Chapter 32 Wounds Volcano Magma
Xu Sirui was a rare figure in Zhujia Village. In addition, the people at the village entrance had been waiting for him all night. Besides being worried, they were inevitably bored. So when he walked over, the bored people all looked at him at the same time, like a hungry ant seeing a piece of sweet food.
"Little brother, why haven't you slept yet?" An old lady who sat at the same table with him during dinner greeted him familiarly.
Xu Sirui didn't know what to say.
Fortunately, the other party didn't expect him to answer. He patted the rattan chair beside him and said, "Come on, come on, sit down. They came back to look for someone and then left again. We're getting anxious waiting at home. Why don't we all wait here together and chat to relieve the boredom?"
The rattan chair was steaming, obviously having been sat on not long ago. He immediately jumped up as soon as he sat down: "You guys sit down, I don't need it."
"Oh, you're so polite, kid."
Xu Sirui's lips twitched. He wasn't being polite; he simply found it disgusting to sit on a chair saturated with someone else's body heat. But there was no need to tell the truth. He changed the subject, asking, "You just said they came back, so..."
"Are you asking about Ningning?" Before he could finish his words, the old woman showed a look of understanding and took over the conversation, "She also came back and went out again."
Although he felt a little embarrassed when the other party saw directly that he wanted to ask about Zhu Yingning, he felt relieved after hearing her answer.
The fact that she came back proves that she has some sense, right?
On second thought, Xu Sirui found it quite funny that he, a man who could easily fall into a trap while walking on a mountain road, was actually worried about a mountain native like her.
He did not stay with the crowd. After asking, he left and walked alone to the stone pillar where he had squatted to smoke before. He lay down on it and began to wait.
He arrived at the right time. After squatting for only ten minutes, he heard the crowd not far away start to make noise. Everyone was shouting:
"Found it, found it—the people are found! They're back!"
"Come and help, hurry up, come and help!"
"What a sin! He fell so hard..."
He jumped off the stone pier, hopped on the spot to stretch his sore muscles, and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw Zhu Yingning carrying a little boy and walking towards the village, with a large group of people bustling on both sides.
The little boy's exposed arms and legs were covered with scrapes. The wounds were not deep, but there were many of them, which looked quite scary.
This scene looked incredibly familiar. Xu Sirui suddenly felt a surge of shame, remembering the time he'd sprained his ankle and shamelessly asked her to carry him back. After confirming she was alright, he felt the awkward feeling of actively caring for someone else while also being afraid they'd find out. He pursed his lips, and instead of rushing over like the others, he took a few steps back and retraced his steps back into the house.
Through the window, he saw Zhu Yingning put the little boy down and handed him over to his family - the woman who had come to them during the banquet to inquire about the child's whereabouts. He gestured to her and explained something, then turned and walked towards this side amid the woman's profuse thanks.
Seeing her getting closer, Xu Sirui quickly changed his sneakers into slippers, scratched his hair to make it messy, pretended to be sleepy as if he had just woken up, and opened the door in a pretentious manner.
Zhu Yingning walked to about seven or eight steps away from the door. Seeing him, she was startled: "You haven't slept yet?"
"I overslept and need to go to the bathroom."
"oh."
She nodded and moved aside to make way for him.
There was no way, since he had said it himself, Xu Sirui had to pretend to go to the bathroom again.
He had just used the toilet and had no urge to urinate. He stood inside and smelled the stench for half a minute before walking out. He squatted behind the house and washed his hands, feeling like a fool.
As he passed by the kitchen, he glanced inside and saw Zhu Yingning standing by the stove, also looking at him idly.
"Why are you standing in the kitchen? Why don't you go to sleep?" he asked casually.
She looked around, picked up the cup of water on the stove, and said with an unnatural smile: "...I came here to drink some water."
The stove was empty. Xu Sirui raised an eyebrow and said, "Why don't you light a fire instead of drinking water?"
"Cold water," she said quickly. "I want some cold water." She tugged at her collar slightly. "It's quite hot carrying someone back."
"Is the kid okay?"
"Nothing, I was just having fun and climbed up a rock and fell into the crack."
"oh."
After the awkward chat, Xu Sirui looked at her, wanting to say something more, but he couldn't utter a single word, so he said, "Then I'll go back to sleep first."
"Okay." She waved at him.
Walking back into the room, Xu Sirui was about to take off his shoes and lie down, but after thinking about it, he felt something was wrong.
I stood there thinking for a long time before I realized that the atmosphere of their conversation was wrong.
Extremely stiff, like two robots.
He was a robot because he pretended to have just woken up and was feeling guilty, but why was she so robotic?
Out of an inexplicable intuition, Xu Sirui did not go to bed. He pondered for a while, turned around and went to the kitchen again. This time, he deliberately lowered his footsteps and approached the door stealthily so as not to be discovered by anyone.
The kitchen was very quiet. He stood at the door and waited for a while before he heard the rustling sound of fabric rubbing against each other, followed by a slight gasp and the crisp sound of knives colliding.
...What is she doing? Is she changing clothes?
But there were no clean clothes in the kitchen. Why didn't she change somewhere else? What about the sound of the pumping and the knife? Xu Sirui hesitated for a moment, worried about seeing something he shouldn't. However, if he didn't look, his curiosity would gnaw at him.
After a mental struggle, curiosity finally won out. He took a deep breath and slowly leaned forward.
Then--
His eyes met Zhu Yingning's, who was facing the kitchen door.
“…”
“…”
She pulled open the clothes on her right shoulder with her left hand and held a pair of scissors in her right hand. When she saw him, she was startled and hurriedly turned her right shoulder to his blind spot.
Being caught peeping should have made him feel guilty, but her strange reaction successfully dispelled any sense of guilt in Xu Sirui's heart. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, took two steps inside, and said calmly, "I suddenly realized I wanted some water, too."
"Ah? Ah..."
She felt extremely guilty, and slowly adjusted her body direction according to his pace. Her eyes randomly swept around the stove, and when she saw an empty bowl, she immediately grabbed it with her left hand, laughed awkwardly, and said cautiously, "There's a bowl here, do you want to use it?"
He didn't say anything, nor did he take the bowl. His suspicion grew. He stood there staring at her for a while, and when she wasn't paying attention, he suddenly strode forward and grabbed her left shoulder with his hand.
"Wait..." Zhu Yingning wanted to struggle a little longer, but before she could even finish the word "wait", Xu Sirui grabbed her shoulders and turned her over 180 degrees.
Then she heard him gasp behind her.
"Fuck." He cursed under his breath and asked, "What happened to you?"
Now that things had come to this, there was no point in hiding it any longer. She drooped her head and remained silent for a moment before explaining in a muffled voice, "It's just... I got scratched by a rock while rescuing someone, and I got a minor injury." Then she quickly turned around and added, "Don't tell my mom, and don't let anyone else know."
"...You call this a 'point' injury?"
She was wearing a black T-shirt, and it was not visible when it was covered by the clothes. Now that the collar was pulled halfway down, revealing the right half of her shoulder and back, he discovered that there was a narrow wound the length of a palm on her shoulder blade, extending from her shoulder all the way into her clothes. The flesh at the edge of the wound was exposed, bulging like a volcano, and the half-dried blood was like magma flowing at the bottom of a volcano.
Just looking at Xu Sirui made him feel phantom pain. He couldn't imagine how he would scream and wail if this wound were on him. She had walked so calmly the entire time, even carrying a child on her back. Was this person truly human?
The atmosphere was silent for a moment.
Zhu Yingning was silent because of a guilty conscience, and Xu Sirui was silent because—
He was afraid that once he opened his mouth, he would not be able to help but sarcastically say to her, "You are so great, Zhu Yingning."
To be so selfless and unrequited was simply unbelievable. He couldn't comprehend it at all.
After two full minutes of silence, she raised the scissors and said weakly, "Um...Xu Sirui, if you don't let me go, my blood will dry up and the wound will stick to my clothes even more."
“…”
Only then did he realize that his hand was still holding her uninjured shoulder, and as she said, the back half of the wound had stuck to her clothes, so he had to let go of her.
She felt relieved, took a few steps, and with the moonlight outside the window, she tilted her head and started cutting the cloth on her shoulders with scissors.
According to common sense, Xu Sirui should go up to help - if he still had a conscience. But for some reason, he was so angry that he just didn't want to pay attention to her.
Zhu Yingning had no intention of asking him for help. She quickly and decisively cut open the clothes behind her shoulders, using her fingers to tear away the fabric adhering to the wound bit by bit, until the entire wound was completely exposed. Then she bent down and took out a can of styptic powder from the cabinet, unscrewed the lid, scooped out a spoonful, and carefully shook it onto the wound.
Apply herbal compresses.
Apply gauze.
The whole process was smooth and there were no unnecessary movements.
Not to mention the howling of ghosts and wolves, she didn't even frown.
Xu Sirui sat on the stove, his arms folded, watching with a cold gaze, his temper growing more intense. But if you ask him why he's angry, he can't really explain it; he simply finds everything about her displeasing.
Finally, he was so angry that he couldn't stand it anymore. He snorted and left with his nose and eyes looking confused, leaving Zhu Yingning confused.
**
It was a long time after he lay in bed that he felt the movement of people lying down on the other side of the 38th parallel.
For fear of pressing on the wound, she did not choose to lie on her back, but instead lay on the bed with her chest facing down.
The night was silent, with only the gentle snoring of Liu Guifang and her daughter-in-law rising and falling like some kind of constant white noise. As she listened, her eyelids began to grow heavy. Just as she was about to close them, a finger suddenly sprouted from the 38th parallel formed by the pile of clothes. Zhu Yingning was stunned for a moment, then opened her eyes and took a closer look. She saw that Xu Sirui had used his index finger to push the clothes aside, revealing a tiny slit. Inside the slit were his beautiful eyes.
Through the slit, he stared at her silently, and she stared at him.
They stared at each other for a long time. Just when she wanted to ask him what was wrong, he finally spoke: "You wrote this, right?"
"What?" She didn't understand.
"Beware of the trap sign."
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