Mingshen studied the monitor readings and reports with keen eyes and then squinted at the woman before him, who was finally awake from her coma.
Bojing beamed. "T-There are some fluctuations in the reports b-but she is mostly doing well, e-especially her heart!"
They were expecting her condition to improve and possibly regaining her consciousness but it still felt surreal that it finally happened after a long wait.
"You are...really Yang Mingshen..." Yuming said hoarsely. "You look so different..."
"Your vitals are good," he commented. "Great, then you won’t require my Spicy’s heart."
Bojing choked.
Is that really what you should say to her first!
He looked at her with his hands in his coat’s pockets. "I appreciate you jumping in to take the bullet for me, but there wasn’t a need for you to do that."
Mingshen hated being in debt. He did appreciate the fact that it wasn’t him lying in a coma for three years instead of her, yet it didn’t dispel away the discomfort.
Yuming faintly smiled. "It was your family first...that took such good care of me all those years ago."
"Forget about that. Dad couldn’t complete his research."
Her gaze turned somber at that. "...I’m sorry."
"By the way, you didn’t recognize him?" Mingshen pointed at Bojing.
Yuming’s gaze fell at him, who jolted at her sight and quickly hid behind Mingshen’s back.
"Ah yes...Bojing, isn’t he?" She smiled. "Still cries a lot, does he?"
So her memory is intact, Mingshen mentally made a check.
Mingshen grimaced. "Why are you hiding behind me as if you saw some monster? Come out."
"I-I am fine here...!"
"Didn’t you two play together like best buddies? Why are you hiding now?"
He burst into tears. "I-I am not her b-best buddy..."
He ignored his tears and looked back at her. "Now that you are awake, I can finally ask you, I guess. Where is your family? I got nothing when I tried to find them."
Yuming felt an involuntary chill as a shadow fell upon her. She felt a gaze from Shilin which she didn’t meet.
"...I have a mother but she lives far away."
"I still should have been able to find her, right? Doesn’t matter if you were a runaway."
"No, that..."
Mingshen’s eyes narrowed. "Are you from Huayuan?"
She froze so hard that she felt she was dumped into the Arctic. The young man beside her showed no change in his expression.
"Generally, it’s people from that side that have hazy records or even none. It’s difficult to track them down. I had kind of guessed you might be from there. It seems I was right."
She could have discredited that theory but the beat of silence had passed for too long for her to take it back.
"Not that it matters to me where you are from. I was just curious why I couldn’t find anything about you."
She smiled, albeit brokenly.
"Though it’s strange that Huayuan’s leader didn’t bother to come looking for you. I don’t think he or she would still be in the dark regarding what happened to you. But nobody came for you," he tilted his head. "I couldn’t reach them, but they could have reached me."
"Who knows, Boss," Shilin smiled. "The leader might have his or her own difficult circumstances."
"I thought people in Huayuan liked to look after their own people."
"They also like to survive."
"Hey I heard she woke up!!" Yang Bingqing marched in with a zeal followed by Jia.
Her gaze fell on Yuming and she gasped. "Oh dear! She really is out of coma! Aiyaa, I’m so happy to see you!"
"A-Aunt..." Yuming stared at her, slightly breathless. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel-fire.ɴet
She attempted to get up but Yang Bingqing quickly held her back. "Oh, no, no! Don’t trouble yourself dear."
"Aunt...It feels like such a long time."
"Because indeed it has," she smiled. "We used to have so much fun together in the villa. You, Bojing and Mingshen always used to play together~"
"I didn’t," Mingshen grimaced.
She ignored him and softly held her hand. "I never got the chance to thank you. You jumped in the way and took the bullet for Mingshen. It should have been my idiot son lying in bed here, not you wasting your precious youth."
"Jeez, Mom. So much motherly love. I think I’ll faint out of overdose," he dryly said.
"Shut up. Oh, oh!"
Yang Bingqing eagerly pulled Jia and almost pressed her against Mingshen. "Meet Jia! She is my daughter-in-law!"
Jia - "..."
Aunt, how many times should I tell you not to introduce me like that? She cried inwardly.
She threw an intense stare at Mingshen but he was too busy studying the reports.
Yuming’s eyes widened. "Br-Brother Mingshen is married?"
"Well only some namesake formalities are left, that’s all~"
"Which formalities?"
"Marriage."
Aunt, isn’t that kind of the most important formality you just glossed over? Jia’s mouth twitched.
"But they are so much in love with each other~ Who cares about the official stamp? Can a piece of paper be really that important?" She pouted.
Very important piece of paper when it comes to Mingshen, Jia mentally added.
At this point, Yang Bingqing was losing hope about Mingshen and Jia’s future so she thought skipping the ’future’ from future daughter-in-law was the only solution to get her a grandchild.
She clapped her hands in delight. "We should have a feast to celebrate this! Once you’ll be more healthy, let’s have dinner together. Like we used to before," she chirped.
"No, Aunt. Please don’t take the trouble..."
"Aish, it’s no trouble at all~ Cooking a feast is the least I can do to express my gratitude for you saving my idiot son’s life."
"You know, sometimes I think you forget that I’m standing right here," Mingshen said.
She scowled. "Who cares about your existence? You just get all cuddly with Jia and give me my grandchild. Quickly!"
Jia felt she had no face left to show anymore.
She then chirped. "Your family would be so happy to get the news! We are really sorry. We couldn’t reach your family at all."
Mingshen said, "Guess we can finally call her family from Huayuan here."
Jia looked up, stupefied. "Huayuan?"