“There’re a lot of beautiful women in H Street, I have a fetish for collecting them, so naturally I can’t miss this place!” Philip blinked mischievously, and Esther suddenly laughed.
“You’re funny!”
“Get in the car, where are you going? I’ll drive you!”
“Aren’t you looking for the beautiful women?”
“I can find them another day!”
Esther shook her head. “No, I’ll take the bus myself, thank you!”
After finishing her words, ignoring Philip, she walked towards the bus stop. It so happened that a bus arrived, and Esther boarded it.
She hadn’t seen Kattie for days and wondered how she was doing now!
The bus stopped at the hospital. Esther got off the bus and headed toward the inpatient building. She walked slowly as she hadn’t eaten anything before she got here in a hurry.
The moment she walked in, she saw Elijah sitting by Kattie’s bed in the ward. Seeing her enter, his expression was indifferent while she was a little embarrassed. A smile then bloomed on her face as she turned to Kattie and said, “Miss Cole, are you feeling better?”
Kattie was lying on the bed with gauze wrapped around her head. Once she saw Esther, she froze slightly and then smiled at her as well. “You, you’re Esther!”
“Ah–you can talk now?” Esther was stunned for a moment, then rushed to her in surprise. “Can you talk?”
“Yes!” Kattie had been able to speak after waking up from the external ventricular drainage operation.
“That’s great!” Esther almost cried with tears of joy. “It’s all my fault for causing you to lie in bed so long!”
“It’s okay, I know it’s not what you want. You’re scared these days too, aren’t you?” Kattie’s words sounded truly clear. Although the speed of her speech was a bit slow, it was unusually clear. Her voice was gentle and pleasant to listen to.
“It’s my fault for causing you to suffer, you have to get better as soon as possible!” Esther sincerely held Kattie’s hand and said, “Otherwise I will have a bad conscience for the rest of my life!”
“Okay! I hope I can recover too!” Kattie said softly.
“Mr. Perry, the doctor said that Miss Cole is ready to eat!” The caregiver came in from outside, and the moment she saw Esther, she greeted her with a smile. “Miss Price, you’re here!”
Esther saw that she was carrying the thermos from the hospital in her hand, which should be the lunch prepared for Kattie.
“Give it to me!” Elijah took the bowl from the caregiver’s hand and his gaze fell tenderly on Kattie. “Kattie, let’s eat something!”
“Okay!” Kattie smiled tenderly, looked towards Elijah who was next to her, pursed her lips, and said softly, “Sorry to bother you, Elijah!”
“Can I feed her?” Esther asked enthusiastically.
“I’ll do it!” Elijah said in a deep voice, but when he looked at Kattie, his icy gaze then turned to tenderness, “This is your favourite dried scallop porridge!”
Esther was a little embarrassed and took a few steps back.
Smelling the rich and sweet smell, Esther’s stomach also grumbled a few times. She was hungry too!
Elijah scooped a spoonful of dried scallop porridge, blew it, and fed it into Kattie’s mouth while it was no longer scalding. Kattie said softly after swallowing, “Although it’s not as good as what you cook, it’s good enough to have such a taste in the hospital!”
“Then you should get well as soon as possible. When you get better, I’ll cook it for you!” Elijah said softly.
Esther watched Elijah talking gently to Kattie, and watched him feed Kattie spoonful by spoonful, he was gentle. Thinking of Hudson also feeding her in the same way when she was sick before, she quietly turned her head to look out of the window. Looking at the blue sky and the bright sunshine in the distance, she suddenly felt dizzy and thought to herself that she hadn’t taken any supplements during her period these days, and she should take some too. She should take care of herself.
“Want some more?” Elijah asked.
“No!” Kattie said softly.
“Does your head still hurt?”
“I feel much better in my head except for some soreness in my legs. I still can’t feel anything in my right leg, hopefully, I won’t be paralyzed in bed!”
“You won’t! Let me give you a massage!” Elijah lifted the quilt and moved gently to examine her right leg. His coarse fingers gently slid up and down Kattie’s leg, massaging with moderate force.
“Elijah! It’s okay, just let the caregiver massage me!” Kattie said shyly, her hands gripping the quilt nervously, a blush appearing on her face.
“You’ll get better, didn’t the doctor say you’re recovering so quickly? Bear with it, the blood can be circulated easily by massage.” Elijah said in a low voice, looking sideways at her downcast face with the rosy eye-rims, the glistening gaze, the shy look, the softly bitten cherry lips. Kattie had recovered, she had!
Seeing such a scene, Esther quietly retreated from the ward.
Kattie’s eyes couldn’t help but look at the figure walking out the door and suddenly shouted, “Esther, you may go back. I know you’re studying, go back and finish all your homework, don’t let Elijah worry about you!”
Elijah looked up and saw Esther turn back awkwardly, with a stiff smile on her face. While his face was devoid of any expression as he continued to massage Kattie without saying a word.
“Okay, Miss Cole, I’ll visit you again! I’m going to eat now!” Esther thought that it turned out that Elijah’s tenderness didn’t belong to her, and she didn’t even know what she had done wrong.
“You don’t have to visit me so frequently, I’ll be fine with Elijah here,” Kattie said considerately, a complicated glint flashing in her downcast gaze.
“Okay! I’ll find an appropriate time to visit you!” Not knowing whether it was appropriate to say so, Esther went downstairs to eat.
She wouldn’t treat herself badly, especially with her stomach.
Walking along the bustling street in G City, she suddenly saw that she had reached a chicken soup restaurant and Esther walked in. “Please give me a pot of chicken soup!”
She sat alone in the restaurant and drank the chicken soup. It tasted delicious, but there was no warmth in it, yet she kept drinking it. Esther had no idea how much she drank; it seemed that when she was in a bad mood, she would eat a lot of food. When the big pot of soup was finished, Esther patted her stomach. She was full!
She would rather die with her belly full than be a starving ghost, this was the motto of her life.
Just ten minutes after she walked out of the restaurant, Esther felt dizzy and a feeling of vomiting surged up inside her. Then she felt sick and wanted to go to the washroom. Fortunately, it just so happened that there was a public toilet next to the restaurant.
However, Esther stayed for half an hour once she went in, vomiting and having diarrhea continuously. She was uncomfortable and had excruciating pain in her abdomen.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her, she just felt uncomfortable.
She wanted to pick up the phone and call Elijah, but when she thought of his sudden indifference to her, she didn’t want to make a fool of herself. Then, she thought of Hudson, and she decided to call Hudson!
When she pulled her phone out of her backpack, she accidentally dropped it into the toilet! Why was she so unlucky?
“Ugh!” Esther was chagrined and cursed herself.
God was going to ruin her, right?
Looking at her phone that was soaked in the water, Esther was helpless. She left the toilet while she still had the strength to leave. She didn’t want to die in the toilet even if she had to. It stank so bad!
When she came out of the public toilet to the street, she couldn’t help throwing up again. She leaned against the fence alone and vomited terribly.
And in the distance, a hunk man was on the phone. “Young master, Miss Price is vomiting against the fence! She seems to be suffering from a stomach upset. A subordinate saw her go into the toilet for half an hour before coming out, and now she’s throwing up again.”
Not long after, a white Pagani appeared on the street not far from Esther. A slender and handsome man got out of the car, and when he saw the woman leaning against the flower bed fence, he couldn’t help but frown, “What’s wrong? Eat something wrong?”
“You?” Esther froze for a moment, barely having the strength to turn her head. She was so uncomfortable that she seemed to want to go to the toilet again. “Ugh! I want to go to the toilet!”
Darting towards the toilet, Esther was glad that she still had the strength. When she stepped out of the toilet, Philip was waiting at the door. “Let’s go to the hospital!”
“No!” Esther shook her head.
“How can you not go?” Without another word, Philip picked her up and left with her thin body in his arms.
“Umm… Philip, I don’t want to go to the hospital! I don’t want to die in the hospital!” The feeling she had now was that she was going to die. It was similar to the feeling of imminent death.
“If you don’t go, you’ll die!” Philip said in no good humour.
Esther only felt that this embrace was warm, and suddenly she said sullenly. “Philip, if you were my father, how wonderful it would be!”
“I don’t want to have a daughter as old as you, that foreshadows that I’m already old!” Philip pursed his lips, holding this skinny girl, his heart inexplicably ached. “Stop talking, let’s go see the doctor!”
In the emergency room of the hospital.
Esther passed out before she did the check-up!
“Esther? Esther?” Philip called out to her nervously.
The doctor helped Esther with her examination. Esther’s limbs were cold, her face was pale, and her blood pressure had also dropped. The doctor immediately instructed Philip to put Esther flat on a makeshift bed and then pushed her into the emergency room.
After the emergency treatment, Philip learned that Esther was suffering from nitrite poisoning. Fortunately, she was taken to the hospital in time, otherwise, she might have been in danger of losing her life.
Looking at Esther, who was lying quietly on the hospital bed, Philip was shocked that he would save her. After so much chaos, he didn’t realize it was already night.
In the ward.
Philip sat by the bed, Esther’s skin appeared purpura because of the poisoning and looked so pitiful. The corners of her pale lips lifted slightly, and the sleeping Esther was as innocent as a child.
Inexplicably, the moment he looked at her innocent face, his irritable mood calmed down. In Philip’s evil and indifferent eyes, a faint tenderness appeared.
The drip slowly dripped into her veins and it was not until midnight that she woke up drowsily.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she felt the line of sight. Esther lifted her heavy eyelids, looked suspiciously, and whispered, “Philip?”
“You’re awake?” Philip had been taking care of her and was a little relieved when he saw her wake up.
“What’s wrong with me?” Esther wondered, her head throbbing, she was so dizzy and uncomfortable.
“It’s fine, just nitrite poisoning. Thankfully, your situation is not the worst!”
“Poisoning?” Esther was shocked. “Ah-”
“What did you eat?” Philip frowned. “What did you eat?”
“Chicken, chicken soup!” Esther said suddenly, “Oh no, hurry up and report it to the police so no one gets food poisoning as I did!”
“Uh!” Philip froze for a moment, “You, you’re almost killed, and you still care about others?”
“It must be that chicken soup, I tell you the address, the name of that restaurant is XXXX. Call the police quickly, don’t let others have the same bad luck as me!”
At Esther’s urging, Philip reluctantly reported the case to the police and then said, “Esther, it’s already midnight in the midnight, you’d better get some rest, don’t worry about it! The police said several people have already reported that the owner of that restaurant has abused industrial salt!”