After the Sickly Child Differentiates into A - Chapter 39
In that instant, Wen Jingzhi felt the urge to give up.
But when she saw the young girl standing behind the sofa, trembling uncontrollably with her back bent, she made a decision.
She would try one last time.
So she turned and walked back into the room, picked up something from the nightstand, and retrieved a two-finger-wide black silk ribbon tucked beneath a script in the drawer.
Holding the ribbon, she walked to the bedroom door and spoke in a cold voice: “Lin Li.”
The slender figure visibly flinched, gripping the back of the sofa tightly, but remained silent.
Only one thought raced through her mind. She’s been discovered by her sister.
Would she worry even more now? She can’t even walk properly.
“Stay where you are.” Wen Jingzhi raised her hand, covered her eyes with the silk ribbon, and tied it tightly at the back of her head.
What does this mean?
Lin Li tilted her head in confusion.
With her eyes covered by the silk, unable to see, everything around her swallowed by darkness, Wen Jingzhi instantly felt a wave of panic.
It was the most genuine, instinctive reaction of a person facing the unknown.
If even she felt this way just from covering her eyes, the young girl must be even more terrified.
“Don’t move from there.”
“Wait for me.”
What is Sister going to do?
Wen Jingzhi clenched the object in her hand and took her first step.
The tables and chairs she could normally easily avoid now became unknown obstacles.
Her shin bumped into something, causing her to stumble before she steadied herself. Pressing her lips together, she continued forward, only to collide with the coffee table. The items on it clattered noisily.
When her knee hit something, Wen Jingzhi deliberately let out a pained hiss.
That sound instantly sparked a guess in Lin Li, who had been wondering what her sister was doing. Disbelieving, she turned around and heard another collision, followed by the soft sound of footsteps on the carpet.
Then, once again, Wen Jingzhi intentionally bumped into the corner of the sofa, letting out a groan of pain.
One sound after another finally broke Lin Li.
Trembling, she shouted angrily, “What are you doing!?”
“Can’t you see either?”
“Why are you doing this?”She frantically grabbed her hair like a wounded, trapped animal, howling in collapse, ‘I don’t need you to do this!”!!”
“I don’t want you like this! You can see perfectly well!”
“Damn it! Can’t you just leave me alone!?”
“You can see, so why are you doing this!? I don’t need you to do this!”
Her words were incoherent, her voice cracking as she cursed.
Wen Jingzhi pressed her lips into a tight line, resisting the urge to scold her for swearing, and continued to approach step by step.
The breeze from her waving, searching hands brushed against Lin Li’s face. Panting and coughing a few times, Lin Li furiously shook off the cool hand that touched her wrist.
“I don’t want you like this! Can’t you just leave me alone!?”
“I don’t like you like this…”
Her sister was someone so… so noble, like untouched snow. Yet for her sake, she had “turned” blind, stumbling around the room.
She never wanted it to be like this.
“No longer calling me ‘Sister’?” Suppressing the unease brought by the darkness, Wen Jingzhi slowly reached out and touched the young girl’s shoulder, only to have her hand pushed away again.
She sighed softly. “How could I ever leave you alone?”
“Then I still don’t need you like this! Stop it!”
“I’m blind now, I can’t even walk properly. I’m just a burden, just leave me alone!!”
“If only I had known, ” Lin Li suddenly had her wrist seized, unable to break free no matter how hard she struggled. She twisted her body angrily, “Damn it! Let go of me!”
“I don’t want you to do this for me!”
“If only I had gone with Grandma back then!”
The fingers gripping her slender wrist trembled violently. Wen Jingzhi’s chest heaved, her voice icy as she spoke, almost word by word, “What did you say?”
Lin Li struggled, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t pull her hand free. Her wrist was already sore from the tight grip, but she didn’t care anymore. If she was going to be a burden to her sister like this, she might as well die!
“If only I had died! I wish I’d never woken up!”
“Lin Li!” Wen Jingzhi’s anger flared. She yanked Lin Li’s arm, pulling her into an embrace, pressing the girl’s thin back firmly against her chest. Bending slightly, she slid her hand down from Lin Li’s wrist, gripping the clenched fist and forcibly prying open the slender fingers.
“Let go of me!”
“I just don’t want you to be like this! Don’t bother with me!”
“I’m just a disabled person, a burden!”
“If this is what it takes for you to care for me, I’d rather die!”
“Shut up!”
How could she? How could she be thinking like this every day?
“I’ll say what I want! Let go of me!!”
“I don’t want my sister anymore!”
“I’ll never like my sister again!”
Her voice trembled as she pleaded, “Just throw me out, kick me out, okay?”
“No.”
Her fingers were forcibly pried open, and something soft and fuzzy was pressed into her palm. Her hand instinctively clenched around it, then trembled slightly as she hesitantly touched the object.
A felt doll, the little felt doll she thought had been lost long ago.
“Who asked you to pick it up?!”
“It’s so ugly! I don’t like it at all!”
“Just stop caring about me!”
She thrashed and screamed like a trapped animal, yet her fingers clutched tightly around the felt doll she claimed to hate.
Wen Jingzhi didn’t remove the silk blindfold, holding the girl firmly in her arms, suppressing her anger as she said coldly, “Lin Li.”
“We are family.”
“No one abandons their family.”
“No! We’re not family. Only Grandma was my family!”
“I don’t like any of you!”
“Not a single one!”
She denied, she wailed, and then suddenly choked up.
“I don’t like any of you anymore…”
Don’t change because of me…
“You won’t be blind forever.” Long, slender fingers slid up the thin arm, reaching the child’s soft hair, gently stroking it. “You’ll get better.”
“I don’t want you to care! Didn’t you hear? I don’t like you anymore!”
“We’re not family!”
“If you say that,” Wen Jingzhi sighed softly, “your sister will be sad.”
The furious, trapped animal suddenly froze. She gasped heavily, then began to cough, clutching tightly at the arm wrapped around her waist.
A sharp pain suddenly shot through her eyes. Her body trembled as she realized she was crying.
Lin Li cursed under her breath, bending over as she choked back sobs. “I don’t care about you.”
But in the end, she didn’t say those words again.
Hearing the obvious sound of crying, Wen Jingzhi’s body stiffened. Her hands moved urgently to the child’s face as she said coldly, “Don’t cry.”
It’s not good for your eyes.
“Why not?! I’ll cry if I want to!”
Wen Jingzhi pressed her lips together, enduring the harsh words, and softened her voice. “It’s not good for your eyes.”
“I’m going blind anyway!”
“I don’t need you to care!”
“Stop crying!” How had she never noticed before how infuriating this child could be?
“You’re still being mean to me! I don’t like you anymore, sis!”
Wen Jingzhi frowned, letting out an exasperated laugh. “No one said you’d go blind.”
“If you keep crying, your eyes really won’t get better.”
“You don’t need to worry about my work.” Hearing the sobs gradually subside, Wen Jingzhi sighed in relief. “I’ll go back to work once your eyes are healed.”
“You’re not a burden.”
“No one will kick you out.”
“You’re the fourth young lady of the Wen family.”
“You’re family.”
“I… they all love you very much.”
“Just like your grandmother loved you.”
During her coma, those gentle figures in the darkness resurfaced in her mind.
Lin Li trembled and suddenly broke down into loud sobs.
“But I don’t want it like this…”
“I can’t do anything, I can’t even walk properly.”
“I was supposed to die anyway, I won’t live much longer, you shouldn’t be like this…”
Don’t be so good to me.
Hearing those last words, Wen Jingzhi couldn’t help but take a sharp breath, her chest heaving heavily as she turned the child around, lifted her up, and pressed her against her chest.
So, her pretense wasn’t empty, but a protective wall the child had built around herself.
“Waaah!”
She cried unrestrainedly, as if pouring out all her grievances, anger, and fears.
When her grandmother passed away, when she was trapped in that terrible place suffering, when she learned she only had a few years left to live she had never cried so freely before.
Listening to her sobs, Wen Jingzhi suddenly let out a muffled chuckle.
It sounded a bit awful.
“You’re laughing at me!”
“I hate you, sis!”
Wen Jingzhi couldn’t hold back another soft chuckle, tightening her embrace and ruffling the back of the child’s head. “I’m not laughing at you.”
“I heard you!” She hiccupped, her mind in disarray, words tumbling out incoherently. “I don’t like you anymore, sis.”
“You were mean to me earlier.”
“I don’t like that food!”
“I really hate taking medicine!”
“The gifts Xihe jiejie gives are so childish!”
“I don’t like drawing at all!”
“I don’t like my older siblings, I don’t like any of you.”
After her rambling complaints, she only cried harder.
Wen Jingzhi smiled wryly, curling her lips as she gently rubbed the child’s head, not interrupting.
The thin little hand suddenly trailed from Wen Jingzhi’s shoulder to her cheek, eventually touching the black silk blindfold.
“You’re a bad person, sis! You can see perfectly well but you’re pretending!”
After her crying fit, the child seemed to realize something. Sniffling, her trembling hands reached for the knot at the back of her head, fumbling to untie it before tossing the silk away. “I hate you, sis!”
As light flooded her vision, Wen Jingzhi blinked, adjusting to the moonlight. She looked down at the child sobbing on her shoulder, the bandages already soaked through, and spoke with a tone caught between amusement and sighing. “Stop crying.”
“I won’t!”
“I hate you, sis!”
Wen Jingzhi curved her lips and hummed in acknowledgment.
The sound made the child pause in confusion. Biting her lip, she hiccupped twice before muttering, “Well… not that much…”
“But I still don’t like you!”
“I just… I just don’t want you crying under the covers!”
Wen Jingzhi raised an eyebrow, carrying her toward the walk-in closet. “I don’t cry.”
“You said you did before!”
“I lied.”
“B*stard! I hate you, sis!!!”
Wen Jingzhi gently pinched the child’s ear, making her tilt her head away impatiently. “What?”
“Just this once.”
“What?”
“Swearing.”
Lin Li paused, pouted weakly from exhaustion after crying, and slumped into Wen Jingzhi’s embrace, slowly uttering an “Oh.”
“This is good enough.” Wen Jingzhi set her down, knelt on one knee, and cupped the child’s cheek with her right hand. Her expression was cool and detached, yet her words were gentle: “Whether it’s liking, disliking, happiness or sadness you should always speak them out like this.”
“You are free, Xiao You.”
Lin Li’s eyes stung, and she felt like crying again.
She let out a muffled “Mm,” adding silently in her heart: It’s only with you, sister, that I am free.
I don’t dislike you, sister.
I love you the most, sister.
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