After Being Scummed – Chapter 51

Ah, You Childish Ghost!

Yin Bai was a person of strong action. Once her mind was made up, she had Zhang Yu book the tickets. After packing her luggage, she flew to Tibet the very next morning.

In the Tibet of November, the cold wind howled, chilling one to the bone. Of course, that wasn’t the worst of it. The most formidable challenge on this vast Western Plateau, where the sky hung low, was not just the unbearable wind, but also the thin concentration of oxygen that tormented Yin Bai to the point of near death.

            

After disembarking from the plane, Yin Bai followed the security and guide team that Zhang Yu had arranged at the last minute, taking a car to the small town in the sea of forests where Zuo Jingyou was staying.

As it turned out, not long after getting in the car, Yin Bai was defeated by the high plateau, due to a combination of carsickness and various other factors. She felt her head ache and burn, her chest tightened, and discomfort all over. She lay in the back seat like a dead fish, leaning against the window and moaning in misery.

Sitting beside her, Zhang Yu looked at her half-dead appearance, worriedly reaching out to feel her forehead. She frowned and said, “Boss, are you running a fever?”

            

While checking Yin Bai’s forehead, Zhang Yu sighed, “Boss, why in the middle of winter would you run to this godforsaken place where you can’t see a soul and not even birds lay eggs.”

“You’re afraid of the cold and your body is so delicate. Isn’t coming here just asking for suffering?”

“Teacher Zuo is clearly coming back next month, so why couldn’t you sit still? Why did you have to come chasing after her so eagerly?”

            

Leaning against the window, Yin Bai glared weakly at Zhang Yu and whined, “I enjoy the beautiful winter scenery of the plateau, can’t I?”

“Fine, fine.” Zhang Yu nodded, retracting her hand. She sighed again, “You don’t have a fever, so how did you end up so wiped out?”

Just as Zhang Yu was puzzled, the female tour guide in the back row passed her a thermos and offered a concerned reminder, “I think Chairman Yin is suffering from altitude sickness​¹. A sip of something hot and some oxygen should make her feel a bit better.”

            

Zhang Yu was stunned. While taking the hot water from the guide, she turned to look at Yin Bai in shock. “No way, boss! We’re only at an altitude of three thousand meters, the starting point for entering Tibet! And you’re already knocked out!”

Yin Bai felt miserable all over. Her grayish-blue eyes shot a fierce glare as she growled at Zhang Yu like a milk lion​², “You… You shut up. You’re talking so loud, be careful you don’t run out of oxygen!”

“OK… OK…” Zhang Yu poured Yin Bai a cup of hot water, brought it to her lips, and fed it to her, coaxing her like a doting mother. “Be a good girl and drink up. Calm down, stop being fierce with me.”

            

Yin Bai no longer had the strength to growl. She glanced at her and lowered her head, taking small sips of the hot water. The warmth seemed to dispel the chill churning in her stomach, making her feel slightly better.

After feeding her a good amount of hot water, Zhang Yu then unpacked the vehicle’s oxygen supply, placed the oxygen mask over Yin Bai’s face, and said with a worried expression, “Oh, hurry and take a few breaths. Your little face is turning pale.”

Yin Bai glared at her, but before she could say anything, with a hiss, her face was flooded with rich oxygen.

            

Yin Bai instinctively took a deep breath. The highly saturated oxygen, mixed with other gases, was inhaled through her nasal cavity into her lungs and absorbed into her bloodstream. It quickly cleared the groggy mind that had been muddled by hypoxia.

To her surprise, Yin Bai found that the tightness in the back of her head was gone, her body no longer ached, and the painful sensation, like a ghost holding her down​³, had significantly eased.

She leaned back in her seat, eyes wide as she looked at Zhang Yu, pointing at the mask on her face and whimpering with joy.

            

Zhang Yu raised a long eyebrow and said cheerfully, “It works, right? If it works, BOSS, then take a few more deep breaths!”

For the rest of the journey, Yin Bai sat leaning against the car seat, hugging the oxygen supply and inhaling greedily.

The car traveled along the national highway, and the closer it got to the sea of forests, the lower the temperature dropped.

            

The majestic blue sky and fluffy white clouds gradually receded as the forests along the road became tinged with the bleak colors of late autumn. Yellow and red leaves mingled with the evergreen trees, as if a great dyeing palette had been splashed across the pure western sky, painting the surrounding landscape like an oil painting of breathtaking beauty.

Deeper and higher up, a corner of winter’s snow was already visible, making one feel a bone-deep chill, as if stranded in a world of ice and snow with nowhere to hide, even within the warmth of the car.

Hugging her oxygen, Yin Bai gazed at the desolate yet magnificent scenery outside the window and couldn’t help but shiver.

            

From her many years of travel experience, she knew that the more beautiful the scenery, the sparser the population, the harsher the living environment, and the greater the inconvenience.

She inhaled her oxygen and frowned, thinking, Why did Zuo Jingyou come here? If she wanted to gather inspiration, she could have gone to a more prosperous and bustling area of Tibet. Why did she have to come here with Xu Ruofeng?

Could this be true love?

            

Ah, that makes sense. Zuo Jingyou is the kind of woman who could enter into marriage after having only been in love once. In some ways, she really is quite simple.

Her good friend might just be a love-struck fool.

Hugging the oxygen tank, Yin Bai was extremely irritable, her heart aching fiercely, her mind filled with all sorts of strange thoughts. She muttered and grumbled, either complaining or criticizing; in short, not a single good word escaped her lips.

            

Sitting beside her, Zhang Yu watched her lean against the window, one moment muttering about Zuo Jingyou, the next moment complaining about Xu Ruofeng, and silently scooted back a step.

Eek… The boss seems very dangerous right now, just like a resentful wife confined to her chambers​⁴.

The car drove for a long time. By the afternoon, Yin Bai finally arrived at the small town guesthouse where Zuo Jingyou was staying. Thanks to the fortune of having sent flowers before, she had managed to ask Yang Yi about Zuo Jingyou’s itinerary this time without alerting Zuo Jingyou herself.

            

As Yin Bai got out of the car, hugging her oxygen tank and leaning on a cane, she was still thinking that Zuo Jingyou usually finished work at six in the afternoon. It was only four now, so there was no way Zuo Jingyou would be back yet.

She still had plenty of time to wipe her face and change into a clean set of clothes—if the tour guide hadn’t said that people with altitude sickness shouldn’t bathe, Yin Bai would have prepared for a bath.

But it didn’t matter if she couldn’t bathe; after a quick wipe-down, she would still be a pristine and pure fairy.

            

As she thought this, Yin Bai hobbled toward the house on her cane. Zhang Yu, the guide, and the others helped with the luggage, bustling around her.

Just as Yin Bai laboriously moved to the doorway, a car coming from the mountains pulled up in front of the guesthouse. The door opened, and a black-haired woman dressed in traditional Tibetan attire jumped out.

The woman looked up, and upon seeing Yin Bai at the entrance, her face showed an expression of incredible surprise. “Yin Bai!”

            

Hearing that voice, Yin Bai shuddered. Leaning on her cane, she quickly turned and her eyes immediately found the woman walking toward her.

The woman wore a saffron-red, long-sleeved robe, with a colorful, magnificent belt tied at her waist. Her forehead was adorned with intricate, splendid head ornaments, and around her neck hung a magnificent, glittering, large topaz necklace. She looked incredibly elegant and dashing, graceful and poised.

Lifting the hem of her long robe, the woman ran toward Yin Bai like a nimble bird. Standing at the doorway, Yin Bai watched as her waterfall of black hair drew a captivating arc with her movement, and her heart danced along with her fluttering hair, a chaotic mess.

            

Ah, it’s Zuo Jingyou…

As Yin Bai was thinking this, Zuo Jingyou had already arrived in front of her, her eyes filled with a smile. “What are you doing here?”

Yin Bai stared at the brilliant smile on her face, her heart pounding like a startled fawn. Her friend is just too good-looking today!

            

What am I to do, she looks especially beautiful in ethnic clothing too?

Yin Bai raised her hand, pressed the oxygen mask to her face, and took a sharp breath.

Hiss… My heart is beating even faster, what should I do!

            

Standing before her, Zuo Jingyou watched this series of actions and couldn’t help but chuckle. She reached out, took hold of the hand Yin Bai was using to grip her cane, and said with a smile, “What’s wrong with you? The altitude isn’t that high here. Why are you already on oxygen?”

Yin Bai lowered the oxygen tank, looked down at Zuo Jingyou, and said very seriously, “I have altitude sickness.”

Zuo Jingyou was dumbfounded for a moment, then laughed. “We’re not even at three thousand meters… and we’re surrounded by a sea of forests… and you’ve already got altitude sickness?”

            

Yin Bai nodded, sniffled, and said with righteous conviction, “I’m taller than all of you, so it’s perfectly normal that I can’t get enough oxygen up here!”

Fine, fine, you have a point.

Zuo Jingyou didn’t argue the matter further. Instead, she held Yin Bai’s hand and said cheerfully, “Why did you come here if you get altitude sickness? Did you come to see me?”

            

Yin Bai’s lips puckered, a little aggrieved. “I didn’t know I would get altitude sickness before I came.”

Seeing her like this, Zuo Jingyou couldn’t resist raising a hand to pat her head, coaxing her softly, “Alright, alright. Now that you’re here, you’ll get used to it.”

Yin Bai nodded and said in firm agreement, “That’s true. As long as I have my oxygen tank, I’ll be fine.”

            

After saying that, Yin Bai sighed at Zuo Jingyou. “You wouldn’t hang out with me, so I could only come find you. We haven’t seen each other in over half a month, haven’t you missed me at all, my friend?”

Do friends miss each other this much?

Zuo Jingyou couldn’t be bothered to debate this point with her. The moment she saw Yin Bai, she understood that in Yin Bai’s heart, she was also something different.

            

Beyond being a friend, there was an indescribable, unspoken difference.

Zuo Jingyou held her hand, her eyes gazing at her gently. “Alright, alright, it’s my fault for not being able to accompany you. Yin Bai, I’m very happy that you were willing to come find me.”

Zuo Jingyou looked up, a smile lifting the corners of her lips. “Since we haven’t seen each other in so long, how about a hug for our long-awaited reunion?”

            

Yin Bai froze for a moment. In that instant, Zuo Jingyou raised her arms and wrapped them around her.

As her body was enveloped in a warm embrace, Yin Bai’s mind went blank with a buzz. It seemed that in that moment, the cold wind, the noisy crowd, everything began to fade away.

In this world, the only thing she could feel was the warmth of this embrace.

            

So this was what a hug was—such a powerful gesture. She felt that all the grievances and anxieties accumulated over so many days, the bitterness and cold that had clung to her during the long journey, had vanished in an instant without a trace…

Her world… in her entire world, only Zuo Jingyou remained.

Yin Bai couldn’t help but extend the arm holding the oxygen tank and loosely wrap it around Zuo Jingyou’s waist.

            

The two embraced at the doorway, oblivious to the strange looks from everyone else, holding each other tightly like a couple passionately in love after a long separation.

Just then, Xu Ruofeng, who had jumped out of the car, finally finished dealing with the trunk. She emerged from behind it, holding a camera, and looked up to see Zuo Jingyou being held in someone’s arms. She froze.

Huh… what’s this situation? Could it be that her junior sister is in a relationship?

            

With this thought, Xu Ruofeng called out in Zuo Jingyou’s direction, “Jingyou!”

Hearing the voice, Yin Bai, who was hugging Zuo Jingyou, quickly looked up. Upon seeing Xu Ruofeng leaning against the car holding a camera, Yin Bai’s eyes widened instantly. She gave Zuo Jingyou’s waist a firm squeeze, pressing the other woman’s entire body tightly against her own.

Hmph! This one is mine! Mine!

            

Resting in Yin Bai’s embrace, Zuo Jingyou felt the force around her waist. She lowered her head to rest on Yin Bai’s shoulder, lightly bit her lip, and couldn’t help but let out a low laugh.

What a childish ghost… Just like a child, so full of possessiveness.

As she thought this, Zuo Jingyou rested her chin on Yin Bai’s shoulder, tightened her hold around her waist, and let out a soft sigh.

            

Perhaps it’s precisely because she is so childish, so pure, that she feels precious, making it impossible to let go.

Things are already like this, how could she possibly think of taking a step back and letting this person go?

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LP: Re-translated on June 23, 2025

            

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