Chapter 14 (1/2)

The sky had darkened completely.

Bei Ye asked every single shop along the streets, and finally found the dark and dingy alley Chen Nian had been dragged into. In the darkness of the night, Chen Nian’s school bag, textbooks, pencils, mobile phone, skirt and red string lay strewn on the muddy floor. Bei Ye hastily picked up Chen Nian’s items, storing them in her school bag. He twined the red string around his hand, and continued to search for Chen Nian.

The icy cold wind swept up the alley, causing the leaves of the surrounding trees to rustle and their shadows to tremble. It was about to rain.

A single bolt of lightning ripped across the inky night sky, illuminating Bei Ye’s extraordinarily pale face. He walked further into the alley, the gust of wind causing a white piece of cloth to tumble to his feet. He had seen this piece of cloth before – in his toilet, hanging quietly from the clothing rack. That small piece of cloth stopped temporarily by Bei Ye’s feet before continuing its journey to the rubbish pile.

Bei Ye found Chen Nian amongst the bushes, her white, pale body curled into a tight ball. There were innumerable wounds and marks on her body, as though she was a solitary, bloodshot eyeball that had dropped into the mud.

Bei Ye knelt down beside Chen Nian. He took off his s.h.i.+rt, and carefully wrapped his s.h.i.+rt around her frail body. Chen Nian’s body gave an involuntary shudder. Her breathing was barely perceptible.

“It’s me……” He approached Chen Nian slowly, carefully sweeping the unruly fringe and hair from her face. Chen Nian stared at him blankly. One second. Two seconds. In that very moment, something Chen Nian had been dearly hanging onto broke into pieces, and she fainted into unconsciousness.

Bei Ye carefully wrapped Chen Nian up.

Carrying her in his arms, Bei Ye began the walk back to his motorcycle.

The alley was void of people. Bolts of pure white lightning streaked across the sky.

It was time. The torrential ran began to pour.

The motorcycle zoomed into the night as the wind and rain whipped around the two youths. The youths were drenched in entirety, as though they had been travelling underwater.

The icy sheets of rain continued to pour mercilessly from above. The girl in Bei Ye’s arms was akin to a corpse; her body was like a limp and lifeless rucksack that continually slid down the motorcycle as Bei Ye drove. Bei Ye was forced to stop his motorcycle again and again, each time patiently propping Chen Nian up and cuddling her with his arms. Finally, Bei Ye was left with no choice but to tie Chen Nian to his body with a rope.

He hugged her tightly whilst muttering to himself under his breath, as though he was trying to hypnotise somebody, “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be fine. Trust me, everything’s going to be fine.”

There was no response. She was already dead.

She was the only clean and beautiful thing in his filthy and disgusting life.

And now, she was dead.

The youth pressed his face tightly against her pale, icy face, howling in his sorrow.

The rain continued to beat down ferociously, forming little streams of water that swept the rubbish into the drains. It was as though the storm was intent on clearing every single piece of dirt from the city.

The rainy season was so long.

But, despite the torrential rain and the howling wind that raged throughout the night, by the very next morning, everything resumed its normalcy. The world was still there – noisy, messy, and complicated.

In the silence of the dawn, a fake sense of calmness settled over the world at large.

Chen Nian put on her school uniform, combing her hair till her dark strands of hair fell around her like a neat curtain. Seating herself by the table, she began to eat the steamed pudding on the table.

She seemed as though she had forgotten everything that had happened to her. She acted so normally, it was abnormal.

“Must you go to school?” Bei Ye asked.

“Yes.” Chen Nian’s calm and slow voice rang out, “There’s no way for me to, take a leave of absence.”

“There are still some injuries on your face.”

“I’ll say that I was bitten by a centipede, that’s why my face is swollen.” She was still extremely quiet – so quiet that she resembled a body of stale water.

Bei Ye didn’t respond. All this while, he only let Chen Nian gaze at his side profile, stubbornly refusing to let her look into his eyes.

But Chen Nian knew.

Last night, he hugged her the entire time, his tears falling onto her eyes as his body was wracked with silent sobs. He had stopped at several intervals, but it wasn’t long before his tears would begin to flow once more.

“Let’s go.” Chen Nian gently held his hand.

In the darkness of the night, she had also held onto his hand. Last night, when it seemed as though she was deep in sleep, Bei Ye stealthily began to get up from the bed – however, before he could even sit up, Chen Nian had already tightly grabbed his hand. She knew what he wanted to do, and she refused to allow him to leave.

On the way to school, Chen Nian once again told Bei Ye in all seriousness that he wasn’t allowed to go looking for revenge. Chen Nian told Bei Ye hthat she knew a police officer, and that she would report the incident to the police. She even told Bei Ye that he couldn’t let anything happen to him, that he had promised her previously that he would always stay by her side.

Bei Ye simply grunted once, to signify his agreement.

Subsequently, the two youths lapsed into silence, each troubled by their own respective worries.

The graduation exam was about to arrive. It was time to make that one final push. The students busied themselves with their revision and failed to notice Chen Nian’s red and swollen face. When Xiao Mi saw Chen Nian, she was extremely shocked – but with Chen Nian’s explanation, Xiao Mi’s initial shock subsided, and she chattered to Chen Nian, “I was bitten by a poisonous spider when I was young. At that time, my forehead swelled into a huge lump, and I looked exactly like the peach immortal!”

Chen Nian couldn’t focus on Xiao Mi’s chatter – she didn’t know what Bei Ye was doing right now. She knew that Bei Ye would definitely be out looking for Wei Cai. and she hoped fervently that he wouldn’t be able to find her. Before Wei Cai left yesterday, she had whispered to Chen Nian that she would come to look for her sometime soon.

Chen Nian stayed in her seat the entire day, burying her head in her books so as to prevent others from looking at her face. When Li Xiang came by her desk and began talking to Zeng Hao, she lowered her head even further, refusing to join the conversation. Thankfully, the pile of books on her desk was able to easily block her face from his line of sight.

Xiao Mi understood Chen Nian’s thoughts, and quietly sat beside Chen Nian, choosing not take the initiative to converse with other students. Once in a while, however, she would make small talk with Chen Nian.