The Youthful You Who Was So Beautiful (translated)

chapter 10

As Chen Nian had curled up for far too long, her entire body was rather numb. Consequently, when Chen Nian attempted to straighten her body, she very nearly fell off the narrow cement ledge. Thankfully, Bei Ye stepped up in the nick of time and managed to catch the skinny and disheveled body in his arms, the nasty smell of dried sweat and decomposed rubbish nearly overpowering his sense of smell.

The raging wind continued its rampage.

Bei Ye dragged Chen Nian in from outside the window, as though he was dragging a heavy gunny sack. Having ensured that Chen Nian was now safe and sound in his house, Bei Ye began to remove the tree leaves and unidentifiable pieces of rubbish from her hair and her clothes. As time passed, Bei Ye's actions gradually became rougher. When he was finally done, he closed the windows, before asking in an icy tone, "Who did it?"

Streaks of lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating their pale, white faces.

"I'm asking you a question!" If Chen Nian was a chair, Bei Ye would have smashed her onto the floor out of anger, "Who f***ing did this?!"

Chen Nian lowered her head. After a long period of time, her low voice rang out, "Your arm, is it better?"

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A tiny trace of surprise flickered over Bei Ye's face. The charged fury which Bei Ye had been radiating earlier on simmered down instantaneously. Bei Ye subconsciously shifted his newly recovered arm, and turned his head away from Chen Nian, "It's fine now."

The two youths stood beneath the dim yellow glow of the ceiling lamp and stared at each other silently. Bei Ye felt that Chen Nian was like a patch of cotton wool – no matter how hard he tried, he was simply unable to vent his frustrations on her. Repressing his infuriation, he huffed, "You should bathe."

Chen Nian lowered her head and stared at the ground, clearly at a loss as to what to do.

Bei Ye assumed that she simply had an extremely slow reaction, and began to close the distance between the two of them in an attempt to help her. It was only when he placed his palms on her back that he discovered that her previously sweat drenched uniform was now rather stiff after having been dried by the lengthy exposure to the wind.

His palms remained in contact with her back. Chen Nian didn't shy away from his touch.

"I'll pass you some new clothes." Pulling open the cupboard door, Bei Ye randomly fished out a white t-shirt for Chen Nian and passed it to her. As Chen Nian reached out for the clothes, she discovered that her hands were extremely filthy and grimy, with clumps of black dirt clumped underneath her fingernails. Awkward, she retracted her outstretched hands.

Bei Ye walked into the bathroom and simply hung the clothes on the rack. On turning back, he discovered that Chen Nian had silently followed him into the bathroom. Walking to the shower, he retrieved the showerhead and began scrubbing the greyish white limescale off the showerhead. Lowering his head, he pointed at the tap and explained, "Turn this way for hot water, and the other way for cold water." As he adjusted the water temperature for her, he continued, "The water pressure isn't fully stabilised, so take note that......"

Raising his head, he swallowed the remnant words back into his throat.

Within his line of sight, Chen Nian's bare, dirty feet began to approach him. Her skirt fell onto the floor in one fell swoop, and lay haphazardly around her ankles. Initially, the skirt remained rather stiff. However, as the water gradually washed away the grime and the sweat, the skirt began to soften, and slowly regained its original clean and white appearance.

The heart of the youth felt like the filthy clothes that were gradually being cleansed of their dirt.

Chen Nian began to strip herself of the remaining clothes.