Weakness Trap - Chapter 13

Yu Qingluan couldn’t quite articulate what she felt when that splash of color first caught her eye.

Love at first sight might be too strong a term.

But as Yu Qingluan rowed her boat past from a short distance away, she set down her oar and stood at the bow, gazing at Yu Lingxue with a hint of infatuation in her eyes.

Her boat happened to drift past Yu Lingxue.

Yu Lingxue gently touched a willow leaf but did not pluck it. Instead, she tilted her head and watched Yu Qingluan pass by.

She even offered her a smile.

Her eyes and brows took on the delicate shape of willow leaves.

For the first time ever, Yu Qingluan docked her boat by the shore and turned to look at Yu Lingxue.

As if certain that Yu Lingxue would come over to speak to her.

And this ethereal woman, like a phantom from the past or an immortal who shouldn’t exist, did indeed walk up to her.

“Do you have a moment?” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her eyelashes fluttering in the slanting sunlight.

She spoke to Yu Qingluan with an air of familiarity, as if they had known each other for ages.

Yu Qingluan looked up, momentarily stunned.

She had half-expected Yu Lingxue not to speak the language of mortals.

Perhaps it wasn’t entirely Yu Qingluan’s fault for being so foolish.

In such a scene, anyone would feel as though they had stumbled into a fairyland.

The beauty who had sought her out seemed like an untouchable celestial being.

While she herself was nothing but mud, unworthy of being there.

But Yu Lingxue was not, after all, a flawless immortal.

With an easy familiarity, she stepped directly into Yu Qingluan’s boat.

“Could you give me a ride? Anywhere is fine.” Yu Lingxue shifted some items in the boat to make space and sat down.

In hindsight, the act felt somewhat presumptuous.

But at that moment, Yu Qingluan was too captivated by the beauty before her to think clearly. She rowed the boat, truly taking this stranger along with her.

She didn’t even dare to speak, afraid of disturbing the celestial being.

She simply lowered her head, trying to calm her racing heart.

Until the other person suddenly spoke up, holding her embroidery: “Honeysuckle, it grows in sparse woods, fragrant yet bitter. You must be a lonely person.”

Yu Qingluan was angered, jolting awake as if from a dream.

“Get out. Who said you could sit in my boat?” She picked up the oar and, without a second thought, chased Yu Lingxue back to the shore.

“Well then, goodbye, lonely little embroiderer.” Yu Lingxue took it in stride and bid Yu Qingluan farewell.

On her way back, Yu Qingluan was still fuming.

Embroidery was difficult to master and required intense focus. Her home was remote and quiet.

How could that be considered loneliness?

She simply had no choice but to be alone.

After all, few people could tolerate being friends with someone as slow-paced and embroidery obsessed as her.

Later, Yu Qingluan found a box of needles and thread in the boat.

The needles and thread Yu Lingxue had left behind.

In truth, that was the first gift they had ever exchanged.

To this day, Yu Qingluan had never told Yu Lingxue that she had received it.

In the entire drama performance, Yu Lingxue appeared for no more than two minutes. She had only five lines.

She perfectly captured the essence of a white moonlight figure. Even after the celebration ended, Yu Qingluan could still hear people discussing how they felt as though they, too, had gained a white moonlight from their school days.

“That was satisfying. What do you two think? Want to grab some late night snacks together?”

The president of the Embroidery Club had one arm slung over Xiang Yan’s shoulder and tried to drape the other over Yu Qingluan’s back, but Yu Qingluan dodged it.

“The performers are having a celebration banquet tonight. We provided the costumes surely we deserve one too, right?” the president clicked her tongue.

She was determined to gather the other club members for a proper get together sooner or later.

Yu Qingluan paused for a moment.

“Let me check.” That made sense. The performers should indeed have a celebration dinner.

So, would Yu Lingxue be able to come back and join her?

Why hadn’t she mentioned it to her?

Yu Qingluan’s mind was in slight disarray.

“I’ll ask my family too,” Xiang Yan said, seeing from her expression exactly what she was thinking and covering for her.

“Local students, huh,” the club president remarked with a sigh, leaning against the railing nearby and singing.

Yu Qingluan sent her message.

Almost simultaneously, she noticed a large crowd forming a circle on the other side of the performance stage.

They were slowly pushing their way out through the congestion.

The audience had already left. That group could only be the performers.

It could only be Yu Lingxue.

Yu Qingluan clenched her palm tightly, then hid her hand in her pants pocket.

She gripped the fabric of her pants until it wrinkled into a ball.

Xiang Yan gestured to her with his eyes, signaling her to go with the club president for late night snacks.

The president’s boisterous folk song echoed behind them, so loud it drowned out the surrounding noise.

Yu Qingluan’s heart was a tangled mess. She couldn’t see Yu Lingxue clearly, nor could she focus on her phone screen.

Her breathing grew rapid.

It had been two weeks since they last met,

Could it be, just this once?

She only asked for this one time.

Could she be prioritized, just a little?

Yu Qingluan felt as nervous as she had during the college entrance exams, dizzy and disoriented, seeing the world in a blur.

Just then, her phone vibrated.

Yu Qingluan’s hand loosened, and her phone fell to the ground.

She blinked, and beads of sweat as large as peas slid from her temples, tracing a path like tears along her eye sockets.

Xiang Yan picked up the phone for her.

“Look how scared you are. Don’t worry,” Xiang Yan exhaled, feeling a bit resentful toward Yu Lingxue.

She cast a distant, gloomy glance before irritably looking away.

Yu Qingluan crouched down, holding her phone steady.

There was only one sentence on the screen.

[Winter: How could they compare to you?]

Yu Qingluan, feeling faint, read the sentence ten times over.

Then she looked up and saw her own question.

[I heard you have a celebration banquet. Can you come be with me?]

She had foolishly asked just that one question.

And Yu Lingxue had agreed.

Yu Qingluan genuinely felt like crying.

She struggled to stand, and once again, Xiang Yan supported her.

“Have some backbone, will you?” Xiang Yan was truly exasperated.

Yu Qingluan had always been like this since childhood crying when she got what she wanted, and crying when she didn’t.

“Alright, don’t talk to me. Go find her. I’ll explain to the club president,” Xiang Yan couldn’t bear to watch any longer and simply pushed Yu Qingluan away.

Yu Qingluan covered her face and ran toward the spot where she had agreed to meet Yu Lingxue.

She was truly struggling to catch her breath.

Sitting on a bench, Yu Qingluan took deep breaths, calming herself for a while.

She looked up and saw countless stars dotting the sky.

So, there were stars tonight.

Tomorrow must be a sunny day.

Unfortunately.

When tomorrow arrived, Yu Qingluan dug out her plastic umbrella, shaking it three times before managing to open it. The joints had long since cracked, but fortunately, it was still usable.

Yu Qingluan boarded her boat and, holding the umbrella, drifted leisurely through the rain toward school.

Once on the boat, she couldn’t hold the umbrella. She switched to a raincoat, enveloping herself in thick mist, becoming an inconspicuous background in an ink-wash painting.

How she hated rainy days.

Yu Qingluan rowed across the Chu Yun River.

The pale ink-colored water looked gloomy, somewhat dirty, and aged.

Just like the raincoat she wore old and only possessing so-called rustic beauty in filtered photos.

Actually.

There were no classes today.

Why would she need to row to school on a weekend?

But by the time Yu Qingluan realized it, she had already set out.

Her mother hadn’t stopped her either.

Yu Qingluan had no choice but to paddle aimlessly, ceaselessly.

When her arms grew sore, she finally dropped the oar, leaving the boat in the pitch-black arch of the bridge. She wanted to hide in the ink-dark cabin.

There lay the gift she had intended to give Yu Lingxue yesterday.

Holding the packaging she had folded herself, Yu Qingluan sniffled.

She let out a breath.

Right now, she should have been at Yu Lingxue’s home.

She should have been holding Yu Lingxue.

They should have been lying on the same bed, under the same blanket.

Even with her eyes closed, her every breath would have carried Yu Lingxue’s scent.

Her skin would have been warmed by Yu Lingxue’s presence.

That was how it should have been.

Yu Qingluan opened her eyes, and tears still escaped, unbidden, from the corners.

Like a bead of sweat, they traced a path from the corner of her eye down to her chin.

But they refused to fall.

A soft sob echoed from the cabin.

Tears soaked the packaging she had so carefully folded.

Ruined, it could no longer be used.

Just yesterday morning, she had caressed that packaging, imagining Yu Lingxue’s expression upon receiving it, anticipating that embrace.

She had pictured it all so clearly.

Yu Lingxue would have thrown herself into her arms, wrapping her tightly around the waist, then the shoulders, the neck.

She would have whispered, “I’m so happy, I like you so much,” and kissed her cheek.

And in the end, without a doubt, it would have culminated in a fervent kiss.

A kiss awaited for two weeks more passionate than ever before.

Then Yu Lingxue would have clutched her collar, arching her back, abandoning all decorum.

She had it all planned out in her mind.

So why,

Why, in the end, had Yu Lingxue not come to see her?

Yesterday, Yu Qingluan had waited for a full hour and a half on that chair, coated in cheap paint that had mostly peeled away, leaving only rust.

She had counted the flickers of the fluorescent light a hundred times.

She had watched every student still jogging around campus.

She had even seen the legendary night owl runner return to the dorm.

Only then did Yu Lingxue’s message finally arrive on her phone.

By then, Yu Qingluan’s face was numb from the cold.

She opened it only one sentence from Yu Lingxue.

【Winter: Sorry, little bird, something came up suddenly. I didn’t have time to tell you earlier. I can’t meet tonight, You’ve probably already left, right? If not, hurry home. It’s getting colder, and it’s raining.】

A raindrop happened to land right in Yu Qingluan’s eye.

She kept her eyes open, blinking only after a full minute.

A tear, tainted, trickled down to the corner of her mouth.

It was salty.

That was her own tear.

And also the “colder, with rain” from Yu Lingxue’s message.