Love the house and its crow.1
In the bedroom, Yu Luo finished browsing the message her manager had sent half an hour ago, then clicked into Weibo and saw the topic that was firmly occupying the number one spot on the trending list.
Her skin grew hot and flushed.
It turned out that all her careful thoughts about pretending to be drunk were visible at a single glance to Qi Song. That person had simply chosen to play along without a word.
Only at the very end did she expose her, arriving gracefully late with a revelation that was light and airy, yet exceptionally powerful, striking her speechless in an instant.
It was simply insidiously mischievous.
For someone who had always been honest and obedient to suddenly pull a stunt like this, Yu Luo was completely unprepared.
And so, a moment ago, she had been at a loss for what to do with her hands and feet, ultimately only able to shoo the person out, having been embarrassed into anger.
Outside the door, Qi Song leaned against the wall, unable to suppress the curve rising at the corners of her lips.
Her eyes, which were always clear and bright in front of Yu Luo, were now deep and profound, a murky desire surging with the fluctuations of her heart.
They had always been very intimate over the years. As the only person in each other’s world they cared for and relied on, they nourished each other’s lonely souls with unreserved love and concern.
She had seen Yu Luo lazing in bed, not wanting to go for a morning run, her messy, long curly hair and drowsy, sleepy eyes peeking out from the covers as she pitifully pleaded, “Can we go tomorrow instead?”
She had also seen Yu Luo walking out of the airport, glamorous and radiant, her cool, clear eyes and brows flowing with a peerless style and grace, that made everything around her suddenly lose its color. Then, amidst the fervent shouts of her fans, she would subtly meet the eyes of her, who had come to pick her up.
She had seen almost every side of Yu Luo, except for tonight’s.
Restrained and tormented by unspeakable emotions, pretending to be drunk to trick her into giving care and affection. The instant the lights came on, the bashful shyness in her eyes that she hadn’t had time to retract, and the way her face turned a dripping crimson after being caught off guard, looking embarrassed and helpless.
All of this was a kind of vividness she had never touched upon before.
The more Qi Song thought about it, the more her heart itched with anticipation. She stood by Yu Luo’s door, unable to move her feet. In the end, she simply squatted down in the corner, wrapped her arms around her legs, and carefully, preciously savored every detail of the evening.
So when Yu Luo came out of her room to get a drink of water, she felt like she had been tripped by some small animal.
Her heart nearly leaped out of her chest in fright. Just as she was about to muster the courage to get a good look, she saw the “small animal” fleeing into the wilderness back to its bedroom.
With a ‘smack’, the door across the hall closed.
“…” Yu Luo blinked.
On the last day of the holiday, Qi Song was unwilling to waste it and got up early to prepare breakfast for Yu Luo.
The braised fish that someone had forgotten to eat yesterday because her mind was elsewhere, she had made a fresh portion again today.
When Yu Luo got up, the two of them tacitly avoided mentioning last night’s “small animal tripping incident.”
Yu Luo was no longer embarrassed either, calmly asking her, “What are you planning to do today?”
“Stick to Jiejie, of course,” Qi Song said, her eyes curving at her. “Just like before.”
This was a response to Yu Luo’s complaint last night that she “wasn’t as clingy as before.”
Yu Luo fell silent for a moment, the tips of her ears quietly turning a little red.
Although a certain layer of window paper2 was already half-torn, out of consideration for their current situation, their interactions on the surface were no different from before.
After the meal, Qi Song invited Yu Luo to her room, saying she had something to give her.
Yu Luo normally almost never entered Qi Song’s room, fully respecting the young woman’s privacy. At this moment, she looked around with some curiosity, finally stopping in front of the bookshelf.
“Can I look at your books?” Yu Luo asked.
“Jiejie can look at anything of mine as she pleases.”
Yu Luo’s lips curved slightly as her gaze slowly swept over the books. Qi Song’s reading interests were very broad, covering all sorts of themes and genres. Books that she herself had sometimes casually recommended or mentioned, Qi Song had also earnestly bought and read them all.
Her gaze finally settled on 《Norwegian Wood》3.
Yu Luo pulled out the book, flipping through it as she recalled, “Back when I was in junior high, I borrowed this book from the school library.”
At that time, the internet was far from as developed as it is now, and much information was obtained from books and newspapers.
Her younger self had been drawn to the desolate yet lush forest on the cover, and from that, she fell in love with the book’s title.
“I thought this book would describe the local customs and scenery of Norway, telling a story that happened deep in the forest.”
With this preconceived expectation and curiosity, she read the entire book carefully, only to discover that it had nothing to do with Norway at all. In the end, she could only guess that the author used “Norwegian Wood” as the title not as a literal summary, but to borrow its atmosphere and artistic conception.
And that misunderstanding, along with the disappointment of her desire to explore a Norwegian forest coming to nothing, had, by a strange twist of fate, made her genuinely more curious about Norway.
“Back then, I found books in the library that truly introduced Norway’s customs and scenery, found more photos besides the one on that cover, and also learned about the aurora,” Yu Luo said. “It seems I fell in love with the country because of that.”
To her at that time, Norway was far too out of reach.
A poor family background, malicious rumors spread by people at school because of her beauty, and the warmth from her mother that she could never seem to get. The more dire her reality was, the more sacred the distant Norway became in her heart, almost becoming a kind of spiritual anchor for a period of time.
—I have to grow up strong, have to escape this predicament, and go see the aurora in Norway.
And then later… being injected with the drug, differentiating, being abandoned by her mother. All of this occupied her world, and so Norway was squeezed out. It wasn’t until she saw this book today that she suddenly remembered.
Yu Luo’s telling of the story was a bit vague, hastily skipping over the sad parts, sharing only the pure expectations of her youth with Qi Song.
But Qi Song gazed at the woman’s back, silently filling in the details in her mind that Yu Luo had concealed.
A fog rose in her heart, eventually spreading to her eyes, and a shimmer of moisture began to well up.
“Let’s go to Norway together in the future, Jiejie.”
“I’ll take you to see the aurora.”
The young woman’s clear, gentle voice sounded, suffused with a careful solemnity, as if trying to pick back up the youthful thoughts she herself had forgotten.
Yu Luo didn’t answer immediately.
She closed 《Norwegian Wood》, her fingertips gently stroking the slightly coarse texture of the cover.
Finally, she let out a soft laugh. “I’ll remember that. You’d better not lie to me.”
Qi Song hugged her from behind, nuzzling the side of her face like a clingy large dog. “I’ll remember it more deeply than Jiejie.”
She ended up nuzzling until Yu Luo’s ears were a dripping crimson.
Although they had often hugged intimately before, after Yu Luo realized Qi Song was growing up, she had intentionally or unintentionally tried to reduce this kind of contact. And after last night, their interactions had inevitably taken on a certain atmosphere of an unspoken understanding of the heart, making it even harder for Yu Luo to convince herself that this was just an affectionate touch.
Qi Song was not yet an adult.
A sense of morality and responsibility welled up. She gently peeled the young woman off of her and said softly, in a reserved and bashful tone:
“You grow up first.”
This was a single statement with a double meaning. On the surface, it was saying, “Take me to Norway after you’ve grown up,” but she believed Qi Song would understand the other layer of meaning.
As expected, she saw Qi Song startle slightly, then give a docile “Oh,” and stand properly in front of her. Probably because she was a little reluctant in her heart, she defended herself in a small voice:
“Everyone always says you can do anything once you’re an adult. But people clearly don’t suddenly mature on their 18th birthday.”
Yu Luo raised her eyebrows. “That’s reasonable. Even being an adult doesn’t mean you’re mature, so let’s wait a few more years—”
“I didn’t say anything!” Qi Song interrupted, the healthy pink on her cheeks deepening with anxiety.
Yu Luo found her amusement impossible to suppress.
She raised a hand to ruffle the young woman’s hair, chuckling lightly. “You said you had something for me just now, what is it?”
Qi Song pulled her to sit down and started rummaging through some things on her desk.
During this, a thin piece of paper accidentally floated down. Yu Luo picked it up casually and saw that, apart from some scratch work for a math problem, the paper was filled with her own name.
At first, it was in Qi Song’s handwriting, but then it gradually morphed into her own.
Qi Song’s gaze swept over, and her heart trembled as she snatched the paper from Yu Luo’s hand.
“You can write in my style?” Yu Luo said curiously.
“No.” Qi Song clutched the paper tightly, her cheeks slightly hot, and admitted honestly, “But I can do your signature.”
She had practiced her handwriting since she was little, and it had already formed a stable style that she was quite satisfied with, so she didn’t plan to change it. Yu Luo’s handwriting was also very beautiful, and out of her love for the other, she would occasionally copy it. By now, she could write the two characters for “Yu Luo” almost identically.
Yu Luo’s gaze was gentle, and she said nothing.
Qi Song thus skipped over the topic and, on her own accord, presented some of the small things she had prepared for Yu Luo:
“Jiejie likes gardenias, and it just so happens I stumbled upon a shop on my way to the library last week… Oh, and this, I thought of it one day when it was raining… And this, it’s from the handicrafts class a while ago…”
Third-year high school students were swamped with their studies, bearing immense psychological and physical pressure with almost no room to breathe. And it seemed Qi Song had given every little bit of her spare mood and leisure to her.
The young woman’s every word was full of her being on her mind. Seeing small flowers and blades of grass made her think of her, she worried about her whenever it rained or thundered, and when the school opened a handicrafts class to let the third-year students relax, she had earnestly and meticulously sculpted a lazy and cute little cat. Now, she asked her expectantly, “Look, doesn’t it look just like you?”
Yu Luo stared blankly at the little white cat in Qi Song’s palm, with a naivete so endearing it could be held4, and as her heart pounded, she suddenly felt that the version of herself who had been tossing and turning in anguish on the sofa yesterday was very foolish.
Coming home after a month-long business trip, she had felt aggrieved, thinking Qi Song didn’t miss her. But everything Qi Song was presenting now showed that this person’s mind was clearly full of her.
She had adopted a small dog drenched by the rain, and the small dog had unreservedly given her a full measure of the purest, most ardent love, yet she was still worried the small dog would leave with someone else.
In a sense, she seemed to be…
Very slow.
“—Jiejie is too slow.”
The young woman’s face was flushed crimson from drink, her eyes moist, as she criticized her for the first time.
Yu Luo was pinching Qi Song’s chin, carefully examining the condition of this little drunkard who had been secretly drinking. So sudden she was unable to guard against it, she was scolded, and her eyelashes trembled slightly.
Then she heard Qi Song continue, “She definitely likes you. I could tell from one look in her eyes.”
“And you even brought her back to our home to drink…” Qi Song accused while whimpering.
The young woman’s heartbroken gaze struck Yu Luo’s chest, making it feel both sore and numb. Helplessly, she wiped away the tears for her while saying in a soft voice, “Do you want to hear your Jiejie’s explanation?”
Qi Song shut her mouth, staring at her pitifully with a pair of reddened eyes.
Yu Luo was recently filming a new drama, and her co-star, Wen Shu5, was a senior at the drama academy.
The cast was full of old drama bones6, so it was natural for the two young people of the same age to interact. But Yu Luo was very guarded against the world and didn’t like to get too close to people, so her relationship with Wen Shu was limited to discussing the script and acting.
Bringing Wen Shu home tonight was purely an accident—after work wrapped up, she was driving home alone when she received a call from Wen Shu, who said she thought she was being followed on her way back to school and was very scared.
Yu Luo should have wondered why Wen Shu chose to ask her for help, or worried that she might get drawn into danger herself.
But she looked out the car window at the cold, deep night, and her mind filled with the memory of being cornered by several people at the school gate many years ago, of her mother’s indifferent attitude after she expressed her fear at home, and of being forcefully pressed against the wall that night and injected with the liquid that brought her countless agonies. And later, when she reported it to the police, the blatant look in the eyes of the person taking her statement.
Thinking of those moments of her own past helplessness and despair, she couldn’t just sit and watch without doing anything.
She picked Wen Shu up from the roadside and brought her home, because the security in her residential complex was excellent.
Afterward, when Wen Shu said her fear was hard to dispel and she wanted to drink to calm down, Yu Luo granted all her requests.
But whether it was the result of her efforts to hide it or because she was naturally big-hearted, the worry on Wen Shu’s face soon vanished, and she chatted with her about acting as cheerfully as usual, laughing out loud at the interesting parts. Just a moment ago, she had even left reluctantly after receiving several calls from her family urging her to go back—someone had come to pick her up and take her home.
It wasn’t that Yu Luo hadn’t sensed something, but she was rather unwilling to think too deeply about it.
She had a kind of decadent habituation to her kindness being trampled on.
After hearing all this, Qi Song fell silent for a moment.
She was normally extremely honest with Yu Luo, and after getting drunk, she was even more direct and reckless.
But at this moment, she couldn’t bring herself to say something like, “She was lying to you about being followed to gain your sympathy and care.”
More than being jealous, Qi Song was more unwilling to see Yu Luo get hurt for her kindness being exploited.
In the end, it turned from Yu Luo comforting her to her comforting Yu Luo.
She reached out and hugged the woman, gently pressing her cheek against the other’s, and said softly:
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been drinking. Jiejie didn’t do anything wrong either. You’re the best person in the world. If you hadn’t shown me kindness back then, there wouldn’t be the happy Qi Song of today. So, don’t be sad, it’s those people who are too despicable…”
Yu Luo had been drenched in the rain herself, so she never hesitated to offer an umbrella to others. It was just a pity that some of the people who took the umbrella either pushed her to the ground in return or were merely coveting the proximity it brought.
An absurd and pitiful trampling.
For once, Yu Luo didn’t push away Qi Song’s embrace. Instead, she relaxed and nestled dependently into the young woman’s faintly fragrant neck, closing her eyes.
“It’s okay…” she finally let out a relieved laugh. “Besides, I’m always under your umbrella now.”
She was no longer the girl from years ago who wanted to share her bread with a homeless child on the street, only to have it snatched away with a nasty attitude, causing her to cry lonely tears.
Because there would be someone who would squat down next to her, pat her on the back and say:
“Don’t be sad, you’re the kindest girl in the world. And I’m going to share all of my bread with you…”
After the 100-day oath ceremony for the college entrance exams,7 time seemed to flow even faster.
Qi Song spent every day memorizing texts or grinding through practice questions8. Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner according to her final sprint plan. Her grades were excellent and stable, and she had already decided to follow in Yu Luo’s footsteps and get into B University. The only regret was that by the time she enrolled, Yu Luo would have already graduated.
Although she had set her target university, she hadn’t yet decided on a future major. Apart from Yu Luo, her hobbies all seemed to be mere pastimes; there was no field she was particularly interested in.
During evening self-study, after easily finishing the math test paper at hand, Qi Song checked off the task on her schedule. The tip of her pen on the scratch paper briefly became aimless.
Doodling, wandering freely, by the time she came back to her senses, the two characters for “Yu Luo” had appeared on the paper.
Jiejie.
Qi Song gazed at the name, her expression softening, and she couldn’t help but gently curve her lips into a smile.
The tip of her pen continued to stroke the paper, and she wrote down the words “Norway” and “aurora.”
When her Jiejie was once in a mire, she had yearned for Norway so much. Therefore, when she took her there to have fun in the future, it absolutely could not be a hasty trip.
It would be best to bestow it with some kind of beautiful meaning, so that whenever Yu Luo thought of “Norway,” her mind would no longer be filled with the distant, extravagant hope from her youth of bitter struggle, but with tangible romance and happiness.
Qi Song tapped her chin with the tip of her pen, and two words suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Her eyelashes trembled because of it, and her heart slammed heavily against her chest, throbbing with heat.
She slowly raised a hand, rubbing her now-scalding ears, and finally couldn’t even resist covering her face, as if to hide that shyness and desire—
…Proposing under the aurora in Norway, promising a lifetime to each other, is inherently romantic.
This plan was a bit too distant and greedy, but she had already made her decision instantly.
The head teacher, who had come to the classroom to check on the evening self-study session, suddenly saw her best student bury her face on her desk, revealing only a pair of bright red ears.
Ten minutes later, Qi Song was given permission by her head teacher to leave evening self-study early.
Yu Luo, who was in close contact with the head teacher and concerned about Qi Song’s academic life, soon learned that Qi Song was “not feeling well.”
She was on leave today and had already parked her car by the sycamore tree, waiting.
As the young woman appeared in her line of sight, her upright posture and elegant gait showed no trace of the pitiful state of “face flushed red, resting on the desk” that the head teacher had described.
As always, Qi Song first stopped by her side of the car door, waiting for her to press the button for the window.
Yu Luo reached her hand out, ruffling the head of the person who was leaning down towards her, and asked with concern, “What happened? Your teacher said you were sick.”
“I’m not, the teacher misunderstood.” Qi Song nuzzled the woman’s palm, feeling a little embarrassed because of the plan she had just made.
In the end, she didn’t explain much, only saying, “Jiejie will know in the future.”
Yu Luo raised an eyebrow lightly but didn’t press further about her rare little secret.
The two hadn’t seen each other for a while, and they each shared what had been going on in their recent lives.
Qi Song’s life was truly having nothing good to speak of, either memorizing texts or doing practice questions.
Hearing her say this, Yu Luo couldn’t help but chuckle. “That sounds so pitiful. After the college entrance exams are over, Jiejie will take you out to have fun.”
“Okay.” Qi Song’s eyes instantly became sparkling bright.
“Why don’t you ask me where we’re going?” Yu Luo was captivated by the ardent yet clear light in her eyes, finding it somewhat hard to look away.
Qi Song said, as was only right and proper, “Anyway, as long as I’m with Jiejie, I’ll be happy no matter where we go. But… it can’t be Norway!”
Yu Luo subconsciously asked, “Why?”
“We agreed that I would take you to Norway in the future.” Amidst her unmentionable little secret thoughts, Qi Song reminded her seriously.
“Mm, I remember.” Yu Luo chuckled lightly. As she started the car, she said, “I plan to take you to Y City.”
“The place where Jiejie grew up?” Qi Song reacted immediately.
“Right.” Yu Luo said, “That small southern city is actually very beautiful, and it’s not hot in the summer. I want to take you to see it.”
Her tone was calm, offering only this explanation, not mentioning a single word about how that place carried her most painful past.
Qi Song looked at the woman’s profile, which appeared profound in the night, and her heart furrowed slightly. She considerately changed the subject, “What has Jiejie been busy with lately?”
“Reading scripts.”
She said, “The script I’m currently reading is my favorite one since I started acting… I really wish I could join the cast tomorrow, I can’t wait.”
Chatting about something she loved, the end of Yu Luo’s sentences clearly became lighter.
While waiting at a long red light, she turned her head to tell Qi Song about the script. The light cast from the large screen of a building on the street outlined her delicate features, dancing across the rare, youthful excitement in her eyes.
She talked about the character, discussed the plot, worrying on one hand that she couldn’t interpret it perfectly, while being eager to try on the other.
At the end of her speech, she couldn’t help but laugh softly, saying with some embarrassment, “Do you think I’m talking too much? But, I really do like it.”
At times like this, Yu Luo was vivid, dazzling, and full of vigor.
Qi Song watched her, lost in a daze.
The car drove through the night. A cool breeze slipped in through the half-open window, stirring the ends of her hair, but it didn’t disturb her gaze.
Many years later, a reporter would ask, “Excuse me, Teacher Qi, how did you choose to walk the path of acting?”
This kind of question was easy to answer, and there was a standard, can’t-go-wrong answer: A childhood aspiration, a growing passion, and in the end, when the water arrives, a channel is formed9.
But Qi Song answered—
“I am very superficial.”
She lowered her eyes and smiled lightly. “I fell in love with acting simply because I saw the sparkling light in a person’s eyes when she mentioned it, and so I began to love the house and its crow.”
The author has something to say:
The matter concerning “Wen Shu” in this chapter was written about in the first half of Chapter 41. Darlings who have forgotten can go back and review it~ Also, the Norway aurora was written about in Chapters 71 and 72.
Currently reflecting on the fact that because the updates are too slow, everyone has probably forgotten the previous plot points or foreshadowing TT
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