Spring is so wonderful!
Gu Wanlin laughed and tilted her head back to avoid the vegetable that was trying to lick her face. She glanced at her legs and said, "Okay, stop scolding it. It didn't step on me."
Cai Cai turned her head to look at me and hummed and hawed, as if echoing, "That's right, that's right," before turning around and sitting down in her wheelchair.
Gu Wanlin is slender, and the wheelchair was custom-made for him. Even if there was no room, there wasn't much space. When Cai Cai sat down, she directly pressed down on Gu Wanlin's right leg.
Gu Wanlin's right leg shouldn't be pressed like this. She's usually extremely careful to avoid pressure sores. I went over to pull Cai Cai off. "I didn't realize that you're going to be a mother, Gu Wanlin. You're spoiling your child quite a bit. It's pressing on your leg. You're a grown dog, how can you not know your own weight?"
Gu Wanlin patted Cai Cai's head. "Go downstairs."
I could tell that Gu Wanlin was very happy these past few days with Cai Cai by her side. I hadn't seen her smile so genuinely in a long time.
Not to mention taking Cai Cai out to play frisbee, she also plays with Cai Cai's snacks and toys at home, which helps her develop fine motor skills. Even with more games incorporated into her practice at the rehabilitation center, it constantly reminds her of her "patient" status, making this much more natural and relaxed approach much better.
During this time, Gu Wanlin has been working hard to recover, and her mental state is much better than before she got sick. However, she still inevitably feels frustrated sometimes because of the difficulties she encounters.
One evening last week, when I came home, I found that Gu Wanlin was in a bad mood. He didn't seem interested in talking to me at the dinner table. After saying goodnight, he went back to his room and said he wanted to rest.
I asked Sister Zhang privately what happened, and she said that there was a little accident at the rehabilitation center in the afternoon, and she got her pants wet while exercising. Sister Zhang quietly told me that Gu Wanlin locked herself in the restroom at the rehabilitation center and had an emotional breakdown for a while. You could hear her suppressed sobs from outside the door. However, when she came out again, although her eyes were red, her face didn't show anything, and she didn't mention the incident again.
Sister Zhang remarked, "I've cared for many paraplegic patients, and everyone has this issue; you get used to it after a while. This is the first time I've seen someone implement such a strict bladder management plan so soon after their injury. This is mainly to improve their quality of life and maintain their dignity; it's not common in China. I heard she did it shortly after her injury abroad. Xiao Gu has already managed this very well; an occasional instance is really fine. She's just too concerned about appearances."
How could I not know how hard Gu Wanlin worked to maintain his dignity and respectability?
I've seen Gu Wanlin occasionally show signs of breaking down before.
Once, she lost her balance while transferring between the sofa and her wheelchair, and got stuck between the two. She struggled for a while but still fell onto the carpet. She couldn't get back up from that height difference on her own, but she didn't care and used her wrists to hook the wheelchair to lift herself up and crash into the furniture. When she lost her strength, she fell back to the ground.
I recognized her expression; she was clearly angry with herself. I saw this scene as soon as I came out of the room. She looked up and saw me, but her expression remained normal. She reached out her hand for my help, casually explaining that she had just wanted to try it herself.
Of course I wouldn't expose her. I just said okay, if you need help, just call out. We're all home.
Overall, she has indeed improved a lot compared to her state before she got sick, when she was completely indifferent to or even disgusted with her body and was planning to give up on herself.
The blows to her dignity that she experienced from the various unexpected events in her daily life are something none of us can truly understand. It's unrealistic to expect her to become optimistic and positive and face life with a smile from now on. People do need an outlet to vent their emotions, and I think that's better than her keeping everything bottled up inside.
The day I took Cai Cai back, Gu Wanlin was extremely reluctant to part with her. I said, "Don't worry, her mother, that unlucky thing, has a lot of business trips to do this year, so you'll definitely see her often. If you like puppies so much, we can get one too."
As soon as I finished speaking, I felt a little embarrassed. I had actually said what I was hoping for without any concealment.
These days, I sometimes have a daze, and I feel like Gu Wanlin and I are already living together. Without realizing it, I've naturally started planning to raise a dog with her.
Gu Wanlin just smiled and said, "We'll talk about it later."
Yes, my relationship with Gu Wanlin is only temporary, that I'm staying with her. What is my status in living with her, and how long will this relationship last? The answers to these questions remain vague and unanswered between us.
Gu Wanlin's health gradually improved day by day, but the weather suddenly turned hot. This year's climate was truly abnormal; it was only mid-March, yet the daytime high temperature had already soared to 28 degrees Celsius, as if early summer had arrived.
That weekend, on a whim, I suggested that we take advantage of the good weather and go to the lawn at their school where we had lain down countless times to sunbathe, and then go to the little restaurant next door where we used to always go for a meal.
The vast lawn in front of their school's main building was always filled with students, carrying the campus memories of generations. When I used to visit her, after lunch, we would sometimes sit there, back to back, basking in the sunshine, chatting, reading, or even just spacing out. Those beautiful and pleasant days have gradually become faded old photographs in my memory.
I never imagined that one day we would have the chance to retrieve this old photo from the depths of our memories and re-develop it.
Students were lying or sitting in twos and threes on the lawn. This is one of the top universities, and everyone here deeply understands tolerance and acceptance. Although Gu Wanlin was a little nervous when she set off, this was the campus she was most familiar with, and no one cast sympathetic or curious glances at her just because she was in a wheelchair. She gradually relaxed.
As I parked the wheelchair along the edge of the grass and laid out a moisture-proof mat on the lawn next to it, intending to help her down, a passing student stopped and very naturally asked if I needed help. I smiled and said I could, then nodded and left.
Some college students were already wearing short sleeves in the afternoon, but we really couldn't be careless in this kind of weather. Gu Wanlin was wearing a denim jacket when she went out. It was extremely hot at the moment, and she couldn't sweat to cool down, so she took off her jacket and draped it over her wheelchair. The loose ink-wash tie-dye shirt she was wearing in the middle became a new thin jacket. She unbuttoned it to reveal a white sleeveless short top as an inner layer. She wore high-waisted black cargo pants and a gray washed baseball cap.
I picked out the clothes and helped her put them on. I admit, it was for myself. I hadn't seen her dressed so youthfully in a long time. The first time I saw her, I was captivated by the youthful charm beneath her beautiful, cool features.
She lay on the mat, her long, smooth black hair cascading down her back like a waterfall. She inhaled deeply the fresh scent of grass mixed with earth, reached out and felt the faint moisture on the grass with the back of her hand, and squinted her eyes as she savored the moment, saying, "Spring is so wonderful."
"Springtime is for getting close to nature. If you like, let's go out and play more. How about we go to the forest park by the river next week?" I was secretly glad that I had made the right move again. As long as I plan a suitable place and encourage her to go out more, she will enjoy it.
She hummed in agreement, then squinted her eyes and basked in the sun contentedly. "Such beautiful weather, can I sit up and enjoy the breeze?"
"No problem, it's just that we can't sit back to back anymore. I got up, carried her wheelchair to the moisture-proof mat, pulled the handbrake, and then helped her sit up. Leaning against the bottom of the wheelchair, she supported herself with her hands on the ground and was able to sit for a while. Just as I was about to lift her into the wheelchair, two girls who looked to be no more than twenty years old walked over."
The two pushed each other's hands back and forth, whispering in each other's ears. One of them, her face flushed, clutched a piece of paper in her hand. After being pushed again by her companion, she finally spoke, her face still red:
"Um... Hello, miss... Are you a student at this school? May I ask what your major is?"
Gu Wanlin said with a smile, "I used to be a student here, but I graduated a long time ago."
Her companion excitedly patted her arm, whispering in her ear, but her excited tone was hard to miss: "Did you hear that! It's my sister, it's my sister!"
The girl who asked the question blushed even more; I was really afraid she would faint from the heat under the blazing sun.
She slapped her overly excited companion to quiet her down. "Hello, senior. I hope I didn't bother you... My friend and I are sitting right next to you... I usually like to doodle... I just saw you and thought you were very pretty... so I drew one of you thinking of giving it to you when I finished it..."
She handed me a sketch paper.
I glanced at it, my feelings were very complicated.
I picked out the clothes, I did the makeup, and once I'm all dressed up and brought out, I start attracting young girls, right?
Her companion, perhaps unable to bear her shy and helpless demeanor, interrupted and added, "Sister, she actually wanted to ask you if you could add her on WeChat."
Gu Wanlin's arms, which were supporting her body, had started to tremble, and she looked at me for help. Even if she didn't say anything, I would have interrupted her anyway. It wasn't that I was jealous, but I was worried that if she leaned against the wheelchair for too long, she might hurt her back.
She smiled apologetically at the two girls, "Excuse me, I'm not feeling well, I'll go first..."
She wrapped her arms around my neck from the front. I intended to lift her up by the sides of her pants, brace my body against her bent knees, and lift her up in one go. However, her legs slipped halfway up, and I almost lost my grip and let her slide down. Fortunately, two girls who were standing quickly came up to help and together they put her in the wheelchair.
She adjusted her position in the wheelchair, smoothed out her clothes, took the sketch paper the girl had tried to hand her, and looked at it carefully. "It's really well drawn."
She looked up and smiled at the girl who was drawing, "Thank you for drawing this picture for me. I'm so happy to receive such a gift, and I will cherish it. Thank you both too, without you I might have fallen."
She didn't say anything else, nor did she need to; the girl already understood.
She lowered her head, not daring to look at Gu Wanlin again, and said quickly, "This, this is nothing. I only started drawing you because I wanted to... I'm already very happy that you like my drawing. The weather is very nice today, I hope I didn't disturb you from enjoying the good weather... Sister, hang in there, I wish you a speedy recovery..."
After saying that, he grabbed his companion and ran away.
I looked at Gu Wanlin with a half-smile, "Gu Wanlin, you're still got it, aren't you? You're just trying to attract female students, aren't you? Look at you, you've hurt those young girls' hearts."
Gu Wanlin's feet were slightly turned inward on the wheelchair footrests. She supported herself with one hand on the wheelchair and used the other to lift her knees and put them back in place. Looking back at me, she smiled leisurely, "Why do some people talk so sarcastically?"
Before we could even exchange a few words, a middle-aged woman's voice came from behind us, tinged with uncertainty, "Gu Wanlin?"
Gu Wanlin turned his head to look and saw a middle-aged woman, around fifty years old and well-dressed, stop and look at them on the sidewalk outside the lawn.
Gu Wanlin's back froze. After a long while, she finally spoke, "Professor Yang, hello, it's been a long time..."
The woman, whom we called Professor Yang, walked quickly toward us, her eyes fixed on Gu Wanlin, who was sitting in a wheelchair. Gu Wanlin had left her lumbar support in the car because she was hot, and now, sitting in the wheelchair, her back was completely hunched over the backrest. Anyone with eyes could see that she was not in a wheelchair because of an ordinary injury.
I don't know if she saw me helping Gu Wanlin into the wheelchair, but Professor Yang's eyes were full of shock and tenderness for the younger generation. She hesitated for a moment before asking, "Aren't you working abroad? What's going on here?"
Gu Wanlin tried to straighten her back, wanting to appear more energetic in front of her teachers. "I had a car accident a year ago."
Professor Yang spoke with a complicated expression, "Such a big thing happened, and I didn't even know."
Gu Wanlin lowered her eyes and smiled, "It's my fault. I should have contacted you when I got back, but..."
Professor Yang knew what she hadn't finished saying. "Do you have anything else to do after this? My office is in the main building. If you have time, come up and sit with me for a while."
Gu Wanlin looked at me, "Aqing?"
I understood. "I'll wait for you in the car. Just text me later."
Gu Wanlin then turned to Professor Yang and smiled, "Professor, I haven't introduced you yet, this is..."
She paused, then spoke solemnly:
"my family."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com