The landlord's son was named Zhang Jian. He was about three years older than me, had a straightforward personality, and was in a vocational school, though he rarely attended classes.
We actually got to know each other at an internet cafe.
One time, while I was playing games with my classmates when someone suddenly tapped me on the back. It was him. There happened to be an empty computer next to me, so he sat down and joined us.
After that, we often went to internet cafes together to play Warcraft and CS, and naturally became good friends. Our bond grew even stronger after we watched a few pornographic films together. We talked about that kind of stuff a lot, finding we had a lot in common. We were kindred spirits, you could say.
Whenever we talked, we'd inevitably bring up the young couple living in his family's second-floor rental, mainly because the wife was only in her twenties and quite good-looking. Through him, I learned that she worked in sales at a department store, and her husband worked at a pharmaceutical factory. Though he was just a temp worker, not a full-time employee. They had been renting there for almost a year.
We often fantasized about that young married woman together, and would go up to the second floor to admire her stockings and underwear which were often left there for drying.
After we got closer, I realized just how shameless and daring Zhang Jian was. One afternoon, right after I had gotten back from school, he pulled me up to the second floor with a lecherous expression on his face. The moment I saw his look, I could tell that the young wife from the second floor must have hung her underwear out to dry again. We went there to take a look and fantasize for a bit. Who would have thought that after a while, he would suddenly reach out and pull down the stockings and panties that were hanging there? He pursed his lips and asked me if I wanted them, which shocked me. Then I understood he was going to use the her underwear to jerk off. I was too embarrassed to take them and just said, somewhat impressed, "Bro, you're a real pervert."
Zhang Jian grinned shamelessly, and went downstairs with the stockings and panties in his hands.
With him gone, I felt too awkward standing there gawking by myself, so I quickly went back to my room.
It was only on my way down that I noticed the young wife's door wasn't locked. Her husband was never home at this hour, so it could only be her inside. I instantly felt my face burn with embarrassment.
A while later, as I was eating in my room, Zhang Jian went back upstairs to hang back the panties and stockings he'd just stolen. However, the black panties now had a noticeable white stain on them.
When he came back down, I gave him a thumbs-up, genuinely amazed by his audacity. Pointing to the second floor, I whispered, "Bro, she's home, you know."
Zhang Jian was still buzzing with excitement and spoke in a hushed tone, "That's what makes it so thrilling."
I followed up, "Bro, aren't you afraid she'll see?"
"Afraid of what? She already knows."
"Damn..." I stared at him, not knowing what to say.
Zhang Jian just chuckled, looking incredibly smug. When I asked him what had really happened, he refused to say, acting all mysterious and cool.
It was only when I stopped bothering to ask him that he finally told me the whole story.
It was actually quite simple. At first, Zhang Jian would secretly take the young wife's clothes to jerk off. After he was done, he was too embarrassed to hang them back, so he just kept them in his room. He used the same pair of underwear to jerk off a few more times, until they got so dirty that even he found it disgusting. So, he went and stole another pair. He stole about five or six pairs in total, and during that whole time, the young married woman showed no reaction at all, which made him even bolder.
Later, Zhang Jian felt this wasn't thrilling enough. He wanted the young wife to wear underwear stained with his semen. So, one time after jerking off, he wiped it clean and hung it back up. But anyone who's used underwear to jerk off knows that unless you wash it, some traces of semen will remain no matter how well you wipe it.
She wasn't an idiot, so how could she not notice? But even then, the young wife remained silent. Then Zhang Jian stopped even bothering to wipe it. He'd just hang it back with his semen still on it. Eventually, he even started taking the underwear while she was still home, then going back to his room to masturbate.
The story was simple, but I was still shocked to hear it. The young wife's tolerance for this was beyond my understanding. Back then, I still believed that beautiful women were proud and noble, not something to be defiled. I never imagined they'd silently endure such harassment in private.
Finally, Zhang Jian said that his next plan was to go straight to the second-floor and ask her for the underwear she was wearing. He asked me if I thought he'd succeed. I said, "How would I know? Just try it yourself. Maybe it'll work."
As soon as I said it, I felt a bit of regret, like I was encouraging his bad behavior.
After Zhang Jian left, I was still trying to figure out why the young wife kept enduring it. Then, I suddenly remembered that my own mother would be arriving soon, and my heart skipped a beat.
I couldn't help but imagine my mother in the young wife's situation. Instantly, my mouth felt dry, my heart began to race, and a strange excitement surged through me.
With this strange mix of anticipation and unease in my heart, my mother finally finished the paperwork for her leave procedures and came to stay with me to watch over my studies.
It was September, and the weather was still hot. I didn't know exactly when she was arriving as she had only given me a rough date, probably wanting to surprise me with a little inspection.
I only found out she had arrived when I got back from school at noon. My father had come with her, mainly because she had too much luggage to carry by herself. They took me to a small restaurant for lunch, and then I went back to class.
When I returned after school in the afternoon, my father had already left, and my mother was talking to Zhang Jian in the courtyard, a polite and friendly smile on her fair face.
Seeing that I was back, my mother warmly invited Zhang Jian to eat with us. It was just the leftovers from lunch that'd been packed to take home.
Zhang Jian's mother had passed away from illness when he was young, and his father sold fertilizer in another county and rarely came home. He just sent Zhang Jian money and let him fend for himself.
Zhang Jian was too shy to actually eat with us, since we had only just met.
As soon as my mother went inside, I quickly asked Zhang Jian what they had been talking about.
He said my mother had asked him how I had been behaving during my time there, and about the nearby markets and shops.
My heart sank, and I hurriedly asked what he had told her.
Zhang Jian, the little shit, started acting mysterious again. Only after seeing how nervous I was did he finally tell me he had told my mother that I was doing very well, that I got up early and studied every night until very late, and never went out to play. He'd showered me with all sorts of over-the-top praise.
I was relieved and thanked him for lying for me.
At the end, Zhang Jian added, "Your mom is pretty." When he said that, I couldn't help my thoughts from wandering, and I just mumbled, "Mhm."
Zhang Jian then asked how old my mother was. My heart pounded as I pretended not to notice his little scheme and casually replied, "Thirty-five. Why?"
Zhang Jian scratched his neck and said, "Nothing, I was just curious because your mom looks so young."
What Zhang Jian said about my mother was true. She was thirty-five that year, right in her prime, as ripe as a peach. She used to work in the public relations department, so she always had to pay attention to her appearance. Although she wasn't very tall, only at 5'4, she had a well-proportioned figure that looked good in anything. Most importantly, my mother was very fair-skinned. As the saying goes, a fair complexion is enough to hide a hundred flaws. All of this combined made my mother exceptionally beautiful. Growing up, I'd often heard her friends envy her looks.
After that, life was relatively uneventful. Every day, under my mother's supervision, I attended classes and studied diligently, never getting a chance to visit an internet café again. And every time I came home from school, I would almost always see Zhang Jian talking with my mother. Occasionally, I would even see her covering her mouth and laughing at something he said. Zhang Jian had also eaten with us a few times, and it seemed to be happening more and more often.
Sneaking up to the second floor to secretly admire the underwear hanging there remained a small habit for Zhang Jian and me. The only difference was that now, my mother's underwear was hanging there too. I would pretend not to see her underwear, and Zhang Jian never commented on my mother's underwear in front of me.
But in my mind, I compared my mother's underwear to the young wife's upstairs.
My mother's underwear was clearly more mature and sexy than the young wife's. Her bras cups were much larger and were almost always lacy and patterned. The young wife's underwear, on the other hand, was more on the sporty side. However, the young wife had a wider variety of stockings. Black, nude, thigh-highs, pantyhose. Unlike my mother, who only had nude-colored ones.
Zhang Jian's harassment of the young wife escalated to another level. About half a month later, when the two of us were on the second floor, he told me he had succeeded. I asked him, succeeded at what?
He said smugly that he had successfully used the young wife's unwashed underwear to jerk off.
It turned out that he had been looking for an opportunity ever since he got the idea. And on the very morning of the day he told me, he finally got his chance.
*****