Chapter 88: And My Love For You Is Wanting To Drag You In With Me, Yet Hoping You Will Save Me
Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Three petty thugs stood in a broken old alley, blowing smoke.
Far away, the lights and neon of the city center made this place look like the dark corner every city never lights up.
“I say picking a day is worse than crashing into one. How about today. After school, the few of us grab her and bring her over. Look at this snow. So damn white. So damn fitting for us to give her an unforgettable night.” The blond leaning on the wall said with a lewd grin.
The man smoking beside him kept his hands in his pockets and laughed. “Damn, Xiao Jin, did not expect you to have that kind of poetic feeling.”
The blond scratched his head in embarrassment. “I learned it from that little girl I have been watching lately. Heh. That girl is really something. She always likes holding a book. Norwegian… what was it again. Look.”
The silver-haired guy next to him smacked the blond. “Illiterate. You even try to learn from others to pick up girls. That book is called Norwegian Jungle.”
The blond rubbed his chest and laughed. “Hahahaha. I was just about to say bushes. Narrow-minded. Narrow-minded…”
“I say, are we really going to later…”
Before the smoking man could finish, he suddenly stopped.
At the end of the alley stood a figure that was hard to see. Pitch-black and gloomy. Her thin shadow was pulled very long by the light behind her. It made their hearts turn cold.
The smoking man frowned and shouted, “Hey, what the hell are you standing there looking at.”
But the person at the alley entrance did not turn and leave like normal people.
She just stood there. Her voice pressed down harder than his. “Norwegian Wood.”
“What?” The man frowned even more.
The blond on the side seemed to realize something and explained, “Brother Chen, she seems to be talking about that book my little girl reads.”
The man tilted his head and glanced at the blond when he heard that, but the corner of his eye was still on the shadow standing at the alley entrance.
He could smell the Alpha scent from that person, and it felt strange for no clear reason.
The silver-haired one shouted at the shadow again, “Hey, are you sick? Why do you care what name I call that thing?”
“I can’t control what name you give that book, but I have to control the person you’re talking about.”
As she spoke, the owner of the shadow walked a few steps into the alley.
The cheap streetlight gave off a dull orange glow, and Ji Xiao’s face, with a bit of girlish air, slowly showed from the darkness.
She actually knew Wei Qingyu wouldn’t be hurt by these people. Just Xie Yong alone, who Liu Hu placed by Wei Qingyu’s side in secret, could knock these reckless thugs down.
But she still couldn’t stop herself.
When she heard those dirty and scornful thoughts about Wei Qingyu said behind her back, the low and hopeless feelings soaking her were lit by anger in an instant, and it pushed her to stand in front of these people.
“A little chick?” The blond laughed right away when he saw Ji Xiao wearing the affiliated high school uniform. He tugged at the silver-haired one beside him. “Brother, one came to our door herself, so we can practice early.”
The silver-haired one glanced at the blond, then said to Ji Xiao, “Hey, while we still don’t want to do anything to you, you’d better leave fast. Don’t wait until my brother gets angry. My brother is an A-level Alpha.”
Ji Xiao showed no sign of leaving after hearing that.
She stood under the light and looked at the man holding the cigarette. Strands of hair hung by her face, and between them showed a pair of dark and vicious eyes.
The man didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt uneasy. His hand holding the cigarette shook a little.
The gray ash fell onto the pure white snow, and it melted a small hollow right away.
The warning of danger grew bigger in the man’s heart. He looked at her and asked without losing force, “What do you want to do?”
Ji Xiao took a sip of the milk tea in her hand and said slowly, “I just want to tell you that Wei Qingyu isn’t someone you can touch whenever you want.”
The man sneered. “So you’re here to play the hero and save the beauty? Little girl, do you know what it means to overestimate yourself?”
Alpha pheromones slowly gathered in the alley, trying to press down the dangerous signal Ji Xiao was giving off.
The man casually threw away the cigarette between his fingers. His casual leather shoes stepped over the snow that was just stained by ash. The silver-haired one got the signal, walked past him, and moved toward Ji Xiao.
Facing the male Alpha walking at her, Ji Xiao didn’t change her expression and took another sip of her milk tea.
The sweet smell of taro balls mixed with the man’s tequila-scented pheromones. Ji Xiao bit them together between her canine teeth, as if she’d been waiting for this kind of danger that could let her fully release.
Dark clouds slowly covered the stars in the sky. The old dim streetlight made a sizzling sound.
The fresh snow made a clear sound when stepped on, and without struggle, it was crushed under the girl’s boots.
“Ah—!!!!”
Ji Xiao quickly grabbed the silver-haired man’s hand reaching toward her. She squeezed a little, and he let out a sharp scream of pain.
Like a crushing pleasure, Ji Xiao watched the silver-haired man, who had just spoken dirty words about Wei Qingyu, twist in pain under her grip. She couldn’t help lifting the corner of her lips. Those deep golden-orange eyes raised slightly and looked at the man not far away, as if asking him, who’s the one overestimating himself?
All the dangerous signals weren’t warning Ji Xiao. They were warning these three arrogant Alpha thugs.
The blond, still a senior high school student who hadn’t graduated yet, finally recognized the girl when he saw Ji Xiao’s face clearly.
He whispered with worry, “Brother… she seems to be that Ji Xiao.”
Hearing the reminder from the blond, the man seemed to remember something.
Those dark eyes looked Ji Xiao up and down. The silver-haired man’s howling already annoyed him, and now he laughed with a sharp mouth. “So you’re that Wei Qingyu’s ex. What, she already dumped you, and you’re still standing here sticking your neck out for her?”
When Ji Xiao heard this, her blank face finally changed.
Her smooth brow tightened into a small low ridge. Her eyes were like a snake lying low in the grass, dark and cold as they stared at him.
The man, who still didn’t understand danger was coming, saw Ji Xiao react and asked with interest, adding fuel to the fire, “You’re standing up for her here. Does she even know?”
Hearing this, the silver-haired one laughed while rubbing his wrist and said, “Of course she doesn’t. She’s got a new lover now. Why would she remember an old one like her? Maybe she’s spending Christmas with that Jin Nanfeng right now?”
The man listened to the silver-haired one and smiled even wider.
He ground the cigarette butt on the ground with his foot and said with fake regret, “Ji Xiao, really sorry. You want to play the hero, but I won’t let you get what you want. Today, we’ll send you to the hospital, and you’ll spend this happy Christmas lying in a hospital bed. Too bad. I don’t know if Wei Qingyu will even notice you’re gone.”
After that, the man slowly walked toward Ji Xiao with the blond.
The moonlight was fully covered by dark clouds. The light at the alley entrance flickered a few times, then went out. The look on Ji Xiao’s face turned even darker.
With one hand, she unfastened the buttons of her windbreaker. She slowly placed the two cups of milk tea in her hand onto a stacked bluestone planter nearby. She looked like a polite gentleman, and also like a killer who wanted everything perfect before murder.
Sure enough, knowing it in her heart and hearing it from others were two different things.
The man’s words made Ji Xiao’s mind fill again with the voices she had heard these days from different places at school. Laughter mixed with excitement, like a curse she couldn’t shake off.
“Wei Qingyu and Jin Nanfeng really match.”
“Heavens, I’m dying. Did you see their speech today as the senior representatives?”
“This is from campus straight to the wedding dress. I bet one hundred bucks they’ll get married for sure.”
“Then I want to sit at the front table!”
….
The world set Wei Qingyu into Ji Xiao’s heart, and then it ripped her out by force.
The bloody empty heart cavity kept beating, strong but weak at the same time. Again and again, the voices around cut at the new flesh that had just grown.
Ji Xiao pressed all kinds of feelings deep in her heart and covered them up as a calm and normal look in front of others these days.
The silver-haired man saw Ji Xiao stand under the light without moving after putting down the milk tea. He thought she was scared. He was already holding anger from before, so he stepped up and provoked her. “Hey, where did that arrogant attitude go just now. If you’ve got guts, then try it on me again…”
But before he could finish cursing, what came at him was Ji Xiao’s leg.
An S-level Alpha’s strength wasn’t something to joke about. On top of that, the original body had trained in sanda, judo, and jeet kune do. The silver-haired man was kicked straight into the wall. Loose tiles piled on top fell with snow and dust and smashed onto him.
Ji Xiao looked at the blood on the silver-haired man’s forehead. Before he could get up, she showed no mercy and swung another punch at him.
This bow, pulled to the limit, finally snapped at its breaking point.
Countless emotions burst out of Ji Xiao’s body without control. Her golden-orange eyes were stained red with blood and turned scarlet.
Seeing his brother being beaten badly, the man lost his mind at once. He ripped off his baseball jacket, and his pheromones exploded. “Damn it. Today I’ll make you taste how strong I am.”
The wind howled through this night that was bound to be restless. The moon struggled to show a thin strip of light from the dark clouds.
The blond scrambled and rolled out of the dark alley. One eye was swollen and purple, and fear was written all over his face.
The smell of peach brandy crashed into the snow. There was no peach softness left, only the sharp bite of brandy.
The silver-haired man, a C-level Alpha, was crushed by Ji Xiao’s pheromones the moment he rushed up. He couldn’t use any strength and was still lying on the ground now, his face bruised and purple. That arrogant A-level Alpha with the tequila scent was pressed under Ji Xiao. His face and mouth were full of blood.
He looked up at Ji Xiao above him, like a rebel traitor cursing his king. He twisted his mouth and spat vicious words. “Ji Xiao, you think you’re something special? Maybe Wei Qingyu is kissing Jin Nanfeng and checking into a room right now. Maybe tomorrow she’ll smoothly become the Jin family’s young madam. And you? You’re nothing. You like Wei Qingyu, so what? She’s not yours. Not yours. Hahahahahaha…”
The tequila scent stabbed at Ji Xiao’s nerves. Her mind had long lost control over Alpha instinct.
The man’s words broke her reason again. She didn’t hold back anymore and smashed another punch into his mocking face.
A whole tooth mixed with blood fell from his mouth and dropped into the snow, turning into a muddy mess.
In this alley that had just seen fresh snow, there wasn’t a single spot of clean white left. Only the two cups of milk tea Ji Xiao had placed far away at the start were spared.
The girl’s numb body collapsed like rotten mud. She leaned broken and weak against the brick wall behind her.
Her once delicate and pale face was smeared with blood. A cut on her forehead, not short and not long, was still bleeding.
Ji Xiao acted like nothing happened. She picked up the milk tea she’d already drunk a few sips of. The cold liquid brushed through her mouth and washed away the bloody taste.
From the start, she never planned to leave this fight unharmed. When she finally let out all the feelings she had held down for so long, pain became the smallest thing in the world.
Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
No one knew how long passed. The area grew so quiet it felt lifeless. The milk tea turned cold and lost its taste. A figure suddenly appeared and stopped in front of the girl, with a frightening appearance.
Ji Xiao weakly lifted her head and, under the dim and harsh light, saw Wei Qingyu in her school uniform.
She didn’t know if she was imagining it, but she seemed to read a hint of heartache in the usually calm expression of the girl.
Red lights flashed in the distance, sirens rang out, and the scent of mint gently fell in the cold winter night.
Ji Xiao suddenly remembered a line from that book Wei Qingyu had mentioned earlier, Norwegian Wood.
—“And my love for you is wanting to drag you in with me, yet hoping you will save me.”
Author's Note:
Because I love you, I often want to say sorry to you.
My love is heavy and dirty. It carries many things that make people uncomfortable, like sadness, sorrow, self-pity, and despair. My heart is also so weak. I keep losing to these bad feelings, like struggling in a swamp and sinking deeper the more I move.
And my love for you is wanting to drag you in with me, yet hoping you will save me.
——Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
