Familiar warmth surrounded her, and in that moment, Luo Xue suddenly felt she had someone to lean on. Tang Qi, holding her, seemed like a mountain, shielding her from the wind and rain.
Hearing Tang Qi say she would take her back to the dormitory, tears uncontrollably streamed down her face.
She hadn’t wanted to cry just moments before, nor had she felt the pain was that great. But now, she truly felt it hurt so much, and she really wanted to cry.
“Does it hurt?” Tang Qi asked. The streetlights were too dim for her to see the extent of Luo Xue’s injuries.
“…It hurts. It hurts so much!” Luo Xue felt pathetic, but she just wanted to cry.
“Who do you think you are, just picking someone up and walking off?” Lao Liu, a roommate from Li Chengyu’s dorm, saw Tang Qi carrying Luo Xue away. Staggering over drunkenly, he grabbed at Tang Qi. “Put her down! She… she has our Chengyu! What kind of whore are you?”
Tang Qi’s sharp features showed a flicker of impatience. She had nothing much to say to a few drunks and stated the facts plainly. “If Li Chengyu could carry her back to the dorm, he would have done it long ago. Why wait for me to come?”
She suddenly recalled the System’s sarcastic remark. “The blood had already dried, and none of you reacted. You only care with your mouths, your support is all talk. Can just asking about a wound make it heal? Are your mouths enchanted?”
Lao Liu’s face flushed bright red. Li Chengyu’s expression was even more unsightly. He hated being scolded or looked down upon most of all. His fists clenched and unclenched, his chest heaving. He swallowed his anger and endured. “Little Xue, you’re just going to let someone from your dorm insult me like this?”
Luo Xue wrapped her arms around Tang Qi’s waist, shrinking entirely into her embrace like a newborn clinging to its mother. It was as if this way, she couldn’t see Li Chengyu’s livid face or hear his words. “Tang Qi, I want to go back to the dorm.”
Li Chengyu felt as if he had been slapped hard across the face. He raged, “If you leave now, don’t bother coming to find me later!” Luo Xue trembled under his roar but still didn’t lift her head.
The System was furious too. “Stay? Stay and wait to lose a leg? Stay and wait for him to ask Luoluo for money?”
Tang Qi looked down at Luo Xue, who was silently weeping. Her pretty, delicate face was smeared with mud and tears, and the hand gripping her clothes was covered in scrapes and scratches, looking utterly pitiful. It reminded her a lot of the little dog she’d found in her first life.
Inexplicably, a little anger rose within her. Though faint, it was a rare emotion she actually felt. “Li Chengyu, do you want me to air your dirty laundry right here? Luo Xue’s wounds need immediate cleaning and treatment. Move!”
Intimidated by her aura, Li Chengyu stumbled back a few steps. Watching the two leave, he couldn’t help but curse.
Tang Qi was very strong and carried Luo Xue without any effort. When they returned to the dorm, the others were still making a racket. Seeing Luo Xue covered in mud, they were horrified.
“What happened?”
Tang Qi placed Luo Xue in her own seat. “She fell.”
Luo Xue was still crying. The dorm mates assumed it was from the pain. Some got water, others prepared the hair dryer. Tang Qi took her to the bathroom to clean the wound with water. Only then did they discover how deep it was—the wound surface was half the size of a palm, a bloody mess of torn flesh, painful just to look at.
“Thankfully, it didn’t hit the bone.” Tang Qi worked efficiently, cleaning the mud and gravel from the wound without batting an eye.
“How did she fall so badly? Luoluo, don’t cry, don’t cry.” Mai Lingling was heartbroken.
Once the wound was clean, Tang Qi disinfected it with alcohol. Only then did Luo Xue learn what real pain was. She gritted her teeth and endured, unconsciously grabbing Tang Qi’s hand. Tang Qi let her hold it, comforting her, “Squeeze hard if it hurts.”
She used her other hand to disinfect and asked, “Who has gauze?”
“Me, me, me. I bought some a few days ago.” A dorm mate produced some gauze.
Watching everyone bustling around her in a fluster, Luo Xue felt the pain in her wound improve significantly.
Mai Lingling volunteered to help wipe her down, reaching to take off her clothes. Luo Xue’s gaze fell on Tang Qi. Tang Qi stood up. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Don’t worry, leave it to me!” Mai Lingling patted her chest. After Tang Qi left, she rubbed her hands together, feigning a creepy leer. “Little beauty, you’ve fallen into my hands. You’re in for a good time now, gahaha!”
Seeing Tang Qi turn and leave, Luo Xue suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, but felt a strange, slight sense of loss. She couldn’t explain why. She was completely at ease with Mai Lingling, but if the one wiping her down were Tang Qi…
Luo Xue patted her cheeks and muttered, “What am I even thinking!”
Coming out of the bathroom, the dorm mates surrounded Luo Xue, asking what exactly had happened. Luo Xue only said she hadn’t walked steadily. As she spoke, her gaze kept drifting to Tang Qi, who was reading a book. Seeing Tang Qi wasn’t joining the conversation, she felt uneasy.
“Host, Luoluo keeps looking at you.”
“Mm?” Tang Qi turned a page. In the past, doing missions meant restrictions on what books she could read, so now she’d bought a lot of miscellaneous ones.
“It feels like she has something she wants to say to you.” The System shook its head. “Luoluo really is a good girl. Even after all this, she hasn’t said a single bad word about Li Chengyu.”
Tang Qi didn’t comment. Wasn’t refraining from speaking ill of others basic decency? The System continued, “I just went to check on Li Chengyu. That bastard was shooting his mouth off in his dorm, saying Luoluo doesn’t cherish him enough and treats him poorly. He even said Luoluo always dislikes his family’s lack of money and looks down on others.”
“That son of a turtle is absolutely outrageous! He actually said the reason he didn’t invite his dorm mates to eat with us when they first started dating was because Luoluo looked down on them. I’ve never seen anyone so skilled at reversing the situation. Even Zhu Bajie isn’t as good at wielding that rake as he is! Makes me so mad!”
“I think…” Tang Qi closed her book. The System immediately perked up its ears. Tang Qi slowly said, “It would be better if you didn’t change Li Chengyu’s epithet with every sentence.”
She stood up. “It’s getting late. Let’s sleep.” Looking at Luo Xue’s injury, she added, “I’ll carry you to class tomorrow morning.”
“Then I’ll be in charge of buying you guys breakfast.” Mai Lingling immediately took on the task.
Late at night, Tang Qi was drifting in and out of sleep when she heard Luo Xue crying. Their bunks were right next to each other. She sat up and saw Luo Xue seemed to be having a nightmare, drenched in sweat, making small, broken crying sounds.
She didn’t hesitate to wake Luo Xue. Luo Xue’s eyes snapped open, taking a long time to focus in the darkness.
“Tang Qi.”
“Are you okay?” Tang Qi leaned over to touch her forehead. “I’ll get you a glass of water?” She was about to get out of bed when Luo Xue suddenly grabbed her hand. “I’m not thirsty. Just… talk with me for a bit.”
She was rambling. “I didn’t tell everyone why I got hurt today. Would you think I’m a coward? Would you think helping me was a waste?”
In the darkness, she opened her eyes wide, staring at Tang Qi. Tang Qi sighed and reached out to stroke her head. Luo Xue’s hair was very soft, just like her personality. “You didn’t speak ill of others behind their backs. That shows your character. That’s very good.”
Luo Xue knew Tang Qi meant it; she truly thought well of her. This sentence was like salvation, rescuing and releasing her from the stifling emotion she’d been trapped in.
“When I was little, my parents were always arguing. Every time they fought, they’d end up telling me to be good, or they wouldn’t want me anymore. I was so scared they’d abandon me that I became very, very well-behaved.” Luo Xue choked up, gripping Tang Qi’s hand tightly, feeling the warmth of her palm. “I’m very well-behaved, aren’t I!”
“Mm, you’re very well-behaved and sweet.” Tang Qi nodded.
“But they still abandoned me. They got divorced and started new families. I secretly went to see them. Their new babies aren’t well-behaved at all. But they never abandoned their new babies. They just didn’t want me.”
Tang Qi listened. In her mind, the System was sobbing. “Luoluo really is a good child, a child who’s suffered so much, wuwuwu!”
“When I first got together with Chengyu, I truly felt he treated me very well. He’d put food in my bowl, tell me to dress warmer when it was cold, even remind me not to touch cold water when my period came.” Luo Xue wiped away her tears. “I cry too easily lately.”
“He said he’d buy me a big house someday. He reminds me to carry an umbrella on rainy days. I was so happy. Someone finally loved me, finally saw me, and wanted me.”
“Many people love you.” Tang Qi consoled. “Everyone in the dorm loves you.”
Even in the darkness, she could feel the faint smile that flickered across Luo Xue’s face.
“Later, I felt Chengyu changed, became someone I didn’t recognize anymore. But I also understand now… he never changed. I just started seeing him more clearly. I was just clinging to the warmth I’d imagined before, blindly shutting my eyes and refusing to face reality.” Luo Xue laughed bitterly. “He trapped himself in a false image of being a good boyfriend, and I was trapped in the illusion that someone loved me.”
Tang Qi listened silently. Luo Xue smiled ruefully. “Perhaps because no one ever cared for me or loved me before… I wanted to hold tightly to even a tiny bit of illusory love.”
“Stop thinking about it. Go to sleep now,” Tang Qi said.
The next morning, the other dorm mates went to buy breakfast while Tang Qi helped Luo Xue change clothes. In the daylight, a closer look revealed many wounds on Luo Xue’s body, large and small, mostly scrapes. Although not serious, they looked frightening. Luo Xue was already very pale, making the red scabs stand out vividly.
Tang Qi wanted to carry her on her back, but Luo Xue absolutely refused. In the end, Tang Qi could only support her as she limped step-by-step toward the classroom.
“Luo Xue!”
Hearing someone call her, Tang Qi helped Luo Xue steady herself. Luo Xue didn’t look pleased to see it was Lao Liu from Li Chengyu’s dorm. But the other party was sheepish. “I’m sorry. I told my girlfriend what happened yesterday, and she really scolded me.”
His girlfriend had left early the day before and didn’t know what happened later.
Seeing Luo Xue’s injury, Lao Liu felt even more guilty. “I drank too much yesterday. I’m truly sorry. You were hurt that badly, and none of us went to help you.” He bowed ninety degrees. “I’m very sorry, truly sorry. Please forgive me.”
Luo Xue was a bit stunned. She’d assumed he’d come to accuse her. Lao Liu’s face was slightly red. Yesterday, after listening to Li Chengyu’s complaints, he’d been even angrier at Luo Xue. But when he complained to his girlfriend, she’d cursed him out mercilessly.
This morning, his girlfriend had pointed at his nose and scolded him, saying how much of what a man says behind his girlfriend’s back can be true? They didn’t help yesterday when the girl fell, and then blocked her dorm mates from helping. Even a dog wouldn’t do something like that.
Finally, she’d given an ultimatum: if he didn’t apologize, they were breaking up. She also said calling them worse than dogs was an insult to dogs.
The more Lao Liu thought about it, the more he felt his girlfriend was right. Luo Xue smiled faintly. “It has nothing to do with you. I don’t blame you.”
