Chapter 16
At the First Hospital of S City, Yan Qing silently walked out of the neurosurgery specialist clinic, holding a thick stack of examination reports in her hand.
After Qiao Yi was admitted to the hospital with an arm injury, Dr. Lu arranged for him to undergo another comprehensive examination.
Today, Yan Qing brought Qiao Yi's latest test results here to try her luck. However, the doctors here did not give a different answer, and were even more blunt: "His tumor cells have metastasized, and there is no better option than the current treatment plan. Continue with radiotherapy, and consider surgery if the situation changes. Don't think about anything else, just live your life as usual."
Live life as it comes. Yan Qing pondered this sentence repeatedly. Was it a hint about the ending? A reminder not to be too attached, because that day was inevitable and would eventually come?
Since Qiao Yi was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Yan Qing has been tormented by fear and worry. Qiao Yi's condition fluctuates, and her heart is constantly battered by these anxieties. The shadow of death draws closer to her day by day, and she often falls into nightmares in the middle of the night.
What's even harder to bear is that her senses haven't become numb to this kind of life; on the contrary, they've become even more acute and sensitive. She can clearly feel that time truly exists, and that the hourglass of Qiao Yi's life is relentlessly flowing away. Every time before returning to Anchuan, she's gripped by a wave of panic. She fears that one day, she'll arrive at the Anchuan Waterworks staff quarters, the only place she can call home, only to find that no one answers the door.
She had been searching for refuge. Now, she finally realized that modern medicine could not rewrite Qiao Yi's fate, and her fervent prayers had failed to win divine mercy. Perhaps, as Qiao Yi said, what she had been desperately trying to protect all these years was nothing more than an imagined light, a final illusion of "home."
Thinking of all this, her hand trembled, and the medical report fell to the ground. She came to her senses and tried to bend down to pick it up, but another pair of hands snatched it away first. The scattered medical reports were neatly gathered and handed back to her.
Upon seeing Zhuge Xiaoxiang standing opposite her, Yan Qing was stunned and didn't have time to wipe away the tears in her eyes.
Surrounded by lush greenery and the fragrance of lilacs, she realized she had unknowingly wandered into the hospital garden.
"Have a seat," Zhuge said, pointing to the bench beside him.
They sat down side by side on the chairs. Zhuge Xiaoxiang handed her a tissue without asking any questions.
The garden, located downstairs from the inpatient ward, is a peaceful and tranquil space where many hospitalized patients stroll and chat. If it weren't for their uniform hospital gowns, no one would associate this scene with illness or pain.
On the winding cobblestone path, a girl in a hospital gown ran towards them, waving as she went. As she got closer, she saw Yan Qing sitting next to Zhuge Xiaoxiang. Her hurried steps stopped a few meters away, and she gently lowered her raised hand.
Yan Qing reminded him, "Senior, it seems someone is looking for you."
Zhuge Xiaoxiang looked over, said to Yan Qing, "Excuse me," and walked towards the girl.
Through Zhuge Xiaoxiang, Yan Qing observed the girl's partially visible face. The girl was no more than twenty years old, with a delicate and quiet face and a pair of large, watery eyes. Her slender body was huddled in a large hospital gown, making her look frail.
Yan Qing noticed that she was wearing a white Minnie Mouse headband with beaded floral veils, exactly the same as the one Zhuge Xiaoxiang had given her.
They talked for a while, then the girl nodded and walked towards the inpatient department.
“This is…my sister,” Zhuge Xiaoxiang said to Yan Qing.
Yan Qing asked, "Is she alright?"
"Hmm, it's not a big problem."
They walked side by side out of the hospital.
Zhuge Xiaoxiang hesitated before saying, "That headband... I thought children would like it, so I got one for her too."
Yan Qing was completely oblivious to the implication in his words: "Yes, senior is very thoughtful."
"You don't mind?"
"What?" Yan Qing didn't understand what he meant for a moment.
"I mean, I gave her the same headband."
Yan Qing smiled and said, "Of course I don't mind. How could you think of me as so stingy as to want a unique gift?"
Zhuge Xiaoxiang didn't reply. Only after a dozen seconds did she say, "You are unique to me."
Yan Qing paused, falling a step behind Zhuge Xiaoxiang. The other woman turned around, shielding herself from the blinding midday sun.
Yan Qing was somewhat dazed. Backlit, she couldn't see his face clearly, but she felt there was something in it that she didn't possess.
Back in the dorm, Gu Feimeng immediately noticed Yan Qing's absent-mindedness. After a barrage of questioning, Yan Qing hesitantly said, "Senior Zhuge seems... seems..."
"Seems like he's interested in you?" Before Yan Qing could finish speaking, Gu Feimeng guessed the answer first. She slapped her thigh, sounding like she'd just realized something: "No wonder he gave you this headband. This isn't a headband, it's clearly a wedding veil! Even the great Zhuge Liang has fallen for Qingqing's charm. Is he so eager to skip the dating process and go straight to proposing?"
Yan Qing stared at the hairband she had carefully stored on the shelf in the cabinet, her mind lost in confusion.
After the three-day holiday, Yan Qing came to the Shen family's house for class as scheduled, but was told that her access card was invalid when she entered the community.
She dialed the doorbell, and Secretary Gao answered.
"Ms. Yan, I'm sorry, I forgot to inform you that your probation period has ended early, and you don't need to come back anymore."
Yan Qing was taken aback: "But..."
"No buts needed. You haven't been to class for three days in a row, which constitutes absenteeism. What buts are needed? With such a frivolous and casual work attitude, how can you face us and President Shen's trust in you?"
"Who is it?" A sweet, girlish voice rang in from the doorbell. It was Wu Yanying.
Secretary Gao immediately changed her tone: "It's nothing, it's nothing. He was a temporary worker, he's been dismissed."
Turning back, he lowered his voice and said, "The finance department will settle your probationary period salary. That's all. Please leave!"
The woman condescendingly told her to leave and then hung up.
Yan Qing stood there blankly for a while, staring at the doorbell call button whose screen was off.
"Why are you back so early?" Gu Feimeng asked, puzzled, looking at Yan Qing who had left just an hour ago.
"I got fired," Yan Qing replied.
"Who's so arrogant? Is it that shrew?"
Yan Qing sighed and sat down wearily in a chair: "I took three days off, which angered the students' parents."
"She's no student's parent, she's more like a high-class nanny!" Gu Feimeng raised her eyebrows. "How can there be such a difficult person in the world? Her heart is uglier than her appearance! Doesn't that Shen Hanyang have any class? Other people's secretaries are all fair-skinned, beautiful, and have long legs, but he hired a mother for himself, and a meddlesome one at that, bossing everyone around. I really don't know what he was thinking!"
Gu Feimeng grew angrier and angrier, and was about to call Shen Hanyang to confront him. Yan Qing quickly calmed her down.
"Forget it, Mengmeng. They probably weren't very satisfied with me from the start, and they only hired me because of Jiaming. It's better if I quit. I can go back and take care of Qiao Yi during my remaining month of vacation."
Although Yan Qing said that, she still felt regretful about losing a high-paying part-time job. After all, life requires money, and Qiao Yi's illness requires even more money...
Before dinner, Gu Feimeng's mother drove to pick her up to go home, and also brought some local specialties and snacks for Yan Qing. Gu Feimeng was dragged away by her mother without any resistance, leaving Yan Qing alone in the dormitory again.
A typhoon is coming, and the storm is approaching the city.
Lying in bed, Yan Qing's thoughts drifted to the staff quarters of the Anchuan Waterworks. Before leaving, she prepared a refrigerator full of steamed buns, fruits, and vegetables for Qiao Yi. She also made a simple stew with diced tofu, carrots, potatoes, and minced pork, which she then froze and stored in portions. Qiao Yi only needed to use his less-than-nimble left hand to cook some noodles and vegetables, along with a little frozen stew, to prepare a meal.
The first Qiao Yi she met couldn't even boil an egg, and she couldn't remember when he learned to cook.
She recalled her first meeting with Qiao Yi. She was dressed in tattered clothes, as thin as a bean sprout, dragged into the back room by her aunt, Meng Xianglan, and forced into a wooden tub for showering. A set of slightly worn clothes lay beside the tub. Meng Xianglan snapped, "Hurry up and wash! Change your clothes afterward! Keep your mouth shut, or I'll kill you!" After showering and changing into clean clothes, Yan Qing stared blankly at herself in the mirror. The clothes were a beautiful pink suit sent by Qiao Yi's mother, Jiang Xiaoman, in the spring. Along with it came imported milk powder, Xinjiang apple jam, and Yunnan yak jerky. Jiang Xiaoman had said on the phone, "Drink the milk powder before bed every day, eat the apple jam with bread, and take the jerky to school for breaks. You're too thin; you need to supplement your nutrition." Yan Qing couldn't tell her that Meng Xianglan had given the new clothes to her niece, and that the nutritional supplements and snacks had all ended up in the stomachs of Feng Xin and his son, Feng Yiming. Today, Jiang Xiaoman brought her son to visit her, and Meng Xianglan hurriedly retrieved the clothes she had originally given to Yan Qing from her niece's house.
Back then, Qiao Yi was a healthy teenager, aloof and uninterested in anything rural, always playing on his iPad with his head down. Yan Qing brought him a plate of fresh cucumbers, but he only glanced at it and said, "I don't eat raw cucumbers."
While Feng Xin, Meng Xianglan, and Jiang Xiaoman were chatting and trying to get closer to each other, Yan Qing secretly watched. Qiao Yi looked similar to Jiang Xiaoman, with a regular face, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, but he didn't inherit Jiang Xiaoman's tall and slender figure; instead, he was chubby from head to toe. Having learned to read people since childhood, Yan Qing guessed that Qiao Yi definitely didn't like her. Who would like a stranger with no blood relation who had inexplicably taken over her mother's attention?
But later, somehow the two became acquainted. Qiao Yi asked her, "Who's more handsome, me or Harrison Ford?" Yan Qing had no idea about this foreign name. After looking at Qiao Yi's phone wallpaper, she thought for a moment and said, "A little thinner than you." Qiao Yi put his phone away, muttering a few words to himself. Then he picked up a cucumber from the table and took a big bite. A few weeks later, Qiao Yi told her on the phone, "Your cucumbers are pretty sweet. Get me some more next time. I only eat cucumbers at night now, and I've lost 0.5 pounds in a week."
One memory after another, like a turning millstone, heavily and endlessly rolled over her mind. It wasn't until the night was more than half over and the sky was tinged with gray that she finally drifted into a light sleep.
A phone call shattered the dormitory's silence; it was Secretary Gao. Secretary Gao's tone was unfriendly, immediately launching into a accusatory question: "Jiaming had a badge that cost over ten thousand yuan, and I heard you took it."
Yan Qing quickly got out of bed and found the teary-eyed Ran Mouri badge in the drawer. If it weren't for Secretary Gao's call, she would have almost forgotten about this little trinket.
She looked out the window; dark clouds were gathering in the sky, and a storm was lurking behind them, ready to erupt at any moment.
She nervously asked Secretary Gao if she could return it another day when the weather was better. Secretary Gao firmly refused.
"The badge is worth over 10,000 yuan, making it an indisputably valuable item. Please return it immediately, or we will consider calling the police!"
Yan Qing put down her phone and silently went to the bathroom to wash up. After washing up and changing, she wrapped the tearful Ran Mouri badge in two plastic bags and put it in the innermost pocket of her backpack.
She glanced out the window one last time, then picked up her old umbrella and stepped into the dark sky.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
