That night, the gray-black sky was as if stained with ink, the moon appeared hazy, and the stars were dim.
Lin Xiaolu lay on her side by the window, curled up, quietly gazing into the boundless night sky.
Mork did not know when he had fallen asleep on the head of the bed, his back was covered with translucent wings resting on his shoulders, and his pink fluff trembled slightly, making not a single sound.
From the floor beside the bed ca the occasional faint sound of fabric rubbing against each other—clearly, soone was tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
"Xiaolu, are you asleep?"
Suddenly, Xia Liang's voice rose in the dark room.
She did not get a response; Lin Xiaolu remained silent, as if she heard nothing.
"I an, this outfit is a bit tight, it feels constrictive when I try to sleep."
But Xia Liang was never one to care for such things, speaking to herself when no one else would: "So can I sleep naked?"
"...No."
Stirred by this conversation, Lin Xiaolu's night-ti lancholy was disrupted as she drooped her eyelids and vetoed Xia Liang's suggestion.
She initially rejected the idea offhand and then, realizing what Xia Liang ant by "the clothes are tight," she felt even more annoyed: "Wearing my clothes, sleeping in my room, where do you get so many requests from? Believe it or not, I'll make you sleep on the sofa in the living room?"
"Sleep naked?" Xia Liang blinked, her cheeks flushing.
"Of course with clothes on!" Lin Xiaolu gritted her teeth.
"I was just joking, besides, it wouldn't be good if your family saw."
"You do realize this is my house, right?"
The jokes were only half-said, and for a mont both fell silent.
After a while, Xia Liang, hugging the blanket to herself and tightening her arms around it, closed her eyes:
"You know, Xiaolu."
"What now?" Having already opened her mouth to speak, Lin Xiaolu couldn't pretend to be silent anymore, so she could only respond irritably to Xia Liang.
"Are you and your dad on bad terms?"
Xia Liang's question froze Lin Xiaolu's expression on her face.
With her back to Xia Liang, Lin Xiaolu moved her face closer to the inside of the pillow, her voice beca even more muffled: "Can you tell?"
"Mhm, I felt it."
"Is that so, but it's none of your business, right?"
When it ca to this topic, Lin Xiaolu's voice beca a bit hoarse: "Or are you also going to lecture ?"
"Not at all."
Xia Liang said softly in the night: "I was just a bit curious."
"Curious about what?"
"Your dad should be concerned about you, he's actually quite good to you."
"...How do you figure? Just because you exchanged a few words with him?"
"Not the words, but the attitude and expressions."
At this point, Xia Liang's tone beca rather serious: "Whether parents truly care about their children or not can be seen in these small details."
At this, there ca another prolonged silence.
Lin Xiaolu did not say a word, seemingly lost in thought, while Xia Liang also chose not to say more at this ti.
After a long while, as if having decided on sothing, Lin Xiaolu spoke: "Does he seem like this now?"
Xia Liang was puzzled by the question: "Now? Was he different before?"
"Of course."
In the dark, Lin Xiaolu's expression was unclear, but her voice seed to be squeezed out of her throat, carrying an indescribable resentnt:
"If you haven't seen it, you can't understand it, the truly unreasonable part about him. That cold, heartless face is chilling."
"It's been the sa since I was little, work, work, work, if not overti then socializing. When he was at ho, he just had a stern face, as if he was never happy about anything, as if he didn't care about anything. The sa went for , he'd only relentlessly enroll in tutoring classes, buy practice books, and then tell to study hard."
"At that ti, Mom would always say to empathize with him, to forgive him. Even if she prepared a table full of dishes for a holiday and he'd call to say he wasn't coming ho to eat, she still had no complaints."
"And then one day, she died."
"Everything was fine the day before, but the next day he suddenly told Mom was dead, from now on it would just be him and , and then he neither gave a reason nor provided a conclusion. I asked him to let see Mom for the last ti, guess what his answer was?"
Apparently not expecting Lin Xiaolu to throw a question her way at this mont, Xia Liang reacted slightly: "Uh... your dad didn't agree?"
"Hmph, what he said was 'Forget about her.'"
Lin Xiaolu snorted, but there was no smile on her face: "He casually packed away her belongings, casually hired a few people, and casually held a funeral, as if everything was abruptly over just like that.
"Then, he disappeared halfway through the morial service, found in an embrace with a young woman from who knows where."
"Was he really working outside? Did he really consider Mom at all? I don't know, but I was very worried, and very scared. When I asked him for a reason, he'd avoid the topic; even if I cried in front of him, he showed no reaction, only saying stuff like he was also very upset and other nonsense."
"Ultimately, we argued. I can't even rember what we both said, I only rember that I really told him all my anger and incomprehension, and then he slapped ."
"What did he say? 'You think I'm doing all this for whom?' Is that what he said?"
"For whom, really? Certainly not for , and certainly not for Mom, right? Otherwise, why would he be cuddling up with other won at ho just a few days later?"
"It seed like they were so loving on normal days, but as soon as she truly passed away, he imdiately changed his attitude. Is this what Mom ant by understanding him?"
"And then I ran away from ho."
At these words, Xia Liang's eyes widened slightly.
As if suddenly realizing sothing, she looked in the direction where Lin Xiaolu was, but in the pitch-black room, Lin Xiaolu was still turned away from her.
"So I won't ask you why you wanted to run away from ho. I know under what circumstances a person would want to escape."
Her voice was muffled, the naless anger having receded at so point, though it was unclear whether it had disappeared or lay hidden deeper within.
"I stayed at a classmate's house for many days, during that ti I didn't go to school, just sat silently by myself."
She continued with her past experience: "And then on so day, it seed like my classmate's parents contacted the school, the school inford him where I was, and he ca looking for ."
"That was probably the first ti I saw him so disheveled, dark circles under his eyes like a ghost, unshaven beard, unruly hair, not wearing his usual business suit that he wore all year, just a shabby jacket and he ca looking."
"He said 'Let's go ho.' At that point, I thought to myself, we've co to this, what reason do I have to go back with you?"
"But seeing him like that, I don't know why, but my heart softened. Was it sympathy? Or just feeling wronged? By the ti I ca to my senses, I had already taken his hand as if possessed by spirits."
"Since then, it has been like it is now; I hardly interact with him, he seems to be making up for sothing, and has transford into a 'good father,' but that's all."
As she ca to this point, it seed that she was relieved having finished what she wanted to say, the emotion dissipating, and she took a long breath, slowing down her speech.
"That's it, it ends here."
Lin Xiaolu closed her eyes: "Are you satisfied with this boring story?"
Xia Liang didn't answer right away. She didn't realize when she loosened her grip on the blanket, she seed to rember sothing, her mind drifting.
After a while, she lowered her eyelids and responded softly: "Yeah."
"Then that's good."
Lin Xiaolu pulled the blanket over herself, covering her face halfway: "I'm going to sleep now."
The room was quiet, and after a while, steady breathing sounds ca from Lin Xiaolu's bed, leaving Xia Liang alone, wide awake, lying on the mattress on the floor.
She no longer fussed over the slightly tight clothes on her body, nor did she care about the bedding she and Lin Xiaolu had put together, which had ended up rather poorly.
She seed to say sothing, but the words were audible only to herself.
Eventually, in the dim midnight, Xia Liang also slowly succumbed to sleep.
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