Chapter 10: Summer Ii (1/2)

Not wanting to say much, Lixia answered, ”No more. Your body can't take it.”

As if she hadn't heard him, Xiaoyue repeated, ”Will you?”

”Follow me to the hospital first. You're ill. We'll go to the beach when you recover, alright?” Lixia persuaded.

”No, I'm not going,” Xiaoyue responded, displeased.

Lixia carried her back to her bed and insisted, ”What you need now is rest and not the sun.”

Xiaoyue protested and squirmed, but Lixia remained firm. He hugged her tightly until she ran out of energy and fell asleep.

Feeling the bed move, Lixia woke up. Xiaoyue was awake.

Tired, he asked, ”How are you?”

Xiaoyue yelled at him in anger to get lost. Seeing that she had recovered a little bit of energy, Lixia left her place, but not before urging her to visit the hospital.

Xiaoyu smashed her guzheng after he left.

Xiamen Gulangyu Music Academy.

”Hey, do you know that Xiaoyue's been absent from school for two days now,” Xiaoyue's cla.s.smate, Naixi, casually mentioned.

”Right. Now that you've mentioned it, I haven't seen her in two days. I wouldn't have realized it if you didn't tell me,” the cla.s.s president replied.

”I think Lixia, the guy from next door, is her boyfriend. Should we ask him?” Naixi added.

”That's not a good idea, is it?” the cla.s.s president responded doubtfully.

”Don't worry about it, go ask.” Naixi pulled him over to the cla.s.s next door.

”A beauty is looking for you, Lixia. No, two beauties,” Lixia's good friend, Xiqing called and laughed.

Lixia put his guitar down and walked out of the cla.s.sroom.

”Is anything the matter?” he questioned. He knew they were Xiaoyue's cla.s.smates.

Before the cla.s.s president could say anything, Naixi started, ”Do you know that Xiaoyue's been absent from school for two days now?”

Lixia shook his head. ”No.”

”You're her boyfriend and you don't know?” the cla.s.s president asked him.

”That's what I said. I don't know.” Without saying anything more, he walked back to his cla.s.sroom.

Not knowing what to do, Naixi and the cla.s.s president discussed whether they should visit her place after school.

Lixia grabbed his guitar and started strumming it.

His cla.s.smates were shocked. While there were many mistakes, it was indeed a tune from 'Fishermen's Return at Dusk'.

Ring~

The cla.s.s bell rang and Lixia dashed out.

The school's perimeter walls weren't considered high but they weren't low either.

Lixia heard from a senior that the easiest wall to climb over was the one in the western part of the campus.

Reaching that particular stretch of the perimeter wall, Lixia climbed up a tall tree and jumped over.

The tree branches and wall left countless marks on his body and arms.

Lixia sprinted wildly to Xiaoyue's house.

When he arrived, his uniform was soaked with sweat.

Her gate was locked.

Lixia climbed in through the window without much thought. He'd already broken the school rule so this meant nothing.

No one was at home.

He immediately ran to the pier on the beach, calling out for her along the way.

Just as he guessed, she was sitting in a corner of the beach.

”You're here?” she asked softly.

Lixia looked at her frail body and worried, ”Why haven't you been coming to school?”

Xiaoyue only had her pajamas and Lixia's slippers on.

She repeated her words from before, ”Will you wait with me, darling?”

He carried her up once again but this time, she did not resist.