The Unreturnable Refrigerator - Chapter 19
Chapter 19: Birthday Wish
Lu Yin lay on Sheng Xiali’s bed, staring at the ceiling.
The day had been a series of heart-stopping twists and turns, and she never expected to end up lying on Sheng Xiali’s bed, with Sheng Xiali’s pillow and blanket.
Thinking about this, Lu Yin pulled the blanket over her mouth to hide her smile, and gave a gentle sniff.
It didn’t really smell like anything.
Sheng Xiali didn’t wear perfume, and she only used a bar of soap to wash her clothes. The body wash Lu Yin had used earlier was also a very ordinary, unscented kind.
But Lu Yin felt that the bed had a very comforting smell.
She defined this smell as Sheng Xiali’s smell.
This was great. She actually met Sheng Xiali. She had thought the day was a disaster.
But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, a “calm after the storm.” All of Lu Yin’s previous gloom was blown away by the old fan in the dorm room that night.
Lu Yin rolled over with the blanket, trying to laugh silently, her shoulders shaking.
But soon, she rolled back, and her smile slowly faded.
It seemed that Sheng Xiali hadn’t asked her what had happened after she met her.
A girl like her crying at a bus stop late at night, wasn’t she at all curious about what had happened?
Lu Yin tightened her grip on the blanket. Was she unconcerned about the situation, or was she just not interested in her as a person?
In reality, if Sheng Xiali had asked, she wouldn’t have known what to say…
Her family situation wasn’t something that could be explained in a few words.
The events of today, to put it simply, were just a family fight on her birthday. If she had told Sheng Xiali, she would probably think she was being dramatic, that such a small thing was worth running away from home over.
For some reason, Lu Yin felt this was highly likely.
It was just like in the past. It wasn’t that she hadn’t told her friends about her pain, but what she considered “pain” wasn’t a big deal in many people’s eyes.
Some people had even said she didn’t know how good she had it, that with her privileged background and no financial worries, she had the luxury of being here, crying for attention.
She remembered her high school desk-mate who once said that only people like her, who didn’t have to worry about money, had the free time to care about emotional pain. A person like her, who had to go to the restaurant to help wash dishes after school, had no time to be sad about these things. In that time, she’d rather just do more practice problems.
For a moment, Lu Yin didn’t know who was more miserable.
But thanks to her desk-mate’s words, in high school, Lu Yin would directly say her studies were too demanding and refuse Lu Huiying’s calls to complain. When she was sad, she did practice problems. When she was happy, she also did practice problems. When she was free, she did practice problems.
By doing so, she actually managed to get into Qing University.
This was great. Lu Yin now thought that she was lucky to have worked so hard back then. Otherwise, she might never have met Sheng Xiali.
Lu Yin used to not believe in the old-fashioned idea of love at first sight. She thought it was, at most, an infatuation with someone’s looks.
Now she felt, wasn’t that infatuation at first sight a form of love at first sight?
It was like the first time she saw Sheng Xiali, she felt that she was very special, so special that every time she went in and out of the dorm building and saw the camphor tree in front, she would be reminded of Sheng Xiali’s ponytail swaying as she walked past with her backpack that day.
That’s how falling for someone is. Once it starts, it’s hard to stop. When she found out Sheng Xiali had also chosen the volleyball class, she thought she might have a chance to get to know her better.
But it wasn’t until the end of the semester that she finally managed to talk to her. Lu Yin didn’t know if she had pretended to not know how to play volleyball for a whole year to the point that she even believed it herself.
In front of Sheng Xiali, she really did seem to have forgotten how to play. So, to this day, Sheng Xiali probably didn’t know or notice.
Lu Yin hid in the blanket and smiled secretly. She had put in so much effort, but unfortunately, after the volleyball class, she didn’t get a chance to see Sheng Xiali again.
Even though they were at the same school and in the same dorm building, she never ran into this person again when getting water, doing laundry, or going in and out of the dorm.
Also, because of the volleyball class, Song Xinlei and she had a tacit agreement that they were not on good terms. Song Xinlei no longer brought Sheng Xiali back to the dorm. She even went to the balcony to talk to Sheng Xiali on the phone, as if Lu Yin would eavesdrop.
She actually did…
Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear anything.
After that, summer vacation started. She went to Licheng and only came back for this birthday banquet.
Birthday!
Lu Yin came out from under the blanket, lit up her phone, and saw that there were three minutes left until her birthday was over!
Lu Yin sat up a little and leaned on the bed railing to look down.
Sheng Xiali had told Lu Yin earlier that she had some things to do and told her to go to sleep first. Under the warm yellow light, Sheng Xiali was busy writing and drawing something, looking very serious.
Lu Yin looked away, lay back on the bed, and watched the time on her phone. There was one minute left until midnight. Should she tell Sheng Xiali that it was her birthday?
Lu Yin really wanted to hear her say “Happy Birthday.”
But, let’s just forget it.
Lu Yin quietly closed her eyes and made her birthday wish in the last minute of her 20th birthday.
She wanted Sheng Xiali.
…
The next day, Lu Yin woke up to the sound of Sheng Xiali getting up.
Her movements were very light, but Lu Yin had changed locations and hadn’t found enough of a sense of security yet. It was like the first two days of summer vacation when she first went to Licheng. She was the same then, any small noise could wake her up.
Sheng Xiali was a little surprised to see her awake. After they made eye contact, she hesitated and said, “Morning.”
When Lu Yin came to her senses, Sheng Xiali had already gotten out of bed and gone into the washroom.
Lu Yin was awake, but it took her a while to get her brain working and remember everything from yesterday. She was in Sheng Xiali’s dorm room.
She looked at the neatly folded blanket and bed cover on the opposite bed. Sheng Xiali had actually slept on the wooden board all night.
Lu Yin felt a little bad. The bed was so hard…
She quickly got out of bed and followed her into the washroom: “Morning. Why didn’t you sleep on the bed last night? Was my sleeping position bad and I took up the whole bed? You could have woken me up.”
Sheng Xiali was brushing her teeth and looked at Lu Yin in the mirror. She looked a lot more haggard than the last time she had seen her. Her eyes were still a little swollen, probably from crying yesterday, and her bangs were sticking up on her forehead.
Her sleeping position was indeed not great…
When she had finished her lesson preparation last night, Lu Yin was already asleep, lying face down and buried in her pillow.
But it wasn’t too bad. She was lying down neatly and even left her half the bed…
Sheng Xiali spit out the foam in her mouth and looked at Lu Yin. She didn’t have any extra toiletries to give her, and she hadn’t expected to pick someone up and bring them back one day.
They could share a towel, but not a toothbrush.
“I don’t have an extra toothbrush,” Sheng Xiali said. “There’s hot water, you can wash your face.”
Lu Yin nodded slowly: “It’s okay, I didn’t brush my teeth last night either.”
Sheng Xiali’s steps toward the door stopped. She had forgotten…
She turned to look at her, and she was smiling quite happily.
“I’m going out soon.”
“I’ll go with you.”
After Sheng Xiali spoke, Lu Yin sensitively felt that the other person didn’t want her to stay longer, so she spoke up proactively.
Sheng Xiali thought “going out together” meant walking to the bus stop together, or at most, taking the same bus to different places.
She hadn’t expected Lu Yin to follow her all the way to the movie theater where she worked.
Sheng Xiali had just changed into her uniform and made the first batch of popcorn when Lu Yin, who hadn’t brushed her teeth that morning, came over with a big smile and asked for an extra-large bucket.
“You—”
Sheng Xiali hesitated after she spoke. She wanted to ask her why she wasn’t going home, but then she remembered last night’s events.
Although she didn’t know what had happened, it probably wasn’t anything happy.
She actually didn’t want to get involved. Her time was very limited, and in that limited time, she had to balance her studies and earn enough money for tuition and living expenses.
Her circumstances didn’t allow her to waste time on these irrelevant matters.
Besides, Lu Yin didn’t seem to be lacking in people who cared about her.
Lu Yin picked a caramel-coated popcorn and put it in her mouth. She felt a sweet explosion of flavor in her mouth. She looked at Sheng Xiali, who had stopped talking after speaking, and tilted her head.
“What’s wrong?”
Sheng Xiali looked away and tidied the counter: “Nothing.”
Lu Yin was confused. What was wrong with this person? She was about to say something but then stopped.
Lu Yin chewed on her popcorn. It was still early, and there weren’t many people in the movie theater, so no one was buying popcorn. She looked at the person who was busy tidying the counter.
Sheng Xiali was wearing the movie theater uniform, a very ordinary black uniform, but she wore it with a special flair.
Fortunately, there was a red apron, which reduced the specialness and brought Sheng Xiali back into the world.
Lu Yin liked a more down-to-earth Sheng Xiali. It was too hard to pursue someone who was too cold.
“Oh, right, what time do you have your lunch break?” Lu Yin asked casually while chewing on her popcorn.
Sheng Xiali looked up at Lu Yin and finally asked, “Aren’t you going home?”
Lu Yin smiled: “It’s still early.”
Sheng Xiali breathed a sigh of relief. From the sound of it, she was still going to go back.
“My lunch break is at twelve, and it’s half an hour.”
“Ah, that’s so short.” Lu Yin was a little surprised and slowed down her pace of stuffing popcorn into her mouth.
Sheng Xiali didn’t respond. This young lady clearly had no experience with working.
Perhaps it was because of Lu Yin’s influence, but she bought an extra-large bucket and stood in front of the popcorn stand, eating with relish, which soon attracted new customers.
Seeing someone come to buy popcorn, Lu Yin consciously moved to the side, and then kept moving further back as more and more people came.
Lu Yin chewed on her popcorn, thinking that maybe Sheng Xiali’s popcorn was especially delicious.
She looked at Sheng Xiali, who was busy and had no time to talk to her, and then looked at how far away Sheng Xiali’s break was. Lu Yin looked at the movie schedule and simply chose a movie with a suitable time and bought a ticket.
After dealing with waves of customers, Sheng Xiali saw that Lu Yin was no longer standing where she had been. She looked around and saw Lu Yin walking past the ticket checker with her popcorn bucket.
She was so fast. Sheng Xiali didn’t even have time to ask what she had meant earlier.
She had asked about her lunch break. Could it be that she wanted to eat lunch with her?
They had a work meal.
Lu Yin had actually forgotten to ask about this. When she came to find Sheng Xiali at her break time, she found out that she had a meal to eat.
Lu Yin quickly went to a burger joint, got a burger to go, and ate lunch with Sheng Xiali in the stairwell behind the movie theater.
“Oh, right, I left something in your dorm.”
Lu Yin looked at Sheng Xiali, who was eating her lunch box while she was eating her burger. She ate quickly but not uncivilly, and there was a healing sense of her eating seriously.
Lu Yin smiled. A lover’s eyes see beauty, but even beauty couldn’t compare to her Sheng Xiali.
Sheng Xiali looked at Lu Yin’s eyes, which were filled with a little too much of a smile, and hesitated. She took the key out of her pocket and handed it to Lu Yin.
“When you leave, just put the key on the door frame.”
Lu Yin reached out and took it. There was no keychain on the key, but it had a red string tied to it.
A very ordinary, fifty-cent red string.
Lu Yin immediately untied the red string and tied it on her hand. She shook the key and smiled: “Okay.”
Sheng Xiali looked at Lu Yin’s smile, which was a little too bright, and felt relieved when she agreed.
The trouble was over. That was good.
But that sense of relief was replaced by a bad feeling when she returned to the dorm that night and saw the light on inside.
After feeling the door frame and not finding the key, Sheng Xiali realized that she had been relieved too soon.
She hesitated and knocked on the door. The door was opened from the inside.
“You’re back.”