Along with Mei Mengzhen’s injury, there were quite a few rumors circulating as well.
Just like the injured girl in her past life, initially the gossip was sympathetic towards the injured girl, but as the rumors spread, they took a turn and became uncontrollable; soon, the entire senior year knew about the incident.
During the peak of the rumor spreading, Mei Mengzhen was blissfully unaware, focusing on resting and growing vegetables at home—until she returned to school and was faced with the reality, but that’s a story for later.
For now, Mei Mengzhen was still lying in the School Infirmary, waiting for the return of Dr. Chen after lunch to examine her tongue.
After changing the cotton in her mouth twice, the bleeding from her tongue finally slowed. Dr. Chen prescribed Mei Mengzhen two painkillers, "Take one pill a day. I’m afraid your tongue might hurt after eating; these two pills should be enough." He couldn’t prescribe more from a School Infirmary.
After thanking him, Mei Mengzhen took her leave slip, packed her bag, and headed home.
It was neither early nor late, so there were no people around, and Mei Mengzhen quickly went upstairs, locked her door, and entered her space. She had already made up her mind: drink Spiritual Spring Water for internal injuries and soak in Spiritual Spring Water for external injuries. Since she had hurt her tongue, soaking it in Spiritual Spring Water was the best option.
To make it easier to soak her tongue and avoid bumping her face, Mei Mengzhen took a large bowl, filled it with Spiritual Spring Water, and stuck her tongue into it.
The moment her tongue touched the Spiritual Spring Water, a warm current enveloped the injured area, bringing more of a tingling sensation than pain. As the tingling subsided, she began to feel the soreness from stretching her mouth too wide and her tongue too long.
She lifted her face from the bowl, and just as she closed her mouth, she realized how silly she’d been—why did she need to stick her tongue out? She could have just held the Spiritual Spring Water in her mouth for the same effect.
Afterward, she poured out the previous Spiritual Spring Water, filled a new bowl, and held it in her mouth. This way, neither her mouth nor her tongue felt tired.
In fact, her tongue had completely healed the first time she soaked it in Spiritual Spring Water, so when she held the water in her mouth again, there was no feeling at all.
Mei Mengzhen spat out the water, stuck out her tongue, and checked it in the mirror. Not only was her tongue completely healed, but there was also not a trace of injury left. To top it off, she had even scored three days off—a cause for celebration indeed.
Now that her tongue was healed, there was no need for porridge. Mei Mengzhen reheated her lunch and enjoyed the belated meal with satisfaction.
In a content mood, she also washed her blood-stained school uniform. Just as she finished hanging it to dry, Fan Tianyu brought her brother, Mei Mengchen, home.
The moment they entered and saw Mei Mengzhen, the younger one was pleasantly surprised, while the elder one was taken aback.
Mei Mengchen happily asked, "Sister, how come you’re at home?"
"Yeah, not only am I at home, I also got three days off. Aren’t you happy?"
"Happy, happy! Is sister going to take me to school tomorrow?" Mei Mengchen asked with anticipation.
Mei Mengzhen thought about it, and actually, it wasn’t a bad idea. "Sure, I’ll drop you off and pick you up for the next few days. Go wash your hands, and I’ll get you some fruit."
"Okay."
Mei Mengchen was easy to please, but Fan Tianyu was a tougher nut to crack. As she went to the kitchen to wash the fruit, Fan Tianyu followed her, inquiring, "What’s this about getting three days off? I never encountered anything this good when I was at school."
"Of course you didn’t—this wasn’t exactly good news." She summarized the day’s events for Fan Tianyu, from kicking the desk leg to biting her tongue, choosing to share this with him deliberately. With the midterm exams over, parent-teacher meetings were just around the corner, and Mei Yinan had long notified her of his intentions to attend on her behalf. So it was impossible to keep the incident a secret. It was better to be upfront with her family about it.
After hearing the story, Fan Tianyu was furious, "Quick, let me see your tongue."
There was nothing to see; her tongue had already been healed and didn’t bear a single scar. She could only explain, "There was a lot of bleeding initially—my classmate got blood on his shoulder, and I thought the tip of my tongue was gone. But once the bleeding stopped, there was no wound to be seen." Only after explaining did she stretch out her tongue for him to inspect.
Fan Tianyu took a look, and indeed, it seemed there wasn’t even a wound. "We can’t just let this go," he said.
"The guy’s mom came to apologize in person and offered me 500 yuan for nutrition. I said I didn’t want it, but she insisted on giving it to me. However, I didn’t take the money. My classmates all helped me, so I gave it to our Class President to buy drinks for everyone, and the rest will be used for our class dinner fund."
Fan Tianyu was puzzled. "Why would you do something like that?" To his adult mind, it seemed only right for Mei Mengzhen to accept the compensation for her injury.
While it might be right in principle, the incident didn’t unfold that way, "The thing is, I can’t take the money; it just doesn’t feel right, and besides, I’m not lacking that little amount."
"You may be small, but you sure think big. You tell me all this, but don’t let me take charge—what’s the meaning of that?"
"Well, it’s about the upcoming parent-teacher meeting, right? Big Cousin said he’d attend for me, but I’ve got to let him know about this, right? We just need to be informed, that’s all."
Fan Tianyu was a bit irritated, "What, you weren’t planning to say anything if there wasn’t a parent-teacher meeting?"
"No, I would’ve told, of course. How could I not, after being injured and taking three days off?"
Having finished washing the fruit and with Mei Mengchen’s hands also clean, the trio sat down on the sofa to leisurely enjoy the snack.
Seeing that Mei Mengzhen could eat normally, Fan Tianyu was relieved. Being able to eat meant the injury wasn’t severe, "I’ll tell my mom when I get a day off. But from now on, let us handle these things. You should have called us; you’re still a child and shouldn’t shoulder everything alone."
"I know, but his mom just handed me the money directly, and it happened so fast, I never expected her to come." Of course, she didn’t blame Teacher Mi for meddling—Mi Liang had her best interests at heart. However, Chen’s mother’s reaction was a bit upsetting; she might be saying sorry with her mouth, but really she just wanted to remove the trouble with money. Sure, 500 yuan was decent money in 2007, but it still left a bad taste.
Regardless, that was that—the issue could only be left there. She might feel uncomfortable, but had no choice but to bear it, for fear of the situation escalating like in her previous life.
However, the more she feared something, the more likely it was to happen.
The less she wanted the situation to develop like in her past life, the more the events unfurled just like the pattern she knew too well.
When Mei Mengzhen returned to school, the tone of the conversations among her classmates had completely changed. Her injury had somehow become her own fault, and it seemed wrong to blame Chen Junjie; Mei Mengzhen was speechless.