Chapter 127: Wound
Su Yu was holding the kitchen waste in a plastic bag, preparing to throw it into the trash can in the living room and then take it downstairs. He pulled open the crumpled black garbage bag in the deep part of the trash can and was suddenly stunned.
A few eye-catching bandages were lying in the pile of white paper scraps. There were dark red bloodstains on them, like a ferocious and terrifying monster baring its fangs and brandishing its claws at him.
The house was not big, and Su Yu could hear the trickling of water in the bathroom even when he was standing in the center of the living room. He sighed, and the heavy garbage bag almost fell from his hand. He turned and carried the garbage bag downstairs, his steps rushed.
“Get me a box of bandages. Um… do you still have any frostbite cream?”
“Yes, yes. You’re the last customer. The bandages are on me. Here…”
The owner bent down and took out a box of bandages from under the counter. There were basically no people in the supermarket at seven or eight o’clock in the evening. Many of the shelves were empty, and there were still clerks constantly sweeping down the remaining goods.
“Are you going on vacation?,” he asked casually as he was paying.
“Yes, it’s the New Year in a few days. I’ve been tired for a whole year. I’m just looking forward to these two days of rest.”
The owner smiled and handed back the change. He said a few words of advice with great enthusiasm. “Did someone at home cut their hand? You have to be careful during the New Year. It’s unlucky to see blood.”
“Ah… okay. It’s a small matter. Happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year.”
Su Yu stood at the door and looked down at the bandages in his hand. The night wind was cold, and the coldness was like a sharp spike, piercing through his clothes and into the deep part of his bone marrow. It was so cold that it was prickly.
His trimmed bangs were just at his eyelashes, and his dark black messy hair was blowing, and it was a fluffy and soft mess when it fell down. The vision in front of him suddenly became blurry.
He tightened the collar of his clothes, blocking the pervasive cold air in the wind, and then he plunged into the darkness again.
…
When Su Yu returned, he saw Xia Qiange’s figure on the balcony. She was looking down, and from time to time, an orange car light would flash across the ceiling. The scattered car lights had cut the white and gray walls into a bloody mess.
She didn’t seem to be very happy.
He watched for a while. She was always standing alone on the balcony. Her whole person was hidden in the darkness outside. Her thin and bony back was as thin as a piece of paper. It was as if with a little more wind, she would disappear into the night with the wind.
He put down the bandages and frostbite cream in his hand and walked over. He pushed open the glass door of the balcony, and the cold wind was blowing straight into the house. But he quickened his pace, and the shadow of his body, which was half a head taller than the girl, quickly enveloped her under the light.
The girl realized something, and her small body was visibly stiff. She timidly stared at the dim orange light of the streetlight downstairs and did not turn her head at first. She secretly shrunk her palm into her wide sleeve like a thief, but she was held by Su Yu.
“Wh-What’s wrong?”
Xia Qiange was silent for a long time before she looked up at him. Her pale and frail face was still beautiful in the hazy and indistinct light. The corners of her lips were upturned, and her eyebrows and eyes were gentle and relaxed. She looked as if she were smiling.
“You didn’t even dry your hair and you’re out in the cold wind…”
Su Yu spoke abruptly, but it made the girl let out a sigh of relief.
“I just came out for a while. I just wanted to see if you were back…”
She nodded very seriously, as if she had already convinced the other party with this reason. She leaned over and rubbed her cheek against Su Yu’s chest, and her voice also softened. “Then I’ll go back and dry my hair. Don’t scold me.”
Xia Qiange continued to walk forward, but a narrow glass door could not accommodate two people. He was as still as a mountain that could not be moved.
But for Xia Qiange, Su Yu was the sky, the ocean, the sun… not a cold and indifferent mountain. He would never scold her. She knew that Su Yu was very susceptible to this. But she would never act spoiled in front of anyone. Even though she was young and beautiful, she still did not hesitate to give up these most powerful weapons for her.
Only Su Yu was an exception. She did not mind at all acting like a childish and unreasonable little girl in front of him. They should have been together a long time ago. Just consider it as making up for the regrets of the past.
So this time, she still used the old trick. But even she herself did not realize how perfunctory her acting was this time. It was seen through at a glance, and she did not even know it.
There were some things she did not want Su Yu to know. Even the most intimate relationship could be torn apart by a few lies. She could be naked in front of the boy, and she could pretend to be frail. But she could never really expose the cowardly nature behind her madness.
She was still careless. She was blinded by the temporary sweetness and had accidentally exposed herself.
“Let me see your hand.”
“No…”, she took two steps back, and her refusal sounded very unconvincing.
This was the first time he had been so firm with the girl. He held her wrist and rolled up the sleeve of her fluffy pajamas. He exposed a hand that was curled up into a fist. He tried to open it, but he was blocked by a not-so-strong resistance.
He emphasized again in a dry voice, “Let go.”
“No.” She stubbornly retreated and shrunk in a corner with a few pots of green and oily evergreen plants. Her voice was as if it had been messed up by the cold wind, with a hint of a cry and a frailness. “I’m tired…”
Su Yu finally pried open the clenched fist. He lost his patience the moment he saw the bloodstains seeping from the palm along the lines of the skin.
He turned on all the lights on the balcony. With the light from above, he could finally see the full view of the hand. Blood… strands of blood, were seeping out from the large and small wounds. The blood-stained teeth marks were clearly visible… like a riverbed that had been dry for many years, and it was full of holes.
His fingertips trembled, and he lost his strength. He was suddenly broken free by the girl. She put her hand behind her back and then stared at him with apprehension. It was a pair of dark and boundless eyes, but the whites of her eyes were frighteningly red. But her eyes were dry, and there was not a single bit of brightness.
So it wasn’t frostbite. She had been abusing her body like this, and she had bitten a perfectly good hand into such a state. It was as if it were not her hand at all, or as if she had no sense of pain. It was all blood… a bloody mess. She had just used a few bandages to deal with it. He didn’t know if it was to deceive him or to fool herself.
“I…”, Xia Qiange whimpered for a long time and couldn’t speak, as if she couldn’t pretend anymore. She pointed to the red and fiery lanterns that were hanging on the railing of the neighborhood downstairs. The tip of her nose was red, and her lips were even whiter from the cold.
“When I was taking a shower, I didn’t see you. I was a little sad. I thought of the past. I didn’t want you to worry.”
She was telling the truth. Just for a little while, she had found that he had disappeared from her sight. She was so sad that she was as if she had been abandoned by the whole world. When she was sad, she liked to use physical pain to bury it.
She had always had this bad habit, and she couldn’t get rid of it at all. In the winter, her wounds would easily break open. She was not afraid of pain, but when the wounds were healing, they would be itchy. The more itchy they were, the more she couldn’t help but bite them with her teeth. It was like a vicious cycle that she couldn’t get rid of.
“I’m sorry.” She lowered her head with great self-blame and couldn’t help but start to bite the dry and dead skin on her lips.
Su Yu didn’t know what to do. He silently opened his arms and approached her.
Xia Qiange raised her head and looked at him with the wariness of a little animal. But she was soon seduced by the warm nest that the other party had built. She carefully approached, stood on her tiptoes, and rubbed against his cheek.
In this warm nest, her wounds quickly healed, and she no longer felt cold.
