A Moment Too Late [GL] by cat喵

Chapter 42

The ringing stopped.

"What happened?"

Xiao Yi looked at her, noticing that Shu Yubai seemed a bit anxious.

The noise in the restaurant covered up the earlier awkwardness. Shu Yubai glanced at the screen; Nan Xue hadn’t answered and had already ended the call. Turning around, she saw Nan Xue seated in a more secluded spot. The dim lighting made her features hard to distinguish through the carved screen.

"Just now, I called a friend back."

Shu Yubai lowered her eyes and no longer looked in Nan Xue’s direction.

Why was she here? Was it a coincidence?

She frowned slightly, recalling the look in the person's eyes just now—it seemed to contain some indeterminate emotion.

"How do you two know each other?"

Xiao Yi looked at them and smiled: "What a coincidence."

Tang Ruoyan looked at her and smiled lightly: "We met at a gallery back then. I liked her painting, but it turned out not to be an original; it was a copy by someone else."

"If Yubai hadn’t stopped me, I would have been fooled."

Xiao Yi chuckled lightly.

"I heard you, like Xiao Yi, also studied painting."

Tang Ruoyan picked up her tea cup and took a sip, her eyes reflecting the mist.

"Yes."

Shu Yubai looked down and remembered: "I used to paint traditional Chinese art, but later my hands had some issues, so I couldn’t do detailed work anymore. I shifted to focusing more on composition and color in oil painting."

Her hands?

Tang Ruoyan instinctively glanced at Shu Yubai's hands resting on the table.

Her skin was very fair and smooth, the back of her hands delicate with faint blue veins visible, nails neatly trimmed and rounded, and under the cold light, her fingertips had a slight pink hue.

There were thin calluses between her fingertips and the spaces between her fingers.

At first glance, there didn’t seem to be any issue. Tang Ruoyan, curious, asked: "Can I see your hands?"

Shu Yubai was momentarily stunned and didn’t immediately understand. Xiao Yi explained: "She’s studying traditional Chinese medicine. She might be able to tell something just by looking at your hands. I don’t understand, but can she?"

"Yes."

Tang Ruoyan said: "Let me see your hand."

Shu Yubai lifted her hand and placed it in Tang Ruoyan’s palm.

Her palm was warm and soft. Shu Yubai looked up, and the woman across from her happened to be looking back. They exchanged a smile.

"Your hands are so soft."

Tang Ruoyan smiled: "They’re both white and delicate, really beautiful."

She held Shu Yubai’s hand, examining her palm.

For a moment, Tang Ruoyan’s movement paused. Just as she was about to lower her head for a closer look, she suddenly felt a cold, intense gaze fixed on her, as if being pricked by needles.

She looked up.

The restaurant was large, with one row of seats by the floor-to-ceiling windows separated from another row deeper in by a long wooden screen. The middle part was hollowed out, and under the dim light, she could vaguely see the people on the other side but couldn’t make out details.