Chapter 19: Staying Overnight
“I have to… call my parents first.”
Without waiting for Xiahou Ming to react, Ling Yicai stood up and walked out the door.
She knew that Xiao Ming’s family didn’t have a phone, so she could only go to the lonely public telephone booth at the corner of the alley.
“Hey! Ling Yicai!”
Xiahou Ming hurriedly chased after her.
In the dim alley, they walked one after the other on the mottled cobblestone road.
“Stop making trouble and go back.”
Xiahou Ming followed her, trying to dissuade her from thinking.
“You’ve seen the situation at my house.
There’s no place for you to sleep.”
Ling Yicai didn’t turn around, as if she didn’t hear her words at all.
“Ling Yicai!”
Xiahou Ming quickened her pace in annoyance and grabbed her wrist.
Ling Yicai then stopped and turned around.
The dim light from the street lamp at the alley entrance poured down, casting shadows of varying shades on her face, which always wore a gentle smile.
The corners of her mouth were still trying hard to lift up, trying to maintain that signature smile.
But there was no smile in her eyes.
“How can I let you stay here alone?
Your mother is in that state.
What if something happens?”
“Xiao Ming, do you… hate me staying here?”
“No…”
Xiahou Ming was speechless for a moment.
“I’m very grateful that you are willing…”
“Look into my eyes,” Ling Yicai interrupted her, “and say with your own mouth, ‘Yicai, stay with me.'”
“I…”
Xiahou Ming met her gaze and felt like she was entangled in an invisible net.
She knew that if she didn’t speak up, Ling Yicai might really stay in this alley until dawn.
“…Yicai,” she finally compromised and whispered in an awkward tone, “Stay…with me.”
“Um!”
After getting this “permission”, Ling Yicai smiled contentedly, took Xiahou Ming’s hand and walked towards the phone booth.
The dim light cast long shadows behind them.
She walked into the small glass booth, inserted a coin, and skillfully dialed her home number.
Xiahou Ming stood outside the pavilion awkwardly, like a prisoner awaiting trial.
After the call was connected, Ling Yicai’s tone was initially gentle.
“Hello, Mom…um, it’s me…I want to stay at my classmate’s house tonight and not go back.”
She covered the receiver and listened to the response from the other end of the line.
After a few seconds, her expression changed.
“Which classmate?
It’s… it’s Xiao Ming.”
These words instantly ignited the powder keg on the other end of the phone.
Even through a layer of glass, Xiahou Ming could vaguely hear a fierce and sharp voice coming from the microphone.
Ling Yicai’s expression quickly changed from calm to excitement and impatience.
“What nonsense are you talking about!
What do you mean we can’t go to that house!?”
“Auntie is just sick!
She’s not crazy!”
“It’s been so long since that happened!
Why are you still bringing it up?!”
“I don’t care!
If I say I won’t go back, then I won’t go back!”
Her voice became hoarse with excitement, and even had a tearful tone.
This was the first time Xiahou Ming saw Ling Yicai behave so out of control towards her parents.
In her impression, Ling Yicai had very strict family education.
She was the “other people’s child” in the eyes of her parents, gentle and sensible.
“She needs me now!
Only I can help her!
You don’t understand anything!”
Bang!
She used all her strength to hang up the phone.
The phone booth fell into deathly silence.
Xiahou Ming stood outside, looking at her trembling shoulders, feeling uneasy and confused.
‘Something from the past?
What was it?
What did they say on the phone?’
After a long while, Ling Yicai finally opened the door and walked out.
Her eyes were red, but she still had a forced smile on her face.
“Okay, it’s done,” she said to Xiahou Ming.
“I can stay tonight.”
When they returned home, Xiahou Ming’s mother showed great enthusiasm when she saw them.
She was like a busy hen, pouring water for Ling Yicai, and then taking out melon seeds from under the cupboard to entertain her.
Then she hurriedly started to boil water.
“Xiao Cai rarely comes to stay overnight, so I must take a hot bath tonight.”
The so-called “bathroom” at home was just a small space in the corner of the kitchen separated by a dirty plastic sheet.
There was only a plastic water pipe for showering and an old wooden bathtub that was barely big enough for people to curl up in.
Her mother poured two buckets of boiling hot water into the bathtub, added cold water, and the mist quickly spread.
“Xiaoya, take Xiaocai to take a bath quickly, don’t let her catch a cold.”
Mother urged from outside.
Xiahou Ming froze in place, motionless.
“Xiao Ming, let’s go.”
Ling Yicai had already taken out a clean towel and a new set of pajamas from her school bag, which she had prepared long ago.
“You wash first.”
“Why?”
Ling Yicai tilted her head to look at her.
“If we wash together, it will be faster.
When we were little, didn’t we also…”
Before she could finish her words, Xiahou Ming stopped her with a frown.
“Then let me help you scrub your back.”
Ling Yicai took a step back.
“You can’t wash your back clean by yourself.”
Xiahou Ming looked at her self-righteous expression, but her heart was still full of resistance.
But after experiencing the series of events this afternoon, she felt that her will to resist had been worn down to almost nothing.
‘Never mind…it’s just girls helping each other wipe each other’s backs…’
In the end, she compromised.
She watched Ling Yicai walk into the space shrouded in mist, then followed her in and pulled up the plastic sheet that served as the “door”.
Under Ling Yicai’s gaze, Xiahou Ming took off all her clothes, curled up and stepped into the warm bathtub.
The feeling of hot water wrapping around her body made her muscles, which had been tense all day, relax a little.
“Turn around.”
Ling Yicai’s voice came from behind.
Xiahou Ming did as she was told.
She felt that Ling Yicai had also taken off her shoes and socks and stepped into the water at the edge of the bathtub.
Then, a soft palm covered with foam landed on her back.
She began to rub her back gently, back and forth.
Xiahou Ming’s whole body was stiff, and her heartbeat accelerated in the steam.
Suddenly, Ling Yicai stopped moving.
Her fingertips rested just below Xiahou Ming’s right shoulder blade.
The skin there felt different from anywhere else.
There were a few tiny scratches that had scabbed over.
It was the night before last when she was scratched by a branch when she rolled down the hill behind the school.
“Xiao Ming…you here…”
Ling Yicai’s voice seemed a little vague in the air filled with moisture.
Just as her fingers were about to explore the scars more carefully—
Xiahou Ming suddenly stood up from the bathtub.
Water splashed everywhere, wetting Ling Yicai’s trouser legs and sleeves.
She stood there like a frightened wild deer, soaking wet and naked, gasping for breath.
She didn’t look back or say anything, but just pulled away the wet plastic sheet, ran out of the bathroom, and locked herself back in the room.
Ling Yicai stood there in a daze, staring at the swaying shadow of the plastic sheet, a hint of confusion and hurt in her eyes.
She lowered her head and looked at her hand, which was still covered with soap foam.
‘That touch just now…that’s right.’
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
“Xiao Ming, open the door.”
Xiahou Ming ignored her.
“By the way,” Ling Yicai’s voice came from outside the door, “You haven’t tried on the underwear you bought this afternoon, have you?”
A bag filled with underwear was quietly placed on Xiahou Ming’s bed.
She looked at the bag and was silent for a long time.
Finally, the contents were opened.
She clumsily put on the cotton bra that still smelled of the factory.
Because she was not skilled, she couldn’t fasten the hook on the back.
The door handle was turned gently.
The broken lock in this room couldn’t stop anyone.
Ling Yicai walked in.
She looked at Xiahou Ming’s embarrassed appearance and showed a helpless yet doting smile on her face.
“Don’t move,” she said.
Then she went around behind Xiahou Ming.
Xiahou Ming felt that the hands that had touched her several times today were caressing her back again.
Ling Yicai’s fingers were very dexterous.
It only took her a few seconds to fasten those damn hooks for her.
“Alright.”
Xiahou Ming looked at the unfamiliar self in the mirror.
‘I’m not used to it.
So uncoordinated.
So strange.’
Then, her gaze shifted to Ling Yicai who was standing behind her in the mirror.
Ling Yicai was also looking at her quietly through the mirror.
There was a gentle smile on her face.
Then, in front of Xiahou Ming, Ling Yicai began to take off her clothes.
One piece.
Another one.
She took off her clothes slowly and gracefully, as if she were performing a performance.
Until, only her underwear was left on her body.
Xiahou Ming’s pupils shrank instantly.
In the mirror.
The girl standing behind her was wearing.
It was a set of bra and panties that were exactly the same style, color, and even size as the one she was wearing.
Xiahou Ming looked at the two almost identical reflections in the mirror.
She finally understood.
‘None of this is accidental.’
It was late at night.
They lay on Xiahou Ming’s narrow single bed, and the bed creaked under the heavy weight.
Back to back, with an invisible “38th parallel” between them, the air was filled with awkwardness and tension.
Because of the truth she had just discovered, Xiahou Ming was full of vigilance and fear towards Ling Yicai behind her.
She felt that the people around her had changed and she no longer recognized them.
In the darkness, she felt the body behind her slowly turn around.
A pair of arms gently hugged her from behind.
Ling Yicai pressed her cheek against Xiahou Ming’s back, which was stiff due to nervousness.
Xiahou Ming could feel the other girl’s chest pressed tightly against hers through her thin pajamas.
She could smell the scent of shampoo coming from Ling Yicai’s hair.
She didn’t dare move.
“Xiao Ming…”
Ling Yicai’s voice, with a slight tremor, came from behind her ear.
“Tell me.”
“Did she cause the injuries on your body?”
“What is your relationship with her?”