Couple of Mirrors - Chapter 9: Staying Over
(cn: attempted sexual assault in first section)
Xu Youyi struggles in Zhou Heng's clutches, screaming, 'Zhou Heng, you've gone mad!'
'Yes,' says Zhou Heng. 'I am mad. Mad with love for you...'
Xu Youyi kicks him where it hurts, and manages to shove him off her.
Xu Youyi emerges onto the street, cutting a very sorry figure with her torn dress and dishevelled hair. Ah, she thinks, can that be the person I used to love so deeply...
As she drifts along the street, she realises that people are gossiping about her. 'Did you see today's Shanghai Press?' asks one woman. 'Yes!' replies a second woman. 'I heard that Xu Youyi killed her best friend out of jealousy!' 'And to think I liked her books so much,' adds a third. 'I never imagined she could be such a vicious woman...'
Who could have thought that rumours would spread so quickly... Xu Youyi reflects.
People are beginning to pay attention to her. 'Isn't that Xu Youyi?' asks another woman. 'It looks like her,' says her companion. 'Judging by the look of things — don't tell me she was thrown out of the Zhou mansion?'
Is this what they mean when they say it never rains but it pours? wonders Xu Youyi.
She sees little charred scraps of paper floating through the air. A larger, somewhat less burnt fragment drifts down to rest at her feet. She bends to pick it up.
Yan Wei looks up. 'Xu Youyi? Weren't you moving out from your house? How did you get into such a mess?'
'It's a long story...' says Xu Youyi.
Yan Wei gives her a look. 'You should come inside first,' she says.
Yan Wei settles Xu Youyi down in the living room, and tells her, 'Have a seat. I'll go and find you a set of clothes to change into.'
'Thank you for taking the trouble,' Xu Youyi replies.
Soon, Yan Wei is experiencing a fashion crisis. 'This is too ugly, it isn't good enough for her...' she mutters as she rifles through her wardrobe. 'This doesn't suit her... neither does this one...'
What's taking her so long? Xu Youyi wonders, downstairs. She heads up the stairs, her heels clicking on the floor. 'Yan Wei?' she asks, sticking her head around Yan Wei's bedroom door.
'What are you doing up here?' asks Yan Wei, taken by surprise.
Xu Youyi spots the piles of clothes and the bed, and knows immediately what's been going on. 'You didn't have to go to so much trouble just to pick out clothes for me,' she says. 'Any one of these will do ~'
She starts to lift an item of clothing from the bed. The barrel of Yan Wei's rifle, previously hidden under the bedcovers, comes into view...
Yan Wei very quickly moves Xu Youyi out of the way, and sits down firmly on the rifle. 'Oh, then you should feel free to choose whatever,' she tells Xu Youyi.
Yan Wei is taken aback at first. Take her in? she wonders, and then comes to a realisation. Ah, she said just now that she wanted to stay over here ... oh no!
An unsuspecting Xu Youyi is looking around Yan Wei's bedroom. 'By the way,' she says. 'Although your room is simple in appearance, the decor is quite interesting~'
'What's this?' asks Xu Youyi, picking up a bag.
Yan Wei quickly takes it from her. 'You can't play with that!'
Yan Wei opens the bag once Xu Youyi's back is turned. Inside are a few grenades. She heaves a sigh of relief, and starts to put the grenades away in a drawer, but one of them falls out of the bag...
...and rolls onto the floor. Xu Youyi turns. 'What's that?'
'Nothing!' says Yan Wei hastily, stepping in front of the grenade and blocking it from view.
—and some sort of blade descends from the ceiling. 'Careful!' shouts Yan Wei.
***
Please view the original manhua here.
Translator's note:
- Xu Youyi doesn't literally say 'it never rains but it pours'; she says 'the day your roof leaks, it rains overnight'. I went for the closest English idiom.