Chapter 29

After ending the call with Shang Xiunian, Shang Jinyue contacted Doctor Chen.

While waiting for Doctor Chen to pick up the phone, her expression was calm, as if she were very carefree about the Shang family’s matters.

The instant Shang Xiunian hung up the phone, Shang Jinyue’s chest dropped sharply.

She felt her grandmother’s disappointment in her, but immediately after, she felt even more air pour into her throat.

It was as if, after all these years, she finally had the chance to breathe.

Putting down the Shang family seemed not to be that difficult either.

Why did she absolutely have to be “obedient”?

“Miss Shang.”

The call connected, and Doctor Chen’s voice came into Shang Jinyue’s ear.

Shang Jinyue hurriedly withdrew her thoughts and spoke to the other side. “Hello, Doctor Chen. My fri—classmate is sick. She has a bit of a fever now, and her temperature is changing very quickly. Half an hour ago, it was still thirty-eight point four degrees. Now it’s already thirty-nine point two.”

“It rose that quickly? Do you need me to come over?” read the original at bailiantales.com Doctor Chen immediately asked for instructions.

“Not for now,” Shang Jinyue answered.

She herself had been brought in by Shi Xiu, so how would Doctor Chen be able to come in?

“Is there any method to bring her fever down? Just now, she took ibuprofen and Xiao Chaihu.”

Hearing this, Doctor Chen considered for a moment. For safety’s sake, she still suggested to Shang Jinyue, “Miss Shang, although this currently isn’t the high season for influenza, I think you should first test whether this classmate has been infected with influenza A or B. If she has, we can treat the symptoms accordingly. If not, then taking care of her will be simpler too.”

“Doctor Chen, please wait a moment. Don’t hang up yet. I’ll be quick.” As Shang Jinyue spoke, she took the phone and walked to the medicine kit she had just brought down. She remembered seeing a combined flu test strip in the medicine kit earlier.

Shang Jinyue’s memory was not wrong. Very quickly, she found the test strip from the box, took out the sampling swab according to the instructions, and reached it toward Shi Xiu’s nasal cavity.

“Mm…”

The sampling swab had just probed in when Shi Xiu let out an uncomfortable hum.

The high fever dragged her into deep sleep, while the soreness in her nasal cavity made her whole little face wrinkle up in grievance.

Shang Jinyue’s movements paused.

Rationality had not made her lose her head. She still held the sampling swab in her hand, only raising [unauthorized copy]her other hand to stroke Shi Xiu’s forehead. “It’ll be done soon.”

Sunlight slanted into the room, setting off the person’s voice as gentle.

Doctor Chen listened vaguely on the other end of the phone and had the illusion that something was wrong with her ears.

Was this a voice Miss Shang could make?

Not only was this a voice Miss Shang made, even the gentle movement soothing Shi Xiu’s emotions was done by her.

The sampling swab scraped past the inner wall of Shi Xiu’s nasal cavity, and Shang Jinyue stroked Shi Xiu’s forehead and side of her face. Her cool palm pressed against Shi Xiu’s burning little face, and the back of her finger gently brushed Shi Xiu’s ear.

“All done. Go back to sleep.” Shang Jinyue quickly finished all of this and tucked Shi Xiu’s blanket in.

The test result was fairly optimistic. Influenza A, influenza B, and bronchitis were all negative.

“I told you, this isn’t the high season for influenza right now. Miss Shang, this classmate of yours just has a common cold.” Doctor Chen reached a conclusion and began giving Shang Jinyue suggestions. “Since she has already taken cold medicine and fever-reducing medicine, Miss Shang should pay closer attention to this classmate’s temperature. You can soak a towel in cool water and place it on her forehead for physical cooling. More or less, once the fever goes down, there won’t be a problem.”

“All right, I understand.” Shang Jinyue nodded, and her suspended heart also settled.

“But an ordinary cold usually won’t have a high fever lasting too long. If the high fever doesn’t go down at night and instead burns even worse, I suggest you still take this classmate to the hospital,” Doctor Chen added.

“If that really happens, I’ll have to trouble Doctor Chen to make a trip,” Shang Jinyue said.

“Miss Shang, don’t worry. I’ll be on call whenever needed.” Doctor Chen nodded.

The Shang family was her employer. How could she refuse this kind of thing?

Without much small talk, Shang Jinyue then hung up the phone.

The urgent task was to bring Shi Xiu’s temperature down. She disposed of the test strip and went to the bathroom.

Inside hung two towels, one yellow and one white.

Distinguishing which one belonged to Shi Xiu was no problem for Shang Jinyue.

She did not hesitate to take the plain yellow towel. After bringing it close and smelling Shi Xiu’s scent on it, she became even more certain.

The wet towel carried a coolness. Shang Jinyue placed it on Shi Xiu’s forehead, and this person’s expression visibly relaxed.

So she set an alarm to ring every half hour, watched Shi Xiu’s physical condition, and recorded her temperature on time.

This seemingly easy task was actually exceptionally tedious.

Time was divided into pieces, and the newly created Read on BaiLianTalesrecord sheet on the tablet made one seem like a machine.

Shang Jinyue adapted fairly well to this kind of work. After checking Shi Xiu’s condition, she went to look through Shi Xiu’s homework from this week.

Her train of thought was broken and intermittent, yet unusually full. She split her time apart and distributed it over various things related to Shi Xiu, as if she too belonged to Shi Xiu.

The sun was also cut into pieces, like an old-fashioned stop-motion animation.

Every time Shang Jinyue lifted her head to look at the window, it moved one square along the lattice.

By the twelfth time the alarm rang, the sun had already fallen into the last square of the window lattice.

By the thirteenth time the alarm rang, the moon had taken over from it.

Auntie Chen’s messages also began to arrive frequently at this time, constantly persuading Shang Jinyue to go back.

In this family, if there was still anyone with some affection for Shang Jinyue, it was probably this auntie who had no blood relation to Shang Jinyue.

She told Shang Jinyue that Shang Xiunian was truly angry. She had just asked the housekeeper to clean out the small room in the southwest corner.

Seeing these words, Shang Jinyue’s gaze tightened uncontrollably.

It had been many years since she last heard about this small room. After Shang Xiunian died, she had people [stolen content]flatten this place and dig a pond there instead.

After rain, frogs would always stop inside, croaking noisily over this pond all night.

As if speaking for someone, telling a story pressed inside the heart that could not be put into words.

“Grape… don’t go over there. It’s all, all water…”

The young girl’s indistinct murmur sounded, and the towel on her forehead also fell down with her movements.

That name Shang Jinyue could not be more familiar with connected the bond between her and Shi Xiu.

She quietly looked at Shi Xiu, who was anxious for Grape in her dream, her gaze obscure.

So she still remembered that Grape was a little dog who could not swim.

“She won’t go. I carried her back.” Shang Jinyue followed Shi Xiu’s dream and spoke, raising her hand to stroke Shi Xiu’s forehead once again.

The redness on Shi Xiu’s face had already faded quite a lot, and her forehead no longer felt as burning hot to the touch.

“Good dog.” Shi Xiu murmured in her sleep.

She seemed to treat Shang Jinyue’s [unauthorized copy]palm as Grape, rubbed against it, and then slept steadily again.

[Miss, are you still not coming back? Mr. Wen and his daughter have already arrived.]

Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.

The messages from home rang together with the alarm, like two difficult-to-weigh choices.

For the Shang Jinyue of the past.

The current Shang Jinyue withdrew the hand Shi Xiu had rubbed against, turned off the phone that had popped up both the alarm and the text message, and put it back into her pocket.

She would not go back. She should wet the towel for Shi Xiu again.

.

After night fell, time seemed to lose its trail of movement.

No one knew how long had passed, but Shi Xiu’s temperature fell to thirty-seven point eight, and the sound of the door opening came from the quiet room.

A beam of light came from the foyer, and then, as the door was pushed open, it tore through the dim room.

Feng Xinyang carried her high heels and tiptoed into the dorm…

“Oh my god!”

Heaven knew how frightening it was for Feng Xinyang to enter and see a pair of eyes looking over from Shi Xiu’s room.

She held onto the shoe cabinet and nearly sat down on the floor.

“It’s me.” Shang Jinyue stood from the nightlight and greeted Feng Xinyang.

“Shang Jinyue?” Feng Xinyang could not believe her eyes. She looked at Shang Jinyue, then at Shi Xiu lying on the bed inside the bedroom.

“You two, you two…”

“Shi Xiu had a fever. She’s been sleeping since noon until now,” Shang Jinyue interrupted Feng Xinyang’s stammering words.

“Oh~” Feng Xinyang breathed a sigh of relief and patted her little heart.

Then she began asking Shang Jinyue about Shi Xiu’s condition with concern. “How is she now? Has the fever gone down?”

“It went down from thirty-nine degrees to thirty-seven. As long as it isn’t a high fever, there shouldn’t be much of a problem,” Shang Jinyue answered Feng Xinyang in a low voice.

“That’s good, that’s good.” Feng Xinyang nodded, then seemed to realize something and stared fixedly at ​bailiantales.com​Shang Jinyue. “You couldn’t have been here taking care of Sister Shi since this afternoon, right?”

“You weren’t here. It wouldn’t have been good if something happened to her.” Shang Jinyue did not dare nod.

She carefully explained to Shi Xiu’s friend, afraid that she would be pushed away from Shi Xiu by Feng Xinyang.

“Then you’ve really worked hard.” Listening, Feng Xinyang felt many emotions arise in her heart.

The last time she had a fever this badly, only her two moms had surrounded her bed and cared for her attentively.

And even then, the two of them had taken shifts.

Today, it had been Shang Jinyue all alone. Feng Xinyang did not even know how she had endured until dawn.

Should this be called a sense of responsibility between classmates?

If Feng Xinyang had been here today, would Shang Jinyue still have stayed?

A lot of strange thoughts appeared in Feng Xinyang’s head. She hurriedly shook her head and said to Shang Jinyue, “Then hurry and go back to rest. I’m back now. Leave Sister Shi to me for the second half of the night.”

“You drank alcohol.” Shang Jinyue did not feel at ease with Feng Xinyang.

“I really didn’t this time.” Feng Xinyang shook her head, sincerity and pride shining in her eyes. read the original at bailiantales.com“They couldn’t beat me at cards. I slaughtered everyone tonight and won several hundred yuan in paint money.”

Indeed, Shang Jinyue had stood with Feng Xinyang for this long and had not smelled alcohol on her.

This person had seemed to be very reliable by Shi Xiu’s side in the past too.

“Oh, right.” At this point, Feng Xinyang remembered something.

She turned over the bag on her back and asked Shang Jinyue, “Sister Yue, do you know what language this is? I typed the English into the official website but couldn’t find this paint series.”

Perhaps because of Shang Jinyue taking care of Shi Xiu, even Feng Xinyang’s form of address for her had changed.

Shang Jinyue listened to this form of address with discomfort. Then, by the weak light of the nightlamp, she clearly saw what Feng Xinyang had taken out from her bag.

It was the box of paints she had given Shi Xiu.

The edges of the tin-aluminum tube refracted the warm light, stinging the eyes.

Shang Jinyue looked at this familiar packaging and, following Feng Xinyang’s words, asked, “Then how do you have this tube of paint?”

“Sister Shi gave it to me.” Feng Xinyang blurted it out and even bragged a little. “Sister Shi was super straightforward at the time. She gave me both tubes of white paint from the box.”

“Don’t even mention it, expensive [stolen content]really does have its reasons. This paint is honestly pretty good to use. I want to buy some to stock up too.”

She happily weighed the treasure she had obtained and sought Shang Jinyue’s approval. “Anning gave Sister Shi so much white paint that day. Sister Shi casually giving me these two tubes wasn’t much, right, Sister Yue?”