When The Snow Falls In Autumn Chapter 56

Chapter 56

The air in the Library’s Ancient Book Restoration Department is always heavier and quieter than elsewhere.Time seems to be frozen here by the sticky smell of old paper and fine dust, flowing extremely slowly.The thin sunlight in the afternoon shines through the high windows, cut into regular gratings by the window lattice, and casts diagonally on the long dark brown oak table, illuminating the slowly flying dust in the air as fine as gold powder.

Ye Qiulan was sitting in his usual seat, with several photocopies of the flora and folklore of the Yongzhou area that had just been borrowed from the Special Collections Department spread out in front of him.The pen tip rustled across the notebook, recording sporadic descriptions that might be related to “Qing Ai”.It had been a few days since Ling Xueqing recovered from his illness. The illness, the dimly lit room, and the brief conversation about “Qing Ai” and “Qing Ru” were all like a thin veil separated by a slight dampness, becoming a little hazy, but yet imprinted in a corner of his memory with incomparable clarity.

They haven’t seen each other alone in the past few days.Ling Xueqing seemed to have returned to her usual rhythm, and her email exchanges were concise and efficient. When they occasionally met in the library, they would just nod across the long table and bury their heads in the stacks of books.Everything seems to be back on track with clarity and restraint.But Ye Qiulan knew that something was different.Occasionally she would raise her head, her gaze passing over Ling Xueqing’s hair that was hanging down when she lowered her head, or her well-jointed fingers holding the pen, and a very subtle, unfamiliar throb would arise in her heart, which would soon be suppressed and turned into more focused scratches from the pen tip.

Ling Xueqing is here today.She sat diagonally across from her by the window. What was spread out in front of her was not a book, but a stack of thick portfolios with frayed edges and several large sheets of tracing paper.She frowned slightly, holding a pair of extremely fine tweezers in her hand, and was carefully picking out some fragile-looking, gray-colored scraps of paper from the file bag, trying to piece together a certain shape on the tracing paper.The sun fell on her focused profile, the straight bridge of her nose cast a clear shadow, and her lips were slightly pursed due to exertion.

Ye Qiulan recognized those things.It was the damaged fragments of a certain local document from the Qing Dynasty that was involved in their team’s previous report and was unfortunately damaged to a certain extent in the theft incident.Ling Xueqing seems to be trying to perform the most basic relocation and morphological recording of the fragments, which is one of the most tedious pre-steps in the restoration work and the most demanding of patience and vision.

She did it slowly and carefully.Every movement of the tweezers tip was astonishingly stable, and the breathing was extremely light, as if afraid of disturbing those fragile fibers that had been sleeping for hundreds of years.She was completely unaware of the beads of sweat on her forehead. She only occasionally raised her left hand and wiped it quickly with the inside of her wrist, her eyes never leaving the pieces in her hand.

Ye Qiulan watched, and the slight astringency in his heart caused by a few days of alienation was replaced by a purer emotion, almost admiration.Ling Xueqing’s attitude towards these old scraps is always with an almost pious concentration and patience, which is another silent and powerful force in her.

Time passes in silence.Occasionally, other students would come in and out of the reading area, and their footsteps would be soft.Occasionally the shadows of birds flitted outside the window.

After an unknown amount of time, Ling Xueqing’s movements suddenly stopped.She maintained her posture of leaning close to the table, her hand holding the tweezers hanging in the air, her fingertips trembling almost imperceptibly.Her brows were knitted tighter, her face looked a little too pale in the sunlight, and the sweat on her forehead seemed to be getting more intense.

Ye Qiulan noticed something strange about her, put down his pen, and asked softly: “What’s wrong?”

Ling Xueqing did not answer immediately.She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her eyes were a little unfocused, as if she was trying hard to focus.She unconsciously pressed her temples with her left hand, and her voice was hoarse than usual: “…it’s okay. It’s a bit boring.”

Bored?The air conditioning in the library is turned on moderately and is not too hot.Ye Qiulan’s heart tightened as he looked at her increasingly pale face and slightly trembling fingertips.Did you not fully recover from your illness last time?Or…

At this moment, an extremely subtle, vague breath penetrated into Ye Qiulan’s nasal cavity very suddenly.

It’s very light and cold, like the first snow condensed on pine needles in late winter, and like the first ray of ice melted by the sun in an ancient forest.It’s crisp, awe-inspiring, with a chill that can’t be seen from thousands of miles away, but strangely… fascinating.

This smell… Ye Qiulan had never smelled it before.It was not the astringent smell of old books in the library, nor the smell of camphor wood insect repellent, nor any other ordinary smell she recognized.It’s so special and so… aggressive.Even though it was extremely weak, it instantly penetrated all the dull air around her and was clearly captured by her.

She is a Beta.Beta’s perception of pheromones has always been slow, and many times he is even unaware of it.But at this moment, this aura existed so clearly, and… it seemed to be coming from the direction of Ling Xueqing.

Ye Qiulan was stunned, and his heart skipped a beat.An absurd but reasonable guess instantly grabbed her—Alpha’s pheromone.Ling Xueqing is Alpha, and the cedar cold fragrance in her body that has been tightly suppressed all year round and is almost undetectable…is out of control?Even just a trace?

She looked at Ling Xueqing.Ling Xueqing seemed to realize something.Her body suddenly tensed up, and the fingers holding the tweezers tightened until the knuckles turned white. Her other hand quickly reached for the backpack placed at her feet, with a rare urgency in her movements, which could even be said to be panic.She lowered her head and rummaged for something in her bag. Her profile was stiff, her lips were pursed into a pale straight line, and an abnormal, bright red color quickly spread to the roots of her ears.

She’s looking for odor blockers.Ye Qiulan knew that Ling Xueqing always carried the small bottle with him and sprayed it regularly, almost obsessively maintaining the absolute “cleanness” of the pheromones.

But at this moment, the cold cedar breath, instead of being suppressed by the barrier agent, seemed to have broken free of some kind of beast that had been restrained for a long time, spreading out more and more clearly.Although it is still very light, far from the so-called “overflow” level, for a Beta, this is an unprecedented and clear perception.

Ling Xueqing finally took out the familiar silver vial from her bag.She unscrewed the lid, but her fingers trembled so much that she couldn’t aim it right the first time.She closed her eyes forcefully, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, an almost fierce determination flashed in her eyes. She stabilized her wrists and sprayed the side of her neck and wrists quickly and silently a few times.

The faint “bah” sound was particularly clear in the silence.

Almost immediately, the scent of the cold, cold fragrance was suddenly gathered and isolated by an invisible barrier, quickly weakened and dissipated. In the end, only a very faint, vague aftertaste was left, lingering in a very small area around Ling Xueqing’s body, no longer spreading outwards.

But the perception at that moment was clearly imprinted on Ye Qiulan’s consciousness.She watched Ling Xueqing finish all this, watched her hold the vial tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white from the exertion, watched her slightly rising chest and drooped eyelids that covered all emotions.

Ling Xueqing did not raise her head or explain.She just maintained that posture, motionless, as if she was calming her breathing, and as if she was resisting some inner shock.The sunlight shining on her body seemed to be unable to warm the cold tightness that suddenly enveloped her body.

The reading area was still quiet, and no one seemed to notice this brief strangeness.Other students were either wearing headphones or immersed in books.Only Ye Qiulan, from a few steps away, clearly witnessed the whole process, and also clearly…perceived it.

Her heart was beating fast and her palms were a little sweaty.Not out of fear or rejection.Rather, it was a kind of…mixed with shock, confusion, and an indescribable slight tremor that was allowed to peek into the other party’s most secret background.

It turns out that this is what Ling Xueqing has been tightly controlling.It turns out that this is how the crisp cedar scent feels when it really exists.Cold and alienated, but with a sense of pure power that cannot be ignored.Like her.

Ling Xueqing’s loss of control and panic at that moment, as well as her almost lonely tension at this moment, made the sourness in Ye Qiulan’s heart become more complicated.Ling Xueqing was carrying far more and heavier things than she imagined.Not only the separation of the family, the mother’s illness, the academic rigor, but also the inherent instinct of this Alpha body that requires constant vigilance and suppression.

Why did she lose control?Is it because the body has not recovered yet?Is it because you were too focused on repairing the fragments and wasted your mind?Or…something else?

Ling Xueqing finally moved.She raised her head extremely slowly. Her eyes first fell on the scattered fragments on the table. She paused for a few seconds, and then, as if she had exhausted all her strength, she turned to Ye Qiulan.

Her eyes returned to their usual calmness, but beneath that silence was a bottomless, frozen lake.There were no waves on the lake, but it was bone-chillingly cold.Her face was still pale, and only the redness at the base of her ears, which had not completely faded away, revealed that it was not an illusion.

Her lips moved, as if she wanted to say something.But in the end, only two words were uttered very softly and almost inaudibly:

“Sorry.”

The voice was dry and hoarse, with an almost fragile tiredness that Ye Qiulan had never heard before.

Ye Qiulan’s heart felt as if something had squeezed it hard, feeling sore and swollen.She wanted to say “It’s okay”, “You don’t have to apologize”, she wanted to say “Are you okay”…but all the words were stuck in her throat and she couldn’t say a word.She just looked at Ling Xueqing, her frozen eyes, and her tightly pursed lips that had lost their color.

Ling Xueqing avoided her gaze, lowered her head again, and looked at the fragments.She stretched out her hand, and her fingertips seemed to want to pick up the tweezers again, but her fingertips paused in the air, trembling slightly, and finally took them back, clenched them into fists, and placed them on her knees.

She did not continue working, nor did she leave.Just sitting like that, with his back straight, like a solid sculpture bearing invisible weight.The sunlight moved across her body, spots slowly creeping over her shoulders, her arms, her clenched fists.

The cold scent of cedar that had been forcibly restrained seemed to still have a very faint aftertaste, lingering stubbornly around her, and floating in the direction of Ye Qiulan.

Ye Qiulan didn’t move either.She withdrew her gaze and looked again at the notebook and the spread flora in front of her.But the writing on it was all blurred and turned into meaningless ink balls.

The library is still quiet and time is still sticky.But everything is different.The wisp of cold fragrance that briefly lost control and was quickly sealed, the dry “sorry”, and Ling Xueqing’s silent and straight back at the moment, together formed an invisible but extremely clear crack, which lay between them and was imprinted in the air of this dull afternoon.

Ye Qiulan held the pen, his fingertips were cold.She knew that some boundaries were being crossed unintentionally.Some things that had always existed in imagination and belonged to another hidden world of Ling Xueqing were revealed in an unexpected way.

And this corner was cold and heavy, with the loneliness and restraint that was unique to Ling Xueqing, and also with a hint of… the true temperature that only her slow Beta could clearly capture at that moment.