Quick Wear: Cousin, Come to the Bowl Quickly

"Please sit for a while. I'll be right back."

In a somewhat shabby hotel room, Shen Jingyuan gently put Lin Xi down from his back, helped her to sit down at the table, and gently instructed her.

"Okay." Lin Xi nodded, pursed her lips, and looked up at him. "Come back soon. I... I have something I want to tell you."

"Okay." Shen Jingyuan reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then turned and left.

After Shen Jingyuan closed the door and left, Lin Xi carefully rolled up her trouser legs, took off her dusty little leather shoes, and then grimaced as she took off her socks.

After the socks, which were stuck to her skin, were slowly pulled off, Lin Xi was already sweating profusely from the pain. When she saw the state of her feet, she couldn't help but gasp in shock.

The feet that were once fair and delicate, which her mother jokingly said should be "worshipped," are now unrecognizable.

Not only was the entire instep red, swollen, and shiny, but the soles and sides of the toes were also covered with several blisters of varying sizes, which were crystal clear.

What bothered her most was her heels. A whole patch of skin had been rubbed off, exposing the tender flesh underneath, which was oozing fine beads of blood. Her feet were swollen and painful, as if they didn't belong to her.

Lin Xi couldn't help but hiss, and tentatively reached out to gently touch the largest blister on the instep with her fingertips.

As a result, her fingertip barely touched the edge of the blister before the pain made her shudder. She quickly withdrew her hand, hugged her knee, and grimaced for a long time before she finally recovered.

She frowned, hastily stuffed her feet back into her shoes, shuffled to the bedside, and pulled out the small first-aid kit from the bottom of her luggage.

She carried the medicine box back to the table and sat down. She took off her shoes, lifted her less injured right foot onto the stool, and looked at the blisters all over her foot.

Although she had treated Shen Jingyuan's knife wound before, it was a different story when it came to her own.

Should I pop the blisters? Should I clean the wound? What medication should I use? Should I bandage my entire foot?

In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Lin Xi's mind. After hesitating for a while, she finally made up her mind: Since it's an injury, the treatment methods are probably all pretty much the same, right? It's nothing more than disinfection, applying medicine, and bandaging.

As she recalled the steps for changing Shen Jingyuan's dressing, she took out disinfectant and a small tuft of cotton from the medicine box, soaked it in the disinfectant, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and pressed it onto a broken skin wound on the side of his big toe.

"Ow—!"

The moment the cotton ball touched the wound, a sharp, burning pain shot up and shot straight to the top of the head.

Lin Xi shuddered, her hand trembling as she threw the cotton ball away. She gasped in pain, tears welling up in her eyes. She bent down and blew on her injured toe for a long time before the burning pain subsided slightly.

"It hurts so much, it hurts so much..." She hugged her knees, her eyes red-rimmed, and muttered softly as she looked at her pitiful feet, "Clearly... clearly Shen Jingyuan didn't even see him when he was applying medicine to his deep waist wound..."

She suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

Yes, if I feel this much pain from such a small wound, how much pain must it have been for Shen Jingyuan when he had that knife wound on his side that was so deep that you could almost see the bone? How come he could remain silent and not even flinch?

Moreover, we both walked for a day, how come my feet are in such a state, while he is fine and can carry me all the way back without even losing his breath?

Thinking about his steady steps and broad, warm back, and then looking at her own "useless" feet, Lin Xi couldn't help but purse her lips, feeling both admiration and a strange sense of imbalance.

As she thought about this haphazardly, she stared at the back of her foot with lingering fear, too afraid to try again. She just hugged her knees and stared blankly into space.

"Squeak-"

She didn't know how much time had passed when the sound of the door being suddenly pushed open interrupted her thoughts.

Lin Xi subconsciously looked up and met the gaze of Shen Jingyuan, who was carrying a basin of hot water. He had obviously just returned with the water, and the hair on his forehead was still damp from the hot water.

Seeing Lin Xi huddled on the stool, hugging one leg, with slightly red eyes and a red nose, Shen Jingyuan paused, his brows furrowing almost immediately.

As he took a few steps closer, his gaze fell on her foot, which was resting on the stool, completely exposed and covered in wounds. His brows furrowed into a deep frown, and his eyes instantly darkened.

Lin Xi followed his gaze and looked down, only then realizing what she looked like—her clothes were disheveled, her trousers were rolled up, and one bare foot, covered in blisters and abrasions, was brazenly exposed to the air.

Her face flushed bright red instantly. She jumped off the stool, frantically pulling down her trouser leg while hopping on one foot to reach for her shoe lying on the floor. Her voice stammered, "You, why didn't you knock before coming in?!"

Shen Jingyuan didn't speak, but walked forward a few steps, placed the basin of hot water on the table, and at the same time reached out and pressed down on her flustered shoulder, saying in a deep voice, "Don't move."

Lin Xi was held down by him, her shoulders trembled, and her bare toe curled up awkwardly as she tried to push her foot back into the shoe. "I, I didn't move..."

Noticing her subtle movements, Shen Jingyuan sighed almost inaudibly. Instead of letting go of her, he pressed her back onto the stool, then knelt down on one knee in front of her and gently pinched her ankle.

"Hmm..." Lin Xi couldn't help but let out a soft moan as her warm palm touched her slightly cool skin, and instinctively wanted to lift her foot and pull back.

"Don't move around, it'll be more troublesome if the wound gets dirty." Shen Jingyuan tightened his grip, making it impossible for her to break free. Then he raised his head and looked up at her. "Xixi, I'll help you."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xi's eyelids twitched.

Although the two had confessed their feelings for each other these days, Shen Jingyuan's personality had always been introverted and restrained. Apart from his "outrageous" behavior at the dance that night, the two rarely hugged, let alone took any further steps of intimacy, except for the occasional hand-holding.

She was already embarrassed and ashamed when he accidentally saw her foot injury, so how could she possibly let him treat her wound?

Lin Xi's mind was filled with the image of Shen Jingyuan holding her feet, his calloused fingertips gently stroking the instep... She felt as if her ankle, which he was holding, was on fire, burning all the way down her calf to the base of her neck.

She hurriedly pulled her feet back, shaking her head vigorously, her voice stammering with nervousness and shyness, "No! No need! Really, I can handle it myself..."

Looking at her flushed cheeks and evasive eyes, Shen Jingyuan immediately understood what was bothering her.

He didn't immediately refute her, but remained kneeling in front of her, one hand gently holding her ankle to prevent her from moving and scratching her wound, while the other hand firmly pressed down on her knee. He looked up at her with a calm and focused gaze.

“You can’t handle it yourself.” He stated the facts, his gaze falling on the cotton ball that Lin Xi had just thrown to the ground. “You can’t bring yourself to pop large blisters, and disinfectant is too irritating; if you don’t use it properly, it can easily cause infection.”

He paused, softening his tone and adding a subtle, almost imperceptible coaxing, "Be good, it'll be over soon."

As he spoke, he no longer gave her a chance to struggle or refuse. He got up, scooped up a wrung-out, warm towel from the basin, and gently placed it on her calves and ankles, softly wiping away the dust that had settled on them.

The warm, moist sensation traveled through her skin, causing Lin Xi to stiffen. She instinctively brought her knees together, and her fingers on her legs tightened unconsciously, creating fine wrinkles in her trousers.

She held her breath, forcing herself to look away from the hand that was pinching her ankle and instead focus her gaze on Shen Jingyuan's face.

From her perspective, all she could see was his high, straight nose and the faint shadow cast by his thick, drooping eyelashes under his eyes.

His lips were taut, his expression serious, and his movements focused, as if he were holding not his beloved's disheveled feet, but some serious document. That overly serious attitude strangely diluted the slight awkwardness of the romantic atmosphere.

“You…” Lin Xi suddenly relaxed, opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say.

Shen Jingyuan wiped the dust off the rest of her feet, then picked up another clean, soft cloth that was soaking in warm salt water. He looked up at her and said in a low voice, "It will hurt a little, just bear with it."

Before Lin Xi could react, he had already gently used the edge of a soft cloth to clean the stains around the blisters and the broken skin bit by bit.

His movements were quick and steady, his fingertips barely touching, relying entirely on the softness of the cloth to complete the cleaning, minimizing the stimulation and discomfort that direct contact would cause to Lin Xi.

Even so, the slight stinging sensation of the salt water on her broken skin made Lin Xi flinch and gasp.

"Almost done." Shen Jingyuan immediately stopped what he was doing, looked up at her, and said in a tone of tenderness that even he himself did not realize, "Tell me if it hurts too much."

"No need, it's fine..."

Lin Xi bit her lip, met his gaze, and finally shook her head, signaling him to continue.

She could feel that he had done his best to be as gentle as possible. Compared to her reckless thrust just now, the pain now was negligible, but she couldn't control her body's reaction.

Hearing her answer, Shen Jingyuan's expression softened even more, and he lowered his head to continue treating her blisters and wounds.

Perhaps due to the technique, or perhaps due to psychological reasons, the pain was much less than Lin Xi had expected.

Seeing Shen Jingyuan with his head down, his brows slightly furrowed, all his attention focused on her wound, Lin Xi's tense body gradually relaxed. The awkwardness and shyness in her heart unknowingly turned into a warm and bittersweet feeling.

Shen Jingyuan's cautious movements at this moment, along with everything he had silently done for her in the past few days, and his countless acts of patience and tolerance before, suddenly converged into a raging torrent, breaking down the last invisible wall in Lin Xi's heart.

Words that had been bottled up for years, stuck in my chest, churning and burning, finally came out.

“Shen Jingyuan,” Lin Xi heard her own voice, both sour and hoarse, yet exceptionally clear, “Over the years… actually, I have never truly hated you.”