Chapter 8 - IP Chapter 8
Incurable Pain | Chapter 8
“Yinyin, everything’s gone.”
Seeing the group of boys and girls clearing out the stall, Ah Mo felt wronged and wanted to cry — even though she didn’t care much about the money, she just felt incredibly frustrated.
It was her who had dragged Bai Xunyin here, and she had confidently a.s.sured that no one could take away these things.
But reality had shown her that her perspective was too limited, and her experience was lacking.
Bai Xunyin shifted her gaze away from the young man’s slender figure. She smiled indifferently, reaching out to pat Ah Mo’s hair.
Truthfully, she thought Yu Luoyin was pretty impressive.
The two girls stood still for a while, looking around at the sudden empty s.p.a.ce. Just as they were about to leave, Yu Luoyin surprised everyone by turning back. He piled up the various prizes and loaded them into the car trunk. Then he turned and walked straight toward Bai Xunyin and Ah Mo.
Unable to react in time, Bai Xunyin blankly saw him approach.
Yu Luoyin’s face was too distinctive — his pale skin, sharp eyebrows, and dark eyes were so intense that they gave off an oppressive feeling when seen up close.
He stood before Bai Xunyin, a hint of a smile flickering in his eyes. Then, he asked her seriously, “Are you going to set up a second batch of items?”
…
“If you are, I’ll use the remaining forty rings.”
They had only used sixty out of the hundred they’d bought.
“Hey,” Ah Mo finally couldn’t hold back her anger. Her eyes were practically shooting fire. “Don’t take advantage of people too much!”
He had just returned everything he took, and now he was back trying to get something else for free.
What kind of person was he? Seriously… he had absolutely no sense of decency!
Yu Luoyin didn’t look at Ah Mo. His gaze fixed on Bai Xunyin as he asked, ‘Is there more?"”
Under his unwavering gaze, Bai Xunyin felt as though she had nowhere to hide and dumbly shook her head.
Yu Luoyin made a sound of affirmation. Unexpectedly, he pulled out five red banknotes from his wallet and handed them to Bai Xunyin.
Both girls were stunned.
“Take it,” he said in a calm voice, “consider it as if I bought all those things.”
Having been out in the scorching sun, standing under the sun, even their tender white skin should have turned red by now.
After saying this, he turned and left, not giving Bai Xunyin a chance to retort.
Being tall and long-legged, she couldn’t catch up with him. In the end, even though Bai Xunyin ran a few steps, she could only watch Yu Luoyin get into the car and drive away.
Clutching the five hundred yuan in her hand, she felt an overwhelming sensation like being hit by waves. It was as if there were mountains and rivers surging through her body, tingling from her palms to the soles of her feet.
“What the h.e.l.l!”
Ah Mo was also completely shocked by Yu Luoyin’s actions. She couldn’t help firing off a series of rapid questions, “Who is that guy? Your cla.s.smate? He’s so generous, and he’s so handsome! Yinyin, does he like you?!”
Ah Mo’s last question, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with excitement, snapped Bai Xunyin out of her daze. Her heart, which had been floating lightly, seemed to drop suddenly.
She shook her head.
It had nothing to do with liking.
Although she didn’t understand why Yu Luoyin would act this way, they had barely met a few times, and they had never even had a conversation… How could it possibly be related to liking?
But from whatever angle, she couldn’t accept this money.
If she accepted it, what would she become?
Ah Mo also understood this principle. After the initial surge of hot-bloodedness, she quickly calmed down and hurriedly handed the five hundred yuan back to Bai Xunyin, saying, “Darling, you should return this to your cla.s.smate. Our stuff only cost two hundred.”
Giving back three hundred yuan to a ‘customer’? What kind of image would they be projecting? They were not in the business of losing money.
Looking at the five hundred yuan in her hand, Bai Xunyin couldn’t help but find it both funny and exasperating.
She did want to return the money, but how could she contact Yu Luoyin? That guy was like a flash of lightning, disappearing in the blink of an eye. She even ran a few steps after him, but she could only watch him drive away.
Sweating in her hands, she clenched the five hundred yuan. Her heart was in a tumultuous state, feeling waves crashing against her chest.
In the evening, when she got home, Bai Xunyin turned her backpack upside down. Finally, with a sigh of relief, she found the sc.r.a.p of paper she had left in the inner compartment.
There was nothing special about this piece of paper, except that it had Lu Ye’s phone number on it.
When he was pursuing her, she had stubbornly refused to give him her contact information, neither her phone number nor her WeChat. Yet Lu Ye had once found her and managed to write his number on her sc.r.a.p paper.
At the time, there was an unsolved math problem on the paper. She hadn’t thrown it away, and later, she had just forgotten about it, leaving it in her backpack.
Now, she was grateful she hadn’t thrown it away. If she had, she wouldn’t have any way to contact Yu Luoyin.
Bai Xunyin tried texting Lu Ye’s phone number.
“Lu Ye, h.e.l.lo. I’m Bai Xunyin. Do you remember giving me your phone number before? I would like to ask you a favor. This afternoon at the amus.e.m.e.nt park, your friend Yu Luoyin left something with me. Could you give me his contact information? I want to return it.”
Directly mentioning money didn’t seem appropriate, so Bai Xunyin thought for a moment and decided to cover it up a bit.
After sending the message, she quietly waited for Lu Ye’s reply. Bai Xunyin had a feeling that Lu Ye was an outgoing and generous guy, but he wasn’t that serious about liking her. If he were, she wouldn’t have had to ask him for help.
As expected, Lu Ye replied quickly.
“Sure! This is Yu Ge’s number: 18x.x.xx.x.xxx. Fellow student, what did he leave with you?”
Bai Xunyin didn’t know how to respond. So after a moment, she came up with a random item to mention, as if to brush it off.
Not being accustomed to lying, her ears turned slightly red. What she didn’t realize was that Lu Ye’s question was merely casual, and he wasn’t actually concerned about it.
What Lu Ye was actually thinking was…
Brother Yu is really something else.
Back then, he had pursued Bai Xunyin for over a month and hadn’t managed to get a single digit of her phone number. Yet Yu Ge had pulled it off with just a few interactions, making her take the initiative to contact him.
“Tsk tsk, just as I thought.”
They’re not on the same level.
Bai Xunyin looked at the string of digits that made up Yu Luoyin’s phone number. After hesitating for a while, she bit her lip and sent him a message:
“h.e.l.lo, I’m Bai Xunyin. I want to return the five hundred yuan to you.”
After sending the message, her mood was completely different from when she had been waiting for Lu Ye’s reply.
It felt like she was soaking in boiling water with a piece of ice, neither rising nor sinking, as if awaiting some sort of execution.
She lingered in this state for about half an hour, until Yu Luoyin finally replied to her message with just two words.
[Don’t want.]
Bai Xunyin suddenly felt like the boiling water had disappeared, leaving only a cold feeling. She pursed her lips and kindly explained in another message.
[The things at the stall didn’t even amount to two hundred yuan, and you managed to take them with your own skills. I have no reason to ask you for money.]
This money had to be returned.
She explained with reason and evidence.
The seriousness of her att.i.tude brought a smile to Yu Luoyin’s face on the other end of the conversation.
It was the first time he had seen a girl so eager to return money, and it wasn’t even that much money…
But that was the point; he had given her the money to get her to contact him.
Sitting on the sofa, his dark eyes remained enigmatic in the shadows.
He flicked the cigarette ash with his long fingers, and Yu Luoyin replied slowly.
[Sure, if you want to return the money, you should hand it to me in person.]
With that, he cut off Bai Xunyin’s thoughts of transferring the money electronically.
She bit her lip, hesitated for a while, and finally responded.
[Alright.]
Yu Luoyin arranged to meet her the next day at noon at the city library near their school’s place. It wasn’t too far from Bai Xunyin’s home.
The climate was humid and hot. After half an hour on the bus, when she arrived at the library, her fair face and neck were slightly flushed.
Thankfully, it wasn’t raining today.
Yu Luoyin stood under a tree in front of the library and saw the girl walking towards him from the bus stop.
In the afternoon, there were fewer people around, but even in a crowd, Bai Xunyin was the one who caught people’s attention the most.
Seeing her tying her scattered black hair into a bun with the hairband on her wrist, her swan-like neck slender, her back thin and straight, she looked… like a paper figure.
She looked awfully thin, as if she had malnutrition.
But the places that should have flesh were no less than anyone else.
Yu Luoyin saw her innocent and confused expression and called out, “Cla.s.smate.”
His voice was clear, and Bai Xunyin was sensitive to voices, so she looked over precisely.
Looking at the boy waiting under the tree, she walked quickly towards him.
Bai Xunyin’s gaze lowered slightly, and the long eyelashes cast a faint shadow beneath her eyelids. She didn’t say anything, simply taking out five hundred yuan and handing it to him.
…
Wasn’t this too straightforward?
Was she in such a hurry to clear things up with him?
Yu Luoyin couldn’t help but chuckle at her straightforwardness. He raised an eyebrow, playfully observing Bai Xunyin who handed him money as if she were standing in a time-out corner.
In a slightly cool tone, he said, “Bai Xunyin, are you trying to dismiss me just like that?”
Bai Xunyin was taken aback, looked up at him, and was somewhat surprised that he knew her name.
“Come in,” Yu Luoyin turned and walked towards the inside of the library.
Bai Xunyin had no choice but to follow—she didn’t quite understand what Yu Luoyin intended to do.
Wasn’t she just here to return the money?
Entering the quiet library one after the other, Bai Xunyin’s gaze involuntarily followed the tall and slender figure in front of her. She followed him to a quiet spot by the window.
“I remember I asked you to repay me, right?” Once seated across from Yu Luoyin, Bai Xunyin heard him ask.
She suddenly remembered the rainy day when she was left with a note about repaying him after he helped move her table. Bai Xunyin pursed her lips and nodded slightly.
Yu Luoyin had helped her, so she should repay him.
But how did he want her to repay him? Bai Xunyin couldn’t help but type on her phone and tell him.
[I don’t know how to do it]
Yu Luoyin looked at it and couldn’t help but laugh.
How could someone… be this amusing? This girl is really so innocent.
He was handsome, and a casual smile from him had a kind of heart-throbbing effect. Not to mention, he was genuinely smiling now.
As if stars were twinkling in his dark pupils, Yu Luoyin lowered his voice amidst Bai Xunyin’s fl.u.s.tered gaze, “You’ll definitely know how to do this.”
So, Bai Xunyin saw a slender hand push a physics exercise book in front of her, and on the page, a red pen mark circled a question.
“Cla.s.smate, I heard you’re good at physics.”
With one hand propping up his head, Yu Luoyin lazily looked at her and said, “Teach me.”