Chapter 127: Hospitals and Charm Shops (1)

When Li Yang finally woke up, it would be because of the weight that shifted on top of him. The sight of Taiga's head stuck in the crook of his neck and the tigress spirit's soft breathing made him watch and listen for a minute, before he pulled out his arm and checked his watch—

It was beyond ten minutes.

He had slept for more than an hour. The CEO blinked and tried to move, but for a spirit her height, she was a lot heavier than she looked. Li Yang eventually took out his phone from his pocket and would find numerous messages and missed calls. One of them was from Ying Yue He who gave the address of the hotel and the rest were from Luo Ju Di's number, and it was from a child.

Uncle Yang—please visit mama :( we're in a hospital

5 Missed Calls

Where are you, Uncle?

Hello. Is this a friend of the mother and a possible guardian? Miss Luo Ju Di is currently in a state of coma, but her conditions are stabilizing. Perhaps she will wake up in a couple of days. However, we need someone to watch over her daughter.

He might have already been jostled out of bed by the first message from Chunhua, an urgency filling his chest—but the several other messages and missed calls were enough to make him realize he needed to get up fast.

—-

Rudely awakening her wasn't what Taiga wanted, but the look on Li Yang's face was enough to make her lose her temper and instead made her alarmed. "Is something wrong, Bossman—"

No words were spared.

It didn't take too long for them to rush to his car and then head back to a city, at a speed that was faster than she had ever been in and it might have even gone past the speed limit. But then it started making sense when the scent of death, sanitization, filled her nose and then eyes.

The two of them would wind up in a hospital room.

Taiga hesitated and stayed outside for a moment. She didn't like the uncomfortable feeling, and even just seeing a woman on the bed lying down, still alive, but unconscious was unpleasant. She had seen death, but the situation was different.

—-

It was odd to explain that he wasn't Luo Ju Di's husband when he stepped inside. A nurse happened to be around, but it was also the exact moment when Chunhua had rushed and hugged his leg.

His daughter.

Sounds of sniffles reached his ear, and he was sure that his pants were stained with some snot when he picked the child up into his arms and addressed the nurse. It didn't take too long for the nurse to leave them be and promising to return if she was needed or had any other concerns.

"Uncle Yang, last night—" Chunhua hiccuped. "The pretty nurse told me there was an earthquake, but it's not it. There was this monster and a scream—"

He slowly placed his hand on top of her head, "I know."

"Where were you?" She sniffed and looked at him with puffy red eyes. "How did you know? Did you see and hear it too?"

The CEO closed his eyes and felt a certain amount of guilt to rack inside of him. If he had known that such an accident would occur, then he shouldn't have allowed the Tyrannical Merfolk to make the attack. He should have gone for the throat and finished him off back then.

And yet there was something odd in her question.

"Hear it?" he asked and then said. "I saw it, but I couldn't answer a thing it said."

The little girl nodded her head gravely. "It was talking so loudly and scarily, looking for its Mermaid friend. But you were there, Uncle Yang?"

"I saved the Mermaid," he said. But those words were somewhat hollow when he looked at the woman in the hospital bed. Were there many other cases like her? He hadn't paid much attention to it last night when he knew he couldn't do a thing.

But if he had known?

He would have tried. However, at that time, Bao's words of unavoidable and collateral damage somehow rang true. Callous as it may have been to turn away, when paired with the group of Shadow Hunters present last night, the responsibility of saving shifted—

Chunhua's eyes sparkled. "Mermaid? Like a Prince Charming, Uncle Yang?"

Somehow the mention of a finned friend was enough to make the little girl's emotion perk up, even with the condition of her mother. Perhaps it was just the child's ability to live in the moment and concentrate on that, and to Li Yang it was much better than his own case of endlessly ruminating.

She didn't seem to have a problem, even with him awkwardly holding his hand over her head.

Bao appeared and pointed at him. "You're clutching it like she's some kind bowling ball—"

"Panda!"

"I forgot about this." the creature slapped a paw over its face. "What's up kid?"

Even Bao seemed comfortable around Chunhua, and possibly vice versa. It was enough to make him smile a bit until he stood up for a moment and stepped out of the room. "Miss Taiga—do you still feel uncomfortable? If you could step in for a moment, I'd like to introduce you to Chunhua."

Taiga backed off the wall and looked at him. "Oh, she's your daugh—"

One look was all it took to make the tigress spirit temporarily shut up. But it wouldn't take long for the spirit to step into the room and then be gazed upon by Chunhua with widened eyes and her jaw dropping. "Kitty!"

"Taiga is not a cat!"

The protest would turn out to be futile, especially when Chunhua eagerly met up and talked with the Tigress Spirit, who at the end relented with the nickname. Taiga didn't even need to be told much, she was more than ready to talk with a child.

"The two seem to be on a similar wavelength." Bao pointed out with a snort.

Li Yang approached the sleeping woman and beheld her condition for a moment. The nurse had said her condition was fine and she would get better… but he still couldn't find himself at ease. Could he do nothing at this point in time? If the Mermaid had been here, would her healing waters actually do something?

He wasn't sure.

Maybe patience was all he needed.

The CEO glanced over his shoulder at the young child talking animatedly with Taiga and knew that it might turn out fine—a young child like her didn't need to stay at the hospital and wait for her mother to wake up. Or she'd put her foot down and demand to stay where she is right now, and he wouldn't actually find it in him to force her to come along.

So it wasn't only his guilt, but in his own self-interest, that Luo Ju Di woke up?

Was there a way, though?

He hadn't exactly fully checked a notification from earlier, busy with the requests of Bai Minghua, but here it was.

[ Congratulations! You Have Accomplished The Second Main Quest - Shop Function Has Upgraded ]

[ Charm Shop Level 2 Is Now Available ]

Maybe, just maybe, there was something for Luo Ju Di's condition.