"I guess I'm just unlucky." I blurted out that sentence out of the blue.
"Unlucky?" Xiaoling was silent for a while before asking me a question. Maybe she had been thinking about the meaning of my words.
"Nothing, nothing..." I didn't want to explain anymore, so I carried Xiaoling on my back and strode home.
"If your injury is on your hand, I can consider treating it for you. But as for where the injury is, you'll have to figure out how to deal with it yourself." After we got home, I handed the medicine and cotton swabs I had to Xiaoling.
Xiaoling glared at me: "If it's a cut on my hand, can't I treat it myself? Why do I need your help!"
I smiled and didn't say anything more. Xiaoling took the medicine and cotton swabs into the room, seemingly going to figure out a solution on her own again.
I yawned, thinking I'd wash up and go to bed, but when I went into the bathroom, I found it a complete mess, and... the biggest problem was... Xiaoling still hadn't assigned me a room...
Another ten minutes or so passed. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV and dozing off when Xiaoling's door suddenly opened again. Seeing her mournful face, I knew the situation was still not good.
"Is it all sorted out?" I couldn't help but ask her.
"The medicine has been applied and the bleeding has stopped, but the small fragment is still inside and cannot be removed; it may have already penetrated into the flesh."
"I'll take you to a big hospital to get it checked out." Although I was very tired, I had no choice but to take responsibility for her. After all, I was the one who broke the toilet.
"No need, let it be." Xiaoling shook her head in frustration, then looked at me: "Are you... are you going to take a shower?"
"Hmm... why don't you go wash up and go to sleep first? Don't worry about me." I don't usually have such good hygiene habits at school. Sometimes when I'm tired from playing ball, I just lie down on the bed after the sweat has dried and don't care about anything else. If she goes to wash up and go to sleep first, I can do whatever I want without worrying about anything else.
"You should wash first, I'll go get you some clothes." Xiaoling said, then limped towards another room. A moment later, she came out with some clean clothes and a pair of new slippers and placed them in front of me.
"After I bought it, I washed it once, and it's very clean. After you take a shower, just leave your clothes there, and I'll wash them together with your clothes later."
I glared at Xiaoling. Why did her tone of voice sound just like my mom's... Ugh...
I didn't say anything more, took my clothes and went into the bathroom. This time I learned my lesson and pulled the curtain closed as soon as I went in. After pulling the curtain closed, I felt much safer.
"Wait a minute." Xiaoling knocked on the bathroom door from the outside.
"What's wrong?" I lifted the curtain and pushed open the bathroom door. Luckily, I hadn't started taking off my clothes yet.
"Let me sweep the floor so that no shards might cut your feet." Xiaoling had a broom in her hand at some point. I didn't let her in, but took the broom from her and swept the bathroom floor before handing it back to her.
"Tell me if you need anything else for your shower," Xiaoling called out from outside after closing the door.
"That's all!" I replied to Xiaoling. Why make things so complicated for boys to shower? She's really quite long-winded, but her nagging suddenly reminded me of my deceased mother…
When my mother was alive, she would occasionally come home and nag me like this, and I always gave her a cold shoulder...
Although there was hot water, I took a cold shower. When the water poured over my head, my mind went blank for a moment, and I vaguely saw my mother in heaven, looking at me lovingly. I felt a lump in my throat, but I was sure I didn't cry. The water that slid down my cheeks was just the cold water pouring over my head...
Because I am a man, and a man doesn't easily shed tears...
Why couldn't I have been kinder to her when she was alive?
I hate her, don't I? I hate that she gave birth to me but didn't care about me, but... why am I in so much pain now?
After putting on the underwear Xiaoling had prepared for me, I realized that it wasn't quite appropriate to go out like this... In the end, I put my dirty outer pants back on.
After I changed my clothes and came out of the bathroom, I found Xiaoling standing against the wall, still frowning. When she saw me, she smiled at me and asked, "Are you done showering?"
"Hmm." I nodded. While taking a shower earlier, I inexplicably felt a bit down. Now, seeing Xiaoling, I suddenly felt that she was actually quite pitiful. Why was I so mean to her?
"How about I help you treat your wound?" I blurted out suddenly, without thinking. I didn't actually think before I said it; it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing, a desire to show her some concern.
Xiaoling gave me a wary look, then shook her head: "No."
I suddenly realized something and felt a little ridiculous. When I treated her badly, she kept trying to please me. When I tried to show her some care, she became wary of me.
However, since her injury was on her buttock, it wasn't very convenient for me to treat it. The relationship between us was really strange, and I still feel a bit confused about it.
"You think I'm trying to take advantage of you? You think I'm trying to take advantage of you?" I glanced at Xiaoling disdainfully, then looked around: "Which room is mine?"
Xiaoling blushed a little after what I said. She lowered her head, opened a door, and limped in: "You can sleep in this room. I cleaned it today."
"Okay, sure," I replied, and then lay down on the bed.
"Hey! Take off those pants you're wearing and give them to me." Xiaoling walked to the door but then turned back.
"This..." I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "Okay, okay, turn around and I'll hand it to you."
"Hehe, I've never seen a boy as shy as you." Xiaoling teased me, but then actually turned around.
"Damn it! Who's the shy one here? Who was so scared when they went to see the doctor and were told they had to take their pants off that they ran out of the hospital? How dare you say that about me!" I retorted defiantly.
"I'm a woman, of course women are more shy, unlike you men." Xiaoling suddenly turned around, completely ignoring the fact that my pants were already halfway down.
"Hey! What are you doing?" I was so embarrassed that my face turned bright red. After taking off my outer pants, my briefs were so tight that they were so prominent and every little detail was clearly visible.
"Alright, give me the pants now, who wants to see you?" Xiaoling snatched the pants from my hand.
"I was just trying to help you treat your wound; don't think I'm trying to take advantage of you." I quickly defended myself, as her wary look earlier had indeed made me uneasy.
Xiaoling shook her head, said nothing more, and limped out of my room.
"Close my door!" I called out, but Xiaoling had already gone to the bathroom, so I had to get up and close the door myself.
After lying down in bed, I suddenly became wide awake. After thinking for a while, I finally realized why Xiaoling had poured so much tea for me in the middle of the night. Honestly, I don't usually drink tea at night. When I came here, Xiaoling poured me tea, and I didn't think much of it. I just drank one cup after another. Now that's happened, I can't sleep at all.
I don't know how much time had passed, but I was still tossing and turning in bed when Xiaoling suddenly knocked on my door: "Are you asleep?"
"She's asleep," I shouted back towards the door.
"Can you talk even when you're asleep?" Xiaoling seemed to laugh.
"What is it now?" I sat up. Afraid that Xiaoling would suddenly rush in, I looked around but couldn't find anything, so I wrapped the sheet around my waist.
"Can I come in?" Xiaoling didn't say what she wanted, but I started to panic. Could she be a bad woman, trying to take advantage of my dad's absence in the middle of the night...?
What?
I will never fall for her tricks. What am I, a grown man, afraid of?
"Is there anything else?" I asked, wrapped in the sheet, as I got out of bed and flung open the door.
Xiaoling outside the door had changed into a white nightgown. Her freshly washed hair was still piled up on her head, emitting a faint fragrance. The novel says that a woman is most beautiful when she comes out of the bath, and that must be like her.
Undeniably, Xiaoling is very beautiful. In high school, she was the most beautiful girl in our grade. Tonight, I suddenly saw her here, and she suddenly became my stepmother. I have been trying hard not to think about those things.
Why is Qin Ling considered the most beautiful girl in our grade, rather than the most beautiful girl in our school?
That's because two grades below us, which was our school's first year of high school at the time, there was a beautiful girl whom all the boys unanimously agreed could be called an unparalleled beauty, the universally acknowledged school beauty... Her name was Qin Qin, and she was Qin Ling's younger sister.
After Qin Qin came to our high school, Qin Ling was no longer the prettiest girl in our school. Although all the boys in our class admired Qin Qin, not many of them could actually talk to her for more than a few minutes.
I only had a chance to speak a few words with Qin Qin when Qin Ling, taking advantage of the homeroom teacher's authority, punished me by making me do homework. Qin Qin came to find Qin Ling, but I was so nervous at the time... Afterwards, I couldn't even remember what I said to Qin Qin.
I stared at Qin Ling for a long time, and a lot of thoughts suddenly came to mind...
Should I get a girlfriend too? My roommates get so excited every night when they talk about women, and their conversations get increasingly explicit. Even though I pretend to be innocent and don't join in, I can feel my heart pounding...
However, I wasn't quite sure what I was feeling restless about back then. It wasn't until today, when Qin Ling, dressed in white pajamas and fresh out of the shower, stood in front of me, that I suddenly understood why I was so agitated.