After the Real Young Miss Became My Canary - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: She Couldn’t Leave.

◎ “Did I make you dislike me? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” ◎

Song Zhi lowered her head, not letting anyone see her expression. She kept moving her hands to her face, making it obvious what she was doing.

Song Zhi: “Did I make you dislike me? I’m sorry.”

Shen Ying looked at her, seeing her sad expression. Even though she couldn’t see the person’s face, she knew what the expression was under the hands that covered it.

It was wide eyes, fluttering eyelashes, and tears falling.

Seeing that the person was still silently crying, Shen Ying had no choice but to say flatly, “No.”

This person seemed to have no sense of boundaries. Seeing that Shen Ying had denied it, her voice immediately became cheerful. “Thank you.”

She removed her hands that had been wiping away tears, revealing her face underneath.

Her face was delicate and small, her skin fair, and a pair of eyes that looked as if they had been washed in water emitted a clear light.

At this moment, her eyes were curved in a shallow smile toward Shen Ying. Two shallow dimples appeared at the corners of her bright red lips, like an innocent child.

She seemed unaware of the polite excuse of “not disliking” someone between strangers and took every word to heart. “You’re so nice.”

Shen Ying: “Two days have passed since that day. You should go home now.”

Song Zhi was contemplating whether to eat the noodles in the bowl. When she heard this, she put down her chopsticks, lowered her eyelids, and said softly, “I don’t have a home anymore.”

Her long eyelashes cast a shadow on her eye sockets, making her look lonely and pitiful.

But Shen Ying had no intention of sympathizing. She looked at the stubborn person and said coldly, “We’re not that close.”

Song Zhi thought she saw a chance. She widened her round eyes. They were big and naturally drooped at the corners, making her look very pathetic. She twisted her fingers. “Feelings… they’ll develop as we get along.”

She had lived abroad since she was a child. In this situation, she had no friends in the country who could withstand the pressure from the Song family. She also didn’t dare to use her credit cards or even show up on surveillance cameras—there were only a handful of stores that weren’t owned by the Song family.

Convincing this person was the fastest and most likely way to succeed. Of course, the person’s refusal might be due to other factors. For example, the one thing she had no shortage of: money.

From the decor of this room, she could tell a thing or two.

Song Zhi lowered her eyes. “I have money. Please don’t kick me out.”

As she spoke, she was about to take off the nine-million-dollar watch from her wrist.

Then she found nothing there.

She subconsciously reached for the pair of luxury brand earrings on her ears.

They were studded with a pair of one-carat high-quality diamonds, worth a few hundred thousand.

Again, she found nothing.

The vague memories from before the rain finally surfaced in her mind.

The sound of dripping rain, blurry vision, and the slender person walking slowly in the dark alley.

In a trance, her vision also became blurry. She looked up pitifully. “I…”

As soon as she spoke, her legs went weak, and she uncontrollably fell to the side. The plastic stool was knocked over by her, ready to fall on top of her.

Looking at the stool that was about to hit her eyes and the ground that was within reach, she instinctively reached out her hands, but they wouldn’t listen and couldn’t be lifted. Just when she thought she was destined to end up with a bruised or bloody head from the stool, a hand grabbed her collar tightly, and the other hand firmly caught the stool.

Through her blurry vision, she saw the person’s cold and detached face. Even in this situation, there was no change in her expression.

In a daze, she seemed to see the person’s expression back in the alley, and that expression gradually overlapped with her expression now.

Then it turned into the hand that was tightly gripping her collar.

Then her vision went black again.

Seeing the person in front of her go limp like a noodle in her arms, Shen Ying almost threw her out. She wondered if this person was a repeat scammer.

But looking at the person with their eyes tightly shut, she had no choice but to put her on the sofa.

This person was too dirty. Let’s just put her on the sofa.

Although she had only grabbed the person’s collar and the clothes at their waist, when she put her on the sofa, she inevitably touched her face.

It was astonishingly hot.

She looked down and only then realized that her face was flushed.

She had a fever.

Shen Ying hadn’t looked down at the person before, because for her, this person was just a temporary resident, and her appearance was none of her business.

Therefore, she hadn’t noticed that there was something wrong with her face.

Since she had already saved her, she couldn’t just let her burn into a fool.

Shen Ying covered the person with a blanket and turned to get her umbrella from the entrance.

She had a good constitution and rarely got sick. Medicines, which would expire if not used, were something she didn’t have at home. So she had no choice but to go out in the rain to buy some.

When she left, a middle-aged woman happened to walk out from the opposite door. The woman was smiling and giving instructions to her family. When she turned her head and saw Shen Ying’s cold profile, she froze on the spot, and then in the next second, she took a big step back.

Shen Ying ignored the person and walked down the stairs in a hurry.

The stairwell of the cheap apartment building was terribly narrow, only wide enough for one adult man to pass through. Each step was of a different height, and since it was facing away from the sun, it was pitch black even on a summer noon. It was hard for someone who hadn’t lived there for a long time to walk without a light.

But Shen Ying didn’t even look at her feet and quickly made her way downstairs.

Behind her, the middle-aged woman, who had seen her leave, walked out of her door. She looked at Shen Ying’s slender back and spat viciously. “Bad luck.”

The store clerk impatiently placed the items on the counter, calculating the total. “Sixty-eight. How will you pay?”

Shen Ying glanced at the different colored medicine boxes on the counter. “I only need amoxicillin and a thermometer.”

Store clerk: “It’s not expensive. You can buy them to keep as a backup. It’s not much, and you’ll use them eventually.”

Shen Ying said bluntly, “I don’t have money.”

The clerk was a little stunned, and her face turned even darker. After meeting the honest gaze of Shen Ying, she threw the medicine back into the cabinet and said in a very bad tone, “Seven dollars.”

When she went out again, the rain was even heavier and the sky was dark. Shen Ying walked slowly on the side of the road, holding her umbrella.

She didn’t know if she was just having bad luck today, but on the way back, she ran into her neighbors from the opposite door in the stairwell. However, seeing the undisguised look of disgust in their eyes, she probably understood.

They had intentionally left a few steps after her to avoid her, but unexpectedly, they ran into her instead.

The neighbor and another person of a similar age were originally walking side by side, but after seeing her, they quickly moved to the opposite side of the street.

Shen Ying didn’t care about their pointing fingers behind her back. She was even happy that they were avoiding her.

She was truly not good at getting along with people and didn’t like getting along with them.

Song Zhi opened her eyes again and could only see the low ceiling right in front of her. She blinked, and the ceiling moved farther away.

A clear and cold voice came from the side. “The medicine is next to you.”

Song Zhi turned her head and, sure enough, saw a red plastic stool on the other side of the sofa. On the stool, there was a glass of water and a box of medicine.

She sat up from the sofa and picked up the water and the medicine. The water was cold, and the chill against her hot hand felt surprisingly comfortable.

She picked up the medicine but didn’t eat it. The person seemed to have noticed her hesitation. “There’s still noodles on the table.”

Song Zhi looked toward the source of the voice.

Then she saw a doorway in this small space.

The door was open. Inside, there was a table and a bed. She could see the person’s side profile at the entrance. The lines of her face were smooth, and her expressionless face made her seem cold and unapproachable.

But she had managed to notice her the moment she woke up. No matter what, this person wasn’t as cold as she seemed.

The person was leaning over the table, writing something. She was also holding a small flip phone to her ear. Song Zhi watched her, frozen in place, as she walked out while still on the phone.

She placed the thermometer next to Song Zhi.

Song Zhi was in shock. She never thought that this thirty-square-meter place would have a bedroom and a kitchen.

She also never thought that in this age of smartphone updates, someone would still be using a flip phone.

This person seemed even poorer than she had imagined.

“Give me your hand.”

“What?”

“What?”

The phone, with its poor sound insulation, and Song Zhi asked at the same time.

Shen Ying said to the person on the other end of the line, “I’ll call you back later.”

After that, she hung up the phone without hesitation. Before she hung up, the person on the other end was still wailing, “Song Zhi is absolutely disgusting. Don’t be sad.”

Song Zhi’s eyes widened.

Did that person just say Song Zhi?!

She secretly observed the person’s expression.

In a bad mood, Shen Ying didn’t respond to the other party.

She picked up the thermometer and slightly lifted her chin. “You.”

Song Zhi: “I can do it myself.”

Shen Ying didn’t say anything. She just gave a faint “mm” and placed the thermometer on the sofa next to Song Zhi, then turned and went back into the room, sitting at the table in front of the door.

She didn’t close the door.

Song Zhi sat up.

The thing she was lying on could barely be called a sofa, as the other parts were missing. Song Zhi looked at the person’s profile. Her face was outlined by the dim, yellow light from the table, looking clear and cold.

Song Zhi guessed that if there had been a place to sit, the person would have sat in front of her, watching her take her medicine to make sure she didn’t die here.

She unsteadily walked to the doorway. The person inside was as silent as if she was trying to merge with the room’s darkness.

Song Zhi: “My family is very rich.”

The person lowered her head and turned a page in her book.

Song Zhi: “Can you take me in for a few days? When I get home, I’ll give you a million.”

The person’s hand rested on the book page. She said coldly, “Seven dollars.”

Song Zhi’s clear eyes showed confusion.

Shen Ying: “For the medicine.”

A penny can stump a hero. Song Zhi had not a single penny on her now. As for her phone, she didn’t dare to turn it on.

As soon as she turned it on, the program would start running, and the location tracking software embedded in it would activate. In less than a minute, the bodyguards would know where she was.

The only valuable item she could use for money had been thrown in a trash can the day before.

It was impossible for her to go through the trash can!

Song Zhi lowered her eyelids, looking pitifully. “Can I pay you back when I get home?”

If she were to borrow money from a friend, Shen Ying’s phone clearly didn’t have an international card.

She extended her hand. On her hand lay her small smartphone. “You can take this and sell it. You can consider it my rent, okay?”

Shen Ying didn’t say anything, just turned the pages of her book, one after another. Song Zhi couldn’t tell if that was a good sign or not.

For a moment, she just looked at her very seriously.

This sight, in Shen Ying’s eyes, made her seem a little silly, as if it were a side effect of the fever.

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