Chapter 62: Sisters are all liars.
“Is there anywhere you’re hurt?”
Putting the dangerous syringe aside, Cheng Ming looked at Yan Rong from head to toe and asked with concern.
Her equipment was really complete.
Fortunately, she had the foresight to have the piston clamped, so it wasn’t accidentally triggered. Otherwise, if she had died, it would have been a hell of a joke.
“Besides the pinprick, there’s nothing else…” Yan Rong was very aggrieved. “It just hurts from the fall.”
Xiao Ming’s good deed…
Cheng Ming was annoyed and embarrassed, and also had the guilty feeling of her own person having made a mistake. She looked away and then at the mess on the floor, and was a little regretful that she had gone too far to scare her.
“What about the wheelchair?” she looked at the pile of dismantled frame structures and asked with a headache.
“You’ll have to take me to get a new wheelchair tomorrow,” Yan Rong gave her an obedient smile. “Remember to ask for leave.”
Cheng Ming: “…”
Yan Rong: “Just kidding. The parts are all here, it can be repaired.”
Looking at this sister who was very happy to be mischievous, Cheng Ming suddenly remembered a scene in Yan Li’s memory where the wheelchair had mysteriously broken down and a screw could not be found. Yan Li had been forced to take a day off for this… she paused, feeling that she had touched upon some truth.
Squatting down in front of her, Cheng Ming said softly, “She loves you very much. I may not be able to replace her emotionally, but I can accompany you and take care of you like she did.”
Yan Rong was silent.
“Wrong,” after a long time, she laughed strangely, and a layer of shimmering light appeared in her eyes. Her expression was very complicated, mocking, sad, and even a hint of hostility. “Actually, she’s very annoyed with me, hates me, despises me, and even hates me… it’s been like this since we were children.”
“She’s always wanted to get rid of me, but that pitiful conscience of hers always made her unable to be ruthless,” Yan Rong said with a light laugh, and so those emotions also became as difficult to distinguish as light smoke. “Now she’s finally relieved. She’s thrown me to you. She’s free.”
How could biting be an expression of love? It was just a habit left over from hurting each other since childhood.
Yan Li had not been exposed to nuclear radiation, and her body had always been better than hers. Yan Li felt that the newly born sister had taken away the care she should have received, and had even dragged down the entire family. Yan Rong had always been jealous that her sister didn’t have to endure as much pain as she did, as if she had been born into this world to enjoy life. Even though they were short of money, her family had not forced her to do a job that would make money quickly. They had let her go to a military academy, and all the way to the Defense Center.
Her mother always said, you are the older sister, your sister is not as healthy as you, you have to take care of her, you have to let her have her way… On her deathbed, her mother had held Yan Li’s hand, and her last words were, you two have to be well, you absolutely, absolutely cannot abandon your sister.
She was her shackles, her chains.
It was the thick quilt of love left by her mother. In winter, it was a warmth against the cold, and in summer, it was a heavy burden.
Everyone would say that Yan Li was a good sister. She had always been very qualified and perfect. But how could a sensitive sister not notice her sister’s true thoughts.
She had also always been carefully trying to please her, pretending to be well-behaved, pretending to be sensible, until she finally couldn’t pretend anymore. She couldn’t compete with her in strength, so she could only use the only hard thing on her body, her teeth, to bite her desperately.
Yan Li, who was also not mature enough in her adolescence and longed for attention, would mock her with a contemptuous smile, look at her with a cold gaze, and then turn around and show her wounds, to prove to the adults that her sister was a shrew.
Sometimes her mother didn’t believe her and would say to Yan Li, don’t blame your sister for the fights you get into outside. Sometimes she would believe her and would say to Yan Rong, don’t hurt your sister just because you’re not feeling well.
After their mother and grandmother had passed away one after another, they had resented each other for a long time. They were not stingy with material things, but their relationship was almost broken. It was just that Yan Rong’s body was too weak, and she needed her care to save her dying life. And she was squeezed and tormented by guilt, and needed her dependence to stabilize her precarious spirit.
They had grown up, matured, or rather, become more worldly.
The relationship between the two sisters had gradually gotten better.
This was probably the tacit understanding of sisters. Both of them had started to pretend, pretending to care, pretending to be concerned, pretending to be close, and pretending to love each other.
From pretense to true feelings.
Even if it was just a little.
She couldn’t tell which day she had started to give her true feelings.
They were, after all, related by blood.
Perhaps it was when they were missing their relatives together. They saw each other’s tearful eyes, so similar, reflecting a similar skin, and also reflecting a similar soul. The winter night was too cold, and they hugged each other to sleep, as if they had returned to their mother’s womb when their mother was still their mother.
A woman’s egg cells were all stored at birth, so when they were all curled up in their grandmother’s body, they had split from the same oocyte of their mother, and together with their mother, they had absorbed the nutrients of the ancient female elders of this ethnic group and had grown up strong.
Maternal inheritance was the most stable and most romantic way of inheritance in this world. Reproduction was a magnificent force, and the world was endless because of the female.
She felt guilty towards her, but it was undeniable that she was her burden.
How many people could spend their whole lives on another person and lose all their own life. A long-term burden, even the deepest blood relationship was fragile, and even the deepest feelings would be worn away by time, leaving only a shallow sense of responsibility.
This responsibility was a slow poison to the one who was responsible. She tried her best to wrap it in honey, hoping that the sugar shell would melt slower, and slower.
She hoped that she would not abandon her.
This family of theirs was full of holes, but everyone pretended that nothing was wrong, pretended not to see the pus flowing from their heads, and they hugged each other tightly on the broken bones, and sang lullabies to each other in the smelly cradle.
So sister, why did you abandon me?
You broke your promise of compensation.
She was laughing, and she was also crying.
“You’re wrong, Rongrong. Before she died, she wasn’t relieved, but worried… very worried, very worried about you.”
Cheng Ming raised her hand and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. Her voice was as soft as a lullaby that had been delayed for many years. “She was just an ordinary person, an ordinary mortal, and she was just tired. But there is no doubt that she loved you.”
When she said these words to Yan Rong, Yan Li’s image had actually faded in her mind, and the back that had appeared was that of Cheng Ran.
Mom.
Sixteen years of affection. She had personally created her, raised her, and taught her. How could she not love her.
Perhaps, her mother was also just tired.
She was still a child who longed for her mother, and now she was comforting another child, as if she had also been comforted.
After a while, Yan Rong asked with a nasal voice, “After you find the truth, what do you want to do?”
Cheng Ming fell into a moment of deep thought. “Just like a normal person, I’ll take revenge where I can.”
After she finished speaking, she couldn’t help but smile. It was clear that she also found these words absurdly funny.
She was not a human from birth, and she didn’t understand the meaning of being human. It was just that Cheng Ran had turned her into a human, and she was just used to following her mother’s arrangements, wanting to make Cheng Ran happy, and wanting to be the person Cheng Ran wanted her to be… it had almost been engraved in her instincts.
Yan Rong lowered her eyelids and rested her head on her shoulder.
Cheng Ming knew that she needed comfort now. She didn’t say anything more and quietly let her lean on her.
But she hadn’t expected that this head would only stay obediently for two or three seconds before it suddenly turned its face and bit her neck fiercely.
This bite was too sudden.
Cheng Ming let out a low grunt in pain, jumped up and took two steps back. She touched the teeth marks in shock, not sure if it was bleeding.
Was this child a dog?
“You said you wanted to be like my sister,” Yan Rong sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her with a harmless expression.
This angle, this force, was clearly a revenge…
Cheng Ming gasped and pressed on the throbbing blood vessel. She felt a numbness in her side neck and educated her, “You can bite anywhere but the neck, you know that?”
It was one of the most fragile parts of the human body. Even intimate acts such as kissing were recommended to be avoided to prevent pressure on the carotid sinus, or even further causing a blood clot, which could be life-threatening if it flowed into the brain.
“You’re a monster, you’re not afraid, are you?” she tilted her head.
Cheng Ming: “…”
She touched it again in disbelief, and finally forced herself to put down her hand, and then forcibly sent Yan Rong out. “Go back to sleep.”
Her actions were decisive and swift. She put the person back on her bed, tucked in the corners of the quilt, said good night, and finally ended this long night.
A person’s mouth had a lot of bacteria. As a biologist with a bit of a cleanliness obsession, Cheng Ming rushed into the bathroom as soon as she left the door, and the water was rushing as she carefully cleaned the wound.
Xiao Ming was silent, but during her cleaning process, the mycelia stretched out and approached. The tough and strong fine threads were tangled like a steel wool ball and rubbed vigorously, and soon left a new large patch of red marks on her fair neck.
Cheng Ming hissed, “It hurts!”
“Can I parasitize her? Do you like her body? If I parasitize her, can I kiss you and bite you like her?” In just three seconds, it had asked such a long sentence, which showed the extent to which its emotions had accumulated.
During the questioning, the mycelia did not let go, wishing that these derivatives could also grow serrated teeth and cut off a whole piece of flesh at the original tooth marks, to cover the traces of others with its own traces.
Finally, it had angered Cheng Ming. “Get lost!”
…
Yan Rong, who had returned to her room, lay flat on her bed.
The sound of footsteps faded away, and the door closed with a click. The sounds from outside were blocked, and this place was as quiet as a tomb with only temperature.
She stared at the ceiling, which was very far and very near, with a blank expression, and kept her eyes open.
Until the outside of the window turned from dark to bright, like ashes burning with a gentle flame, and the dead world was filled with noise again, and the daylight came in.
A new day had come.
She closed her eyes. The pillow was not yet dry, and her tears had run out.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. She estimated that Cheng Ming was about to get up, so Yan Rong sat up, moved to the end of the bed, reached for her computer, and turned it on—
“I’ve confirmed it. There’s no problem, it’s just that she’s a little unfamiliar with me due to her amnesia. We can assign her a mission later. I’ll keep an eye on her progress for you.”
The black background screen was lined with flashing green characters, which illuminated her deep pupils.
On the encrypted chat interface, the above text was converted into a special code that outsiders could not understand. After a few light taps, she entered the symbol representing her identity at the end and pressed the enter key.
…
After solving a major problem, she should have been able to sleep soundly in this room, but Cheng Ming had barely slept all night.
Lying horizontally or vertically was uncomfortable.
At first, it was hot.
The cubicles in this family-style apartment were very far apart, and she couldn’t reach the faucet in the bathroom. Xiao Ming could only use the water in the cup on the table to cool her down.
Later, it turned cold.
She covered her head and got into the covers. The mycelia had a bit of a taste of taking advantage of the situation and rolled her up from top to bottom. She had no strength to refuse, but she was still shivering with cold.
She really had a high fever.
She didn’t know how many reasons were mixed together. During the day, Xiao Ming had swallowed a human-snake monster, and sea snakes were good at neurotoxins. At night, Yan Rong had used neurological drugs on her… the final result was that her body, which had already fused with enough samples, had begun a earth-shaking and vigorous “evolution.”
The sky was already completely bright.
After waiting and waiting, Yan Rong, who had not seen anyone, came to knock on the door.
Knock, knock, knock. Cheng Ming heard the sound, but her head was dizzy, and she couldn’t get up, and she didn’t want to get up.
She opened her eyes and vaguely saw a shadow coming in. She was stunned for a few seconds and finally recognized the person, so she closed her eyes again with peace of mind, pushed her bracelet in her direction, and said in a weak voice:
“Rongrong, help me ask for leave… in the morning, ah, forget it, at noon. I want to drink porridge at noon, or the soup from yesterday is not bad either.”
Yan Rong: “…”
The wheelchair had not yet been repaired, so she could only limp out with a crutch.
As she walked, she muttered in a voice that was just right, “Sisters are all liars. Last night, she said she would take care of me, but it’s already the other way around.”
“…”
Cheng Ming, wrapped in the sheet, coughed weakly a few times.
This sister didn’t pretend at all after her true nature was exposed.
