Chapter 31
For two straight weeks, Lin Qi had been acting out from time to time, always strangely out of character.
Yu Min and she weren’t on the same wavelength, so Yu Min took Lin Bai Xin’s advice and ignored her. She didn’t have the energy to dig into all that messy nonsense anyway.
Starting in week seventeen, Yu Min spent most of her days at school; she was either in class or at the library fighting for a seat to study. After all, the shop was a place of business, and its environment couldn’t compare to school. The library was simply better for studying.
X University’s library opened as early as 7:30 a.m. and closed at 10:30 p.m. Before exams, Yu Min usually got up between 5:30 and 6:00, washed up, got dressed, and fully woke herself up. She would study at home for half an hour first, leave at 6:20, and arrive at the library no later than 7:00.
Even then, there was no guarantee she’d get a seat. The bitter winter wind cut like a knife, but that did nothing to dampen the students’ determination to line up. Yu Min was already considered late; some of the earliest students queued up at five or six in the morning. By the time she got there, the line had already become a long, winding river, so crowded it was almost impossible to see where it ended.
If there was a seat, she took it; if not, she stood. Studying didn’t scare her. She could stand just fine. Back at No. 1 High School, she often stood on the balcony by the stairwell to read. As long as she had a place to put her textbooks, she could accept anything else.
During that stretch, Lin Bai Xin got up early too. Almost every day, she made breakfast herself. Eating leftovers for too long wasn’t good for the body, so she no longer let the auntie prepare breakfast the night before; from then on, Lin Bai Xin made it fresh in the morning. She went into the kitchen at six, and twenty minutes later Yu Min could take it with her and eat on the way.
“Still not letting me see you off?” Lin Bai Xin asked. She had been free lately, with a lot of time on her hands these days.
Yu Min slung her shoulder bag on, grabbed the packed paper bag, and slipped on her shoes in a few quick movements. “No need. It’s not far; it’s only a few bus stops, and a taxi would be even faster.”
“Put on your scarf and hat,” Lin Bai Xin said, worried she might forget something. “Check again.”
Yu Min immediately put on her scarf and hat, wrapping herself up tightly from head to toe. Kyoto was not like the south; winter here was brutally cold when you went out. There was no floor heating outside, and after walking a short distance, your hands and feet could go numb. She opened her bag again and checked that she had brought everything. Nothing was missing. Only then did she step out and say, “I’m going.”
If she didn’t have first-period class in the afternoon and couldn’t get a seat at the library, Yu Min would still come home, take a noon break, then head back to X University when it was time for her afternoon classes.
As for Lin Bai Xin, if the shop had enough staff, she and Lin Qi would take turns; otherwise, one of them would stay at the shop while the other handled other work.
Recently it was Lin Qi’s turn to stay at the shop, and since there was no other work, Lin Bai Xin spent most of her mornings at home and didn’t go out. Whenever she had time, she exercised more; she would run, do yoga, or strength training.
Lin Bai Xin had a healthy habit of exercising at least three times a week. Yu Min happened to have no class during the second main period on Thursday morning, and when she got back, she found Lin Bai Xin doing yoga.
Yoga clothes were fairly fitted. Lin Bai Xin had an excellent figure, with graceful curves, long straight legs, broad shoulders and slender hands, a taut lower abdomen and narrow waist, a slim but even back, and slightly raised shoulder blades on either side. Above that was her swanlike neck, fair and slender; beautiful and sexy.
Yu Min sat on a stool by the island counter, flipping through her book page after page. Then her eyes drifted over there by accident; once they landed, she couldn’t tear them away.
During a break, Lin Bai Xin stood up and came over to get some water. Yu Min, half a beat late, gathered her gaze at once and hurriedly kept turning pages, quickly lowering her head.
Lin Bai Xin stood in front of her. Throughout, Yu Min kept her head down and didn’t even lift her eyelids. She had originally been reading and taking notes at the same time, but now she was a little flustered and couldn’t pick up where she’d left off. She blankly flipped through more than ten pages before realizing that only made her look more guilty. After a pause, she flipped back a few pages, picked up her pen, and started over from the front.
Since she had already noticed the oddity, Lin Bai Xin took it in stride, poured two cups of water, and pushed one over.
“You’ve been looking for so long; aren’t your eyes tired? Why not rest for a bit?”
She’d picked up the wrong pen. The one she’d been using for annotations was blue, but now she had accidentally taken the red one. One stroke went down, and the red line was glaringly obvious among all the blue.
“……”
Yu Min kept a straight face and switched pens.
She didn’t dare pick up that cup of water, as if it were some terrible beast; she didn’t even dare look at the other person once. With her hair hanging loose, Yu Min’s ears were hidden, so Lin Bai Xin couldn’t see that the tips had already gone hot and red.
Up close, everything was even clearer, even without looking up.
Lin Bai Xin’s yoga top had a U-shaped neckline; it wasn’t low, and the back was an open crisscross style. She had worked up a sweat, and a few strands of her tied-up hair had fallen loose, adding a touch of messy beauty. She rarely wore clothes this close-fitting, preferring comfortable, loose styles in daily life. The tight outfit outlined every inch of her figure, especially the stretch from her collarbone downward; the swelling curve was full and round, and the deep line disappeared beneath the fabric...
Two minutes later, Lin Bai Xin turned and walked away. Only then did Yu Min pick up the cup of water and take a small sip.
Maybe the floor heating had been too strong, or maybe the nourishing soup from the night before had been too warming. Yu Min had gotten overheated. By dusk, when Lin Qi came over as usual to chat, she also brought a bag of desserts; they were from a very popular internet-famous shop nearby.
“Lin Bai Xin said you like these. I just happened to pass by there, and a customer recommended them, so I bought two portions. You two hurry and...” Halfway through, Lin Qi froze. Staring at Yu Min’s face, she was stunned for a moment, then blurted out, “Is that blood?”
Yu Min had just put her book away; she hadn’t yet collected the draft paper. She looked up at Lin Qi, not understanding what she meant. Then she felt something warm sliding beneath her nose. Instinctively, she slowly touched it with her hand; when she pulled her fingers back, they were wet and red.
“Fuck, it’s blood!” Lin Qi jumped to her feet, flustered and at a complete loss for what to do with the sudden situation. She fumbled for tissues, taking ages to find where they were. “Hold on, here, here you go; quickly, hold it, it’s still bleeding!”
Yu Min had never experienced this before either. She had never had a nosebleed in the past, so she was even more dazed than Lin Qi, completely dumbfounded. Lin Qi told her what to do and she did it; told her to hold it, and she held it; told her to tilt her head back, and she tilted her head back.
But the bleeding looked terrifying. The two of them were instantly running around in a panic like ants on a hot pan; it was Lin Bai Xin who heard the commotion and came over, took the bloodied tissues from Yu Min’s hand, and calmly took over.
“Don’t tilt your head back; lower it a little.” Lin Bai Xin pressed one hand against Yu Min’s back and used a little force to push, making her lean forward slightly. At the same time, she called for Lin Qi to fetch a towel and an ice pack. “Pinch the sides of your nose and stand still.”
Wrapping the ice pack in a towel helped constrict the blood vessels and stop the bleeding. Tilting the head back was dangerous; it could easily send blood down the throat and make her choke.
Yu Min was too dazed to think straight, and her hands and feet weren’t cooperating. In her confusion, she pinched the wrong spot. Lin Bai Xin stood behind her, helping apply the ice to the back of her neck while correcting her from behind. Since their heights were close, it was a little difficult for Lin Bai Xin to maneuver her. During the process, Lin Bai Xin leaned forward slightly and pressed against her back to reach over and move her hand.
The next second, a soft sensation came through—like she’d been struck hard with a heavy stick. Yu Min stiffened all at once; from the inside out, her whole body went numb, and with a snap, something in her suddenly broke.
The bleeding was hard to stop, and Lin Bai Xin’s method didn’t seem to be working very well either. In an instant, Yu Min suddenly shook off Lin Bai Xin and ran straight for the bathroom without caring about anything else, fleeing as if for her life.
Bang!
The bathroom door slammed shut hard.
Lin Bai Xin and Lin Qi were left outside, both unable to react for a while, not understanding what had happened or why she was acting so strangely.
Looking at Lin Bai Xin, Lin Qi asked suspiciously, “What was that about? In broad daylight, like a ghost was chasing her—why did she run?”
Lin Bai Xin had no idea either. She went to knock on the door, thinking Yu Min must be feeling unwell somehow, maybe the nosebleed had triggered something else.
Behind the door, Yu Min followed the method Lin Bai Xin had taught her and started stopping the bleeding again. She shouted to the people outside, “I’m fine!”
After a moment, she added, “You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll handle it myself; it’ll be fine in a while.”
It took more than ten minutes for the bleeding to barely stop, but Yu Min stayed in the bathroom for a full half hour and didn’t dare come out for a long time.
Lin Bai Xin and the others waited outside; during that time they knocked on the door twice more. They were truly worried about her. Occasionally, the sound of running water could be heard from inside the bathroom, but they couldn’t see what Yu Min was doing.
Only when Yu Min finally opened the door and came out did they relax. Lin Qi had been badly frightened and immediately touched her forehead and face here and there, as if checking for a fever. “Do you want to go to the hospital? Let’s go to the hospital; we can register and get you checked. I’ll take you. I happen to be free today, and you were bleeding way too much. Could you be sick?”
They didn’t go to the hospital. Yu Min knew very well in her heart whether she was sick or not; she repeatedly refused Lin Qi’s kindness and said there was no need to go to the hospital.
Because of this incident, Yu Min became the focus of close observation for the following week. Only after it was confirmed that she really wasn’t sick did the two older sisters finally relax.
Having learned her lesson, Yu Min didn’t dare get distracted afterward. For several days, if she didn’t have first-period class in the afternoon, she wouldn’t go home anymore. Instead, she stayed at school and found an empty classroom to study.
When she faced Lin Bai Xin, her explanation was: “I really don’t have enough review time. Everyone else is going to the classroom anyway; the class monitor can help me save a seat, and we’ll stay together.”
Lin Bai Xin had no objection. “The same few from last time?”
“Which few?” Yu Min asked back.
Lin Bai Xin didn’t specify. She deliberately left it out, then changed the subject without warning. “Mm, that works too. Going back and forth is more troublesome; this is fine.”
After that, she didn’t have any more nosebleeds. When she went back, Yu Min stopped sitting in the living room; she stayed in her room most of the time, the door shut, putting all her attention into her books.
Perhaps because exam week was approaching and the pressure was mounting, Yu Min actually started dreaming frequently at night. Her dreams were always shifting, bizarre and strange; and every time she woke up, she couldn’t remember the details.
There was only one time that was especially clear. In that dream, she dreamed of Lin Bai Xin. At first, she was clearly at an exam venue, writing the paper. She’d finished and was about to hand it in, but the classmates sitting around her had all vanished. Then the scene changed and she was back at home, with the paper handed into Lin Bai Xin’s hands.
After that, Lin Bai Xin graded her test. Wherever Yu Min had gotten something wrong, Lin Bai Xin explained it to her. They were very close, even closer than during the nosebleed... As punishment, Lin Bai Xin bit her; first on the shoulder, then on the finger...
The dream was far too strange. Yu Min woke up, and when she opened her eyes, her entire body was drenched in sweat, as though she had just been fished out of water. Even her pajamas were damp and stuck to her back.
Outside, the sky was still dark; it had just passed 3:30 in the morning.
Yu Min was dazed. The scene in the dream had felt very real, as if she had personally lived through it. She sat blankly for a while like a wooden puppet before moving a little and feeling the sticky dampness beneath her, uncomfortable. She lifted her legs twice, drew her knees up, leaned back against the headboard, and yanked the blanket open to let some of the heat out.