A Young Woman's Heart

The scent of lavender might not come from the body, but from very clean clothes.

At night, the lights outside the window always attract special attention.

Whenever he drove into a dark street without streetlights, Zhou Yong's gaze would involuntarily follow the bright headlights of the car ahead and look into the distance.

The darkness makes every unlit road look like a tunnel without walls.

The journey was very quiet.

No one else got on the bus.

The only other passenger—the worker wearing a hard hat—had already fallen asleep, leaning back in his chair.

Some murky saliva dribbled from the corners of his dirty mouth, accompanied by a muffled and suppressed snoring sound.

The ever-sweet female voice announced the stops, and Zhou Yong stood up, only to find that Tian Tingchan was already waiting at the exit.

Arriving at the station doesn't mean you're home; you still have to cross a small river.

There were no streetlights, and the shops were several hundred meters apart; it was pitch black all around.

Fortunately, the arched bridge is wide enough that a person walking across it won't fall into the water.

In fact, even cars could pass through here if there were no roadblocks.

In the pitch black, relying on the faint light from afar and the slivers of moonlight in the sky, Zhou Yong stood by the river for a few seconds before stepping onto the arched bridge.

"You can see it?" Tian Tingchan asked, somewhat surprised.

“I can see it,” Zhou Yong replied matter-of-factly. “Although you could walk with your eyes closed, it’s still better to be careful and check carefully before going onto the bridge. The main reason is that there’s a dock made of the same material here. You won’t immediately notice something’s wrong once you step on it, but if you fall off after a few steps, it will be too late.”

Has anyone fallen down there?

"I think so, I've heard there are some." Zhou Yong scratched his head uncertainly. "Why don't you walk along the railing of the arched bridge? Don't worry, there aren't any big gaps in the railing, you won't fall in—those gaps are probably too small even for a dog to squeeze through."

"..."

"Hey Chan, have you gotten taller again?"

"I'm 1.68 meters tall."

When was the measurement taken?

"today."

"You've grown so much! You're almost as big as me now."

Tian Tingchan glanced at him sideways: "Want some to share?"

"Damn, I'm not exactly tall, but I'm not short either, right?"

How tall are you?

"About 1.73 meters."

"A bit short."

"Taller than you."

"I am a girl."

"Tsk, Brother Chan, you used to always tell me to call you 'brother'!"

Tian Tingchan tilted her head: "Is there a problem?"

"No, no..." Perhaps because of the darkness, the two didn't feel much distance between them. So much so that when she turned her head, Zhou Yong realized that he could even feel the slight rustling of the downy hair on her face.

Or perhaps it's just an illusion.

But in short, it's very close.

There were lights at the other end of the arched bridge, casting a soft glow that brightened the latter half of the road.

Although it was still dim, it was much better than the darkness where you could barely see your fingers.

A figure sat on the railing of the arched bridge. Just as Zhou Yong wanted to take a closer look, the figure suddenly disappeared into the night.

Then, the two of them simultaneously heard a 'plop' sound as they fell into the water.

The river is not turbulent, but it is still considered flowing water.

Before Zhou Yong could react to what had happened, Tian Tingchan suddenly rushed forward and squinted at the spot where the figure had disappeared.

By the glow of the light, she saw a figure instinctively splashing water.

Tian Tingchan took off her leather jacket, stuffed it into Zhou Yong's arms, and then jumped down without saying a word.

All of this happened in just five seconds.

Zhou Yong didn't have time to react. By the time he realized that Tian Tingchan had gone into the water to save someone, she had already grabbed the drowning person's arm.

It looks like a child.

He struggled violently, not as if he wanted to live, but as if he wanted to sink to the bottom of the water.

Zhou Yong didn't know how he could help.

But they discovered that Tian Tingchan was surprisingly strong; she managed to hold the child tightly and drag him quickly to the shore.

In the darkness, the relatively clean stream still left a slight fishy smell on the two of them...

……

Chapter 85 A Familiar Yet Unfamiliar Scene

Zhou Yong vaguely remembered that this scene seemed to have happened before.

It was also by a river, and another person was rescued.

But—was that really a person?

This is also why he hesitated.

Finally, Tian Tingchan dragged it under the orange-yellow streetlight.

Zhou Yongcai then saw the true face of the dark figure.

It turned out to be a brown plush bear, about half the height of a person, and the key thing was that it was wearing an cute black hoodie, which did look somewhat like a child in the dark.

Tian Tingchan gently placed it on the ground, shook its wet body, and its little face was as pale as if it were about to freeze.

"You jumped way too fast! I didn't even have time to call you back..."

"Even though it wasn't a person I rescued, it's not bad to save a puppy." Tian Tingchan shivered and looked down at the plush bear wearing a hoodie.

Then he paused, stunned.

"……Toy?"

"Yes."

"I clearly felt it move and struggle just now."

"Slap!" Zhou Yong reacted quickly, slapping the plush bear hard. The bear immediately started shaking its arms and legs.

It also had a sound similar to the sound of a speaker being thrown into water.

"Bah..."

Then the entire plush bear suddenly froze and stopped moving.

It's obvious that the circuit got wet and short-circuited, or it could be that the motor is broken.

"Uh... is that how you struggle?"

Tian Tingchan's expression was unusually strange.

"Ah... please don't do that again next time. You jumped down without warming up. What if you got cramps? Anyway, it's more important to protect yourself."

"Didn't you jump down right away last time too?"

"My time was different..."

She stuck out her tongue and gently licked her teeth, then picked up the wet teddy bear: "Since we've already saved it, let's take it home."

“You’re all soaking wet now, you’ll catch a cold when you get home, won’t you? Why don’t you go first…” Zhou Yong was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly realized that what he was about to say was quite ambiguous.

He paused, somewhat embarrassed.

"Shall we go to your place to take a shower first?" But Tian Tingchan finished his sentence.

"Ah, cough..."

"But what about changing clothes?" Tian Tingchan asked, biting her already slightly purple lips.

"How about... you wear mine?"

What about your parents?

"It's such a coincidence that they're not coming back today; they have to work overtime until tomorrow..."

Tian Tingchan gave him a playful look: "What a coincidence."

"Ah, it's true..."

"Achoo!" The cold night wind blew by, causing Tian Tingchan to sneeze several times in a row, as if she was about to sneeze her heart out.

"You'd better go take a shower quickly..."

How far is it from your home?

"Coming soon, just ahead, in three minutes!" Zhou Yong's tone became urgent. He reached out and grabbed the plush bear that Tian Tingchan was carrying. "Let me hold it for you. Let's hurry back. My house has hot water."

“…Okay.” Tian Tingchan hesitated for several seconds, her gaze fixed on the distant residential buildings, before finally nodding slightly.

Zhou Yong's home is in an ordinary residential building.

This is a semi-open community. The buildings are not old; they were built five years ago.

In a sense, this is a dormitory building, but the state-owned enterprise provides it, which is much better than the factory-provided dormitories.

The dormitories assigned by the factory were basically just a single room, without even a toilet.

A good analogy is probably that it's like an empty cardboard box.