Chapter 148 - 118: The Past [2 in 1]

Chapter 148: Chapter 118: The Past [2 in 1]

"I actually have thought about my past," she said, counting on her fingers. "I know how to cook, farm, and identify wild vegetables. I can even build a house by myself—don’t laugh, why wouldn’t my treehouse count as a house?

"I even built myself a toilet!

"I’m so capable and smart, and see how standard my pronunciation is? I don’t have the slightest accent, yet I’m so young... I shouldn’t be a poor girl from an impoverished mountainous area, right?

"So here comes the question: what kind of situation would lead to me being knowledgeable and yet so good at all this hard labor?"

Following her train of thought, Zhou Qian also frowned tightly. "An agriculture student?"

"Huh?" Huai Yu blinked.

Sitting up straight, Zhou Qian mirrored her by counting on his fingers as he analyzed, "Isn’t that house of yours just a greenhouse? It’s perfectly normal for agriculture students to know how to build a greenhouse, isn’t it?

"As for farming, I’ve never been an agriculture student, but they probably need to know how to plant things themselves, right?

"And cooking is simple—you just have to make sure it’s fully cooked!

"As for identifying wild vegetables... maybe you just have a rich reserve of knowledge?"

His analysis made so much sense that Huai Yu was almost convinced. Zhou Qian then sized her up in puzzlement.

"Being an agriculture student isn’t something to be ashamed of, is it? Why did you make it sound so terrifying just now?"

Huai Yu stammered, "I figured I was probably an innocent, bright college student who got trafficked to a poor mountain village, forced to have children, work the fields, and endure beatings for a miserable life...

"Didn’t you say it yourself?" she said, her eyes widening as she looked at Zhou Qian. "You said I was especially good at currying favor... I must have suffered a lot to try and please people like that!

"Isn’t that right, Brother Zhou Qian?"

Now it was Zhou Qian’s turn to be dumbfounded. Because after thinking it over, this speculation was also surprisingly reasonable!

Zhou Qian was completely stunned.

As a patient, he really shouldn’t be worrying about such complicated matters of the past and future. But Huai Yu looked so muddleheaded, just taking things one day at a time. She was like a child obliviously walking through a crowded market with a bomb in her pocket, leaving him constantly on edge.

Thinking it over, he noticed another problem.

"If you know how to do so much, why is your skin still so good? You don’t even have calluses on your hands.

"Whether you were an agriculture student or trafficked, there should be some trace of manual labor."

Huai Yu thought for a moment. "Maybe I just naturally heal fast?"

She spread her hands out, revealing her tender palms to Zhou Qian. She flipped them over and over, yet no trace of manual labor could be found. "I haven’t been slacking off recently, but look—there are no calluses and no cuts."

Zhou Qian knitted his brows, unable to come up with anything else.

The two stared at each other for a long while until a nurse entered the room to dispense medication, snapping Huai Yu back to reality.

"Ahhh, it’s almost three o’clock! I need to go catch the bus right now, or I won’t make it home before dark!

"Zhou Qian, I’ll come see you again tomorrow!"

"Sweeten up that mouth of yours! Don’t call me Brother Zhou Qian only when you need something, and just Zhou Qian when you don’t. I’m at least a dozen years older than you!"

"Okay, Brother Zhou Qian," Huai Yu replied with a cheeky grin, her feet flying as she dashed out.

As the nurse prepared the medication, she glanced after Huai Yu. "Is that your younger sister? She looks really cute. Your family must have protected her very well, right?"

Zhou Qian nodded, then couldn’t help but fall deep in thought.

It was true. Huai Yu’s personality was so contradictory. She knew how to show weakness and had a sweet tongue, yet she was obedient and pure. The former seemed like survival skills, while the latter felt like her inherent nature.

Developing such survival skills over the six years of the cataclysm was nothing to write home about—as long as one survived. But the latter... In this day and age, what girl could have been protected enough to remain so naive?

He felt a slight prick of pain on the back of his hand as the nurse lowered her head to insert the IV needle. Zhou Qian stared at the ceiling, slowly pondering the future.

Three hours later, Huai Yu didn’t have nearly as many thoughts.

Her little head could only hold so much. The furthest ahead she planned was building a toilet and a treehouse—oh, the vegetables in her plot could probably count as long-term planning, too.

Now out of the hospital, she surveyed the area she hadn’t paid much attention to before, quickly taking up her post at the bus stop outside. But as she had noticed on her walk today, there was hardly anyone taking the bus. A bus that usually came every thirty minutes took her a full hour of waiting to catch.

"Sir, I’ll get off at Red Victory Trading Market."

The driver gave her a look. "Red Victory? Isn’t the street closed for Labor Day?"

Huai Yu was speechless. She had completely forgotten! It was just a conditioned reflex since she usually went there every time she came into the city.

She had no choice but to change her destination. "Then I’ll go to the Administration Hall." If she transferred buses there, she should be able to make it home before dark.

The bus swayed unsteadily, and Huai Yu sat in her seat, spacing out.

The Rose Corridor, Zhou Qian, her own past... These questions linked together in her mind, ultimately tangling into a chaotic, unyielding knot of yarn that Huai Yu then decisively abandoned.