Chapter 143: Wound
The long and narrow corridor was empty. The windows were tightly closed, and the dim light cast a blurry halo on the porcelain tiles. A few bright red bloodstains were stained with dust, and they had slowly cooled down, and they had weathered into a black that was filled with malice. The wind was filled with a fishy smell of blood.
Su Yu sprinkled a little water on the floor and used the idle mop in the corridor to wipe away the mottled bloodstains on the porcelain tiles. He had comforted Xia Qiange, who was in a bad mental state in the house, and he had also watched as the madwoman was dragged away by a police car. It was as if everything was over.
He looked sideways at the dazzling bloody mark on the back of his hand. The wound had not yet been bandaged, and the blood had not stopped after being exposed for so long. With a little force, blood would seep out.
He didn’t care about the pain. He ruffled his messy and messy hair with some annoyance. His face was pale, and his thin, red lips had also lost their color. After they were moistened with saliva, they quickly became dry and chapped.
He couldn’t figure it out. He really couldn’t figure out why the two of them were clearly far away in the capital, but the dark past was still chasing after them like a persistent curse.
The morning was cold. He looked at the dark and thick clouds outside the window, and the black mist was burying the daylight. The cold wind was like a knife, cutting the glass window. The sound of the wind was howling like a ghost crying and a wolf howling. The wind was so strong that it made his eyes squint. The clouds were blown away, and they were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws like a demon. The half of the sun that was struggling to come out was completely swallowed.
He turned and went back into the house. The door was closed with force, as if he couldn’t suppress the anxiety in his heart.
…
The small coffee table was covered with wet tissues. Her thin and slender body was curled up in the hollow of the sofa. Her suppressed cry was blurry, but it was like a few thin threads that were holding his heart. It was suddenly and fiercely tightened, and a raw and cramping pain arose.
The girl who had pulled him up from the abyss was slowly pushing him towards the light behind her, but she was forever left on the edge of the cliff.
What had happened to her in the few years he had been gone?
Su Yu turned on the living room light, and the light dispelled the stuffy and gloomy darkness in the house. The dazzling color blocks were chaotically rushing into his retina. The pink pajamas, the purple fluffy long socks on his ankles, the dark green hair tie… these strange color combinations were mixed with her gray and white self.
He opened his mouth, but the words disappeared in his throat, and his lips were closed.
He slowly walked over and sat down next to the girl without a fuss. He held her half-sleeve to announce his presence and quietly listened as the sound of crying in his ear slowly gathered, until the two of them fell into a silence.
The air outlet of the air conditioner was blowing warm air with a whirring sound. The reassuring warmth had filled the space between them with a warm color, and it had shortened the distance between the two of them to a subtle degree.
She let out a very obvious breath, as if she were an animal with a hard shell. After she had released all her pent-up emotions, she had closed the hard shell that was isolating her from the outside world again, to protect her soft inside.
“I’m sorry…”
Xia Qiange very carefully pulled at Su Yu’s hand. Her voice was so light that it seemed to have no weight. It fell on his ear, and it was as if it had a magical power that had attracted his gaze.
Su Yu’s heart was in a soft mess. He had not expected that the first sentence he would hear would be an apology. He reached out and gently wiped the red and swollen corners of her eyes, and the wet water marks had wet his fingertips.
“It has nothing to do with you. She’s already been sent away. It’s okay…”
“I don’t have a home anymore either. But actually, I’m the cowardly one, right?” Xia Qiange pursed her pale and colorless lips and recounted the past in the same ignorant and helpless tone.
“I thought that as long as I left that place, everything would be over. Just like the house that was about to be demolished, the past would be buried there. But I really didn’t expect that such a thing would still happen.”
“Then… from now on… after we get married…”
“What?”
She suddenly raised her head and looked up at Su Yu. She saw his increasingly rugged jawline, which was sharp and defined. The fine stubble on his chin, which had not been shaved for a day, was sticking out. It was like a solid pillar that was standing in her life, supporting her crumbling life.
“I said, after we get married, we’ll have a new home.” Su Yu bent his eyebrows and eyes and smiled. He scraped her handsome and straight nose. His voice was as gentle as if he were coaxing a child, but it made the heart in her chest pound. “Yeah… as for those bad people, they should be the ones who are defeated. No one can disturb us anymore.”
“Bad people… bad people…”
Xia Qiange gently leaned on Su Yu’s shoulder. The curve of her lips, which had just been raised, suddenly froze. She repeatedly murmured this word in her mouth and looked at his left chest with a somewhat dazed look.
A loud thunderclap sounded, and she suddenly came back to her senses. What came into view was a gray and dark sky and a thick layer of clouds. A faint light was leaking from the gaps between the overlapping clouds, and a bright and dazzling flash of lightning had illuminated her pale face, and it had pierced straight into her dark eyes.
The light rain outside the window suddenly became heavy, and it formed a series of rushed streams of water on the transparent and smooth glass window, and it was seeping down. It soon covered the entire window, and the outside suddenly became blurry.
She lowered her thick and long eyelashes, and a gloominess had climbed up her cold and aloof features.
“What’s wrong?”
Su Yu looked at her, who was in a daze, and asked softly.
“N-Nothing. Um… will my stepmother be okay?”
Xia Qiange shook her head and raised her head, revealing a pair of lively and gentle eyes. A smile was still on her lips.
“She should be fine. I still have to go to the police station to give a statement. We’ll move after we get married. We’ll go to a place that’s closer to your work. No one will be able to find us anymore…”
“You still have to go to the police station?”
She suddenly became dejected. She looked at the gloomy and dim sky outside the window, her eyebrows and eyes tightly furrowed, filled with worry. She bit her lower lip and leaned against his chest. The words she uttered were as if they had lost their edges—they were as soft as honey, seeping into his heart.
“Um… can we not go? I’m a little scared… to be alone at home.”
“You silly girl. How can we not go?” He smiled and ruffled her head.
“Alright then…”
She lowered her eyebrows and eyes, and her features were in a shadow. She was still intimately rubbing against the back of his hand, which had been turned over because he had not been paying attention. But she heard a hiss of pain.
“What’s wrong?”
Xia Qiange quickly sat up and saw the hand he was hiding behind him. She suddenly remembered something and grabbed his wrist. She pulled it back with great stubbornness and saw the long and claw-like mark. The undried blood was mottled, and it had spread and had covered the entire back of his hand. It looked a little frightening.
“Does it hurt?”
She held his hand and breathed a moist and hot breath on the wound. It was as if it had been cut on her heart, and it was so painful that she couldn’t stand it.
“Yeah… seeing that you fought the old witch for me, it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Su Yu suddenly remembered the fierce expression the girl had had when she had stood up for him in the corridor, and he couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s just a little fierce…”
“Ah Yu! You’re not being serious. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
Xia Qiange was stunned for a moment before she reacted. A red cloud spread up her cheeks. She puffed out her slightly pink cheeks and glared at Su Yu. He also slowly restrained his smile and stared at the girl’s already-grown-up eyebrows and eyes. He was in a daze and remembered that in this life, they had unknowingly gone even further.
“Why are you always looking at me?”, she pouted, a little uncomfortable.
He smiled. “Nothing. I was just thinking that my Qian Ge seems to be getting more and more beautiful. She’s going to be my bride.”
“You’re so glib.”
“Hiss, you’re being so rough…”
“This mouth has deceived so many little girls. It would be better if you died of pain…”
…
