It was only now that Song Zhi noticed all the children in the yard seemed to be girls.
Although everyone was dressed simply, they were clean, well-fed, and chubby. When they saw a stranger, they would take the initiative to greet her without showing any timidity at all.
At a single glance, it was clear that these children had been raised and cared for with great love and dedication.
This was completely different from the welfare home in Song Zhi’s memory.
In her memory, a welfare home was forever synonymous with filth, coldness, and violence. If you failed to do something well or made someone unhappy, nothing but severe beatings and verbal abuse awaited you.
The elderly woman sighed with emotion. “I just don’t know how much longer I can hold on. Once I die, this place will probably be leveled to the ground very soon.”
Song Zhi spoke up, her tone incredibly earnest. “Director, I can help you.”
The elderly woman pulled Song Zhi’s hand over and patted it. “Good child, there’s no need. Perhaps the road ahead is something they need to walk on their own. I can’t accompany them for a lifetime, after all.”
Song Zhi stayed there until the afternoon, chatting a great deal with the elderly woman.
She learned that the elderly woman’s original name was She Bailu. This welfare home was founded using her own personal assets when she was young. She treated the children with great care, teaching them proper manners and etiquette, and doing everything she could to fund their education. As long as they wanted to study, whether it was high school, university, or postgraduate studies, she would support them.
The consequence of this was that expenses had consistently exceeded income, and over the decades, her assets had nearly been entirely depleted.
This welfare home housed only girls. There had been a few boys a couple of years ago, but they were all adopted away very quickly.
Currently, there were five children in the yard: one was in her first year of high school, one was in her third year of junior high, and the other three were almost at the age to attend kindergarten.
She Bailu checked the time. “Why don’t you stay here for dinner?”
“Yeah, Big Sister, just stay here and have dinner with us! I can cook!” She Ci said with immense enthusiasm.
“With your culinary skills, who would dare to eat the dishes you make?”
A cold and lazy voice echoed from the doorway.
It belonged to a tall, slender, and clean featured girl. She was wearing a school uniform, holding her schoolbag in one hand as she looked at Song Zhi. Her gaze carried a hint of scrutiny, but she still greeted her properly, her flat voice devoid of any ups and downs: “Hello.”
For some reason, Song Zhi felt that the girl was only reluctantly greeting her just to maintain a good image in front of She Bailu.
“Hello,” she replied.
“What do you mean by that?! What’s wrong with the food I make? Is my cooking not delicious?!” She Ci’s face turned completely red. She retorted in extreme dissatisfaction, trying hard to save face for herself.
“Don’t waste your energy defending yourself.”
The girl set her schoolbag down, rolled up her sleeves to reveal her pale, slender arms, and walked over to She Ci’s side. Looking down at the disastrous state of the cutting board, she let out an ambiguous chuckle. “The shredded potatoes you cut certainly have a lot of… personality.”
“She Huai, you!”
She Ci’s face flushed even redder. If looks could kill, she really wanted to murder She Huai. Why did she have to expose her right in front of a beautiful elder sister!
To salvage her dignity, she snapped back, “Do you think the food you make is that delicious?”
“It’s not that delicious,” She Huai said while washing the vegetables. “Not delicious, yet a certain someone still eats three bowls of rice every single time.”
She Ci’s face burned instantly. She stuttered over her words for a long time but couldn’t utter a single complete sentence.
Both Song Zhi and She Bailu were amused by the two of them.
However, Song Zhi’s mind was still constantly preoccupied with Xu You. She shook her head and said politely, “No thank you, Grandma. There’s some business with my family, so I have to leave first.”
She Bailu did not force her to stay either, merely telling her to come back next time before she left.
Song Zhi drove her car to the Dunhuang Hotel. After parking the vehicle in the parking lot, she went to sit in the main lobby of the hotel to wait.
She waited from a little after six o’clock until past eight o’clock.
During this period, she had sent messages to Xu You, but Xu You hadn’t replied to any of them.
“Sister, I’ve arrived.”
“It’s already 8:30, haven’t you come out yet? Which private room are you in? I’ll come look for you.”
“Sister, please reply to my messages.”
While she was in the middle of sending messages, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed through the lobby.
Song Zhi looked over and saw Xu Jie and Xu Xi walking rapidly, their expressions carrying a trace of panic as they left the hotel. Before the two left, their eyes continuously swept around the surroundings. Fortunately, Song Zhi was facing away from them, and with the sofa acting as a shield, she wasn’t spotted by them.
An ominous premonition swelled in Song Zhi’s heart. Waiting until the two had completely walked out of the hotel, she pretended to be calm, smoothed out her clothes, and walked toward the front desk.
She forced her voice to sound steady as she asked, “Hello, I’d like to ask if there are any reservations under the names of Xu Jie and Xu Xi?”
The receptionist checked the system and shook her head. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I couldn’t find any reservations under those two names.”
If it wasn’t Xu Jie or Xu Xi, then the only other possibility was Fu Nian.
Song Zhi cursed that person eight hundred times in her mind, but on the surface, she still had to feign a look of apology. She said to the receptionist again, “Oh, then I might have remembered it wrong. Could you please help me check for a reservation under Fu Nian?”
At this point, the receptionist sensed that something was amiss and refused. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I cannot check that for you anymore.”
Song Zhi grew a bit anxious. “Please, just one last time, truly the very last time.”
The receptionist remained unmoved. “Apologies, ma’am, we cannot disclose our guests’ privacy here.”
Song Zhi gave up decisively. She walked over in the direction from which she had just spotted Xu Jie and Xu Xi, calling out Xu You’s name as she walked. She kept dialing Xu You’s phone number, but the calls still weren’t going through.
Her shouting drew a reminder from a waiter: “Ma’am, loud noises are not permitted here.”
With no other choice, Song Zhi could only knock on the doors one by one. Whenever she confirmed that the person inside the private room was not Xu You, she would bow, say she was sorry for finding the wrong room, and then back out.
After searching more than a dozen private rooms, she felt utterly dejected, yet she still stubbornly knocked on the door of the next room.
“Hello?” She patted the door.
But no one responded to her.
Song Zhi felt a surge of joy in her heart, it should be this room!
She increased her force and banged on the door. “Hello, is anyone inside?”
Still, there was no response.
Song Zhi grew frantic. Just as she was about to call a waiter to open the door, the room door swung open on its own.
“Xu…” Before she could finish her sentence.
Xu You’s expression looked extremely awful. Upon closer inspection, one could tell that her condition was very wrong, her brows were tightly knit, fine beads of sweat coated her forehead, and her usually fair, translucent skin was currently flushed with an unnatural crimson hue.
She grabbed Song Zhi’s hand and said in a low voice, “Let’s go.”
The temperature of her palm was abnormally scalding, and her grip was surprisingly strong.
Song Zhi wanted to peer inside to check the state of the private room, but the door was already shut by Xu You.
Song Zhi didn’t have the spare energy to focus on anything else either. She asked, “Xu You, what’s wrong? Can you tell me what just happened?”
For the first time, Xu You did not give her a response. She merely pulled Song Zhi’s hand with a slight firmness, leading her away.
“I drove here! I brought my car!”
Song Zhi spoke while pulling Xu You toward the car. She ushered the woman into the passenger seat and sat herself down in the driver’s seat.
Xu You leaned back against the passenger seat with her eyes tightly shut, panting slightly as her hands trembled continuously.
Song Zhi held her hand and asked in a gentle tone she had never used before, “What’s wrong? Can you tell me?”
Xu You looked at her, but if one looked closely, they could tell that her gaze was blank and unable to focus.
She spoke slowly, her tone laced with uncertainty: “…Song Zhi?”
“Is it Song Zhi?”
Song Zhi had never heard her display such a fragile and lost appearance before. She quickly nodded her head. “It’s me.”
The familiar voice allowed Xu You to put her mind at ease. She shook her head. “I’m fine. Just drop me off at any hotel.”
“How can that be okay?” Song Zhi disapproved. “Do you have a fever? Come to my place so I can take care of you.”
As she spoke, she was about to raise her hand to check the temperature of Xu You’s forehead when her wrist was firmly seized.
In that instant, Song Zhi suddenly realized that the aura around Xu You had changed. It was no longer the soft, gentle weakness of the past, but another kind of powerful force that could not be ignored.
However, that strange sensation vanished very quickly. Restraining her discomfort, Xu You shook her head. “I don’t have a fever.”
Song Zhi didn’t believe a single word. In her eyes, Xu You was just being stubborn. “Then why is your body so hot? Stop forcing yourself.”
Xu You glanced sideways at her. Her usually cold eyes were currently filled with emotions that Song Zhi couldn’t understand.
She closed her eyes with restraint. “Maybe I really do have a fever.”
“You should have said so earlier, I’ll take you to the hospital.” Song Zhi started the car immediately.
“Don’t just endure it on your own when you have a fever. What if I wasn’t by your side tonight and didn’t come to pick you up? What would you have done by yourself?”
Song Zhi drove with furrowed brows, her mouth never stopping its nagging. “You’re always like this, never telling me anything.”
Xu You quietly listened to her speak, eventually shifting her gaze to Song Zhi’s lips.
The dry heat inside her body became even more pronounced. Suppressing the burning desire to pull the girl into a tight embrace and kiss her, Xu You rolled down the window, wanting to let the cold wind disperse some of the heat. But the window was immediately rolled back up by someone.
“Don’t blow in the wind when you have a fever,” Song Zhi said.
Xu You paused for a moment, then obediently let out a soft murmur of assent.
Song Zhi thought to herself. Why is an ailing Xu You so obedient?
“Next time you feel unwell, you must see a doctor immediately. Your health has only improved a little bit recently, don’t mess around.”
Song Zhi kept nagging, and Xu You didn’t talk back at all, merely humming in agreement.
“Also, don’t carry things on your own in the future. I am your…” Song Zhi stumbled for a good while before blurting out an identity: “…best friend! In the future, whatever happens, you have to discuss it with me, understood?”
Xu You: “Mm.”
“Your parents and that guy surnamed Fu are not good people. Stay away from them in the future, got it? You are not allowed to meet them alone again. If you absolutely must meet them, you have to bring me along.”
Xu You: “Mm.”
Song Zhi wanted to say more, but she couldn’t bring herself to continue.
She pulled the car over to the curb and stopped. Tears began to fall from her eyes like strings of broken pearls, throwing Xu You into a state of panic.
Unfamiliarly, she patted Song Zhi’s back and apologized in a low voice, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t cry.”
Song Zhi ignored her, turning her body to one side, unwilling to let her touch her. Her voice carried a crying tone. “Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? You didn’t tell me anything, and you didn’t reply to my messages for hours.”
“I was so scared of what they might do to you.”
“Sister always makes me worry.”
Xu You felt as though her heart was being fiercely squeezed by something. She wanted to pull Song Zhi over to face her.
Song Zhi weakly struggled twice at first, but in the end, she reluctantly turned around. She averted her gaze, looking like she didn’t want to see her.
Xu You attempted to wipe away the tears from the corner of her eyes. Her movements were gentle, and her tone carried a rare panic and helplessness. “Stop being angry with me, alright?”
With red eyes, Song Zhi remained unwilling to speak.
To Xu You, it felt as though a century had passed before Song Zhi finally spoke up. “In the future, you have to tell me everything.”
“Mm.”
“You’re not allowed to hide things from me.”
“Mm, I won’t hide them.”
Song Zhi glanced at her. Xu You looked haggard right now, her eyes heavy and drowsy, and her forehead still bore fine traces of sweat.
She had been very angry initially, but when she saw Xu You in this state, all the questions she wanted to ask got stuck in her throat.
She muttered a sentence: “Get out of the car.”
It was only at this moment that Xu You realized they had already arrived at the hospital.