Abstinence Pei, don't be too sweet when chasing your wife

Two days later, early in the morning.

The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant, forming a wet mist in the hospital corridor.

Gu Fanxing turned the corner holding the thermos bottle and saw from afar the warm yellow light coming from the half-open door of Ling Jiuer's ward.

She slowed down her pace and heard Du Fei's low voice mixed with the rustling sound of flipping newspapers.

"When did Mr. Du change his career to become a financial anchor?" Gu Fanxing pushed the door open and walked in.

Du Fei jumped up as if he had been electrocuted, and the newspaper scattered into a fan shape. Ling Jiuer hurriedly tried to pick it up, and the end of her hair brushed the back of his hand. Both of them retracted their hands at the same time as if they had been electrocuted.

Ling Jiuer's pale cheeks turned rouge as she stuffed the scattered newspapers into the quilt.

Du Fei's ears were red, and his Adam's apple rolled as he defended himself, "The doctor said that learning more about the outside world would help with recovery."

"Oh?" Gu Fanxing dragged out the last word. "Then why did I hear someone read The Little Prince to Jiuer yesterday, even imitating different voices during the conversation between the rose and the fox?"

Ling Jiuer burst out laughing, and Du Fei's ears almost burned through. He grabbed the thermos and drank it quickly, but forgot that it contained freshly dried bitter gourd tea, and he choked and coughed.

Tea overflowed from the corner of his mouth. He wiped it hurriedly, but accidentally knocked over the photo frame on the table.

Du Fei straightened it in a panic, but his fingers paused for a moment on the edge of the photo - Ling Jiuer's bright smile in the photo formed a sharp contrast with her pale and weak appearance on the hospital bed in front of him, which stung his eyes.

Looking at the heartache and concern in Du Fei's eyes, Gu Fanxing's thoughts slowly flashed back.

That day, when the morning light slanted into the ward, Du Fei half-knelt beside the bed to adjust the bedside lamp.

Ling Jiuer's sleepy eyelashes cast a butterfly-wing-like shadow under her eyes. His fingertips hovered between her furrowed brows, like touching fragile glass.

"Water..." The vague murmur startled him and he turned around immediately. The metal tray collided with the cup with a slight sound. He scooped up some warm water and put it in his mouth to test the temperature. The movement of his Adam's apple was clearly seen by Gu Fanxing through the crack in the door.

When the warm water slid across the corner of Ling Jiuer's lips, Du Fei almost instinctively wiped it away with his thumb. This overly intimate action made both of them freeze instantly.

Ling Jiuer turned her head away. Du Fei's hand stopped in mid-air. He withdrew it awkwardly after a long time and began to tidy up the messy medicine bottles on the bedside table, arranging them neatly according to the time of taking.

Dressing changes are the most difficult time of the day.

When the nurse lifted the blood-stained gauze, Ling Jiuer's whole body tensed up with pain. Du Fei spread out his palm without thinking: "Bite it." A crescent-shaped blood mark appeared on his tiger's mouth, but he smiled and hummed an off-tune song: "When I was a kid, I was naughty and broke my knee, and my mother coaxed me like this." Du Fei watched the nurse's movements intently. His nervous and concerned look made Gu Fanxing, who was watching from the side, both moved and distressed.

One rainy night, the power suddenly went out in the hospital, and Du Fei almost broke open the door and rushed in.

In the darkness, Ling Jiuer's restless sobs tangled his heart like silken threads. He groped closer, unaware of his knees banging against the edge of the bed. "Don't be afraid," his voice was scalding with breath. The moment the phone screen lit up, Ling Jiuer clearly saw her own trembling reflection in his pupils. In that brief moment of light, an indescribable emotion flowed between them.

Afterwards, Du Fei quickly calmed down, fumbled to turn on the emergency light, and began to comfort Ling Jiuer softly, allowing Ling Jiuer's tense body to slowly relax.

Gu Fanxing took in all these detailed images.

This afternoon, she deliberately sent Du Fei away to buy a fever-reducing patch. Holding Ling Jiuer's hot hand, she asked softly, "Jiuer, what do you think of Du Fei..." Before she finished speaking, the girl suddenly buried her face in the pillow, "He brings different kinds of porridge every day, and even picks out all the ginger from the preserved egg and lean meat porridge..." As she spoke, Ling Jiuer's eyes were full of shyness and sweetness.

Gu Fanxing could see that there was a hidden affection between the two of them.

At this time, Du Fei was hiding in the fire escape, staring at the message sent by Pei Luonan on his mobile phone screen in a daze.

"I heard that you took good care of the little girl?" The boss's teasing reminded him of the warmth of Ling Jiuer holding his little finger in her sleep last night.

He looked down at his palm, where there was still a crescent mark left by her pinching him when she changed the dressing.

Recalling every detail of these days, Du Fei's heart was full of contradictions and struggles.

He thought of his days of wandering and always being ready to rush to the next unknown place.

How could such a life give Ling Jiuer peace? He had seen too many relationships shattered by reality, and he knew the weight of promises, so he didn't dare to give them lightly.

Late at night, Du Fei curled up in the accompanying chair and dozed off.

Ling Jiuer's breathing suddenly became rapid. He stood up reflexively, and his old knee injury almost made him stumble.

He squatted beside the bed and moistened her chapped lips with a cotton swab.

Ling Jiuer was murmuring something softly in a half-asleep state. Du Fei leaned closer to listen and only heard his own name. This made his heart tremble suddenly, with both joy and pain.

"Du Fei, why are you..." Ling Jiuer suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils bright as stars in the darkness.

He stepped back in a hurry, but she grabbed the corner of his clothes: "Don't hide from me like you hid from the sparrow that day." Du Fei's throat tightened, and he remembered what Gu Fanxing said, "Feelings should not be shackles." But the more gentle the person in front of him was, the more he didn't know where his next stop in life would be.

He suppressed the surging emotions in his heart and tried to make his voice sound calm: "You should have a good rest and don't think too much."

Ling Jiuer let go of her hand in disappointment, turned around, and curled up with her back to him.

Du Fei looked at her slightly trembling shoulders, but could only stand there stiffly.

The rain outside the window suddenly got heavier, and the sound of it hitting the glass drowned out the unuttered sigh.

Du Fei put the cold towel on her forehead again: "The medicine is almost cold." He looked at Ling Jiuer's disappointed eyes and silently built a high wall in his heart - some feelings were destined to only be in the ward on a rainy night, and dissipate in the morning light with the smell of disinfectant.

Gu Fanxing saw all this from outside the door. She felt sorry for these two people who liked each other but dared not take a step forward. She secretly decided to find an opportunity to have a good talk with Du Fei and untie his knot.

The next morning, Gu Fanxing deliberately sent Ling Jiuer away and pulled Du Fei to sit on a bench in the hospital garden.

"Du Fei, I know what you're worried about." Gu Fanxing looked him straight in the eye. "But have you ever thought about what Ling Jiuer really wants? Perhaps all she wants is someone who is willing to stay by her side, rather than the so-called material stability."

Du Fei looked at the splashing water from the fountain in the distance and said, "Fanxing, I can't even give her a stable place to live, so how can we talk about the future?"

"But you are already giving her the most precious thing." Gu Fanxing pointed in the direction of the ward. Ling Jiuer was lying by the window looking over here. When she saw them looking over, she hurriedly hid.

"It was you who stayed with her through every painful night, and it was you who remembered that she was picky even about the ginger in her porridge. These are more real than any promise."

A gust of wind blew by, lifting the corner of Du Fei's clothes and revealing the notebook inside, which was densely filled with notes on Ling Jiuer's medication schedules and foods she should avoid.

He quickly closed the notebook: "Ling Jiuer is recovering very quickly. The doctor said she will be discharged in a few days. I am relieved to have you take care of her. I have to go on a business trip in two days and will not have time to visit her."

Gu Fanxing looked at Du Fei and suddenly realized that some knots in people's hearts could not be untied by persuasion.

Ling Jiuer's figure appeared at the window again in the distance. This time she raised her hand, but Du Fei turned his back and walked in the opposite direction, his steps heavier than usual.

He didn't dare look back, for fear that one more look would waver in his determination.

His back gradually lengthened in the morning sun, and finally merged with the mottled walls of the hospital, leaving Ling Jiuer looking at the empty room, tears silently falling.