Chapter 60

Before midsummer arrived, Lin Baixin’s fracture had completely healed. At her final follow-up appointment, the doctor said she’d recovered very well. Some people, after a fracture heals, are left with lingering problems: the bone may knit a little crookedly without affecting daily life, or an old injury may ache in damp, rainy weather. Lin Baixin was lucky; none of that happened.

Still, Yu Min worried. She was afraid the problem just hadn’t shown up yet, that something might suddenly go wrong one day. So even after Lin Baixin’s injury had healed, she kept caring for her with extra caution for a while longer. At home, she still refused to let Lin Baixin do anything. Even if Lin Baixin only wanted to take a book from the shelf, Yu Min had to do it for her—take it down, place it in front of her, and even open it for her.

“If this keeps up, my arm’s going to atrophy,” Lin Baixin said helplessly. “Didn’t the doctor say I should move it more? If you keep treating me like this, how am I supposed to move?”

“Moving it doesn’t mean you have to carry things,” Yu Min said, very seriously. “Just rotating your joints counts as movement. This is basically like breaking your thigh bone and then being told to go for a run because it’ll help you recover. That would only make it worse.”

“It’s not that serious.”

“I’m just making an analogy.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“Anyway, don’t lift anything. Wait a few more days.”

The tonics were still simmering. Yu Min kept making all sorts of things for her and changing the menu every day. Today it was bird’s nest soup. Her phone had been left on the kitchen counter; from morning until noon, messages kept popping up on the screen every so often.

During a lull in their conversation, another message came in. Yu Min had enabled notification privacy, so the screen only showed that there was a new message, not who sent it or what it said.

Lin Baixin had excellent eyesight. Even from several meters away, she could catch it at a glance. When the screen lit up again, she couldn’t help glancing over once more before speaking. “Aren’t you going to look?”

Yu Min answered honestly, “It’s my dad. He’s got way too much time on his hands; he’s been pestering me since early this morning. No need to bother with him. The more I reply, the more energetic he gets.”

“What does he want?”

“No idea. He said he wanted to video call me and talk. I told him to just message me, but he refused. Made a whole mystery out of it.”

“Maybe it’s something important.”

“If it were really important, he’d say so directly. Why drag it out?”

That was true. If it were urgent enough, even if Yu Min ignored him, they would have found Lin Baixin already; they definitely would have asked Zhou Jin’s family to call her first.

Last time Yu Min went out, she didn’t go see Zheng Qing and the others. In fact, she had originally planned to. Not because she’d softened, but because she was worried that if she didn’t go, Zheng Qing would come looking for her and bring unnecessary trouble to Lin Baixin. But once she got there, she regretted it. She stopped at the door and never went in. She didn’t want to see either of those two people, whether it was Zheng Qing or Yu Shengyu, no matter whether they had already made up or what they’d decided about her.

Yu Min wandered outside for a long time. Around noon, she found a noodle shop and ate something; only after confirming that Zheng Qing had left did she go to Lin Baixin’s shop.

“I don’t want to see her. There’s nothing for us to talk about,” Yu Min said after thinking for a moment. “Besides, if we meet, we’ll probably argue. We don’t get along. I used to be able to ignore it, but now I really can’t.”

“Then don’t see her. Don’t force yourself,” Lin Baixin said. “If you don’t want to deal with it, then don’t. Just turn on Do Not Disturb.”

Even if she turned on Do Not Disturb, she would still have to open the chat window; once she did, she could see the messages. Yu Min glanced at it casually and roughly saw what Yu Shengyu had sent. Her hand paused for a moment, but she still turned on Do Not Disturb and ignored him.

The bird’s nest turned out pretty well. Lin Baixin gave it a high rating. After that, she still told Yu Min not to go to so much trouble; this kind of thing could be left to the housekeeper. Yu Min was already busy enough as a student, so there was no need to keep wearing herself out over this.

After this summer ended, Yu Min’s sophomore year would officially come to a close. Time flew; in the blink of an eye, another year had passed.

Lü Dagun had been shedding a lot lately. After all, it was a long-haired animal; shedding for half the year, twice a year, was perfectly normal.

Not being particular about it, Yu Min and Lin Baixin sat on the floor together to brush Lü Dagun’s fur. The two of them faced each other. Lü Dagun wasn’t very cooperative and hated being brushed, so the little thing kept darting around. They had no choice but to have one person comfort the cat while the other brushed; during the process, there was inevitably some physical contact, but neither of them minded much and ignored those small details.

Their legs were touching too. Yu Min was wearing shorts, Lin Baixin a skirt. Although Lü Dagun was round and plump, the cat still only weighed a little over ten jin; no matter how you looked at it, it couldn’t get that big. At first Yu Min’s knee was pressed against the floor, but before long it somehow ended up resting against the inside of Lin Baixin’s thigh. They trapped Lü Dagun in the middle; with nowhere to run, the little thing could only lie flat and accept its fate while being brushed, occasionally letting out a few mournful cries.

One grooming session could brush out a fist-sized ball of fur. The two of them tossed it around for quite a while. Once they were almost done, Lü Dagun seized the chance to run. Lin Baixin instinctively reached out to grab it, but instead of catching the cat, she caught Yu Min’s ankle. She froze; by the time she reacted, it was already too late.

Yu Min stayed fairly calm. She reached out with her other hand, caught Lü Dagun, and wordlessly tossed the little thing back to where it had been, as if nothing had happened.

“Don’t run around. Stay put,” Yu Min said, tapping Lü Dagun on the head. “There’s still a little left. After we finish, I’ll open a can for you.”

The moment Lü Dagun heard “can,” it became obedient at once, flopped down immediately, and waited for Yu Min to open it.

After brushing its fur, Lin Baixin took the can. The two of them had gotten covered in cat hair. Yu Min picked up the lint roller and cleaned Lin Baixin off first, then cleaned herself.

The lint roller wasn’t very effective; it didn’t pick up the cat hair cleanly and had to be rolled over again and again to get most of it off.

Lin Baixin actually didn’t mind cat hair sticking to her clothes. After keeping cats for so long, she was used to living peacefully with fur that seemed to be everywhere. But since Yu Min wanted to help remove it, she didn’t refuse. She stood still as the roller moved from her shoulder downward. The curved areas were the hardest; Yu Min rolled back and forth for quite a while before getting the hair off.

Yu Min’s face didn’t show much expression. She was very calm. Only when the roller reached below Lin Baixin’s collarbone did she pause slightly, as if a little hesitant. But the next second, she continued rolling there as normal. When she moved behind Lin Baixin, she said softly, “Lift your arm a little.”

Lin Baixin, likewise, showed no emotion and did as she was told. The roller slowly moved down the line of her back, inch by inch. Just as it neared her waist, it stopped again.

There wasn’t much cat hair on her back. For the bits that wouldn’t come off, Yu Min switched hands. Then her fingertips suddenly pressed against Lin Baixin’s lower back, landing there without warning. Lin Baixin, utterly unprepared, had thought they were already done. The next moment, she felt the other woman’s fingers press over a certain spot, the motion gradually sliding lower. She froze at once. It happened so abruptly that for a moment she didn’t know how she should react.

It was just cat hair removal; only more thorough, and a little slower.

Yu Min was standing behind Lin Baixin, in a place Lin Baixin couldn’t see unless she turned around.

A display cabinet lined the side wall; the dark gray glass faintly reflected the two of them. At first glance, maybe because of the angle, the reflection made it look as if Yu Min were hugging her from behind. The two of them looked rather suggestive in that moment. Clearly nothing had been done, nothing had happened, but the image somehow still looked a little ambiguous, carrying a trace of unspoken intimacy.

The skirt was made of thin fabric; that faint layer was nowhere near enough to block the warmth of the other woman’s fingertips, and every touch came through with startling clarity.

Yu Min was far too meticulous. It took her ages to stop. She picked off each strand one by one, slowly, and even helped smooth the wrinkles in Lin Baixin’s skirt.

“Did you buy this new?” Yu Min asked. She had never seen this dress before; today was the first time Lin Baixin had worn it.

Lin Baixin averted her gaze as much as possible and deliberately avoided looking toward the display cabinet.

“Yeah. I bought it last week.”

“It looks really good. It suits you.” Yu Min praised her generously. She liked the dress; its cut outlined Lin Baixin’s figure just right, not too much and not too little. It looked especially eye-catching.

Ignoring the strange sensations once again, Lin Baixin continued to ignore what Yu Min was doing, as if she couldn’t feel that restless hand wandering somewhere it shouldn’t. In any case, Yu Min wouldn’t cross the line.

“Gu Yue recommended the shop. It’s made from cloth bought there,” Lin Baixin said in a low voice. “If you like it, you can go browse there sometime. That shop’s pretty good; the old tailor is impressive, and the workmanship is good.”

“Mm, okay.”

A cat’s cry pulled them both back. The can for Lü Dagun still hadn’t been opened yet; the little thing flicked its tail in displeasure. It had been waiting forever and didn’t understand what the two of them were standing around for. Its pair of big round eyes stared fixedly at the can; after calling out, it flopped onto the floor and showed its belly, urging them to hurry up.

The fur on Yu Min’s own clothes had stuck on by itself, so Lin Baixin didn’t need to help her. She just rolled the lint roller over herself a few times and was done; she minded the cat hair less than Lin Baixin did. Lü Dagun slept on her bed every day, and she was basically immune to cat fur by now. This little bit of loose fluff didn’t amount to much.

Next semester would be their junior year. By then, some students had already started worrying about jobs after graduation; most people preparing for civil service exams or graduate school had already begun.

Medical students were under comparatively less pressure at this stage. Just the undergraduate program alone was five years, and Yu Min was in an eight-year combined track. Only a quarter of the time had passed so far; there were still six years left. It was still very early.

“After you graduate, are you going to be a doctor?” Jiang Zhou asked curiously.

The question was odd. Weren’t most medical students doctors after graduation? Or did work related to medicine. Yu Min had never thought about any option other than being a doctor. She turned to look at Jiang Zhou, frowning. “You’re not going to be one?”

“Of course not.” Jiang Zhou sounded completely certain; instead, she thought Yu Min was the strange one. “Being a doctor is so tiring, with so many things to deal with and so little money. If I did that, I’d probably never amount to anything in my whole life. Why would I go looking for trouble?”

Yu Min asked, “Then what will you do after you graduate?”

“Not decided yet. I’ll see when the time comes.” Jiang Zhou propped up her cheek. “What about you? You still haven’t answered my question.”

“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought it through either,” Yu Min said. “I’ll probably be a doctor. Most likely.”

“That’s your dream?”

“No.”

“Then why did you apply for this major? Eight years, you know. Eight years of your youth. If you switched to another major, you could graduate earlier—at least four years earlier. Why waste the time?”

Yu Min asked back, “What about you? Isn’t eight years a waste for you?”

Jiang Zhou smiled. “It’s not so bad. I chose this major because the title sounds impressive. It sounds good when you say it out loud. Studying medicine makes you sound capable. Not like some majors, where no matter how impressive the name is, once you actually say it, people just think you’re some loser who bought a degree.”

There were not many wealthy families willing to come and suffer through medicine. Even fewer actually went into the field after graduation. Jiang Zhou was one of the latter. For a doctor to truly make a name for themselves was even harder than starting a business successfully, mainly because the income was too low. Jiang Zhou had done the math; even if she graduated and entered a decent top-tier hospital, and her career steadily rose from there, by the time she was old she still wouldn’t have earned enough to buy the villa her parents had transferred into her name some time ago. A stable job didn’t make big money; that much was certain.

“If you have that drive, if you’ve got ambition and ideals, then sure, go ahead and do it. Otherwise, don’t. Change direction sooner and you’ll suffer less,” Jiang Zhou said. She looked carefree and unreliable, but the advice she gave was very practical.

Yu Min didn’t have that kind of ambition, but she also didn’t have that much money. She couldn’t afford that kind of freedom.

“Didn’t your parents say they were going to transfer the house, the storefront, and everything into your name? How is that not enough? Don’t tell me you’re so noble you won’t take it, that you don’t want any of it,” Jiang Zhou said, sitting up abruptly, her expression turning serious at once.

Yu Min told the truth. “I don’t want it.”

“Are you stupid? If you can’t get past anything else, fine, but why are you fighting money? How clueless can you be?” Jiang Zhou was practically furious on her behalf, more anxious than Yu Min herself. “Wanting to fight for your pride is one thing, but calm down and think about your sister.”

“It has nothing to do with her.”

“How does it not? It has a huge connection.”

“Oh.”

“The biggest distance in this world is the distance between rich and poor. A rich person and a broke person can never really make a pair. Even if they do get together, they won’t be able to make it work.”

“……”

“That’s the truth. You’re still young; you’ll understand when you’re older.”

Last time Zheng Qing came looking for her, and this time Yu Shengyu, both of them had been trying to transfer property to Yu Min. Those two were trying to give her their assets for free; who knew what was wrong with their heads. Yu Min would not bow to money. She had backbone, and she really wasn’t tempted by wealth at all.

Jiang Zhou couldn’t understand her and couldn’t persuade her. She shook her head and sighed. “Forget it. If one day your sister doesn’t want you anymore, and you still don’t have any money, my place will always welcome you. As long as you can accept me, I’ll still like you.”

Jiang Zhou was blunt and couldn’t keep secrets. Back when they had only known each other for a short while, she had already confessed to Yu Min and, of course, had been rejected as expected. Yu Min had told her her biggest secret, and Jiang Zhou hadn’t been surprised at all. She had thought seriously about it for a long time back then, then accepted it.

“Fine. But Lin boss really is outstanding. Losing to her, I’m convinced.”

After that, they became friends. Not being able to be lovers was certainly a pity, but changing their relationship wasn’t necessarily a worse way to get along. Jiang Zhou adapted to the role of friend very quickly and often acted as Yu Min’s strategist. Yu Min shared many things with her, including some that Lin Baixin herself didn’t know.

Jiang Zhou’s opinions were very useful. Yu Min kept thinking about them after she got back. While watching TV, she leaned half her body toward Lin Baixin; then she leaned a little farther, until she was almost resting in Lin Baixin’s arms.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lin Baixin glanced over and saw her worried expression. Concerned, she asked, “What’s wrong? Does something hurt?”

“No...” Yu Min replied immediately. After half a second, she changed her answer and, taking advantage of the moment, leaned all the way over to rest against her. “A little. My head hurts.”

The soft weight against her arm made Lin Baixin tense in response. But Yu Min’s movements were too natural, as if it were only right. In the next instant, Lin Baixin could only force herself not to dwell on it. She shifted slightly, pressed her face against the top of Yu Min’s head, and kept her voice steady as always. “What’s wrong?”