The wine glass lay overturned on the nightstand, a small crimson stain spreading across the wood like a wound. Chen Yiting had only meant to have one glass to ease the loneliness of the empty house, but the bottle had somehow emptied itself, and now the ceiling fan spun in lazy circles above her, its blades cutting the dim lamplight into shadows that danced across the walls.
Mai Wanghui had been gone for three days. Three days of silence, three days of cold sheets on his side of the bed. Not that it mattered much—even when he was home, he slept with his back to her, his breathing steady and untroubled, never reaching for her in the dark hours. She had stopped hoping for it months ago, maybe years. The wedding photo on the dresser showed two strangers smiling at a future that had never arrived.
Her body felt heavy, weighted down by the wine that swam through her veins. She lay on her side, one hand tucked beneath the pillow, her black pencil skirt riding up to reveal the dark stockings that encased her thighs. The fabric shimmered under the faint glow of the bedside lamp, catching the light like polished obsidian. Her blouse had come partially untucked, exposing a sliver of pale skin above her hip.
The bedroom door opened with a sound so soft it might have been a whisper of air through the cracks. Chen Yiting did not stir. She was floating somewhere between consciousness and oblivion, the wine having wrapped her senses in a cocoon of warm fog.
Father-in-law stood in the doorway, his silhouette blocking the dim light from the hallway. He was dressed in his usual nightclothes—a threadbare singlet and loose shorts—but his eyes were sharp and hungry, scanning the room with the practiced patience of a predator who knew his prey was helpless.
He had watched her at dinner, watched the way her fingers curled around the wine glass, watched the flush creep up her neck as she drank. He had seen the way she looked at her wedding photo, and the way she looked away. The old house knew its secrets, and he knew hers: a neglected wife, a lonely woman, a body that begged for attention it never received.
He stepped inside, closing the door behind him without a click. The lock slid into place with a soft metallic sigh.
Chen Yiting shifted slightly in her sleep, a small sound escaping her lips—not quite a word, not quite a moan. Her legs parted just a fraction, as if her body knew what was coming before her mind could catch up.
Father-in-law moved to the edge of the bed, his weight dipping the mattress as he knelt beside her. He did not rush. He never rushed. The slow approach was part of the pleasure, the anticipation that built in his chest like a second heartbeat.
His hand hovered over her calf, not touching, but close enough to feel the warmth radiating from her skin through the thin fabric of the stocking. His breath caught in his throat. She was so small, so vulnerable, lying there like a doll waiting to be played with.
He lowered his head and pressed his lips to the back of her knee.
The kiss was light, almost reverent, but his tongue emerged immediately, sliding across the nylon with deliberate slowness. The taste was salt and synthetic fiber and something uniquely hers—a perfume of skin and sleep and the faint remnants of wine.
Chen Yiting’s body responded before her mind could process what was happening. A shiver ran through her leg, her toes curling inside her heels. She made a small sound, something between a sigh and a question, but her eyes remained closed.
Father-in-law smiled against her skin. He moved his mouth upward, kissing a path along the inside of her thigh, his tongue flickering out to trace the seam of the stocking. The fabric grew damp under his attention, darkening where his saliva soaked through.
“So soft,” he murmured, his voice barely audible. “So soft and warm.”
His hand joined his mouth, fingers crawling up her leg like spiders, squeezing and releasing the flesh beneath the nylon. He could feel the heat of her through the layers, could sense the pulse beating in the soft spot behind her knee.
Chen Yiting’s dream shifted. She was walking through a field of tall grass, the blades brushing against her legs, tickling and teasing. The sun was warm on her face, but there was a darker presence behind her, something she could not see but could feel, following her with patient steps. Her body grew warm, a familiar ache stirring in her core—the same ache she had tried to drown with wine, the same ache that had kept her awake on so many lonely nights.
She murmured her husband’s name, but it came out slurred, almost unrecognizable. “Wanghui…”
Father-in-law paused, his tongue still pressed against the sensitive skin just above her knee. Anger flickered in his eyes, quickly replaced by a darker satisfaction. His son was miles away, sleeping in some hotel room, oblivious to what was happening in his own bed.
“He’s not here,” he whispered, his breath hot against her stocking. “He’s never here, is he?”
He resumed his work, his tongue sliding higher, reaching the edge of the stocking where it met bare skin. He paused there, savoring the boundary between covered and uncovered, between what was allowed and what was forbidden. Then he pushed the fabric aside and tasted her directly.
Chen Yiting gasped. The field of grass vanished, replaced by a jumble of shadows and sensations she could not piece together. Her body was waking up, responding to touches that felt both foreign and familiar. She tried to open her eyes, but the wine had weighted her lids, and all she could see were blurry shapes swimming in the darkness.
She felt hands on her thighs, parting them. She felt a wet warmth tracing patterns on her skin, moving higher and higher. Her body arched instinctively, pressing into the touch, seeking more contact even as a distant part of her mind screamed that this was wrong.
“No,” she tried to say, but the word came out as a breathless sigh, robbed of all conviction.
Father-in-law ignored the half-hearted protest. He had heard that word before, from his daughter, from other women, and he knew it meant nothing when the body said otherwise. And her body was saying everything he wanted to hear—the way her hips rocked against his mouth, the way her fingers clutched the sheets, the way her breath came faster and faster.
His tongue traced the garter line where the stocking met her thigh, then dipped between her legs, pressing against the thin fabric of her underwear. The heat there was overwhelming, the moisture already seeping through, dampening the silk.
Chen Yiting’s mind was a battlefield. Part of her wanted to wake up fully, to push him away, to call out. But another part, the part that had been starved for so long, wanted to sink deeper into the darkness, to let the sensations wash over her, to pretend that this was something other than what it was.
The ceiling fan continued its lazy rotation, casting shadows that seemed to writhe on the walls. The wedding photo gleamed in the dim light, the smiling faces of two young people who had no idea what would come. And in the bed below, Chen Yiting’s lips parted, and a low moan escaped into the night, swallowed by the silence of the empty house.
Father-in-law smiled against her thigh, his tongue sliding upward once more, tasting the salt and the sweetness of her growing need. He would take his time. The night was still young, and his daughter-in-law was finally learning what it meant to be wanted.