Chapter 100: Vision
A row of tall and straight maple trees was planted downstairs from the girls’ dormitory. The desolation of late autumn forced the mottled red leaves to fall in the cold wind. When the wind was strong, there was a sudden illusion of being in the rain.
Piles and piles of fallen leaves were swept together, wrapped in net bags, and thrown on the side of the road. The bare branches of the trees stretched out lonely on the trunks. “Then this is it.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Su Yu had walked Xia Qian Ge to her dormitory. He stopped and looked at Xia Qian Ge, who was following behind him with her head down. The faded, wrinkled jeans clung to her straight and slender legs. A simple ponytail hung in the wind, scattering into silk threads. The pale, clean face was inlaid with pure black obsidian, shining with a bright light.
He looked at the girl’s beautiful but exceptionally fragile face, opened his mouth, was dazed for a moment, and then said, “Take care of yourself. You can’t just work part-time whenever you have time. Your body can’t take it. If you have any difficulties, I can…”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I know. I’m very grateful that you took care of me in the hospital last time. I don’t want to trouble you with anything else.”
Xia Qian Ge suddenly interrupted Su Yu. Her long, slender eyelashes fell into a fan-shaped shadow, a few flashes of annoyance flashing past. She hated hearing the boy’s tone like this, and she didn’t need this pity.
“Then… well, I was overthinking it.”
Su Yu heard Xia Qian Ge’s resistance and didn’t say anything more. He knew the girl was particularly stubborn in these aspects, holding her head high and refusing to bow down. He had never seen her bow down, but the more it was like this, the more he couldn’t bear it.
“Cough cough, by the way, Lin Siyi contacted me a few days ago.” Su Yu coughed a few times, and the topic that was on the tip of his tongue was a bit embarrassing to say.
“She said she’s coming to Qingchuan to see me, and she wants to go to some amusement park. She said it was you who wanted to go. But I thought you’ve never been to an amusement park before. How could it be that you wanted to go? Is that girl Lin Siyi deliberately trying to trick me?”
“How did you know?”
“What? Know what?” Su Yu asked, stunned.
Xia Qian Ge frowned with her delicate eyebrows and looked at Su Yu with great surprise. “Why is your tone so certain? I don’t think… I’ve ever told you this.”
Su Yu’s heart pounded at the suspicion in Xia Qian Ge’s eyes. He was instinctively a little flustered. He had just been trying to find a topic and had casually mentioned Lin Siyi’s invitation, but he hadn’t expected to be caught in a lie.
He was not wrong, but that was something Xia Qian Ge had told him after they got together in his previous life. Later, Su Yu had even taken Xia Qian Ge there once. That day, probably because it was so new, Xia Qian Ge had even pushed aside her work and went with him.
The Ferris wheel turned slowly in the setting sun… but when he came back to his senses, it was all over.
“I… I was just guessing.” Su Yu laughed and brushed it off, asking, “So is it really you who wanted to go? Did Lin Siyi not lie to me?”
“Guessing? Alright then.” Xia Qian Ge nodded. She looked up at Su Yu.
“Siyi did mention this to me. It was my birthday that day. She called me and said she was going to bring her boyfriend to see me. We hadn’t decided where to go at the time. I haven’t decided yet either. What about you, do you want to go?”
“I…” Su Yu’s voice was stuck. He had the illusion of being chased to the edge of a cliff, and he was in a dilemma. He paused for a moment and gave a vague answer. “I’m fine with anything. If Lin Siyi really comes, we should be good hosts. Isn’t there a big amusement park in Qingchuan? Since you’ve never been there…”
“Mm-hmm, I’ll think about it when I get back. I have a lot of classes next week, so I don’t know if I can spare the time…”
Xia Qian Ge didn’t agree directly. She curled her lips, a smile floating on the surface of her eyes, and said softly, “Then I’ll go back and rest first. Goodbye.”
“Ah… goodbye.”
Su Yu quickly said goodbye, and after the girl had walked a few steps, he called out, “Um… happy birthday. I forgot. I’m sorry.”
The girl shook her head, and her gentle words brushed past his ear on the wind.
“Yeah, it’s okay.”
…
Auntie Jing flipped through today’s appointment book. The last surgery on the list had been completed two hours ago. This pet hospital only accepted advance appointments. If all the appointments on the list for the day were finished, they would usually choose to close early.
She stood at the counter, looking out the door. The sky was already getting dark. In the days leading up to winter, the sky darkened earlier and earlier.
Auntie Jing held the orange cat, which was sleeping soundly in her arms, and her wrinkled hand gently stroked its thick fur. She had been waiting for a while, but the orange cat’s owner still hadn’t come to pick up her pet.
The sky was completely dark. Auntie Jing sighed softly. That boy had such a handsome face. His innocent appearance seemed completely unaware. She really didn’t know how long… it would be this time. If he got sick, she couldn’t help him anymore.
The half-open door was suddenly pushed open, and the dim light from the streetlights cast a graceful figure. Gu Zhi walked in, wearing slender high heels, and smiled at Xiao Chan in Auntie Jing’s arms.
“Auntie Jing, I’m here to pick up Xiao Chan.”
“I thought you weren’t coming.”
Auntie Jing looked up at Gu Zhi with her cloudy eyes. “You’re a person who doesn’t like to shop. Why were you out for so long today?”
“Haha, I don’t like it… that depends on who I’m with.” Gu Zhi smiled dismissively. She stared at Auntie Jing, her eyes showing no trace of the respect she had shown to the boy. Her eyes were cold. “And… I hope you don’t meddle too much.”
Auntie Jing ignored the warning in Gu Zhi’s tone and continued to ask, “Where did you find him?”
“When I was sent to the frontier. I was going to leave him there, but I was lucky…” Gu Zhi looked down and fiddled with her nails, her voice light. “I didn’t expect him to come back. Do you think I should let him go?”
“I don’t believe you can hold on for so long. He still doesn’t seem to know anything.”
“No rush. I want to do it slowly…”
Auntie Jing interrupted Gu Zhi and directly exposed her. “On the one hand, you want to eat him quickly. On the other hand, you want to tame him slowly. What do you want to do? Destroy him? Or make him obedient? Is this your new perversion? You’re really getting more and more hopeless.”
“Say that again? Do you believe I’ll tear your mouth apart?”
Suddenly, the smile on Gu Zhi’s lips disappeared. Her long, narrow eyes were spitting with raging fire. “Did the little bit of face I saved for you make you forget your place? My old aunt is dead, you know? A car accident… with a bang, she was a bloody mess. She was already… haha, before she got to the hospital.”
“I haven’t done anything yet, just because he’s not clean. He has the scent of others. Shouldn’t a stray cat be cleaned before it’s put on a collar and brought into the house?”
The gloomy and cold aura around Gu Zhi became more and more serious. Her beautiful face was covered with a deep gloom. Her long, narrow eyebrows were slightly raised and elongated, her natural coldness deeply carved into the corners of her eyes. The strong madness and obsession on her face looked ferocious, terrifying.
This was Gu Zhi—the Gu family’s madwoman, the Gu Zhi everyone feared.
“He has that kind of smell on him, which really makes me feel disgusted. I took him to see a very pretty girl today. She’s his high school classmate. Her eyebrows are very thin, her lips are very thin, her eyes are watery… she’s really, really pretty. Do you know how he reacted when he met that girl?”
Gu Zhi’s face was carved with a sinister smile, and the quiet corridor of the hospital was filled with her crazed laughter.
“His heart beat faster, his breathing became rapid, and his ears turned red. Do you think that’s like… or love?”
Gu Zhi suddenly covered her bright red lips, her smile suppressed in her palm, making a muffled sound. The memory made the violent factors in her bones even more restless. She supported herself with her arms on the counter, her long, powerful fingers scratching white marks on the wooden counter.
“Do you know how hard I had to endure? I was in a hurry to leave that place, afraid… afraid that I would not be able to resist and would strangle him on the spot. Cough cough…”
Gu Zhi suddenly began to cough violently, as if she were about to cough up blood. Her covered mouth and rapid breathing clashed violently. The blocked breathing made her unable to stop coughing, which made the flush that had already covered her cheeks even more intense.
The feeling of suffocation made her start to recall the scene from the afternoon. At that time, her long and slender hand was next to the boy’s hot neck. The boy’s neck was as slender and thin as ever. His pale neck flesh looked moist and translucent under the light. His warm red blood flowed under his moist skin, but it seemed to carry a seductive poison, step by step eroding her reason.
Those crazy thoughts once again uncontrollably seized her consciousness. Her rational nerves went limp one by one, to the point where hallucinations appeared before her eyes, making it difficult for her to control herself and making her want to do something irrational.
Gu Zhi let go of her hand and gasped for the fresh, cold air. The violence in her bones gradually subsided, but those dark and evil thoughts still clung to her nerves like a persistent curse. She looked pathetic yet smiled ruthlessly.
“Tell me… if he watched his favorite girl die in front of him, would he… would he cry? Tears streaming down his face, and then he would grovel at my feet… begging me to save her, his voice full of pleading. And then I would lean down and tell him… this is punishment. His eyes can only see me… he was the one who killed the girl.”
“I want to watch his dark, bright eyes slowly lose their light. He will become obedient, he will please me… love me. He will rub his cheek against my ankle, craving my affection, just as I crave him. We will not fail each other’s love, not betray each other. I will love him too. I… only have him.”
Gu Zhi’s tone suddenly became light, like a colorful butterfly dancing among the flowers in the breeze. She spoke of her beautiful vision, her crazy and obsessive appearance gone.
“Meow…”
The orange cat let out a low meow. It was afraid of something. Its glowing amber eyes were filled with the image of this gentle and quiet woman. It was afraid and struggled to get out of Auntie Jing’s arms.
The orange cat let out a cry like a baby’s and tried to escape, but it was caught in mid-air by an arm with beautiful muscle lines. Its struggle was meaningless. It was held tightly in the woman’s palm, so much so that it trembled with fear.
Gu Zhi gently smoothed the orange cat’s messy fur, which had become disheveled from its struggle. Then she pulled off the collar on its neck and threw the cat to the ground without any reluctance. The frightened orange cat let out a cry of fear and ran out the door, disappearing into the night.
This was the first time she had not punished a pet that had escaped. Because the orange cat had already lost its meaning as a pet.
Auntie Jing’s voice came from behind. “Are you going to do it? That girl is innocent.”
Gu Zhi turned around and looked at Auntie Jing with a sinister gaze, her eyes full of disgust. “What? Pity her? That girl is as despicable as you. Didn’t you seduce my father like that? My mother was kind and didn’t do anything, but I’m different. My father’s death must have been very painful for you. But I’m going to let you live. This is revenge.”
Auntie Jing was silent in the darkness. It was not until Gu Zhi was about to leave with the crisp sound of her high heels that her old, hoarse voice reached Gu Zhi’s ear.
“In the end, you still can’t bear to do it… you’re not a bad child.”
Gu Zhi’s tall figure paused at the door for a moment, then she left indifferently.
