Incurable Pain

IP Chapter 70

Incurable Pain | Chapter 70

On the day Ji Huiying returned to the ancient town, it was Bai Xunyin and Ah Mo who drove to the station to see her off. At the ticket gate, Bai Xunyin handed her the bag she had been carrying.

“I’ll come visit you during Mid-Autumn Festival, and also visit Grandpa and Grandma.”

“Okay.”

Ji Huiying smiled and, after some thought, couldn’t help but ask, “Yinyin, over there with Luoyin… if you have time, don’t forget to mention meeting his parents.”

Elders always tended to be anxious about their children’s major life events.

Bai Xunyin smiled softly, responding gently, “Alright.”

After seeing Ji Huiying off, Ah Mo’s phone kept ringing incessantly. She cursed the wicked police station while reluctantly heading back to work overtime. By the time she left, she was almost in tears of grievance.

Bai Xunyin absentmindedly rubbed her head, then took a taxi straight to Lan University.

Currently, she held the title of a doctoral student at Lan University while working at the research institute. Every now and then, she had to return to school to exchange various research results with Li Chengfeng.

Ultimately, these would be summarized in her file. If she had plans for further advancement, all of this was essential.

Li Chengfeng seemed quite satisfied with her performance. While reviewing her work, he nodded frequently and occasionally asked her sharp questions, keeping Bai Xunyin more mentally tense than when she was actually working.

— Her professor couldn’t be one of the top-ranked professors in the country without reason.

“Xiao Bai, your argument is excellent, but your pen isn’t sharp enough, too soft.”

After reading Bai Xunyin’s latest paper, Li Chengfeng smiled and asked directly, “Do you have something on your mind recently?”

Bai Xunyin didn’t expect her physics professor to also dabble in ‘psychology’. After a moment of surprise, she nodded under the teacher’s seemingly all-knowing gaze.

“I just guessed. Young people like you have changing moods. Sometimes, we old folks find it quite interesting to observe.”

Li Chengfeng smiled, rolled up her paper, and put it in the drawer, showing appreciation.

“However, different thoughts lead to different perspectives, and diverse writing is also a good thing.”

In short, it meant that she wasn’t affecting her work.

Bai Xunyin breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, “Thank you, Teacher.”

After bidding farewell to Li Chengfeng, it happened to be lunchtime. Bai Xunyin tapped the meal card in her bag and decided to go to the cafeteria at Lan University.

Ironically, she was now a student at Lan University, but she had never been to the cafeteria there.

Just unexpectedly, she went there once and ran into an ‘old acquaintance’.

Perhaps because the food at Lan University’s cafeteria was delicious, and there were quite a lot of people, Bai Xunyin couldn’t help but think of the crowded cafeteria at North University at lunchtime — due to its good taste, large portions, and low prices, the university cafeteria was always packed, and few students went to the roadside stalls to eat.

Bai Xunyin went even less often, and every time she was dragged out by Zhao Na and the others, as soon as she saw the greasy kitchen utensils at the roadside stalls, she felt full.

Actually, growing up, she ate cafeteria food the most.

Bai Xunyin quietly queued up at the back, lost in thought. Suddenly, her shoulder was lightly tapped from behind.

She turned around in surprise to see a girl with a pleasantly surprised and unexpected expression.

The girl’s voice was crisp, both shocked and happy. “Bai Xunyin, it’s really you!”

Looking at the girl’s face partially covered by her long hair, with fair skin, slender bones, delicate eyebrows, and a slim nose… Bai Xunyin took a few seconds to remember who she was, feeling a little surprised.

“Liu Yufu?”

“Yeah.”

The heavy black-framed glasses that Liu Yufu used to wear in high school had long been replaced by colored contact lenses. Her beautiful eyes sparkled, and her temperament was much livelier than before.

“You haven’t changed much. I recognized you from afar.”

Bai Xunyin smiled, “Long time no see.”

“It’s really been a long time, six years already.”

The two of them got their food together and sat in a corner. Liu Yufu looked at Bai Xunyin’s student ID hanging around her neck, feeling somewhat surprised.

“How come you’re at Lan University now?”

Due to certain reasons, many students knew Bai Xunyin had gone to North University.

Bai Xunyin took a bite of her chicken leg, slowly swallowed it, and then answered, “I’m doing my PhD at Lan University now.”

“Wow, impressive. I haven’t even finished my four years of graduate school, and you’re already a Ph.D.” Liu Yufu sighed admiringly.

“Who’s your supervisor?”

“Professor Li Chengfeng.”

This time, Liu Yufu couldn’t even utter the word ‘impressive’. Her expression was almost one of shock as she stared at Bai Xunyin, dumbfounded.

After all, Li Chengfeng was a well-known figure in the academic world, his reputation widespread.

For many students, it was their dream to study under him.

Liu Yufu murmured, “Really impressive, and you’re studying physics.”

“Yeah,” Bai Xunyin replied. “What about you?”

“Mathematics.”

She smiled, somewhat helplessly placing her hand on her forehead.

“I may not be smart enough. The more I study, the more I feel like this isn’t something humans can learn… but there’s nothing I can do. It’s what I’m best at.”

Liu Yufu was the class representative for math throughout high school, consistently ranking in the top five in the whole school for a single subject.

Bai Xunyin still remembered the two years in high school when they sat in front and behind each other. Almost every morning study session, Liu Yufu would ask her to compare answers to the exercises.

Recalling those days, Bai Xunyin’s expression softened even more.

“Yeah, you’re really good at math.”

“Actually, you’re better.” Liu Yufu smiled.

“Bai Xunyin, you were born for this field. I just followed along.”

“You don’t need to be so hard on yourself.” Bai Xunyin shook her head.

“People who truly lack talent can’t learn math.”

Liu Yufu was just too lacking in confidence, prone to self-deprecation.

Seeing the girl in front of her eating with her eyes downcast, as if she were still the quiet and confident girl from Third Middle High, Liu Yufu was momentarily stunned. After a moment, she pursed her lips and spoke with some guilt.

“Bai Xunyin, I… I always felt a bit sorry about what happened back then.”

Her hesitation made Bai Xunyin softly respond with a “Hmm?”

“To be honest, I’ve always felt a bit guilty about what happened in the past.” Liu Yufu chuckled self-deprecatingly.

“When Sheng Churan bullied you back then, we were all in the same class, and I saw it but didn’t have the courage to stop it… I’m sorry.”

Bai Xunyin didn’t expect Liu Yufu to apologize for what happened back then. She couldn’t help but be surprised for a moment.

“It’s okay.” After a pause, the girl truly smiled.

“It’s not your fault. Everyone wants to live in a peaceful learning environment. I understand. Actually, back then, I thought you were the best student in the class.”

Bai Xunyin remembered that when Sheng Churan was making trouble for her during duty, it was Liu Yufu who spoke up to help her resolve it. Although that kindness was few and far between, cold and stiff, it was still precious to her at the time.

People who had shown kindness to her in the past, Bai Xunyin would always remember.

“Actually, Sheng Churan was just jealous of how good-looking you are, and that Yu Luoyin liked you,” Liu Yufu said, somewhat excited.

“Later on, Yu Luoyin went to study at Lan University University, and she even came to find you.”

Bai Xunyin’s eyebrows twitched. Suddenly, she thought of how Yu Luoyin had also attended Lan University for a while before dropping out to repeat a year.

Wouldn’t that mean she was classmates with Liu Yufu?

She felt a flicker of curiosity and timely revealed it, “Hmm?”

“Well… didn’t she hear that you and Yu Luoyin broke up because you two applied to different schools?”

Liu Yufu naturally knew about it since she had coincidentally encountered Bai Xunyin and Yu Luoyin at the movie theater. She glanced at Bai Xunyin with some embarrassment and hesitantly asked, “Why did you break up back then?”

“Long-distance.” Bai Xunyin casually found an excuse to divert Liu Yufu’s thoughts.

“And then?”

“And then, yeah, and then it seems like Yu Luoyin didn’t pay attention to her anymore.” Liu Yufu squinted, trying to remember.

“I remember she came a few times, but then she stopped coming. Yu Luoyin had only been in her first year for a little over two months.”

Bai Xunyin fell silent, staring at the table lost in thought.

After a moment, she looked up at Liu Yufu, “Can you… tell me what happened to Yu Luoyin during her freshman year?”

She now felt an urgent need to understand Yu Luoyin’s past, from anyone’s mouth.

Even if it was just a clue.

But her serious tone caught Liu Yufu off guard, clearly puzzled.

“Sorry, that was a bit sudden,” Bai Xunyin smiled apologetically, paused for a moment, and then said, “We’re back together now.”

Liu Yufu: “???”

Bai Xunyin’s clear tea-colored eyes seemed to be as transparent as water, incredibly sincere.

“So I want to know, please.”

“Um, it’s not that I don’t want to help you,” Liu Yufu felt a bit embarrassed and pursed her lips.

“It’s just that Yu Luoyin studied astronomy back then, and I’m in the math department. We didn’t have much overlap.”

She couldn’t remember clearly what happened six years ago regarding Yu Luoyin.

“It’s okay,” Bai Xunyin didn’t press, smiling and going with the flow.

“If you can remember anything, that’s good. If not, it’s fine.”

“Wait a minute, let me think…”

Liu Yufu furrowed her eyebrows slightly, racking her brain hard. Eventually, she did remember something she had seen occasionally before. But she wasn’t too sure.

“When I was a freshman, I remember I didn’t have many classes, so I had spare time to do part-time tutoring,” Liu Yufu reminisced, slowly continuing, “One day, when I got off the bus and turned at an intersection, I was scared by a dog – I’ve always been afraid of dogs since I was little, so that incident left a deep impression on me. Then, I walked in the opposite direction and coincidentally saw Yu Luoyin that day.”

“He didn’t see me, and I just happened to glance at him unintentionally. He seemed to…”

Liu Yufu paused here, glanced at Bai Xunyin uncertainly, and said, “He initially entered a psychotherapy clinic.”

“A psychotherapy clinic?”

Bai Xunyin’s heart skipped a beat, and she couldn’t help but ask again, “Are you sure?”

“My memory is very good, I usually don’t remember wrong,” Liu Yufu affirmed.

But why would Yu Luoyin go to see a therapist?

Bai Xunyin’s fingers on her knee unconsciously rubbed together. After a while, she asked, “Do you remember the exact location?”

“Because it was the bus stop where I did tutoring, so I remember it very clearly.”

Since her memory had returned, Liu Yufu summarized and said without hesitation, “It’s at Baoquan Road. I remember that the psychotherapy clinic was called ‘Anxin’.”

Baoquan Road.

Bai Xunyin silently noted it down and softly said, “Thank you.”

She suddenly felt incredibly weary, especially after learning that Yu Luoyin had undergone therapy.

After reluctantly pulling herself together and bidding farewell to Liu Yufu via WeChat, Bai Xunyin swayed to the roadside and boarded the bus home. The bus was sparsely populated, and she sat by the window, her forehead against the cool glass, lost in thought.

Bai Xunyin suddenly wanted to turn back and go to the hospital to see what Yu Luoyin was doing.

But this thought arose only to be forcefully suppressed by herself. Yu Luoyin might be busy, and her sudden appearance might disturb him.

Returning home with a heavy heart, Bai Xunyin stood in front of the elevator, about to scan her fingerprint to open the door. Suddenly, she heard the loud opening and closing of the emergency exit door.

She turned her head in surprise and saw Yu Luoyin striding over, expressionless.

Caught off guard by his sudden appearance when he was supposed to be ‘working’ at the hospital, Bai Xunyin’s hand froze.

He seemed a bit impatient, pulling the girl into his arms and lowering his head to kiss her, his voice hoarse and muffled.

“Yinyin, it’s Saturday.”

Bai Xunyin’s waist softened, and his breath, cool and intoxicating, filled every space between them.

As their passionate kisses continued, both of their breaths grew heavier. She managed to utter a few words amidst the fervent kisses, “Inside, let’s go inside…”

Yu Luoyin chuckled lightly, his chin against her collarbone vibrating as he spoke, “Go where?”

His slender fingers ambiguously pressed against Bai Xunyin’s waist, his mind wandering to a land of tenderness he had yearned for years.