Ye Qingliu grabbed their arms nimbly and bent them lightly. With a click, the thugs seemed to hear the sound of bones breaking and ran away howling like ghosts.
"Are you okay?"
"It's okay... Thank you so much for what happened just now."
"I'm glad you're okay."
"Does it hurt?"
Ye Qingliu suddenly grabbed her dangling wrist. The dusk light passed through his lenses, making his gray-blue pupils almost transparent.
Bai Zhiye saw her own small reflection in those eyes, as well as some emotions that she could not understand, like a nebula silently collapsing.
"Don't move."
She whispered, her voice huskier than she'd intended.
Ye Qingliu lowered his head upon hearing this. The movement of leaning forward caused the strands of hair on his forehead to brush against Bai Zhiye's brow, like being gently brushed by butterfly wings.
Bai Zhiye suddenly discovered that his eyelashes were not actually pure black, but had a light golden brown tint at the ends. At this moment, they trembled slightly with his breathing, casting tiny shadows on the bridge of his nose.
The temples unfolded with a very light "click." Bai Zhiye held her breath, her left hand loosely supporting the frame, her right hand around Ye Qingliu's ear.
The posture was almost like a hug, and she could even count the dimples of his collarbone faintly visible beneath his shirt collar.
When her fingertips accidentally brushed the skin behind the boy's ear, she could clearly feel him stiffen for a moment - there was a small mole there, hidden at the edge of his hairline, like an accidentally splashed ink spot.
"Are you okay?" Ye Qingliu suddenly spoke, his warm breath brushing the inside of her wrist.
Bai Zhiye's ears instantly burned. She frantically adjusted the frame of her glasses, and when the metal hinge brushed against Ye Qingliu's temple, he let out a barely perceptible hiss.
Only then did Bai Zhiye notice that there was a long, thin wound above his right eyebrow, and a drop of blood was slowly sliding down the edge of the frame.
"Wait!" She hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket. The light blue cotton cloth had a small lily of the valley embroidered on the corner. Just as the cloth was about to touch the wound, Ye Qingliu suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Time seemed to freeze at this moment. Bai Zhiye saw her own reflection floating on Ye Qingliu's lens, framed by two perfect golden arcs.
"I'll do it myself." Ye Qingliu let go of her, and when he took the handkerchief, their fingertips touched, sparking a subtle electric current.
Bai Zhiye stared at him as he casually wiped away the bloodstains, and the handkerchief was stained with red plum blossoms in an instant.
When Ye Qingliu was about to put it back into her pocket, she said inexplicably: "Um... return it to me after you're done washing it."
As dusk deepened, the last ray of sunlight passed through the lens, igniting two clusters of blue flames in Ye Qingliu's eyes.
He stared down at the bloodstain on his handkerchief, then suddenly folded it solemnly and put it in his breast pocket.
"Yes." He turned and walked towards the alley, his voice as light as a feather falling to the ground. "I'll return it to you tomorrow."
"Let me take you home."
"OK".
Bai Zhiye trotted after him, deliberately stepping over the boy's elongated shadow. As they passed the third streetlight, she quietly reduced the distance between them from one meter to half a meter.
At the door of the convenience store, she pretended to tie her shoelaces, but in fact she was hiding the smile on her face: When Ye Qingliu suddenly stopped to check his phone, she bumped into his back unexpectedly, and the smell of mint immediately filled her nose.
"Watch the road." Ye Qingliu said without turning his head, but slowed down his pace.
This little episode seemed to bring the two closer together, and he began to send Bai Zhiye home.
Bai Zhiye didn't say anything and agreed readily.
Every evening, the girl and the boy walk on the road one after the other, no matter it is the drizzling autumn season or the romantic winter with snow falling all over the sky.
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