Of course, she didn't feel any regret or anything; she had never even considered going there.
Turning the handle, the door opened a crack instantly.
Ji Yuning pushed open the door and entered. Although the room was large, it was easy to tell whether anyone was inside.
There was no one there.
There was an open can of Coke on a table in the distance, with water droplets still glistening on the bottle.
Aunt Fang: [I'm in the toilet.]
Ji Yuning looked at the other door in the room, which was tightly closed.
Aunt Fang: [Could you please get me a sanitary napkin from the drawer of the cabinet against the wall?]
Aunt Fang: [Confused.jpg]
Ji Yuning read the contents twice and finally confirmed that Fang Bai had asked her to get sanitary napkins.
Ji Yuning couldn't help but speak up: "You can use paper first..."
A muffled voice came from the restroom: "We're out of toilet paper. Could you get me a roll?"
"..." Ji Yuning finally gave in, "Mm."
When she got to the cabinet, Ji Yuning didn't know which drawer Fang Bai was referring to.
Glancing towards the bathroom, Ji Yuning couldn't bring herself to ask the question.
Ji Yuning could only squat down and prepare to pull them out one by one to take a look.
There are three drawers in total.
The first layer isn't it, pull open the second layer...
Ji Yuning looked at the leather whip coiled up in the drawer, and all her emotions were extinguished in an instant.
The whip looked all too familiar.
Every inch of her skin had memorized its size, deeply felt its texture, and knew the heat of its friction against her skin when it hit her.
The bruises on my back that were almost fading suddenly started to hurt again.
The thing used to hit her was so treasured and kept in the drawer...
Everything is understood without words.
Ji Yuning closed the drawer, then pulled out the last one and took out the things Fang Bai needed.
Reaching the bathroom, Ji Yuning knocked twice on the door with her fingers, her voice indifferent: "I'm opening the door."
The person inside: "Okay."
Ji Yuning opened the door just a crack, then reached her hand through the gap.
Ji Yuning gave her the whole bag.
As Fang Bai accepted it, he said gratefully, "Thank you."
At this moment, Ji Yuning was her savior.
Fang Bai never expected that just two sips of iced cola would cause his stomach to hurt, and then…
A nonchalant "No need" came from outside the door, followed by the sound of the bathroom door closing.
Fang Bai came out of the restroom and took out a whole pack of sanitary napkins.
After she put the things in the drawer, as she stood up, Fang Bai suddenly recalled the memory of the original owner opening the second drawer.
The fleeting image brought Fang Bai an unspeakable horror.
Fang Bai stared at the second drawer, which was tightly sealed, making it impossible to tell whether it had been opened.
Fang Bai slowly extended his hand.
When the drawer was opened, the mass inside caught Fang Bai's eye.
Only two words came to Fang Bai's mind: It's over.
All three of them were good students, and their homework was very easy. When they encountered difficulties, they would just think about it on their own and there was no communication or asking questions.
Before Fang Bai went downstairs, the dining table was quiet.
When they heard the sound of shoes scraping against the floor from the stairs, the three students doing their homework were distracted for a few seconds.
He Ziyan was the first to shift her attention from her textbook to Fang Bai. She acted like a proper guest and asked softly, "Aunt Fang, what were you doing?"
Fang Bai stopped and subconsciously glanced at Ji Yuning.
The girl kept her head down, doing her homework, not even glancing at him.
Fang Bai was on tenterhooks, hoping that Ji Yuning hadn't opened the second drawer.
Composing himself, Fang Bai replied, "I changed my clothes."
He Ziyan looked closely and saw that Fang Bai had changed into a dress that reached below her knees. The dress was very loose and covered up Fang Bai's alluring figure.
Fang Bai walked to the dining table, sat in the main seat, and rested his chin on his hand, gazing at the textbooks spread out on the table. The densely packed contents on them were both familiar and unfamiliar.
Fang Bai asked, "Have you finished your homework?"
He Ziyan pouted: "The teacher assigned too many assignments, how can we finish them in such a short time?"
Fang Bai coughed lightly, "Where's Xiao Ning?"
The person whose name was called stopped pretending not to know Fang Bai's existence, and the pen in their hand stopped on the paper. "No."
Although he received a reply from Ji Yuning, it did not mean that Ji Yuning had not seen the whip, and Fang Bai's caution did not ease.
Fang Bai paused for a few seconds, then smelled the aroma of food coming from the kitchen and said, "Then stop writing for now, put it away and wait for dinner."
As soon as she finished speaking, Wu Mei came out of the kitchen and said that dinner would be served immediately.
The group had no choice but to stop writing and put away the things on the table.
During the meal, apart from He Ziyan exchanging a few words with Fang Bai and Fang Bai responding to them, Mu Xuerou, being socially awkward, remained silent, and Ji Yuning ate in silence, seemingly to comply with her purpose of eating.
The meal was finished quickly.
He Ziyan's driver was waiting outside the villa early in the morning. After He Ziyan was picked up by the driver, Fang Bai asked Uncle Li to take Mu Xuerou home.
Wu Mei was tidying up in the kitchen.
For a moment, only Fang Bai and Ji Yuning remained in the once lively living room.
Chapter 19
In the living room without air conditioning, the sweltering heat of a summer evening reaches its peak.
But the two people in the living room weren't warm at all; they were cold from the inside out.
On the sofa, Fang Bai held a strawberry in her hand, but her attention was not on the strawberry, but on Ji Yuning, who was standing by the dining table packing her schoolbag.
Fang Bai wondered if it was just his imagination, but Ji Yuning seemed to have grown taller. He thought about it and realized it had only been a week since he last saw her. Did children develop so quickly these days? Or was he just imagining things?
Fang Bai stared at it again.
Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that Ji Yuning's slender body seemed to be developing in a healthier direction. Although her elbows were still the same as before, her back view did not resemble that of Lin Daiyu, a frail and delicate flower branch, but rather that of a sapling growing vigorously in the warm season.
Ji Yuning wanted to ignore the gaze behind her, but it was too intense, as if it were burning a hole in her back.
Unable to ignore it, Ji Yuning could only put aside her thoughts and let Fang Bai stare at her.
A gust of wind suddenly blew in through the window, calming Ji Yuning's slightly agitated emotions.
But Fang Bai did not.
Fang Bai had something on her mind. She really wanted to go up to Ji Yuning and ask her if she had seen the whip, but the reason that Fang Bai didn't go up and ask was: even if Ji Yuning admitted that she saw it, so what?
Fang Bai couldn't possibly allow Ji Yuning to whip her as if she were to beg for forgiveness.
So if she were to ask, she would only tear open Ji Yuning's still unhealed wounds, and the pain would only deepen Ji Yuning's memory of what the original owner had done.
For Fang Bai, this is not a good thing.
Ji Yuning picked up her schoolbag and turned to go upstairs.
Fang Bai gently touched the bottom of the strawberry with his fingers and asked softly, "Do you want to go upstairs to do your homework?"
Ji Yuning: "Mm."
"Bring up the strawberries, as dessert." With that, Fang Bai got up from the sofa, picked up the plate, and made as if to offer it to Ji Yuning.
Ji Yuning took two steps toward the stairs, her refusal clear: "No need, I'm full."
"Alright then." Fang Bai stopped awkwardly and said, "You should study hard."
Ji Yuning went upstairs, leaving behind a curt "Mm".
Fang Bai only ate the strawberry after Ji Yuning went upstairs and he could no longer hear her footsteps.
Nine o'clock in the evening.
attic.
Fang Bai, holding a milk in one hand and a leather whip in the other, hesitated as he approached Ji Yuning's door.
Fang Bai hesitated because she was wondering whether the main purpose should be to deliver milk and the secondary purpose should be to talk about the whip, or the main purpose should be to talk about the whip and the secondary purpose should be to deliver milk.
“…”
They all seem quite important.
Regardless of whether Ji Yuning saw the whip or not, Fang Bai did, which means that this matter cannot be treated as if it never happened.
She still came to apologize, albeit in a different form.
Having made up his mind, Fang Bai coughed to clear his throat, then knocked on the door three times with the hand that held the whip.