The fifth update is here. It wasn't easy to pull off this burst of updates, so everyone, please send some Recommendation Tickets to give me some motivation.
Early the next morning.
Orthopedics Ward.
Dawn had barely broken, and the autumn morning was wonderfully cool. The noise of the nurses making their rounds woke Dong Xuebin from his sleep. After yawning, he politely greeted the elderly man in the adjacent bed, whose right leg was fractured. Then he carefully turned over and got out of bed, avoiding his wounds as he picked up the thermos from the small cabinet with one hand and gulped down a few mouthfuls of water. He slipped on his slippers and was just about to ask at the nurses' station what examinations he still had scheduled for the day when the iPhone 4 beside his pillow started chirping—it was Qu Yunxuan's number.
Dong Xuebin quickly cleared his throat and tapped the touchscreen. "Hello?"
"Xiao Bin, where are you? Why didn't you come home all night?"
Dong Xuebin hadn't told her he was hospitalized, partly because he was afraid she would worry and partly because he didn't want the woman he loved to see him in such a sorry state. When he had called her last night, he had only said he was staying at a coworker's place and wouldn't be coming home for dinner. "Oh, I stayed up too late yesterday, so I spent the night at my coworker's place. I just got up and was about to go to work." Just as he finished speaking, a female nurse pushed open the ward door and called loudly into the room while holding several round plastic pill containers. "Your medicine is here—the medicine to take half an hour after breakfast."
"What medicine?" Qu Yunxuan immediately grew anxious on the other end. "Xiao Bin, where are you?"
Dong Xuebin hesitated. "No, no, that's the TV talking."
"Are you trying to worry Auntie to death? Tell Auntie the truth!"
Seeing that his lie had been exposed, Dong Xuebin's face heated up, and he could only confess honestly. "Ahem, well, I'm at Jiangong Hospital. Yesterday, an office at my workplace caught fire, and there was an important document still inside, so I ran in to get it. I got burned a little afterward, but it's really nothing serious. I'll be discharged in another day or two. Just go to work, and whatever you do, don't come over. I'm doing fine here."
"..."
"Aunt Xuan? What's wrong? Say something?"
"..."
"Well, I really didn't mean to lie to you."
"...Beep, beep, beep." The call was hung up from the other end.
Dong Xuebin wiped away a cold sweat, his heart full of unease. Aunt Xuan isn't angry at me, is she?
He called Qu Yunxuan several more times, but she still wouldn't answer.
Breakfast arrived. Dong Xuebin gave a bitter smile and set down his phone, tearing off a ten-yuan meal ticket that Zhuangzi had helped him buy yesterday and handing it to the middle-aged woman pushing the meal cart. Then he struggled to peel an egg with one hand, taking ages to finish it. There was no helping it. Aside from work-related tasks like setting up IV drips, giving injections, administering oxygen, and changing thermometers, hospital nurses generally didn't handle anything else. If he wanted someone to feed him, he had to hire a caregiver, which cost dozens of yuan a day. Dong Xuebin couldn't bear to spend that money, so he made do on his own.
Half an hour after breakfast, just as he swallowed his medicine, the sound of high heels came from the hallway.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap—urgent and forceful.
Whoosh! A figure flashed past the doorway. The clicking heels abruptly stopped, then the figure quickly backed up, shoved open the door to Dong Xuebin's ward, and entered. It was Qu Yunxuan.
Half reclining on the bed, Dong Xuebin broke out in a sweat. "Aunt Xuan, didn't I tell you not to come? Look at you."
Seeing Dong Xuebin covered in bandages, his burns red and swollen, Qu Yunxuan's eyes instantly reddened. She bit her lower lip and said nothing.
"Well, ahem, Aunt Xuan, sit down. Sit." Dong Xuebin nudged the chair beside him.
Qu Yunxuan still didn't speak. With pursed lips, she stared at the injuries on his body.
The large and small wounds all over him looked far too miserable, completely at odds with the clean-cut image Aunt Xuan liked. Embarrassed, Dong Xuebin pulled up the blanket to cover himself, leaving only one lightly injured hand outside. "They look pretty serious on the surface, but it's really nothing. They're all just scattered little injuries. I'll be fine in a few days."
For some reason, Qu Yunxuan seemed angry. She strode over and snapped, "Putting out fires is the Fire Brigade's job! Why did you go? There were so many people at your workplace—why did you have to be the one to save it? Were you the only person left in that whole government office?" After saying that, Qu Yunxuan raised her hand and began smacking the arm Dong Xuebin had left exposed. "You show-off! You show-off! You show-off! You show-off! You show-off! You show-off!" She hit him more than ten times in a row.
Dong Xuebin had never seen Aunt Xuan this angry before, so he immediately dared not make a sound.
"You're going to scare me to death sooner or later! You're going to scare me to death sooner or later!" Sniffling, Qu Yunxuan turned away and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
Dong Xuebin cried out, "Aunt Xuan, don't cry, don't cry. I was wrong. I definitely won't show off again." Being scolded by Qu Yunxuan made his heart feel warm. He could tell Aunt Xuan truly cared about him. "If I ever see a fire again, I'll stay far, far away. Really, I promise."
Qu Yunxuan glanced at him and tenderly touched the injury on Dong Xuebin's hand. "...Does it hurt?"
Dong Xuebin smiled. "No."
"Where else are you hurt? Let Auntie see."
"I only twisted my leg, but it's not fractured. There's nothing else."
Qu Yunxuan lifted his blanket and examined the wounds. Biting her lip and sniffing, she then put on a stern expression and glared at him fiercely. "Xiao Bin, if anything happens in the future, you have to tell Auntie first. If you dare lie to Auntie like you did this time, believe it or not, I'll spank you until your butt falls apart?"
The old man in the next bed and his son both looked at Dong Xuebin with amused smiles.
Dong Xuebin coughed awkwardly, his face red. "I won't, I won't."
Still not reassured, Qu Yunxuan lectured him a few more times, telling him that he absolutely could not take risks again in the future.
Dong Xuebin agreed to everything.
The old man with his leg in a cast smiled and chimed in, "Miss, don't scold him too much. This young man seems to have earned some merit this time. Yesterday, all the leaders and coworkers from his workplace came by. I heard he was even admitted to the Party on the Front Lines."
Hearing that, Dong Xuebin also grinned. "Right, right. I'm about to become a Party member."
Qu Yunxuan lovingly stroked his cheek. "Nothing is more important than your life. If something happened to you, how would Auntie explain it to Sister Luan?"
"Uh, don't tell my mom about this."
"Mhm."
After taking care of Dong Xuebin for a while, Qu Yunxuan went to ask the doctor about his condition.
When she returned, Dong Xuebin said, "Stop fussing. Look at the time—you should hurry to work."
Qu Yunxuan shook her head and carefully wiped his face with a warm, damp towel. "Auntie took five days of annual leave. I'll stay at the hospital with you these next few days. I'm not going anywhere."
"Ah, no, no. I'll be fine by myself."
"How can you be fine when you can barely walk? The doctor just said it would be best if someone stayed with you."
"I'm really fine."
"Want Auntie to tear that mouth of yours?"
Seeing that nothing he said would work, Dong Xuebin could only helplessly accept Qu Yunxuan's kindness.
Staying by my bedside... staying by my bedside... Sigh, how great would it be if she stayed in my bed instead?
It was almost midnight. The fifth update is here. It wasn't easy to pull off this burst of updates, so everyone, please send some Recommendation Tickets to give me some motivation.
...!!!
Before you continue