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Join the ServerTwilight outside the window deepened.
The sunset dyed the entire dorm building orange-red.
Gu Mianmian cleaned up the empty plastic porridge container and threw it in the trash.
Lin Ci dug two fever-reducing capsules from the medicine box, poured half a cup of warm water, and handed it over.
“Take your medicine and go to bed early tonight.”
Gu Mianmian took the pills and swallowed them obediently.
After the fever went down, she felt a bit better, though she was still frail.
Lin Ci walked to the balcony and pushed open the glass window.
The cool evening wind blew in, carrying the smell of grass and earth.
Lin Ci leaned on the balcony railing. The wind blew her long black hair aside, exposing the fair, slender nape of her neck.
Gu Mianmian slowly walked to her side, copied her pose, and rested her chin on the railing.
On the main road below, groups of students were carrying books toward the study rooms.
Occasionally a passing boy looked up, his gaze stuck on Lin Ci, unable to look away for a long time.
Lin Ci rolled her eyes and shrank back into the shadow of the curtain.
“These bastards. Every day they don’t study, they just stare at pretty girls.”
She couldn’t help muttering under her breath.
Gu Mianmian turned to look at her, her dark eyes bright in the sunset.
“Senior is pretty. It’s normal for them to look at you.”
Lin Ci’s mouth twitched.
“Pretty my ass. Being a woman is such a pain.”
She pulled a pair of wired earphones from her pocket and plugged them into her phone.
She opened the playlist and picked an old song at random.
Lin Ci put the right white earbud into her own ear and held the left one out to Gu Mianmian.
“Want to listen? It’s Jay Chou.”
Gu Mianmian froze.
She looked at the tiny white earbud and reached out hesitantly.
“I haven’t listened to much pop music.”
At the orphanage, there wasn’t even a radio. In college, she only had a beat-up secondhand phone.
Lin Ci didn’t wait for her to refuse. She reached out and put the earbud into Gu Mianmian’s left ear.
Her fingertip brushed Gu Mianmian’s earlobe.
Gu Mianmian stiffened, and the tips of her ears turned visibly red.
A soft intro played through the earphones.
The guitar of ‘Sunny Day’ flowed slowly.
“The little yellow flower from the story, drifting since the year I was born…”
A gentle male voice traveled along the earphone wire, flowing into both their ears at once.
Gu Mianmian opened her eyes wide and listened quietly.
The melody was clean, with a kind of peace she had never felt before.
A short earphone wire pulled the two of them very close.
Gu Mianmian could smell the sweet milky scent from Lin Ci’s hair.
The scent mixed with the cool breeze and gently wrapped around her.
“Is it nice?”
Lin Ci swayed her head to the rhythm and asked casually.
“It’s nice.”
Gu Mianmian’s voice was very soft.
She leaned her head toward Lin Ci, her shoulder against Lin Ci’s arm.
Lin Ci didn’t move away.
For this poor junior with a pitiful past, the straight-guy protective instinct in her bones always surfaced without thinking.
“What did you usually do at the orphanage?”
Lin Ci watched the distant sunset and chatted idly.
Gu Mianmian lowered her eyes, her fingers picking at the metal on the railing.
“Chores. Laundry. Dishes.”
She paused, her voice dropping.
“Sometimes I was locked in the woodshed. The director said I wasn’t likable, so when families came to adopt, I wasn’t allowed out.”
Lin Ci’s brows knitted tightly.
A nameless anger surged in her heart.
“What the hell? Those bastards abused children?”
She couldn’t help swearing.
Gu Mianmian turned to look at Lin Ci’s angry profile.
The setting sun fell on Lin Ci’s cold, beautiful features, outlining a soft silhouette.
Her senior was angry for her.
It was the first time someone had gotten angry over the grievances she suffered in the past.
Gu Mianmian’s heart ached with a sour, swollen pain.
“It’s all in the past.”
Gu Mianmian said softly.
“Past, my ass.”
Lin Ci patted her chest and declared boldly, “From now on, your senior’s got your back. If anyone bullies you, tell me, and I’ll beat them up for you.”
Even though this body had turned female, the ruthless fighting spirit in her bones hadn’t faded one bit.
Gu Mianmian looked at her bold manner, and a smile rose in her eyes.
“Will you always have my back, senior?”
She asked softly, her tone tentative.
“Of course. A dorm bro… ahem, a dorm sister. If I don’t have your back, who will?”
Lin Ci agreed casually.
Gu Mianmian’s hands, hidden in her sleeves, clenched tightly.
Her senior had promised her personally.
Her senior said she would always have her back.
Then her senior could never take it back, never leave her.
Gu Mianmian quietly shifted closer to Lin Ci, her arm pressing fully against Lin Ci’s warm, soft shoulder.
The song in the earphones switched to the next one.
‘Simple Love’.
“I want to hold your hand like this and never let go, can love stay forever simple without sorrow…”
Gu Mianmian closed her eyes, greedily soaking in the warmth from beside her.
The sun sank below the horizon.
The sky turned a deep ink blue, and the campus streetlights came on one after another.
Lin Ci yawned and rubbed her sore neck.
“All right, it’s getting cold with the wind. Let’s go in. Don’t catch a cold again.”
She pulled out her right earbud.
Gu Mianmian reluctantly took out her left earbud and handed it back to Lin Ci.
Lin Ci wound the earphone cord into a ball, stuffed it into her pants pocket, and turned back to the dorm.
Gu Mianmian followed behind her, her eyes fixed on Lin Ci’s straight back.
She reached up and touched her left earlobe, where Lin Ci had brushed it.
The skin there was still burning hot.
Gu Mianmian walked to the desk, pulled open the drawer, and took out the encrypted black notebook.
She turned to the latest page.
Neat, slender handwriting fell on the yellowed paper:
[October 12th, sunny.]
[Senior bought me hot porridge, senior helped me put on underwear, senior shared half her earphones with me.]
[Senior said she would always have my back.]
[Senior smells so sweet.]
[I really want to hide senior away, so only I can look at her.]
Gu Mianmian finished the last word, closed the notebook, and locked it in the deepest part of the drawer.
She turned around.
Lin Ci was lying on the bed scrolling through short videos without any grace, her two straight, fair calves swinging lazily in the air.
Gu Mianmian watched Lin Ci’s swaying ankles, her dark eyes full of possessiveness.
Soon.
Once she earned enough money, once she had her own place.
Her senior would never have to go to those annoying classes again, never have to be stared at by those disgusting eyes again.
Her senior would belong only to her.
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