Chapter 2: Li Yifei

    Tang Yifei woke up again to find it was a new morning. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grandma Li tidying the mattress next to her hospital bed and putting them away. She could guess that Grandma Li had spent the night keeping watch over her, and seeing this filled her with sympathy.

    When Grandma Li noticed her granddaughter's gaze, she smiled.

    "If you're worried about me, then get better soon so we can go home."

She could only nod in agreement.

    Just then, a nurse came in with her breakfast—a bowl of porridge meant for patients just recovering. The room, filled with other patients, started to buzz with conversation. This unfamiliar environment felt overwhelming for her. She wasn't used to the commotion.

    In the past, when she was sick, if it wasn’t serious, she would recover at the family mansion with the family's doctor taking care of her. And if it was severe, she would be taken to a private hospital where her family owned shares, staying in a much larger room than this one.

    There, nurses would be at her service at a mere word or gesture.

    But now, the one taking care of her was Grandma Li, who fed her porridge herself because her body was still too weak to move much.

    Last night, she had a dream—or perhaps it was more like fragments of Li Yifei’s memories—seeped into her mind. The reason she was hospitalized was due to an attack by a rival.

    It was a quarrel between teenage girls, jealous over a boy who had been pursuing Li Yifei. The other girl confronted her at the fast-food place where Li Yifei worked, leading to an argument outside the store.

    They got into a fight, and perhaps because the ground was slippery, Li Yifei was pushed and fell into the street, where she was hit by a car. That’s how she ended up in the hospital.

    As for the girl who attacked her, Tang Yifei didn’t know if any legal action had been taken.

After finishing her meal, she took several pills as prescribed.

    “Don’t lie down just yet. Sit upright for about half an hour before resting.”

“Yes,” Tang Yifei responded, her voice hoarse.

    Grandma Li then cleared the tray and left briefly, returning with a newspaper to pass the time. Occasionally, she chatted with other patients’ relatives. When she noticed her granddaughter becoming sleepy, she adjusted the bed so her granddaughter could rest more comfortably.

    Tang Yifei was woken again when lunch was brought to her. Grandma Li carefully fed her porridge once more, paying close attention to her every need.

    Though she was being fed, Tang Yifei appreciated the care. She liked this moment. Even though her grandfather had always loved her dearly, he had never fed her porridge. The most he did was watch the maids do it when she was sick, which wasn’t often.

After finishing her lunch, a young girl with a sweet face appeared.

"Yifei, you’re awake! I was so worried!" the girl exclaimed.

"Can I leave Yifei with you for a moment?" Grandma Li asked.

"Of course, Grandma Li," the girl replied.

    Tang Yifei looked at the girl in front of her, and memories of their close friendship flashed through her mind, replaying like a movie. She lifted her hand to her head, feeling overwhelmed.

The girl was startled and quickly pressed the call button.

    It wasn’t long before the nurse came in, and the girl, whose name was Li Ying, reported what had happened. Tang Yifei was then taken for an MRI because of the headache she had experienced.

    When she returned to her bed, they gave her more medication, and she eventually fell asleep due to the sedatives.

    When she woke up in the evening, her family was gathered around her bed, with Li Ying there as well. As soon as she opened her eyes, everyone looked relieved.

    This time, it wasn’t Grandma Li feeding her but the woman she had seen in her dream. In her dream, the woman had been young and beautiful, but now she appeared much older. Her face, showing clear signs of age and lacking in care, had visible wrinkles.

    Her hands were rough.

    But her eyes were filled with a deep affection—a mother’s love that Tang Yifei could sense as if it were her own.

    Tang Yifei’s mother had passed away in a car accident along with her father when she was just a baby. It was her grandfather who had raised her. If her mother had lived, she would likely have been just like the woman in front of her—feeding her when she was sick instead of relying on a nanny.

    So, she obediently ate, even though her stomach wasn’t yet ready to handle much food. She chose to open her mouth and swallow it down.

    "I was so scared earlier at lunchtime," Li Ying’s voice suddenly sounded.

    "Hey, sister is eating right now, don’t distract her," a deeper, adolescent voice interrupted.

"Come on, Yifeng, don’t scold your sister’s best friend."

"But, Dad!" Li Yifeng grumbled, clearly displeased.

    "This is a hospital. Don’t be so loud," Grandma Li interjected, reminding them to keep their voices down.

    Realizing her mistake, Li Ying automatically covered her mouth with her hand, while her younger brother turned away, pretending to look at something else.

    Li Ying then spoke up again.

    "It’s getting late. I need to go home now, but I’ll come visit Yifei again in two days."

"Alright, take care," Li Yifei’s father replied on her behalf.

    Her newly met best friend waved goodbye and flashed her a cute smile before leaving, full of energy and cheerfulness.

    When visiting hours ended, the Li family also departed. Grandma Li, as usual, prepared a mattress to lay on the floor beside the bed, ready to sleep there and keep watch over Tang Yifei. Seeing this made Tang Yifei’s heart ache. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of financial situation the Li family was in that made Grandma Li have to sleep by her bedside.

    But when she glanced at the other patients’ beds, she noticed that their family members were doing the same thing.

    This sight made her wonder why the nurses weren’t taking care of the patients themselves. Why did it fall on the relatives to go through such trouble to watch over them?

    As she thought more about it, she remembered that even when she, Tang Yifei, was sick, they had to hire special nurses. Perhaps the hospital had a shortage of staff.

    It might be the effect of the medicine, but as she kept thinking about nurses and caregivers, she drifted off to sleep.

    Life at the hospital continued this way—eating, taking medicine, Grandma Li checking on her condition, and going to physical therapy because she had been bedridden in the ICU for a full week.

    When Li Ying came to visit again, Tang Yifei asked for a mirror to look at herself. Li Ying handed her a small one.

    Looking at her reflection, Tang Yifei saw her face, but it wasn’t clear due to the many bruises. Her face was swollen and greenish-black, so much so that it was frightening. Despite the bruises, she could tell that the face in the mirror wasn’t hers—this wasn’t Tang Yifei’s face.

How could something like this happen?

    "It’s lucky your head wasn’t cracked open; otherwise, they’d have had to shave your hair. And it’s a good thing your pretty face didn’t get any scars. I don’t know what position you were in when you got hit, but apart from being in a coma, you don’t have any visible injuries."

    Li Ying’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts, making Tang Yifei think over her words.

"Yeah," Tang Yifei agreed.

    It was as if after the accident, aside from some blood coming out of her mouth and nose, she had simply fallen asleep and refused to wake up.

    The words from the real Li Yifei—the ones she had spoken to the man in black, whom Tang Yifei could now guess the identity of—resurfaced in her mind. One of them was, ‘You found her?’

    During the time when the real Li Yifei’s body lay unconscious, was her soul out searching for someone? And it became that she, Tang Yifei, was pushed into this body instead.

    “But maybe it’s for the best. Otherwise, our path to becoming famous stars would have ended right there.”

    Li Ying said, making Tang Yifei pause in surprise. Li Ying also hesitated, noticing the confused expression on her face.

“Don’t tell me your head injury made you lose your memory?”

“Maybe.”

    Not all of Li Yifei’s memories had surfaced yet. They slowly emerged as she interacted with people, like her family and Li Ying. As she met them, images of their relationships played in her mind.

    Her father, who was the man in her dream, was now her stepfather. Yet, he loved and cared for Li Yifei as if she were his own daughter.

    As for the family's financial situation, it was clear they were just getting by. The fact that she was sick meant her father and mother had to work overtime, and her younger brother took on small jobs to help out.

    Just thinking about it made her heart ache.

    “Sigh, what a pity. But the doctor said things will gradually improve. I’ll guide you through it,” Li Ying added with a smile.

Tang Yifei could only respond with a wide grin, appreciating Li Ying’s support.

    A young girl with dreams of becoming a famous star—it wasn’t surprising. Li Yifei was indeed beautiful, and it made sense that someone so pretty would aspire to stardom. But the path to that dream wasn’t as easy as the young girl imagined.

    After her third day of recovery, her parents and younger brother didn’t visit again. Now, on the sixth day, only Grandma Li showed up, carrying a soup pot. When she opened it, the fragrant smell of chicken soup filled the room, making Tang Yifei’s appetite stir.

    Hospital food had been so bland.

    Grandma Li, despite her blunt way of speaking, took good care of her. She ladled out the soup and fed it to Tang Yifei herself. Though her words were rough, her actions were filled with kindness, and Tang Yifei could feel the love behind them.

    She had heard from the maids that in families without wealth, daughters and granddaughters were often treated poorly because sons were seen as more important, no matter the social class.

    But what Grandma Li did was completely different from those stories.

    Tang Yifei could feel genuine love and concern, even if the words weren’t always sweet. Her heart swelled with warmth from this familial affection, even though Grandma Li wasn’t the biological grandmother of this body.

When the chicken soup was finished, she thanked Grandma Li.

    Grandma Li looked surprised by her expression of gratitude. If anyone was to blame, it was probably the teenage hormones of the body’s previous owner, who, like many teenagers, acted impulsively. Li Yifei thought she was beautiful and had the dream of becoming a famous actress. This sense of pride often led her to be careless.

    Men were drawn to her beauty, and she easily received gifts and favors, though nothing in life came without strings attached. Those who gave always had expectations.

    Li Yifei’s fixation on her beauty made her believe her life could go far, and that she could lift her family out of poverty.

    But Grandma Li, who had seen and experienced much in life, would often try to warn her. Her words, however, weren’t gentle and sounded more like scolding.

    For a teenager, harsh words only fanned the flames.

    To Li Yifei, everything she gained was all for her family.

    Even her mother’s attempts to soothe the situation didn’t help much. If her mother’s advice truly worked, they wouldn’t still be struggling like this. How long would it be before they could finally get rich?

    In front of her mother, Li Yifei would nod and agree, but behind her back, she continued doing things her way.

    In the end, her mother had resorted to hitting her, and for a teenager, this only caused more rebellion. Li Yifei declared she would succeed no matter what.

    That’s why she started working part-time at a restaurant, which ultimately led to this whole situation.

    From now on, it would be up to Tang Yifei to live this girl’s life. But what awaited her in the days to come?