Goodbye
“Did you bring your cellphone?” As they were halfway down the mountain, approaching the agreed-upon meeting point, Song Yuhang suddenly remembered something and brought it up.
Lin Yan became alert, brushing off the hand that had rested on her shoulder and limping forward.
“No, I didn’t.”
Song Yuhang didn’t let her off the hook. Her hand, still wrapped around her waist, remained firm. She reached into her right pants pocket and retrieved her cellphone, running her hand from top to bottom along her waist.
Lin Yan’s teeth were nearly ground to bits. “Song Yuhang!”
She made a grab for it, but the person took a light step back, saying, “To prevent you from going MIA again, I think it’s better if we exchange phone numbers.”
Nobody remembers who said there was no need for that at the time.
Lin Yan really wanted to ask her, “Does your face hurt from those slaps?”
But Song Yuhang didn’t dwell on it. They weren’t close back then, and she simply found Lin Yan’s arrogant and annoying personality. However, as time passed, she discovered that Lin Yan could occasionally be quite cute, like now when she stubbornly tried to take something she knew she couldn’t have.
They exchanged a few more moves, and Lin Yan found herself trapped, panting heavily. She exclaimed, “Who the hell wants to save your phone number? Give it to me!”
As she gazed at the face right before her, redness creeping into the corners of her eyes out of frustration, Song Yuhang inexplicably felt a bit playful. She held the phone above her head, a hint of a smile at the corner of her lips.
“Come and get it yourself; once you get it, it’s yours.”
“I…” Lin Yan was so provoked that her blood boiled. Without thinking, she pounced, but to her surprise, her ankle seared with pain, and before she could leap off the ground, she tumbled down.
Song Yuhang acted quickly, catching her. Lin Yan fell into her arms, and the two of them stepped back a few paces, colliding with a tree.
Leaves fell all around them, and Lin Yan clung to her shoulder, this time genuinely in pain, her young face pallid.
Song Yuhang lifted a strand of hair that had fallen across her ear and asked, “Are you okay?”
Lin Yan raised her head, displaying a mixture of resentment and a hint of vulnerability. Her lips curved downward, and there was a touch of frustration, as if she wanted to cry but couldn’t, feeling helpless in the face of adversity.
Song Yuhang chuckled, but before she could revel in her victory for too long, a swift gust of wind signaled an incoming attack. Without thinking, she instinctively closed her eyes.
However, the slap that was just inches away stopped in its tracks. Lin Yan bit her lip, glanced at the bruise on Song Yuhang’s forehead and the marks on her face from the tree branches. She couldn’t bring herself to strike anymore.
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Her eyelashes were long, slightly disheveled from lack of care, trembling gently with each breath.
With every swallow of saliva, she would slightly purse her lips at the corner, and her Adam’s apple would move up and down.
Her sternocleidomastoid1 muscle looked attractive, accentuating her slender and strong neck.
Her lip color was paler than hers, but very plump, giving them a soft appearance.
Lin Yan blinked, her breathing slightly disarrayed. She quickly withdrew her hand from her and stepped away, not looking back. “Childish!”
Song Yuhang picked up the clothes that had fallen to the ground and followed. “Hey, wait for me. Aren’t you going to take your phone?”
Lin Yan yelled in the woods, “Forget it! I don’t need it! I have plenty!”
That’s what she said, but when they reached the meeting point, Song Yuhang still returned the phone to her. Lin Yan’s phone was brand new, and the number was freshly created, with only her name in the contacts.
For this minor detail, the officer’s lips curled slightly. “In the future, just press the ‘#’ key to reach me.”
Lin Yan rolled her eyes and snatched the phone back. “Who’s going to contact you? I’ll tell you, don’t bother looking for me either. I don’t have the time to deal with you. When I get back, I’ll delete your number.”
Song Yuhang didn’t mind and replied earnestly, “It’s okay; I’ll remember.”
The driver sitting in the front quietly lowered his sunglasses and observed them through the rearview mirror with a sidelong glance.
Veins throbbed on Lin Yan’s forehead as she exclaimed, “Song Yuhang, can’t you use that cleverness of yours elsewhere?! And why are you sitting in my car? Get out!”
Song Yuhang blinked innocently and replied, “It’s currently 2:30 in the morning, in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t hail a cab—”
Lin Yan was about to say, “I’ll call you a cab!”
But then she smiled slightly, revealing her canines, looking harmless. “Friendly advice: if we don’t leave soon, the police officers from the police station are already on their way.”
The driver pressed the accelerator and shifted gears, setting off. Lin Yan was still struggling, saying, “Did I ask you to drive?! Did I ask you to drive?! Get her out of the car!”
As soon as she finished speaking, she was pushed back into her seat. With a click, the seatbelt locked, restraining her tightly.
Song Yuhang supported her seatbelt with one hand, all the while smiling. “Stay seated, don’t stand up during the drive.”
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If the car windows hadn’t been soundproofed, Lin Yan’s furious curses would have startled the birds perched on the branches along the way.
* * *
The car drove all the way back to the sanatorium, passing by a speeding police car at the foot of the mountain.
Song Yuhang breathed a sigh of relief without showing it and checked the belongings of the two.
Collected evidence, check.
Lin Yan’s toolbox, check.
Fruit knife, check.
Her jacket, check.
Rope…
Her heart skipped a beat. Oh no, neither of them had worn gloves when they went down. The friction between their skin and the fibers would surely leave traces.
Lin Yan lazily leaned back in her chair and gave her a sidelong glance, a mocking smile playing on her lips. “You think I’d only arrange for one person to pick me up?”
Song Yuhang hesitated. Though impulsive, Lin Yan had indeed planned things meticulously. She had first disabled the power to paralyze the entire factory area, then used a universal electronic code breaker to bypass the airtight door lock. She had arranged two waves of people for backup, showing courage and cunning.
The only variable was herself.
As if sensing what she was thinking, Lin Yan turned her head and looked at the white walls outside the sanatorium. “But, if it weren’t for you, I really wouldn’t know how to come down from the third floor. I might have…”
“Miss, we’ve arrived.” The driver pressed the brake and parked smoothly by the roadside.
Song Yuhang had no idea there was such a place within the provincial city – a sanatorium nestled deep in the mountains, surrounded by hills and water, accessible only by a winding, narrow path.
With white walls and green tiles, the quaint eaves were hidden behind towering ancient trees. Surprisingly, the iron gate required dual verification through fingerprints and iris scanning. Here, antiquity seamlessly blended with modernity.
Several doctors in white coats rushed out, lacking any armbands or badges. Leading them was Lin Yan’s steward, who welcomed her from the car.
Her current condition didn’t allow her to walk on her own anymore. The steward gently helped her into a wheelchair.
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Song Yuhang also got out of the car, looking at her. She knew it was time to part ways. Her confinement period had ended, and she had to return to Jiangcheng for her reporting the next day. Meanwhile, Lin Yan needed proper rest for at least two to three months.
During their time apart, she had been anxious, but now, for some reason, seeing Lin Yan again made time feel like it had passed incredibly quickly.
Lin Yan’s warmth still lingered in her embrace, but the faint scent was inevitably fading away.
At this very moment, as Song Yuhang watched her retreating figure, an unexpected strong sense of reluctance welled up within her. She wished for this night to last just a little bit longer.
The ever-reserved person didn’t utter a word to disturb the moment. She simply watched silently as Lin Yan drifted farther away, remaining unmoved even as tumultuous emotions roiled within her.
To everyone’s surprise, the wheelchair came to a halt. Lin Yan turned around amid the lush forest, and her features seemed shrouded in a mist.
She said, “Since you’re here, why don’t you come in for an examination?”
* * *
Footnotes
- each of a pair of long muscles that connect the sternum, clavicle, and mastoid process of the temporal bone and serve to turn and nod the head.