Chapter 108

"Then let me be your first friend. But I believe I won't be the last."

"Ning Ning... you're so kind." Xie Shiqing looked like she was about to cry again.

"I didn’t do anything. On the contrary, you were the one who bravely took the first step." Zhong Ning gently brushed away the strands of hair blown across her face by the wind. "What you just said—that was you opening up, letting me get to know you."

"Then… can I get a little reward?" Xie Shiqing slightly tilted her head up, cautiously testing the waters.

Zhong Ning gave a helpless smile. She thought for a moment, and seeing the person before her grow increasingly nervous, she finally bent down and placed a light kiss on her forehead.

"Just this," she warned in a quiet voice. "Nothing more."

This was, after all, a form of positive reinforcement—an important step in the process of reestablishing emotional understanding.

Xie Shiqing seemed a little disappointed, unsatisfied. After a while, she touched the spot where she’d been kissed, her face breaking into a silly grin. "Ning Ning, I love you so much. How are you this wonderful..."

Originally, she hadn’t wanted to say "love" aloud. It made her seem like someone completely love-struck. But compared to the fear of truly breaking up with Zhong Ning, that little concern seemed utterly insignificant.

If simply acting clingy was enough to make Zhong Ning stay, then she could immediately become the most annoyingly clingy person in the world.

She could say "like" and "love" all day long, from morning until night. If what Zhong Ning wanted was open affection, then she would be the most passionate person in the entire universe.

Anyone else behaving this way would come off as either foolish or greasy. But with Xie Shiqing's overwhelming beauty, that was not the case—and Zhong Ning just happened to be someone who responded well to this behavior.

A faint smile curved at the corner of her lips.

This phase of reintroducing themselves to each other was precisely the period of observation that Zhong Ning had wanted.

Xie Shiqing had hurt her emotionally, and she herself had been hurt as well. That made things more or less even. Zhong Ning wouldn’t forget what had happened, but she couldn’t bear to do anything further to Xie Shiqing—this person had already tasted the bitter fruit of her own actions.

Zhong Ning didn’t have much experience with romance. This was the solution she’d come up with after giving the matter serious thought.

Now that they had created some distance between them, it helped both of them cool down and reflect.

After lunch, Xie Shiqing had to return home for her injection.

Two hours wasn’t enough time to go back and forth from the Zhong Corporation, so Zhong Ning simply returned to the library's study room on campus and finished her homework.

During that time, she received another message from Xie Shiqing:

【Ning Ning, I have to get three IV drips. The butler took these photos for me. Look, each one is huge. It’s going to take so long. I miss you.】

【My mouth tastes so bitter… If you kiss me, I won’t feel bitter anymore.】

【Ning Ning, if you run into trouble with your homework, you can ask me anytime. I used to get really good grades back in school】

【When your class is over, can we have dinner together?】

…

Heaven knows, Xie Shiqing never used to talk this much. It was as if she and Zhong Ning had switched roles—Zhong Ning had clearly been the one who took the initiative before.

But perhaps this was a good kind of change. In love, if only one person took the initiative, the relationship would be completely unbalanced.

Zhong Ning replied to each message one by one. At the end of her class, she saw Xie Shiqing waiting downstairs at the teaching building, holding a single light pink hydrangea in her arms.

The delicate petals layered and clustered together, crowded tightly into a gentle bloom. One hand gripped the green stem, and the hand's owner tilted her head slightly, her ear facing toward the entrance of the building.

Was she listening for my footsteps?

Sometimes, Zhong Ning really felt that Xie Shiqing was an extraordinary person. If one only looked at her behavior in the villa, one would never believe she had a visual impairment. Every movement of hers was so smooth and natural.

It was only after living together for some time that Zhong Ning realized—nothing in the villa ever changed position, and Xie Shiqing had memorized the entire layout of the house, every room, every path, every number of steps. That’s why it all seemed so effortless.

There were many carpets laid throughout the villa, muffling any sound when people walked, yet Xie Shiqing could always tell when it was her.

At first, Zhong Ning thought it was because of her scent—but she didn’t wear perfume, only had the faint smell of body wash. That might be noticeable up close, but from a distance? Could anyone’s sense of smell really be that sharp?

Later, Xie Shiqing explained that she had memorized her footsteps.

Everyone had their own unique way of walking.

But now they were outside, in a noisy, crowded environment just after class. And yet, Xie Shiqing was still trying to pick out her footsteps from the throng of students.

How tragic... If her vision were perfectly intact, if these hardships had never fallen upon her, she would be a completely different person.

Zhong Ning felt a pang of sorrow.

Perhaps in this world, there really was no such thing as perfection. If someone gained something, then fate was bound to take something else away.

She adjusted the strap of her backpack and quickly walked toward Xie Shiqing, wanting to shorten the time this image lingered on her retina.

When she was still two steps away, Xie Shiqing suddenly spoke. "Ning Ning, is that you?"

Zhong Ning’s emotions were complicated. "It’s me. You could tell?"

Xie Shiqing couldn’t hide the proud curl of her lips. A moment later, as if suddenly remembering something, she extended her hand forward. "This flower is for you."

The full pink hydrangea was held out to her. When Zhong Ning looked down, she saw that the hand gripping the stem had nearly every finger wrapped in band-aids. The other hand, resting on her wheelchair, was the same.

There were bruised pinpricks on the back of her hand from the IVs. Compared to the bright, vibrant flower, they looked even more pitiful.

"I picked this from the garden," Xie Shiqing said. "The butler told me the hydrangeas had bloomed, and I thought—it’d be such a pity if you didn’t get to see them."

"This one, I picked at random. I didn’t even know what color it was."

"It’s pink and white. Very pretty." Zhong Ning accepted the flower. She noticed, unexpectedly, that the stem was already warm from being held. "I like it too. Thank you, Shiqing. The flower is beautiful."

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