Song Qingchun glanced at the ‘Battery Low’ indicator. Afraid that the phone might die on her, she immediately stopped the recording. After the file was saved, she searched for her Bluetooth earbuds and plugged them into her ears as she wandered back into the bathroom.
The recording started playing. She could recognize the different sounds at the restaurant. She hit the fast forward button until she could hear her own voice calling the waiter for the bill. After a rustle of white noise, Song Qingchun could hear the taxi driver asking her for the destination.
In her drunken state, the girl instead asked the driver for the time. After being told the time, she grumbled, “Shining Light Residences.”
So… I drank myself back to the time when I still share the hundred-day contract with Su Zhinian.
Song Qingchun continued to fast forward through the recording. Through the snippets of sound and her own recollection, she realized that she did not knock or ring the bell—she keyed in the gate password and barged into Su Zhinian’s bungalow. Then, she demanded to cook dinner for him. There was an emptiness that lasted for about half an hour after that. That’s probably the half hour I left the phone at his home when we went shopping.
From the shuffling footsteps, Song Qingchun could tell that Su Zhinian accompanied her to the market. When the recording picked up next, there was only one set of footsteps, so she believed he carried her home.
Su Zhinian’s footsteps became clearer and clearer as he walked closer to the phone. Then, she could hear someone being placed on the sofa. After Su Zhinian deposited her, he seemed to be leaving from the dwindling sound of his footsteps in the recording.
He took about six steps when Song Qingchun heard the ear-splitting wail of a woman saying, “Su Zhinian, don’t leave me! I don’t want to leave your home…
“Please, don’t leave me…”
Then, Song Qingchun guessed that she rolled off the sofa because of the loud bang that followed. Then, there was the sound of Su Zhinian rushing over and his anxious shout. “Careful!”
“Don’t leave me, please don’t go…”
The woman in the recording continued to plead as if the pain did not register in her mind.
Su Zhinian sighed helplessly and said patiently, “I was just going to pour you a glass of warm water.”
She could not hear what happened next because it was overwhelmed by the keening of a banshee. At this point, Song Qingchun had lost all courage to continue listening. She had no idea how big a handful her drunken self was.
She was alone in the bathroom, but she still reached out to cover her face with both her hands, too ashamed to face herself in the mirror.
The helpless Su Zhinian had probably hauled her to the dining room and poured her a glass of water there. Then, her tuneless singing drifted through the earbuds. “Do you love me or not? I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. Do you love me or not? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
As she frowned through her horrible singing, she could hear the sound of Su Zhinian’s footsteps going upstairs. He was likely carrying her and her bag in his arms because the sound of footsteps was especially clear in the recording.