Jiang Ran was awakened by the sound of a ringing phone. Dazed, she momentarily forgot where she was and reached out for the phone beside her.
She patted the pillow but didn’t find the phone, so she instinctively reached for the nightstand. As she reflexively rolled over, a sharp pain shot up from her leg, making her inhale sharply—
A large hand reached out and pressed against her waist. “Why are you moving around?”
The voice beside her was familiar, yet unfamiliar. The tone was recognizable, but the barely restrained anger and coldness in it were not.
Forced back onto her back, Jiang Ran finally took in her surroundings. The pale ceiling, the tall metal curtain rod beside the bed, the heavy smell of disinfectant, and the dim lighting in the room…
She was in a hospital.
She had been injured and brought here.
She pulled back the blanket and saw that she was wearing the standard blue-and-white striped hospital gown. She was wearing only underwear below, her left thigh wrapped in bandages, and her ankle fixed in a medical brace.
Confused and frightened by the sight, she lifted her head to ask what had happened. However, the moment her eyes met the person standing by the bed, he lowered his gaze, ignored her, and walked to the window to make a phone call—
The room was quiet, and Bei Jiao’s phone didn’t have great soundproofing. Over the phone, Qiu Nian was cursing, calling her a “damn woman,” saying, “just teach her a lesson,” “how old is she and doesn’t she have any common sense? Didn’t she know it would hurt like this? Was the Olympics in Xinjiang starting again and forgot to notify us or something?”
When Bei Jiao hung up and turned around, he saw that the person in the bed had somehow already sat up, hugging the blanket, pale-faced and looking at him pitifully.
He moved his lips.
“I get it, I heard everything,” Jiang Ran interrupted him. “You don’t need to scold me again.”
Her voice was hoarse when she spoke, surprising even herself—
Of course, she had no idea how long she had been asleep or that she had once had a high fever that wouldn’t break. Now, all she knew was that her lips were cracked, and even speaking a single word hurt.
Feeling instinctively that her voice was unpleasant, she shut her mouth and decided not to speak.
She hadn’t felt anything while asleep, but now that she was awake, her throat felt like it was on fire, and no one had given her a sip of water.
She gave a resentful glance to the black-haired young man standing there like a piece of wood, then turned to reach for the mineral water on the nightstand. However, the bottle was a bit far, so she stretched her hand—
Her mind focused solely on the bottle of water.
There was an alarm clock in front of the water bottle. At first, she even pushed it aside, thinking it was in the way. A few seconds later, she suddenly realized something was off and made a confused sound. She picked up the alarm clock she had pushed aside.
When she flipped it over, the words “October 6, 2023, 01:30 AM” on the alarm clock made her feel disoriented.
She remembered collapsing on the 3rd. How come, after closing her eyes and opening them again, two days had passed?
She turned around, her confused gaze fixed on the only living person in the room.
Bei Jiao’s gaze briefly swept over her dry, chapped lips—
In the morning, he had classes, and Jiang Huaimin had hired a nurse to watch over her. Naturally, the nurse wasn’t very attentive and wouldn’t moisten her lips with a cotton swab every so often…
Her usually soft, rosy lips were now peeling, like cracked earth under the scorching sun.
“You had a cut on your thigh from a board edge, and it took twenty-four stitches. The wound became inflamed, and you had a fever the next day. The doctor gave you medicine, and you’ve been asleep since.”
He briefly explained the situation to her, then took the mineral water from the nightstand, opened it, and brought it to her lips.
Pressing the bottle against her lips, he used his other hand to support her chin, tilting her head up slightly so she could drink.
Jiang Ran took a couple of sips, found his feeding too slow, and tried to take the bottle herself—
But as soon as her hand touched his, understanding her intention, he moved his hand aside. His dark pupils stared calmly at her, making her feel uneasy inside.
Realizing that this wasn’t something she could simply sleep through and forget, her scalp prickled, and she wished she could have woken up tomorrow instead.
“You think you can avoid it by waking up tomorrow? The nurse will call me anyway,” Bei Jiao patiently fed her water until she couldn’t drink anymore, then moved the bottle away. “Where can you go?”
As he spoke, his tone carried a hint of icy sarcasm.
Yet, as he spoke, his large hand that had been supporting her chin moved away, and his warm, dry fingertip instinctively brushed across the corner of her lips, wiping away the moisture.
“…”
She looked at him, her eyes flickering for a moment…
Then silently shifted her gaze away.
But the confusion on her face, the embarrassment of being caught, was perfectly captured by him.
“It’s written all over your face.”
Bei Jiao tightened the bottle cap, then placed the water back on the nightstand.
“What’s wrong? Where did that cleverness go that allowed you to lie to me on the phone just now?”
“Bang!” The sound echoed, and the woman sitting on the bed, clutching the blanket with both hands, instinctively shrank her shoulders—
Here it comes!
How could he so naturally steer every topic to what he wanted to discuss?
Was he a monster?
The room had comfortable heating, and she hadn’t felt cold when she woke up, but now Jiang Ran felt a chill creeping down her neck.
She silently pulled the blanket up a bit, blinked, and finally spoke since waking up: “Will there be a scar on my thigh?”
Her voice was still hoarse, but after drinking water, it was slightly better than before, no longer sounding like her throat had been rubbed raw three hundred times.
As she spoke, she lifted the blanket again, her fingertips brushing over the bandage on her leg, deeply worried: such a large wound, twenty-four stitches, how had she managed to endure it at the time?
She was clearly trying to avoid the topic Bei Jiao had brought up, pretending to be clueless, while also genuinely worrying about scarring—
That spot on her thigh would make it inconvenient to wear short skirts or swimsuits in the future!
Bei Jiao gave her a cold, unimpressed glance and pulled a chair to sit beside her bed. “Possibly.”
Jiang Ran inhaled sharply. “Then you have to do something about it! Why are you so calm? Are you not studying medicine anymore!”
“I am studying medicine, but I’m not a god,” Bei Jiao replied calmly. “Every doctor in this hospital has studied and practiced medicine for decades. If they say there will be a scar, do you think I can do better than them?”
…He made such a convincing argument that she couldn’t even refute it.
Jiang Ran was speechless. A few seconds later, she caught on to what Bei Jiao had said—“practiced medicine for decades”: “Am I in Guangzhou?”
There was a certain naivety in her tone—
Of course, she had no idea what had happened after she lost consciousness.
At that time, after she passed out, everyone was so scared their souls flew out. They first took her to the nearest clinic for a simple bandage on her wound. During that time, she was holding onto Bei Jiao’s arm, half-conscious but still crying out in pain…
As if she was deliberately torturing him.
If Wang Jiaming were here now, he might have told Jiang Ran that at the clinic, no one would have thought the wound was on Bei Jiao’s body judging by his expression at the time—his face was even paler than hers, a blood-losing person, and Wang Jiaming, standing two meters away, could hear the sound of him grinding his teeth.
After bandaging her thigh wound, Jiang Ran was sent to a larger hospital farther away for X-rays. Her left leg was unquestionably fractured, with a couple of bone fragments, and she also had a series of soft tissue contusions in her knee and ankle joints…
The snowboard boot was directly cut open with a saw. The doctor commented that it was fortunate the boot was sturdy enough to serve as a certain level of restraint and fixation. The slow blood circulation and the cold weather allowed her to endure the last thirty seconds of the race.
Otherwise, after falling and with her level of tossing and turning, she probably would have passed out from pain on the spot.
But considering the severity of her injuries, immediate surgery was not advisable. To prevent massive bleeding or other secondary injuries, the doctor recommended waiting a couple of days for the swelling to subside before considering surgery.
That night, Jiang Huaimin arrived in Xinjiang and immediately arranged a private jet to fly his daughter back to Guangzhou. Upon arrival in Guangzhou, she was admitted to the most renowned and authoritative orthopedic hospital for specialized care. This whole process took until today.
At this moment, as if remembering something, Bei Jiao sent a WeChat message to Jiang Huaimin to inform him that Jiang Ran had woken up, then put his phone down.
However, after putting down his phone, he didn’t speak, silently sitting by the bed and watching Jiang Ran.
Their gazes met in the air. She blinked and noticed the dark circles under his eyes. “Didn’t you sleep well these two days?”
It was the end of the year, and the postgraduate entrance exam was coming up. He had classes starting on the 5th. During the day, he attended classes, and in the afternoon, he came directly to the hospital to keep watch by her bedside, barely getting any sleep at all.
Her question made him almost laugh and cry at the same time. Tilting his head slightly, he asked her, “Jiang Ran, do you even have a heart?”
How could he sleep when she had a high fever, was unconscious, and kept calling his name in her dreams, followed by cries of pain?
He couldn’t even close his eyes.
When he was too exhausted, he would take a half-hour nap, only to be woken up by nightmares filled with chaos.
At this moment, caught off guard by his words, Jiang Ran was once again at a loss for words…
Sitting up, she leaned forward, stretched her arms, and pulled his arm over. She played with his neatly trimmed and slender fingertips for a while, gently rubbing the back of his hand with her soft fingertips.
Bei Jiao looked down but didn’t pull his hand back.
This was a good sign. Jiang Ran lifted his hand and kissed it gently by her lips. “I’m sorry for making you worry.”
Her apology was sincere.
“Save it.” Bei Jiao pulled his hand back, his voice cold. “You’re basically telling me that you made a mistake this time, but you’ll do it again next time.”
“…”
Honestly speaking, if given another chance, she really wouldn’t dare.
The nightmare of unbearable pain on the track was something she never wanted to relive. If given another chance, she would quickly choose to climb onto a snowmobile and head straight to the county hospital.
But now, saying this, he would probably think she was lying to him.
So she bit her lip, her eyes misting up, and looked at him pitifully again—
She hadn’t eaten anything for two days after being unconscious, and only had her lips moistened with a cotton swab by Bei Jiao at night. For two days, she had survived only on nutrient injections, and her face had visibly thinned.
Now, her hair was somewhat disheveled, draped over her thin shoulders, contrasting sharply with the blue-and-white hospital gown…
Her delicate face was pale and weak without any makeup, except for her deep brown eyes, which were watery and looked genuinely pitiful.
If an outsider saw her, they might think they had entered the wrong ward, because Jiang Ran would never show such a vulnerable side…
But Bei Jiao had seen it before.
When she was trying to coax him, she often looked at him like this—
And usually, even if she wanted the moon in the sky, he would seriously consider how to build a ladder to get it for her.
She had used this trick countless times, and it always worked. Now that she was awake and her mind had returned, those tactics were back—
She knew exactly what worked on him.
She had him completely figured out.
And she was ready to use it against him.
At this moment, Bei Jiao pressed his fingertips to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. His brows had been furrowed for days, almost never relaxing. “Don’t look at me like that. This time, it’s too serious. Do you really think you can just get away with this?”
Jiang Ran’s legs were still exposed outside the blanket.
Her right leg, which had only minor scrapes, was still free to move, and she rubbed her heel against the bedsheet, too ashamed to lift her head after being scolded.
Seeing this, Bei Jiao fell silent for a moment, then without saying anything else, stood up to cover her with the blanket she had kicked off…
Just as he was about to stand up, someone grabbed his sleeve from the side.
He tried to pull his hand away, but the other person tightened their grip silently, even pulling his sleeve anxiously.
He turned his head and saw her looking at him with red eyes, her jaw clenched tightly, clearly nervous.
He knew she couldn’t keep pretending for long, so he silently sighed in his heart and looked at her with a blank expression: “Ask.”
He kept one hand on the other side of her legs and sat down—so at this moment, she only needed to move slightly to fall into his arms.
Jiang Ran silently moved her lips, realizing her throat was unbearably tight. Still, she managed a weak smile. “Why do you say it’s a big deal? It’s just a few stitches on my thigh, right? Surely you wouldn’t reject me because of that?”
Bei Jiao didn’t answer.
This silence made her even more anxious.
Her hand gripping his sleeve gradually tightened, her fingertips turning completely pale from the force. She lowered her voice and asked, “So… what’s wrong with my ankle?”
“Ankle fracture, torsional type, partially comminuted, soft tissue contusion in the lower limb joints.”
A few seconds of silence, as if the world had lost all sound. She slowly closed her eyes.
Her throat moved, and it took her a long time before she found her voice again.
“Don’t tell me I’m disabled.”
Her voice now sounded even hoarser than when she first woke up.
It was as if someone had grabbed her throat with their hands, squeezing tightly, so tightly that it felt like it would snap at any moment.
From the moment she woke up until this second, she had been avoiding the issue.
Had she forgotten to ask?
No, she was just afraid and chose to ignore it, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
“…” He stared at her closed eyes for a moment before saying, “Something like that.”
Jiang Ran opened her eyes, and in an instant, a large tear rolled from her eyes and landed on the back of his hand.
The sound of the drop, “plop,” echoed loudly in the deathly silent room, where the only sounds were their breathing.
She sniffled, but couldn’t stop more tears from flowing down. She didn’t even make a sound of sobbing, just sat there pale-faced, wide-eyed and dazed, as tears poured like a broken dam—
Before she could cry herself into unconsciousness, she suddenly felt a large hand slide into her hair, gripping the back of her neck.
With a slight force, she collapsed into his arms like a limp scallion, her chest quickly soaked, and she didn’t even need to look down to know his clothes were drenched.
He stroked the back of her neck, which drooped in despair like a dying swan, and sighed. In these two days, he had sighed more than he had in his entire life. Helplessly, he said, “I’m kidding. You’re not disabled. Stop crying.”
Her crying only grew louder, from silent tears to loud sniffling and gasping for breath.
Her hands, which had been gripping his sleeve, now clutched at the hem of his shirt.
In that moment, Bei Jiao admitted to himself that Jiang Huaimin’s repeated warnings, wanting to scare her a little, at least make her realize her mistake, had completely backfired—it was tormenting him instead.
The moment her tears fell, his head felt like it was about to explode.
“Really, after the surgery in a couple of days, you’ll start to recover in about a week to ten days.” His voice was now eight degrees warmer than before. “Stop crying. Be good.”
She kept crying.
Her hands climbed up to his neck, hugging him tightly and burying her face in his neck, her tears flowing down his collar.
How pitiful.
How could someone be so infuriating that they could make a person want to scream, yet so pitiful when they cried?
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, her voice muffled. “There won’t be a next time, I swear. Please don’t be angry anymore, okay?”
No one could resist someone crying so pitifully.
Even if he knew she was taking advantage of the situation.
He still wrapped an arm around her waist and used his other hand to lift her chin, carefully examining her face—
His large hand wiped away her tears, but more tears followed, falling from her fluttering lashes onto his hand.
“Alright.”
He leaned down and gently brushed his lips against hers, his voice low and yielding. “That’s enough. Do you want to cry your eyes blind? Stop while you’re ahead, Jiang Ran.”
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