Picked Up the Female Lead When She Was Young (GL) - Chapter 61

Xia Wanshuang still didn’t finish her sentence. Her last two words were so faint that Zhou Qinglang only heard half of it.

That half-sentence was enough to make her ecstatic. Combined with Xia Wanshuang’s earlier words, she felt like the happiest child in the world.

Even if that love wasn’t exactly what she wanted, she was happy enough. Her heart suddenly swelled with confidence, ready to scorn all potential rivals.

After comforting the girl at home, Xia Wanshuang rode her bike out to buy groceries. There was a supermarket nearby where she usually shopped, but on break days, she preferred to go to the slightly farther wet market to buy poultry raised by the vendors.

Zhou Qinglang wanted to go, but Xia Wanshuang told her to stay home and prepare for final exams. Buying groceries, she could handle alone.

Xia Wanshuang parked her bike outside the market, calculating what she needed to buy. The entrance was messy. Wearing black shoes, Xia Wanshuang sidestepped a patch of dirty water and walked inside.

The market was noisy, with the sounds of haggling and shouting mixed with various smells, giving it a chaotic feel.

Xia Wanshuang, however, liked the atmosphere. After looking at the vegetables and fruits, she headed toward the chicken stall. Live chickens clucked in cages.

The boss was efficiently preparing a bird for a customer—slitting the throat, draining the blood, and plucking the feathers.

“Hey, little lady, buying a chicken? Young or old?”

“I’ll buy an old hen to make soup.”

“Here, those three are hens. They’re all lively. Go on and pick one.”

Xia Wanshuang nodded and looked at the three chickens. Just as she finished choosing and stood up, her peripheral vision caught a familiar figure.

This was the fourth time she had encountered the girl. In the noisy market, the girl in the black down jacket moved like a ghost, walking straight through the crowd.

The girl gave her a strange, complex feeling—like a solitary soul walking in the sun, yet seeming about to disappear at any moment.

“Boss, please hold this chicken for me. I’ll come back for it in a bit.”

“You’d better be quick. If they sell out, I won’t hold it for you!”

“Okay, thank you, Boss.” Xia Wanshuang followed the girl’s steps, a knot of unease in her heart.

She kept a long distance. Xia Wanshuang wasn’t sure why she was following, only attributing it to the inexplicable nature of human curiosity. Past the market, there was a dense cluster of old, crowded apartment buildings.

Clothes were hung outside, and tangled electric wires crisscrossed like the wrinkles on an old face. Because the buildings were of different heights, the light on the building Xia Wanshuang was facing was completely blocked by the one in front, making it feel gloomy despite being daytime.

The space wasn’t sealed off. At the end, an exit to the path was faintly outlined by light.

But the girl didn’t walk out. Instead, she turned and entered a door.

Xia Wanshuang realized there were two glass doors where the girl went in.

A sign hung above the door for a massage parlor. Looking through the glass door, she could only see a narrow space with a brown leather sofa and a wooden door beside it.

The sound of mahjong tiles clattering, mixed with laughter and swearing, leaked from the poorly soundproofed wooden door, making Xia Wanshuang frown.

Suddenly, a sharp yell of cursing and the sound of a chair colliding echoed inside. Xia Wanshuang grew worried.

Before she could decide to walk in or find another way to intervene, the wooden door was violently pulled open.

The girl in the black down jacket looked at her through the glass door, her expression clearly startled. Xia Wanshuang saw a red, swollen handprint on the girl’s face, and her eyebrows furrowed even deeper.

She had previously assumed the girl’s injuries were all from the students at school, but now she knew that wasn’t the whole truth.

“Do you want to walk with me?” The girl didn’t ask why Xia Wanshuang was there, only softly invited her to take a walk.

“Yes.” Xia Wanshuang nodded, her heart heavy.

She felt she had no right to comment on the situation, so she silently walked beside the girl.

“This winter isn’t as cold as usual.” The girl spoke, a subtle smile on her face.

“Is that so? I feel like it’s colder than usual.” Xia Wanshuang replied casually.

She was sensitive to winter and felt the temperature was lower than last year; the cold wind cut into her heart.

“Maybe I’ve encountered some good things this year, so I don’t feel this winter is so bad.”

Xia Wanshuang listened to the girl’s cheerful talk, a knot forming in her throat. She understood what she was referring to, and her mood grew heavier.

“Are you not working at the bubble tea shop today?” Xia Wanshuang awkwardly changed the subject, recalling the girl who had nodded to her there, who looked quite different from today.

“I won’t be going back. The boss said she wants to hire full-time staff, and student workers aren’t convenient. It’s fine, though, I’ve paid off my tuition.”

“Tuition?” The semester was almost over. Since high school requires tuition fees, which at No. 1 High School are 1,000 yuan per semester, plus 1,300 for housing.

“Yeah, I borrowed it at the start of the semester. I paid back a little each month. At least it’s paid off now.”

“Well… that’s good.” Xia Wanshuang didn’t want to bring up the girl’s parents. If the people cursing behind the glass door were her parents, it was terrible. If they weren’t, it was even worse.

“Have you eaten today?”

“You don’t have to struggle so much to find things to talk about with me,” the girl said with a laugh, making Xia Wanshuang feel a little embarrassed.

“Not yet. I might go to the rice noodle shop around the corner. There’s no food at home.”

“Eating alone is fine, too.”

“Yes, I think so too. Oh, I haven’t told you my name. I’m Qing Luo.”

“Is your last name Qing? That’s a very unique name.” If Xia Wanshuang had heard this name without knowing the context, she would have thought the person was very fortunate.

The name sounded full of vitality, surely given by loving parents. But under these circumstances, those words simply couldn’t be said.

“Yes, Qing as in the color, and Luo as in Luo (vine). It sounds like a name full of life, doesn’t it?” Qing Luo spoke, a darkness settling in her brown eyes. She still smiled, but only by looking into her eyes could one tell the smile was only skin-deep.

“We’re here. Let me show you a place I frequent.” Xia Wanshuang looked up. She saw a large building with many banners, resembling an office building, but housing many different studios.

She caught a glimpse of dance, art, and Taekwondo. The elevator went straight to the top floor, the 32nd floor. Stepping out, they were on the rooftop.

The rooftop was empty. The winter wind cut right through Xia Wanshuang, making her shiver.

She watched Qing Luo walk directly to the edge of the rooftop and climb onto the ledge.

Xia Wanshuang’s heart pounded, and her pupils narrowed.

“You… that’s very dangerous. Come back, please. Don’t sit there.”

“Don’t worry. It’s very comfortable here. You can see a lot of scenery. Do you want to try?” Qing Luo’s two slender legs dangled in mid-air. Her voice, carried by the wind, was light and wavering, like a sigh.

Xia Wanshuang valued her life and carefully kept close to the wall, not having the courage to climb onto the ledge. There was no railing here. If Qing Luo moved forward, she would fall from the 32nd floor and be utterly broken.

“Can we go inside to talk?”

“You seem very worried that I’ll jump. Don’t worry, I won’t just die like this.” Qing Luo tilted her head, looking up at the sky. Qing Luo’s pale face was gaunt.

In Xia Wanshuang’s sight, one half was the gray sky, and the other half was Qing Luo’s swollen face, creating an image of intense suppression.

“Actually, I often wonder what it would feel like to jump. It would probably be a feeling of release, right? Sometimes, looking at myself, it feels like my soul is just floating in the air, watching an empty shell, like I’m just a person held up by a pile of rotten meat and bones.” Qing Luo spoke on, closing her eyes.

The December wind was not gentle; it was utterly cold. It howled past their ears, leaving an icy chill.

“Some things aren’t that bad.” Xia Wanshuang thought she could offer many words of comfort, but looking at this scene, anything she said felt futile.

“Only those who have been pulled out are qualified to say those things. I really envy Student Zhou…”

“You know Langlang?”

“Not really. Perhaps she doesn’t want to know me.” Qing Luo’s tone was light, as if she were thinking of something pleasant.

“You know about our business?” A sense of caution surfaced in Xia Wanshuang’s mind. This person had never appeared in her and Zhou Qinglang’s lives before, yet she seemed to know their past well.

“I know a little. I apologize if that offends you.” Qing Luo spoke eloquently, turning her head to look at Xia Wanshuang, her eyes purely innocent. “If I had her good fortune, maybe I wouldn’t be living like this today.”

“You can change things yourself.” Xia Wanshuang believed that one could change their own destiny.

“But you can’t fight where you come from. I’ve tried. Running away, calling the police, crying—what did I get in return?” Qing Luo murmured, her tone even.

“I asked for help, but no one helped me. I tried to run but was dragged back. Many times I wanted to jump, but why should I be the one to jump?”

Qing Luo pulled up her sleeve, making Xia Wanshuang’s heart wrench. Qing Luo now had no hand support; one slip and she could fall. But when Xia Wanshuang saw Qing Luo’s wrist, her heart tightened even more.

The skin on the slender wrist was not smooth or fair. It bore the marks of cigarette burns, needle punctures, and other bruises and pinch marks—it was shocking.

“They won’t let me go to school. They tell me school is useless and it’s more practical to just open my legs like them. The younger I am, the more I can get. I knelt and begged them to let me go to school. They only agreed after they were satisfied with my reaction, but they won’t give me the tuition. I don’t know how much longer I can drag this out…”

“Absurd.” Xia Wanshuang gritted her teeth, spitting out the word stiffly.

“Education is the fairest path, and the best way for people who can’t see hope to find it.”

“So I plan to run away with some money after the college entrance exam, but my grades are bad. Can you help me?”

Qing Luo curved her lips. Beneath her feet was the abyss.