Chapter 5

Shi Xiu expressed that she did not particularly want to wake up.

Besides, she did not think Shang Jinyue would be the super invincible beautiful woman of her dream world.

At seventeen, Shang Jinyue had already grown into a form not much different from her future self, with a graceful neck, elegant shoulders, and fair skin revealed.

It was only that, before experiencing factional struggles, her brows and eyes still carried a youthful greenness. Her entire person exuded a cool and composed aura, making even the dull gray-brown Western-style school uniform look like custom-tailored casual wear.

Looking out through the gap in the bed curtain, there were several other people wearing the same uniform as Shang Jinyue.

Shi Xiu was wearing the same style too.

But none of them looked as good in it as Shang Jinyue did.

Fine. Let’s say Shang Jinyue was the super invincible beautiful woman.

Shi Xiu took another look at Shang Jinyue, then turned her gaze away.

Although she admitted this person was beautiful, she did not want to have stolen contentanything to do with her again.

Unfortunately, because of her bizarre actions, she still ended up getting involved with Shang Jinyue.

“You fell down the stairs and fainted. I brought you to the school clinic.”

Perhaps because she had noticed Shi Xiu’s coldness, Shang Jinyue’s explanation was also distant.

Her gaze guided Shi Xiu toward her left ankle, which had already been fixed and bandaged.

“You sprained your ankle. Don’t move around for now.”

A sprain was not as serious as a fracture or a cracked bone, but after all, tendons and bones were involved. Even though she had already woken up after the incident, Shi Xiu could still feel the swelling pain coming from her ankle.

Shi Xiu felt that if this did not count as intense stimulation, then her only option left was jumping off a building.

So this was not a dream at all.

She had truly returned to seventeen!

“Heavens.” Shi Xiu could not believe it and could not help sighing aloud.

“Now you know to say heavens? Why weren’t you paying attention when you were walking back then?”

Hearing voices coming from the sickbed, the school doctor stood in front of Shi Xiu’s bed with her hands in her pockets.

With a solemn face, she began educating Shi Xiu. “Such a high staircase, yet you didn’t even pay attention while walking. Senior year is so tight on time. If you’d fallen and broken a bone, what would you have done?”

That was right. Senior year was so tight on time, yet she had forgotten every bit of knowledge she had learned.

She had even boasted to Guo Xiao, all for Shang Jinyue’s sake, that she would make it into the top twenty of the grade.

What was she supposed to do?

Shi Xiu drooped her head with a whoosh, bitter as a tiny bitter gourd freshly plucked from some vine.

The school doctor had not expected Shi Xiu to react this way and immediately felt that she had spoken too harshly. “Well, don’t be like that. Look, you only sprained your ankle. How lucky is that?”

“No, teacher, you don’t understand. This is exactly what bad luck looks like.” Shi Xiu shook her head bitterly.

Other people’s rebirths came with golden fingers, full of hope and joy.

Only she had a hard life.

Not only had she forgotten all the knowledge she had once learned, but the life path she had already walked for ten years now had to be walked all over again.

“You mustn’t think like that.” The school doctor tried desperately to salvage Shi Xiu’s mindset. “Senior year has only just started. You’re only delayed by a few days. It doesn’t matter. Besides, your life is still long. How old are you now? Don’t place that much importance on the college entrance exam either…”

Who knew what had happened on the sports field, but waves of cheers came from outside the window.

Following the school doctor’s attempt at comfort, Shi Xiu slowly raised her head.

That was right. Her life was still long.

Looking at the future from twenty-seven was one thing. Looking at the future from seventeen was another.

And now, she had not yet become entangled with Shang Jinyue. The two of them could not even be considered friends. Her life was still completely and entirely in her own hands!

Giving up the painting she loved just to spend one more year with Shang Jinyue in senior year?

Secretly digging around for Shang Jinyue’s college entrance choices, stolen content then casually choosing some third-rate business management major just so she could enter Shang Jinyue’s university?

None of that existed!

She could do what she wanted, choose the university she wanted to attend.

The life she had started over at twenty-seven could be completely walked again at seventeen.

No Shang Jinyue.

No woodpile.

Her burning would only be for herself!

Shi Xiu found the anchor point for living again and sat up from the sickbed with a whoosh. Extremely grateful, she gripped the school doctor’s hand. “Thank you. Any stocks you buy in the future will definitely rise all the way.”

It was common for adolescents to have large emotional fluctuations, but this was the first time the school doctor had seen fluctuations this large.

She struggled to pull her hand free from Shi Xiu’s grasp and looked at Shi Xiu seriously. “Little student, have you recently felt especially excited, with your emotions rising and falling dramatically?”

Shi Xiu knew the school doctor thought there was something wrong with her, but she did not feel offended at all and continued smiling brightly. “I’m fine. What you said just now enlightened me. I now feel that life is full of hope!”

The young girl’s eyes were bright. The sunset shone in from outside the window, making her look especially full of vitality.

Shang Jinyue watched quietly from the side until the school doctor handed the sick-leave slips to her.

“Here, take these.”

The school doctor wrote one sick-leave slip each for Shi Xiu and Shang Jinyue, hinting to them, “Anyway, it’s already the last class. It won’t make much difference to miss these last ten or twenty minutes. Go home early and rest.”

“Thank you, teacher.” Shi Xiu impatiently accepted her sick-leave slip, braced herself with one hand, and got off the bed with her injured foot raised.

Since she had been reborn back to seventeen, of course she had to go home and take a look.

After all, it had been years since she had returned to that home.

Perhaps it was Shi Xiu’s imagination, but when she got off the bed, she seemed to see a shadow.

It was a hand reaching out from Shang Jinyue’s direction, avoided by Shi Xiu on instinct.

“Teacher, can I borrow a crutch from the school clinic? I’ll return it tomorrow.” Read on BaiLianTalesShi Xiu felt that it would be somewhat difficult for her to hop from the school clinic to the school gate alone.

“Aiya, someone who twisted his leg playing soccer just borrowed it this morning… and the wheelchair is gone too. Why don’t I go to the storeroom and look for one for you?” The school doctor was troubled, and as she spoke, she was about to head out.

Shi Xiu quickly stopped her and changed her tune. “No need. It’s just a short distance. I can hop to the gate.”

“Can you really?” The school doctor was worried.

“I really can.” Shi Xiu nodded.

She had experience with this kind of thing. As she spoke, she stepped onto the ground and showed the school doctor her nimble footwork.

She was indeed nimble, but watching her was also truly terrifying.

The school doctor could not help reaching out to stop Shi Xiu. “All right, all right, stop demonstrating. Be careful you really do break something.”

“Be careful on the way.”

“Don’t worry.”

Shi Xiu waved her hand, picked up the medicine the school doctor had prescribed, and walked out.

She walked neither fast nor slow. That practiced ease made people suspect that she had sprained her ankle like this before.

That was right. On a certain day when she was twenty-six, Shi Xiu had come out of the gallery just like this.

At the time, in order to show the workers her idea, Shi Xiu had lost her footing and fallen from a ladder.

And by sheer coincidence, it had also been her left foot.

At the time, it hurt so much that her whole body had gone numb, scaring the workers half to death.

After she recovered, she habitually smiled, then hopped from the gallery to the car all by herself.

Afterward, many people sent messages to check on Shi Xiu, and Feng Xinyang directly rushed to her house and scolded her fiercely for being reckless.

Shi Xiu lay on the bed enjoying the pork trotter soup Feng Xinyang had brought her, smiling as she listened to Feng Xinyang scold her.

Only, during that time, she also checked her phone several times.

The comfort she wanted most never made a sound.

It was not until dawn the next day that Shi Xiu received a lukewarm message from Shang Jinyue: [Pay attention to safety.]

Yes, yes, yes. As if she did not know to pay attention to safety.

Miss Robot.

Memory would not lose effect at any point in time, not even ten years ago.

Seventeen-year-old Shi Xiu frowned at what her twenty-something self had experienced, and adolescence made that displeasure especially strong.

The pills bumped around inside the medicine bottle, clattering loudly.

Shi Xiu kept walking forward and did not notice a hand reaching toward her.

Long, slender fingers held the young girl’s forearm, and the thin shirt pressed over a layer of cool warmth.

Shi Xiu turned back blankly and saw Shang Jinyue, who should have already parted ways with her, appearing in front of her.

Shang Jinyue was naturally [read the original at bailiantales.com]cold-hearted, her thick lashes always lowered, inexplicably carrying a chill.

Only, the corridor light was warm-toned, and her thin lips were pressed into a cherry-pink line, making her seem to have a little human warmth, enough to make one’s gaze waver.

But Shi Xiu knew all along that this was not the twenty-seven-year-old Shang Jinyue.

Nor would she change her mind again because of this person’s friendly gesture.

“What are you doing?” Shi Xiu lifted her eyes coldly.

“Helping you,” Shang Jinyue said concisely.

“No need.” Shi Xiu did not want Shang Jinyue to help her.

Shang Jinyue had not helped in the past, and there was no need for her to help now.

Refusing her, Shi Xiu moved around Shang Jinyue’s hand that was holding her arm.

She limped along, the medicine bottle’s clattering sound like her background music.

This was the second time today that Shang Jinyue’s hand had been pushed away by Shi Xiu.

The corridor light fell gently on Shang Jinyue’s hand, real and yet startling.

Shang Jinyue stared fixedly at her own hand. Between her fingers was that retreating back, moving farther and farther away from her.

She seriously confirmed once that Shi Xiu had truly refused her, then immediately stepped forward. “Shi Xiu, what are you doing?”

For some reason, Shi Xiu felt a sense of familiarity toward Shang Jinyue’s tone.

But she only glanced at Shang Jinyue casually and continued walking at an unhurried pace. “Going home.”

“I said I’ll help you.”

“And I said no need.”

Shang Jinyue emphasized.

Shi Xiu still refused.

Confusion was written in the young girl’s dark pupils. “Did I offend you somehow?”

“No.” Shi Xiu shook her head.

Not seventeen-year-old you. Twenty-seven-year-old you.

She looked at Shang Jinyue’s not quite fully concealed emotions, her expression distant.

She knew she should not vent anger on Shang Jinyue at this time, but she also did not want to have any further intersections with her.

“I just feel there’s no need,” Shi Xiu said.

At the moment she signed the divorce agreement, Shi Xiu had still imagined what it would be like when she and Shang Jinyue met again.

She thought that when the time came, she would definitely dress herself up brilliantly, putting on the full posture of “my life doesn’t only have you in it, Shang Jinyue; after leaving you, I can live even better.”

But in reality, when she and Shang Jinyue stood together again.

When she looked at this seventeen-year-old Shang Jinyue, who was not yet her ex-wife, there was only one calm rhetorical question in her mind:

“Why should I trouble you for a path I can walk by myself?”

“Shang Jinyue, I’m used to being alone.”

During those long years of living apart in different places, time had seemed dead, and Shi Xiu had already gotten used to being alone.

Without hiding anything, she gazed into Shang Jinyue’s eyes, finished saying what she wanted to say, then turned and left.

After only a few steps, she reached the hall of the school clinic. The exit was filled with sunlight.

Shi Xiu felt that Shang Jinyue would not follow anymore, so she slowed her pace and let her injured ankle recover a little.

Because of this, she could not see that behind her, the expression on Shang Jinyue’s face was worse than ever before.

The sick-leave slip was clutched in Shang Jinyue’s hand, quickly becoming a crumpled ball.

Autumn in Ning City was not cold, and even the wind passing through the hall was warm.

Yet this kind of wind blowing over Shang Jinyue’s body made her feel chilled.

The crumpled sick-leave slip, along with her nails digging into her palm, became somewhat ferocious.

Perhaps she was the same.

When she heard Shi Xiu call her name and say that she had already gotten used to being alone, Shang Jinyue felt as if her heart had trembled.

Dragging footsteps and quick-paced footsteps overlapped, catching people more off guard than the wind.

Shi Xiu was still slowly making her way toward the entrance. Then the hand that had just helped her wrist reached over again.

This time, Shang Jinyue’s actions were even cleaner and more decisive than before.

One hand supported Shi Xiu’s arm, while the other took the medicine Shi Xiu was carrying.

The pills let out a burst of urgent clattering. Shi Xiu instinctively wanted to break free from Shang Jinyue’s hand.

But she could not break free and was silently, stubbornly supported by Shang Jinyue.

Just like yesterday afternoon, when they had gone home together.

Shi Xiu looked at Shang Jinyue in incomprehension, and Shang Jinyue replied with silence.

Sunlight covered their eyes with a layer of glowing mist, and neither could see the other’s thoughts clearly.

The warmth of Shang Jinyue’s palm passed through the shirt, layer by layer, into Shi Xiu’s arm.

She did not speak, only single-mindedly supported Shi Xiu forward.

Shi Xiu did not want to speak to Shang Jinyue either.

The impression that communication was useless had already been carved into Shi Xiu’s subconscious, making her lose the desire to communicate.

She understood Shang Jinyue too well, understood that this person had always been like this. Once she set her mind on something, she would insist on doing it her own way and would not care about what others thought.

She just had not expected that the seventeen-year-old Shang Jinyue was no different from the twenty-seven-year-old her.

Forget it. In any case, the school clinic was not far from the school gate. They would be out in only a few steps.

When Shi Xiu was in high school, her family’s car picked her up and dropped her off. Once she got into the car, she would have no more connection with Shang Jinyue. There was no need to waste time here.

It was not yet dismissal time, and the enormous school was empty.

Shi Xiu deliberately maintained a distance from Shang Jinyue. The sunlight reflecting off the brick path was like a Milky Way between their shadows on the ground.

As dismissal time approached, the school gate was already lined with cars coming to pick up children from their families.

Shi Xiu quickly found the familiar car among the crowd of vehicles, endured the last bit of contact between herself and Shang Jinyue, and walked over.

Only, just as Shi Xiu pulled open the car door.

She heard Shang Jinyue’s voice come from beside her. “Shi Xiu, this is my family’s car.”

Shi Xiu froze.

Looking at the door she had pulled open, she finally noticed her own family’s car, which had been flashing its lights at her like mad ever since she left the school gate.

All these years, she and Shang Jinyue had ridden in the same car, almost forming a habit.

Unfortunately, this car also looked almost exactly the same as the one she and Shang Jinyue used, making her lower her guard too.

Damn it.

Shi Xiu calmly withdrew her hand on purpose, made a sound of acknowledgment, and brought out a belated thank-you. “I know. This is me thanking you for helping me today.”

“It was no trouble.” Shang Jinyue nodded slightly.

Her emotions were very faint, as if she had accepted Shi Xiu’s explanation.

Shi Xiu also swiftly pulled her arm out of Shang Jinyue’s hand and, while she was at it, took back her medicine. “I’m leaving.”

Not “see you.”

Even though they still had to sit at the same desk tomorrow, she did not want to see Shang Jinyue again today.

The setting sun fell into Shi Xiu’s eyes like a scorching flame, yet it also carried a cool indifference without the slightest reluctance.

Shang Jinyue stood where she was and watched. The hand that had supported Shi Xiu all the way still carried this person’s warmth, and before the cool wind could blow over it, its owner clenched it tightly and put it into her pocket.

The Shi family’s car slowly drove past the school road, and, both warmly and coldly, flashed a farewell signal.

Shang Jinyue was at a loss.