Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 25

After winter began, the elderly matriarch’s health deteriorated with each passing day.

Several times, Ling Yu arrived at the hospital only to discover that the old woman had already been rushed into intensive care for emergency treatment.

Back in Jiangcheng, the Xu family’s division had reached its most critical stage.

Although Old Master Xu was desperately anxious, he could only remain calm during this crucial period and stay in Jiangcheng to oversee the situation.

When the doctor called for the third time and requested that a family member sign an informed-consent form, Old Master Xu firmly ordered Xu Miao to return to Yuncheng ahead of schedule.

On the night before New Year’s Day, Xu Miao rushed directly from the airport to the hospital.

The exhaustion of her long journey remained visible on her face.

Ling Yu sat on the bench outside the operating room. Hearing approaching footsteps, she propped her chin on both hands and tilted her head.

“Great-Grandmother is being resuscitated.”

Her voice lacked energy and carried the hoarseness of someone who had stayed awake all night.

Upon careful inspection, several red veins could be seen in her clear black-and-white eyes.

Xu Miao examined Ling Yu, then followed her finger toward the illuminated sign outside the intensive care unit:

“Emergency Treatment in Progress.”

The bright-red light struck Xu Miao’s eyes, making her pupils contract.

Her face instantly became paler.

Dragging her suitcase, she approached Ling Yu and patted her shoulder.

“I’ll stay here. Hurry back and rest.”

Ling Yu did not immediately agree.

She narrowed her eyes and yawned, revealing the dark circles beneath them.

In truth, she had not slept for two days.

The elderly matriarch’s condition repeatedly improved and worsened. It was as though she could not cross the threshold into 2023 and was holding onto her final breath during the last days of 2022.

When someone became so old that breathing required a ventilator and every heartbeat depended upon a pacemaker, remaining alive was itself a form of suffering.

Everyone had anticipated the matriarch’s death.

Yet now that the moment had genuinely arrived, Ling Yu understood that both Old Master Xu in distant Jiangcheng and Xu Miao before her would inevitably feel tremendous grief.

However, at such a crucial moment, Grandfather had not come.

Neither had Eldest Uncle Xu, Second Uncle Xu, or anyone else from the Xu family.

They appeared completely indifferent to the matriarch’s survival.

That was impossible.

Ling Yu raised her eyelids halfway and looked Xu Miao up and down.

“Is the family separation proceeding badly?”

“Yes.”

Xu Miao answered without hesitation.

She found a seat beside Ling Yu, opened her suitcase, removed an airline ticket, and handed it over.

Surprise flashed through Ling Yu’s eyes.

“Grandfather told me to book this for you,” Xu Miao explained. “Yuyu, he asked me to deliver a message. Ling Taiguo is also involved in Second Uncle’s actions this time.”

“Don’t return to Jiangcheng. This flight is scheduled for after New Year’s Day. Go abroad and relax for a while…”

She called it a trip to relax, but in truth, it established the final date Ling Yu could remain in the country.

If the situation were not urgent, Old Master Xu would never have given her a plane ticket with such an inflexible and immediate departure date.

Ling Yu did not know exactly what had happened in Jiangcheng.

However, once Xu Miao mentioned Ling Taiguo, she understood Old Master Xu’s hidden meaning.

The agreement Xu Qian had forced Ling Taiguo to sign years ago contained legal loopholes.

Ling Yu did not necessarily need to marry for him to escape it.

If Ling Yu died unexpectedly or was convicted and imprisoned while the agreement remained in effect, Ling Taiguo could still exploit the circumstances to erase her inheritance rights.

Ling Yu remembered the advice the old master had given her during their previous in-depth conversation.

Thus, the plane ticket did not surprise her.

The old master had told her long ago not to remain in the country.

This ticket merely represented her final deadline.

Ling Yu accepted it and stood.

She went to the pantry, poured Xu Miao a cup of hot water, then returned to the entrance of the intensive care unit.

After remaining awake for two days and nights, Ling Yu handed Xu Miao the warm water to heat her hands.

She gave her several simple instructions before turning away.

It was after ten at night, and the ward corridor was deserted.

Ling Yu retrieved her backpack from the matriarch’s room and stopped at the nurses’ station to return the umbrella.

The nurse on duty was not the young woman from that night.

Upon accepting the umbrella, she made a puzzled sound.

“How about leaving it with us for now? When tomorrow’s nurse begins her shift, I’ll ask my colleague about it for you.”

Ling Yu shrugged without objection.

After briefly thanking the nurse, she turned and walked away.

However, just as she reached the elevator, a boy called from behind her.

“Lunch-box Sister.”

Ling Yu’s footsteps paused.

From the corner of her eye, she glanced toward the boy in a wheelchair three meters away.

His mouth was crooked as he laughed hoarsely at her.

His eyes were small. Perhaps because of his congenital condition, their outer corners slanted whenever he looked at someone.

When he smiled, all his features twisted together. Combined with his gloomy gaze, the effect was profoundly unsettling.

They were both lunatics.

However, while Gu Qing gave the impression of cold indifference toward everything unrelated to her, Gu Ting resembled a venomous snake.

He concealed his pathological, distorted worldview inside his frail body and scrutinized others without restraint.

Ling Yu was not Gu Qing.

She had never possessed much patience for anyone who made her uncomfortable.

She calmly withdrew her gaze.

Treating Gu Ting like a stranger, Ling Yu gave him a slight nod, turned around, and pressed the elevator’s downward button.

Seeing her leave so decisively, darkness flashed through Gu Ting’s eyes. Two hoarse sounds emerged from his throat.

He laughed again.

His gaze toward Ling Yu overflowed with sticky, pathological malice.

“You and she don’t belong on the same path.”

The elevator was stuck on the third floor and would not arrive immediately.

Ling Yu placed both hands into her pockets and patiently watched the numbers flashing above the doors.

The boy seemed to interpret her silence as permission to continue.

He laughed nervously.

“Do you know what my sister likes?”

With effort, he raised a hand and patted his neck.

“She likes this.”

As Gu Ting spoke, saliva began running from the crooked corner of his mouth again. A long strand fell to the floor.

He probably did not realize how ugly he looked at that moment.

Ling Yu raised her phone and took a photograph.

One stood while the other remained seated. Because of their positions, Gu Ting did not notice Ling Yu’s movement.

He continued rambling and displaying his pathological sense of superiority.

“She likes using syringes to create different patterns of puncture marks in the skin of various animals.”

Gu Ting paused.

With difficulty, he raised his head and stared at Ling Yu’s slender neck. A gloomy, sticky smile appeared on his face.

“Of course, she prefers doing it to people…”

Ling Yu responded indifferently.

She raised her eyelids and turned back with a mocking expression.

“To you?”

Gu Ting choked.

He touched his smooth neck and thought about Gu Qing’s impenetrable indifference.

Even during her episodes, when her emotions were most uncontrollable, Gu Qing refused to accept his invitation.

She would rather repeatedly puncture a dead rat with a syringe than descend into the lunatic’s abyss with him.

Anger flashed through Gu Ting’s eyes.

Murderous intent entered the gaze he directed toward Ling Yu.

His father’s life had been exchanged for Gu Qing’s. Therefore, Gu Qing’s life belonged to him.

He wanted her hands stained with blood.

He wanted her to become the same as him.

Because Gu Qing had clearly gone insane long ago.

Gu Ting was absolutely certain.

At the beginning of every month, Gu Qing’s madness was terrifying enough to horrify anyone who witnessed it.

She merely went mad with unusual clarity.

A moral boundary remained within her, allowing her to suppress the destructive urges inside her with ease. She had never plunged her hands into blood.

Darkness nearly covered Gu Ting’s entire face at the thought.

He bent forward, pressed a hand against his chest, and struggled for breath for quite some time.

Ling Yu observed his expression and murmured, “So she hasn’t done it to you.”

Gu Ting’s neck was perfectly smooth.

It was completely different from the neck covered in puncture marks that Ling Yu had seen in the stairwell that night.

Under the dim light, Ling Yu stared at the boy and thought for ten full seconds.

Then she abruptly realized the dense puncture marks had looked as though they were drawn onto his skin.

Gu Qing had not made them.

They were Gu Ting’s offering, intended to encourage Gu Qing to enter his world.

An inexplicable wave of nausea rose inside Ling Yu.

She had never treated a disabled teenager so harshly before.

Gu Ting was the sole exception—and the only person Ling Yu had ever encountered whose mind was more distorted than his body.

Ling Yu slowly approached him.

She enlarged the photograph she had taken and held it before Gu Ting’s eyes.

The corner of her mouth lifted as she spoke unhurriedly.

“Even if Gu Qing genuinely wanted to puncture someone with a syringe, I doubt your neck would hold much appeal. Your spine is curved, your muscles droop, and your chin rests directly against your collarbone.”

Ling Yu tapped Gu Ting’s chin with her phone case, then tapped his collarbone.

The two nearly touched.

She said pointedly, “Gu Qing isn’t someone who would force herself to settle for less.”

Her implication was obvious:

He was too ugly.

Ling Yu had never spoken pleasantly to people she despised.

She openly displayed her impatience and always stabbed directly into the most painful part of their hearts.

The photograph had been taken at an exceptionally precise angle.

Gu Ting stared at his distorted face, and the false friendliness on his expression disappeared entirely.

Had his arms possessed sufficient strength, Ling Yu had no doubt that this sixteen-year-old boy would have lunged at her like an adult and bitten through her artery.

Gu Ting’s voice became sharp and hoarse.

“Heh. You don’t believe me?”

He forcefully pushed with his heels and threw himself heavily from the wheelchair.

Then he shouted toward the nurses’ station:

“Help!”

He turned his venomous eyes toward Ling Yu and smiled darkly.

“Tomorrow is when her episode begins. You’re welcome to witness it yourself…”

The nurse hurried over in tiny, rapid steps.

Gu Ting lay weakly on the floor, his breath faint.

He looked at Ling Yu with fear and timidity.

The nurse had seen Ling Yu before. She hurriedly helped Gu Ting upright and asked suspiciously, “What happened?”

Gu Ting spoke first.

The corner of his mouth remained crooked, and a long strand of saliva continued dripping from it.

Avoiding Ling Yu’s gaze, he shrank his neck like a frightened small animal.

“Please…don’t blame this sister. I accidentally…”

His nearly tearful tone did not make the incident appear accidental at all.

The nurse’s gaze toward Ling Yu acquired a trace of condemnation.

After all, Gu Ting was still a patient.

“Well said.”

Ling Yu remained entirely unaffected.

She raised her eyelids and lazily applauded him.

Gu Ting was rendered speechless.

He looked at the applauding Ling Yu as though she were an idiot.

The nurse was equally bewildered.

Ling Yu’s gaze swept across both their faces.

Then she smiled meaningfully and opened her handbag.

She removed a check and tossed it into Gu Ting’s arms.

“Is that enough?”

Gu Ting stiffly raised his head.

“What?”

“Your performance fee.”

When he failed to answer, Ling Yu threw another two checks into his arms.

Then she addressed the young nurse.

“Since I paid to watch the performance, may I request a copy of the surveillance footage featuring the disabled teenager’s struggle for survival in his wheelchair? I personally purchased the rights to this performance…”

The face of Gu Ting, star of Wheelchair Survival, became bright red. Even his breathing emerged in heavy gasps.

Ling Yu made a surprised sound.

“Don’t become too excited. The primary reason is that your performance entertained me…”

As Ling Yu spoke, she winked at the nurse.

The moment she turned, her gaze collided with a pair of ice-blue eyes.

The smile on Ling Yu’s lips froze.

Behind her, Gu Ting called delightedly toward the woman inside the elevator.

“Sister.”

Gu Qing carried a lunch box in one hand.

Without even looking at the boy, she kept her gaze on Ling Yu’s face.

A moment later, she said faintly, “That amount is inappropriate for a tip…”

Ling Yu laughed in anger.

“What? Is it too little?”

“Too much,” Gu Qing answered concisely.

Her usual shrewd gaze swept across the checks in Gu Ting’s arms.

After considering them briefly, she glanced casually at Ling Yu before casually looking away.

Then she abruptly asked, “You didn’t come to work today?”

“A relative is ill. I requested leave this morning.”

Ling Yu suppressed her anger.

Several days ago, this woman had turned around and left merely because Ling Yu was three minutes late.

This time, she might have Ling Yu dismissed from the firm for missing work.

Ling Yu had already experienced Gu Qing’s harshness.

Gu Qing gave a faint hum, then asked, “You…spent the entire day at the hospital?”

The elderly matriarch was undergoing emergency treatment in intensive care.

Ling Yu had remained outside all day in case someone needed her signature. She had even forgotten to eat.

Now exhausted and hungry, she had no desire to argue with Gu Qing.

She stared at her briefly, brushed past her shoulder, and prepared to leave.

As they passed, the woman suddenly seized her arm.

“Ling Yu.”

Gu Qing’s phoenix eyes fell upon Ling Yu’s handbag.

“Since you gave my brother so much money as a tip, I can’t allow you to leave empty-handed.”

Ling Yu froze.

She clearly had not expected Gu Qing to behave so reasonably.

Ling Yu found it difficult to believe she would think this way.

After all, this woman had been cold and harsh only several days earlier, nearly starting a fight with her.

The contrast was too dramatic.

Ling Yu stared at Gu Qing suspiciously.

“What?”

On the other side, Gu Ting repeatedly attempted to interrupt their eye contact.

However, when Ling Yu and Gu Qing stood together, they seemed drawn into a compatible magnetic field.

He opened his mouth but discovered he could not insert himself between them.

Gu Ting stared gloomily at the two women and coughed heavily.

Hearing him, Gu Qing signaled to the dazed nurse.

“Gu Ting is tired. Please help me return him to his room.”

“Sister!”

Gu Qing stared at him in disgust and warned:

“You’re tired.”

After speaking, her icy blue eyes swept toward the nurse.

Cold sweat covered the nurse’s forehead. She quickly understood and instinctively pushed Gu Ting away in his wheelchair.

Ling Yu watched Gu Qing coldly and mercilessly remove the little lunatic.

She clicked her tongue.

“Your brother will become truly remarkable once he grows up…”

Gu Qing offered no opinion.

Ling Yu returned to the earlier subject.

“What did you mean just now? You said I wouldn’t leave empty-handed?”

Did Gu Qing intend to give her a gift?

An expensive watch, perfume, or diamonds…

Good grief. Had Gu Qing finally discovered her conscience after their confrontation several days ago and decided to reconcile?

A realization flashed through Ling Yu’s mind, and her expression softened slightly.

Gu Qing swept the long curls hanging over her chest behind her.

She approached elegantly, raised the pitiful-looking lunch box in her hand, and tossed it into Ling Yu’s arms as though discarding garbage.

Ling Yu stared at it.

“??”

“It’s too late,” Gu Qing said. “Eat it for me.”

After speaking, she swept away in a trail of cool fragrance, her high heels clicking against the floor.

It was as though she had genuinely traveled all the way to the hospital merely to dispose of the garbage in her hands.

Ling Yu stared at the curves outlined by Gu Qing’s pencil skirt as fury surged inside her.

She would make Gu Qing kneel before her and cry.

As it turned out, Ling Yu’s words became prophetic the very next night.