Du Sui’an nodded. “Doctor Chen shouldn’t be lying. Hospitals here can do scans now too. Our daughter had one taken today.”
Shi Shengli rubbed his hands together, unable to hide the joy on his face.
Did this mean that when his daughter woke up this time, she would truly be his original daughter again? The lively little girl who loved to laugh, loved to play tricks, and talked nonstop?
After speaking of the good news, Du Sui’an began worrying again.
“What do you think we should do about this?”
“Our daughter is so obedient. Other than going to school, she barely ever leaves the house. She couldn’t possibly have offended anyone. Who could be so cruel as to attack a child like this?”
Shi Shengli frowned as he looked at his daughter’s pale little face. This was exactly what he couldn’t understand either.
“By the way, why did our daughter go out alone?”
Because their daughter was beautiful and shy, they rarely allowed her outside by herself. Either their eldest son accompanied her, or their youngest did. And she was obedient too—she never went out alone.
Du Sui’an shook her head. “The eldest had something at school today, and Little Third went out to play. She was the only one home. I don’t know why she suddenly went out by herself.”
Shi Jingli suddenly exclaimed, “I think I might know why Sis went out alone!”
Shi Shengli looked at his youngest son. “Little Third, tell us. Why did your sister go out?”
Shi Jingli pointed at his sister’s fingers. “Mom, Dad, Big Brother—look. Isn’t that fountain pen ink on Sis’s fingers?”
The three of them looked toward Shi Meiqing’s hand on the hospital bed.
Sure enough, two or three fingers on her left hand were stained with ink.
It didn’t look like the kind of stain from accidentally touching ink while writing. It looked more like ink had spilled and splashed onto her fingers.
Shi Jingye thought for a moment. “I think Little Sister had run out of ink. I was even planning to bring her a bottle on my way home. But I got busy today and didn’t make it in time.”
“Could it be that she urgently needed ink, so she went out alone to buy some—and then something happened?”
As soon as he said it, guilt welled up inside him.
If only he had gone home earlier, maybe his little sister wouldn’t have gotten hurt.
Shi Shengli looked even more confused. “But even if she went to buy ink, she would’ve only gone to the supply cooperative. With how well-behaved she is, there’s no way she could’ve offended anyone.”
Du Sui’an had calmed down a little by now. Earlier, when she first saw her daughter, she’d nearly stopped breathing from shock. If her daughter had truly died, she felt she might have followed her.
“We’ll know once she wakes up and we ask her. Jingye, go buy a bowl of porridge and bring it back. If you go too late, the cafeteria might run out of food. Your sister will definitely be hungry when she wakes up.”
“Alright, I’ll go now. Mom, should I get anything else too? Just porridge won’t be enough.”
“If there are buns, buy one. If not, ask if they have eggs. Your sister needs nourishment right now.”
“Little Third, go home. There’s half a bag of brown sugar in the kitchen cabinet—bring it to me. We’ll mix it into your sister’s porridge. Brown sugar helps replenish blood.”
After thinking about it, Du Sui’an still didn’t trust her youngest son completely. The boy was fine when it came to eating, drinking, and playing, but hopelessly careless with serious matters.
“Husband, you stay here with our daughter. I’ll go home with Little Third. The doctor said she has to stay in the hospital for two days under observation. We haven’t brought anything—I need to pack some things and bring them over.”
Shi Shengli nodded. “Alright. I’ll stay with our daughter, and the eldest is here too. Once he comes back with the porridge, the two of us can handle things fine. Hurry back.”
Fortunately, the hospital wasn’t too far from home. Walking quickly, a round trip wouldn’t even take half an hour.
Lying on the hospital bed, Shi Meiqing frowned deeply. Even unconscious, she clearly wasn’t comfortable. The sight made Shi Shengli’s heart ache.
His poor daughter… why had her life always been full of suffering?
What had happened to Shi Meiqing?
After losing consciousness, Shi Meiqing began dreaming.
The dream felt exactly like real life. She experienced everything firsthand, except she could only watch the person in the dream and couldn’t stop anything from happening.
She dreamed about this body’s childhood.
It was a beautiful little girl who loved to laugh, loved mischief, and was unbelievably bold. Her little mouth never stopped chattering, and everyone in the family adored her.
When Shi Meiqing saw this, she smiled unconsciously.
The original owner of this body as a child really was so much like her—almost exactly the same personality.
Were people and things in parallel worlds really just copies of each other?
The event happened when the original owner was five years old.
The little girl had been playing near the alley entrance with her older brother. There was a Chinese elm tree there, and in those days, children rarely had snacks to eat.
That big elm tree was the neighborhood children’s snack source.
It was the season when the elm seeds filled the branches, and children crowded around the tree hoping to gather more to nibble on.
The kids who could climb trees scampered up like monkeys, breaking off branches to bring back down.
Standing below the tree, the little girl tilted her head upward and swallowed her saliva while staring at the elm seeds.
She glanced at her older brother, who was halfway up the tree, and her eyes rolled mischievously.
Then she changed direction and started climbing too.
Maybe snacks you gathered yourself tasted better?
Though she was three years younger than her brother, her little body was surprisingly nimble. Even though she climbed later, she still reached the top alongside her brother.
Shi Jingye’s eyes widened when he saw her.
“Little Sister? Why did you climb up too? Didn’t Mom and Dad forbid you from climbing trees?”
The little girl gave him a flattering smile, revealing the tiny dimple on the right side of her cheek.
That smile instantly melted away Shi Jingye’s irritation.
“Big Brother, don’t tell Mom and Dad when we get home, okay? If you don’t say anything, they’ll never know.”
If their parents didn’t know, they couldn’t scold her.
Shi Jingye surrendered immediately. “You really are something. Fine, I won’t tell them. But don’t accidentally let it slip yourself. Let’s hurry and grab some, then climb down. It’s dangerous up here.”
“Okay! Okay!”
“Big Brother, I want that branch behind you. It looks like it has the most elm seeds on top.”
The little girl pointed while swallowing again.
Elm seeds tasted delicious even eaten plain—sweet, with a fresh fragrance.
Shi Jingye turned around after spotting the branch she meant and reached over to break it off.
The little girl turned her head to look around for even better branches.
If only she could gather more to take home.
Mostly, though, she rarely got the chance to climb trees. She simply loved the feeling of being up high.
Now that she’d finally gotten the opportunity, of course she wanted to enjoy the view.
And it was precisely because she turned her head that she saw something.
About ten meters away, in the courtyard of another house, stood a child holding a slingshot.
The child had his eyes shut tightly while pulling back the slingshot to aim.
If she wasn’t mistaken, the target seemed to be her older brother.
The little girl didn’t even have time to think.
Because the stone from the slingshot had already flown toward them.