Diagnosis: Friend [Rebirth] - Chapter 29.2

Chapter 29.2

Jiang Qing’s body stiffened; she suddenly felt a cold draft blowing from behind her.

She felt a sudden twinge of guilt. Turning around, she saw Gu Yining holding that small object. Jiang Qing’s vision went dark for a moment. She took a deep breath. “That thing in your hand—throw it away.”

Gu Yining followed Jiang Qing’s gaze down to her palm. Her fingers squeezed the object tightly. Her tone was flat. “Is it yours?”

The device was still moving, vibrating intensely against Gu Yining’s palm.

Jiang Qing: “No.”

The next instant, the small toy was tossed from Gu Yining’s hand. After a perfect parabolic arc, it landed steadily in the nearby trash can.

Gu Yining looked up, her gaze landing on Jiang Qing’s slightly messy hair. Her tone was so gentle it gave Jiang Qing goosebumps, and she even curled her lips into a smile: “Your hair is a mess.”

Jiang Qing raised a hand to smooth it down. She turned back to Tan Baozhu. “Change your clothes and leave, now.”

Tan Baozhu: “I…” Her gaze drifted past Jiang Qing to Gu Yining, who was wearing a cold sneer.

Gu Yining glanced at her, then turned to Jiang Qing. “What is she doing here?”

Tan Baozhu spoke first: “Don’t blame Jiang Qing. My clothes got wet, and she was kind enough to bring me back to change…”

Jiang Qing nodded at Gu Yining. “That’s exactly how it happened.”

The scent of oranges and flowers filled the small room. Jiang Qing looked at the messy bedsheets and the strange atmosphere between the three of them, feeling a massive headache coming on. She turned to urge Tan Baozhu again: “Go change, quickly.”

Tan Baozhu and Gu Yining had been at odds since their days at No. 9 High School. Even after transferring to No. 2 High School together, their rare interactions consisted of bickering on sight. Jiang Qing had only brought her back today because she saw the injuries on her arm and felt a flicker of sympathy; even so, she only intended for Tan Baozhu to shower and leave immediately.

She hadn’t expected trouble to brew in such a short time.

First, she hadn’t expected Gu Yining to arrive so early. Second, she hadn’t expected Tan Baozhu to be so neurotic—what kind of mental state does one have to be in to carry such a thing around?

Gu Yining suddenly tilted her head, her gaze landing on the pajamas Tan Baozhu was wearing… they looked familiar. Looking at the shameless Tan Baozhu, the anger Gu Yining had been suppressing surged again. She strode forward, walking straight past Jiang Qing to the head of the bed, reaching out to pull at Tan Baozhu expressionlessly.

“Don’t bother changing. Get out. Now.”

Tan Baozhu cried out in fright and scrambled to the side of the bed near the window. Her messy hair slid down, covering most of her face. She suddenly lifted a pair of heavy eyes and, in a posture hidden from Jiang Qing, gave Gu Yining a mocking smile.

“Tan Baozhu…” Sensing things were escalating, Jiang Qing quickly blocked Gu Yining. “Gu Yining, calm down. She…”

Jiang Qing caught a glimpse of the terrified and somewhat pitiful Tan Baozhu. She grabbed Gu Yining’s shoulders and realized Gu Yining was actually trembling. “She just came to change her clothes. Nothing happened.”

“Using a vi-brator in front of you counts as ‘nothing happened’?”

Gu Yining’s voice was icy. She didn’t want to take her temper out on Jiang Qing, and she understood that this was likely a setup by Tan Baozhu—simply to disgust both of them. That was just the kind of person she was.

Perhaps realizing her tone was too harsh and fearing Jiang Qing might get angry, Gu Yining patted her shoulder. “Forget the nightgown. Let her leave now. I don’t like her in our room.”

Even though this was a guesthouse, every detail in the small room had been added by her and Jiang Qing bit by bit. They had put up the couplets and window paper together; they had raised the calamondin tree and the rose together; they had changed the bedsheets together; they had even chosen the room fragrance together at the supermarket.

This was her and Jiang Qing’s room. It was their little home.

But just now, an outsider had intruded and done that here. When she entered, she only heard Jiang Qing pushing her away and the sound of the object hitting the floor. She didn’t know what had happened before that. Because she didn’t know, anything was possible.

Jiang Qing closed her eyes. “Tan Baozhu, please leave now.”

Tan Baozhu climbed off the other side of the bed, her tone casual. “At least let me change. Otherwise, if I go out in a nightgown and bare feet, people will think I’m a mistress caught in the act.”

Gu Yining looked at her coldly. “Is there a difference?”

The words sounded incredibly strange. Jiang Qing looked at Tan Baozhu. “There’s a bathroom in the lobby downstairs. You can change there. As for shoes, there’s a shoe store if you turn left outside.”

Catching sight of the bag of clothes at the foot of the bed, Gu Yining stood up, grabbed them, and threw them out the door. Then she opened the bathroom; a pile of wet clothes was soaking in a basin, clearly not Jiang Qing’s.

Gu Yining carried the basin out as well. Turning back to see Tan Baozhu still standing like a statue by the window, she gritted her teeth, her patience exhausted. “Do I have to drag you out?”

With Gu Yining making things so ugly, Tan Baozhu’s face flushed red and white. She looked to Jiang Qing for help. Jiang Qing lowered her head and massaged her temples, her head throbbing. Sensing Tan Baozhu’s gaze, she simply waved her hand toward the door.

It was a sign for Tan Baozhu to leave quickly.

A cold draft rushed in from the hallway. Tan Baozhu, wearing only a thin nightgown, shivered. She seemed unsteady and reached out to steady herself against the windowsill. As her body leaned against it, her shoulder accidentally knocked into the potted calamondin tree.

With a clatter, the flowerpot shattered on the floor. Fine soil scattered in all directions. Golden oranges rolled under the bed, leaves covered the floor, and the trembling roots of the tree lay exposed on the dirt.

Gu Yining’s furious voice thundered over her. “What are you doing?”

Tan Baozhu gave an awkward laugh. “Haha… if I said I didn’t do it on purpose, would you believe me?” This time, she really hadn’t meant it!

Gu Yining’s response was to grab her wrist and drag her to the door, throwing her out. Tan Baozhu tried to say something, but the door slammed shut with a resounding bang, nearly hitting her in the face.

Muttering curses, Tan Baozhu picked up the ugly clothes she had bought. She looked up and saw the brand-new couplets on either side of the door, looking sickly red.

Crazy, she thought. Who stays in a guesthouse and decorates it like a home?

Inside the room, Gu Yining went into the bathroom to wash her hands. Thinking about how she had touched that small ball, she felt a wave of nausea. She scrubbed her palms over and over under the cold water. Only when her skin was rubbed red did she step back out.

Jiang Qing was squatting by the window with her back to Gu Yining, cleaning up the mess. She picked up the fallen oranges and put them in a small bag, then picked up the still-vibrant tree. Soil was clinging to the roots, so Jiang Qing wrapped them in a plastic bag and placed it against the wall by the window.

Noticing Gu Yining’s shadow, Jiang Qing said, “Bring the broom and dustpan.”

Jiang Qing moved to stand up, but her vision suddenly went black. Her body yielded to gravity, and she instinctively grabbed the edge of the bed. In the next instant, someone caught her, a pair of arms wrapping around her waist from behind.

Two seconds later, her vision cleared. Jiang Qing looked up to see Gu Yining’s beautiful face magnified before her, their breaths mingling. She patted the hands around her waist. “I’m fine now. You can let go.”

Gu Yining released her. Her gaze swept over Jiang Qing’s expressionless face. She suddenly asked, “Why aren’t you angry at all?”

Why am I the only one angry?

Why did she allow someone else to intrude into their private space? Why did she let Tan Baozhu do such a thing? Even when Tan Baozhu smashed their tree, she wasn’t angry at all. It was as if she didn’t care about any of it—as if Gu Yining was the only one who cared.

Jiang Qing didn’t even seem to care about the questioning. She simply reached for the broom next to her and said matter-of-factly, “Let’s clean the floor first.”

It felt like punching cotton; Gu Yining didn’t even get a sound in return. Her anger sank into the sea, unacknowledged. She gave a low “Oh” and helped Jiang Qing sweep the floor. The pot shards were thrown away, and the soil was gathered into a plastic bag.

The faucet in the bathroom ran loudly. Gu Yining sat at the foot of the bed, peeled a small orange, and stuffed it into her mouth with a blank expression. The juice exploded on her tongue; the sour, astringent taste made her throat tighten. She coughed, clutching her chest, and forced herself to swallow the pulp.

She looked up at Jiang Qing, who had just emerged from the bathroom. “Before I came in, what happened? Why were the two of you on the bed? Why did that thing fall out?” Her tone was flat, trying not to provoke a negative reaction.

Jiang Qing pulled a tissue to dry her hands. “Nothing much. I came out of the bathroom and she said she had a fever and asked me to check. Then she suddenly pushed me down.” For some reason, Jiang Qing omitted the part about Tan Baozhu straddling her. “Then I pushed her away, and that thing fell out. I was shocked too, and then you walked in.”

Gu Yining looked up at Jiang Qing. Her slightly messy hair was now smooth, with a few strands framing her delicate face. Gu Yining’s gaze slowly drifted downward. “Tan Baozhu has had a girlfriend before.”

Jiang Qing froze. Gu Yining’s gaze also stopped. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head for a better view. Her heavy gaze landed on Jiang Qing’s neck… there was a clear red mark on that snow-white skin. Gu Yining thought it looked like a scratch from a fingernail, but also a bit like a hickey. She pursed her lips, unable to stop staring at the red mark.

Sensing her gaze, Jiang Qing raised her left hand to touch her neck. “What is it? Is there something on my neck?”

“Jiang Qing.” Gu Yining called her name softly. The intentionally softened tone now faded, sounding somewhat cold. Her gaze landed on Jiang Qing’s left wrist, finding, unsurprisingly, another red mark there.

Jiang Qing lowered her hand, but it was caught mid-air by Gu Yining. She tried to pull back. “What are you—”

Before she could finish, Jiang Qing fell onto the bed for the second time today. Gu Yining flipped over and pinned her down, her loose hair brushing against Jiang Qing’s ear. Her warm breath fell on Jiang Qing’s face. “Is this how she pushed you down?”

Jiang Qing turned her face away, feeling the heat radiating from Gu Yining’s body at close range. Their bodies were pressed tightly together; Gu Yining’s knee pushed between her legs, the pressure at the root of her thighs causing a slight pain.

With her left hand pinned, Jiang Qing could only use her right hand to push against Gu Yining’s chin. She gritted her teeth. “Get off!”

Being pushed, Gu Yining was forced to tilt her head back. She looked up at the light, feeling confused: Was Jiang Qing overreacting? Then she wondered if Tan Baozhu had pinned her like this earlier—and she certainly hadn’t seemed this angry then. The fire that had just died down in Gu Yining flared up again. She said loudly, “No.”

She began to accuse Jiang Qing of double standards: “This is our room, yet you let her in, let her shower, let her wear your pajamas, let her do that in front of you, and you aren’t even angry. Now I’m just getting a little close to you and you’re screaming at me…”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the “Juice Balcony” rose blooming beautifully on the windowsill. “She even smashed our tree. Do you have any idea how much effort I put into getting such a beautiful tree? You don’t care at all.”

Gu Yining prattled on, but Jiang Qing wasn’t really listening. As Gu Yining’s tone rose and fell, her body was constantly rubbing against Jiang Qing’s. Her body temperature kept rising; Jiang Qing felt something quietly changing. The tightly wound string in her mind was about to snap.

Jiang Qing closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Shut up, Gu Yining.”