(1)
Yesterday, An Jing didn’t know when she fell asleep.
All she remembered was that she seemed to be watching the wind and waves at sea with Zhu Ying, watching the ships slowly pass by in the distance, and then staring at the tiny bug that refused to fly away on the window glass…
They had agreed to watch the sunset together, but she fell asleep halfway through.
When she woke up, she found a furry head gently pressing against her chest. Looking down, she saw Zhu Ying, who was lying beside her bed, lightly grinding her teeth in her sleep.
“Xiao Ying… Xiao Ying?”
“Mmm…?”
“Did you sleep here all night, just lying like that?”
“Huh? Is it morning already? I was hoping we could have dinner…”
“Yeah… aren’t you tired?”
“Lying next to Xiao Jing doesn’t seem that tiring.” Zhu Ying smiled softly, shook her disheveled hair, yawned several times, then pulled herself together and stood up from the bed.
Just then, the door slid open automatically.
Jiang Yujing, who had changed back into her regular nurse uniform, strode in quickly carrying some tools: “Good morning! Are you both awake?”
“Ah… have you had breakfast?”
“Not yet!” Jiang Yujing threw a sidelong glance at An Jing and crouched down beside her bed. “Right now, I need to help you change something—for example, this urine bag.”
“Ah… it’s full…?”
“Not yet, but if we wait any longer, it will be. Haah… I’m dead tired.”
“Can a nurse also stay up late?” Zhu Ying stretched by the window and asked curiously.
“Yeah, adults are best at staying up late—it’s not that I can’t sleep or anything, it’s just that I want to delay bedtime a little longer, as if that makes the day stretch out.” Jiang Yujing waved her hand lightly. “Went to watch a romance movie last night…”
“R-Romance movie!?”
Jiang Yujing froze for two seconds, then flushed bright red and glared at An Jing: “Little one, what are you thinking about?!”
“Lewd Xiao Jing.” Zhu Ying pursed her lips.
“I-I didn’t say anything!”
“Tsk tsk… so, we’re having soy milk for breakfast? And where’s the other little girl?”
“Nurse, can I eat anything?”
“Mm, you’re fine. Eat whatever you want, but don’t eat heavy flavors in the morning.”
“Then I’d like to eat fruit? Is that okay? A fruit platter, preferably something crisp and refreshing.”
“Crisp and refreshing, huh? No problem. I’ll report it for you later.” The nurse carried the replaced urine bag and carefully put it into a larger recycling bag. It seemed the urine wouldn’t be thrown away but kept for new research.
“What about me? I can only drink sweet soy milk?”
“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow~”
Just then, another nurse stopped at the door. She seemed to be acquainted with Jiang Yujing and called in from the doorway: “Yujing, there’s spicy lobster stir-fried noodles this morning! If you don’t go now, it’ll be gone!”
“Ahh! Wait for me! I’ll submit this first!!”
An Jing couldn’t help but droop her eyelids: “Weren’t we supposed to eat light in the morning…”
“The nurse’s little rebellion.” Zhu Ying stifled a smile. “Healthy diets are really just fighting against your tongue.”
“Really? If I ate something spicy and oily early in the morning, I would definitely feel sick, and I’d even get diarrhea…”
“Maybe it’s because you usually take good care of yourself? So you can indulge once in a while?”
“Then isn’t all that care wasted?”
“If you ask me, that’s exactly why it’s not wasted.”
“Hah?!”
(2)
On this beautiful morning, bright sunlight streamed into the room. An Jing lay on the bed she had slept in so many times that she was getting used to it, sipping the sweet soy milk she held in her hands while watching another beautiful girl enjoy the neatly cut, fresh-looking fruit, drooling.
“Xiao Jing wants some? Too bad~ The nurse gave strict orders: no matter how much you want, I can’t feed you…”
“Ugh—I’m just looking…” An Jing swallowed. “Is that cantaloupe sweet?”
“Not very sweet, but very refreshing. Tastes great.”
“That apple looks… really crisp…”
“Mm! Crisp and sweet. I love this one the most. It’s totally different from store-bought apples!”
“They even removed the pits from the lychees?!”
“Yeah, they seem to be chilled—probably not local.”
“Not many lychee trees in the small city… maybe they came by sea from G Province…” An Jing bit her lip. “They all look so delicious…”
“Don’t be tempted, Xiao Jing. You can have some tomorrow.”
“Haah…” An Jing smiled bitterly and took a big gulp of sweet soy milk. “Honestly, after not eating anything yesterday, being able to drink sweet soy milk today already feels like happiness. But… I guess people are greedy?”
“Mm—by the way, which fruit do you like best among these?”
“Ah… probably… lychee? Because I rarely had them as a kid, and local lychees aren’t that good anyway.”
“Feizixiao?”
“No, it was something like Zhuangyuanhong, or something like that. I’m not sure if that’s the name… anyway, it’s a local variety. Mm… it tasted a bit sour.”
“Oh~ These are pretty sweet and refreshing.” As she spoke, Zhu Ying popped another one into her mouth.
An Jing swallowed hard several times and turned her head away.
“Xiao Jing~”
“What…”
“Turn around?”
“You want me to watch you eat? No way.”
“No, I mean, don’t you want to taste them?”
“No, no… The nurse said I can’t. I’d better not mess around. If something goes wrong, I’ll have to stay here a few more days.”
“I’m not saying you eat the fruit directly. There’s another way. Are you sure you don’t want to try?”
“Huh? What way?”
“Turn around first!”
An Jing turned her head in confusion. Before she could ask, she felt her small mouth gently blocked.
From the other side came a clear, sweet fragrance of fruit. The small, nimble tongue seemed to mimic the softness of lychee flesh…
“Mmph!!”
The previous times were just lips touching lips. This was completely different.
Zhu Ying was unexpectedly aggressive in this aspect. It felt like peeling a lychee and, before you could bite down, the lychee voluntarily jumped into your mouth, drilled all the way to the back of your throat, and squeezed its sweet juice in…
An Jing really did like lychees.
But she had never eaten a “lychee” so proactive.
Beep.
A card swipe sound came from the door, then the automatic door slid open with a whoosh.
An Jing’s eyes widened nervously. She heard an awkward voice from outside: “Oh oh oh, sorry, I didn’t check the monitor earlier. I didn’t know you were doing… this. Please continue. What I need to do isn’t urgent anyway…”
Whoosh—
This time, the automatic sliding door seemed a bit flustered as it closed.
“Hmph!”
“Xiao Ying!!”
“What? I was just trying to let you taste the lychee!”
“Hey, hey, there are cameras in here! We were totally exposed just now!”
“So what? I hope they can make a copy of that surveillance video for me. I can enjoy it later—take it out when Xiao Jing enters high school, watch it again in college, and then at the wedding…”
“Hey, hey, hey!!”
“What’s there to be shy about?” Zhu Ying crossed her arms and snorted lightly. “Actually, when the door opened, I was about to pull away. But I heard you shouting in your mind, ‘Don’t stop, just keep going,’ ‘It feels even sweeter when we’re discovered,’ so I kept kissing.”
“I-I never thought that! D-Don’t talk nonsense!”
“Is that so? Oh… then maybe I just imagined it. Ahem.”
“Hey!”
“But there’s one thing you definitely thought—when the door opened, you wished you could be pinned down on the bed and kissed right then, right?”
“I-I wasn’t—that would prove I was forced, and then it wouldn’t be my fault!”
“Tsk, excuses~”
“D-Don’t come closer… I-I don’t want any fruit! I’ll just drink sweet soy milk!”
“Hohoho, being rejected by Xiao Jing. Looks like I’ll have nightmares again tonight~ I wonder if the Anhai Deity will come to save me~”
“Hey, hey!!”
(3)
“Here, please keep this safe.”
“For me…?” Zhu Ying looked puzzled at the pendant Jiang Yujing handed her—or rather, a strangely shaped object threaded onto a sturdy leather cord.
“Mm. Please carry this with you at all times. If anything happens, you’ll be able to use it.”
“Is it important?”
“Very important. But—it’s important for An Jing.” Jiang Yujing nodded lightly. “I’m giving it to you to keep for her.”
“Why doesn’t Xiao Jing wear it herself? If she wears it, she can use it anytime, right?”
“The purpose is to prevent her from using it actively. This is only to be used when Xiao An Jing falls unconscious.”
“Huh? Is it some kind of adrenaline or something?”
“Neither. It’s a strong analgesic. When you overuse your superpower and fall unconscious, your body still feels pain. If the pain is too severe, even if the injury isn’t serious, it can still be dangerous—it could cause nerve damage, damage to the cerebral cortex, turning you into a vegetative state, or in severe cases, death.”
“Ah…”
“So, it’s very serious. But we can’t let you keep it yourself, or you might not use it in the most critical moment.”
“I can handle pain pretty well, you know…”
“But if you have a choice, who would keep suffering?” Jiang Yujing’s rhetorical question left An Jing stunned. She tilted her head and thought for a long time before coming up with a retort.
Zhu Ying nodded lightly and turned the red-and-white object over in her hands. It looked small and compact, but for a pendant, it was already quite large. It resembled a short spear with wings: “So how do I use it?”
“Come, I’ll teach you. First, unscrew this cap, and then…”