Push Me Away When I Come, Don't Hold Me Back When I Leave - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Girl in the Storm

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“Thud!” The sound of a backpack hitting the ground echoed in the classroom. Xu Fengwu arrived at the classroom right at 7:40, sitting down at her desk. The tear stains on her face seemed to have been wiped clean. On the surface, she still appeared to be that proud phoenix, but in her eyes, there was an indescribable weariness and sadness.

“What’s wrong, Fengwu? Xia Ruoming didn’t carry your bag today? Don’t worry, I’ll do it for you from now on.”

Xia Ruoming turned her head and glanced at the speaker, Wang Sheng, Xu Fengwu’s number two admirer. He usually only revolved around Xu Fengwu, and his family’s financial condition wasn’t particularly good. Xu Fengwu’s attitude towards Wang Sheng was much worse than towards herself, which was one of the reasons why Xia Ruoming mistakenly thought Xu Fengwu might have feelings for her. Nevertheless, Wang Sheng continued his devoted pursuit tirelessly.

Though not from an upper-class noble family, Wang Sheng displayed the typical arrogance of a spoiled rich kid towards others, only showing his fawning behavior to Xu Fengwu. Since Xia Ruoming, as a woman, had always been the closest to Xu Fengwu among her admirers, it made Wang Sheng very unhappy, and his attitude towards Xia Ruoming was quite poor.

If it were someone else, perhaps she would have interfered and offered some well-intentioned advice.

But for Wang Sheng, she only had one phrase from her previous life to express her attitude: Let go of the helping mentality, respect others’ fate.

“Get lost!” Under Xu Fengwu’s gloomy, murderous glare, Wang Sheng slunk away again.

“Tsk, does this person have no brain?” Xia Ruoming shook her head helplessly watching Wang Sheng leave like a beaten dog. If Xu Fengwu had shown this attitude towards her, why would she need to come back to life again before giving up?

Xia Ruoming didn’t even notice Xu Fengwu’s resentful expression staring at her, and just turned around to study by herself.

“Rumble…” The sound of muffled thunder rang out, and rain began to fall steadily.

Looking at the sky covered by dark clouds, Xia Ruoming felt an inexplicable tension in her heart. She wasn’t afraid of thunder; this tension felt like it came from forgetting something very important.

At this time, the physics teacher Yang Xundao walked in carrying test papers, gesturing for everyone to be quiet, then began distributing the papers.

“Morning reading is cancelled, we’ll have the test directly. Teacher Xiao Qinghan is attending an important seminar today, so I’ll be proctoring.” Yang Xundao said expressionlessly while distributing the test papers.

Not liking to order students around, maintaining a certain distance from students, doing everything himself, but everyone thought he was a good teacher, this was Yang Xundao. If it had been another teacher, perhaps Xia Ruoming would have remembered what she had forgotten earlier…

Just like yesterday, all the questions on the test paper seemed to have become simpler, and some questions Xia Ruoming could even remember how she had answered them in her previous life or what the standard answers were. Using only half the time, Xia Ruoming had already completed all the questions, and after spending some time checking for errors, she raised her hand indicating she wanted to turn in her test early.

Yang Xundao at the podium frowned and walked to Xia Ruoming’s side, taking her test paper. He thought Xia Ruoming had given up and just written nonsense to turn in early, when only a bit more than half the time had passed. But after picking up the paper and comparing her answers for a while, the accuracy seemed extremely high, and despite being written quickly, the handwriting was neat with no corrections.

While Xia Ruoming was idly spinning her pen, a huge crash of thunder came with a flash of lightning that lit up the sky, illuminating the classroom. Afterward, the classroom fell into an even darker state than before, and positions far from the windows couldn’t even write.

The school had lost power…

Many students’ eyesight wasn’t very good to begin with, just a couple hundred degrees but too lazy to wear glasses, but now combined with the pitch-black environment, it was difficult to continue the test.

Dark clouds had completely covered the sky, the extremely thick storm clouds not letting a single ray of sunlight through, with the rain making pattering sounds as it hit the windows.

Another flash of lightning crossed the sky, happening to illuminate the face of Xia Ruoming who was gazing out the window.

Xia Ruoming turned her head back and noticed someone missing from a certain seat.

Thunderstorm, school blackout, exam. Xia Ruoming finally remembered where that feeling of unease came from.

Chu Suhe wasn’t in the classroom. Being introverted, she sat in the corner, and even Yang Xundao hadn’t noticed her absence at first. The other students also kept to themselves, not caring about the completely unsociable Chu Suhe. If it had been Xiao Qinghan, she would have had Chu Suhe distribute the test papers, and would have noticed Chu Suhe’s absence immediately.

Xia Ruoming left her desk directly, leaving the classroom like the wind, nearly knocking over someone’s desk in the process. Right now she only felt a chill down her spine, if she realized any later, perhaps she wouldn’t be able to save her in this life either.

“What are you doing, no manners, lawless now, aren’t you… don’t think you…” Yang Xundao hadn’t finished speaking when he saw Xia Ruoming stand up and leave without notice, but she had already run so far from the classroom that she couldn’t hear what Yang Xundao was saying.

The school walls had no special security measures, after all no one at this high school would really climb the walls to skip class. The walls were just to keep ill-intentioned people from outside from coming in. Xia Ruoming easily climbed over the wall. If she waited to leave through normal means, not to mention whether the teachers would believe her, just waiting for them to call and confirm with Chu Suhe’s parents would waste who knows how much time. Moreover, even if she followed normal procedures, she wouldn’t be able to explain how she knew where Chu Suhe was, so it was better to act first and report later.

After running out of school, Xia Ruoming realized something, because she left in such a hurry, she had forgotten to bring an umbrella. Now she could only use one hand to shield her forehead as she pressed forward in the rain. There were no pedestrians on the street, only some vehicles driving by. No one would want to go out in such a heavy downpour. The storm stopped many people from going out, but it couldn’t stop Xia Ruoming’s steps.

After running for 5 minutes in the downpour, Xia Ruoming stood in front of an unfamiliar alley. From far away she saw a rose-red umbrella fallen on the ground, and beside it that familiar figure, a girl so frail it evoked pity.

Malnutrition, low blood sugar, excessive use of stimulant medications. In her previous life, Chu Suhe had fainted here today because of these factors. Because no one cared about her, she was discovered very late, and the severe aftereffects prevented her from taking the college entrance exam that year, though she still successfully got into Sichuan University the following year.

“It’s alright, it’s alright… I’m here…” Xia Ruoming ran to Chu Suhe’s side, muttering. At this moment, Chu Suhe was not only unconscious, but her forehead was slightly feverish. She picked up Chu Suhe directly and ran to the main road to hail a taxi.

“Driver, to Provincial Hospital!” After getting in the car, Xia Ruoming was somewhat anxious. The reason she didn’t call 120 was because in her previous life, 120 had taken Chu Suhe to the Second Hospital, where she had serious aftereffects following treatment. Xia Ruoming didn’t know if that was because she was found too late or because of the hospital, so to be safe she decided to go to the place she trusted most.

The taxi driver glanced at this completely soaked woman, then looked at the unconscious girl she brought in, and without saying anything more, stepped on the gas and headed straight for Provincial Hospital.