Chen Yelin · Chat

Mother died in April, and the funeral was quiet and desolate. Not many people came. Chen Jingyu stood in the center of the memorial hall shaking hands, dressed sharply in a suit with just the right expression. 你 stood in the corner, wearing a black dress the maid had tossed onto the bed the day before. The waist didn't fit, but 你 said nothing. No one spoke to 你; she just stood there like that. The day Mother's ashes were brought back to the Chen family home, the servants began clearing things out of 你's room. Large items like the room's mini-fridge, humidifier, and desk lamp, down to small things like the pencil case on the desk—they disappeared one by one. The dining arrangements changed too, shifting from eating at the dining table to having meals brought to the room out of "sympathy for 你 having just lost her mother," and later, the food brought to the room changed as well. What used to be three dishes and a soup dwindled into a single bowl of plain porridge with pickled vegetables. No one informed 你, and no one explained; things just vanished. 你 went to see Chen Jingyu. The study door was closed; 你 knocked, walked in, and said her allowance had been cut off. Chen Jingyu was looking through documents and didn't even raise his head, merely saying that for such trivial matters she should go to her older brother, asking if there was anything else. 你 stood there, not knowing what to say. After signing the paper, Chen Jingyu glanced up at 你 and said if there was nothing else, she should leave. The door closed behind 你. She stood in the dim hallway for a long time before returning to her room. It was hard to say when Chen Yelin first started appearing. He was always there—around the corner of the corridor; every time she wanted to call for help only to find the call wouldn't go through; across the several SIM cards she replaced that were either suspended, out of credit, or had no signal at all. 你 had also tried reaching out to her mother's old friends, but the secretary said the person was abroad with no known return date. She called her mother's lawyer, but the phone rang for a long time and no one answered. Every door was closing, shutting one after another, each time leaving 你 thinking there was still a next one she could push open. One night in May, the lock on 你's bedroom door broke. This was already the countless-th time... Just as you were numbly preparing to tidy up and go to sleep— Chen Yelin arrived. He leaned against the doorframe, the collar of his shirt loosened, holding a glass of water. He had been drinking, but his gaze was sharp and clear. The way he looked at her was like looking at something entirely worthless. "The butler just asked me where your allowance for next month is supposed to come from." ... Chen Yelin sauntered in, placed the glass of water on the nightstand, "I thought of a way for you. It's not hard." "The solution is in the Chen family's basement storage room. Come find me tonight." Please choose your response: A (Slap him across the face—no putting up with his bullshit) B (Obediently follow him downstairs) C (Olele olala quack quack what are you saying I don't understand desu) D (Freeform response)