Transmigrated as the Cannon Fodder Spouse of the Disabled Beauty - Chapter 33

45 years ago, G City Hospital.

A young girl pulled the withered flower branches from the vase on the windowsill and replaced them, one by one, with the pink lilies she had brought. A gentle breeze brushed past, and a light fragrance filled the air.

The girl worked part-time at a nearby flower shop. Every few days, she was allowed to take a few flowers that weren’t blooming perfectly, and she brought them all to the hospital.

On the hospital bed behind her, her friend had just finished an IV drip and was now fast asleep.

The girl sat back down by the bedside and gently took her friend’s hand. That hand was so thin and fragile, as if it might break at any moment.

The girl felt a pang of heartache, and her bright, deer-like eyes dimmed slightly.

On the bed, the girl in the patient’s gown felt her eyelashes tremble as she woke from her dream. The first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was her hand being held. She smiled and teased the girl holding her hand, “I was wondering who was disturbing my beautiful dream…”

Because she frequently entered the intensive care unit, she was incredibly weak at this moment, but the smile on her face was not stiff at all. “So it’s you.”

她 turned her hand over to hold the girl’s hand back and called her name, “Meimei—”

You Mei lifted their joined hands to her forehead, pressing against them intimately, without saying a word.

The faint scent of pink lilies wafted through the ward, diluting the smell of disinfectant in the room.

The girl on the bed Fu Juan was lost in thought. Yesterday, she had overheard a conversation between her mother and the doctor. The doctor said that if she didn’t have surgery soon, she likely wouldn’t survive the summer.

Therefore, this would be the last summer of her life.

It should be the last summer, after all, she couldn’t afford the surgery because they had no money. Her family had already been drained dry by her illness; there was no money left for an operation.

In fact, Fu Juan already had a premonition, so when she received the final ultimatum, her heart was calmer than she had expected. Of course, there were regrets. First, she regretted being unable to accompany her parents into their old age, and second…

She looked at the girl by the bed. The latter was still holding her hand, their hands overlapping one warm, one icy cold; one full of life, one on the verge of death.

Second, she craved the girl’s warmth. She wanted to hold this hand forever.

Some feelings are destined to be left unsaid. Dragging a body like this, how could she speak? Saying those feelings out loud would only make things difficult for the other person.

Fu Juan never considered confessing. She didn’t have the right. In fact, rather than letting her feelings become a burden to someone else, she was more distressed about how to tell her friend that she might not last past the summer.

How should she say this goodbye? What could she do to minimize the hurt? How…

“I’m leaving.”

While Fu Juan was hesitating and struggling, these words rang out softly in the ward.

In the end, the one to initiate the parting wasn’t her, but the other party.

“I found my family. I’m going home,” You Mei said.

Fu Juan froze. She didn’t expect the parting to come so much sooner than she imagined, but… this was good.

In fact, it couldn’t be better. Her friend had always wanted to know what kind of people her parents were and why she had been abandoned. Now that she had finally found her way home, nothing could be more fortunate.

Suppressing her reluctance deep in her heart, Fu Juan forced a smile and said, “Congratulations.”

“After Senior You Mei said goodbye to her friend, she got into the car to go home. However, contrary to what her friend expected and what everyone involved in the search for her family expected she did not return to that home.”

“She only went to see her parents, stayed briefly, and then returned to G City,” Song Zhenzhen narrated. “I heard this from the old Dean; only the old Dean knew about this.”

Xu Luo was still immersed in the shock of Grandma Fu’s friend having already passed away, even refusing to believe the truth.

“What happened later?” Why did You Mei, who returned to G City, pass away? Was there an accident? Xu Luo was confused.

Song Zhenzhen replied, “After Senior You Mei returned to G City, she got caught up in an organ trafficking case.”

“What?” This was something Xu Luo never expected. An organ trafficking case? What kind of surreal plot was this?

But reality is just that magical.

Song Zhenzhen said, “Senior You Mei actually knew that her friend’s condition was very bad and that she desperately needed surgery, but the friend’s family couldn’t afford the money. She kept thinking about how she could help.”

“In her desperation, she contacted an organ trafficking organization through a small advertisement. She planned to raise the money herself.”

“She wanted to sell her own less important organs to extend her friend’s life.”

“She was too naive. What kind of good person would be involved in human trafficking? She was deceived. Only when she lay on the operating table did she realize that the buyer was greedier than they had agreed. The buyer used a huge transaction fee to lure her in, but what they really wanted was to empty her out entirely.”

“Fortunately, that illegal institution had already been targeted by the police. She was rescued from the operating table by the police, sent to the hospital, received treatment, and also received a sum of compensation.”

“Unfortunately, the police were one step too late. The illegal organization had already made their move. Because they did not meet medical standards, she only had half a life left after being admitted to the hospital. Eventually, after being hospitalized for a period of time, she passed away.”

“Senior You Mei had made arrangements in advance. She secretly gave a portion of the compensation to her friend for the surgery costs under the identity of a donor. Another portion was donated to the orphanage, and she entrusted the only person who knew the truth, the old Dean, to handle her funeral.”

That year, a girl with deer-like eyes dreamed of becoming a star, standing under the spotlight and shining brightly, but in the end, her story concluded with the loneliest and dimmest ending.

And her friend firmly believed she could make her dream come true. In the years after they lost contact, the friend never stopped watching the television, hoping she would appear on the screen.

Song Zhenzhen recalled and continued, “It’s said that before Senior You Mei left G City, she made an appointment at an address with her friend. She wasn’t lying; when she made that promise, she must have firmly believed they would meet again. It’s just that Senior You Mei was ultimately unable to keep the appointment.”

Xu Luo: “…”

Her heart felt as if it were soaked in water, heavy and making it difficult to breathe.

She didn’t know how she parted with Song Zhenzhen, nor how she managed to stay at the company. It seemed that in a blink, she was already back at Song Yunran’s villa.

Song Yunran’s villa was built many years ago, but it was well-maintained. Someone looked after this place with care, so the villa didn’t have a hint of decay, only the human touch and the smell of life left by the years.

Xu Luo entered the house and saw the person who looked after the villa lying prone in the living room, arching her back and reaching for something under the sofa.

The old woman wore a simple patterned qipao. Her figure was thin, and the arched posture made the shoulder blades on her back protrude highly.

The ending of You Mei’s story resurfaced in Xu Luo’s mind the moment she saw the old woman, making her nose feel a wave of soreness.

“Grandma…” she called out hoarsely, asking the elder, “What are you doing?”

The old woman heard her voice, turned around, and smoothed her somewhat disheveled hair. There was a bit of dust on her hand, and when she touched her face, some got on her forehead as well.

She smiled, as kind as ever. “My bracelet suddenly broke, and a bead rolled under the sofa. I’m trying to find a way to get it out.”

The old woman sighed, looking at the old bracelet she had set aside. “It’s too old. I thought about the day it would break, but now that it has, I’m still very reluctant to let go.”

When the old woman said this, she tried to recall the past, wanting to remember the fellow patient who gave her the bracelet, but her mind was blank. She had never actually seen that patient’s face.

Xu Luo: “…”

Xu Luo had heard the whole story, so she already knew that the old woman’s former “patient friend” was actually her friend who was hospitalized after You Mei returned to G City. In other words, the bracelet on the old woman’s hand was actually a gift from You Mei. Thinking of this, Xu Luo’s heart grew even more bitter.

Xu Luo couldn’t tell Grandma these things. She suppressed the heartache and ran forward. “Let me… help you.”

The old woman trusted her and smiled as she moved aside, turning back to stroke the broken bracelet with a distant look in her eyes.

That night, Xu Luo developed a fever again. This time, the high fever came aggressively. She was burned into a daze, covered in fine sweat. An exotic fragrance was expelled with her sweat, filling the entire room.

Her face was flushed crimson, and she moved unconsciously on the bed, making a mess of the blankets.

She felt an strange, hidden itch, as if something were growing. To relieve this sensation, she rubbed against the quilt more forcefully.

She was thirsty. Her throat felt as if it were being scorched by fire, making it unbearable. This forced her to climb out of bed, her steps as soft as cotton, to get water from the thermos in the room.

Clang—

Her limbs were uncoordinated; she didn’t hold the thermos firmly and knocked it to the floor.

Water flowed from the mouth of the thermos, spreading to her feet. She stared blankly and pursed her lips in a pouting, aggrieved manner.

Unconsciously, she used her bare feet to stomp on the small puddle of water, making splashing sounds.

After a while, she finished this little game and staggered out of the room.

She followed the stairs upward, twisting and bumping her way to the third floor. This journey almost exhausted her physical strength. With a thud, she slammed the door open with her body.

It was late at night, and Song Yunran was already asleep, but the sound of the door crashing woke her. She opened her eyes alertly and was hit by a figure in the next second.

The body that crashed into her arms was soft and powerless, carrying an abnormally high temperature. The familiar exotic fragrance assaulted her nose, so intense it made her heart skip a beat. It took several seconds for her heart to resume beating under this violent stimulus.

But her heart rate wouldn’t return to normal; it was being forced into a frantic drumming thump-thump-thump—incessant and noisy.

Song Yunran’s throat moved. Her body was making a strange response under the influence of the fragrance, as if trying to stay in sync with the body in her arms. However, her eyes remained calm—calm and restrained.

“Luo Luo—”

She touched the neck of the person in her arms, trying to wake her reason.

But it didn’t work.

Xu Luo was already confused. She hugged Song Yunran, nuzzling against her neck.

Song Yunran: “…”

Outside in the yard, a cat seemed to be meowing. Song Yunran wasn’t sure if she was hallucinating; at this moment, her own spirit was clearly in a state of abnormal excitement, obviously lured by the exotic fragrance.

She frequently shifted between losing herself and being awake, and it took a long time before she stabilized her spirit and maintained restraint.

“Luo Luo—” She patted the back of the person in her arms.

“Mmm…” The person in her arms only responded with a whimper and clung to her even tighter.

When Song Yunran heard the doctor in the hospital diagnose Xu Luo’s fever as a symptom of sex hormone disorder, she had made a deduction. She deduced that Xu Luo might not be human, but a species that has a “heat” period. Now, she still held onto this deduction and was certain that the other’s “heat” was affecting her.

But Song Yunran was not regressed into a creature of pure lust by the fragrance, though it was difficult. She reached out to pull away the increasingly clingy Xu Luo, wanting to distance her just a little bit.

However, when her hand touched Xu Luo’s wrist, what she felt was not the texture of human skin, but something… hard and slippery.

She paused and looked down by the moonlight, seeing a patch of shimmering, iridescent blue. That blue was finer, gentler, and more beautiful than any gemstone.

Stunned, she reached out to rub it.

“Ah!”

That patch of fine blue had the texture of fish scales and seemed to be a sensitive spot for Xu Luo. The other girl trembled all over, her breathing becoming even more scorched.

Song Yunran fell silent.

Xu Luo’s legs wrapped around her. With a certain suspicion, Song Yunran reached out to touch the other’s feet.

It was a foot. There was a hard, scale-like sensation, but it was indeed a foot, not something else.

Song Yunran confirmed it, but the doubt in her heart did not dissipate because of it.

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