Chapter 52: Senior Brother Wencai Outside the Window

Gu Xinlian walked over with a tray of food, gently knocked on the bedroom door, and asked with an anxious expression on her face, "Young Master Ma, Young Master Ma, are you inside?"

Hearing the knock, Ma Wentai slowly opened his eyes, climbed out of bed impatiently, and pulled the door open. Seeing Gu Xinlian, he frowned in displeasure and snapped, "What are you doing here?"

"I heard Young Master Zhu say you didn't have any dinner, so I specially brought some over for you." Gu Xinlian kept her head lowered and completely failed to notice the look on Ma Wentai's face.

Ma Wentai took the food tray from her. "Thank you."

Just as he was about to shut the door, Gu Xinlian called out to him again, "Wait~~ Young Master Ma."

"Is there something else?"

"I... the rumors about you and Young Master Liu are spreading all over the academy right now. However, I believe the two of you are innocent. You are definitely not that kind of person."

Ma Wentai stood in the doorway, supporting the food tray with one hand while his other hand gripped the doorframe tightly. Seeing that he remained silent, Gu Xinlian oblivious to danger called out once more, "Young Master Ma, what's wrong with you?"

Ma Wentai slammed the food tray fiercely onto the ground. "Get lost~~"

With a loud crash, the wooden door was slammed shut. Gu Xinlian stood in the hallway, too stunned to speak. Looking down at the spilled food on the floor, her eyes welled up with tears.

After dinner, I went to Zhu Yingtai's room to ask about Ma Wentai, only to find out that he hadn't even gone to eat. Zhu Yingtai, on the other hand, seemed to have quite a few opinions about me, even looking at me with a very strange gaze. "Liu Qing, what on earth is going on between you and Wentai? I don't believe Wentai would have... would have such unconventional tastes."

"The fact that you don't believe it proves you still understand him a little. Nothing is going on between us," I explained.

"Nothing at all?" Zhu Yingtai shook her head with a smile, as if my words were utterly ridiculous. "Liu Qing, who do you expect to believe that? Who would buy it? It must be you. Did you do something to Wentai... so, so that's why he was influenced by you and became like this?"

Good grief, Zhu Yingtai, your imagination is way too wild. Who influenced whom is still up for debate.

"No, no, no, we have nothing going on at all. If I really felt that way about him, why would I bother moving into Wang Lantian's room? Believe it or not, I don't care." I rolled my eyes at Zhu Yingtai and walked out of her room.

A fine drizzle began to fall from the sky. I sat at my desk and worked on my carving. Having studied it for over half a year, I could finally carve things that looked somewhat decent, but compared to Wang Lantian's exquisite craftsmanship, my work looked like it had just been picked out of a garbage dump.

Wang Lantian didn't sit with me tonight; he was sitting alone at his table, making a kite. I have to admit, this Wang Lantian is truly talented. "Brother Lantian, what on earth are you drawing?"

Wang Lantian held the kite up in front of me. "Guess what this shape looks like?"

What else could a kite look like? In the legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, a kite naturally looks like a butterfly. But looking at this contraption, it didn't look like a butterfly at all. "What does it look like? A chimeric monster?"

Wang Lantian curved his lips into a smile and said, "You guessed right. It doesn't look like anything at all."

Oh great, it doesn't look like anything, and yet he wanted me to guess. What a complete waste of my emotions.

"Spring will be here in a few days. I'm making a kite so we can go out and enjoy the spring scenery. Do you want one? I'll make you one too."

Wow, it's rare for Wang Lantian to have such leisurely and elegant interests. He is usually a young master who never steps outside the gates.

"All right, teach me how to make it." I picked up some bamboo strips and clumsily followed Wang Lantian's lead to make a kite. The rain outside the window seemed to be getting heavier, pattering down incessantly.

As night fell, waves of chilling cold swept in. Wang Lantian covered his mouth and gave a couple of soft coughs. Knowing his health was poor and that he was most sensitive to the cold, I took a shawl from the cabinet and draped it over his shoulders. "Brother Lantian, it's getting cold. I'll go close the window."

Looking out through the window, the rain was pouring heavily outside, leaving shallow puddles accumulated along the path, and the chill was biting. Just as I pulled the window shut, I suddenly caught a glimpse of a white figure flashing past.

I gently cracked the window open a sliver and saw someone holding a white oil-paper umbrella emerge from the flowerbeds and head toward the opposite side. That silhouette was so familiar—it was Ma Wentai. Yes, it was definitely Ma Wentai.

The academy dormitories were divided into two sections, east and west. Ma Wentai's room was on the west side, while the room Wang Lantian and I currently shared was on the east.

On such a dark night with such heavy rain, what was he doing lurking around here? Could it be that he was hiding outside the window because he was worried about me?

Ma Wentai, you idiot. You skipped dinner and now you're standing out here in the wind and rain, have you forgotten your illness just barely recovered?

Is falling sick supposed to be fun? Right, I'm sure you're having a blast. Doctor Wang treats you every day, and Gu Xinlian brings you soup at every meal—you must be having the time of your life. You might as well just drop dead from illness, and don't expect me to take care of you.

I watched through the crack in the window as Ma Wentai slowly drifted out of my line of sight, feeling an inexplicable emptiness inside my heart.

Ma Wentai had already vanished from view when a white object drifted over on the wind outside the window. It was the umbrella Ma Wentai had been holding earlier. How did it end up floating over here?

Just as I was wondering about it, I heard Wang Lantian calling me, "Qing, what are you looking at? You've been staring for so long."

I snapped back to reality, shook my head, and said, "It's nothing. An umbrella just blew past the window outside. I have no idea who dropped it, so I'm going to go pick it up."

I put on my cloak, opened the door holding an umbrella, and walked toward where the umbrella had landed. The wind and rain outside were truly fierce; the wind-shielding capability of ancient umbrellas was simply abysmal, and by the time I managed to retrieve the umbrella, I was thoroughly soaked myself.

"Qing, why did you even bother going out for that umbrella? Now you're drenched from head to toe." Wang Lantian walked over and handed me a dry towel.

I took the towel, casually wiped my face, and then wiped down the umbrella. "I don't know whose it is, but just in case they come looking for it, it'll be easier to return it to them."

Wang Lantian smiled. "Qing, when did you become so warm-hearted? It's just an umbrella. Even if someone lost it, they might not even remember."

Indeed, when did I become so helpful? Wasn't it just a broken umbrella? Was it really worth risking the rain to pick it back up?

"Brother Lantian, perhaps after a person experiences life and death, some of their perspectives change."

Wang Lantian was slightly stunned at first, but then he nodded and said, "Indeed. As long as a person is alive, everything they do has meaning. Conversely, a dead person can no longer do a single thing."

A faint sorrow rippled through Wang Lantian's eyes, and I had almost forgotten that he was a sickly patient with little time left.

"Brother Lantian!"

Wang Lantian patted my shoulder. "It's getting late. Let's go to sleep."

I nodded, took off my outer robes, and went to bed. This room did not have the familiar scent I was used to, and this bed lacked the familiar warmth. I wrapped myself tightly in the quilt, but still felt terribly cold. Was this bed made of ice blocks? Why was it so freezing?