The housekeeper alarmed Ji Yi by coming in that close. Ji Yi slowly averted her gaze from the jade to the housekeeper and said with an evidently drifting demeanor, "You think they were originally one piece of jade?"
"For sure! Just by looking at the gloss, you can tell it was originally the same piece. There are probably only a few pieces of high-quality jade like this. Miss, if you're unsure, find an expert to examine it then everything would be clear, wouldn't it?"
Ji Yi didn't reply but slightly curved the corners of her lips into a smile at the housekeeper.
Ji Yi waiting for the housekeeper to leave the hotel room before she took the two pieces of jade and kept them safe by storing them in the red pouch. She put the pouch pack into her purse then turned her head to stare out at the eye-piercingly bright sunshine in a daze.
In the six months since she woke from her coma, Ji Yi had been wondering who the owner of that small piece of jade was.
She didn't personally pick up that piece of jade, but her parents passed it on to the nurse taking care of her during her coma to give to her.
When she first woke up, she was fully conscious but her speech wasn't particularly adept. Also, having been immobile for such a long time, it took a lot of strength for her to move her limbs. Her parents were busy at work, so they couldn't be with her every day. Back then, the nurse looking after her stayed with her, talked with her, and worked with her.
It was one afternoon, about a month after she had woken up, when she could make simple, short sentences sound as smooth as before. By then, she could take care of the basics by herself, and although she wasn't very strong, she didn't appear any different from how she was before the accident.
That afternoon, she performed over an hour's worth of rehabilitation under the nurse's supervision, so after having lunch, she took a long nap, completely exhausted. When she woke up, it was already dusk.
Through the red glow of the setting sun, she glanced over at the nurse who was crouched down in a daze, looking at something.
Ji Yi sat up, looked at her and said, "Miss Liang?"
When the nurse heard her, she bolted up, walked over to her bedside and handed Ji Yi the thing she was staring at.
It was a small piece of jade that she pulled out from a red pouch. At the time, she asked the nurse, stunned, "What is this?"
The nurse pulled a chair out, sat by the bedside and started to explain in detail.
Ji Yi gathered that aside from her parents, there was another man who visited during her three-year coma. The man came to see her on the eighteenth of every month.
At first, he didn't come into the room but stood outside in the corridors, watching her through the window from afar.
The nurse said the man was handsome. She watched him turn up a few months in a row before realizing that he was harmless; he was probably someone who secretly liked her, so she asked him if he would like to come in to see her.
It seemed like the man didn't like to talk. Faced with the nurse's questions, he stared at Ji Yi on the hospital bed for some time as though he was hesitant and wrestling with himself over something. After some time, he just gave the nurse a gentle nod.
Every month after that, he came by as usual. Sometimes he'd come in, and other times he wouldn't, watching her from afar as he did before. If he came into the room, he might stay for long periods of time, sometimes staring at Ji Yi for four to five hours without blinking. Sometimes he'd leave after staying for an hour.
The nurse said she'd seen many people coming and going in the hospital, so she knew how to read people.