Chapter 125: Ming Dai, My Heart Hurts So Deeply! An Unusual Friendship.

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Ming Dai was utterly startled. “Pee?! Go to the bathroom!”

Why was he being so obedient at a time like this?!

Zhou Sinian wriggled out from under the covers, his eyes red as he protested, “You told me to stay in bed these past two days!”

Ming Dai nearly fainted from exasperation. “Then go! You’re not seriously planning to wet the bed, are you?!”

Only then did Zhou Sinian struggle out from under the blankets and drift all the way to the bathroom.

Ming Dai waited at the door with a tray in her hands, but after a long while, she still heard no sound of running water.

Was the room really that well soundproofed?

Just as she was beginning to wonder, Zhou Sinian’s tearful voice came from inside again. “Ming Dai! I can’t pee!”

Ming Dai: I can damn well pee!

Hearing the sounds inside grow increasingly urgent, Ming Dai was afraid he might open the door and come out, so she could only take a deep breath and stand outside, whistling.

The cheerful whistle echoed through the bedroom and slipped through the crack beneath the door into the bathroom.

Before long, the faint patter of water reached her ears. Ming Dai’s face grew redder and redder as she listened.

Good heavens!

Back then, she had learned to whistle because her senior brother had told her it was useful for picking up girls. She had followed his example, intending to master the skill so she could go pick up some handsome young men herself.

Who could have imagined that she would fail to pick up a single handsome young man and end up using it first on her overgrown son, Zhou Sinian?

She was exhausted!

Being a mother really was no easy task!

After waiting for quite a while, the sound of water finally stopped.

Judging by the length of time, he must have been holding it in for ages.

Ming Dai instructed him through the door to wash up before coming out to eat.

Zhou Sinian answered loudly. Soon, the bathroom filled with the fragrance of roses—the scented soap he had found for himself in the storeroom.

Ming Dai placed the food on the little table beside the bed and waited for him to come out.

The sheets on the bed were all crumpled. The longer she looked at them, the more displeased she became. In the end, she could not help getting up to change them.

“What a grown man, and you can still twist the sheets into this state! Honestly! This family would fall apart without me!”

She muttered as she stuffed the sheets into the washing machine on the balcony.

Halfway through, she suddenly realized something was wrong.

Why did that sound so familiar? She had seen those exact words constantly in videos made by mothers in her previous life!

Zhou Sinian was toxic!

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He had successfully dragged her into the role of a mother!

When Zhou Sinian came out, the first thing he saw was Ming Dai wearing an utterly world-weary expression.

He glanced at the food on the table. There were two bowls of plain congee, two salted duck eggs, and a plate of little milk-flavored steamed buns. Zhou Sinian decided it looked acceptable, picked up a bun, and sat down as he bit into it. He did not forget to call out to Ming Dai, either.

“Ming Dai, come eat!”

Looking at Zhou Sinian, who was carefree and without a worry in the world, Ming Dai shook her head and sat down to eat breakfast with him.

After breakfast, Zhou Sinian’s condition improved considerably. At the very least, he no longer drifted unsteadily on his way to the bathroom.

For the next few days, Ming Dai still refused to let him go outside and made him continue resting in bed.

After becoming thoroughly depressed from drinking medicine, Zhou Sinian knitted his brows and asked Ming Dai for some yarn. He wanted to knit himself another sweater as a reward.

Ming Dai silently dug out some red yarn for him. This time, Zhou Sinian intended to knit a solid-colored sweater.

He had not suffered any nightmares for the past two nights, and his physical condition had stabilized considerably.

Ming Dai watched as he cast on with practiced ease. With a hook of his finger and a twist of his hands, an entire row of stitches took shape.

Seeing that he was in a fairly good mood, Ming Dai casually asked, “Zhou Sinian, what were you doing in the storeroom in the middle of the night? Were you hungry?”

Zhou Sinian’s hands paused, and his movements slowed.

Noticing something was wrong, Ming Dai hurriedly changed the subject. “Were you hungry and went looking for something to eat?”

Zhou Sinian still said nothing, but his hands became tangled. He put the needle in the wrong place, and before long, the neat row of stitches unraveled.

Ming Dai fell silent and watched him quietly.

Just as she began to think Zhou Sinian would not answer, he raised his head.

His eyes were red, and his gaze was hollow. He was not crying, yet Ming Dai felt as though he had wept until his heart was shattered.

“Ming Dai, I saw a tiger tear someone apart and eat him. There was so much blood, and he screamed terribly.

“That person saved me. He told me to run, but I forgot him. I cannot remember his face. I only remember his voice, and then there was so much blood—scalding hot blood.

“Ming Dai, whenever I think of him, my heart hurts so much.”

Ming Dai watched the light in his eyes slowly go out, not knowing how to comfort him.

So Zhou Sinian had not been afraid of the tiger itself. It was the sight of the tiger devouring a person that had traumatized him—especially since the person who was eaten had saved him. That person had very likely been a family member, a comrade-in-arms, or a friend.

Those were the true reasons for his fear.

In the end, Ming Dai merely sat down beside him, took the yarn from his hands, and slowly straightened out the mistake before handing it back.

Zhou Sinian accepted it and continued knitting.

But as he knitted, the yarn gradually became damp.

Because Zhou Sinian had fallen ill, Ming Dai missed the final trip to the county town to deliver vegetables. In the end, it was Liu Dazhu who went with Third Uncle Liu.

Ming Dai’s plan to sell gift baskets also fell through.

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She gave some food to Liu Dazheng and asked him to continue weaving the baskets, since she would still need them after the New Year.

Liu Dazheng happily agreed, then asked why his brother Zhou Sinian had not come.

Ming Dai told him that Zhou Sinian had caught a cold and was recuperating at home.

Liu Dazheng expressed his sympathy over his brother’s illness, then took out a new basket with a peculiar design and handed it to Ming Dai, instructing her to give it to Zhou Sinian to help pass the time.

Ming Dai brought it home and gave it to Zhou Sinian.

When Zhou Sinian saw it, he was delighted. He immediately cut off a short length of the yarn he was knitting and handed it to Ming Dai, saying that it was his return gift and that she absolutely had to deliver it to Liu Dazheng.

Ming Dai dangled the piece of yarn, not even a yard long, in front of Zhou Sinian. After confirming that he was serious, she wandered back to Liu Dazheng’s home in a daze.

What normal person gave someone a piece of yarn as a gift?

Unless the recipient was not a normal person either!

Liu Dazheng was extraordinarily happy when he saw the yarn.

He carefully rubbed it between his fingertips, treasuring it immensely.

After admiring it to his heart’s content, he wrapped the yarn in a scrap of cloth and solemnly told Ming Dai to thank Zhou Sinian on his behalf. He had received his good intentions.

Ming Dai: ???

How had he received anything?!

He had not said a word. How did you know what he meant?

Ming Dai went home wearing another expression of bewilderment and truthfully reported Liu Dazheng’s thanks to Zhou Sinian.

Zhou Sinian smiled with great satisfaction when he heard it.

Ming Dai: ????

What on earth did any of this mean?!

Ignoring her inner collapse, the two of them did not meet in person, but they exchanged plenty of things over the next few days, all with the help of little messenger pigeon Ming.

When Ming Dai once again carried a basket home, she could not help sighing. She felt as though she were back in college, delivering someone else’s love letter.

Still, Zhou Sinian’s condition improved steadily now that he had something to occupy him. Apart from the occasional nightmare at night, both his physical and emotional states gradually returned to their former levels. Ming Dai slowly began allowing him to move about outside the room.

After that, however, Zhou Sinian never went to the storeroom on his own again. Even when he occasionally followed Ming Dai inside, he merely stood at the doorway.

Even after Ming Dai had hidden away the chest containing the tiger bones, he still recoiled from the place.

Ming Dai was trying to think of a way to erase the fear buried deep within his memories. Only by eliminating his aversion to tigers could he truly awaken. Perhaps this was the key that would unlock his jumbled memories.

Before Ming Dai could think of a solution, the New Year quietly arrived.

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