At three in the morning, the rhythm of the saline dripping synced with the wall clock. When Chen Chunhua adjusted the air conditioner for the seventh time, she noticed Ye Qingliu carving a message on his arm with the tip of a hairpin.
The moonlight illuminated the bleeding skin, revealing a crooked "moon" character, exactly the same as the birthmark under Hua Jinyue's ribs.
"I've heard people say..." Chen Chunhua suddenly spoke, successfully freezing Ye Qingliu's movements, "There's an invisible thread between twins."
She lifted the hem of Ye Qingliu's pajamas, revealing the earthworm-shaped surgical scar. "When it hurts, someone else will shed tears for you."
The monitor's rhythm suddenly went haywire. As Ye Qingliu flung himself over the edge of the bed, Chen Chunhua quickly grabbed hold of Hua Jinyue's scrabbling left hand. Hua Jinyue's nails scratched fresh marks on Ye Qingliu's face, but Chen Chunhua guided her fingertips to her arm. "Come here, Auntie, there's softer flesh here."
When Hua Jinyue finally calmed down, Ye Qingliu was biting Chen Chunhua's cashmere shawl tightly and crying.
When the sound of water came from the bathroom of the VIP ward, Chen Chunhua quickly opened the medical record on the bedside table - the allergy history column clearly stated "phenobarbital", which was the main ingredient of the sedative that the Ye family had been giving Hua Jinyue for many years.
As the morning light stained the curtains blue, Chen Chunhua carried the unconscious boy to the accompanying bed. She gently pried open his fingers, which were clutching the blood-stained bandage, and found something that had been stuffed into his palm at some point—half a melted lemon candy.
She took a closer look and found that it was...
On the wings of the paper cranes made from candy wrappers, a crooked "thank you" was painted in blood.
As the first rays of sunlight filtered through the misty blue curtains, Hua Jinyue caught a whiff of the burnt aroma of honey pancakes. Blinking the morning dew from her eyelashes, she noticed a faded red string tied around her right wrist, a fabric blue Morpho butterfly pinned to the knot—a creation Chen Chunhua had made overnight by dismantling a headband.
"Brother's eyelashes fell here." Chen Chunhua's voice was mixed with the crisp sound of the porcelain spoon hitting the edge of the bowl.
Hua Jinyue turned around and saw Ye Qingliu curled up on the edge of the sofa bed, holding her rabbit doll with the buttons missing in his arms, and the horizontal lines of the medical record book were still imprinted on his cheek.
The sunlight dyed the tips of Ye Qingliu's hair amber, and the erect thorns finally softened.
The little girl reached for the glass jar on the bedside table, but Chen Chunhua snatched it up first, bringing out the cherry blossom jelly. Translucent rose quartz swayed in the morning light, and Hua Jinyue suddenly tapped a silver spoon with a tinkling sound.
The moment Ye Qingliu woke up, his sister put a spoon dipped in nectar to his lips. The moment the sweetness exploded on the tip of his tongue, the tips of the six-year-old boy's ears turned coral red.
"Butterflies... dancing..." Hua Jinyue pointed at the IV stand. Ye Qingliu followed her finger and saw Chen Chunhua standing on tiptoe to adjust the drip rate. The blue Morpho butterfly brooch pinned to the corner of her white coat fluttered, ready to take flight.
He had slipped it into her pocket this morning in exchange for the chocolate the nurse had given her.
When the first true blue morpho butterfly hit the ward glass, Hua Jinyue was feeding cherry blossom jelly into her brother's mouth. Ye Qingliu opened his mouth awkwardly, but accidentally let a drop of nectar slip down his chin.
The moment Chen Chunhua raised her mobile phone to take a photo, the two children suddenly reached out to touch each other's cheeks at the same time, and when their fingertips touched, they burst into laughter for the first time since being hospitalized.
A flock of blue morpho butterflies suddenly surged outside the window like a tide, and Hua Jinyue cheered and pointed to the sky.
Ye Qingliu took advantage of the chaos to stuff something into Chen Chunhua's apron pocket. It was a paper star he had folded while hiding in the bathroom at three in the morning, and it was wrapped with jade chips that he had knocked off his jade bracelet.
The sunlight finally flooded the backs of the brother and sister's folded hands, and Chen Chunhua pretended not to notice the secret in her pocket.
She turned on the music box, and this time the "Moonlight Sonata" that flowed out no longer had intermittent noises - the last note she secretly added last night resonated perfectly with Hua Jinyue's heartbeat.
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