The Little Duck 7

Chapter 7

Zheng Xinyue arrived at the hospital a little after one in the afternoon.

Jian Xin had just finished her lunch, with Yao Wenqian’s help, when she saw a familiar figure with a small panda crossbody bag walk into the ward. She stood by Jian Xin’s bed, hands on her hips, looking menacing.

Zheng Xinyue: “Well, well, how are your arms and legs still attached?”

Jian Xin: “…”

“Is she your friend?” Yao Wenqian asked in a low voice.

Jian Xin closed her eyes and nodded.

“Then you two chat. I’m going out for some fresh air!” Yao Wenqian said, and once again, she slipped out as if escaping.

Zheng Xinyue watched the young girl turn and scurry away before casually asking, “Who’s that?”

Jian Xin: “The person who hit me.”

“So young, looks like a college student,” Zheng Xinyue said, sitting down by the bed. “Have you discussed compensation?”

Jian Xin: “I’ll get everything I’m owed.”

Zheng Xinyue nodded, her gaze falling back on Jian Xin.

From that single moment of a frowning stare, Jian Xin knew she couldn’t escape the scolding that was about to come.

“Comfortable lying there?” Zheng Xinyue tilted her head, a dangerous smile playing on her lips. “No more overtime, must feel great, right?”

“It’s, it’s alright…”

“Alright!” Zheng Xinyue’s voice suddenly shot up. “I’m seriously impressed with you! Tell me, just tell me, I dropped you off at home, turned on the AC, and tucked you in. How did you manage to get hit by a car on the main road?”

“…”

“What’s wrong, was the sofa not comfortable enough? Did overtime not burn off enough of your boundless energy that you had to add a little pre-sleep exercise?”

“…”

“Hey! I just don’t get it! What drunken nerve in your body snapped that made you absolutely have to go out for a stroll in the middle of the night?”

“The alcohol went to my head a bit,” Jian Xin explained softly. “I thought I lost my phone and went out to look for it. It took me a while to realize it was in my hand…”

“And then?” Zheng Xinyue pressed.

“And then, I think I was trying to go home, and then I passed out.” Jian Xin gave Zheng Xinyue a debriefing with a dazed look in her eyes. “And then and then, I opened my eyes and became… like this, lying here.”

Zheng Xinyue gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “Seeing you lying here now, I regret even having that drink with you!”

“I’m sorry, it’s my fault,” Jian Xin said apologetically. “You already took me home, and I still went running around on my own. I deserved to get hit…”

She then loudly promised, “I won’t do it again!”

“Next time?!” Zheng Xinyue was clearly furious, her tone taking on the quality of a teacher scolding a student. “You were lucky this time! If something had really happened, there’s no way I’d be the one collecting your body!”

“Mhm, mhm, mhm, mhm!” Jian Xin nodded repeatedly as if keeping time.

Receiving a safety lecture from a friend should have been a very serious occasion, but for some reason, she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from turning up.

Zheng Xinyue: “What are you smiling about?”

Jian Xin’s expression changed in a second. “I’m not smiling!”

Zheng Xinyue: “You were just smiling, I saw it!”

Jian Xin: “No, I wasn’t!”

The denial had barely left her lips when the corners of her mouth uncontrollably lifted again.

Jian Xin gave up the pretense and just said with a smile, “Alright, alright, it’s not like I’m seriously hurt, right? I’ll be back to full health after lying down for a while!”

Zheng Xinyue: “It takes a hundred days for bones and muscles to heal!”

Jian Xin raised an eyebrow slightly and replied with a grin, “And a lifetime of being a beast of burden?”

Zheng Xinyue’s brow furrowed, realizing something was off. “Why does someone who just got into a car accident seem so happy?”

Jian Xin: “I don’t have to work, of course I’m happy!”

Zheng Xinyue: “Not that. My intuition tells me something’s not right with you!”

Jian Xin took a deep breath. “Yue Zi, it’s not that I’m criticizing you, but don’t you think your intuition is a bit much sometimes?”

Zheng Xinyue retorted, “How is it too much?”

Jian Xin: “It lacks a sense of proportion.”

Zheng Xinyue was silent for a moment, then said with certainty, “There’s definitely something wrong. You’re so happy even after getting hit by a car. Did something happen?”

Jian Xin opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Zheng Xinyue held up an index finger, widened her eyes, and let out an “Ohhh~,” then began to speculate boldly. “You, you you you…”

“Me, me me me…?”

“You’ve fallen for the young lady who hit you?!” As if discovering a great secret, Zheng Xinyue instantly lowered her voice, leaned closer to Jian Xin, and whispered, “How old is she? Has she graduated? Is the age gap between you two more than five years?”

“I…”

“I get it. When you’ve been single for a long time, even a dog starts to look handsome, not to mention that the young lady is indeed very pretty. But don’t be too desperate. There might be a generation gap. You should spend a few more days with her before…”

“Stop!” Jian Xin couldn’t help but interrupt Zheng Xinyue’s advice, sighing softly. “I’m not interested in that girl.”

Zheng Xinyue blinked and tilted her head in confusion. “Then you…”

Jian Xin: “Yan Lu is her cousin.”

Zheng Xinyue: “…”

Jian Xin: “…”

Silence suddenly filled the hospital room for a dozen seconds.

Zheng Xinyue mulled over this answer, thought about it seriously, and finally came to a new conclusion.

“Ohhh~~~ so you want to rekindle the old flame?!!”

“How is that possible!”

“Why is it not possible?” Zheng Xinyue asked. “You look pretty happy to me.”

“It’s just not possible! She was the heartless one back then. I’d have to be crazy to want to get back with her!” Jian Xin was so agitated that the hospital bed shook. “She and I were never on the same path!”

Hearing this, Zheng Xinyue suddenly stared into Jian Xin’s eyes for a long while.

Jian Xin frowned and avoided her gaze.

Zheng Xinyue: “Then what are you so happy about?”

Jian Xin: “…”

Zheng Xinyue: “Many people go through their whole lives without ever figuring out which path they want to take, yet they love to use ‘not being on the same path’ as a reason to end a relationship.”

“…”

“Forget it, it’s all your business. We bystanders are only here to watch,” Zheng Xinyue said with a sigh. “Look at how pitiful you are now… It was like this back then, and it’s like this now. Sometimes I really want to find a master to do a reading for you and see if Yan Lu is really your jinx.”

“Alright, alright, that hits too close to home,” Jian Xin couldn’t help but smile bitterly. “It’s quite rude to talk like that.”

Zheng Xinyue smiled and changed the subject as if nothing had happened.

Perhaps afraid that Jian Xin would be bored alone, Zheng Xinyue chattered on and on, only leaving the hospital with peace of mind after seeing Yao Wenqian return.

After Zheng Xinyue left, Jian Xin, with the help of the nurse and Yao Wenqian, went through the arduous task of using the toilet.

Her injuries weren’t exactly light, but they weren’t severe either.

Her left leg only had a few scrapes, and she could hop around on one foot, but both her arms were quite inconvenient, making trips to the bathroom a bit of an ordeal.

The moment she lay back down on the bed, she even had the thought of trying to eat and drink as little as possible to reduce the number of trips to the bathroom.

But she quickly dismissed this idea.

—The weaker the body, the more one should eat well to recover sooner!

So that afternoon, Jian Xin devoured a bento box from a shop near the hospital entrance.

With a full stomach, she soon felt drowsy.

Yao Wenqian was even sleepier than she was. Seeing that she was getting sleepy, Yao Wenqian delightedly tucked her in, saying, “You get some rest, I won’t disturb you,” while yawning and walking out of the room.

The surroundings became quiet once again. Jian Xin looked out the window, staring blankly at a red cloud.

Life had been so busy that she hadn’t had a quiet moment to look at the sky like this in a long time.

It had to be said, after staring at phones and computers for so long, suddenly tilting her head to look at the sky for a while made her heart feel dazed, and she felt a sense of lightness that was almost otherworldly.

In the past, when she was particularly tired, she would always say, “Die early, reincarnate early, hope for the next life.” Now that she had been in a car accident and was lying in a hospital bed, could it be considered as having died once, and that everything could start over?

As Jian Xin thought, her eyelids grew heavy.

She laid her head down flat, closed her eyes, and stopped thinking about all the random things. She let herself fall into a rare, relaxed sleep.

In a daze, Jian Xin felt someone poking her with a finger.

So annoying. Why would someone poke a sleeping patient for fun?

She needed to rest and recuperate right now. Poking her while she was sleeping—so rude!

Jian Xin was about to open her eyes to see who was being so impolite when her body subconsciously shifted to the side.

W-wait a minute—

My body, shifted, to the side?

For an injured person, that action seems a bit difficult, doesn’t it?

Jian Xin’s heart skipped a beat. She sensed that something was not right.

But before she could even open her eyes, Yan Lu’s voice came from above her head: “Why did you eat so little? The new duck feed won’t arrive for another two days. Just make do for now.”

—No way!

Jian Xin opened her eyes in disbelief.

In front of her was a plate of barely touched duck feed, the mealworms inside still very fresh.

Yan Lu was crouching behind her, poking the base of her wing with a finger, a hint of worry in her eyes. “A picky little duck won’t grow strong. If Cauliflower doesn’t grow strong, when Mommy’s not home, you won’t even have the strength to fight back when Xin Xin bullies you.”

Jian Xin: “…”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

—It’s fine. I must have opened my eyes the wrong way. I’ll just try again!

The little duck stood quietly in front of the food dish, its eyes shut tight, as if engaged in some silent protest against the world.

Yan Lu tilted her head, observing it.

A few seconds later, the little duck slowly opened its eyes, looked around in a daze, then suddenly looked up and blinked at her a couple of times.

Yan Lu was confused. She blinked back at the duck and reached out to rub its head. “What’s wrong?”

Jian Xin suddenly felt a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder in her mind, and she fell to the ground with a plop.

Xin Xin came bounding in from the doorway, panting with its tongue out, wagging its tail as it looked at the duck for a few seconds.

It tilted its head to the left, raised a paw, and patted the duck’s head.

Yan Lu: “Xin Xin!”

Xin Xin: “Woof!”

Jian Xin: “…”

This is ducked up—

How did I transmigrate again?!