Chapter 35: Hiding the Little Bear

The next morning.

The snow had stopped, and a thick layer of soft snow had accumulated on the ground. Since she had taken the day off last night, Lin Ziyan took her time and waited until nearly eight o’clock to get out of bed. What felt a bit unusual to her was that Ye Xingmian hadn’t knocked on her door to wake her up as usual today.

Is she not awake yet? That’s rare.

After slowly finishing her morning routine and tidying her clothes, she stepped into the pitch-black, dust-covered stairwell. It hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, and even the lighting relied on the faint glimmer leaking in from downstairs.

There were no handrails, making one worry about accidentally falling. Lin Ziyan walked all the way to the attic door and opened it directly.

The old wooden door turned slowly, letting out a tooth-aching “creak.” She frowned; the smell here wasn’t pleasant. The entire room was filled with the scent of moldy, old furniture.

Come to think of it, this seemed to be the first time she had come to this cramped attic since she could remember. The layout inside was very different from her own room. The shadows on both sides were filled with piles of old wooden furniture, leaving only a small path in the middle. The lighting was poor; an incandescent bulb hung from the ceiling, and on this morning, the small window by the bed provided the only illumination.

Because it had snowed last night and was sunny today, the room appeared quite bright, but even so, one could imagine that it would usually be very dim.

However, away from the area with the old furniture, most of the attic was cleaned very thoroughly. Although many of the white floor tiles were damaged and cracked, they were still carefully wiped until they reflected light. This scene made Lin Ziyan daze for a moment. Had Ye Xingmian always slept in a place like this?

This is… too primitive…

Living in a place like this, anyone’s mood would turn sour, right?

With an inexplicably heavy heart, Lin Ziyan slowly approached the young girl’s bedside. She remembered this bed seemed to be a second-hand piece her parents had picked up from somewhere over a decade ago. It hadn’t seemed very sturdy back then; she hadn’t expected it to still be intact.

Standing by the bed, Lin Ziyan silently watched the girl still sleeping soundly. Her cheeks were flushed red, her brow was furrowed, and her breathing was unsteady, as if she were having a nightmare.

Not wanting to stay here long as she felt a bit stifled, Lin Ziyan patted the sleeping girl. The other party woke up instantly, her body jerking violently as if she had been startled by something, and then she opened her eyes. Those eyes were full of fear and panic.

She saw Lin Ziyan in front of her and realized she had been dreaming, only then slowly letting down her guard.

“Ziyan…? Why are you here…?”

This was her own little attic, and the person who came was her nominal younger sister, Lin Ziyan. She dazed for a moment, vaguely realizing why the other had come looking for her.

“Ah… sorry… I accidentally overslept. I’ll get up and cook for you right now.”

She instinctively tried to sit up, but then she suddenly realized something was wrong. That’s right, she was a girl now, and she couldn’t let Ziyan know about this.

She looked at Lin Ziyan, covering her upper body with the quilt, her face showing difficulty.

“Um… I need to get up. Can you step out for a moment?”

Lin Ziyan didn’t move. She naturally knew the reason why Ye Xingmian wanted her to leave, but the reason she stayed wasn’t that. Instead…

She pointed her finger at the teddy bear placed by the pillow.

“Is this the one I gave you?”

The girl hurriedly hugged the teddy bear in her arms, lowering her head as if protecting some treasure.

“Yes…”

Lin Ziyan’s expression suddenly became subtle.

“I couldn’t tell you liked it this much?”

The girl just shook her head gently without saying anything, but Lin Ziyan could feel that her posture was full of wariness. Was she afraid she would snatch the teddy bear away?

Lin Ziyan found it a bit amusing. Her own room was filled with such things, so much so that she complained about having no place to put them. She hadn’t expected that something she had given her on a whim would be so precious to her.

Without paying it too much mind, she just looked at the girl’s morbidly flushed cheeks and added, “Your fever hasn’t gone down yet, has it?”

Only then did the girl realize she seemed to still have a fever, but having been feverish for so long, she didn’t feel much anymore.

“Yes…”

With a vague reply, Lin Ziyan left after hearing it.

“I remember there are some cold and fever meds at home. I’ll find them for you. Get out of bed quickly.”

“Okay…”

Watching her figure walk down the stairs, Ye Xingmian felt a bit strange.

In her memory, this seemed to be the first time her “sister” had woken her up. It felt quite fresh. But to be honest, the experience wasn’t great. After all, she could say she had no favorable feelings for this sister. In her memories of Lin Ziyan, the look in her eyes when she looked at her was always one of disgust and discrimination, which made people very uncomfortable.

Rubbing her somewhat burning head, she felt her spirit was much better after a sleep. Although she was still very tired, she wasn’t as miserable as yesterday.

Come to think of it, she seemed to have rarely dreamed just now, and it was a nightmare.

The content of the dream was a blur, but she remembered being consumed by a profound sadness. That feeling of utter despair was truly awful, as if it were going to drive her crazy. But fortunately, it was just a dream; she was awake now. Even if her life was humble and lowly, it still seemed much better than that version of herself in the dream.

People are always good at compromising. After experiencing hell, one’s usual hardships seem like no big deal.

Holding the little bear and dazing for a while longer, she suddenly buried her head into the bear’s embrace, taking a deep breath of that warm cotton scent, making a strange “wuu-wuu” sound from her mouth.

Mmh, so comfortable…

She felt her heart softening, unwilling to let go. Thinking of Lin Ziyan’s question just now, the girl had a bad premonition.

She already gave it to her, but she wouldn’t take the little bear back, would she?

That wouldn’t do, but she didn’t have any good place to hide it. Except for this area where she slept, the areas with the old furniture hadn’t been cleaned and would get the bear dirty. She was already very dirty; she couldn’t let the little bear become dirty too.

After thinking it over, the girl, who had finally gotten out of bed while enduring the ear-piercing “creaking” sounds from the mattress, rummaged through the pile of junk in the corner of her room where her things were kept. Soon, she pulled out an old backpack from it.

She remembered this seemed to be something her mother had bought and mailed to her when she first started primary school. She had always cherished it, but no matter how much she cherished it, it couldn’t withstand the ravages of time. The front zipper was already broken, but fortunately, the back was still intact.

Carefully stuffing the little bear inside, she hid it under the clean bed. Only then did she heave a sigh of relief and head downstairs.