"What? You haven't gone yet? You can't hold it anymore?"
Lost in her sadness, the girl didn't respond to Lu Yuanqiu.
Her sobs were muffled and full of hurt. Lu Yuanqiu didn't know how many times she had cried like this before, forced to keep her voice down.
All he knew was that the soft, fragile body in his arms seemed liable to shatter at a touch, so he hardly dared tighten his arms around her. Yet Bai Qingxia's slender body pressed against him in a fiercely tight embrace.
Lu Yuanqiu could more or less guess that this might have been the first time in Bai Qingxia's life that she had found a pair of arms she could throw herself into without restraint when she was sad and desperate.
As for what he had just said to her...
Bai Qingxia might not have heard it, or she might not have understood the deeper meaning, taking it as nothing more than a simple attempt to comfort her.
Lu Yuanqiu didn't need her to understand.
There was only one thing he wanted to express.
With him here in this life, Bai Qingxia would never be bullied again, whether her adversary was another person or fate itself.
Lu Yuanqiu silently told himself that.
Perhaps this girl's existence was the very reason he had been reborn.
Gently patting her shoulder, Lu Yuanqiu raised his head and surveyed their surroundings.
There was no toilet in the broom closet. The floor was covered in flat white tiles, and the space measured less than two square meters, with only a few mops leaning in a corner.
Like the other stalls, it was open at the top. If they couldn't open the door, that might be their only way out.
But there was nothing around to stand on, and the partition was tall and thin. Climbing over it wouldn't be easy.
A toilet would have given him something to stand on, but unfortunately, there wasn't one.
As Lu Yuanqiu considered his options, something soft brushed his chin. Bai Qingxia had raised her head, and her sobs had grown much quieter.
Her nose red, the girl released him and retreated into the corner, sniffling.
She lowered her head and stole a glance at the broken pieces of the hair clip in her palm, then carefully closed her fingers around them again, holding her forearm against her chest. Her slightly disheveled black hair half concealed her pale face.
She seemed to have recovered a little, but her first reaction upon recovering was to shrink into a corner, like a wounded little animal instinctively searching for somewhere to hide...
"I'm sorry."
Standing in the corner, Bai Qingxia spoke to Lu Yuanqiu in a very quiet voice.
Huh? What was she apologizing for?
Lu Yuanqiu looked at her in surprise.
For hugging me so tightly just now?
Realizing what she meant, Lu Yuanqiu said, torn between laughter and exasperation, "What's there to apologize for? I hug the people around me when I'm upset too. Besides, I was the one who hugged you first."
The girl said nothing.
"Are you hungry?"
The moment Lu Yuanqiu asked, he wanted to slap himself across the mouth.
Asking that in a restroom was a real brainless move.
Bai Qingxia shook her head gently.
Then she raised her face, looking toward the door with reddened eyes. "Can't we get out?"
Lu Yuanqiu shrugged helplessly. "Yeah, it's locked from outside. But don't worry. We won't have to wait for someone to rescue us. We can get out ourselves."
They probably couldn't call for help anyway. There was likely no one outside.
It was lunchtime now, and there were probably only a handful of people left on the sports field. Who would come to the ground floor of the classroom building to use the restroom?
Besides, they couldn't call for help. No one could find out that the two of them had been locked in the girls' restroom. Lu Yuanqiu didn't care about himself, but he cared about Bai Qingxia's reputation.
"When can we get out..." Bai Qingxia's mouth suddenly crumpled, and she choked up again. "I need to go. I can't hold it anymore."
?
A question mark slowly formed in Lu Yuanqiu's mind.
"You need to go? You mean you still haven't gone at all?"
He asked in astonishment.
Bai Qingxia immediately shook her head, sending her tears flying in distress.
She had probably been cornered by those girls as soon as she entered the restroom, then locked in this broom closet without a toilet.
Lu Yuanqiu looked at the girl standing helplessly before him. She really did seem to be at her limit. Her long legs, clad in black socks, were slightly bent, the snow-white skin above them pressed tightly together.
"How about... you just go right here? It's a restroom anyway. Do you really have to pee into a toilet?"
Lu Yuanqiu offered a solution.
After saying that, he noticed the girl lift her head, her beautiful, reddened eyes looking at him with a pitiful, troubled expression.
At that moment, Lu Yuanqiu suddenly realized that the lack of a toilet wasn't the biggest problem. The biggest problem was that he was here.
Lu Yuanqiu was decisive. "I'll turn around."
Bai Qingxia said, "But without a toilet, it'll run onto my shoes..."
"They're just shoes. So what if they get dirty?" Lu Yuanqiu answered quickly.
Then he paused.
If Bai Qingxia cared that much about her hair clip, how could she not care about her leather shoes?
Lu Yuanqiu turned to her, his expression serious.
"I have a way to keep both your feet off the ground. We'd only have to sacrifice my shoes... You know how parents hold their children when they need to pee?"
Seeing Bai Qingxia's expression freeze, Lu Yuanqiu quickly dropped the joke and corrected himself. "Okay, okay, I've got another way."
He laid two mops down, one on either side, and had Bai Qingxia stand on their cloth heads, leaving a natural "channel" between them.
Once that was done, Lu Yuanqiu turned around. Bai Qingxia could no longer worry about anything else. She hurriedly squatted down and opened the floodgates.
"Pssss-"
Facing the partition with an odd expression, Lu Yuanqiu folded his arms, then lowered his head and awkwardly rubbed his eyes.
Those brief ten or twenty seconds were a peculiar kind of torture for both of them.
"Done yet?"
"No!"
Rustling came from behind him, followed by the sound of hurried mopping.
Mm, she likes to keep things clean.
Once the sounds stopped, Lu Yuanqiu turned around, a smile threatening to creep onto his face. But laughing wasn't appropriate right now, so he forced it down and surveyed their surroundings as if nothing had happened.
Lu Yuanqiu said, "There are three ways."
"First, I climb over the top. It might be a little difficult without anything to stand on, and the partition could collapse. But I'm strong, so you don't have to worry about me getting hurt."
"Second, you stand on me and climb over, then do what I just described."
"Third, I force the door open."
Bai Qingxia immediately said, "I'll stand on you."
Lu Yuanqiu hurriedly caught her, laughing. "What are you thinking?
You're wearing a skirt. That won't work."
Although he really did want Bai Qingxia to stand on him, even if it was only a failed attempt...
They were better off not wasting time in their current situation. Bai Qingxia didn't have the core strength for it. Trying to climb would get her nowhere.
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Yuanqiu sprang into action. He planted a foot against the wall to propel himself upward, twisted in midair, and caught the top of the partition with both hands in one smooth, deft movement.
The partition was thin and somewhat unstable, so Lu Yuanqiu carefully adjusted his position, using the neighboring partition for support until his entire body lay across the top.
Bai Qingxia stood below with her hands raised high, looking worried, as though she could catch Lu Yuanqiu if he fell.
Lu Yuanqiu climbed over smoothly and landed on the other side with a thud. Immediately afterward came the sound of the latch being opened.
The door creaked open, leaving the girl and boy standing face-to-face.
Lu Yuanqiu spread his hands and smiled proudly at her. "Pretty impressive, aren't I?"