CH 10

“We’re here. The food is delicious and the beds are very comfortable.” After speaking, Shang Muxiao rang the doorbell.

By this time, I had guessed that he was going to stay overnight at a farmhouse, but it still felt absurd. 

“I never said I wanted to stay here.” I never knew we were going to stay here.

Shang Muxiao didn’t take it seriously, “No, you have to clean the wound, right? If you drive back for two hours like this, and by the time you get to Qingwan, your blood will be drained.”

Based on what he said, people who didn’t know might think I had cut an important artery.

“This little wound will not drain my blood…” 

He suddenly laughed and interrupted me, “Has anyone ever said that you are too serious?”

They have. And when they said that, they were usually trying to shut me up.

I fell silent and said no more.

“Who is it so late…” The old man in the blue shirt came over to open the door. When he saw Shang Muxiao, he was stunned. When he saw me, he was even more surprised, “Did you… fall?” he asked. It was obvious that they were not confident enough.

“I called to reserve a room before.” Shang Muxiao didn’t answer. He pushed me into the small courtyard and said, “Please help me check in quickly, we are both tired.”

The small courtyard was an authentic Chinese farmyard. There were several round tables in the lobby and an L-shaped counter at the door.

The old man closed the courtyard door and walked slowly into the house.

“It turned out to be you. I thought you weren’t coming.” He turned to the counter, grabbed the key from underneath, “Go straight and turn right into the third room.”  

Shang Muxiao pushed me all the way to the room. When I entered the room and saw two beds, I secretly let out a sigh of relief. 

“Wait, I’m going to ask the boss for something.” Shang Muxiao put me down and went out again. After about five minutes, he came back in with a first aid kit in his hand. 

He opened the box and took out cotton swabs and hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound for me. 

“I’ll just do it myself…” I went to grab the cotton swab. He stepped aside and didn’t say anything, but he had already spoken with his actions — this wasn’t something I could decide.  

I was really tired, not only physically, but also mentally. Shang Muxiao was truly skilled. He could tire me out just by looking at the stars. 

I smiled at him, made a “please” gesture, and gave up my autonomy over my wounds. 

“Everytime I fell when I was a child, my parents would only let me endure it. Only my sister would treat my wounds. But she was a bit clumsy and always caused me a lot of pain. When I grew up, I learned how to deal with my wounds by myself.” His movements were very gentle, hardly causing me much pain. He really was skilled.

“You love your sister very much.”  

Shang Muxiao’s hand froze. The cotton swab pressed down uncontrollably, and poked into the flesh, causing sharp pain. I subconsciously wanted to withdraw my hand, but Shang Muxiao grabbed my wrist even harder and pulled it back in front of him. 

This time, he moved more carefully. Wherever the cotton swab passed by, I could feel a blow of cool air. 

“Because she is my only gem.” He lowered his face, and I could only faintly see that he seemed to curl his lips, “I am not as rich as Professor as to have so many gems. I only have one. Of course it will be treasured.” 

What he said, even a steel-hearted person would feel pained upon hearing it. I thought of the environment in which he grew up in as a child. Distant from his father with a mother that didn’t love him, and suddenly I understood his crazy behavior — — It was cultivated from when he was a child, and fighting for “attention” subconsciously.  

Hold on…… 

P kbxf eq. Qts rtbeiv P ulnf tlw j gfjrbc? Vlcmf tf mbeiv erf atf gerf bo rfio lcpegs jujlcra Vtjcu Tecgbe, tf mbeiv jirb erf la bc wf. Xblcu mgjhs jcv atfc jmalcu qlaloeiis, ab klc ws rswqjats. Aera ilxf vfjilcu klat kbecvr, wjsyf la kjr jirb tlr rqfmljias. 

Putting aside the slight grief, I hit him directly and said, “The way you express treasuring is to force her to break up with her boyfriend?”

Shang Muxiao didn’t think there was anything wrong with his approach at all. His tone was quite righteous, and he had his own set of theories: “They are not from the same world, and they will not be happy together. That man has low education, no money, and has been divorced with a daughter. My sister is rich and educated, young and beautiful. She deserves the best man in the world.”  

The more he talked, the more disgusted he became, and it made me feel guilty. With a clear cough, I asked, “What’s your father’s attitude? Does he also object?” 

“He doesn’t care about our lives at all.” Shang Muxiao threw away the cotton swab and wrapped my hand with a gauze, “He is still living in a dream.” 

Regarding Shang Lu, he didn’t say much, and I didn’t ask much. But it was clear that their relationship wasn’t very good. 

After wrapping my hand, Shang Muxiao took out another cotton swab from the first aid kit, knelt down halfway, and naturally wanted to roll up my trouser legs.  

I was stunned for two seconds before I realized that he was going to treat the wound on my leg for me. I quickly grabbed his arm and stopped him in panic. 

“Wait. I can do it myself, I can do it myself.” 

Since the car accident, I didn’t like people touching my legs. Except for the physiotherapist, these legs were just like a young lady’s three-inch golden lotus feet from ancient times. It wasn’t easy for others to see it.

Shang Muxiao gave me a deep look, straightened up, and threw the cotton swab back into the box.  

“I’m going to take a shower first. Don’t sneak away by yourself. After all…” He raised his right hand and showed me what was on his index finger, “The car keys are with me.” 

I immediately touched my pocket and only found my mobile phone. I didn’t know when the car keys were stolen by him. 

How could there be such a person… 

Up until Shang Muxiao entered the bathroom and left me alone in the room, I was still in a state of extreme shock.  

Subjects are driven by “motivation” and demonstrate the will through action. In other words, everything had a motive, and there was no action without motive in this world. 

Shang Muxiao should also have motives for doing things, but his motives were really unpredictable. As long as it was about him, nothing developed the way I expected it to be. 

Before, I thought that he was not as friendly as Shang Lu, and he seemed difficult to get close to, but now that I think about it, maybe “difficult to get close” wasn’t the impression he had on people. “Difficult to get close” was just my intuition telling me that I should stay away from him. We were not the same. 

Compared to Shang Yunrou and Yang Haiyang, we were truly in two different worlds. 

There was no sensation in my legs so it was very convenient for me to handle it by myself. I cleaned the wound somewhat roughly and wrapped it in gauze, but even then, Shang Muxiao still wasn’t done taking a shower. 

Putting his coat on one of the beds, I controlled the wheelchair towards the balcony door. I noticed just now that there was still a door in the house. I thought it was a balcony, but when I opened it, I found that it was a yard. 

The yard was surrounded by flowers and plants as a natural barrier without much decoration. There was only a table and two chairs that were placed on the porch. 

The moon tonight was extraordinarily round. I watched the moon in the yard for a while, and heard a noise behind me. When I went back to the house, I saw that Shang Muxiao had already finished his bath and had come out.  

He only wrapped a bath towel around his lower body. His upper body was bare, revealing his strong muscles, and his hair was still dripping with water. 

Upon closer look, I could see his body was covered in wounds. There were bruises of varying degrees on his ribs and waist. Yang Haiyang was really heavy-handed and didn’t show any mercy at all. 

“Do you want to take a shower?” He wiped his hair. “I can help you.”

I turned around and closed the door, ignoring his suggestion. “When will the car keys be returned to me?” 

He laid down on the bed and started playing with his phone. 

“Tomorrow,” he said.

Does this mean I have to stay overnight? 

I resisted the urge to sigh. Out of sight, out of mind. I controlled the wheelchair to go to the bathroom. 

This was just an ordinary farmhouse, and all of its facilities served ordinary people first. There were no special facilities for the disabled. This meant that it would be extremely difficult for me to go to the toilet or to take a shower. 

Fortunately, it was only one night, so I should be able to get over it. I didn’t know why, but I suddenly had such optimistic thoughts at such a time. It turned out later that this may also be a protective mechanism of the brain — — to appease my crumbling heart. 

After simply scrubbing my body, when I left the bathroom, the lights in the room had already been dimmed. Shang Muxiao’s bed was silent. There was a mound under the quilt with only a small part of black hair exposed on top. It looked like he was asleep.

Good thing he fell asleep.  

The wheelchair drove across the carpet without much noise. Taking care not to wake the other person, I parked the wheelchair by the side of the bed with one side next to the edge of the bed. Then, with my hands on the bed, I rolled up sideways on the bed in a somewhat awkward posture. When I finally leaned against the head of the bed with the strength of my arms, I couldn’t stop panting.

Looking at my injured palm, there was a little blood on the surface of the snow-white gauze, which appeared when it was propped up on the bed just now. 

This was also why I had to wait for Shang Muxiao to fall asleep. No matter how good I usually pretended to be, when this happened, I would still turn back into that useless trash that can’t do anything. Too unsightly. 

This disability was already very serious. With one hand disabled, it really was fatal. With a wry smile, I covered myself with the quilt, and then glanced in the direction of Shang Muxiao.  

He was still in his original posture, and seemed to have fallen asleep.

That night, I didn’t sleep too well. 

First, I wasn’t used to the strange environment, and secondly… I started dreaming again. 

“Bei Jie, I have something to tell you when I come back from this trip.” Lu Feiheng touched my head with a gentle smile on his lips and said, “I thought about it for a long time and thought I should tell you.”  

I didn’t really like people touching my hair, so I avoided it and asked, “Can’t you say it now?” 

“No. It’s still a secret and cannot be unlocked.”

At that time, I was too young to get more information from his complicated eyes and words and deeds. I just had a strange premonition that what he had to say was important, extremely important. 

“How mysterious.” He refused to say, so I stopped asking, thinking that the answer would be known in five days, but I didn’t think that we would be completely separated the next day. 

What was his secret? What did he want to tell me? These questions used to be my nightmare. Later, as I grew older, slowly, from hesitation, to disbelief, to conviction. One day I suddenly woke up and realized that I had missed a young and frivolous love. 

Lu Feiheng, Jing Shen and Xu Wei were my roommates in college. I treated Lu Feiheng no differently from the other two. I never thought he would like me. But looking back, in fact, many details were already very obvious. I suspected even Jing Shen and Xu Wei had seen the clues long ago, so they suggested that everyone go to the ancient town together to create opportunities for me and Lu Feiheng. 

As a result, the opportunity was not created, and everyone suffered a serious car accident first. 

Due to the sudden change of lanes by the vehicle in front, our vehicle lost control and crashed into the high-speed isolation barrier.  

Xu Wei and I were thrown out of the car. I was lucky and survived, but Xu Wei was unfortunate. When he fell out, he landed on the back of his head, and he was dead before the ambulance arrived. The other two, sitting in the front row, were stuck in the severely deformed car. They were engulfed in a raging fire before the fire truck could even arrive. 

For a long time, I could hear the screams of the both of them even after I fell asleep.

I was so tormented that I told my mother about it, but she said it was just my hallucination. The two of them had been seriously injured when the fire started. Their consciousness was blurry so it was impossible for them to scream.

She was such a person. She had always been cold, rigid, and without any warmth.  

My dream was very messy. One moment I was talking to Lu Feiheng. The next moment I was sitting in the car, and the next moment, when the car lost control and hit the isolation barrier, I woke up suddenly. I had already fallen out of bed.

I was still a little stunned, massaging my forehead in confusion. Why could I still fall over the guardrail? Why was it so soft under my body, and when did the house have a carpet?

“Hey, are you okay?” 

It was not until Shang Muxiao’s voice sounded that I gradually regained my senses and remembered that I was outside in a farmhouse called, “Liu Shui House”.  

“I’m okay…” The light above my head suddenly turned on. I raised my hand uncomfortably to block my eyes. 

There was a rustling sound from Shang Muxiao’s side. After a while, he jumped out of bed, wearing only a pair of jeans, unbuttoned. 

I was still a little confused, so I just stared at him blankly, forgetting to even reject him. 

He carried me to the bed with the quilt. I sat for a while while he put on a t-shirt.  

“It’s seven o’clock, are you hungry?” 

He glanced at his phone and asked. 

I shook my head, and after calming down, the hunger was not so obvious, but another physical desire gradually became prominent, with a full sense of existence. 

“I’m a little hungry. I’m going to see if the boss has prepared breakfast…”  

He turned to leave, and I felt that the desire was getting stronger and stronger. If I held it back, it would probably not look good, so I hurriedly grabbed his hem. 

“Can you… take me to the bathroom first?” 

I didn’t have to ask him for anything else, but if I were to rely on myself, I would probably have to pee my pants by the time I moved to the toilet. 

Shang Muxiao didn’t respond, and I didn’t even look at him. I was still annoyed at myself.  

I could feel his gaze wandering over me. But just as I couldn’t determine the motives behind his actions, I also couldn’t determine the motive behind this gaze.

It felt a little like a cobweb that suddenly covered my face, invisible, sticky, and very sinister. 

After a long while, he suddenly moved: “You want to go to the toilet? You should’ve told me earlier.” He bent down, picked me up again neatly, and went to the bathroom. 

I lowered my face, and my whole person wanted to immediately evaporate on the spot, unable to look at him at all.  

When we got to the bathroom, Shang Muxiao put me on the ground. He held my arm with one hand, and wrapped the other around my waist, supporting me as I stood. 

This pose made me feel bad. But at this time, I could only honestly say that there wasn’t a better posture. 

“Okay, let’s pee.” Shang Muxiao’s voice was close to my ear and contained a teasing smile. His breath swept over my neck, which made goosebumps erupt uncontrollably.