Xie Dingyuan seemed to sense something and suddenly woke up.
The next second, he met the girl’s smiling eyes and froze.
Then, wild joy—
“You’re awake? Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere? Let me check your temperature…” As he spoke, his hand was already reaching to her forehead.
The girl’s skin was delicate and smooth; the man’s palm broad and warm.
The instant they touched, it was as if struck by electricity.
Half a minute later, Xie Dingyuan withdrew his hand. “That’s good… the fever’s gone down.”
Jiang Fuyue struggled to sit up, but her whole body was sore and weak, her hands and feet lacking strength. In the blink of an eye, the man wrapped an arm around her shoulders and helped her up.
Xie Dingyuan then propped a pillow behind her. “You’re still on an IV drip, don’t move around. If you want to do anything, tell me.”
Jiang Fuyue pressed her lips together, glanced at the needle on the back of her hand, and nodded lightly.
“…Okay.”
Only when she spoke did she realize how hoarse her voice was.
Xie Dingyuan quickly got up to pour her water.
After downing two full cups, Jiang Fuyue finally felt her throat wasn’t as uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong with me?” Although she had already guessed the reason, she still wanted confirmation.
“High fever and dizziness, pretty much the same as last time in Tunisia. The preliminary diagnosis is acclimatization issues.”
“I felt it was very similar too.”
“If I hadn’t discovered it in time, you would’ve already—” At this point, he suddenly stopped, not knowing whether to be angry or relieved.
Jiang Fuyue pinched the man’s fingers. The soft, weak force was like a feather brushing across his chest, itchy and numbing. “I knew nothing would happen, because you would definitely come.”
“What if I didn’t come, or came too late, what were you planning to do?”
She thought for a moment. “Leave it to fate?”
Xie Dingyuan was so angry his teeth clenched. He was clearly furious to the extreme, yet still restraining his temper like an inflated pufferfish about to explode the next second, only to slowly deflate and wilt.
From extreme anger, to restraint, to calm; he was exerting himself to adjust his negative emotions, trying to digest them, rather than venting them onto Jiang Fuyue through blame or argument.
“Yueyue,” the man’s voice was low. When he called her name, it carried both love and anger, yet the gentleness remained as before, even becoming cautious because of her illness. “If you’d been willing to listen and stayed obediently in the country, where would all this trouble have come from?”
“But if I didn’t come, you wouldn’t see me, and I wouldn’t see you either.” Soft and gentle, tender and placating.
Jiang Fuyue was yielding.
This was the first time she had shown such a side in front of Xie Dingyuan.
Sure enough, shock was hard to hide in the man’s eyes; the way he looked at her was startled and stunned.
But in the end, his heart softened.
Jiang Fuyue lightly pressed her lips together and asked in return, “Don’t you want to see me?”
Did Xie Dingyuan dare say “no”?
Not only did he want to see her, he wanted to hold her, kiss her.
“Anyway, I want to see you,” the girl lowered her eyes and murmured softly.
Her pitiful, fragile appearance was exactly like a child who had done something wrong.
Pure, cute, innocent, harmless.
Who the h*ll could still withstand that?
Anyway, Xie Dingyuan couldn’t.
His heart instantly softened into marshmallow: soft, and faintly sweet.
“Yueyue, compared to satisfying my own wishes, I hope more that you can be safe and healthy, instead of like now, lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip. Do you understand?”
“I know, but I still don’t regret coming here.”
Xie Dingyuan was both angry and helpless. “You—”
Jiang Fuyue used the hand without the IV to lightly tug at the man’s sleeve. “Don’t be angry anymore, okay?”
“……” He didn’t speak.
“When you get angry, my mood gets bad too. If my mood is bad, how can I recover properly?”
“……”
“Besides, since I’m already here, you can’t very well send me away, right?”
“……”
Jiang Fuyue stayed in the medical room for two days, receiving IV drips and taking medicine, her symptoms easing day by day.
When she was first brought in, she was completely unconscious and had no idea what had happened.
Later, she heard from the nurses in the medical room that when Xie Dingyuan brought her over, the symptoms she displayed were far too similar to a Schankwo infection, causing extreme panic among everyone.
The doctors refused to see her, and the nurses didn’t dare step forward.
Xie Dingyuan didn’t bother to explain further. In that situation, no matter how much he said, no one would believe him, it would only waste time and delay treatment.
He told everyone to leave, closed the door, and kept only himself and Jiang Fuyue inside.
Then he personally prepared the medication and administered the IV for her.
After all, he wasn’t a professional doctor. Although he understood the principles of the medication, he had no practical experience.
So before inserting the needle into Jiang Fuyue, he experimented on his own hand first.
Only after succeeding did he use it on Jiang Fuyue.
Through a transparent glass window, everyone witnessed this scene and fell silent.
A young nurse even secretly recorded it on her phone.
“Can I see it?” Jiang Fuyue suddenly spoke.
The young nurse was adjusting the height of the IV bottle. Hearing this, she nodded. “Of course.”
She took out her phone, flipped to that video, and handed it over. “I think… you must be someone very important to him…”
In the video, Xie Dingyuan sat by the hospital bed, raised his left arm, held the needle in his right hand, and when he inserted it, his expression was calm, he didn’t even furrow his brow much.
The first needle drew blood. Bright red surged out, clearly visible even from such a distance.
He quickly stopped the bleeding for himself.
Without any pause, he began the second attempt.
This time was better than the first, the position was right, but the needle wasn’t secured and slipped out. When he pressed down, perhaps with too much force, it bled again, though not as much as the first time.
The third time still had a small issue.
It wasn’t until the fourth time that he finally succeeded.
But that didn’t rule out the possibility of accidental success, so Xie Dingyuan made a fifth attempt on himself.
Just to verify.
Because Jiang Fuyue’s condition at the time was not optimistic and she needed an IV immediately to bring down the fever, Xie Dingyuan didn’t want to waste time, so his movements were both fast and forceful.
The entire process, five needles took less than two minutes.
Nurse: “This is the first time I’ve encountered something like this. He’s so brave.”
Jiang Fuyue forced back the moisture in her eyes, smiled, and returned the phone to her, though her voice carried seriousness. “Yes. He’s always been very brave.”
“I have a very presumptuous question: is he your boyfriend? If it’s inconvenient to say, you don’t have to answer, it’s okay.”
Jiang Fuyue nodded. “He is.”
“Oh! Dear, you’re so fortunate to have a lover willing to give his life for you. Your love is more romantic than a movie!”
In the nurse’s eyes, Xie Dingyuan stayed despite knowing Jiang Fuyue showed symptoms of Schankwo infection, risking being infected himself. If that wasn’t “giving his life,” what was?
Jiang Fuyue was stunned.
To be honest, she hadn’t thought of it that way.
Because she had experienced the same symptoms back in Tunisia, she subconsciously assumed this time was just acclimatization issues as well, something that was later indeed proven to be the case.
Perhaps due to preconceived notions, she felt Xie Dingyuan would think the same way, especially since he had been there in Tunisia too.
But Jiang Fuyue overlooked one point: this time wasn’t merely “passing through,” but truly arriving and going deep into the epidemic zone.
She had a high chance of being infected with the Schankwo virus!
This was fundamentally different from last time!
In other words, her probability of being infected with Schankwo this time was actually much higher than during the Tunisia incident!
Xie Dingyuan appeared before her and brought her to the medical room while taking on such a risk.
“Miss? Miss?!”
Jiang Fuyue snapped back to her senses, her eyes shining. “Thank you!”
The young nurse looked puzzled. “Are you thanking me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” It seemed like she hadn’t done anything?
“Thank you for what you said…” for letting her know that Xie Dingyuan’s love was far deeper and heavier than what could be seen on the surface.
“You’re… welcome.” The nurse left with the tray, still not quite understanding.
……
At noon, Xie Dingyuan came to bring her food.
It was millet porridge and smashed cucumber.
Jiang Fuyue was surprised: “There’s cucumber here?”
“There is.” But not much.
Xie Dingyuan had Kaza spend a high price to buy it back from outside; something that costs a few yuan in Huaxia costs several hundred times more here.
He didn’t mention any of that, only caring about one thing—
“Is it good?”
Jiang Fuyue nodded: “It’s good!”
Although the cafeteria had a specially designated Huaxia food area, vegetables and fruits were not common; there was more meat.
Beef, chicken, fish…
The only green things were probably green peppers and scallions.
As for something like cucumbers, they almost never appeared.
Xie Dingyuan reached out and tucked a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear. “Eat slowly, there’s more.”
He had brought a lot.
After eating, the man tidied the bowls and chopsticks and the tabletop, and also handed a tissue to her.
Jiang Fuyue didn’t take it, only stared fixedly at him.
Xie Dingyuan frowned and immediately became nervous: “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
She shook her head.
“Not full?”
Still shaking her head.
“Yueyue, don’t stay silent, I’m really worried…”
“Xie Dingyuan.” She called him by his full name, with a few degrees of seriousness and earnestness.
The man paused, his heart suddenly tightening.
Jiang Fuyue: “Stretch out your hand.”
“?”
Watching the hand he extended in front of her, still holding the tissue, Jiang Fuyue patted it. “Not this one, switch to the other side.”
Xie Dingyuan didn’t know what she wanted to do, but he obediently switched to his left hand.
The next second, he saw her roll up the sleeve, exposing the inside of his elbow.
Five needle holes were clearly visible, bruising spreading around them.
Because the needle holes were so close together, the bruising connected into one patch; at first glance, it was about the size of an adult’s fist.
Blue tinged with purple, and with his skin already fair to begin with, the contrast made it even more horrifying.
Xie Dingyuan’s expression changed slightly, and he subconsciously tried to pull his hand back.
But Jiang Fuyue held on too tightly; he couldn’t pull it away at all.
All he could see was the girl lowering her eyes, staring at that bruised area. Her exact expression couldn’t be seen, but her lips were pressed tighter and tighter.
“Yueyue?” He tried to use force, pulling his hand back. “There’s nothing to look at.”
She exerted strength, gripping even tighter.
Since he couldn’t pull it back, Xie Dingyuan lowered the rolled-up sleeve, wanting to cover it.
But Jiang Fuyue pressed down on the back of his hand and stopped him.
The man sighed helplessly: “Yueyue…”
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly stiffened all over, his expression frozen.
Jiang Fuyue lowered her head and gently kissed the bruised purple spot, cherishing it so dearly, loving it so deeply, as if treating the most precious treasure of her life.
“It hurt a lot, didn’t it?” She lifted her head and looked into the man’s dull, stunned eyes. “So many stabs, so much blood…”
“It didn’t hurt.” Xie Dingyuan’s Adam’s apple rolled lightly; amid an uncontrollable racing heartbeat, he found his voice again.
The spot at the inside of his elbow that had been kissed was itchy and numb.
At this moment Jiang Fuyue wasn’t using any force, yet he was no longer willing to pull his arm back.
He let her grip it, giving up resistance.
“Am I really that precious? That you had to be a little white mouse and experiment on yourself first? Anyway I was asleep and didn’t know anything, couldn’t you just stab however you wanted?”
Xie Dingyuan turned his hand over and touched the spot on the back of her hand where the needle hole was. Although he had been very careful at the time, he still inevitably left marks of the needle holes on her fair skin, along with a bruise about the size of a soybean.
After all, he wasn’t a professional; his hands were unpracticed.
“You think this is felting? Just stab however you want?” The man chuckled.
The corner of Jiang Fuyue’s mouth twitched.
He continued: “Even felting can’t be done casually, let alone you?”
Jiang Fuyue raised her eyes and blinked twice. “What about me?”
“You’re the most precious. Of course I have to be cautious and cautious again before acting, otherwise what if I ruin you?”
“……”
“What do a few needles on me amount to? It doesn’t hurt at all, it just looks scary.”
“Liar!”
A needle piercing flesh, how could it not hurt?
Xie Dingyuan sighed softly and pulled her entire body into his arms. “When the heart is sweet, the body naturally doesn’t hurt.”
Jiang Fuyue quietly leaned against his chest and hugged him back.
Then she slightly tilted her head, leaned toward the man’s ear, and spoke softly: “Don’t do this again in the future, okay?”
He didn’t speak.
“Otherwise I’ll feel heartache. Heartache is much more serious than physical pain, can you bear that?”
Xie Dingyuan’s lips tightened.
Jiang Fuyue rubbed against him in his arms, with a hint of coquettishness: “Promise me, say it now!”
“Yueyue, I’m not as fragile as you think. It really didn’t hurt at all. Girls are the ones afraid of injections; I’m a man.”
Jiang Fuyue pulled back and glared at him. “What about men? Oh, so you look down on girls!”
Xie Dingyuan was helpless. “You clearly know that’s not what I mean…”
“You also clearly know that I’m not just talking about needles.”
She was referring to the future, to the dangers and difficulties she would have to face. He couldn’t possibly go through everything first for her.
“Yueyue, I just want, within my ability, to reduce the risks you’ll face as much as possible, so you can be safe and smooth, everything going as you wish!”
“I know! But I don’t want that! I walk my own path. If you walk it for me, what does that count as?”
Yet he said: “Some paths need someone to walk them first.”
“Then I’ll switch to another one!” Jiang Fuyue looked at him, her gaze heavy, not joking at all. “There will always be one you haven’t walked.”
“Yueyue…” Xie Dingyuan hadn’t expected that such a simple matter would cause such a big disagreement between the two of them.
Just moments ago she had been so heartbroken for him, even kissed him.
Professor Xie: [pitifully aggrieved] JPG
And what Jiang Fuyue cared about was: “Xie Dingyuan, listen carefully. From now on, either we walk the road together, or I walk it alone. Don’t even think about walking ahead by yourself, trampling all the difficulties flat and leaving me just a back to chase after.”
The man frowned. “But I’m worried about you…”
Jiang Fuyue raised her voice, almost shouting: “You worry about me, don’t you think I worry about you too?!”
Xie Dingyuan froze.
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