Chapter 264 - Why is it so hard to breathe?

....

Han Ye went to get some hot food from the cafeteria, as well as some dessert in case Xiao Lei did not feel like eating anything else. He even asked one of the cafeteria workers to pack him some cuc.u.mber slices in ice. 

On the way back, he could not help but worry about her. He wasn't only worried about her mental state of health; he was also worried about her body. For a pregnant woman, her mental state would directly affect the health of the fetus. And the doctor warned him earlier; that even though Xiao Lei's body was strong, they still had to be careful because she was carrying twins. 

"Then why did she faint?" Han Ye had asked the doctor worriedly after the doctor told him that Xiao Lei would be fine after some rest. 

"Based on what you told me, it was most likely caused by sudden stress and shock. Just take good care of her, and she should be fine," the doctor said before leaving. 

Han Ye sighed when he thought about the doctor's words. He had told Xiao Lei about President Wei's request for her to audition for the female lead character in his new short movie, and she seemed interested.

She even said that she wanted to try auditioning, which Han Ye was fine with it since it was just auditioning. After all, it was only an audition, and there would be no dangerous action scenes to act out during the audition. She could always reject the role later on. 

However, at this rate, he did not think that it would be good for her to even audition for it. "What if she gets rejected? It would be bad for her confidence," he thought as he got out of the lift, which stopped at the floor Xiao Lei's room was on.

"But... maybe she should still go and audition?" he suddenly mumbled to himself. "There's an amus.e.m.e.nt park near the audition place. We could go there after the audition."

He looked at the date on his watch and realized that the audition date was two weeks away, and his schedule then would be less tight, so he could take a couple of days off. 

He then nodded to himself. "I can take her there, and we could go and enjoy ourselves a little. Maybe Zhihao can take a few days off school as well..."

He stood outside Xiao Lei's room for a few seconds before slowly turning the knob. He was afraid that he might wake her up in case she was asleep. However, when he opened the door ajar, he sighed internally at the sight that he was seeing. 

Xiao Lei was sitting upright on her bed while looking at something in her hand. 

"Is it her husband's photo?" Han Ye thought before slowly taking a step back and closing the door. As he stood outside the door awkwardly, he mumbled to himself, "I'll give her a few more minutes. She probably wanted a little time with Xiao Yunjie."

He then looked around before sitting down at the visitor bench outside the hospital room. While waiting for some time to pass, he replied to some messages from DX and the rest, who were asking about Xiao Lei's condition. 

After replying to their messages, he stood up and walked around before trying to look into the room again. He gently turned the knob and pushed the door in, before peeking in with his head. 

Xiao Lei was still in the same position, and she raised a hand before wiping the tears off the corners of her eyes with her palm. She then looked up, and after a while, she sniffled and wiped at her eyes again. 

"Stop crying, Fan Wushuang," she whispered to herself as she gently slapped her cheeks. Yet the more she tried to tell herself not to cry, the harder it was to stop the tears from falling. "Why are you such a crybaby today..." she scolded herself even as the tears kept falling silently. 

She then clutched at her chest and lightly thumped it. "Why is it so hard to breathe..." she mumbled to herself before grinning sadly. "Ah... Is this what it's like to have a piece of your heart taken away?" 

Knock! Knock!

Xiao Lei looked up, and when she saw Han Ye, she immediately kept the photo of her husband underneath the pillow and wiped her tears away. She then forced a smile onto her face. "I'm not crying!" 

Han Ye did not say anything. He went in and laid out the food on the bedside table with wheels. Once he was done, he adjusted it before pushing it to the front of Xiao Lei. "I bought some of your favorite food. Try to eat a little. If you don't want to eat proper meals, there are some jellies and puddings as well."

Xiao Lei smiled. "Thanks, Han Ye." 

She looked at the small feast in front of her, and as predicted by Han Ye, she chose the sweet dessert over the proper meals. If this were before, he would nag her about her eating habits, but since today was a special day, he decided to let her be.  

"How's the chocolate pudding?" Han Ye asked after a while. 

She nodded. "It's fine..."

Han Ye thought for a moment before saying, "Xiao Lei, are we friends?"

Xiao Lei looked at Han Ye curiously through her swollen eyes. "Yeah... Of course."

"Then don't be shy. Don't show me fake smiles. I told you earlier, you can always cry in front of me." He then slipped his hand under her pillow and pulled out the photo that she was looking at earlier. It was her family photo, and in it, Xiao Yunjie had his arms around Xiao Lei's waist while a younger Xiao Zhihao stood in front of them. Behind them was a huge Ferris wheel, and it seemed that they were at a fair of sorts.

All of them had bright beaming smiles on their faces. 

Han Ye passed the photo to Xiao Lei and said with a stern expression, "You don't have to hide anything from me. I don't want you to be sad, but I don't want to see you hide it as well." 

Xiao Lei took the photo from him. She stared at him for a while before saying with a smile, as if she was reminiscing about her past. 

"That day, we took a break from work, and we even took Zhihao out of school. We went to a traveling fair that had an acrobatics show. Zhihao had been bugging us for months, and Yunjie wanted to give him what he wanted since he scored the first place at school, so he worked double shift for two months," Xiao Lei said with a smile as she gently touched the image of her husband. "Zhihao just wanted to play one ride, but Yunjie didn't agree with it. He said 'since we are already here, we might as well play with everything'. That was why he worked so hard. He wanted to get enough money so that our son could play with anything that he wanted to."

Xiao Lei looked up at Han Ye. "And Zhihao played with everything! I've never seen him that happy before."