Chapter 157: Luggage
In the evening, the gentle sunset spread like water. The old and dilapidated neighborhood was even more gloomy in the gloomy sunset.
The evening in a fourth- or fifth-tier city, which had no pressure, was filled with a lazy atmosphere. The spring couplets on the door of the neighborhood had been torn off by some mischievous child, and the tattered red paper rustled in the evening wind.
The temperature slowly returned to normal, and the festive and lively atmosphere of the New Year gradually faded. The old and dilapidated neighborhood returned to its usual deserted state.
Su Yu and Xia Qiange walked side by side through the shadow of the neighborhood gate. Their shadows overlapped and stretched long behind them.
“School starts in a few days. Do you need me to go back to Qingchuan with you? I might have to go back a few days early. There’s something urgent… I’m worried I won’t be able to buy a ticket. Maybe I’ll leave tomorrow.”
Xia Qiange didn’t seem to hear Su Yu’s question. She looked a little tired. Her long, curled eyelashes struggled to lift. She inadvertently leaned against the boy, touching his long and slender hand, which was like a bamboo branch. Her nerves quickly received the feedback of a warm and jade-like touch. Her heart swayed slightly, and her consciousness had not yet returned. The other party had already moved away a little, his demeanor polite but with a cold and distant air.
Her ambiguous gesture, which was filled with a little thought, had failed. Only the cold and damp air wrapped around her palm. She was suddenly as lowly as a bitch on the side of the road, showing off to passersby, being looked at with contempt, and then ruthlessly leaving.
“I won’t be living here in a few days. I’ll be living in the city center with them. They should be sending me off then. I won’t trouble you.”
Xia Qiange smiled, her pale face as usual. Her dark pupils hid a surging, cold ruthlessness. Her creamy white palm, which was hidden in her sleeve, was clenched into a fist. The ferocious blue and black veins were like small snakes, swimming in her flesh and blood. She could feel the crisp, muffled sound of her knuckles cracking, crackle, crackle… she was screaming in her heart.
It’s like this again!
Their relationship was as if it had been cursed. When she endured the boy’s timid and hesitant inability to say he liked her, and had finally managed to shorten the distance between them a little, the boy would inexplicably distance himself again.
When she had pounced into the boy’s arms, she had seen the gentleness in his eyes, which was as soft as a sweet marshmallow. At that moment, she had even thought that this was a microcosm of their future life. They… were already together.
She had used those despicable means to make the other party hesitate, to occupy a place in his eyes bit by bit. She was also sinking in, struggling on the edge of a steep cliff, with a bottomless abyss behind her. She loved him more and more.
With every bit of love, the obsessive and sinister possessiveness also grew wildly.
She was afraid, afraid that one day, her mind would fall into a morbid state of being out of control, and she would do something irreparable to the boy.
Xia Qiange suppressed the slight heaving of her chest and looked at the boy’s handsome face. She smiled and said, “This is as far as I go. I’ve troubled you again.”
“Okay… goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
Su Yu nodded. He turned his head, but then he hesitated and said, “About your family… if they are too much, you can just stay at school. If you really can’t, you can find me… no, you should call the police… it’s best to call the police. When you graduate, everything will be better.”
“Okay, thank you. It’s getting dark… be careful on the way.”
Xia Qiange smiled innocently. She waved her hand and watched as the boy’s figure slowly blurred in the brilliant and hazy sunset. She took two steps back, and the sweet smile on her face disappeared into the gloomy shadow cast by the eaves.
She tore off the well-behaved mask on her face and threw it to the ground, crushing it with her foot. Her face seemed to have cracked, splitting down the middle. One side still had a sweet smile, while the other was a sinister and ruthless, ugly face.
She could barely suppress it anymore.
Ah Yu, I love you. Please… don’t force me.
…
Late at night, the moon hung desolate in the sky as the wind howled recklessly outside. The coldness seeped into the room from the edge of the window. The sweat on his forehead was wet and gradually cooled down.
A crisp knock came from the entryway. Su Yu wiped the sweat from his forehead, kicked away the half-packed suitcase, and walked to the entryway to open the door.
“You’re leaving tomorrow? Didn’t you say you were going to stay for a few more days?”
He Mu Qing seemed to have just come back from evening self-study. She was still carrying her schoolbag. The loose blue and white school uniform was worn over a black cotton coat, looking a little bloated. Her hair had grown a lot longer, and she had tied it into a playful short ponytail, with the unique youthful vitality of a student.
“Something urgent came up. I might have to go back early. I was thinking of telling you when I leave tomorrow.”
“Haha… I think you just want to get rid of me. You think I’m annoying, don’t you?”
“I’m afraid you’ll miss me and cry at the station.”
“Pfft, pfft, pfft. Narcissist. You look in the mirror all day, you narcissist!”
He Mu Qing pouted her pink and moist lips and pushed against Su Yu’s chest for a while. She rushed into the room and looked around, as if she were at home. “It would be better to leave on the weekend. I could even see you off.”
Su Yu covered his chest and frowned. “Hiss… you’re like a madwoman. Are you like this at school too? A girl should be a little more reserved and gentle.”
“If someone is gentle, you should go after her. I’m not her. Why should I be like her? And also…” He Mu Qing turned her head and rolled her eyes at Su Yu, but her tone softened, and it sounded like she was acting spoiled. “And… where am I fierce? Where am I not gentle? I think you’re the one who’s always so fierce with me.”
“Alright, I misspoke.”
Su Yu shrugged and continued to pack the clothes he was going to take for the change of season. “I won’t keep nagging you. Remember to work hard for the college entrance examination. I remember what I promised. When you come to Qingchuan… I’ll treat you to milk tea every day.”
“Who cares…” He Mu Qing felt that this person was so stupid. She didn’t know how he had gotten into Qingchuan. “Do you really think I’m doing it for the milk tea?”
Su Yu raised his eyebrows and looked at He Mu Qing. “Then what is it for?”
“For… for myself. I like Qingchuan, don’t I? I would have gone to Qingchuan even without you.”
He Mu Qing held her long neck high and said something against her will. She secretly cursed herself for being a coward. She looked at the boy’s familiar face, but she couldn’t say a single word of her true feelings. She blushed and took off her school uniform. “Oh, your house is so hot. I’m wearing too many clothes.”
“Any reason is fine. No one is forcing you.”
Su Yu looked at the girl’s innocent and naive appearance—so entirely different from the version in his memory, who had lost her smile under the weight of life’s burdens. A sense of relief washed over him, and he let out a soft laugh. He stuffed his clothes into the suitcase and shut it firmly. “It’s good that you can find happiness on your own.”
“Su Yu! Don’t be so mushy all of a sudden.” He Mu Qing pouted with some disgust. “By the way, I have something for you.”
He Mu Qing reached for her ponytail and pulled off the black hair tie that was holding it. A mass of dark and beautiful black hair fell down with a swish. She grabbed Su Yu’s wrist and put the hair tie on it.
“Alright, you have to wear it all the time. You’re not allowed to take it off. If I don’t see it when I come back for the summer break.” He Mu Qing looked at the hair tie on the boy’s wrist and raised her small fist. “Otherwise, I’ll beat you up.”
“What… what’s this all about?”
Su Yu stared at the hair tie on his hand. In the future, such an act might be given a special meaning, but now it seemed to be just a whim of the girl. “Does this look good?”
“It looks good. Of course it looks good.”
The girl smiled brightly. She repeated it very seriously.
“Don’t lose it. When the time comes… I’ll give you a surprise.”
“Hmm? What?”
“It’s a secret!”
