After finishing their meal, it was almost time for class to start. Liu Yinuo checked the time on her phone, then stood up from the table.
“It’s time to head to school. I’m leaving now.”
The class monitor’s sudden departure left Ye Xingmian, who was still eating, a bit flustered.
“W-wait… wait… I’m coming too…”
Liu Yinuo suddenly turned to look at her.
“No need. You stay here and rest. I’ll help you ask the homeroom teacher for leave this afternoon.”
“T-this… how can I…”
The girl looked a little stunned.
“Why not? Are you over your cold? Or does the bruise on your body not hurt anymore?”
Upon hearing that, the girl lowered her head, unable to come up with a retort.
Seeing her looking so pitiful, Liu Yinuo couldn’t help but smile helplessly. Although they were about the same height, and in some ways the girl even had a slight advantage, Liu Yinuo always seemed able to take the stronger position in their relationship with ease.
Her right hand unconsciously reached out to stroke the girl’s soft hair. Looking at Ye Xingmian, she felt a little lost in thought.
“Don’t worry. Rest well. I’ll help you catch up on the lessons you missed tomorrow.”
“Okay…”
Faced with the gentle class monitor, it was hard to refuse her considerate words or her gentle touch. The girl stayed silent for a long time before finally nodding in agreement.
“Do you have a Penguin account?”
Suddenly realizing she had no way to contact the girl outside of school, Liu Yinuo picked up her phone, wanting to add her contact information.
The girl was stunned for a moment, then gently shook her head.
“You don’t? How about vx?”
She frowned. Students generally didn’t use vx much. If she had to keep switching apps just to contact her, it would be a bit troublesome.
But the girl shook her head again, lowering her eyes, looking a bit disappointed.
“Eh? Then do you have a phone number?”
“No… sorry… I don’t have a phone…”
The atmosphere instantly froze. With Liu Yinuo staring at her like that, Ye Xingmian felt both nervous and dejected.
“They didn’t even get you a phone? How could that be…”
The girl herself felt it was unfair. Without a phone, she couldn’t keep up with what her peers talked about—games, interesting news, trendy jokes—she didn’t understand any of it. She couldn’t blend in with any group, and could only belittle herself out of inferiority. Also, because she didn’t have a phone, she couldn’t contact her mother.
Even though she now harbored a sliver of doubt toward her mother, if there was hope, she still wished to communicate with her. If she’d had that chance since childhood, maybe she wouldn’t have turned out like this.
“Tch…” Liu Yinuo bit her lip, her impression of Ye Xingmian’s family turning even more negative. The girl rubbed her forehead, looking a bit helpless.
She handed her own phone over.
“When I’m not home, just use my phone to pass the time, okay? There’s no password. Press this button to turn it on, and these two to adjust the volume. You know how, right?”
The girl nodded blankly, carefully taking the phone.
In her memory, these things cost at least a thousand. If she broke it, she wouldn’t be able to pay it back even if she was sold.
“I’m heading out. My parents usually come home late, so don’t worry about that. Take care of yourself and get some good rest.”
After saying goodbye, Liu Yinuo opened the door and left.
As the crisp sound of the door closing echoed, the vast house was left with only Ye Xingmian. Through the walls, she could faintly hear Liu Yinuo’s footsteps growing more distant, along with the sound of the heating vent above.
Clutching the phone, the girl seemed nervous, at a loss for what to do.
Liu Yinuo hadn’t told her which rooms she could enter and which she couldn’t, so to avoid causing trouble, the girl confined her activity to the area near the living room sofa. Sitting on the sofa, she simply stared at the little phone in her hands, dazed.
She pressed the power button, and the phone screen lit up, displaying a very cute, anime-style girl wallpaper, along with all sorts of colorful icons. She spent some time familiarizing herself with the apps. Apart from several she couldn’t figure out just from the name, she managed to guess the use of some.
Her finger subconsciously pressed the green dial button.
When she saw the number pad and a list of contacts with unfamiliar names, she realized she didn’t even know her mother’s phone number. So she gave up, fiddled a bit more, and returned to the home screen.
vx… Penguin… these are all social apps, right? Since they’re private, I’d better not look…
Finally, her gaze settled on a pink app called “bili”.
What’s this…?
Curiosity guided her finger to tap the app. After a flash of a white and blue girl icon, what appeared before her eyes was a vertical video on pause. The content… the girl didn’t know how to describe it. She instinctively felt it was odd.
It was a gray-haired girl’s head, but her body was round and plump, covered in all sorts of gaudy colors, shaped like a penguin…
Uh? A human head stuck on a penguin?
Puzzled, the girl frowned and lightly tapped the screen. Suddenly, the video started to play. The penguin-girl in the distance let out an “uh” and rushed forward, speaking in a hoarse and weird voice.
“Don’t you think New Year is creepy? Every year as New Year approaches, some strange middle-aged man in red clothes suddenly shows up, ya-yi ya-yi ho-oh-oh-oh, and every household has blessings everywhere. Don’t you think that’s inappropriate for children? In some places, on New Year’s Eve, the whole family gathers around the stove! Isn’t that against ethics?”
At the end, the penguin-girl started wriggling all over as the video played.
“May you get rich, may you shine—”
“Pa!”
With a strange expression, the girl hurriedly pressed the phone down into the soft sofa, hitting the power button. Yet the audio kept playing, and the video replayed.
“Don’t you think…”
She picked up the phone again, firmly pressed pause, and only then put the phone down.
What… what is this?
It was as if she had just seen something unbelievably bizarre, and the girl was left deeply shaken. But she couldn’t figure out what exactly had happened. That one short video seemed to contain more than her entire life.
So, the girl decided to ignore the phone for now.
Too weird, completely incomprehensible. She felt like if she kept watching, she’d get contaminated. After thinking it over, she decided to find something to do.
First, she turned off the heater. In her memory, that would save electricity—at least, at her foster parents’ house, her uncle and aunt would never let her keep the heater on when alone. Then she looked for cleaning supplies. The dust from noon still bothered her, so after Liu Yinuo left, she decided to clean up. After all, that was about all she could do.
So, she busied herself until the afternoon. As school dismissal time approached, the previously quiet hallway outside suddenly echoed with footsteps.