It was not very congested at night, and Zhou Meiling dropped off Little Seven at the hospital entrance.
Little Seven got out of the car. It was already very late, almost midnight, but the entrance of the hospital was still bustling. Some late night snack stalls were still open.
On the way here, Little Seven had already texted her aunt saying that she was almost there.
She was worried that she wouldn't have enough steps today. Unexpectedly, when she checked the app interface in the car, she already had almost 30,000 steps. She didn't run or swim today, just went shopping with her teacher, yet she walked so many steps. It was magical.
Little Seven didn't notice that as soon as she got out of the car, another taxi pulled over at the entrance as well.
It was Lin Min.
Lately, Lin Min rarely came back here. The training school he set up was on the right track with a lot of enrolled students. It occupied a whole floor like a school.
The classroom was bright and clean. Every time he taught, he felt as if he was a teacher or a student in school.
His partner Kang Yuan who co-founded the school even wanted to stay and continue running the training school instead of going to college. He tried hard to persuade Lin Min too.
The two had some disagreement recently because of this.
He knew Kang Yuan persuaded him this way because the current premises of the school was provided by An Sister who seemed to like him quite a lot. If he left, An Sister would probably stop supporting the school.
But Lin Min still disagreed. Although he had made quite some money now, he didn't feel secure. He used to be the top student in school. He didn't have much social experience but his foundations in calculations and accounting were solid. He calculated the normal rent An Sister should charge for lending the whole floor and their actual income. To put it simply, they didn't really make money. They only transferred the rent from An Sister's pocket into theirs.
If they were to run a formal school paying proper rent, they would be operating at loss. This was something he had just realized recently. At first, he was indeed a bit tempted, feeling that he had made money and wanted to buy his sister things she liked, reduce some burden off his mother, and even wanted to give Su Xiaoqi money. But he couldn't find a reason to do so. He knew her tuition was expensive and family conditions mediocre. Otherwise why would she live in a basement with her aunt and still work part-time jobs during summer breaks. He just didn't have an excuse.
When the idea came to him, he also sensed vaguely that he liked Su Xiaoqi a little.
Not romantic love, just admiration and fondness.
But yesterday, he saw a post from Xiaoqi on social media.
She won the swimming championship.
She smiled as radiantly as the blazing sun, utterly joyful and free.
It jolted Lin Min awake in an instant.
Lin Min still lived at An Sister's place, although she claimed it was a vacant house. Sometimes An Sister would be there too. There were also things that belonged to her in the house, female perfumes and cosmetics.
He didn't know exactly what An Sister did, seemed to be in finance. Kang Yuan said An Sister was rich, an investor and operator.
Lin Min didn't really understand. But once he caught sight of a text message alert popping up on An Sister's phone left on the table, showing money transfer of over 10 million yuan.
And An Sister owned more than one floor of the building.
Yet in this room with huge floor-to-ceiling windows, Lin Min felt restricted all over, feeling even his small basement bed was better.
He also understood a bit more. The training school he opened wasn't legal. It had not been cracked down probably because An Sister helped a lot. So sometimes he also needed to entertain others on her behalf, which basically meant obediently pouring drinks for her guests.
He was tall and handsome. With some grooming, he could be quite presentable.
He noticed An Sister was fond of him.
For some aspects of social experience, no learning was needed and he just intuitively knew.
Tonight An Sister was drunk and threw herself tipsily into his arms. He took her back to the room to rest. He knew if he stayed, he would be allowed to stay.
He sat by An Sister’s bed and looked at the woman in spaghetti strap dress.
Long legs, pink feet.
Plump bosom, slender waist.
Breaths that brushed past his ear when he hugged her.
Curly hair half covering her face.
He knew An Sister wasn't fully drunk.
He drank a lot with her before at KTV and felt the world spinning violently, yet he was still conscious.
Just like now. An Sister might be drunk but she was still conscious, only less determined.
She snuggled up to him. She hugged him. She knew what she was doing. Only the alcohol gave her courage and justification.
He tucked her in bed and lay beside her, pretending he was drunk too.
Yet eventually he still got up and went to the living room.
He sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, picked up his phone.
He opened his social media and saw Xiaoqi’s picture, which he had been staring at just now without scrolling down.
He suddenly felt an urge to go back.
That girl who once cried bitterly by the roadside for failing the college entrance exam. Now she smiled so brightly. She studied and exercised hard every day, changed her own life, and succeeded. He could do the same.
It was already very late.
Lin Min was always decisive without hesitation.
He changed into his old T-shirt and pants. The things he deliberately brought home were just some books, now all covered in dust. Recently he hadn't read or flipped through any of them.
He traveled light with very little luggage. Most of the clothes were bought by An Sister, along with the watch he wore.
He was eighteen now. Although ashamed of some things, he knew eventually what those were.
An Sister was beautiful and nice.
But this was not what he yearned for.
He felt that if he went further, he would no longer be himself.
He took off the Longines watch and neatly folded the clothes, leaving them there.
He walked out without even glancing at An Sister’s room.
If he did, he would've seen the passed out drunken girl leaning against the bed smoking, the intermittent fiery light.
He left and shut the door.
Hailed a cab and felt relaxed all the way, unprecedentedly so.
Until...until he arrived at the hospital entrance and saw the girl in a black skirt he had never seen before, getting out of the car. At that moment, he felt his bones and blood freeze.
He thought himself laughable for insisting like that.
He even wanted to ask the cab driver to turn back.
Then he saw a mature beautiful woman in long dress getting off from the small sedan. She took something out of the trunk for Xiaoqi.
Lin Min felt as if he was on a roller coaster, instantly dropped from the peak to bottom.
While relieved, he also felt his heart must be too despicable and filthy to have thought for a moment that Xiaoqi was in similar circumstances.
He felt ashamed and remorseful.
He got off the car.
“Xiaoqi!” He called out.
Xiaoqi looked back in surprise and exclaimed, “Lin Min?”
The two stood at the hospital entrance, somewhat peculiarly. Xiaoqi was unusually elegant today in a nice black dress, still wearing sneakers though. She rarely wore dresses, let alone a sleeveless low cut one like this, a bit sexy and mature.
Lin Min stole a glance and immediately looked away. Her chest protruded slightly, unlike An Sister’s fuller bosom.
Her calves were shapely and glowing under the street light.
“Where have you been? Why so late?”
“My Japanese teacher Zhou brought me to a symphony concert in Fucheng since she drove here. So it’s very late to drive back.” Xiaoqi had nothing to hide from Lin Min. She had always felt that Lin Min was similar to her in reality. For him to test into Qingmeng University from their average high school was remarkable.
The two walked downstairs together. Xiaoqi didn't ask where Lin Min had gone, seeing he was carrying a large bag of stuff. She was also holding some clothes.
Possibly from napping in the car, she was still quite awake now.
Went to wash all the new clothes. It didn't feel right to wear them straightaway without washing first.
When Xiaoqi was doing laundry, Lin Min also came out to wash up.
Xiaoqi then remembered why she had felt strange when she saw Lin Min earlier. The previous two times she had seen him, he had been dressed very formally, but today he seemed to be wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants again, giving off a somewhat sloppy impression. However, Lin Min was quite good-looking, so he didn't look odd, it's just that after spending so much time with Zhou Teacher that day while clothes shopping, her theories about buying clothes had somewhat brainwashed Xiaoqi...she had subconsciously started observing what Lin Min was wearing.
Seeing Xiaoqi had changed into an oversized old T-shirt, and was washing the skirt and other clothes she had just bought, Lin Min couldn't help asking: "Did you buy new clothes?"
"Mhm, Zhou Teacher took me shopping at a mall in Fucheng, there was a sale on so I bought quite a lot." Xiaoqi blushed a little. More than "quite a lot" actually, it was a whole lot.
Lin Min just smiled.
After he had washed up, he returned to his room.
Xiaoqi then heard that familiar mechanical sound in her ears again: "Host has shown self-reliance, relying on her own efforts to earn money to buy clothes, giving the moderately darkening youth positive encouragement, easing the speed of his descent into darkness. Reward: Host strength +1."
Su Xiaoqi's hands were still immersed in a pile of bubbles as she scrubbed the clothes forcefully. Suddenly, she heard a "click" from the plastic tub below her...it had cracked...cracked...
