WS - Chapter 147
Chapter 147
"How did you know... that this is the dandelion we brought back..."
Yu Nianbing's sudden question caught Song Shiyue off guard for a moment.
Pretending to feel unwell, Song Shiyue bowed her head and coughed a few times, and once her mind caught up, she forced a smile, looked up, and answered, "Isn't it obvious? That's just dandelion boiled in water."
Well... it really wasn't obvious.
Someone who'd been unconscious the whole day— how could she open her mouth and say, with such certainty, "the dandelion you guys brought back"?
Yu Nianbing gently shook the stainless-steel lunchbox in her hand, and a few limp, overboiled blades of green grass swayed along with the water inside.
"I haven't asked you before— apart from these few minutes when you wake up each night, the rest of the time, you..." Yu Nianbing set down the lunchbox, sat facing Song Shiyue, and while peeling the wax paper off a hamburger to appear as composed as usual, she mustered the courage to ask the question she didn't really want to face but couldn't help minding.
It was just that Ning Chuyang always arrived at exactly the right moment.
"Teacher Yu, can I come in?" Ning Chuyang knocked loudly on the tent.
What else could she do? She couldn't say no...
It was the same last time in the washroom— this person showed up without warning, and even brought a plus-one, dragging Feng Qianqian into the washroom to watch Song Shiyue eat, abruptly cutting off their private moment.
This time she came alone, but once Ning Chuyang spoke, Yu Nianbing couldn't insist on continuing her question.
"Come in," Yu Nianbing said, glancing at Song Shiyue as she spoke.
Sure enough, written plainly on Song Shiyue's face was obvious relief.
Unlike the previous time when their conversation about food and recovery had been interrupted, no matter why Ning Chuyang had come this time, Song Shiyue wanted to give her a round of applause!
Yu Nianbing's question had been cut short, but Song Shiyue could easily tell what she'd been about to ask.
That question... would be rather hard to answer.
That's how some things are. When you don't say no the first few times, after it's happened so many times... it gets really hard to bring it up.
By the time Song Shiyue had recovered enough from the last meal to have the energy and time to say a few words, that "don't wash me" was already meaningless. She'd been washed so many times by then... Rather than letting Yu Nianbing know she was aware every time, it was better to pretend she was just a vegetable.
Thank goodness Ning Chuyang came.
Otherwise, Song Shiyue didn't know how she would have answered if Yu Nianbing had actually asked, without making things even more awkward between them...
Of course, there were quite a few things Song Shiyue didn't know at times.
For instance, right now she didn't realize that the huge relief she'd failed to control showed plainly on her face, completely giving her away.
When Ning Chuyang opened the tent flap and came in, she saw both of them looking right at her.
One with bright, grateful eyes, the other with a stiff expression but the tips of her ears red.
Ning Chuyang's step into the tent faltered— she had a distinct feeling she'd interrupted something... no, maybe she'd cut something short.
No... stop imagining things! Ning Chuyang admonished herself. Then, under their different gazes, she raised the steamer basket in her hands and put on a smile she thought perfectly masked her earlier feelings: "I heard Teacher Yu moving about just now, so I guessed Song Shiyue was awake. What Song Shiyue has there isn't enough, right? Add these few xiaolongbao— eat more so you'll recover faster."
Ning Chuyang's last sentence caught the polite refusal both Yu Nianbing and Song Shiyue had been about to make, unspoken yet identical, stuck in their throats.
The two couldn't help but exchange a glance, each seeing the surprise in the other's eyes.
"Don't worry, Teacher Zhuang and Feng Qianqian both feel the same way about this," Ning Chuyang said, setting the steamer down beside Yu Nianbing. Without further ado, she left the tent.
Both Yu Nianbing's and Song Shiyue's gazes lingered on the small steamer basket for a moment before shifting away.
"There isn't much food left now, is there? And the jerky's running low too, right?" Song Shiyue moved her still-weak hand, taking the half-unwrapped hamburger that Yu Nianbing had thrust at her, but didn't eat right away.
The person who'd interrupted their conversation was gone, but Yu Nianbing had lost the urge to press Song Shiyue further. After all, she'd already gotten her answer from Song Shiyue's expression just now— why add more embarrassment?
Yu Nianbing touched her slightly burning earlobe and nodded: "Besides what's here, there's one sandwich, one hamburger, and about a pack and a half of jerky. The dandelion we gathered today, once cooked, should fill over one lunchbox. The salt in our belts hasn't been used yet, and we still have some seasonings from the camp we picked up before."
"..." Song Shiyue did a mental calculation— it was indeed about what she'd estimated.
But her pause and thoughtful look made Yu Nianbing a bit anxious; unable to help herself, she lifted Song Shiyue's hand, the one holding the hamburger, urging: "Hurry up and eat. You'll fall asleep again soon. Don't worry about the food. On our way back, about half an hour from here, near the base of another hill, we spotted some rabbits. We'll go catch them first thing tomorrow morning."
Song Shiyue's hand didn't have much strength to begin with. Compared to yesterday when she could barely move, today she could only weakly and slowly grasp some things. When Yu Nianbing lifted her hand like that, the hamburger got shoved right against her mouth, smearing oil across her lips.
Glancing at Yu Nianbing's somewhat anxious expression and recalling the force-feeding over the past few days, Song Shiyue felt a twinge of alarm, and obediently took a bite of the hamburger.
"Hurry, eat. Don't overthink it. Is it dry? Have some water too." Yu Nianbing unscrewed the water bottle, brought it close to feel the warmth of the steam from the spout, then set the bottle beside Song Shiyue's hand.
"Actually..." Song Shiyue pointed at the stainless-steel lunchbox beside Yu Nianbing, "I could eat the dandelion too."
Yu Nianbing frowned and glared at her.
Song Shiyue obediently took another bite of hamburger, then pointed at the lunchbox again, "Really, I quite like the taste of this plant."
"Dandelion can be used medicinally. You and Feng Qianqian are still too weak; neither of you can eat it. The three of us will eat it with the jerky." Yu Nianbing slapped away Song Shiyue's eagerly reaching hand.
After bringing back the dandelion, they had boiled a small handful in a pot for dinner, and Yu Nianbing, Zhuang Jiachuan, and Ning Chuyang each had a chopstick-full. After Yu Nianbing tasted a piece, she'd saved the rest in the stainless-steel lunchbox until now, thinking that if Song Shiyue woke up, she needed to see that the camp wasn't just consuming without replenishing, to keep Song Shiyue from refusing to eat properly.
Who would have thought... it was all unnecessary.
The person lay asleep, yet was fully aware of everything.
Watching Song Shiyue obediently eat her hamburger, Yu Nianbing couldn't help but recall all those times she had bathed her— she'd been professional and proper, right? There shouldn't have been anything that would cause Song Shiyue to misunderstand...
She'd felt so embarrassed doing it back then, and now just remembering it made her body flush with heat again.
When Yu Nianbing realized her face was burning, she tried to stop thinking about it. But once the floodgates of thought were open, how could they be shut at will?
Yet this time Song Shiyue stayed awake for a surprisingly long time— long enough to finish her hamburger, pause, and then, under Yu Nianbing's insistence and force-feeding, swallow the xiaolongbao one by one, still not collapsing.
Yu Nianbing didn't really feel like facing an awake Song Shiyue tonight; she urgently needed some personal time to sort out her own thoughts.
Meanwhile on StarNet, the audience was pooling their collective wisdom. With everyone chiming in on the danmaku, they'd sorted it all out with remarkable clarity.
"Song Shiyue... is really something. So she could hear what was going on around her while she was unconscious?"
"Allow me to boldly guess— if she can hear, it means her senses are still functioning, so does that mean... she can feel things with her body too!"
"So the CP I follow has already gotten their driver's license and been speeding around the highway for days, and I didn't even notice?"
"Song Shiyue straight-up turned Yu Nianbing's kindness toward a vegetable into CP-level intimacy..."
"Little Ice Block didn't finish her question, but I think... she already understands..."
"Right... poor Yu Nianbing's little ears, they've been red ever since."
"Even though they're almost out of food, and this might not be the best time, but... they're both girls. If Yu Nianbing didn't feel anything, how come her ears turned red all on their own when Song Shiyue hadn't even said anything~~~"
"Hey, my family has a little farm on the neighboring agricultural planet, with rabbits filling a whole house. I really want to airdrop them over... I hope Song Shiyue can eat more and recover faster, and most importantly, not let down Yu Nianbing, who has clearly already fallen for her."
"??? Cruelty warning!"
"No way... Song Shiyue wouldn't let Yu Nianbing down, right!"
"I believe once Song Shiyue recovers, she won't abandon these people, but... compared to the already very obvious Yu Nianbing, whether Song Shiyue's earlier confession was true or not is still pretty uncertain..."
"...It's so hard, viewers this season have it really hard. From worrying about life and death to matters of the heart, I've literally invested all my affection, anxiety, anger of recent years... I feel like no matter what happens with this CP, I'll never be able to un-follow these two in this lifetime."
"+N!"
...
The StarNet audience still had the capacity to peer beyond life and death into matters of the heart, but Yu Nianbing, exhausted after a long day, dared not think too deeply.
Right now, the most important thing was food, food, food...
Everything else...
would have to wait.
"Do you think, if you had one more sandwich, one more hamburger, plus that pack and a half of jerky, you'd get a little better?" Yu Nianbing asked quietly, then added, "I mean, recover to the state we're all in."
After this many rounds of eating and recovering, they'd actually begun to see certain patterns, even discern some rules.
Song Shiyue fell silent, calculating while trying to clench her still-weak fist, and made an effort to move her legs, which still couldn't move at all. Finally, she shook her head.
The faint little flame of hope in Yu Nianbing's eyes dimmed for a moment, but it soon reignited, burning even brighter than before.
"Then what about rabbits? Including rabbits, how many rabbits..." Yu Nianbing asked again.
Rabbits! How could rabbits be counted in... Hadn't they only seen a gray shadow today...
Besides, rabbits came in all sizes, fat and thin.
Song Shiyue opened her mouth, but couldn't bring herself to crush the expectations of Yu Nianbing, who was radiating such fighting spirit.
"Adding everything... maybe seven or eight more rabbits..." Song Shiyue couldn't calculate it very clearly either, but judging from the rate at which food translated to physical recovery,
if she added all these supplies and that much fresh meat, the energy gained should be able to plug the little hole leaking her strength. At the very least, it would let her legs move again, so she could join in the hunting, and things would gradually improve.
In the camp, Song Shiyue wasn't the only one.
If they wanted to feed Song Shiyue that much, it meant Yu Nianbing had to procure even more.
Seven or eight rabbits...
Yu Nianbing recalled the gray-black shadow that had flashed in the beam of her flashlight.
Could there really be that many rabbits there...
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