Visiting hours were over, and a nurse came in to usher them out.
Duan Qizhao stayed planted in his chair. "I'm his best buddy. Round that up, and I'm family."
The nurse glanced at him. "You're his buddy, so what is he to him?" She pointed at Shen Wangjing.
Duan Qizhao blinked twice. "Him? He's his husband."
Jiang Xun grabbed a fruit candy from the bedside table and threw it at him. Duan Qizhao tilted his head out of the way, and the gleaming candy bounced off the doorframe and rolled into the corridor.
The nurse picked it up expressionlessly and put it back on the bedside table, then looked over the three of them in turn. "One person can stay to look after him. Everyone else, out."
Duan Qizhao turned to Jiang Xun, who raised a hand and pointed at the door. He turned to Shen Wangjing next, but Shen Wangjing had already pulled out the visitor's chair and sat down.
He dragged his feet toward the door, then looked back from the doorway and emphatically mouthed, "Lovers before friends."
The door closed.
The room fell quiet. Jiang Xun burrowed a little deeper into the covers, and Shen Wangjing tucked the corner in around him.
Neither spoke. Only the monitor kept beeping.
After a while, Jiang Xun poked a foot out from under the covers and nudged Shen Wangjing's knee with his toes.
"You're still limping. Why are you sitting in a chair? Get up here and lie down."
When Shen Wangjing didn't move, Jiang Xun shifted half an inch to the side and warned him with a pout, "If you don't get up here, I'll go sleep in the chair."
After a moment of silence, Shen Wangjing lay down beside him, fully dressed.
It was a single hospital