Chapter 24 Part 2

After going back, they would get straight to the point, and by the time they were done, she would already be so tired her eyelids would be drooping.

In Lin Qingye's view, during the years Xu Zhinan was with him, he had treated her well and had never crossed any lines with other girls.

He grew up in that kind of family. No one ever told him how to treat people sincerely, and he never thought about how to do so. As long as the person was by his side, it was enough.

To him, Xu Zhinan was just the fulfillment of a past obsession. He wanted to keep her by his side.

As for anything else, he truly hadn't cared.

"Ah Nan..."

Xu Zhinan interrupted him: "The IV bag is empty. Can you call the nurse for me, thank you."

It was already late outside. In the end, Lin Qingye was the one to take her home.

They didn't speak the entire way. After the IV drip, Xu Zhinan felt a bit drowsy again and dozed off, half-asleep, against the car window.

This was the first time Lin Qingye had taken Xu Zhinan home, not back to her dorm.

Following the navigation, her home was far from the city center. It lacked the boisterous nightlife and the winding, overlapping overpasses that blotted out the sky.

As they were about to arrive home, Xu Zhinan opened her eyes.

Lin Qingye parked the car in front of her house. On the second floor, the light in Mother Xu's room was still on.

"Thank you for bringing me back."

After saying that, Xu Zhinan pulled the car door handle to get out.

Lin Qingye grabbed her wrist again and pulled her back gently: "Ah Nan."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Sorry for what?"

"For not treating you seriously in the past. It was my fault. I'll explain things clearly to Qin Tang and my other friends, I won't let them look down on you."

Xu Zhinan twitched the corner of her lip: "It doesn't matter anymore. I won't have anything to do with them again. How they see me isn't important. Besides, this isn't something you can clarify with just a few words."

Xu Zhinan pushed his hand away, got out of the car, and before closing the door, looked at him and said flatly, "But still, thank you for taking me home today."

"But I hope this is the last time we see each other." Xu Zhinan smiled faintly, looking very well-behaved. "You're Lin Qingye, that should be easy for you to do."

Then, the car door was slammed shut.

She walked towards the house with her bag on her back, without a single glance back.

The girl's back was straight, her shoulders thin. She looked fragile yet proud. Then she pushed the door open and went inside, never once looking back. The door closed again, and Lin Qingye could no longer see her.

"Ah Nan!" Mother Xu heard the noise and came out of her room. "You're back?"

"Yeah, Mom, you should go to bed."

"Why are you back so late? I thought you were going to sleep in the dorm again today."

Mother Xu walked to the top of the stairs. First, she saw the mask on her face, then she glanced down and saw the white IV patch on the back of her hand. She frowned instantly, her steps quickening as she came downstairs: "What's wrong, did you go to the hospital today?"

"Yeah, I have a bit of a cold, it's nothing." Xu Zhinan changed into her slippers. "Mom, don't get too close to me, it might be contagious."

Mother Xu still walked over to her side, placing the back of her hand against her forehead: "Has the fever gone down now?"

"Yeah."

"See if the fever comes back tomorrow. Even if it's gone, you should go to the hospital again."

"Okay, I know."

"It's so late, who brought you back? Little Gu? Why didn't you ask him to come in..."

"It wasn't him," Xu Zhinan interrupted her. "It was another classmate of mine."

Fortunately, Mother Xu didn't ask any more questions. She told her to get some rest quickly and went upstairs first.

After washing up, Xu Zhinan returned to her room. She had slept for a while at the hospital and dozed off again in the car, so now she wasn't sleepy at all.

She opened her WeChat Moments to take a look. Many more friends had liked her post, and the comments were all encouraging her. Xu Zhinan replied with a collective 'thank you' and then clicked the link again.

She had gained over two hundred more votes, but because the gap with the person ahead of her was large, she was still in seventh place.

Xu Zhinan turned off her phone, pulled a Buddhist sutra from her bookshelf, and opened it.

Her heart calmed down again just like that. After chanting the sutra for half an hour, she realized she hadn't taken off the IV patch from the back of her hand. There was a small spot of blood that had seeped through the center.

Xu Zhinan tore it off. The patch of skin on the back of her hand where the patch had been was whiter than the surrounding area. There was a faint pinprick mark, the bleeding had stopped, and it looked like a cinnabar mole.

She threw the IV patch into the trash can.

Having sat for a long time, she pinched her neck, tilted her head back to massage it, and then slowly stretched.

Her gaze swept outside the window and then suddenly paused.

Lin Qingye's car was still there. It was very conspicuous, a black sports car.

His car window was open, half of his arm resting on the windowsill. A cigarette was pinched between his fingers, and wisps of bluish-white smoke drifted out from the car.

Xu Zhinan glanced at the time. Over an hour had passed since she entered the house.

Why hasn't he left?

She watched from upstairs for a moment. Lin Qingye seemed to sense her gaze and actually looked up.

Xu Zhinan's fingertips froze. She stopped looking, got up, drew the curtains, and went to bed.

Lin Qingye lost count of how many cigarettes he had smoked.

He didn't avert his gaze until the light in Xu Zhinan's room went out.

He recalled what she had said to him earlier, calmly and resolutely: "But I hope this is the last time we see each other."

Lin Qingye's lips curved into a self-mocking smile. He leaned back against the car seat, looking somewhat dejected.

However humble he had been on the winter night he first met Xu Zhinan, that was how proud he had been when he had her. Now, he was knocked back to his original state.

His chin lifted slightly as he closed his eyes, his mind recalling that winter night, the argument with Fu Xueming before he stormed out of the house.

His biological mother, Fu Xueming, had hysterically hurled all sorts of unbearable words at him.

She told him to get out of this house.

She said he was a scourge, a murderer.

Her eyes were filled with disgust.

What Xu Zhinan had said—"He's so pitiful"—wasn't wrong, it was just that he was unwilling to accept it at the time.

Her clear eyes looking at him in the darkness at that time reminded Lin Qingye of a line from a movie—he looked just like a dog.

Lin Qingye's Adam's apple bobbed, but when he opened his eyes again, all emotion had vanished.

Then he picked up his phone, went to Xu Zhinan's Moments, copied the voting link, exited, and opened the Black Locust Band's chat group.

The three of them usually chatted often in this group. Lin Qingye rarely spoke, and even less so now after participating in Here for the Song.

At 11:30 PM, Lin Qingye sent a message in the group.

[Lin Qingye: web link]

[Lin Qingye: Vote.]

Author's Note: Sad is sad, but you still have to vote for your wife.