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Chapter 10 The Lock Screen
Chapter 10 The Lock Screen
Thursday morning's report was in a small conference room. There were not many people: Lin Qiming, Zhou Ye, Chen Xia, and a colleague from brand. The projector was connected to Zhou Ye's computer. When he reached the second page, his phone buzzed on the table and the screen lit. He had set the phone face-down. At some point it had been turned over. What lit was not a message. It was the picture he had forgotten to change back after he tested the lock screen in the afternoon.
The picture was lit for less than two seconds. Shen Man stood in front of the window, in black, barefoot, looking at the lens. There was a small patch of red under the collarbone. The river was behind her. There was nothing barer than that. But it was not a picture that could appear in a conference room. It was too private. Private enough that even the places the clothes covered seemed to be speaking.
Zhou Ye's hand was faster than his mind. He slapped the phone face-down. The edge of the table made a light sound. Chen Xia turned her head. She had not seen anything clearly. She only asked who it was. The colleague from brand was watching the projection and paid no attention. Lin Qiming had seen it. Zhou Ye confirmed that from his eyes. Lin Qiming did not crane his neck over, and he did not make Zhou Ye light the phone again. He only moved his gaze from Zhou Ye's hand back to the projection and said, go on.
Zhou Ye went on. His voice was drier than before. When he finished the page, his whole back was sweat. After the meeting broke up, Chen Xia went to print, and the person from brand left first. Lin Qiming stayed by the door, as if asking in passing.
"Seeing someone."
Zhou Ye said, "You could call it that."
"Does the other person know you put them on a lock screen and brought it into a conference room?"
"No. I was stupid. I've already changed it."
Lin Qiming looked at him for a few seconds. The man had led Zhou Ye for two years. His temper was straight. He did not like maneuvering. His eyes were not blind. "I don't care who you're seeing. I care that you don't turn marketing into a storytelling session. I looked at that picture once. I won't look a second time, and I won't ask you for it. If you want to explain, I suggest you don't. An explanation is usually more than a picture."
Zhou Ye's throat was tight. "Thank you, Director Lin. It isn't a transaction. It has nothing to do with the company."
"It had better not." Lin Qiming said, "I accept your review. The rest I don't accept for the moment, and I won't chase it. Go do your work."
He left. The light in the corridor was white enough to sting. Zhou Ye went into the fire stairs and sent Shen Man: The picture lit up. Director Lin saw less than two seconds. He didn't ask for it, and he didn't ask who. I set the lock screen wrong. My fault.
Shen Man took a long time to reply: Come out. The stairs. Seventeenth floor. Now.
She was already there. The fire door closed behind her. The sound-activated light came on, and then, because the two of them stood without moving, it dimmed little by little. Shen Man's face was cold. The cold was not disgust at him. It was control after being frightened.
"Delete the lock screen," she said.
"Already deleted. It's still in the album. If you want the album deleted too, I'll delete it now."
"Leave the album for now. The lock screen was your mistake." She closed her eyes briefly. "What Lin Qiming saw was me. Don't comfort yourself yet about whether he recognized me. If he recognized me and chose not to ask, we owe him a promise not to make this dirtier. Not a debt of bodies. Not money paid for his silence. A debt of an ending between adults."
Zhou Ye nodded. "He didn't ask for the picture. I won't give it to him. If anyone uses this picture to coerce you and me into doing anything, including forcing you to keep sleeping with me, or forcing me to leave you, I won't do what they say. I'll come straight to you, and we'll deal with it together."
Only then did Shen Man's shoulders come down a little. She looked at him as if she were judging, from his face, whether the sentence had been invented on the spot. When she had judged, she lifted a hand and straightened his collar. The gesture was too much like a girlfriend's, and in the stairwell it was dangerous again. Her hand dropped quickly.
"Don't come tonight. I need to think alone about those two seconds Lin Qiming saw. Not about how to punish you. About whether we can still hide." She said, "At noon, check the lock screen again. The company computer, the cloud, social apps, look through all of them. When you're done, tell me the result. One word: clean. Or not clean."
"Clean. I'll check again."
"Zhou Ye." She called to him when he was about to go down. "I don't regret the picture. I regret that it appeared on that table. Those are two things. Don't write it as you having offended me. What you offended was the keeping we agreed on."
"I know. I'm sorry."
Shen Man nodded once. The sound-activated light came on again because of his steps. She stood in the light and waited for him to go first. Zhou Ye did not leave the stairs until the fifteenth floor. His legs were a little soft. The softness was not because he was afraid Lin Qiming would blackmail him. Lin Qiming was not that kind of person. He believed that. The softness was because a picture that belonged only to a morning had been seen by a pair of working eyes. It was still theirs. It could not become anyone's condition. In a toilet stall he turned off every sync, deleted the backups, and changed the lock screen to the default black. When he had checked, he sent one word: Clean.
Shen Man replied: Good. Still don't come tonight. I miss you. That sentence is not an invitation.
Zhou Ye looked at the words I miss you and stood in the stall for a long time. He replied: I miss you too. I'll wait until you've thought it through.
