Chapter 18
September 13th was the day Jian Xin was discharged from the hospital.
Yan Lu had come to the hospital early in the morning to help with the discharge procedures.
It was Jian Xin’s first time being hospitalized, so she wasn’t familiar with the process. She just listened to Yao Wenqian sighing on the side, saying how troublesome it was, how the hospital wanted this and that, and how her cousin had run around for over an hour to get it done. She couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.
After all, at this time of day, Yan Lu was usually still sleeping at home.
“Thank you for your hard work,” Jian Xin said with a slightly awkward smile. “We haven’t seen each other in so many years, and the moment we do, I’ve troubled you to be so busy for me for so many days…”
“The person who hit you is my cousin. She’s young and doesn’t want her family to know, so of course I had to help out,” Yan Lu said, glancing at Jian Xin’s phone amidst Yao Wenqian’s “hee-hee” laughter. “Have you called your friends to come pick you up?”
Jian Xin: “Ah, they’ll come this afternoon when they’re free.”
Yan Lu: “That’s good.”
At this point, the ward fell silent for a moment.
Seeing that no one was talking, Yao Wenqian opened her phone, found a clip of The Fallen Jade Branch she had seen last night, and happily shared it with the absent-minded Jian Xin.
This sharing went on for a long time.
The afternoon sun was bright and dazzling.
Jincheng had just had a brief sun shower, and the air was filled with dampness and humidity.
Seeing that the rain had stopped, Yao Wenqian said she was going downstairs to buy some food, leaving the two silent people in the hospital room.
Yan Lu sat by the window, her body slightly turned, looking at the dark ground after the rain.
Jian Xin quietly looked at Yan Lu, wanting to say something, but not knowing where to start.
She had been thinking about it these past few days.
Thinking when she was human, and thinking when she was a duck.
—She should ask Yan Lu for her contact information.
Jian Xin swore to the heavens, she wasn’t trying to get back together with Yan Lu!
The reason she needed this contact information was because her intermittent duck transformation problem hadn’t been solved yet.
If she went to the temple to pray and asked a master for help, and there was still no solution, she would have to contact Yan Lu more often to investigate and see where the problem with this paranormal event lay, right?
Yes, that’s right, she was just actively trying to save herself!
But Yan Lu was doing very well now. She had money, fame, a house, and a car. She was no longer the little girl who had to rely on her soft heart to even get a full meal.
Now, she was in such a state, a world apart from her. Maybe even mentioning the past would seem like she was trying to climb the social ladder in the other person’s eyes…
Sigh, I’m too embarrassed to ask!
“You have something to say,” Yan Lu’s sudden words interrupted Jian Xin’s tangled thoughts.
“Uh-huh…” Jian Xin came back to her senses and pouted.
Wasn’t this person looking out the window? How did she know I had something to say?
Oh well, since I’ve been called out, if I don’t say some things now, I might not have the chance later!
Jian Xin cleared her throat and tried to look as casual as possible. “It’s nothing, really. I just suddenly thought that I don’t seem to have your current contact information.”
Hearing this, Yan Lu was silent for a few seconds before asking coldly, “Is that necessary?”
Jian Xin opened her mouth, her tone uncertain, but with a hint of stubbornness. “It’s necessary… right?”
Yan Lu: “It’s been seven years.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong!” Jian Xin frowned and hurried to explain. “I don’t mean anything else. I just think your cousin is young, and she might not be as clear about the follow-up compensation issues as you are. Since she’ll have to ask you anyway, it would be more time- and energy-saving for me to talk to you directly.”
“…Oh,” Yan Lu replied, getting up and walking to the bedside. “QQ or WeChat?”
“WeChat, I use WeChat more now,” Jian Xin said, and with a smile, she held out the QR code she had prepared.
After the scan was successful, Jian Xin looked down at this “new friend.”
Yan Lu’s WeChat name was “Wandering,” and her profile picture was a photo of Xin Xin with its tongue out, its head tilted in a smile—yes, it was the dog Xin Xin, not her.
Jian Xin tapped on the full-size picture and looked at it for a moment, then suddenly asked a question she already knew the answer to, “Your profile picture is so cute. Is that your dog?”
Yan Lu: “Aren’t you afraid of dogs?”
Jian Xin couldn’t help but smile. “People change. I’m not as afraid as I used to be these past few years.”
To be more precise, she wasn’t afraid at all anymore.
“Dogs are lively, active, and clingy. Sometimes I think about getting one too, but I don’t have any experience and I’m afraid I won’t be able to take good care of it and end up mistreating a little life,” Jian Xin said with a smile, her eyebrows arching. “If it’s convenient, can I come to your place to pet your dog?”
“My dog is shy with strangers.”
“…”
—Shy with strangers?
I’ll believe you when pigs fly!
Xin Xin is clearly the type to get excited over anyone. I saw it myself when we went for a walk downstairs the day before yesterday!
This blatant lie is clearly a polite refusal!
Jian Xin was silent for a long while, then silently opened Yan Lu’s personal profile to take a look.
Status: Not online often, very long response time, find me elsewhere for urgent matters.
“Um, why don’t we… add each other on QQ too?” Jian Xin held up her phone and gently shook her profile page at Yan Lu. “You don’t seem to be on this very often.”
Yan Lu closed WeChat, opened QQ, and tapped on the scan interface. “Code.”
“Oh, oh,” Jian Xin quickly fumbled through the unfamiliar QQ interface.
“Where is it…” she muttered to herself.
After using WeChat for so long, she was a little rusty with this seemingly more complex interface.
Yan Lu couldn’t help but remind her, “The plus sign in the top right corner, scan, it’s in the bottom left.”
“Oh, oh, oh!” Jian Xin had a sudden realization and held up the code to Yan Lu.
Finally adding Yan Lu as a friend, Jian Xin felt the big rock in her heart finally settle.
She tentatively asked, “Should we exchange phone numbers too, just in case?”
But Yan Lu refused without a second thought.
She said that as long as she was awake, she could be reached on QQ, so there was no need for a phone call.
Jian Xin sheepishly closed her mouth, and the hospital room fell silent once again.
Where on earth did Yao Wenqian go to buy food? Why hasn’t she been back for so long…
“Jian Xin.”
“Huh?” Jian Xin looked up, surprised.
The sudden call made her head spin a little.
“Let me see the doctor’s orders again,” Yan Lu said.
“Oh,” Jian Xin glanced at the bedside table. “I was afraid it would blow away, so I put it under my laptop.”
Yan Lu took out the doctor’s orders, sat on the edge of the bed, and read for a while, then said faintly, “You’re just being discharged, not fully recovered. You still need several follow-up check-ups, and there are things to pay attention to in your diet and medication. Your hands and feet are still not very convenient, so you need to rest more.”
What is this?
—Concern for me?
Jian Xin tilted her head, letting out a confused “uh-huh.”
Seeing her bewildered look, Yan Lu simply asked directly, “So you’re still not planning to tell your aunt and uncle?”
Jian Xin came back to her senses. “What for?”
Yan Lu: “To come and take care of you.”
“Pfft, no need…” Jian Xin shook her head repeatedly, patting the leg she could move. “My parents haven’t retired yet. I can hop on this leg and move my hands. Eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom are no problem. Why should I trouble them to take leave and come all this way to accompany me?”
“…”
“Don’t worry, I’m the legendary crash-proof king. I was sent flying, and I’m still being discharged in half a month, right?” Jian Xin said with a self-deprecating laugh, her face full of nonchalance. “I’ve had strong bones since I was a child!”
As her voice fell, she thought she heard a soft laugh.
When she looked up, she saw nothing.
Yan Lu folded the doctor’s orders and placed them back under the laptop, saying softly, “If you need anything after you’re discharged, just say so. Don’t be embarrassed to ask.”
Jian Xin blinked, the corners of her mouth unconsciously lifting slightly.
“Okay,” she replied softly, a sense of relief washing over her.
Soon, Yan Lu got up and sat back by the window, and Jian Xin lowered her head and started poking at her phone again.
First, she checked Yan Lu’s WeChat Moments—it was completely blank, nothing there.
After a brief silence, she opened QQ and tapped on Yan Lu’s Qzone.
This was even more direct—she didn’t have permission to view it at all.
Tch! As if anyone wants to look!
Jian Xin gritted her teeth and silently set Yan Lu’s friend permissions to “Chat Only.”
The next second, she tossed her phone to the side and closed her eyes in annoyance.
—Does she care?
She doesn’t care at all, okay!
