The Corridor’s Chill and a Cruel Encounter

The day was piercingly cold. An icy wind, as if intent on flaying the skin from one’s bones, swept through the semi-open corridor, making all who passed shiver uncontrollably. Perhaps Ye Xingmian’s greatest fortune that day was having dressed in thick layers that morning, hoping to obscure her presence.

Even so, the pervasive cold and gnawing fatigue still enveloped the young girl’s fragile nerves. The corridor, empty during class hours, occasionally carried the amplified voice of a distant teacher, lecturing from a classroom. She understood none of it, only the howl of the wind and the desolate rustle of tree branches swaying outside.

With nothing to occupy herself, she yearned to squat down and rest, yet the intermittent sound of footsteps startled her awake. A few young teachers, walking in pairs, glanced her way before continuing their path, their laughter and whispered conversations carrying meanings she couldn’t decipher.

Eventually, unable to bear the exhaustion and solitude any longer, she tucked her book between her legs and torso, wrapped her arms around her knees, and drifted into a hazy sleep.

She remained lost to the world until the dismissal bell roused her, bringing a sudden burst of activity to the corridor. The office area, however, remained eerily quiet. She quickly pushed herself up against the wall, patiently awaiting her homeroom teacher’s return.

Head bowed, she soon saw her teacher approaching. The young woman moved with a brisk urgency, her heels tapping a sharp cadence on the floor. Ye Xingmian, bracing herself for another reprimand, instinctively hugged her chest in fear. To her surprise, the teacher didn’t even spare her a glance, striding directly to the office door. A gust of warm air swept across Ye Xingmian’s face as the door swiftly closed.

A dull ache throbbed in her chest.

She had harbored a faint hope, a desperate wish that her teacher might allow her to return to class. But that fragile fantasy had now utterly shattered.

It wasn’t the cold or the fatigue that was most tormenting; it was the gazes of others.

Indeed, some classmates came to gawk, treating her predicament as a spectacle. They dared not approach too closely, merely chuckling and stealing glances at the girl from a few meters away.

Yet, even those brief looks were enough to make the girl’s chest constrict with pain.

She lowered her head, burying her face even deeper.

‘I need to use the restroom…’

But she couldn’t go.

She was terrified of the teachers, deathly afraid. If her actions led the teacher to call her adoptive parents, she would undoubtedly face punishment. Moreover, she couldn’t cause any trouble for her mother.

Besides, Qin Haiyue might well be lurking near the restrooms at this very moment.

She could only wait until noon.

Time ticked by, second by agonizing second. When the next class began, the girl curled herself into a tight ball, drifting into a heavy sleep. The joyous shouts of students dismissing for break jolted her awake once more, prompting her to cautiously hide her face, lest anyone see her. Those ten minutes between classes became a period more dreadful than the lessons themselves.

It seemed no one noticed her, as if she could go anywhere, yet she dared not move an inch.

She couldn’t even muster the courage to sneak off to the restroom during class.

Finally, noon dismissal arrived.

The entire teaching building seemed to breach like a dam, a dense torrent of students spilling out into the corridors, all eager to rush to the cafeteria and claim their meals—a vibrant, energetic surge of youth.

Ye Xingmian, however, was not among them.

She remained steadfastly by the office door, even after the crowds had dissipated. She didn’t dare leave until her homeroom teacher emerged.

The teacher hummed a tune, a textbook in her hand, seemingly in high spirits. Her brow furrowed slightly only when she spotted the girl.

“Alright, you can go now. Just don’t forget your homework again next time.”

Granted permission, the girl felt a wave of profound relief wash over her. She profusely thanked the teacher before hurrying away.

She raced towards the end of the corridor, towards the restroom.

After a morning of enforced stillness, her mind felt significantly clearer. Though still famished, she felt much better than she had that morning.

But the most pressing matter was the restroom. She genuinely felt as though her bladder would explode if she didn’t go soon.

Afraid to take large strides, every hesitant step sent the sloshing water in her belly challenging her already frayed nerves. The sensation of holding her urine felt entirely different from before; she felt she might leak at any moment.

Upon reaching the restroom, she hesitated for a moment, then naturally moved to enter the boys’ restroom.

“Hey! You little bastard.”

The girl’s body froze.

She was certain that the epithet ‘little bastard’ was directed at her. And the only person who would call her that was…

Turning her head stiffly, her eyes met those of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl.

Her gaze was sharp, yet a look of amused interest played on her lips, as if she had been waiting there for some time.

It was Qin Haiyue.

She stood with her arms crossed, a phone clutched in one hand. The school explicitly forbade phones, yet…

But that was of no concern to Ye Xingmian, who didn’t even possess a phone of her own.

Afraid to refute the derogatory term, knowing it might invite a beating, she bowed her head like a quail, not daring to look at her tormentor.

“Take off your hood.”

Ye Xingmian silently pulled down her hood.

Her long, beautiful black hair cascaded down, and the girl’s pale teeth lightly bit her lower lip, a sign of her unease about what was to come.

Qin Haiyue slowly sauntered closer.

“Did you forget what I told you this morning?”

She stopped directly in front of the girl, looking down at her.

The girl instinctively retreated a step, pressing herself against the wall.

“No… no…”

Her voice trembled with urgency, making Qin Haiyue’s gaze towards her even more enigmatic.

She had known the girl was being punished for not completing her homework, and she had correctly guessed that this timid creature would be too scared to use the restroom. So, after school dismissed for lunch, she had leisurely waited here, ‘lying in ambush for a rabbit’. Seeing the girl’s reaction, it seemed her guess was spot on.

She watched her victim with delight; after all, she wasn’t the one in distress.

The girl’s face was flushed red from holding her bladder, her eyes rimmed with a faint pink, and a piteous mist clouded her clear, crystal-like gaze. She clutched her lower abdomen, anxiously looking at the person before her, waiting for her to speak.

“Then… did you perhaps come to the wrong place?”

She deliberately slowed her speech, savoring the girl’s flustered expression with every word. The little one’s face grew redder by the second, whether from the pressure or from shame. She lifted her head to glance at the person before her, her ears burning crimson.

“P-please… please…”

“Hm? What did you say?”

Qin Haiyue’s smile deepened.

“Please… just let me go…’

‘I haven’t done anything… why are you bullying me…’

“Let you go?”

Qin Haiyue suddenly slammed a hand against the wall behind the girl, her eyes glinting with a dangerous light as she loomed over her.

Ye Xingmian dared not meet her gaze, quickly lowering her head after only a moment.

“Tell me, why should I let you go?”

She spoke to herself, the sheer pressure emanating from her making the girl tremble all over.

“Do you think I’m short on money? Do you think I spend my idle days chasing after you just for a paltry few dozen yuan for food?”

“No, I don’t care about that money in the slightest.”

She suddenly raised her voice, using her other hand to lift the girl’s chin, forcing her to meet her eyes, which darted away in terror. A look of exhilaration sparked in Qin Haiyue’s gaze.

“What I want is precisely this—your pitiful expression, so clearly terrified and ashamed, yet forced to obediently comply.”