What's wrong with him?
Lu Ziyi still stood by the window without moving. The sunlight filtered through the blinds, casting mottled shadows on his face, making it impossible to see his expression.
Cheng Xiaorui clutched the school uniform on his knees, the wound under the fabric aching slightly, but he refused to show any vulnerability in front of Lu Ziyi.
His eyes fell on the rust on the edge of the medicine box - there was a crack there, which was very similar to the twisted relationship between him and Lu Ziyi.
Lu Ziyi suddenly moved. He pulled the familiar pack of Marlboro cigarettes from his pocket, but when he caught sight of the no-smoking sign on the wall, he suddenly crushed the pack.
"How are you?"
Lu Zi also spoke, his voice so low it almost sounded like a sigh. He picked up the gauze soaked in hydrogen peroxide and pressed it against the pinch marks on Cheng Xiaorui's neck.
Cheng Xiaorui shuddered all over and leaned back reflexively, but Lu Ziyi grabbed the back of his neck with his other hand.
"Take your hand away..." He sneered, his voice hoarse.
“…”
"These injuries..." Lu Ziyi pulled open Cheng Xiaorui's collar, revealing more old injuries that were bruised and purple. "How did you get them?"
Cheng Xiaorui slapped his hand away: "Why are you pretending to be a good guy? Didn't you instigate the red-haired guys?"
Lu Ziyi's pupils suddenly contracted. He grabbed Cheng Xiaorui's wrist and said, "This has nothing to do with me."
They were both stunned at the same time.
In the awkward atmosphere, the gauze suddenly fell to the ground, rolling out a pale trail, and Lu Zi also bent down to pick up the gauze.
"That day..." His voice was stuck in his throat, as if he had swallowed a piece of red-hot charcoal.
Cheng Xiaorui turned his face away, and the light and shadow from the blinds cut tiny scars on his face, as if waiting for the other party to say something.
Lu Ziyi suddenly grabbed the bottle of iodine and dipped the cotton swab too full, and the brown liquid dripped onto Cheng Xiaorui's school uniform, spreading a stain.
"The infirmary is about to be locked." He said stiffly, but slapped the Band-Aid next to Cheng Xiaorui's hand and said, "Apply it yourself."
"Lu Ziyi."
The person whose name was called stopped at the door.
"Your shirt is stained with blood." Cheng Xiaorui said softly, not wanting to remind him, nor to thank him, but just... curious about how the other party would react.
Lu Ziyi's fingers paused on the doorknob for a second. Without turning back, he raised his left hand and mechanically wiped the back of his neck, where there was indeed blood, which had dried into brown spots.
"It's not mine..." His voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
The infirmary fell silent again. Cheng Xiaorui looked down at the Band-Aid beside him. It was waterproof, with a small cartoon pattern printed on the edge. He remembered seeing Lin Wanqing using the same Band-Aid on her knee during gym class last week.
After Lu Ziyi's footsteps completely disappeared at the end of the corridor, Cheng Xiaorui looked down at the crescent-shaped red mark on the palm of his hand made by his fingernails, and suddenly found that the silly Pikachu printed on the Band-Aid package was ridiculously inconsistent with Lu Ziyi's always stern image.
Outside the window, a dead leaf was stuck in the gap between the blinds. Cheng Xiaorui poked at the iodine stain on his school uniform with a cotton swab, and the brown-yellow color smudged into strange shapes on the fabric.
"It wasn't him who ordered it..." Cheng Xiaorui muttered to himself. The door of the infirmary was suddenly pushed open again, and Cheng Xiaorui straightened his back reflexively.
"Classmate, we're about to lock the door." A senior student wearing a red cross armband poked her head in. When her eyes fell on his pale face, she paused. "Do you need any help?"
"No need." Cheng Xiaorui quickly stuffed the Band-Aid into his pocket and accidentally knocked over the iodine bottle as he stood up. Dark brown liquid spread across the table. The senior student screamed and reached for a rag, but he stared at the forked edge of the liquid, just like the sudden wrinkle that had appeared between Lu Ziyi's brows when he hesitated to speak.
Cheng Xiaorui paused in front of the trash can, the Band-Aid warming in his palm. He recalled the fresh scratches on the back of Lu Ziyi's neck when he bent over. The scab had a strange pinkish-white hue around the edges. They definitely weren't the scars of a fight, but more like... the scratches of some animal.
The Pikachu Band-Aid didn't stick to the wound. Cheng Xiaorui tucked it into the cover of his English textbook.
The three-day midterm exams finally ended. The evening wind brought the coolness of late autumn, rolling up the yellow sycamore leaves on the roadside.
The setting sun stretched his shadow long, dragging lonely across the concrete pavement. He recalled the day when they were stuck in the alley, when Red Hair had stepped on his dropped admission ticket and sneered, "If the top student misses the exam, his scholarship will be gone, right?"
Turning deep into the alley, childish graffiti still remained on the mottled walls. Cheng Xiaorui stopped in front of the third iron gate, and the key made a jerky "click" sound as it turned.
A cheerful humming echoed from the kitchen. Cheng Zhixu was tiptoeing to retrieve a spice jar from the cupboard. Her long chestnut-brown hair was casually tied up with a pencil, a few strands draping around her slender neck. When she turned, the apron strings tied in a bow at her slender waist, and the hem of her skirt swayed gently with her movements.
"Chengcheng is back! Please wait a moment, the food will be ready soon."
Cheng Xiaorui walked towards her and said, "Taste the saltiness." Cheng Zhixu suddenly handed the wooden spatula to his mouth, and the aroma of scrambled eggs with tomatoes hit his face.
When Cheng Xiaorui leaned over, she turned the spoon away mischievously and said, "I was kidding, I haven't added salt yet!" Tiny smile lines appeared at the corners of her eyes, like blooming feathers under the light.
There were three dishes and a soup on the table: scrambled eggs with tomatoes had extra sugar added, green peppers and potatoes were shredded as thin as hair, and tender yellow egg flowers floated in the seaweed soup. This was the standard they only had when they received their salary at the end of the month.
"Our Cheng Cheng has been working very hard recently." Cheng Zhixu filled a bowl of rice for him, with the crystal clear rice grains piled up into a small hill. "Today I'm rewarding you with your favorite soft-boiled egg." The moment she poked the fried egg, the golden egg liquid spread over the snow-white rice.
"Is the exam difficult?" Cheng Zhixu picked up some food for him.
Cheng Xiaorui paused with his chopsticks. He recalled the invigilator's hesitant expression when he saw the scab on his hand when he handed in his paper today.
"It's very simple." He smiled easily, even wrinkling his nose deliberately. "Many people in our class haven't finished the last big question yet."
They both laughed at the same time.
When Cheng Zhixu reached out to help him roll up his sleeves, Cheng Xiaorui suddenly stood up to get more rice. Cheng Zhixu followed him in and pulled out a small paper box from behind his back like a magic trick: "There's a surprise!"
It was a Swiss roll with the word "Come on" written crookedly in chocolate on it.
"This is a sample the convenience store rejected today." Her eyes sparkled. "The manager left it for me. It may not look good, but it should taste..."
Cheng Xiaorui suddenly hugged her. Cheng Zhixu was stunned, feeling her son's thin shoulders trembling slightly.
He took a bite and it was delicious, the flavor he liked. What surprised him even more was that... it didn't feel uncomfortable in his stomach at all. Cheng Xiaorui finished the whole piece quickly.
"Slow down, mom will prepare it for you next time..."
“…”
Cheng Zhixu excitedly recounted a story from the convenience store: "Today, a little girl insisted on buying expired candy, saying she wanted to feed the carp in the school pond..." Her voice suddenly stopped, and she couldn't help but ask, "Chengcheng, what's wrong with your hand?"
Cheng Xiaorui quickly hid his right hand under the table: "I scratched it while playing basketball in gym class."
Cheng Zhixu hesitated for a moment, then stood up to get the medicine box. The holes at the knees of her jeans became visible as she moved. Cheng Xiaorui remembered seeing her kneeling on the ground wiping the shelves when they passed by the convenience store last week.
With his back to his mother, he heard her whisper, "Be careful during gym class too."
——
The hot water washes over the body, as if washing away all the fatigue of the day.
But when he came out drying his hair, he saw Cheng Zhixu frowning at the convenience store schedule. The moonlight cast the shadow of her eyelashes under her eyes, like two tired crow feathers.
"mom."
"Hmm?" She immediately looked up, her eyebrows curved into a gentle arc.
"I'll cook tomorrow."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
