Quick Wear: Cousin, Come to the Bowl Quickly

As the lights come on, the nightlife of Jinling City is gradually waking up. The long calls of vendors and the intermittent chatting and laughing of pedestrians, accompanied by the crisp sound of rickshaw bells, seep dimly through the window paper.

One or two moths came in from nowhere and flew tirelessly towards the quietly burning incandescent lamp, making a rustling sound.

The warm yellow light flows quietly in the room, casting the figures of the two people in the room softly on the wall.

Amid the sound of deep and shallow breathing, Shen Jingyuan was holding a pair of tweezers in his hand, with his brows lowered, concentrating on treating the splinter that had stuck in Lin Xi's fingertip.

"hiss……"

As soon as the cold metal tip touched the wound that had turned white from blisters, Lin Xi couldn't help but gasp and subconsciously pulled her wrist back.

But Shen Jingyuan, who noticed her movements, reached out first and held her wrist, "Don't move."

His palm was warm, but his fingertips had a hint of nighttime coolness. The touch clearly pressed against Lin Xi's beating pulse, causing her whole body to stiffen with some discomfort.

"It hurts..." Lin Xi pursed her lips awkwardly and spoke with a frown.

Hearing this, Shen Jingyuan raised his head, frowning slightly. His gaze lingered on her face for a moment, then quickly moved away. His voice softened unconsciously. "If you don't pick out all the splinters, you'll feel worse tomorrow."

Lin Xi's face suddenly wrinkled as if she had eaten two taels of Coptis chinensis. When Shen Jingyuan rescued her from the window frame, the owner of the teahouse had reminded her of the injury on her hand.

But she was covered in dust and dirt at that time, and had made such a fool of herself in front of everyone that she wished she could find a hole to crawl into immediately. When she returned to the hotel, she jumped into the bathtub without caring about anything.

Just now she was so embarrassed and angry that she didn't realize it. It was not until she calmed down that she could truly see the horrible state of her hands.

The ten fingers that were originally slender, white, and well-maintained were now completely changed. Several fingertips were broken and tiny blood beads were oozing out. The nails that were usually carefully trimmed were also cracked, and even the tender flesh underneath could be vaguely seen.

She has always been the most delicate and afraid of pain. In the past, if she just got a little bruise, she would have her mother hug her and coax her for a long time.

This was the first time she was injured like this, and her mother was not around. So even though she knew Shen Jingyuan was telling the truth, she couldn't help but bite her lip and speak in a trembling voice when she saw the tweezers with a cold glow touching her fingertips again.

"You, be gentle."

"Ah."

Shen Jingyuan paused, without looking up, and responded in a deep voice. Then he slowly loosened the hand that was holding Lin Xi's wrist, and instead pinched her knuckles more lightly. While applying a little force, the tip of the tweezers accurately penetrated and clamped the tiny wooden thorn, and then he lifted it up with a neat flick of his wrist.

"Ouch!" The moment the wooden thorn was pulled out, Lin Xi couldn't help but let out a short cry of pain. Uncontrollable physiological tears instantly welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision.

Shen Jingyuan heard her groan and his movements faltered slightly. The moment he looked up, he saw her eyes full of tears and her nose was red.

His eyes flickered imperceptibly, his Adam's apple moved slightly, and finally he just whispered, "Bear with it."

After saying that, he did not pause, and his hands moved quickly and steadily, picking out the remaining few tiny splinters one by one. Then he dipped them in iodine to disinfect them, applied ointment, and finally carefully wrapped and bandaged the serious wounds with gauze.

Only after cutting the last piece of tape and fixing the gauze did Shen Jingyuan, who was unconsciously tense all over, breathe a sigh of relief without noticing that a thin layer of sweat had already appeared on his forehead.

He raised his head and looked at Lin Xi, only to see her thanking him with a pale face and a pair of eyes red from crying under her furrowed brows.

Crystal clear tears rolled silently down her cheeks, flowed over her lower lip which had been bitten white by herself, gathered at the tip of her chin, and were about to drip down.

Perhaps he was afraid that the tears would wet the gauze he had just wrapped, or perhaps it was some other indescribable impulse, but for some unknown reason, Shen Jingyuan subconsciously reached out his hand towards Lin Xi.

If it were any other day, Lin Xi, who disliked him, would have dodged away the moment he raised his hand. But at this moment, perhaps she was really numb from the pain, or perhaps she was still wallowing in her grievance. Seeing Shen Jingyuan reaching out his hand, she just pursed her lips and sobbed, without any reaction for a while.

Until Shen Jingyuan's warm fingertips, with a slightly rough touch, touched Lin Xi's chin, which was slightly cold from being soaked by tears, and caught the tear that was about to fall.

The two of them suddenly woke up as if from a dream, and their bodies stiffened at the same time.

"What are you doing?" Lin Xi's voice was still hoarse from crying. She blinked her moist eyes blankly, with tiny tears hanging on her long eyelashes.

Her mouth was slightly open, as if she had not yet recovered from the continuous pain and the sudden touch.

Shen Jingyuan's reaction was much more intense.

He withdrew his hand suddenly as if he was scalded, his knuckles curled unconsciously, then turned his head abruptly, grabbed the medicine bottle and gauze on the table, and began to put them away silently.

"It's not good for tears to drip on the wound." After a long time, Shen Jingyuan's voice was heard in the house.

His tone was calm, sounding no different from usual, as if his abrupt action just now was based on purely rational considerations.

But if Lin Xi was more careful, she would have noticed that his voice was so dry that it seemed to be squeezed out from his throat, and his movements in packing things were not as neat as before. He even put the bottle caps of medicines in the wrong place several times.

"Oh."

Hearing this, Lin Xi lowered her head in confusion and took a look at her hands which were bandaged very neatly without a single piece of excess thread.

Then, as if she was suddenly awakened, she hurriedly and carefully moved her hands forward, making them farther away from her cheeks, as if she was really afraid that her tears would fall and wet the wound that she had bandaged with great pains.

The room fell silent for a moment, with only the faint noise coming from the street outside the window.

Lin Xi sat quietly for a long time. Her face, which had turned pale from the pain, gradually turned back to normal, and a little color appeared on her lips.

She carefully raised her two tightly wrapped hands, put them in front of her eyes, looked left and right, and then wrinkled her small nose in disgust as if she saw something extremely unsatisfactory.

"So ugly..." She muttered, her tone full of disgust, then turned to look at Shen Jingyuan, "Do I have to be wrapped in such an ugly cloth forever? How long will it take before I can take it off?"

Shen Jingyuan, who was absentmindedly screwing the last bottle cap, raised his head when he heard the words, but his eyes did not meet Lin Xi directly. Instead, he passed her and fell on the dim light bulb on the wall behind her.

There, two moths were tirelessly hitting the glass lampshade, making a slight crackling sound.