Chapter 10 Rainy Night
Chapter Summary: Fu Xianyin, why are you always getting hurt?
Fortunately, Gu Linzhao wrote down what he was saying, so even if Fu Xianyin didn't understand at the time, she could still understand the notes later.
The plane circled over Linlan City, and as usual, the flight attendant came over to remind everyone to stow their tray tables. Fu Xianyin reacted quickly this time. She watched as Gu Linzhao finished explaining the last question, then snapped her notebook shut and stowed her tray table.
Gu Linzhao chuckled and asked, "Did you hear that this time?"
Fu Xianyin: ...
This person is insulting her, absolutely.
The flight was scheduled for 10:45, but we didn't arrive in Linlan City until after 12:00.
Gu Linzhao's parents seemed very gentle; when they got off the plane, they even asked Gu Linzhao to help Fu Xianyin with her suitcase.
Fu Xianyin was not used to it and declined with a smile.
The woman didn't insist any further. Gu Linzhao pulled his luggage ahead while his parents chatted gently with Fu Xianyin from behind.
Woman: "I saw you two studying on the plane, but I didn't ask you what your name is."
Fu Xianyin: "My name is Fu Xianyin, the string of stringed instruments and the sound of music."
The woman smiled and said, "I am Gu Linzhao's aunt. I am back in Linlan City to visit Gu Linzhao."
She asked, "It's so late, is anyone coming to pick me up?"
Fu Xianyin paused for a moment, quickly going through every possible answer in her mind, and said:
"It's alright, Auntie, I can go back by myself."
Auntie was worried: "It's so late, let me take you home."
Fine, I'll just give it to you.
Fu Xianyin sent the hotel address to Gu Linzhao.
Gu Linzhao clicked on it and saw that the destination was Jingyuan Hotel on the map.
The roads in Linlan City were clear during the night shift, and the taxi arrived at Jingyuan Hotel in no time.
Gu Linzhao helped Fu Xianyin carry her luggage downstairs. Fu Xianyin took the luggage and, before Gu Linzhao could speak, said, "I can go up by myself. It's getting late, you and Auntie should go back first."
After saying goodbye to her aunt, she picked up her suitcase and went into the hotel.
As the car drove on, my aunt said, "Is she the new classmate you mentioned before? Where did she transfer from?"
Gu Linzhao: "...Linlan No.1 Middle School".
Auntie exclaimed, "Oh! So she's from Linlan!"
In just a few words, the aunt had come to imagine Fu Xianyin as a pitiful child.
That's right. Her home is in Linlan, and not only did she not have any family members with her when she went home, but she also stayed in a hotel in Linlan. If she hadn't offered to take her, this child probably would have had to carry her own suitcase all the way here.
This young girl is so independent, but at seventeen or eighteen years old, being this independent isn't necessarily a good thing.
Aunt sighed, "This child."
On the other side, Fu Xianyin finished taking a shower and lay in bed.
Jingyuan Hotel was Fu Dongyuan's property in Linlan, and he reserved a room for Fu Xianyin there. Back in Linlan, whenever Chen Huimei went mad, Fu Xianyin would stay at Jingyuan Hotel.
The advantage is that she can have some peace and quiet by herself, but the disadvantage is that Jingyuan is in the city center, which is a bit far from her junior and senior high schools.
Fu Xianyin planned to go home on Saturday to put away her notes and then pack up the things she hadn't had time to pack before leaving in a hurry.
Her return flight was on Sunday afternoon, and Fu Xianyin planned to spend the rest of her time at the sanatorium.
After making her plans, Fu Xianyin turned off the lights and went to sleep.
I slept until 11:30.
During her half-week stay at Beichuan No. 1 Middle School, Fu Xianyin could only sleep a few hours each day.
After a quick wash, she took a taxi with her suitcase to her former home at Linlan No. 1 Middle School.
On Saturday noon, it was the time for students to leave Linlan No. 1 Middle School, and the car was stuck at the intersection. The sun was shining brightly outside, and Fu Xianyin didn't want to walk. She ignored the eye contact the driver in front of her was trying to make with her, leaned back in the back seat, and closed her eyes to rest.
After being stuck in traffic for about half an hour, the car finally slowly drove into the residential area.
Fu Xianyin pulled her suitcase upstairs.
Standing in front of her house, she took a deep breath, mentally prepared herself, took out her keys, and turned the lock.
Wait a minute, something's not right.
She quickly grabbed her suitcase and left the house, then hid in the stairwell, peeking furtively through the crack in the door.
She left Linlan City on Monday. Fu Xianyin closed the door at the time, and she remembered it very clearly; she was absolutely certain that Fu Xianyin locked the door.
But when I opened the door just now, the key only needed to be turned once before it opened.
Someone has come back, or perhaps they just left.
Fu Xianyin's heart sank.
No one but Chen Huimei would come here.
She didn't know why Chen Huimei had returned here, or perhaps Chen Huimei had returned to Linlan immediately after she transferred schools.
Since transferring to Beichuan No. 1 Middle School, Fu Xianyin has been living at the school every day and has never seen Chen Huimei again.
Linlan No.1 Middle School was a day school, and Fu Xianyin went home every day, inevitably seeing Chen Huimei every day.
When Chen Huimei is normal, she will only ask her about her grades, but when she goes crazy, she will stop caring about anything.
Once, after Fu Xianyin returned home from evening self-study, she found that Chen Huimei had torn up all the books on her bookshelf, for some unknown reason.
The bedroom floor was littered with scraps of paper; Chen Huimei had torn up every single one, from extracurricular novels to study materials and even Fu Xianyin's notebook.
At the time, Fu Xianyin was a senior in high school, and all her textbooks, as well as most of her notes and materials, were left at school. Therefore, Chen Huimei's mental breakdown didn't have a significant impact on her.
But things are different now. All the materials and notes she needs are here. If Chen Huimei goes crazy and tears them all up...
bite
The sound of the elevator interrupted Fu Xianyin's thoughts. Through the crack in the door of the stairwell, Fu Xianyin saw Chen Huimei come out of the elevator.
Her hair was disheveled, and most of her heavy makeup was ruined, unable to conceal the obvious wrinkles and fatigue on her face.
This is not the normal state of Chen Huimei.
Fu Xianyin watched as the person walked inside, then picked up her suitcase and tiptoed up another floor.
Like a spy.
Fu Xianyin commented, then couldn't help but find it amusing.
She's just here to get the study materials she needs, but it's acting like she's trying to get some dangerous, top-secret document.
The house was very well soundproofed, and Fu Xianyin couldn't hear what Chen Huimei was doing inside.
After a long while, Fu Xianyin finally saw Chen Huimei come out of the house.
She turned the key twice, meaning she was locking the door.
Fu Xianyin timed it, and 20 minutes later, she walked out of the stairwell with her suitcase.
She took a deep breath, took the key, and unlocked the door.
The room was a complete mess.
The shattered vase and coffee table pieces were mixed together, leaving shards of glass all over the floor.
The sofa was slashed with a sharp object, and the cotton inside was spilled out, like a fish that had been gutted and its internal organs spilled all over the floor.
There was almost no place to step on the ground; it was littered with shards of glass that made a crisp cracking sound when you stepped on them.
Holding onto her last glimmer of hope, Fu Xianyin, carrying her suitcase, stepped over the mess and headed towards her room.
The scattered scraps of paper on the ground seemed to mock how foolish it was for her to harbor such hope. The notebook, with its pages torn out, lay broken on the ground, the jagged edges of the broken pages resembling the frantic accusations of Chen Huimei against her.
Fu Xianyin sighed.
She opened her suitcase, went inside, and carefully examined each book.
The situation was better than she had imagined.
Most of her notebooks were long, made of thick paper, and tightly bound. Chen Huimei had a hard time tearing them apart, so some of her notebooks actually only had a few pages torn out, and the rest could still be used by gluing them back together.
After tidying up for a while, Fu Xianyin put together a math error notebook, a biology error notebook, and a biology notebook.
There were only three notebooks in total. Fu Xianyin wrapped the notebooks in a plastic bag and then walked out of the bedroom.
The suitcase wheels blocked her path, and Fu Xianyin, unaware of what was happening, tripped over them.
Fu Xianyin sighed as she looked at her knee, which was already not fully healed and was cut again by broken glass.
She simply sat there for a while.
As dusk slanted into the room, it gradually bathed Fu Xianyin's eyes in a warm orange-red hue.
But the orange-red color was fleeting, quickly swallowed up by the dark color.
Fu Xianyin rubbed her slightly sore ankles, picked up her suitcase, and groped her way towards the entrance.
She took one last look at the room, then slammed the door shut.
The riverbank is not far from Linlan No.1 Middle School.
Over the past three years, Fu Xianyin has spent many difficult nights by the river.
She bought some medicine for her wounds at a clinic near the school, then, carrying her suitcase, strolled leisurely along the road she had walked countless times.
Surrounded by students heading to evening self-study sessions, Fu Xianyin walked against the flow of people, dragging her suitcase, feeling the gazes around her. Those gazes were slightly inquisitive, but they didn't linger on her for long.
Fu Xianyin suddenly felt a little dazed.
She seemed like a traveler who had come to another world, or a stranger in a foreign land, unlike their classmates or peers.
The wheels of the suitcase made a series of noises on the uneven ground. Fu Xianyin walked out of the crowd, out of the other world, and to the riverbank she knew well.
The damp air rushed into her nostrils as Fu Xianyin sat on the low stone railing by the river, the icy river water submerging her calves.
She watched the river water crash against the stone wall and then recede, creating ripples.
Her bare legs were splashed with tiny water droplets, and the ripples grew larger, covering an increasingly wider area.
From calves to thighs to arms.
It wasn't until she felt a cold chill on her head that Fu Xianyin belatedly realized what was happening.
It's raining.
However.
Almost the instant the thought appeared.
The rain has stopped.
No, it's not that the rain has stopped.
The river was clearly not calm yet, and the rain was clearly not over.
She looked up and her gaze fell upon a pair of familiar eyes.
Gu Linzhao's sharp brows furrowed slightly, his eyelashes drooped, and his clear, dark brown eyes reflected her somewhat disheveled face.
Fu Xianyin belatedly realized how pathetic she looked now.
A rainy night, by the river, a girl all alone.
Something just doesn't feel right.
She opened her mouth to explain, but the boy's somewhat helpless voice reached her ears first.
He said, "Fu Xianyin, why are you always getting injured?"
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