Chapter 16: Being Your Girlfriend

“Use your own body to pay the price.”

Ye Weixi’s eyes widened instantly. Her body instinctively recoiled, her hands tightly clasped in front of her chest.

“I… I…”

Floating to the side, Su Wanqing’s hair stood on end.

“Lin Cheng! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Her transparent body lunged between Lin Cheng and Ye Weixi, waving her arms in a frantic attempt to separate them.

“What are you doing grabbing her wrist?! Let go! Let go of her!” the young lady shouted, her anger laced with a kind of anxious possessiveness, as if someone had trespassed on her territory. Even if Ye Weixi was about to die, even if she was pitiful, Lin Cheng couldn’t touch her like this!

No matter what, she couldn’t let him have her.

At this moment, Su Wanqing would rather it had been Li Xiaoran’s wrist that Lin Cheng was holding.

She would rather it was a dying Li Xiaoran lying there.

Lin Cheng said calmly, “The price is—starting today, I’ll take care of you.”

Ye Weixi, “…?”

Su Wanqing, “…Huh???”

Lin Cheng walked straight into the kitchen.

Su Wanqing, stunned, followed behind him angrily, constantly badgering him in his ear.

“How is this your business? Why are you taking care of her? She cursed me to die! And you’re still taking care of her?! Is it because you think she’s pretty? Lin Cheng! Say something!”

Lin Cheng rummaged under the kitchen sink and found a dusty bucket and a dirty rag.

He turned on the faucet, wet the rag, and began preparing to clean.

[Plot Writing ability activated]

[Written Fragment: In the following days, Lin Cheng will come to Ye Weixi’s home every day after school. After cleaning the bloodstains in the living room, he will continue tidying the room, removing trash, and opening windows for ventilation. This consistently clean environment, along with a proper diet and reminders to take medicine, will imperceptibly reduce Ye Weixi’s risk of respiratory infection, slightly ease the burden on her body, and provide a sense of stability to her desolate state of mind. Ultimately, her condition will gradually improve.]

[Writing Logic: Conforms to character’s behavioral logic, fits environmental needs (messy, requires cleaning), aligns with medical common sense (clean surroundings benefit the frail), follows world rules. Effect: Weak but sustained improvement in physical and psychological condition. Success rate: Medium.]

Lin Cheng carried the half-filled bucket of clean water and the rag back to the living room.

He ignored Ye Weixi’s terrified and dazed gaze and squatted down directly in front of the dark brown bloodstain.

He wrung out the rag and began scrubbing vigorously.

“No!! You’re actually wiping the floor for her?! You’ve never even wiped it for me!”

Su Wanqing was utterly bewildered.

Suddenly—

A dusty corner of the living room window was illuminated by a faint golden light.

The spring sunlight, soft and precise, landed on one end of the sofa, bathing Ye Weixi’s curled-up, cold, and trembling body.

“Mmm…”

Ye Weixi let out a barely audible moan.

The sudden warmth was like a gentle hand, briefly soothing the pain and chill that had seeped deep into her bones.

She subconsciously shrank toward that small patch of light, and a faint hint of color seemed to flicker across her pale face.

The sunlight rested on her long, soiled eyelashes, refracting a tiny glimmer of light.

The sickly girl looked at Lin Cheng, seemingly at a loss.

[Plot Writing ability taking effect: environment and Ye Weixi’s senses improving.]

Su Wanqing’s complaints came to an abrupt halt.

She stared blankly at the beam of sunlight—then at Ye Weixi, bathed in its glow, as if she’d absorbed a tiny bit of life—and then at Lin Cheng, who was crouched on the floor, sweat beading on his forehead, wiping earnestly.

An incredibly complex emotion welled up in Su Wanqing’s chest.

It was sour.

Very sour.

Lin Cheng was taking care of another girl—and doing it seriously!

But… watching Ye Weixi in the sunlight, her fragile form quietly yearning for warmth… watching the blood she’d coughed up being wiped away bit by bit by Lin Cheng—

The sharp jealousy in Su Wanqing’s heart was inexplicably mixed with a trace of… confusion? And awkwardness?

Should she be angry?

Ye Weixi was clearly hateful—she wanted her dead.

But… looking at her like this, didn’t she really seem like she was dying?

And Lin Cheng… he was just wiping the floor, cleaning up bloodstains. Did that even count as taking care of her?

Did it count… as being gentle?

He’d never… been like this with me before.

Then again, she’d never really been seriously ill.

The only time she’d been in a hospital—well, the only time she’d gone to a hospital—was when she was already smashed into a pulp.

Unless Lin Cheng liked eating rice with sauce, there was no way he could’ve seen her there.

Su Wanqing floated in a muddle, her transparent body unconsciously drifting a little lower, hovering very close to Lin Cheng, silently watching the back of his hand as he scrubbed.

An indescribable sense of grievance quietly replaced her pure anger.

Lin Cheng wiped the sweat from his forehead. The bloodstains on the floor were finally cleaned, revealing the original color of the tiles. Although some water stains remained, the nauseating rusty stench had faded significantly.

He stood up, poured out the dirty water, and washed his hands.

Then he walked to the sofa and looked down at Ye Weixi, who seemed to be dozing off in the fading warmth of the sun.

“Listen, Ye Weixi.”

Lin Cheng’s voice was firm, leaving no room for refusal.

“Your parents don’t care about you—but I do. From today on, I’m your ‘temporary guardian.’ I’ll be responsible for your meals, cleaning, and reminding you to take your medicine. Your job—”

He paused, his eyes sweeping across Ye Weixi’s pale face.

“—is to focus on getting better. Got it?”

Ye Weixi’s long eyelashes trembled, her pale irises full of confusion.

Su Wanqing opened and closed her mouth silently at the side.

Guardian?

Lin Cheng was going to be this sick girl’s nanny?!

The pot of vinegar that had just settled in Su Wanqing’s heart began bubbling all over again.

Lin Cheng ignored Ye Weixi’s shock. He looked around the messy, cold room, his eyes settling on the table stacked with medicine bottles.

“Now, tell me how to take your medicine. Then tell me what’s edible in the kitchen.”

It was best to start firm. That way, she’d grow used to it.

And then, she’d start to cooperate on her own.

If he were too soft from the beginning, even if she agreed, it wouldn’t have the desired effect—and it wouldn’t last.

Ye Weixi looked at Lin Cheng. She finally seemed to come to her senses.

She glanced at the cleaned floor, the tidied-up kitchen. The sunlight on her face was unusually warm.

Something stirred in her chest.

A thought arose.

“Mmm… my body’s too weak right now. Are you trying to fatten me up before eating me? Even if you do, there won’t be much meat to sell…”

She muttered weakly, “So when I’m all better, I’ll be your girlfriend, okay?”

No.
Aminus!

Su Wanqing couldn’t hold it in anymore.

All of you, that’s enough!

Why were there so many women around Lin Cheng after she died?!