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Chapter 316 Visiting Relatives

Lu Renkui's father was dozing on one side of the hospital bed, while on the other side was a window with a view of the scenery.

The weather wasn't good today; dark clouds filled the sky, the ground was wet, and the cement road was several times darker in color because of the water.

A few small ripples appeared on the surface of the puddle, and then the ripples appeared more and more frequently, and soon a heavy rain began to fall outside.

Lu Renkui saw two light purple umbrellas appear in the rain. The two light purple umbrellas carefully avoided the small puddles on the ground and then walked into the hospital building.

Lu Renkui recognized the two light purple umbrellas—they were gifts she had bought for her younger brother and sister. It was their 15th birthday that day, and their umbrellas were both broken, so Lu Renkui took them to choose these two umbrellas as birthday presents.

The two of them would probably be a while before they came up, so Lu Renkui turned her attention to the door of the ward, waiting for her younger brother and sister to appear.

Seeing that Lu Renkui was planning to wait for someone in the ward, the system WQBYRZM said to Lu Renkui, "The main system needs to talk to me. I'll be back soon. You stay in this ward and don't come out."

“Okay.” Lu Renkui nodded. The system WQBYRZM set the parameters for him and then left.

After Lu Renkui heard the sound of the trolley wheels rolling in the corridor for the third time, the ward door finally opened, and a man and a woman who looked very similar and were both wearing warm woolen hats appeared behind the opened door.

Lu Renkui's younger brother and sister entered the ward carrying umbrellas that were still dripping water onto the floor. Lu Renkui walked over to them and watched as the siblings found a place to sit down. Lu Renxin took a small stool and sat down next to the bed, while Lu Renren sat directly at the foot of the bed and crossed his legs.

"When do you think my sister will wake up?" Lu Renxin sighed.

Lu Renren also sighed: "That car deliberately crashed into us. The doctor said my sister is still alive, which is very lucky compared to others."

Lu Renxin didn't say anything, but when she saw Lu Renkui's body move, she guessed that she was cold, so she pulled the blanket on the hospital bed up to cover Lu Renkui's body.

"Speaking of which, Dad did some activities for my sister, right?" Lu Renxin suddenly thought of this question as she covered Lu Renkui's body with a blanket.

Lu Renren swung his crossed leg for a while and said, "Dad should have done some physical activity for my sister."

"That's good—how long has my sister been in a vegetative state?" Lu Renxin started counting the days on her fingers.

Lu Renren also started counting the days on his fingers: "It's been about half a year."

After these words were spoken, both of them fell silent. The already quiet ward became even quieter. The thunderstorm outside had just stopped, and the only sound in the ward was the beeping of the machines, indicating to others that this was not a vacuum environment.

Hearing the two people recount their lives after becoming vegetative, Lu Renkui sighed helplessly in his heart.

“A traumatic vegetative state lasting more than a year is usually considered permanent, and the chances of waking up after that are very slim…” Lu Renxin murmured a couple of sentences—these were the words her attending physician had said half a year ago, and Lu Renxin still remembered them.

The ward fell silent again.

To avoid an awkward silence, Lu Renren brought up something else: "I also saw some good news yesterday—that scumbag who deliberately ran someone over with his car has been executed."

"The competition has also sent us the rules, which means they've accepted us." Lu Renren started counting on his fingers again, going through the things he and Lu Renxin needed to do when they got back—after all, they hadn't felt much of a chance of passing the preliminary rounds, so the two of them had been researching how to wake up the vegetative patient faster these past few days.

"Huh, that competition is over?" Lu Renxin looked a little surprised. "Judging from the judges' expressions, I thought we were going to be eliminated."

"Anyway, it's a good thing that it's over. It's better than worrying all day about whether my sister will wake up. If she knew that we were thinking like this every day... the consequences would be unimaginable." Lu Renren suddenly felt a dull pain in his ear when he remembered how Lu Renkui would grab his ear and hit and scold him.

"Um... Is my sister really that ruthless?" Lu Renxin asked with a hint of doubt as she held Lu Renkui's hand and helped Lu Renkui move her finger joints.

“Oh, right, she never hit you, she only beat me up.” Lu Renren sighed as she took off her woolen hat and began to massage Lu Renkui’s legs. “Boys have thicker skin… I think her skin is even thicker than mine.”

"Hiss... Why do I suddenly feel a bit cold on the back of my head? Little sister, is the window closed properly?" Lu Renren touched her head, but could only feel the warm back of her head.

Hearing Lu Renren ask this, Lu Renxin released one of her hands that was holding Lu Renkui's body, and slightly rose from the stool to check the window: "The window is closed."

"Hiss, what the hell? Did you feel a chill when you came in?" Lu Renren asked, rubbing his legs and frowning.

“It seems so…” Lu Renxin frowned, “Could it be because we just went from a crowded place to a less crowded place?”

"Ah, maybe. Then the one on the back of my head is probably because I'm not used to it after taking off my hat." Lu Renren said as she put the fluffy hat she had stuffed into her pocket back on her head. "I'll take it back with me then, so I don't catch a cold and accidentally sneeze next to her and she gets up and slaps me."

"Sister wouldn't beat someone up for no reason," Lu Renxin said helplessly to her brother Lu Renkui, who was always causing trouble if she wasn't disciplined for three days.

“She just wants to hit me, so she hits me…” Lu Renren muttered a couple of times, then said to Lu Renxin, “Let’s turn my sister over, I’ll give her a massage.”

Watching his two younger siblings massage him to prevent his muscles from atrophying, and listening to their conversation, Lu Renkui sighed: These two have really grown up. They're not the little kids who used to follow me around aimlessly anymore.

"You brat! You're talking bad about me while I'm lying in bed and can't beat you up! Remembering what Lu Renren said earlier, Lu Renkui angrily tapped the back of Lu Renren's head twice, even though he had already slapped him once. But since his soul couldn't touch a living person, hitting him felt even worse."

My sister is so much better, unlike that brat, always chasing chickens or geese. I give him a couple of slaps to teach him a lesson, and he calls me cruel. Lu Renkui climbed onto the hospital bed, then plopped down on his own body, trying to temporarily regain his senses, but ultimately failed.

"I still need to complete tasks to accumulate points," Lu Renkui sighed, and began calculating how many more points she needed to return to her body.

While calculating the points, Lu Renkui's ears were also busy, listening to his younger siblings chatting.

"What songs will we sing on the preliminary stage?" Lu Renren asked, after giving her the third massage.

"Let me think... what is the theme of the preliminary round stage for us?" Lu Renxin finished massaging Lu Renkui's arms and started massaging Lu Renkui's shoulders.

"Let me think about it. I'll choose one from meeting, parting, and reunion." After finishing the massage for Lu Renkui, Lu Renren turned Lu Renkui's body over again.

Hearing these three themes, Lu Renkui felt they sounded familiar—as far as she knew, only one competition consistently used these three themes.

Lu Renxin started fidgeting with Lu Renkui's fingers again. After listening to what Lu Renren said, he showed an expression that said, "I knew it": "Is 'Midsummer Produce Camp' really planning to use these three words until the show is canceled?"

Lu Renren chuckled twice: "At least we have a target to look for songs, which is better than searching aimlessly. If we really can't find any that the two of us can sing, we can go back and dig out some from the previous episodes."

"Then let's choose 'Encounter', hmm... how about 'A Promise with the Stars'?"

"Yay, I like this." Lu Renkui was happy—she always thought her younger sister was better—and patted her sister's head through the fluffy hat.

“Okay, let’s sing this for the preliminary round. If we make it to the finals, what should we sing?” Lu Renren asked again. “According to the usual competition format, we have to choose a song and then write and perform a story based on that song.”

"Can we change the lyrics?" Lu Renxin gently brushed the stray hairs from Lu Renkui's forehead.

“We can change the words,” Lu Renren said after thinking for a moment.

“Then let’s sing…” Lu Renxin said after a moment of silence, “Let’s sing ‘The Singer of the End of the World’.”

“The End of the World Singer… Okay, I’ll try and see if I can sing my own voice that high.” Lu Renren didn’t expect Lu Renxin to become the lead singer—because Lu Renxin had never liked going on stage since she was a child.

Whether she's explaining a problem on the classroom podium or singing on stage, Lu Renxin says she feels her legs tremble and her mind go blank when facing the audience.

Although Lu Renxin has become much bolder as she has grown older, she still gets stage fright—the sight of everyone's eyes on her puts immense pressure on her.

"..." Lu Renxin remained silent and did not say anything.

After calculating her points, Lu Renkui felt that she could return to her body in three or four more worlds, based on the points system WQBYRZM had shown her earlier.