Chapter 57 Part 2

But now? Run? She wasn’t willing, and it might not even work. Not run? What could she do to Ming Siyu? Could she really sink her teeth in? Could she bring herself to do it?

She went to bed with her hair still wet, a tangled mess. She had many dreams—sometimes Ming Siyu killed her and Bai Yu with a knife, other times Ming Siyu repented her actions, Bai Yu forgave her, and the two of them reconciled as if nothing had happened…

The chaotic dreams eroded what little energy she had left. As dawn broke, Liu Ran opened her eyes, grabbed her phone to check the time, and saw a flight reminder: The flight to A City would depart in three hours; please arrive at the terminal at least forty-five minutes early for check-in.

She checked the order time: placed at 2:30 a.m. In her half-asleep daze, she had booked the earliest flight back to A City, thinking it was a dream.

She sat up, her head pounding. Her finger hovered between “cancel” and “change.”

Suddenly, she recalled Ming Siyu’s words from the call the night before.

After a night’s reflection, her boiling anger had cooled, the fog of emotion cleared, and the words themselves became clear again.

On closer thought, Ming Siyu’s tone hadn’t been normal. It lacked her usual composure and confidence on calls, replaced by a desperate urgency, like she had nowhere left to turn.

She must have misheard. Overthinking it. Don’t care.

Liu Ran recited the three-character mantra in her mind.

With two hours until takeoff, she tucked the check into her phone case and, in a broken-jar-falls-hardest mindset, took a cab to the airport.

The ticket had been bought in her unconscious state—perhaps fate decreed she see Ming Siyu one more time.

The last time. After this, she would never hold any expectations, illusions, or affection for Ming Siyu again.

They switched to a different person to handle the work handover. On the way to the airport, heavy rain started pouring down. Liu Ran was a bit worried whether the flight could take off on time. After passing security and reaching the waiting lounge, she indeed received a message that flights were delayed due to thunderstorm weather.

In the waiting lounge, there was nothing to do but wait. Liu Ran waited until two in the afternoon before the weather finally improved a little, allowing them to board and take off. But A City also had a violent storm, so the plane circled overhead for over half an hour before finding an opportunity to land. Without an umbrella, she got completely soaked like a drowned rat in the short dozen meters from the airstair to the shuttle bus.

Nothing went smoothly on this entire trip. Before departure, Liu Ran had felt like fate wanted her to return to A City, but after landing, it seemed like everything was trying to stop her from coming back.

She went to the parking lot, drove home, and pushed open the door. Qi Zhen jumped in fright at the sight of her.

Liu Ran went back to her room to change into clean clothes. When she came out again, Ming Siyu hadn’t appeared. She had thought Ming Siyu would come to block the door the moment she knew she was back, and while changing, she had pondered how to open the conversation with her first words. But the only one home was Qi Zhen.

“The young mistress went to the hospital.”

Qi Zhen shook the lunchbox she had just picked up from the hospital and hadn’t had time to wash yet. “The young mistress wasn’t feeling well yesterday. She… wouldn’t let me contact you.”

She looked toward the stairs and sighed. “The young mistress fell from upstairs. She cracked a bone.”

“How did she fall?” Liu Ran asked.

Just thinking about yesterday’s scene made Qi Zhen feel it was horrifying.

Ming Siyu’s Plush Hunger Syndrome had flared up, and this time it was very severe. Cold sweat poured from her, her nails dug into her flesh, and all the plush toys in the room were piled together. Ming Siyu buried herself entirely in them, trying to make contact with as much fluffiness as possible, but it still didn’t ease the symptoms.

Besides Liu Ran, Ming Siyu didn’t like being seen in her episodes by anyone else. So Qi Zhen only dared to carefully suggest from outside the door, “Young mistress, how about I call Miss Liu? I’ll ask her to come back soon… Or, I can call a doctor to see if there’s a way to relieve it…”

Ming Siyu rejected her in suppressed pain.

She even warned her, “Don’t tell Liu Ran.”

After more than half an hour, Ming Siyu’s door opened.

She stood in the doorway, her face deathly pale like a female ghost, leaning on the door to keep from collapsing. Her gaze stared darkly toward Liu Ran’s room, murmuring with desperate ferocity, “Liu Ran, how dare you do this to me…”

Qi Zhen realized Ming Siyu wanted to go to Liu Ran’s room. She tried to go up and help, but Ming Siyu had already grabbed the stair railing and shakily stepped down.

She missed a step. Before Qi Zhen could catch her, Ming Siyu tumbled down the stairs.

…

Liu Ran sat by Ming Siyu’s bed.

The doctor said they had given Ming Siyu a mild sedative, so she wouldn’t wake up for a while.

Lying on the hospital bed, Ming Siyu looked like a beautiful but lifeless porcelain doll. Her head was slightly tilted to one side, the blue veins on her arm clearly visible, and her hands were folded over her chest.

Her brows were slightly furrowed, her face bloodless, breathing steadily. Those soft lips that always spat knives were tightly closed now, making her look extremely gentle and peaceful.

Ming Siyu’s phone rang. The screen had a corner shattered; Liu Ran tapped the answer button twice before it connected.

He Qiange sounded extremely anxious. “Si Si, are you okay? How did you hear you fell from upstairs? Good, good, you can still answer the phone, so it shouldn’t be too serious. You say you’re having an episode, why be so stubborn? Just let Liu Ran come back. I told you both to cool off for a few days, but this is a special situation…”

She rattled off like a machine gun.

“It’s me.” Liu Ran spoke hoarsely.

He Qiange paused. “Liu Ran? Why are you answering? Where’s Si Si?”

“She’s sleeping.” Liu Ran glanced at the woman sleeping quietly, her hand trembling as she gripped the phone. “You said she had an episode… What illness does she have? When did she get sick?”

“This—” He Qiange quickly thought about whether to tell the truth. After all, Ming Siyu was very proud and hated others knowing about her illness and pitying her—especially a little pet she had bought pitying her. Ming Siyu absolutely couldn’t accept that, which was why she hadn’t mentioned it to Liu Ran even now.

It was all her fault for speaking too fast earlier, blurting out the question without considering it might not be Ming Siyu answering.

But Ming Siyu had been in so much pain she fell down the stairs. Fortunately, the home stairs weren’t long and the consequences weren’t severe—what if it had been somewhere else?

He Qiange also held a bit of resentment toward Liu Ran. Before Ming Siyu got hurt, she thought both shared responsibility for the fight, but now with Ming Siyu injured and alone in the hospital, she felt it was all Liu Ran’s fault.

No matter how angry she was at Ming Siyu, how could she just run off to another place? Ming Siyu went abroad without forgetting to bring Liu Ran along, but Liu Ran ran away after a fight. If she hadn’t left, Ming Siyu could have gotten timely fluffiness during her episode and wouldn’t have suffered so long without relief that she stumbled and fell.

Why shouldn’t Liu Ran know the truth? She enjoyed Ming Siyu’s pampering—shouldn’t she share her pain too?

Maybe once Liu Ran understood Ming Siyu’s difficulties, they’d reconcile.

So He Qiange switched to a surprised tone. “You didn’t know Si Si has Plush Hunger Syndrome?”

Liu Ran didn’t know.

She had once suspected Ming Siyu was a fur fanatic, but later touching ears and tails turned into foreplay, so she hadn’t thought further.

The urgent, anxious panting, the eager caresses, insisting on carrying her everywhere, the plush toys in the shopping cart and on the bed…

It turned out everything had clues.

He Qiange knew about Ming Siyu’s illness. What about Qi Zhen? Thinking of Qi Zhen’s hesitant expression, she probably knew too.

Secretary Wen as well. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have answered so sternly that Ming Siyu had no illness when Liu Ran first tried asking. Looking back, Secretary Wen’s reaction was like “no silver here, three hundred taels.”

Only she didn’t know. Ming Siyu had never intended to tell her.

Liu Ran’s butt was going numb on the chair. She hadn’t eaten all day and didn’t feel hungry; her stomach churned nauseously, and her temples throbbed with pain now and then.

Rain pelted the window glass relentlessly, dense like fireworks exploding.

At midnight, Ming Siyu twitched her fingers and woke up.

Opening her eyes, she saw Liu Ran with a pallid face and messy hair, sitting by the bed staring at her with an extremely complex gaze: sympathy, questioning, confusion, disgust, worry, exhaustion, sadness… but no sparkling anticipation or fondness.

It was like looking at a worthless thing about to die.

“Why.” Liu Ran asked hoarsely. “Why didn’t you tell me.”

The sentence seemed out of nowhere, but Ming Siyu immediately understood what she was asking.

Who told Liu Ran? He Qiange? Qi Zhen? Someone else? It didn’t matter anymore.

The call she made to Liu Ran last night—Liu Ran only came back now. She clearly remembered every word Liu Ran said on the phone.

If others hadn’t told Liu Ran about her illness, Liu Ran probably still wouldn’t have come back from B City.

“The master’s orders to a pet—just obey them. No need to know why.”

Ming Siyu found she couldn’t stay calm at all. When Liu Ran wasn’t in front of her, she had been quite rational, and He Qiange’s advice had worked; but with Liu Ran right there, face to face, hearing each other’s breaths, she completely lost her composure.

She had clearly prepared herself to accept that in Ming Siyu’s eyes, she was just a pet who needed to obey obediently. But hearing this answer with her own ears, Liu Ran’s heart still felt gripped by a giant hand; the momentary emptiness in her chest nearly made her fall off the chair.

All her past hopes for Ming Siyu, the affection carefully hidden in her heart, thinking Ming Siyu just had a bad temper and if she yielded more, they could eventually live like lovers…

But now it was all a joke. Love and naive ignorance equated; she was so ridiculous for daring to love Ming Siyu.

Fortunately, she was sober now. Looking back at her past fawning over Ming Siyu, all that was left was disgust.

“You must be disappointed.”

“Not really disappointment.” Ming Siyu showed a pale smile. “Now it’s your turn to answer me: You were so obedient before—who’s this for now, treating me like this.”

She tried her best to hold back emotions on the verge of exploding.

“Don’t you like me?”

The calm in Liu Ran’s eyes filled her with unfounded panic.

“You got it wrong. I never liked you. That obedient period you saw was just me pretending to live comfortably in your house.”