The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 1 - The Very Beginning of the Beginning

"Jǐ Yi, I'm Jì Chengyang."<>Please support the original translation, which is at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

His voice was aloof, but very gentle as it told her who he was.

Oh, Jì Chengyang... She remembered now that he was from Grandpa Jì's family, the Little Uncle Jì who had agreed to take her to the reporting performance this afternoon.

Jì Nuannuan's youngest uncle.<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.

This was a name that had a high frequency of showing up.

Jì Chengyang. At six years old, he began learning the piano, which was a later age than his peers, but by eight years old, he was already giving piano performances on stage. In primary school, he had jumped two grades, completing all of primary school in only four years. At age sixteen, he had gone to study in the University of Pennsylvania... These were words that the one who had grown up with her, Jì Nuannuan, would often ramble on with.

He was someone who studied in the United States, you know, American imperialism and stuff like that... so he was often muttered about by Jǐ Yi's grandfather as well. She remembered, when she was very young, simply wearing a pair of red leather shoes had already drawn Grandfather's joking remark of "Little leather shoes, squeak, squeak, squeak. Capitalist ideologies that reek, reek, reek." Hence, Grandfather even more so would frequently harp on about this little uncle of the Jì family, who in university had already gone over to a capitalist country. He would say things such as, there were so many good domestic universities, but yet the boy would not just be good and stay within the country to contribute to it and he just had to go abroad to study, etc., etc....

But it seemed things were much better now. The mutters were less than before.

Jǐ Yi opened the door. Lifting her head to look at this person who only one second earlier had been irked with impatience, she addressed him, "Little Uncle Jì." Then, opening the shoe cabinet, she found a pair of slippers for him. Before this guest had even stepped through the door, she ran into the kitchen and washed her hands.

When Jì Chengyang had changed shoes and walked inside, he saw she was in the middle of picking up a transparent-green pitcher of cool water. She poured some water into a glass and then, grimacing, popped five pills into her mouth at once.

So bitter.<>this UNAUTHORIZED copy was taken from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

Gulping down several mouthfuls of water, she was at last able to swallow the biggest pill, that bezoar detoxification tablet. However, because the medicine had stayed in her mouth for so long, her mouth teemed with a terribly bitter taste. She wanted to say something, but the bitterness first caused her brows to twist together, and she guzzled more water again. And then, she discovered that Little Uncle Jì had walked up to her and bent down into a half-crouch.

Allowing his eyes to be on the same level as hers, he tried as much as possible to make his voice gentle and kindly. "What are you eating?"

"Medicine," she replied quietly, before touching her hand to her forehead. "I have a fever, and my throat is sore."

She tried swallowing some saliva—it hurt a lot.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

There was a flash of surprise in his deep-black eyes. "Why did you take so many?"

"They don't work if you take only a few." In well-practiced theory, she told him, "My body loves having fevers. I used to get better after only taking half a pill. Later, I needed one whole pill. Now, I have to take two."