Chapter 26: Absence
Monday’s classroom.
Xiahou Ming came earlier than usual.
The terrifying vomiting last night made her almost sleepless all night and she woke up before dawn.
There were a few people sitting scattered around in the classroom.
She walked to the last row and sat down in the window seat.
She stuffed her schoolbag into the table, then lay down on it, turned her face to the window, and pretended to sleep.
She didn’t want to talk to anyone or see anyone.
“Xiahou Ming.”
A timid voice sounded above her head.
She is the study committee member of the class, a thin girl wearing thick glasses.
“The weekend’s…math paper is due.”
“No.”
Xiahou Ming didn’t even raise her head.
The study committee member seemed to be used to this, she was just going through the motions.
Or rather, if Xiahou Ming hadn’t become what she was now, she might not have dared to come and ask.
She murmured “Oh” quietly, and then stopped disturbing her and turned to move on to the next target.
The students around her seemed to have noticed the low pressure of her keeping strangers away, and no one approached her actively, only occasionally casting a few curious glances at her.
“Hey, look, that Xiahou Ming…”
“What’s wrong with her?
She looks so bad…”
These sounds buzzed in her ears like flies.
The bell for morning reading class rang.
Ling Yicai walked into the classroom as the bell rang.
She was wearing a clean white dress, her hair was meticulously combed, and her face still had that flawless, gentle smile.
“Good morning, Xiao Ming.”
She walked over to Xiahou Ming.
“I brought you breakfast.”
Xiahou Ming didn’t look up, but buried her face deeper.
“I’m not hungry.”
Ling Yicai’s hand holding the bun hovered awkwardly in the air for a moment.
But the smile on her face remained unchanged.
“Okay,” she said softly, “then eat when you’re hungry.”
After she finished speaking, she carefully placed the breakfast into Xiahou Ming’s table, then turned and left.
As Xiahou Ming listened to her leaving footsteps, she felt a strong sense of irritation in her heart.
‘Why can she pretend nothing happened?
Why can she still laugh?
Is it true that in her eyes, everything is just an insignificant “nightmare”?’
The morning reading class has begun.
Teacher Wang walked into the classroom with a roll call book, cleared his throat, and began to call the roll.
“Li Li.”
“Arrive.”
“Ling Yicai.”
“Arrive.”
The dull response echoed in the classroom.
Xiahou Ming didn’t hear a word he said.
Her eyes drifted to the corner of the classroom near the corridor again and again.
There, it’s empty.
“Yu Yuhui.”
Teacher Wang’s voice echoed in the classroom.
One second.
Two seconds.
There was dead silence.
Teacher Wang raised his head and glanced at Yu Yuhui’s seat.
There was no expression of surprise on his face.
He just lowered his head, picked up a red pen, and wrote something on the booklet in his hand.
Then he went on to the next name.
“Xiahou Ming.”
The students around seemed to be looking in her direction.
“Xiahou Ming!”
There was a hint of impatience in Teacher Wang’s voice.
Xiahou Ming suddenly came back to her senses, her throat dry, and she squeezed out an almost inaudible sound from between her teeth:
“…Arrive.”
She felt Teacher Wang’s displeased gaze linger on her for a moment, then moved away.
“Okay,” he closed the roll call, “let me emphasize again the discipline precautions for this week…”
Xiahou Ming’s heart sank little by little with the dead silence just now.
‘She is not here.
Why?’
Xiahou Ming felt that it was becoming difficult for her to breathe.
Teacher Wang mechanically read the notice, then turned and walked out of the classroom, as if he didn’t want to stay in this class for even a second.
As soon as he left, the oppressive atmosphere in the classroom immediately relaxed.
A sarcastic voice sounded.
“Oh, that’s really rare.”
Lin Xiaomei turned around and laughed and joked with the girls in the back seat.
“Some weirdo didn’t come to school today.
What a pity!”
As she spoke, she glanced provocatively in Xiahou Ming’s direction out of the corner of her eye.
“Did she get sick from playing too hard over the weekend?”
“Who knows, maybe she eloped with some wild man!”
Several girls around immediately joined in, letting out exaggerated giggles.
Xiahou Ming’s hands were clenched into fists under the table.
Her nails dug deep into her palms, causing a sharp pain.
She didn’t look up or object.
She knew that Lin Xiaomei said these words deliberately for her to hear.
Seeing that she didn’t react, Lin Xiaomei seemed a little bored.
She curled her lips, but then her eyes rolled, as if she had come up with a more interesting idea.
She stood up and strode to the empty seat.
She first kicked the chair contemptuously, then bent down and reached into Yu Yuhui’s desk drawer.
“Let me see what this freak has been hiding…”
The whole class held their breath and watched the scene curiously.
Xiahou Ming also raised her head suddenly and frowned tightly.
Lin Xiaomei was rummaging through the drawer, as if trying to find some “evidence” that could serve as a joke.
A few books with clean covers, a plain pencil case… nothing.
She was a little unwilling, and her searching movements became rough.
Suddenly, her finger seemed to be pricked by something.
“Hiss—!”
Lin Xiaomei retracted her hand as if she had been electrocuted, put her fingers in her mouth, and an expression of pain and anger appeared on her face.
Unconvinced, she reached in again and carefully took out something from the deepest part of the drawer.
It was a flat object about the size of a palm, wrapped in brown paper.
She opened the package curiously.
Inside was a piece of wood that had been cut very flat.
On the wooden board, rows of sharp blades were densely packed and stuck upside down.
On the tip of Lin Xiaomei’s index finger, there was a tiny bloodstain, from which blood beads were slowly oozing out.
The classroom was dead silent.
Everyone was shocked by this malicious handicraft.
In this eerie silence, an inopportune voice suddenly rang out.
“Pfft—”
It’s Xiahou Ming.
She looked at Lin Xiaomei’s silly look and the “trap” set by Yu Yuhui, and couldn’t help laughing out loud.
“Why are you laughing!?”
Lin Xiaomei turned her head suddenly and vented all her anger on Xiahou Ming.
“I was stabbed by her thing, you’re happy, right?!”
Faced with this sudden roar, the smile on Xiahou Ming’s face instantly disappeared.
She frowned and her eyes subconsciously drifted out the window.
Lin Xiaomei slammed the knife board onto Yu Yuhui’s desk, strode to Xiahou Ming, and put her hands on her desk with a “bang.”
“Xiahou Ming, now that that freak is gone,” she said, her face flushed red with anger, her saliva almost spraying onto Xiahou Ming’s face, “are you…going back to being the useless person you were before?”
“Without her protecting you, you’re nothing?
You don’t even have the courage to look at me?”
She grabbed Xiahou Ming’s collar with such force that her knuckles turned white.
“Just glare at me!
Like you did before!”
She practically growled, her voice trembling slightly with excitement.
“Aren’t you very capable?
What about that look?
Aren’t you a good bully?
Do it now!”
Xiahou Ming was completely confused by her out-of-control appearance, and a feeling of disgust and irritation surged up in her.
She did not resist, but just looked at Lin Xiaomei quietly with a look as if she was a madman.
“Let go,” she said.
“Let go?”
When Lin Xiaomei heard these two words, the light in her eyes dimmed instantly, replaced by hysterical anger.
“Who the f*ck are you?
How dare you order me around!”
She raised her voice deliberately, as if to cover up her own gaffe.
“You’re a monster now, neither male nor female!
Today I’m going to…”
Before she could finish her words, her wrist was suddenly grabbed by another hand.
Lin Xiaomei froze.
She suddenly realized, as if waking from a dream, that there was someone else in the classroom.
She turned around and saw Ling Yicai’s angry face.
“Lin Xiaomei, that’s enough.”
Ling Yicai’s voice was calm, but the strength in her hands was considerable.
“Stop causing trouble in the classroom.”
Lin Xiaomei opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but was speechless for a moment.
She shook off Ling Yicai’s hand, glared at Xiahou Ming fiercely, then turned around without saying a word and returned to her seat.
Ling Yicai didn’t look at her, her gaze was just on Xiahou Ming with a complicated expression.