...
Meanwhile, after dropping Lu Ziyan, Han Ye went to get the ointment before he headed home. While he was standing in front of Xiao Lei's door, he was wondering if he should knock. He glanced at his watch. It was already 11.10 pm.
"Is she still awake?" he murmured as he glanced at the plastic bag that he was holding.
Worried that she might be asleep, he thought of giving it to her tomorrow. It was nothing serious anyway. However, just as he was about to walk away, he heard a loud thud which was followed by a loud curse.
It was muffled, but he was pretty sure that was an F-bomb.
Curious and somewhat worried, he knocked on the door and called out, "Xiao Lei, is everything alright inside?"
He could hear a few more bumps before he saw light coming out from the slit under the door. A few seconds later, the door opened and Xiao Lei appeared in front of him, disheveled, while she cradled her bruised elbow.
"Are you... alright?" Han Ye asked her with a slightly worried tone. He took a brief glance into her apartment and saw that things were sprawled out on the floor.
Xiao Lei's face flushed with embarrassment. Since she woke up in the middle of her sleep to grab something to drink, she knew that she probably looked extremely ugly now.
As she tried to smoothen her hair, she murmured, "I fell... No big deal..."
Something struck her mind and she looked at him curiously. "Why are you at my door at this hour?"
"Ah," Han Ye showed her the plastic bag and said, "Ziyan said that he saw you had a bruised thigh, and he asked me to bring you this."
Xiao Lei was wearing shorts, and she glanced down upon hearing him. There was nothing in front, so she turned her body slightly. That was when she saw the bruise at the back of her thigh.
"Ah, I forgot about it. I probably got it last night," she murmured before she turned back to face it. With a loud yawn, she asked, "It's no biggie..."
Han Ye leaned slightly to the side to take a good look at it. The purplish-blue big bruise looked extremely ugly against her pale thigh. With a frown, he asked, "How did you even forget about such a large bruise?"
Xiao Lei frowned at him this time for being such a worrywart. "It's just a bruise. It only hurt when it was formed, then I don't feel it anymore."
"I don't think that's how a bruise works..." Han Ye murmured. Then he thought about her past and figured that she probably got used to it. With a sigh, he asked, "Would you like me to help you apply the ointment? Can you reach it?"
Xiao Lei glanced at her bruise again and nodded. "Yeah, I should be able to."
She was still rubbing her right elbow and Han Ye noticed that action. He then asked, "Your elbow also... Actually, what happened earlier? You fell twice since you moved in, and that's only counting the times when I heard it."
With an awkward laugh, Xiao Lei scratched the back of her head as she admitted shyly, "It's too dark..."
Han Ye took another glance in. He reached in and turned off the switch that was near the front door. The lightbulb at the entrance immediately went off, and everything in the apartment was shrouded with darkness.
He then switched the light back on and passed the plastic bag to Xiao Lei. "Wait here, I'll be back soon."
Xiao Lei was confused, but she did as what she was told while yawning every now and then. A few minutes later, Han Ye returned with a tape in his hand.
"Let's go in."
Xiao Lei pushed against his chest as she stuttered, "Wait wait wait! Y-You're a man, and it's already late at night..."
Looking at her serious expression, Han Ye laughed softly. "I think that rule has flown out the window when you jumped into my bed like a wanton woman," he joked as he walked into the apartment despite her protest. "I'm just going in to help you set up something."
Since the apartment was built almost like his, he knew where the switches were. He then switched on all the lights before he went to the kitchen.
Unable to do anything else, Xiao Lei sighed and closed the front door. She then went to sit at the living room couch, and when she saw him coming out of the kitchen with a pair of scissors, she asked, "What are you doing?"
"When Tian Le first came to live with us, he had trouble locating the switches at night as well. So, we bought this," Han Ye said with a smile as he showed her the roll of tape in his hand. "This is glow in the dark tape, and it will help you to locate the switches when you want to come out for something to drink in the middle of the night."
As he fixed a small sticker on each of the switches in the house, he said, "Put on the ointment on your bruises first. I'll do this."
Xiao Lei nodded. She then put the ointment on the bruise on her thigh as well as the one that was forming on her elbow.
5 minutes later, Han Ye was done with his task. He then joined Xiao Lei at the living room. As he placed the tape and the pair of scissors down on the coffee table, he said, "I've placed a small tape on all the switches as well as on the sharp corners of the furniture. I'll leave this roll here. Use it for other things if you need to."
He then looked at her with a brow raised. As he stood akimbo, he asked with a sneer, "Are you sure you can be a surrogate mother? You are pretty clumsy..."
Annoyed, Xiao Lei stood up to face him. "Hey! It's only cause I'm not used to this house yet!"
"Fine," he said as he raised his hands up in defeat.
"Anyway, why is your house so dark?" Han Ye said as he glanced around the place. He then noticed that the curtains were down. "You know, normally, when you're living so high up, people don't actually let the curtains down. No one can look into your house unless they are in a helicopter, and I'm pretty sure that the sound of a helicopter would alert you."
Xiao Lei glanced at the curtains before she shrugged. Looking at him, she grinned, "I'm used to a completely dark environment..."
Han Ye chuckled and folded his arms as he leaned against the wall. "You know, most girls would be afraid of the dark. Even my late wife as well... Well, she wasn't afraid of it, but she preferred to have some light on at night."
"If people can't see you, they can't hurt you..." Xiao Lei murmured as she kept the tape inside a small box next to the LED TV.
"What?"
She smiled and shook her head. "Just something my husband used to tell me when we were younger."