Vaguely, Su Ning could make out what looked like a human figure inside.
She was so startled that she took a step back and bumped into the young man behind her.
Shen Ji gently stroked her head.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.
Ning Ning, I’m here.”
Su Ning frowned instead.
She looked suspiciously at Shen Ji.
“Did you hide another woman in there?”
Shen Ji blinked.
“Huh?”
As it turned out, Su Ning’s thoughts could take some very unexpected turns.
Even Shen Ji, who was rather unpredictable himself, sometimes couldn’t keep up with her.
Su Ning pushed Shen Ji aside and pulled the cabinet door open herself.
The figure inside was revealed.
It wasn’t a person.
More precisely, it was a skeleton.
The tall skeleton was covered in dirt and crammed into the small cabinet, looking almost pitiful in such a cramped space.
What was hard to ignore was that many parts of the skeleton had visible fractures.
Even more absurdly, someone had simply used pieces of tape to stick the broken parts back together.
She couldn’t tell what had caused those injuries.
She only felt a chill run down her back.
If these were the bones of a real person, how many injuries had they suffered while they were alive?
Shen Ji quickly closed the cabinet door.
With a pleading look on his face, he carefully hooked his finger around Su Ning’s.
“Ning Ning, I’m sorry.
I’ll take care of it soon.
Don’t be scared.”
“Who said I was scared?”
Shen Ji blinked.
Su Ning thought about it.
This was an art room.
Having a skeleton for students to draw was perfectly normal, wasn’t it?
She wasn’t an art student, so she was only guessing.
After all, wasn’t there also a skeleton in the biology lab?
Besides, it was broad daylight, and her boyfriend was right beside her.
What was there to be afraid of?
Su Ning opened the cabinet door again.
This time, she carefully examined the skeleton several times.
It was obviously very old and worn.
It must have been here for quite some time.
Maybe it had been damaged in that fire.
Curiosity got the better of Su Ning.
She reached out and gently poked the skeleton’s ribs, carefully avoiding the cracked parts.
“So this is what it feels like.”
Back when she was in the biology lab, some students had been curious enough to touch the skeleton there, but Su Ning had never tried it.
Today was her first time.
“N-Ning Ning…”
He seemed to be embarrassed about something.
The tips of his ears had turned red, and he didn’t dare look at her.
“Don’t touch it.
Your hands will get dirty.”
Su Ning looked at her fingers.
Sure enough, after just that one touch, dust had already stuck to her fingertips.
She asked curiously, “Did you put this thing here?”
Shen Ji nodded shyly.
Su Ning remembered that Shen Ji could draw.
Maybe this was something he needed to use.
The thought of Shen Ji having to touch this dusty, dirty thing all the time made her scalp tingle.
She liked keeping things clean, and naturally, she hoped her boyfriend would like keeping clean too.
So Su Ning said, “Let’s give it a bath!”
Shen Ji stammered, “A-a bath…”
Su Ning was a woman of action.
She had Shen Ji carry the skeleton straight to the sink at the very back of the fourth floor.
Although the building had been abandoned for years and the electricity had been cut off, there was still running water.
When Shen Ji put the skeleton into the sink, he didn’t pay attention to his strength.
Crack.
One of the bones broke.
Su Ning quickly pushed him aside.
“Don’t touch it anymore!
It’ll be troublesome to put it back together later!”
Shen Ji was banished to the side.
He looked at Su Ning with a wronged expression.
He wanted to say that he was actually very good at putting puzzles together, but Su Ning didn’t have time to pay attention to him.
Su Ning carefully peeled off all the pieces of tape first.
Then she turned on the water, took the small brush Shen Ji had brought from the art room, and gently scrubbed every part of the bones.
Some places below the ribs required even more care.
Su Ning bent down and carefully examined the pelvis.
There were several corners the brush couldn’t reach.
She simply set the brush aside and used her fingers to carefully wipe every single spot.
The young man standing behind her began breathing heavier and heavier, until it became impossible for her to ignore.
Su Ning turned around and looked at him.
“What’s wrong with you?”
The corners of the young man’s eyes were red with a mixture of unbearable tension and excitement.
His dark eyes were deep and shadowed, as though a storm were hidden inside them.
He stared steadily at Su Ning.
His Adam’s apple bobbed once, and his voice was hoarse.
“It’s too hot.”
Sunlight streamed through the spiderweb-covered glass windows.
He was standing right under the sunlight too.
Of course he was hot.
Seeing that he couldn’t help with anything anyway, Su Ning lowered her head and continued washing the bones.
“Go stand somewhere cooler.
I’ll call you when I’m done.”
The art room was right next door.
Shen Ji obediently walked into the art room and gently pulled the door mostly closed.
As he watched her hands move from the pelvis to the thigh bones, his body slumped against the door.
The corners of the young man’s eyes were red with a mixture of unbearable tension and excitement.
He struggled to keep his breathing as quiet as possible.
But with his forehead pressed against the door and his dark eyes fixed on the girl’s profile in the sunlight, he still couldn’t stop himself from letting out a low, breathy sound.
“Ning Ning…
I like you so much…”
He really did.
He liked her so, so much.
Su Ning spent quite some time washing everything clean.
After the skeleton had dried in the sunlight, she thought the tape looked ugly, so she had Shen Ji find an old curtain in an abandoned classroom and tear it into strips.
The white strips of cloth were wrapped around the cracked parts of the skeleton, like bandages wound around a wound to help it heal.
Su Ning had only finished wrapping two of the cracked sections when she tried to push away the person leaning against her because it was too hot.
But before long, he leaned against her again.
Su Ning couldn’t take it anymore.
She looked up at him.
“Why are you so clingy today?”
Shen Ji wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
He narrowed his eyes comfortably, lazily pressing his cheek against hers as he whispered,
“Ning Ning, I like you.”
Su Ning suspected that he had secretly eaten all the snacks she had brought with her.
Otherwise, why did he look so satisfied?
And why was he suddenly saying such flattering things?
He must have done something guilty!
Shen Ji smiled with his eyes curved.
His bright, sparkling eyes were filled with her reflection.
Su Ning immediately lost all her resolve and softened.
She took his hands off her waist.
“You’re making it impossible for me to work properly.”
Shen Ji didn’t want to leave her, but he didn’t want to make her angry either.
He had already prepared himself to be pushed away.
But instead, Su Ning intertwined her fingers with his.
She softened her voice.
“What’s wrong?”
He had been perfectly fine just now.
His clinginess was getting a little abnormal.
Shen Ji gently rubbed her hand with his thumb.
He lowered his eyes and stared at their joined hands for a long while without saying anything.
Seeing him staring at their hands, Su Ning simply grabbed his hand, brought it to her lips, and kissed it.
She joked, “Why are you acting like a little wife today?”
Shen Ji’s body trembled slightly.
That sensation seemed to travel through his hand to somewhere else.
The temperature in his face slowly rose again.
In the end, he leaned down and buried his face against her neck, refusing to let her see how embarrassed he was.
Maybe some small animals just had periods when they became especially clingy.
Su Ning gently patted his back, soothing him.
With his eyes open, Shen Ji could see the stark white skeleton behind them, washed completely clean by the girl without missing a single spot.
The corners of his lips rose uncontrollably.
He shyly closed his eyes and buried his face against her.
She really loved him so much!