Chapter 23: Triangle
In the alley, the sunlight was cut into fragmented spots of light by the mottled walls of old buildings on both sides, falling on the damp moss.
The air was filled with the mixed smell of rotting garbage and sewers.
Xiahou Ming pulled Yu Yuhui to the corner of the alley and released her wrist.
Ling Yicai followed behind her and also stopped.
A deformed triangle was formed on this isolated stage.
Xiahou Ming turned around and faced the two women who had turned her life upside down in the past few days.
“If you have anything to say, just say it here.”
She stared at them and spoke word by word.
“After that, both of you leave my house.”
She turned to Ling Yicai first.
In her heart, she still hoped that this childhood sweetheart could be someone she could communicate with.
“Ling Yicai, what on earth did you want to do last night?
And why did you say those things to my mom this morning?”
“I?”
Ling Yicai seemed to have heard some huge joke.
She took a step forward, her face full of grievance of being wronged.
“Xiao Ming, how can you question me like this?
I’m helping you!
Don’t you see?
That woman is…”
“Oh…Okay, stop it.”
Xiahou Ming interrupted her, there was no anger in her eyes, only a deep fatigue.
Then she turned to the woman who had remained calm the entire time.
“And you,” her eyes fell on Yu Yuhui, “What tricks are you trying to play?
Why did you let Wen Xuelan come here?
And what does that lunch box mean?”
Yu Yuhui did not answer, but just watched Xiahou Ming’s “performance” with interest, watching her pathetic yet cute posture of trying to control everything.
The corner of her mouth even curled up into an incomprehensible smile.
“What do you think?”
Xiahou Ming was choked by this question.
She looked at Yu Yuhui’s eyes that seemed to see through everything, and actually began to follow her thoughts, to think and guess.
“Are you trying to…test her?”
She stammered.
“Or…because I didn’t go to the rooftop yesterday…”
Before she could finish her words, a cold breath came from the side.
“Xiao Ming.”
Ling Yicai’s voice was very soft.
“You don’t want to listen to me, right?”
Xiahou Ming froze, not knowing how to answer.
“I’ve said so much, and you just feel annoyed.”
Ling Yicai looked at her, her eyes slowly reddening.
“But she didn’t say anything, yet you’re trying so hard to figure out what she meant.”
Her voice began to tremble, and the suppressed grievance was like an impending thunderstorm on a summer afternoon, accumulating ominous humidity in the air.
“Do I disgust you so much?”
Xiahou Ming felt a headache and powerlessness when she saw her like this.
“I didn’t mean that…”
“What do you mean!?”
Ling Yicai’s emotions completely exploded at this moment, and her voice suddenly became sharp and aggressive.
“I stayed with you all night!
I made you breakfast!
I helped you get rid of those weird people!”
“What on earth did I do wrong!?”
She took a step forward and approached Xiahou Ming.
Her eyes, which always wore a smile, were now burning with a fire that almost melted people.
“And what about her?”
She turned her head sharply, pointing at Yu Yuhui, who had seemed to be staying out of the matter from beginning to end.
“What has she done for you!?”
“She will only haunt you like a ghost, turning you into the half-human, half-ghost you are now!”
“Xiao Ming, wake up!
Look at her!
She looks like a dead person!
You will die if you stay with her!”
Ling Yicai was breathing heavily, and seemed to no longer care about her image.
She just wanted to vent all the panic and anger in her heart.
“You’re just sick!
I’ll heal you!
And turn you back to your original self!”
“You mean sick?”
Yu Yuhui chuckled.
That laughter was like the last falling snowflake in the harsh winter, light but carrying a chill that brought all the noise to a dead silence.
“Xiahou Ming, do you think a butterfly is sick when it breaks out of its cocoon?”
Xiahou Ming was stunned, completely unable to understand what she meant.
Ling Yicai was also confused by this inexplicable sentence, and then, an even greater anger rose from the bottom of her heart.
“You don’t understand anything!
Look at her, look how miserable she is every day!”
Then, she turned her head and looked at Xiahou Ming with eyes that were almost about to cry, and her tone instantly became extremely gentle.
“Xiao Ming, don’t listen to her.
We’re going to be fine, and everything will go back to how it was, right?”
She was looking for a promise, a promise that would give her peace of mind.
Yu Yuhui completely ignored her rebuttal.
She just looked at Xiahou Ming and continued speaking in her calm tone.
“Only vulgar people define all incomprehensible changes as diseases.”
She slowly took a step closer to Xiahou Ming.
“What they call healing is nothing more than clipping your wings, tearing apart your patterns, and turning you back into that insignificant caterpillar wriggling in the mud.”
“Ling Yicai,” she called out her full name for the first time, “You don’t want to cure her.”
“You just want to kill her.”
After saying that, she no longer paid attention to Ling Yicai, who was pale and trembling all over.
“Do you still remember the agreement between us?”
She turned her gaze back to Xiahou Ming.
“Do you still miss it?”
“…What are you nostalgic for?”
Xiahou Ming felt a little confused.
“I miss that cocoon.”
She raised her hand and pointed with her pale fingertips at Ling Yicai, who had a look of disbelief on her face.
“Kiss her.”
Xiahou Ming’s mind went blank.
She looked at Ling Yicai’s face, which was distorted by anger and humiliation, and then looked back at Yu Yuhui’s eyes, which were frighteningly calm.
“No…”
She didn’t want to do this in front of Yu Yuhui.
Yu Yuhui was not surprised by this reaction.
She took a step forward and leaned close to Xiahou Ming’s ear:
“Haven’t you already done that?”
“In the classroom that night.”
Xiahou Ming’s whole body stiffened and her pupils contracted instantly.
“Or is it that fake kiss that is more attractive to you?”
The classroom at dusk.
That cold recorder.
And… Yu Yuhui’s calm yet crazy eyes when she imitated her movements in front of her and put the mouthpiece into her mouth.
That scene, like a brand, was once again burned into Xiahou Ming’s mind.
That belongs to them.
A moment that belongs only to the two of them.
And now, she wanted to repeat it herself, in front of another person.
An inexplicable tingling sensation came from her chest.
She raised her head and looked at Yu Yuhui again.
For the first time, a hint of hurt appeared in those eyes that always seemed distant and numb.
“I…can’t do it…”
When Yu Yuhui heard this answer, the expression on her face remained unchanged.
She just tilted her head and asked softly:
“Can’t do what?”
“Can’t you fulfill our agreement?”
“Or,”
Her eyes lightly swept across Ling Yicai’s pale face beside her.
“Can’t you kiss this vulgar woman?”