Yu Mingjiao felt like she was going crazy, otherwise why would she have sought help from Cen Lingqiu.
But in that moment of panic, the only person she could see was Cen Lingqiu.
She had practically abandoned reason and emotion, grabbing Cen Lingqiu’s hand and begging her to take her away from this noisy, oppressive space.
Cen Lingqiu gripped her hands in return, giving her fingers a reassuring squeeze. Then, pushing the wheelchair, she spoke coolly to the young girl, “Sorry, kid, I have to take your sister away now.”
Yu Sui’an grew anxious. “Where are you taking my sister? What are you going to do to my sister again…”
Cen Lingqiu just wanted to get Yu Mingjiao out of there quickly and had no time for the girl’s panic. She simply pushed the wheelchair on her own.
Yu Sui’an wanted to chase after them, but another girl in the same school uniform ran up and grabbed her, panting, “Yu Sui’an, you promised to come with me to the doctor. Where did you run off to?”
“I need to find my sister.” Yu Sui’an watched Cen Lingqiu’s retreating back, her heart burning with anxiety. She lifted her foot to chase them, but the girl beside her grabbed her sleeve and pulled her toward the registration area.
“What sister? Come with me to register first. I only took two hours of leave. We won’t be able to get back into school later.”
After all, Yu Sui’an was still a student. She had taken leave to come out this time and didn’t have extra time to chase them.
She stared gloomily at Cen Lingqiu’s back, bit her lip, and was finally pulled into the registration line by her classmate.
Cen Lingqiu carried her into the passenger seat. Seeing her head lowered and her expression dazed and stiff, she pulled out the seatbelt, intending to buckle her in.
The moment she got close, Yu Mingjiao instantly became vigilant and shot her a cold glare.
Cen Lingqiu pulled the seatbelt out and explained, “I’m just buckling you in, don’t worry.”
Yu Mingjiao slowly retracted her thorns.
Along the way, Yu Mingjiao’s face remained incredibly pale. Her chin was sharp, her lips colorless, and her stunningly beautiful face was shrouded in a heavy sense of sickness.
She tilted her head, her eyes lifelessly gazing at the scenery outside the car window.
Cen Lingqiu said nothing about her deathly silence. While waiting at a red light, she took a piece of candy from the car and placed it in Yu Mingjiao’s palm.
Yu Mingjiao turned her head to look at her.
“It’s a new candy I bought. Try it.”
Yu Mingjiao lowered her gaze to the exquisitely wrapped candy in her hand, curled her fingers, and spoke slowly, “Don’t you have anything you want to ask me?”
Her wretched state at the hospital, her pitiful behavior of lowering herself to beg for help—wasn’t this woman curious at all?
This was the perfect opportunity to mock her.
According to her previous vile nature, shouldn’t she be sneering at her? Instead of acting as if nothing had happened and even giving her a piece of candy.
The light turned green, and the car started moving.
Cen Lingqiu looked into the distance and said calmly, “Do you want me to ask?”
Yu Mingjiao retorted, “What do you think?”
Cen Lingqiu: “You don’t want me to, so I won’t.”
Due to her illness, Yu Mingjiao’s eyes were drowsy, and the icy sarcasm in her words was much duller. She said in a ridiculous tone, “Just because I don’t want you to, you’ll respect my wishes?”
Cen Lingqiu hummed in agreement. “Maybe not in the past, but I will from now on.”
Her tone was light and calm, as if she were stating a very normal fact, devoid of any emotion.
Yu Mingjiao said nothing.
Cen Lingqiu tilted her head and curved her lips at her. “What, you think I’m lying to you, teasing you?”
Yu Mingjiao was very direct. “…Aren’t you?”
“Hm?” Cen Lingqiu gave a casual smile, her slender, fox-like eyes curving slightly. “My credibility is really low, huh.”
“But didn’t I promise you? I won’t deceive you again.”
Yu Mingjiao didn’t respond further to her words. It was unclear whether she believed her or not. She turned her head back to look out the window, the candy in her palm growing slightly warm from her grip.
When they passed a restaurant, Cen Lingqiu went in to get some takeout. On the way, she passed a fruit store and bought some green apricots.
As Yu Mingjiao was entering her apartment, she stuffed the takeout dinner into her hands. “It’s getting late, remember to eat.”
She also gave her the green apricots. “I just bought these on the way. The shop owner said they were freshly picked and very fresh.”
These green apricots were extremely sweet and sour. Cen Lingqiu remembered that Yu Mingjiao loved sour things, so she bought some on a whim.
She added another instruction, “Don’t forget to take your medicine and get some good rest.”
She stood at her own door. “Goodbye.”
Then she pushed open her door and went inside.
Yu Mingjiao’s hands were full of things. Cen Lingqiu’s actions and instructions gave one the feeling of an elder caring for a misbehaving junior in the family.
But in reality, their relationship couldn’t even be considered that of basic friends.
After taking her medicine that night, a bitter taste filled Yu Mingjiao’s mouth. She wanted something sweet and happened to see the candy Cen Lingqiu had given her in the car. She slowly unwrapped it and put it in her mouth.
It was indeed very sweet.
Why did this woman love sweets so much?
Yu Mingjiao’s health was poor. Even after being discharged from the hospital, she still felt very unwell, so she stayed in bed at home for a few days.
During these few days, Cen Lingqiu visited her home even more frequently. Not only did she ask if she was taking her medicine on time, but she also made all sorts of nourishing foods and supplements.
It was as if she was treating her like a porcelain doll, afraid she might break.
Yu Mingjiao had never been cared for so meticulously by anyone in her entire life. She was very unaccustomed to it.
She couldn’t adapt to this kind of overly close concern.
Especially from this woman.
She had originally thought Cen Lingqiu was just simply bringing her meals. But ever since she got sick, not only did she bring her food, but after learning she disliked taking medicine, she even supervised her.
It was as if she genuinely wanted to take care of her and had never given up.
Yu Mingjiao was always wondering when this woman would finally give up. How could a young lady from a wealthy family willingly and tirelessly care for someone she detested?
But even now, there were no signs of her giving up.
And because of Cen Lingqiu’s presence these past few days, Yu Mingjiao’s illness quickly healed, and her body stopped getting thinner.
Seeing that she was almost better, Cen Lingqiu stopped bothering her, basically only coming over at mealtimes.
This was what Yu Mingjiao had requested. She didn’t want to see her too many times a day, and Cen Lingqiu listened to her.
It was Saturday, and Yu Mingjiao was still cooped up in her room, not having gone out.
There was a knock on the door. Yu Mingjiao glanced at her phone; it was five in the afternoon.
She didn’t think much of it, assuming it was Cen Lingqiu again. After all, she was the only one who would come looking for her these days.
She didn’t even look at the electronic screen and opened the door directly.
But the person outside wasn’t Cen Lingqiu; it was Yu Sui’an.
“Sister.” Yu Sui’an held the door open and walked into the living room. “So you live here. Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
Yu Mingjiao’s tone was icy. “Why should I tell you?”
“Because we’re family.” Yu Sui’an sounded aggrieved. “I’m your younger sister. How could you not tell me where you live?”
“I don’t remember having any family.” Yu Mingjiao’s expression was one of suppressed coldness. “Let alone a younger sister.”
Yu Sui’an grew angry and pointed at her. “Why am I not your sister? We’re related by blood, Sister.”
Her illness was clearly gone, but at this moment, Yu Mingjiao’s head inexplicably started to ache again. She covered her face with her hands, utterly irritated by the girl’s questioning. Her beautifully shaped peach-blossom eyes were filled with gloom.
“Sister?” Yu Mingjiao sounded as if she had heard something funny. “Yu Sui’an, have you forgotten what you did to me, your sister, in the past?”
Yu Sui’an’s face stiffened for a moment. She said uneasily, “I… I was young then, I didn’t know any better.”
Yu Mingjiao felt the air grow thin. A nauseating feeling flowed through the living room. She suppressed the mania in her heart, forcing her face to remain calm.
“I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore, and I don’t want to see you. Get out, and don’t ever come to my home again.”
Faced with her coldness, Yu Sui’an could no longer hide her emotions. She strode forward, placed her hands on both sides of the wheelchair, and questioned her loudly, “Why do you keep avoiding me, Sister? You’re the only family I have left! Dad abandoned us, Mom got sick and died. In this world, we’re each other’s only family!”
The girl was highly emotional, but Yu Mingjiao remained calm.
“I don’t need family.” She met the girl’s gaze. “I haven’t had a family for a long time.”
Whether in her childhood or after she became disabled and left home, she never had a family from beginning to end.
A young person’s temper is like a summer downpour—intense and impetuous. The girl’s delicate face twisted slightly as she gritted her teeth. “Do you really not want to acknowledge me as your sister that much?”
“Yu Sui’an.”
Yu Mingjiao spoke.
She said slowly, “Actually, you don’t want to acknowledge me as your sister either. You’re just afraid of becoming an orphan, afraid there’ll be no one to indulge you, to dote on you.”
“That’s not true!” Yu Sui’an took a few steps back, grabbing her hair and rambling incoherently. “Sister, do you know how long I’ve been looking for you? After you left home, Mom got sick and died, and Dad ran off and left me too. I was all alone at home… I wanted to find you, but I didn’t know where you lived…”
If she hadn’t seen Cen Lingqiu at the hotel last time and followed her to this apartment, she probably still wouldn’t have found Yu Mingjiao.
She had once seen Cen Lingqiu bullying Yu Mingjiao at an art museum. By the time she wanted to go up and talk to Yu Mingjiao, the woman had already taken her sister away in a car. After that, she never saw her sister again.
She wanted to get a clue about Yu Mingjiao’s whereabouts from Cen Lingqiu, so she had staked out this apartment for a long time, finally confirming that Yu Mingjiao also lived here.
“But now you’re abandoning me too, why?!”
Yu Mingjiao said nothing, her pupils icy.
Yu Sui’an really disliked her indifference. Ever since they were young, she had detested her sister’s calm coldness, as if she didn’t care about anyone in the family.
Just like now.
Yu Sui’an’s reason was swept away by anger, and words just tumbled out of her mouth. “Yes, I did it on purpose back then! I wanted you to get hit, I wanted you to cry, I wanted you to apologize to me!”
She detested her sister’s coldness. She was her younger sister, so why did she never smile at her, never care about her?
So she had spent her entire childhood being angry at Yu Mingjiao.
Yu Mingjiao felt a chill run through her body. Yu Sui’an had so easily laid bare her past malice, tearing open all the unfair violence and pain she had experienced in the past right before her eyes.
Is this what they call family?
Disgusting.
I want to vomit.
Yu Mingjiao gripped her wheelchair, her voice extremely suppressed and cold. “Yu Sui’an, get out now. Otherwise, I’ll make you regret coming in.”
Yu Sui’an sneered, shrugging nonchalantly. “What, Sister, do you want to kill me? Do you want to kill all the family members around you?”
She closed in on Yu Mingjiao, the girl’s reason completely gone, her mind filled only with burning hatred.
“Sister, who do you think would ever get close to you besides me? Your mother got postpartum depression because she gave birth to you and ended up committing suicide. And my mom is dead too. Dad’s probably dead too, wandering around outside somewhere.”
Yu Sui’an’s smile was full of malice. “See, everyone connected to you dies. Do you know what Dad used to call you? He said you were a jinx, a bringer of bad luck. He said, why didn’t someone like you fall off a building and die?”
The girl’s voice was clear and crisp, carrying the unique, innocent playfulness of youth.
Yu Mingjiao felt that this voice was like a demon’s. She clutched her head; it hurt too much.
“Shut up…”
A sharp ringing echoed in Yu Mingjiao’s ears, as if it would pierce her eardrums.
“Shut up…”
Her lips trembled violently as she struggled to force out a few words from her throat. Yu Sui’an was still chattering on, but Yu Mingjiao could no longer hear her clearly, nor did she want to.
“I told you to shut up!” Yu Mingjiao slapped her hard across the face.
Yu Sui’an staggered back a few steps from the blow, and blood slowly trickled from her nose.
Yu Mingjiao wanted to tear the girl’s mouth apart, but her head hurt too much, and her ears were ringing loudly.
It was as if many people were talking.
“Jinx.”
“Bringer of bad luck.”
“Why didn’t you fall and die.”
“You fell down the stairs, you deserved it.”
She covered her ears, her pale lips bitten until they bled.
Yu Sui’an was stunned by the slap. When she came to her senses, she stepped forward to confront Yu Mingjiao.
Just then, the back of her collar was suddenly grabbed.
“Who is it?!” Yu Sui’an turned her head.
Cen Lingqiu was panting heavily, her cheeks had some scrapes, and her usually cool eyes were now painted with a gloomy, cold color.
“You.” Cen Lingqiu panted, her tone cold. “Get out.”
“Who do you think you are?” Yu Sui’an was displeased. “This is my sister’s house. You’re the one who should get out!”
Cen Lingqiu narrowed her eyes. She was taller than Yu Sui’an, and her gaze was condescending. “No matter who I am, the person who should get out of here right now is you.”
With that, she grabbed Yu Sui’an’s collar and dragged her toward the door. Yu Sui’an wasn’t as strong as her and could only be pulled along.
Yu Sui’an blurted out in desperation, “Sister, are you just going to let this woman into your house? Have you forgotten that she bullies you?”
“Sis, no one will ever genuinely get close to you. I’m your family, only I can, I’m not afraid of you jinxing me to death… Mmph—”
Cen Lingqiu couldn’t stand her fallacious arguments any longer. She covered her mouth and hauled her to the door.
“You don’t deserve to be Yu Mingjiao’s family.” Cen Lingqiu’s expression was stern and cold. She lowered her head slightly to glare at her. “If you want your sister to live a good life, then don’t come back.”
After saying that, she shut the door, ignoring Yu Sui’an’s anger.
Cen Lingqiu immediately rushed to Yu Mingjiao’s side and knelt in front of her. Yu Mingjiao’s head was bowed low, she was desperately covering her ears, and her shoulders were trembling nonstop.
If one listened closely, one could hear the faint whimpers escaping her throat.
Cen Lingqiu quickly summoned the System in her mind and asked for Yu Mingjiao’s self-destruction index.
【Eighty percent. It rose by five percent, and now it’s risen another two percent.】
After so much effort to lower her self-destruction index a little while ago, Yu Sui’an’s appearance today had basically undone all her progress.
The most urgent task now was to quickly settle Yu Mingjiao down. Her mental state was on the verge of collapse.
“Yu Mingjiao?” Cen Lingqiu cupped Yu Mingjiao’s face with her scraped and broken hands, leaned close to her ear, and spoke gently, “It’s okay, it’s okay, she’s gone.”
Yu Mingjiao’s lips were covered in blood. Cen Lingqiu stuck her finger between her lips and teeth to stop her from biting them.
Her finger hurt a lot. Yu Mingjiao was mentally unstable, and her teeth kept biting down on Cen Lingqiu’s finger.
It really hurts.
Cen Lingqiu suppressed the pain on her face and murmured in a comforting tone, as if coaxing a child.
“It’s okay, don’t be afraid. Look at me, Yu Mingjiao, look at me.”
Yu Mingjiao lifted her wet eyelashes, her gaze bewildered.
“Tell me, are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
“…Noisy.”
“What?”
Yu Mingjiao covered her ears, her face contorted in pain. “So noisy, my ears hurt.”
“There are only the two of us here.” Cen Lingqiu pulled her finger back and held her cheeks, making her look at her. “Look, that girl is gone. It’s just the two of us now. I’ll be very quiet. No one will bother you anymore.”
Yu Mingjiao stared at her blankly. Her dark eyes shifted, as if she finally recognized the person in front of her. She suddenly grabbed Cen Lingqiu’s neck, lunged forward, and they both fell to the floor.
Cen Lingqiu became a human cushion, her neck still being choked.
Yu Mingjiao’s expression was grim and cold, her eyes bloodshot, the corners of her lips stained with blood. Her complexion was deathly pale, and she exuded an aura of frenzied, decadent suppression.
She moved her lips neurotically.
“Lin Qiu, do you want me to die too?”
“Do you really want to compensate me? No, you’re just lying to me…”
“You clearly want me to die too!”
“Why do you all treat me like this? I’m going to… I’m going to kill you all. Go to hell.”
The strength in her hands increased. Cen Lingqiu’s face turned red, her eyes felt like they were about to burst, and she could barely breathe.
She grabbed Yu Mingjiao’s arms and used all her strength to pull her down. With a tug, Yu Mingjiao fell on top of her.
Cen Lingqiu could finally breathe, gasping for fresh air.
At the same time, she hugged Yu Mingjiao, gently stroking her dark hair.
“I… cough cough, I’m not like them.”
Cen Lingqiu coughed nonstop. “I don’t want you to die…”
“I… no longer have any ill will towards you.” Cen Lingqiu slowly caught her breath, holding her. “Trust me this once, Mingjiao. I truly hope you live a good life.”
Yu Mingjiao leaned weakly against Cen Lingqiu’s neck, her consciousness slowly returning as her back was patted soothingly.
Listening to Cen Lingqiu’s words, she blinked, and tears streamed down her cheeks, dripping onto Cen Lingqiu’s neck.
She clutched Cen Lingqiu’s clothes, resting her head in the warm crook of her neck. The emotions she had suppressed since Yu Sui’an entered the door finally collapsed completely.
The aggrieved sorrow, the unspeakable grief, the physical torment—suppressed day after day, they had finally swelled like a tide and surged to the surface.
She forgot who the person before her was, and she no longer cared about their strained relationship.
She was like a child who hadn’t cried in a long time, having found a secret corner to finally weep out loud.
Huge thanks to erzues for the support!
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