◎I Forgive You◎
“Chen Zhu Jing, your dad brought you some food.”
Jiao Jia Yi held a bag of fried chicken and a soda, a big smile spreading across his face. His cheerful voice echoed through the entire ward, even catching the attention of the elderly man in the bed next to them.
Chen Zhu Jing was dumbfounded, frantically signaling with his eyes for him to tone it down, after all, Chen Xiang was still sitting right there.
Chen Xiang was a little stunned herself. She looked at the boy’s face and vaguely remembered that he seemed to be Chen Zhu Jing’s roommate.
She took in the boy’s handsome features, clear, refined brows, as refreshing as a gentle summer breeze on a sultry afternoon, clean and comfortable, and then glanced at her own brother, sitting on the hospital bed like a dazed goose, eyes twitching, radiating pure silliness.
No comparison, there really was no comparison. Chen Xiang silently cursed in her mind.
It was only then that Jiao Jia Yi noticed Chen Xiang sitting to the side, frozen in place. He had heard of her famous name long ago, back in his first year of college, he had been lucky enough to eavesdrop on Chen Zhu Jing’s phone while Chen Xiang was ranting, and her fierce image had instantly etched itself in his mind.
He scratched his head helplessly. “Hello, sister.”
Chen Xiang looked at this young boy, who somehow seemed far easier on the eyes than her own brother. Smiling, she gestured to the seat beside her. “You’re Jiao Jia Yi, right? Chen Zhu Jing has mentioned you before. It’s really thoughtful of you to come visit him in this heat. Come, sit down.”
Jiao Jia Yi quickly waved his hands. “No, no, it’s okay, sister. You sit. I’ll just stand.”
Chen Zhu Jing buried his face in his hands, unable to bear looking at him in this goofy state. “Come sit! Don’t make a fool of yourself.”
Finally, Jiao Jia Yi sat down slowly, placing the fried chicken and soda on his lap, hugging them to his chest. He looked ridiculously silly.
Chen Zhu Jing turned his head away, refusing to look. With so many friends, why did the one who came have to be the silliest?
Chen Xiang picked up her bag. Since Chen Zhu Jing’s roommate had arrived, she didn’t plan to stay any longer. “I’ll be going now. Take good care of yourself, and call me if anything comes up.”
As she left the ward, Jiao Jia Yi finally relaxed, giving Chen Zhu Jing a thumbs-up. “Her aura? Two-point-eight meters.”
Chen Zhu Jing threw his book aside, eyes filled with longing. “Hurry, give me a chicken leg! I’m starving.”
Jiao Jia Yi held up the bag of food, grinning smugly. “Call me daddy.”
Chen Zhu Jing, utterly lacking dignity, opened his mouth without hesitation. “Daddy.” It wasn’t surprising, he’d been surviving on either plain soup or watery meals since all this happened. How could he not be starving?
Just as he got a chicken leg and took a bite, Chen Xiang returned, scaring him so much that he reflexively tossed the chicken leg into the trash can in the corner. Immediately, the clean hospital ward filled with the irresistible aroma of meat.
Chen Xiang frowned. Considering Jiao Jia Yi was there, she spared Chen Zhu Jing some face, glaring at him sharply with her eyes before saying, “I’ve transferred 500 yuan to your WeChat account. That should be enough for you to eat for the next few days. If it’s not enough, let me know.”
“So generous?” Chen Zhu Jing blurted out.
Chen Xiang smiled faintly. “Because Auntie found out about your stunt this time, she was furious and decided to send your living expenses to my card first. So, if you don’t behave from now on, you can prepare to eat dirt.”
Chen Zhu Jing froze on the bed. Heaven is doomed to punish him!
Chen Xiang hummed a happy tune all the way back to school. But as soon as she reached the dormitory building, a thin figure suddenly dashed in front of her.
Startled, she stepped back two paces, only to realize it was her boyfriend, Zhao Si Yuan. Her heart sank back into place. Frowning, she looked at the man who had become skin and bones after just a few days and asked in puzzlement, “Zhao Si Yuan? What are you doing here?”
Zhao Si Yuan wore a white T-shirt. His once-perfect build was gone. When the wind lifted the hem of his shirt, there wasn’t a trace of flesh on his waist or abdomen.
His eye sockets were dark, deeply sunken, and his lips were pale, making him look extremely weak. Chen Xiang assumed he had been staying up these past few days to finish his graduation thesis, which worried her a little.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Si Yuan rushed up and hugged her. “Xiang Xiang, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you. Please don’t block me. Can you forgive me?”
They had been dating for almost two years and always had a good relationship. Zhao Si Yuan had always treated her well.
As her anger subsided, Chen Xiang hesitated for a moment, patted his back, and said, “Okay. But don’t control my daily life anymore. It makes me really uncomfortable.”
“Anything you want, Xiang Xiang, as long as you can forgive me,” he said.
The two of them hugged right there in front of the women’s dormitory, ignoring everyone around them, drawing frequent glances from passersby.
Chen Xiang felt a little embarrassed and pushed Zhao Si Yuan. “Alright, I forgive you. Let me go first.”
But Zhao Si Yuan acted as if he hadn’t heard. Not only did he not let go, but his grip gradually tightened. Chen Xiang frowned in discomfort. “Zhao Si Yuan, you’re hurting me. Let go first.”
For some unknown reason, those words seemed to trigger something in Zhao Si Yuan. His face twisted fiercely, and he growled, “I won’t! If I let go, you’ll leave me!”
His voice was loud enough that bystanders instinctively stopped to watch. Not understanding the situation, they hastily concluded: the girl must be trying to break up, and the guy is trying to win her back.
Several onlookers, amused by the scene, laughed and said, “If the boyfriend hasn’t done anything unforgivable, just forgive him.”
“Stay together! Stay together!”
Chen Xiang glared at them and struggled to free herself from Zhao Si Yuan’s hold, but how could her strength match that of a grown man?
“You let go! You just said I could forgive you for anything and that you wouldn’t force me!” Chen Xiang thought bitterly that if she could go back a few minutes, she would have avoided him completely the instant he appeared.
As she struggled, her fingernails accidentally scraped across Zhao Si Yuan’s arm. A brief, sharp pain made his tightly wrapped arms loosen slightly, yet the madness in his eyes only grew more intense.
He lifted Chen Xiang’s face, forcefully pinching her cheeks as he pressed his head down, his other hand beginning to roam restlessly.
“What are you doing?” With people still watching nearby, Chen Xiang felt so humiliated that her head spun. Tears welled in her eyes as a wave of overwhelming panic closed in on her heart.
Some passing girls couldn’t bear to watch and were about to step forward to help, when a figure rushed in even faster.
Zhong Yao had just come downstairs when she saw a lewd man groping Chen Xiang in public. Her anger spiked instantly, her temples throbbing, and she didn’t know where the strength came from, but she actually managed to yank Zhao Si Yuan away.
She swung her arm and slapped the man hard across the face. While he stood there stunned, she kicked him straight in the lower abdomen: “What kind of trash of the new era are you? If your brain isn’t fully developed, go back and drink milk. Don’t think that just because you’ve got a bit more flesh on your bones you get to show it off to everyone all the time.”
One kick wasn’t enough to vent her anger, and Zhong Yao was about to add a couple more when Chen Xiang grabbed her hand, choking out, “Forget it, Yao Yao. Let’s go back quickly.”
With a sharp eye, she noticed someone standing nearby who had been filming for who knew how long. She immediately turned her head away, trying to hide her face in the shadows.
Zhong Yao swept a glance around, understood Chen Xiang’s situation, and went along with her.
She spat at Zhao Si Yuan. “You disgusting piece of trash. Stay far away from Ah Xiang from now on. If there’s a next time, I won’t just beat you so badly your own mother won’t recognize you, I’ll call the police immediately.”
It was as if Zhao Si Yuan suddenly came to his senses. He stared at the two of them in terror, his legs trembling so badly that he turned around and ran off.
Zhong Yao pulled Chen Xiang upstairs. She was slightly shorter than Chen Xiang, her just-over-160-centimeter height barely managing to shield the taller girl behind her.
Standing at the stairwell, the anger in her chest still hadn’t dissipated. After hesitating for a moment, she looked toward the group of onlookers from earlier. “We’re all students from the same school. Your lack of empathy is honestly terrifying. I only hope you never have to experience something like this yourselves.”
Her gaze lingered pointedly on those who had been filming with their phones, the disgust on her face impossible to hide.
Back in the dorm, the mess Zhong Yao had left from practicing talisman drawing earlier hadn’t yet been cleaned up. She settled Chen Xiang into a chair, went to wet a towel so she could wipe away the tears on her face, and then poured her a cup of warm water.
Chen Xiang’s tears kept falling no matter how many times she wiped them away, her sobs echoing through the room.
Watching the usually strong and optimistic Chen Xiang cry so hard, Zhong Yao felt her own heart ache. She stepped in front of her, pulled her into an embrace, gently patting her back in silence.
Right now, any words of comfort would only hurt her further. She didn’t want to ask about the cause of it all either, unwilling to let a moment of curiosity force Chen Xiang to reopen her wounds.
The dorm door beeped as Si Ning Qing pushed it open.
She had spent the entire morning in exams and the afternoon running errands for the counselor, only returning to the dorm now that night had fallen. The moment she opened the door, she saw the mess inside.
She silently questioned Zhong Yao with her eyes, asking what had happened to Chen Xiang.
Before Zhong Yao could answer, Chen Xiang pulled herself out of her embrace, revealing a face streaked with tears and eyes swollen from crying.
She spoke through sobs, “Zhao Si Yuan used to be my boyfriend, you both know that. But ever since a month ago, he’s been like a completely different person, obsessively trying to control my life, constantly checking my whereabouts, and even secretly going through my phone, deleting every male friend I had on WeChat.”
“I thought he was just being jealous, so I kept putting up with it. I never imagined that this time, when Chen Zhu Jing got injured, he knew perfectly well that he’s my younger brother, he would actually say things like telling me not to go take care of another man, or that he’d rather Chen Zhu Jing be run over and killed.”