Chapter 4: Home

    On the next morning in the shared ward, Tang Yifei woke up to the familiar hospital smells—medicine, disinfectants, and that distinct scent only hospitals seem to have. She had a strange feeling of anticipation because she would finally be going home today.

    Grandma Li's home, where her father, mother, and younger brother all lived together. She wondered what it would be like.

    As for investigating her own situation, she couldn't do much for now. She doubted her close friends would believe her story. And even if she went up to them and said, "I’m Tang Yifei," she’d probably be dragged away by bodyguards and thrown out.

    Who would believe something straight out of a novel like this.

    They’d think she was crazy.

    Just thinking about Grandma Li’s worried face was enough to make her not want to cause any trouble. Not to mention the concern her parents and younger brother would feel.

    She couldn’t ruin Li Yifei’s life.

    Even though she confusingly received this body from her.

    After breakfast, Grandma Li looked bright and happy because her granddaughter would finally be discharged from the hospital. Even though Tang Yifei’s face was still bruised, Grandma Li planned to buy some herbal compresses to help with the swelling.

    Grandma Li believed that not everything required modern medicine.

    Traditional remedies had their own strengths.

    A nurse handed Grandma Li the hospital bill, which required partial payment. After examining the amount, Grandma Li breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t as high as she had feared. That meant the extra money her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson had earned from working overtime could go into savings.

    The amount they had was just enough to cover the bill.

    *Thank goodness this hospital doesn’t charge excessively,* Grandma Li thought. After several days of sleeping on a hard hospital bench, it felt like all the trouble had been worth it.

    When they returned to the ward, Tang Yifei was already dressed and ready to go home. Despite the bruises on her face, Grandma Li could see the excitement in her granddaughter’s eyes.

    Perhaps this accident had taught this girl a valuable lesson

    That there’s no place like home.

    “Is there anything I can help you pack, Grandma?” Tang Yifei asked.

    It had been a long time since Grandma Li heard her granddaughter offer to help, and it made her feel warm inside, as if she had gotten back the granddaughter she had lost for a while.

    “No need. Just carry your own medicine bag. You’ve just recovered, so don’t overdo it.”

    At 10 a.m., the two said goodbye to the other patients and their relatives.

    The expressions on their faces varied, but everyone shared the same thought: patients wanted to recover, and their caretakers wished for them to get better so they could go home.

    At least it was much more comfortable at home.

    At the front of the hospital, Li Ying rushed over to help Grandma Li carry the bags. Tang Yifei saw a middle-aged man—someone her memories told her was Li Ying’s father. She greeted him.

    “Hello, Uncle Li.”

    “Hello, Grandma Li, Yifei,” Li Ying’s father replied, before taking Grandma Li’s bags and leading them to his car—a small, slightly old vehicle.

    “We’re sorry to have troubled you.,” Grandma Li said.

    “We’re all good friends here. Besides, the girls are best friends,” he replied with a smile.

    After loading the bags into the car, Grandma Li and Tang Yifei sat in the back, while Li Ying and her father sat up front. Li Ying chatted with Tang Yifei along the way, though Tang Yifei could only respond occasionally, as she was too distracted by the unfamiliar surroundings. Li Ying didn’t mind, knowing her friend’s memory wasn’t fully recovered.

    She probably didn’t even remember the way home.

    As the car drove into a neighborhood with older, run-down buildings, Tang Yifei felt like she was stepping into a scene from a TV drama. Today, however, she wasn’t just watching—she was living it.

    The outside looked so old and worn. She wondered what the inside was like.

    Before long, the car stopped in front of a dilapidated building. The people coming and going looked scruffy and worn. Tang Yifei sighed. After staying in a shared hospital room, she shouldn’t have expected much.

    Li Ying’s father unloaded their bags from the car.

    “Do you remember the way to your house?” Li Ying asked with concern.

    Ever since the car entered the neighborhood, Li Yifei’s memories had begun flooding back. Tang Yifei nodded in response, assuring her friend.

    Grandma Li also looked at her with worry, but she consoled herself that at least she was alive and not disabled. Even if her memory was a little spotty, she still had her arms and legs. She could always work in a factory.’

    If the work was too physically demanding, there was always the option of being a waitress. There were plenty of jobs to choose from.

    Li Ying’s father was incredibly kind. Not only did he unload everything from the car, but he also helped carry the bags up to the apartment of Grandma Li and her granddaughter.

    Tang Yifei looked around the inside of the building, which was just as old as the exterior. They had to walk up the stairs since there was no elevator, but luckily, the apartment was only on the third floor, and everyone seemed fit enough not to get tired.

    “Would you like to stop for a drink before you go?” Grandma Li offered.

    “It’s no trouble, really,” Li Ying’s father politely declined.

    The two of them thanked him and Li Ying once again.

    Li Ying’s father responded with the same phrase that they were all friends, and led his daughter back.

    Before leaving, Li Ying waved goodbye to her close friend, a bit disappointed that she couldn’t stay longer, but she understood. Usually, it was more convenient for Tang Yifei to hang out at her place rather than the other way around.

    After the father and daughter left, Tang Yifei turned her attention to the front door of the apartment, which looked slightly newer than the rest of the building. Grandma Li pulled out a key and unlocked the door, revealing a metal gate inside—solid at the bottom and openwork at the top to let air through, with a screen door to be pushed aside. The apartment had two layers of doors.

    After they carried everything inside, Grandma Li didn’t close the solid door, instead opting to lock the metal gate from the inside.

    Presumably to let in the breeze.

    When Tang Yifei looked around the apartment, the word that came to her mind was ‘rat’s nest’

    This room… or house she would now be living in opened directly into the kitchen. Across from the kitchen was the bathroom. Past the entrance, there was a small area with a dining table, and further in was a computer desk. That was all there was—no space left.

    There were two bedrooms. From the memories in her head, Tang Yifei knew one belonged to her parents, while she, her younger brother, and Grandma Li shared the other.

    Grandma Li, having put the bags away, noticed her granddaughter looking around the room, inspecting her surroundings.

    She might not remember much about the house either, Grandma Li thought.

    She walked to one of the rooms and said.

    “Yifei, this is your room.”

    Tang Yifei nodded.

    “You can go rest if you’d like. Once I’m done unpacking, I’ll make some porridge.”

    Tang Yifei nodded again and took her belongings into the room Grandma Li pointed out.

    “Don’t close the door,” Grandma Li added, worried about her granddaughter’s condition and wanting to keep an eye on her.

    “Yes,” came a quiet response.

    Grandma Li was instead expecting the usual complaint she was accustomed to.

    ‘Can’t I have some privacy? I’m not a child anymore!’

    But her granddaughter, despite thinking she was all grown up, was still only 17, a high school sophomore. In truth, the wages from her part-time work were just only enough for her to buy things without asking her parents.

    It wasn’t enough to pay off the mortgage.

    As Tang Yifei entered the bedroom, she saw a bunk bed. It was clear that she and her younger brother shared it. Judging by the posters of celebrities taped to the bottom bunk, she could tell that Li Yifei slept there.

    She sat down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling above the bottom bunk. There were more posters of celebrities, as well as motivational quotes, likely meant to inspire herself.

    ‘One day, I will be a star, and I will be rich.’

    ‘Someday, I will get everyone out of here.’

    ‘I must have a room of my own.’

    It wasn’t so surprising. By this age, still sharing a room with her grandma and younger brother, making her recall something she had learned in a psychology course she took out of boredom.

    She learned from the course that teenagers would start developing their own personal space and prefer being alone as they grow.

    However, for some families, like this one, the situation just doesn’t allow for much personal space.

    Between the two beds was a small wardrobe. The memories in Tang Yifei’s head told her that most of their belongings were stuffed under the beds, and each sibling had their own wardrobe at the foot of their respective beds.

    The middle wardrobe belonged to Grandma Li, positioned at the head of the bed in the center.

    The space was used as efficiently and neatly as possible.

    As for a study desk, it was likely they used the dining table as one.

    Since the bedroom was already full with just the beds and wardrobes.

    ‘Is this really the house I’ll be living in now?’ Tang Yifei thought, sighing to herself as she remembered that her previous bedroom had been larger than this entire house. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had somehow wronged Li Yifei, making the girl bring her spirit into her body as a form of revenge.

    Instead of meeting her grandfather, father, and mother in the afterlife and sipping tea somewhere peaceful in the spirit world, Tang Yifei found herself stuck in this tiny, cramped room.

    All she could do was sit on her bed in despair.

    ‘No wonder Li Yifei didn’t want to come back’

    At least her bed had a window by the wall, which she shared with her younger brother. She thought about looking outside to soothe her mind, but when she glanced out, all she saw were clotheslines hanging with various items, including undergarments, fluttering in the wind.

    It was not the most pleasant sight.