Chapter 37: Light
A new day dawned, and Long Qinxin woke up from her dream.
“Yawn~”
She yawned, threw off the covers, and sat up on her bed.
Wearing thin pajamas, Long Qinxin tidied the hair at the back of her head.
She hadn’t slept well for a long time. Ever since her parents contracted severe skin diseases due to a chemical plant accident, her social circle had shrunk, eventually disappearing altogether.
Friendless and not talking much to people, the few interactions she had were probably being bullied by the scoundrels at school.
Born into a wealthy family, she shouldn’t have been bullied. She should have thrived under her parents’ protection, graduated smoothly from school, taken over her parents’ company, and then married the person she loved.
This should have been her life.
And all of it was destroyed by an explosion.
When her parents went to inspect their factory, due to a worker’s mistake, raw materials leaked and encountered open flames, causing a violent explosion. Although her parents survived, they were left with severe after-effects.
Their skin would itch, swell, and even fester once exposed to sunlight. Combined with the losses from the production accident, Long Qinxin’s parents became disheartened and rarely went out.
Naturally, they had no extra energy to look after Long Qinxin. Most of the household staff were dismissed, leaving only a driver to take Long Qinxin to and from school.
Living in such a suffocating environment for a long time, Long Qinxin’s personality became increasingly dark.
She thought her life would continue in this dazed state, unnoticed and uncared for.
However, everything changed.
Due to some coincidence, she connected with another student at school who was also isolated and bullied.
“Lu… Zhi… Yin…”
Sitting on the bed, she read the name of the white-haired girl in her memory, word by word.
Although they hadn’t met many times, the white-haired girl’s act of reaching out to her was deeply etched in her heart.
Yesterday in the restroom, although she was so frail and appeared scared, she still stepped forward and helped her.
Thinking of this, Long Qinxin smiled genuinely.
Then, her mood sank again.
Because she helped her, the white-haired girl was retaliated against and severely bullied.
“…Today, what should I bring her?”
Knowing only that Lu Zhiyin was often bullied, Long Qinxin didn’t know much about Lu Zhiyin’s family situation.
She just felt that Lu Zhiyin was injured because of her, so she had to take responsibility.
In her dark life, she had a rare ray of light, and Long Qinxin didn’t want to let this light go.
She closed her eyes, got up, and walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window in her bedroom. In the mirror, although her physique wasn’t strong, her complexion was much better than the person who had protected her.
“Hoo…”
She let out a breath, clenched her fists, changed into her school uniform and shirt, tied her hair, and left the bedroom.
On the coffee table in the living room, her parents had already prepared breakfast for her – ordinary butter toast.
Years ago, her parents would prepare more elaborate meals for her, but not anymore.
“…I’m a bit late. Next time, I’ll get up earlier and cook myself.”
Muttering to herself, Long Qinxin quickly washed up, grabbed the toast prepared in the living room, quickly finished her breakfast, and left her villa.
She didn’t feel like saying goodbye to her parents; they didn’t seem to care about her much anyway, did they?
Outside the villa’s main door, the family car was already parked at the entrance. The driver must have been waiting for her for a long time.
Opening the car door, Long Qinxin got into the back seat, not bothering to fasten her seatbelt. She glanced at the rows of detached villas across the street, then collected her thoughts.
“Uncle Wu, drive.”
As soon as she spoke, the driver in front started the car. With a roar of the engine, the car slowly drove away from the affluent area filled with villas.
The car quickly accelerated, and before long, Long Qinxin was dropped off at the school gate.
The car stopped. Long Qinxin pushed open the car door, jumped out, and closed the door behind her.
Because she woke up a bit late, there was a sea of people at the school gate.
Many who had bullied her before turned their gazes towards Long Qinxin.
Closing her eyes, Long Qinxin ignored them. All she wanted now was to see her light.
The elegant demeanor she had learned as a child was cast aside. These things were no longer useful anyway. Long Qinxin jogged through the school gate and hurried upstairs.
“Hoo… hoo…”
She climbed the stairs in one go. Standing at the top of the stairs, Long Qinxin bent over, panting. Although her physical condition was much better than Lu Zhiyin’s, objectively speaking, it was still very poor.
She and Lu Zhiyin were just comparing whose condition was worse.
Running from the school gate to the second floor of the teaching building was already the limit for Long Qinxin.
She bent over and panted for a while, then walked towards Lu Zhiyin’s classroom from memory.
As she walked, she wondered if it would seem out of place to see Lu Zhiyin empty-handed.
“…I really should get up earlier tomorrow…”
Muttering to herself, Long Qinxin didn’t stop at the classroom door but observed the interior through the window.
It was getting late, and most of the students in the classroom had already arrived.
Long Qinxin scanned meticulously from the first row to the last, but she couldn’t find the cute white-haired girl from her memory.
“…She didn’t come?”
Feeling a sense of loss, she looked at the seat next to Leng Qing Qiu’s, which was empty, with no white figure in sight as she remembered.
Long Qinxin recalled that Lu Zhiyin and Leng Qing Qiu seemed to be friends? Although Long Qinxin didn’t think they looked like friends.
In the past, Long Qinxin had never heard of anyone standing up for Lu Zhiyin, nor had she seen Leng Qing Qiu help Lu Zhiyin.
Yesterday, although Leng Qing Qiu took Lu Zhiyin to the infirmary, Long Qinxin was sure that Leng Qing Qiu still hadn’t helped her when she was being abused.
After all, if someone had helped her in time, how could she have been so miserable?
As Lu Zhiyin’s deskmate, Leng Qing Qiu obviously couldn’t have been unaware that Lu Zhiyin had been taken away by those bullying scoundrels.
Looking at Leng Qing Qiu through the window, Long Qinxin’s hand slowly clenched, gripping the smooth windowsill, her knuckles turning white.
Only when Leng Qing Qiu noticed her and gave her a cold glance did Long Qinxin look away.
Just then, the class bell rang, and the few students lingering outside quickly returned to their seats.
Long Qinxin gave up the idea of asking about Lu Zhiyin’s whereabouts and reluctantly returned to her own classroom.
The image of Lu Zhiyin obediently eating the food she brought yesterday was in her mind, and she was worried about Lu Zhiyin.
She didn’t want to lose this light that was willing to illuminate her.
