Chapter Thirty-Three: The Antidote (II)
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Lin’s mother was staring at the strange-looking liquid and was just about to say something when Lin Zhenzhen swiftly removed the bandages, took the glass bottle, pulled out the stopper, and drank it all in one gulp.
The entire sequence of movements was smooth and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
“Zhenzhen!” Lin’s mother cried out in alarm.
“How could you just drink it? Child, how do you feel? Is anything wrong?” Lin’s mother immediately shoved Xiao Xiao aside and rushed forward, examining Lin Zhenzhen from every angle. She was so frantic that tears nearly spilled from her eyes.
“It couldn’t make things any worse,” Lin Zhenzhen mumbled indistinctly.
“You foolish girl! Can you just eat or drink anything without knowing what it is?”
“All right, calm down,” Lin’s father said soothingly, patting her shoulder.
“You frightened the children,” he added with an apologetic smile toward Xiao Xiao.
......
Lin’s mother covered her eyes and drew several deep, heavy breaths. When she lowered her hands, her expression had returned to calm, though the corners of her eyes were red.
“I’m sorry, Xiao Xiao. I got a little overexcited.”
Xiao Xiao shook his head and was about to reply when Lin Zhenzhen suddenly began to cry out.
“Ah, it’s so hot! My face is suddenly burning!”
Lin Zhenzhen covered her face. The fear, panic, and helplessness in her only visible features seemed ready to overflow.
“Zhenzhen, Zhenzhen, what’s wrong?”
“Zhenzhen!”
Her parents immediately gathered around her. Watching their daughter suffer while being utterly powerless to help, they felt as though their hearts were being torn apart.
“What’s happening? What’s happening?” Lin’s mother’s tears spilled down in an instant.
“Xiao Xiao, what is this?” Lin’s father was somewhat calmer, but his voice inevitably carried a trace of accusation and anger.
Xiao Xiao was startled as well. Just like Lin’s parents, he had no idea what was happening to Lin Zhenzhen.
But he knew that this was indeed the antidote to the Ban Zhen poison—the antidote that would cure the poison in Lin Zhenzhen’s face. That was enough.
After a moment of panic, Xiao Xiao quickly composed himself and began reassuring her parents.
“Uncle, Auntie, don’t worry.”
“This is definitely the antidote.”
“What’s happening now is a normal reaction.”
……
“Dad? Mom?” Lin Zhenzhen’s voice was filled with confusion.
“What is it, Zhenzhen?”
“Zhenzhen, are you all right?”
“It fell off,” Lin Zhenzhen said blankly.
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“What…” Lin’s mother began to ask, but then stopped halfway, her mouth falling open, because she had already seen it.
With a single wipe of Lin Zhenzhen’s hand, the ugly, hideous bumps fell away in a rustling shower, gradually revealing her fair, delicate skin.
……
The hospital room fell silent.
The girl on the bed had a fair, lovely face. Two streams of tears meandered down her cheeks, and the moisture left behind made her skin appear even more crystalline and translucent.
With an almost reverent solemnity, Lin Zhenzhen slowly, gently, and carefully caressed her own cheeks.
There were no more bumps or rough, abrasive patches.
Only the smooth, tender sensation she had not felt in so long.
Lin Zhenzhen was dazed for a moment, but her tears began to flow even more fiercely.
She had thought her face was beyond saving. She had thought that, for the rest of her life, she could only live in darkness—until the day she could no longer endure it.
“Wah… wah…” Covering her face with both hands, Lin Zhenzhen finally broke down and sobbed aloud.
……
“Zhenzhen, Zhenzhen, it’s all right now. It’s all right…”
Only after Lin Zhenzhen began to cry did her parents recover from the stunned, rigid state into which their overwhelming joy had thrown them.
Trembling, Lin’s mother reached out and embraced her daughter, murmuring words of comfort without pause.
Lin’s father wrapped his arms around both mother and daughter. The corners of his eyes were fiercely red, and in the end he could not stop his tears from falling.
……
Watching the family of three weep and laugh through their mingled joy and sorrow, Xiao Xiao could not help pressing a finger to the corner of his eye. Then, moving as quietly and gently as possible, he left the hospital room, leaving the space to them.
Outside the room, Xiao Xiao leaned against the wall with a touch of languor. His eyes were slightly closed, and his right hand continued rubbing his temple. A hint of weariness showed between his brows.
The aftereffects of the previous night still plagued him.
Threads of pain gnawed at him like maggots burrowing into bone, refusing to give him any relief.
If he had not been worried that Lin Zhenzhen’s condition might worsen, he would never have hurried over while feeling so unwell.
After all that exertion, his headache seemed to have grown worse.
He swore that once he returned home, he would become a shut-in who never left his room.
No one was going to get him to go anywhere!
……
“Xiao Xiao, thank… Are you all right?” The voice, full of unrestrained joy, turned hesitant and concerned.
Xiao Xiao looked up. Lin’s parents had come out of the hospital room.
“I’m fine.” Xiao Xiao lowered his hand and straightened. Though his face was somewhat pale, his expression was relaxed and his smile gentle, as if nothing were wrong, just as he had said.
“How is Lin Zhenzhen?”
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“Really?” The mother’s heart was overflowing with joy at her daughter’s recovery, so she followed Xiao Xiao’s lead and changed the subject. “Zhenzhen is doing very well. She’s just been terribly weakened over this period and needs plenty of nourishment…”
“Ahem.” Lin’s father interrupted her stream of words. The usually taciturn man turned toward Xiao Xiao and bowed deeply, his voice hoarse.
“Thank you, Xiao Xiao. We truly don’t know how to repay you. Zhenzhen is our only daughter, and we…”
It was probably the most Xiao Xiao had ever heard Lin’s father say during all the times they had met.
“Thank you so much, Xiao Xiao.” Lin’s mother also bent deeply at the waist, her eyes reddening once again.
“Uncle, Auntie…” This was the first time two elders had bowed to him with such solemnity, and Xiao Xiao was somewhat flustered. He could also feel more and more eyes turning toward them.
With an helpless curve to his lips, Xiao Xiao reached out and helped them both upright.
“Uncle, Auntie, Lin Zhenzhen is my classmate.”
“Helping a classmate is only natural.”
“You don’t need to do this.”
……
After quite a bit of persuasion, Lin’s parents finally stopped thanking him incessantly. Nor did they do anything else that made his heart race and left him feeling as though he had lost years off his life.
Now that they could finally speak normally, Xiao Xiao somewhat regretted not simply leaving earlier.
After all, he had already done what he needed to do.
He could no longer do good deeds anonymously, but he had still been able to leave without taking credit.
However, walking away without saying a word seemed rather discourteous to him.
……
“Xiao Xiao, what kind of poison did Zhenzhen have? Why couldn’t the doctors detect it?”
“And where did you get your antidote?”
“……”
Once the burden that had weighed on her for days was lifted, Lin’s mother immediately noticed all these inexplicable matters and asked about them without a second thought.
“My goodness, why do you have so many questions?” Lin’s father said, though his eyes were filled with curiosity as well.
“I’m sorry.” Xiao Xiao smiled apologetically at them, but did not answer a single one of Lin’s mother’s questions.
It was the clearest refusal imaginable.
There was no overly tactful wording, nor any vague excuse that might be taken for an answer.
Xiao Xiao was not good at lying, and he could not be bothered to waste time fabricating some so-called truth.
The stabbing pain in his head had left him languid and inexplicably irritable. He had no desire to exercise his mind at all.
If not for the pleasure he felt after successfully helping someone, and if the people questioning him had not been two elders worthy of respect, Xiao Xiao would have simply thrown out, “I don’t want to answer.”
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