The Little Duck 46

Chapter 46

Have you ever been sent flying by a car at night?

Have you, after a certain car accident, started to frequently turn into your ex’s duck?

This kind of thing sounds particularly strange. If someone told you that she had experienced these things, you would definitely think she was a lunatic, right?

To be honest, if she hadn’t experienced it herself, Jian Xin would also think she was a lunatic.

To be precise, she was already starting to suspect that she had really gone mad.

Because besides the matter of frequently turning into her ex’s duck after a car accident, even more strange things had happened to her—her memory seemed to be severely confused.

This had to start from the time she had fainted from period pain and turned into a duck, and hadn’t been able to return to her own body for three consecutive days.

It was a little scary to say, but she had never had so many debuffs stacked on her in her life.

—Her car accident injuries hadn’t healed, her mood was inexplicably low, her diet and schedule were extremely irregular, and she had also run into her period, which was already over a month late. Finally, she was kidnapped by a duck and didn’t eat or drink for three consecutive days.

No joke, she almost thought she was about to leave this not-so-beautiful human world.

Fortunately, after her unremitting efforts, she had finally let her ex discover her miserable state of being in a coma at home alone.

And so, in the form of a duck, she was held in her ex-girlfriend’s arms and watched as her unconscious “self” was taken away by an ambulance and into the hospital.

Jian Xin felt that her mind had never been in such a mess in her life.

Such an absurd thing, if she dared to say it out loud, people would dare to send her to a psychiatric hospital, okay!

But the absurd things didn’t end there.

That night, Yan Lu had rushed to the hospital with the ambulance. Just as she entered the outpatient hall, she was stopped by someone waving at her.

“Pets, pets are not allowed inside!”

Hearing this, Jian Xin subconsciously shrank her neck, as if she could hide herself that way.

But in the end, she was still locked in a small cage and was temporarily left at the hospital’s front desk—and even this was thanks to Yan Lu’s pleading with the nurse on duty at the front desk.

“My duck is very well-behaved. It usually only quacks when it sees a dog,” Yan Lu said, crouching down and rubbing the little duck’s head through the cage. “Cauliflower, you have to be good. This is a hospital, you can’t be noisy. Mommy will be in for a bit and will take you home later.”

Yan Lu said she would be right back, but after she went in, she never came out.

Although Jian Xin was extremely anxious, she still stayed quietly in the cage, not daring to make a sound, afraid of causing any trouble for Yan Lu.

An unknown amount of time passed when a wave of drowsiness came over her. Jian Xin shrank her neck into her chest, closed her eyes, and slowly fell asleep.

In a daze, she seemed to hear Yan Lu’s voice.

She tried to struggle, but couldn’t open her eyes. The voice in her ears, however, gradually became clearer.

Yan Lu was asking the doctor about her condition.

The doctor said that her condition was like a coma caused by excessive hunger.

After that, he asked Yan Lu, “Has the patient been on a hunger strike these past few days?”

“She should have… been…” Yan Lu’s tone was uncertain.

“That’s right. A coma is a very common physiological mechanism when the body is in extreme hunger. Before the coma, the patient will often have arrhythmia, muscle spasms, and may even have consciousness disorders—in this case, the patient may have already lost the ability to eat on her own. If there is no timely external intervention, it may even cause irreversible brain damage.”

—No way, so serious!

“Then…”

“Of course, this is just a hypothesis. Her condition is not serious. After she finishes these few bottles, she can go home after a little rest,” the doctor said, pausing for a second. The words that came out next were full of meaning. “But since she has been on a hunger strike, perhaps we need to pay more attention to the patient’s mental health than her physical discomfort.”

—Thank you, doctor, but actually, I’m quite mentally healthy, just a little possessed.

“…I understand. Thank you, doctor.”

Jian Xin heard Yan Lu reply softly, then close the door, walk back to the window, and sit quietly by her side.

She had tried to wake up, but she felt as if she were being held down by a ghost, unable to move at all.

The hand that was getting the IV drip was a little cold and painful in the night, but it was suddenly held in a palm, and warm breath was blown on it, and it was gently rubbed.

Once upon a time, they had also been together like this.

During the winter break of her first year of university, she didn’t know if she had caught a cold or had eaten something bad, but she had been vomiting and had diarrhea for two days in a row, and she would even throw up the medicine she took.

Her family had no choice but to take her to the hospital for an IV drip.

It was so cold in winter. The medicine in the IV bottle dripped into her blood vessels, drop by drop, cold and stinging, so uncomfortable that she wanted to slow it down, but also wanted it to end quickly.

At that time, it was also Yan Lu who had stayed by her side, holding her cold hand, gently blowing on it, and gently rubbing it.

Every time the IV drip was finished, she would hold her hand up to Yan Lu and say with a smile, “Look, it’s swollen here, like a gourd!”

Then Yan Lu would laugh softly and take her hand, asking if this little gourd would still be able to move at night, and if she should lie down for a few days.

“You’re looking down on me, aren’t you!”

“No!”

“You’re just looking down on me. Watch me make you submit tonight…” Before she could finish her sentence, Yan Lu had already run away. “Hey, what are you running for? Don’t run!”

On that day in her memory, she had chased her for a long way and finally caught her by the bus station.

The winter wind was bone-chillingly cold, but they were laughing and joking, completely unaware.

If only I could go back… back to that most carefree time.

With this thought, her consciousness once again gradually blurred.

When she woke up again, the IV bottle hanging by the hospital bed was gone, and Yan Lu was no longer in the hospital bed. There was only a crutch that had been delivered at some point, leaning quietly against the wall by the bed.

Although her body was sore and weak, the first thing she did was go to the bathroom.

Her mind and body were both numb now, and besides that, she didn’t feel any discomfort. But the thought that she had been in a coma for three full days during her period, and that she had been wearing that sleep panty for three days, made her scalp tingle so much that she wanted to die on the spot!

But in the end, she did not die on the spot.

Because when she walked into the bathroom and squatted down—she was stunned.

She was clean and fresh. Not to mention a sleep panty, there wasn’t even a shadow of a sanitary pad.

Strange, how did she remember that before she turned into a duck, she was on her period?

—Could it be that Yan Lu had helped her change?!

But even if Yan Lu had helped her change, she should have at least given her a sanitary pad, right?

Even if there was no sanitary pad… then, then, then where was her period?

How did her period, which was over a month late, also disappear along with it?!

“I’ve seen a ghost… I’ve really seen a ghost…”

The moment Jian Xin walked out of the bathroom, she was in a state of shock, as if her soul had left her body.

She felt that her understanding of this world could no longer support her to understand everything that was happening to her now.

If turning into a duck frequently after a car accident was the beginning of her paranormal life, then what new situation, comparable to a horror movie, was this experience of “not returning for three days, period missing”?

—Is it a memory disorder?

Can a person’s memory be disordered to this extent? Has she really not gone mad?

Is there a possibility that she did have her period, and she did not change her sleep panty for three days, but her cerebral cortex was unwilling to accept this information, so it conspired with her eyes to deceive her?

Possible, this is very possible!

Right, someone had said that the human brain is the most precise structure in this world. It must be able to achieve such self-deception!

At this thought, Jian Xin quickly turned her head and ran back to the bathroom, and with a suspicious mind, she checked her body again.

Everything was still as usual, as if her period had never come.

—Strange, so strange!

But this strangeness made her inexplicably relieved.

Jian Xin couldn’t help but think in her heart, even if she encountered a more paranormal event, even if there was a hidden danger behind the paranormal, it was still better than letting Yan Lu see her in such a mess because of this.

But… is this really right to go on like this?

Her originally normal life had been completely disrupted by these strange and somewhat terrifying things.

Last time it was being late, this time it was being in a coma for three days.

Then what about next time? What would be waiting for her?

If she would always turn into a duck without any warning like this in the future, could she really have a relatively normal life?

Things had already come to this point. No matter how much she wanted to secretly go to Yan Lu’s side, she had to think of a way to solve this matter as soon as possible…

Jian Xin’s thoughts wandered as she returned to the hospital room, lay back on the bed, tilted her head, and stared blankly.

Yan Lu walked into the hospital room with breakfast and looked up to see Jian Xin lying on the bed, dazed, as if she could leave the world at any moment.

She frowned, a hint of anger appearing in her eyes.

Jian Xin came back to her senses when she heard the sound and looked up at Yan Lu, a smile appearing on her face.

“You’re here!” she said, looking up at the sky outside the window, her eyes curving as she waved at the person at the door. “Morning!”

Yan Lu didn’t say anything, just had a cold face, walked to Jian Xin’s bedside, and handed her the breakfast she had just bought.

Jian Xin took the bag and looked inside.

A cup of soy milk, two buns, simple and convenient, and they smelled quite good.

“Thank you,” Jian Xin said softly, then, as if remembering something, she looked up and asked, “Ah, I heard that you brought Cauliflower over last night and it was locked at the hospital entrance. How is Cauliflower now?”

“You could even hear that.”

“Haha…” Jian Xin scratched her head and didn’t explain much, just asked again, “Did you send it home?”

“I sent it back this morning,” Yan Lu said irritably.

Jian Xin pouted and lowered her head to eat her bun guiltily.

Yan Lu walked to the window and sat down, saying faintly, “The doctor said there’s nothing seriously wrong with you, just that the excessive hunger caused a coma.”

“Uh-huh—” Jian Xin replied vaguely, still chewing on her food.

“When you’re done eating, I’ll take you home.”

Jian Xin nodded and took a big gulp of her soy milk.

Sometimes she had to sigh at how amazing the human body is—you have to know that before the coma, she had had no appetite at all for more than ten days, but now, just eating a bun and drinking soy milk, she felt very hungry.

She thought, when she got home, she had something to say to Yan Lu.

This was it. She had to seize the opportunity and not miss it easily.

After breakfast, Yan Lu drove Jian Xin home. The short ten-minute drive was filled with Jian Xin’s chattering.

The studio’s cheap jobs, the difficult clients, and her recent lack of appetite…

It was like chatting with someone about family matters, her tone was light, as if there had never been a single bit of animosity between them.

Yan Lu just listened quietly, without making any response.

As Jian Xin was talking, she felt a little abdominal pain. The moment she got home, she rushed into the bathroom.

“…”

A little magical, and a little speechless.

—Her missing period had suddenly appeared again.

And, and it was quite accommodating…

Jian Xin sat on the toilet and thought for a long time, then sent a message to Yan Lu with some embarrassment.

Picked Up a Heart: Um, Yan Lu

Perched by the Roadside: ?

Picked Up a Heart: [Sweats] I’m on my period.

Picked Up a Heart: In the bottom of the wardrobe, in the second drawer on the right, there are sanitary pads. Can you get them for me?

Picked Up a Heart: [Thank you]

Yan Lu looked at the message, closed her eyes and sighed, put on her slippers, and went into the room to help her with this.

“Thank you…” Jian Xin said, taking the sanitary pads, a hint of embarrassment in her eyes.

Yan Lu turned and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door for her.

After a few seconds of silence, she couldn’t help but ask, “Do you have any brown sugar at home?”

Jian Xin: “No.”

Yan Lu opened a takeout app, ordered a bowl of brown sugar ginger tea, and hesitated for a few seconds before exiting the app, then ordered a bag of heat patches. Finally, she turned and walked back to the living room, and sat down on the sofa.

A short while later, Jian Xin came out of the bathroom, holding her stomach and limping, a faint sense of doom on her face.

Yan Lu glanced at her and said in a flat tone, “I ordered some brown sugar ginger tea. I didn’t know if you had any heat patches, so I bought some too.”

Jian Xin: “Oh, I’ve never used those…”

Yan Lu: “Use them when you’re awake, not when you’re sleeping. You’ll get a low-temperature burn easily.”

Jian Xin nodded and replied seriously, “Okay!”

She took two deep breaths, walked over to Yan Lu’s side and sat down, but Yan Lu moved a little to the side.

Jian Xin was taken aback for a moment. “You…”

Yan Lu: “Jian Xin, is this fun?”

Jian Xin: “…Huh?”

Yan Lu frowned slightly, her fingers unconsciously clenching her phone. “Is it necessary to hurt yourself to gain others’ sympathy?”

“I…”

“How old are you? Are you still so childish?”

Jian Xin’s eyes couldn’t help but twitch. She opened her mouth and took a sharp breath, wanting to explain something, but found that she didn’t know where to start.

“You don’t think you’re very devoted and can move people, do you?” Yan Lu looked at her angrily and laughed irritably. “Times have changed. Even novels don’t like to write about these things anymore. What on earth are you doing?”

“It’s not what you think…”

“Do your aunt and uncle know you’re like this? Are you hoping that I’ll feel guilty, and be moved that you can do this for me, and then come back to you crying?”

“I didn’t…”

“Jian Xin, when we were together back then, I was the one who pursued you. Later, when we broke up, you were the one who dumped me,” Yan Lu said, her voice also trembling slightly. “Our relationship began with my obsession and ended with your pain. It ended in the year we saw each other clearly. Isn’t that just right?”

“…” Why are you saying these things?

“You stood up for me, you took me home, you gave me gifts, you helped me escape that home, and for a time, I felt that I could never leave you… but that was just a hallucination. No one can rely on anyone forever!” Yan Lu gritted her teeth, trying her best to keep her tone calm. “I didn’t understand back then, but on second thought, you’re not that great either.”

Jian Xin laughed inexplicably. She opened her mouth subconsciously, wanting to refute, but was at a loss for words for a moment.

Yeah, she’s not that great either…

It’s just that when she was a child, her family would always back her up in everything, so she looked decent. Didn’t she show her true colors as soon as she graduated from university?

“You’re always like this, doing whatever you want, not afraid of anything, and you wish you could always have the upper hand. Whatever you like, you don’t need my consent…” Yan Lu said with a laugh. “And I, I just have to accept it.”

“…”

“You’re so domineering. Whether you come or go, it’s not up to me. When you were tired back then, you just left. I didn’t stop you. Now that you want to come back, should I also be the person who comes when you call and leaves when you dismiss?”

Jian Xin couldn’t help but laugh, a bitter laugh.

So, in Yan Lu’s heart, she had always been this kind of person…

“Weren’t you very sure back then? You said I didn’t need you, and I think you were right. I just don’t need you… I didn’t need you that much before, and I need you even less now,” Yan Lu’s tone became more and more aggressive. “To be precise, I did need you once, but that was in the past.”

Jian Xin tilted her head and quietly looked at her, her eyes full of curiosity, as if she were looking at a stranger.

“After you left, my life was clean. You were cleared from my world, understand?” she said, looking into Jian Xin’s eyes, a self-deprecating smile on her face. “In these past few years, I haven’t thought of you. I didn’t come to Jincheng because of you. I’m doing very well now, and I’ve forgotten many things. The things you gave me, after so many years, I don’t even know where they are…”

She asked her, with a heart full of confusion, and questioned her softly—

“Why do you want to get back together with me?”

“…”

“Is it because of the care during this period that you’ve had some kind of hallucination?”

“…”

“Emotionally, you’ve helped me a lot in the past, so it’s right for me to repay you. Logically, my cousin hit you, so my family owes you, and we can’t just ignore it,” Yan Lu said almost indifferently. “I’ve already said, if you need help, you can just come to me. As long as I can do it, I will help you. You don’t need to establish any unnecessary relationship with me.”

At this point, she couldn’t help but ask again, “What are you trying to do now?”

“Are you trying to get me back like this? When did you become so childish!” she said, looking at her aggrieved eyes without a trace of mercy. “Perhaps we shouldn’t continue to be entangled. This distance is not right. I don’t feel troubled now, I just feel scared—I never thought you would do such a thing.”

She wished she could scold her awake, but in the end, all she saw was a face full of defiance.

It’s fine to be defiant, to have resentment in your heart, or even to feel disgusted. It’s better than always tormenting yourself for an unsuitable person.

Yan Lu took a deep breath and stood up to walk to the door. “Let’s end it here. We don’t need to contact each other anymore.”

Jian Xin’s hands unconsciously clenched into fists.

What does she mean by “end it here,” what does she mean by “unnecessary relationship”?

—A liar full of lies!

Does she believe those words herself?!

In the silence, the door was pushed open, and the sound of that moment was particularly piercing.

Jian Xin’s breath was even trembling. She stood up and shouted at her, “Yan Lu! Are you leaving again?!”

Yan Lu’s footsteps paused, and she said without looking back, “Haven’t I made myself clear enough?”

This was said too clearly, so clearly that it was infuriating!

Jian Xin sniffed hard, endured the pain in her body, and stumbled forward a couple of steps.

“Why, why can you always say such things so calmly…”

“Why… whether in the past or now, am I always the one who’s hysterical!”

“Do you think I want to be like this?” she said, her eyes red, looking at Yan Lu’s almost indifferent back. “Not eating or drinking, not contacting anyone, hiding at home, so sad for you that I ended up in the hospital… do you think I’m hopelessly stupid?!”

“Yan Lu! It’s not like I can’t live without you in this lifetime!” her voice trembled, as if on the verge of breaking down. “In the past seven years, you weren’t the only one who was doing well. I wasn’t doing too badly either, okay!”

“You asked me what I’m trying to do. Fine, I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you right now why I’m like this, why I’ve made myself like this!” Jian Xin gritted her teeth, her voice choked. “For these three days, I’ve been at your house. From the moment I sent that message, I’ve been at your house! For three whole days, it’s not that I didn’t want to wake up, it’s that I couldn’t wake up at all!”

“Do you want to listen to the crazy things you’re saying…”

“I’m not talking crazy, and I’m not crazy! I was at your house, not just these three days, but also many days in the past six months. I was in your duck’s body!” Jian Xin took a deep breath, her words full of grievance. “I know you won’t believe me, I know no one will believe me, so I’ve been holding it in… but I’m not crazy, what I’m saying is true!”

Yan Lu couldn’t help but frown, a hint of panic in her eyes.

“Yesterday afternoon, Cauliflower was quacking at you nonstop. You thought it was seeking attention, so you took it on a blind date—the two ducks that came were both female, right?”

“…”

“Last night, you couldn’t get into my house, and Cauliflower was pecking at the door, right?” Jian Xin said, and she couldn’t help but laugh, her eyes full of self-mockery. “You thought, what’s a duck doing pecking at a door for no reason—that was me, I wanted to help you open the door!”

“…”

“And last time, we had a date to watch a movie, but I didn’t wake up. It was also because I was trapped in Cauliflower’s body!” Jian Xin said, looking at Yan Lu, at the disbelief in her eyes, and asked her with a heart full of grievance, “Otherwise, why do you think Cauliflower was trying to stop you from going out that day, and why did it have to go out with you?”

“…”

Jian Xin, at this point, leaned forward again. “You said that the care during this period made me have an illusion I shouldn’t have…”

“You said you hadn’t thought of me… you said you had forgotten many things… you said the gifts I gave you had long since been lost…” she couldn’t help but press, “then what did I see? That broken watch, that piece of paper hidden in the bookshelf, the tear-stained pillowcase, and the words you said to those two little ones…”

“Are these all my hallucinations too?” Jian Xin asked stubbornly, and stubbornly walked to Yan Lu’s side, and stubbornly looked into those seemingly forever indifferent eyes.

This time, she finally saw the tears in her eyes.

“You want to break up with me, fine! Anyway… anyway, I’m not trying to get back together with you. I’m just, just a little unwilling!” Jian Xin forced a self-deprecating smile. “You’ve said so many bad things about me, but are you any better? Back then, and now, I’m like prying open a rock, and I can’t get what I really want… Do you know, you’re like a piece of ice that can’t be warmed up. At first, I didn’t believe it. I saw some flowers and grass through the ice and thought there was a spring hidden inside, but in the end, I found that there was really nothing inside!”

“…”

“We can make a clean break. You’ve already said so much, and I have nothing to be entangled with!” she said, wiping away a tear, biting her lip, and letting out a sigh, looking elsewhere. “But before that, you have to help me solve this damn thing of turning into your duck from time to time, right?”

She said that she still wanted to live a normal life!

Who would want to go to the house of someone they should have never seen again to be a little pet every few days?

She also said—

If this matter is never solved…

She would definitely be stuck with her for the rest of her life!