Chapter 19

The midnight streets were deserted. The hotel sat in a fairly remote spot, and the car’s arrival shattered the silence. Yu Min froze for a few seconds before whirling around and hurrying to the filthy old window. Through the glass, she caught sight of a tall, slender figure; she could hardly believe it. She stared for a couple of beats, and only then dared to push the window open.

Lin Baixin was dressed formally, in a white blouse with tailored slacks and high heels. Her hair was pinned up neatly too, efficient and elegant; she looked composed and capable, clearly having come straight from work.

Separated by the height between upstairs and down, Lin Baixin soon noticed the movement here and looked up, recognizing which room Yu Min was in.

The moment their eyes met, Yu Min’s sluggish nerves suddenly sprang back to life. She turned and ran downstairs at once, opening the door, crossing the hallway, taking the stairs from the third floor to the first in one breath, and rushing toward the roadside.

The fierce wind howled past her ears and stole her breath. She had run too fast; by the time she stopped, she was gasping.

She didn’t dare stand too close. She stopped a meter away from Lin Baixin, still silent, still staring at her as if she were some hallucination. It took a while before she finally asked, dazed, “Why are you here?”

The car door was still open. Lin Baixin rested one hand on it and answered simply, “I came to find you.”

Yu Min let out a soft “ah,” still a little breathless as she forced herself to steady her racing heart. “Is something wrong?”

Lin Baixin didn’t answer. Instead, she asked, “Are you living here alone?”

Yu Min stopped short. She didn’t know how to explain the whole story, and even she was still a mess. Her lips parted, but after a long pause she could only manage, “I’m just staying here tonight. I won’t be tomorrow.”

Fortunately, Lin Baixin didn’t ask anything else. She cut straight to the point. “Go upstairs and get your things.”

Yu Min’s mind was still tangled. From the afternoon until now, one thing after another had left her head spinning, so she couldn’t think straight at all.

Get her things for what?

What was this about?

Then Lin Baixin said, “You’re coming with me tonight.”

“Ah..."

“In the morning I’ll send you back.”

Yu Min understood at once. In a daze, she moved only when prodded, as if someone were squeezing toothpaste from a tube. She immediately went upstairs. Lin Baixin came with her, reaching for her, and only then did Yu Min suddenly realize the state of the room upstairs, as well as the two next door who, for all she knew, might not even be finished yet... She inexplicably didn’t want Lin Baixin to see any of it. Everything tonight was a complete mess; she felt embarrassed, but more than that, awkward. So she shook off Lin Baixin’s hand and fled back the way she came.

“You don’t have to come. I’ll go; I’ll be right back!”

She raced upstairs. In truth, there wasn’t much to pack: just a bag, plus the charger she’d taken out earlier. Yu Min moved quickly, gathering everything in two or three motions. Staying at this hotel had cost a hundred-yuan deposit, and the owner was downstairs. As she passed through the lobby, she saw him dozing in a recliner. Yu Min didn’t even want the deposit back. She was too lazy to deal with it; all she wanted was to leave this rotten place and never come back.

Lin Baixin was still waiting where she’d left her and hadn’t gotten into the car. When Yu Min ran up, she opened the passenger door for her.

Yu Min climbed in. After they’d been driving for a while, she remembered to ask, “When did you get here?”

“Tonight, a little after seven,” Lin Baixin said. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Yu Min’s deflated schoolbag and couldn’t help frowning, though she didn’t say anything right away. She kept driving for another kilometer or two. When they stopped at a red light, she asked gently, “Have you eaten?”

She definitely hadn’t. There hadn’t been time. But Yu Min opened her mouth and said, “I ate.”

Unfortunately, lies never held for long. Maybe because the topic had come up, her body betrayed her. Her stomach, of all things, let out a loud gurgle.

The slap in the face came instantly. Yu Min stiffened as if she’d been struck in a weak spot, at a loss. She fumbled at the hem of her clothes before forcing the lie through anyway. “But I didn’t eat much. I didn’t have an appetite then, so I couldn’t eat.”

Even as she said it, she had no confidence. Halfway through, she turned her face away and didn’t dare look at Lin Baixin.

With a turn of the steering wheel, Lin Baixin changed lanes. She didn’t call out the lie; instead, she changed course on the fly and drove the other way.

“What do you feel like eating?”

Yu Min shook her head, afraid of delaying her and wasting her time. Lin Baixin had only just arrived in Siping County. She should have gone back to rest sooner.

“I’m not eating, I—”

“I’m hungry too,” Lin Baixin cut in. “I haven’t eaten yet. At noon I only had half a bun, and I spent all afternoon on a flight. I still haven’t eaten.”

Yu Min fell silent. Her lips moved slightly, and hearing that Lin Baixin had been running around like that, she felt complicated.

Had she been rushing back for some errand, or what?

She didn’t know; but most likely it wasn’t anything urgent. She hadn’t reached Siping County until after seven, and at this hour, what could she possibly do? If there was anything, it would have to wait until tomorrow. There was no need to rush so much that she didn’t even have time to eat.

Unconsciously twisting the edge of her clothes around her finger, Yu Min’s mind began to turn again. She pressed her lips together and gave a small “Mm.”

Lin Baixin said, “There’s a street-stall area over by Jiannan Road that seems pretty good. Lu An recommended it. Want to try it?”

Only then did Yu Min soften. “...Okay.”

They went to a newly opened Cantonese clay-pot seafood porridge place. There weren’t many customers at night, and they had private rooms.

They took one, ordering a platter of seafood, two servings of beef and vegetables, and three small side dishes. Yu Min wanted cheong fun and curry fish balls, and Lin Baixin added a dish of steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce and garlic. They were both genuinely hungry and could eat plenty.

“Your school’s exams are over?” Lin Baixin asked while blanching the vegetables and pouring water, then handed a cup to Yu Min.

Yu Min said, “They’re over. The last subject was this afternoon.”

“Weren’t they only starting this weekend?”

“They started on Monday.”

“Then I got the time wrong.” Lin Baixin poured herself a cup as well. “Zhou Jin said your exams were on the weekend, so I kept thinking it was the weekend.”

After getting into high school, Zhou Jin’s grades had fallen off a cliff. He studied himself into confusion every day; misremembering exam dates was practically one of his specialties. That brat only had a working brain when he was playing games. Outside of that, he was useless.

Yu Min used serving chopsticks to put a fish ball into Lin Baixin’s bowl. She didn’t badmouth Zhou Jin, and she also didn’t mention Zheng Qing or what had happened today. There was only one order of cheong fun, so she took a clean plate and moved half of it onto her own.

Lin Baixin likewise didn’t say anything she shouldn’t. Instead, she talked a little about what she’d been doing this semester and the schedule for this trip back.

Of course, once they were apart, both sides would naturally lose contact; that hardly needed saying.

Lin Baixin was already in her twenties. She had no need, and no obligation, to report these things to Yu Min, an underage girl. Strictly speaking, the two of them were only ordinary acquaintances, not close enough for that. Besides, each of them had her own life. Yu Min’s current priority was studying and exams, while Lin Baixin was on the road toward her future. They had nothing to do with each other; keeping in touch in the middle was actually inappropriate. Sometimes boundaries mattered, and care had to stay measured.

They chatted idly as the porridge simmered. The broth was fragrant and delicious, and Yu Min loved shrimp, so midway through she added another plate.

“I want to take the university exam in Kyoto.” After peeling a shrimp, Yu Min looked up and told Lin Baixin.

“Which university?” Lin Baixin asked.

“I haven’t decided yet, but it should probably be there.”

“What major?”

“Maybe medicine.”

“Then it’s X University, based on your grades.”

Yu Min said, “I might not be able to get in. The cutoff is too high.”

Lin Baixin encouraged her, “If you can keep this up for the next two years, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Yu Min nodded and took another slice of beef. The porridge was simple, but the meat was tender and flavorful, far better than the cafeteria’s big pots of food. She lowered her eyes again, her gaze resting on the pot as she thought for a moment, then pressed a little further. “Then will you let me go?”

Lin Baixin clearly didn’t understand the deeper meaning behind her question, or maybe she simply didn’t think much of it. She replied casually, “If you want to go, then go. Kyoto’s pretty good; it’s a good place for young people to build a future. And if you ever want to come back to Jincheng later, the hospitals here recognize degrees from X University too.”

Yu Min tightened her grip on her chopsticks, then loosened it, then tightened it again. She said nothing and couldn’t go on.

They ate the porridge hotpot for more than an hour. By the time they got back to Heyuan, it was almost midnight. Yu Min had calculated the timing carefully. To be safe, she would have to get up by five-thirty tomorrow morning at the latest and leave by six, or else if Zheng Qing came back earlier, she’d be exposed.

Six was too early to leave, so she didn’t let Lin Baixin drive her and said she could take a taxi.

“I’ll take you. I need to go out too, more or less around then.” Lin Baixin insisted. Seeing Yu Min hesitate, she added, “I’m guessing I’ll have to get up before five anyway, which is even earlier than you.”

Only then did Yu Min agree to ride with her and stop being awkward.

The next day was foggy. The morning dew was thick and damp, and even in summer it felt chilly. Before they left, Lin Baixin found a light long-sleeved shirt for Yu Min. “Put this on. Give it back to me in a couple of days.”

Yu Min didn’t give her the exact address, only told her to stop at the intersection. Before getting out, she turned back, her voice muffled and sulky, wanting to say something but finding the words stuck in her throat.

In the end, she got out without saying a word. Lin Baixin tossed her a sandwich and told her to eat breakfast.

It took more than ten minutes to drive from Heyuan to here. They had left at 5:40, and Yu Min got out before six. And yet by the time she went upstairs, she was still too late.

Zheng Qing was back. Yu Min didn’t know what time she had arrived.

The house wasn’t lit. Dawn was only just beginning to break. When Yu Min opened the door, she turned around and suddenly saw someone standing not far away. She hadn’t been prepared and jumped in fright; even the sandwich slipped from her hand and hit the floor with a slap.

Zheng Qing questioned her coldly, “Where did you go?”

Yu Min’s nerves were still fairly strong. She panicked for a moment, then steadied herself and lied, “I went to buy breakfast. I didn’t go anywhere.”

“Buy breakfast? For more than an hour?!” Zheng Qing was not easy to fool; her tone sharpened. “When I got back, you weren’t here. Where could you have gone to buy something at four or five in the morning?”

Yu Min remained calm and didn’t reveal the slightest flaw. She patiently explained that she had been so hungry she couldn’t sleep, so she’d gotten up early. There wasn’t anything to eat around here, so she had walked a long way to a convenience store to buy a sandwich; the round trip had taken over an hour.

The explanation was airtight and perfectly reasonable.

Zheng Qing immediately backed down, but after a short silence, she still scolded Yu Min again, asking whether she hadn’t been given a takeaway number last night. Had she not ordered anything because she wasn’t hungry then, or was she hungry again just a few hours later? How could she get hungry so quickly?

Yu Min said she hadn’t ordered anything. She hadn’t been hungry last night, so she hadn’t eaten. As expected, another storm of criticism came down on her. Zheng Qing was forceful, going on and on for a long while, repeatedly confirming that Yu Min hadn’t gone looking for Yu Shengyu. Only after she herself later called Yu Shengyu and learned that he had been on a business trip yesterday did she finally let Yu Min off.

The old house, once cleaned up, was still the same; honestly, it still wasn’t fit to live in. The furniture was broken too, and replacing everything in the whole house would be even more trouble.

Zheng Qing had wasted the whole night for nothing, and afterward still took Yu Min back to the hotel where they were staying.

Zheng Qing’s worry had been completely unnecessary. How could Yu Shengyu come looking for Yu Min? She was just being crazy. Most likely the stress of the divorce had gotten to her, and she was making herself sick with it.

As long as Yu Min was obedient, Zheng Qing was normal. Once the sky brightened, Zheng Qing returned to her usual self. Yu Min felt she probably wasn’t as angry anymore. If Yu Min didn’t cross her, there probably wouldn’t be any trouble.

But reality proved she was wrong, and wrong in the most outrageous way.

Zheng Qing’s return to normal had nothing to do with calming down. It was because of her boyfriend. Zheng Qing took Yu Min to meet that man, smiling as she introduced him as her first love, her true love, and then, with utmost gentleness and warmth, asked Yu Min to call him “Uncle.”

Oh, and Zheng Qing was pregnant with her true love’s child; she had just found out.

Yu Min didn’t call him that. She couldn’t get the word out.

Even less able to accept reality than Yu Min was Yu Shengyu. Within three days, Yu Shengyu, who had been away on a business trip, rushed back to Siping County overnight. Zheng Qing was actually still able to act as if nothing had happened, bringing her new boyfriend to meet Yu Shengyu as if they were visiting some family elder, even trying to invite Yu Shengyu to dinner.

Of course, that meal never happened. Yu Shengyu started fighting with the man on the spot. Zheng Qing, pregnant and all, even dared to rush in and help. After that, for some reason, the woman Yu Shengyu had been keeping on the side found her way there too, and the whole thing completely spiraled out of control.

That day, Aunt and the others came to stop the absurd farce. Lin Baixin also came. Yu Min stood in front of her, humiliated, unable to lift her head; her face was as pale as paper.