Chapter 57

The projector was on. Used to having the TV on in the living room, they’d put on a family drama tonight. Yu Min wasn’t fond of that kind of domestic squabbling, so before long she switched it to a wildlife documentary.

Lin Baixin had changed it. Seeing that Yu Min didn’t like it, she picked something Yu Min would be interested in.

“Change it again,” Yu Min said. “Pick something you actually want to watch.”

“I can watch this.” The sofa didn’t leave much room, so Lin Baixin had to sit turned sideways. There was empty space behind her, and every so often she had to steady herself with her uninjured hand, or she’d get tired holding the position.

Yu Min mentioned an old movie title, one Zhao Shiyu had recommended before. She still hadn’t watched it, and now she could watch it with Lin Baixin.

Lin Baixin rarely watched documentaries. They were a little boring, and if they went on too long, they became almost hypnotic and easy to fall asleep to. The first two times they had watched documentaries together, Lin Baixin had been bored enough to doze off. Yu Min remembered all of that.

Not long after, they switched to the old movie after all. Yu Min did want to see it; she hadn’t watched this one before. It was an arthouse film starring Maggie Cheung. Lin Baixin had already seen it, but she didn’t say so. She kept quiet and watched it with Yu Min.

The film moved at a rather slow pace, with most of its scenes feeling hazy and unreal. Arthouse films had that kind of style; if you could sink into them, it was fine, but if you couldn’t, the plot felt scattered and messy, like empty posturing.

More than half the movie had played when Yu Min, who’d only glanced at the screen for a few minutes at first, gradually stopped paying much attention to the film. Her mind wasn’t on the movie; it had slowly drifted back and settled on the matter at hand.

She was still massaging Lin Baixin; that was the more important thing.

Lin Baixin wasn’t straining herself, and Yu Min wasn’t actually using much force. She had tried to stay careful the whole time, but she still ended up pressing too hard on Lin Baixin a few times.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even pain, not really. It was just that Lin Baixin rarely got massages, so she wasn’t used to it. She wasn’t quite accustomed to someone touching her like this.

Especially with her legs bare right now and the skirt draped loosely over them, she felt an inexplicable awkwardness.

That feeling had come over her in front of Yu Min, in front of a girl seven years younger than her. It was strange beyond words.

Lin Baixin had dealt with all kinds of people, and she never felt this way toward anyone else. Whether it was acquaintances, friends, or customers, most of the time she handled everything with ease and composure, no matter the setting. Even when something unexpected came up, she stayed calm and collected; she didn’t react like this for no reason.

She knew perfectly well that this was all in her own head. Even if she deliberately refused to look deeper, she understood what it meant.

The light from the projector screen fell over both of them, wrapping them in its glow. Yu Min was quite good at multitasking; while massaging Lin Baixin, she stared fixedly at the screen, apparently fully absorbed in the movie.

After finishing the calf, she moved higher. Through it all, Yu Min was proper and restrained; she wouldn’t touch anything she shouldn’t, and she didn’t look where she shouldn’t either.

If she was going to give a massage, then she’d do it properly. She absolutely wouldn’t cross the line.

Lin Baixin gave another muffled hum and couldn’t help shrinking back a little. Only then did Yu Min look up and glance at her, but before she could ask anything, Lin Baixin turned her face away first and said, “I’m fine.”

After the legs came the back and shoulders; the arms needed massaging too.

Yu Min was extremely attentive. Without needing Lin Baixin to say a word, she massaged everything for her. When she was done, she even brought over body lotion. Lin Baixin was used to applying it herself, but now she couldn’t, so Yu Min did it for her.

She only applied it to the places that could be exposed, like the arms. The parts covered by the dress were left alone. Lin Baixin lay half-reclined while Yu Min sat beside her, chatting with her from time to time.

They talked about random things; once her attention was distracted, the discomfort became much easier to bear.

“Jiang Zhou… your friends, how are they now? Was the trip going smoothly?” Lin Baixin asked.

“I don’t know. It should be going smoothly,” Yu Min said, unconcerned and focused on what she was doing. “I saw them post on Moments today; looked fine. They seemed pretty happy.”

“Then that’s good.”

“Don’t worry. Losing me won’t affect their trip.” Yu Min said this as she spread lotion around Lin Baixin’s knee, then moved farther upward. This time she went even higher than before. Still, she didn’t lower her eyes. Her gaze stayed on the screen as she added, “Jiang Zhou sent me a video this morning. They’re doing pretty well out there. They’ll reach the next city tomorrow.”

Hearing that Jiang Zhou had called via video, Lin Baixin couldn’t help turning to look at Yu Min again. But her face showed no emotion at all, and Lin Baixin no longer had the heart to care about that.

Her left hand braced behind her again as she gripped the leather sofa. Lin Baixin’s legs were slightly bent, and the thin straps of her dress were almost covering Yu Min’s hand, so from Lin Baixin’s angle she could barely even see it.

But she could feel it.

The lotion was slick, carrying a faint fragrance. When it was first spread on the skin, it felt cool; once rubbed in, there was a hint of warmth.

Yu Min’s warmth in her palm.

The movie had reached its latter half, and the story finally began to build some conflict. The pace picked up, and perhaps because the plot shifted so suddenly, the pressure of Yu Min’s hands also grew a little heavier.

Lin Baixin didn’t feel hurt anymore. After the massage had gone on for a while, she gradually got used to it. Later she didn’t make a sound at all, holding herself back. After a moment, like Yu Min, she turned her head back toward the screen and watched the movie again, regardless of whether the plot still made sense. She had already seen it once before; it didn’t matter.

Halfway through applying the lotion, Yu Min and Lin Baixin chatted about the plot. It was just to keep the conversation going, but perhaps because the house was too quiet, the two of them talked for a while and then fell silent again, both of them going mute and slipping back into that wordless world.

Applying body lotion was even more troublesome than a massage, and it took no less time. After that, Yu Min still applied it to Lin Baixin’s back. Lin Baixin couldn’t reach her own back, though she could manage the rest on her own.

Maybe it was because the movie was so dull, but the rest of the time became especially hard to endure. Time itself seemed to slow down; it was absurdly sluggish, unbearably long.

Lin Baixin wasn’t in a hurry; she had the patience for it. Yu Min did too. It wasn’t until it was getting late, somehow already half past ten, that Lin Baixin finally reached out and caught Yu Min’s hand, gripping her wrist and saying in a low voice, “That’s enough.”

Yu Min stopped at once and didn’t continue.

“Rest now; go back to your room and sleep,” Lin Baixin added, though she still didn’t move.

Yu Min was obedient. She took two tissues to wipe her hands and replied, “Mm. Then I’m going to wash up. Call me again if you need anything.” She got up, took a couple of steps, then seemed to remember something and added, “You should rest early too.”

Once she went into her room, Lin Baixin didn’t rest early at all. By the time Yu Min was already lying down, the room next door was still lit, the lights refusing to go out.

It was only in the middle of the night that the light finally went off.

In this room, Yu Min was lying on her side in bed, facing the door. The moment the lights went out, she sensed movement from over there. She opened her eyes, then soon closed them again, as if she hadn’t noticed anything at all and had already fallen into a deep sleep.

The next day was cloudless and sunny, a rare stretch of good weather. Lin Baixin happened to have a day off, so she didn’t need to go to the shop.

They stayed home and didn’t go out for most of the day. Only in the evening did the two of them go for a walk in the nearby park and step outside for some fresh air.

They passed a flower shop, and Lin Baixin bought a bouquet of baby’s breath along with some other varieties Yu Min didn’t recognize. The flowers they’d bought last time at home were starting to wilt, so it was time to replace them.

Yu Min paid at the counter. Lin Baixin had already pulled up the payment code, but Yu Min was half a step faster. After paying, she even bought a long-necked vase from the shop.

Back at the house, Yu Min handled soaking the flowers and trimming the stems, while Lin Baixin stood beside her and directed her, teaching her how to do it.

Later that evening, Lin Qi came again, as she usually did to stop by.

Seeing that Lin Baixin was being well cared for by Yu Min, Lin Qi didn’t stay long. She still had other things to do, so she left to get busy.

Lin Qi had brought chicken soup, still steaming, in a thermos. It was a nourishing broth specially simmered by a chef for Lin Baixin. Since Lin Baixin wasn’t able to drink soup easily, Yu Min fetched a bowl, filled it halfway, let it cool a bit, then scooped it up with a spoon and fed it to Lin Baixin’s mouth.

Lin Baixin cooperated and opened her mouth, drinking it little by little.

After she’d had enough, Lin Baixin belatedly reacted and said slowly, “I can drink it myself.”

Yu Min knew that and answered indifferently, “Mm.”

The next line should have been, “Then next time I can do it myself,” but the words had already reached Lin Baixin’s lips. Yet Yu Min looked so natural about it that she couldn’t say it in the end; she could only swallow it back down and say nothing.

The chicken soup tasted good, not greasy at all, just the way Lin Baixin liked it.

Yu Min drank a small bowl too, using the same bowl from before. She probably didn’t think anything of it; she didn’t mind and didn’t care, and she did it very smoothly. When Lin Baixin saw that, she froze again, but still didn’t say anything.

One less bowl to wash. If she drank it, then so be it.

Yu Min asked Lin Qi for a recipe, then later made chicken soup at home herself, so there’d be no need to go out to pick it up and keep running back and forth.

Lin Qi sent the recipe over very quickly. It wasn’t some secret family formula; it was just ordinary chicken soup. Regarding Yu Min’s behavior, Lin Qi expressed extreme envy, saying with emotion, “Your sister is so lucky. With you there, I’m relieved.”

Since she was on holiday and had plenty of free time, for a while Yu Min’s daily routine, besides reading and studying, was basically just two things: researching all kinds of nourishing supplements, and helping Lin Baixin with every possible method of recovery.

Of course, those methods didn’t have much effect. Recovering from a fracture mainly depended on the body’s own healing ability and on resting properly.

Lin Baixin herself took it all well. Every two days, Yu Min would massage her once. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t hot, so she didn’t need to bathe that often; once every two or three days was fine. She gradually began to enjoy this treatment, even if Yu Min’s massage technique was mediocre, even clumsy by comparison.

And perhaps because she had too much free time, when she had nothing to do Lin Baixin would occasionally bask in the sun, or wander around the house.

Most of the time, when Yu Min was bent over studying seriously, Lin Baixin would always look at her from afar. Even Lin Baixin herself didn’t realize it; she often drifted off and stared at Yu Min for a long time without meaning to.

Yu Min seemed very different from the girl in her memory. There’s a saying that the impression of a person stays frozen at the first time you meet them. Lin Baixin had always been like that before; whenever she looked at Yu Min, it was as if she were seeing her from the moment they first met, treating her like a child, like that quiet little girl who seldom spoke. Only now, all these years later, was she realizing for the first time just how much Yu Min had grown. It wasn’t just that her appearance had changed; she was different in every way.

Yu Min was an adult now. She was no longer the little girl who had been living under someone else’s roof, always sitting alone on a wooden chair in quiet melancholy. Perhaps because her arm had been injured this time, Lin Baixin finally had such a real and concrete sense of it. This feeling was complicated. A girl growing up was a good thing, yet for some reason Lin Baixin felt uneasy, suddenly hollow inside.

A child growing up meant that someday there would be a separation. Just as she had said before, Yu Min had grown up; in the future she wouldn’t need to rely on her anymore. Yu Min would have her own life, and parting ways was the inevitable result.

She had never thought of keeping Yu Min by her side forever. Lin Baixin had understood from the very beginning that everything now was temporary. In the first half year after Yu Min had been brought over, Lin Baixin had already prepared herself for possible situations; for example, Yu Min might go back to boarding school after living here for a couple of months, just like in high school. For example, the Yu family might contact this side and interfere. Or, for another example, Yu Min’s parents might come looking for her, and if Yu Min refused to leave, what would she do then?

None of those guesses had come true. Yu Min was living here just fine, no one had come for her, and she had never said she wanted to leave.

But what about later?

The future was unknown; nothing was certain.

“What are you thinking about, staring off like that?” Yu Min had come over; Lin Baixin hadn’t noticed at all. It was only when the girl got close that she snapped back to her senses.

“Nothing.” Lin Baixin shook her head and turned away, casually clearing the somewhat messy tabletop. “Finished your book?”

“Taking a break,” Yu Min said. “I’ve been reading too long; my eyes are tired. I can’t take it.”

“Want to go out for a walk?”

“No need.”

Even though they were just standing face-to-face and doing nothing at all, the atmosphere somehow became awkwardly stuck in between. Lin Baixin subconsciously wanted to avoid her, and thanks to her reason, she managed to hold that impulse back and not act on it.

Noticing her avoidance, Yu Min stayed perfectly natural. She didn’t step back; instead she came a little closer and used the opportunity to glance at Lin Baixin’s left hand, checking how the splint was fixed.

Lin Baixin just had a fracture; she wasn’t numb. When Yu Min accidentally touched her hand, she almost forgot she was injured and reflexively tried to pull away. Yu Min stopped her at once, saying, “Don’t move. I’m just checking.”

Knowing she’d reacted too strongly, Lin Baixin kept her expression fairly calm on the surface. Fortunately, she hadn’t shown it too obviously. She didn’t actually dodge, but her fingertips still couldn’t help trembling twice.

After the check, Yu Min mentioned that they still had to go to the hospital for a follow-up visit tomorrow. There was also one more thing Yu Min hesitated over, unsure whether to tell her. She wavered, not knowing how to begin.

Lin Baixin asked, puzzled, “What now? What else are you hiding from me?”

“No, I’m not hiding anything,” Yu Min said, unconsciously pressing her pretty lips together. “Forget it; it’s not a big deal.”

“Then say it.”

“I’ll tell you in a couple of days.”

“You’re being so mysterious.”

“It really isn’t a big deal.”

The more she said that, the more curious Lin Baixin became. Yu Min rarely acted like this; clearly, she was troubled. She must have run into something thorny.

Yu Min only ever looked like this about one kind of matter. Lin Baixin knew her too well. She had faintly guessed the truth, but since Yu Min didn’t want to say it right now, Lin Baixin didn’t press her and waited for her to work through it first.

A couple of days later, Yu Min honestly confessed and explained what the matter really was.

“My mom contacted me. She’s come to Kyoto,” Yu Min said. “She wants to meet me.”

The prediction came true. Lin Baixin had expected this already, but hearing it still made her pause. For once, she didn’t know how to respond. After a long while, she mechanically parted her lips and asked softly, “Then you… are you going?”