Chapter 44 She didn't even want the child who bit her; she just wanted Anan to live...
Song Kaifeng felt a sharp pain in the web of his right hand, where four teeth marks were clearly imprinted.
The evening breeze still carried a wave of heat, and he and Meng Yiqiong looked at the newcomer in surprise.
Tianle stood beside Meng Yiqiong, staring at him fiercely.
The teeth marks were deep, even stained with blood. Song Kaifeng hid his right hand behind his back, preventing Meng Yiqiong from seeing it, his brows furrowed tightly: "Are you a dog? You bite me right away?"
Meng Yiqiong quickly stepped forward, blocking half of Tianle's body, and whispered, "Stand aside!" Then she turned to Song Kaifeng and said, "Excuse me, are you alright? I'll go get you a band-aid."
Hearing her speak up for the newcomer, Song Kaifeng's tense demeanor softened slightly, and he politely replied, "No need. Do you know each other?"
He probably saw Tianle run out of the same building, barefoot and wearing a blue sleeveless pajama top. Meng Yiqiong had no choice but to explain, "Oh, that's my neighbor."
"Neighbor? I've never seen him before?" Song Kaifeng wrapped his hand with his tie, looked at Tianle behind Meng Yiqiong who was still baring his fangs at him, and thought that he should go get a rabies shot first.
Meng Yiqiong smiled awkwardly and circled her fingers around her temples a few times: "He just moved in. He's a bit..."
Song Kaifeng understood, and became even less concerned about Tianle. He said quite generously, "Then go upstairs, see you tomorrow."
He opened his arms slightly, making a gesture as if preparing to hug.
A few maple leaves fell, and it even hurt a little.
Something suddenly bumped into Song Kaifeng's arms. Caught off guard, he lost his balance, and the scenery before his eyes fell backward. Before he could react, he tumbled into the nearby green belt.
With several marks on his tie from the resin, Song Kaifeng abandoned all pretense, got up, and threw a punch.
It was right around the time people were heading home from get off work, and many neighbors had gathered to watch the spectacle.
Meng Yiqiong quickly separated the two of them, comforted Song Kaifeng for a few words, and went upstairs without looking back.
Tianle eagerly followed behind her.
As soon as she entered, the rich aroma of fish soup wafted towards her. Something else seemed to be frying, the oil sizzling in the pan, the meaty scent stirring her most primal animal instincts.
Meng Yiqiong sighed, turned around, patted Tianle's blond hair, and went to find the medicine bottle.
The two sat on the sofa. As soon as Meng Yiqiong raised her hand to tuck a stray hair behind her ear, Tianle instinctively curled up and peeked at her expression with trepidation.
Meng Yiqiong directly applied the cotton swab soaked in medicated wine to his bruised forehead.
The coldness mixed with the pressure made Tianle instinctively grit his teeth, but he immediately realized that his master was doing it for his own good.
He knew that his master had always been good to him.
The intimidating expression he wore when he was homeless in the junkyard was now twisted into a strange, fawning smile, lest it be misinterpreted as an attack. Tianle quickly curled his protruding front teeth back with his tongue, letting out a puppy-like whimper.
Meng Yiqiong was somewhat annoyed: "Haven't I told you so many times? Why did you bite again? And fight?"
Tianle twitched his ears: "But he touched your hand..."
When? Meng Yiqiong recalled for a moment, "Oh... well, it wasn't touching hands, it was shaking hands. On the way back, he happened to be talking about a collaborative project, and I was just thanking him."
As she spoke, Meng Yiqiong put her four fingers together and extended them towards him. She also made Tianle do the same, and then they took the initiative to put their palms together, clasp their thumbs together, and shake them up and down a few times.
"Look, this is called a handshake, a very common form of etiquette in human society. Remember that."
The owner's fingers are so long and slender, but the fingertips are cool to the touch. The nails are a healthy pink, unlike his, which have a bluish-white tinge that only appears during his metamorphosis period.
But the handshake my master taught me before—oh, my master says we don't call it paws anymore, we call it hands—shouldn't it be placed on top of each other's hands, not flat like this…
"Hey! What are you looking at?" Meng Yiqiong tapped his tiger's mouth with a cotton swab and pulled her hand back. "The thing to note is that you can't hold on to someone's handshake for long, otherwise it's not polite, but an offense."
"Yes, Master, I understand. But, but..."
Meng Yiqiong glanced at him: "And what is it then?"
"He wants to hug you too. Master, you've said before that you'll only hug someone when you like them and want to express your love. That's what you always said when you hugged me..."
Um... how should I explain to him that there are many meanings to a hug?
His gaze returned, the galaxy in his eyes frozen, the brilliance that always flowed in the shadows congealed into shards of glass, each fragment reflecting a misty rain.
His brown eyes appeared even paler in the sunlight, like some distant, unattainable dream.
The rice cooker suddenly beeped, pulling Meng Yiqiong back to reality. Something was wrong; why did she feel a little guilty? She'd been led astray.
A hug is a hug, perfectly normal, no explanation needed.
Meng Yiqiong tidied up the medicine bottles: "Actually..."
Tianle suddenly pressed his forehead against Meng Yiqiong's shoulder blade, a gesture somewhere between canine dependence and human weariness: "Master, I understand, I won't ask anymore."
He paused, his warm breath tickling Meng Yiqiong's neck.
"Let's eat." Tianle was the first to leave the sofa and go to the kitchen to get the food.
What right does he have to ask? There are many people in the master's world. She can shake hands, hug, and kiss them; those people can be friends, colleagues, or lovers. But he is just an appendage of the master. If he continues to bite, hit, attack, and be jealous of others without any sense of propriety, the master will abandon him.
He no longer dared to care, no longer dared to be angry, and no longer dared to ask questions.
Besides, he encountered Jianjie today.
Tianle knew that Jianjie was a closer friend than the girl in the blue dress and the girl in the white pants from that day. Therefore, the host did not hide his affairs from her.
Sister Jianjie told him that people need money to live in this world. They need money to buy many things to survive, and he couldn't just eat and live there for free; he had to earn money.
Just as he was still trying to figure out a way out, Jianjie said that she had already found a place where people could make money as long as they were hardworking and didn't have any special skills.
Jianjie also told him not to let the owner know yet, but to use the money he earned to buy the owner a gift and give her a surprise.
He loved Jianjie so much that he believed everything she said. Moreover, Jianjie's sister taught him how to send messages and make phone calls, and even bought him a cell phone.
At that moment, Jianjie, who was sitting in her office, received a text message from Tianle and walked to the wall, opening a door.
Her office faced Meng Yiqiong's hospital across the distance. The location was excellent; behind it was a sizable herbal medicine plantation, where she and Meng Yiqiong had met.
Jianjie had been in poor health since childhood, and the plantation was half for commercial use and half for personal use. Later, Meng Yiqiong miraculously cured her long-standing illness.
At this moment, the wooden door within the barrier slowly rotated, revealing another ice chamber, identical in shape, layout, and materials to Meng Yiqiong's. Even the number of bricks on each layer and the length of the brick joints were meticulously measured, with no room for error.
Even the clothes she's wearing now are imitating Meng Yiqiong's style. However, she's very sensitive about people saying she looks like Doctor Meng.
In the very center of the ice room, there was an ice bed, on which lay a man who had long since lost his breath.
The ice bed was surrounded by a circle of roses, all of which she had sewn on one by one.
The man's large belly was still swollen high, like a grave mound, where their child was quietly growing.
The man was pale and calm, the lingering pain gone, and he lay in eternal sleep.
Meng Yiqiong replaced the rosebuds with fresh ones, sprinkled them with water, and offered them to her beloved Anan.
Originally, they were an enviable and loving couple. Anan felt sorry for her weak health and took the initiative to conceive.
No one expected that Anan, who had always been in good health, would have problems during childbirth.
Her best friend is the best obstetrician in the country, and Anan had all her checkups done by Meng Yiqiong throughout her pregnancy, and there were never any problems.
Anan was in pain for three whole days but still couldn't give birth. Meng Yiqiong looked at the pocket watch in her hand and said there was nothing she could do.
It was pouring rain that day. Inside the door, Anan's groans grew louder and louder; outside the door, she knelt down, begging Meng Yiqiong to save his life.
The moment she knelt down, the rain blurred the line between her knees and the flagstones. Her fingernails weren't filled with mud, but with the residue of Coptis chinensis leaves she'd picked up while preparing medicine for her husband the day before.
She didn't want the child anymore; she just wanted Anan to live.
In the end, all that remained was the fact that Anan, carrying her unborn child, lay buried there forever.
She delayed the burial because she was searching for the possibility of resurrecting Anan.
Meng Yiqiong had saved her life, but over the years, the Jian family had also given her all they could, expanding the hospital, publicizing her deeds, and providing equipment. She regarded Meng Yiqiong as her benefactor and treated her like a mentor.
But she, who could have saved him with a flick of her finger, coldly and ruthlessly told her that Anan's life was over.
Today, she heard people in the hospital talking about Meng Yiqiong's amazing skills again. Gan Lu and Mei Tang walked down the corridor, their faces filled with admiration no less than she had back then.
That Mr. Zhang was just an ordinary patient, a complete stranger whose full name she didn't even know, yet she was willing to pull him back from the brink of death. Wasn't she supposed to get along well with that Lu Nanxing? She was willing to save Mr. Lu's rival in love, so why wasn't she willing to save Anan back then?
Meng Yiqiong, she's heartless. Jianjie also felt a pang of regret; she shouldn't have trusted her so much. If she had gone to find another doctor sooner, perhaps Anan wouldn't be lying here.
Later, she studied medicine diligently, especially obstetrics, and became a doctor with considerable renown. Last month, she even delivered a baby for a man who could swear loudly.
Now, she has Tianle in her hands.
She just wanted to see if Meng Yiqiong, her own child, her own man, would you save him?
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Author's Note: Wow, so many names are needed for an episodic story... [emoji]
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