Diagnosis: Friend [Rebirth] - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Zhou Xuening looked down at her blood-stained palms. “Go wash your hands, and wash your face too.”

Seeing her still in a dazed state, Zhou Xuening added, “Gu Yining won’t be happy to see you like this when she comes out.”

The girl looked up at her, stood up, and headed to the restroom.

Gu Shao arrived at the hospital an hour and a half later. The man glanced at the girl in the school uniform sitting on the public bench, then looked up at the operating room doors. Countless questions swirled in his mind, but he could only turn to Zhou Xuening for answers.

Zhou Xuening pulled the identification report from her bag. “The girl in the surgery room is named Gu Yining. This is the kinship certificate between her and Mrs. Gu. I’ve already investigated her family background and the date of her adoption; Xiao Wang will send it to your email shortly.”

Gu Shao stared at the certificate for a long time, then peeked at the girl on the bench. “And her?”

Zhou Xuening leaned against the cold corridor wall, her eyes showing a hint of exhaustion. “She is Xiao Gu’s friend. They came to the hospital together after the incident. I’ll tell you the details after we get home.”

Three hours later.

The operating room doors opened, and Gu Yining was transferred from surgery to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Night had fallen, and the main lights in the corridor were turned off, leaving only a few dim corner lights. The girl leaned back in her seat, the back of her head resting against the cold wall tiles. Before her was the ICU door; through the transparent window, a comatose Gu Yining lay quietly inside. Her facial features vaguely echoed the silhouette of Old Mrs. Gu in her youth.

Zhou Xuening and Gu Shao discussed the matter and decided to wait until Gu Yining fully regained consciousness and was moved to a general ward before telling Old Mrs. Gu.

It was now the early hours of the morning. The night shift nurses were on duty, and the hallway was dim, save for the exceptionally conspicuous “Emergency Exit” sign by the stairwell fire door.

Drowsiness swept over like an overwhelming tide. Zhou Xuening turned to look at the child dozing on the bench. “I’ll take you back to school first. She’s safe now.”

The child opened a pair of hazy eyes, her pupils reflecting Zhou Xuening’s shadowed figure. Zhou Xuening suspected she hadn’t heard clearly, as she only shook her head subconsciously.

After a long pause, the girl woke up more fully. “No need. I’ll leave after she wakes up.”

There wasn’t much fluctuation in her voice, yet Zhou Xuening could hear the stubbornness in her tone.

Autumn had arrived, and the nights were cold, especially in the hospital corridors. Knowing the girl wouldn’t leave, Zhou Xuening went downstairs to a nearby supermarket and bought two blankets.

She returned to the hospital soon after.

The girl was sleeping fitfully; she snapped her eyes open at the sound of approaching footsteps. Seeing it was her, her shoulders relaxed, and she squinted against the wall again.

Zhou Xuening sat beside her and spread a blanket over her. The girl tilted her head, a look of surprise in her eyes. Zhou Xuening met her gaze with a smile and said softly, “Get some rest.”

In the dim light, the woman’s originally sharp and clear features softened. Jiang Qing was stunned for a moment. Perhaps she was truly too tired; she thought of nothing else and simply followed the woman’s words, gently closing her eyes.

Zhou Xuening sat on a bench not far from her. There were few people in the hospital at night; the long corridor held only the two of them. The night was silent, save for the faint, fragmented noise of traffic passing through the windows, echoing in the quiet, empty hallway.

That night, Zhou Xuening had a dream. It wasn’t a good dream; she woke up with a start and stared at the grayish-white wall tiles for quite a while. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, the girl sleeping on the bench moved. Zhou Xuening shifted her gaze and met the girl’s bewildered eyes. The woman’s eyelid twitched, and she quickly looked away toward the ICU doors.

At eight o’clock in the morning, the injured girl was moved from the ICU to a general ward.

The girl’s head was wrapped in thick gauze. Her complexion looked much better than the previous night, and her vitals had returned to normal, though she had not yet awakened. Jiang Qing sat on a chair to the side, looking at the sleeping girl with a gaze that was both burning and tranquil.

Zhou Xuening’s eyelid twitched again.

At nine o’clock.

The investigating police arrived at the hospital to question Jiang Qing. There were two officers—one questioning and one recording. To avoid disturbing the injured girl, they spoke in the corridor outside the VIP ward.

Because the parties involved were minors, parents needed to be notified. When the questioning concluded, one of the officers asked Jiang Qing for her guardian’s contact number.

The girl, who had been answering fluently, suddenly bowed her head in silence. Zhou Xuening stood nearby, her high heels pressing into her palms until it hurt. She pursed her lips and was about to speak when the girl’s voice came through clearly:

“1364992****,” the girl’s lips were very pale, and due to the lack of rest, she looked unwell. “My parents don’t really look after me. This is my teacher’s number. Is that okay?”

The two officers exchanged a glance, their eyes sweeping over the girl’s thin school jacket. “That’s fine.”

The ceiling was as white as ever, the reflected light stinging eyes that opened only a crack. The pungent, familiar smell of disinfectant rushed forward.

Gu Yining immediately determined she was in a hospital. Her aching eyeballs turned slightly; this was a general ward, but the décor and furnishings were quite old.

Before her gaze could settle on the closed window, a sudden throb of pain from the back of her head yanked her attention back. She took a deep breath, and a flash of Gu Xi’s panicked face when she fell crossed her mind.

That heartless thing, actually dared to push me.

Pushing was one thing, but she actually looked terrified, as if she hadn’t expected Gu Yining’s head to hit the steps. That final look of panic seemed like regret, yet she hadn’t even chosen a decent hospital—the soundproofing was so poor that Gu Yining was being woken from her dreams by male voices in the corridor.

Speaking of dreams, Gu Yining’s eyelids slowly drooped, covering her dark, gloomy eyes.

She had dreamed of Jiang Qing again.

Lately, long-buried memories had been frequently entering her dreams in this form. Ten years had not caused Jiang Qing to fade in her memory; instead, she had become more vivid. She indulged in these false dreams, recalling every tiny detail of her life with Jiang Qing.

She always woke up with a face full of tears, cold as snow. When she reached out to touch them, it felt like an electric shock; her heart ached terribly, all because in the final memory, that person had turned into a splash of glaring red.

Gu Yining suffered from chronic insomnia. The work errors caused by her sleeplessness continued to pile up, forcing her to see a psychologist for medication. The effect was good; she no longer woke up in the middle of the night, but dreamed through until dawn, waking up with a lingering sense of loss.

Gu Yining struggled to lift her hand. Her fingers brushed against the snow-white gauze, the stiff threads poking her fingertips. She sniffed and softly whispered that person’s name: “Qingqing, it hurts so much.”

Gu Yining didn’t mean to act spoiled, but when the name was in her mouth, her nasal passage already felt a surge of sourness. Thus, her voice sounded sticky and a bit aggrieved.

And wasn’t she aggrieved? It was bad enough to hit her head in reality, but she had to get hit in her dreams too.

Gu Yining rarely dreamed of her high school days, especially her time at No. 9. That period was hardly pleasant, so it didn’t occupy much space in her memories. Furthermore, she hadn’t known Jiang Qing then, so there was no reason to look back.

But she actually dreamed of it, and she dreamed of Jiang Qing. In the dream, her meeting with Jiang Qing was even earlier than in reality. she warned Jiang Qing to stay away from that psycho Tan Baozhu; she secretly gave the USB drive full of evidence to Jiang Qing.

Then, just like in reality, she was beaten and insulted. The difference was—Jiang Qing came to save her.

Gu Yining smiled. This was actually a beautiful dream.

Unlike previous dreams where the memory of the dream vanished quickly while the feelings remained, Gu Yining could clearly recall the details of this dream. However, regarding the physical sensations of the dream, the only thing that felt truly real was the moment a brick struck her and she fell to her knees.

The dream was so well-crafted that for a moment she almost couldn’t distinguish it from reality. Pain and chaos instantly submerged her thoughts, and the despair of a body about to die held her tight.

But she had smelled a familiar scent and heard a familiar voice. Yet she hadn’t had the strength to look at that person.

What a pity.

Gu Yining sighed in her heart. Although she had entered dreams countless times, only for a split second last night did she feel that it was truly her. That feeling was so wonderful that Gu Yining thought: If only I could have realized it was a dream last night, then I could have controlled it—I could have held her.

Gu Yining sat up slowly. Her head was still very heavy. Her gaze scanned the cabinet nearby, but she couldn’t find her phone.

The low, muffled male voices from the corridor drifted in. Gu Yining tilted her head to look at the blue door and began to space out again.

The male voice ceased, and a woman continued speaking: “Are you going back to school now?”

A voice answered: “Ms. Jian, I want to wait for her to wake up before I go back.”

Gu Yining froze instantly.

Her eyes darted around, and she looked toward the door again. Her weak, pale fingers gripped the edge of the bed. Her breathing suddenly quickened, and the pain in her head intensified. The cold floor touched the soles of her feet, making her shiver, yet she stubbornly moved toward the door.

She walked tremulously, supporting herself against the door frame, and pulled it open with all her might.

The girl in the corridor turned at the sound.

The girl’s pupils were large and dark, set under jet-black brows. Her double eyelids were very shallow; as she looked at Gu Yining in shock, the folds of her eyelids disappeared. Her nose was small with a rounded tip—features in a light tone that sketched out a vivid, youthful Jiang Qing.

So, it was still a dream. A second-layer dream.

Gu Yining smiled very faintly, the sound like a soft sigh. Her bare feet stepped alternately onto the cold tiles. She was deaf to the cries of alarm in her ears; her joyous mood climbed to a peak as that face she missed day and night drew closer. Her breathing became more rapid as her scent grew nearer.

She finally held her.

“Qing…” Just as the first syllable escaped, Gu Yining’s nose felt a surge of sourness. Remembering that the girl in the dream said she didn’t like the name “Qingqing,” she changed it: “Jiang Qing, I missed you so much.”

I missed you so much.

Body heat against body heat, heart against heart. Her head rested on the young Jiang Qing’s shoulder, and Jiang Qing’s scent enveloped her entire being. She hadn’t been this close to this person for a long time.

The girl being held didn’t know what had triggered her, and being mindful of her injuries, she didn’t dare move much. She merely avoided the shocked gazes of Jian Wenxin, Zhou Xuening, and the two police officers, and raised her hand to gently pat Gu Yining’s back. “Gu Yining…”

She was being squeezed so hard by Gu Yining that she could barely breathe. “Go back into the ward first. You aren’t wearing shoes, and you have injuries—don’t exert yourself…”

The two ladies and the two officers nearby stepped forward, helping in a flurry of confusion. Gu Yining was afraid that if she let go, the dream would vanish. Despite her head aching to death, she still held the girl tightly until she heard a slight squelch from her scalp, as if a stream of warm blood had gushed out.

She still refused to let go, allowing the blood to drip onto the floor. She continued to hold Jiang Qing tightly, pinning the girl against a wall in the corridor, burying her head to sniff the girl’s scent, stubbornly murmuring: “I missed you so much…”

Her voice carried a broken, sobbing tone.

“Xiao Ning, you’re bleeding! Be good, get back into the ward! Otherwise, it’s dangerous!” Zhou Xuening couldn’t pull the manic girl away and feared pulling on her wounds. She turned to shout at a passing nurse, “Nurse! Doctor! Help!”

Four adults and two children were in a state of chaos.

Gu Yining’s hands couldn’t be pulled away. Jiang Qing was being rubbed into a sweat by her. Looking up, she saw that Gu Yining’s blood had soaked into her collar along her neck; she almost fainted. “Gu Yining! Stop moving!”

Sensing the grip on her waist tightening, she shouted: “You have an injury on your head! Do you want to die? Stop pushing yourself…”

Crystal tears fell from the girl’s face. Gu Yining froze for a moment and hurriedly tried to wipe the tears away. “Don’t cry. I just… I just…”

I just wanted to hold you in my dream.

Blood and tears mixed together. Gu Yining finally felt her head become incredibly heavy. Realizing the dream was about to end, the hand wiping the girl’s tears wrapped around her neck again, firmly locking onto the person before her.

Tears blurred her vision. She looked at the gradually fading features with a foolish grin: “Can I see you again tomorrow?”

Gu Yining didn’t hear an answer.

The doctor arrived at the news, and a sedative ended the chaotic scene.