Chapter 53: Address

The rooftop of the main teaching building was much cleaner and more spacious than that of the old teaching building.
Xiahou Ming pushed open the heavy iron door breathlessly, and a gust of wind rushed in instantly, blowing the sweat-soaked hair on her forehead into random flutters.
She saw it.
At the other end of the rooftop, that familiar figure was sitting quietly on the concrete railing with her back to her.
Xiahou Ming did not step forward immediately.
Her eyes first fell on the blue-painted iron water tank in the center of the rooftop.
She walked over, reached out her hand, and knocked hard on the tank.
“Dong—dong—”
There was a hollow and dull echo from inside.
Her gaze followed the several thick pipes at the bottom of the water tank all the way down, finally stopping at a main valve on the rooftop.
She recognized the markings on one of the pipes—it was the hot water line coming from the boiler room downstairs.
She walked to the edge of the roof again and shook the concrete guardrail vigorously to confirm its sturdiness.
After doing all this, she slowly exhaled.
Then, she turned around and walked toward the figure who had never looked back at her from beginning to end, step by step.
She was not far from Yu Yuhui, and she followed her example, leaning against the railing and sitting down.
The two were several meters apart, not saying a word.
Under her feet, the campus had become as small as a toy model.
In the distance, there was a gray-black sky that was so gloomy it seemed like it was about to collapse.
The wind was getting stronger and stronger, making people’s cheeks hurt.
Xiahou Ming sat in silence; she didn’t know how to start.
She could only turn her head and look at the profile of the girl next to her.
The wind blew Yu Yuhui’s long black hair back, revealing her forehead and delicate brow bones that were usually hidden by her bangs.
For the first time, Xiahou Ming saw her appearance so clearly.
Really pale.
It wasn’t the healthy and lustrous pale of Ling Yicai, but a kind of pale… as if kept in a basement without sunlight, without a trace of blood.
Very thin too.
She was so thin that one felt that one could easily break her slender neck by just reaching out one’s hand.
The loose school uniform looked empty on her, as if it was just a skeleton.
If the wind blew again, she would seem to fall apart.
She pursed her lips tightly, and her colorless lips were stretched into a stubborn, pale straight line.
Was she enduring something? Or… had she always been like this?
Xiahou Ming didn’t know.
She just felt that the person in front of her didn’t seem like someone who lived in the same world as them.
There was something about her that… how should she put it?
Just like a spoiled little princess who ran away from the castle, but got lost and was covered in mud.
She looked so clean and otherworldly, yet it seemed as if she would die at any moment in this dirty place that did not belong to her.
Or maybe she wasn’t a princess at all.
She was just… something else disguised as a human.
This thought made Xiahou Ming’s heart skip a beat uncontrollably.
An extremely contradictory emotion, like two streams of boiling magma tearing at each other, suddenly erupted in her heart.
She wanted to reach out and hold this incredibly thin body in her arms, using her bones and flesh to shield her from all the filth and malice in the world.
She wanted to reach out and smash this seemingly fragile “thing” into pieces completely and bit by bit with her own hands.
Protect her.
Destroy her.
Then, her gaze fell on the small scar at the corner of Yu Yuhui’s mouth.
All impulses, whether to embrace or to destroy, disappeared in an instant at this moment.
Her heart felt like it was stabbed hard by something.
Pain.
She looked at the wound that had formed a blood scab and the slightly red and swollen skin around it.
Noon.
Lin Xiaomei’s distorted face.
And… she was tricked by Ling Yicai into going to the student union, folding papers like a fool.
Why…?
Why wasn’t she here?
She had already sensed it.
She knew that idiot Lin Xiaomei would definitely do something.
Why did she still… leave her alone?
Why?
What on earth had she been through?
In that filthy toilet.
Xiahou Ming didn’t dare to think about it anymore.
A sour taste that almost suffocated her suddenly rushed up her throat.
And all this was because of herself.
Xiahou Ming’s hand unconsciously reached into her pocket.
She took out a small object carefully wrapped in a clean tissue.
The sound of the wind seemed to have become quieter at this moment.
Yu Yuhui didn’t move or look at her, as if she didn’t notice her approaching.
Xiahou Ming hesitated for a moment, and finally handed the tissue package to Yu Yuhui.
The tissue was opened, revealing two sterile cotton swabs taken from the infirmary and a plastic ampoule of iodine.
“…Let’s take care of it.”
Yu Yuhui still maintained that posture, looking into the distance.
Silence stretched between the two.
After a long time, when Xiahou Ming thought she would refuse, Yu Yuhui finally moved.
She didn’t take those things.
She just tilted her head slightly, then slowly closed her eyes.
Like a statue waiting to be kissed by believers.
Or like a master waiting for her pet to lick her wounds.
She was acquiescing.
She was inviting.
Xiahou Ming’s heart suddenly shrank.
She knew she had no way out.
She carefully pinched the top of the ampoule with her fingernails, and a crisp breaking sound rang out on the silent rooftop.
She dipped the cotton swab into the dark brown liquid, and then carefully extended it to Yu Yuhui’s delicate profile.
Yu Yuhui’s eyelashes trembled slightly when she felt the pain.
Xiahou Ming came very close, so close that she could clearly see the tiny pores on Yu Yuhui’s face and her slightly rising and falling breathing.
She held her breath and slowly and gently applied the color of the potion to the glaring blood scab and the surrounding skin bit by bit.
This process was a strange torture for her.
On the rooftop, the only sounds were the whistling wind and the breathing of the two people.
When the application was finished, Xiahou Ming’s palms were covered in sweat.
She stood up and looked at the cotton swab in her hand that was stained with light blood.
The heavy sense of self-blame in her heart seemed to be cleared away a little.
“I…” She mustered up all her courage, “I don’t want to lose you again.”
Yu Yuhui slowly opened her eyes.
“Can you… tell me where you live?”
She looked at Xiahou Ming, looking into her eyes filled with pain and desire.
She didn’t answer.
She just took out a pen from her pocket.
Then she pulled Xiahou Ming’s hand, which still smelled of medicine.
A line of words was written on the palm of her hand.
“Yanjiang Road, cat.”
Xiahou Ming looked at the beautiful handwriting on her hand.
It wasn’t really an address at all.
But she knew that this was enough.