Rose in No-Man's Land

42 Like a soft fox, lying on her

After moving into the South Mountain villa, Xia Xingmian often feels contemplative:

One of the marvelous things about life is that a person doesn't know when their life has taken a turn. Sometimes, they can't even pinpoint where the specific fold is. It's just that one day, they suddenly look back and find that a watershed has formed behind them without them noticing.

She doesn't know whether this is a turn for the better or the worse. If you call it "bad," it seems Lu Qiurui has let her go, ever since she returned from Italy, Lu Qiurui has never sought her out again.

Perhaps it was her pleading and compromise that night that gave Lu Qiurui the submission she had always wanted from her, only to find it wasn't as satisfying as she imagined, leading her to lose interest. Then she opened the cage door for her.

But if you call it "good," the ones she lost contact with, besides Lu Qiurui, include Tao Ye.

Um... it's not entirely a loss of contact. They still chat a little every day. Tao Ye sometimes asks her if she has eaten, what she had, and if she had a midnight snack.

She answers each question honestly, even asking back, "What about you?"

But is this polite contact without seeing each other?

She can't make sense of it.

Time quietly slipped away for nearly half a month in this endless routine of empty niceties.

Generally, during winter break a holiday intervenes: the New Year.

One morning, when Wen Can came to Xia Xingmian's room to tell her to go downstairs to practice the piano, she brought the matter up: "It's only a few days until New Year's Eve. Apart from us, the rest of the people in this building are foreigners, and they don't celebrate this. What about you? You've been away for so long, should you ask for a leave and go home for the New Year?"

Xia Xingmian countered Wen Can: "Aren't you going home?"

Wen Can shrugged: "A few years ago, I had a falling out with my family over the piano, so I stopped going home a long time ago."

She pressed further: "So, are you going? If you are, I can talk to the teacher for you."

"..." Xia Xingmian's gaze suddenly glanced towards the glass jar on the corner of the table.

"I don't have a home."

Wen Can realized she had touched on a sensitive topic, hurriedly laughed a few times, and attempted to change the subject.

Seeing Xia Xingmian staring at the glass jar, she shifted the topic to it: "Oh right, speaking of which, it seems like you enjoy those star-shaped candies. I see you not only eat them yourself every day but also throw one into that jar. Are you hoarding food like a mouse for winter?"

Looking at those candies she couldn't gift away, so she could only accumulate them herself, Xia Xingmian forced a smile and sighed deeply.

She tried to respond in a lighthearted tone, "Maybe when that jar is filled with 997 candies, I'll have a home."

Wen Can reflected: "I understand, everyone has their little world they hold onto. But if this has some special significance, you should strive for a nice, round number, like 999. What's with the 997 situation?"

"Because 2 candies have already gone where they should go."

Xia Xingmian stood up, walked to the table, and pulled out today's star candy from her pocket to toss into the jar.

The colorful star candies barely covered the bottom, looking pitiful, seemingly still a long way from the number 997.

Wen Can opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but held back. She could vaguely sense that these candies were meant for someone special.