You hidden in my heart - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Li Xining was packing the papers after completing her chemistry homework.

“Have you finished your physics homework?” Chen Lin stepped over to her desk and asked gently.

“Yes,” Li Xining replied.

“We should start collecting physics homework right away, collect it early, and give it to the teacher,” Chen Lin said.

Li Xining believed it was a little early to collect homework because there was still one class in the evening self-study and there must be some students who had not done their physics assignments, so she responded, “Let’s wait till the last class.”

Chen Lin also had his own plan. “Most of them should already be finished, so I’ll collect them first and note the names of the remaining students, and they can hand them over before school is over. If they didn’t give it today, of course, let’s hand over the name list to Mr. Li so he will take action against those who haven’t given their homework.”

Li Xining had some issues with Chen Lin’s behaviour, but she didn’t express them directly. “Why don’t you do this… First, collect the homework as you said, and make a list of those who haven’t handed it in; then I’ll go and collect it from them after the class is over.” ,

“It’s a waste of time,” Chen Lin said firmly. “If people like Lu Yuling don’t know how to do their homework, why do you ask him for it? Let him solve his own problem.”

Li Xining was noncommittal. Although Chen Lin’s approach was a bit contemptuous, according to her impression of Lu Yuling, it was really difficult to get him to hand in his homework because he didn’t complete any homework at all, and he didn’t even bother to copy it from others. It was indeed a waste of time for him to ask for homework. But she didn’t want to treat Princess Lu like this. She and Lu Yuling had shared a class for over four years, including the first year of junior high. She didn’t think highly of him, but she didn’t think poorly of him either. Lu Yuling was not a school bully. At least he was kind to her, showing that he still had kindness in his heart.

When they first met, they were only twelve or thirteen years old.

Boys mature later than girls, so Li Xining saw Lu Yuling, who had just started junior high school, as a skinny, diminutive lad who was only slightly taller than her.

Yet at the time, he already had attractive facial features, including deep brows and thin, fresh-water-coloured lips. He appeared to be a delicate boy who had been delicately carved out of jade. But when he initially started junior high school, this lovely youngster didn’t want to chat much. He was, however, much better behaved. He listened carefully in class, completed homework carefully, never skipped class, let alone fought, and every time he took an exam, he was at the top of the grade.

So, Li Xining had no idea how that gentle and well-behaved boy could transform into a rebellious boy whose “head can be shattered but his haircut can’t be lost” in just two and a half years. She still had no idea what caused him to cry so hard that day.

She was transferred to another school in the second semester of junior high school because her mother was going to other places to develop the company’s business, so she had to follow her mother to go to school in another place. So she returned to her previous school to pick up the “Transfer Contact Letter” at around 4:00 p.m. on the day before the winter break.

The campus was empty, quiet, and desolate, in stark contrast to the bustle of earlier days, except for the teacher on duty in the administration office. The wind was blowing coldly, there were still some snowflakes in the sky, and the snowflakes were flying quite artistically. The entire school resembled a set in a clear crystal ball. She reluctantly strolled around the school after heading to the administrative building to finish the transfer process. After all, it was the final chance, and the following day, she would accompany her mother to Dongfu. The junior high school’s Class 1 and Class 3 classrooms were located on the second floor. That time, she went up the stairs on the west side. As soon as she reached the platform connecting the first and second floors, she saw Lu Yuling.

He was curled up in a ball on the steps, his arms tightly wrapped around his knees, crying and trembling as if the world had collapsed and he were the only one left. His stunning eyes, which were already swollen from sobbing, were so red that they caused others to feel upset and reminded them of a wounded little monster.

He continued to cry in spite of the unexpected visitor, or, to put it another way, he was so absorbed in the pain that he was completely unaware that someone had arrived.

Seeing such an unexpected scene, Li Xingxing was stunned, and she wanted to leave quickly without disturbing Lu Yuling, but she suddenly couldn’t move after remembering what had happened two years ago.

Like Lu Yuling, she cried in the stairwell the night her father died in a car accident as if the world was about to fall apart. In the end, her mother took her out. At first, her mother didn’t take her out of the stairway immediately but sat beside her and stayed with her without saying a word until she was tired of crying and couldn’t cry anymore.

“Let’s go; it’s time to eat,” her mother said softly.

At that time, she was still young and ignorant, and she didn’t understand why her mother was still in the mood to eat after her father died. ‘Isn’t she sad? Why is she not crying?’  She yelled at her mother very ignorantly, “My dad is gone, are you still in the mood to eat?”

Her mother didn’t get angry, nor did she collapse because of her words, but gently rubbed her head and said, “Xingxing, no matter what has happened, we have to live. How can we live without food?”

At that time, the stairwell was dark, and she couldn’t see her mother’s face clearly, but she could clearly hear the undisguised hoarseness and choke in her mother’s tone, although her mother had been pretending to be calm.

Feeling that, Li Xingxing’s heart became painful as if it had been stabbed by a knife, and she regretted yelling at her mother just now.  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she said while crying.

Her mother stretched her arms around her shoulders, hugging the little girl tightly. “It’s all right; everything will pass, everything will pass.”

The moment she learned of her father’s death, she didn’t even know what to do with herself anymore. Fortunately, she had a good mother who led her out of the darkness and gave her light again.

Li Xingxing looked again at Lu Yuling, who was crying his heart out desperately. ‘Perhaps he is also in the dark.’

They were in the same class, so Li Xingxing deliberated for a moment before deciding to sit beside Lu Yuling and accompanied him without saying a word.

It was snowing outside, the stairway was very cold, and there was a draft from time to time. Li Xining was shivering from the cold and finally hugged her knees and curled up into a ball.

As night fell, everything was silent except for the sound of wind and snow.

Lu Yuling finally stopped crying after an unknown amount of time, but he didn’t speak and maintained his curled posture as if he were protecting himself.

Li Xining thought for a while and took out a pack of colourful candies from her pocket. She bought this candy at the small shop at the gate before entering the school in the afternoon. The boss’s homemade candy had a fruity flavour, and she liked it very much. She often bought a few and put them in her pocket when she came to school. Today was the last time she went back to school, so she bought a big bag at once.

“Take a candy, it is very sweet,” she murmured softly as she opened the packing bag and brought out a pink-wrapped, peach-flavoured sweet.

At first, Lu Yuling seemed to be in an autistic state since he refused to accept the candy and didn’t even look at Li Xining.

Li Xining didn’t feel embarrassed, sighed lightly, put the candy back into the transparent packaging bag, sealed the bag, put the whole bag of candy at Lu Yuling’s feet, and finally said what her mother once said to her, “It will pass, everything will pass.”

Her tone was soft and gentle, but it was full of firmness and strength. She got up and stood up on the stairs after she finished speaking. It was getting dark, and she was going home.

Her limbs were frozen stiff because of the cold, and when she went downstairs, her movements were still a little slow and staggering.

But as soon as she got to the lowest step, Lu Yuling’s voice startled her from behind. His voice was raspy and heavy from crying for too long, but Li Xining could still hear it. “What’s your name?

Li Xining was in complete disbelief at that point. ‘We had been in the same class for a year, and you don’t even know my name. How insignificant I am.’ But she turned around and responded, “Li Xining.”

Although the stairway was not lit, the snow outside reflected the light, so they could still see each other’s faces clearly.

Lu Yuling frowned and asked hesitantly, “We are in the same class?”

Li Xining: “…” ‘No wonder you have heard my name, but you don’t even remember what I looked like.”

Gritting her teeth, Li Xining nodded to Lu Yuling. “Well, same class.”

Lu Yuling then stopped speaking and fell silent once more.

Li Xining hesitated for a moment and finally said, “Goodbye.”

Children who were twelve or thirteen years old were typically sensitive, so it was natural for them to experience sadness before separating, much less moving to a strange foreign country. She had been wanting to do something significant before leaving her hometown for such a long time, in addition to thinking about herself. So, this “goodbye” applied to this school as well as Lu Yuling.

She hoped that Lu Yuling would also bid her farewell, so that her sorrow would be greatly lessened. But Lu Yuling remained silent.

Li Xining sighed in disappointment after waiting a long time to hear this “goodbye” and then turned to go.

The following day, she and her mother travelled to Dongfu, where she attended Dongfu No. 6 Middle School for all of junior high. She didn’t return to Xifu with her mother until she was in high school.

Two and a half years was not short or long, and this matter had been diluted a lot with the passage of time, and the name Lu Yuling had become a thing of the past for her.

But she never thought that she would meet Lu Yuling again. On her first day of high school, she was shocked the moment she walked into the classroom and saw Lu Yuling. What made her even more unexpected was that the exquisite boy, who was just 1.7 meters tall, was already taller and became more handsome: his facial features and skin were still as perfect as jade carvings, but his height was looming and rushing upwards, which made people envious and jealous. He used to be only half a head shorter than her, but now her height just reached his shoulders.

And the taciturn and solitary good student from back then was gone, replaced by a rebellious boy who became more and more muddled and who was proficient in everything except studying: playing truant and fighting, becoming more and more rebellious, getting more irritable, and being surly.

So when they met again after a long time, she didn’t dare talk to him, and luckily, he had also forgotten about her. So she kept pretending not to know him. But every night, after school, he always followed her all the way.

Both of them rode home by bicycle; if she rode fast, he also rode fast, if she rode slowly, his speed would not be fast, and he would always keep a certain distance from her.

In the beginning, Li Xining was very scared, thinking that Lu Yuling had something wrong with him.

One night, when she was riding home on her bicycle, she was blocked by a group of gangsters. Lu Yuling galloped from behind her, knocked over two or three gangsters, and then picked up a brick from the side of the road. After the gangsters ran away, she realised that Lu Yuling hadn’t turned bad but had simply rebelled.

But she was terrified that night, and it was Lu Yuling who eventually assisted her in lifting the bicycle off the ground.

When she came back to her senses, she hurriedly said, “Thank you,” to him, and then hurriedly asked, “Are you okay?”

Although Lu Yuling had intended to reply that everything was fine, he still said, “There are so many of them, how can I be fine?”

Li Xining was worried and guilty. “Where are your injuries? Is it serious? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Lu Yuling extended his right arm, and a one-centimeter-long wound appeared on it. He made a huge deal out of a little cut that was only superficially hurt and had a small amount of blood. “I’m bleeding, why is it not serious?”

Li Xingxing: “???”

Although his wound was very small, it happened because of her, so Li Xingxing couldn’t ignore him for being slightly injured, so she took a band-aid from her school bag and carefully stuck it on the wound for him.

Who knew that Lu Yuling was still addicted to acting and kept yelling painfully while watching Li Xining’s face?

End of chapter 2

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