After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 5

When Qin Zhijin returned from her ward rounds, she found only Xia Shibai in the office, sitting to the side and holding the child.

The little girl was still asleep, but she looked significantly better than before.

Qin Zhijin was about to comment on why Qin Wang was taking so long to handle the registration and medication when she spotted the medicine already sitting on her desk. She instinctively reached for her phone, but just as her hand touched her pocket, Xia Shibai spoke in a hushed tone.

“Officer Qin was just here, but something happened back at the station, so he had to head back to work.”

“He didn’t get to clock out,” Xia Shibai added.

Qin Zhijin looked at the mother and daughter with a headache. She wanted to complain that her cousin was unreliable, but she was still on duty tonight, and given the hospital’s remote location, it would be difficult to get a taxi at this hour. If anything happened to them, Qin Zhijin felt her conscience wouldn’t let it slide.

Xia Shibai, of course, understood Qin Zhijin’s dilemma. She had been sitting there wondering how she would get home.

When Qin Wang had rushed over with the medicine, the fact that he hadn’t clocked out meant he was still technically on duty. With an emergency at the station, he couldn’t just ignore it—especially since it involved a case he was personally handling.

After leaving the medicine on the desk and giving Xia Shibai a few instructions, Qin Wang hadn’t been able to help himself and told her: “Auntie Lin’s family showed up at the station. It’s a complete mess now. Her son hit Liu Tong and is brandishing a kitchen knife, screaming for me and you to show up.”

“It’s too dangerous. Stay here at the hospital with the little one. If you have any problems, find my sister. I’ll come back and drive you home once I’ve settled things.”

Xia Shibai’s brow furrowed at the news, and her grip on Xia Yaozhou tightened. A wave of lingering fear washed over her.

Based on the book, she had no way of knowing the specifics of Auntie Lin’s family situation. From the few fragments of information she had, she knew the daughter-in-law was greedy, the grandsons were gluttonous, and Auntie Lin was wicked. This had led Xia Shibai to underestimate them.

If she had known that going to the police station would escalate to this, she would have planned more carefully. She was terrified that Auntie Lin’s family might try to harm Xia Yaozhou.

Even with her transmigrating and standing up for Xia Yaozhou, that family dared to act this way. Xia Shibai couldn’t imagine how much the girl must have suffered under Auntie Lin in the original plot. It wasn’t hard to see how Xia Yaozhou eventually became the person she did.

Xia Shibai’s unease seemed to affect the child in her arms.

The feverish Xia Yaozhou’s eyelashes fluttered. She opened her eyes to look at Xia Shibai, then quickly fell back into a peaceful sleep. Her fingers curled, clutching Xia Shibai’s clothes tightly, as if terrified this person would leave her alone in that empty villa with the “bad woman” again.

Seeing her “mom” upon opening her eyes made Xia Yaozhou feel much more secure.

Xia Shibai had told Qin Wang not to worry about them and that they would take care of themselves. But once he left, she sank into a weary silence. Having been high-strung all night, her body felt heavy and exhausted. Sitting there with the child, she barely had the energy to move.

She searched through the original owner’s memory for a reliable friend to call for help, only to find that “Xia Shibai” had been arrogant and reclusive since childhood. She didn’t like socializing, especially after the major family tragedy; her entire heart had been poured into her career. Her “social circle” consisted entirely of business partners.

“…”

So, Xia Shibai sat silently in the office until Qin Zhijin walked back in.

Understanding her predicament, Qin Zhijin was just glad she had extra clothes in her office for Xia Shibai to change into. As for the child, Yaozhou had been wrapped in the quilt and hadn’t gotten wet from the rain, but the outer layer of the quilt was still damp.

Qin Zhijin pulled a sleeping bag from under her desk, which contained a thin duvet. She walked to the bed behind the privacy curtain and laid down a disposable medical sheet.

“Bring the little one over here to sleep. Sitting there isn’t comfortable,” Qin Zhijin said. “Give me her quilt. Letting her sleep in a damp one for a short while is fine, but wrapping her in it all night will definitely make her condition worse.”

Xia Shibai felt embarrassed as she carried Yaozhou to the bed. “I’m really sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you tonight.”

“It’s fine. Get some sleep.” Qin Zhijin folded the damp quilt and set it aside. Turning around, she saw Xia Shibai climbing onto the bed with great care. Just as Xia Shibai tried to lay the child down, the sickly girl opened her eyes as if sensing the movement.

Xia Yaozhou pouted. She didn’t cry or scream; she just stared intently at Xia Shibai, as if afraid the woman would disappear the moment she put her down.

Xia Shibai’s heart melted. She already felt bad for the girl’s illness, and now she was completely indulgent. She sat stiffly on the bed, one hand guarding Yaozhou while the other fumbled with the duvet, trying to spread it over them.

“Let me.” Qin Zhijin naturally took the duvet and spread it out. She coached Xia Shibai to lie down first and let Yaozhou nestle against her. “Children with a poor sense of security are very sensitive to changes in their environment.”

“Yes, that’s my fault as well,” Xia Shibai sighed as she lay down. To make the girl comfortable, she turned slightly on her side, her back against the cool wall. The thin blouse she wore offered no resistance to the chill, making her shiver.

While the original owner was the catalyst for Yaozhou’s current state, she hadn’t known the girl was living in misery or that her insecurity had reached this level. Residual consciousness from the original body influenced Xia Shibai’s emotions, filling her with guilt and heartache.

Qin Zhijin offered some comfort: “It’s okay. If the parents start paying attention, she’s still young. It’s easy to heal.”

“Mm. Thank you, Dr. Qin.” Xia Shibai gently patted Yaozhou’s back, letting the girl bury her face in her chest. Once under the covers, drowsiness hit her like a wave. She was so tired her eyes wouldn’t stay open, but she forced herself to find a topic to chat with Qin Zhijin. After all, they were strangers who had only met today; it was normal to have some defensive guard up.

“Dr. Qin, what made you want to be a pediatrician?” Xia Shibai’s eyes drifted open and shut, her voice slightly slurred with exhaustion.

Qin Zhijin used a folded down-jacket as a pillow and curled up on the office sofa. Hearing the question just as she closed her eyes, she gave a common answer: “I suppose I just like it.”

“You like kids?”

“No, I just like pediatrics,” Qin Zhijin said with a light chuckle. “Many people don’t believe it, but in med school, whenever a subject was related to children, I passed with high marks, without exception. When I first started at the hospital, I wanted to go into neurosurgery. But compared to my peers, my grades there were slightly lacking. After my rotations, I was scouted by both OB-GYN and Pediatrics.”

“And you chose Pediatrics?”

In the darkness where Xia Shibai couldn’t see, Qin Zhijin gave a bitter smile. “No… I chose OB-GYN at first.”

“But many issues arose later, and I was transferred at the same level to this hospital. Since this place is on the border of two cities and isn’t a famous top-tier hospital, the positions aren’t as competitive. I was assigned to Pediatrics and have been here ever since.”

Xia Shibai hadn’t expected such a convoluted story behind Qin Zhijin’s career path. “I’m sorry…”

She felt she had really stepped in it. She had been sleepy, but after hearing that, she was wide awake. She even wondered if she had been too quick to judge Qin Zhijin. Since Qin Zhijin wasn’t mentioned in the original novel, she was likely a good person. Xia Shibai felt increasingly guilty for being suspicious while the woman had given up her bed and provided clean clothes.

On the sofa, Qin Zhijin was lost in her own thoughts. She didn’t notice Xia Shibai’s guilt. The memory of the pain before transferring here made her temples throb. She pressed her fingers against them, trying to clear the past from her mind.

“Sleep now. When it’s light out and I’ve finished my shift handover, I’ll drive you back.”

“Thank you,” Xia Shibai whispered. Silence fell over the room. Having participated in a resuscitation earlier, Qin Zhijin was even more exhausted from the high-intensity work. Xia Shibai closed her eyes and stopped talking.

Soon, everyone in the room fell into a deep sleep, the only sound being the occasional mournful bird call from the trees outside the hospital window.

Xia Shibai was woken up by the sound of a loud argument.

Opening her eyes, she saw Xia Yaozhou shrinking back, staring at her. The girl’s small hand was suspended in mid-air, as if she had been tracing the contours of Xia Shibai’s face. Caught in the act, the child scrambled under the covers like a gopher, hiding herself as deep as possible. She clearly didn’t want Xia Shibai to know what she’d been doing.

Amused, Xia Shibai patted the lump in the duvet. Before she could say anything, the door opened. A sharp female voice pierced through from outside.

“You people are a heartless hospital! My son is so small and he won’t stop crying; he’s in so much pain! You won’t treat him and you’re kicking us out!”

“How can there be such irresponsible doctors?! My child is burning with fever, and you have the heart to tell me to wait in line for my number? Do you even have a heart? Do you have kids? I bet your kids died young, that’s why you can’t stand to see someone else have a son!”

“…”

Qin Zhijin entered with breakfast and quickly shut the door to block out the shouting. As she placed the food on the desk, two heads—one large, one small—popped out from the bed.

Xia Shibai propped herself up. Xia Yaozhou, with nowhere to hide, covered her face with her hands, as if telling herself: You can’t see me, you can’t see me. In reality, the gaps between her fingers were huge, revealing a pair of dark, grape-like eyes staring intently at Qin Zhijin.

“Brush your teeth first. My handover is done. Once the noise outside dies down, I’ll take you home.” Qin Zhijin clearly treated the office as a second home; her desk drawer was full of disposable toothbrushes, toothpaste, and unopened towels.

“Alright. Thank you, Dr. Qin.”

Xia Shibai tied up her messy hair. Just as she reached out to help Xia Yaozhou, the little girl who had been covering her face suddenly cupped her own cheeks and scooted toward the wall, clearly not intending to let Xia Shibai touch her.

Xia Yaozhou’s mouth was moving as she muttered something. Xia Shibai didn’t even need to focus to hear what she was whispering.

“I am a mushroom, I am a mushroom, I am a mushroom…”

“…” A three-year-old child is truly… unique. At the very least, it was hard for Xia Shibai to reconcile this version of Xia Yaozhou with the semi-perfect female support character from the book.

Xia Shibai didn’t force her. Correcting a child’s behavior takes time. “It takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to cultivate a person.” If educational institutions take over a decade, family education—which plays a vital role—cannot be rushed.

After cleaning herself up, Xia Shibai held an unopened toothbrush and asked, “Zhouzhou, do you want to brush your teeth and have breakfast? The doctor bought rice porridge and custard buns.”

Xia Yaozhou hadn’t eaten since last night. Between the terror, the fever, and the long night, her stomach was empty. It had been growling since she woke up. Normally, she should have woken Xia Shibai up to find food, but she didn’t. She felt that doing so would be “naughty” and would annoy Xia Shibai. If she wasn’t “good,” her mother wouldn’t want her. She’d be abandoned again, and Auntie Lin would return to the villa to look after her. Yaozhou would go back to being cold and hungry.

Three-year-old Yaozhou was small with thin limbs. The pediatric bed was designed for children, so it wasn’t high, but to her, it felt like a giant tree. She was hungry but conflicted, terrified that asking Xia Shibai to hold her would cause unhappiness.

The child’s thoughts were written on her face; her nose was red and her eyes were like reservoirs about to burst. Unable to bear it, Xia Shibai walked to the bed and reached out. Sure enough, a warm little girl lunged into her arms.

Xia Yaozhou kept her mouth shut tight, her finger pointing at the unopened toothbrush without a word.

“Brush your teeth?”

Yaozhou nodded.

Xia Shibai carried the light girl to the sink, unpacked the toothbrush, applied toothpaste, and handed it over in one fluid motion. Small hands gripping an adult toothbrush looked awkward, and the head was too big, but Yaozhou was remarkably proficient. She let Xia Shibai hold her against the edge of the sink.

As she brushed, she tilted her head and arched her body away, turning her back so Xia Shibai couldn’t see her.

Xia Shibai, holding her to make sure she didn’t fall: “…”

I didn’t realize the second female lead had such a severe obsession with cleanliness when I read the book. It turned out she wasn’t staying silent just out of insecurity—the little girl was embarrassed that she hadn’t brushed her teeth yet and felt “dirty.”