After a long period of unconsciousness, Shiya finally woke up.
But when she opened her eyes again, she saw the familiar white ceiling and the lingering scent of disinfectant at the tip of her nose.
She blinked her lively, moist golden eyes, feeling a bit at a loss.
Fortunately, everything that happened before wasn’t a dream, and she hadn’t gained any death-regression abilities.
“You’re awake?”
Elena’s voice sounded beside her ear.
Shiya sat up from the hospital bed and politely greeted Elena.
“Your Highness.”
But then, she couldn’t help but look around, as if searching for someone.
Elena seemed to have guessed what was on her mind and casually mentioned, “Leonora left you behind and went off on her own.”
“Shiya, I warned you not to get too involved with that woman, didn’t I? She’s not a good person.”
Shiya instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
She remembered her agreement with the young lady: to act like an obsessed girl, cling to Elena, and sabotage the relationship between this princess and Karlen.
The next moment, she deliberately cleared her throat, suddenly hugged Elena’s arm, and spoke in a sickly sweet voice.
“Sister Elena, don’t mention that arrogant young lady. I haven’t seen you for a while, and I missed you so much.”
Shiya took a deep breath internally, disgusted by her own affected posture and tone.
But to repay the debt, to go back and see Xiao Mei!
Elena’s expression remained unchanged, her light blue eyes calm and unruffled.
But the fingertips hidden beneath began to tremble violently.
It’s back, it’s all back.
That pathological girl who always clung to her, frantically declared her love, and turned her life upside down was back.
But this time, Elena forced herself not to shake off Shiya’s hand immediately.
This was due to the guilt she felt for knowingly leaving Shiya in danger and not saving her.
Shiya gently rubbed her cheek against the crook of Elena’s arm.
Seeing that the other party had no reaction at all, she subconsciously looked up.
Her gaze met Elena’s slightly handsome brows and eyes.
The princess casually stretched her fair, slender swan-like neck.
Her gaze was profound, and her cherry-like, delicate lips were pursed, as if a light touch could reach Shiya’s forehead.
For a moment, Shiya felt her face burning intensely.
She abruptly withdrew her hand, turned sideways, and avoided looking at the princess.
This sudden withdrawal left Elena, who had been maintaining vigilance and bracing for any extreme actions from Shiya, feeling very unsettled.
She opened her mouth several times, only to close it again.
Finally, Elena’s expression turned serious, adopting the tone of an elder sister lecturing a disobedient younger sister.
“Shiya, when you encounter danger, you should notify me immediately. The nurse’s station has the phone number I wrote down.”
This time, Shiya nodded seriously, but she immediately frowned in distress.
“But Elena, the nurse tried calling the student council’s landline twice, and no one answered.”
Elena fell silent.
At that time, she had taken all the student council members to offer condolences to the families of the deceased.
She should have been more aware of this than anyone.
But as the esteemed imperial princess, no matter what, Elena didn’t want to admit her misjudgment in front of Shiya.
Moreover, if Shiya found out that she had actually detected the hospital’s abnormality early through the magical devices installed in the ward, but chose to wait and watch to preserve the lives of the student council’s core members, leaving Shiya in danger…
Elena didn’t dare imagine whether Shiya would rage like an angry young beast, smashing things, or shrink into a corner, silently weeping in sorrow.
She simply changed the subject, pulling from her pocket a vial of medicine that emitted a blue fluorescent glow, with several angel feathers floating around it.
“I didn’t expect that the young lady of the Celestine Duke’s family would have someone deliver such a scarce High-Grade Healing Potion.”
Shiya swallowed hard.
At first glance, the thing looked like it was mixed with a large amount of fluorescent powder and dye, and there were even a few feather-like impurities floating in the liquid.
But she obediently took it from Elena’s hand and drank it all in one go.
Immediately, a burning warmth spread from her lower abdomen throughout her entire body.
Shiya could clearly feel all the wounds on her body healing at an extremely fast rate.
Even the injury left on her throat from the original owner’s suicide healed completely, without a single scar remaining.
Her heart stirred.
She knew the original owner’s voice was soft, with a clean, clear, and transparent quality.
In fact, in many plot points, when people mentioned needing a singer, she was often the first to come to mind.
So Shiya had also speculated that the original owner’s bloodline talent was probably related to singing.
It’s just that before this ability could awaken, the original owner in the original worldline had already died.
Thinking of it, she decided to act.
Shiya slowly exhaled, letting her voice flow as she hummed a familiar tune from her previous life.
But the sound that came out was so harsh, hoarse, and unpleasant that even she wanted to shut up immediately.
Shiya coughed violently a few times, unwilling to give up, and wanted to try again.
She completely failed to notice how ashen Elena’s face had become beside her.
It was at this moment that a nurse walked in, holding a few pieces of clothing, and placed them on the counter.
“The patient is awake. We’ll do a full-body checkup later, and then prepare a few more bottles for the IV drip.”
Elena immediately recognized that pile of clothes as Shiya’s previous hospital gown from the earlier hospital.
But there was one long strip of fabric among them, of decent material, as if torn from a formal dress, which puzzled her.
“What is this?”
Elena picked up the long strip of cloth and found the family crest of the young lady from the Celestine Duke’s family on it.
“This was removed from the patient during our surgery. But I must praise Miss Shiya.”
The nurse smiled as she straightened Shiya’s bedding.
“Knowing how to use such a clean cloth strip as a temporary bandage, to bandage the wound on her back while also wrapping her chest.”
Hearing this, Elena’s hand, clutching the cloth strip, trembled slightly.
“Shiya, you… you actually let Leonora… while you were naked…”
Shiya’s face flushed crimson, and her voice rose several pitches.
“Elena, what are you thinking? As a girl, I also have a sense of propriety.”
Then, she silently lowered her head, her tone tinged with a hint of loss.
“And in such a dangerous place, what could happen was unavoidable, right?”
To this day, she still remembered the icy-cool sensation of Leonora’s fingertips lightly touching her skin as she treated the wound on her back with an alcohol swab, which made her body feel slightly numb.
The nurse, who had been watching the drama unfold with rapt attention, was glared at by Elena, whose eyes had turned gloomy.
She jumped in fright and immediately retreated from the room.
But almost immediately, the nurse poked her head back in, observed the atmosphere somewhat awkwardly, and then pulled in a small cart lined with rows of beautiful clothes of various styles.
“Oh, by the way, Your Highness, these are also clothes that Young Lady Leonora asked me to deliver to Miss Shiya. She insisted that Miss Shiya must accept them all.”
Elena was shocked by this extravagant display.
But she quickly spotted even more private undergarments among the dense pile of formal dresses and mermaid skirts.
She took a deep breath and grabbed Shiya, whose eyes were sparkling and who was about to get out of bed to try on the clothes.
“Not necessary.”
Elena refused on Shiya’s behalf first, then hesitated over her wording before continuing, “Tell her, I will take care of my own younger sister.”
Even though they weren’t related by blood, since Shiya had called her Sister Elena since childhood, it was only natural that she was her younger sister, wasn’t it?
Since the injuries were already healed, there was no need for further fuss.
Elena simply helped Shiya with the discharge procedures.
During this time, Shiya asked Elena for two blue ribbons.
She loosely tied a few strands of hair on each side into hanging braids that fell to her collarbone.
The rest of her snow-white long hair was left to cascade like moonlight down to her waist.
Looking at Shiya, who had changed into a plain white long dress and looked as moving as a fairy under the moonlight, Elena nodded in satisfaction.
Indeed, compared to the flashy dresses Leonora gave, woven with gold thread and even inlaid with gorgeous gemstones, the current Shiya, clean and exuding a bit of cute charm, was more in line with her aesthetic.
“Well then, Sister Elena, I’ll see you at the student council tomorrow.”
Shiya waved goodbye to Elena and turned to leave alone.
But Elena stopped her.
“Wait, I’ll accompany you back.”
The two strolled along the broad street.
By now, the setting sun had dyed patches of clouds red before gradually sinking below the horizon.
The surroundings were still lively.
The Imperial Capital didn’t enforce a curfew.
Some mobile vendors had already started lighting up their magic-powered signs, preparing for a big night at the market.
Shiya immediately had an idea.
Since they were out for a stroll, she should take this opportunity to properly showcase her attentive, caring side as a yandere.
Then she sniffed lightly with her nose, quickly stopped in front of a skewer vendor’s stall, and refused to budge.
As if she had anticipated this, Elena looked at Shiya’s pitiful eyes and shook her head firmly and ruthlessly.
“No, street food is too unhygienic.”
But less than two minutes later, Elena seemed to resign herself to fate.
Pinching her nose, she picked out some beef meatballs that looked relatively clean for Shiya, paid, and handed the food to her.
Shiya thanked her, took it, and immediately started eating.
She opened her small cherry-like mouth, taking small bites, squinting her eyes with a blissfully satisfied expression on her face.
Watching Shiya with her cheeks puffed out like a little white squirrel, Elena’s mood also relaxed considerably.
Soon, Shiya realized something and, feeling a bit embarrassed, used a bamboo skewer to pick up a beef meatball from the paper cup and brought it close to Elena’s lips.
“Do you want some?”
Elena wrinkled her nose in distaste, but she didn’t refuse Shiya’s offer.
If there had been enough time, she would have only taken Shiya to a high-end restaurant nearby.
Only after Elena was slowly fed the entire beef meatball by Shiya did she wave her hand, indicating she didn’t want any more.
Shiya said “Oh,” and without noticing that a few strands of the princess’s translucent saliva were still clinging on the bamboo skewer, she skewered another beef meatball and ate it herself.
But before they had walked more than a few steps, her gaze was drawn to a music box on a sundries stall.
The clever vendor immediately noticed the young girl’s gaze and very obligingly began winding the music box’s key.
Immediately after, the tender and clear singing voice of an unfamiliar young girl slowly flowed out.
For some reason, Shiya felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
The most interesting part was that as the melody’s beat played, the music box’s lid automatically popped open, revealing two small figures, one gray and one white.
They gently held each other’s waists, twirling in a dance for all who witnessed them.
‘Maybe Xiao Mei would like this.’
Shiya thought to herself.
But the Elena beside her felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her heart upon hearing this song.
Noticing Shiya gazing intently at the music box, Elena silently stepped forward, asked the vendor for the price, and decisively bought it.
Seeing Elena hand the music box to her with a gloomy expression, it was Shiya’s turn to blush slightly at the ears, feeling very embarrassed.
“Elena, I’ll pay you back for this after I get my salary.”
But before Shiya could finish, Elena interrupted her.
This princess, who usually always presented a perfect and elegant image, now had eyes filled with an unmistakeable weariness and remorse.
“I’m sorry, Shiya. I didn’t stop you when you tried to commit suicide. And now, even your vocal cords inexplicably can’t recover.”
Shiya immediately understood.
She tilted her head, her tone light, but the words she uttered were like an icy arrow that pierced straight through Elena’s body.
“Sister Elena, it’s not your fault, is it?Besides, anyone would find that situation troublesome and annoying, right? So why are you wearing this guilty expression?”
A palpable sense of suffocation instantly seized Elena’s throat.
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