I Quit Being This Female Lead (GL) - Chapter 47

The ambulance arrived with sirens blazing and left with sirens blaring. Apart from the pool of blood left on the office floor, no one knew exactly what had happened.

Xun Fangyun, who had only been out of the hospital for less than a month, was sent back again.

This time, the situation seemed more serious; they heard she had coughed up blood, though no one was clear on the reason.

Outside the operating room, on a plastic long bench.

Mang Ke felt truly unlucky. She had been having a pleasant and friendly conversation with Jia Yun when she heard the assistant shouting loudly in the office—a man over six feet tall, terrified and covered in blood.

At first, the two thought something had happened to the assistant, like an assault resulting in blood spurting from his chest. Only when they found the unconscious Xun Fangyun on the floor, combined with the man’s tearful and shouting description, did they finally realize what had occurred.

The ambulance arrived quickly, and within fifteen minutes, Xun Fangyun was rushed to the operating room.

Mang Ke sat on the bench, grasping the corner of her clothes, feeling an urge to cry as she looked at the light above the operating room door.

Jia Yun sat beside her. Seeing Mang Ke’s red eyes, she felt pity, reached out to rub her head, and asked softly, “Are you uncomfortable?”

Mang Ke shook her head and whispered, “She won’t be okay, will she?”

Jia Yun thought for a moment and said, “She should be fine.”

“But she threw up so much blood…”

“Generally, spitting blood means a blood vessel burst, and the blood flowed into the stomach and was then vomited out. As for where the blood vessel burst…”

By the end of the sentence, Jia Yun saw tears immediately start to flow from Mang Ke’s eyes.

“Wuwuwu, that sounds so painful…”

“It’s alright, really.”

Jia Yun reached out and pulled Mang Ke into her arms, patting her shoulder while saying, “She’ll be fine, don’t worry, and don’t cry so sadly.”

Just as Mang Ke was sobbing miserably and Jia Yun was comforting her, footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor.

A woman wearing a long black dress and a white coat walked over. She looked up at the “Surgery in Progress” indicator light, then looked at Jia Yun and Mang Ke sitting there, frowned, and approached them.

She raised her hand, and it instantly descended—

‘Slap!’

Jia Yun caught the woman’s hand, just ten centimeters from Mang Ke’s cheek.

“Auntie, why such a temper as soon as you arrive?”

Jia Yun held the woman’s hand, her dark, bright eyes fixed on her. “Xinping is still undergoing surgery. If you want to greet Mang Ke, please wait a moment.”

The woman twisted her wrist, pulling her hand free from Jia Yun’s grasp. She glared at Mang Ke and snapped, “Her? This troublemaker! Xinping has never been well since she was around. I think she was sent by a business competitor to try and kill our Xinping!”

Mang Ke was so startled she forgot to cry, just staring at the woman in front of her.

Jia Yun stood up, blocking the woman’s view of Mang Ke. She reached out and supported the woman’s arm, saying, “Auntie, everything requires evidence. She’s neither a doctor nor a pharmaceutical worker; how could she harm Xinping? You’re thinking too much.”

“Xiao Yun, what’s wrong with you?” The woman looked at her, confused. “Why are you constantly defending your love rival? You know how she seduced Xinping! I thought you would at least be on my side.”

“She is indeed a love rival, but things aren’t quite as Auntie suggests,” Jia Yun said with a light smile. “Mang Ke is my girlfriend. We are the ones who are ‘together.'”

Woman: “…What?”

“It seems my parents haven’t informed you. My engagement with Yu Xinping has expired. We are now just ordinary friends.”

The term ‘ordinary friends’ seemed to pierce the woman’s heart. She glared at Jia Yun, then pointed at Mang Ke’s nose and raged, “How many tails does this fox spirit have that she can seduce two people at once!”

Jia Yun thought to herself, If you weren’t an NPC, you would be seduced too.

Jia Yun restrained the frantic woman and instructed a nurse to escort her out.

Mang Ke was in a state of confusion the entire time. She looked at the woman still outside the glass door, shouting furiously, and said in astonishment, “Why were you able to kick her out?”

“Ah?” Jia Yun said. “Didn’t I tell you that this hospital belongs to my uncle? I’m one of the shareholders here, too.”

Mang Ke: “…”

So, all of you are wealthy heirs, and only I am the commoner???

Well, that’s how classic novels usually go.

Makes sense.

Mang Ke sat back down on the chair. She felt that ever since she arrived here, she hadn’t had a single proper day of work.

She wondered if she could even hold out until the next payday.

Time passed moment by moment. The woman outside seemed to have tired herself out shouting and left soon after. No one knew if she would return.

The company chat group was quiet. Mang Ke didn’t know if everyone had realized she was missing or that their General Manager had vomited blood, but recalling the assistant’s hysterical behavior, the calm was probably just superficial.

More than two hours later, the operating room doors opened, and Xun Fangyun was wheeled out and taken straight to a private room.

The doctor removed his mask and told Jia Yun, “It’s nothing life-threatening, and it’s not extremely serious. She needs to be hospitalized for three days for observation, and if there are no issues, she can go home.”

The doctor then patted Jia Yun’s shoulder: “Niece, I don’t think this Yu family girl will live much longer. Your uncle here fully supports you breaking off the engagement with her.”

Before Jia Yun could speak, Mang Ke stood up and retorted, “She’s perfectly healthy! She’ll live to be a hundred!”

The doctor looked at the girl and asked curiously, “Who are you?”

Mang Ke: “Regardless of who I am, don’t you think it’s inappropriate for a doctor to say such things, especially right after she left the operating room?”

Perhaps due to Mang Ke’s strong attitude, the doctor was silent for a moment before saying, “I am her attending physician. I naturally know her condition. Yu Xinping has suffered from severe heart disease since childhood. Her living to adulthood is already beyond our expectation. However, her condition has been worsening recently. It’s only a matter of time before she can no longer hold on.”

Mang Ke bit her lip. She wanted to tell the man that this world was fake, and thus the illness was fake too.

But Jia Yun glanced at her and said to Mang Ke, “Alright, we’ll talk about this later.”

Watching the doctor leave, Mang Ke apologized to Jia Yun: “I’m sorry, I just said something very harsh to your uncle…”

“It’s fine. He is a worldly man and doesn’t mind these small squabbles.”

Jia Yun turned back to Mang Ke and smiled lightly: “It’s getting late. Are you planning to go back to work or skip work and go home? If you skip work today, I can still count you as normally employed, and you won’t lose your pay.”

Mang Ke shook her head: “I want to stay here.”

“She needs rest, and she’ll definitely be moved to the ICU today,” Jia Yun reached out and rubbed Mang Ke’s head. “Come back with me. We’ll visit her again tomorrow.”

Mang Ke looked toward the hospital room corridor and nodded reluctantly.

Perhaps today she really should let Xun Fangyun rest. Whether she had mistaken her identity or not, health was the most important thing.

————

Xun Fangyun had a very long dream.

In this dream, she was a little girl with a ponytail, about seven or eight years old.

She sat alone on a wooden bench by the beach, watching the deep blue coastline turn transparent under the sunlight.

Xun Fangyun remembered it was her favorite stretch of sea, so much so that she demanded her mother buy it. She cried and fussed for a long time, and the next time she visited, the butler told her that the area now belonged only to her.

However, a quiet seaside and beautiful ocean view are meaningless when you are the only one seeing them. Even the most beautiful scenery can become dull.

Xun Fangyun, at that age, quickly grew tired of the view. She only visited that beautiful beach two or three times, and after that, never went back or paid attention to it again.

Xun Fangyun could still remember the feeling of the warm seawater hitting her feet and the sensation of the delicate white sand sticking between her toes.

But she couldn’t recall why she had forgotten it.

Forgotten such a beautiful piece of the sea.

When she opened her eyes, Xun Fangyun saw the familiar ceiling and the IV drip hanging by her bed.

Milky white sunlight refracted through the window, illuminating half of the hospital room.

Shh-shh—shh-shh—shh-shh—

Xun Fangyun heard a faint, subtle sound, intermittent but rhythmic. She turned her head and saw a girl wearing a pink and white jacket sitting by her bed, currently looking down and peeling an apple with a small knife.

That quiet, rhythmic sound was the sound of the apple peel coming off.

In the silent hospital room, only the sound of Mang Ke peeling the apple remained. The red peel turned into a long strip under the silver knife, falling into the tray on her lap, forming a coil.

Perhaps sensing someone watching her, Mang Ke instinctively looked up.

Their eyes met, and Mang Ke could feel the other woman’s clear gaze.

“You’re awake?”

Mang Ke leaned forward slightly and said to Xun Fangyun, “You’ve been unconscious for three days. How do you feel?”

Xun Fangyun felt like she had seen this scene somewhere before, but she couldn’t place it.

She tried to speak, but the bitter, metallic taste in her throat made her very uncomfortable, and she frowned slightly.

“Don’t strain yourself.” Mang Ke put the partially peeled apple, plate, and tools aside. She stood up and pressed the nurse call button, telling Xun Fangyun, “I’ve called the doctor. Just rest a bit more.”

Xun Fangyun nodded gently and closed her eyes again.

Just as she closed her eyes to rest, she heard the sound of the room door opening once more.

“Is she awake?”

“She is.”

“You’ve worked hard taking care of her these past few days. Let me take you home to rest.”

“It’s okay, Yun Yun [Yùn Yùn], I…”

Xun Fangyun shot her eyes open. She saw Mang Ke and Jia Yun standing together, chatting about something. Seeing Xun Fangyun awake, they both looked over curiously.

“Mang Ke…”

Xun Fangyun gripped the side of the hospital bed, struggling to speak with a metallic taste in her voice, “She is mine! No one is going to take her!”