Reading Guide:
Heads-up before you dive in!
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The male lead is one month shy of 18 and younger than the female lead, who is 21. There’s no romantic relationship between them until he turns 18, but the FL affectionately (and repeatedly) calls him her “little wife.” If that dynamic makes you uncomfortable, just be aware going in.
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The FL… how do I say this? She’s a little off-kilter—like, not full-on twisted, but there’s definitely a sprinkle of it. Or maybe she’s just weird in a strangely endearing way. I honestly don’t know how to explain it, LMAO. Her inner thoughts can be… a lot.
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Also, the ML is amputated. No, he doesn’t miraculously grow his leg back but he will have prosthetic leg in the end.
Despite all that, I really hope you give it a chance. It’s a quiet, aching story about two lonely souls who find each other.🥲💀
TW: Mention of su!cide
【Youmao Ni Pet Shop: This ragdoll has a good appearance, thirteen thousand is already very low, no bargaining, sisters.】
【I also want to inhale Hajime: The deposit is five thousand, right?】
Thirteen thousand—exceeded the budget a little, but it’s fine, still affordable. Her hometown had two apartments, both rented out, bringing in about six to seven thousand yuan every month, and they belonged solely to her.
It was her grandma who gave them to her before passing.
No one expected that the old lady who always picked up trash and was super frugal could save up for two apartments. Because when she was young, she had a falling out with the user’s parents and simply cut contact altogether.
Plus, before grandma passed, there wasn’t a single person by her side—it was the user who took care of her. So the grandma also secretly left all her savings and properties to her.
She instantly became the richest in the family. The money had been spent in previous years due to her mother falling ill, but the two apartments were real and kept making money nonstop.
One unit could be divided into three rooms, each rented out for a bit over a thousand. Two units together brought in an average of six to seven thousand a month. This month, one tenant just paid six months’ rent in one go. It was a bit cheaper than usual, but still brought in about six thousand.
Adding her saved-up ten thousand yuan, she squeezed out another three thousand, and the remaining three thousand was enough for daily living.
Nan Zhi thought it over, looked at the screen—the shop owner of Youmao Ni Pet Shop was probably busy, and hadn’t replied to her for a long while.
Nan Zhi put down her phone, continued taking off her cap. When she was about to remove her nurse uniform, she suddenly heard someone talking next door.
It was two other colleagues who were also interning, just like her—they had also just finished their shifts, changing back into regular clothes while chatting casually.
“Patient in bed 1023 is way too unlucky, right? The driver ran away, and there’s no one from his family around. His uncle and aunt also ran off. They’ve already stopped giving him meds and water for several days. I really don’t know what’ll happen to him next.”
“His uncle and aunt really have no conscience. Since young, he helped with chores and housework; both kids were raised by him. When they went to college, he worked part-time and handed over every bit of his scholarship and wages. Now look, something happened to him, and because he’s no longer useful, they just don’t care.”
“If the police hadn’t come knocking, they wouldn’t even have paid the surgery fee. Even then, they paid just a little like squeezing toothpaste, then ran off. Said they already returned the money he gave them, so now they don’t care anymore.”
“I heard from his teacher that his grades were good, just scholarships alone amounted to tens of thousands. With part-time work during school, even if not much, he should have saved a few ten thousand, right? And yet they won’t even pay for this much in medical bills.”
“People like that, how to say… they only come forward when there’s benefit, and once there’s none, they drop you.”
“True that. I heard when his parents passed away, he was already eleven or twelve—not little anymore, kinda understood things. His uncle and aunt only took him in to make him work. Cook, raise chickens, feed pigs, tutor the two kids’ homework—he did it all.”
“Only eleven or twelve? During home visits, his teacher said he lived next to the pigsty, thin like a chick. During holidays he didn’t even have a set of proper clothes. So pitiful.”
“During the college entrance exams, if his uncle and aunt hadn’t insisted he live at home to take care of the kids, he could’ve gotten a better score. Even the teachers said it was a pity.”
“Finally graduated college with great difficulty, life had just started, and now something like this happened.”
“I heard he got into the accident while saving a kid. And that kid’s family is just heartless—afraid of taking responsibility, they never showed up, not even with a piece of fruit.”
“Really, good heart gets no good return.”
“Heaven must be blind, such a good person…”
Nan Zhi’s hand, unbuttoning her clothes, stopped.
The patient in bed 1023—
This wasn’t the first time she’d heard things about him.
They said he was just seventeen or eighteen years old, poor family. His uncle and aunt kept rushing him, so he hurriedly finished school. That’s why he was a lot younger than most people after graduating. When he was just sent to the hospital, he was still conscious. The doctor urged him to pay, and he rummaged through every app in his phone—only managed to pull together just over a thousand, and even that was through Huabei and Jiebei [loan services on Alipay and other Chinese financial apps].
The clothes he wore were washed so much they turned white, pilled, threadbare—still being worn. There were faint traces of being mended. The phone screen was separated and cracked from the body—only usable when tied together with a rubber band. His shoes were coming apart, socks didn’t fit, too small to wrap around his feet—no idea whose leftovers they were, looked like he picked them up.
To be honest, which young person nowadays isn’t their parents’ treasured one—It’s already been a long time since she encountered someone like this.
After he lost consciousness, they called his family, friends, and teachers.
The ones who came first were the teacher and friends. Each person said one sentence, spoke about his past.
They said his uncle and aunt didn’t want to let him go to school early on. Only when he brought back scholarship money and wages from summer jobs, work-study programs, barely then would they be willing. As for living expenses—they basically didn’t give. He got through the entire semester relying on the school’s free rice and broth. As for daily necessities, he only had one bar of soap, used from head to toe.
Clothes were all ones that relatives didn’t want. Stationery and supplies—those were given by teachers and older schoolmates.
He could keep studying all because his teachers couldn’t bear to see such a good student drop out. No one knew how many trips they made to his home, how many explanations they gave, how many times they repeated that “after going to college, you can earn more money.” Otherwise, he would’ve been sent by his uncle and aunt to a coal mine before he even finished junior high.
Life was already hard enough—yet the heavens still didn’t let him go.
Rescuing someone, only to ruin his own legs. Really ironic.
Nan Zhi lowered her body, took out her earphones from her bag, played a song, wanted to drown out those voices.
Every now and then, the hospital would have an incident like this. She was just an ordinary person, had no ability to help. Might as well not hear, not see, not ask.
Nan Zhi stuffed the earphones into her ears, the corners of her mouth inevitably tugged up in a bitter smile.
The teacher was right. Interns like them, who had just stepped into society, after all still hadn’t experienced enough. Too soft-hearted. Can’t bear to see, can’t bear to hear, this kind of thing.
Heaven really was blind—It only gave her a heart full of pity, but didn’t give her the ability to save anyone.
If only she had a little more money—it didn’t need to be a lot, just tens of thousands—She’d dare to do something.
“Didn’t a young guy just the other day go to collect his owed wages but didn’t get them, and instead got beaten half-crippled? That kid also had it rough—always smiling, calling everyone ‘jiejie‘ [older sister], thought he could tough it out. But in the end, jumped off a building. I think that one’s also not doing well lately—always looking out the window. What if he’s thinking of jumping too?”
Maybe it was because the break room here was a bit closed-off, the signal was bad, laggy, the music app had a little circle spinning nonstop, music never loaded. Just as Nan Zhi was about to switch to a video, her finger froze.
“Let’s keep a close eye these days.”
Nan Zhi stared at the still-spinning screen. Her heart was full of five flavors all mixed together. [五味杂陈 — idiom meaning mixed feelings, bittersweet, complex emotions]
That young man collecting his wages—he was her patient. Compared to others, she saw his changes even more clearly.
Just a moment before, she and the supervising teacher had gone to buy him buns. He ate with such appetite, said the nurse jiejies here were all angels.
The next moment—she turned away just to give an injection in the next room, when she looked back, he had already jumped out the window without hesitation.
Only after the incident did they learn from his co-workers. His family was very poor, he had a sick little sister, only a grandfather picking up trash to support them. Now that he was crippled, he didn’t want to drag them down. Left behind a suicide note, and just left.
Because someone died, the matter blew up. Only then did the construction site compensate the other workers’ wages. His money was also reclaimed. But the person was already gone. No matter what anyone said, it was too late.
Bed 1023’s patient—
No family. Uncle and aunt were like that—Their attitude toward him was never sincere from the start. They let him go to school only because they wanted him to earn money after graduating, to pay back the “tuition” and “upbringing” fees.
Before he even started school, they’d shrewdly made him sign an unequal agreement. Now that his legs were ruined, after weighing the pros and cons, they felt he wouldn’t have a future anymore. Not only could they no longer get any benefits from him, they might even have to spend money on him. So they just gave up on him altogether.
He owed medical fees, had not a cent to his name. Even after being discharged from the hospital, he’d still face countless difficulties. What would he eat? What would he drink? Where would he live? What about his injured body? And with his disability, it’d be impossible to find a job.
There was a very real possibility he might just choose to end it all.
If it were her, struggled for so long, finally grew up, saw a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel—and with a snap, the light disappeared.
Anyone would lose hope, right?
Nan Zhi exited the video app, switched over to her WeChat Wallet to check the balance, then checked Alipay.
Altogether, she had about sixteen thousand yuan. Thirteen thousand was set aside for buying the cat. Once she bought the cat, she would also have to get cat litter, litter box, a nest, bowls for food, for water. Even choosing the cheapest options, that would still cost at least four or five hundred.
After subtracting deworming, vaccinations, and other things, the money she’d have left to use freely was only around two thousand.
Not enough money to save him.
But… must she buy the cat?
Nan Zhi switched back to the chat page. The shop owner still hadn’t replied. She didn’t know if they were genuinely busy or what.
Scrolling up, almost every time she asked something, the shop owner would take a long time to reply. Because of that, this had dragged on for over half a month before they barely finalized things to this point.
Were they really that busy?
Or had her repeated bargaining worn out the shop owner’s patience, thinking she was just a poor ghost, not worth continuing contact with?