Hospital 444
Chapter 326 - 13 The Unbearable Cost

Chapter 326: Chapter 13 The Unbearable Cost

Peipei looked at the bookshelf in front of Yueyin.

"You have so many books you like to read," she said.

"Yeah," Yueyin came over and replied, "I like to read any good novels."

Suddenly, Peipei spotted a set of books.

She didn’t even wait to ask Yueyin’s permission before quickly pulling out the first volume of the set.

"’Necro Cinema’! You actually have this book!"

"You like it?" Yueyin asked, somewhat surprised.

She noticed that Peipei’s hands were trembling slightly out of excitement.

"It was my favorite series in high school... written by Black Ghostfire, that famous writer of mystery and thriller novels," Peipei said.

"After the plot moved on to the Nitrel family saga, the style completely changed, and I only bought the following volumes out of habit."

"When did you buy them?"

"When... I think it was also during high school."

"Did your parents agree to you reading these books?"

Yueyin shook her head and said, "How could they agree, my grades weren’t great either. So I bought them secretly, put book covers on them so my parents thought they were textbooks, and read them in secret. Do you really like this series that much?"

"It’s more than just liking... This was my favorite book in high school..."

Peipei quickly flipped through the pages, her fingers shaking violently.

"I was supposed to... I was supposed to..."

Peipei’s high school memories came flooding back.

In fact, few people knew that she was a student with pronounced academic strengths and weaknesses. Her mathematics was good, but her English scores never improved. It made her parents frantic, especially facing the college entrance exams—without good English, getting into a top university would be a challenge.

’Top student’, ’poor student’—those were just stereotypes. Studying was always an agonizing, grueling task, especially in high school.

Peipei’s parents were very strict with her. They took out a loan to buy a house in a good school district, claiming they were willing to make such an investment for her education. Whenever Peipei brought home good grades, her parents were very comforted. But only Peipei knew that she didn’t enjoy studying at all and would even feel nauseous at the sight of English words.

She could easily manipulate mathematical formulas, but found English grammar overwhelmingly complex. By the second year of high school, her English grades had fallen to the bottom of the class.

"You once asked me what I would wish for if I could have any wish come true..."

"Yes, I did ask that..."

Looking at the book in front of her, Peipei gave a bitter smile.

"This series, later due to poor sales, went out of print. I went to college later and tried to buy a set online, but couldn’t find it on Taobao or Xianyu."

Peipei flipped through the book and eventually put it back on the shelf with a heavy heart.

"Yueyin, reading really isn’t a pleasant thing," she said.

"Isn’t that the truth?" Yueyin replied, feeling the same way: "You’re really amazing, still going on to graduate school..."

"Before, I also had a set of ’Necro Cinema.’ At that time, my English grades never improved, and my parents blamed the books I bought."

"And then? Did they tear the books up?"

"My mom took me to a bookstore near our school and asked to return the books. She scolded the clerk, saying a store near a school should sell textbooks instead, but they sold me these bad novels about ghosts, causing my grades to plummet. She said that our family was still paying off the mortgage and forbade them from selling me such books again."

Yueyin was stunned.

"Back then, there were many other students from my school in the bookstore. It was a big scene, and after talking with the shop owner, they agreed to take the books back in exchange for textbooks at the same price. What was worse, because I would still secretly buy books, or even have other students buy them for me, it led to my mother making repeated scenes, complaining to the school, and in the end... the bookstore owner couldn’t bear the nuisance anymore, and they stopped stocking novels. Because the students couldn’t buy the books they wanted, they started to dislike me even more."

Yueyin had never imagined Peipei had such an experience.

"After I got into university, the series went out of print."

Then, she added, "Actually, I don’t blame my mother. In the end, my grades really did improve, and I got into a good university. But when filling out my major preferences, it wasn’t the field I wanted to study."

Looking at the books in front of her, she said, "The things you want to do, and the things you are suited to do, are often not the same thing. A phrase my mother often says to me is, if a person wants to be successful, they must do things they don’t like to do."

"My mother is different from yours; she always took great care of me. My dad always said that a doting mother might spoil her children, but I know she really does care about me. My mother used to tell me that if a person can’t do what they like, no matter how successful they are, it’s meaningless."

Peipei didn’t notice that when Yueyin mentioned "my mother," her hands clenched into tight fists.

"Lan Ying is like that, too; he likes to play soccer, but his parents don’t approve. Who would have thought he would actually manage to get into a professional soccer club."

After thinking, Yueyin asked, "Um, that... Xishi, you just said, if you could have any wish come true, what would it be?"

"I’d rather not say. You’d find it absurd."

"Why not tell me?"

"I won’t say." Peipei still shook her head.

But Yueyin’s curiosity had been piqued.

"How about I tell you a story instead?"

"What story?"

Afterward, Yueyin made two cups of coffee.

"Well, a long, long time ago, there was a... little girl..."

Peipei had already had coffee and didn’t really feel like drinking it, but she accepted the coffee cup out of politeness.

"One day, she met a witch in the forest..."

"Eh? A fairy tale?" Peipei was surprised, she had thought Yueyin would tell a true story that had happened to her.

"Yeah, you can think of it as a fairy tale if you like."

"Alright then, go ahead."

"The witch told the girl that she could grant her wish, but it would come at a certain price."

At this, Yueyin unconsciously felt unable to look at Peipei.

Peipei wondered: Is this story from Hans Christian Andersen? The Brothers Grimm?

"At first, she made a very simple wish, and the content of the wish was..."

Yueyin, taking her own real experiences, spun them into a fairy tale narrative, with some modifications, and told Peipei.

"She just couldn’t bear it and ended up abandoning her family’s cat."

Peipei subconsciously took a sip of coffee and said, "And then? She’s made her wishes come true, got together with the boy she loves, does she still need to find the forest witch?"

"Yes, she later went to find the forest witch again. She wanted to realize the boy’s dream... She felt that by doing this, she could make up for the unease in her heart, after all, it was by the witch’s power that she got together with the boy."

"That’s understandable. What happened afterward?"

"The price the witch asked for this time was too high. So high that it was impossible to pay..."

Peipei noticed that Yueyin’s complexion had turned a bit pale as she said this.

"What was the price this time?"

But Yueyin just bit her lip and couldn’t bring herself to say it.

"What is it?"

"It’s... the girl’s... mother..."

"Her mother?"

"The forest witch said that the girl had to kill her own mother with her hands. It had to be done within eight days. If she couldn’t do it within eight days, the forest witch would come to find the girl herself and demand payment... But how could the little girl possibly do it, that was her mother!"

"That’s too cruel! In the ’The Little Mermaid,’ they only asked the mermaid to kill the prince," Peipei immediately said: "So, what happened afterward? Did the forest witch come? Did the little girl find any way to fight the forest witch?"

Yueyin shook her head.

"No solution was found. This story ends here."

"It ends here? Just like that?"

"Yes, it’s a psychological test story."

"Is the forest witch some kind of metaphor?"

"Yes, I suppose it is..."

"I really want to know how the story ends. What happens when the forest witch shows up after eight days?"

"Anyway, it’s impossible to sacrifice the mother, isn’t it?"

Peipei thought of her own mother and nodded without hesitation.

"Of course, that’s obvious!"

Suddenly, a loud bang came from the direction of the restroom!