Chapter 10

“You lost your phone? Where did you lose it? In the classroom? I’ll go back with you and look.” As she spoke, she turned and started back the way she’d come.

This was a big deal. Why had this girl only just mentioned it now?

Yan Can wasn’t some phone addict, but being without her phone still made her uneasy. That was true not just for her, but for a lot of people.

Most importantly, phones held private information. If someone picked it up and leaked her privacy, what a mess that would be!

Su Ci wasn’t nearly as anxious. Saying she’d lost her phone was as casual as saying she’d lost a draft sheet: “No need to look.”

Yan Can had already taken a few steps. At that, she gave an “oh,” walked backward until she was back in front of Su Ci, and looked at her. “You’re planning to buy a new one, right?”

She must already have figured out what to do.

“But if your phone’s gone, don’t you need to report the SIM card as lost? You’ll have to freeze your bank card too.”

As she spoke, she glanced at Chen Shu, who was waiting not far away. “I’ll take you to the carrier office right now, then we’ll go to the bank. You’ll need a new phone too; I’ll go with you—”

“Yan Can.”

“Mm? What is it?”

“You…” Su Ci’s light brown eyes lifted to hers; her expression was calm, but what she said made Yan Can’s heart go cold.

“…can you let me catch my breath?”

They had known each other for barely a week, and in that time Yan Can had already helped her far too much.

She was grateful.

But accepting other people’s help again and again made her feel guilty. More than that, it left her with a strange, unspeakable discomfort.

It felt as if something damp and heavy had wrapped around her, making it hard to breathe.

That feeling was awful.

“Let you catch your breath?” Yan Can repeated blankly.

She hadn’t expected Su Ci to say that.

She’d always been outgoing and generous; ever since she was little, she had been popular.

There wasn’t a classmate or teacher who didn’t like her.

As long as she was willing, she could get along with anyone. If she said she wanted to be friends with someone, no one would refuse.

But Su Ci was different. She was unlike anyone Yan Can had ever known or gotten along with before.

She always rejected her kindness, always rejected her closeness.

She always wanted to push her farther away, farther still.

All of Yan Can’s past experience with people was useless with this one.

She didn’t want to deal with her anymore.

She bit her lower lip without a word and didn’t look at Su Ci.

It felt as if a huge stone were pressing down on her chest; everything was so blocked up it hurt.

With no outlet, that feeling rose up in her body instead. For example, her eyes were already starting to sting and burn.

She turned her face away, took a deep breath, and walked toward the car without saying another word.

She wasn’t walking fast. If Su Ci had wanted to, she could have stopped her before she got in.

But Su Ci didn’t.

Realizing that, Yan Can’s lips curved into a self-mocking smile; she yanked the car door shut with a heavy bang.

By the time Chen Shu saw Yan Can walking over with a cold face, he had already tactfully gotten into the car. Now he was in the driver’s seat.

Yan Can buckled her seat belt and said, “Go home.”

Her tone was icy; anyone could hear that she was angry.

Chen Shu didn’t dare hesitate. He stepped on the gas, and the car pulled away mercilessly, black exhaust trailing behind it.

After the black sedan had driven a hundred meters past her, Su Ci finally tore her gaze away, dazed, and turned to walk in the opposite direction.

Su Ci’s home was a long way from school; usually she took the bus there and back. But for some reason today, she suddenly wanted to walk home.

The uniform from the elite school was especially eye-catching, and paired with her beautiful face, she always looked cool and distant when she wasn’t speaking.

A pretty girl with a touch of aloofness always drew the attention of people her age.

So along the way, boys kept sneaking looks at her.

A few bold ones even came up to talk to her.

Su Ci turned them down coldly.

By the time she got home, more than half an hour had passed. In summer, the days were long and the nights short; it got dark late. At this hour, the sky wasn’t dim yet, and the streetlights hadn’t come on.

But with the same sky and the same light, the high-rises all around stole away the brightness and the shadows. The four-story residential building where Su Ci now lived always looked gloomy and cold.

Stepping into the alley felt like stepping into another world.

Outside was a riot of color; here, everything was crowded together in a jumble.

Flyers and ads clung to the mottled walls, and the stairwell was piled high with filthy clutter.

The smell of a stinking ditch assaulted her nose.

Su Ci seemed used to all of it; her brows didn’t even furrow once.

She stopped in front of the rusted green iron door, took the key from her pocket, and slid it into the lock. The moment her gaze swept to the number on the lower right corner of the wall, her expression changed drastically.

The weather forecast had said there would be a heavy rain in the middle of the night. What no one expected was that, just as the streetlights came on, the rain would suddenly come crashing down.

It was pouring hard, washing over the glass; the purple flowers outside the window were battered into disarray.

After losing miserably at two games, Yan Can stared at the small streams sliding rapidly down the window and felt every bit as damp and miserable as the rain.

Actually, the moment she snapped “Go home” at the driver in a fit of anger, she had already regretted it.

What was she doing? Getting mad at Su Ci? That was completely unnecessary!

She didn’t need to be affected by Su Ci’s mood at all. From the beginning, she had approached Su Ci to protect her, keep her from dying, and then let herself live comfortably and carefree.

Why should she make herself unhappy over a single sentence from Su Ci?

After thinking it through, Yan Can called Su Ci.

Unexpectedly, though also not unexpectedly, Su Ci didn’t answer, and the verification request didn’t go through either.

Maybe she just hadn’t had time to buy a phone yet?

Yan Can looked at the downpour outside and thought.

The next morning was overcast, and the weather forecast still showed rain in the middle of the night.

Who knew whether it was accurate.

Yan Can didn’t care; after all, she had a driver to pick her up and drop her off.

After one night, she had already cooled off.

But the fact that Su Ci still hadn’t accepted her verification request left her annoyed; it had practically become her inner demon.

She kept glancing at her phone from time to time.

No answer to the call; the verification was still pending.

Had this girl not bought a phone yet, or did she just not want to talk to her?

Yan Can thought about that for the entire first morning self-study period, and even when the homeroom teacher announced before the bell that there would be a placement test this week, she barely heard a word.

After class, she really couldn’t hold back anymore. Using the class break’s miserable ten minutes, she crossed the covered walkway and came to the door of Class 1, Grade 2.

The students in the class had a deep impression of her face; when they saw her, they looked surprised.

What happened with Wang Hui had fermented overnight, and by this morning it had spread across the entire campus like it had grown wings.

Everyone knew Wang Hui had offended Miss Yan and been forced to drop out, which made a lot of people a little afraid of her.

But because of her pretty face, and the good impression she had always given them before, more people still liked her than feared her.

Yan Can reached the doorway and didn’t see Su Ci at a glance. She casually pulled over a classmate and asked.

After learning that Su Ci had taken leave, she walked out of the classroom and, while heading back toward her own teaching building, called Su Ci.

It didn’t go through.

Could this girl have done something stupid?

Yan Can realized she was getting a little obsessed now. As long as Su Ci was out of her sight and not under her control, she started worrying that something bad had happened to her.

Thinking of that, Yan Can began to panic. She didn’t even bother going back to her class. She called Zhang Ru and asked her to help her take the day off.

When driver Chen Shu received the call, he was quite surprised. But he was a smart man; he didn’t ask anything. Wherever the young miss told him to go, he went.

When the car stopped at the entrance to the alley from last time, it wasn’t hard for him to guess what was going on.

“You can go back first,” Yan Can told him. “You don’t need to come pick me up later either.”

Since the young miss said so, he simply drove away.

Only on the way back did he let his feelings show. The young miss actually skipped class for a classmate…

The master and madam checked Yan Can’s schedule regularly. After all, the young miss was their only daughter; no matter how independent she was, no matter how reassuring she seemed, she was still just a child.

Should he report this truthfully or not?

Then he suddenly remembered the young miss’s eighteenth birthday. The young miss, who never invited friends over to the house, had actually asked a classmate to come celebrate with her…

She must be a very good friend of the young miss’s. Better not say anything.

Yan Can had looked at Su Ci’s file, so she found Su Ci’s address quickly.

The dark green iron door was shut tight. She knocked politely twice first; when no one answered, she knocked hard a few more times and called Su Ci’s name.

Still no response.

That shouldn’t be right; the address in the file was definitely correct.

Yan Can didn’t give up and kept knocking while calling Su Ci’s name.

Su Ci still didn’t come out, but the tattooed older guy across the hall was woken up instead.

He glared at her with eyes round as bronze bells, looking ready to teach her a lesson. Yan Can jumped and apologized softly, “Sorry.”

The man cursed at her for a while and was just about to slam the door shut when Yan Can stopped him and pointed at the door behind her. “Hi, excuse me, do you know whether the person across from here—”

“Know your mother’s ass!” The man didn’t give her any face at all. He slammed the door and tossed out a few more filthy curses.

Yan Can turned back to the dark green door. She was certain she hadn’t come to the wrong place.

But she no longer dared to knock, and she didn’t dare call Su Ci loudly either.

Wait.

Maybe Su Ci had just gone out and wasn’t home; she’d be back in a bit. Telling herself that, Yan Can went down one flight of stairs, pulled a sheet of paper from the pocket of her skirt, unfolded it, and laid it on the cement floor. Then she bent her knees and sat down right at the stairwell entrance.

It wasn’t even noon yet, and there was hardly anyone coming and going in the stairwell on a workday.

The stairwell was dim, but not so dark that she couldn’t see the window outside.

Sitting here, she only had to lift her head to see the fine, steady rain through the hollowed floral stone window.

No one knew when it had started. Silently, the wind carried dampness and rain into the stairwell.

After it started raining, the smell from the ditch in the stairwell grew even stronger, rolling over her in waves.

She really couldn’t stand it. Frowning at her nose, she stood up, patted the back of her skirt, picked up the tissue from the ground, and planned to change spots and wait.

When she reached the landing, a familiar, faint cool fragrance was carried toward her by a strand of damp, chilly wind and brushed the tip of her nose.

Her heart skipped a beat.

She looked up.

After confirming it was indeed the person she’d been thinking of, Yan Can let out a breath.

She knew it; she hadn’t come to the wrong place.