Hospital 444

The news that Lan Ying from the soccer club had gotten a girlfriend created quite a stir, not too big yet not too small, in the campus news.

In the past few days, Peipei noticed while browsing her phone that there were quite a few posts on the campus forum discussing the two of them being together.

"Xishi, Xishi!"

Peipei turned her head and saw Li Junyi speaking to her, "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing... It’s just that, from now on, I will be the only one in our dorm."

"Yeah, that’s right." Li Junyi was moving out today, which meant that from now on, Peipei would be the only one left in the dorm.

"Um, Xishi, would you be scared living alone?" Li Junyi asked.

"No, not at all."

"It’s normal I guess, we’re all here on our own, struggling away from home, bound to feel lonely." Li Junyi patted her luggage beside her and said, "If it weren’t for my internship being too far from school, I’d actually like to stay too."

The dormitory head, the only local, had moved out in her senior year. And since the internships started, the dorm had seen comings and goings, with only Peipei consistently living there. The main reason was her focus on preparing for graduate school and she hadn’t thought about finding an internship yet. Thanks to the scholarships she received over the years, along with her fairly affluent family background, Peipei could manage the expenses of living away from home.

Li Junyi then looked outside and said, "Xishi, you like Lan Ying, right?"

Peipei instinctively wanted to deny it, but looking into Li Junyi’s eyes, she pursed her lips and said, "Sort, sort of."

"I knew it." Li Junyi wasn’t surprised at all as she said, "You joined the soccer club’s cheer squad but pretended to be reluctant about it."

"..."

"If you ever feel down, just call me, and we can go out for karaoke, eat out, or go shopping, it’s no problem. Now that you’re living alone in the dorm, if you feel troubled, don’t keep it all to yourself."

"It’s okay... I’ve been busy with my graduation thesis lately. Being alone in the dorm is good, it lets me concentrate on my paper."

After exchanging pleasantries, Li Junyi carried her suitcase and left the dorm.

As Li Junyi closed the door, Peipei’s head tilted back slightly, leaning against the wall.

She could only keep herself busy with her thesis to justify quitting the soccer club cheer squad, which seemed like a logical step.

However, to be honest, she wasn’t used to living alone in a female dormitory. It was graduation season, and many students on her floor had already moved out, with only a few remaining.

She had also considered moving out and sharing a flat with Li Junyi, but that would mean living too far from school.

"Now I’m really the only one left."

Looking at the empty dormitory, she suddenly saw members of the soccer club passing by outside the girls’ dormitory.

She had heard something: Lan Ying had caught the attention of professional club scouts and was being poached to play professionally, with his parents’ approval.

To be honest, she was quite surprised.

No one knew that since her freshman year, she’d become a soccer fan. She kept it a secret because she didn’t want people to link it to her reasons for liking soccer.

So, to the layman, it might be unknown, but Peipei, who had studied soccer for four years, was well aware that Lan Ying’s skills were much better than the average player. He had no problem playing in the university team, but there was still a substantial gap from professional soccer standards. Of course, this wasn’t surprising—despite Lan Ying’s solid foundation and talent, he had always played with amateurs and didn’t have professional coaching. For professional clubs, Lan Ying was a bit old.

Still, the fact that he’d caught a professional scout’s eye made Peipei happy inside.

"In the future... I probably won’t watch soccer anymore."

She wouldn’t probably stay up late to watch this year’s World Cup either.

Evening.

After dinner, once she returned to the dorm, Peipei opened her laptop and continued working on her thesis.

As she wrote, she picked up her freshly brewed coffee to drink when her cell phone rang.

She picked up the phone and answered.

"Hello?"

"Um, Xi, Xishi..."

"Zhaojun, what’s up? I’m busy with my thesis, can we talk tomorrow if it’s not urgent?"

"Yeah, could you... come and live with me?"

Peipei, who was sipping her coffee, almost spit it out onto the laptop screen in front of her.

"You... aren’t you living with Lan Ying now?"

"He’s now going to join a professional club and will be in closed training with a new batch of selected players for a while. Um... So, I’ve moved back to my rented place first since the landlady hasn’t found a new tenant yet."

"Then... there’s no need for me to move in with you, right?"

"Well, it’s just that, living alone... I feel a bit scared... My mom came to the neighboring city for a business trip recently, so she came to bring me some food, but she’s now gone back up home."

Peipei took another sip of her coffee.

"You, you’re not just starting to live alone, why are you scared now?"

"I, I don’t know, I just feel a bit uneasy. Um, could you move in with me for a week? Just a week will do! I don’t need you to cover my rent!"

Peipei could tell from her voice that she really seemed a bit panicked.

"Well, alright then. Then I’ll come over tomorrow..."

"Can you come tonight? You can come over tonight, too! The WIFI here is pretty fast, it should be convenient for you to write your thesis and do research here."

Was Yueyin that scared?

"Li Junyi, are you hiding something from me? You didn’t have a fight with Lan Ying, did you?"

"No, we didn’t fight! Xishi, please, okay?"

After giving it some thought, Peipei said, "Alright then, I’ll come over. But since I’ll be living with you, I will definitely share the rent with you."

After hanging up the phone, Peipei looked around her dormitory.

Maybe this was a good thing.

Living alone in such a big dormitory, to be honest, she was also a bit afraid.

But...to just move over to Yueyin’s place like this, to be honest, it made her feel somewhat uncomfortable inside.

How could such a typical youth melodrama, common in angsty teen literature, happen to her?

Looking at the computer screen in front of her, she saved the content of the essay she was writing, shut down her notebook, and after tidying up a bit around her dormitory, she left.

Peipei still remembered when she was a freshman, entering the dormitory for the first time, when there was only Yueyin inside.

And both were pleasantly surprised to discover they were from the same hometown.

This unexpected discovery made Peipei and Yueyin very happy, and they became the best friends in the dormitory.

Peipei had absolutely no clue that Yueyin also liked Lan Ying. In her memory, Yueyin had always lacked self-confidence, and when she joined the football club, Peipei thought it was because she genuinely liked football.

After leaving, she took the subway, and looking at the dozen or so stops, she couldn’t help thinking that it was indeed far.

In the future, to attend classes at school, she’d have to get up an hour early every day.

Over forty minutes later, she finally got off the subway and, using the location Yueyin had sent to her phone, found the neighborhood where she lived.

To be honest, the neighborhood looked somewhat old and rundown, the security at the entrance was as good as absent, and when she entered, the guard didn’t question her.

She arrived at the building where Yueyin lived and soon found the elevator inside.

"It’s so late... after I get in, I’ll take a shower and go straight to bed."

Despite having had coffee, Peipei yawned.

But just as she finished yawning, she suddenly noticed that the lights on the first floor went out in a flash!

"Huh?"

A power outage?

A good while passed, and the electricity still hadn’t come back on. However, the elevator was still operating normally.

As the elevator slowly descended, it suddenly paused for a moment on the 10th floor.

Yueyin lived on the tenth floor; could she be coming down to meet her? She had indeed sent Yueyin a message just before, saying she was about to arrive.

So she stared at the floor indicator.

About ten seconds later, the number finally continued to decrease.

9, 8, 7...

At last, it reached the 1st floor.

The elevator doors slowly opened.

"Xishi, you..."

However, Peipei saw that there was nobody inside the opened elevator doors!

This stunned her.

After the elevator descended from the 10th floor, it hadn’t stopped at any other floors!