After Yu Mingjiao had calmed down, Cen Lingqiu spoke. “Then take your time eating. Don’t eat any more bread; it’s unhealthy.”
She stood up. “I’ll be going then. See you tomorrow.”
The door closed.
Yu Mingjiao stared at the food on the table with a quiet, indifferent expression. She looked for a long time but, in the end, did not pick up her chopsticks.
Yu Mingjiao didn’t take Cen Lingqiu’s words from that night to heart. She didn’t believe in the woman’s sincerity. Perhaps she was just having a momentary fit of madness, wanting to be a good person, but how long could that last?
She was in no mood to play along with this woman’s act.
She went to school as usual. When she was leaving that morning, she happened to run into Cen Lingqiu, who was also on her way out.
“Going to school? Do you need a ride?” Cen Lingqiu asked.
Yu Mingjiao kept her eyes lowered and ignored her, pushing her wheelchair on her own to wait for the elevator. Cen Lingqiu stood beside her.
“Have you had breakfast?” Cen Lingqiu asked softly.
Still, there was only silence.
Seeing her act mute, Cen Lingqiu didn’t say anything more.
After the things she had said that day, it was only normal for the girl to need some time to process and to be a little temperamental.
The elevator arrived.
Cen Lingqiu waited for Yu Mingjiao to go in first.
Yu Mingjiao pushed her wheelchair forward, but one of the wheels got stuck in the gap at the elevator entrance. She tried to move, but nothing changed.
She gritted her teeth and pushed the armrests of her wheelchair again.
Cen Lingqiu then took hold of her wheelchair and gave it a push forward, getting it inside.
Yu Mingjiao bit her lip and turned her head away, refusing to look at Cen Lingqiu.
Cen Lingqiu pressed the button, and the elevator doors closed.
The small space was utterly silent. In the end, it was Cen Lingqiu who broke the atmosphere. “Are you sure you don’t need a ride?”
“No,” she said, her tone cold and resolute.
Since she had put it that way, Cen Lingqiu didn’t insist. Just as they were about to reach the first floor, Cen Lingqiu stuffed the breakfast from her bag into her hands.
“I made this this morning. Studying is hard work, so eat well.”
Yu Mingjiao frowned, wanting to give it back. Cen Lingqiu saw her intention and, the moment the elevator doors opened, pushed her out, then waved at her. “Goodbye.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the elevator doors closed.
Outside the elevator, a flicker of confusion crossed Yu Mingjiao’s face. She looked down at the breakfast that had been suddenly thrust upon her.
Inside the transparent box lay several cute, rabbit-shaped steamed buns. They were shaped with realistic and delicate detail, looking very appetizing.
They were still slightly warm.
Yu Mingjiao wanted to throw them away but couldn’t find a trash can.
Cen Lingqiu’s car was on the lower-level parking floor. As she drove out of the apartment building, she coincidentally saw Yu Mingjiao’s back.
She didn’t go up to disturb her, merely following quietly behind her.
Yu Mingjiao slowly pushed her wheelchair. Along the way, several passersby would glance at her before quickly looking away and hurrying on.
She saw Yu Mingjiao, wearing a hat, keeping her head down the entire time.
This child’s pride was far too strong.
For her, every trip outside must be a form of torture.
Cen Lingqiu followed her. After about a ten-minute walk, Yu Mingjiao arrived at the school.
Cen Lingqiu thought to herself that it was fortunate the school was close. If the journey were long, it would be quite dangerous for someone like Yu Mingjiao with disabled legs.
Seeing her arrive safely at school, Cen Lingqiu turned and drove off in another direction.
Yu Mingjiao turned her head and glanced at the departing car. It had been following her ever since she left the apartment building.
Only when she reached the school did the car stop and leave in another direction.
Was it a coincidence?
Or was it following her on purpose?
Who was it?
Yu Mingjiao’s eyes were gloomy. Unable to figure it out, she turned her head back.
The pastries in her hand were still untouched. Because she hadn’t found a trash can, she had unknowingly brought them all the way to school.
Yu Mingjiao stuffed them into her schoolbag, planning to throw them away later.
The school was large, and it took Yu Mingjiao a long time to get to her classroom. She sat down and casually placed the pastries on her desk.
“Mingjiao.” A girl with short hair saw her and sat down next to her. “You’re pretty early today.”
The girl’s name was An Wu. She had delicate features and had been her high school classmate. By coincidence, they ended up at the same university and in the same major. An Wu was naturally friendly and couldn’t help but strike up a conversation when she saw a familiar face.
Although Yu Mingjiao rarely spoke to her most of the time, An Wu didn’t mind. She was a top-tier admirer of beauty and had an extremely high tolerance for pretty people.
Therefore, An Wu was also the only person in this school who would talk to Yu Mingjiao. After all, most people were put off by her strange and withdrawn personality.
Yu Mingjiao grunted in acknowledgment.
“I woke up too late this morning and had to run all the way here. I’m exhausted,” An Wu complained. “I didn’t even eat breakfast. I’m starving.”
She glanced at the pastries on the desk and raised an eyebrow. “Mingjiao, you’ve finally come to your senses and are eating breakfast like a good girl.”
Yu Mingjiao said, “They’re not mine.”
“Huh? Then whose are they?”
Yu Mingjiao didn’t know how to explain, so she gave a perfunctory and cold reply, “Someone I don’t know gave them to me.”
An Wu understood. “Ah, it must be from someone trying to pursue you again.”
Yu Mingjiao: “…”
“Here.” She pushed the breakfast toward An Wu. “Didn’t you say you haven’t eaten?”
“Oh, my gosh.” An Wu’s expression was exaggerated. “Mingjiao, this is the first time you’ve ever shown concern for me, and you even said so much to me.”
You had to know, it was usually just her talking to herself.
Yu Mingjiao glanced at her, then went back to ignoring her.
An Wu didn’t stand on ceremony. “Well, thanks then.”
“But where did you buy these? They’re so cute.” An Wu took a bite, her eyes narrowing. “They taste so good too, way better than our school’s. Can you buy some for me next time?”
Drawn in by her string of reactions, Yu Mingjiao turned her head to look at her.
“You have one too,” An Wu offered, holding one out to her.
She stared at it quietly for a few seconds. The rabbit’s smile was simple and adorable as they lay in a cluster inside the box. She couldn’t believe that a vile, wicked woman like Cen Lingqiu could make such cute food.
After a few seconds, Yu Mingjiao averted her gaze again.
“You finish them.”
After that, if Cen Lingqiu was home in the evening, she would make extra to send over to Yu Mingjiao. But Yu Mingjiao seemed to reject her approach even more, basically never opening the door.
To avoid running into Cen Lingqiu, she would either leave very early in the morning or, when she had no morning classes, leave very late, dodging any opportunity to meet Cen Lingqiu.
She didn’t want Cen Lingqiu’s compensation; it was as disgusting as some kind of charity.
How could Cen Lingqiu not know about her unusual behavior and her thoughts?
But she had no solution.
Most of her past missions involved playing vicious supporting characters who committed all sorts of evil, or otherwise unremarkable neutral characters who neither needed to please people nor harm them. She had basically never had a redemption-type mission like this.
This was her first time accepting a redemption-type mission. She had grown tired of those other missions, so she wanted to try this kind.
But she found that she didn’t seem very suited for it.
Outside of work, she rarely interacted with people. Before she died, she was always busy with her studies and endless housework, so she had no extra time to spend with others. After dying and coming here, she lost interest in pursuing interpersonal relationships.
So many years of solitary life had made her feel a bit unfamiliar with the concept of “pleasing others.” She didn’t know the right way to get close to a person’s heart.
Because she had never experienced it, she had no correct standard to follow.
Cen Lingqiu sat on the sofa and sighed softly.
Wen Zhi, sitting opposite her playing the guitar, glanced at her. “What are you sighing for? Am I bothering you?”
Cen Lingqiu shook her head.
“Then why the sudden sigh?” Wen Zhi put down her guitar. “By the way, I’ve run into Yu Mingjiao a few times when I’ve gone out these past few days. Have you seen her?”
Cen Lingqiu thought to herself that she couldn’t run into her even if she wanted to.
“Do you want to move again?” Wen Zhi asked considerately. “You probably don’t want to see her either. To prevent you from going and harming someone else, I think we should move again.”
Wen Zhi was always out early and back late, sometimes not even coming back at night, so she hadn’t seen Cen Lingqiu bringing food to her.
“There’s no need.” Cen Lingqiu took a sip of water.
If she moved, she wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on Yu Mingjiao. What if the kid had another dark thought?
Wen Zhi tutted. “Well, that’s just too awkward then.”
Cen Lingqiu smiled but said nothing.
Night fell.
After showering, Yu Mingjiao came into the living room. She had just taken a bottle of ice water from the fridge and was about to drink it.
Click—
The living room was suddenly plunged into darkness.
Yu Mingjiao was startled. Her hand went slack, and the cold water spilled onto her, but she was completely unaware. Her eyelashes trembled as she tried to turn on the light.
But the living room was too dark. Her phone wasn’t with her, and she couldn’t see the path at all.
The light.
The light.
Where was the light?
Yu Mingjiao’s hands began to shake. Her face, hidden in the darkness, was already deathly pale.
She was terrified of the dark.
Terrified.
Her heart pounded violently, and her hands trembled uncontrollably. Before her was only boundless darkness.
In a daze, she seemed to hear the disgusting sound of mice again.
Squeak, squeak, squeak.
She covered her ears, trying to block out the auditory hallucination.
But the sounds were like a transparent wind; no matter how she covered her ears, she couldn’t escape them.
She loathed the darkness, and she loathed mice.
The year her legs were crippled, there was a power outage at home one night. She had argued with her younger sister again. Her sister was a very vengeful child. On a night with a power outage, she secretly placed a dead mouse in her room and then locked the door from the outside.
Yu Mingjiao felt something damp, cold, and soft on her body. She casually touched it, and her palm came away wet.
She began to panic and threw the thing away. Then she discovered that her body and her bed were covered in soft, damp things. She wanted to turn on the light, but the power was out.
She frantically searched for her phone, but it wasn’t in its usual place.
Her sister’s voice came from outside the door.
“Big Sis, I just put a lot of dead mice in your room. If you apologize to me, I’ll open the door and help you get rid of them.”
Mice.
Dead mice.
Seventeen-year-old Yu Mingjiao had just recently lost the use of her legs, and her mental state was already extremely fragile. Now, faced with a bed full of mouse corpses, she completely broke down.
She screamed, wanting to escape, but she couldn’t walk. She rolled over and fell to the floor, her thin body crushing some of the mouse corpses. She could feel some kind of damp liquid.
She desperately wanted to flee the room; she wanted light.
It was too dark.
An unknown and unseen terror engulfed her.
But her sister didn’t seem satisfied. She released a few live mice into the room.
The mice ran over Yu Mingjiao’s body, squeaking in her ear.
She screamed loudly, frantically waving her hands to drive the mice away.
The sound of mice continued to squeak incessantly in her ear.
Yu Mingjiao couldn’t see where they were, nor could she get up.
The bloody smell of the mouse corpses, the noisy and piercing squeaks, the endless darkness—all of it drove Yu Mingjiao completely mad.
So she just kept screaming and crying.
Yu Mingjiao felt as if she had returned to that night when she was seventeen.
She covered her ears, her eyes bloodshot. She bowed her head deeply, her back hunched, her body trembling violently.
So dark.
So dark.
So dark.
So scared.
Someone, please come and help her.
Yu Mingjiao bit her lip hard, drawing blood.
Please.
Anyone, just someone come and stay with her.
She was really—
so scared.
Thump.
Thump.
It sounded like someone was knocking on the door.
Why did she also hear someone calling her name?
Was it an illusion?
No one in this world would come looking for her.
The voice calling her name came again and again.
Could it be that someone was really here for her?
Cen Lingqiu, holding a candle, had knocked on the door several times with no answer.
There was a power outage in the community. Cen Lingqiu figured Yu Mingjiao probably didn’t have any candles at home, so she thought of bringing some to her.
What if she needed them?
But no one opened the door. Was she asleep?
She waited a little longer, but when there was still no response, she assumed she was sleeping. Just as she was about to leave, she heard a crashing sound from inside. Because of the door, the sound was very faint.
What was that sound?
“Yu Mingjiao, are you home?” Cen Lingqiu rang the doorbell and knocked again.
The door suddenly opened.
Cen Lingqiu paused her knocking, then stepped closer to her, using her free hand to touch her cheek. “What happened to your face?”
The area under Yu Mingjiao’s eyelid was red, and upon closer inspection, the skin was broken and bleeding. Not only that, but her lips were also tinged with blood.
She looked completely out of sorts. Her eyes were very red, her face deathly white, and her shoulders were still trembling slightly.
Yu Mingjiao stared at her blankly, not yet having recovered from the shock of “someone actually came for me, but why is it this woman?”
Cen Lingqiu closed the door, placed the candle to the side, and knelt in front of her. “What on earth happened? Where did these injuries come from?”
Unable to see where she was going, Yu Mingjiao had tried to make her way to the door from memory and had bumped into something, scraping her cheek.
But she didn’t tell Cen Lingqiu any of this.
She couldn’t put into words how, the moment she saw Cen Lingqiu, her wildly pounding, uneasy heart had inexplicably calmed down, and the sound of mice had faded from her ears.
It was strange.
She hated Cen Lingqiu, yet she couldn’t push away the Cen Lingqiu of this moment.
It was like drowning in deep water and suddenly seeing a hand appear, and she grabbed onto it without a second thought.
Seeing her not answering again, Cen Lingqiu didn’t press her. She pushed her into the living room and asked, “Do you have medicine and gauze at home?”
Yu Mingjiao’s voice was low. “…In my room.”
“I’ll go get it. Wait a moment.”
Cen Lingqiu quickly found the first-aid kit and knelt down.
“Come a little closer,” she said. “The candlelight isn’t very bright, I can’t see clearly.”
Yu Mingjiao blinked and moved slightly closer to her.
Cen Lingqiu slowly applied the medicine for her. The dim yellow candlelight reflected in her eyes, like a patch of moonlight blooming in the calm night water—clear, cold, and serene, without a trace of iciness.
Were this woman’s eyes always like this?
Yu Mingjiao’s mind wandered.
Cen Lingqiu helped her apply the gauze. “There.”
She looked at it and said with regret, “Such a beautiful face shouldn’t get any more scars.”
Cen Lingqiu put the first-aid kit away. Seeing that she was mostly fine, she said, “I came to bring you a candle. I thought you might need it. The power might not be back until midnight. You should go to sleep. I’m leaving.”
Yu Mingjiao lowered her eyes. “You’re leaving?”
Cen Lingqiu heard something off in her tone. Her eyes darted around for a moment, and then she knelt in front of her again, meeting her gaze.
“Do you want me to stay here with you?”
Yu Mingjiao clenched her fist and turned her face away, saying nothing.
Her thoughts were currently a mess of contradictions. On one hand, she didn’t want to be in the same room as Cen Lingqiu, but on the other, she needed this person right now.
She didn’t want to be alone in the dark.
But could she rely on this woman?
If she said yes, would she laugh at her?
Would she laugh at her for being so fickle and cowardly?
Yu Mingjiao was afraid of the dark, but she was even more afraid of Cen Lingqiu’s contempt.
She couldn’t rely on Cen Lingqiu.
They weren’t in the kind of relationship where they could seek reliance from each other.
Yu Mingjiao belatedly realized that she was actually relying on a wicked woman. She suppressed the terror of the darkness in her heart and was just about to say she didn’t need her to stay when Cen Lingqiu spoke first.
“Alright, I’ll stay with you.”