Chapter 56: A Long-Planned, Yet Unexpected Kiss
Because of the intense pain, Ming Fei didn’t even notice Zhu Yiqiao entering the master bedroom.
Her face was pale, her breathing uneven, her long eyelashes wet with tears, the corners of her eyes tinged with red. When she looked sideways at the person beside her, the furrow in her brow didn’t smooth out.
“…Jiejie.”
She didn’t want others to see her in such a disheveled state, enduring the pain as she said, “I… I’m feeling a little unwell right now, I want to rest for a while. Could you please tell Zaozao for me…”
The rest of her words abruptly stopped.
Ming Fei sensed Zhu Yiqiao’s pheromones. The tall cedar and fir trees in the forest gently enveloped her, like a warm and gentle spring.
Uncontrollable physiological tears flowed down her cheeks.
Zhu Yiqiao wiped away Ming Fei’s tears with her fingertips, ripples surging in the depths of her blue eyes.
“Do you know why you’re feeling unwell?”
The factors that caused pheromone surges varied. Even after two pheromone guidance sessions, Zhu Yiqiao still couldn’t identify the cause of Ming Fei’s current condition.
However, perhaps because of the previous guidance sessions, the slightly sour and bitter pear scent in the air gradually calmed down. The playful raccoon cat didn’t leave, carefully tending to this suddenly strange, sour pear, patiently waiting by its side for it to recover.
But this could only suppress the spread of pheromones; the pain in her gland was gradually spreading.
Ming Fei’s hands started to tremble.
“My gland… hurts a lot.” She explained hoarsely, “When my gland was first injured, it would hurt every night. After I transmigrated to the Independent State of Yi Meng, the pain gradually disappeared.”
“But… I don’t know why, it started hurting again after I woke up just now.”
Every word hit Zhu Yiqiao’s heart like a hammer, each blow causing her pain despite their lightness.
The Ole Empire regarded alphas or omegas with injured glands as defective rejects. The government and the Academy of Sciences didn’t invest any effort in researching this area, and the pain caused by gland injuries could only be endured by the patients themselves.
Therefore, even as a member of the royal family, she didn’t know how to alleviate it. Moreover, Ming Fei’s situation was too special, she couldn’t be as certain as before, she didn’t want Ming Fei to endure this pain, and she didn’t want to put her in greater danger.
The physical pain made Ming Fei’s tears fall like pearls off a broken string. As Zhu Yiqiao wiped away her tears, Ming Fei wanted to retreat back into her shell.
“…Jiejie,” she said, her lips pale, “Leave me alone.”
She had long been accustomed to this.
During the worst period of her gland injury, she had stayed in the hospital’s inpatient department, sharing a room with patients with similar conditions. The difference was that no one was more seriously injured than her, and no one was completely alone from beginning to end.
The other patients mostly had family and friends accompanying them. When their glands hurt, someone would comfort, care for, and console them, either with soft words or heartfelt hugs. In short, no one was like her, completely alone until she was transferred to another ward and then discharged.
Pain couldn’t be gotten used to.
But loneliness could.
Besides, after transmigrating to the Independent State of Yi Meng, she had gained a lot, and she wasn’t truly alone. But at this moment, she wanted to be alone, to cry, to suffer, to endure, just like birth, aging, illness, and death, which were unavoidable parts of life.
Soon, as she expected, as soon as she finished speaking, Zhu Yiqiao released her hand, as if she would leave as requested in the next moment. But what actually happened was the opposite of what she expected. Zhu Yiqiao didn’t leave, but instead hugged her directly.
The hug she gave was very warm, at least Ming Fei felt like she had been touched by sunlight, the elegant woody scent filling her nostrils, and she heard Zhu Yiqiao’s voice beside her ear.
“Ming Fei.”
She said, “I’m sorry, I want to stay with you.”
Ming Fei’s nose tingled, and the pearls of her tears shattered into petals, just like the petal-shaped birthmark behind her ear.
“Jiejie…”
It was hard for her to push Zhu Yiqiao away. Even someone accustomed to loneliness would crave this moment of warmth in the long night.
The burning pain in her body surged like waves. Ming Fei bit her lip, not making a sound. Her vision gradually blurred, her head spinning, the agonizing pain threatening to tear her apart, destroy her, until nothing remained.
Zhu Yiqiao noticed the intensification of her pain. She turned her cheek, her lips brushing against Ming Fei’s black hair, like a long-planned, yet unexpected kiss.
“…Ming Fei.”
She called her name, her eyes flickering slightly: “I never intended to disappear from your world.”
“Before I became Zhu Yiqiao, my name was Eloris Anrui.”
Ming Fei had heard this name before. Eloris Anrui was the youngest princess of the northern Anrui family, deeply loved by both her mothers. But this pampered princess had been reported dead just as she was about to come of age.
She asked hoarsely, “Were you injured, Jiejie?”
“No, it was a faked death arranged by my mother.”
Zhu Yiqiao explained, “I always wanted to leave the North. I made many plans before my mother relented. None of those plans included the accident of leaving without saying goodbye.”
“I’ve always considered you a unique friend.”
Her gaze swept over the book on the carpet, its light green cover printed with the title—”What If.”
“I once thought, if we really met, I would teach you how to use a gun, because I didn’t want you to be in danger or get hurt.”
Ming Fei’s pupils constricted, her trembling hands clenching the corner of her clothes.
In this relationship, Zhu Yiqiao had already given her the answer she most wanted to know yesterday. Therefore, after knowing that One Raccoon Hill had truly considered her a friend, she no longer cared about the sudden disappearance.
Everyone had their secrets.
If Zhu Yiqiao didn’t take the initiative to tell her, she would never cross the line and ask.
But now, Zhu Yiqiao laid bare all the truth before her, revealing the answer hidden beneath all the twists and turns of fate.
—She hadn’t been abandoned by Zhu Yiqiao.
Realizing this, Ming Fei’s heart pounded rapidly, her eyes moist as if filled with snow. As snowflakes fell on everything, she hugged Zhu Yiqiao back in the midst of this snowfall.
The hug she had imagined as a teenager had finally come true.
Ming Fei smiled silently, the snow in her eyes melting in this warm embrace, turning into moisture and condensing into tears.
“…Thank you, Jiejie,” she said.
Zhu Yiqiao, always attentive to her condition, said, “My mother had people erase all traces of me. Eloris Anrui of the northern Anrui family died, One Raccoon Hill on ‘Supporters of the Rose’ disappeared, and a person named Zhu Yiqiao appeared in the South.”
“When I first left the North, I logged into ‘Supporters of the Rose’ to look for you. After finding that you had deleted your account, I asked my friends to search for any traces you left behind, but everything was interrupted, and I couldn’t find you.”
So much so that, when she later recalled logging into “Supporters of the Rose” and finding that Tree of Mystical Jade’s account had been deleted, she couldn’t help but think, if she had asked Tree of Mystical Jade for her address earlier, instead of waiting for the birthday dinner as planned, things might have turned out differently.
But there were no “ifs” in this world.
There were only countless regrets and missed opportunities.
After hearing these unknown truths, Ming Fei’s forehead was damp with sweat from the pain. She wanted to answer Zhu Yiqiao, but when she opened her mouth, she found she couldn’t speak at all, as if her throat was filled with endless seawater.
The seawater drowned her senses, leaving only a vast expanse of white before her eyes.
When the pain in her body reached a certain threshold, it suddenly disappeared, along with the receding seawater. Ming Fei’s clothes were crumpled in her fists. Before she could speak, she closed her eyes and fainted.
Ming Fei had a very restless sleep this time.
She kept dreaming of the past, like the first time she left the orphanage and saw other children her age being held tightly or hugged by their families. Whenever those children looked at their family members, they could get whatever they wanted.
That was the first time she truly realized that she was an unwanted orphan.
She stood at the end of the line, feeling a little envious, a little sad about being abandoned, and the rest was happiness for the other children who were loved by their families.
It’s so nice. She thought.
People like her in this world were a minority. Most people were surrounded by happiness, and that was the best thing.
The dream kept changing.
After the scene shifted, she saw her first adoptive parent.
That was the first time she had entered another family. She thought that perhaps the stars in the sky had heard her wish and sent her to happiness. But all her unrealistic fantasies were mercilessly shattered by the adoptive parent. They had chosen her just for charity, just for show, and for no other reason.
She had no right to call her “mother.” She was just a pawn that could be discarded at any time, a stranger temporarily living there.
Therefore, she had been cautious and careful at that time. But no matter what she did, she was sent back to the orphanage without any reason.
The bizarre dream shifted again. Ming Fei’s head started to hurt, and she saw the scene of her being cut, boundless darkness and pain engulfing her.
…So painful.
It really hurt too much.
But she had never regretted it, not even for a moment.
Just as the darkness was about to give way to dawn, and the increasingly strange dream was about to change again, Ming Fei suddenly opened her eyes.
Her mind was blank, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling above. It wasn’t until she heard a strange noise from beside her, a sudden unfamiliar voice, that her thoughts were slowly pulled back.
“Awake?”
Ming Fei looked sideways. The surroundings were still the familiar master bedroom of the villa, but a stranger was standing by the bed.
The woman had blonde hair with cherry pink highlights at the ends, violet eyes as beautiful as violets, silver-rimmed glasses on her nose, and a smile on her face.
“Hello, I’m Colonel Zhu’s private doctor. You can call me Dr. Tang.”
Ming Fei’s voice was hoarse: “Hello, Dr. Tang.”
Dr. Tang sighed and deliberately exaggerated, “I was planning to spend a couple more days in Taiya, but Colonel Zhu dragged me back to treat you.”
Remembering the novel she had just finished reading, Dr. Tang said the classic line: “Miss Ming, this is the first time I’ve seen Colonel Zhu make an exception and use…”
A violent coughing fit suddenly interrupted Dr. Tang’s words. Ming Fei coughed until her cheeks turned red, finally adding some color to her pale face.
Seeing this, after the coughing subsided, Dr. Tang got back to the point: “The Ole Empire’s medical technology is too backward. According to my pheromone experiments, legal experiments, mind you, the way to treat this kind of gland pain is actually very simple.”
Ming Fei looked at her, hope flickering in her wide almond eyes.
“However,” Dr. Tang said with a smile, “You have to tell me first, how did your gland get injured?”
Ming Fei took the warm water she offered and drank it all in one gulp. Her throat felt more comfortable.
“It was a cut.”
She recalled, “It was a very sharp military knife. The doctor who treated me at the time said that the wound wasn’t large, but very deep.”
Dr. Tang felt a pang of sympathy, because it sounded very painful: “A military knife? As far as I know, you were only seventeen when you transmigrated. Why would someone cut you with a military knife?”
Ming Fei pursed her lips: “That day, I went to school to get my acceptance letter. On the way back to the orphanage, I accidentally saw someone being held hostage.”
“She was taken hostage to protect others.”
Perhaps because she had just woken up and her brain wasn’t functioning properly yet, Ming Fei’s explanation was vague, and Dr. Tang could only roughly guess the reason. Just as she was about to tell Ming Fei to rest, there was a thud from behind, something falling to the ground.
Dr. Tang looked back and saw Zhu Yiqiao, who had entered the room at some point, the detector in her hand falling onto the carpet. She felt it was a little strange, after all, this person, before retiring, had been an exceptional sniper, never unsteady.
The snow outside had stopped. Seeing Zhu Yiqiao, the weak Ming Fei gave her a light smile, as docile as a canine waiting to be petted.
Zhu Yiqiao looked at her, her voice a little hoarse.
“Was it… in an old warehouse?”