Running for Him

Through the towel, Pu Yu's fingertips felt the cold dampness in his hair, and the way his body stiffened for an instant.

She did not dare linger. After a few hasty swipes, she pulled her hands away.

"You... you should dry it some more yourself."

Yuan Su watched her flushed cheeks, his Adam's apple shifting slightly. In the end, he merely murmured, "Mm."

When Li Suhua came over with the second bowl of ginger soup, she did not notice that subtle moment. She only reminded him, "Change out of those wet clothes as soon as you get home, and dry yourself off. Don't go to bed chilled."

"I know," Yuan Su replied quietly.

Only after watching him finish the second bowl of ginger soup did the grandmother and granddaughter let him leave.

As Yuan Su reached the doorway, Pu Yu suddenly remembered something and blurted out in a fluster, "Oh, your raincoat-"

"Keep it on," he said without turning around, his voice carrying through the easing rain. "Just give it back tomorrow."

Pu Yu stood beneath the eaves, watching his figure disappear through the doorway.

Behind her, Li Suhua sighed and muttered, "That boy's as stubborn as a mule. What good will two bowls of ginger soup do? Who knows if he'll even take any medicine..."

Hearing that, Pu Yu felt the guilt in her heart continue to grow.

"Yu, come help me clean up the inner room."

"Coming, Grandma."

The grandmother and granddaughter worked for nearly two hours.

They scooped the standing water off the floor basin by basin, then went over the wet floor repeatedly with a dry mop.

By the time everything was in order, the sky had begun to pale with dawn.

The downpour had finally stopped, leaving only the steady drip of water from the eaves.

Pu Yu barely slept. After a quick wash, she changed into a dry school uniform.

"Go buy yourself something to eat at the end of the alley." Li Suhua wiped her hands and pressed five yuan into hers. "We'll get someone to look at the roof once the weather clears."

"Okay, Grandma." Pu Yu nodded, shouldered her schoolbag, and hurried out.

As she passed Yuan Su's doorway, her steps faltered.

The wooden door was shut, as quiet as ever.

After a moment's hesitation, Pu Yu stepped forward and knocked softly.

"Yuan Su?"

There was no answer.

She knocked again, a little harder. "Yuan Su, are... are you all right?"

Still, no one answered.

Yuan Su usually got up very early. Sometimes, to pick up supplies ahead of time or finish urgent repairs, he would leave before dawn. That was also why he often slept with his head on his desk at school.

For him, school was a haven where he could briefly catch his breath.

At least there, he could catch up on sleep and listen to lessons without having to deal with those debts.

Pu Yu waited a little longer, but there was still no answer. She wondered whether he had already gone to the repair shop.

Only when she was almost out of time did she turn and head for school.

First period was Chinese.

The seat beside her was empty.

Second period was English. It was still empty.

Third period, fourth period... even by the afternoon physics class, he had not come.

Looking at that empty desk, Pu Yu felt unsettled all day. Several times, she wrote on the wrong line while taking notes, and when a teacher called on her to answer a question, she was slow to respond.

"Yu, what's wrong with you today?"

During the break, Xu Suiran ran over from the third row to check on her, a little honey bun still in her hand and her brows tightly furrowed. "You look really pale. Are you sick?"

Pu Yu forced a smile and shook her head. "I'm not sick."

"Then what's wrong?" Xu Suiran offered her the bun, asking worriedly, "You look like your mind's somewhere else."

Pu Yu had no appetite. She handed the little bun back to Xu Suiran and said softly, "There was a downpour last night, and the roof of our old house leaked. We spent half the night dealing with it. I probably just didn't sleep well."

"What? The roof leaked?"

At that, Xu Suiran stopped eating her bun, her eyes widening. "Was it bad? Is it fixed now? A leak in an old house can be serious!"

"We've covered it with a tarp for now. It's not leaking anymore."

"But that won't do. A tarp is only a temporary fix."

Xu Suiran frowned and immediately said, "How about this? I'll talk to my dad when I get home. My uncle's a bricklayer-he builds houses for people. My dad's learned a thing or two from him. I could ask them to come take a look tomorrow?"

Warmth spread through Pu Yu's heart. "Thank you, Suisui, but Grandma said we need a clear day before any work can start. Once the weather gets better, I'll ask her."

"Okay, but make sure you tell me."

Still worried, Xu Suiran reminded her, "It's just you and Grandma Li at home. Some of the heavy work is hard for you two, so don't try to handle everything yourselves."

"Mm, I know."

The bell rang for class.

Pu Yu's gaze drifted involuntarily toward the empty seat beside her again.

She had Grandma, Suisui, and neighbors she could turn to for help.

But what about Yuan Su?

That boy who had climbed up and down in the pouring rain yesterday, who had been soaked through and still tried to refuse a towel and ginger soup-who did he have?

He had no one...

Everyone even went out of their way to avoid him...

Once that thought surfaced, it grew like weeds, impossible to suppress.

She endured until the last class of the afternoon.

Outside the window, the sky began to darken again, as though another rainstorm were brewing.

Pu Yu could no longer sit still.

She closed the book she had been unable to focus on, shouldered her schoolbag, and went to the teachers' office.

Cheng Siyi was grading assignments. When she looked up and saw Pu Yu, she paused in surprise.

The girl was usually quiet, with a gentle smile on her face, but today she was terribly pale and looked exhausted.

"Teacher Cheng, I'd like to ask for leave from evening study."

Cheng Siyi set down her red pen, her voice gentle. "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

"Mm... I want to buy some medicine, then go home." Pu Yu lowered her eyes, not daring to meet her teacher's gaze.

Cheng Siyi did not press her. She promptly signed the leave slip. "Go on. The temperature's been dropping sharply lately, and there's a lot of flu going around. Take care of yourself."

She handed over the slip, then added, "Be careful on your way home."

"Thank you, Teacher!"

Pu Yu clutched the thin leave slip as though it were a ticket to another world, jogging all the way down the school's tree-lined path.

Dusk closed in around the campus, and the last echoes of the dismissal bell had yet to fade.

She left the little clusters of students in the corridors behind her. Their indistinct conversations and laughter seemed distant and unreal, as though separated from her by a curtain of water.

It was as though the whole world held only the sound of the wind and her increasingly hurried breaths.

Suddenly, Pu Yu understood the answer in her heart.

Yuan Su's world, where no one ever cared to look, was not truly empty.

At least at this moment.

She was running for him.