Drifting on a String - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Xiao Ma, can you turn off the light?" Lao Hai remembered that she hadn't flipped the switch when the main lights went out, and she was afraid it would be glaring when she woke up tomorrow.

"Oh, okay."

Xiao Ma turned it off and then said, "Lao Hai, can I borrow your desk lamp? I'm rushing to finish an assignment."

Lao Hai took it over, placed it on Xiao Ma's desk, and suddenly said, "Eh? Isn't this Piaopiao's key?"

She held it up, met the eyes of Tao Jin who was turning around, and gave her a questioning look.

"Yeah, she probably forgot it," Tao Jin said. "Give it to me."

She held out her hand to take it, thought for a moment, and went downstairs with her phone.

---

The elevator had already stopped for the night. Tao Jin greeted a student fetching hot water from the utility room, pushed open the door to the stairwell, and took the stairs down.

Her movements were always light, not even triggering the voice-activated lights in the corridor. She sniffled and was about to take a step when she heard someone cough twice, and the extinguished light was woken up.

A familiar voice. Tao Jin froze for a moment, then leaned over to look down through the gap in the stair railing. She could vaguely make out Chen Piaopiao sitting on the stairs below the 10th floor, her back to her, playing on her phone.

Tao Jin frowned. She had just taken a shower and was wearing a nightdress, yet she was sitting right on the concrete floor where people came and went? Without even putting down a piece of paper or anything.

Chen Piaopiao's back was still, and just like the girl herself, it was hard to read any emotion from it. Only her thin shoulders were drawn in a little tighter, as if she were performing a silent play in the dim yellow light.

Tao Jin suddenly wondered, The lights are out, who is she messaging on her phone? It must have been inconvenient to do in the dorm, forcing her to hide in this stuffy stairwell, not even caring if the place she sat was clean.

She subconsciously glanced at her own phone. The screen was pitch-black, without any activity.

Tao Jin leaned on the railing, looking down at her, and didn't move for a long while.

She watched her hold her phone and search for something for a while, then open WeChat, then close it again. She stared blankly out the narrow stairwell window, then pushed her sweat-dampened hair aside, returned to the WeChat chat window, and tapped away at the screen.

She must have deleted it, perhaps afraid her tone wasn't right. She switched to a voice message, pressed the talk button, and brought the bottom of the phone to her mouth.

"Aunt… um, so, I just checked the hotels near the school, and they're all booked. And, um, there are some farther away, but they're pretty expensive, and if it's far, it won't be convenient for Grandma to stay there. Have you booked Grandma's ticket yet? Maybe…"

She stopped, her hand gripping the screen tightly. Three seconds later, she swiped up, canceling the voice message.

Tao Jin's brow furrowed. Before she could even process the meaning of her words, she was distracted by Chen Piaopiao's rare stumbling and hesitation. Chen Piaopiao was a "thick-skinned" person. She didn't care about being seen through by Tao Jin time and again, nor did she mind exposing her little tricks. Even during her entrance interview, she had been poised and eloquent.

Tao Jin had never seen her like this.

Chen Piaopiao carefully let out a breath and walked over to the window. The stairwell window was old and in disrepair, only opening a crack the width of two fingers. Chen Piaopiao stood before the gap, letting the breeze hit her, her thin chest rising and falling. Then she lowered her head and used her index finger to wipe the dust from the bottom of the window.

A thick layer of dust. She drew a single horizontal line, and her fingertip was completely black.

Tao Jin pressed her lips together, holding her breath. Only after Chen Piaopiao had left the stairwell did she turn around, rest her bent arm on the railing, and also look towards the windowsill on her own floor.

After waiting a few minutes, during which the voice-activated light went out and came on again, Tao Jin finally went downstairs. She arrived on the 9th floor and pushed open the stairwell door. The bright, lively corridor and the dim staircase were like two different worlds. The masters of the future era all had youthful, vibrant faces. They moved their desks into the corridor, where the lights stayed on, to draw and do homework, saving electricity on their little night lights and sharing spicy sticks with the neighboring dorms.

A younger student who knew Tao Jin greeted her: "Senior Tao Jin, are you looking for someone?"

"Yeah."

"Want a spicy stick?"

"No, thanks." Tao Jin smiled lightly and waved her hand.

Around the corner was Chen Piaopiao's dorm, 0908. Qi Mian, who had just returned from fetching hot water, was delighted to see her and enthusiastically pushed the door open. "Piaopiao, Senior Tao Jin is here to see you."

Chen Piaopiao leaned out from her chair to look. After seeing the key in her hand, she smiled demurely and held out her hand. "Thank you."

Tao Jin stared at her intently. The outstretched hand was as white as jade, without a speck of dust. She had changed into a different nightdress; the one she'd worn while playing cards was now crumpled in the laundry basket.

Tao Jin stepped forward and handed her the key.

"Thank you," Chen Piaopiao said again. She casually tossed the key back into her drawer and looked up at Tao Jin, as if waiting for her to say goodbye.

But Tao Jin didn't leave. Instead, she leaned her tall frame against the side of the desk, her slender, graceful neck bent as she looked at her. "Going to sleep?"

"Mmm…" Chen Piaopiao drew up her legs, habitually hugging her knees. "I'm a little too keyed up to sleep. Maybe… I got too into the card game just now."

She smiled, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Tao Jin, like a young fox curled up in its den. But her eyelids were heavy with fatigue, the soft flesh beneath them looking strained, and the roots of her eyelashes were faintly red.

Tao Jin let out a slow, internal sigh, remembering the way she had wiped the windowsill.

As wooden as a broken-down machine, more in disrepair than the rusted window.

So she lowered her eyes, brushed a stray bit of fluff from Chen Piaopiao's shoulder, and suggested softly, "Well, in that case… come with me to the Snack Street. I'm a little hungry."

The whole dorm room fell silent. Qi Mian even stopped eating her Bugles. The only sound was the occasional click of An Ran's mouse.

An Ran was listening with pricked ears. Qi Mian was listening with pricked ears. Luo Yue was… memorizing her textbook with earplugs in.

Chen Piaopiao knew they were gossiping, but she had to admit, this bit of "special treatment" from Tao Jin was her salvation. She felt her vanity spring back to life.

However, she quickly realized that "vanity" wasn't the right word for this immense sense of satisfaction, because she also felt a little sad. She suddenly understood that her obsession with "having the person everyone likes, like her" was actually quite pathetic. All she wanted to prove was that she, too, was worthy of being loved.

—The stars in the sky should love me, the moon in the sky should love me, the sun in the sky should love me.

I came into this world, and I deserve to be treated with kindness, to be cherished, to be praised, to be doted on.

She met Tao Jin's gaze, as if she were trying to tame the brilliant sun. If you were born to give warmth to others, could you give a little more to me?

It was nighttime now, and it was just too dark.

Chen Piaopiao parted her lips. Gazing at Tao Jin's flawless features, she quietly voiced her concerns: "It's too late, and the elevator has stopped. Walking down is fine, but coming back… climbing the stairs will be exhausting. And, if we get back late…"

For the first time, Tao Jin didn't display her usual good manners by letting her finish. She interrupted her gently.

"You have a Plan B."

She lowered her chin slightly, tilting her head to look into Chen Piaopiao's eyes as she spoke.

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