On the Wedding Night, I Transmigrated to After the Divorce – Chapter 42
by Little Panda40.5°C
First time alone in the hospital
Yu Yan didn’t wake up until noon.
When she awoke, Lu Yu was beside her, aiming a thermometer gun at her groggy face. Still not entirely free from the clutches of sleep, Yu Yan almost threw her hands up in surrender. With a beep, Lu Yu announced from above, “Thirty-seven point five.”
“Your fever broke. Get up and drink some water.”
Yu Yan had spiked a high fever in the middle of the night. Her head had pounded relentlessly all the way until morning. When her alarm went off, getting out of bed to go find Fu Yunqing was out of the question—she couldn’t even manage to get up for breakfast. When she spoke to Lu Yu, she had been delirious and slurring her words. After sleeping a bit more, her fever had finally receded and she felt somewhat better.
It was sheer agony.
Lu Yu poured a cup of hot water, which Yu Yan quickly downed with a glug. Leaning against Lu Yu’s shoulder, she asked in a hoarse voice, “What time is it?”
“Almost twelve. Does your head still hurt?”
Her temperature had spiked to thirty-nine degrees last night. Terrified that the fever might cook Yu Yan’s brain, Lu Yu had stayed up watching over her, barely sleeping at all. Dark circles now rimmed her eyes. She had taken the morning off work, managing to catch about two hours of sleep after Yu Yan’s fever broke, and had only recently woken up herself.
“Mm… it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“That’s good. You really scared me last night. I almost called an ambulance.”
Yu Yan actually sounded rather proud. “My immune system was just working too hard to fight off the virus.”
Lu Yu snorted. “Should you say a quick ‘thank you, you’ve worked hard’ to them, then?”
“Mm. Thank you, you’ve worked hard.”
“Alright, are you hungry? There’s still some meat porridge in the pot. I’ll get you a bowl?”
Yu Yan nodded, truly grateful for Lu Yu’s hard work. Watching her stand up, she looked up and pinched her voice1, saying, “Thank you, jiejie.”
“Lu Yu-jiejie has worked hard too~”
She was doing it on purpose, deliberately acting cute and selling obedience2. But Lu Yu had grown immune to this routine by the time they were eleven. She just chuckled dryly and replied generously, “You’re welcome. As long as the fever didn’t fry your brain, jiejie is relieved.”
Lu Yu left the room. Yu Yan checked the time on her phone: 11:41 a.m. Fu Yunqing’s class was almost over… Her brain finally booted up, realizing she needed to quickly explain her absence to Teacher Fu.
Yu Yan: 【Teacher Fu, I ran a fever last night. I felt incredibly awful and it lasted all the way until morning. I was so delirious I couldn’t get up to attend your class, and I completely forgot to text you. Can I submit a late sick note?】
Yu Yan: 【Crying jpg.】
Class ended precisely at twelve. The students dispersed, and in the empty classroom, Fu Yunqing woke her phone screen to check her messages. What popped up was a post-absence leave request from a truant student trying to make amends.
A fever?
Fu Yunqing frowned. Unable to ignore it in the end, she typed back: 【Has your fever broken?】
Yu Yan replied instantly: 【It broke! I just took my temperature, thirty-seven point five】
A moment later, Yu Yan sent her a photo.
Tapping the image open, Fu Yunqing saw her lying on her side in bed. Her hair was a mess, and her cheeks still bore the flush of her fever. In one hand, she held a thermometer gun, turning the display toward the camera so Fu Yunqing could read it. Her lips were pursed, and her eyes gazed quietly and pitifully into the lens.
Having lived with her for two years, Fu Yunqing knew her physical constitution like the back of her hand. Her immune system wasn’t particularly strong; catching colds and fevers was a common occurrence. With a seasonal viral infection like this, she would usually run a recurring fever for several days. She might be happy that her fever had broken now, but she was going to suffer plenty more later.
Fu Yunqing was staring blankly at the photo when another message from Yu Yan popped up, quoting her previous text about the sick note: 【Will Teacher Fu forgive me?】
Because she hadn’t gotten a reply from jiejie, she had been deeply unsettled. Now that jiejie was actually paying attention to her, she was overjoyed. Unable to decipher jiejie’s thoughts through this hot-and-cold treatment, she was left wondering: Did jiejie actually plan to forgive her?
Yu Yan: 【I’ll be good. I don’t know what I did wrong. Teacher can hit me, scold me, or educate me, but just please don’t ignore me, okay?】
Would she really be good? Did she truly think she was being good? She knew how to whine and act cute, how to make reckless promises, and how to muddle her way through trouble. She was heartless and completely fearless, because she knew exactly how much Fu Yunqing loved her. She knew that as long as she was sick and suffering, she could make Fu Yunqing worry and soften her heart.
But what about her? Did she actually mean any of it? What was her true motive for coming back to her? Was her version of ‘being good’ just selling obedience to her while simultaneously refusing no one else and doing the exact same thing with them? Would she say those same sweet, coquettish words to others? Was she capable of being this passionate and saccharine with just anyone?
Fu Yunqing couldn’t deceive herself, nor did she plan to try anymore.
In truth, she had always been waiting. From the moment Yu Yan had left her side, she had guarded their home alone, waiting for her to return. Yet she absolutely could not accept that Yu Yan had come back to her while still making plans with other people; she had come back with a “purpose” that could have easily been fulfilled by anyone else.
She had said she would only ever love her. She had said she would never leave her. She had said she would never break Fu-jiejie’s heart. So many of the promises she had made to Fu Yunqing had been broken.
What did Fu Yunqing even mean to her?
Was Fu Yunqing even important to her?
But…
She was still sick right now. She had endured a grueling high fever all by herself last night…
Looking at the photo of her, the image of Yu Yan curling up in her arms and enduring the pain surfaced in her mind. Fu Yunqing’s heart ultimately softened. She drafted a message: 【Do you still feel awful? If the fever comes back, you must tell me】
Immediately, she deleted it and retyped the message, leaving only a cold, detached instruction: 【If the fever comes back, go to the hospital】
Yu Yan replied gleefully: 【Okay, I’ll listen to whatever Teacher says!】
She was being oh-so sensible, selectively ignoring the retracted message she had already seen: 【If I still feel awful, I’ll definitely be a good girl and go to the hospital】
Yu Yan: 【It’s a pity I couldn’t bring Fu-jiejie any Tangerine Pear Tea today QAQ】
Fu Yunqing: 【Stop playing on your phone】
Yu Yan: 【Can’t I even talk to jiejie?】
Fu Yunqing: 【I need to drive】
That made sense. Fu Yunqing had just finished class and was still at the academy. But since Fu Yunqing had finally deigned to pay attention to her, Yu Yan wasn’t going to be satisfied with just a brief exchange: 【Then when Teacher Fu isn’t busy, can we video call?】
Yu Yan: 【I really want to talk to Fu-jiejie. I want to see the kitty. Just for a little bit, okay?】
Video calling to chat with jiejie, and asking to see the kitty—it felt so suggestive and intimate. But they had already video called before; they had crossed that line of intimacy long ago.
Fu Yunqing: 【We’ll see.】
We’ll see?
‘We’ll see’ meant waiting until she wasn’t busy anymore to ask her again. Great. Yu Yan’s reading comprehension was excellent. Smiling brightly, she typed: 【Then drive carefully, jiejie. Stay safe】
Yu Yan truly was being a good girl. Having promised Fu Yunqing she wouldn’t play on her phone, she put it away and went to the living room to turn on Lu Yu’s projector and watch a movie.
She had promised that if the fever returned, she would go to the hospital. And surely enough, by that afternoon, the first signs of a relapse appeared.
Fortunately, it wasn’t overly unbearable. Her temperature wasn’t too high, hovering around thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees. Still feeling it wasn’t necessary to go to the hospital, she stuck a fever cooling patch on her forehead and fell into a groggy sleep.
By evening, Lu Yu had not yet returned home. Yu Yan woke up, burning with heat. Her body felt incredibly strange—not exactly painful, but terribly heavy, searingly hot, yet somehow weightless.
She propped herself up, swaying so badly she nearly collapsed, and checked herself with the thermometer gun. The device beeped out a frantic alarm. She looked at the reading: 40.5°C.
40.5°C…
Yu Yan was stunned. What kind of concept was forty point five degrees? She raised a hand to feel her forehead. It didn’t seem that exaggerated, did it? Was it really that bad?
She snapped a picture and sent it to Lu Yu. “The other party is typing…” flashed across the top of her screen for a split second before a video call immediately rang through.
Lu Yu was still on the subway. Standing in a corner with a look of pure panic, her eyes were wide. “What is going on with you?! How do you feel right now? Do you want me to call you an ambulance?!”
Yu Yan lay back down on the bed. Her voice was incredibly weak, but she didn’t sound like she was in agony. “It’s nothing much… I just feel really hot and muddled… just, really dizzy.”
“Can you stand up?”
“I should be able to?” Yu Yan said uncertainly.
“Try to get up right now and see!”
Yu Yan gave it a try. The moment she sat up from the bed, she immediately had the urge to collapse right back down. Her head was incredibly heavy.
“Get up right now, force down two glasses of water, then change your clothes, put on a coat, and go downstairs. I’m one stop away. We’re calling a cab and going to the hospital!”
It was the peak season for viral infections due to the changing weather, and the Fever Clinic was packed to the brim. There were no beds available. After Yu Yan registered and got checked out, she had no choice but to sit on a chair in the IV room to receive her drip.
Lu Yu asked a nurse for two face masks, putting one on herself and one on Yu Yan. She sat beside her to keep watch, frequently reaching over to feel Yu Yan’s forehead to check if her temperature had gone down at all.
In all her life, she had never seen anyone run a fever this high. It had nearly scared her to death. If something terrible actually happened to Yu Yan under her watch, how was she supposed to explain it to Yu Lan?
“Yu Lan wouldn’t care about me anyway. What are you so afraid of?” Yu Yan said, entirely unconcerned.
When disaster had struck, her own mother had abandoned her and fled far away, leaving absolutely nothing behind. It had been so long, yet she hadn’t made a single phone call. She only viewed Yu Yan as a burden; why would she care if Yu Yan lived or died? As long as her debts didn’t implicate Yu Yan, that would be a miracle.
Though there was a certain someone who might care about her.
“Lu Yu, have you eaten dinner yet?”
“Not yet. I rushed you to the hospital like the building was on fire. When would I have had time to eat?”
“Then hurry up and go eat. There are doctors and nurses here. After you eat, just go home and get some rest. The chairs here aren’t comfortable to sit in at all,” Yu Yan suddenly urged, almost as if she were chasing her away. Lu Yu was a little puzzled. “Are you going to be okay by yourself?”
Yu Yan was hardly the sort of fiercely independent person who hated troubling others.
She watched Yu Yan’s eyes curve into a smile as she spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, “If I can’t handle it, you can just come pick me up when the IV drip is done. It’s going to take several hours anyway.”
“…”
Lu Yu understood.
It seemed she had a little scheme brewing in her mind.
Standing up, she said, “Alright then. I’ll go grab some food. If you need me to take you home when the drip is finished, just text me.”
“Okay~”
Watching Lu Yu’s retreating back, Yu Yan used her free hand—the one without the IV needle—to pull her phone out of her pocket and began studying it intently.
She took a picture of the back of her hand with the IV needle, a picture of the IV room’s sign, and that terrifying forty-degree reading on the thermometer gun… Sending them directly to Fu Yunqing would make her motive too obvious. It was too negative, which wasn’t good; it would pressure Fu-jiejie and might even provoke her resentment. Therefore, Yu Yan chose to post it on her WeChat Moments. This way, she could ensure Fu Yunqing saw it without forcing the pressure of a direct reply onto her. It kept the initiative entirely in Yu Yan’s hands, making her appear sensible while perfectly highlighting how lonely and pitiful she was.
Excellent. Very smart.
【First time staying in the hospital all by myself】【Depressed jpg.】
Having finished editing her caption, Yu Yan thoughtfully tagged her location: Binjiang Hospital Fever Clinic.
Fu Yunqing saw that WeChat Moment fifteen minutes later.
Ever since she learned Yu Yan was sick, her heart had been restless. Whether she was resting or working, she would periodically open WeChat to see if Yu Yan had sent her any messages. She was worried her fever would spike again; worried that she wouldn’t be able to take care of herself alone.
From the time they ended their chat that morning until the sky began to darken, Yu Yan hadn’t sent her a single message. She figured that after their conversation, Yu Yan probably disobeyed her, kept playing on her phone, and then took a nap. But the sun was almost setting now—had she still not woken up?
Was she no longer in pain? Why hadn’t she come looking for her? Fu Yunqing knew Yu Yan’s temperament. She was incredibly reliant on others. In the past, even the slightest bump or scrape meant she had to seek her out, complain about the pain, and be coddled before she would feel better. Now that Fu Yunqing was reluctant to pay her much attention, how could she not use the excuse of being sick and miserable to seek her out?
She knew perfectly well that jiejie’s heart would ache for her.
Was she still asleep? Had her fever spiked again?
Didn’t she say she wanted to video call?
Knowing that her fevers were prone to relapsing, knowing that she hated taking medicine, and knowing that her ability to take care of herself was abysmally poor, Fu Yunqing watched the sky turn completely dark without a peep from her. She grew increasingly anxious. Just as she was about to call her, Mingya alerted her that Yu Yan had posted a WeChat Moment.
—40.5°C…
Fu Yunqing’s heart seized. Her fever had reached over forty degrees, and she was all alone. She…
Fu Yunqing immediately stood up and headed out. Startled, her assistant quickly chased after her, asking, “Yun-jie, what’s wrong?”
“Let Miss Yang know that I have an emergency and have to leave. We’ll discuss this next time.”
Pulling up the GPS navigation, the hospital Yu Yan was at was a thirty-minute drive away. It felt incredibly far. Too long.
The drive was agonizing. Her heart was brimming with worry—terrified that something might happen to her, terrified that she was suffering, terrified that she felt helpless and afraid all by herself in the hospital. She truly had absolutely no ability to take care of herself. How could she let her fever reach forty degrees? If she was burning up like this, why didn’t she text her? Why didn’t she ask her for help when she was all alone in the hospital?
Is it because I’ve been too cold to her? Fu Yunqing thought. How could she have forgotten? Yanyan had quite the temper of her own. Since she had treated her that way, she would act out, sulk, and deliberately hide things from her out of spite. But what if something actually happened? How could she be so reckless? A forty-degree fever is genuinely dangerous…
Blame rose in her heart, but it was overwhelmingly eclipsed by heartache, worry, and profound regret.
Traffic was completely gridlocked around the hospital in the evening. The cacophony of blaring horns was ear-splitting, and the cars crawling forward inch by inch—like people queuing for a meal—only exacerbated her anxiety. Fu Yunqing parked her car on a nearby street and rushed to the hospital’s Fever Clinic on foot. Pushing through the bustling crowds, she followed the signs to the IV room.
The IV area was packed with people, echoing with sporadic coughs and reeking of strong disinfectant. She knew Yu Yan hated environments like this. She scanned the room anxiously until her gaze quickly landed on the girl’s profile.
Yu Yan was bundled up in a down coat, one hand on an IV drip, resting flat on the chair’s armrest. Standing in front of her was a woman wearing a trench coat and glasses. The woman was bent over, speaking to Yu Yan, so close that she was practically enveloping her figure. Yu Yan looked up at her. The woman’s eyes were filled with tender affection as she reached out and gently stroked the messy hair on the crown of Yu Yan’s head.
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