Chapter 114: Future
“Xiao Xia, I’m sorry to bother you so late. My aunt’s son is getting married in a few days. You’re new here and don’t know anyone, so it’s a bit lonely. You can bring Xiao Su with you and come and join the fun.”
“Getting married? Congratulations. I’ll check my schedule. If I have something, I’ll call you back.”
“Okay, you’re always welcome. It will be more interesting with more of you young people then.”
…
Xia Qiange hung up the phone from the landlady. She was as still as a rusty doll. Her face, under the cold white light, was so pale that it seemed to have no temperature. A gloomy gaze spread in the air, and it crawled up the thin and slender back like a persistent curse.
Marriage…
These two ordinary characters, which were drawn with a single stroke, seemed to carry a unique vitality and had the thickness and warmth of life. With a gentle touch, it was as if it could burn her delicate skin to a bloody mess.
Yeah, she longed for this word. It had the ability to create a certain bond between two people, to tightly bind two unrelated lives together. It would be even better if it could make them go a step further on the existing foundation and never be separated.
She suddenly laughed. Her cold expression suddenly pulled out a smile, which was so strange that it was frightening. Her cherry-pink, soft lips were curved into a beautiful and moving arc, like a night-blooming cereus that had bloomed in the dead of night.
But the stunning beauty was fleeting, and then her expression suddenly froze. The smile on her face quickly withered and turned into a withered and fallen leaf, revealing a stem that was full of barbs.
Everything was going as she had wished, and the effect was not as physically and mentally pleasant as she had expected. She had deluded herself into thinking she could completely control her caged bird, but how could a human heart be so easily controlled by the palm of one’s hand?
Her life had no weight, yet it was so heavy that she couldn’t breathe. She needed a support that could share the weight of her life with her.
But she really hated this mask that was on her face, which made her feel bored and disgusted, and she didn’t know how long she would have to wear it.
She had had enough!
When would this boring game finally end?
“Click.”
The knob of the gas stove was turned to one side by Xia Qiange with an impatient look. Her movements were a little rough, and the already-old knob was so overwhelmed that it popped open with a creak. The swaying flame suddenly flared up, and a muffled sound was made, and then it immediately withered and was extinguished.
She took two steps back, and her dark eyes were hidden under her drooping and scattered bangs, and they were uncertain. The hot and scorching pain was crawling up from her fingertips along her nerves. She frowned and didn’t make a sound. She heard a rushed and nervous sound of footsteps in the living room. She bit her soft tongue, and her eyes suddenly turned red…
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. The gas stove is old. I accidentally…”
When Su Yu rushed over from the living room, he just happened to see the girl hiding a finger in her palm behind her back. He heard that it was a problem with the gas stove, and he suddenly understood something. He walked up to her and bent down to be at the same level as her eyebrows and eyes. He saw the wet and red corners of her eyes and couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. “Does it hurt? Hurry up and rinse it with cold water, and then put some medicine on it. It won’t be good if it blisters.”
“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.” She shook her head, but the watery light that was swallowing down did not have much persuasiveness.
But he didn’t give her a chance to be stubborn. He grabbed the hand that the girl was holding behind her back and rinsed the small burn on her index finger under the cold water. She was always unwilling to show weakness and cause trouble for others. But he would rather Xia Qiange could rely on him a little more. There was not much he could do in the first place.
After rinsing it under the cold water for a while, the redness and swelling on her skin visibly disappeared. She had dodged in time, so she probably didn’t even need to put on any medicine.
Su Yu let out a turbid breath from his chest. He let go of the wrist that was held tightly in his palm, and a faint red halo was left on her skin.
“Does it still hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore. The food is ready. Let’s get ready to eat.”
Xia Qiange did not retract her arm. Instead, she held Su Yu’s wrist in return. A blush spread from the side of her neck to behind her ears. She followed him out of the kitchen, but the heart in her chest was beating slowly, as if it had been suddenly touched by something. She stared at the faint pink halo on her wrist, and she couldn’t describe the boy’s worried and holding her psychology.
After a round of hardship, the vibrant and energetic young man had visibly become gloomy. The corners of his lips, which were in an arc, were now tightly pursed, and his gaze at people was always guarded at first glance. He had shut himself in a hard shell, and he was resisting this world, which was full of malice.
But just now… she was actually in a daze, like a child who had done something wrong and was at a loss. She really didn’t expect that she would cause such a big reaction from him.
He seemed to really love her.
Xia Qiange, whose emotions had always been thin, had come to this conclusion, which should have been confirmed by her a long time ago, without any warning. He had opened the hard shell from the inside and had touched her with his soft inside. He was a little careful and vigilant, but he was also gentle enough.
…
“How’s the business at the shop these past few days? Can you handle it by yourself?”
“Ah… it’s okay. It’s good to be a little busy. There’s a commission, so I can earn a little more.”
Su Yu took a few bites of rice, and his voice was a little blurry with the chewing.
“You don’t have to work so hard. I can get a raise before the New Year. Even if we move to a bigger house, we can still afford to live. You’ve had a hard time these past few years… you don’t have to force yourself.”
Xia Qiange held her bowl and chopsticks and looked at him intently, as if what she had just said was not just a casual persuasion. Her nails, which were on the rim of the bowl, were scraping against the porcelain wall, and a very small and sharp and miscellaneous sound was made, which only she could hear. It was scraping into her heart and was bleeding.
“It’s okay. I’m just idle at home anyway. It’s just enough for our meals. And besides… we’ve just moved into this house, and we’re almost used to it. You’re about to start working again. It will be a hassle to move again.”
Su Yu lowered his head and took a few more bites of rice, avoiding her somewhat hot gaze. He didn’t want to explain too much for himself.
“Yeah, I was just saying.” Xia Qiange nodded, and her black pupils were rolling in her eye sockets without any regularity, and not a single emotion could be seen. She put her bowl and chopsticks on the table. “The landlady just called me. She said her son is getting married in a few days and asked us to go and join the fun.”
“Getting married? So fast? He just brought his girlfriend here to meet his parents last month, right? He’s already getting married.” Su Yu raised his eyebrows in surprise and thought of the landlady’s son, who was a year and a half younger than him. “Do you want to go? I should be able to take a day off.”
“Mm-hmm, I want to go.”
Xia Qiange’s reaction was even more unexpected than this news. Her eyes, which were always plain and indifferent, and seemed to not care about anything, were now shining with a bright light, and she was as expectant as a child who was about to have her wish fulfilled.
“I’ve never been to anyone’s wedding before. I want to see what others look like in a wedding dress. It must be very beautiful.”
The smile on Su Yu’s face froze for a moment, as if he had been stripped naked and thrown into the cold winter night, and a basin of water had been poured on him, and he had been frozen into a stiff block of ice. The girl’s seemingly unintentional words had suddenly lifted the veil that symbolized their future. Behind it was an empty space, a vast expanse of white, all blank.
Was she really unintentional, or was she deliberately making his heart flutter? But no matter what, the result was that he had been dissected to the point of being unrecognizable, and he was naked.
Do they have a future?
If so, where should it be?
