Lady By The Pillow - Chapter 48
Chapter 48: Horses (Three)
“But there’s a little crybaby crying next to me.”
“Little Jun…”
Hearing the weak voice, Wei Jiuzhen turned around in surprise. Seeing that the person on the bed had opened her eyes, a wave of joy rushed through her. A moment later, she realized Shi Qing had just called out someone else’s name. It felt like a knife wound to her heart, but she approached it, looking at the wound head-on.
“Ah Qing, how do you feel now? Is there any discomfort?”
Shi Qing looked at her. After the blurred vision disappeared, she realized that the person in front of her was not the Little Jun from her memories. Her expression fell for a moment, but not for long, because the sense of security Wei Jiuzhen brought made her feel at ease.
“I feel a little numb. I don’t feel much.” She was incredibly weak, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Wei Jiuzhen sat on the white chair beside the bed and explained, “The anesthesia probably hasn’t worn off yet. How about other places besides your back? Do you have any difficulty breathing or anything?”
Shi Qing blinked weakly. “No.”
Wei Jiuzhen smiled. “That’s good.”
Her hand, resting on the side of the bed, moved, wanting to hold Shi Qing’s hand. She reached out halfway before pulling it back, silently curling her fingers and closing off her heart’s desire to get closer.
“What’s wrong?” Shi Qing sensed that she had something on her mind. Even though she had just woken up from surgery and was too tired to speak, she still asked.
“Nothing.” Wei Jiuzhen tried to smile, but her eyes were already beginning to well up. “I’m just… happy you’re awake.”
She had rushed to the hospital with Shi Qing and hadn’t had time to remove her makeup. The makeup for Ji Lan’s character was designed to deepen the angles of her features. Her nose bridge and eye sockets were contoured, and her eyes, with their naturally powerful gaze, were meant to look cold and ruthless. But when they fell on Shi Qing, they looked wounded.
In an instant, Shi Qing felt her numb heart twitch. She wanted to lift her hand to gently comfort the aggrieved face but couldn’t.
“Thank you for saving me just now.”
She sincerely thanked her, but Wei Jiuzhen flinched as if pricked by a thorn. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes instantly filled with tears.
“When you fell just now, I was so… heartbroken.” Her voice began to choke up. She quickly lowered her eyelids, took a deep breath, and held back her tears. “In that moment, I hated myself so much. Why did I have to suggest a horse race? We could have just gone slower. And you fell from a horse going so fast. When you were lying on the ground, in so much pain, I really wanted to slap myself twice!”
Her shoulders were hunched, and her head was bowed. She was like a paper lantern from a bygone era—a single poke would cause her to fall apart.
Shi Qing’s hand moved under the blanket. “It was an accident.”
It was a comfort, not an accusation, which only deepened Wei Jiuzhen’s guilt. Her intense emotions were like bitter melon juice spilling from a pot.
“It wasn’t an accident.” She lifted her head abruptly, her eyes bloodshot. “If I hadn’t gone crazy two nights ago and suggested we have that kind of relationship, you wouldn’t have been avoiding me, and I wouldn’t have gotten stubborn and suggested a horse race. It’s all my fault!”
As the last word fell, so did her tears. She didn’t want Shi Qing to see her in such a miserable state, but her useless eyes seemed to have a mind of their own, endlessly producing tears. She had no choice but to turn her head sharply in the opposite direction, staring at the white tiles on the wall.
Shi Qing watched her. The way she tried to hold back her tears was incredibly stubborn, and her heaving chest made that stubbornness seem even more wounded. If her body hadn’t still been recovering, Shi Qing would have probably hugged her, gently caressing her head with her hand and wiping away her tears with a tissue.
“Little cat, why don’t you calm down and not blame yourself, okay?”
Wei Jiuzhen roughly wiped her eyes twice and looked back at her. “Let me finish. The doctor said you can’t get too emotional, but it should be okay if I do.”
She moved her chair forward, pressing her body against the side of the bed. She wiped her eyes again, making sure she wasn’t crying anymore, and then continued with a swollen, aching throat.
“When you were in surgery, I was so scared. So, so scared… I was afraid you would never be able to stand up again, that you would never be able to dance again, that this accident would prevent you from ever returning to the set and you’d be replaced. Thinking about all that was so painful. So I… I’d rather you avoid me, and I’d even rather you hate me, as long as you’re okay. I don’t care how you see me…”
Her body’s strength had recovered slightly. Shi Qing reached her hand out from under the covers and gently held Wei Jiuzhen’s hand. “How could I hate you? I’d hate myself before I’d hate you.”
Being held by her cold hand, the abnormal body temperature startled Wei Jiuzhen. She flipped her hand over, holding Shi Qing’s hand in her palms and rubbing it back and forth, hating herself more with every rub.
“But I hate myself… I was so childish and so selfish. Even after you said you didn’t like me and didn’t want to do that with me, I still said you were saying something you didn’t mean, and I forced you to say what you didn’t want to. Ah Qing, I promise you, when we go back, I won’t pester you anymore. If you want to focus on acting, we’ll focus on acting. I won’t bring up all that other stuff anymore. I’ll do whatever you want. Okay?”
Self-blame and guilt reached their peak in that moment. Shi Qing looked at her, her eyes shifting slightly, but she saw a deeper sense of distance above those two emotions.
Her weak eyes steadied, her gaze clear. She looked past all of Wei Jiuzhen’s apologies and asked, “You heard me earlier, didn’t you?”
The soft willow leaf turned into a blade, cutting through the airtight surgical gloves.
Wei Jiuzhen paused. “No.”
Shi Qing smiled. “I didn’t even say what it was, and you already said no.”
“I…”
“I called you ‘Little Jun’ just now. You heard me, right?”
Wei Jiuzhen held her hand, her gaze shifting away and dropping. In an instant, her defenses crumbled. After a long pause, she squeezed out a single word from her throat.
“…Yes.”
Shi Qing let her hold her hand, her cold body gradually warming up from the stove in Wei Jiuzhen’s palms. She had just woken up, her strength was low, and her voice was slow. “I remember last time, you thought I was treating you like Fei-jie’s substitute and you got very angry. So, you thought I saw Little Jun in you and that you were Little Jun’s substitute, right?”
Wei Jiuzhen looked down, not correcting the assumption, only the emotion. “I wasn’t angry. I was just a little… hurt. I’m already not that important to you, and I keep bothering you. Actually, from your perspective, I must be pretty annoying, right? So…”
“So, you think I hate you?” Shi Qing asked gently.
“You don’t hate me?” Wei Jiuzhen asked without confidence.
“I don’t hate you.” Shi Qing gave her the answer first, then slowly asked, “So, are you willing to let me tell you about Little Jun?”
Wei Jiuzhen finally found a little confidence. Her eyes tried to lift, and after meeting Shi Qing’s questioning gaze, she was sure that Shi Qing really didn’t hate her. And that she didn’t seem to see her as Little Jun’s substitute, either.
“I’m willing. I’m willing to listen to whatever you want to say… But you’re very weak right now. Let’s do it later. You just woke up and need to rest.”
Shi Qing was indeed very tired. Even without the accident, she had been seriously sleep-deprived for the past few days. The moment that tight string in her mind was released, she could fall asleep instantly, not to mention having just gone through surgery.
She struggled to curl her lips into a smile. “But there’s a little crybaby crying next to me. How can I rest?”
Wei Jiuzhen’s face flushed. “That was just an emotional moment. I’m fine now.”
As long as you don’t hate me, I’ll be fine.
“Wait a moment. I’ll call the doctor back to check on you. I’m not at ease.”
“Okay, thank you.” Shi Qing looked at her, an indescribable emotion in her eyes. It was gentle, like ripples on a lake.
The attending doctor came in quickly, along with two interns and the nurse assigned to Shi Qing’s room. After a preliminary check and a few questions, he nodded in satisfaction.
“You’re doing well. The anesthesia will wear off soon, and the incision will start to hurt. I’ll prescribe some painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. If you feel any other discomfort, let me know at any time.”
“You can’t get out of bed or move around for the first day. The first 24 hours after surgery are the most important.”
The doctor said one thing, and Shi Qing hummed in response, until all the instructions were given. Finally, Shi Qing made up her mind, asking with an anxious heart, “Can I still dance in the future?”
As the words fell, Wei Jiuzhen felt like she had been hit with a stick. She had been talking to Shi Qing for so long, and she hadn’t said a single word about her condition. She hadn’t said, “You’re not seriously injured this time, you can go back to work in two weeks,” or “You can get out of bed in 24 hours.” She had only cared about her own emotions and expressed her own feelings, not realizing that Shi Qing, who had a history of a fractured spine, was probably the most scared one of all.
She was so selfish that she only cared about venting her own hurt. And Shi Qing was so accommodating that she didn’t ask a single question, yet still carried the possibility of “lifelong paralysis” in her heart and tried to comfort her by asking, “Are you willing to let me tell you about Little Jun?”
Ah Qing, how can you disregard yourself to this extent?!
The doctor gave an objective assessment. “Definitely not within the next three months, given your old injury. We’ll have to see how your recovery goes. Even if you recover well, I recommend you wait at least six months before considering dancing or heavy exercise.”
Just six months.
This was a huge piece of good news for Shi Qing. Her beautiful face bloomed with a smile. “Okay, thank you, Doctor.”
The doctor nodded. “It’s my job, you’re welcome.” He then looked at Wei Jiuzhen. “The family member also needs to be careful not to let her move around. The first 24 hours after surgery are the most important.”
Family member?
Two “typos” appeared in the conversation. Shi Qing’s weary eyes snapped open, and she pulled her hand from the covers. “No, she—”
Wei Jiuzhen, however, paid no attention to her actions and brazenly responded, “—I will be careful.”
After she said that, the doctor didn’t say much, only giving a few instructions on what foods she could eat in the next two days. The interns, however, looked like they had discovered a shocking secret. They scribbled furiously in their notebooks, unable to hold back their smiles, their faces turning red from the effort.
Shi Qing squeezed her eyes shut tightly, took a couple of deep breaths, and opened them again, explaining to the doctor (and especially the two interns behind him), “We’re not like that. We’re just colleagues.”
“Hmm?” The doctor looked at Wei Jiuzhen with curiosity.
Wei Jiuzhen immediately cooperated. “Yes, we’re just colleagues.”
She cooperated a little too obediently, which only made it look more suspicious.
And so, the interns’ faces turned even redder.
The doctor turned to his two students, who looked like they were holding their phones and shouting, “I’m shipping it!” He sternly warned them, “Miss Shi may be in the entertainment industry, but a patient’s condition and privacy are strictly confidential. You two, be serious.”
The two interns immediately composed themselves and said, “Yes, Teacher Chu.”
Then they looked at Shi Qing on the bed. “Shi-laoshi, rest assured, we will absolutely keep the patient’s privacy confidential.”
The more they explained, the more ridiculous it seemed. Shi Qing even began to doubt herself. Why does it sound like there’s something going on between me and Wei Jiuzhen?