Chapter 87: Smug
The temporary warehouse on the track was empty of scoreboards. The place where the competition supplies were stored was in the rarely visited sports warehouse, located in the most remote southwest corner of the school.
Su Yu felt that it was a bit inappropriate to let a girl do such work alone. Volunteers were not laborers who could do anything, yet Xia Qian Ge was asked to do such work alone. He thought this arrangement was very unreasonable.
During the sports meet, many sports equipment needed to be used. The usually closed iron gate of the sports warehouse had a small side door for people to enter and exit. After the busy morning of moving, there were very few people near the sports warehouse by noon, only an old man in a security uniform sitting lazily in the duty room, playing on his phone.
When Su Yu and Xia Qian Ge were about to go in, a couple happened to come out. They were talking and laughing, pulling a basket of basketballs behind them. The boy in front turned to talk to the girl, not noticing Xia Qian Ge in front of him. His strong shoulder bumped into Xia Qian Ge, causing her to grunt and take a few steps back. Su Yu steadied her by her waist.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”
The boy turned around and saw that he had bumped into someone and immediately apologized repeatedly. Xia Qian Ge rubbed her shoulder and smiled, not saying anything.
Su Yu quickly let go of his hand and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Xia Qian Ge looked down at Su Yu’s retracted arm. The fair and slender wrist still had a little warmth, but it was like a sudden shard piercing her body, making her almost shiver.
They walked into the warehouse. Various sports equipment were placed on rows of shelves. On the left, there was a table with a pen and a large notebook, and a sign that said “Internal surveillance, entry and exit of goods must be registered.”
Because of theft prevention, the warehouse’s windows were high and narrow, resulting in dim lighting inside. The air was filled with a plastic smell, not unpleasant, but it made one feel drowsy after a while.
Su Yu waved his arm, and the dust in the air immediately flew up in the sunlight. The air quality was not good. His shoes scraped against the rough concrete, making a hoarse sound, as if the place hadn’t been cleaned for a long time. No wonder the registration area was unguarded.
“They said the scoreboards are in the far right corner.”
Xia Qian Ge pointed her long, slender finger towards the corner of the warehouse. It was even dimmer there than at the entrance. The fluorescent light in the center couldn’t reach it, and a large patch of darkness lingered in the corner, casting a hazy shadow with the flickering light.
Su Yu looked for a while, and after a while, he felt his vision sink in, as if it were a black hole that could pull at his soul. A strong sense of unease gripped his heart. But he wasn’t afraid of the dark. Where did this feeling come from?
“Then I’ll go move them out. You can wait here.” Su Yu took a dolly from the entrance and walked towards the corner, his palms slightly sweaty, his grip on the iron handle cold.
“Let’s go together. It’s quite dirty. It’s not convenient for you to do it alone.”
Before Su Yu could refuse, Xia Qian Ge followed behind him. He swallowed, his unease growing stronger, but he couldn’t say anything more.
“Many of our high school classmates are in relationships now. It’s so fast.”
Xia Qian Ge spoke abruptly, her tone calm, as if it were a normal conversation. This actually made Su Yu feel relieved. The silence was even more unbearable.
“Yeah, you know Chen Kai… he’s at a local university.” Su Yu licked his dry lips and said in a joking tone, “He’s with Mo Yufei. He’s had a crush on her for a year or two. No wonder he was always hanging around us back then. It turns out that kid wasn’t looking for me.”
“Is that so? I didn’t see that coming.”
“Then…” Xia Qian Ge laughed behind Su Yu. In the dim environment, her voice was particularly crisp and pleasant. She asked playfully, “What about you? Did you have a girl you liked in high school?”
The expression on Su Yu’s face froze. Fortunately, he had his back to Xia Qian Ge. The girl’s joking tone was like a knife stabbing into his heart. He paused for a long time, then laughed twice. “Who could I have liked? I was just fooling around back then.”
“What about in college? Do you have any plans in that regard?”
Xia Qian Ge continued to ask, her pace calm but so fast that it was breathless.
“Haha, it’s only been a short while. It’s too fast.” Su Yu laughed and brushed it off. “Besides, who would be interested in me?”
“Oh~ I see. Then you should keep working hard.”
Xia Qian Ge silently followed Su Yu, her clean, blue canvas shoes making a sound on the ground. A smug curve appeared on her lips, hidden in the shadows. The repressed emotions in her heart were temporarily soothed, and the sense of urgency that had been chasing her faded a lot. Of course, she would not relax her guard.
She hummed a pleasant melody absentmindedly. It was a song she had heard when her roommate was playing it yesterday. Her good mood made the plastic-smelling air feel sweet.
Xia Qian Ge’s steps were light and bouncy. The boy’s back was as straight and handsome as a poplar tree, a small gap between his arms and waist. She really wanted… she rubbed her lips with her index finger, still savoring the aftertaste from before.
She wanted to pounce on him, to wrap her arms around his body through the gap between his arms and hold him tightly, to merge her flesh and blood completely into his. She recalled the feeling of their skin touching just now.
The touch of the boy‘s wrist on her skin was as gentle as lamb fat, caressing her heartstrings. The soft, translucent skin was like the pure white cream on a chocolate cake. If she got a little closer, she could smell the rich chocolate and the sweet syrup, making Xia Qian Ge want to take a bite and taste him.
“What about you? Is there any boy you like? Or is there a good boy chasing you?”
Su Yu was silent for a moment, his gaze wandering along the cracks in the concrete floor, as if he couldn’t find a focus.
“Um… well…”
Xia Qian Ge’s voice dragged on. If it wasn’t for her back being to him, Su Yu would have thought she was deliberately teasing him.
“I have a part-time job on the weekends, so I don’t have much time for that.” Xia Qian Ge’s tone was casual, but her words were heartbreaking. She had to endure hardships that her peers didn’t.
“Occasionally, a few of them will deliberately come to find me. But you know what my family is like. I’ll just be a burden to others.”
“Why would you think that? That’s not something you can decide. You can live a much better life in the future, much better.”
Su Yu suddenly turned around, the surging emotions in his eyes drowned out by the shadows. He felt as if his heart was being squeezed, the pain making him speak without thinking. He only realized the problem after he had spoken and quickly corrected himself. “You have such good grades. Even if you didn’t get into your first choice, you can still find a good job in the future. Everything is getting better.”
“Mm-hmm, everything will definitely get better. Thank you.”
Xia Qian Ge smiled and nodded, not refuting Su Yu’s words. She was as soft and gentle as a well-behaved doll. In the darkness, the glint in her eyes was particularly dazzling. The boy’s unnecessary actions had exposed too much. Love, regret, concern… all were clearly written in his deep, handsome eyes, all lured out.
And she had only shed a few tears, a few cheap drops of water from her already dry tear ducts, which had dried in the dry air before they could even fall.
