Chapter 26

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Chapter 26: The Prices of Overindulgence

She couldn’t sleep again.

It was raining again tonight—spring rains were frequent. This should’ve been the kind of weather where people sleep the best.

It wasn’t because the cat was bouncing around.

Compared to the cases she’d heard about during the daytime pet clinic visit, Circle was actually very well-behaved.

Although she was experiencing the same kind of insomnia as before—replaying the day’s events over and over in her head before bed—this time, the scene where she got scolded in a game looped the longest.

Sasha had said it wasn’t due to memory loss this time, just that she was being petty.

But that wasn’t the main reason she couldn’t sleep. She had actually dozed off—only to be woken up by pain.

Yes, woken by pain.

Walking in the rain without an umbrella, binging on spicy and cold food at the snack street downstairs, ignoring dietary restrictions… all of it was finally coming with a price.

Her stomach hurt—worse than when she got jabbed with a playing card. Clutching her belly, she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

She couldn’t understand it. During the day, Sasha had told her that most illnesses and injuries could heal on their own.

“Sasha.”

Her call went unanswered. The useless system sprite had gone into sleep mode, able to fall asleep anytime it wanted.

The phone showed the time: 2:37 a.m.

Not the whole city, but at least in this neighborhood, aside from the lit street lamps, there was no other sign of light.

Her legs felt a little sticky. She reached down and touched them.

Under the glow of the light, she could clearly see the color seeping through her fingers. But to her eyes, it all just looked black.

Even though she couldn’t see colors, instinct told her exactly what it was. A few nights ago, in the rain, that dead person had blood coming from their mouth and nose. When she’d been cut, this same thing—called “blood”—had come out.

There was no doubt about it: something was definitely wrong.

She got dressed, not even bothering to put her colored contacts or glasses back on. Clutching her aching stomach, she staggered out the door.

“Go to the hospital if you’re hurt or sick”—that was basic knowledge she had drawn twice. Sasha had once told her she didn’t actually need to.

Downstairs, the girl’s blue-tinged eyes dazedly watched the ripples in the puddles. She realized… she didn’t actually know where the hospital was.

At night, her vision—limited to black, white, and gray—was even more unreliable.

Still, it was good enough to let her see a room with its light still on at this hour—2:30 a.m..

In theory, any nearby resident could be a source of help. But instinctively, the girl was drawn to the only patch of “white” in her grayscale world.

Urgent knocking echoed. Through the peephole, the person inside couldn’t see anyone (thanks to the visitor’s short height and the way she bent over to clutch her stomach).

Given that a murder had recently occurred nearby, no sane resident of Fanzui City would be reckless enough to open the door at such a time.

But the person inside just so happened to be that kind of reckless fool.

“I have a doorbell, you know,” the apartment owner opened the door with a blank expression, staring at the impolite late-night visitor.

Not only did she open the door—her other hand was even empty, completely defenseless.

The pink-haired landlady, still exuding that fairy-like aura, really had no one to blame for her dark circles if she stayed up at this hour.

The door opened inward, and Mi Xiaoliu, who had been leaning against it for support, stumbled in and collapsed against her.

“You shouldn’t be out so late at night. Don’t you know there might be a murderer in the area…”

Mid-sentence, she caught sight of the blood smeared on her clothes from Mi Xiaoliu’s right hand.

Frowning, she helped Mi Xiaoliu inside. After glancing outside to make sure no one was around, she shut the door behind them.

She carried the person to the bed and examined her face. If not for the hairstyle and the clothes she had personally given her two weeks ago, she wouldn’t have recognized this boy with the unusual eyes as the one she’d taken in herself.

Although the only differences were the glasses and eye color, the changes were distinctive enough. In anime, this could practically count as a whole new character design.

The landlady pulled a dusty first-aid kit from under the bed. “Where are you hurt?”

“It hurts. Blood,” Mi Xiaoliu pointed to her lower abdomen and looked at her blankly, without the slightest trace of embarrassment.

The landlady’s frown deepened. “You climb over some fence or something?”

If Mi Xiaoliu hadn’t pointed to the injury, she would’ve assumed the girl had encountered that still-uncaught murderer. But the killer hadn’t been seen nearby in a while.

She looked toward the kitchen, at the jars and bottles she used in place of proper utensils, racking her brain for what to do.

Eventually, she could only conclude that she’d completely slept through this topic back when she was in school.

She’d practiced medicine for years and only seen this happen about thirty times—how could she possibly know what to do?

Mi Xiaoliu shook her head, looked down, and said nothing, allowing the landlady to pull her pants down.

There was a lot of blood.

It had soaked through her thermal pants. Dark red—almost brownish from coagulation. Definitely not your average injury.

The landlady was far too familiar with this kind of blood.

No body hair. Definitely no severed limbs, as she had momentarily feared.

She froze, then stared for a few seconds before closing the first-aid kit and shoving it back under the bed.

Pointing at the blood, she asked, “It just came out on its own? No one… did anything bad to you?”

“Mmm.” She nodded.

Satisfied with the response, the landlady turned to wet a towel with hot water and began wiping her clean.

“First time?”

The girl still looked at her, bewildered.

“This is a normal biological phenomenon—it’s called menstruation. Or more casually, your period. Every girl goes through it. It’ll happen again next month.”

The landlady pulled out a sanitary pad from its packaging.

“Watch closely. You’ll need to know how to use this yourself. Didn’t any female friends ever talk to you about this?”

She knew Mi Xiaoliu had no parents.

“Female friends?” Mi Xiaoliu stared quietly at her hands.

The landlady remembered the hasty gender entry on the form she’d filled out back then.

Her mouth twitched.

That oddball of a girl hadn’t objected at all at the time. Really strange personality…

So how could anyone have ever told her what this was?

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“Mmm.”

“You’ve got menstrual cramps. Been eating lots of spicy food? Gotten chilled recently?”

“Mmm…”

“Take better care of yourself. Until you find a sweet boyfriend who knows how to take care of you, just drink plenty of hot water.”

She shook her head, tucked Mi Xiaoliu in with a blanket.

“Girls living alone need to take good care of themselves.”

She looked closely at Mi Xiaoliu’s delicate features.

She was beautiful—for a girl. But her hair was too short, which didn’t suit her. Viewed as a boy, she didn’t stand out at all.

Without Photoshop or post-editing, most beautiful girls couldn’t convincingly pass as boys. Very few people could look good in both genders.

Think about it: take those handsome male actors in movies—like the lead from “Thor”. Would he look good in a dress?

Tossing the blood-soaked pants aside, she let the girl lie under the covers. Then the landlady went to the kitchen and fiddled for half an hour.

Eventually, she returned with a beaker clutched in thongs, filled with some kind of mystery soup.

But by the time she returned, the girl had already fallen asleep, breathing evenly.

Curled on her side, still in pain—but finally at ease.

The landlady frowned again and reached out to gently shake her awake.

“Drink the soup. You need the nutrients.”

She wasn’t going to let all that effort go to waste.