Cry Me A Sad River

Part 8-12

Author: Guo Jingming
Translated by: epikey@tumblr

Warning: violence.

08

Yi Yao sat on the toilet bowl. Her heart fell.

How many weeks had it been since it came? Three weeks? Or had it been almost a month?

The unspeakable terror caused her to clench her fists so tightly that her joints turned white.

Only when her mother's rough knocking sounded on the door did she pull up her pants quickly before opening the door.

Expected, she heard her mother say, "Closed the door for so long, do you want to die inside!"

"It'd be better if I died." Yi Yao replied in her heart.

The canteen was also full of people.

Qi Ming only found a seat for two after carrying his lunch box for a very long time, he gestured for Yi Yao to come over and sit down.

Yi Yao ate very slowly. The few times Qi Ming turned to look at her, she was holding her chopsticks unmoving, staring at her bowl as if flowers were about to sprout, Qi Ming had to knock his chopsticks on the edge of her lunchbox numerous times for her to pay attention, only then did she turn and smile slightly.

They ate until the canteen almost emptied out. Only then did Yi Yao and Qi Ming finish eating and leave.

The hand wash basin at the back of the canteen is empty of people.

The taps were lined horizontally. Occasionally, drips of water drop from them.

Qi Ming folded up his sleeves and placed the lunchbox under the tap, the moment he turned it on, he felt the cold seep into his bones, and he pulled his hand back, startled.

Yi Yao reached over and takes his lunchbox before turning on the water to clean it.

Qi Ming stared at her hand that was washing the lunchbox, she didn't have the long nails girls liked to keep, neither did she have the soft and smooth skin from pampering like other girls. She had a cold sore on her pinky, a small open wound on it.

He looked at her quietly wiping his stainless steel lunchbox, as a rock just rolled into an unknown place in his heart, rolling towards an unknown corner. And then a soft sound can be heard through the darkness.

He couldn't help but raise his hand, reaching over to the girl's slightly lowered head.

"Are you just going to rub your hand that's covered with pig oil on my hair?" Yi Yao turned towards him, a faint smile on her face.

"Your words are really......" Qi Ming frowned, slightly angry.

"Really what", the girl turned, her expression hard, "Really like my mom?"

The sound of water splashing from the tap.

As if a slide gate had been opened, as long as nobody closed it, it'd be pouring out water constantly. Until everything became vacuum.

On the way back to the classroom from the canteen was a quiet forest trail. The branches of the wutong trees were bare in winter.

The leaves were scattered across the ground. Yellow. Red. Slowly, they decay in the rainwater from the day before yesterday. The smell of trees permeated the air.

"Why do I feel that there's the smell of mold." Yi Yao said suddenly as she stepped on the leaves beneath her feet.

Qi Ming said nothing. He moved ahead by himself until he realized that there was no sound beside him, only then did he turn and see Yi Yao a few meters away from him.