Bite Your Fingertips

36th -【Only you】

Trigger Warning: Self-harm

Chu Yu didn’t notice any abnormality, and he wrinkled his nose. “Hm, yeah.”

If he was full and if he didn’t specifically focus on smelling other people’s blood, he wouldn’t generally sense that much of a smell.

However, the blood of that gangster in the corner was truly too bitter and unpleasant. It was as if the odor was drilling into his nose, he didn’t want to smell it at all.

Noticing that Lu Shi stepped behind him, Chu Yu fanned his nose with his hand while turning around and was stunned.

Lu Shi had conveniently placed the plastic bag on the ground. There were steamed buns, soy milk, and a white transparent hard straw inside it.

One end of the straw had a sharp beveled opening.

Lu Shi took out the straw, held it in his right hand, and slashed it against the tip of his left index finger.

In the next second, crimson blood spilled out, seemingly thick and colorful on the cold white skin.

Chu Yu’s heart jumped twice.         

He never knew that a straw could pierce the skin so easily.

Moreover, the moment Lu Shi had cut his skin with the sharp mouth, there was no hesitation or stagnation in his hand movement, and his expression was even duller, as if he were doing something he’d normally do.     

Behind the two of them, the several sleeve-tattooed guys found an opportunity, so they supported each other and ran away at lightning speed.

Soon, only Chu Yu and Lu Shi were left from the front of the narrow alley to its rear.

Lu Shi approached Chu Yu. Lowering his eyes, he meticulously smeared the blood spilling from the tip of his index finger onto Chu Yu’s lips. His movements were soft and unhurried, they could even be described as gentle.

“Does my blood smell good?”      

Already lingering at the tip of Chu Yu’s nose was a familiar fragrance.

He stood in place, letting Lu Shi smear it.

Until Lu Shi inquired with a low voice. He gazed into Lu Shi’s eyes and replied, “It smells good.”  

The finger’s movement stopped.

Lu Shi’s voice was like an ambiguous whisper among lovers, soft and husky. “Then, why do you want to smell another’s blood, hmm?”

“Does his blood smell better than mine?”

Chu Yu realized that Lu Shi’s current state was somewhat abnormal.      

There wasn’t his habitual coldness or indifference, and he didn’t seem like the reserved and taciturn him during school times, nor the hostile, frank, and violent him when fighting and beating people up.

His eyes were deep-black, as if covered with a layer of ink, where no light could shine through.

There was even something shocking within them— paranoia.

A slight chill traveled up Chu Yu’s back while his heart was seemingly seized into shuddering.      

The blood on his lips dried up as an uncomfortable and strained feeling arose.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but his throat seemed to be fastened tightly with hoops for he couldn’t utter a sound.  

Lu Shi didn’t receive an answer.  

Suddenly, his expression became completely cold and he took a step back.

The two didn’t go to school together until the afternoon.   

As usual, many students lined up by the elevator doors on the first floor. Neither Chu Yu nor Lu Shi went to squeeze in with them, instead choosing to climb the stairs.

On the fourth floor, they coincidentally ran into their homeroom teacher Old Ye who was exiting the office. 

Old Ye first saw Chu Yu who was walking in the front. He smiled, and with a gentle expression, concernedly asked, “Has student Chu Yu’s illness gotten better?” 

His impression of Chu Yu was getting better and better. This student possessed a good temperament and a bright mind. When he wanted to study, he could calm down— at least, very few students could stake everything all in one breath and study for over half a month, and then achieve an exam score ranking in the first two hundred of his grade. Whether it was due to the bet or his youthful spirit, it all proved that this student was greatly capable.    

Chu Yu recalled the contents of the leave of absence Zhu Zhifei had described for him and promptly nodded. “Thank you, Sir. It’s much better now after taking medicine.” 

“Good good good. But still, you can’t just neglect your health on the basis of your young age.”

Old Ye caught a glimpse of Lu Shi who was a few steps behind him. “Lu Shi is here too ah. Have your family affairs been dealt with?”

Lu Shi nodded. “Mn, it’s been dealt with. Sir, I’ll head to the classroom first.”  

“Alright, go to your classmates to see the class notes of each subject from the past two days, don’t fall behind.”

Seeing Lu Shi walk towards the classroom, Chu Yu also wanted to follow. However, Old Ye remembered something and stopped him. “By the way, you had a bit of a problem with your poem writingThe written poem/poem writing they’re talking about is the one memorized from the book and written down as a test, different from poem composition. yesterday. Come, let’s talk in my office.”          

Old Ye carried the touch of a scholar’s refined temperament. When facing the students, he seldom spoke sternly. If something was the matter, it was always, ‘Come, let’s have a chat in my office’.       

But most of the students in Class A didn’t like chatting with Old Ye in his office because he’d speak too much. His talk could pilgrimage from Yao and Shun Era to the Western Paradise, and could go from Confucius’ eastward lobbying to cutting trees in Washington.  

From the pile of written poem papers, Old Ye singled out Chu Yu’s. “Your writing before the monthly exam was basically alright, but this time, there’s a little too many mistakes.” 

Chu Yu knew very well in his heart, it was absolutely not just a little too many.        

He hadn’t memorized it, not did he bother stealthily flipping through the book. He wrote a few words casually if he had an impression and left it blank if he didn’t.

Old Ye didn’t keep harping on as usual. He touched on the subject and left it there without saying too much. “If you can’t write it from memory, please memorize it carefully. You can head to the classroom to rest. No matter what happens, you can come and talk with Teacher.” 

Chu Yu exited the office and walked along the corridor to the classroom.

A sparrow landed on the railing, but soon fluttered its wings and flew away.          

Chu Yu remembered that during exam time, he’d stand in the corridor and take two breaths of fresh air in between classes, his mind full of poems and formulas circulating in a loop.

Before this, he himself couldn’t imagine that in order to accomplish one thing and reach his goal, he could work so hard.       

But what was the use?  

Chu Yu stopped thinking about it.          

As soon as Chu Yu went to his seat and sat down, Zhang Yueshan turned around. Covering the lower half of his face with a book, he asked in a low and muffled voice, “School Flower, did you arrive with Lu-Shen?”    

“Yeah, what’s the matter?”

Zhang Yueshan was worried. “Lu-Shen has a two-meter-eight aura fieldManifestation of his terrible mood, just dramatically explained by Zhang Yueshan. I’m guessing it’s a cold aura field based on the next sentence. today. There’s this feeling of getting frostbite when passing in front of him! I’ve been saving questions for two, three days now and wanted to ask, but I didn’t succeed in mustering up the courage!”          

Chu Yu came up with an idea. “Rep, how about you save up those questions again?”         

“Okay, when Lu-Shen feels better, I’ll ask then.”       

It was English class in the afternoon.

The English teacher entered the classroom carrying textbooks and lesson plans, and greeted them very vigorously only to receive a mediocre response.

It was easy to get sleepy in the afternoon, so many students were dozing off. Only the few in the front rows who had good grades responded energetically. Majority of the rest were displaying fancy sleeping positions.

The English teacher was very accustomed to this situation, having had a few conversations with the English class representative. Opening the English book, the English teacher asked Li Hua to get up and read the text aloud.

It may be because his name felt particularly cordialLi Hua’s name merely means plum flower or magnificent plum. The teacher might’ve felt the name cordial because it is often used as an example in textbooks. that the English teacher favored Li Hua so much, resulting in him never daring to doze off during English class.       

And since Chu Yu had earned a good score of 148 in the monthly English test, he’d quickly become a favorite for English teachers to call on and ask.       

Sure enough, as soon as Li Hua sat down, Chu Yu was called up to answer questions.   

Li Hua turned around and whispered, “Achieved the ‘second-to-be-asked’ consecutive accomplishment once again!”

Halfway through the class, Chu Yu lay down. Not because he was sleepy, after all, he’d slept well last night and didn’t get up early in the morning. He just couldn’t help thinking about the matter of this morning.      

The bloody cut created by a plastic straw, as well as Lu Shi’s gloomy expression as he smeared blood on his lips.

He began to contemplate them.

The first time he’d sucked Lu Shi’s blood was in the school infirmary. He wasn’t aware of it and even regarded it as a dream. Afterwards, Lu Shi had pulled apart his own clothes in the glass greenhouse and let him bite down.

From then on, he’d drink Lu Shi’s blood till he was full almost every day.          

Lu Shi’s attitude and reactions were too ordinary and taken for granted. As a result, Chu Yu seemed to have entered a blind spot and didn’t notice the abnormality.       

He and Lu Shi didn’t have a deep friendship or a close relationship. After all, it hadn’t been long since they met each other.      

But Lu Shi quickly accepted Chu Yu’s bloodthirsty nature and was even willing to donate blood every day without delay.

No, Lu Shi had even discovered this ‘bloodthirst’ before Chu Yu himself.

Chu Yu squeezed the pen and unconsciously drew countless disorderly black lines on the paper, tangled together like a ball of wool.

He suddenly realized that he needed Lu Shi’s blood – no – he needed only Lu Shi’s blood. This point seemed to hold a very special meaning for Lu Shi.

Therefore, when he went to carefully smell that odor this morning, Lu Shi reacted so fiercely and questioned why he wanted to smell someone else’s blood, and if it smelled better than his.     

At that moment, Chu Yu admitted that he’d been frightened to the point of not knowing how to answer.       

But looking back at it now, Lu Shi seemed to have been more scared than him.

Zhang Yueshan and Li Hua were the first to find something amiss.         

These two sitting in front of Chu Yu had been deeply moved by their relationship.

At the start, they had found each other disagreeable and were mutually repulsed by having to sit at the same table with the other. Then they had unexpectedly arranged their tables specifically in a row, one in front and one behind. Later on, it wasn’t known what had happened, but the two had begun exchanging a few words occasionally.

Afterwards, twice School Flower had spent every three days bringing chicken soup to Lu Shi who gave supplementary lessons to Chu Yu conscientiously.          

Due to these circumstances, they believed that the two had already entered into a harmonious relationship between front and back tables. They didn’t expect that in the blink of an eye, it would instantly resemble winter.

Zhang Yueshan rubbed his arms and lamented with a long tone, “Ah, it’s so cold.”   

Li Hua somewhat understood and also rubbed his arms, sighing with emotion. “Ai, it’s really cold! When will spring return?”       

The two looked at each other, both seeing the worry in the other’s eyes— when will this cold winter pass?

Dream-Ge, who came over to play, saw Zhang Yueshan and Li Hua brushing their arms and sneered. “Hahaha, you two weak chickens. I’ll let you guys play basketball with me so you can keep fit and have a healthy body. This won’t do, it isn’t even winter yet, but you’re cold to the point of getting goosebumps!”

Li Hua stated indistinctly, “You don’t understand.”  

Having said that, he carefully took a glance and found that Chu Yu was lying on his stomach, his posture unchanged. He didn’t know if he was asleep or not. Lu Shi was answering questions, the expression on his face much icier than before.  

At this moment, the cold ocean current from Western Siberia chilled his heart.   

The air pressure between the two people was getting lower and lower. Even until the end of the evening self-study, Chu Yu and Lu Shi hadn’t uttered a word.

Chu Yu looked back several times, but still didn’t say anything.         

He didn’t know what to say, or perhaps, he hadn’t fully figured it out yet.

The bell rang and Dream-Ge dashed out of the classroom back door holding his basketball. Zhang Yueshan and Li Hua tidied up their school bags, sent a meaningful glance to each other, and finally asked Chu Yu, “School Flower, the cafeteria, do you want to go together?”

Chu Yu’s mind was preoccupied, so his reaction was two seconds late before answering, “It’s fine, you guys go quickly ba. I won’t go, I’ll return straight to the dorm.”    

Without taking his textbooks, Chu Yu carried the comic book he hadn’t finished reading and stood up to leave.        

Lu Shi didn’t lift his eyelids.

Zhang Yueshan and Li Hua looked at each other again— it seemed that the arduously cultivated friendship between the front and back desks had already capsized.

It took Chu Yu an hour or two to finish reading the comic book, and he couldn’t even count the number of times he went into a daze in the process.

As he was preparing to get up and take a bath, his phone rang. It was Zhu Zhifei.

“School Flower, have you seen Lu-Ge?”    

“He’s not in the dormitory?”

“No, I went to his dorm room and knocked on the door, but he wasn’t there. Nor in the cafeteria as well. In fact, Lu-Ge’s an adult and I shouldn’t be nervous, but I’ve been a bit suspicious these past two days. I’m always worried that he’ll do something stimulating in his bad mood.” Zhu Zhifei sighed loudly. “I’m obviously only seventeen years old, but I unexpectedly possess an old mother’s heart!”

“It shouldn’t be,” Chu Yu comforted Zhu Zhifei, “I’ll also look for him at school. I’ll contact you later.”

The weather in October became cold at night after it rained.

Before Chu Yu left, he picked up a jacket in passing and once out the door, he noticed that it was Lu Shi’s.

After wearing it, he wasn’t able to return it. Lu Shi didn’t mention it and he also forgot.

Putting it on, Chu Yu went downstairs.

Street lights were lit everywhere in the school and the school building, under the dark blue sky, only left behind a dark silhouette.

When he got downstairs, Chu Yu wrapped the jacket close, only to realize that he didn’t even know where to find Lu Shi.

Lu Shi was very self-disciplined. His daily activities commenced in the classrooms, the dormitory, and the cafeteria. Occasionally, he went to the court with Dream-Ge to play basketball.

After thinking about it, Chu Yu decided to try his luck and went to the basketball court first to search.

It was already late and there was no one on the court. The street light next to it cast a bit of light, which was very fuzzy.

Chu Yu went in, looked around, and saw no one. He was about to switch to another place when out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a person sitting under the basketball hoop.

Almost at a glance, Chu Yu was sure that it was Lu Shi.

He walked over.

Lu Shi, who sat there, wasn’t surprised when he saw Chu Yu. “Hungry?”

“No.”

Chu Yu stood still for two seconds before sitting down next to Lu Shi.

The night breeze blew and the green shrubs planted by the side of the stadium rustled.

Such a scene reminded Chu Yu of when he had sat on the steps of the street park the night he found out he needed to consume blood. Lu Shi had also sat next to him in the same way.

Neither of them spoke.

After a long time, Chu Yu asked, “Does the wound on your finger… hurt?”

“Doesn’t hurt.”

Chu Yu wanted to refute him; how could it not hurt? Using a plastic straw to pierce a layer of skin, it seriously hurts just thinking about it.

He placed his heel on the ground and subconsciously rubbed twice.

“Lu Shi.”

“Mn.”

When the words arrived at the tip of his tongue, Chu Yu swallowed them back.

Lu Shi stood up before his entanglement could bear fruit and said, “Go back first.”

But the next second, his sleeve was pulled. The strength wasn’t heavy, but he couldn’t throw it off, leaving him unable to move in the slightest.

Chu Yu tightened his fingers that were holding onto the cloth. His voice wasn’t loud, rather his vocal cords were even dry. “It’s not like that.”

“What’s not like that?”

Chu Yu had a feeling that Lu Shi was waiting for him to express his stance.

It was like a tacit understanding.

Throughout the whole afternoon until the evening, Lu Shi had been waiting for his answer.

Or, for a guarantee.

Chu Yu raised his head and stared straight at Lu Shi’s lowered eyes, his every word very clear. “Only your blood smells good. Lu Shi, only you.”

Lu Shi’s thin eyelids drooped as he repeated in a low voice, “Only me?”

“En, only you.”

In an instant, all the gloomy, sharp thorns on Lu Shi’s body were pressed down into the deepest part of his heart once again following these words.

He smiled, like the moon cleaving through clouds.

The author has something to say: Here’s a moonlight shining on the ground, it’s also in the shape of a heart as my love for you~

－－－ －－－

Lu Shi’s behavior is very dangerous and painful, don’t imitate it!

• 1
• 2The written poem/poem writing they’re talking about is the one memorized from the book and written down as a test, different from poem composition.
• 3Manifestation of his terrible mood, just dramatically explained by Zhang Yueshan. I’m guessing it’s a cold aura field based on the next sentence.
• 4Li Hua’s name merely means plum flower or magnificent plum. The teacher might’ve felt the name cordial because it is often used as an example in textbooks.