The Vanishing Beauty - Chapter 4 - 2

Chapter 4 - 2

Wielding the plunger—whose handle was designed in the shape of an Oscar trophy, featuring a little person raising both arms in the middle—Yushuang had no idea why Sister Jia had suddenly sent this to her. Could she possibly know that when Kanglong was living here, he once clogged the toilet with a particularly stubborn piece of hard stool? Did Kanglong tell her himself?

...

She racked her brains but couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Fine, whatever. A plunger was a useful gadget. Time to give it a try. In the past, this had always been her mother's job.

Holding the plunger like she was heading into battle, Yushuang went over to the flush toilet and gave it a few ferocious plunges. It had good suction. It worked. From now on, when things clogged, she wouldn't need to call property management. Trial run successfully completed, Yushuang took the plunger to the bathroom sink to rinse it off.

Then a thought hit her—wait, this was a washbasin. She hurriedly lifted the plunger up. Little did she know, the faucet on the basin was already a bit loose to begin with. Struck by the sudden assault of the plunger, the joint burst open and water began spraying everywhere. Yushuang rushed to plug the leak. Water splashed wildly! The situation escalated rapidly, soaking her right in the face!

How utterly wretched!

She quickly called property management.

It was a ten-thousand-water emergency. Right after that, water started spraying from two or three other joints, and the entire bathroom turned into a functioning fountain. The floor drain couldn't keep up with the outflow. To make matters worse, the wooden flooring in the living room got soaked. Property management could only come up and shut off the main water valve.

Yushuang temporarily escaped the disaster zone.

The post-disaster reconstruction work was extremely burdensome. On one hand, there was the restoration of her own flooded area. On the other hand, the downstairs neighbors were demanding compensation—they had spent a fortune on their suspended ceiling, and the water damage was a massive loss. In the past, neighborhood relations were entirely managed by Shuang's mother. She knew practically everyone across several buildings in the complex—dancing square dance downstairs was a form of socialization, too. But after her mother passed away, Yushuang didn't know anyone, nor did she want to know anyone. Kanglong had brought up this issue once, saying that distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors. Yushuang had replied, "Why should I know them? I don't depend on them for a living."

An incident had occurred while Kanglong was living here. Before her mother passed away, Yushuang used to sleep like a log, basically falling asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. After her mother left, she suddenly became hypochondriac and high-strung; the slightest glimmer of light or scrap of noise could stir her into an irritable frenzy, making it impossible to sleep. She went to the hospital, and the doctor prescribed some oryzanol. When Yushuang read the product insert, one of the indications listed was: used for sedation and sleep induction in menopausal syndrome.

Menopause? No, no, no, she refused to take it.

However, right around nine o'clock every evening, someone in the building would start playing the piano, and every single time it would drive Yushuang to distraction. She made two phone calls to complain to property management; their attitude was fine, and they promised to send the security captain to handle it immediately. They asked which unit it was, and Shuang said the fourth floor. By the third complaint, property management flatly refused to go handle it unless the homeowner was willing to go with them to find the offender for a face-to-face confrontation—the previous two times had resulted in wronging innocent people. Yushuang was unwilling to go downstairs. Fortunately, Kanglong was there. He took charge, searching apartment unit by unit until he finally tracked down the "offending" family in the neighboring second unit and communicated with them thoroughly.

Yushuang finally got a good night's sleep.

Because of this incident, she always felt like she owed Kanglong. She couldn't marry him, yet she was taking up his "resources." Therefore, on the night of the concert, she decided to break up with Kanglong. Who would have thought that Kanglong was willing to be her "romantic companion instead"?

This time, when communicating with the downstairs household, Kanglong was the one who stepped up. The wooden flooring was installed by Kanglong. The leaking water pipe was also repaired by him. Yushuang discovered that besides a deeply hidden chauvinistic streak, this man also had places where he "proved immensely useful." At work, she was a superhuman woman; in daily life, she was a disabled woman. Because of this, Kanglong was all the more precious.

Watching Kanglong busy repairing the floor this way and that, Yushuang found it a bit hard to open her mouth. She had something else she wanted to ask him to help with. "Chestnut," she occasionally called him Chestnut, "during the Chinese New Year, let me accompany you to your dad's place."

"I went a few days ago." Kanglong didn't look up. His relationship with his old man was mediocre. His old man had a new family, so New Year holidays had nothing to do with him.

"Then let me accompany you to tend to your mother's grave." Yushuang was eager to show some effort. She didn't want to owe him anything; even as lovers, there had to be "equivalent exchange" and a baseline of fairness.

"Is something up?"

"Well..." Yushuang couldn't get the words out. With the New Year approaching, she had to go solo to her younger brother's place for a visit. In the past when her mother was around, her younger brother would always bring his wife and kids over to celebrate the New Year; it had been Yushuang's home turf. Now, the home turf had turned into away territory, and her brother's place was garrisoned by her father-in-law and mother-in-law, so she instinctively felt it spelled trouble. Letting her brother come to the big city wasn't practical either, as she was afraid her sister-in-law and the others would start bringing up moving in. Yuching's job was unstable, and he had the inclination to move to a bigger city to develop his career, only his family was in tow and his baggage was too heavy. But if they had a foothold like Yushuang's place, it would be entirely different. Bringing Kanglong along served two purposes: first, it provided some moral support and presence, and second, it showed that she had a boyfriend, saving her from being badgered into "blind dates" or having children pushed on her by the elders and her sister-in-law. Having someone with her meant she could stay a couple of days less and take the opportunity to look around the surrounding areas, travel, and clear her mind. After all, she and Kanglong were also dating, acting as a couple, and needed to create opportunities to understand and smooth things out with each other. Moreover, sticking together for the New Year carried a hint of mutual warmth. In Kanglong's own words, "We're both orphans."

"Just spit it out if you need something." Doctor Chestnut put down the tool in his hand.

"During the New Year, I need to make a trip to my brother's place."

"I'll go with you." Kanglong answered immediately. That was what you called true tacit understanding. That was what you called a real man. Because of this promptness, Yushuang felt she owed this man doubly, and before they had even set off for her brother's place, she was already intentionally scheming on how to repay him.

School had let out, and Yu Qi stayed behind at school for a bit before receiving a call from her older sister Yurui, prompting her to set off for the big city. With their parents gone, wherever her older sister was, that was home. In fact, for all these years, it was her older sister Yurui who had supported her education. Yu Qi was relatively simple-minded, which was also thanks to Yushuang's protection, but given the twists and turns of their family fortunes, Yu Qi still possessed a bit more maturity than her peers. She was even more taciturn than Yurui. Yurui spoke when it was time to speak and kept quiet when it wasn't. As for Yu Qi, she basically never bared her inner thoughts. Fortunately, over all these years, the sisters shared a telepathic connection and tacit understanding on many matters, binding them all the more closely together like lips and teeth, sharing each other's fate. Yu Qi loved literature; previously she read Sanmao, and later she read Eileen Chang. She was terrified that she and her sisters would end up living like Manzhen and Manlu in Half-A-Life. Starting this year, she no longer wanted her sister's money, preferring to do work-study programs to earn a little extra so as not to cause trouble for her sister. Gossip in the entertainment industry was already rampant. When Yu Qi learned that her sister had basically retired from the industry and found a man to settle down with, she was genuinely happy for her from the bottom of her heart.

Yurui didn't plan on letting her younger sister live at "home"; she had booked a hotel room well in advance.

She didn't want her sister to observe the living situation between her and Shi Tongguang at close quarters. She and her sister could be as close as flesh and blood, but inserting Shi Tongguang in the middle was out of the question.

When Tongguang found out, he said, "You guys stay there, I'll go home."

Return to his own home—his parents' place.

Yurui insisted that wasn't necessary, saying the room was already booked and Qi wouldn't be staying for many days anyway. However, the moment they met face-to-face, the very first thing Shi Tongguang said made Yurui feel extremely uncomfortable. "So pretty. Like older sister, like younger sister. Truly pretty," Shi Tongguang praised.

To be honest, the Yu sisters had heard this kind of praise countless times since childhood; instead, they preferred hearing other points of praise, or simply avoiding these empty remarks altogether because they felt frivolous. Just calling someone pretty—and then what? Were they only good for selling their looks? What kind of system was that?

Shi Tongguang's second sentence made Yurui flare up even more. "You two have wonderful names—one is Sweet, one is Heart. Natural sweethearts."

Yurui rebuked, "Do you even know how to read? It's the character for 'self' with a tongue radical on the side. It has nothing to do with being sweet."

Shi Tongguang offered a minor apology and laughed it off.

As for the welcome dinner, he performed fairly well, treating them to exotic delicacies and mountain treasures. Her sister's arrival was a big deal, and Yurui only had this one younger sister and family member.

Yu Qi called him brother-in-law, and Shi Tongguang accepted it naturally, as though he and Yurui were already a surefire married couple.

At the medical aesthetics clinic. After lying down for a bit and then bouncing back up, Yujia sat straight up and prepared to get off the treatment bed. No way, she was terrified of needle marks. Yumeng stood nearby cheering her on. "You can't even see them, it's just about like an ant bite." The doctor also smiled from the side, saying, "Rest assured, it's completely safe." Yumeng chimed in, "Is beauty any different from eating? You can skip a meal, but your appearance can't lack beauty. Medical science is advancing, so why not enjoy the fruits of that progress? Look at those celebrities—before they made it, they were just so-so; after they made it, why did they keep getting better-looking? Because the money was there! Put your mind at ease. Don't you want your Old Di to look at you with new eyes? With the New Year here, it's time to put on a dazzling display." Yujia wanted to say that this wasn't cheap at all, but right in front of the doctor, she felt saying such things was beneath her dignity. Fortunately, her year-end bonus had been paid out early, so she treated it as a reward for her year of hard toil—the exact same logic as going to the hair salon to get her hair done every single year before the Chinese New Year. She was a big city person now, so she needed to keep pace with the big city's rhythm and enjoy the big city's standards. With her eyes closed, she resigned herself to their ministrations. When she got up, her skin actually seemed a bit better. Yumeng immediately offered congratulations. Yujia looked in the mirror and muttered, "It doesn't seem like much has changed." Yumeng laughed and said, "Even miracle elixirs take time to digest. As for how to handle things when you get back, just follow the doctor's orders." Yujia memorized every single instruction carefully.

After a short while, it was Sisi who noticed first. Mother and daughter were both in the bathroom when Sisi tapped her mother right between the eyebrows. "Mom, move it." Yujia dutifully tried hard to move it. Uh-oh. She couldn't really move it. Sisi giggled and pointed near her cheekbones. "Move it again."

Yujia faced the mirror and smiled—a picture of a beautiful matron.

It was a smile that didn't reach her eyes; she was smiling on the outside while stiff on the inside.

"How much did it cost?" Sisi asked. They were both women. All women under heaven belonged to the same country. There were no secrets.

"Don't tell your dad." Yujia was worried about this. She only wanted him to see the final result—the beautiful result. As for the process of the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, please completely ignore it.

Sisi said, "Mom, I'll make it clear to you right now. Once I get into college, the very first thing I'm going to do is get a nose job."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Yujia almost dropped the lotion bottle in her hand. "What's wrong with this nose of yours? It takes after your dad. Back in the day, your mom was the one who took a fancy to your dad's nose."

"It's too flat."

"What do you mean it's flat?" Yujia reached out to pinch her daughter's bridge of the nose.

"The tip is too big too. It's a garlic nose."

"I'm telling you, don't even think about it! How old are you anyway? Natural is beautiful! When I was your age, I didn't even know what makeup was—just slapped on some clam oil and Yashuang cream, and I still looked great. And you want plastic surgery! Do you call this nose bridge flat? Where would you even say that makes sense? Oh, you just have to turn it into something looking like a folding screen. Aren't you afraid it'll block your vision? Can you see your right side from your left?" Yujia delivered a breathless stream of criticism.

"If you can get work done, why can't I? I'm going to tell Dad."

"The ages are different!" Yujia raised her voice. "Go ahead and try telling him, see if your dad doesn't skin you alive. I won't be bailing you out..."

Sisi let out a scoff, looked at her mother through the mirror, gave her an eye-roll, and muttered under her breath like she was casting a spell: "Smiling on the outside while stiff on the inside, smiling on the outside while stiff on the inside, smiling on the outside while stiff on the inside..."

Yujia brandished her hairbrush in a threatening swipe. Sisi hurriedly bolted out of the room.