Diagnosis: Friend [Rebirth] - Chapter 22

Chapter 22

A cool wind blew through the corridor filled with the heavy scent of disinfectant. The woman pulled a small blanket from her bulging bag and wrapped it around Sun Ning’s shoulders. After they finished eating, Jiang Qing helped support the girl as they walked to the roadside.

The mother and daughter left in a taxi as night fell.

Jiang Qing boarded a bus. The phone in her pocket vibrated. Switching the hand she used to hold the grab bar, she opened her phone to find a text message. The bus was filled with people who had just finished work; it was quiet, save for the stop announcements mixing with the hiss of the air brakes. Jiang Qing leaned against the pole, a faint smile gracing her lips as she replied to the message.

The weekend arrived. The school’s back gate was tightly shut, with only the small side room for the security guard left open. Students entering or leaving the campus filtered through that narrow space.

Gu Yining didn’t know why she had come here. By the time she realized her actions were improper, she was already standing at the back gate. She had forgotten what excuse she used to brush off Zhou Xuening; regardless, she hadn’t gone straight back to the Gu family villa, but had come here directly from the hospital.

She walked past the guard room and headed toward the girls’ dormitory. Standing before that dim door, she knocked for a long time until her knuckles began to ache, yet the weathered wooden door remained closed. The corridor lights were off, leaving everything in shadow. Moving back, Gu Yining didn’t notice a puddle and stepped right into it, barely catching herself against the wall to avoid a fall.

Sensing the darkness before her eyes beginning to twist, Gu Yining shook her head, recalling the doctor’s question at the hospital: “Any discomfort lately?”

The test results were normal, but brain injuries were complex and volatile; sometimes a patient could develop adverse reactions even when the scans showed nothing. For a long time after the injury in her previous life, Gu Yining had thought she was normal, gradually letting her guard down regarding the monthly checkups until she stopped going altogether… right up until her memory began to leak away. The violent encounter from over a decade ago had eventually revealed its massive aftereffects.

In this life, because of Jiang Qing’s early appearance, the injury wasn’t as severe as the last time. However, given her abnormal behavior at the hospital, Dr. Sun took her condition very seriously. After the physical exams ended, she had undergone a period of psychological therapy and observation. Gu Yining didn’t feel any discomfort—her sixteen-year-old brain was still quite sharp—but she didn’t know if there were hidden lingering effects.

At this moment, leaning against the dorm wall, she identified the dark wet patch on the floor. For some reason, she felt a wave of distress; the heavy gloom felt like an airtight wall, making it difficult for her to breathe.

Emerging from the school, the dim yellow streetlights shone down on the scattered pedestrians. The weather was cool, and being a weekend, there were few students; many snack stalls remained closed. Electric scooters zipped through the small alleys. The streets had been swept clean by sanitation workers, leaving the sidewalks free of leaves and trash, glowing with a clean yellow hue like an old photograph.

Gu Yining’s vision blurred along with that yellow glow. She blinked and realized a layer of moisture had coated her eyes; wiping them, she found water on her hand.

It seemed to be raining.

The rain wasn’t heavy—just a few drops before it vanished. Gu Yining crouched on the steps in front of a stationery shop. She didn’t want to go home, yet didn’t know where to go; a cloud of depression loomed over her. Perhaps her original intent was to find out what had happened to Jiang Qing, yet now she was just crouching there. Moss covered the high school walls across the street; an elderly person carrying vegetable baskets on a shoulder pole tottered by, and the distant roar of car engines drifted from the road.

Gu Yining felt sad. She wanted to see Jiang Qing—the twenty-nine-year-old Jiang Qing, not this sixteen-year-old version who was afraid of her, didn’t know her, and didn’t want to get close. For the first time since her rebirth, she felt a sense of weary powerlessness.

She didn’t know how long she crouched on the steps, staring at the uneven pavement below. When she finally tried to stand, her legs were completely numb. As she moved, her calves felt as if ten thousand ants were crawling over them, biting relentlessly. The sensation of soreness and pins-and-needles hit her at once; she gritted her teeth and stood up in one go.

After hovering in place for ten minutes, the numbness finally faded. She walked up the small alley behind the gate, heading toward the yellow lights, uncontrollably thinking of a certain someone.

Her feet stepped over several blurred shadows. A fresh fragrance hit her nose, and Gu Yining looked up. A few flower shops ahead were open. Buckets outside the doors held several wilted sunflowers, their petals still a brilliant gold. Through a glass door, she saw someone buying flowers.

It was a girl. The sunflower petals brushed against her white skirt, looking like vivid, embroidered blooms. The girl held a bouquet in her arms, standing sideways as she spoke to the shopkeeper, her lips curved in a gentle smile, her short hair falling naturally to her shoulders.

Gu Yining squeezed her eyes shut and reopened them, staring at the girl. The girl wore a black backpack and was laughing, revealing white teeth. She lowered her head, shifting the bouquet to her left arm, and swung her backpack off to rummage for something inside. The pink and yellow bouquet obscured the lower half of her face. Gu Yining froze. Just as she was about to walk over, the girl stepped out of the shop and smiled at someone waiting outside.

Only then did Gu Yining notice a man standing there. The light outside the shop was insufficient, being some distance from the streetlamp, and Gu Yining couldn’t see his face clearly. Her lifted foot stopped. A breeze brushed past her ears, causing a frantic whistling sound.

Gu Yining hurriedly lowered her head, pulling all her hair forward to hide her face. Her peripheral vision remained fixed on the two figures in the dark. Seeing them walk forward, she followed at a steady distance.

The two walked side by side for several hundred meters before turning into a residential complex. The main gates were shut, with pedestrians entering through a small side door. The man pulled out a card and swiped it; with a click, the door opened. He let Jiang Qing in first before closing the door behind them.

Gu Yining jogged to the gate and pushed against the iron bars, but they didn’t budge. She peered inside. The two shadows were walking deeper in, about to round a cluster of bushes. She was about to lose sight of them. Anxious, she stomped her foot and took a photo with her phone, but by the time she looked up, the bushes had hidden them completely. She checked the photo—it was just a black blur, not even a silhouette was visible.

Fortunately, someone else was returning to the complex. Gu Yining stepped back, slipped in behind an auntie who swiped the gate, and sprinted in the direction Jiang Qing had gone.

The thick night receded as she ran. The dim lights fell on her flickering shadow, and the wind in her ears seemed to grow louder. The greenery in the complex was lush, like high walls in a maze. A faint sound of voices was caught by Gu Yining; before she could hear what was said, she recognized it as Jiang Qing’s voice.

She hid by the base of a wall, peering at the two figures in front of a stairwell. This was an old-fashioned complex; the buildings were only six stories high and had only stairs. The walls were mottled, the stairs were old, and the echoes were exceptionally clear. The sound of footsteps reached Gu Yining’s ears, forcing her to hunch down and control the speed of her own steps.

The footsteps above stopped. The man took keys from his pocket, and after a series of rattles, the door opened. Gu Yining saw the back of Jiang Qing as she entered, and the door shut with a thud.

The empty stairwell held only the sound of Gu Yining’s breathing.

Gu Yining climbed up step by step. Before a dark red door was an aluminum plate: “503.” Small couplets were pasted on either side, though the uneven surface made them peel at the corners. She leaned against the door, trying to hear what was happening inside.

But she could hear nothing.

What was Jiang Qing doing here? What was her relationship with that adult man?

Gu Yining moved away from the door and climbed up a few more steps, staring solemnly back at the entrance. Jiang Qing had bought a pregnancy test yesterday and appeared today at the OB-GYN hospital with a medical record in hand. Now, so late at night, she wasn’t back at school but had bought flowers and entered a home with a man.

Gu Yining knit her brows: Was she being deceived?

Jiang Qing was smart, but even smart people can be foolish. The man was much older; tricking a young girl would be easy for him. She might have fallen into a trap.

She stood up abruptly. No. Regardless of whether she had the right, Gu Yining had to knock and find out what was going on. If that man dared to deceive Jiang Qing, she would make sure he rotted in jail.

She turned to rush back down the stairs, but her stride was too wide. Her heel hit a smooth, worn patch on a step, and she slipped. Losing her balance, she pitched forward out of control. By the time she realized what happened, she was kneeling on the steps before the door, clutching the cold iron railing.

Her knees throbbed with pain, and she gasped for air.

At that exact moment, the door before her clicked open.

Jian Wenxin was holding a bag of trash in her left hand, her right still on the doorknob. The sight of a girl suddenly kneeling before her door made her jump. Recovering, she set the trash down and stepped out to help the girl on the stairs.

“Are you… hello?” The girl looked very young. Jian Wenxin found her face familiar but couldn’t place where she had seen her. “Which floor do you live on? I’ll help you call your parents.”

She helped the girl up, noticing that the fabric over her knees was badly scuffed—the skin underneath was likely bleeding. She shouted into the house: “Come out and help!”

Someone approached at the sound, footsteps thumping on the wooden floor. A moment later, a section of a white skirt entered Gu Yining’s field of vision.

“Gu Yining?”