After the breakup, I was taken in by a group of trendy young women.

"Alright, everyone, go to sleep."

Lin Ye checked the time, put the cigarette in an empty can on the coffee table, and stood up from the sofa.

The blond-haired girl was still leaning on his shoulder. The honey-brown girl nuzzled him a couple of times before reluctantly moving away. The thin straps of her slip dress slipped down to her elbows. She yawned and walked barefoot towards the bedroom. When she reached the door, she turned back and blew a kiss to Lin Ye. Her voice was still hoarse, but she couldn't suppress the smug smile on her lips.

The tattooed man straightened up from the door frame of the inner room, the koi carp on his arm gleaming faintly blue in the dim light.

Instead of swaggering back to her bedroom with a cigarette in her mouth as usual, she stood still, gripping the side seam of her work pants with one hand until her knuckles turned white.

Her short hair was a little messy from her own rubbing, and her tongue moved back and forth between her lips, as if she was repeatedly considering what to say.

Lin Ye was about to walk towards the sofa when she suddenly took a step forward. The step was so quick that the tip of her canvas shoe almost hit the coffee table leg.

She stood in front of Lin Ye, tilting her head back. Her cheeks were flushed, not from drinking too much, but from all the blood rushing to her face. Even the skin next to the unpainted lotus flower on her arm tattoo had a pinkish tinge.

She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, her tongue flickering between her lips several times. Finally, as if gathering all the courage she had in her life, she squeezed out a sentence from her throat, her voice at least three octaves lower than usual, the end of her voice still trembling: "Um...brother...could I try too?"

Lin Ye looked down at her.

This guy, who dared to slam his fist on the table with five shirtless men at a barbecue stand, who stood barefoot in the KTV corridor cursing Zhang Qian, and who screamed in terror at a hanging dummy in a haunted house but still refused to admit it, was now standing in front of him, clutching his trouser leg, his face flushed, his voice trembling like a primary school student giving a speech for the first time.

He leaned back on the sofa armrest, crossed his arms over his chest, and slowly smiled.

"Try what?"

The tattooed face turned even redder, burning from the neck all the way to the forehead, and the koi fish on the tattooed arm seemed to tense up its scales.

She twirled the tongue stud in her mouth several times, and finally took a deep breath, as if she had made some kind of do-or-die decision. She pointed towards the bedroom, where Huang Mao had just walked in. The door wasn't closed properly, and a sliver of warm yellow light and Huang Mao humming an off-key tune leaked out from the crack.

She pointed to the crack in the door, then to herself, and looked up at Lin Ye, saying in a tone of utter fearlessness, "It's...it's the one that the blond guy just tried."

Before Lin Ye could speak, the door to the inner room was suddenly pulled open from the inside.

The blond-haired girl peeked out, her honey-brown twin ponytails undone and draped over her shoulders, the neckline of her slip dress askew.

She had clearly heard what the tattooed woman said; her deep brown eyes were full of mischievous light, and the corners of her mouth curved like a cat that had stolen some dried fish.

"Sleeve tattoo! You sneaked away while I was back in the house!"

"I didn't sneak in! I applied legitimately!"

The tattooed man turned and shouted at the blond-haired guy, his voice about 70% of its usual strength, but when he turned back to face Lin Ye, his voice softened again.

"Brother, don't listen to her nonsense—I just want to try—that guy Huang Mao said was a seven out of ten—I want to see if I can get an eight out of ten—"

"You fucking want to give it an eight out of ten?!"

The blond-haired man jumped out of the doorway, his bare feet landing on the floor. He put his hands on his hips, and the hem of his slip dress swayed twice.

"You want to challenge me?"

A woman with a floral tattoo peeked out from behind the blond man, the side slit of her floral dress sliding down to reveal a rose tattoo on her leg.

Her eyes lit up as if she'd discovered a new continent, and her tone was full of excited anticipation: "What? What kind of challenge is the full-sleeve tattoo going to take?"

Green-haired and pink-haired boys emerged from under the tattooed arm, their earrings rubbing together, and shouted in unison what made the tattooed man almost bury his head in the sofa cushion: "The tattooed man wants his older brother!"

"Not related!"

The woman with the tattooed arm suddenly turned her head, and the koi carp on the tattoo tensed its scales as she waved her hand.

"Yes—yes—anyway, we're not related!"

Qi Liuhai, holding Wangcai, peeked out from the corner of the inner room and, unusually, spoke up. His voice was soft, but every word hit the nail on the head: "Yellow Hair Sister was in the living room for a long time, and her voice was hoarse when she came back. Tattooed arm, do you want your voice to become hoarse too?"

The entire living room was silent for a full second.

Then everyone exploded.

The tattooed man laughed so hard he couldn't straighten up, and squatted down while holding onto the door frame.

The green-haired and pink-haired people hugged each other and burst into high-pitched screams like boiling water.

Huang Mao stood at the bedroom door, arms crossed, looking at the woman with the tattooed arm whose face was so red it could boil an egg. He spoke slowly in a tone of stern authority, "Alright, tattooed arm, don't say I didn't give you a chance. Go ahead, if you can get eight points, I'll treat you to barbecue skewers for a week."

The tattooed man turned to look at Lin Ye.

She was still standing in front of the coffee table, her fingers gripping the side seam of her work pants, the fabric crumpled into a ball.

Her tongue piercing flashed between her lips several times. Finally, she took a deep breath, stepped forward, tilted her head back, and spoke in an extremely serious tone, as if reporting military intelligence:

"Brother, I'll try my best. I may not be as good at acting cute as Huang Mao, but I learn things very quickly. I used to learn how to operate a sewing machine in the factory, and I could learn it after the master taught me only once. This—I can learn it too. Teach me."

Lin Ye looked down at her.

The living room was quiet, with the fluorescent light bulbs humming softly, and the sycamore leaves outside the balcony rustling in the night breeze.

He looked at the face of the tattooed woman, her cheeks flushed but filled with determination, and gently pried open her fingers, one by one, from her trouser leg.

Then he put the unlit cigarette on the coffee table back into his mouth.

"Go and draw the curtains," he said.

The tattooed man paused for a second, then sprang up as if a switch had been flipped, turned around and rushed to the balcony door, slamming the bed sheet and curtains shut.

The movement was so fast and forceful that it almost shook the underwear hanging on the clothesline down.

She drew the curtains, then turned and rushed back to Lin Ye, standing in front of him with her face upturned, her chest heaving violently, the koi on her tattooed arm trembling with her rapid breathing.

Lin Ye leaned back on the sofa armrest, crossed his legs, and held an unlit cigarette between his fingers.

He looked at the tattooed man, who seemed about to explode with tension but stubbornly refused to back down, and a smile crept onto his face.

"What's there to be nervous about? Aren't you a fast learner?"

"I—I wasn't nervous!" the tattooed woman vehemently denied, but her voice cracked.

She took a deep breath, then bent over, placed her hands on her knees, and looked up at Lin Ye, in a posture almost exactly the same as Huang Mao's earlier.

Her tongue piercing flashed between her lips, and then she said something in an extremely serious tone that almost made Lin Ye laugh out loud: "Don't worry, brother, I've checked the strategy guide."

"What have you investigated?"

"The strategy. You know, the kind that's written. The blond guy said she gave it a 7 out of 10 because she stopped three times in the middle, and I remembered that, so I didn't stop. Also—don't rush, take it step by step. And also—"

"Alright, alright."

Lin Ye reached out and pressed his hand on her forehead, silencing her still-talking mouth.

Her lips moved twice in his palm, as if she were reciting some incantation, then she quieted down, looked up at him, and the koi on her tattooed arm shimmered with a bluish-black light under the fluorescent light.

"Speak less, do more." Lin Ye removed his hand from her forehead.

The tattooed arm nodded, his expression serious as if he were carrying out a major mission.

She straightened up and pulled up the knees of her work pants—a completely subconscious action, as if she were preparing to start work.

Then she knelt on the floor and looked up at Lin Ye.

The tension and embarrassment from before were gone from his eyes; now they were full of seriousness and focus.

She reached up and brushed the short hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear, revealing her entire face and the tongue piercing that glittered between her lips.

At the bedroom door, blond-haired man leaned against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest.

The tattooed man squatted down next to her, while the green-haired and pink-haired girls climbed onto his back to form a human ladder, and the man with bangs stood at the very back holding Wangcai.

Four people and a cat peeked out from the edge of the door frame, all staring intently at the movement in front of the sofa.

"She's really started," the tattooed man said in a low voice.

"Won't the tongue piercing get in the way?" Green Hair asked in a breathy voice.

"Shut up," the blond guy and the tattooed man said at the same time.