All the horror movies Doctor Xie had watched in his thirty-odd years combined were less terrifying than the scene before him!
She'd gone mad. This young lady had gone completely mad!
Which colleague of his had allowed this young lady to be discharged?! Who?!
Seeing that his "friend across the age gap" was about to be forced upon by this madwoman, Doctor Xie moved to block her without a second thought!
He would protect his brother's chastity!
Don't be afraid, Yan. Your big brother will take this kiss for you!
But his backside had barely left his seat when he saw Bo Yan expressionlessly raise a hand, palm outward, beside his face.
The movement looked practiced, as though he had weathered a hundred battles.
Doctor Xie: "?"
Doctor Xie's expression grew even more horrified, with a trace of pity mixed in.
Look at what his poor Yan had been driven to. He was so used to this that he could even handle it calmly!
Yan, you've really suffered, Yan!
Bo Yan had no idea that Xie was taking out a loan of grievances on his behalf in his head.
Wen Ning's kiss had landed on his palm. Now it felt hot and sticky, making him extremely uncomfortable.
His face cold, he said, "Stay away from me." After a pause, he added through gritted teeth, "And don't call me-"
The word "hubby" reached his lips, but whether out of disgust or something else, Bo Yan found himself unable to say it.
The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became. Embarrassment turning to anger, he shot Wen Ning a warning glare.
Intimidated by Bo Yan, Wen Ning had intended to obediently shut up, only to catch sight of the big villain's ears out of the corner of her eye. They had actually turned red.
Wen Ning remembered that when she had played the pervert and tackled him earlier, the big villain's ears seemed to have gone red then, too.
No, apparently it hadn't just been his ears. She seemed to have seen his pecs turn pink as well.
Wen Ning immediately narrowed her eyes.
Things were getting interesting.
Wanting to test Bo Yan's limits, she deliberately ran her mouth. "Don't call you what? Don't call you hubby?"
Sure enough, the moment she called him hubby, Bo Yan pulled a terrifyingly long face.
Yet despite his dark expression, he was turning red.
"Shut up!" Bo Yan snapped, his face long but the roots of his ears red.
Counting on the severely injured Bo Yan being unable to knife her, Wen Ning refused to shut up. "All right, all right, I won't call you that anymore. Don't get worked up."
Bo Yan snorted coldly.
For some reason, Wen Ning thought Bo Yan looked like a tsundere cat that couldn't be bothered with anyone.
Rather than stroke his fur the right way, she picked the "cat" straight up "upside down," putting on a woeful expression. "But if I don't call you hubby, what should I call you?"
The tsundere cat was speechless, looking as though he wanted to swat this endlessly pestering human dead.
Wen Ning suppressed a laugh. "How about Bobo?"
Bo Yan: "..."
Wen Ning shook her head. "No, that sounds like 'uncle.' That's jumping a whole generation."
Bo Yan: "..."
Wen Ning said, "Then Yanyan?"
Bo Yan: "..."
Wen Ning said, "Don't like that one? Then how about Ah-Yan? Yan? Little Yan? Yanyanzi?"
Bo Yan: "...Call me that and you're dead."
Wen Ning said, "Hubby, you're so mean."
Bo Yan's expressionless mask cracked for an instant. Through gritted teeth, he said, "...Shut. Up!"
Seeing that he was genuinely angry, and not only angry but looking down at the knife on the floor, Wen Ning immediately quit while she was ahead. Grinning, she said, "Okay, okay, I'll shut up. You're so badly hurt, you shouldn't be talking anyway. I'll get you some water."
With that, she slipped away to boil water.
Bo Yan was so furious with her that he could barely breathe. Who exactly had been babbling beside him and making him keep talking?!
He would kill this woman sooner or later!
Once he had calmed his anger and turned back, Bo Yan found Xie staring at him, visibly moved, his eyes red.
For some reason, he felt a little uncomfortable. Lowering his eyes, he said flatly, "What, am I dying?"
Doctor Xie flared up. "Pah, pah, pah! What's all this talk about dying?! You'll live to a hundred!"
Silence settled over them.
A few seconds later, Bo Yan laughed, but his eyes were cold pools. "Live to a hundred? Xie, you're cursing me."
Doctor Xie froze. Looking at Bo Yan's eyes, once again veiled in gray mist and devoid of much sign of life, he thought of everything Bo Yan bore, and his heart immediately sank to rock bottom.
Living to a hundred was a wonderful blessing to most people, but to Bo Yan, it was pain, torment, a curse.
Before meeting Bo Yan, Doctor Xie had never seen anyone like him-
The world seemed filled with malice toward him, leaving him no choice but to live like a walking corpse.
He had heard about what happened tonight, too. Bo Xubai had struck first.
By rights, given Bo Yan's fighting skills, he should never have been injured so badly.
Bo Yan had been frequenting underground fighting rings since he was sixteen. Not long after being brought back to the Bo Family, he had temporarily taken over the boxing gym business for his father.
Doctor Xie had gone to watch twice.
Put it this way: thin as this kid was, in a real fight, forget one Bo Xubai-even ten Bo Xubais attacking together might not beat him.
How could a child who had grown up wild in a place where fish and dragons mingled possibly lose to a pampered young master?
Unless he hadn't wanted to fight back.
Why hadn't he wanted to fight back, or even protected his vital areas, letting himself be beaten so badly...?
Doctor Xie didn't dare dwell on it. He merely lowered his voice and said to Bo Yan, "Old Qiu is coming back next week. Shall I make an appointment for you?"
Old Qiu was Doctor Xie's former classmate, a psychologist renowned both at home and abroad.
Bo Yan had gone to see him a few times before.
Hearing Doctor Xie's suggestion now, Bo Yan fell silent for a moment, then said without much inflection, "Busy lately. No time. Some other time."
Doctor Xie opened his mouth, wanting to persuade him, but faced with Bo Yan's world-weary expression, he ultimately just sighed and said no more.
Unless Bo Yan was willing, nothing he said would help.
At that thought, Doctor Xie suddenly turned to glance at Wen Ning, who was returning with the water.
The scene of Wen Ning teasing Bo Yan earlier, and this young lady making him grit his teeth in anger, surfaced in his mind again.
After his surprise, Doctor Xie grew thoughtful.
Honestly, he had never seen Bo Yan's emotions fluctuate so much.
Bo Yan had always looked half-dead, so sick of the world that even if someone tried to kill him right now, he would let them without a care. He might even press down on their hand to drive the knife deeper.
Just like tonight, when Bo Xubai had nearly beaten him to death...
If someone hadn't suddenly appeared to stop it.
The world had never treated Bo Yan kindly, so Bo Yan had almost no attachment to it either.
But just now, for those few brief moments, Doctor Xie had glimpsed a little sign of life in Bo Yan...
Apparently, the person who had saved Bo Yan tonight was this very young lady.
Could this young lady really have changed her nature?
Or had she simply found another way to torment people?
"Still staring? Careful, or I'll crack your skull open."
A chilly voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
The long-healed wound on Doctor Xie's head began throbbing with phantom pain again, and he hurriedly looked away.
Mad. He'd gone mad, too!
He had actually just thought this young lady was gentle and kind!
Truly, stay near vermilion and you turn red; stay near madness and you go mad!
If this young lady had changed her nature, he'd take her surname!
Had Wen Ning known what Doctor Xie was thinking, she probably would have called him "Imperial Physician Wen" on the spot and asked how Shen Meizhuang had been lately while she was at it.
Seeing that Doctor Xie had finished treating Bo Yan's wounds but showed no sign of leaving, she knew the two probably still had things to discuss.
She set the water on the table and said with a smile, "Hubby, I'm going out to make a call. You two chat. Call me if you need anything."
Being called hubby made Bo Yan uncomfortable all over. He wanted to tell her to shut up, but Wen Ning had already gone out.
His pent-up anger was suddenly left hanging, unable to rise or settle.
Yet besides that anger, something else seemed to be clogging his chest.
Bo Yan didn't know what it was. He only felt that tonight's Wen Ning made him very "uncomfortable," to the point that a strong "sense of crisis" had arisen inside him.
He instinctively felt that something was changing, little by little. If he didn't stop it in time, everything might very well slip beyond his control.
He hated this feeling. Hated it intensely!
Then he turned his head and found Xie staring fixedly at him again.
Bo Yan instinctively avoided that probing gaze and said impatiently, "What are you staring at? If you have something to say, say it."
With a mischievous smile tugging at his lips, Doctor Xie put on a quacking voice. "Hubby~ you're so mean~"
Bo Yan's face darkened. "Do you have a death wish, too?"
Well, well! Doctor Xie thought. He hadn't imagined it. This kid was starting to act like a living person again!
Still, he didn't tease Bo Yan any further. He had serious business to discuss.
"I heard you two fought tonight over that Jiang Tingwan?" Doctor Xie asked.
Bo Yan was still irritated. Though he didn't know what he was irritated about... he was just very irritated.
At the question, he gave a perfunctory grunt of assent.
Doctor Xie was surprised. "So it's true. I heard the servants say you arranged to meet her in private last night, too? What's going on? You and Jiang Tingwan aren't really...?"
That didn't make sense. This kid practically wanted to isolate the entire world single-handedly, and he had never seemed to treat Jiang Tingwan as anyone special before.
Bo Yan had been distracted, but at Xie's words, something seemed to occur to him. He suddenly tugged up a corner of his mouth. "What if I said yes?"