Peach-Orange! – Chapter 326 – Want to Take a Bath Together?

It wasn’t just a minor issue. It was a major problem!

Su Tao knew clearly that when someone suffers severe trauma or even faces a life-threatening situation, their mind instinctively recalls beautiful memories. It could be described as a “life flashing before one’s eyes” or an unwillingness to accept the current circumstances.

Under such intense emotional stimulation, there was a possibility that Xiaocheng could regain her memories. Dr. Lin had mentioned similar cases before.

Unfortunately, Xiaocheng had only taken a tiny step forward in memory recovery.

Su Tao didn’t force Chi Xiaocheng to recall anything from the past. Instead, she simply smiled gently and placed a hand softly on Xiaocheng’s head.

She stroked Xiaocheng’s hair slowly, dispelling the faint fear in her eyes, and asked, “It’s okay, don’t think too much about it for now. Why don’t you tell me about the dream you had last night?”

Chi Xiaocheng pursed her lips, her small face shifting through emotions: worry, hesitation, fear, and even a hint of the adorable timidity unique to little girls.

Finally, she reached out and gripped Su Tao’s sleeve tightly, mustering the courage to say, “Last night, I dreamed… that I seemed to have had a fight with you, Sister Su Tao, and then… I was shot to death.

“I can’t remember clearly. Those are the only two things I can recall.”

As she spoke, she clutched her head in pain. “Tao… Sister Su Tao, that couldn’t have been real, right?”

Su Tao’s smile remained unchanged. “You can call me Tao-Tao. I like it when you call me that. Actually, Xiaocheng, you really have lost some of your memories.”

Sitting beside her, Su Tao didn’t hesitate at all before revealing the truth. “What you dreamed about really happened. After being shot, Xiaocheng was hospitalized and then lost her memory. You used to always call me Tao-Tao.”

“But…” Chi Xiaocheng’s voice grew anxious. “In my memory, I was hospitalized back then because I accidentally fell down the stairs!”

It seemed Xiaocheng’s subconscious was resisting the real memories.

Such intense emotional reactions weren’t conducive to her current treatment.

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Su Tao comforted her, “So, like you said yourself, your memory might have a few problems. But thinking about it now makes you feel terrible, doesn’t it?”

Chi Xiaocheng nodded. “Mm, trying to recall last night’s dream makes my head hurt.”

“That’s your brain’s self-protection mechanism at work. If you think or recall too much, it causes pain. But it’s also because of this that some of your memories are wrong.”

After explaining, Su Tao patted her head reassuringly. “Anyway, don’t overthink it. Once your body recovers a bit more, I’ll find a doctor to help restore your memories.”

“Okay~”

Chi Xiaocheng nodded obediently.

A faint suspicion arose in her heart.

Tao-Tao seemed completely normal now, her smile as familiar as ever, nothing like what Si Chen had described.

Before seeing Su Tao, Chi Xiaocheng had thought Su Tao’s possessiveness toward her might have reached 85%.

But after talking for a while, she wasn’t even sure if it had increased.

She didn’t dwell on it too much and instead asked shyly, “Then… what about calling you Tao-Tao?”

Su Tao pressed her lips together, her smile full of happiness. “I like that name. Call me Tao-Tao from now on.”

“Okay.”

A stick and a carrot.

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Just calling her Tao-Tao made her so happy.

Tao-Tao was really easy to handle.

After chatting with Su Tao for another half an hour, Chi Xiaocheng only realized it was already 10:30 when her stomach growled. Su Tao still hadn’t eaten breakfast.

A body that had undergone Darkening needed a ton of nutrients.

After sending Su Tao off to eat breakfast, Chi Xiaocheng went back to mindlessly scrolling through short videos.

“But watching too much Douyin ¹ Basically youtube gets boring after a while.”

Sighing helplessly, she swiped up from the bottom of her phone screen, skillfully closing the Douyin app.

Her fingers moved almost instinctively, tapping to reopen Douyin again.

She froze for a moment, then chuckled and set her phone aside.

Life in a hospital bed was truly unbearable, boring, and frustrating.

Right now, Chi Xiaocheng still couldn’t eat normally. For lunch, like in the morning, she drank some water and had nutrient solutions.

She spent more time asleep than awake.

The body tends to tire and feel drowsy most easily when recovering.

Seeing this, Su Tao decided to go home for a bit.

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She needed to refill the cat food for King and Ying Ran, grab some clean clothes, and prepare to stay at the hospital long-term.

…

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Chi Xiaocheng spent all that time in her hospital bed.

But Su Tao’s life had become much busier.

After waking up in the morning, she took care of herself, then went out to exercise. She spent an hour with Chi Xiaocheng before heading off at 9 a.m. to learn from the acting teacher Dongfang Yang had arranged for her.

Perhaps because her mother was an award-winning actress, Su Tao naturally had a talent for performance.

Or maybe it was just that Su Tao was a quick learner. Once someone taught her, she absorbed knowledge at an incredible speed.

In just three days, the elderly acting teacher praised her as “the most talented seedling in acting.”

She really wanted to bring Su Tao into the entertainment industry, but every time she brought it up, the girl firmly refused.

Su Tao’s original goal in learning acting was simply to better control her facial expressions when emotional, so that others wouldn’t worry about her.

After finishing her acting lessons at noon, she spent the afternoon by Chi Xiaocheng’s side.

In the evenings, she watched all kinds of tutorial videos.

Writing novels, drawing, 3D modeling, video editing, Photoshop….

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Her goal was clear. Before achieving complete stability, she wanted to quickly learn a skill that would allow her to earn money through online freelance work.

That way, she could both stay by Chi Xiaocheng’s side and make a living.

Day after day like this might have been exhausting.

But Su Tao was willing to put in the effort.

She didn’t want to leave Chi Xiaocheng anymore. She wanted to protect her, every single moment.

By the fourth day, Chi Xiaocheng could finally walk with support, eat normal food, and, most importantly, her body could come into contact with water again.

For several days, she had relied on the nurse to bring a basin of hot water before changing her bandages, using a damp towel to wipe herself down.

Taking a hot bath had become Chi Xiaocheng’s greatest luxury these past few days.

That evening, after finishing dinner and confirming with the nurse that her body no longer needed medicated ointment, Chi Xiaocheng eagerly said to Su Tao, “Tao-Tao, could you turn on the hot water in the shower for me? I want to take a hot bath later!”

She could walk weakly, and there was a stool in the shower.

As long as she sat on the little stool and enjoyed the hot water, there would be no problem at all.

With her pain-reduction skill, even during her period, she even felt nothing but a bit of “orange juice” flowing.

But just because she had a skill and believed she’d be fine didn’t mean the overly concerned girl beside her thought the same.

Su Tao frowned, stroking her chin worriedly. “Xiaocheng, are you really okay bathing alone?”