Chapter 9: Periwinkle

  "Qing Cheng Jie, what's going on?"

  "Xiao Wei is here? Sit down and talk."

  "What's going on, Sister Qingcheng?"

  "It wasn't those people who did it."

  "This is also too much, what did they do to Jing Cheng's sister?"

  "It's okay, they didn't lay hands on me, but..."

  "But what?"

  "Never mind, I won't say it. Your time has come."

  "Yes, what am I going to do in the future, Sister Qingcheng?"

  "In the future? Hehe, Xiao Wei, didn't I tell you before that after getting married, this problem of yours will be solved?"

  "But I'm not even seventeen yet."

  "Hurry up?"

  "I'm in no hurry at all. It's better if I never grow up and never get married. This illness is really torturing me."

  "Come on, follow me to the back room and let's get it done. The small bed has already been smashed by them."

  As the footsteps approached, Cong Ye saw a slender and elegantly dressed girl following Yan Qingcheng.

  "Xiao Wei, this is Cong Ye, your brother Zhi's comrade."

  "Cong Ye, this is Bai Wei's sister."

  "Hello."

  The two of them almost simultaneously asked each other a greeting.

  Cong Ye discovered that the girl was very beautiful when she smiled, and was not inferior to Yan Qingcheng. Her face was a bit pale, and upon closer inspection, there was even a hint of greenish tint. She was slightly shorter than Yan Qingcheng, with unkempt hair framing her neck on either side, due to wearing a V-neck, cream-colored short-sleeved sweater with an open collar, from which could be seen her slender clavicle, as well as the thin edge of her black bra strap. Her lower body wore light blue denim shorts, brown leather sandals, and white ankle socks that just covered her ankles. She had cherry lips, a button nose, long narrow eyes, and slightly pale eyebrows.

  "Cong Ye, you go ahead and wait for a while, I'll use the house with Xiao Wei for a bit."

  "Alright, sister-in-law."

  She smiled at Bai Wei and nodded, then turned around and entered the clinic.

  Sitting on the chair, Cong Ye's mind was still a girl in the shadow. He always felt that the girl named Bai Wei gave people a "cold" feeling. At this time, the voices from the house in the backyard came to Cong Ye's ears again.

  "Qing Cheng Jie, if you and Zhi Ge had a child back then, that would have been great."

  Congye also always wanted to know why Pailong and his wife never had children.

  "Alas, at that time I wasn't considering mom's poor health, she needs someone to take care of her every moment. If we had a child, how could I possibly take care of it on my own? So we never did. We were planning to have children after your brother changed careers."

  They fell silent for a moment. Before long, Yan Qingcheng's voice was heard again.

  "When is Xiaowei leaving?"

  "Next Thursday."

  "Are you looking forward to your upcoming university life?"

  "There's some expectation, finally can stop being buried in a pile of homework every day."

  "It can be imagined that with our Xiaowei's appearance, it will surely cause a sensation throughout the entire campus."

  "Qing Cheng Jie was teasing me again, saying that I'm not even half as beautiful as her. If Qing Cheng Jie were to appear in front of those naive college students, no one would be able to focus on their studies anymore."

  Perhaps Yan Qingcheng had scratched Bai Wei's itchy spot, and the two girls burst out laughing together. Yan Qingcheng's laughter was crisp, while Bai Wei's was long and thin; the two kinds of laughter mixed together, causing the leaves in front to become intoxicated with them.

  "Qingcheng sister, I'm worried about my illness. If no one in Spring City can cure me of this disease, what will I do?"

  "Nonsense, Spring City is a big city, what kind of hospital doesn't it have, what kind of doctor doesn't it have? Maybe after Xiaowei gets there, she'll meet a medical expert who can completely cure her chronic illness."

  "I hope so, I don't want to be in so much pain that I have to come back and find Qian Cheng Jie every month."

  "Doesn't little Wei have a conscience? Is she really so unwilling to see her sister?"

  "It's not that I don't want to see my sister, it's just that I'm always running back and forth, I'm afraid this little body can't take much more of this."

  "Xiao Wei, I've told you several times already, you should try running, it might have an effect."

  "I ran every morning, but I couldn't run very far and felt exhausted all over. By the end of the month, no matter how much it hurt, there was no effect at all."

  "Didn't you say last time that your grandfather found a doctor for you?"

  "Yes, but that doctor is also ordinary, what's more, he's a chief physician and a senior doctor, but he didn't play any role at all."

  "How did he treat Xiaowei?"

  "It's acupuncture again, it's drinking medicine again, it's painful and bitter, but in the end, it doesn't work. Without me saying anything, he's already given up."

  "Didn't he say how Xiaowei got this illness?"

  "It's said that I'm congenitally... that I'm a very rare, pure yin body. It's only by combining with a pure yang body that I can be completely cured."

  "What sounds like a phrase from a fantasy novel?"

  "Really? Later I asked Grandpa, and Grandpa told me that in real life, there indeed exist bodies of pure yin or pure yang. However, it's rare to find one case among a million people."

  "Isn't that saying Xiaowei is a national treasure?"

  "Who cares? Qīng Chéng Jiě also said that it would be fine after getting married, but if we follow what that doctor said, then she must marry someone with a pure yang body to get better."

  "Isn't there little hope then?"

  "Who says it's not? One million times one million is also ten to the twelfth power, which means 1 followed by twelve zeros. Individual, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million, hundred million, billion, ten billion, hundred billion, thousand billion, exactly a probability of one in a trillion. If my luck was really good enough to run into that so-called pure yang body man, wouldn't it mean that I could win the lottery just by buying a ticket?"

  "Is it like this, Xiaowei?"

  "That's just how probability works."

  "Don't worry, Xiaowei. The fate between people is fixed. Who knows, maybe one day Xiaowei will accidentally trip and fall right next to that pure Yang-bodied Prince Charming."

  "This is something even a ghost wouldn't believe. And the white horse prince, if that doctor was telling the truth, what if one day I really met someone with a pure yang body? What if they're a 50 or 60-year-old old man? What if they look like a toad? What if they're already married?"

  "You're just thinking wildly, where are so many what-ifs?"

  "How can it be?! Did you forget, sister? That's a one in a trillion chance! If I multiply that by all these other unlikely events... do I still have any hope?"

  At this time, the two girls in the house laughed again.

  After the laughter stopped, the conversation between the two suddenly became low and inaudible. Cong Ye also withdrew his thoughts, muttering something about pure yin body, pure yang body.

  "Is there really such a person?"

  Congye liked to browse the internet when he was in the army, and knew that there were many descriptions of special constitutions on it. However, Congye always thought those statements were nonsense. But today, a girl named Baiwei said that her grandfather actually said that such things really exist in reality. I don't know what Baiwei's grandfather does, whether his words are true or not.

  As the sun had already set, Yan Qingcheng and Bai Wei finally arrived at the front. Cong Ye stood up to give his seat to Bai Wei, while he himself planned to return to the small courtyard in the back.

  "Cong Ye, show off your skills and cook a sumptuous dinner for us, we'll let Little Wei sister try it."

  "Is it worth causing a stir in the whole city?"

  "How could it be? My sister is poor and can't afford to give Xiaowei any gifts, so she can only invite you over for a simple meal at home."

  "As sister said, I'll stay for dinner then."

  "This is right, you also try Congye's craftsmanship, it's no worse than sister's."

  Bai Wei glanced at Cong Ye and was about to turn around to go to the backyard to cook, asking hesitantly:

  "Really?"

  "Hehe, I'm far from having a sister-in-law's culinary skills, it's just barely edible."

  "Did you learn from your sister-in-law? How come you two have the same tone?"

  Cong Ye smiled and saw Yan Qingcheng smiling at him with a smile on his face, he quickly turned around and went to the backyard.

  "Sister, you're making me blush."

  Hearing the childish words behind her, Cong Ye's face suddenly turned red for no reason.

  At dinner time, seeing Ba Wei eating very little, Cong Ye couldn't help but ask:

  "Is it hard to eat?"

  "No, no, I'm not feeling well now, can't eat."

  Cong Ye turned his head and looked at Yan Qingcheng.

  "How can Cong Ye be so lacking in confidence? Little Wei's body is currently unwell and she can't eat too much."

  Cong Ye finally felt at ease.

  "Qing Cheng Jie and Xiao Hui Jie went to the western region to teach, when will they come back?"

  "He won't be able to come back for a while, he called me the other day and said that he would go straight back to school from there, if nothing special happens, he will only return during winter break."

  "It's been more than half a year since I last saw her."

  "School just started and we met again?"

  After seeing off Baiwei, it was already past nine o'clock at night. The clinic had been smashed up like that, and the two of them were no longer worried about the developer coming to make trouble. After washing up, they went to bed early, each in their own room.