Meanwhile, An Mingji had no idea what Gu Jin had done for him.
He sat on a stool and studied the layout of the room. At last, his eyes landed on the neatly-folded blanket on the bed.
He was alone in that clean and empty room, but he refused to sleep even though he had to fight back his tired eyes for fear of dirtying the bed.
When Gu Jin came in, she saw how tensed he looked, sitting on the stool with his eyes darting around the room.
"Why don't you go to sleep?"
An Mingji stood up. "I-I'm dirty."
Gu Jin laughed when she heard this. She turned around to close the door behind her gently.
When she applied the black salve on An Mingji's body earlier, she had seen his bruises and the telltales of him not showering for a long while.
However, she did not mind it. His wounds had to stay away from water for the moment until they healed up.
Gu Jin pulled the chain to switch off the light, then groped her way to her bed with the aid of the moonlight from outside.
She had to turn the light off like that. Otherwise, she would have to get out of bed to switch it off and grope her way back to the bed again.
The room became pitch-dark instantly, but it did not alarm An Mingji; he was just waiting by the bed.
Gu Jin approached the bedside, took off her shoes, and climbed up while she spoke to An Mingji. "Come up and sleep here."
"Okay."
An Mingji felt less tense now in the dark, unlike earlier.
He gingerly took off his shoes as if he was afraid of alarming anyone.
When he finally climbed up, Gu Jin was making the bed.
But there was only one blanket in the room.
An Mingji was sitting at the center of the bed, looking at the busy slender figure in front of him.
"It's done now. Come on!"
An Mingji pressed his lips together upon hearing her gentle voice. He hesitated for a second before he clambered toward her voice.
Gu Jin pulled the blanket over him when he came close.
Somehow, Gu Jin could still feel the pain in the back of her head.
A bullet that killed her had gone through that spot on her head in her past life.
Sensing that the boy had lain down, Gu Jin quickly fell asleep as she was accompanied by the lingering fragrance of the detergent on the blanket. The existence of an extra body beside her did not bother her at all.
While Gu Jin's breathing was entering a steady rhythm, An Mingji was still as wide awake as he was when he first climbed into bed. He was clutching the blanket with both hands, and his body was stiff.
He listened carefully to Gu Jin's periodic breathing and made sure that she was asleep. Only then was he able to relax his muscles and enjoy the rare tear-jerking moment of warmth.
In the dark, he touched the blanket that was not soft despite being stuffed with cotton. He felt like he was about to cry.
He had not slept under such a thick and warm blanket for a long time. No one had shown him so much care as far as he could remember.
This warmth was unlike the benefaction that was filled with pity and mercy, which other villagers had shown him in the past.
An Mingji clenched the blanket in his hands and shook the thought out of his mind.
More likely than not, disappointment would always follow anticipation.
He closed his eyes, and the moonlight that was sprinkled on his face seemed to illuminate his tears.
...
Gu Jin had a dream.
She dreamed of An Mingji.
She was seeing things from a third-person view, watching the skinny boy get bullied, scoffed at, beaten up, insulted, as well as verbally abused, by adults and children alike in the village.
Gu Jin witnessed how he turned from an innocent child to the village's wild child.
People were accusing him of stealing money from the villagers when he was not.