I Miss You Even in the Daytime [Rebirth GL] - Chapter 13

The tray in Lu Baitian’s hand hit the floor with a clang. She sprinted to Xu Liming’s side, just barely managing to catch her.

Those shoulders, usually so well-defined, were now as soft as mud due to the alcohol—like a piece of scorching dough, so soft one hardly dared to touch.

With great effort, she propped her up, but the woman slumped straight into her embrace. As that burning body touched her chest, Lu Baitian instantly froze, forgetting to breathe for a moment.

“What happened?” another waiter walked over, leaning down to check Xu Liming’s face. “Drunk already?”

“She’s a friend of the boss,” Lu Baitian said. She blocked the waiter’s line of sight with her arm and spoke in a low voice.

“Should we tell Sister Chen?” the waiter asked hesitantly. “Sister Chen just took a call and went out; it seems like an emergency. I can’t reach her on WeChat or by phone.”

“Why don’t you give her to me? I’ll take her to the break area to let her recover.” The waiter leaned down, intending to pull Xu Liming away, but the girl holding her suddenly turned her body, shielding Xu Liming completely in her arms.

The usually timid Lu Baitian seemed to change in that instant. When the waiter met her gaze, his back felt as if it had been pricked by needles.

“Uh, alright, you take care of her then.” The waiter didn’t want to cause trouble. He chuckled twice, cleared up the mess, and left.

Xu Liming felt very hot. She could vaguely hear someone talking, so she spoke up: “I’m… fine. No need to… take care of me.”

She tried to break free from the arms holding her. The grip quickly loosened, and she forcefully tugged at her loose collar, trying to let the heat dissipate.

A patch of white skin was exposed to the stale air of the bar. Lu Baitian’s fingers nearly dug into the table. Her whole body was trembling—trembling uncontrollably.

Lu Baitian hated her body’s reactions; the moment she touched Xu Liming, she became so loathsome.

“I’ll take you home,” Lu Baitian said with downcast eyes, trying to help her up.

“I’m not going back!” Hearing the word “home” amidst her confusion, Xu Liming immediately lost her temper, pushing Lu Baitian with both hands. “Back… back where? I’m not going back!”

“I don’t… don’t have a home. Not going back!”

Xu Liming was tall, and Lu Baitian couldn’t hold her back; she could only stumble as she was dragged back toward the seat.

“Not going back, not going back,” Lu Baitian coaxed repeatedly, looking at that flushed face.

That face was so close to her; those ink-like features were stained with a hint of red. It was as if Lu Baitian herself was the one who had been drinking, unable to distinguish between reality and a dream.

Lu Baitian found someone to cover her shift. Supporting the swaying Xu Liming, she walked along the street where a cold wind was blowing. The plane trees had not yet sprouted buds; the branches stretching across the sky looked like winter.

There weren’t many hotels nearby. Lu Baitian looked at her balance in embarrassment, then supported Xu Liming toward a budget hotel chain. She stopped before the hotel’s inconspicuous storefront, but her footsteps faltered.

The alcoholic fragrance of Xu Liming’s breath spilled onto her neck. Lu Baitian bit her lip hard.

After standing for a minute, she turned back toward the main street.

Twinkling lights adorned the walls of a hotel; not far away was the ceaselessly flowing Qiantang River, hidden in the night. The price here was the absolute limit of what Lu Baitian could afford. Her old canvas shoes stepped onto the smooth floor—a sharp, jarring contrast.

“One suite,” she said softly.

“Please show both of your IDs,” the front desk staff said with a smile. She glanced at Xu Liming, who was practically hanging off Lu Baitian, and winked. “Electronic IDs are also fine.”

Xu Liming obviously hadn’t brought her ID. Lu Baitian had to fish for her phone. The drunk Xu Liming wouldn’t give up her password, so she had to try and pry Xu Liming’s eyes open for the facial recognition.

“Don’t move,” Xu Liming, feeling nauseous from the alcohol, muttered impatiently, burying her head into the crook of Lu Baitian’s neck.

Lu Baitian instantly turned red from head to toe. She met the gaze of the woman at the front desk awkwardly; the other woman was looking at them with a smile, a “we’ve all been there” expression on her face.

“S-sorry,” Lu Baitian stammered.

An hour later, Lu Baitian helped Xu Liming out of a taxi again, standing in the middle of a group of old houses in the old town. This place was completely different from the prosperous Nanshan Road; moss grew on the floor tiles that had been renovated many times, and rows of washed laundry hung outside the windows of the low-rise buildings.

Lu Baitian lived here with her mother in a rented room. She had lived here for many, many years, ever since she was born.

She opened the door to the unit building, silently helping Xu Liming bypass the clutter in the hallway, climbing the stairs, and then turning the key.

A scent of alcohol much heavier than the one on Xu Liming’s body hit her. Lu Baitian led Xu Liming inside and turned on the light. The cramped, tiny room was in total disarray, with wine bottles strewn haphazardly across the floor.

Lu Baitian kicked the bottles aside as if used to it, ignoring the woman snoring thunderously on the sofa, and led Xu Liming back to her own bedroom.

Once the door closed, she let out a long sigh of relief.

It was as if the inside and outside of the room were two different worlds. The single bed was covered with a thick brown knit blanket, the windows were wiped clean, and the bookshelf by the bed was neatly packed with various books; there was nothing else besides that.

Despite this, Lu Baitian still carefully patted down the blanket before letting go of Xu Liming, watching her slump softly onto the bed.

The drunk Xu Liming had lost her sharpness. With her messy hair, she burrowed into the blanket, her long legs hugging a doll that Lu Baitian had sewn herself, curling into a ball.

Does Xu Liming sleep like this too? Lu Baitian watched greedily, but she soon realized her own greed. Startled, she looked away and turned to rummage through the wardrobe for pajamas.

Her own pajamas were very old; she couldn’t give them to Xu Liming.

She searched for a long time without finding anything suitable. Finally, she had to sneak into that woman’s room and pull out an unworn nightgown.

“Xu Liming, change into this before you sleep, okay?” Lu Baitian said softly, tugging at the edge of her sleeve.

Xu Liming was still wearing her coat and long jeans; it must be very uncomfortable. She had to change.

Xu Liming was awakened by her voice and mumbled something unclearly. Then she began to take off her clothes. The nineteen-year-old girl already possessed the mature silhouette of an adult; with a gentle shake of her long arms, her outer garment and the knit shirt underneath both fell away.

Lu Baitian hurriedly picked up the clothes from the floor, turned her back, and folded them with extreme care, placing them to one side.

Xu Liming had indeed stripped, but after doing so, she simply lay on the bed, quite at ease.

When Lu Baitian turned back, she almost cried out in alarm. She violently snapped her head back, twisting her neck so hard it nearly broke.

The lingering afterimage of that brief glimpse wouldn’t dissipate—such a beautiful body was not entirely composed of softness; the bones of the shoulders were well-defined, and there was a slight ripple of muscle in the arms.

Like the intersection and fusion of mountains and rivers, forming a unique, undulating landscape under the sky.