I Miss You Even in the Daytime [Rebirth GL] - Chapter 17

Today’s movie was Love Letter. The ethereal, distant music filled the classroom as a heavy snowfall began on the screen, covering the mountains and distant towns. The female protagonist’s figure ran through the silence.

Lu Baitian sat down stiffly. She rustled around to find her phone to check her reflection. The heavy traces of eyebrow pencil had smothered her natural brows, and blue eyeshadow covered the corners of her eyes, slashed through by elongated eyeliner—looking like a grassland split in two by tire tracks.

She felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. Tears nearly fell as she grabbed a wet wipe and hurriedly scrubbed the marks off her face.

Auntie Fang’s dorm didn’t have a mirror, and time was too tight; she had run all the way and hadn’t had a chance to look at herself.

Lu Baitian was desperate to get clean. The wet wipe smeared the colors together. In her haste, she used too much force, making her delicate skin increasingly thin, fragile, and mottled.

Xu Liming quickly grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

“What are you doing? Do you want to wipe yourself into disfigurement?” Xu Liming whispered. The girl held her head down so firmly that her expression was invisible.

“I’m sorry.” Lu Baitian gripped the wet wipe, which was now stained beyond recognition.

She had messed up. She had humiliated herself in front of Xu Liming again.

“What are you saying sorry to me for?” Xu Liming chuckled helplessly. “I only reminded you because everyone else was staring.”

“Be gentler. You have to wipe slowly to get it off.” Xu Liming simply handed her the whole pack. “There are plenty of wipes.”

The girl whispered a thank you, then, shielded by her hair, she scrubbed away with small, rustling movements. She was much slower now.

Shrinking there like that, she looked a bit like a hamster washing its face.

Xu Liming was surprised by this strange comparison. She forced her gaze back to the screen to focus on the movie.

But she had seen this film three times already, and her attention was soon distracted by the person beside her.

Lu Baitian finally got clean. She put the dirty wipe back into the packaging, restored her original hairstyle with a hair tie, and took her glasses out of her bag.

The moment she put them on, Xu Liming noticed that under the glow of the screen, her pupils appeared a light shade of brown. Combined with the beauty mark at the corner of her eye, they looked like stars of different sizes.

Unlike the brilliant stars overhead, she seemed more like a solitary star scattered at the edge of the universe—half-swallowed by light pollution, yet still trying hard to pierce through the clouds.

Lu Baitian put on her glasses.

Two hours later, the movie ended and the lights came up. Students filtered out of the classroom. When Xu Liming stood up with her bag, Lu Baitian was still sitting.

Seeing that the time was right, Xu Liming threw out an invitation: “Want to grab dinner together?”

“No, I still have…” Lu Baitian instinctively moved to refuse, but she stopped halfway, her gaze shifting uncomfortably.

She shouldn’t refuse. A chance to eat with her… if Xu Liming asked one more time, she would definitely agree.

Lu Baitian bit down hard on the inside of her lip.

“Uh, okay. I’ll head out then.” Xu Liming assumed she was just socially anxious, so she waved at her. “Remember to use a wet compress on your face when you get back, or it’ll damage your skin.”

Xu Liming left, and the other students followed. The classroom lights stayed bright, and the area grew empty.

Lu Baitian stood dazed for a long moment. Then, she silently shouldered her backpack and turned off the lights. The darkness settled heavily on her shoulders as it guided her toward the even darker hallway.

Click.

The lights came back on.

Stunned by the glare, Lu Baitian closed her eyes, shielding them with her hands. As she slowly moved them away and saw the person in front of her, a current of electricity surged through her body from head to toe.

The tall figure was leaning against the window, smiling lazily. Her narrow eyes were like cracks in an abyss, tearing open a path for the light.

Her hand was on the hallway light switch. Her low, soft voice lingered: “My roommates finished class early and already ate. Eating alone is so boring.”

“Keep me company for dinner? Lu Baitian.”

Lu Baitian was a very good dining companion, Xu Liming thought. She was easygoing, obedient, quiet, and especially not a picky eater.

“Tsk, why does shredded pork with garlic sauce always have to have carrots?” Xu Liming complained lazily. “Can’t it just be meat?”

“And why does fried chicken have to have skin?”

She muttered while picking at the dishes. Opposite her, Lu Baitian’s eyes were bright. She looked at Xu Liming, then at the tray in front of her, and cautiously reached out.

“Um… give it to me,” she said.

Xu Liming rested her chin on her chopsticks, watching in surprise as Lu Baitian took her tray. With clean chopsticks, she patiently picked out every sliver of carrot and peeled the skin off the fried chicken.

Then she placed the cleaned tray back in front of Xu Liming, her voice soft: “Is this okay?”

Xu Liming hadn’t expected her to be willing to do this. She took the tray back. “Uh, thanks.”

Lu Baitian smiled and lowered her head to eat the parts Xu Liming didn’t want. She ate cleanly, yet with refined manners.

Such a good eating partner; I should ask her out more often, Xu Liming thought.

Her appetite was hard to read, though. If Xu Liming ordered a little, Lu Baitian wouldn’t add more; if she ordered a lot, Lu Baitian would eat every bit of it, never wasting anything.

After finishing the meal, Xu Liming stood up to pay. Suddenly, a figure darted urgently in front of her, hands gripping the counter to block her as she handed her phone to the clerk.

“You treated me last time. This time… this time is on me,” Lu Baitian said, looking up at her and stammering.

Xu Liming blinked and put her phone away.

Xu Liming soon grew accustomed to her reborn life. University life was flat and long. The spring rains came and went. As time passed, if not for the occasional scenes in her dreams, she would have felt that everything from her past life was just a long dream she’d had.

Progress on her play was gradually getting on track. They rehearsed every Monday and Friday night. Rumors about her organizing her own play grew increasingly intense in the college, and the comments were mostly negative.

Even the mentor assigned by the school didn’t deign to guide her, especially since the lead was Qin Zhaohe. Everyone thought she was just playing around.

But Xu Liming didn’t care. In fact, it was better this way. With no one treating her as a rival, she could catch them by surprise.

Today was Monday. Xu Liming arrived at the rehearsal room carrying two large bags of burgers and cola. Several actors swarmed forward to take the bags from her.

Qiu Qiu skillfully unwrapped the burgers and distributed them. Then she skipped over to Xu Liming. “Director, this one’s for you!”

Because they couldn’t find enough actors, Xu Liming had asked the production design crew to play minor roles.

“I’ve already eaten. You guys go ahead.” Xu Liming pushed her hand back. “Where’s Qin Zhaohe?”

“Don’t know.” Qiu Qiu shrugged, taking a huge bite of her burger. “She never hangs out with us. She only shows up right on the dot for rehearsal, and she’s always got an attitude. If you ask me, she doesn’t want to be in this group at all.”

“Not just her. Even the mentor can’t be bothered with us. Our mentor is supposed to be Yang Shu, right? Since we started rehearsing, he hasn’t looked at us once.” A boy with a buzz cut walked over to complain.

“He’s leading two groups. All his energy is on Lin Wan’s group. He doesn’t have time for us,” Qiu Qiu said, sounding aggrieved.

“Alright,” Xu Liming interrupted. “That’s exactly why we have to rehearse seriously. When we take first prize, we’ll shock all those blind fools.”

Xu Liming rarely made jokes like this, but she was pulling out all the stops to boost morale. The group burst into laughter, and the atmosphere warmed up considerably.

When the laughter subsided, Xu Liming asked seemingly casually, “Does Qin Zhaohe always come right on time?”

“Every time. Sometimes she’s even late. She won’t say why if you ask; she just stands there with a dark face.” Qiu Qiu held her hand up as she spoke ill of her. “Director, can’t we really change actors?”

“Where would we find an actor now?” Xu Liming smiled. “Alright, hurry up and eat. We rehearse after.”

As she spoke, she turned to organize the props scattered on the floor, her movements a bit distracted.

She remembered seeing Qin Zhaohe at a gala in her past life; the woman had been elegant, gentle, and poised. She didn’t seem like this kind of person.

Is it an act? Xu Liming frowned.

Rehearsal ended near dorm curfew. Xu Liming said goodbye to the crew and strolled back to the dorm alone. She bought some fruit at a shop on the way for her roommates.

In the gentle spring night breeze, she opened Comma’s Weibo again. She looked at it so often now she could find her last spot instantly.

She didn’t know why she was addicted to someone’s inner monologues, but she just really wanted to read them. There was an indescribable attraction.

The cold characters on the screen told the story of a girl who had been bullied for years, yet she rarely complained. When she spoke of those things, it was like she was just telling a story.

Her style was plain, without the bizarre madness of the magazine articles. Some content made Xu Liming laugh out loud; others made her smile vanish instantly.

「Today was the school anniversary. The teacher had us release balloons. I secretly wrote her name on mine, but my balloon was stomped on and popped by some boys in class. It’s okay, though; she wouldn’t have seen it anyway.」

「Today was the parent-teacher conference. My classmates say my mom is mentally ill. I wanted to prove she isn’t, but Mom overslept and didn’t come. Now they say I’m an orphan.」

…

「They pinned me to the ground and beat me. It hurts so much.」

Xu Liming didn’t want to read further. She retracted her smile and put the phone in her pocket. Through the screen, she felt an intense heartache for a stranger.

She opened the dorm door, and a strong aroma hit her. Tao Ning was spreading out a large bag of BBQ. Seeing Xu Liming back, she gestured for her to eat.

“Why so much today? Is it a special occasion?” Xu Liming set the fruit on the table.

“To celebrate surviving another day in this f***ing world,” Tao Ning said solemnly, holding a skewer like a torch.

Choosing to live in the dorm this life was the right call, Xu Liming thought, laughing.

She took a bite of a skewer and asked Sun Muya, who was still busy on her laptop, “What are you working on?”

Sun Muya stretched and said listlessly, “Busy with the class committee meeting, dealing with class matters.”

“It’s such a small class. What requires staying up late to handle?” Xu Liming was puzzled.

“Don’t you know?” Sun Muya glanced at Tao Ning and lowered her voice. “Something bad happened recently.”

“It’s about Lu Baitian.”