Chapter 6: The Terrace

The family doctor came in twenty minutes.

He bent over Su Ye on the sofa in the sitting room and pressed along his ribs with two fingers.

Lu Chen stood by the window and felt every press.

"Two bruised ribs," the doctor said. "A sprained left wrist. A scrape on the shoulder that needs cleaning. You were lucky."

"I don't feel lucky," Su Ye said cheerfully. "I feel like I went down a staircase."

"You did."

"Then I'm very accurate."

The doctor wrapped the wrist in a tight bandage and left a tube of ointment on the table.

Su Ye's mother cried for ten minutes and then went to find the chairman.

His father paced and said, "Those stairs, those stairs, I told them years ago about the moss."

Su Lu sat on the arm of the sofa and stroked Su Ye's hair.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I was only a step behind you. I saw your foot go."

"It's okay," Su Ye said. "It's not your fault."

Lu Chen watched her hand move over his curls.

The hand was gentle.

Her eyes, when they met his across the room, were wet and worried.

He found nothing in her face at all that he could use.

When the room had finally emptied, Su Ye leaned his head back against the cushions.

"Okay," he said. "Come here."

Lu Chen crossed the carpet. "Does it hurt?"

"Everything hurts. Sit."

He sat on the low table, close.

Su Ye studied him with a small frown.

"You were there first," he said.

"What?"

"On the stairs. Su Lu says she screamed, and the others came running."

He shifted against the cushion.

"But when I opened my eyes, you were already kneeling next to me."

"I heard you fall."

"From the library? Through two doors?"

"I was in the corridor."

"You were buttoning your shirt," Su Ye said slowly. "You still had one button wrong."

Lu Chen looked down.

The third button of his shirt was in the second hole.

"You went white," Su Ye said, "before you even touched me. I saw your face."

He waited a beat.

"You looked like you'd been the one who fell."

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