Chapter 9
“S-Sorry…”
Cui Xuan came back to herself and immediately wanted to pull away, but Zhao Mingyue did not let go. She hesitated, then lightly pushed Zhao Mingyue. She could not move her.
When she pushed a second time, Zhao Mingyue still did not release her. The hand pressed against her back even slid down along her spine and circled her waist, pinching once.
Cui Xuan: !
Before Cui Xuan could push a third time, Zhao Mingyue finally let go and came up with an excuse.
“I was just measuring your waist.”
Cui Xuan covered the waistband of her pants and backed away two steps, her face still red. “Why… why would you measure my waist?”
“Can’t I be curious?”
Later, all of Cui Xuan’s clothes had been made by Zhao Mingyue. No one knew Cui Xuan’s measurements better than she did. But no matter how many times she had measured her, there had never been a time when Cui Xuan was as thin as she was now. When her hand touched Cui Xuan’s back, she could feel the protruding ridges of bone.
Zhao Mingyue tucked her left hand into her pocket. “You’re so thin that my two hands can almost wrap around you. And you still didn’t know to eat more at dinner. Your waistband can barely stay up, can it?”
Cui Xuan’s gaze flicked over Zhao Mingyue’s fingers, and she said softly, “It’s because… your hands are too long.”
Zhao Mingyue was tall, and her hands were long too. Measuring anything would definitely be easier for her than for other people.
“Is that so?” Zhao Mingyue lifted her right hand, spreading and slightly curling her five fingers as she examined them. She thought that the Cui Xuan from before did not seem to have ever said her hands were long.
Too deep…
Actually, she had said that before.
Curling her fingers and hiding them behind her back, Zhao Mingyue leaned against the wall. “Don’t make excuses. You’re clearly too thin. You eat too little and don’t rest properly. If this keeps up, how can your body be well?”
Cui Xuan lowered her head and listened without arguing.
When she did not speak, Zhao Mingyue did not let the matter drop either. She picked up the coat and school uniform pants from the sink.
“You don’t sleep properly either. In the middle of the night, you came here in the dark to hand-wash my clothes?”
Cui Xuan twisted her fingers together and gave a muffled hum.
The coat had been soaked by the rain, and she had worn it. The school uniform pants had also gotten splashed with mud because of her. How could she just ignore them?
Zhao Mingyue tossed the coat back into the laundry basket. “I have a spare school uniform. I have other coats too. Besides, it’s not like there isn’t a washing machine at home. I can just save up a few pieces and throw them in together. Where would I need you to wash them by hand? Hurry back and sleep.”
Cui Xuan asked, “You’re not sleeping?”
Zhao Mingyue smiled. “You’re even managing whether I sleep or not now?”
Cui Xuan was driven to the door of the study. Holding the slightly cool doorknob, she struggled and hesitated again and again. In the end, she still turned around to face Zhao Mingyue.
“Just now… I bumped into your hand. Did it get hurt? Do you need to treat it?”
For such a tiny injury, if she left it a while longer, even the mark would disappear. Where would it need treating?
Zhao Mingyue was just about to say no when she thought of the injuries on Cui Xuan’s body. The refusal at the tip of her tongue made a turn.
“Of course… I do. The first-aid kit should be in the bedside cabinet in my bedroom. Come to my room?”
Cui Xuan quickly nodded and followed Zhao Mingyue into the bedroom.
Zhao Mingyue fumbled for the light. When the room lit up, it revealed a bedroom that was both strange and familiar.
Her gaze swept over it inch by inch. This place she had lived in more than ten years ago already looked somewhat unfamiliar now.
Zhao Mingyue took out the first-aid kit and opened it, then naturally sat against the edge of the bed and extended her unfortunate left hand.
The bump had hurt quite a bit at the time, but after this while, only a faint red mark and one scrape remained. It had not even bled.
Good thing Cui Xuan treated it in time. Otherwise, if a few more minutes passed and the red mark faded, then if Zhao Mingyue peeled off the scab herself, would there even be anything left to treat?
Cui Xuan’s gaze fixed on Zhao Mingyue’s hand for a few seconds. Then she quietly turned to look at the first-aid kit.
The first-aid kit was not big, but it held quite a lot of things. Cui Xuan stared at the pile of familiar and unfamiliar medicines, her gaze gradually going blank.
She had treated wounds before, but how should a scrape be handled? Apply ointment? Or just put on a bandage?
Seeing Cui Xuan crouched by the bedside cabinet, struggling over it, Zhao Mingyue reached directly into the first-aid kit and took out a tube of ointment.
“Give me your hand.”
Cui Xuan, still hesitating over whether iodine would be more appropriate, instinctively obeyed. She thought Zhao Mingyue was going to hand her the ointment, but after Zhao Mingyue took her hand, she pushed up Cui Xuan’s sleeve.
“Didn’t I give you a set of pajamas? Why are you still sleeping in these clothes? Isn’t it uncomfortable?”
Cui Xuan shook her head. The wounds on her arm were exposed to the air, and it was a little cold. She wanted to pull her hand back, but the cooler ointment fell onto the wounds first.
The chill blurred the pain. Cui Xuan grew even more confused.
Zhao Mingyue was applying medicine for her.
Why was Zhao Mingyue applying medicine for her?
How did Zhao Mingyue remember that she was injured, and even think to put medicine on her?
The wounds on both arms were carefully covered with ointment. The icy-cool cream spread across her skin, so cold it almost stung.
“Where else are you hurt?”
Cui Xuan came back to herself, pressed her lips together, and shook her head.
Zhao Mingyue lowered her eyes and looked at her for a few seconds, then stuffed the ointment into Cui Xuan’s hand. “Go back to your room and apply the rest yourself later.”
Cui Xuan gave a dazed “oh” and stood up, about to leave, only for Zhao Mingyue’s long leg to stretch all the way to the wardrobe and block her path.
“You’re leaving just like that? Do you still remember what you originally came here to do?”
Only belatedly did Cui Xuan remember the proper matter. She was a little embarrassed. “S-Sorry… I remember now.”
She glanced at Zhao Mingyue’s hand and hesitated again. “Should I use iodine? Or apply ointment? Or, or… put on a bandage?”
Zhao Mingyue extended her hand and shook it twice. “It hurts. Shouldn’t you blow on it first?”
Cui Xuan obediently nodded. After thinking for a moment, she half-crouched, moved her head close to Zhao Mingyue’s hand, and gently blew on it.
Originally, it had stopped hurting as long as no one touched it. But with the breeze blowing and irritating it, the wound began to sting faintly again, both painful and itchy.
Cui Xuan blew on it for a while, until her head grew a little light from lack of air. She could not help covering her mouth and yawning. Halfway through the yawn, she came back to herself and lifted her eyes, meeting Zhao Mingyue’s gaze.
Like a laborer caught slacking by a supervisor, Cui Xuan quickly lowered her head again and continued blowing on Zhao Mingyue’s hand.
Zhao Mingyue sighed softly in her heart and pulled her hand back. “All right. Go back and sleep.”
Cui Xuan said, “It’s fine. I’m not sleepy. I’m not very sleepy…”
Zhao Mingyue said, “Mm-hm. I’m the sleepy one.”
Cui Xuan gave an embarrassed little “oh.” “Then, then should I apply a little ointment or iodine for you?”
Zhao Mingyue picked a bandage out of the box. “Just put this on for me.”
Cui Xuan obediently took it, tore open the bandage, and measured it against Zhao Mingyue’s hand, somewhat hesitant.
The scrape was not serious, but it was a little long. If she stuck it horizontally, it would touch the scraped area. If she stuck it vertically, she would probably have to put on a whole row.
Seeing that she was not moving, Zhao Mingyue lifted her wrist, then covered it with her right hand, pressing the bandage down firmly herself. After that, she slid down into the quilt that had already been spread out.
“All right. Hurry and go sleep.”
Cui Xuan nodded seriously and tucked in a corner of the blanket for Zhao Mingyue. Zhao Mingyue did not keep speaking, but her eyes remained fixed on Cui Xuan, as if she were thinking about something.
That inexplicable feeling came again, the feeling that the other person seemed sad.
Cui Xuan hesitated and asked, “Are you… are you unhappy?”
“I’m happy,” Zhao Mingyue said.
Seeing Cui Xuan made her happy. Spending Cui Xuan’s birthday with her made her happy. But right now, she was a little afraid.
Zhao Mingyue did not say that. She only urged her softly, “Go rest. I’ll sleep with you, Cui Xuan.”
Afraid of disturbing Zhao Mingyue’s rest, Cui Xuan did not dare say anything more. She walked to the door and touched the switch, only then realizing that she was still holding the tube of ointment.
“Cui Xuan.”
Zhao Mingyue’s lowered voice entered her ears. “Tomorrow, you have to be the one to wake me… You have to come wake me.”
Cui Xuan froze for a moment. Her finger unintentionally touched the switch.
Click.
The lights went out abruptly.
Zhao Mingyue sank into a blind, silent darkness. Unease suddenly surged in her heart, and her palm pressed against the side of the bed as she was about to get up.
Then she suddenly heard one word.
“Okay.”
The faint sound of the door closing, accompanied by Cui Xuan’s slightly hesitant voice, reached her ears steadily and surely.
“Zhao Mingyue, good night.”
It was not an auditory hallucination.
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