Quiet, fragrant with flowers, an elegant hospital room.
Jiaming shifted slightly and felt like a rice dumpling. Still, he had no reason to complain—the other bed in the room held a rice dumpling wrapped even more impressively. If she wanted to get out of bed, she would not even need to put on clothes.
Of course, that was only a metaphor, Jiaming thought. If that old man had beaten a girl so badly that even between her legs had to be tightly wrapped, that would have been far too perverted.
"Jiaming, here. I bought canned oranges today. Have a bite. Open your mouth, ah—"
"Ah... but they say canned food has artificial coloring..."
"Eat when I tell you to eat! No talking!"
"Okay..." A segment of orange was fed into his mouth. "Shasha, you change faces so fast. Did you study under a Sichuan opera master?"
"Say another word and I'll hit you." Shasha raised her hand with a smile. The timid Jiaming promptly yielded under her tyrannical threat, not daring to speak again as he focused on eating oranges.
"By the way, Shasha, why did you come so early today? Don't you have class?" he finally asked after a long while.
"There was a recitation competition at school today. It was planned already, did you forget?" Shasha smiled and brought over the remaining half-can. Jiaming waved a hand to indicate he was full. "Lingjing was participating too. Didn't you watch her perform?"
"Of course I skipped class after watching her." Shasha smiled. "Lingjing was going to get first place anyway. Maybe she'll come over with her certificate later. If you're not eating, should I give it to her?" She gestured toward the girl in the neighboring bed.
"Sure."
No matter what, they had gone through hardship together. Over the past two days, Shasha had paid some attention to the Japanese girl sharing the ward, though this was the first time she had approached her directly. Noticing someone coming closer, Yuechi Xun sat up slightly in bed. From her neck down, her entire body was covered in white bandages. Yet the girl was remarkably tough in both mind and body. She had been able to kill people before receiving treatment, so moving around was even less of an issue now. Half reclining there, she gave Shasha an elegant half-bow.
"Uh... hello... um, this is for you." Faced with such elegance and politeness, Shasha seemed at a loss. She handed over the can of oranges, spoon already inside, then hurriedly returned a half-bow.
Yuechi Xun looked at the half-can of oranges, but her gaze passed over Shasha and landed on Jiaming in the other bed. Jiaming was looking at the scenery beyond the curtains and gave no reaction at all. After a moment of hesitation, she accepted the can with both bandage-wrapped hands. "Arigato."
"Mm, arigato, arigato..." Shasha replied twice in her woefully uncultured way, then ran over to Jiaming. "Jiaming, what does arigato mean?"
"Thank you." Jiaming rolled his eyes.
"Oh, right. Arigato means thank you, and sayonara means goodbye. I forgot." Shasha stuck out her tongue. "So was my reply just completely off?"
"Obviously. But... why are you so scared of her?" Jiaming asked, utterly puzzled.
"I'm not scared. I just think she's amazing. Watching you get beaten by that bastard Cao Dongfeng for so long, I felt it must have hurt unbearably. She got beaten by that perverted old man for three days. And look at how elegantly she eats." Clicking her tongue, Shasha pulled Jiaming along to watch the girl eat. Yuechi Xun was taking tiny, graceful bites of orange like a beauty from an ancient Chinese painting. Shasha was instantly enthralled. "She's even more impressive than Lingjing."
"That doesn't even look human, does it?" Since Shasha enjoyed gossiping, Jiaming maliciously began picking apart the other girl. "Look at her. Her mouth only opens that tiny bit. What would she do if she ate steamed buns? Hard to imagine, right? She always keeps her mouth closed. Whether she smiles or eats, she never shows her teeth. Such unnatural behavior must mean she has a mouth full of cavities. Either they're yellow, or maybe even black. And she eats as if she's testing for poison. It feels like she has no sincerity at all..."
Jiaming went on and on. Yuechi Xun, who was eating, looked over somewhat bewilderedly, then gently lowered her head again. Jiaming and Shasha, whose face had gone red from holding back laughter, hurriedly bowed back in return.
"Go die, talking about her like that." Shasha slapped his uninjured shoulder, then buried herself in the quilt on his bed and laughed. At that moment, Lingjing entered the ward carrying her schoolbag. The moment she came in, she complained, "Shasha, you didn't wait for me."
Shasha rolled over from the bed. "How was it? Did you get an award?"
"I did." Lingjing nodded without much concern, taking a certificate and a notebook from behind her back. "First place. And a notebook."
"Yay! The notebook is mine!" Lingjing had won countless awards since childhood, but ever since the three of them got together, the prizes had always gone to Shasha. After all, Shasha had a mischievous nature and had rarely won anything as a child. Writing and drawing with a prize felt different somehow. Cheering, she turned to Jiaming. "Lingjing looked beautiful today, didn't she?"
Whenever students performed, pretty girls generally dressed in much the same way. Lingjing's cheeks were dusted rosy red, her lips painted with lipstick, and she wore a pure white princess dress. She really did look beautiful. But Jiaming had seen her all his life, and thought she was more alluring without all that decoration, in ordinary casual clothes, as the quietly spirited little girl her name suggested. Shasha, however, had always liked how she looked with makeup. Women probably all liked dressing up.
"Come on, as a reward, little beauty Lingjing, let Brother Huaisha give you a kiss." Laughing, Shasha pounced jokingly and tried to forcibly kiss Lingjing's red cheek. Lingjing was taking off her schoolbag and had no way to dodge. She could only laugh as she desperately leaned backward.
"Don't... ah—"
"Mm... ah—"
With a bang, both girls fell onto the floor. Shasha landed on top of Lingjing and finally got her way. In truth, the two girls shared a bed three times a week at the Liu Family villa. Kissing each other's cheeks like this, even playfully groping each other, was common. Several times, when bathing together or sleeping naked in the same bed, they had nearly gone all the way, turning Jiaming's imagined Yuri into the real thing. Still, on the hospital floor, it was rather awkward. They scrambled to their feet in a flurry, while Jiaming watched from his bed, feeling... strangely unsettled.
Back when he had been an assassin, it was not as though he had never seen women who liked women. Life in the dark world was dangerous. No one could be sure they would see tomorrow's sun. Some became as disciplined as ascetics, while others became twisted to the point of perversion. Some female assassins had no taboos in bed. Once, after completing a mission, he had rented a room with two female assassins. After showering, he came out to find the two women going at it fiercely on the bed. He sat on the sofa beside them, watching them make out passionately for half the night. The next morning, one woman wondered why he had not joined them, while the other thanked him, saying that having such a capable bodyguard nearby had made her feel especially relaxed and satisfied.
But if there was nothing twisted in their minds, what would happen when two little girls who had grown up together, fond of each other, fell in love and became adults? Would they live happily ever after from then on? He could not help looking forward to finding out with great curiosity.
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