The Female Lead Keeps Forcing Me to Take My Meds [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: A Deep Sniff of the Young Miss

Xi Congshuang raised her hand and touched the girl’s forehead. A scorching temperature met her palm.

She had a fever.

Xiao Liu, still worried about Xi Congshuang’s legs, rushed forward to pull Cheng Zhishu away. She thought Cheng Zhishu was a surprisingly sensible child, so why on earth was she sitting on the Young Miss’s lap first thing in the morning?

She knew that the Young Miss’s biggest taboo was anyone mentioning or touching her legs.

“Zhishu, you can’t sit here. Get up quickly.” Xiao Liu reached out to pull the arm of the person in Xi Congshuang’s embrace. She was anxious and used a little too much force.

Cheng Zhishu, who was belatedly feeling an all-over ache, frowned and groaned a few times, refusing to move.

Xi Congshuang pressed down on Xiao Liu’s hand: “Don’t pull her. Zhishu has a fever.”

Xiao Liu was surprised: “A fever?” No wonder.

Her grip on Cheng Zhishu’s hand loosened, and the fair arm dropped back onto Xi Congshuang’s lap.

As if she felt cold, Cheng Zhishu raised her arms and hugged Xi Congshuang, burying her face into the warmer spot. Her nose was pressed against Xi Congshuang’s neck, and damp, hot breaths continuously escaped into her neck.

“So fragrant… what is that smell…”

The weak voice sounded close to her ear, passing by like a wisp of smoke, traceless.

Xi Congshuang’s hand, which was about to pull away from the other shoulder, paused. She looked down at the figure in her arms.

However, Xi Congshuang’s body temperature was naturally lower than an average person’s. Holding her felt cool, so Cheng Zhishu needed to use her own body heat to warm her. The result was that Cheng Zhishu hugged her tighter and tighter, clinging to Xi Congshuang like an octopus.

The murmured words were too faint for Xiao Liu to hear. She was focused solely on getting this troublesome octopus off the Young Miss.

Although the Young Miss’s legs were unresponsive to external stimuli, Dr. Zheng had warned everyone that they required meticulous care and absolutely must not suffer secondary injury.

Seeing the situation, Xiao Liu was at a loss. She pulled on the girl’s arm again: “Zhishu, don’t hug the Miss. Please come down. I’ll help you back to bed, okay?”

This plea had the opposite effect. The usually obedient Cheng Zhishu suddenly became more stubborn, clinging to Xi Congshuang and refusing to let go.

She batted away Xiao Liu’s hand while making a whining, crying sound of refusal.

She wasn’t actually crying; she just found Xiao Liu’s hand incredibly annoying, constantly disturbing her peaceful sleep.

After several attempts, Xiao Liu was close to tears herself.

Xi Congshuang sighed, reached out to support Cheng Zhishu’s waist, and lifted her chin: “Go downstairs and get the doctor and someone to help.”

Xiao Liu: “What about you, Miss?”

Xi Congshuang: “I’ll take her to her room and wait for you there.”

There was no other choice. Xiao Liu headed downstairs, glancing back nervously at every step.

One concern was that her Young Miss’s legs would be hurt by the pressure. The other was that the Young Miss would get annoyed and simply throw the person on the floor.

Cheng Zhishu, in her coma-like sleep, was completely unaware of Xiao Liu’s anxiety. She only felt she was hugging a large cushion. The cushion was soft and warm, and it smelled wonderful, with a faint, cool fragrance.

Like a blanket that had been sunbathing all day, she couldn’t resist taking a deep, satisfying sniff.

Xi Congshuang: “…”

Supporting the girl’s waist with one hand and lifting the door open with the other, Xi Congshuang maneuvered her wheelchair toward the bed.

A corner of the quilt on the bed was pulled back. She must have gotten up in a hurry, as her slippers were scattered, left and right, unlike the neat arrangement of other items in the room.

It seemed Cheng Zhishu had a slight obsessive-compulsive tendency. If not for the scattered slippers and the turned-over quilt, one would have thought they had walked into a clean, tidy model room.

Noticing the movement of the person in her arms, Xi Congshuang sternly pressed down on the fluffy head: “I am not a blanket. Stop burrowing.”

“Burrowing what?” The Red Apple, which hadn’t appeared for a while, suddenly flickered into view, flapping the wings on its back.

—Even without distinguishing by the direction of the wing growth, the apple was impossible to tell front from back. It was equally red and reflective from all sides.

Seeing the situation, the Red Apple was shocked and couldn’t help but check how long it had been absent. It hadn’t been long, only a few days.

Isn’t this progress too fast!

The Red Apple hesitated, then finally asked: “What’s going on? Do you like her?”

“…”

Xi Congshuang, who hadn’t gotten angry despite being troubled by Cheng Zhishu the entire way, let out a cold laugh and answered coolly: “I won’t like anyone.”

She would be insane to harbor improper thoughts about Cheng Zhishu.

Red Apple: “Really?”

Before Xi Congshuang could answer, footsteps approached from outside. Xiao Liu returned with some help. Zheng Momo also arrived, wearing a jacket over her pajamas, rubbing her eyes.

Working together, they carefully lifted Cheng Zhishu back onto the bed. Zheng Momo crouched in front of the wheelchair, massaging Xi Congshuang’s lower legs and asking questions. Only when she confirmed Xi Congshuang was fine did she let out a sigh of relief.

She had spent so long persuading the Young Miss to agree to rehabilitation. Now that the situation was improving, nothing could be allowed to happen that would cause Xi Congshuang to become negative about her therapy.

Her school bag was removed, and the soft quilt was pulled over her. Cheng Zhishu turned over, her back to the people by the bed, curling up into a shrimp-like ball. She buried her flushed face in the quilt, muttering that she was cold.

Xiao Liu: “Cold?” She turned up the air conditioning temperature.

But Cheng Zhishu remained curled up under the quilt, refusing to lift her head, only presenting her curved back to everyone.

The doctor hadn’t arrived yet, so she was left to hide.

Xi Congshuang, for some reason, suddenly became interested in the fragile side of the resilient heroine and rolled her wheelchair to the bedside.

Cheng Zhishu, while ill, was neglectful of her posture, only focused on burying her face, exposing her more vulnerable back. With the thin summer clothes, when she was curled up, her slightly protruding spinal bones showed faintly beneath the fabric, trembling subtly.

It was as if she were afraid.

After Xiao Liu’s third failed attempt to pull back the quilt, the family doctor finally arrived. She had just finished her morning run and hadn’t even had time to change her clothes, rushing over with only her medical kit.

Dr. Qi held the temporal thermometer: “I can’t take her temperature on her back. Someone help dig her out so I can get a reading.”

Xiao Liu and another maid both tried, but the seemingly slender and naive girl had surprising strength. They couldn’t get her head out no matter what, only managing to work up a sweat themselves.

When provoked, she would start crying and shout: “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me…”

Dr. Qi was helpless. She held the ready thermometer: “Another person, please help.”

She had seen plenty of patients who were averse to medical treatment in her life, but she hadn’t expected to find two in this one house!

The other, of course, was Xi Congshuang in the wheelchair.

This level of non-cooperation was comparable only to Xi Congshuang.

“Okay.” Xiao Liu reached for her phone, about to call the other maid who had just gone downstairs back up.

Xi Congshuang advanced: “I’ll do it.”

She had someone help her sit on the edge of the bed. Leaning against the headboard, Xi Congshuang forcefully squeezed both arms in from the side. After a slight adjustment, she lifted Cheng Zhishu, quilt and all, by cradling her under the armpits, holding her in a half-reclined position in her lap.

Xiao Liu, seizing the moment, quickly pulled down the quilt, exposing Cheng Zhishu’s upper body, and then tucked the quilt back around her.

A professional housekeeper should handle everything properly before the employer even has to speak.

Cheng Zhishu had indeed been crying. Her long eyelashes were wet with tears, clumped together. The flush on her face was evident.

She seemed to find the bright light disturbing. Her brow was furrowed, but she couldn’t struggle free due to the awkward position of being half-held.

Dr. Qi felt the posture looked familiar. After a moment, she realized it was the same position she used to pull her own cat out from under the covers.

Xi Congshuang glanced at the girl and said to Dr. Qi: “Take her temperature.”

Dr. Qi snapped back to attention, raised her hand, and took the temperature. The thermometer beeped, and the screen turned red.

She looked at the number, then reached for Cheng Zhishu’s wrist to check her pulse. After a minute, she switched to the other wrist.

Dr. Qi came from a medical family. Both her parents were doctors, and her home contained both Traditional Chinese and Western medicine knowledge. She had absorbed a lot of everything from a young age.

Xi Congshuang was confused: “Does she have any other problem besides catching a cold and fever?”

Dr. Qi hummed, released the wrist, and then answered: “Are students this competitive now? She’s under a bit of stress. This is an outburst caused by severe, prolonged suppression.”

“It’s not serious, though. An IV drip and a day or two of rest will fix it.”

“I’ll go get the medication. Miss Shuang, please keep this posture and wait for a moment.”

Xiao Liu suddenly understood. She had been thinking the recent weather wasn’t particularly harsh, using the frequently ill Xi Congshuang as a reference. She hadn’t expected Cheng Zhishu to be the one who got sick after the rain.

Xi Congshuang had no choice but to agree. Her own body temperature was naturally low, and she didn’t particularly like hot things, but she couldn’t just abandon the girl halfway through.

She leaned against the headboard and continued to hold the person in her arms tightly.

Cheng Zhishu, in her sleep, found it difficult to relax her tightly furrowed brow. She disliked lying on her back. The familiar and comforting faint scent only provided a slight solace.

But it wasn’t enough to let her relax into a supine position. She actually wanted to turn over and tightly hug the source of warmth behind her, as that was what gave her a sense of security.

In her haze, someone walked to the bedside. A sharp, stinging scent of alcohol and iodine instantly diluted the subtle fragrance.

Someone grabbed Cheng Zhishu’s hand hidden under the quilt. Something wet rubbed circles on the back of her hand. She felt cold and instinctively wanted to pull away.

Dr. Qi instinctively cried out: “Don’t move.”

A hand with a slightly cool temperature grabbed her forearm. The faint fragrance surrounding her suddenly intensified. A voice whispered in her ear: “Don’t move. It will be over soon.”

Cheng Zhishu’s sluggish mind tried to figure out who was speaking. Her action to withdraw slowed, allowing Dr. Qi to seize the opportunity and insert the needle into her vein.

The stinging pain was registered by her delayed brain, but her hand was held and she couldn’t pull it away. A single tear escaped the corner of her eye.

With a low sob, she mumbled: “Don’t hit me…”

The arm wrapped around her shoulder tightened. Someone wiped away the tear and gently comforted her: “No one is hitting you. A mosquito just bit you. It’s over now.”

Xi Congshuang rarely comforted people. She just recalled comforting words she’d heard while hospitalized and awkwardly imitated them.

The Mosquito, Dr. Qi: “…” She quickly pulled a strip of medical tape and secured the needle.

Fine, a mosquito is a mosquito.

It’s okay, it’s okay. Just think of myself as a pediatrician. It will be over soon.

…

The IV drip was finally set up, but Cheng Zhishu’s sleeping posture could easily cause bl00d to pool and swell the injection site, so someone needed to watch over her.

Xi Congshuang didn’t trust Xiao Liu and the others. She postponed a day of rehabilitation, had someone bring the computer from the study upstairs, and sat reading while monitoring the drip.

When she turned on the computer, Xi Congshuang thought about the login screen for a moment and then entered a sequence of numbers.

The boot-up was successful, as expected.

She knew the original owner was self-centered, but she hadn’t expected her to so casually use her own birthday as the password. Almost every place that required a password used her birthday.

The only difference was the use of the lunar versus the Gregorian calendar, which had taken some time to figure out.

In the end, Xi Congshuang didn’t know whether the original owner was overconfident or just too lazy to remember passwords.

Before getting into the computer, Xi Congshuang called Cheng Zhishu’s homeroom teacher and requested a leave of absence for her.

Just as Xi Congshuang was browsing the computer’s contents unimpeded, having nearly read everything, the figure lying on the bed stirred, trying to put her hand under the quilt.

Xi Congshuang, without looking, immediately grabbed her wrist. The cold temperature made her pause, and she finally turned to look.

Cheng Zhishu’s bangs were pushed back, and a cooling patch was stuck on her forehead. The flush on her face had receded slightly. She just felt that the hand outside was cold and wanted to pull it into the warm quilt.

Letting Cheng Zhishu put her hand under the quilt might lead to her unconsciously rolling over and compressing the IV line. However, Xiao Liu and the others weren’t present, and Xi Congshuang didn’t know where a hot water bottle might be in the room.

She assumed there wouldn’t be one. The room had a constant temperature function, keeping it at the most suitable human temperature year-round, so a hot water bottle wasn’t necessary.

She had used one a few times when she was gravely ill, otherwise, she couldn’t fall asleep.

When Xiao Liu came upstairs with breakfast, she saw this scene.

Xi Congshuang’s laptop was placed on the table in front of her. One hand was on the keyboard, operating the computer with a focused expression. Her other hand was extended, covering the back of Cheng Zhishu’s hand.

She was continuously transferring warmth to the hand that was chilling from the IV, warming her up.