When the heart-devouring pain woke her once again, Pei Ruyu was drenched in cold sweat.
Glancing at the phone showing 03:40, she closed her eyes in agony.
When would she ever get a peaceful night’s sleep!
The chest pains had been coming more and more frequently lately, seriously affecting her daily life.
She wondered if this round of tests would finally reveal what was wrong with her…
As she was drifting off amidst those troubling thoughts, the sudden sound of a lock turning startled away the drowsiness she’d fought so hard to summon.
Following the motion-activated light in the hallway toward the door, Pei Ruyu vaguely made out the figure.
A young girl in Miao ethnic clothing, adorned with silver ornaments.
She looked a bit like that sweet girl she’d rolled around with a few times during her trip three months ago.
The motion light went out. No more sounds from the doorway.
After waiting a long while without hearing anything else, Pei Ruyu finally loosened her grip on the emergency call button hanging by her bed.
Phew, it must have been a hallucination from taking too much melatonin tonight.
Otherwise, it couldn’t be that she was so lonely from not having been with anyone lately that she’d started thinking about that fling, right?
Hmm, she’d heard that new lesbian bar was pretty good, with lots of pretty girls. Maybe she should check it out after being discharged…
The thought had barely formed when a sharp pain surged through her chest again, cutting off her train of thought.
The sound of silver bells grew closer, stopping only at her bedside.
Then ice-cold fingertips touched her cheek.
Clutching her chest and forcing her eyes open through the pain, she saw the girl’s familiar stunning face illuminated by moonlight.
“Sister, I finally found you.”
The girl’s gaze was dark and menacing, her hand on Pei Ruyu’s cheek freezing cold.
Pei Ruyu couldn’t help but tremble.
No, that sweet girl would only press against her ear and softly call her sister.
She wouldn’t be this cold and sinister, looking like she wanted to devour her.
“Who… who are you…”
When she managed to choke out the question, the girl before her curved her lips into a smile.
That smile was seductive, alluring, captivating.
If not for the hand gripping her neck with such force, it might have been quite tempting.
“You forgot me so quickly? You really have no heart.”
The hand around Pei Ruyu’s neck tightened, as if about to snap it.
Only when she was nearly suffocating did the hand loosen slightly.
The girl leaned close to Pei Ruyu’s ear.
“You dared to think of someone else after being hit with my love gu.”
The breath against her ear was warm and teasing.
But the words those lips spoke terrified Pei Ruyu to her core.
“Sister, do you really not fear death?”
Unable to bear the dual torment of pain and terror, Pei Ruyu’s eyes rolled back and she fainted.
When the alarm woke her the next morning, Pei Ruyu instinctively reached for her neck.
Thank goodness, it wasn’t broken.
That nightmare had been far too realistic!
After exhaling heavily several times to calm her racing heart, Pei Ruyu sat up, rubbing her throbbing head.
“Awake? The test results are in—everything’s normal. All indicators and imaging show no problems whatsoever with your heart.”
The person who pushed open the door was her attending physician, Zhu Ning.
Taking the stack of results and flipping through the “normal” annotations under each indicator, Pei Ruyu refused to believe it. She pulled out her phone and started photographing each page of data.
This so-called expert wasn’t so reliable after all. She should ask around for some better doctors.
“Stop taking photos. There’s an electronic version—I’ll send it to you.”
The young, beautiful specialist held out her phone, displaying her WeChat QR code.
“You saw me twice last month, four times this month, and checked yourself into the hospital five times. I only rejected your friend requests twice—do you really need to chase me this hard?”
Though Pei Ruyu didn’t understand why the woman thought that, she instinctively opened WeChat and scanned the code.
After all, a specialist consultation cost two hundred yuan each time. Adding her on WeChat was definitely worth it.
“Accepted. If there’s nothing else, hurry up and get discharged. Don’t do this again—I don’t have time to play these games with you.”
Zhu Ning put away her phone, then looked Pei Ruyu over once more before leaving.
Slightly curled long hair, striking features, excellent bone structure. With her bare face and listless expression, she had a certain cold, aloof beauty.
She did have some looks—no wonder she never lacked girlfriends in this niche circle.
“Though you’re not my type, I have to admit your persistence moved me just a tiny, tiny bit.”
Pei Ruyu blinked in confusion.
Huh? Had they met somewhere before? Whose friend was she?
She seemed vaguely familiar, but not really.
Unable to remember, Pei Ruyu decided not to dwell on it.
Her fingers had already deftly typed in the note:
170+ Long-Legged Premium Doctor Sister
Tags: [Flirtable]
Hearing the door close, Pei Ruyu started going through her phone messages.
She hadn’t checked WeChat since last night—99+ messages were about to explode.
After clearing work messages, approving what needed approval, and replying to her closest friends,
she finally opened the chat windows of all those specially-noted flirtable prospects one by one.
Perfunctorily typing: [Sorry baby, I’ve been hospitalized lately and had no time /crying. I’ll contact you again in a few days when I’m discharged]
Click copy.
Paste one by one.
Send.
The dozens of chat windows with nearly identical content were cleared in one smooth motion.
Then she stopped caring about their replies.
Pei Ruyu curved her lips in satisfaction. Unfortunately, her rare good mood vanished the instant she saw herself in the mirror.
On her slender, fair neck were several red marks, like pooled bruising.
Recalling how the girl had choked her last night, Pei Ruyu tremblingly placed her own hand on her neck in the same position.
The red marks corresponded almost exactly to her finger positions.
Pei Ruyu’s expression changed drastically.
Could that not have been a dream?
Could love gu actually exist in this world?
If she hadn’t caught herself on the sink, Pei Ruyu would have collapsed from weak knees.
Ignoring the cold sweat on her forehead, she frantically pulled out her phone and, with trembling hands, opened the chat with the newly-added 170+ Long-Legged Premium Doctor Sister.
After sending a greeting sticker as a formality, she tremblingly typed.
The other’s reply arrived simultaneously with her message.
Pei Ruyu: [Could you send me the surveillance footage from the corridor outside my hospital room between 03:00-05:00 today? If you could do 00:00-06:00, even better. Thank you]
Attached transfer: 1000 yuan.
Zhu Ning: [Weren’t you just playing hard to get? But I don’t like playing games with players. Contact me again when you’ve cleared out all your little birds and flowers]
In her extreme fear, her brain was slower than usual. Pei Ruyu had just finished reading the message and barely understood its meaning when the screen showed: The other party has recalled a message.
Then another message came.
[Surveillance is hospital confidential. I can’t just send it to you]
Player? Pei Ruyu laughed in anger.
[I suspect someone entered my room last night. I mainly don’t want to involve the police and cause trouble. I hope sister can be accommodating]
The screen showed “typing…” but no message came through.
Pei Ruyu thought for a moment, then gritted her teeth and typed a few more messages.
[Though I admit sister is really beautiful and my type. But I already have a girlfriend now, and I don’t plan on starting a new relationship for the time being]
[My heart genuinely hurts. I’m not joking. If this condition is beyond your expertise, could you recommend another doctor who’s dealt with similar cases? Thank you, sister]
But the other party stopped replying.
Frustrated, Pei Ruyu tossed her phone aside and washed her face.
But when she looked up again, the red marks on her neck in the mirror had mysteriously vanished.
She couldn’t believe her eyes.
She even leaned closer and rubbed hard, but the marks had truly disappeared into thin air.
In a daze, she changed out of her hospital gown and into her own clothes, still unable to make sense of her morning’s experiences.
By the time she numbly gathered her things, a reply came on WeChat.
Zhu Ning:
[I had security check. I also asked the night nurses. No one entered your room from last night to this morning]
[Don’t come to cardiology next time. Go book a psychiatry appointment. Sometimes excessive psychological stress can cause hallucinations and psychosomatic pain]
Pei Ruyu: […]
Are you serious?!
The suffocating pain from last night had been far too real.
Distracted, she drove home. Before getting out of the car, she couldn’t help checking her neck again in the rearview mirror.
Still smooth, unblemished skin.
Could it really have been a hallucination?
Pei Ruyu finally seriously considered Zhu Ning’s suggestion.
Maybe she really should see a psychiatrist?
After unlocking the door with the keypad, Pei Ruyu casually glanced at the living room without looking closely, and listlessly called out to the person on the sofa: “Mom, I’m back.”
“You have the nerve to come back?”
Pei Ruyu had no idea where her mother’s inexplicable anger came from. She slowly changed into her slippers before walking to the living room, explaining and coaxing in a good-natured tone.
“Don’t be angry, Mom. I was hospitalized these past two days. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Worry? Who’s worried about whether you’ll die out there being a slut?”
After a cold sneer, her mother stood up and twisted her ear, continuing to scold: “You animal! I could tolerate you fooling around outside, but Xiao Zhi just graduated from college! How could you bear to deceive such a young girl?”
Xiao Zhi? Deceive?
Pei Ruyu was completely bewildered. Only then did she notice the other person sitting on the sofa.
A young girl in a white dress, frail and slender, sitting there with her head bowed, wiping tears.
The perfect picture of a delicate, pitiful innocent flower.
“Auntie, don’t blame sister. It was all my choice.”
The delicate flower raised her face, red-rimmed eyes filled with tears, utterly pitiful.
It was the same face, yet completely different from the gloomy, vicious Miaojiang girl who had stood by her bed last night.
Pei Ruyu’s eyes widened in terror, her finger trembling as she pointed at her: “You… you…”
The flower suddenly let two streams of clear tears fall.
Her gaze toward Pei Ruyu seemed both pained and longing.
“Sister, I’m pregnant.”
“It’s your child.”
Pei Ruyu: ???
————————
I’m alive, and I’ve returned with my saved drafts! Raise your hands and let me see how many familiar little cuties are still here!
Section comments are open, welcome to play!
