An Xiulan woke up the next day. This time, her head was clearer than ever. As she looked at the surroundings, she let out a sigh. She realized that she had some unusual memories in her head that she didn’t have earlier and instead of confusing her further, she was clearer now.
She has accepted a long time ago that her life couldn’t be an ordinary one and when she found out that she had a twin brother out of nowhere, she accepted it just like that.
Of course, she accepted this bizarre truth without any question. If could accept weird phenomena like Reincarnation or Transmigration or whatever it was called, then accepting that she had a twin brother was more acceptable.
After a thorough checkup, the doctors allowed the visitors to enter her room. An Qinyan entered the room and saw her baby girl staring at the wall blankly. Tears started brimming at the corner of her eyes but she held them back as it wasn’t the time to cry but to be thankful to God. She couldn’t be more grateful as she saw her daughter awake.
“Baby, how are you feeling?” An Qinyan asked gently. She was afraid of touching her daughter who appeared as if the latter was going to break if she touched her. An Xiulan looked so fragile and weak at this moment. It was natural for her to lose so much weight after battling such a fatal condition.
“Better, “An Xiulan whispered as she lay on the bed and heard her mother telling her stories in an attempt to not let her fall asleep. She could sense why her mother was talking nonstop. It wasn’t only her mom, even she didn’t want to fall asleep.
After a long time, she asked her mother, “Mom, are you bringing Lu Xuan home?”
It felt weird on her tongue to call out his name.
An Qinyan’s eye widened as she opened her mouth to say something but she found herself at the loss of words. What was she supposed to say at times like this? Could she choose An Xiulan over Lu Xuan?
Sensing her mom’s dilemma, An Xiulan smiled a bit, “Mom, I don’t have any problem. He is your child too. I would never want you to stay away from him because of me.”
“Lanlan, mom will never do anything to hurt you, “An Qinyan found herself saying. Her daughter didn’t know how the stone was removed from her chest.
“What if he gets hurt if you send him away again? Mom, what if it’s his only chance at having you?” An Xiulan asked. She could see a lot of moments of the original body owner with Lu Xuan but she could tell that there was something missing. She didn’t know what had caused the problem between that girl and her twin. However, when she put herself in his place, she realized that he was very pitiful too.
An Xiulan understood that she was a very selfish girl. She wanted An Qinyan all to herself but she knew that it wasn’t possible. By forcing An Qinyan only to care for her, she was bound to lose her to Lu Xuan. In the end, she only had the option of sharing her mother with her body’s twin. This way, she could have her mother.
Nonetheless, in the end, An Xiulan was only thinking about herself. She realised that Lu Xuan was pitiful but when she recalled how he had a father, a stepmother who cared for him and a grandmother who no less treated him like a treasure, she understood that he wasn’t that miserable.
“My baby is so sensible that it worries me,” An Qinyan whispered as she wiped the hair from her daughter’s forehead. “Let mom help you wash your face and braid your hair.”
A smile tugged on An Xiulan’s lips and she nodded her head. Who didn’t like getting pampered by their mom?
A few moments later,
“Is it okay?” An Qinyan asked as she made her daughter’s hair into a loose braid.
An Xiulan looked into the mirror and nodded her head. She was feeling sticky and smelly and so she asked for a bath and after having a warm bath, she felt half of her illness had disappeared. Although she was feeling very weak, she still was better than before.
Later, they had lunch together and then she was given medicine. Since she wanted to leave the hospital as soon as possible, she obediently swallowed the medicine and even took injections without nitpicking. She wasn’t one of those children who were scared of injections. Even if she was a bit scared, her fear was gone after getting her body poked by nurses back in America when she was recovering from the accident.
Sometimes, she was so obedient and sensible that it hurt An Qinyan.
“Do you want to rest?” An Qinyan asked.
An Xiulan shook her head. She had slept for so long that she no longer had any wish to sleep anymore.
“Then…” An Qinyan hesitated before asking. “Do you wish to meet your dad and stepmom?”
An Xiulan looked at her mother with discomfort written all over her face. However, instead of declining like always, this time she shocked her mother by nodding her head. She wanted to meet this scumbag father of hers and give him a rating of whether he was beyond redemption or there was hope left for him.
The first meeting between Lu Zhaolin and An Xiulan was a bit awkward. An Qinyan ended up smiling when she saw the look on her daughter’s face. She knew what her daughter was thinking. She just signalled her to not worry.
“Xiulan, how are you?” Lu Zhaolin asked in an awkward tone. He was genuinely worried about her but he didn’t know what he should ask her now. They had met before but why did he feel as if he was meeting her for the first time?