Chapter 34: 34 Chapter 34 Part 2

Ji Qingyou looked away, but she gripped the corner of her scarf tightly. Her knuckles turned white from the force. She stared blankly at the plaid pattern on the scarf. After a long time, she exhaled a sad, white breath.

“So that’s it.”

There was a long silence.

“But your apartment is sold out. Your luggage has been sent back. Where are you staying tonight?” She changed the subject calmly.

As soon as she said it, the car slowed down.

Yu Qinjiu looked at her in surprise. “Oh yeah. I didn’t even have time to deal with that…”

“What should I do, Dr. Ji?”

She raised the question, but her face showed no sign of worry. She was even relaxed enough to call her Dr. Ji.

Ji Qingyou noticed that Yu Qinjiu seemed to have relaxed because of this topic, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “The apartment probably hasn’t been rented out yet. You can contact the agent and move in tomorrow. As for today…”

“Can I sleep with you?” Yu Qinjiu deliberately interrupted her, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel twice.

The oppressive emotions of the day had piled up. Ji Qingyou finally had a moment to catch her breath. She met Yu Qinjiu’s eyes in the narrow, safe space of the car and said softly,

“Okay.”

—

When they got back inside, it was already very late. But this empty house wasn’t as cold as Ji Qingyou had imagined. At least, Alps and Lollipop, swimming happily in the tank, didn’t think so.

They swam very happily.

Because they were always together. They had never been apart.

While Yu Qinjiu was showering, Ji Qingyou sat on the living room floor, hugging her knees, tilting her head back, looking up at the two fish swimming in the tank.

Before she left, Yu Qinjiu had put them in a more compact space. A cozy one-bedroom apartment. As it turned out, they didn’t need a castle. Just an unbroken space. Alps and Lollipop could live just as well.

When Yu Qinjiu came out of the bathroom, this was the scene she saw. Ji Qingyou was sitting on the floor. The shadow of the fish tank fell on her, making her look like she was wrapped in a cocoon of light. She tilted her head up slightly, a flowing light in her dark eyes. The red reflection of the fish seemed to cast a beautiful, alluring shadow on her.

And on her pale cheek was a wound, like a red crack, perfectly matching the floating red fish shadows.

It was as if she was envying something, or regretting something.

It was hard for Yu Qinjiu to describe just how beautiful Ji Qingyou was at that moment. But she knew for certain that she was glad she was the only one who could see her like this.

She looked around the living room, found the medicine box, and carried it over. She noticed Ji Qingyou’s phone, thrown on the floor, was constantly lighting up and vibrating with countless WeChat notifications.

Ji Qingyou didn’t even glance at it.

Yu Qinjiu sat down beside her, taking out the medicine and cotton swabs from the box. Her gaze fell on the un-dimmable phone screen for a moment.

“Don’t you need to check your phone?”

Ji Qingyou pulled herself together. The gaze she looked over was very quiet. “It should be about Yu Muzhou. My mom won’t let him off the hook. I just saw that she said she’s already released the photos my sister took in front of the guests. And now that she knows he’s an illegitimate son, she was so angry that she announced it at the wedding venue too. By now, everyone must know Yu Muzhou is ruined, and Yu Cheng has such a wonderful son.”

Today’s wedding venue was full of guests who had business dealings with Yu Cheng and Yu Muzhou. In other words, everyone in their network knew that Yu Muzhou was an illegitimate son, and that he had been caught cheating on his wedding day.

“It’s not a hospital notification, is it?” Yu Qinjiu couldn’t help asking.

Ji Qingyou nodded. “Hospital notifications sound different.”

The phone on the floor kept vibrating. It was easy to see how serious it was to be caught cheating on your wedding day.

There were too many messy things to deal with. Yu Qinjiu had been exhausted by them since she was eighteen. Compared to those complicated relationships, the wound on Ji Qingyou’s face concerned her more.

She dipped a cotton swab in some ointment, pressed her lips together, and carefully applied it to Ji Qingyou’s wound. “Do you want to use some gauze or something?”

To make it easier to apply the medicine, she leaned in a little.

As she spoke, her breath came out in faint wisps, even if she tried to hold it in. Some of it landed on Ji Qingyou’s cheek, making her lowered eyelashes tremble involuntarily.

Her breath slipped out a little.

Yu Qinjiu thought she was in pain, so she softened her movements even more. “Does it hurt?”

The swimming fish shadows were reflected in Yu Qinjiu’s clear eyes, embedding her post-shower fragrance and gentle breath into Ji Qingyou’s body.

Ji Qingyou wanted to avoid her gaze.

But when she looked down, she accidentally caught a glimpse of a large patch of white. Perhaps she had come out in a hurry. Yu Qinjiu was wearing her hoodie. As she applied the medicine, she pulled at the collar, exposing the delicate, fair skin of her collarbone.

A drop of water slid down, soaking into the collar of her shirt, disappearing into the bottomless white.

Just one glance, but it seemed to slow down. Ji Qingyou felt like she had witnessed the entire demise of a water droplet.

She could only look away in panic, but then she accidentally met Yu Qinjiu’s eyes. A few seconds later, her ears slightly red, she conceded. “It doesn’t hurt.”

Yu Qinjiu didn’t say anything else. She just focused on applying the medicine, as if she were staring at the greatest work of art in the world, and she was the one repairing its wounds.

“How did you get hurt?” Yu Qinjiu suddenly asked.

Ji Qingyou hadn’t expected Yu Qinjiu to ask this. She froze for a few seconds, then pressed her lips together. “The scene was chaotic. In short, it was a big mess.”

“A cup suddenly broke. I got a cut from a piece of glass.”

The shadows of the fish flowed, leaving a red mark in Yu Qinjiu’s light-colored eyes. “I see.”

“It’s not serious.” Ji Qingyou emphasized.

Yu Qinjiu looked at her. “I know.”

Ji Qingyou didn’t say anything else. She just let Yu Qinjiu apply the medicine. She thought that was it. But then she saw Yu Qinjiu blow a very, very gentle breath on her wound. She saw the wetness and softness in Yu Qinjiu’s eyes. She heard Yu Qinjiu say, her voice very light,

“Maybe I shouldn’t have left today.”

—

As she lay in bed side-by-side with Yu Qinjiu, Ji Qingyou’s mind was still full of those words. But at the time, she hadn’t given any answer.

She had just been silent.

She understood very well. Yu Qinjiu’s appearance today was a kind of glue in her shattered world. But it was hard for her to agree with what she said.

As early as ten years ago, their life paths had been split.

Their roads were no longer the same.

Whether Yu Qinjiu finished her vacation and then returned to England, or left early, Ji Qingyou didn’t have the right to keep her here.

She couldn’t be so selfish as to keep Yu Qinjiu by her side just because she needed her.

The problem had never been solved. She had only been given a chance to catch her breath and temporarily escape. She didn’t even dare to ask Yu Qinjiu when she planned to leave.

Because the answer might be tomorrow, or a week later, or maybe she didn’t plan to leave at all…

Either answer would scare her.

The quiet night began to spread. The person beside her was very quiet. Her breathing was even. Her eyes were lightly closed. She seemed to be asleep. Ji Qingyou couldn’t sleep, but she forced herself to try.

But too many things had happened today.

Her closed eyes kept opening involuntarily. The images flashed clearly before her eyes, one frame at a time. She turned over very gently, facing Yu Qinjiu, who was lying on her side.

In the moonlight, Yu Qinjiu was lying on her side, facing her. Her eyes were lightly closed, her lashes trembling slightly. She slept very quietly. Her expression in the moonlight looked very soft.

Ji Qingyou looked at her.

Her gaze fell on her neck, partially hidden by her soft hair. Her eyes flickered for a few seconds, staying there.

That day she carried Yu Qinjiu down the stairs, she had clearly seen her making the same kind of movements she was making today. She kept rubbing her neck, saying a blue butterfly was sitting there, one she couldn’t get rid of.

No one else could see that butterfly.

But Ji Qingyou could see the torment that invisible butterfly was putting Yu Qinjiu through. Rubbing it, washing it repeatedly with water. She even saw her trying to touch her delicate skin with a burning match while she was in the hospital.

And this behavior would worsen every time she saw Yu Cheng, Yu Muzhou, or Gu Xi.

But at other times, she seemed very quiet.

Ji Qingyou had always felt that Yu Qinjiu was not someone who could easily be quiet. Her mind was always full of all sorts of things. Like how birthday wishes must be made with clasped hands. Like the word “Mwahaha” villain laugh she wrote on her school uniform. Like the endless puns and strange remarks that always popped out. Like her flamboyant hair and flexible waist when she played volleyball. Like the faces she made behind the glass window. All of it showed her youthful, unrestrained vitality…

If she could make Yu Qinjiu go back to the way she was, Ji Qingyou thought, she would willingly clean her windows ten thousand times.

But unfortunately, “if” was the most ethereal thing in this world.

From that day on, Yu Qinjiu became a very quiet person. As if the first eighteen years of her life had burned away in an instant.

That summer was very hot. So hot that many people believed the doomsday legend. Yu Qinjiu was taken to England by her aunt. She never came back.

Ten years passed.

When she met Yu Qinjiu again, Ji Qingyou thought this symptom had already improved. But now, she belatedly realized that Yu Qinjiu always needed to wear a scarf whenever she went out.

But every time.

When she felt cold, Yu Qinjiu would take off her own protective scarf and wrap it around her neck, passing on the last bit of warmth from her body to her.

Thinking about this, Ji Qingyou couldn’t help but reach out. If she could drive away that butterfly that refused to leave for Yu Qinjiu, she would do anything she hated. Eat ten thousand fish. Wash her hands ten thousand times after getting them dirty. Stare at the abused, dying kitten ten thousand times…

Anything. Just to make Yu Qinjiu feel a little better.

But in the end, her outstretched finger hung in mid-air, very cautiously, not daring to touch Yu Qinjiu’s fragile neck.

Perhaps her movement was too big. Or maybe they did have some kind of telepathy.

At that moment, Yu Qinjiu opened her eyes. Her beautiful eyes reflected the scattered moonlight. She met her gaze in the quiet air. Her soft hair rubbed against the pillow.

“You already guessed?”

Outside the window, the sound of sirens was faint. Ji Qingyou’s fingers involuntarily curled back. Her heart felt like it was being soaked in sour lemon water.

She watched Yu Qinjiu. Her voice hid behind the sound of the siren. She held her breath very lightly, as if afraid that if she spoke, she would shatter her.

“Is the butterfly here now?”

She asked very carefully. But Yu Qinjiu wasn’t as careful. She moved a little closer to her. Then she reached her hand out from under the covers, gently pulling back Ji Qingyou’s involuntarily curled fingers.

Ji Qingyou was stunned.

She let herself be guided.

Slowly, her hand reached out.

She brushed aside the hair on Yu Qinjiu’s neck and placed her hand on her soft, slender neck. Her palm pressed against the skin on the side of her neck, intimately feeling the pulse beating in her palm, and the soft, smooth skin.

Her neck was very thin. It felt like it could be easily snapped in her hand.

Ji Qingyou didn’t dare to exert any force.

But Yu Qinjiu entrusted her life to her hand with complete trust. Night and moonlight intertwined. It felt like there was only a thin film of light between them.

Their soft hair spread out between them, moved by the wind, intertwining. Under her touch, Yu Qinjiu looked at her softly.

“It’s not here anymore.”

The butterfly that torments me seems very afraid of you.