Chapter 2: Warning
The sun was setting in the west, and the weather in the evening had visibly turned gloomy. Streaks of thin light shone down from the sky. The dark red sunset… seemed to signify the brevity of this hope, just like this momentary warm sunlight.
A few drops of fresh blood oozed from the neat and sharp wound, dotting the fair skin. They looked even more vibrant in the sunset, and they condensed into blood beads and dripped down.
Su Xi stared at the wound, which was enough to make an ordinary little girl panic, without even frowning. She rinsed the wound with cold water, and the cold touch made the pain blurry. She sucked on the wound, and the blood flowed into her mouth, the salty and fishy taste exploding on her taste buds.
After the blood had completely stopped, she found a bandage and covered the wound. She was as numb as a machine that only operated according to a program, and she had done all this with a blank expression.
The rice cooker in the kitchen, which was cooking rice porridge, beeped a few times. A hint of joy appeared in Su Xi’s dark pupils. She hurried to the kitchen and opened the lid of the rice cooker. The steaming water vapor, mixed with the fragrant and thick aroma of the porridge, immediately rushed out.
She carefully stirred the thick vegetable porridge. The diced carrots and shiitake mushrooms in the white porridge had been cooked until they were soft and mushy.
Considering that the boy’s sense of taste might be temporarily dulled, she added some more salt and stirred the thick porridge with a spoon. The aroma of the porridge became even stronger.
Her heart was unprecedentedly calm, like the calm blue sea after a storm. The sound of seabirds humming in her ears, the salty and fresh water vapor blowing in her face, and the brilliant and dazzling rainbow winding at the end of the sky.
The life she had been looking forward to was once a distant and unattainable cloud in the sky. But now, it seemed that with just a wave of her hand, the cloud would bring the most beautiful things in the world to her.
…
Su Xi pushed open the bedroom door, carefully holding a bowl of sweet and savory vegetable porridge in her hands. The boy was already awake. The thin curtains were parted by the breeze from the river, and half of his face was bathed in the glow of the setting sun.
The halo in her vision was hazy, and the other party’s eyebrows and eyes were clear and handsome. The air was quiet… which made her have the illusion of a peaceful life.
“You must be hungry, brother. I’ve cooked some vegetable porridge. It’s still hot… you should eat something light now.”
Su Xi stared blankly for who knows how long before she broke the silence. Her voice was as sweet as ever, as if she were speaking with a sweet candy in her mouth, which always made people feel a sense of pity.
She pulled a chair and sat down in front of the bed, putting the porridge on the table. Her hands were placed demurely on her knees. It was as if she were the one who was imprisoned, and she could only silently wait for the other party’s judgment.
Su Yu glanced at the girl’s uneasy appearance. So the girl would feel guilty… he thought to himself, feeling a little ridiculous. He didn’t know how long he had been awake. His mind was in a muddle, and he couldn’t make any reaction. He sat in the afterglow of the setting sun, and half of his body was still pulled into the darkness.
The sweet, fragrant aroma of the thick porridge reached his dulled senses. The homely scent stirred his stagnant mind back to life. But the effects of the drug hadn’t yet worn off, and he couldn’t feel any joy or sorrow. He turned his head away from the bowl of porridge, his chapped lips pressed together as he spoke in a hoarse voice.
“So all of this is fake. The Su Xi in my impression doesn’t exist in the world. The you now… is the real you. You’ve been lying to me all along.”
“No… I…”
The pitiful expression on Su Xi’s face was as if she had been greatly wronged. She stood up and subconsciously wanted to get closer to the boy. She even wanted to put the other party’s hand in her chest, to touch the beating thing, to prove her innocence… she could accept being defiled in every way, but this love had to be clean.
“I like you…” She showed a sweet and shy smile, her gaze fixed on the boy, her big eyes only holding the other party’s image, her tone so sincere that it was terrifying.
“Don’t come over. I don’t want to see you right now.” Su Yu’s tone was still cold. He couldn’t feel any emotion at all. Instead, his reason completely took over. He remembered the experience of the girl almost choking him to death in his sleep when they had just met, and he said with some resentment.
“You’re crazy, Su Xi. I thought you were getting better, but now you’re getting worse. Go to the hospital. You’re like a complete madwoman now.”
The smile on Su Xi’s face suddenly froze. She looked at the deep disgust in the boy’s eyes. The other party’s cold words were as direct and sharp as a gleaming knife stabbing into her heart, and then it was twisted hard. Her hand stopped at a certain distance from the boy’s cheek.
She didn’t say a word, and the other party didn’t speak either. Silence once again swept over the entire room.
A moment later, Su Xi suddenly laughed. She pursed her dry lips and forced a perfunctory smile on the surface of her eyeballs, so that she didn’t look so terrifying. Her voice was no longer sweet. The marshmallow was kneaded together and shrunk into a hard and sharp stone. She was as sinister as a lonely ghost in the suburbs.
“What kind of illness can be seen in a hospital? Those drugs are just candy to fool children. They can’t cure my illness at all. Otherwise, I’ve been taking medicine for so long, why haven’t I seen any improvement? I don’t want to be cured either. It’s now a complete part of my body. Only in this way can I always love you. What’s wrong with being a madwoman? A happy madwoman is much better than a suffering normal person.”
Su Xi looked at the other party, who was still staring at her coldly, pretending not to care at all. “So, don’t provoke a madwoman. You’d better be good. Otherwise…”
She leaned in and warned the boy viciously, as if she were about to bite his earlobe. “I’ll take you with me when I die. Why should I be the only one who is sad? Those who care about you, feel sorry for you, and admire you, I want them all to cry their hearts out, to be buried with us!”
These vicious and eerily convincing warnings seemed to have truly worked. The boy appeared suddenly frightened, holding back some of the revulsion in his eyes as he pressed his lips together and fell silent.
So he was still afraid of death…
Su Xi’s lips curled up, and she showed a pure and harmless smile again. She gently and considerately held up the hot water on the table. “Let’s have some water, okay? Your lips are chapped. It’s not good for your body if you don’t drink water. I’ll be heartbroken.”
She held the cup to the boy’s thin, red lips and used a little force, but the other party still kept his teeth clenched, and not a single drop of warm water could be sent in.
Su Xi couldn’t help but let out a few rapid breaths, which blew on Su Yu’s face. The patience she had just managed to muster was almost exhausted. She still tried her best to restrain the violent desire in her body and smiled. “Is it too hot? It shouldn’t be hot… I’ll blow on it for you.”
“I’m afraid you’ve drugged it. You don’t dare to let me regain my strength…”
Su Xi heard the boy’s sarcastic tone, and the wind that was gently blowing on the warm water stopped. The cup was punished for the boy. Her fingers, which were holding the side of the cup, were about to crush it.
She stared at the other party coldly, and a violent impulse began to stir. “Do you think I really don’t dare to do anything?”
Su Xi didn’t give the other party a chance to answer. Her long and powerful hand grabbed the other party’s jaw, and her fingers squeezed his soft cheeks, forcing the boy to open his mouth. She forcefully held the rim of the cup to that mouth and frantically poured all the water in the cup in.
The boy couldn’t make any effective resistance. His body was weak from the drug.
He couldn’t take such a rapid and violent stream of water at all. The water that flowed down his gentle face soaked the sheet under him.
Su Xi let go of her hand, a very vicious curve on her lips. She seemed to be very happy at the boy’s pathetic appearance of choking and coughing, her face full of a twisted sense of pleasure.
Su Yu coughed for a long time before he could barely suppress the choking and stimulating feeling. He panted pathetically, like a tamed, unruly colt. “Someone will find this place eventually. You’re committing a crime. Stop while you can… Su Xi. I can pretend that nothing has happened. We…”
“We can start over.”
Su Yu lied against his conscience.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m already… deeply sinful. A little more won’t make a difference.” Su Xi’s gaze was contemptuous, as if she didn’t care about such a warning at all. She took a few tissues and wiped the moisture from the boy’s face, saying lightly, “They won’t be able to find us for a while. The remaining time is enough…”
This familiar sentence made Su Yu feel even more scared than the fierce warnings just now. He vaguely guessed something, and his heart beat faster. The primal fear made him realize that it seemed… he was about to face the same ending as in his previous life.
“What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly silent?” Su Xi looked at the sudden fear on the boy’s face. She smiled with satisfaction. He was quite smart… he had guessed the meaning of her words at once.
“Don’t do this… you’ll get your hands dirty. We don’t have to go this far.” Su Yu’s voice trembled uncontrollably, as if he were extremely scared.
She ruffled the boy’s messy hair, her movements slow and gentle, and comforted him in a soft voice, “It’s okay. As long as you don’t provoke me.”
The slightly cooled porridge on the table was picked up again by Su Xi. She scooped a spoonful with a porcelain spoon and placed it by the boy’s lips, her voice gentle again. “You haven’t eaten for so long. You must be very hungry. I’ve cooked carrots and shiitake mushrooms in it. I’ve been learning this for a long time. I thought that after you woke up from the medicine, you wouldn’t be able to eat greasy things for a while.”
“Have a little, okay?”
Su Yu felt the warmth of the porcelain spoon on his lips. He gathered his little remaining strength, opened his mouth, and drank all the white porridge in the spoon. The thick and sweet white porridge, with the unique taste of vegetables, spread in his mouth. He had been hungry for too long, and every cell was clamoring for energy.
“Is it good?”
The girl’s cat-like round eyes narrowed into a crescent moon. She tilted her head and smiled at him as his Adam’s apple rolled and he swallowed the porridge.
“Yeah, it’s good.”
Su Yu nodded, as if he really had no courage to continue to struggle.
