Incurable Pain

Chapter 11 - IP Chapter 11

Incurable Pain | Chapter 11

That day at the movie theater, the two of them almost parted ways unhappily.

Bai Xunyin returned the exercise book to Yu Luoyin. In the remaining less than half month of summer vacation, she didn’t go to the library again. The snail withdrew into its shell at home, silently but clearly expressing its attitude.

She didn’t know what Yu Luoyin was thinking, but she had no intention of playing those ambiguous games with him.

You’re students, so you should do what students are supposed to do – This old and common saying sounded ordinary and trivial, but it spoke of the truth.

Bai Xunyin intentionally tried to forget the days she spent with Yu Luoyin. 

If it was about repaying favors, she had done enough.

Yet, despite her rational thinking, she couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy and felt emotionally empty sometimes.

Even Ah Mo could tell that her mood had been low lately.

“Yinyin, school starts in two days. Aren’t you going out to play?” 

Ah Mo came to Bai Xunyin’s house, idly playing with the ornaments on her desk, and asked puzzledly, “Why have you been staying at home recently? You seem to be in a bad mood.”

Really? 

Bai Xunyin’s long eyelashes trembled slightly, and she lowered her gaze without saying a word.

Her slender fingers held a pen, and the tip of the pen stayed on the white paper for quite a while. She didn’t know what to write.

Ah Mo didn’t understand; she was actually afraid to go outside.

Once she stepped outside, Bai Xunyin would see the bus stop at the entrance of the community, and memories of the time when she took the bus to find Yu Luoyin would flood back.

She always remembered those warm afternoons in the library, the wooden tables and chairs in the pine-scented cubicles, doing problems together, exchanging WeChat messages.

This summer, it rarely rained, and every day was dry and warm.

Unfortunately, the WeChat chat box where she and Yu Luoyin had endlessly discussed problems stayed undisturbed a week ago.

It ended with Yu Luoyin. That distant and indifferent person sent his last message to her last week, with a tone that seemed somewhat annoyed yet restrained.

[Bai Xunyin, why are you avoiding me?]

She didn’t reply; that message he sent was left lying there unreplied.

Bai Xunyin didn’t know how to respond because she wasn’t entirely guiltless—she knew she was deliberately avoiding Yu Luoyin.

Because of his ambiguous words, his actions that were both close and distant, and because of herself… 

Bai Xunyin was afraid of being ‘tempted.’

Yu Luoyin was the dream of all the girls in the school, like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. She yearned for it, yet she didn’t dare to pluck it.

Her thoughts drifted far away, and Bai Xunyin still hadn’t answered Ah Mo’s question. 

Fortunately, Ah Mo was a carefree and imaginative girl, so she started talking about other things on her own.

But the question still pierced her heart.

“By the way, Yinyin, you mentioned before that you met a very special person. Who is it?”

Ah Mo really knows how to bring up sensitive topics.

Bai Xunyin frowned and childishly covered her ears.

I won’t listen, I won’t listen, I’ll ignore it.

Ever since she started going to school, just like other children, Bai Xunyin had once developed a reluctance towards school after the holidays.

But even though she had experienced some bullying later at Third Middle School, she had never thought of “not wanting to go to school.”

—This was the first time.

After summer vacation, Bai Xunyin had, for the first time, felt a bit unwilling to go to school. She was somewhat afraid of encountering Yu Luoyin at school.

For some unknown reason, she felt guilty.

So she dressed up, had breakfast, but unconsciously dawdled. In the end, Ah Mo had to shout downstairs, and Bai Xunyin finally came downstairs under the slightly astonished urging of Ji Huiying.

“Yinyin, hurry up! Why are you so slow today?” 

Ah Mo pulled her in a hurry to catch the bus. She chattered on and complained, “Usually, it’s you urging me. Why is it me urging you today?”

It was fortunate to have Ah Mo, chattering on and on. It somewhat eased her anxious feelings.

Bai Xunyin found it strange herself—she clearly hadn’t done anything wrong, yet she always felt a sense of unease.

“Oh, by the way, Yinyin.” 

Walking to the campus after getting off the bus, Ah Mo whispered another ‘bombshell’ to Bai Xunyin, “I heard that Grade 12 might be divided into classes again.”

It seemed like Ah Mo had some relatives working at Third Middle School who managed to get some ‘inside information.’

Bai Xunyin was momentarily stunned, looking somewhat surprised. Her eyes seemed to be asking: Is it true or not?

“It seems to be true.” 

Ah Mo pretended to be mysterious, shaking her head playfully, “It seems like they’re planning to form two top-tier classes, the kind that aims for the top 10 universities… You know.”

Elite classes in Grade 12 were set up in many schools.

But she hadn’t heard any rumors at Third Middle School before, so were they really planning to divide the classes?

Bai Xunyin furrowed her brows, pondering for a moment, but then she thought it didn’t matter. In fact, upon closer consideration, it might even be a good thing—if they divided the classes, she wouldn’t have to be in the same class as Sheng Churan anymore.

However, if it was an elite class…

Would she and Yu Luoyin end up in the same class?

Unconsciously, her thoughts drifted to this aspect. Bai Xunyin bit her lip, feeling conflicted, and after a while, she felt that she was worrying over nothing.

She had indeed let a vague piece of information occupy her thoughts, even though she didn’t know its source.

But sometimes thoughts seemed to manifest themselves out of nowhere. Just as she was uncontrollably thinking about ‘Yu Luoyin,’ she heard Ah Mo’s slightly surprised voice in her ear.

“Ah, are you the guy from the amusement park last time? What a coincidence!”

Bai Xunyin was taken aback and quickly raised her head. She saw Yu Luoyin and Li Yuan standing at the school gate. Their school uniforms were adorned with the arm badge of the weekly inspection.

Clearly, this week they were assigned to inspect students’ appearance and their student IDs.

The morning sunlight was brilliant, passing through the mottled leaves and casting a layer of delicate light onto the young men, as if they were coated in a layer of fine powder.

Yu Luoyin’s pitch-black hair was a bit shorter than before, but his bangs still hung over his ivory-white forehead. His bottomless black eyes swept over, expressionless. When he spoke, Bai Xunyin felt her breath catch a bit.

But he only said three words, his voice light and detached, “Student ID.”

Bai Xunyin snapped out of it, quickly lowered her head to take her backpack in front of her, and fumbled through her things to find her student ID, feeling a bit flustered and clumsy.

After half a month, meeting Yu Luoyin again felt rather abrupt, leaving Bai Xunyin unable to avoid feeling nervous.

Little did she know that the standing boy cast a quick glance and had already ‘inspected’ the contents of her backpack—books, a water bottle, nothing extra. 

Simple and clean, just like her.

After finally finding her student ID tucked away in a compartment, Bai Xunyin hurriedly handed it to him.

Yu Luoyin glanced at it, then furrowed his brows, “The cover is damaged?”

Huh? 

Bai Xunyin was puzzled. It was true that she had accidentally damaged a corner of the student ID before, but…

“If it’s damaged, it’s considered invalid and will be confiscated.” 

Yu Luoyin pulled the student ID from the girl’s pristine fingers, nonchalantly ‘claiming it for himself,’ and added, finding a reason to nitpick, “I’ll get you a new one.”

…

Li Yuan stood quietly by the side, watching his friend act like a big shot wolf, laughing but not saying anything in protest.

“Alright.” 

Yu Luoyin looked around again at the bewildered girl in her school uniform, then nodded ‘graciously,’ “You can go in.”

Bai Xunyin’s face turned a bit warm and she quickly walked away without looking back.

Perhaps Yu Luoyin’s gaze was too invasive. He had clearly been checking if her school uniform was neat. 

But when he squinted…

Bai Xunyin felt that those sharp eyes could unzip her school uniform and peek inside.

Even Ah Mo felt that there was something off between them. After they entered the school gate, she enthusiastically asked, “Yinyin, was that student just now the guy we met at the amusement park last time? Right, right? The one who gave us five hundred yuan!”

“Damn, he’s really handsome. Yinyin, why did he confiscate your student ID just now? Is he interested in you?”

…

For high school students, the most ambiguous question they could ask was “Is he interested in you?”

Just hearing it made people’s imaginations run wild, not to mention when the person in question was Yu Luoyin.

With her ears burning, Bai Xunyin couldn’t stand it anymore and turned around to cover Ah Mo’s mouth.

Finally, the world fell silent.

“Brother Yu, I have to say, you should not be like this when it comes to pursuing girls. You’re so unlikable!”

The morning break ended. On their way back to the classroom after taking off the armbands, Yu Luoyin and Li Yuan were having a conversation. 

The latter couldn’t help but give Yu Luoyin some advice, “I mean, why did you confiscate that girl’s student ID? That’s so boring. Bai Xunyin is the kind of girl who triggers a protective instinct in people…”

Yu Luoyin shot him a look. Li Yuan inexplicably felt like he had been frozen with his glance, so he hastily shut his mouth.

What? Wasn’t it a mistake to say Bai Xunyin triggered a protective instinct in people?

“Brother Yu, did you specially request to replace the morning homeroom teacher today just for Little Dumb?” 

Li Yuan scratched his head in confusion, “If so, why didn’t you tell her?”

Yet Yu Luoyin just gave a stern look, and Li Yuan oddly felt that his words had frozen for a moment before he managed to shut up.

Yu Luoyin ignored him, simply casting his gaze downward and pulling the student ID he had ‘confiscated’ earlier from the pocket of his school uniform.

He opened it, and Bai Xunyin’s one-inch photo was stuck to it.

The photos on student IDs were usually taken when they entered school. At that time, Bai Xunyin was around fifteen or sixteen years old, looking even more tender than now. She wore a slightly larger school uniform with a loose collar that draped down, revealing the slender line of her neck.

Her face, which looked like the size of a palm, was adorned with a ponytail. She looked small, pale, and delicate. The picture was taken with the simplest background and photography technique, yet she needed no makeup to showcase her unparalleled beauty.

Bai Xunyin had a pair of excellently shaped eyes—large but not blank, their lines soft and delicate. Her eye corners were charming, sprouting amorous feelings to those who looked at it, while her gaze remained innocent and pure.

When the photo was taken, there was a peculiar sense of vulnerability in her eyes, as if a thin mist had veiled them.

Yu Luoyin looked at it for a while, then took out his phone and snapped a picture of the one-inch photo.

At that time, it was just a fleeting impulse for him.

But he had no idea that for many years to come, he would stay awake at night gazing at this innocent one-inch photo.