Chapter 23: Chapter 23: 4th Brother, Save Me

Jie Jingshan hadn’t trashed the room to vent her emotions. Instead, she was sitting quietly by the window, reading a book. Qin Mei’s eyes glinted. ’A girl who likes to read definitely loves to learn. How could someone like that give up on themselves? How could they be content to be stuck in the mud?’

Jie Jingshan wasn’t a lost cause. Even if Qin Mei couldn’t heal Jie Jingshan’s legs or enable her to walk like a normal person, even if Jie Jingshan had to spend her whole life in a wheelchair, Qin Mei was confident she could help her undergo a complete transformation and become a useful member of society.

A wheelchair could limit her physical height, but it couldn’t limit the future she could obtain through diligent study.

"Fourth Sister-in-law." Jie Jingshan’s expression was very unnatural. The hostility toward Qin Mei was gone. Qin Mei had helped her clean the room without cursing or complaining, and there was no disgust in her eyes when she looked at her. More importantly, she didn’t hide her fierceness toward her.

She could accept people being fierce with her, but she couldn’t stand being looked down on or pitied. The humiliation of having her pride trampled was unbearable.

"I’m hungry," Qin Mei said.

"Huh?" Jie Jingshan clearly hadn’t expected Qin Mei to suddenly say something like that. For the past four years, the things she heard most were, "Are you hungry?" and "Do you need to use the bathroom?"

"What ’huh’? I’m hungry. Go make me something to eat," Qin Mei said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Seeing Jie Jingshan just staring at her, Qin Mei raised an eyebrow and her voice. "You’re the host, and I’m the guest. There’s no one else home. If you don’t serve me, who will?"

Jie Jingshan was completely thrown by Qin Mei. A look of shock crossed her face. After hesitating for a long time, she asked weakly, "Where’s my fourth brother?"

Seeing her panicked and uneasy look, Qin Mei suppressed a smile and said with a straight face, "Your fourth brother hurt his back. He’s bedridden. He’s counting on me to take care of him."

"Bedridden?" Jie Jingshan was skeptical.

"Alright, enough chitchat. Hurry up and make me some food. I’m starving to death." Qin Mei went over and started pushing Jie Jingshan out of the room.

Jie Jingshan was very compliant, offering no extreme resistance. Before this, if anyone had dared to force her out of her room, she would have scratched and bitten them. Her reactions were so violent that they had no choice but to give up. And though they were angry, they had to bottle it up and comfort her instead.

But Qin Mei didn’t coddle her. She did the exact opposite. The feeling of having her jaw dislocated was not pleasant. It was too humiliating.

Qin Mei made her feel fear. She wouldn’t compromise just because she resisted violently. If she didn’t obey, Qin Mei had plenty of ways to get what she wanted.

She was disabled, not stupid. She understood that a wise person adapts to the circumstances.

When Jie Jingshan saw Qin Mei really pushing her toward the kitchen, she grew anxious. "Fourth Sister-in-law, I don’t know how."

"You can learn if you don’t know how." As soon as the words left her mouth, Qin Mei suddenly felt they sounded very familiar.

"Fourth Sister-in-law, I don’t *need* to learn." Jie Jingshan said she didn’t need to, not that she didn’t want to.

"The ability to support yourself is a necessary survival skill," Qin Mei said without the slightest hesitation. ’I’m a disaster in the kitchen myself, yet here I am forcing a disabled person to learn to be self-sufficient. How shameless.’

Qin Mei finally managed to get Jie Jingshan into the kitchen. Inside, the two of them just stared at each other. She didn’t know how to cook herself, so what could she possibly teach Jie Jingshan?

’Start the fire? What if I accidentally burn down the kitchen?’

"Jing Qi, are you hungry?" Qin Mei rubbed her stomach. ’God, I’m starving!’

She regretted it. She should have stood her ground and not listened to Jie Jingchen’s sweet talk.

At the Sun Family’s home, her three meals a day were all taken care of. But after coming to the Jie Family’s home with Jie Jingchen, she felt like she was living meal-to-meal.

The Sun Family also had to work for work points, but they still had time to make three meals a day. The Jie Family had to go to work, and from the looks of it, she had to figure out her three meals on her own. More importantly, from yesterday until now, she had only seen Jie Jingchen’s mother and fifth brother. Now, a seventh sister had been added to the list.

"Not hungry," Jie Jingshan replied.

"Really not hungry?" Qin Mei narrowed her eyes. Seeing Jie Jingshan nod, she threatened, "Lie, and I’ll dislocate your jaw again."

"Hungry," Jie Jingshan immediately corrected herself.

"That’s more like it." Qin Mei smiled, pushing Jie Jingshan out of the kitchen. The kitchen had a high threshold and steps, so it took a great deal of effort for Qin Mei to get the girl and her wheelchair into the courtyard.

When Jie Jingshan saw Qin Mei pushing her toward the courtyard gate, her expression changed. Her upper body began to tremble uncontrollably, and she asked in a quavering voice, "Fourth Sister-in-law, where are you taking me?"

"Outside. To eat," Qin Mei said succinctly.

"I’m not going!" Jie Jingshan’s face drained of color. She could reluctantly accept being pushed out of her room, but being pushed outside to face the strange looks from other people... she couldn’t bear it.

"Jing Qi, you can’t cook, and neither can I. You’re hungry, and I’m hungry, so we’re going out to eat." Pushing Jie Jingshan outside was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Although it was risky, it was the most direct way to force her out of her shell.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com