A large patch of rouge on Lingjing's face had been eaten away by Shasha, whose mouth was also smeared crimson. The two girls hurried off to the restroom. When they came back, Lingjing had washed off all her makeup, her hair restored to a fresh ponytail. Wearing the princess dress, she was stunningly beautiful. Before long, Mom Ye, who worked at this hospital, brought dinner over, and the three of them ate in the ward. By then, a nurse had brought Yuechi Xun her dinner as well. Though she had no family or friends here, the hospital knew that her family was a powerful Japanese clan, so naturally they did not dare neglect her.
Although they had supposedly assigned her a special nurse, the hospital was short-staffed. Yuechi Xun was usually quiet, and she could manage things such as using the restroom by herself. Though her bill might already have been charged an exorbitant nursing fee, the nurse was always called away to help elsewhere, only coming over when it was mealtime or when Yuechi Xun pressed the call button because she needed something.
Hospital food emphasized nutrition, but it was still awful. Seeing Yuechi Xun taking small bites of her meal, the three of them, at Lingjing's urging, portioned out some of the food Mom Ye had made and brought it to her. Lingjing had heard what had happened to her, so she felt some sympathy for the girl, who looked pitiful and had been beaten alongside Jiaming.
This time, Yuechi Xun did not say "arigato" for thank you, but the English "thank you." Lingjing was a good student and had studied English for a year and a half. She immediately tried to have a simple conversation with her in English, saying things like "You're welcome" and "My name is Ye Lingjing." They exchanged a few words while eating. Yuechi Xun learned the three of their names in English, and repeated the name "Gu Jiaming" over and over several times.
After dinner, the two girls began doing their homework in the ward. Not long afterward, Jiaming asked about the recitation contest, and Lingjing's sweet, gentle voice rang through the room:
"...Now, as I slowly roll my chair through this garden, I often have the feeling that I have been out here playing by myself for far too long. One day, while sorting through an old photo album, I found a photograph taken more than ten years ago in this garden—there was that young man in a wheelchair, an old cypress behind him, and farther away, that ancient sacrificial altar. So I went into the garden to find that tree. Following the background in the photograph, I found it quickly. Following the shape of its branches, I was certain it was the one. But it had already died, and a wisteria vine as thick as a bowl had wound itself around it. One day, I ran into an old woman in this garden. She said, 'Oh, you're still here?' Then she asked me, 'Is your mother well?' 'Who are you?' 'You don't remember me, but I remember you. Once, your mother came here looking for you. She asked me, have you seen a child in a wheelchair?...' Suddenly, I felt that I really had been playing in this world alone for far too long. One night, I sat alone beneath a streetlamp beside the altar, reading. Suddenly, waves of suona music drifted out from that pitch-black altar. Ancient trees towered all around. The square altar covered several hundred square meters, open and bare as it faced the heavens alone. I could not see the person playing the suona. Only its sound hummed and soared beneath the sparse starlight, sometimes mournful, sometimes joyous, sometimes tender, sometimes desolate. Perhaps none of those words were enough to describe it. Wide awake, I heard it sounding in the past, in the present, in the future, circling and drifting, eternal and never fading.
"One day, I will surely hear someone calling me back..." (Me and Diztan)
The girl's voice was sweet and deeply emotional. Using it to recite Me and Diztan, she would undoubtedly win a prize, but to Jiaming's ears, it really came off as rather affected. Of course, he would never say that aloud.
At around nine in the evening, the two girls went home with Mom Ye after she got off work. Nurses came by a few times, but for most of the time, the two children simply stayed quietly in the ward. Jiaming read in bed for a while. Yuechi Xun lay in her hospital bed staring at the ceiling, occasionally looking over at him. Whenever Jiaming noticed, she would shift her gaze back to the ceiling.
After ten, Jiaming got out of bed and turned off the lights. Yuechi Xun did nothing but space out anyway, so he assumed she would not mind. Yet not long after, he heard her say, "Gu... Jiaming..."
"Mm?"
"Thank you."
"Keep my secret, and I'll thank you too," Jiaming said in Japanese.
The next day was Saturday. The two girls came early in the morning, bringing Jiaming piping-hot congee with preserved egg and lean pork. Yuechi Xun naturally received a bowl as well. Lingjing inevitably began another round of English with her. She had always known that to learn English well, one had to speak with people who knew English. Though she had only studied it for a little over a year, she eagerly chatted with Yuechi Xun. Whenever she encountered something she did not know, she had Yuechi Xun write it down, then flipped through an English dictionary beside her until she roughly understood the sentence. If there was something Lingjing herself did not know how to say, she would find a pile of words in the dictionary and piece them together. After the Japanese girl roughly guessed her meaning, she would straighten out the grammar and write down the correct sentence for her.
Yuechi Xun was probably bored as well, so she kept Lingjing company, speaking English and writing sentences. By the end of the morning, the two had practically become friends. Shasha occasionally went over to take a look, but the tadpole-like writing on the paper made her dizzy, and she hurriedly retreated to the bedside to chat and gossip with Jiaming.
After ten, Mom Ye came by to tell them that the police would come in the afternoon to take a statement, and told Jiaming to sort out his thoughts. In fact, Jiaming had already told all the lies he had fabricated about that day on the very day it happened, and the police more or less believed him. This visit was merely routine business. A little after two in the afternoon, a female police officer pushed open the door and entered. The moment Jiaming saw her, his gaze sharpened.
Something was very wrong, because the person who had come in was riddled with suspicious details in Jiaming's eyes.
Her police cap was pulled down a little too low. The woman who entered was far too young, looking no older than a high school student. Some women were naturally baby-faced, but Jiaming could tell from her bearing that she should still be a student. The way she wore her pistol was slightly awkward, and... her uniform did not fit quite right. There was no reason for that...
Anything out of the ordinary was suspicious. Jiaming often pretended to be young and weak, playing the fool to catch the tiger, so the first thought that flashed through his mind was that someone had come to test him—or had sent a teenage assassin to kill him. He glanced at a fork on the small cabinet beside him, then at Yuechi Xun in the other bed. There was confusion in her eyes too, though not as deep as his own.
"Ahem. You're Gu Jiaming?" The female officer deliberately adopted a mature tone. First, she put everything on the cabinet, including the fork, into the drawer. Then she placed a statement notebook on top of it. That only made Jiaming more certain of his judgment.
"My name is Mu Zhenzhen. I'm here to take your statement." The female officer symbolically took out her badge and waved it around. Naturally, no one could make out the photograph or name on it.
Looking at Lingjing and Shasha, who were still in the ward, Jiaming's mind raced. He had only just managed to conceal his abilities from Shasha. If he really had to fight, would not everything he had hidden be exposed?
Or should he leave everything to this Japanese girl?
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