Chapter 49: Falling

After Yu Yuhui finished speaking, she calmly walked past the pale-faced Xiahou Ming and the complicated-looking Ling Yicai, as if she didn’t see anyone, and walked slowly toward the classroom.
“Are you kidding?” Han Qiuyu repeated the word in disbelief.
She turned around and wanted to catch up to ask for clarification. “Yu Yuhui, wait a moment! There’s blood coming out of the corner of your mouth. I’m taking you to the infirmary!”
But Yu Yuhui didn’t turn around.
She just raised her hand and waved it casually as a refusal.
After an ideological struggle, Xiahou Ming and Ling Yicai walked into the toilet one after the other.
“Tick… tick…”
The old faucet in the corner was dripping water slowly into the stained sink.
The toilet was empty.
There was only one clear fist mark on the door of one compartment.
“Where are the people?”
Ling Yicai looked at the fist mark and frowned.
Xiahou Ming’s gaze did not linger on the fist mark.
Her attention was drawn to something else.
—The innermost window was wide open.
The afternoon light filtered in from outside, casting countless flickering spots of light on the ground and walls.
A gust of hot wind blew in through the window, stirring the spider webs on the window sill.
On the ground below the window sill, a few pieces of rusted bolts were scattered.
This is not normal.
For safety reasons, the windows on these high floors of the school are usually locked from the outside.
Xiahou Ming walked over quickly and leaned her upper body out of the window.
A damp smell mixed with soil and grass hit her face.
Below was the camphor tree with lush branches and leaves on the west side of the teaching building, between the men’s and women’s toilets.
She saw it.
On the nearest camphor tree just below the windowsill, several thick branches were swaying up and down at an unnatural frequency.
It was as if something heavy had just passed over.
“Xiao Ming, what are you looking at?”
Ling Yicai’s voice came from behind.
Xiahou Ming suddenly shrank back, her heart pounding because of a bold guess.
She remembered.
When she was in the first year of high school, her classroom was still on the second floor.
She had climbed out of the boys’ restroom window countless times and stepped on the branches of this big tree to skip classes.
Lin Xiaomei would always stand watch in the grove downstairs, watching her slide down the tree with eyes full of admiration.
They were now on the third floor.
The windows on the third floor were much higher than those on the second floor.
This idiot…
She actually still remembered this road.
More importantly, the window of the women’s restroom was farther from the center of the tree trunk.
If Lin Xiaomei really jumped from here, she might have suffered a more serious fall.
“Nothing.”
Xiahou Ming turned around, and her face regained its cold expression, but her heart was in turmoil.
She knew where Lin Xiaomei had gone.
Following this escape route that they were all very familiar with, there was only one place to go.
“Xiao Ming! Where are you going!?”
Behind her, Ling Yicai’s exclamation full of surprise was heard.
But Xiahou Ming could no longer hear anything.
She rushed to the wide-open window and, without hesitation, one foot had already stepped on the slippery windowsill.
“Xiao Ming! Danger! Come back quickly!”
Ling Yicai’s screams had become a distant background noise at this moment.
There was only one thought left in her mind.
If you can leave, why can’t I leave?
She looked at the familiar dark green downstairs, took a deep breath, and then jumped.
The momentary feeling of weightlessness made her stomach churn.
Her body was completely out of control and crashed heavily into the dense canopy of the camphor tree.
“Hmm!”
Countless branches and leaves, like millions of tiny whips, lashed her face, arms, and legs fiercely.
The fabric of the school uniform was instantly torn, and waves of burning pain came over her skin.
She tried to steady herself by stretching out her arms and grabbing a thick branch as she had done in the past.
But she failed.
This body was too light and too weak.
She was completely unable to control her falling momentum and could only bump into and roll around awkwardly among the layers of branches.
Like a rag doll thrown from a high altitude.
Finally, she lost her balance and fell from a thick branch not far from the ground.
Her back hit the dirt covered with rotten leaves.
The impact made her eyes go black, and the air in her lungs was instantly squeezed out, leaving her with only a painful whimper.
She lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
Her whole body, from her skin to the cracks between her bones, was filled with stinging pain from being scratched and dull pain from being hit.
She could smell the fishy odor of mud and rotten leaves on her body.
But at the same time, a surge of adrenaline brought about an almost trembling excitement, which spread through her limbs like an electric current.
She looked at the sky above her head, which was cut into pieces by the leaves, and felt her heart beating wildly in her chest.
She might die.
But she succeeded.
Using this body that she regarded as “waste,” she successfully completed this crazy adventure.
From upstairs, Ling Yicai’s scream, already distorted with fear, could be heard:
“Xiahou Ming—!”
Xiahou Ming ignored it.
She couldn’t even help but let out a beast-like chuckle that was between pain and pleasure.
She jumped up from the ground, endured the burning pain all over her body, and rushed toward a direction that she was very familiar with—the abandoned old sports equipment warehouse in the back mountain.
It was a low bungalow made of red bricks, standing alone in the corner of the school like a forgotten grave.
She ran to the wooden door with the rusty lock.
The door was ajar.
She raised her shoulder and slammed into it hard.
“Bang—!”
The rotten wooden door opened with a sound.
Countless dust particles, stirred up by the wind pressure hitting the door, flew up and down like a group of silent ghosts in the beam of light shining through the broken roof.
Then, she saw it.
Lin Xiaomei was sitting on a pile of worn-out jump boxes with yellowed and exposed sponges, with her back to the door.
At her feet were scattered a few rusty dumbbells.
Hearing the loud noise behind her, she slowly, slowly turned around.
The sunlight shone in through the broken window behind her, shrouding her in a glaring backlight, making it impossible to see the expression on her face.
But Xiahou Ming could see that she was playing with a broken wooden baton in her hand.
When Lin Xiaomei’s vision finally adjusted to the light at the door, she could see Xiahou Ming, who was covered in dirt and fallen leaves just like herself, with a few fresh scratches on her face, but her eyes were like two burning flames.
A smile bloomed on her face.
A smile of extreme happiness.
She looked at her like a believer who had lost her way.
Looking at a long-lost god who finally responded to her call.