Crossing the Clouds and Sky to Fall in Love with You - Chapter 13

It wasn’t until I felt the texture of a tissue that I realized I was crying, and Sister Tao’s brow was deeply furrowed. When had the always free-spirited her ever shown such an expression?

“I…” She held me with one arm, offering me silent support and comfort. I really wanted to speak, but didn’t know where to begin. “I…”

“Don’t rush, speak slowly, I’m here listening.”

I covered my mouth, letting out sobs that sounded alien even to me, collapsing into Sister Tao’s embrace. She didn’t hurry me, didn’t show the slightest impatience. She simply let me cry, the only thing she did for me was to continuously and gently pat my back.

Like comforting a child who had lost something important.

I cried desperately like a child, until I don’t know how long passed, until my eyes hurt as if they couldn’t produce any more tears. When I finally spoke, my voice was already hoarse.

“My… my boyfriend and I broke up…”

She nodded sympathetically but calmly. “Mhm, I know. I guessed this might have been what broke you when you were downstairs so heartbroken you almost fainted.” She gazed at me tenderly, causing me to involuntarily lean closer to her. Her right hand reached around and hugged me, letting me rest in the hollow of her shoulder.

“It’s already eight o’clock,” she breathed softly. “Do you want anything to eat?”

I shook my head. “There’s… another thing.”

“What is it?”

“He cheated.” The hand around my waist paused slightly. “And, I took a test this morning… I’m pregnant with his child.”

Sister Tao was truly shocked this time. She gasped, frozen and unable to move.

“Xiaoning…”

I choked back tears, yet wanted to laugh. “I’m so stupid, aren’t I? I believed him so much… believed in love… that as long as we loved each other, everything would be fine, we’d get through it together… But! Do you know what he told me when he heard I was pregnant?”

Her expression turned very serious, even filled with anger. “What did he say?”

“Get. Rid. Of. It.” I blinked, squeezing out tears while also smiling. “Just like that… just like that! Get rid of it… Haha… get rid of it…”

“Don’t talk about it anymore, Xiaoning, don’t think about that person.” Sister Tao’s fingers buried themselves in my hair, her slightly rough hand pressing on my neck. She held me, so warm, so warm… “Lie down… I know!”

I was placed on the bed like a baby. She came to take off my coat and pulled out another tissue to wipe the tears from my cheeks. “Sleep some more if you want to. If you’re hungry, I’ll go buy you something. You can stay here until you’ve completely calmed down… Don’t go back yet, okay?”

“But… that would be too much trouble…”

Sister Tao shook her head firmly and without room for refusal. “Not troublesome at all. If you can’t handle the shock and do something regrettable, wouldn’t that be more troublesome? I don’t want that for you, not even a tiny possibility.”

I actually hadn’t thought of that… Even though my heart hurt so much, even though I felt like my entire self was incomplete, I still hadn’t thought of it… But Sister Tao was worried about me.

At least there was someone who worried about me.

I ended up eating a little something. Sister Tao made oatmeal and even joked self-deprecatingly about her poor cooking skills… I’m actually the same.

Before eleven, Sister Tao took a hot shower and then got into bed, ready for sleep. The room was originally equipped with a double bed, but there was only one pillow. She casually found a knitted cardigan, folded it into a bundle to use as a pillow, and we shared the same blanket. Just like that, without any extra conversation or negotiation, as if it were entirely natural.

I closed my eyes. Occasionally, I could hear laughter drifting up from downstairs; many students rented rooms here, and it wasn’t surprising for university students to still be awake at two in the morning. Perhaps because I had slept so much earlier, I now felt rather sleepless. I perked up my ears and soon heard the shallow breathing of Sister Tao next to me.

And I also heard my phone vibrating.

Were many people trying to reach me?

Not wanting to disturb Sister Tao at all, I quietly went to the restroom, then crawled to my bag and retrieved my phone. There were only four or five missed calls, but a ton of personal messages.

Everyone I suspected was right: Man-Faced Fish, and Lu Hanjun, except for Ke Yiting, who knew nothing. I saw Yiting’s message first. She asked if I wanted to have dinner together, a message from five hours ago—too late.

As I scrolled, I caught a glimpse of a message from three minutes ago.

Lu Hanjun: ‘I’m at your door, can I see you?’

Door? Wouldn’t that mean… I looked toward the front door in the darkness. Just thinking about him standing outside brought the pain from earlier that day surging back. Before three seconds passed, the phone rang; it was him.

“Xiaoning.” Sister Tao had woken up at some point. A series of knocks came from outside the door; he was knocking on my door. “Someone’s looking for you?”

I couldn’t clearly see Sister Tao, but judging from her tone, I guessed her nerves were tense. “It’s him.” I crawled back to the bed and showed her the still-flashing phone screen.

She only glanced at it, as if the call was completely unworthy of attention. “Do you want to respond? If you do, I’ll go out and chase him away.”

Chase him away? “I don’t want to trouble you, besides… I’m the one who really needs to face him.”

“Don’t worry about that with me,” she pursed her lips. I guessed she was a little angry.

“I’m sorry… I think he’ll leave soon. After all, he has a legitimate girlfriend with him!”

The phone stopped ringing. I snuggled against Sister Tao, lying down as if we were playing hide-and-seek in the dark, waiting for the ghost to leave. I waited for about five more minutes before the outside finally returned to silence.

“Looks like someone came to chase him away,” she speculated, also lying down. “Can’t sleep? Or did the phone wake you?”

I had actually gone to the restroom first. “Can’t sleep… I slept all day, after all.”

“I usually don’t sleep this early either, I was just afraid my activity would disturb you.”

I turned towards her. She seemed to sense it and reached out to turn on the bedside lamp. The sudden warm yellow light stung my eyes, but once I got used to it, the first thing I saw was Sister Tao’s smile.

Her smile somehow made me feel very relaxed.

“This… feels so strange!” My voice still carried a bit of a nasal sound when I spoke, but it was the first sincere smile I’d had since returning from Plato.

“How is it strange?”

“Well… my room is right across the hall, and we’ve never been roommates before, but suddenly we’re sleeping together.”

“We’re both girls, what does it matter? If you were a guy, no matter how much I sympathized, I’d send you back to sleep in your own place.”

I chuckled a few more times and shifted my position. Something around my neck slipped off, surprising me slightly.

“This…”

She noticed it too. “Guitar necklace?”

I reached out and clutched it, this thing I hadn’t taken off since he put it on me, this thing I once treasured…

With a determined resolve, I yanked it off!

The metal clasp behind my neck broke. The back of my neck hurt a little, but there was also a satisfying sense of finally being rid of it. I squeezed it in my hand, but didn’t know what to do with it.

“You don’t want it anymore?”

“Mhm, he gave it to me.” Uncontrollably, my eyes welled up again. I temporarily placed it on the bedside table.

Taking it off felt like a real ending. My heart held a trace of wistfulness, but also a great deal of easy relief.

Sister Tao came and held my hand. “What are you thinking about?”

“Actually, nothing much. All the crying that needed to be done is done… Ah, he has a lot of things to move out, including that guitar.” Maybe he came to move his things? Perhaps I should have asked Sister Tao to open the door for him just now, let him take his things, and get it over with.

“Have you two been together for a long time?” She moved closer to me. “I rarely hear you talk about him.”

“Because I’m always more curious about you! You’re a mysterious backpacker, coming and going freely without leaving a trace… except for the spare key you gave me.” I almost forgot to ask why she was willing to be so kind to me… whether it was leaving a key, picking me up downstairs, or unconditionally letting me sleep here.

My comment amused her. “What’s mysterious about it? It’s just work, travel, and then coming home to rest, that’s all.”

“Oh right, the mature handsome guy I saw downstairs today… Are you and he close, Sister Tao?”

She gave me a sideways glance. “You! You want to ask what his relationship is with me, right?” I stuck out my tongue sheepishly. “Calling him a mature handsome guy is very kind of you; he’s well into his forties… He’s a friend I knew from before. I got in touch with him for work purposes this time I came back. So, I guess friends and colleagues?”

“I thought he was a boyfriend…”

“You seem very concerned about whether or not I have a boyfriend?” She slanted her eyes, her clean brows slightly raised, giving her a strangely beautiful and cool appearance.

I scratched my head and openly admitted. “Because you’re so great, Sister Tao, so I’m naturally curious if you have a mysterious Mr. Right?”

She chuckled softly. Perhaps because she had just slept for a while, her low voice sounded different from usual, but equally pleasant.

“I won’t have a boyfriend.”

“Why?”

“Because… don’t be shocked when I tell you, okay?”

This only intensified my curiosity. My attention was now fully on her. “Mhm mhm! No matter what, I won’t be shocked!”

She bit her lip, her expression suddenly becoming a bit complicated. “I’m not interested in men.”

My eyes widened.

“I only like women… I’m a lesbian. Is that clear now?”

Sister Tao… likes women?

I suddenly had the illusion of being struck by lightning for the third time in one day.

This time it didn’t hurt, it was just a little numb.

I opened my eyes, and Sister Tao’s sleeping face was right in front of me.

Our hands were still clasped, and although it was just a friendly hand-holding, after learning Sister Tao’s secret, every physical touch felt different. Ha! It must be a psychological effect!

I let go of her hand and noticed it was raining outside.

The sky was gloomy and gray, just like my current mood.

My head felt much clearer after a night’s sleep, and the cold air on my skin and the cold water splashed on my face completely woke me up.

As soon as I stepped out, Sister Tao was already rubbing her eyes and getting up. “Morning.”

She seems to wake up easily? She was up just from me going to wash my face.

While she was getting ready, I checked my phone and chose to reply to Saya-xuejie’s message first. It quickly showed “read,” and Xuejie said she was terrified and kept apologizing to me… She had known about Lu Hanjun for a long time, but didn’t say anything, she probably assumed I knew to some extent, but the reality was completely beyond her expectation.

‘How do you plan to handle things with him?’

I stopped typing, and the thought of the baby in my belly brought another pang of pain. Xuejie probably didn’t know I was pregnant yet, and I don’t think Lu Hanjun would tell her.

‘I’m going to break up with him.’ That’s all I could reply. He can be with whoever he wants, I don’t care, and I don’t want to care.

“Are you negotiating with that person?” Turning around, Sister Tao had already tidied her hair and looked completely refreshed.

I shook my head. “It’s the xuejie who came to see me yesterday.”

She murmured “mhm” and opened her laptop, seemingly checking her email or social media.

“Xiaoning, I don’t know what you’re planning… Honestly, that person isn’t trustworthy. The moment he went on the show and said he didn’t have a girlfriend when he did, his credit score in my book was already failing. Where there’s one, there’ll be two. You’ll continue, continuously be hurt by his lies, not to mention he said such an awful thing to you.”

‘Get rid of it!’

I held my phone to my chest and took a deep, cold breath. “Mhm, Sister Tao, don’t worry, I won’t have any further contact with him. Even if he tries to win me back… I won’t accept it.”

She looked back. “What about the child?”

Instinctively, one hand pressed against my abdomen. Although I couldn’t feel it yet, the pregnancy might not have been just a day or two… How old is the baby now? If I have to decide on its future, I need to act immediately. The longer I delay, the fewer options I’ll have…

“I, I don’t know…” Considering my current situation and my relationship with Lu Hanjun, he won’t take any responsibility for this child, and I’m still just a university student. While my family’s financial situation isn’t an issue, forcing my parents to bear the scandal of their daughter having a child out of wedlock would be too sudden…

Sister Tao came to my side and waited a moment before saying, “Do you want to hear my advice?”