Madame is Pretending to be an Academic Slacker Again!

Qin Xin lifted her eyes, looking at Nalan Ye Jue in confusion.

The man’s face suddenly leaning close made the focus in her pupils blur for an instant.

His deep gaze was like a sea of stars, pulling her into the unfathomable vortex at the bottom of his eyes.

Qin Xin’s mind stalled for a moment.

Then.

With a sudden boom, a long-buried memory surged up, hazy and indistinct.

”Big brother, do you also live here alone and can’t go home?”

”Mm.”

”Big brother, I’m a little scared by myself, can you play with me?”

”No.”

”Oh, then forget it, I’ll go find someone else.”

”Wait.”

”Big brother, what is it?”

”When my little sister comes back, she can play with you.”

”Big brother, when will your sister come back?”

”She... is still in the operating room. We have to wait.”

”Then can I wait with you?”

”Okay.”

In that distant memory, Qin Xin saw a little girl of five or six, coming up from a general ward, climbing that wooden staircase covered in wisteria, quietly pushing open the door of Ward No. 0, and giving the boy on this bed a radiant smile.

Sick and left alone in the hospital, she longed for a playmate her own age, so she boldly sought the boy out and struck up a conversation.

The cool and solitary boy, from his initial indifference to finally, against his will, keeping her back, unknowingly ended up playing childish paper airplanes and gomoku with the little girl, playing all the way till the sunset sank.

His sister still hadn’t come out of the operating room.

The little girl waited until she was sprawled on the edge of the bed, almost falling asleep, one drowsy nod nearly sending her tumbling to the floor.

His big hand swiftly grabbed her, pulling her up onto the bed.

Because he used a bit too much strength, his forehead bumped against the girl’s, and the two of them stared, big eyes to small, for quite a while.

Then he heard the girl suddenly giggle, her childish voice drifting through the room: ”Big brother, your mattress is so comfy. Why is it different from the one in my ward? It’s even more comfortable than my bed at home. I wish I could buy a mattress like this too... but I have to get three 100s in the final exams before I can get pocket money. It’s so hard...”

The boy’s lips twitched.

”Three hundreds are hard?”

”Mm, really hard. Last time I got three 59s, and my mom scolded me for the whole winter vacation.”

”What grade are you in?”

”First grade.”

The boy: ”...”

Scoring 59 in first grade really was... making things difficult for her.

After a long silence, he slowly said, ”Next time, if you get 60, I’ll give you a mattress exactly like this, and the best bed in the world.”

The girl’s eyes lit up. ”Really? Just 60 is enough?”

The boy: ”Mm.”

The girl: ”No, you have to pinky swear or I won’t believe you. A pinky swear makes it count.”

The boy: ”Okay.”

For the first time in his life, he reached out his hand and made a pinky promise... with a strange little girl.

With the boy’s solemn promise, the girl was overjoyed, chirping on for quite a while longer until sleep once again weighed down her eyelids.

Half-asleep, she mumbled, ”Big brother, why isn’t your sister back yet?”

The boy said heavily, ”Maybe... she won’t come back.”

The doctors said this time the odds were bad; she’d lost too much blood, and they might not be able to save her.

The key was, they couldn’t find any blood in the world that matched her extremely rare type, so they could only watch the blood drain away until life flickered out.

The girl comforted him: ”I’ve been in the operating room too, for a really, really long time, but I came out in the end. She’ll be just like me.”

The boy closed his eyes and shook his head. ”It’s not the same. Her blood is different from other people’s.”

The girl pouted. ”My blood is different from other people’s too!”