Cat & Pigeon

With a smile uglier than crying, Yi Qin opened his eyes to look into the pair of eyes that really sent chills down his heart every single time. This she-devil was really his nemesis!

"Hello, sister-in-law! Fancy seeing you here!"

The woman before him had a tall, statuesque figure, pairing it with her impeccable sense of style, she exuded an air of sophistication and confidence that made everyone around her pale in comparison.

She had a smile that didn't look like a smile as she stared at him, putting an invisible pressure on him to the point that he felt like his legs were gonna give away. 

"You know, the pigeon thought by closing its eyes the cat won't be able to see him and won't eat him. But do you know what was the outcome?" Her voice was smooth and melodic with a hint of authority that couldn't be ignored.

"The cat found the pigeon too adorable and let him leave," answered Yi Qin with a cheeky grin.

She laughed at his response and said, "The pigeon is certainly adorable but too cheeky for his own good." She dropped the topic and asked him, "Should I be asking what you are doing here or should I be asking what trouble you got into this time, little trouble?"

"How about you let me live and don't ask either?" Yi Qin responded. "And if you want to ask me that, I can also ask you what you are doing here."

"Why should I tell you that?"

"Exactly! One should not ask questions that one is not willing to answer oneself!"

The beautiful woman's every gesture displayed her poise and grace, from the way she carried herself with effortless elegance and this could seen from the mere act of tapping Yi Qin's forehead with her index finger. "Silly! You are learning to talk now. Good for you!"

With that, she didn't ask anymore and entered the hospital. Behind her, her assistant didn't follow her immediately but turned to Yi Qin and said, "Young Master Qin, Miss Nan Xing isn't yet married to your elder brother. I'd like to ask you to not call her sister-in-law every time you see her."

Yi Qin felt like that was a warning of some kind and he frowned to himself, "Isn't she, my brother's fianceé, why can't I call her sister-in-law? What else should I call her? She-devil? Would she let me live if I called her that? And what are you so possessive for? This pair of master and assistant both have domineering personalities. Am I someone you can bully just because I am a nice guy?!"

 Of course, he could only say that behind their backs and didn't have the courage to say it to their faces. Throwing this meeting to the back of his head, he went to search for food that a patient could eat. He had to atone for his sins by feeding the patient.

---

Inside the hospital ward, Liu Xinyu had no idea what had conspired between her young father and mother. She had no spare mind to even think about them for now. First, she was in a bizarre situation herself which made her feel like she had gone insane. Second, on top of everything, now there was a female ghost haunting her too.

Yes, it was the female ghost that stood beside Yi Qin earlier. How did she know it was a ghost? There was no shadow, light could easily penetrate through her, and no one else could hear her voice apart from her.

"Hey, girl, you can see me right?" asked the female ghost for umpteenth time already. "Oh, come on! Our eyes met earlier, do you really think if you pretend like you can't see me, I'd believe you?"

Liu Xinyu chided herself for making the blunder of meeting the eyes of a ghost. Why would she do that? That was inviting more trouble for herself as if she didn't have enough on her plate already. The fact that she hadn't screamed or cried at this moment already showed that she had a high mental fortitude and wouldn't be broken so easily.

She needed a silent space to think about her situation so she got down from the bed. Stepping down, she hissed in pain because of her sprained ankle. But she still persisted and walked out of the ward. When the female ghost followed her out, Liu Xinyu really wanted to turn around and burst out telling her to stop following. However, she held herself back from doing so as it'd only give herself away. 

Liu Xinyu looked at the hospital garden in front of her and went in. She walked to the edge of the man-made lake and stood there to look at her reflection in the water and whispered, "I heard the way, people usually transmigrate into another time or world was after drowning. Although I didn't drown, it was still raining at that time. Can I go back through this water?"

The female ghost frowned when she heard her whispering strange things to herself. So, she couldn't help getting really close to her as she asked, "What are you talking about?"

Suddenly finding the female ghost's face so close to herself while she was in a daze, Liu Xinyu was startled as she screamed and slipped into the lake.

"Oho! That wasn't my intention," said the female ghost behind her. "Sorry!"

When Liu Xinyu fell into the water, her first thought wasn't to swim up to save herself. No, she was still thinking about whether she'd be really able to find her way back home this way. But as she sunk deeper and a feeling of weightlessness slowly started enveloping her, she found that she didn't like this feeling of not being able to breathe. Who cared about what era or time it was? She just had to live!

So, she moved her arms and legs to swim up but unfortunately, her sprained ankle decided to hold her back as her whole leg started cramping up.

"Mama, Baba, I don't think I can see you again!"

As her eyes started to close, she felt someone holding her around the waist and pulling her up. Liu Xinyu struggled to open her eyes and looked at the person who came to save her.

The young man pulled her out of the lake and put her on the ground as he panted on the side. Seeing her sitting there numbly, he was truly enraged, "Do you know you almost died just now? Is life a joke? Who would try to take their life in this way? There are so many people who want to live within this very hospital and haven't yet given up on struggling, who are you to throw your blessings around like this?"

Who said she was trying to kill herself? She wanted to yell at him too that she had no intention of dying yet! No matter how many misfortunes followed her and she felt lost, Liu Xinyu was never willing to quit on her life! 

Before she could show her might to him, she heard someone calling to him and turned her head mechanically to look at the woman who stood not very far from them.

"Qi Yuze! You're not supposed to catch a cold at this time," the woman was saying in a chastizing voice but Liu Xinyu was all too familiar with that voice so she could tell that there was more concern than anger behind those words. "Do you wanna be a hero? Try doing that after you recover! Come inside with me." Then the woman turned to her assistant and said, "Yan Mu, go and find him dry clothes. Also, arrange some ginger soup for him too."

All this while, the woman didn't even spare a glance towards Liu Xinyu who was still just sitting on the ground, not moving at all. The way she was ignored by a woman who looked just like her mother, Liu Xinyu received a critical hit and at this moment, without caring about anything else, she burst out crying like a kid.

A kid who was gravely wronged, a kid who was abandoned by the whole world, a kid who was all alone and lost in this unfamiliar time and place. A kid who was feeling real helplessness. All her grievances from the moment she opened her eyes poured out at this moment and once the tears fell, they couldn't be stopped at all.