Chapter 50 Part 2

Ji Qingyou frowned, not quite agreeing with her phrasing.

“Fine, fine, you’re not in a relationship,” Ji Xiruan patched up. Her gaze swept the room. “Why isn’t anyone here to pick you up? Where’s Director Qin and Doctor Qin? And what about your Miss Alps?”

“My mom has an academic conference out of town today. My sister just told me she went to a surgery meeting,” Ji Qingyou explained lightly.

“That’s weird,” Ji Xiruan questioned. During the two days Ji Qingyou was hospitalized, she had seen Qin Shuangchi and Qin Bailan coming and going without a break. Why would they have meetings on the day of discharge?

“With Director Qin and Doctor Qin’s personalities, shouldn’t it be ‘Skip the meeting, I’m coming to get you’ and ‘Postpone the meeting, I’m coming to get you’?”

Ji Qingyou lowered her eyelashes. “Because she’s off work and will come to get me.”

“Oh, because she’s coming to get you.” Ji Xiruan mimicked her tone, clicked her tongue, and sighed. “Sometimes I’m really jealous of you.”

Ji Qingyou gave her a faint look.

Ji Xiruan immediately stopped grinning and scooted closer to ask, “So when is Miss Alps going back to England now?”

When she asked this, Ji Qingyou was putting on her watch.

The watch Yu Qinjiu had given her.

When the incident happened, her phone had been smashed. Seeing the intact watch again, she was very glad she hadn’t been wearing it at the time.

Fastening the watch securely on her wrist, she checked the time. It seemed a while before Yu Qinjiu got off work.

Ji Qingyou pressed her lips together. Looking up, she found Ji Xiruan still staring at her, and she realized she hadn’t answered Ji Xiruan’s question.

“I don’t know,” she said offhandedly.

“Still don’t know?” Ji Xiruan’s eyes widened. She muttered, “I’m a bit worried. Afraid that once Miss Alps leaves, you’ll go back to that dead—”

She stopped herself from saying “dead face,” and awkwardly rephrased it, “…that lifeless look of yours.”

Mid-sentence, she saw Ji Qingyou lower her eyes, her right fingers gently stroking the watchband on her left wrist. She had seen Ji Qingyou do this many times before.

Usually when Ji Qingyou was confused, silent, or in any negative state.

But this time, Ji Qingyou was silent for a few seconds. When she looked up at Ji Xiruan, her eyes weren’t confused. Her voice was soft, but very firm,

“I won’t.”

Even if Yu Qinjiu went abroad, even if they were separated again temporarily.

At least it wouldn’t be that helpless kind of ending.

—

After Ji Xiruan went to work.

Ji Qingyou sat quietly in the ward for a while longer, watching the seconds on her watch tick by. She thanked all the medical staff who had taken care of her.

When she pressed the elevator button, she saw it was still early.

After hesitating for a few seconds, she went to Qi Xiaomi’s ward. During her hospitalization, she hadn’t gone to see Qi Xiaomi even once. She couldn’t tell if it was anger or resentment.

But before leaving the hospital, she went to Qi Xiaomi’s ward as Ji Qingyou herself. Qi Xiaomi had been hospitalized longer than her.

As she expected, Qi Xiaomi had been ostracized by the other patients in the room. She was listlessly sleeping in a corner of the bed. The other patients and their families kept muttering the word “psycho” around her.

This would naturally cause Qi Xiaomi pain.

When Ji Qingyou arrived, Qi Xiaomi was staring blankly at the cherry blossoms in full bloom outside the window. When a nearby family member found her standing in the way and grumbled, she silently moved away without a word.

Ji Qingyou watched for a moment, then entered the ward.

A patient and their family recognized her and exclaimed,

“Dr. Ji, you’re recovered so quickly?”

“Dr. Ji, what are you doing here? Tsk, isn’t this bad luck? You’re too kind-hearted, I’m telling you. I heard that mental illness is hereditary. Her mother is sick, so maybe she is too!”

“Right, right! I think mental illness is hereditary. Maybe this patient in Bed 19 will have an episode soon. I want to change rooms!”

Ji Qingyou said nothing to these sharp-tongued patients or their families. She merely nodded slightly to acknowledge their concern, then walked over to Qi Xiaomi.

Even hearing these words, Qi Xiaomi showed little reaction, as if she were used to it.

Seeing Ji Qingyou approach, Qi Xiaomi shrank back a little, looking uneasy. “Dr. Ji…”

“How is your post-op recovery?” Ji Qingyou interrupted her.

Qi Xiaomi was stunned, not understanding.

Ji Qingyou assessed her condition, then spoke more softly. “I heard your father went back to work before he was fully healed, to pay for the compensation and your mother’s treatment?”

The tightness around Qi Xiaomi’s mouth loosened. For a moment, she didn’t know what to say. She lowered her eyes, and tears fell. But she wiped them away hastily, not daring to look at Ji Qingyou.

“Actually, my own mood was unstable last time. And when you came to apologize on your mother’s behalf, I think I mistakenly projected some of my feelings about your mother onto you.”

In the quiet ward, Ji Qingyou looked at Qi Xiaomi and raised her voice slightly. “But you were also wrong, weren’t you?”

“You are a patient admitted for treatment. Being sick and needing treatment isn’t your fault. Not expecting your mother to have a sudden episode isn’t your fault. Not being able to stop her from stabbing your father when she attacked isn’t your fault. Your mother being sick is definitely not your fault… But you never refuted anything anyone said to you, even though some of those words hurt you.”

“In this matter, you made a mistake.”

“Dr. Ji…” Qi Xiaomi stared at her blankly, tears streaming down her face.

Ji Qingyou handed her a tissue, her voice softer now. “Since your mother is sick and your father is busy trying to make a living, and there’s no one else around to protect you, you have to learn to protect yourself.”

Having said this, she planned to leave. But noticing the stunned looks around her, she added,

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying this because I’m kind, or because I’m someone who returns good for evil.”

“It’s because I’m a very selfish person. Whether it’s me or my colleagues, we spent a lot of time and effort to cure you. You need to protect yourself well and leave the hospital healthy so that it doesn’t affect us and we don’t feel our efforts were wasted.”

Before leaving the ward, she passed by the family member who had said “mental illness is hereditary.” He was staring at her, stunned.

So she paused and explained calmly,

“Although some mental illnesses are influenced by genetic factors, most are related to the external environment. And the words we say and the things we do can become part of that external environment for her.”

The stunned expression on the family member’s face began to soften. He rubbed his nose awkwardly. “I didn’t mean it that way…”

“Of course I know you didn’t mean it that way,” Ji Qingyou said patiently. She glanced at his daughter lying in the hospital bed. “I remember Xiao Yao had her surgery just before my accident. She’s almost ready to be discharged, right? After she goes home, you need to be more careful…”

Xiao Yao was his daughter’s name.

Ji Qingyou patiently gave her post-op instructions. Seeing the family member’s expression growing more and more ashamed, she knew she had said enough. She nodded slightly, didn’t say anything more, and walked out of the ward.

Just a few steps out.

She saw Ji Xiruan standing by the door with her hands in her pockets, giving her a thumbs-up before entering the ward to check on the patients.

Leaning against the wall nearby was a figure, wearing a loose, light green knit cardigan and a long, ankle-length denim skirt. The collar was slightly open, revealing a white undershirt. The setting sun streamed in through the open ward window.

Yu Qinjiu had her arms loosely crossed, like spring itself, arriving unannounced.

“Dr. Ji,” she said, her eyes curved into a smile, looking soft. “You’re so cool.”

Ji Qingyou was stunned for a few seconds. “How did you get here? Weren’t we supposed to meet at the hospital entrance?”

“I went to your ward and heard you were here, so I came over,” Yu Qinjiu explained, her voice very soft.

The corridor was busy with people coming and going. Ji Qingyou looked at the color of Yu Qinjiu’s cardigan, remembering how yesterday, when they had agreed to pick up the kitten today.

Yu Qinjiu had asked her what color she was going to wear.

She thought for a moment and said, green.

So, Yu Qinjiu was wearing green today too.

Like a ritual prepared for an occasion, even for something as simple as picking up a kitten. At that moment, Ji Qingyou suddenly felt a bit envious of the kitten they were about to pick up.

As if sensing something.

Yu Qinjiu smiled again, her eyes curving. “Let me reiterate, Dr. Ji is really cool.”

Ji Qingyou put her hands in her pockets and raised an eyebrow in resignation. “Let’s go. We’ve already stood the kitten up once.”

“Wait a moment,” Yu Qinjiu said softly, not following her.

Ji Qingyou stopped, studying Yu Qinjiu’s expression. “What’s wrong?”

Yu Qinjiu tilted her head to look at Ji Qingyou. The pomelo-colored setting sun illuminated her profile. “I didn’t wear my scarf today.”

She explained succinctly.

Ji Qingyou pressed her lips together nervously. She hadn’t brought her scarf to the hospital. “I’ll go buy you a new one, or I can borrow one from someone. You wait here—”

“It’s spring. The weather is getting warmer,” Yu Qinjiu interrupted her, her eyes curving as she looked at her. “I can’t wear a scarf anymore. I’d be too hot. And wearing a scarf with this outfit doesn’t look good.”

Ji Qingyou was at a loss.

“I was thinking I wanted to look pretty when we go to pick up our kitten, since it’s her first time seeing us, and since this is the first spring we’re spending together. Wearing a scarf would seem a bit out of place. So I was willful and didn’t wear one. But maybe I was a bit too willful, because now I’m not feeling so comfortable.”

“What should I do, Ji Qingyou?” she asked, reaching out to tug at her sleeve. The corridor was noisy, the sunset was spreading, and the distance between them was bridged by spring.

Yu Qinjiu tugged her sleeve and looked at her softly.

“This is a signal. I want you to hold my hand.”