AiLin shut her eyes and after thinking for a while, she found no energy in herself. She just wanted to beco one with the floor or the ground, becoming sothing less botherso to others like a ground of sands or mud. She didn’t mind being stepped upon as long as they wouldn’t direct their anger and frustration to her anymore.
The delinquent saw her face and sighed, "Not fun. You’re not scared. Aren’t you worried that I would do sothing bad to you?"
"Why didn’t you do that when I was asleep?" She retorted back to him and finally heard his chuckle.
When she turned her face at him, it turned out that he had been holding to a bowl of congee, the congee had a thousand years egg on top of it, decorated with jade green scallions that had been cut neatly, a fat delicious looking at that floated on top of the round pale blue bowl. She gulped seeing it and he offered the bowl towards her, "Eat it. If you can, if you can’t then I can—"
"Then thank you," she wasn’t one to refuse food, especially when the Jiang Couples were going to starve her for her mistakes today after beating her up. Though embarrassed and humiliated, though angry that a delinquent like him was the one who had found out her secret, she was too hungry to care, she was too exhausted to care. She would be angry later and feel very mortified but for now, that congee sparkled to her eyes, urging her to co closer and she did so.
The delinquent stared at her and he didn’t say anything else. The entire ti she eat, she was accompanied by silence. Though he was soone who would often jab her with his words on her sore spots, he was oddly quiet when she was eating. There was no question about her injury coming from his mouth, he didn’t even ask why her family didn’t let her inside the house when she was so bloodied and had a fever accompanied by the rain.
She waited for that question but after half an hour and no question heard, she found herself relaxing. She placed the empty bowl on the side of the cupboard and spoke, "I have to go ho."
He stared to her. As she couldn’t rember his face, she couldn’t exactly put a finger on the expression he held.
He sighed and that was the only indication of any emotion from the young man.
"It’s not a good idea," he remarked.
She didn’t have to guess to tell that the young man had guessed that her injuries were self inflicted by her own family mbers.
She tightened her grip as humiliation filled her heart.
"If I go ho. They wouldn’t be as mad as if they found out I have been sowhere else all night."
The young man didn’t budge and when she saw this, she tried standing up. He finally sighed and held her elbow to stop her, "Fine I’ll drop you off. First drink the dicine," he placed the pill on her hand.
She didn’t really want to eat the dicine as the congee tasted so good and she didn’t want bitter dicine to take over that taste on her tongue. But seeing him stressing that he would only let her go after drinking the dicine and considering the fever plaguing her, she agreed and took the pill quickly. Not long after, he left the room, calling for the chauffeur to start the car and she noted that his house was so large though it was extrely empty as if he was living there alone. The rooms were quiet, pale yellow lights mostly filled the empty clean white hallways, the servants also looked down on the floor which made her realize that he was rich, maybe even more rich than her though no one seed to have ever talked about it, which was odd, as if he was hiding this.
When she entered the car, he had entered too.
The chauffeur then started the car and they left back to Jiang Household. Though she was the one who had asked the young man to allow her to go back ho despite his clear refusal, she felt a biting nervousness filling up her heart as she imagined the reaction she would be seeing from her family upon finding out that soone had helped her. Maybe they wouldn’t care too much? Or maybe they’ll beat her and punish her even more for shaming their family...
"You’re not alone."
AiLin blinked and turned to see the delinquent who had spoken to her.
He was awkward with kind and caring words which showed by his stressed tone, "I’m saying that if you need help, you can ask soone."
She shook her head, "But how could I ask for help?"
"You have mouth and hands, you can do it can’t you?" He asked, callously. Soone young wouldn’t understand that if she begged for help, she would only et with more troubles and punishnts. "If you can’t, you can ask to ask soone for help, a trusted adult."
She pursed her lips, the humiliation filling her heart. Soone who is being punished so heavily like her wasn’t loved by her family, and she didn’t want more people to find out about such a thing. No. She couldn’t afford it. She didn’t want anyone to know.
"No." She said in a firm refusal.
"Then are you going to continue suffer under their hands? What? Until you died?"
She snapped her glare at him, her eyes stinging and it burned, "You don’t understand."
"What don’t I understand? That you shouldn’t ask for help when you are in need of one?" His tone wasn’t raised up in a shout yet why did his words stabbed her so much?
She felt his hand then held her wrist tight, his eyebrows furrowed as he spoke with clear frustration, "Ask for help, AiLin. You need one."
"I don’t need it!" She pushed him away at the sa ti as the car stopped.
The chauffeur nervously looked behind at the arguing children. One was extrely wounded so he didn’t want to speak carelessly. He was surprised when AiLin opened the door car and her rushing out of the car into Jiang Household, leaving his young master to stare at her shadow with a furrowed eyebrow and a tinge of pain on his face.
"I don’t get it," he muttered, "Then what do you have to do if you’re in her position?"
The chauffeur thought the young master had asked him, so he spoke carelessly, "Perhaps having a talk with the school counselors would help the young miss’s case?"
His young master thought about it, not knowing what kind of misfortune that would spread if he did heed to the chauffeur’s advice.
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