C13 Two Hearts That Are Injured and Lonely Are Talking to Each Other

Xia Liang withdrew money from an ATM downstairs and, after some thought, picked up a few room-temperature beverages from the supermarket. With his purchases in hand, he rode the elevator back up to his apartment.

Upon opening the door, he noticed Gu Wenying wasn't in the living room. The kitchen light was on, and he could hear the sound of running water. Setting down the drinks, he found Gu Wenying busily scrubbing dirty dishes.

"Hey, you don't need to do that. I can wash them myself," Xia Liang said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"It's no trouble at all. I'll be done in a few minutes. I have OCD and dirty dishes just get to me. You wouldn't believe the lazy bunch in my dorm; they leave their dirty dishes out in the open, expecting me to wash them," Gu Wenying explained with a chuckle, her hands moving deftly through the suds.

"That's really unfair. Isn't that taking advantage of you?" Xia Liang commented, his tone laced with disapproval.

"Not at all. I actually feel happy when I'm needed. If nobody needed me, I'd feel lonely, like I'm back to..." Gu Wenying's voice trailed off, her expression momentarily hardening before she corrected herself, "...like when I was a child, on my own."

"I see," Xia Liang replied, catching the emotional shift in Gu Wenying but choosing not to probe further.

He bent down, gathered the full trash bags from the kitchen, and combined them with the living room garbage. He carried it all outside and disposed of it in the large bin at the corner of the service corridor next to the elevator.

By the time he returned, Gu Wenying had finished with the dishes and was mopping the living room floor with the mop he had previously soaked.

"It's late; you should head back. I've got this," she insisted.

Xia Liang felt a wave of awkwardness wash over him as he watched the girl he'd only just met taking care of the cleaning.

"Don't worry about it. You're injured, and it's best you stay away from the water. I'll have this cleaned up in no time," Gu Wenying said, swiftly moving the mop across the floor.

For some reason, ever since she learned that Xia Liang was the son of Uncle Xia, the man who had saved her, she felt a strong desire to be near him and to help him in any way she could.

So, when she stumbled upon an injured Xia Liang by the roadside, she adamantly insisted on taking him to the hospital and then home.

She wouldn't have been nearly as eager to help just any classmate!

Now, having unexpectedly entered Xia Liang's place and seeing him living alone, uncared for, she was overcome with discomfort. That's why she found herself washing dishes, mopping floors, and organizing his room.

As she mopped, a curious thought struck her: Why was she going to such lengths, shamelessly so?

Could it be that she had feelings for Xia Liang?

Adolescents are especially sensitive and curious about relationships between the sexes, which led Gu Wenying to speculate uncontrollably in that direction.

"No, that can't be it. I'm just trying to repay a kindness because he's Uncle Xia's son. That's the extent of it," she reassured herself.

Gu Wenying, ever the top student, thought things through with clarity and precision, quickly getting to the bottom of her feelings.

Xia Liang, on the other hand, wasn't as quick on the uptake. Seeing Gu Wenying not only tolerate his grimy apartment but also clean it with zeal, he was hit by a wave of hormonal thoughts.

"Could she actually like me?" Even he, who wasn't prone to vanity, couldn't shake off such a suspicion.

After all, it's odd for someone to be so nice for no apparent reason, especially when that someone is of the opposite sex.

As time flew by, with Gu Wenying taking charge and Xia Liang assisting, the apartment was transformed in under an hour, returning to the pristine state it was in when first rented.

Naturally, this was only true for the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The long-unwashed bedsheets and blankets in the bedroom would have to wait.

"Wow, what a gorgeous apartment. How wonderful it would be to buy, no, to rent a place as lovely as this one day," she mused, wiping away sweat and sipping the room-temperature drink Xia Liang had brought her, her eyes admiring the well-arranged, spotless space.

"Thank you so much for today," Xia Liang expressed genuinely, his gaze sweeping over the tidy apartment and then resting on his classmate, leaving him feeling somewhat dazed.

Up until yesterday, no, scratch that—last week, last month, or even a year ago, Xia Liang had always been a loner. His life was in disarray, and he hadn't made a single friend at school.

But now, in the span of just one day, everything seemed to have shifted. It was a change so abrupt that he struggled to both believe and accept it.

"Does it seem incredible to you?"

Gu Wenying, perceptive of Xia Liang's astonishment, asked him with a knowing smile.

"There's a sense of familiarity. You see, I was actually quite tidy before. It's just that after my parents died, I kind of let myself go..."

Xia Liang seized the moment to clarify his stance, subtly indicating his preference for cleanliness. He certainly didn't want to be remembered as unkempt by his friends.

"I'm sorry. I knew your father was Xia Quanhai, who made the ultimate sacrifice three years ago. But I wasn't aware that your mother had also passed..." Gu Wenying spoke softly.

"It's okay. The world is full of orphans who manage just fine. What do I have to complain about?" Xia Liang replied with a wry smile.

If this had been brought up yesterday, no, even before noon today, he would have exploded in anger, vehemently denying any relation to his father.

But in this moment, he suddenly found the connection to that man, to his father, not so unbearable.

After all, the man was dead.

He had harbored hatred for him for so long, and now, he was suddenly weary of it.

"You know, that man, no, my father, might have been a hero, but he wasn't a good father..."

Finding an outlet for his pent-up emotions, Xia Liang freely shared the injustices his mother had endured and the events of the night she died.

"Are you talking about June 12th?"

Gu Wenying was visibly taken aback by Xia Liang's narrative.

Xia Liang nodded. "Yes, that very day. I remember it vividly. That man... No, my father, he received the Medal of Honor for Guardians of the City from the mayor that morning. He was holding a girl in his arms, apparently someone he had rescued from a disaster zone late at night while my mother was gravely ill..."

"That was me."

Gu Wenying, with tears brimming in her eyes, suddenly cut off Xia Liang's words.

"What?" Xia Liang was taken aback this time.

"The day your mother fell gravely ill, my hometown was hit by an earthquake. My father, mother, and brother were all killed when our house collapsed. I was the only one fortunate enough to be trapped in a crevice..."

Gu Wenying seldom liked to revisit the memories buried beneath those ruins. Yet, in this moment, she recounted that chapter of her past in vivid detail.

"If it hadn't been for your father, I probably would have died within an hour from lack of oxygen and dehydration, trapped in that tight space, my mother's bloodied hand the only company..."

Her voice caught as she spoke, and suddenly a soft tissue was offered to her.

She then noticed the cold wetness on her cheeks, unaware until then that tears had been streaming down her face.

"He saved me, but he missed my mother's final moments. He was a hero, but not the ideal husband or father."

"That's why I'll never try to be a hero. Besides, I haven't awakened any supernatural powers, so it's not like I could even if I wanted to," Xia Liang remarked with a nonchalant tone.

After hearing Gu Wenying's story, Xia Liang's emotions were in turmoil, and he felt his resentment towards his father ebbing away slightly.

He had long outgrown the naivety of his youth. Through textbooks, life lessons, the internet, and literature, he had absorbed much wisdom and insight from those who came before him.

"So when my mother passed away, he was saving another life? If he had been with my mother, this girl beside me might have perished under the rubble..."

Xia Liang looked at Gu Wenying, his gaze filled with complexity, and he found himself grappling with uncertainty.

Had his father made the right choice after all?