Inside the hospital ward.
Even with her head wrapped in layer after layer of gauze, He Qiuqiu’s performance was completely unaffected. Her mouth fired off faster than a machine gun.
“If this hadn’t blown up today, I wouldn’t even know you were hiding something like this from me! What? You’ve all grown up now? Think your wings are strong enough to fly on your own? Then why don’t you change your last name while you’re at it? If you’ve got such big ideas, why are you still surnamed He?”
A row of boys and girls stood by the bed from tallest to shortest, all with their heads lowered like quails, silently accepting the scolding.
“Don’t just stand there mute. Tell me what’s this about He Bing selling her admission slot?”
One girl looked worried. “Sister Qiu, lie down first. The doctor said no intense activity. When you’re better, you can scold us however you want.”
He Qiuqiu shot her a glare. “I can’t wait until I’m better. The moment I think about you selling your spot, my brain starts throbbing. Speak! Why did He Bing do it?”
Just then, the ward door was pushed open. A pale-faced girl walked in, her clothes still somewhat disheveled.
After entering, she pressed her lips together and lowered her head. “Sister Qiu, don’t scold them. It was my decision. They only found out afterward.”
He Qiuqiu immediately glared at her, her voice rising. “Do you know how many people fail to get into Huada University every year? You finally made it in. Why would you throw away over ten years of effort and your entire future? And today why did those thugs go straight for you?”
He Bing clenched her palm. “I don’t know why they targeted me. When they showed up, they brought a lot of people. It was obvious we couldn’t afford to offend them. And last month Xiao Bai was diagnosed with heart disease. We haven’t had money for surgery, so I…”
Hearing this, He Qiuqiu grew even angrier. “He Bing! Am I dead to you? Someone’s sick and needs surgery why didn’t you call me? Would I just stand by and watch someone die?”
Tears streamed down He Bing’s face, soaking into the bedsheets.
Of course she knew Sister Qiu treated everyone in the orphanage well.
But why should she?
Sister Qiu deserved her own life, her own future. Their suffering and illness shouldn’t fall on her shoulders.
They shouldn’t and couldn’t become her burden.
He Qiuqiu went on scolding for ages until her lips were sore and her throat felt like it was on fire.
Just as she reached for a cup of water, the ward door opened again.
She looked toward the doorway. It was as if her neck had rusted; even her eyes forgot how to move.
Shi Sheng walked to the bedside. Her gaze fell on He Qiuqiu’s head now several sizes larger thanks to the bandages. Her brows knitted slightly.
“Go on. What happened? Didn’t you say it was a small issue? So are you cosplaying a mummy now?”
At the word “mummy,” He Qiuqiu couldn’t help laughing. But when she met Shengsheng’s dark, unfathomable eyes, the smile on her lips instantly dropped. She swallowed.
“Shengsheng, listen to my excuse ah, no, I mean explanation. I was totally caught in the crossfire. You believe me, right? Really!”
Gone was the domineering big-sister aura from earlier. Now she looked completely cowed.
Shi Sheng didn’t say whether she believed her or not. “How’s the injury? What did the doctor say?”
He Qiuqiu smiled ingratiatingly. “It’s nothing serious. Just a little skin broken.”
Before she could finish, one of the girls standing at attention quickly added, “The doctor said Sister Qiu has a mild concussion and needs to stay for observation for a few days.”
He Qiuqiu’s “white lie” didn’t even last three seconds before being mercilessly exposed. She coughed awkwardly and shrank further under the blanket.
Now she finally looked like a patient nothing like earlier, when she seemed ready to charge out and fight three hundred rounds if someone put a knife in her hand.
Shi Sheng shot her a look that clearly said: This is your idea of “just a scratch”?
But seeing her behaving for the moment, she didn’t press further.
Hooking a nearby chair with her foot, Shi Sheng sat down. After glancing at the line of “little quails,” she asked calmly, “What exactly happened at the orphanage? Did anyone else get hurt?”
He Qiuqiu guiltily burrowed deeper into the blanket.
He Bing answered instead. “Out of the whole orphanage, only Sister Qiu ended up hospitalized. The rest just have minor bruises. They’ve already been treated.”
Shi Sheng: …
She looked at He Qiuqiu, who was nearly hiding half her face in the blanket, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Alright, lucky girl. If you shrink any further, your head’s going to disappear entirely.”
Truth be told, even He Qiuqiu felt her luck had been terrible.
She knew she wasn’t built for combat, so when she saw the orphanage in chaos smashing sounds coming from inside she immediately called the police.
Before rushing in, she even grabbed a wooden stick to bolster her courage, shouting that she’d already called the cops.
Unfortunately, the orphanage was in a remote area. Even with immediate dispatch, it would take time for police to arrive.
She hadn’t expected those thugs to be so crazy. Smashing things was one thing but they had also tried to grab He Bing. Seeing the cameras in their hands, it wasn’t hard to guess their intentions.
The director of the orphanage couldn’t possibly stand by while a child she had raised suffered something like that, so she rushed forward to stop them.
When a brick in one thug’s hand was about to smash into the director’s head, He Qiuqiu charged in. The director was over sixty she couldn’t possibly take that hit.
So the brick landed squarely on the back of He Qiuqiu’s head, breaking in half.
The thugs, thinking they had escalated things too far when she fell, panicked and tried to run after throwing out a few threats.
Luckily, the police arrived just in time and apprehended them all.
As Shi Sheng listened to the full account, her brows drew tighter and tighter.
Forcing an orphan girl to sell her admission slot was bad enough but using such filthy tactics on top of that? It was inhuman.
She turned to He Bing. “Do you know who forced you to give up your spot?”
He Bing shook her head. “No. They never revealed their identities. At first I refused, but when I did, they threatened everyone in the orphanage.”
“Director Mom’s health hasn’t been good these past few years. She’s on medication year-round. The younger kids are still so small. I couldn’t risk putting them all in danger because of my stubbornness.”
Even now, thinking about that day made her afraid.
But beneath the fear was deep resentment.
She wasn’t afraid they would hurt her.
She was afraid they would hurt the others in the orphanage.
And she resented that with just a few casual words, those people could crush her underfoot.
But the world had always been unfair. From the moment a person was born, that unfairness already existed.
She could struggle for a lifetime and still never reach their starting line.
The medical fees she scraped and saved for with everything she had might be nothing more than the cost of an ordinary meal to them.