Xu, Shi, Yue.
The little girl's self-introduction was simple and calm, and Lu Shizhen mentally went over the name as well.
The name sounds quite nice, better than any of the other young patients she knows.
Thinking of this, Lu Shizhen asked again, "So you're also a patient at this hospital? I've never seen you before?"
Xu Shiyue's gaze fell on the words embroidered on Lu Shizhen's hospital gown, and she said, "I think I shouldn't be a patient at your hospital."
Her voice was so calm, as if she were stating something that didn't even amount to anything.
Having grown accustomed to seeing her peers around her somber and saddened, their eyes red from crying because of illness, Xu Shiyue's current behavior was somewhat unexpected and also somewhat admirable to Lu Shizhen.
Perhaps because they were fellow patients, Lu Shizhen felt much less distant from Xu Shiyue.
She looked at the little girl standing in front of her, and following her logic, looked at the embroidery on the chest of her clothes.
"S University Affiliated Hospital..."
Over the years, her family has taken Lu Shizhen to many hospitals for medical treatment.
I climbed up the ranks, big and small, until I arrived at this place, the best hospital in the country.
So although Lu Shizhen was young, she had some understanding and impression of hospitals of all sizes in China, but...
“It seems we don’t have this hospital here…” Lu Shizhen said cautiously, her voice filled with disbelief, “And it seems there isn’t a city like S in the country either.”
“We don’t have a city like yours where we live.” Xu Shiyue nodded in agreement, then looked at the long corridor behind her that led to her hospital room and deduced, “I think this corridor might be the passage connecting our two different worlds. We actually come from different worlds.”
"ah?"
Upon hearing this, a big question mark immediately appeared on Lu Shizhen's face.
Xu Shiyue's deduction was clearly beyond her limited knowledge.
Lu Shizhen didn't know what to say.
Perhaps it is precisely because children do not understand the world enough that they are more accepting of these things. She twirled the apple that had just rolled out of her hand and awkwardly asked, "So, do you eat apples where you are?"
Such a question clearly doesn't align with Xu Shiyue's calm and mature deduction just now, and even seems unusually naive.
When Xu Shiyue heard this question, she smiled gently.
She looked at the little girl in the wheelchair in front of her and answered her, "Food."
"Do you want to eat an apple?" Lu Shizhen asked, seemingly worried that Xu Shiyue would refuse her, and offered, "I can carve it into a little rabbit for you."
As it turned out, Lu Shizhen's friendly and proactive suggestion was correct.
Xu Shiyue wasn't interested in apples; she was just curious about what a rabbit apple was.
Xu Shiyue nodded and accepted the invitation from the little girl from another world: "Okay."
At first, Xu Shiyue wanted to lend Lu Shizhen a hand and help her turn her wheelchair around.
Before she could even raise her hand, Lu Shizhen had already deftly and skillfully turned the seemingly clumsy machine under her, and the apple that had accidentally fallen from her hand was placed steadily on her lap without any wobbling.
Following behind Lu Shizhen, Xu Shiyue also entered her ward.
How should I describe this hospital room?
It was a small, square room, and all you could see was a monotonous white.
There was a bed, a small cabinet, and nothing else besides the table and chairs, including the window that should have been in the wall.
You can see everything at a glance.
This fits the simple layout of a hospital, yet it feels oppressive and suffocating.
Xu Shiyue sat upright in the only chair in Lu Shizhen's room, her gaze inscrutable.
The strong smell of disinfectant wafted in with a hint of sweetness, interrupting Xu Shiyue's survey of the room.
Before she could find the source of the smell, a pretty little red-eared rabbit crossed her line of sight, and the even stronger sweetness revealed the source of the smells wafting in the air.
With a smug smile on her face, Lu Shizhen showed Xu Shiyue her newly completed work: "Ta-da! Rabbit and Apple."
Wow, it's so beautiful.
The fruit at home is always cut into small pieces. Xu Shiyue had never seen fruit carved into small animals before. Her calm eyes finally showed many of the obvious emotions of a child, and her little face looked lively.
She gladly accepted the rabbit-shaped apple that Lu Shizhen offered, and politely said, "Thank you."
"What's wrong with that?" Lu Shizhen waved her hand, not bothered by formalities. "These are the apples you found for me, so we should split them equally."
The sharp blade slices through the apple, releasing a sweet taste as the bubbles burst one after another.
Lu Shizhen cut off another piece of apple and, while carving it, said to Xu Shiyue, "Besides, the nurse told me that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. In our situation, we should eat even more apples."
Lu Shizhen spoke very seriously, and her expression was more serious than before.
Xu Shiyue couldn't help but smile as she listened, finding the little girl quite interesting.
She noticed that Lu Shizhen was wearing clothes of about the same thickness as her, and she didn't feel cold either. Curious, she asked, "Is it summer here too?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Lu Shizhen paused for a moment.
The knife was pressed against the rabbit's ears, which were almost fully formed, and then cut a little further down.
It seems like there's some evasion involved, yet one has no choice but to face it.
Lu Shizhen answered softly, her eyes darting away, "I don't know..."
Xu Shiyue was taken aback upon hearing this.
Then she looked at Lu Shizhen sitting in the wheelchair, at her sickly figure under the light, and suddenly realized that she seemed to have no chance to see the outside world at all.
The rooms here are tightly sealed, and even when it's snowing heavily outside, the temperature inside remains constant and comfortable.
The sun is not the light source of this room. The light source of this room is the ring of lights embedded in the ceiling above. The light evenly illuminates every corner of the room, and it is impossible to find the direction from which the light comes.
This is a hospital room.
It's more like a prison, trapping this person so they can't go anywhere.
Except for the last sentence, Lu Shizhen's voice had been rising the whole time.
Since sunlight doesn't get into this place, she became the sun in this room.
Xu Shiyue's gaze darkened slightly; she felt that Lu Shizhen possessed a heartbreaking strength.
People like that should go and see the sun.
"Why don't you come and see what it's like over there?" Xu Shiyue suggested.
Lu Shizhen hesitated and earnestly explained to Xu Shiyue, "I can't leave here. The ward here is sterile. The doctor said I can't leave this environment, otherwise my health will deteriorate immediately."
Xu Shiyue glanced at herself, who had been interacting with Lu Shizhen for quite some time, and asked, "But you've been with me for so long, and there haven't been any problems, have there?"
Lu Shizhen suddenly seemed to realize something and froze for a moment.
In the past, even when she wanted to meet her family, they would come to see her wearing strictly sterilized sterile gowns, and even the nurses who frequently came and went from here were no exception.
If this had happened in the past, she would have had a nosebleed in less than a minute.
But now, she's perfectly fine.
Not only was he perfectly fine, but he also talked a lot with Xu Shiyue and carved three little rabbits.
“Yes…” Lu Shizhen admitted with surprise and hesitation.
“I think it might be because we’re not from the same world, so there’s a barrier between our two worlds.” Xu Shiyue looked at the monitoring device on her wrist that was still running even though it was far from the surveillance range. “I don’t belong to your world, so your world poses no threat to me. Similarly, you don’t belong to my world, so my world poses no threat to you.”
Lu Shizhen looked at Xu Shiyue showing her the heart monitoring equipment and felt that what she said made a lot of sense.
And she longed for sunshine so much.
She hadn't seen real sunlight for many years.
Still young and not thinking too much about the consequences, Lu Shizhen, fueled by her intense longing, nodded to Xu Shiyue and said, "Let's go then."
As Lu Shizhen walked down the long corridor, the light from her side shone through.
The two faint lights intertwined, dispelling the darkness even further.
Lu Shizhen walked faster than usual this time, and Xu Shiyue walked behind her, helping to push her wheelchair.
As you pass through the dim darkness, the light at the end of the corridor slowly becomes real.
It wasn't cold, harsh lighting made up of lamps; it was real sunlight.
The scorching summer sun was accompanied by the incessant chirping of cicadas, their calls never ceasing.
The sun shone through the windowpane on one side, and on Lu Shizhen's legs, which were covered by a blanket, she reached out and cupped a ray of sunlight in her hands.
Warm, intense.
The midday sun, which others would avoid at all costs, shone down on her, making her feel more comfortable than ever before.
The clumsy wheelchair nimbly made its way through Xu Shiyue's hospital room and stopped in front of the large lattice window.
The lush greenery was divided into sections by the white window frames, filling Lu Shizhen's view completely.
The sun is blazing, and the outside world is lush and full of vitality.
Lu Shizhen sat by the window, looking out, and smiled at Xu Shiyue, who had brought her here, saying, "I think I know which season I am in now."
"I am in the summer with you."
The sun slanted through the glass and fell on Lu Shizhen's face, while the dense foliage scattered the light.
In the flickering light, Xu Shiyue saw a smiling face as radiant as the sun, with bright black eyes reflecting the sunlight, dazzling like jewels, showing no signs of illness.
She had never seen such a vibrant and radiant face.
This gave her a selfish urge to secretly keep it.
The scorching sun shone on Lu Shizhen's face, causing her gaze to meet Xu Shiyue's.
She was saying something very ordinary, but suddenly felt a little embarrassed.
It's often said that words can create different atmospheres through their order and the omission of certain words.
After a pause, Lu Shizhen suddenly realized that what she had just said seemed a little off.
The little child doesn't understand what "ambiguity" means; he simply feels that something is wrong.
Lu Shizhen didn't want to leave a bad impression on her new friend, so she hurriedly corrected Xu Shiyue, "No, no, that's not what I meant. It's that in this world I'm in, there's you... no, no, it's that in this summer, in this world where you are..."
This is a bit of a mouthful, especially for children.
Lu Shizhen proceeded to sort out the logic step by step, counting on her fingers, but whether it was due to nervousness or something else, she just couldn't get it right.
Xu Shiyue watched from the side, smiled and nodded, then said to Lu Shizhen, "I understand."
Sunlight shone on the little girl's soft hair, giving it a faint golden glow, which made her calm eyes and brows appear even gentler.
Lu Shizhen felt even more embarrassed upon hearing this, and rubbed her nose several times with her finger hanging from the tip of her nose.
"Ta-da!"
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
As the nurse opened the door with the hand holding the tray, she gently said to the young patient inside, "Shiyue, it's time to take your medicine."
Both Xu Shiyue and Lu Shizhen showed varying degrees of panic on their faces.
In such a short time, Lu Shizhen couldn't possibly push the wheelchair to the door of that corridor. In her haste, Xu Shiyue sat on the bed and reached out to grab Lu Shizhen's arm: "Come on, let me pull you up."
Lu Shizhen was taken aback when she heard Xu Shiyue's words.
Then, with extraordinary trust, he offered her his hand.
The little girl's equally delicate hands clasped together, and Lu Shizhen nimbly sat up on the bed.
Before she could ask Xu Shiyue what to do next, the moment the nurse pushed open the door, she was pulled by a force, and darkness enveloped her completely.
Lu Shizhen was swiftly pushed onto the bed by Xu Shiyue and hidden under the covers.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
