Page 114

It's okay.

She told herself: It's just a minor illness. I've been sick before, so there's nothing to be upset about. As long as I get more sleep, I'll be fine when I wake up.

Didn't she get through it this way when she was sick before?

In a daze, Ye Mo felt as if he had returned to more than ten years ago, back to the winter when he was twelve years old.

Ye Mo doesn't actually get sick often. Perhaps it's true that children from poor families rarely get sick because they can't afford to. So, maybe her body knows she can't afford to get sick, which is why she doesn't get sick very often?

Although Ye Mo 'Ye Mo adoptive parents took her in, they didn't like her. They took her in only so that they could have a child to support them in their old age, and also so that the villagers would stop gossiping about their inability to have children.

Ever since Ye Mo could remember, they had been ordering her around, always saying that they had saved Ye Mo and that Ye Mo should be grateful, so anything she did for them was only right.

When Ye Mo was twelve years old, the winter was very cold. After New Year's Day, it snowed heavily. Her adoptive parents rarely bought clothes for Ye Mo, so even in winter, her clothes were very thin and could not keep out the winter chill at all.

So that year, Ye Mo fell ill.

While delirious from illness, Ye Mo heard her adoptive parents talking; they were discussing whether to take her to the hospital.

"... This brat's forehead is burning hot, should we take her to the hospital?"

"Which hospital should we take them to? Hospitals are free, aren't they?"

"I'm just afraid she'll die from her illness. Her forehead is so hot you could fry an egg on it... We've raised her with so much care, if she dies, all the money we've spent on her will have been wasted. Tsk, if a child dies, we can't hold a funeral, otherwise we could at least collect some money from gifts."

"Didn't you get some fever reducers from Old Luo's little clinic when you had a fever? Do you have any left? If so, give this brat two."

"... It's a medicine from over a year ago, can it still be effective?"

"Whatever, it won't kill anyone!"

Her adoptive parents spoke of her without any apparent concern, their voices barely registering as if they were discussing something unrelated, reaching Ye Mo's ears intermittently.

Hearing these words, Ye Mo found it hard to describe her feelings. Saying she was upset wasn't quite right, since she had long known that her adoptive parents didn't care about her anymore.

It wasn't until later that she understood what her emotions were at the time: resentment and anger. She was angry that her adoptive parents treated her like an object that wouldn't be regretted even if it died, as if her existence was so unimportant.

At that moment, Ye Mo felt a sudden and intense desire to live.

So when her adoptive mother found the fever reducer from a year ago and shoved it into her mouth, Ye Mo almost greedily swallowed it, because she wanted to live, she wanted to survive.

In the end, Ye Mo naturally survived.

She didn't know whether it was the two fever-reducing pills that worked, or her own desire to live that gave her the strength to stay alive, or perhaps both.

"... Since they don't care about me, I must try even harder to live!"

She always had to live a life worthy of being called a person.

Ye Mo didn't know why she was thinking about things from so long ago. Maybe it was because she had a fever again. The same manager reminded her of things from so many years ago.

However, she's not the same person she used to be... She's a big star now, glamorous and successful, no longer the poor girl who couldn't even afford medicine.

Ye Mo curled up in bed, thinking, "I'm different now," and drifted off to sleep again.

When she regained consciousness, she seemed to hear the voices of other members of the Ye Family. Finally, she even seemed to hear Doctor Xu's voice. She opened her eyes groggily and saw a group of people surrounding her.

"..."

Ye Mo silently closed his glasses again.

It's so noisy... both my eyes and ears are filled with it.

Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly felt a pain on the back of her right hand. Ye Mo subconsciously tried to pull her hand back, but found that her hand was being held firmly down. She frowned and tried to pull her hand back.

"Let go..." she murmured.

"Miss Ye," Doctor Xu began, and Ye Mo saw him sitting by her bedside. He said, "You have a fever. I'm giving you an IV drip now. You can't move your hand, otherwise the medicine will flow back..."

Ye Mo didn't actually hear what he was saying; he only saw his lips moving, making a buzzing sound.

It's so noisy...

Ye Mo thought about it again.

She tried to pull her hand back, but it felt as if someone had grabbed it, and some scalding liquid was splashed onto her hand.

Ye Mo turned her head slightly and, through her blurry vision, saw Ruan Xianyue sitting by her bedside. Behind her were Ye Zhipeng and Ye Lin, their brows furrowed and their faces filled with worry.

Ruan Xianyue held Ye Mo's hand that was receiving the IV drip, her face filled with grief and worry, her eyes brimming with tears that rolled down her cheeks like broken beads, constantly falling onto Ye Mo's hand.

Ye Mo looked at her, and a very subtle feeling arose in his heart.

... first.

She thought.

This was the first time someone had held her hand and cried while she was sick.

It feels so strange.

When Ye Mo woke up again, it was already noon the next day. When she woke up, there was no one else in the room, and it was very quiet. She could hear the wind blowing outside.

Ye Mo up, feeling weak all over. She looked at her right hand and saw that there was a bandage on the back of her hand, clearly a sign that she had been on an IV drip.

"... Last night, it wasn't a hallucination after all?" Ye Mo's feelings were complicated.

call--

The sound of wind whistling came from outside the window again. Ye Mo turned his head to look, got up from the bed, walked to the window with the curtains tightly drawn, and pulled the window open.

Swish!

As the curtains were suddenly pulled open, bright, snow-white light instantly flooded Ye Mo's eyes.

Ye Mo looked outside and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow!"

Outside the window, a world of silver and white stretched as far as the eye could see—while Ye Mo was asleep due to a fever, a heavy snow had fallen outside. Judging from the thickness of the snow cover, Ye Mo guessed that yesterday's snowfall must have been very heavy, and snowflakes were still falling at this moment.

Such heavy snow is rare these past two years, and this year's snow came really early, with New Year's Day still a few days away.

Ye Mo suddenly felt playful and couldn't resist reaching out to open the window and sticking his hand out.

A biting cold wind lashed against her face through the wide-open window, but she didn't feel cold; instead, she felt a sense of comfort—the heating in her bedroom, she didn't know who had turned it on, was wonderfully warm.

Oh no, the windows weren't even open yet. When she woke up, she thought time had reversed, taking her from winter to summer.

"Oh dear!" Just then, a cry of surprise came from behind Ye Mo. She turned around and saw Ruan Xianyue was only wearing a thin shirt, walking quickly toward her.

As soon as Ruan Xianyue came over, she reached out and closed the window in front of Ye Mo. Instantly, the cold wind and coolness disappeared.

Just as Ye Mo was thinking this, Ruan Xianyue suddenly turned her head, glared at her, and said, "You child, why did you open the window as soon as you got up? And you're standing here in the wind... Don't you know your fever just broke? Doctor Xu said you can't be in the wind anymore!"

When Ye Mo noticed the dark circles under her eyes, the scene he had witnessed last night in his half-awake state suddenly flashed into his mind... He saw Ruan Xianyue crying.

Thinking about this, she suddenly felt a little uneasy, although she didn't understand why she felt so uncomfortable.