The Female Lead Keeps Forcing Me to Take My Meds [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Wet and Teary

Xiao Liu set the breakfast down by the table, then turned, intending to speak.

“Miss, I’ve brought the breakfast and the medic…” ation.

But she saw Xi Congshuang raise her head from the computer screen and lift a single finger in a silent ‘shush’.

Xiao Liu immediately quieted down. Then, with a wave of Xi Congshuang’s hand, she quietly left, ensuring not to wake the person on the bed.

Closing the laptop, Xi Congshuang rolled over, silently and quickly finished her breakfast, poured the pills from the cap directly into her mouth, and swallowed them with warm water.

Her movements were swift, yet the deeply sleeping Cheng Zhishu evidently felt cold. She tried to pull the hand with the IV line back under the quilt, feeling the coldness of the tube against the back of her hand, and tried to rub it off with the quilt.

Xi Congshuang, arriving just in time, caught her wrist: “Don’t move around. Your hand will backflow bl00d.”

Cheng Zhishu stopped moving, her hand pressed against the quilt’s surface, letting out faint moans.

She was likely feeling body aches and headaches, prompting the low moans.

Xi Congshuang found it fascinating. When awake, Cheng Zhishu was incredibly obedient and well-tempered. Xiao Liu and the others also liked to bring her snacks occasionally.

A sensible child was always likable.

But the sick Cheng Zhishu was the complete opposite—she’d thrash about the moment no one was watching.

Dr. Qi had said she’d been sleep-deprived for the past few days and shouldn’t be woken up, as sleep was beneficial for recovery.

Now, Xi Congshuang looked closely at her face and indeed saw dark circles beneath Cheng Zhishu’s eyes, like shadows under them.

Before long, Xiao Liu came up again to clean up. She quietly asked if Cheng Zhishu needed to eat.

Xi Congshuang shook her head and declined, telling her to keep the food warm for when Cheng Zhishu woke up.

Xiao Liu nodded and retreated.

Before closing the door, she glanced back into the room. She saw Xi Congshuang turning her face to stare at the profile of the person on the bed, her eyes slightly lowered, lost in thought.

A few seconds later, she looked back at the computer, her brow slightly furrowed, maintaining the posture of one hand covering Cheng Zhishu’s hand and the other on the keyboard, just as Xiao Liu had seen the first time she entered.

The gap in the door grew smaller until it was finally shut.

Long, slender fingers glided on the touchpad. Having read most of the computer’s contents, Xi Congshuang realized that while the phone, being broken, hadn’t had its content restored, the computer completely preserved the original owner’s past.

Xi Congshuang pondered, integrating the information she had seen, gaining a deeper understanding of the Xi family’s current situation.

Chairman Xi, having remained unmarried her entire life, was dedicated to her career. One would assume that with her controlling nature, she would firmly hold onto the chairman’s position and power until her death.

However, in recent years, her energy wasn’t what it used to be, hinting at an intention to retire and recuperate. But she had never publicly disclosed who she favored to become the next head of the Xi Group.

Since she hadn’t favored anyone, perhaps it meant anyone would be acceptable in her heart?

Thus, people’s ambitions began to stir.

For the past two years, the position of Xi Group successor had been undecided. There were four most likely candidates: the Xi Congshuang father-daughter pair, Xi Hanran, and Xi Congshuang’s Fourth Aunt.

Before the car accident, the competition among them was almost overt. The original owner was also ambitious. Unwilling to simply be a princess, she demonstrated her capabilities from a young age, frequently appearing at the company.

She understood her father—he was a fishing enthusiast who loved taking his wife out to sea, was quite attached to home, and had a personality more like her deceased grandmother, lacking great ambition.

Even if her father succeeded based on his status as Chairman Xi’s sister’s son, once in power, he would still pass the responsibilities onto her and become a figurehead.

If that was the case, why not skip the step and succeed directly, allowing the fishing enthusiast to focus on his fishing rod?

But unpredictable misfortune struck. A car accident took out the two most promising successors.

Xi Congshuang was crippled and was even diagnosed by doctors as possibly being wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life.

The Xi Group would never allow a person with such a visible disability to become the head; it would negatively impact the corporate image.

Analyzing the situation, Xi Congshuang finally understood why Xi Hanran always looked at her as if she were a formidable enemy.

If Xi Congshuang were interested now, even with her disability, she could rely on Chairman Xi’s favoritism to return to the company, if only out of pity.

Given the current circumstances, becoming the next head wouldn’t be easy for Xi Congshuang, but influencing the final outcome wasn’t difficult.

Upon her father’s death, his shares and everything else were inherited by Xi Congshuang. She was a shareholder who had some say in the Xi Group.

No wonder Xi Hanran was constantly watching Wen Hai. She was clearly afraid of the Fourth Aunt showing up and pulling Xi Congshuang into an alliance, which would make Xi Hanran’s prospects even slimmer.

However, Xi Hanran still didn’t fully grasp that the Fourth Aunt would never approach Xi Congshuang for an alliance. The Fourth Aunt clearly held herself in high regard.

She considered herself the most qualified and senior. Upon seeing Xi Congshuang’s father pass away, she believed her biggest threat was gone and saw no point in wasting effort on Xi Congshuang.

As for Xi Hanran, she was an impulsive young girl. Not to mention the wheelchair-bound Xi Congshuang—even with Chairman Xi’s affection, how much could she influence the vast Xi Group?

Yet, the Fourth Aunt was not entirely wrong. If it were the original owner, she would be preoccupied with tormenting Cheng Zhishu and wouldn’t even consider returning to the Xi Group.

Xi Congshuang, immersed in her own world, suddenly heard a low talking sound next to her. She snapped back to attention, thinking Cheng Zhishu had woken up.

She turned her head, only to find Cheng Zhishu’s eyes still tightly closed. Her previously smooth brow was furrowed again, clearly indicating uneasy sleep.

Her lips, which had been moistened with a cotton swab not long ago, were dry and sickly pale. They moved, muttering something, but the sound was too soft to hear.

“Don’t…”

“What do you want?” Xi Congshuang wheeled closer, leaning her ear toward Cheng Zhishu’s mouth, and finally heard what she was saying.

Cheng Zhishu: “Mom… Mama… I hurt…”

Xi Congshuang froze.

Cheng Zhishu began to squirm again, trying to curl up into a ball, while incessantly whimpering: “Mom, Mama, I hurt so much…”

Xi Congshuang used a little force to hold her wrist, stopping her from moving: “Are you looking for Wang Ya?”

“…”

The person on the bed continued to weep but stopped calling for ‘Mom’. She buried her face in the pillow, silently shedding tears and biting her lip.

Someone accustomed to hiding emotions, her crying was soundless, the sobs instinctively suppressed.

Xi Congshuang: “…”

She hadn’t shed a single tear when transferred from Wen Can, strong and calm. Xi Congshuang had thought she’d already adjusted herself to the next phase of life. The Red Apple had more than once commented in her ear that she was indeed the heroine.

The heroine who would eventually bankrupt the century-old Xi family.

And this heroine, who could eventually bring the Xi Group to ruin with a wave of her hand, lay on the bed, her shoulders shaking, continuously shedding tears. The tears flowed like unstrung pearls, silently washing away the long-suppressed grievances.

The sense of threat the System worked so hard to establish in Xi Congshuang instantly vanished, leaving only the pillowcase wet with tears, like the footprints of a stray animal passing by the door on a rainy day.

Cheng Zhishu seemed to be made of water, with a never-ending stream of tears pouring out, silently releasing her pent-up sorrow.

The information given by the System had nothing about Cheng Zhishu’s background, only a brief mention of her fate—she ended up alone until her eventual imprisonment. The ‘Mom’ she spoke of should be her adoptive mother, Wang Ya.

Xi Congshuang asked again: “I can call Wang Ya over. Do you want to see her?”

“Answer me, and I’ll grant your wish.”

The sleeping girl didn’t seem to hear Xi Congshuang’s words. Or perhaps she did, and simply pressed her crying down even further.

Another hand touched Cheng Zhishu’s warm, wet face. Xi Congshuang’s knuckles bent, wiping away the tear that slid down from her eye corner. She looked at the tear with a strange curiosity.

Xi Congshuang had seen many people cry and witnessed all kinds of tears: the tears of wailing family members in the hospital, the tears of people begging her for mercy in the business world, or tears of fear or regret…

But she didn’t cry herself. If she hadn’t shed a few physiological tears during her treatment, Xi Congshuang would have almost thought she was born without the ability to weep.

The tear on her knuckle quietly slid down, landing on her skirt. Xi Congshuang looked down at the wet mark on her skirt. The mark spread on the pure white fabric.

She watched Cheng Zhishu’s tears like an observer, not quite understanding why she would so weakly seek out a person who had abandoned her. Then she looked down at the spreading wet spot from the tear.

Then the crybaby moved her face. She pulled her other hand out from the warm quilt and pressed it against Xi Congshuang’s hand, cautiously holding it to her face.

For a person with a fever, this cool hand resting on her skin felt very comfortable.

Residual tears dampened Xi Congshuang’s palm. She tried to withdraw her hand but failed.

The soft, cool touch against Cheng Zhishu’s face felt so soothing that she couldn’t help but rub against it.

Like a furry animal nudging her with its head.