Giving You Dawn and Dusk (GL) - Chapter 18
It was past ten o’clock when Zhao Xuning finished her rounds.
She wasn’t on night duty tonight, so after rounds, it was her private time. After checking on Xu Qingzhu, if there were no issues, she would go home.
In the ward, Xu Qingzhu was feigning sleep with her eyes closed. Hearing footsteps, she opened her eyes, saw it was Zhao Xuning, and gave a weak smile. “You’re here.”
Zhao Xuning nodded. “Feeling better?”
“Much better,” Xu Qingzhu sat up.
Their relationship wasn’t particularly close. Xu Qingzhu was close with Bai Weiwei; they were high school classmates and college roommates.
They had known each other for many years, while Bai Weiwei and Zhao Xuning met online, playing an online game together.
For a while, Bai Weiwei constantly talked about “my online friend.”
Later, Bai Weiwei had acute gastroenteritis. After being admitted to the hospital, Zhao Xuning was her attending physician. Bai Weiwei then saw her own messages to Zhao Xuning on Zhao Xuning’s phone, which she had left in the ward. The two unexpectedly met in person.
And thus became real-life friends.
After graduation, Bai Weiwei didn’t inherit the family business; she became an agent.
Her work was terribly busy, leaving her no time for games, and even less time to flirt with Zhao Xuning.
And Zhao Xuning, towards her, seemed to be just so-so.
However, Zhao Xuning was too reserved, and neither Xu Qingzhu nor Bai Weiwei could quite guess her thoughts.
When Bai Weiwei was hospitalized before, Xu Qingzhu had been looking after her in the ward, which was how she met Zhao Xuning.
Whenever she occasionally came to the hospital, Bai Weiwei always urged Zhao Xuning to take care of herself, and through their frequent interactions, they became familiar.
Xu Qingzhu had indeed asked Zhao Xuning about Zhou Yian.
Because Zhao Xuning was also there when Liang Shi played that voice message. After Liang Shi and Bai Weiwei left, Zhao Xuning specifically came back to ask if Xu Qingzhu knew about Liang Shi and Zhou Yian’s relationship.
Xu Qingzhu knew a few things, such as Liang Shi once saying to Cheng Ran, “Fvck Zhou Yian, a toad wants to eat swan meat.”
At that time, she didn’t know what had happened, she just looked up the name online, but couldn’t find anything.
Hidden gender individuals inject medication regularly. Only close people know their gender. Applying to the National Bureau to become a hidden gender individual grants state protection, and no information related to their gender will appear online.
Correspondingly, the process to apply for hidden gender status is very troublesome and requires an expenditure of twenty million.
Therefore, there aren’t many hidden gender individuals in the country currently.
And hidden gender individuals are usually attracted to people of the same gender but fear public criticism, so they choose to hide their gender at a high cost.
Zhou Yian was a typical example.
Once one becomes a hidden gender individual, the state steps in to protect them from public criticism.
After Xu Qingzhu told her the truth, she asked Zhao Xuning, “Does Zhou Yian like Alphas? Or rather, does she like Liang Shi?”
Zhao Xuning paused, only vaguely saying, “The answer is what you think it is.”
This served as a hint to Xu Qingzhu.
So Xu Qingzhu went to Liang Shi’s ward.
She originally wanted Liang Shi to help.
Although she didn’t really want to speak, her mother’s phone call put her in a difficult position, so she still went to see Liang Shi.
However, she overheard some unpleasant things.
She generally understood what Liang’s mother said.
She also heard the argument between mother and daughter, which caused her emotions to somewhat break down.
But thankfully, she managed to stop herself at the last minute.
How could she rely on Liang Shi?
That was Liang Shi.
Although… she didn’t seem like Liang Shi.
“Still thinking about Liang Shi?” Zhao Xuning’s words pulled Xu Qingzhu’s wandering thoughts back. She shook her head, pressing her temple with one hand. “No.”
Then she corrected herself. “Yes.”
“Her and Zhou Yian, have they confirmed it?” Zhao Xuning asked.
Xu Qingzhu nodded. “I called her and roughly know now.”
“That’s good then.” Zhao Xuning paused, pulled up a chair and sat down. The top button of her white shirt was meticulously fastened. Her long hair was casually tied up. Then she slowly took off her glasses, revealing the beauty mark beneath her eye. She clasped the glasses frame between her fingers, casually twirling it a few times. “You came looking for me because you still want to know about Liang Shi, right?”
“Mhm,” Xu Qingzhu didn’t deny it. “You said before that Liang Shi showed symptoms of amnesia, right?”
“Yes, when she first woke up, she had some symptoms of amnesia. After I arranged for a brain CT, it showed no problems, and her intelligence and physical condition hadn’t deteriorated,” Zhao Xuning said. “But she’s been very unusual these past few days, like… she suddenly became a different person.”
“You’ve known her longer. Why do you think that is?” Xu Qingzhu asked.
Zhao Xuning shook her head. “Although I know her, we’re not close.”
She wasn’t eager to associate with someone like Liang Shi.
Everyone in their small circle knew that Zhao Xuning and Liang Shi didn’t get along.
From elementary school, Liang Shi was arrogant and domineering, marking her territory and forming cliques, a pure little tyrant. Relying on two older brothers above her and a wealthy and powerful family, the Liang family back then was even more formidable than now, considered a prominent wealthy family in Haizhou City’s upper circles.
Many years had passed, and the Liang family had declined.
But Liang Shi’s character remained unchanged.
It even worsened.
Only… after she was kidnapped once when she was a child, Liang Shi also exhibited some strange symptoms at that time.
Sometimes, she would suddenly wake up from sleeping in class and say, “I’m not me, who am I?”
She was a bit crazy.
However, everyone privately thought it was because she had been kidnapped, so her mind was slightly unclear.
It was said that another little girl who was kidnapped came back unconscious for two months and never spoke again.
At that time, Zhao Xuning didn’t know that person was Xu Qingzhu.
Zhao Xuning, on the other hand, had been cold by nature since childhood, excellent in academics, and unwilling to deal with people. Many people in school found her pretentious.
Moreover, she had a good face, and people would send her love letters every now and then, which drew a lot of jealousy.
Everyone started differentiating between 15 and 18 years old.
Before 15, they didn’t know what gender they would be.
Even so, many people still had crushes before 15.
In junior high, a girl Liang Shi liked gave Zhao Xuning a love letter. Liang Shi then brought people to corner Zhao Xuning after school.
The two even scheduled a fight.
Both of them got injured that day, but Zhao Xuning had the upper hand, and from then on, Liang Shi stopped provoking Zhao Xuning.
Zhao Xuning had always looked down on Liang Shi.
Or rather, she didn’t particularly think highly of those second-generation rich kids who acted recklessly just because their families had money.
So Zhou Yian was also in her hated category.
“But she is indeed very different from before,” Zhao Xuning said truthfully. “She suddenly became polite, humble, gentle, and even a bit approachable.”
Xu Qingzhu was silent for a moment before saying, “Is it possible that this isn’t Liang Shi?”
“I’ve speculated about that, but I checked all the surveillance footage after her admission, and verified her bl00d type and DNA. Everything proves that she is Liang Shi,” Zhao Xuning said.
“What other reason could make her personality change so drastically overnight?” Xu Qingzhu asked. “Have there been similar cases?”
“There have been in the past. Some were transferred to mysterious national organizations for research and kept for decades. Others were later confirmed to simply have made genuine internal changes, but usually, they were stimulated by a major event,” Zhao Xuning paused. “Which type do you think she belongs to?”
Xu Qingzhu shook her head. “I don’t know.”
After a moment, Xu Qingzhu thought, “That day, during my estrus cycle, she tried to forcibly mark me. I pushed her hard, and her head hit the wall with a particularly loud thud. Could that have something to do with it?”
“It might, but I’ve checked. She has no bl00d clots pressing on her brain nerves, so it doesn’t quite seem like amnesia, but it could be due to other factors,” Zhao Xuning said. “I’ll give her a full body check-up tomorrow.”
“Will she agree?” Xu Qingzhu asked.
Zhao Xuning’s hand, twirling her glasses, suddenly paused, and she said firmly, “The current her will.”
“However…” Zhao Xuning paused. “Isn’t the current her good?”
“Very good, unbelievably good,” Xu Qingzhu said.
“So why bother caring?” Zhao Xuning said. “Whether she’s a prodigal son returning or has a sudden realization, as long as she’s good now, isn’t that enough? Sometimes, people shouldn’t be too fixated on answers.”
Xu Qingzhu suddenly smiled. “You’re right.”
After Zhao Xuning left, Xu Qingzhu lay in bed, pondering.
After a long time, she sent Liang Shi a message: [I lost my composure earlier, sorry.]
••••
Liang Shi saw the text message only after waking up the next day. She replied, [It’s fine.]
Then she went downstairs, bought breakfast, and took it up to the tenth floor to eat with Xu Qingzhu.
The two had a very quiet breakfast.
Liang Shi didn’t even think about bringing up the divorce.
She had already tried. Texting Xu Qingzhu about divorce would be blocked by the system. Yesterday, the system even briefly appeared to warn her not to do useless work anymore.
There were no shortcuts to conquest.
She gave up.
After breakfast, Liang Shi politely declined Zhao Xuning’s suggestion for a full body check-up, insisted on discharging herself, and then asked Xu Qingzhu if she wanted to be discharged.
Zhao Xuning happened to come over and said she could be discharged, but she would need to rest quietly at home and observe for two days before resuming normal activity.
Liang Shi then handled her discharge procedures as well.
On the way home, Xu Qingzhu sat in the passenger seat, silent all the way, having resumed her “do not approach” demeanor.
The vulnerability and aloofness of last night seemed to have vanished.
The two were like strangers.
As the car drove near the Yunding Mansion, Liang Shi’s phone suddenly rang.
The soothing light music made Xu Qingzhu open her eyes. She looked at Liang Shi, who was driving. “Pull over or should I hang up for you?”
Liang Shi said, “See who it is.”
She didn’t dare abruptly ask Xu Qingzhu to answer.
The original owner’s phone was like an unpredictable bomb; there was no telling when it would explode.
Even she herself was terrified to answer it, let alone have Xu Qingzhu answer.
Xu Qingzhu glanced at it; it was Xu Qinya.
She then picked it up and put it on speakerphone.
Xu Qinya said on the phone, “Sister Liang Shi, what are you doing? Let’s discuss something.”
Liang Shi looked at Xu Qingzhu, who only mouthed, “Drive carefully.”
Liang Shi cleared her throat, trying to sound normal. “What is it?”
“The hotel is too lonely,” Xu Qinya said. “Can I stay at your place for a few days?”
Xu Qingzhu firmly refused, “No.”
“Huh? My sister’s there too?” Xu Qinya sounded annoyed, then said, “I’m asking Sister Liang Shi, not you.”
“I make the decisions,” Xu Qingzhu said.
Xu Qinya snorted. “I’m coming anyway. I’m already at your door. Come back quickly.”
Xu Qingzhu: “…”
Liang Shi sighed helplessly, then said, “Then wait a bit. Your sister and I will be there soon.”
After hanging up, Xu Qingzhu said, “I’ll handle my sister’s matter, you don’t need to worry. When we get back, I’ll move into the room on the easternmost side of the first floor and pay you rent at market price. My father isn’t well, and the company has some issues right now, so I can’t divorce you temporarily. But when the time is right, we’ll get divorced, okay?”
Before Liang Shi could reply, Xu Qingzhu continued, “During this time, I hope that in front of my family, you’ll be as you were before. Just pretend as much as you can.”
Liang Shi: “…”