The Kindhearted Girl Gets a Wife 29

Chapter 29

A faint sound broke the dawn, and the bed in the room creaked as a sudden weight was added.

Pei Yunle was startled awake by the movement. She had always been worried that this flimsy bed would fall apart one night, and she would be thrown to the ground with her limbs in the air.

She threw off the quilt and sat up from the bed. The morning light was dim, and the continuous green mountains were outside the window. The room was filled with a blue, dark light. Even in the dim light, she could clearly see the outline of Chen Qingtang sitting on the edge of the bed.

She’s like a little night elf, was the first thought that came to Pei Yunle’s mind.

It was only 7 o’clock in the morning. Pei Yunle couldn’t resist the dryness of her eyelids. Her fluffy head rubbed against Chen Qingtang’s leg, her voice thick and hoarse with sleep. “When did you come? Did you get up so early to sit here and scare me to death?”

With that, she lifted her heavy head and, with her mouth open, bit Chen Qingtang’s thigh with her canine teeth. The other person’s skin was warm, soft, and delicate. Pei Yunle couldn’t help but let her hands run wild. Her restless fingers explored from her knee upwards, pinching and squeezing, a little of Chen Qingtang’s soft flesh spilling out from between her fingers.

Until she explored further in, her arm felt Chen Qingtang’s body tremble. Soon, her already slightly warm hand was unceremoniously slapped away by Chen Qingtang, her palm falling to the side of the bed.

“Click.”

It was the same sound she had heard just now. Although the decibel was so low it was almost negligible, it was obvious enough in this quiet room.

The chaos in Pei Yunle’s mind was also split open by this crisp sound. She brushed away the messy hair that was covering her eyes. A dark lens was pointed at her face.

As her consciousness gradually returned, Pei Yunle understood what it was. The smile on her face accumulated to a sufficient concentration, so much so that Chen Qingtang couldn’t help but squint.

She was still lying on Chen Qingtang’s lap. She raised her hands to touch the thing Chen Qingtang was holding. The cool touch on her warm palm. “When did you buy this camera? How come I didn’t know?”

Chen Qingtang pointed out the window. Pei Yunle turned her head to look. Other than the tall building that was blocking the window, if she looked up, there were only the mountains outside.

“What? Did it fall from the sky?” Pei Yunle’s voice was still hoarse, her eyes filled with the haze of just waking up. Her emotions hadn’t welled up yet, and her sharp features only showed a softness.

Chen Qingtang couldn’t help it. She ran her fingers through her hair and, little by little, went down to pinch Pei Yunle’s earlobe.

She wrote on Pei Yunle’s collarbone with her index finger.

It turned out that Chen Qingtang had bought it at a second-hand stall at the end of the market that day.

Pei Yunle opened the photo album. There were very few photos, only a dozen or so. But these photos were all taken while she was asleep just now, and her sleeping posture was really not flattering.

“Why did you take this one too!” Pei Yunle pointed at a photo of herself drooling. “No, no, you have to delete it. It will ruin my image in your mind.”

Chen Qingtang didn’t stop her, just softened her back and fell onto the messy bed with Pei Yunle.

“Is this camera expensive?” Pei Yunle’s voice was muffled.

With the person she liked by her side and the quilt on her legs, Chen Qingtang was so comfortable she was about to fall asleep. Hearing her question, she lazily opened her eyes again.

Was it expensive? A second-hand camera was of course cheaper than a new one, but a camera itself was not a cheap thing. No matter how cheap it was, it wouldn’t be a rock-bottom price. At least for Chen Qingtang, who didn’t have much money, it was very expensive.

But she was willing. Even if it was a waste of money, every penny spent on Pei Yunle was worth it.

Chen Qingtang rubbed against Pei Yunle’s shoulder and nodded.

“How can I repay you for being so good to me?”

Chen Qingtang opened her eyes again in a daze. The light from the camera screen was a little uncomfortable. So she turned her eyes to a small, inconspicuous mole on the tip of Pei Yunle’s nose.

Pei Yunle finished checking the camera. It was quite easy to use. She gently placed the camera on the bedside table and then rolled over to hug Chen Qingtang. Although she was taller than Chen Qingtang, she still liked to be the one on the bottom, curling up into a ball and burying herself in Chen Qingtang’s arms.

Her eyelids were getting heavy. Her nostrils were filled with Chen Qingtang’s scent, like a tree growing freely, exuding a sense of strength.

She answered her own question, “I’ll just marry you.”

The two of them responded to each other intermittently. When the sky was finally bright, they fell asleep soundly, snuggled together.

…

When she woke up, the weight on her arm was gone. Only Pei Yunle was left in the room, sleeping until noon.

She put on a shirt and went downstairs. She saw a few dishes on the small square table. It was time for lunch again.

She didn’t see Chen Qingtang in the courtyard, not even Grandma Liu. Pei Yunle put her hands on her hips and walked around the front yard, occasionally touching the flowers and kicking the aloe vera with her toes. The aloe vera was growing very vigorously, and even though it was yellowing, it still stretched out its sharp tips.

The sound of a wok and spatula clashing came from the small kitchen. Pei Yunle smelled something different from usual.

She sniffed. The smell seemed to be… stir-fried pork with green peppers?!

Grandma Liu didn’t like to eat meat much. Every meal had to be a vegetarian bean and melon soup. The only meat was a little bit added to the stir-fried lettuce. Pei Yunle had been suffering from a lack of meat for a long time.

She walked along the cobblestone path and into the kitchen. She saw Chen Qingtang in an apron, wielding a wok and spatula. A fire rose from the iron wok.

“Is it New Year’s today? Why are you cooking?”

Chen Qingtang was busy pouring the food out of the wok and had no time to pay attention to her.

Remembering that the first time she had eaten something Chen Qingtang had made was that bowl of egg noodles, Pei Yunle lowered her head slightly, her chin naturally resting on Chen Qingtang’s shoulder. Feeling the rise and fall of her arm, it was as if she were cooking with Chen Qingtang.

Chen Qingtang had made two dishes and one soup. Other than the stir-fried pork with green peppers, the other two were still low-oil vegetarian dishes.

A few sparrows were perched on the branches in the distance, chirping at them.

Pei Yunle scooped two pieces of meat into her bowl. “Is Grandma not eating today?”

Chen Qingtang was still wearing her lace apron, looking very demure. She shook her head and, with the water droplets remaining on her fingers, explained on the wooden table—She’s sick.

“Ah, what’s wrong? How come there were no signs at all?”

Pei Yunle saw Chen Qingtang point at her own knee, and in an instant, she understood that it was still the problem with her knee.

“Was the ointment I bought last time useless?”

Chen Qingtang shook her head. The phone on the table rang. She held her chopsticks in her mouth and glanced at it, then immediately put down her chopsticks, wiped her hands on her apron, and went upstairs.

Seeing her in a hurry, Pei Yunle also put down her bowl and chopsticks and followed behind her. However, she didn’t go upstairs. She stopped at the stairs.

The sound of the bed creaking came from upstairs. She heard heavy footsteps on the wooden floor, and other sounds.

She couldn’t necessarily distinguish the other sounds, but she immediately recognized the painful wails of a sick person, the kind of pain that struggled out from the depths of the soul.

Chen Qingtang carried Grandma Liu down the stairs. Pei Yunle saw her biceps and triceps bulge. The old woman was not light, and she was wearing extremely thick clothes, so it was not easy to carry her.

Pei Yunle wanted to help her, but she didn’t know where to start, and she didn’t want to torture Grandma Liu. “Where are you going now? The town hospital?”

Chen Qingtang nodded randomly, waiting for Pei Yunle to call a three-wheeler at the entrance and help her get the person on.

The registration window at the hospital was crowded with people. Pei Yunle stood in the lobby and scanned the area, then took her ID card to the self-service registration machine to register. She saw that Chen Qingtang’s face was flushed and her forehead was covered in fine sweat, so she took the lead and carried the old woman up to the third floor.

Because she was not familiar with the condition, she let Chen Qingtang go in to accompany her.

The two of them were busy at the hospital for most of the day, doing various tests and paying several bills.

In the end, Pei Yunle stared at the diagnosis in a daze. Other than some basic illnesses, both of her knees had osteoarthritis. It wasn’t a very rare disease, but it was enough to be torturous. Her mobility was severely restricted. A person can choose not to walk, but they cannot be passively unable to walk. This was a very cruel thing for any age group to be deprived of their freedom.

The doctor suggested that if conditions allowed, she could go to the city for an artificial joint replacement surgery. Of course, it was just a suggestion. After all, not everyone was willing to spend money on an old person, let alone someone with no blood relationship.

Behind the outpatient hall was the emergency hall. The town hospital was small, and almost all the departments were crowded into the same building.

They sat on the cold stainless steel chairs and saw a stretcher being hurriedly wheeled over from the other end, leaving a trail of blood on the floor. Pei Yunle only dared to glance at it before looking away.

“Let’s go to Anyang and see,” Pei Yunle said in a low voice. The hospital always made people feel depressed.

Chen Qingtang held the few thin pieces of paper, her brows slightly furrowed, her lips pursed into a straight line.

“It’s okay, let’s go and see how much the surgery costs there. Maybe it’s within our expectations. Don’t worry about it yet.”

Chen Qingtang looked at the form, and the words on it began to blur, until they were all soaked in water and wrinkled.

The night had not yet fallen, but all three of them were already tired.

Pei Yunle didn’t even want to eat. She lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling in a daze. She felt that the whole house was quiet. Although it was usually quiet, at this moment, it felt like a dead silence.

She climbed to the head of the bed, hooked her phone with her finger, and scrolled through the dense contact list, trying to remember which of her classmates had already found a job related to medicine. As long as they weren’t an unemployed vagrant like her, they were a reference.

She called a girl she had been on good terms with in college.

It wasn’t until the third call that the other person answered.

Pei Yunle sat up from the bed and scratched her head, wondering if she should make some small talk to seem less deliberate. But the adult world was not exactly the same as the school world, and she was afraid of wasting the other person’s time.

After much thought, Pei Yunle made some casual small talk with her classmate before getting to the point.

“I’m calling to bother you mainly to ask, what’s the approximate cost of a joint replacement these days?”

The other person was taken aback. “What joint? Knee or hip?”

“Knee.”

“Both or single?”

“Both knees, the patient is in her 60s.”

“Wait a minute, I’m not very sure either. I’ll ask first and then send you a message.”

Pei Yunle quickly thanked the other person several times. The phone was immediately hung up, with no time for silence.

She fell back onto the bed, watching as the room was once again filled with a bluish light. Her eyelids began to feel heavy.

She sighed to herself that humans were such fragile creatures. When she was an intern in her fourth year of college, she was in pain every day. She couldn’t remember the basic knowledge, couldn’t answer the questions, and was even timid when taking a patient’s blood pressure.

During that time, Pei Yunle always tried her best to slack off and get through the day. When she was free, the patients she had neglected would naturally come into her sight. She had seen many life and death situations, not only the pain of the patients, but also the pain of their families.

Pei Yunle had once empathized deeply. Every time she went back to the dorm, she would still cry her eyes out. Over time, she had seen too much and became numb.

Until today, those small emotions that had been left behind were once again entangling her. She couldn’t tell if she was sad because she loved Chen Qingtang and therefore loved everything about her, or because Grandma Liu herself was a very good person, this kind and lonely old woman.

Pei Yunle rubbed her sore nose. Although she hated the bland bean and melon soup, the plain bean and melon soup went well with the salty stir-fried pork with green peppers. The absence of either would make her unhappy.

…

The morning mist filled the mountains, and the cool wind blew through the narrow streets and alleys. The water on the stone path reflected the three lonely figures.

As they had agreed last night, Pei Yunle would watch the store and keep it open as usual, and only Chen Qingtang would accompany Grandma to the city.

With Grandma still around, Pei Yunle didn’t dare to do anything out of line. She just touched the back of Chen Qingtang’s cool hand. “Come back early. Let me know if anything happens.”

Chen Qingtang squeezed her little finger, indicating that she understood.

It was the first time Pei Yunle had seen the two of them so close. The temporary separation made her feel empty.

Life in the small store was as usual. It was nothing more than the adults from North Street coming to buy soy sauce and salt, the elementary school students next door buying notebooks and pencils, and the young girl from the south entrance coming to buy sanitary pads. Seeing the white bag Pei Yunle gave her, she asked in a low voice if she could have a black one.

Of course, there were also some children who wanted to steal spicy strips. Pei Yunle caught them on the spot and gave them a stern lecture, telling them that if they stole again, she would tell their parents and they would get a beating.

When she was free, Pei Yunle would lean on the counter and think of Chen Qingtang. She didn’t know how she had managed to get through such a boring and tedious life for decades—opening the store, moving goods, delivering goods, checking out, and closing the store.

She thought that Chen Qingtang must be very tired today, so she didn’t want to bother her with messages. So she opened their chat box and played with her own “poke” message. Seeing a string of heart-shaped electrocardiograms fill the screen, Pei Yunle’s longing was about to overflow from the screen.

A large truck honked outside the store. Pei Yunle went out to move a few boxes of goods, most of which were still tea, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. By the time she had restocked everything, she was covered in sticky sweat. She lifted the corner of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her nose and found that the light in the store had dimmed a lot.

A crescent moon was hanging from the branches outside.

The phone on the counter was not yet on standby. The chat screen showed that Chen Qingtang had sent her a cute “hug” sticker.

Below it was a sentence: I’ll be back tomorrow at noon.

Pei Yunle took a grape-flavored lollipop from the plastic bucket, tore open the wrapper, and put it in her mouth. The sweet grape flavor was very strong.

Pei: How is it?

Chen: The price is about what you said, it’s indeed over 20,000.

Pei: What material is it? Did they say?

Chen: All-ceramic.

Pei: (Jaw drop jpg.) Why is it so expensive?!

Chen: Because there’s also a surgery fee of over 5,000.

Pei Yunle’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for a while. She typed a string of words and then deleted them, then typed again, over and over several times. In the end, she still asked.

Pei: Is the financial pressure big?

The other person didn’t reply. Pei Yunle held her phone and waited for a long time, until it was time to close and lock the store. Only then did Chen Qingtang reply.

Chen: Yes.

This one light word hit Pei Yunle’s heart like a thousand-pound hammer. And she didn’t have a single cent. She flipped through the ledger on the counter, which recorded the daily income. She randomly flipped through a few pages and roughly scanned them to get an average.

The town had a small population, and the convenience store was in a remote location. It was difficult to make a lot of money just by selling daily necessities. After deducting rent, utilities, and daily expenses, Chen Qingtang didn’t make much money all year round.

Pei: Do you want to sell the camera?

The other person no longer hesitated for a long time before replying, but just threw back two words with determination: No.

Pei: You can buy it back after you sell it.

Chen: I’ll work hard to make money (fist jpg.).

Idiot. Only then did Pei Yunle realize that this person was also stubborn. She didn’t know why Chen Qingtang insisted on keeping that camera despite the pressure.

The night wind swept up the green leaves on the ground. It was the first time Pei Yunle had gone home alone.