Getting a fever was bad enough, but hers was quite severe.
She couldn’t get up at all. Her whole body felt weak, and her throat hurt terribly. Jiang Tuantuan was already awake. Seeing the sweat on her mother’s forehead, she used her little handkerchief to wipe it.
She didn’t know why she was wiping it, but her mother always did the same for her.
Jiang Qingmi covered her nose and mouth with the blanket. No, what if she passed it on to Tuantuan?
And it was morning. It was time for the baby to drink milk.
She tried to get up, but in the end, she gave up.
This wouldn’t do. She couldn’t push herself like this.
Qing Yanshen’s figure appeared in her mind. Then she thought about how he had already taken a day off yesterday to help her. Even if he didn’t work today, he should rest. Was she really going to treat him like a workhorse? That was a bit too much.
With blurry vision, she sent a message to Li Lanyan.
She didn’t know how much time had passed.
Bang bang bang, someone knocked on the door. She heard it, but couldn’t get up. Jiang Tuantuan quickly climbed off the bed, put on her little slippers, and padded out to the living room.
She suddenly stopped, remembering what her mother had said, that she must not open the door for strangers.
“Who is it?”
She looked at the door and asked in her soft voice.
The next second, a familiar voice came from outside.
“Uncle? You’re here!”
“Tuantuan, where’s your mom?”
“Mommy tired, sleeping~”
Qing Yanshen frowned tightly. It seemed Jiang Qingmi’s fever was so serious that she couldn’t even open the door.
Jiang Tuantuan walked to the door and stood on tiptoe, her breathing a little hurried. “Can’t… can’t reach.”
“Uncle wait for Tuantuan~”
She immediately turned around, dragged over her little stool, stepped on it, and with a click, the door opened.
Qing Yanshen pulled the door open and saw Tuantuan still standing on the stool, giving him a sweet and adorable smile. “Hehe, uncle~”
His anxious heart eased a little. He stepped forward and picked her up. “Thank you, baby. You’re amazing.”
Holding her, he quickly walked into the house.
“Qingmi”
At the bedroom door, he suddenly stopped. “Qingmi, how are you? Can I come in?”
Jiang Tuantuan had closed the door when she left the room. She had the habit of closing doors.
“Mommy, uncle is here!”
Hearing the man’s voice, Jiang Qingmi thought it was just her imagination.
Qing Yanshen waited a few seconds, then couldn’t wait any longer. He pushed the door open and saw Jiang Qingmi lying there with her eyes closed, sleeping heavily. Her brows were tightly furrowed, her face flushed red with fever. She was so thin and small under the blanket, forming only a small lump.
He reached out and touched her forehead. It was burning hot. He called her name several times, but she only responded vaguely, unable to even open her eyes.
His heart clenched violently, as if someone had grabbed it tightly, a sharp pain spreading through him.
He panicked.
“Jiang Qingmi!”
“I’ll take you to the hospital. It’s okay. It’s okay!”
Fortunately, there was a hospital not far downstairs. He wrapped Jiang Qingmi in the blanket, carried her in his arms, and hurried out of the room and out the door. Jiang Tuantuan’s crying suddenly snapped him back to his senses.
“Waaah mommy”
“Uncle”
She had thought her mother was just sleeping, but Qing Yanshen’s reaction made her realize something was wrong.
“Mommy… what’s wrong?”
She cried as she ran after him.
It had been nine days, and this was the first time Qing Yanshen had seen Jiang Tuantuan cry. He felt both guilty and heartbroken. He had actually forgotten about her just now.
He quickly comforted her. “Tuantuan, don’t be afraid. Your mommy will be fine.”
At the same time, he shifted Jiang Qingmi to one arm and picked up Jiang Tuantuan with the other, quickly heading downstairs.
Jiang Qingmi was too thin, too light.
Yet his heart felt unbearably heavy. The mother and daughter made his heart feel like it was being fried in oil today. It hurt to see them like this. A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Even if the paternity test showed that Jiang Tuantuan was not his biological daughter, it wouldn’t matter.
Even if his relationship with Jiang Qingmi was just that of exes, or even if they had never known each other, it wouldn’t matter.
If possible, if she was willing, he wanted to live with them.
He wanted to take care of them. He didn’t want to see Jiang Qingmi so thin and weak. He didn’t want to see Jiang Tuantuan’s tears.
When he woke up at the foot of the mountain, even the wound on his head hadn’t hurt as much as his heart did now.
He wanted to take care of them. He wanted to live with them. No matter the outcome, he wanted them to become a real family of three.
One was so light, the other so small. He could carry both of them. Since losing his memory, this was the first time Qing Yanshen felt so strongly needed.
The woman curled slightly into his arms, her forehead resting against his neck, her heat making his chest tighten.
“My throat hurts…”
She managed to whisper the three words with difficulty, her brows furrowed.
“Waaah mommy, mommy don’t hurt”
“Mommy don’t get injections…”
The bright lights of the emergency room made people dizzy. The nurse quickly took her temperature and pricked her finger for a blood test. Jiang Qingmi leaned against the man’s shoulder, weak from pain, unable to even lift her head. She kept repeating, “My throat hurts… it hurts even to swallow…”
When the doctor examined her with a tongue depressor, she shrank back in pain. The doctor frowned. “Her tonsils are severely infected and swollen. Her temperature is 40 degrees and she’s dehydrated. Admit her immediately. Start fluids to reduce the fever, then treat the infection.”
The moment Qing Yanshen responded, even his fingertips were trembling, his heart restless with worry.
Jiang Qingmi felt like she had a very long dream.
She saw herself… no, it shouldn’t be her. It was the original host, wandering around a clothing store for a long time before buying a black men’s down jacket.
The scene shifted. The original host was speaking.
“Yanshen, happy birthday. How’s college life? Are you tired?”
Jiang Qingmi paused. Was the male lead there too? She tried hard to see where he was, to see what he looked like, but there was nothing. Only the original host standing by the river, clearing her throat.
“I’m not asking because I care. I’m just being polite. It’s your birthday, so I bought you a jacket while it was on sale.”
Jiang Qingmi was stunned. Then she realized the original host was rehearsing what she was going to say.
“There’s also a sweater inside. I just casually knitted it with leftover yarn from the factory. If you want it, wear it. If not, throw it away. It’s no big deal.”
Her tone sounded casual, as if she truly didn’t care. But the next second, she gritted her teeth and muttered softly, “Just try throwing it away. It’s already good enough that I made it for you. I’m an outstanding employee, you know. I even have several apprentices under me.”
The scene shifted again. Jiang Qingmi felt dizzy, her throat extremely painful. Even swallowing was difficult. She saw the back of a boy with short black hair, carrying her as he ran.
A woman’s voice spoke nearby.
“She kept reworking that sweater, never satisfied, scrapping several versions. After work, she would knit in the dorm. Several boys in the factory liked her. She was quite popular.”
“Even though you go to a good university, my little apprentice isn’t bad either. The supervisor said that if she kept working here, in less than five years she could climb very high. She has talent.”
That voice…
Jiang Qingmi didn’t have time to think before she quickly lost consciousness.
When she woke up again, before opening her eyes, she smelled the familiar scent of disinfectant and heard the steady beeping of machines.
She had actually dreamed of the original host’s past life.