CH 15

Chapter 15: A Friend’s Advice (2)

“Why can’t others come close to him?” Lin Xin blurted out.

Wu Anan hurriedly covered her mouth and hinted at her to be cautious. She then whispered to Lin Xin’s ear, “I told you back then to ignore him. In the past, someone used to find Lin Xinyu to play, but when the Dean found out about it, he quickly taught that child a lesson. Since then, nobody dared to look for Lin Xinyu to play.”

The Dean? What is she talking about? Lin Xin had to question Wu Anan’s words.

Wu Anan pouted angrily when she saw that Lin Xin didn’t believe her, “I’m saying all of this for your sake, especially since I’ll be leaving in two days. I know that I hurt your feelings because I didn’t help when Zhao Qiang bullied you, but we are still friends, right?”

Just her words saying ‘we are still friends’ actually moved Lin Xin’s heart. She really couldn’t blame this young girl in the end, but Lin Xin still wanted to keep a distance from her. Since she never had any initial trust for Wu Anan from the beginning, Lin Xin had always questioned the validity of her words. At this point, she couldn’t help but do so since it became a habit.

“I know.” Lin Xin said lightly.

When Wu Anan heard her indifferent tone, she didn’t feel like saying any more. She picked up her lunch box and said, “Well, at least you know.” Afterwards, she turned and left. After walking two steps, Wu Anan suddenly turned around and said, “Lin Xin, I will go to S City in two days. If you need anything in the future, you can come to me.”

Lin Xin shook her head; personally, she felt that she would have no reason to find her. She could face life all by herself.

When Wu Anan saw that she didn’t care, she pursed her lips and no longer spoke. Ever since Lin Xin woke up from her illness, her personality had changed a lot. She was better than before, but now her attitude was relatively cold.

Wu Anan sighed in her heard and returned directly to the dormitory with her lunch box.

The orphanage was small and housed more than a dozen orphans. Boys and girls lived separately. Lin Xin and Wu Anan lived in the same room but their beds were spread far apart. When Lin Xin arrived back at the dormitory, Wu Anan had already fallen asleep. As she climbed up her bed and laid down, she pondered Wu Anan’s words earlier during dinnertime. What did she mean by that? Puzzled by this mystery, Lin Xin had a difficult time falling asleep. She simply donned her clothes and went outside for an evening walk in the yard.

The orphanage was built in a remote, mountainous area. Rumors were that many years ago, this building used to be a mental asylum. They said that deranged people were cared for here day and night while awaiting their deaths. After the Revolution, there were fewer and fewer patients who were mentally ill. The former dean used to manage the asylum; when they no longer admitted patients, he stayed here and adopted abandoned children, thus turning the building into an orphanage. After the former dean’s death, the current dean took over. As a young man, he used his many connections and was able to get sponsorship from the government. Without the government’s funding, the orphanage wouldn’t be able to pay for its expenses.

Since the building was constructed on a mountainside, the air was fresh and the sound of insects rang through the night. The moonlight reflected brightly, and only the brightest star can be seen twinkling on its edge. As Lin Xin looked up at the moon in the night sky, she couldn’t help recall when her parents took her to see the stars in the mountains as a child. At that time, since she was raised in a comfortable home within the city, she never had the chance to see the Milky Way from childhood to adulthood. One day, she asked her father to tell her the story of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl. When he told her about the Milky Way in the sky, he agreed to drive her and her mother to a remote mountain village a hundred miles away to see the heavenly view.