The Beauties of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 61

A light, smiling voice accompanied the girl who pushed open the door and entered. The girl was wearing a light purple dress, her long hair was simply tied in a ponytail, and she was carrying a thermos in her hand. "If Lanlan could hear your threats, she wouldn't have been unconscious for a week."

Upon hearing this, the girl by the bed turned around and glared at her resentfully before collapsing weakly onto the bed. "You don't need to keep reminding me that Lanlan has been unconscious for a week, Susu."

Yu Susu chuckled softly, then turned her gaze to the woman on the bed. Her smile faded as she sighed, "When will Lanlan wake up? Xuan'er, has she given up because she's so disappointed?"

"Ptooey!"

Ye Xuan'er jumped up in a fit of anger, "Susu, don't say such discouraging things, okay? Even if Lanlan is disappointed in her damned parents, she still has us! She won't give up!"

Looking at Yu Susu's wide, incredulous eyes, she clenched her fist and shouted, "Susu! Don't be so pessimistic, okay? Lanlan will definitely wake up! The doctor said her surgery was very successful, her heart is much healthier than before, she won't give up on herself!"

Yu Susu seemed oblivious to her shouts, only pointing behind her with a trembling hand, her voice trembling uncertainly, "Lanlan...she seems to be awake..."

"What?" Ye Xuan'er was stunned. She turned around abruptly and stared at Jiao Lan, who was slowly opening her eyes with trembling eyelashes on the bed. She rushed over with wide eyes in surprise, "Lan Lan! Oh my god! You're really awake!"

Yu Susu rushed over and pulled Ye Xuan'er away a bit, "Do you want to scare Lanlan into fainting again? You're a nurse! Go and call the doctor, tell him Lanlan is awake."

Ye Xuan'er quickly got up and ran straight outside, "I'm going right now!"

Jiaolan, who had just opened her eyes in bed, stared blankly at the girl rushing away. Before she could react to what was happening, another girl had already taken her hand and looked at her with surprise and delight: "You're finally awake, Lanlan."

"You are...Su Xin?"

Yu Susu was stunned, staring in astonishment at Jiaolan who was staring at her with wide eyes. "Lanlan? What did you call me?"

Suddenly snapping back to her senses, Jiaolan looked around, carefully examining the small ward. Her muddled mind gradually cleared, and she slowly grabbed the thin white blanket covering her, horrified by what she realized.

"I'm back?"

How could this be? She was in the Song Dynasty palace just a moment ago, fainting from her severe injuries. Could it be... that she died? So her soul has returned?

Jiaolan, that's her name in modern times.

The only people who would call her Lanlan are her two close friends, Yu Susu and Ye Xuan'er. They met in the hospital, but Yu Susu was a medical student who met her during an internship, while Ye Xuan'er was a nurse at the hospital.

"Lanlan, you've been asleep for six days, and you're back now."

Yu Susu bent down and helped her sit up, placing two pillows behind her for her to lean on. "Do you remember? A week ago you had a heart attack and underwent major surgery, but you've been in a deep sleep ever since. The doctors couldn't find the cause, and we thought you were really in a vegetative state! Luckily, you woke up!"

Six days?!

Jiaolan cried out in shock, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. How could this be? She had stayed in the Song Dynasty for nearly seven months, so why had only six days passed here?

Was she... just dreaming all along?

Just as Jiao Lan was stunned, Ye Xuan'er, who had returned, rushed in and shouted:

"The doctor is here!"

The newly recovered Jiaolan simply looked up blankly as familiar figures approached her, her mind a complete blank. All her memories—familiar and unfamiliar, awake and asleep—seemed to have been drained away in that instant.

She was terrified.

When Yu Susu once again appeared at the hospital after class with a bowl of nutritious porridge, she saw Ye Xuan'er, who was always restless, sitting on a bench in the corridor, lost in thought.

Filled with curiosity, Yu Susu walked over and, unusually, joked, "Xuan'er, has the sky fallen and the earth collapsed? Or has your hospital director finally realized that you're not suitable to be a nurse and is going to ask you to leave?"

Ye Xuan'er glared at her sideways and pointed towards the ward door behind her, saying, "See for yourself."

Yu Susu glanced through the glass window in the door and saw Jiao Lan sitting on the bed with her knees drawn up to her hips, her head almost squeezed between her knees, her long black hair scattered messily over her slender body.

"Lanlan...is she still not awake?"

Since waking up yesterday, Lanlan has seemed to have lost her soul. They even had the illusion that only Lanlan's body had awakened, and that she was still immersed in a deep sleep.

Ye Xuan'er sighed heavily, "She only said one sentence today, a completely inexplicable question." It has left her racking her brains for a long time, but she still can't figure out what's wrong with Lanlan's unusual behavior.

"What's the problem?" Yu Susu asked, turning around.

She asked me, "In Zhuangzi's dream of becoming a butterfly, was it Zhuangzi who was dreaming, or was it the butterfly that was dreaming?"

Yu Susu was taken aback, her eyes widening in realization—"Xuan'er, in the past week, Lanlan... wasn't she just sleeping?"

Ye Xuan'er frowned suspiciously, "What are you talking about?"

Yu Susu shook her head, reached out and grasped the doorknob, "I'll go in and see her." She then pushed the door open and went inside.

She stood silently by the door for a few minutes, but the woman sitting on the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest did not react. Yu Susu tightened her grip on the thermos, smiled, and walked to the bedside.

"Lanlan, I brought you—"

"Don't speak."

Jiaolan gently interrupted her, her posture of sitting with her knees drawn up remained unchanged.

Her head felt like it was going to explode. Reality, dreams, things she could distinguish from things she couldn't—a whole host of scenes flooded her mind in just a few hours, and she could no longer tell the difference between reality and dreams.

Were those things she remembered so vividly, those people she was so close to, really just a dream? Otherwise, why would Xue Suxin and Xuan'er be so similar to the modern Susu and Xuan'er? Was it because she subconsciously included these two important friends in her dreams?

So, was Zehua—her husband with whom she shared a life of mutual support and had a son—just a figure from her dreams, someone she imagined? Was she too fixated on everything she knew from historical records and thus wanted to change something?

She didn't know! She had absolutely no idea what the right thing to do was.

If it was all just a dream, she would rather go back to the dream. But since waking up yesterday, perhaps because she had slept for too long, she couldn't fall back asleep no matter what she tried.

Yu Susu sat down gently beside her, glanced at the "History of Song" on the bedside table, pursed her lips, squeezed out a smile, and opened the thermos in her hand, "Lanlan, are you hungry? Have some porridge."

"Susu, please don't talk to me, I want to sleep." Please let her sleep...