Chapter 67

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Baixin took Yu Min along to a relative’s daughter’s wedding. When she introduced Yu Min to other people as family, she always called her the younger sister from Siping County.

The wedding was grand and beautiful. Yu Min had never attended a local wedding in Hai City before; every place had its own customs and procedures, and she watched so intently that Lin Qi and the others at the same table could barely hold back their laughter. After the ceremony, they teased her. “Minmin, why are you being so serious? You look like you’re listening to a lecture. You were the most attentive person in the whole place. The bride even glanced over here a few times just now; you were staring so hard she got embarrassed.”

Yu Min had no idea at all. She just thought weddings were interesting. Hearing that, she awkwardly touched her face and refused to admit it. “I wasn’t. I wasn’t looking the whole time. I zoned out in the middle; I wasn’t watching the stage.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Fine, I believe you.”

“That’s how it was in the first place.”

The atmosphere in the hall was relaxed and cheerful; everyone laughed along. Even when nothing was especially funny, it still felt lively. Watching them bicker, Lin Baixin’s lips curved too, and her gaze softened.

Yu Min liked fish, so Lin Baixin helped her with fish twice, picking the meat cleanly into her bowl. The spotted seabass was tender and sweet, with few bones. Yu Min wasn’t very good at spitting out bones, so Lin Baixin removed every last one before giving it to her. Yu Min ate everything, then turned around and picked dishes for Lin Baixin in return, even serving her soup.

Lin Qi couldn’t stand watching any longer. She clicked her tongue a few times, then leaned over to Luoshu and acted cute, asking him to pick food for her too so she could enjoy the same treatment.

Unfortunately, Luoshu didn’t indulge her. He pinched her secretly and muttered, “Stop acting up. Be normal.”

Lin Qi weakly slumped onto Luoshu’s shoulder on purpose, hissing in pain twice before accusing him, “Honey, you’re so mean. You scared me, wuwuwu.”

Everyone at the table was family and close friends who knew each other well. Lin Qi’s act disgusted them all enough that they quickly cut her off. That was honestly a bit too sugary; there was no need to show off their affection like that. Everyone’s teeth were practically aching from it.

They’d booked their return flight for the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, so the fourth day was completely free. Lin Baixin took Yu Min out to wander around Hai City.

“Have your parents looked for you these past few days?”

“They did.”

“What did you talk about?”

Yu Min told the truth; there wasn’t much to talk about. It was all the same things she’d heard countless times before. She and her parents couldn’t talk to each other; more than anything, their values simply didn’t match. Usually, one phone call could only buy three minutes of peace. Once that time was up, the conversation was impossible to continue. Especially when she spoke to Yu Shengyu; Yu Shengyu had far too many problems, and he was much more annoying than the long-winded Zheng Qing. At least Zheng Qing wasn’t forcing Yu Min anymore. Most of the time, she was still fairly restrained. Yu Shengyu, on the other hand, always put on the airs of a father, and Yu Min had gradually lost all patience with him. In fact, during these past two days, she hadn’t replied to a single video call or message from Yu Shengyu; she couldn’t be bothered to act out a fake harmonious family scene with him.

The reason Lin Baixin had asked was that Yu Shengyu had called her, using concern for Yu Min as a pretext to ask about Yu Min’s situation.

She couldn’t hide that from Yu Min, so Lin Baixin told her everything. But Yu Min’s reaction was far calmer than she’d expected. Rather, Yu Min had no reaction at all. She answered as naturally as if she were drinking water. “I’ll call him back when we get home.”

“I was just passing it on. You don’t have to call back if you don’t want to; it probably doesn’t matter,” Lin Baixin said.

But Yu Min understood what she meant between the lines. Turning her head to glance at her, she asked bluntly, “You’re worried about me?”

Lin Baixin steered the wheel and turned the car, answering just as directly, “I guess so.”

“You are worried about me. You’re concerned about my business.”

“Mm.”

“I’m fine. I’ve always been fine.”

“I know.”

Yu Min said, “It’s different now. Before, when I heard things like that, I’d still feel a little hurt. But now I don’t. Whether it’s dealing with them or anything else, it’s actually fine. And… now I have you, so those things don’t count for much anymore. They’re not even enough to be called trouble.”

Now she had her.

Lin Baixin’s thick lashes moved, fluttering twice. Once again, that quiet, settled feeling rose in her heart, like a stream flowing through and leaving peace in its wake. Those words landed in her ears and somehow made her feel at ease, while also filling her with a strange, sour, swelling fullness. It was such a peculiar sensation that Lin Baixin instinctively avoided it and didn’t respond.

The cityscape of Hai City was completely different from Kyoto’s. The streets were full of dazzling prosperity and brilliance. There were no mixed lanes or old streets like Kyoto’s here; everything was urbanized and faster-paced than Kyoto.

Lin Baixin didn’t really like this place. It wasn’t that the city itself was bad—Hai City was very good. She simply felt no sense of belonging here, and even found herself a little resistant to it.

But Yu Min was curious about everything here; wherever she went, everything felt new.

They took the same flight back to Kyoto. When they got home, the first to come greet them was Lv Dagun. The little guy stretched lazily, then trotted over to the door, rubbing against both of them in a flurry.

Yu Min was the first to pick the little one up. Lv Dagun yowled several times, as if accusing them of leaving. Yu Min found it funny. After a while, she turned and handed the cat to Lin Baixin, who took it. Lv Dagun then shouted at Lin Baixin even louder.

They had left things behind. Lin Qi called them on video just in time to see that neither of them was unpacking, and they were taking turns holding the cat first. Lin Qi teased, “You two look so busy raising a child. No wonder you even left things behind and didn’t bring them with you. You were in such a hurry to go back.”

Lin Baixin held the cat up to the camera. Lv Dagun was impatient with Lin Qi, turned around, and showed her its backside, not even giving her a full face.

The “child” had to be soothed. They’d been gone for several days, and Lv Dagun was unhappy. Only after opening a can and giving it two freeze-dried treats did it calm down. The little thing got excited; one moment it was scratching at the cat tree, the next it was darting around the house. When it got tired, it flopped onto the floor belly-up toward the ceiling, rolling back and forth.

Yu Min laughed and poked its head, saying one thing while meaning another. “You little nuisance.”

Fortunately, Lv Dagun couldn’t understand human speech. It was dumb as can be, and took Yu Min’s soft-spoken words as praise. It immediately rolled around again, showing off cutely.

The day after they arrived in Kyoto, Lin Baixin went to the shop early to sort inventory. Yu Min went with her. The two of them stayed there for most of the day. Since work hadn’t started yet, the shop only had them in it. Lin Baixin was focused on her work and didn’t notice that a scrap of paper had somehow stuck to her hair.

Yu Min called her over and reached out to remove it. Then her fingertips landed by the corner of Lin Baixin’s mouth; she pressed against the edge of her lips and rubbed it twice with her thumb.

Lin Baixin didn’t understand and froze in place.

“There was a little dirt. I’m wiping it off for you,” Yu Min said, explaining it that way.

There was no mirror nearby, so Lin Baixin couldn’t see what her face looked like at the moment. She’d only gone to the storeroom, and the storeroom wasn’t dirty either. She hadn’t even noticed when something had gotten on the corner of her mouth. Since Yu Min said there was something there, she assumed there was. She stood rigidly in place like a statue.

Yu Min’s thumb was warm. Her fingers were round and pretty, her nails neatly trimmed. When they touched skin, the pressure was very light and ticklish.

She was only touched a few times, yet somehow Lin Baixin quickly felt as if she’d lost all sensation. Her lips went numb first. Soon after, that numbness flowed down her throat, passed through her heart, and spread through her limbs, reaching deep inside. Before long, her chest and back were both tingling, as if she’d been shocked.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

Before she could come back to her senses, Yu Min withdrew her hand and suddenly asked her back.

Lin Baixin blinked, only realizing belatedly that her absentmindedness just now hadn’t been right. She hurriedly explained, “I wasn’t. I was looking at the wall behind you. I was thinking maybe we should do something with that section. It feels a little empty without any decorations.”

Whether Yu Min believed her or not, after a moment she turned to look at the wall and echoed her. “It does look a little empty. Take your time; if you have time in a few days, you can do something with it.”

There wasn’t really anything to do. Add too much, and it would look flashy and cluttered, not fitting the shop’s style.

Lin Qi came back and firmly opposed Lin Baixin’s idea, looking at her suspiciously. “What kind of taste is that? If you hang more decorations up there, think about whether it’ll still look good. Anything you hang up there will just look superfluous.”

Lv Dagun had put on weight recently. The last time Yu Min took it for a checkup, the doctor said the little thing was at a normal weight. Still, for health’s sake, Yu Min decided to start feeding it on a schedule. Before carrying out that decision, she even “discussed” it with Lv Dagun, placing a piece of freeze-dried snack in front of it and saying softly, “If you agree, then eat this freeze-dried treat. If you don’t agree, then don’t eat it.”

Lv Dagun couldn’t understand her babbling at all, so it swallowed the treat in one bite. After eating, it rubbed against her hand and wanted more.

Watching the interaction between the person and the cat, Lin Baixin smiled and shook her head. After a moment, she went over and stroked the little cat’s head, as if to comfort its pitiful state.

This was too much bullying. It was excessive.

“What about me? Me too,” Yu Min said, lifting her head a little, childish as hell. “You have to treat everyone fairly.”

For fairness, Lin Baixin stroked her head as well, and didn’t leave her out.

Yu Min was childish to the end. Following Lv Dagun’s example, she leaned against Lin Baixin’s palm. Lin Baixin hadn’t expected that, but she let her do it anyway. A couple of brushes wouldn’t cost her a piece of flesh; she could do whatever she wanted.

Maybe because this New Year had been relatively peaceful, the new beginning seemed to herald stability and calm in the coming year. For a long time after that, their lives remained steady and without major ups and downs, always moving along the right track.

Even the ever-annoying Zheng Qing and the others behaved properly in the new year and didn’t cause any trouble.

The internship period was about to begin, and the specific placement list was announced not long after. Yu Min was lucky. The hospital she was assigned to wasn’t particularly far from Lin Baixin’s place; by car, the commute was under an hour.

In Kyoto, a commute of more than forty minutes counted as short. It was better than renting a place near the hospital, after all the housing around the hospital was far worse than Lin Baixin’s place. Moving somewhere new would require an adjustment period, and besides, during her internship she’d still have to go back to school often. It wasn’t as if she’d immediately cut ties with it. Yu Min was still a student; she was still very far from becoming a real doctor.

Lin Baixin compromised in the end and gave up on the idea of having Yu Min rent a place outside. She still let her stay at home.

Renting outside, or Yu Min buying a place of her own, were both poor choices. The real estate market had already passed its rising phase; whether for living in or investing, buying a house carried a lot of risk and wasn’t worth it.

“Since there’s a need, then just buy one. Why think about whether it’ll be a loss?” Lin Qi couldn’t understand what they were thinking. “Our Minmin is a rich lady now. She’s got so much money she won’t have to worry for the rest of her life. And her parents are the ones willing to buy it for her, so she doesn’t even have to pay herself. Whether it’s a loss or not is her parents’ problem. For her, buying it means she wins; she gains another asset. Isn’t that great?”

Lin Baixin explained, “She’d feel burdened. It’s not that simple.”

“That kid just has too strong a sense of morality. She’s honest and proper to a fault. Buying a house herself would be great. Driving that far every day is exhausting. If she bought a place near the hospital, she’d save at least an hour and a half of commuting every day. She’s never worked before; once she starts, she’ll understand how precious time is. Being able to sleep a little longer in the morning and get home early enough to lie down at night—that’s such a comfort. It’s a supreme enjoyment money can’t buy.”

Lin Baixin didn’t argue. That was true. Money could indeed buy a better experience; suffering less was the right thing to do, and there was no need to make life harder for oneself.

“Think of it as training. It’s fine, really. Anyway, I’m not that good at driving, so it works out—I can practice more,” Yu Min said, thinking more openly about it. Then she mentioned her classmates, how some of them lived farther away just to save on rent, with one-way commutes of more than two hours. Hers wasn’t that bad; in her class, it was already pretty good.

When the internship finally arrived, on the very first day, it wasn’t Yu Min who drove to the hospital; it was Lin Baixin who sent her. Lin Baixin was pretty free, so she picked her up and dropped her off morning and night, and even brought her lunch at noon. The hospital had a cafeteria, and there were plenty of restaurants around, so she shouldn’t have been worried that Yu Min wouldn’t have anything to eat. But Lin Baixin didn’t mind the trouble; every day she waited for the auntie to finish cooking, then took the food to the hospital and ate with Yu Min.

“I’m practically some kind of protected animal,” Yu Min said. “Working is so nice. It’s better than school.”

Lin Baixin had to spoil the mood a little and said, “I’m only giving you rides for this short while. After some time, I won’t be able to anymore. Once things get busy later, I won’t be able to make it over. Then you’ll have to eat by yourself.”

Yu Min said, “It’s fine. When I have time, I’ll come find you.”

Internship wasn’t a period for just reading books. Where would she get the time? She was running nonstop all day, often so busy she didn’t even have time to drink water.

Yu Min finally came to understand Jiang Zhou’s decision. It had nothing to do with whether one was afraid of hardship or not. Jiang Zhou had been right: if you didn’t have ambition or conviction for this field, it really would be hard to keep doing it for a lifetime.

“But I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a goal yet,” Yu Min said honestly to Lin Baixin. “I might not become a doctor in the future.”

She thought Lin Baixin would try to persuade her. Most people would. The profession of doctor carried too much glory; not many people would give it up so decisively after studying so hard for so many years.

But Lin Baixin wasn’t most people. She didn’t try to persuade her at all; instead, she supported Yu Min and said softly, “Then look slowly. There’s no rush. There’s still a long time ahead, and there will be many more choices. Life isn’t a fixed pattern. Maybe you’ll know what you want to do later on.”

Yu Min’s life ambition wasn’t to become a doctor; she was already certain of that. She’d only realized it after more than three years of university. The eight-year program was almost halfway done, and realizing it only now did seem a little late. But since she didn’t have any other dreams or goals for the time being, she still decided to keep going and take things one step at a time.

The future really was still long. What she wanted to do later could wait. She’d know later.

Of the old four-person group chat from back then, only Li Xue Ting was preparing to graduate. The other three were medical students, and four years wouldn’t be enough for them to graduate.

During the quieter moments of her internship, Yu Min would occasionally peek into the group chat and watch the others talk. She stayed silent the whole time, but her friends’ lives seemed just like hers; everything was calm and steady. Everyone was doing well.

Before the next winter arrived, Yu Min met Yu Shengyu once. The sun must have risen in the west; her father had actually come all this way not for anything in particular, but simply to visit his daughter.

Yu Min wasn’t used to warm, sentimental stuff, so when Yu Shengyu tried to draw closer to her as father and daughter, Yu Min promptly reminded him that their relationship wasn’t nearly that good yet. There was no need to act so insincere.

Yu Shengyu was pretty embarrassed. Yu Min didn’t want to listen to his explanations. In the end, she made it clear that she didn’t want Yu Shengyu coming by often. Yu Shengyu froze. Unexpectedly, he didn’t explode or throw a tantrum. He just stood there looking at Yu Min. After holding it in for a long while, he only said, “Your grandparents are old. If you have time later, you can go see them. If not, forget it.”

Yu Min had no time. She was too busy. Even meeting Yu Shengyu once required her to take special leave and make time. How could she ever make a separate trip back there?

As the seasons changed, the temperature swung wildly. Especially on those days that were neither cold nor warm, people could hardly tell when the weather had risen or dropped. It was once again the season for dressing in all kinds of strange layers.

This time, in late autumn, Lin Baixin, who had always had excellent health, caught a chill. This time it was her turn to get sick.

People who rarely fell ill often went down like a mountain collapsing once they did, even if it was only a minor cold.

That same day, Lin Baixin ran a high fever and went down hard.

Yu Min had worked overtime at the hospital for more than three hours that day, and by the time she got home it was almost midnight. When she opened the door, she saw Lin Baixin lying on the sofa under a thin blanket, the projector still on. At first, she thought Lin Baixin had fallen asleep watching a drama. She stepped forward to wake her and get her into the bedroom to sleep, but when she got closer, she realized something was wrong.

Lin Baixin was already feverish and dazed, unable to open her eyes. When Yu Min’s hand moved close to her forehead, Lin Baixin unconsciously leaned into it. Yu Min helped her up, gathered her into her arms, quickly tidied up a little, and rushed her to the hospital for urgent care.

An adult catching a cold and running a fever wasn’t a big deal. At the hospital, they’d just give fever medicine, plus some physical cooling methods; only if it got serious would they hang an IV.

Lin Baixin wasn’t severe enough to need an IV. The doctor only prescribed medicine and told them to go home and rest, then come back tomorrow if the fever still hadn’t gone down.

After they got home, Yu Min stayed at her side without taking a single step away. Lin Baixin looked far too fragile while sick; just looking at her made one’s heart clench painfully.

Whether it was because the fever had gone too high or for some other reason, Lin Baixin seemed trapped in a nightmare. Around midnight, she murmured in her sleep, whispering as if she were saying something.

Yu Min couldn’t make it out, so she moved closer and asked gently, “What’s wrong?”

Lin Baixin must not have heard her. She was still half-lost in a feverish haze.

It took a while before Yu Min finally heard what she was saying. She was calling for her mother. Most likely, in her dazed state, she had seen scenes from the past. Sweat was pouring down Lin Baixin’s forehead, and her body was drenched too.

Yu Min held her again, pulling her into her arms and patting her back lightly. She pressed her face against Lin Baixin’s temple, her forehead, her cheek; before long, she couldn’t help but kiss her twice.

A purely tender kiss, with no desire in it.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here.”

She kissed Lin Baixin’s hair, her face, the corner of her lips… Lin Baixin wasn’t in a completely unconscious state. She was aware; she could feel it clearly.

At this moment, Lin Baixin still didn’t push Yu Min away. She allowed everything Yu Min did.