Chapter 94: A Simple Kindness

At the door, she looked at Su Yutao lying listlessly on the bed.

Her chest tightened a little. She remembered a small bichon in a TV drama she had watched.

Every time its owner left, it would get bored and flop onto the floor with a droopy look. Would Little Peach feel bored too?

No, she wasn’t a puppy. She was a person. Comparing her to a pet was disrespectful to Little Peach.

Besides, she was blind. She couldn’t see anything and couldn’t move around much.

After I leave, no one will talk to her. She’s definitely going to be bored.

So she walked back to the bedside and said to Su Yutao,

“Little Peach, I’m going to school. You’ll be home alone. Will you be bored?”

Su Yutao shook her head.

She wouldn’t be bored.

She just wanted to be alone, waiting for the time to come and then use the prop to run away.

Lin Qingxue thought for a moment, then bent down and lifted Su Yutao off the bed. She carried her to the living room and set her on the sofa.

She picked up the TV remote from the tea table and put it in Su Yutao’s hand.

The remote was small, with raised buttons that were easy to feel.

Lin Qingxue pressed Su Yutao’s finger against the power button.

“This is the power button. Press it once and the TV turns on.”

“This is the channel button. Press it to change channels. This is the volume. Press this side for louder, this side for softer.”

“If you don’t want to watch TV, turn it off. I put a blanket beside you. Feel around and you’ll find it. If you want to sleep, you can sleep right there, okay?”

“This sofa is pretty soft. It should be comfortable. I’ll put a pillow under your head.”

She paused.

“You can’t see, but you can hear. There are stories, news, and music on TV. Listen to them, and you shouldn’t be bored.”

Su Yutao held the remote and nodded.

Lin Qingxue stood up, walked to the door, changed her shoes, and grabbed her umbrella.

She glanced back at Su Yutao on the sofa. The little blind girl sat there hugging a penguin, clutching the remote, her white hair like a small patch of snow in the dim light.

She pulled the door open, said, “I’m leaving,” then closed it and went downstairs.

Su Yutao sat on the sofa, listening to the door close and the footsteps fade away.

She waited for a while. Only after she was sure no one was around did she set the remote aside.

She didn’t turn on the TV. She just curled up on the sofa, hugging Qiansui.

***

On the other side, Lin Qingxue walked into the classroom before the bell rang.

People sat around in twos and threes. Some chatted, some scrolled through their phones, some rested their heads on the desks.

This was a lecture hall. She went to the last seat, put her backpack beside the table, and then nothing more.

No one greeted her. No one looked at her. Not even a glance.

She was like a piece of transparent glass, walking from the door to her seat without drawing anyone’s attention.

Logically, a girl as pretty as her should attract some attention, even if no one asked her out.

But she wasn’t surprised. She had long been used to it.

Since the start of freshman year, no one had talked to her.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to. She just didn’t know how to start a conversation.

Later, for some reason, her classmates began to whisper behind her back: “Lin Qingxue is so cold. Talking to her is like talking to a block of ice.”

Then rumors spread that she was extremely aloof and vicious with her fists.

By the time these stories reached her ears, they had become absurd.

Absurd enough that someone claimed, with vivid detail, that in high school she had beaten up a man who tried to hit on her at night and sent him to the hospital. They even made up a date.

She didn’t know who started it or why.

She had never hit anyone. She had never even argued. She thought of herself as a gentle person.

But rumors, once passed around, become “facts.”

No one verified them. No one cared about the truth.

Everyone just needed a story that “Lin Qingxue is beautiful and terrifying.” That was enough.

Lin Qingxue sat in her seat, opened her textbook, and stared at the words. She couldn’t take in a single one.

She thought of Shen Nian.

Shen Nian was the only person who wasn’t afraid of her.

On the first day of freshman year, the classroom was chaotic. Everyone was busy finding seats, meeting new classmates, and exchanging contact info.

Lin Qingxue sat in the last row by the window. The seat beside her was empty.

No one sat down in it.

It wasn’t that there were no other seats. It was that no one wanted to sit next to her.

She was used to it.

From elementary school to high school, it had always been like this. Not that she was ostracized, but that people were “afraid to get close.”

She didn’t know what she had done wrong. Maybe she didn’t smile enough. Maybe she talked too little. Maybe she looked too cold.

She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to think about it.

Shen Nian walked in at noon.

She was carrying a black backpack. Her head was down, her bangs covering half her face. She looked like a stray puppy, shoulders hunched, footsteps silent.

She scanned the seats in the classroom. Most were taken. Only the one next to Lin Qingxue was empty.

She walked over, sat down, and said nothing.

No “hello.” No “is this seat taken?” No eye contact.

She just sat, put her bag at her feet, and stared blankly at the desk, as if she had lost her soul.

Lin Qingxue glanced at her and didn’t say anything.

Everyone else in the room was chatting, laughing, and messing around. Only their table was quiet, as if separated into another world.

Lin Qingxue had no idea what this girl’s name was, where she came from, or why she didn’t speak. All she knew was that she looked very unhappy.

When noon came, everyone went to lunch.

The classroom gradually emptied, leaving only a few people.

Lin Qingxue didn’t go eat. She stayed in her seat, reading a novel borrowed from the library.

Shen Nian didn’t move either.

She sat there in the same position, head down, staring at the desk, like a statue.

Lin Qingxue put down her book and looked at her.

She wondered why this girl wasn’t eating. Did she not have money? Was she not hungry? Or did she just not want to go?

She hesitated, then took out her wallet. Inside were two bills: a twenty and a ten.

This was all the money she had left for the week.

Her living allowance was small. After rent and transportation, she only had enough for food.

But looking at the girl beside her with her hunched shoulders, she felt that if she didn’t do something, this girl would sit here all the way until dark.

She pulled out the ten-yuan bill and put it on Shen Nian’s desk, her voice soft.

“Hey, do you not have money for lunch? If you don’t, I can lend you some. If you’re hungry, go eat. There’s no need to starve yourself. It’s bad for your health.”

Shen Nian raised her head, looked at the ten yuan on the desk, then looked at Lin Qingxue. There was something in her eyes that was hard to describe. It wasn’t gratitude. It was surprise. The kind of surprise that said, “Why are you being nice to me?”

She shook her head and pushed the money back, her voice so small it seemed afraid of being heard. “I’m not hungry.”

Lin Qingxue looked at the money that was pushed back, then at Shen Nian’s shoulders, which had hunched up again.

She didn’t push it again. She put the money away, stood up, and walked out of the classroom.

About ten minutes later, she came back, holding a bread roll.

It was the packaged kind, the cheapest one, sold at the supermarket for three fifty.

She sat back down, placed the bread on Shen Nian’s desk, then took another one out of her own bag, tore open the wrapper, and took a bite.

Shen Nian looked at the bread on the desk, then at Lin Qingxue munching on hers. After a moment of hesitation, she picked it up, tore it open, and took a bite.

The two sat in the last row, eating bread, saying nothing. The classroom was very quiet. Sunlight streamed through the window, falling on their desk, making the bread wrappers gleam.

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