Pinky.
‘Aren’t I allowed to find a way to leave this island?’ Qiao Tan Yuan asked. ‘Did you ask for my opinion before you trapped me here? Can you understand I don’t want to be here? I hate seeing you.’
Gu Jiao Wu didn’t take Qiao Tan Yuan’s bait.
‘Go and eat,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
Gu Jiao Wu let go of Qiao Tan Yuan’s arm, and walked to the dining table.
Qiao Tan Yuan was tired of Gu Jiao Wu treating her like a toy. For years she wished he would look her way, but he didn’t care about how she felt. Suddenly he took leaps to be close to her. It made her hate reliving the same insecurities, she wanted to stop worrying about when he would leave her again.
Qiao Tan Yuan slowly walked to the dining table.
‘Do you plan to be like this for the remaining six days?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
‘I’ll promise to stay if you promise me one thing,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
‘What?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
‘You won’t touch me,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said. ‘I won’t try to escape if you promise you won’t touch me.’
‘Escape?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
‘Yes,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said. ‘If you touch me, I’ll only believe you’re using my body.’
‘Do you think I would touch you if I didn’t love you?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
Gu Jiao Wu loved Qiao Tan Yuan. If he didn’t love her, he wouldn’t desire her.
‘If you love me then you need to respect me,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said. ‘If you do everything your way, it’s not respecting me.’
‘OK,’ Gu Jiao Wu said. ‘We’ll stay here together for seven days like we agreed. I won’t touch unless you let me. Satisfied?’
‘Um,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said. She held up her pinky. ‘You have to keep your promise.’
‘I’ll keep my promise,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
Gu Jiao Wu couldn’t believe Qiao Tan Yuan wanted him to pinky swear with her like children. He hooked her pinky, and thought about ways to get her to let him sleep with her.
After Gu Jiao Wu and Qiao Tan Yuan ate, she washed the dishes. She was frustrated the dishes didn’t listen to her, slipped out of her hands and onto the floor again. She had used a little dishwashing detergent like he showed her last night. She looked out of the kitchen, and was happy he didn’t hear the dishes breaking. She crouched to pick up the broken pieces, but a hand held her wrist from behind her.
‘Don’t move,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
Gu Jiao Wu quickly swept the broken pieces into the dust pan, and threw them into a bin.
‘You’re impressive,’ Gu Jiao Wu said. ‘Didn’t I show you how to wash dishes last night?’
Gu Jiao Wu’s teasing tone sounded like Qiao Tan Yuan should know how to wash dishes as easy as she listened to the weather, it made her upset.
‘I told you I don’t know how to do housework,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said. ‘You shouldn’t force me to do housework.’
Gu Jiao Wu swiftly washed, and dried the dishes.
‘Even a pig can learn how to do something this simple,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
‘You’re a pig!’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
Qiao Tan Yuan hated being in the kitchen. She held up her swollen hands.
‘Look at my hands,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said. ‘I hate cooking and cleaning. My hands will swell.’
Gu Jiao Wu looked at Qiao Tan Yuan’s red swollen fingers.
‘I’m not forcing you to cook,’ Gu Jiao Wu said. ‘I only asked you to wash dishes.’
‘I hate washing dishes too,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said. ‘I hate cooking and cleaning. If you can’t accept I hate doing housework, you can look for someone else.’
Gu Jiao Wu held Qiao Tan Yuan’s wrist, led her to the living room and went to get the first aid kit. He returned to the living room, sat next to her, opened the kit and gave her an anti-inflammatory cream.
‘This is for you to rub on your fingers to stop the swelling so you don’t have an excuse to do housework,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
Qiao Tan Yuan put her hands behind her back. She thought Gu Jiao Wu was being considerate, but he gave her the cream to force her to do housework.
‘Aren’t you scared I’ll break all the dishes?’ Qiao Tan Yuan asked.
‘Not scared,’ Gu Jiao Wu said. ‘I have plenty of dishes. If in seven days you break them then you have extremely good hands.’
‘Go to h.e.l.l!’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
Gu Jiao Wu looked out the window.
‘It’s too hot to go outside,’ Gu Jiao Wu said. ‘Do you want to take a nap?’
‘No,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
Qiao Tan Yuan didn’t know what tricks Gu Jiao Wu would use on her if she napped.
‘I’ll go read in the office,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
‘Um, let’s go,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
Gu Jiao Wu held Qiao Tan Yuan’s hand, and they walked to the office. There were books in different languages like German and Italian books.
‘What book do you want to read?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
Gu Jiao Wu pa.s.sed Qiao Tan Yuan the book, and he sat next to her on the sofa.
‘What are you doing?’ Qiao Tan Yuan asked.
The sofa was s.p.a.cious. Qiao Tan Yuan was suspicious why Gu Jiao Wu sat close to her.
‘I like sitting here,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
Qiao Tan Yuan stood to sit somewhere else, and Gu Jiao Wu pulled her onto his lap.
‘Sit here,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
‘I don’t want to,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
‘Are you saying you want me to sit and hold the book for you?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
Gu Jiao Wu wrapped an arm around Qiao Tan Yuan’s waist, and held the book for her in his other hand. She laid on his chest, and read. She didn’t get enough sleep last night, and began drifting off after reading for a while.
In Qiao Tan Yuan’s dream she raised a big dog. The dog was affectionate toward her, licking her and nibbling her. She wanted to push the dog off her, but the dog was too big and strong. She opened her eyes. She didn’t see a dog. There was only Gu Jiao Wu’s heavy body lying on top of her naked body.
‘You promised you wouldn’t touch me,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
‘Before I asked you if you wanted me to touch you and you said yes,’ Gu Jiao Wu said.
Gu Jiao Wu spread Qiao Tan Yuan’s legs, joined their bodies and moved in and out of her body.
Later Qiao Tan Yuan was too tired to move so Gu Jiao Wu helped her dress.
‘You pinky swear with me!’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
A satisfied Gu Jiao Wu hugged Qiao Tan Yuan on the sofa.
‘What do you want to eat for dinner?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
‘Up to you,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said since she was in no mood to eat.
‘I’m going fishing,’ Gu Jiao Wu said. ‘Do you want to go fishing with me?’
‘No,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said even though she wanted to go fishing.
‘Alright,’ Gu Jiao Wu said. ‘Stay here and nap. I’ll go fishing.’
‘I’ll wait for you to catch a fish,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
Qiao Tan Yuan didn’t believe it would easy to fish.
‘You don’t think I can catch a fish for us?’ Gu Jiao Wu asked.
‘I wouldn’t dare,’ Qiao Tan Yuan said.
Gu Jiao Wu nodded, walked naked to the bedroom and changed clothes to go fishing.
Qiao Tan Yuan napped while Gu Jiao Wu went fishing. The sun was setting when she woke up. She walked outside, and was amazed to see he actually caught more than two fishes. He smiled at her, put the fishes in the kitchen and showered. She was curious to see if he knew how to scale and fillet a fish so she followed him to the kitchen after he came out of the bathroom.
End of Chapter Ninety-Four