A Young Woman's Heart

"Who cares if it's expensive or not? Just take it." Uncle patted Zhou Yong on the shoulder. "Alright, I have to go back and get busy now. Be careful on your way."

"Okay, okay." Zhou Yong smiled respectfully, picked up the large bag, and boarded the bus.

Unfortunately, when I got home, my mother had almost finished dinner, so the beef had to be frozen in the refrigerator and eaten tomorrow.

"You're back? Perfect timing!"

"Hmm..." Zhou Yong sat down at the table, picked up his rice bowl and ate a couple of mouthfuls, looking somewhat absent-minded.

"What's wrong with your son today?" the mother teased with a smile, referring to the father.

"What could have happened? Did you hide your test paper? Did you not do well on another test? By the way, isn't your midterm exam coming up soon? I haven't seen your test paper."

"Not yet, it won't be until November..."

"Oh, so you confessed but failed? What do high schoolers do with dating? Wait until you get to college, you'll have plenty of time to date."

"What is all this about..." Zhou Yong was amused. "I was just thinking about the game."

"All you ever think about is playing games." His mother always seemed to have a way of scolding him. "Can't you study properly? You're always idling around. With your grades, it's questionable whether you'll even be able to go to university."

"It should be possible to get on..."

"It's quite far, right? Let me tell you, it's best to go to university in Hangzhou, or at least in Zhejiang Province. That way, it's more convenient to go home. You'll understand later. That's the most economical way."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Zhou Yong couldn't take it anymore and quickly shoveled down a few mouthfuls of rice. "I'm done eating!"

“This child, he runs away every time I say a few words to him. He’s really not motivated at all. I didn’t even have the chance to go to school before, and now that I’m giving him the opportunity, he doesn’t want to study properly!”

"Oh, stop talking," Zhou Yong's father said with a dry laugh. "You can't expect every kid to be successful, can you? There will always be someone who falls short."

"It's because of you that our family is so ordinary. You'll be a lowly office worker your whole life, never striving for advancement."

"This is good too. Someone has to do these low-paying jobs, right? And this is considered easy for me. At least it's a secure job."

"Hey, Mom, Dad, I'm going out for a bit." Zhou Yong said with a dry laugh as he walked to the door, putting on his sneakers as he did so.

"What are you doing out so late?"

"Something has come up at the school, I need to go there."

"Go to school? Did you skip class and get called in for extra lessons?" the father asked irritably.

"Ah...more or less, more or less."

"That teacher is quite nice, willing to tutor you for free. Hurry up and go, don't keep the teacher waiting." At this moment, the mother became more rational, and her tone softened. "You must listen carefully in class next time, understand?"

"I know, I know..." Zhou Yong used embarrassment to cover up his guilty conscience, put on his sneakers, and ran downstairs.

"This kid... he didn't even bring his schoolbag, what's he doing at school?"

"Maybe the teacher gave him some questions to do."

That should be the case.

Zhou Yong, who had run downstairs, had no idea what his parents had said. He patted his chest with relief, checked the change in his pocket, and boarded the bus.

Although his academic performance was average, he was never kept after school for extra tutoring, so he was just making an excuse to run away.

Parents are always strange. If you stay at home all day, they will ask you to go out more. If you go out, they will question you and ask why you went out.

The buses were much emptier at night, with only a few office workers who had worked overtime leaning back in their seats, dozing off.

There was a young man holding a briefcase, quietly eating bread, but for some reason, tears started flowing from his eyes.

Zhou Yong quickly looked away, pretending he hadn't seen it, to avoid embarrassing him.

The best approach in this situation is to do what he's doing now—ignore his presence.

Few ordinary people who enter society have an easy life.

Zhou Yong's feelings were somewhat complicated, and he felt a bit more afraid of entering society.

"I should really focus on my studies. At least if I go to university, I can postpone starting work for a few years..." he said to himself, as the scenery outside the window rushed past like a photograph turning a page.

The city center remains bustling, with only a few traces of water on the ground indicating that a light rain had just fallen.

Before long, he got out of the car, walked down a bustling street, through several alleys, and stood in the corridor of a newly built apartment building.

Right in front of them was the door to Tian Tingchan's house.

It was probably an instinctive feeling that made him feel he should come and see her.

Although we haven't seen each other for over a month, there was really no need for me to come today. We could have easily arranged a time on the forum.

Such a sudden visit might be a bit impolite for a girl.

But he couldn't suppress the restlessness in his heart that he didn't know why he was feeling.

Finally, he pressed the doorbell.

But no one responded.

"Uh... you're not home yet?" He patted the door with some doubt, and the door slowly slid back, opening up the room in front of him.

It was partially closed, not fully shut.

In the living room, Tian Tingchan was hugging her knees, curled up in the corner by the window.

She was wearing only very thin clothes and was shivering slightly from the cold wind outside.

"Uh... Brother Chan?" He stood at the door, not daring to go in, and only asked tentatively.

"Drip..." The only answer he received was the sound of a drop of blood falling to the floor.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Zhou Yong walked in anxiously, and upon closer inspection, he discovered that the blood was flowing from her fingertip.

On the cutting board in the kitchen, there was a pile of uncut dried bamboo shoots.

It looks like he cut his hand while chopping vegetables.

He relaxed and joked with a smile, "Ha, really? It hurts this much just from cutting your finger? Uh, it should be fine, right?"

Seeing that the latter did not answer, his heart jumped again: "Hello? Brother Chan? Brother Chan?"

"..." Tian Tingchan looked at him with her lifeless eyes, and after a long while, she regained some of the spirit that a human should have. "Call me 'Tingchan'."

"Uh... Listen to Chan-ge?" Zhou Yong teased, "Seriously? Didn't you say on the forum that you weren't afraid of pain at all? Where's your 'manly spirit' now?"

He had barely finished speaking when he realized he shouldn't have said such joking things: "Uh, I mean, don't you always call yourself 'Big Brother'?"

"It's a bit cold..." she changed the subject.

Zhou Yong scratched his head and draped a woman's coat over her shoulders, which was hanging on the chair: "Cover yourself up. You don't seem like someone who can't take care of herself."

Tian Tingchan looked up at him with her small face, then slowly closed her eyes: "Please... hold me tight, okay?"

These inexplicable, or rather, sudden, remarks caught Zhou Yong off guard.

He was suddenly lost in a sweet fantasy, only to be jolted awake by his own reason.

"Ah... what's wrong? Is it... a breakup?" he asked cautiously, trying to probe as softly as possible.

She didn't answer, but the light in her eyes quickly dimmed as she looked down at her ankles once more.

……

Chapter 113 A Pantomime

The girl in front of me was like a withered autumn leaf, exuding a sense of loneliness.

The blood gradually stopped dripping from her fingertips, probably because the wound had slowly scabbed over.

Zhou Yong scratched his head, opened his mouth and closed it again, not knowing what to say for a long time.

In the silence, even the air seemed to freeze.

He placed one hand on Tian Tingchan's shoulder and slowly squatted down.

Her long eyelashes blocked Zhou Yong's searching gaze, preventing him from seeing what stories were hidden in her eyes.

The cold autumn wind passed through the black hole called the window and disappeared without a trace in the room.

In the distance, a wisp of cloud tinged the sky with blue, hanging lonely high above.

Zhou Yong was somewhat at a loss, but his sense of self as a man made him feel that he should do something at this moment.

In fact, he subconsciously understood that Tian Tingchan, who usually appeared cheerful and outgoing on the forum, actually harbored many secrets.

—But he never asked.

He won't ask unless someone tells him. Rather than a noble state of mind, it's more like emotional intelligence developed out of inferiority complex.

Perhaps it was thinking about the first time I met her that made me unable to resist taking a car to her house after dinner.

A sparrow landed by the window but didn't chirp; it just tilted its head and looked inside.

Zhou Yong took a deep breath, his left hand remained still, while his right hand, which was on her shoulder, reached down to her back and gently patted her.

He didn't know what the point of patting his back was, but when he was a child, his parents and elders would pat his back gently to calm him down if he cried.

Tian Tingchan lowered her head even further.

He hesitated for a full five minutes before finally deciding to hug her in the silence.

But his embrace was reserved—he simply put his arms around her while keeping his hands suspended in the air, trying not to touch her body.

She bit her pale lips, raised her head, and hugged him tightly with her other hand.

She rested her chin on his shoulder, making Zhou Yong feel a cold liquid brush against his cheek.

Zhou Yong couldn't see her face, but he could hear her soft sobbing.

He didn't know what she had gone through that day, but perhaps asking about everything that had happened wasn't the most important thing right now.

Zhou Yong's left hand, which had nowhere to go, was grabbed by her. Despite her petite stature, her bones were surprisingly hard, and she held him firmly, causing him some pain.

Perhaps... she was conveying her current pain.

In a sense, he can now empathize with them.

The flow of time has become meaningless at this moment.

This living room seems to have been separated from its original world and placed in another universe.