"Sometimes I really wish I could just collapse and never wake up," Lan Shuixian said as she watched the crowd coming and going not far away. "When I was very young, my parents died in an explosion. It was my uncle and grandmother who raised me, but then my uncle also passed away, leaving behind a younger brother and sister."
"Sometimes I think, life isn’t filled with so many perfect endings. Unfortunate people have their own misfortunes, and happy people probably all have the same happy smile on their faces," Lan Shuixian said, her eyes envious as she looked at the couples of university students.
At the same age, others were still in school, yet she was already burdened with the care of both the elderly and the young.
"I believe that things will eventually get better," Xiaofeng offered no real comfort. Without experiencing someone else’s illness, how could one advise them what to do?
The young boy had already come out from inside with two packs of instant noodles, waving at his sister, "Sister, let’s go home."
Lan Shuixian stood up, "Xiaofeng, I have to go."
Just as Lan Shuixian stood up, her vision darkened, and her body collapsed forward.
Xiaofeng saw her fall and reached out to catch her.
"Sister." The little boy ran over.
Lan Shuixian had fainted.
Xiaofeng had no choice but to take her to the hospital. After examination, Lan Shuixian’s body was fine, it was just low blood sugar. The doctor administered glucose before allowing her to leave.
After waking up, Lan Shuixian was a bit embarrassed, "I’m sorry, this is rather embarrassing."
"You have low blood sugar, did you know that? In situations like yours, you should always have some candy on hand to take when you feel off. I also have it, but not as severely as you," Xiaofeng said.
"I don’t like to eat candy."
"It’s not about what you like or dislike, it’s about your life and health," Xiaofeng said, looking at her.
"I’ll pay more attention to it in the future. You paid for the medical expenses, right? How much was it? I’ll repay you."
"There’s no rush, it wasn’t much."
"You took me to the hospital, and I’m very grateful for that. How can I let you spend both money and effort? I’d feel bad." As Lan Shuixian spoke, she pulled out a wallet from her waist, took out a few ten yuan bills, and pressed them into Xiaofeng’s hand, "Thank you so much for today."
Xiaofeng accepted only one ten yuan bill and returned the rest, "Have you been having dreams lately, dreaming about things you can’t do, or waking up often forgetting who you are?"
"Yes, I feel like some dreams are so long, but I forget everything once I wake up," Lan Shuixian laughed, "I don’t know why, sometimes I just feel like my body isn’t my own, but everything is normal when I wake up."
She found this situation strange herself.
It felt like a dream, yet it had a touch of reality.
It was that sensation of the body not feeling like your own; you could see it, but not touch it, and even less control what it wanted to do.
As Xiaofeng listened to her, her eyes deepened, "How long have you been feeling ?"
"It seems to have become noticeable only in the past month. It wasn’t so pronounced before," Lan Shuixian reflected, "It must be because I am too tired."
"Then you need to rest more, take a break and see how it goes."
Leaving the hospital, Xiaofeng took Lan Shuixian and her brother back home, to a small, clean but old-fashioned house.
The furniture at home was simple. Seeing Lan Shuixian return, a little girl ran out, "Why were you gone so long? Grandma sent me out to call you for dinner."
The boy produced two packs of instant noodles from behind him, "We went to buy these, Sister suddenly fainted, then we went to the hospital."
"How could she just faint?" An elderly woman emerged from the inner room.
The elderly woman was dressed in an old-style qi pao and wrapped a headscarf around her head, stepping out on small, bound feet.
The old woman’s feet were tiny, about the size of a twelve or thirteen-year-old child’s, wrapped in cloth and fitted in black cloth shoes.
Looking at the old woman’s feet, Xiaofeng naturally thought of the bound-footed women she had read about, but she hadn’t expected to see them in the 1990s.
The old woman had many wrinkles on her face. Judging by her appearance, she seemed to be at least eighty, though Xiaofeng was just guessing. It wasn’t appropriate to ask someone their age directly.
"Grandma, it’s okay, maybe just lack of sleep, then I fainted. This is Xiaofeng, a friend I know who took me to the hospital," Lan Shuixian turned to Xiaofeng, "Xiaofeng, this is my grandmother."