Chapter 17: Sleeping Under the Coffee Table (Added Update 5)
“…”
Speechless, Lu Zhiyin slumped onto the ground in helplessness.
A bowl was on her head, and warm soup dripped down from above, along with rice grains and red dates. They fell onto her clothes.
The school uniform on her upper body was soaked by the warm chicken soup. In this autumn weather, the soup quickly cooled, and she began to feel cold.
She felt dull aches in many places on her body. Leng Qing Qiu’s push hadn’t been gentle. Lu Zhiyin’s body was too frail; falling from the sofa alone was already difficult for her to endure.
She sat slumped there, lost and unsure what to do. The warmth at the corner of her eyes was either tears or chicken soup.
She didn’t understand. How could Leng Qing Qiu, who had just kindly served her a meal a moment ago, pour soup and rice on her head the next moment?
Feeling inexplicably wronged, Lu Zhiyin’s throat constricted.
“Sorry…”
With a sore heart, Lu Zhiyin apologized to Leng Qing Qiu.
It seemed that apologizing to the abuser was something Lu Zhiyin had done often.
Wiping the hot soup from her face with her sleeve, as Lu Zhiyin moved, the bowl on her head rolled off, falling to the ground and shattering into countless tiny pieces.
“…”
Leng Qing Qiu ignored Lu Zhiyin and continued eating her meal.
She actually knew what she was doing was wrong, but she did it anyway.
“…I…”
Lu Zhiyin opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but she really didn’t know what to say anymore.
Supporting herself on a part of the ground without ceramic shards, Lu Zhiyin moved bit by bit, trying to crawl back to the sofa.
Just as her palm touched the sofa, Leng Qing Qiu pushed Lu Zhiyin back again.
“Ah!”
She cried out in surprise. As she was pushed away, she instinctively tried to use her palm to support herself on the ground, only to press her hand onto a pile of broken ceramic bowls.
She had prepared herself to endure the pain and tried not to cry out, but such sudden pain could still make her cry out.
The girl’s voice was unusually sharp. Leng Qing Qiu looked at Lu Zhiyin.
What met her eyes was Lu Zhiyin, leaning against the leg of the coffee table, holding her wrist with one hand.
Her palm, the one being held, was embedded with more than ten shards of broken ceramic bowls. Most of the shards were small, with only the largest one sticking into the center of her palm.
However, “largest” was only relative. Leng Qing Qiu was a little curious why Lu Zhiyin’s reaction wasn’t this strong when she was stabbed with a knife.
“…”
Her face paled slightly. Lu Zhiyin bit her lip and shakily reached to remove the ceramic shards from her hand.
Her fingertips grasped the largest shard. Because the shard was smooth, Lu Zhiyin found it difficult to exert force.
It took her nearly ten seconds to pull out the largest shard that was deeply embedded in her palm.
As the shard was pulled out, Lu Zhiyin’s palm began to bleed continuously.
The largest shard was the easiest to remove. The remaining small shards were even harder to grip, and Lu Zhiyin wasn’t sure how long it would take to clean them all out.
Biting her lip, she looked at Leng Qing Qiu with tear-blurred eyes, not believing Leng Qing Qiu would help her.
She gritted her teeth and continued to clean her wound herself.
Using her not-so-long fingernails to dig into her palm, it often took about a minute to remove a small shard. Moreover, due to improper operation, Lu Zhiyin always made those originally harmless small wounds worse.
By the time Lu Zhiyin removed all the ceramic shards from her hand, her palm was bloody and riddled with holes, and it was uncertain how long it would take to recover.
Not knowing what to do next, Lu Zhiyin raised her eyes and glanced at Leng Qing Qiu again.
“…Do you… do you have any bandages…”
Her voice trembled slightly from the pain.
Leng Qing Qiu loved this kind of voice.
Looking at the girl’s bloody palm and the stained ceramic shards on the ground, Leng Qing Qiu actually had the urge to press Lu Zhiyin’s other hand into the pile of shards.
Fortunately, she didn’t act on her thought. The bad news was that Leng Qing Qiu had no intention of helping Lu Zhiyin.
“Figure it out yourself. Aren’t you good friends with Long Qinxin? Try asking her to help you?”
Still dwelling on Long Qinxin, Leng Qing Qiu stood up, picked up the remaining chicken soup from the table and her own rice bowl, and returned to the kitchen.
As Leng Qing Qiu left, Lu Zhiyin looked around.
“Ask Long Qinxin to come? How is that possible…”
She looked around the room. Not to mention that she didn’t dare to contact Long Qinxin, let alone ask Long Qinxin to rush over to Leng Qing Qiu’s house to help her.
Even if Lu Zhiyin really wanted to find Long Qinxin, she couldn’t. She could only contact Long Qinxin by phone.
And right now, Lu Zhiyin’s phone was in Leng Qing Qiu’s bedroom.
She looked at the bedroom… the door was closed, and she couldn’t get in at all.
“…”
Finally, she resigned herself to smearing her still bleeding hand on her school pants, then shifted her body a bit, moving further away from the dangerous pile of ceramic shards.
In the kitchen, some water sounds could be heard. Perhaps Leng Qing Qiu was washing dishes or doing something else. In any case, these things had nothing to do with Lu Zhiyin.
After Lu Zhiyin covered her hand with her school pants, she only felt discomfort.
The fabric of the school pants was not good, making Lu Zhiyin’s hand itchy and painful, but Lu Zhiyin had no other way.
Accompanying the pain was the cold.
It was already autumn, and the temperature at night wasn’t high; it was even quite low.
A large part of Lu Zhiyin’s upper body clothing was wet, and those wet parts were now clinging tightly to Lu Zhiyin’s skin, stealing her body heat.
Her hair was also sticky with chicken soup, which was uncomfortable.
For a sense of security, and to warm herself up a bit, Lu Zhiyin curled herself into a ball.
“I still haven’t made Long Qinxin understand the reason for the breach of contract…”
Thinking of Long Qinxin again, Lu Zhiyin shrank herself tighter.
She really couldn’t understand. They hadn’t done anything to Long Qinxin, yet Leng Qing Qiu was so opposed to her contact with Long Qinxin.
Listening to the continuous sound of water from the kitchen, Lu Zhiyin sniffled. She felt increasingly wronged.
Listening to the sound of water, Lu Zhiyin unconsciously started to feel sleepy again. She was really tired, and her spirit wasn’t good at all.
The events of the day had been quite a lot for Lu Zhiyin.
When Leng Qing Qiu came out of the kitchen after showering, wearing a bathrobe, she saw a ball of white fur that had fallen asleep.
“…Tsk…”
She shook her head and sat on the sofa by herself.
“Wuwu…”
She tried to nudge Lu Zhiyin’s back with her toes, eliciting a soft whimper from the girl.
After thinking for a moment, Leng Qing Qiu abandoned the malicious idea of kicking Lu Zhiyin awake.
She also didn’t intend to find a quilt or blanket for Lu Zhiyin, but instead just watched the wet girl lying on the cold ceramic tiles.
Consistent with her initial thoughts, she didn’t want to bother with Lu Zhiyin anymore today.
