Derailed - Chapter 2
When she ended the call, the wall clock read ten fifty. Ten minutes until he was due.
Yu Huan peeled off her mask and went to rinse her face. When she returned, her phone lit briefly with a text from Gao Yan.
*Here.*
The roads must be clear at this hour.
She put down her phone and opened the door. He was standing outside.
“Back from your trip?”
“Mm.”
“Did it go well?”
“Well enough.” Gao Yan came in, took off his jacket, and folded it on the sofa. “You have the weekend off?”
“Mm.” A rare full two-day break.
“Then we can stay up a little later tonight.” He smiled, moving against her as he spoke.
Their clothes rustled together.
He held her, nestling his chin against her shoulder and kissing her neck like a lover returning after a long separation. Only after kneading her firmly a few times did he say in a roughened voice, “I’ll shower first.”
He released her and went straight to the bathroom.
It wasn’t his first visit. She didn’t need to show him the hot-water controls or tell him where the towels were.
“Where? Bedroom, or here?” Before long, he was beside her again with a towel around his waist.
“Bedroom.”
He scooped her up.
The weightless drop made her feel as though she were floating for an instant. By the time she registered it, she was lying on her back on the bed.
He lifted her nightclothes and began kissing his way upward.
In this department, Yu Huan had always considered Gao Yan highly practiced.
His featherlight kisses made her body go soft. A quiet sound escaped her throat, and she reached up to loop an arm around his neck.
They left the bedroom lights off, touching and lingering in the dark.
One thing that made being friends with benefits easier than being lovers was that you didn’t have to worry about what the other person thought.
With a boyfriend, being too uninhibited might make you wonder whether he minded your past relationships. With a casual partner, that worry didn’t exist.
Yu Huan gave herself over completely to the pleasure.
She lost track of how long it lasted before everything finally settled.
He was out there smoking.
She remembered the first time he’d smoked at her apartment. Afterward, as now, he’d taken out a pack and offered her one. She shook her head, and he went out to the balcony alone.
It had been the middle of winter.
Even in this southern city, the temperature outside at night was only four or five degrees Celsius.
He deliberately closed the floor-to-ceiling glass door and stood on the balcony in nothing but a towel. When he finished, she’d asked if he was cold. He only shook his head, then waited until his hands and feet had warmed up before holding her again.
In Yu Huan’s experience, men were lazy. When you first met them, they put thought into everything and attended to every detail. Once you knew each other, they couldn’t be bothered to offer even half the consideration they had at the beginning.
Gao Yan was the exception.
She thought that was a large part of why their arrangement had lasted so long. Whether it was washing beforehand, taking his time with foreplay, or smoking afterward, he was always patient, considerate, and careful about boundaries.
“The Zhongcheng matter should be nearly finished, right? Still working late every day?” he asked when he came back.
“It’s a little better than before. How about you?”
“We’ve more or less settled the cooperation agreement with them. Things should ease up a bit now.” He added, “I saw on your WeChat Moments that you’re learning to swim.”
“Mm. My neck’s been bothering me lately, and the doctor recommended swimming. You can swim, can’t you?”
“Yes.”
“How long did you take to learn?”
“How long? I learned as a child. If you mean the exact number of lessons, I don’t remember.”
They talked intermittently like that.
Outside work and the occasional night together, their lives didn’t overlap much. There wasn’t a great deal to talk about.
As their conversation gradually ran out, Gao Yan closed the few inches between them and pressed against Yu Huan’s shoulder.
…
She went into the bathroom. By the time she finished washing, he had dressed.
“I’m leaving.” Jacket in hand, he stood at the boundary between the bright living room and the dark bedroom.
He never stayed the night.
Just as they never kissed on the lips, and never needed to pretend they hated saying goodbye.
“Mm.” Yu Huan went straight back to bed. “Turn off the living-room light.”
The next day was Monday.
The workday morning unfolded as usual. Traffic streamed through the central business district, and tall buildings cut the sky into irregular shapes.
A rare full weekend of rest had restored her energy. Yu Huan strode briskly to the elevator on basement level one. Just as its doors were closing, she ran into the receptionist, Niettie, rushing toward her.
Coffee in hand, Niettie nearly collided with someone. Yu Huan steadied her. She took back her cup with a breath of relief and, once she’d caught her breath, said, “Thank you.”
Yu Huan checked her watch. “You’ve still got ten minutes. No need to rush.”
Niettie shook her head. “I need to get upstairs and set things up. Fred just messaged me. Mr. Gao’s coming in a little while.”
The Mr. Gao she meant was Gao Yan, general manager of the Leshang Group.
Leshang had a longstanding relationship with Yu Huan’s firm. Besides his own company’s business, Gao Yan referred a considerable number of other matters to them every year. He was practically a VIP among VIP clients.
“Another new matter?” Yu Huan checked her phone. Nothing had appeared in the firm’s group chat.
“I don’t know.” Niettie shook her head, then added, “But we’ve got an intern coming.”
“An intern?”
“Mm. Apparently he’s Mr. Gao’s nephew. He just graduated and came back from overseas. Mr. Gao wants him to get familiar with the legal environment here before he goes to help out at the company…”
The firm was on the twenty-third floor. They reached it before Niettie finished gossiping.
She hurried off to prepare tea for the important visitor. Yu Huan made herself a coffee in the kitchenette. By the time she came out, Gao Yan had arrived.
Today he wore a formal suit and metal-framed glasses. Behind the lenses, his face was sharply defined, his eyes deep-set—a forbidding appearance entirely unlike the man he was in bed.
“Mr. Gao.” Yu Huan nodded in greeting.
“Ms. Yu.” His reply was cool and polite.
She glanced at the person behind him.
In contrast to Gao Yan’s formality, the young man wore a crew-neck sweatshirt, casual trousers, and trainers. Tall and solidly built, he carried an expansive, vigorous energy in his limbs.
Twenty-one? Twenty-two?
That must be the new intern, Yu Huan thought.
