Telephone
The small bathroom door was pushed open with a "whoosh," and Yun Jin, wearing wrinkled pajamas, walked out of the white mist. As she walked, she haphazardly dried her dripping long hair with a dry towel.
Taking a shower feels so good.
The warm water washed away the cold and the extremely uncomfortable, nauseating feeling that seemed to still be sticking to my hands.
She let out a long sigh of relief, her tense nerves finally relaxing.
Who would have thought that just half an hour ago, Yun Jin braved the wind and rain, climbing the pipes on the outer wall, slipping several times before finally reaching the fourth-floor window in a perilous manner.
Fortunately, it was only the fourth floor; any higher and she wouldn't have made it. Yun Jin plopped down on the bed, the mattress creaking slightly as it sank in.
Just as Yun Jin draped the towel over the back of the chair, her cell phone suddenly rang. The ringtone sounded particularly jarring in the quiet room, startling Yun Jin, who was already feeling uneasy.
She paused for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and picked up her phone. The name flashing on the screen was Yun Chen.
Calling at this time... Shen Yi'an must have already called Yun Chen.
Yun Jin unconsciously fiddled with the bed sheet, answered the phone, and carefully held the receiver to her ear.
"...Sister?" Yun Chen's worried voice came from the other end of the phone immediately, accompanied by the chirping of insects in the background. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I got home safely," Yun Jin said, feigning nonchalance. "What did Shen Yi'an... say to you?"
Yun Chen was silent for a few seconds on the other end of the phone, then her voice came through, full of doubt and shock: "He confessed to you, and then you ran away."
As expected of Yun Chen, he succinctly and accurately summarized all this mess.
"Sis, what exactly happened?" Yun Chen's voice rose slightly. "I've only been gone a few days, and you've already made so little progress..."
“It’s not what you think, Yun Chen, listen to me,” Yun Jin quickly explained, her speech involuntarily quickening.
"Things are a bit complicated! Shen Yi'an... somehow he found out who I am. He said he wanted to have an honest conversation with me, and then... and then he confessed his feelings out of nowhere..." Yun Jin's voice slowly became as chaotic as her thoughts.
"Is he trying to trick you?" Yun Chen's voice immediately turned serious, and his volume increased. "Sis! Don't fall for a handsome man's charm so easily! This sudden stunt is too suspicious!"
Yun Chen's suspicion was like a bucket of cold water poured over Yun Jin's feverish and confused mind. It was indeed the most reasonable guess, and also the thought that Yun Jin herself had initially considered but subconsciously avoided.
“It shouldn’t be…” Yun Jin’s voice trailed off as she tried to defend her judgment.
"He...he first talked about his past with Xie Xinrou, the one that made him feel very guilty. Mainly, the atmosphere seemed good, and he was very sincere, so I...I told him my name..."
Yun Jin's voice grew softer and softer as she spoke, and finally she stopped, and silence fell on the other end of the phone.
"Sis, do you need me to come back?" Yun Chen asked.
The question was so direct that if Yun Jin simply said "yes," she would probably pack her things and rush back immediately.
"No need, I can handle it," Yun Jin replied quickly, almost a spontaneous refusal.
"Alright, there's nothing I can do to help you even if I come back." Yun Chen's voice was very soft.
“I feel like Wang Zhi from the Jin Dynasty. I went into the mountains and stayed for a few days, and suddenly everything changed,” Yun Chen sighed and asked the most crucial question, “Big sister, what are you going to do next?”
"I don't know, all of this is too sudden for me..." Yun Jin lay on the bed, exhausted, looking up at the old round light on the ceiling.
"Alright." Yun Chen seemed to understand that asking further would not yield any results, so he chose to temporarily stop pressing the issue.
Just then, Yun Jin heard a clear "snap" sound from the other end of the phone, like the sound of a tree branch being broken. Then, Yun Jin covered the microphone and whispered a few words to the person behind her.
"What's the situation on your end?" Yun Jin asked warily.
Yun Chen's answer sounded quite ordinary: "...I followed Qi Yu into the mountains. He took some photos around here last time. The scenery here is nice, but the sun is very strong, and I got quite tanned."
"Yun Chen, be careful..." Yun Jin said with some concern, but a wave of extreme fatigue washed over her, and she couldn't help but yawn.
"Sis, you can rest now, I'm hanging up."
"good."
The phone call ended, and the room fell silent except for the pitter-patter of rain outside the window.
So much had happened today that Yun Jin didn't even have the energy to think about anything else; her heavy eyelids quickly lulled her into sleep.
In her bizarre dream, Qi Qi was holding a gleaming long knife and was chasing after her and Shen Yi'an, hacking at them!
As Qi Qi vigorously wielded her long sword, she shouted slogans like, "A disgrace to the demon race! Cleanse the sect!"
In the dream, Shen Yi'an seemed to be trying to reason with Qi Qi, while Yun Jin could only drag him away desperately, feeling that the knife might cut her back at any moment...
Yun Jin suddenly woke up from her dream, her heart pounding and her breathing becoming rapid.
The morning sunlight had already shone through the gaps in the curtains, leaving a triangular mark on the floor.
When Yun Jin woke up, she just found it funny; how could she have such a strange dream? She rubbed her eyes; the dream was truly illogical.
Suddenly, the phone next to the pillow rang, breaking the silence of the room.
Yun Jin glanced at the screen; it was an unfamiliar number, and her heart skipped a beat.
The account "Yunmiaomiao's Daily Life" that Yun Chen previously operated had its private information illegally obtained and was harassed by malicious individuals, which frightened Yun Chen so much that she even went to the police to report it.
That experience left a significant shadow on her.
So later, Yun Jin opened a new private number with strict access controls. Very few people knew this number, and ordinary harassing calls simply couldn't get through.
So this unfamiliar number...
Could it be Shen Yi'an calling? Yun Jin stared at her vibrating phone, her finger hovering over the answer button, and subconsciously swallowed.
If it were him… Yun Jin felt her mind starting to race again. Memories from last night flooded back, making her heart race and leaving her at a loss.
She wasn't ready to face him.
Answer or not?
After a long wait, the phone finally stopped vibrating and the screen went dark.
Yun Jin breathed a sigh of relief, and her shoulders slumped.
Maybe it wasn't him? Maybe it was just a wrong number?
She tried to comfort herself with that thought.
However, before he could fully relax, that unknown number called again!
The buzzing vibration continued stubbornly, as if it knew she was right next to the phone and wouldn't let her escape any longer.
Yun Jin took a deep breath, as if she had made a great decision, and finally pressed the answer button.
Her voice was a little hoarse.
"……Hello?"
"Hello, is this Yun Jin?" A familiar, aged voice, with a kind smile, rang out.
The voice was like a warm current, instantly dispelling all her tension and speculation, but also bringing another kind of surprise.
"Grandma Dean?" Yun Jin was startled and paced back and forth in the room, but then breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't Shen Yi'an, but Grandma Dean, whom she regarded as family.
But then worry crept into her mind again. The headmistress rarely called her directly. "Is there...something wrong?"
"I just called you, but you didn't answer," the headmistress's voice was very calm. "Are you busy right now?"
"No rush, no rush," Yun Jin quickly said. "I was just about to answer when the phone went dead."
She explained somewhat awkwardly, secretly relieved that she had accepted the answer in the end.
“Well, it’s like this,” the dean said in a relaxed tone, as if he were chatting with someone, “I accidentally fell and ended up in the hospital. Right now, I’m just really bored, so I thought I’d call you kids and have a chat.”
"Grandma Dean! When did this happen?" Yun Jin's heart clenched, and she stopped in her tracks. "How serious is it? Which hospital are you in? I'll come see you this afternoon!"
"It happened a little over a month ago," the headmistress said as if it were a trivial matter. "It wasn't serious. If it were, we would have notified you kids long ago. Why would we keep it from you until now? It's just that I'm getting old and have osteoporosis. I need to take care of myself slowly."
Yun Jin felt a little relieved, but she was still a little sad. The headmistress was always like this, afraid of causing trouble for her children.
"Where's Yun Chen? Are you two sisters still together? Are you both alright?"
"Uh... Yun Chen, she went out on business and won't be back for a few days,"
Yun Jin quickly replied, feeling deeply apologetic and guilty that she and her sister didn't call home often to check on them.
“It’s alright, it’s alright, work is the priority,” the hospital director said with her usual thoughtfulness. “Don’t rush to come. Just come and visit whenever you have time.”
“Grandma Dean, I’m free right now,” Yun Jin said firmly. “I’ll come see you this afternoon. Please send me the hospital address and ward number.”
After giving her grandmother a few more instructions to rest well, Yun Jin ended the call.
The phone screen went dark, and the room returned to silence, but Yun Jin's heart was in turmoil.
Then, a wave of immense guilt overwhelmed Yun Jin. How could she have forgotten to call the dean more often?
Yun Jin glanced at the time and realized she still had time. The hospital wasn't too far away; she could take the subway, which would take about 50 minutes.
She quickly changed her clothes, grabbed the canvas bag hanging by the door, and went out. She remembered there was a medium-sized supermarket at the entrance of the community, and she needed to go to the supermarket to buy some things to take with her. She couldn't go to visit her grandmother empty-handed.
Upon entering the supermarket, a cacophony of voices immediately greeted me.
Yun Jin subconsciously shrank her shoulders; it had been a long time since she had appeared alone in such a bustling public place in human form.
She pulled her mask up slightly, lowered her head, and quickly scanned the shelves, wanting to find what she needed as soon as possible and leave.
The last time she went out, she accompanied Yun Chen. With her younger sister by her side, she seemed to have more courage. Her sister would naturally walk in front, blocking part of the view, and would be responsible for communicating with the sales clerk.
However, it didn't last long last time either.
Now, she is all alone.
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