Chapter 97 (Lengthy Sibling Reminiscence)

Jiang Ji arrived at the hospital and pushed open the door to the ward, only to find someone else lying in Jiang Bei’s bed.

Just as he was about to step forward to inquire about the situation, his phone rang.

It was a call from Qin Qingzhuo. Jiang Ji answered.

“Are you here?” Qin Qingzhuo asked on the phone.

“Just arrived,” Jiang Ji said.

“I just called you, you probably didn’t pick up while riding. Come straight to the 11th floor. I’ve arranged for Jiang Bei to be moved to a different room.”

Jiang Ji acknowledged with a grunt and hung up the phone before heading towards the elevator.

Compared to the noisy wards downstairs, the 11th floor was extremely quiet.

When Jiang Ji walked out of the elevator lobby, Qin Qingzhuo was already waiting at the elevator door, leaning against the windowsill lost in thought.

As the elevator doors opened, he looked up at Jiang Ji. There was no expression on his face. “You’re really good at lying.”

Jiang Ji walked up to him and leaned down slightly to brush his lips against Qin Qingzhuo’s. “Are you angry?”

The words he intended to say got stuck in his throat. Qin Qingzhuo instinctively looked up at the camera in the corner of the ceiling and reminded him, “Be careful, there are cameras.”

Jiang Ji didn’t pay attention to the camera, innocently looking at him. “Does this count as a public kiss?”

Qin Qingzhuo didn’t know what to say. If Jiang Ji was just a contracted artist from his studio, he would probably be quite troubled right now. But unfortunately, Jiang Ji was his boyfriend, and he seemed to be falling for it.

He sighed. “Let’s go, let’s go to the ward first.”

Following him towards the ward, Jiang Ji asked, “Have you been here long?”

“Not really, I arrived half an hour earlier than you, I think.”

The high-level ward area was equipped with access control systems. Qin Qingzhuo swiped his card, “I’ve asked Jiang Bei about everything. She said she volunteered for the interview because she didn’t want people to scold you and didn’t want you to fail as a star because of her. Children’s thoughts are really…” Qin Qingzhuo didn’t finish his sentence, shaking his head helplessly. “She suddenly wanted to leave Yan Cheng yesterday, probably because of this reason, right?”

Jiang Ji “hmm”ed, then furrowed his brows. “That reporter, I clearly dragged him out.”

“The entertainment reporters are like that, they’ll go to any lengths for a scoop. Chestnut is already handling this video across all platforms, trying to minimize its spread,” Qin Qingzhuo commented as they approached Jiang Bei’s ward, pressing down on the door handle and pushing it open.

His departure to pick up Jiang Ji was just a few minutes ago. In that short time, Jiang Bei had already fallen asleep.

Jiang Bei, now asleep, lay on her side, breathing evenly. The chubby cheeks of her face were more pronounced, devoid of the usual coldness, giving her the appearance of an innocent child, even more so than an eight-year-old.

The two leaned against the window, gazing at Jiang Bei on the hospital bed.

“So, Jiang Bei isn’t your biological sister,” Qin Qingzhuo finally asked, “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“I forgot,” Jiang Ji replied. “There wasn’t really a need to.”

After a moment of silence, Qin Qingzhuo shifted his gaze away from Jiang Bei. “What illness does Jiang Bei have?”

“It’s a type of kidney disease,” Jiang Ji took out his phone and tapped on the screen a few times before handing it to Qin Qingzhuo. “Take a look at this.”

Qin Qingzhuo took it and quietly read the contents on the screen. “IgA… primary IgA nephropathy, severe kidney damage, chronic fibrosis seen on biopsy… end-stage requires dialysis or kidney transplant…”

Although Qin Qingzhuo had already speculated about Jiang Bei’s condition upon seeing the ward she was in, he was still shocked by the severity of her illness upon seeing the information Jiang Ji provided.

“So, Jiang Bei… is already in the end-stage?”

“Pretty much,” Jiang Ji confirmed.

Struggling to digest this fact, Qin Qingzhuo continued, “When did she develop this illness?”

“I don’t know,” Jiang Ji replied. “It was already quite severe when I found out.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Maybe…”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Jiang Ji interrupted him, his tone indifferent. “At this stage, even the best hospitals can’t do anything. The only option left is a kidney transplant, and the source of the kidney isn’t something money can buy. Besides, for a child I picked up, you don’t need to expend so much effort. I’m enough on my own.”

Qin Qingzhuo fell silent for a moment. Although Jiang Ji’s expression and tone were calm, he could sense a subtle and elusive sadness in Jiang Ji’s slightly lowered eyes.

After a light sigh, Qin Qingzhuo said, “Tell me about your relationship with Jiang Bei. Although I can’t help much, I’m quite curious about your past.”

“Thinking about it,” Jiang Ji replied, leaning against the windowsill behind him in silence for a while before speaking again. “It should have been about a year and a half ago when she stole my phone.”

As he spoke, images from a year and a half ago flashed through his mind.

At that time, he occasionally worked as a tutor during the day and worked as a night bartender at a bar at night. He lived in a dilapidated urban village, surrounded by extremely chaotic surroundings, with no sense of security.

After completing the seventh day ceremony for his mother, the next day he went to a small barber shop around the corner to get a haircut. When he came out, he was a little absent-minded, thinking of the scene when Yu Luo was lying on the hospital bed, saying his hair was getting too long.

As he walked past, a messy-haired, thin and short child came towards him. He didn’t pay attention and brushed past her. In that instant, the child, who was only up to his waist, lightly bumped into him. Jiang Ji snapped out of his thoughts and instinctively felt something was wrong. He reached into his pocket and realized that his phone had been stolen.

In fact, that phone had been with him for a long time and was practically worthless. However, the chat records and photos stored inside were very important to him, so he immediately turned around and chased after the child.

With Jiang Ji’s speed, catching up to a child should have been easy, but the child seemed quite familiar with the area and deliberately chose corners and crevices where only she could squeeze through. Moreover, she was extremely agile, slipping through like an eel, making it quite frustrating for Jiang Ji to follow.

It took Jiang Ji some effort to catch up to her, but instead of immediately approaching to retrieve his phone, he pretended not to have noticed and followed her casually, taking detours around the bend. Rather than disciplining a child who didn’t know any better, Jiang Ji preferred to deal with the gang that had instigated the child to steal.

The child, thinking she had shaken off Jiang Ji, walked into a modest phone repair shop at the corner of an alley. It was an illegal flat-roofed structure with no storefront, only a sign that read “Phone Repair” on the window.

Inside the shop, the voices of two people could be heard—

“How much can you give me for this?” Upon hearing the voice, Jiang Ji could finally confirm the gender of the child from earlier; she was actually a little girl.

“Not bad, little rabbit. Your skills are getting better,” one man teased. “Looks like you’re ready to become a master yourself.”

The other man grumbled, “What’s this nonsense? Stealing such a crappy phone, and you still want money for it?”

“If you don’t want it, just give it back to me, I’ll sell it myself,” the little girl replied.

“Sell it yourself? Your *wings are fully-fledged and hard, huh? Here’s two coins, now get lost.”

*翅膀硬了 (chìbǎng yìng le) – to outgrow the need to be submissive to one’s parents or mentor/ break away from people who have supported one up to now.

“Give me back my phone.”

“Not leaving, huh? Fine, you can forget about these two coins too.”

“I’m telling you to give me back my phone!”

…

Listening to the dispute inside the room, Jiang Ji stood by the window on the side wall, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it. He was quite amused by this dog-eat-dog drama. Just as he was about to light the cigarette with his lighter, he heard one of the men inside suddenly raise his voice, “F*ck, little rabbit, you’ve learned how to bite people now, huh!”

This was followed by a series of footsteps, and then the sound of two resounding slaps — it seemed like the man had walked over and slapped the little girl hard twice. “You bastard born from who knows where, raised without a mother, do you think you can get away with this? You want to bite people, huh? I’ll fucking knock out a few of your teeth today!”

Jiang Ji frowned as he listened to the sounds of beating and the painful grunts of the little girl inside the room. He put away his lighter and walked towards the phone repair shop.

Seeing someone entering the shop, the man who was assaulting the girl temporarily stopped his actions and smiled at Jiang Ji. “Just a bit of discipline for the unruly. You here to fix your phone?”

Without saying a word, Jiang Ji walked up to the man. Without hesitation, he grabbed the man’s collar and forcefully slammed him against the wall. Then, he relentlessly kneed the man’s abdomen several times, and within seconds, the man was incapacitated by Jiang Ji’s blows.

The man behind the counter was stunned by Jiang Ji’s sudden assault. Once he regained his senses, he hurried over to help. But as he approached, intending to throw a punch at Jiang Ji, Jiang Ji swiftly turned and grabbed his arm, immediately following it with a punch to the man’s nose.

With a curse, the man pulled out a folding knife from his pocket and tried to stab Jiang Ji in the abdomen. Jiang Ji dodged the attack, but the girl who had been kicked into the corner suddenly pounced on the man and bit his hand hard. Caught off guard, the man screamed in pain and forcefully threw the girl to the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Jiang Ji knocked the knife out of his hand and then kicked him against the wall, before squatting down and delivering a few punches.

Seeing that both men had been rendered unconscious and unable to fight back, Jiang Ji stopped his assault.

Finally, he glanced around and noticed the phone that had fallen to the ground during the altercation. He walked over, picked it up, and as he did, the girl sitting on the ground reached out and grabbed the other end of the phone. She stared at Jiang Ji fiercely, silently declaring that the phone belonged to her.

Jiang Ji lifted his gaze and stared coldly at her, intending to grab the phone with more force. However, the girl suddenly let go of her grip on the phone and lowered her head. Her upper body slumped forward, and she became unresponsive.

Jiang Ji took the phone and put it in his pocket. As he was about to stand up and step over her, he hesitated, as if suddenly remembering something.

After a few seconds, he squatted down and tried calling out to the girl, “Hey.”

But the girl didn’t respond. She remained limp and unconscious, completely unaware of her surroundings.

Should he leave her here? Jiang Ji looked at the two men who had just been beaten up. Although they were currently incapable of retaliating, who knew what they would do to the defenseless girl once he left? Moreover, why did the girl suddenly faint?

Sighing, Jiang Ji lifted the girl onto his shoulders and took her to the nearby hospital.

Initially, he had planned to leave as soon as the girl regained consciousness. However, after taking her to the hospital for examination, Jiang Ji learned that she had fainted due to kidney disease. Her kidney function was severely impaired, and according to the doctor, if she didn’t undergo hemodialysis immediately, she could lose her life within a few hours.

Having brought her to the hospital, Jiang Ji couldn’t just stand by and watch her die. So he paid the fee and had the girl undergo hemodialysis.

Sitting outside the dialysis room, he felt like he had acted on impulse, driven by a sudden surge of kindness. After all, he still had debts to repay, so why did he spend two thousand yuan to help a child who had nothing to do with him?

By the time he left the hospital, it was already dark. The girl, who had undergone dialysis, looked pale and weak. Although she could walk on her own, she appeared as if she could collapse at any moment.

On the way back, Jiang Ji asked about her parents, but she remained silent.

“What’s your name?” Jiang Ji asked, changing the subject.

Only then did she reply, “Chen Jiang Bei.”

“Who do you live with?”

“Myself.”

“Do you know you’re sick?”

“Yes.” Jiang Bei glanced at Jiang Ji and spoke after a moment, “I’ll pay you back.”

“How will you pay back,” Jiang Ji scoffed, “by stealing someone else’s phone and selling it?”

Jiang Bei pursed her lips. “As long as I can pay you back. Where do you get off caring about money?”

Ignoring her, Jiang Ji continued walking.

Seeing Jiang Ji remain silent, Jiang Bei spoke up again after a while. “You shouldn’t keep your phone in your pocket. It’s easy to lose.”

Jiang Ji sneered but didn’t respond.

As they passed by a store, Jiang Bei ran inside and came out with two lollipops and a few pieces of bubblegum. She hurried to catch up with Jiang Ji. “Here, for you.”

“Keep them for yourself,” Jiang Ji glanced at her hand uninterestedly and continued walking. “I don’t like eating things that are stolen.”

“This isn’t stolen,” Jiang Bei’s voice noticeably softened as she lowered her head, as if admitting fault. “It was bought with the two coins that person gave me after hitting me.”

Realizing that the child knew stealing was wrong, Jiang Ji suddenly felt uneasy. He knew that stealing might be the only way for this child to survive.

“I don’t like sweet things,” Jiang Ji said after a few more steps.

The two of them, one large and one small, fell silent and continued walking until they reached the alley where Jiang Ji had lost his phone. After passing by the phone repair shop, they exited the alley and arrived at a deserted demolition area.

In the darkness, sporadic lights flickered. Jiang Bei hurried to the intersection, peeked around, and then turned back to wave at Jiang Ji. “Alright, I’m here. You can go back now.”

She seemed cautious. Jiang Ji paused, not continuing forward. “Is your home nearby?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Bei nodded. Seeing Jiang Ji about to leave, she ran back to him. “Give me your phone. I’ll contact you when I’ve saved enough money.”

“Forget it,” Jiang Ji said coldly. “Even if I told you, you wouldn’t remember.”

Jiang Bei took out a short pencil from her pocket and a small card torn from a cigarette box. On it were some numbers written crookedly.

“You can write it here,” she turned over the small card. “I can read.”

Seeing her insistently offering it, Jiang Ji didn’t say anything else. He took the pen and wrote down a fake number, then handed it back.

Jiang Bei took it, read the numbers, confirmed with Jiang Ji that there were no mistakes, and then turned and left.

Watching Jiang Bei walk away, Jiang Ji didn’t immediately leave. Leaning against the wall, he lit a cigarette.

The child had left him feeling uncomfortable. He thought of himself being kicked out by the owner of the instrument store.

Compared to this child, he was even lucky. After all, while Yu Luo was still alive, she provided him with basic necessities and a lot of love.

But this child… judging by her appearance, she probably didn’t have anyone to look after her. She relied on stealing phones to repay debts for her survival, and she probably suffered a lot of beatings. Moreover, with such a severe illness, she might suddenly collapse in the alley one day and quietly die without anyone to help her.

Should he have given her a fake number just now? Jiang Ji exhaled a puff of smoke, this thought crossing his mind. Although he didn’t expect her to repay the money, if she really had no way out, perhaps he could lend a hand…

Thinking this way, he felt somewhat ridiculous. He was already struggling to take care of himself, yet here he was thinking about helping a stranger with an illness?

However, a few seconds later, as if guided by some unseen force, Jiang Ji inexplicably quickened his pace and walked into the demolition area in the direction Jiang Bei had gone.

There were few places with light, so Jiang Ji tentatively walked towards the nearest one.

As he looked around at the nearly abandoned shanty houses, with broken windows and drafts from all sides, not even providing basic shelter from the wind and rain, he realized the temperature in Yancheng was very low in December, almost below freezing every night. It was said that under the influence of the recent cold wave, the temperature would continue to drop in the coming days. Living in such a place, even if someone froze to death, their body might not be discovered for several months.

Jiang Ji used to think that he was already miserable enough with all his debts, but he hadn’t expected that there could be a girl in the world who was tens of times worse off than him—had she tried to destroy the Earth in her previous life?

As he approached the light, Jiang Ji suddenly heard voices cursing and the sound of someone being slapped. The content of their conversation became clearer:

“F*ck, you like biting people, huh? I’ll slap you until you can’t open your mouth!”

“Who the hell is that guy? Didn’t he take you to the hospital? Get him here!”

“Why is this bastard holding onto something so tightly in her hand? I can’t even pry it open.”

…

Jiang Ji picked up an abandoned bottle from the ground, then quickened his pace and took a few steps forward. He jumped directly through the window into the shanty where the voices were coming from.

In the corner of the room, Jiang Bei was being pulled by the collar by the man behind the counter of the phone shop. Her cheeks were already bruised purple, blood was oozing from her mouth, her features were swollen, and her eyes could barely stay open. She lay limp on the ground, enduring the beating and cursing, with only one hand tightly clenching her fist, which the other person couldn’t pry open no matter how hard he tried.

Seeing Jiang Ji jump in through the window, the two men were startled.

With lingering fear in their hearts, the two men exchanged glances and took out folding knives to threaten Jiang Ji, trying to scare him away.

Seeing the despicable actions of these two men, Jiang Ji was completely enraged. He walked over with the bottle in hand and smashed it against one of the men’s head with a “bang”. The bottle instantly shattered, and at the same time, the folding knife dropped to the ground. The man squatted down in pain, holding his head.

Jiang Ji pointed the broken side of the remaining bottle at the other man who was beating Jiang Bei. “Bullying a child makes you look tough, huh?”

Witnessing Jiang Ji’s ferocity, the man dropped the folding knife and began to beg for mercy. “I was wrong, brother, I was wrong. I won’t do it again…”

Jiang Ji dropped the bottle, grabbed the man by the collar, and punched him repeatedly until his face was bruised purple, blood was oozing from his mouth, and his features were distorted. Then, he tossed him aside like garbage.

Without paying attention to the two hasty thugs who fled, Jiang Ji approached Jiang Bei, who was sitting in the corner, and surveyed the environment of the room—a heap of old newspapers spread on the ground, a glass bottle filled with water, and a dirty and torn cotton quilt that seemed to have been picked up from somewhere. Apart from these, there was only trash scattered all over the floor.

“Living in this dump,” Jiang Ji glanced at Jiang Bei with little expression, “Aren’t you afraid of freezing to death?”

“I’m not cold,” Jiang Bei replied, “It’s fine here.”

Jiang Ji’s gaze shifted to her hands. Since he entered, those two people had been trying to pry open her tightly clenched fingers.

“What are you holding onto?” Jiang Ji half-crouched down, curious, “You’re gripping it so tightly.”

Jiang Bei remained silent.

“Let me see,” Jiang Ji said.

After a moment of hesitation, Jiang Bei slowly opened her hand towards him—it was the piece of paper torn from the cigarette box, with the string of numbers Jiang Ji had randomly concocted not long ago written on it.

For a moment, Jiang Ji fell silent, looking at the hastily written handwriting.

After a while, he chuckled, “Afraid they’ll find me for revenge? Better to save my own skin first.”

He took the piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it away. Without waiting for Jiang Bei to say anything, he spoke again, “Let’s see if you can walk.”

Jiang Bei propped herself up on the ground, attempting to stand up, but due to her lack of strength, she could only manage to get up a bit before sitting back down.

Jiang Ji sighed, turned around, half-crouched in front of her, and lifted her up, walking towards the door.

He didn’t say anything, and Jiang Bei didn’t ask anything. As the light behind them gradually faded, the two figures slowly merged into the darkness of the night.

TN:

I think water just came out of my eyes for no apparent reason!