Chapter 21: Is she eating candy, or does she want to eat someone?

Tao Yu’s life since she arrived had seemed simple and even somewhat dull to outsiders.

She was always shuttling back and forth between the mechanical factory and her home, back and forth on a two-point line.

Aside from occasionally helping Li Juan set up her stall, she never spent time wandering around.

But this day,

After work, Tao Yu didn’t go home. Instead, she headed to the Zipper General Factory in the Daxing District of Beicheng.

However, upon arrival, she could only observe from a distance and couldn’t get close to the factory gates.

There were simply too many people queuing outside the zipper factory.

The winding, twisted line filled up every inch of open space outside the factory.

A noisy, chaotic crowd, impossible to discern where the line began or ended.

Tao Yu gently tucked some stray hairs behind her ear and recalled,

Before the 1980s in Huaguo,

Zippers in Huaguo were mostly imported, with only a few small private workshops producing them by hand with tools like hammers and molds.

Tao Yu had inquired.

The Zipper General Factory in Beicheng was the most advanced zipper factory in the country at the moment.

And the people standing in line were all from various parts of the country, eager to purchase zippers.

There was a limit to how many zippers each person could buy—purchasing without restriction wasn’t allowed.

Afterwards, they would take the zippers back to their provincial capitals to sell them.

Zippers were in such high demand nationwide that it was difficult to obtain them.

The Zipper Factory was far, and by the time Tao Yu returned to the mechanical factory’s gate, night had fallen.

The dim yellow streetlights, one after another, illuminated the streets neatly.

Tao Yu walked slowly towards home.

As she passed a road curb,

Her pace slowed, and she turned around, standing still.

There was a bamboo basket covered with white gauze placed on the curb.

An elderly woman with gray hair was sitting by the basket, her back to Tao Yu as she sewed clothes.

“Is that candy?”

Tao Yu gently asked.

She thought she smelled a faint sweetness.

Upon hearing the question, the grandmother paused her sewing, turned around,

And seeing Tao Yu looking at her basket, she lifted the gauze and smiled warmly.

“Yes, dear, would you like to buy some sticky sugar?”

Tao Yu crouched slowly in front of the basket, facing the road.

The pale yellow dress spread out on the ground, but Tao Yu didn’t notice.

From a distance, under the streetlamp, she looked like a small trumpet flower blooming in the night.

Tao Yu inhaled deeply, savoring the faint malt sugar fragrance from the basket.

It seemed to trigger some old memories…

The grandmother, noticing Tao Yu’s beauty, felt a sense of fondness and smiled kindly.

“Our candy is better than candy sticks, you know.”

Tao Yu smiled slightly, her bright eyes glinting as she asked,“How much is it?”

Outside the Mechanical Factory

A black sedan quietly blended into the night.

Inside the car,

Xiao Zhang, glancing at the rearview mirror, asked with a hint of pretense and confusion,

“Mr. Song, isn’t that Tao Yu up ahead? Why are we parked here?”

Song Hecheng, sitting in the back seat, didn’t answer.

In the darkness, he watched the faint yellow figure ahead, his gaze deep.

His long fingers lightly tapped on the back of the seat, seemingly lost in thought.

Xiao Zhang’s mouth couldn’t stay shut for long and began murmuring again.

“Tao Yu’s still out here this late. That basket is full of sticky candy, right…”

Tao Yu spoke with the grandmother for a moment, looked at the sugar in the basket, and thought of the rice cakes Li Juan had bought her.

Just as she was about to speak,

A black sedan stopped right in front of her across the street.

Tao Yu looked up.

She met the deep, shadowed gaze from the car’s back seat.

It was Song Hecheng?

For some reason, seeing Song Hecheng made Tao Yu feel a bit pleased.

In the front seat, Xiao Zhang leaned towards the passenger side and casually greeted Tao Yu.

“Tao Yu, what are you doing here? Want a ride? It’s on our way.”

Tao Yu maintained her smile, shaking her head at Xiao Zhang.

“Thank you, no need. My house is very close.”

She didn’t look at the car anymore, instead lowering her gaze back to the candy in the basket.

She huddled her hands together, crouching in front of the basket, her slender fingers lightly tapping her knee, lost in thought.

The black sedan didn’t drive off.

A low, magnetic voice from the back seat, void of emotion, came through the open window.

“Do you want some candy?”

Tao Yu paused, her finger stopping its light tap on her knee.

She quietly looked at Song Hecheng, her hands resting on her knees, gazing up at him.

Her demeanor appeared…

Extremely obedient.

Song Hecheng looked at her, seeing her bright, lively eyes seemingly smiling at him.

Her tilted head made her look like a well-behaved little animal.

Without realizing it, Song Hecheng spoke.

“I’ll buy it for you.”

Tao Yu’s lips curved up.

Under the dim streetlights,

Song Hecheng noticed that when she smiled, small dimples appeared on the corners of her lips…

“Okay.”

Tao Yu became increasingly pleased, and her voice was soft and gentle.

“Thank you, Director Song.”

At this moment, Song Hecheng nodded calmly, his expression unchanged.

He then turned toward the front seat, where Xiao Zhang, whose mouth was wide open as though an egg could fit in, was sitting.

With a slight lift of his chin, Song Hecheng gestured to Xiao Zhang.

Xiao Zhang immediately snapped back to attention, quickly rolling out of the car using both his hands and feet.

Still a bit dazed, Xiao Zhang thought to himself, What did I just see?!

Song… Director Song invited Tao… Tao Yu?

It seemed Xiao Zhang had guessed something, and he hurried over to Tao Yu.

With a servile tone, he asked how much of the sticky toffee she wanted to buy.

Tao Yu, however, looked at Song Hecheng in the car and said softly, “I want them all.”

Then she obediently asked, “Is that okay?”

…

Inside the moving car, Xiao Zhang tightly shut his mouth, nervously driving the car.

From time to time, he glanced over at the pile of sticky toffees in the passenger seat.

Xiao Zhang recalled how Director Song had readily agreed to buy all the sticky toffees, and the car slowed down considerably.

Somehow, in his mind, the image of three strings of sugar-coated hawthorn and the big unity that Director Song had offered kept floating in front of him…

In the back seat of the car, Tao Yu placed a white handkerchief on her palm, with two small pieces of malt candy lying on it.

She picked one up and put it in her mouth, gently savoring it.

Meanwhile, Song Hecheng, sitting calmly beside her, noticed from the corner of his eye that the soft yellow skirt was spread across the seat and had already reached the edge of his trousers.

But the owner of the skirt was focused on the candy in her hand, completely unaware.

As Song Hecheng pulled his thoughts back, the faint malt scent drifted to his nose.

“Director Song, would you like to try some?” Tao Yu asked, her cheeks slightly puffed as she spoke with the candy in her mouth.

Song Hecheng turned his head to look at the candy on the white handkerchief, about to politely decline.

But at that moment, he heard the faint sound of teeth gently chewing the candy…

Tao Yu was indeed chewing the candy in her mouth.

She shifted it to the back of her mouth, gently biting and grinding it.

She chewed softly, slowly, and the sound was barely audible.

Perhaps only Song Hecheng sitting next to her could clearly hear…

The faint, delicate sound lingered in the back of the car.

One wave, then another.

It seemed to penetrate deep into the chest, pulling at one’s heartstrings, itching at the soul…

In the dim light of the back seat, Song Hecheng’s Adam’s apple moved slightly.

He still didn’t speak his refusal.

He took the candy from her palm and ate it…

Near the courtyard, at Tao Yu’s home.

Xiao Zhang helped carry the basket into the yard, greeted Li Juan at the door, then quickly returned to the car, sitting without looking around.

Song Hecheng stood outside the car, and Li Juan was thanking him.

“Director Song, thank you so much for bringing my Yu’er home. I hope we didn’t cause you any trouble.”

She also thanked him for renting the house to them, mentioning that Tao Yu had told her about it.

After hearing this, Song Hecheng politely nodded to Li Juan. After responding briefly, he got back into the car.

Tao Yu, wearing a light yellow dress, calmly stood behind Li Juan.

When she saw Song Hecheng looking at her, she slightly parted her red lips and silently said something.

Song Hecheng’s eyes momentarily froze, but he felt a strange shift in the air, his focus pulled toward her, before he quickly regained his composure and left with Xiao Zhang.

But at that moment, Song Hecheng’s mind was no longer at peace.