Volume 1, Chapter 20 – The Bai Sisters

The next day, the nurse who came to change Bai Xiang’s dressing was a little shocked.

The cut on her forearm wasn’t deep, but it should still have taken a few days to scab over and shed the scar. She hadn’t expected that when the bandage came off this morning, it was already at the final stage—nothing like a wound that had been freshly slashed just last night.

“Maybe I’ve got great platelets,” Bai Xiang said evenly to reassure the nurse.

“That must be it…” The nurse made her notes as she informed her, “Given your condition, you basically don’t need to stay hospitalized anymore. But someone has paid for a month. You can choose to stay and use it all, or discharge first and bank the remaining time.”

Because this was a special-care ward.

Equipment and attendants were all provided; a single day here could burn through a typical family’s weekly wages.

“I’ll discharge.” Naturally, Bai Xiang chose the latter.

She didn’t like hospitals; every extra half day felt like torture.

“Then your file will be entered into the Jobs Directorate,” the nurse told her. “Once you come of age and have your ID card, you can swipe it to draw from the time. Before that, if you want to withdraw time you’ll have to go to the Jobs Directorate and print a certificate.”

“Thanks, I understand.”

After the nurse left, Chen Jing’s family hurried in again.

Poor Chen Jing—after a night of terror she finally didn’t have to get up early for class, was lazing in bed next door, when her parents yanked her out from under the covers and hugged her, sobbing.

Then it gradually hit her—oh, I really almost never got to see these people again. Her emotions slipped out of control, and she cried along with her parents and relatives.

Bai Xiang had already changed. The only luggage she needed to carry was the cloud-patterned wooden sword. She sat quietly to the side, watching, her face betraying nothing.

…Until Chen Jing pointed in her direction and said something to her parents, and then Bai Xiang found herself surrounded by the couple dressed like city white-collars.

“We really have to thank you! Thank you, Classmate Bai!” Chen’s mother clutched the hand with which Bai Xiang held her sword, expressing herself through tears.

“We’re busy with work all the time, so Jingjing usually has to board at school. The last time I saw her she was sulking and didn’t want to go to cram class. I truly didn’t know… I don’t know—if something had happened to her this time, I might never have forgiven myself…”

“Great kindness needs no thanks.”

Chen’s father was far more restrained. The man in a suit and tie took a business card from his wallet and handed it to Bai Xiang.

Rеаd oո ΚαtRеaԁіոgСαfe

“I know Classmate Bai’s future achievements will be limitless and you may not care about these things, but this is everything we can offer.”

“Please accept it. From now on, whatever you ask of me, I guarantee—if I can help, I will do my best!”

Bai Xiang took the card and carefully read what it said.

Chen Zhien… Deputy Manager of R&D, Qingyun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.?

The name fit the moment. Bai Xiang wasn’t overly polite; right in front of the Chen family she slipped the card into her pants pocket.

That crisp decisiveness made both Mr. and Mrs. Chen very satisfied. Realizing she was about to leave, they tried several times to keep her and treat her to a meal. Only after Bai Xiang declined did they take Chen Jing to say their goodbyes.

“This girl isn’t ordinary.”

Standing at the door of the special-care ward, Chen Zhien watched that flash of white disappear around the corner and sighed with feeling.

“Would an ordinary person rush into danger to save someone?” Chen’s mother poked him, then asked, “Did you take leave to come here?”

“Yeah…” Chen Zhien rubbed his daughter’s head and sighed. “The project’s at a critical stage—now they’re going to dock my pay…”

Meanwhile, at the hospital front desk, Bai Xiang settled the time. She was basically a free person.

Thanks to Great Yu being a feudal monarchy, she didn’t have to worry about a pack of reporters swarming the entrance of No. 3 Hospital. She walked straight out the main doors and stood on the steps, taking in the street.

It was a little after ten in the morning. Bai Shengju had said that around this time her Second Uncle would come pick her up.

With the morning rush past, aside from the crowds still queuing at No. 3 Hospital, the sidewalk and road were rather quiet.

Across the way, under the plaque of Chilong No. 1 High School, layers of police cordons were still in place. Inspectorate police stood post every ten meters on both sides of the road—clearly, it was still under lockdown.

Seeing this, the people queued up were speculating aloud, unaware that one of those at the center of it all was standing right beside them.

Zhang Longze said he’d give me an explanation for the poisoning… and I don’t even know how that demon beast’s corpse will be handled.

Bai Xiang looked up at the sky.

And that “Jade Phoenix Sword” Tao Shuohua mentioned—what kind of treasure was it?

Rеad οո КαtRеаԁinɡСаfе

“Sis—!”

A clear call floated up from the bottom of the steps.

It was an even more bird-bright voice than Chen Jing’s, with an extra touch of spirit to it. The drawn-out tail even lingered. Even if Bai Xiang didn’t think the call was for her, she still turned her head that way on reflex.

It was a black sedan.

The style looked a touch old-fashioned. The passenger-side window was already rolled down, and a girl with a shoulder-length bob had half her body out the window, waving vigorously this way.

“Sis—!”

“Hurry, Sis! We came with Second Uncle to pick you up!”

Only after triple-checking that the shout was indeed aimed at her did Bai Xiang, under the gaze of the onlookers, approach the car and reach for the rear door.

But the door opened on its own.

A long-haired girl with straight black hair drew her arm back just then—clearly she was the one who’d opened it.

She pulled the door and got in; before she could even take stock, the car pulled out onto the road.

“There’s a gift behind your seat.”

A cold, low voice came from the driver’s seat.

Here we go.

Bai Xiang looked forward, fixing on the bronze-toned profile of her Second Uncle, Bai Lianzhou.

Bai Lianzhou wasn’t bad-looking.

Rumor had it that when he was young quite a few girls pursued him, but he was a man single-mindedly devoted to the sword dao; no one had ever been able to make him put it down and start a family.

Yet later, for some reason, he suddenly went against his own grain and chose the best-placed among his pursuers, a woman named “Shen Xuelan.” Because of that marriage, the Bai family gained a connection to the Transit Directorate—Shen Xuelan’s father, “Shen Xin,” worked there.

Reaԁ оո КatRеαԁiոɡСαfе

Bai Lianzhou had always worn an ice-cold, expressionless face; it was basically impossible to read his moods.

But Bai Xiang always felt he didn’t live happily.

“A gift? What gift?”

The girl in the front seat popped her head out with a swish and, without forgetting to gripe at Bai Lianzhou, said, “Told you Second Uncle plays favorites—every time he sees Big Sis he brings her something good! We don’t get it every time!”

Still driving, Bai Lianzhou replied, “If you want something, tell your mother to buy it for you.”

“Lame!”

With that said, the girl pouted and withdrew.

Bai Xiang still didn’t speak, but inwardly she was a bit speechless.

At first glance his reply seemed nothing, but dig a little and it meant, “You have a mother and Bai Xiang doesn’t, so stop comparing yourself to her on this.”

Isn’t that just ripping open someone’s wounds?

Good thing I’m not actually a child.

Bai Xiang confirmed it: Bai Lianzhou really wasn’t good at expressing himself.

As for the two girls in the front and back seats, they were the daughters of Uncle Bai Guanshan and Aunt Zhu Ying.

The one in front, with shoulder-length hair, a voice like a songbird, lively and restless, was called “Bai Leying,” the younger sister.

In the back seat, the long-haired, straight-haired black-tressed girl who’d opened the door for Bai Xiang and then tucked herself into a corner without a word was “Bai Zhuqing,” the elder sister.

Of course, both of them had to call her “Big Sis.”

Even though Bai Xiang wasn’t actually related to them by blood.

“Leying!”

Hands folded over her knees, Bai Zhuqing immediately scolded her sister when she acted out.

Reаⅾ oո КatRеaԁіnɡСаfе

Then she shot a quick glance at Bai Xiang and bit her lip. “I told you not to bring that up… Hurry and apologize to Sister Xiang!”

“Hmph!”

Bai Leying squirmed in her seat a couple of times, then muttered reluctantly, “S-sorry…”

“Leying didn’t mean it. Please don’t take it to heart, Sister Xiang.”

Bai Zhuqing looked at Bai Xiang again, then took the initiative to rise and help fetch the gift box from the rear.

She moved too fast for Bai Xiang to stop her. So Bai Xiang simply watched her take it, and meanwhile sorted through her memories of the two girls.

The two of them—Bai Zhuqing had just turned seventeen; Bai Leying was nearly two years younger, fifteen now.

The sisters were both strikingly pretty, but their temperaments couldn’t have been more different.

Bai Zhuqing was well-read and proper, her manners as graceful as a great-house young lady; Bai Leying was willful and mischievous, always stirring up trouble.

When they were young, Bai Leying often bullied disciples around her age, and the Bai household often had parents showing up to complain.

The three were close in age and basically grew up together. In Bai Xiang’s memory, there was a time she went out with the two sisters; Bai Leying carelessly riled up a pack of strays, and when things turned dangerous it was Bai Xiang who arrived with a wooden stick and beat the dogs back.

Because of that, Bai Leying had been sharp-tongued with others since she was little but obeyed Bai Xiang in everything.

It was only after middle school that they spent less time together and drifted; add in adolescent rebellion, and every meeting since had been tinged with awkwardness.

As for Bai Zhuqing…

The girl picked up the gift box to hand it to Bai Xiang, just as Bai Xiang was lost in thought and reached to take it.

In the process, their fingers inevitably brushed.

Bai Xiang, of course, thought nothing of it.

But to her surprise, she noticed Bai Zhuqing’s face turn red.