Yang Jingshen swallowed nervously– just now, what kind of marvel did he even imagine?
No! There- there was definitely something wrong here… something that just doesn't add up. And, he was starting to regret his earlier actions that caused that woman to run away.
For that matter, was she even a scammer? And, why the hell did he even for a moment imagine that his voice sounded different, more… feminine when he spoke earlier?
"Ahahaha…." Yang Jingshen laughed hollowly, fighting an indescribable sense of panic. Say, he must have imagined it, right? Plus, it's only natural for his voice to sound scratchy after not speaking or even drinking anything for a few days…r-right?
'...' Can a scratchy male voice sound feminine? O^O
He unconsciously raised one of his arms to irritably brush away the thing that had been tickling his cheeks and neck for quite some time while trying to think up a plausible excuse to explain this peculiarity. But when his hand touched the soft and weightless mass, he stopped in shock, too afraid to even move an inch to confirm the vague guess forming in his mind as to what it could possibly be.
Yet, his hand seemed to have other ideas as it lightly stroked the length of his hair -yep, that was his hair- and raised a few strands until they appeared in front of his eyes. And, finally setting his eyes on them, Yang Jingshen could do nothing but stare at those long strands in stunned silence.
When did he start having such long hair? Could it be that he was in a coma for a long period of time so it grew out? No– then how to explain his hand? The fingers holding the lengthy, dark strands were long, slender, and thin with soft and tender skin, while the nails looked like tiny pearls. And most importantly, they looked nothing like his hands!
With each passing second, Yang Jingshen gradually became aware of other peculiarities that he had consciously or unconsciously ignored up until now. It was in the way how his limbs felt thinner and weaker, and how when he curled his toes and rubbed them against one another, they felt tinier and softer than usual.
Most importantly– the heavy feeling in his chest area…
'...'
"Nononononono…" Yang Jingshen chanted. "We're not going there— we're not!"
But yet again, his unruly hand betrayed him. Before he could stop it, it was already pawing his chest and upon feeling the round globes of soft and fleshy masses, he fell into a momentary stupor, even forgetting to remove his hand from where it had wandered off to.
And, then as if injected with chicken blood, Yang Jingshen sprang up and sat on the bed, pulling along with him the wires of the IV and various other monitors attached to his body. Fresh blood poured out of the new wounds while the multiple bandages all over his body pulled uncomfortably.
But he didn't care. Honestly, he didn't even feel a milli fraction of the pain as he stared at his crotch area covered by the thin hospital shift gown, with an expression of abject horror on his face.
And, after what felt like an eternity, Yang Jingshen shakily reached his hands towards this place, touched it, and froze up as a small whimper escaped his lips.
And this was the sight witnessed by Feng Xue, who came rushing back with a nurse after informing them of her younger cousin's condition; her little sister, sitting on the bed with her hand shoved in between her legs while blood poured out of various wounds over her body. The IV stand was thrown to the floor while the various monitors were detached from her body and in total disarray.
Time seemed to stop in front of this scene which looked like a scene from a crime-thriller/sci-fi cum adult-themed movie. The nurse who finally managed to come out of her shocked state -Feng Xue was still playing a statue- exclaimed loudly and ran over to the patient to check her condition.
But she only had time enough to straighten one of the monitors and start checking the patient's vitals before all hell broke loose.
***
Yang Jingshen withdrew his hands away in lightning speed, while a soulless look took over his eyes focused on the lower half of his body–or what appeared to be his body. His world seemed to be experiencing earthquakes, while tsunamis ravaged its shores; wars were fought and everything was destroyed in mere moments, just like that.
'I- it can't be, right?' he shakily inched his hand forwards again and gingerly touched his groin, but felt nothing– what should have obviously been there was gone.
"It's go-gone… disappeared!" He clutched the hand of the nurse who was trying to peer into his eyes with a flashlight in her hands. "How can it disappear just like that?"
"Huh?"
"You bunch of quacks! You-you– you did something, right? I'm gonna sue you!!!"# `⦀′
"Mi-miss… please calm down. You need-"
"ShutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupSHUTUPPPPP!" Yang Jingshen screamed at the top of his lungs. "And DON'T call me THAT!" He huffed out an angry breath like a raging bull and continued. "Telling me to calm down? HOW CAN I CALM DOWN? DO YOU EVEN HAVE ANY IDEAAAA? HA? HAAAAAA!?"
Someone was trying to speak and another was sobbing– a set of footsteps seemed to be rushing around and people were trying to hold him down– but he was too far gone to care. The rage, fear, disbelief, and disgust seemed to fuel the raging storm within him while his vision slowly dyed red.
"Hold her…..need to anesthesis–"
"...could harm herse–" Bits and pieces of sentences kept entering his ears as he slowly started growing lethargic. Those bastards drugged him, right?
But he was Yang Jingshen! How can he simply go down like this without a fight? So gathering the last bits of his already slipping strength, Yang Jingshen slurred out one last accusation before fully losing himself in the darkness.
"You demonsss… yuh tun me to aaa uman– ont orgive…." (1)
***
White walls, a white ceiling, a white bedside stand, and a standard hospital cot covered by white sheets. Truly banal, and even the sole monitoring device near the bed which would have otherwise added some color to this monotonous decor was instead looking quite dead with its blank screen.
The lone IV stand in the room also seemed to have ended its service to the room's sole occupant and it stood at the side of the bed like a dried-up tree trunk, while the occupant herself was slowly sipping the fish soup in the small glass food container.
Feng Xue twisted uncomfortably on the plastic chair but she didn't know how to start the conversation. And, to be honest, the younger girl seemed to be too engrossed in enjoying this homemade meal she got to taste after three weeks of bland hospital food, that she didn't have the heart to burden the other with all that troublesome stuff.
Not that she could blame her– it might have been hell, drinking all that watery diet of soup and plain porridge for weeks on end, even for someone like little Xi who is used to controlling her food intake.
Seeing the way the young girl was licking her lips after finishing the soup and staring longingly at the empty bowl brought a smile to Feng Xue's lips– in the past, little Xi had also been like this. She was very adorable, especially when it came to eating. Alas, how time changes people!
"Is it good?"
"Hmm"
"You can now eat normal food, but not too much– once you're discharged, I'll cook you a big meal, ok?" Seeing Feng Xi nodding her head obediently, she felt quite apologetic yet couldn't resist grinning.
'Soooo cute ah!'
But then, Feng Xue's face gradually lost its smile, remembering what happened no more than a month ago. She would still feel cold, every time she remembered the image of the broken and bloodied body of her younger cousin. Because, she very clearly knew that she could have lost Feng Xi on that day, forever.
She shuddered slightly, recalling the doctor saying that her cousin being alive was a miracle because her heart had already stopped beating by the time they started emergency treatment. Feng Xue took a deep breath to calm her mind and looked at the other, who was already sound asleep on the bed.
She wanted to scold this rascal for doing such a stupid thing– every day, millions of people in this world face bigger problems than some cyberbullying from a bunch of immature keyboard warriors. Couldn't she have just unburdened her troubles to her big sister?
Instead, she went and tried to– aiya! Thinking about this any further is no use because this kid already lost her memory ne.
Feng Xue stared at the peaceful visage of her now-sleeping cousin for some time longer and turned around to walk out after heaving a long sigh. Because of the chaos that happened when little Xi woke up after the accident, the doctors first declared that she seemed to suffer from amnesia and possibly delusional disorder as well.
Honestly, even now, she can't clearly remember much of what happened that day and only that her young sister had acted quite deranged after waking up. And the doctor's diagnosis had left her mind in shambles.
But fortunately, within the next few weeks, they had cleared out the possibility of delusional disorder. 'She was probably confused.' had been their final deduction.
But, Feng Xue didn't care. Amnesia is no good, and little Xi had apparently lost all of the memories they had together -which by itself was quite saddening-, but to have a mental illness on top of that? No thanks duh!
'Perhaps for her, this is also good– forgetting all that nonsense.' She thought while walking under the sweltering summer heat.
This time around, she'd properly protect her little cousin without letting her face all those troubles. Anyway, now she has more free time on her hands than before– maybe, just maybe, she could even persuade little Xi to leave this career and restart her studies once the coming three years are finished, no?
#####
Glossary:
01) You demonsss… yuh tun me to aaa uman– ont orgive….:- Here, what Yang Jingshen actually wanted to say was "You demons... you turned mt to a woman– won't forgive". But unfortunately, he was given anesthesia so he only managed to slur it out like that. I thought it would be fun to write it this way. Hehe
A/N:
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. So, from now on, if any chapter has a word, sentence (like above), or a saying that needed special explaining, I'll include a glossary under those chapters as I did here. I'll also put a number next to the relevant word/sentence inside the chapter, so you guys just need to follow the explanation with the same number under the glossary.