screen flashed the name: “Sleepless on a Lonely Pillow.”

“Yes! I know this one! You’re done for!” While she was exclaiming, Ren Jiaxuan had already grabbed the microphone and started singing.

“Tell me, am I the one you’re waiting for? Tell me, don’t miss out again. The glimmer in your eyes seems to hold words you can never say. Come on, don’t be afraid of uncertainty…”

“Tell me, you’ve lost so much before. Tell me, you’re afraid of loneliness too. I know you can’t shake off the pain of past failures and setbacks. So tell me, stop being so lost… I think of your long nights, I think of your face, tossing and turning, sleepless on a lonely pillow. Tell you, I can’t sleep either. Tell me you’re hoping I’ll appear!”

Dong Yanyan hugged the microphone, eyes half closed in a display of deep emotion, while Ren Jiaxuan held her hand and sang along with great passion. The more they sang, the more into it they got, their voices growing louder and louder.

“I think of your dark nights, think of your face. Tossing and turning, sleepless on a lonely pillow. Tell me you think of me a thousand times. Tell me everything will come true!” The two of them danced and sang at the top of their lungs. Suddenly, their eyes met, and both fell silent. Ren Jiaxuan’s hand landed on her shoulder. Dong Yanyan, feeling her cheeks warm, retreated to the sofa and took a sip of beer.

“Can you sing ‘White Moonlight’?” she asked softly.

Ren Jiaxuan nodded. “I can. Should I sing it?”

“Mm, I’ll sing it myself.”

“White moonlight. Somewhere in the heart, so bright, yet so cold; everyone has a sorrow or two. Tried to forget, but it only stands out more—you are the pain I cannot speak of. I wish to forget, but can’t help remembering, stumbling all the way, your bondage, hard to break free…” The cello’s melody was low and sorrowful, not at all fitting for the current mood. Dong Yanyan finished the song anyway, turned to Ren Jiaxuan, and smiled. “Your turn.”

Ren Jiaxuan’s lips curled into a mischievous grin. “The next song is ‘Loving You’. We’ll sing it together. The dolphin notes are yours, the rest are mine.”

“You’re impossible! If I really try those high notes, aren’t you afraid I’ll summon wolves with my shriek?” Dong Yanyan teased.

Ren Jiaxuan laughed even harder. “No way, no way, you’ll scare the wolves off for sure!”

“For that, I’ll show you what I can do—no help needed, I’ll sing it myself!” She rolled up her sleeves with determination.

Ren Jiaxuan lounged on the sofa, looking ready for a good show.

Dong Yanyan stood in front of the coffee table, posed like a diva, and hummed along with the music. When she reached those two famous notes, she put her hand behind her ear, closed her eyes, and let out a heavenly sound, “La la la la la… la la la la la… Haa—” The dolphin note, truly beautiful.

When the song ended, she turned and cast a provocative glance at Ren Jiaxuan, who stared at her in astonishment, snatched up his beer, and downed half the glass before exclaiming, “Genius! An absolute genius! You can actually hit those dolphin notes!”

“I’m no genius, but I do have a few childhood tricks up my sleeve.” Dong Yanyan took up her beer, drank a couple of contented sips, and laughed, “Didn’t you notice? That part was the original recording.”

“Dong Yanyan, you dare fool me!” Ren Jiaxuan reached out, pulled her into his arms, and said in a low, deliberate tone, “I really like this sly, cunning little side of you. Really, I find myself liking you more and more.”

Dong Yanyan glanced at his chin, so close, still tinged with the scent of beer, and looked away, pushing him off lightly. “Don’t try those tricks you use to charm naïve girls on me. I’m only hanging out with you because we’re friends.” Her tone was cool, neither warm nor cold.

“So I should feel honored?” Ren Jiaxuan laughed it off. “Your vigilance is truly impressive. Alone, late at night, just the two of us—if I really got drunk and tried something, you wouldn’t be able to escape.”

“Then you’d better drink more.” Dong Yanyan waved to the waiter. “Another two beers, no, make it four.”

Ren Jiaxuan gave her a sly look and picked up his glass. “Here’s to you, drink as you like.”

Dong Yanyan clinked her glass with his and finished what was left in hers. Her head was already spinning a little—the mugs here were huge. Sipping all this time, she’d probably already had a full bottle, and her limit was only one.

Before the alcohol could fully take effect, she hugged a couch cushion, turned to Ren Jiaxuan with a smile, and said, “Sing ‘Pearl of the Orient’ for me. If you do it well, I’ll teach you a game.”

“I think we should play a game first, then sing,” Ren Jiaxuan said, slinging an arm over her shoulder with a suggestive grin. “No need for you to teach—I know how to play any game.”

“Really?” Dong Yanyan arched an eyebrow, dug through her bag, and finally produced a thin red string. Blinking her eyes innocently, she asked, “Do you know cat’s cradle? I’ll make a dragonfly for you.” She folded the string, tied a loop, wound it around her left hand a few times, then hooked it with the fingers of her right and stretched it into the shape of a dragonfly.

“Looks great. Why don’t you teach me?” Ren Jiaxuan smiled.

“Alright, I’ll teach you the eagle!” Dong Yanyan slipped the string from her own hands and wound it around both his wrists. Then she made another loop and hooked it over his thumbs. After a moment’s thought, she pressed his left wrist down, trying to feed it into the middle of the frame.

Ren Jiaxuan felt it getting tight and pursed his lips. “Is this right? Look, the string’s almost too short!”

“It’s not! Let me help you!” Dong Yanyan pressed his hand down and, with some effort, pulled each of his fingers through, until his whole hand was securely caught in the string.

“Success! Good thing the string’s a bit stretchy, or it would never have fit.” She grinned in triumph. Looking up to see Ren Jiaxuan still confused, she suddenly lunged forward, pinning his legs and pushing him down. With one hand, she grabbed his hair, looming over him and laughing, “Let me show you how to play the eagle, Pearl of the Orient. Now that you’re all tied up, you can’t escape if I want to do anything to you, can you?”

Only then did Ren Jiaxuan realize he’d fallen for her trick. He struggled furiously to break free, but the more he fought, the tighter the string became. He glared at the wild girl on top of him, shouting as he struggled, “Untie me! My hands are about to fall off!”

“No way.” Dong Yanyan hooked his chin with a lascivious grin. “As a woman of many years’ experience wandering the world, how could I let such a fine specimen go unmolested? Let me tell you—someone with a face like yours, attractive to both men and women, should be even more careful out there. Because the world isn’t only full of wolves; there are tigresses, too.” She pinched his chin, scrutinizing his face: finely shaped brows, red lips, white teeth—so charming, he was the archetype of every heartthrob in those over-the-top romance novels. For a moment, her blood boiled. How long had it been since she’d even touched a man? In her last life, she’d clung to Xu Cheng, giving him her first kiss, her first night, her first marriage—she’d never even known the taste of anyone else. She gazed at him in mock lechery, her mind suddenly seized by a wild impulse: pounce! Pounce right now!

“Hey! What are you doing? Let me go!” Ren Jiaxuan saw her predatory look and instinctively shrank back, shouting in panic.

Dong Yanyan frowned, and through her haze she saw he looked genuinely frightened. Suddenly, she softened, released him, shook her head, and laughed, “Sing me ‘Pearl of the Orient’ and I’ll let you go.”

“I won’t. I just won’t!” Ren Jiaxuan sat up abruptly and kicked her away. She could only scoot to the corner of the sofa and sing quietly to herself.

“My love, I can’t hide it, even as the years heartlessly drift by. I’m not afraid of pain, not afraid of losing, only afraid that all my efforts are in vain…” As she sang, her voice began to choke. She didn’t know why, but she just felt sad.

“Yanyan, Yanyan, are you crying?” Ren Jiaxuan slid over beside her and asked softly.

Dong Yanyan turned to look at him, then picked up her glass from the table and gulped down another half, her words slurring but her face earnest as she grinned at him, “I’ll sing another song. If you can pick up where I leave off, I’ll untie you. If you can’t, you drink!”

“Yanyan, stop drinking,” Ren Jiaxuan pleaded helplessly.

Dong Yanyan didn’t seem to hear, singing to herself: “I stop here, not daring to go on, so that sorrow cannot play out. The next page, you wrote your farewell in your own hand, leaving me no choice… I refuse… We walked this road too hastily, embracing an illusion that wasn’t real, never… no time to look back and admire, the scent of magnolia cannot hide the pain—”

“Does it sound good?” she asked, turning back.

“It sounds good,” Ren Jiaxuan replied woodenly.

“Then drink!” Dong Yanyan suddenly sprang up, seized his glass, and tried to pour the beer down his throat. Caught off guard, Ren Jiaxuan choked and coughed violently, shoving her off with his elbow. Dong Yanyan lost her balance, and her glass crashed to the floor, shattering.

“Yanyan, don’t move! You’ll cut yourself!” Ren Jiaxuan quickly used his legs to shield her and pressed her back onto the sofa, then shouted frantically toward the door, “Waiter, check please!”

The waiter hurried in, but paused in shock at the chaotic scene.

“What are you looking at? Bring me a fruit knife!” Ren Jiaxuan shouted irritably.