reignition

Lu Bozhou opened his mouth, but for a moment, he seemed unsure of what to say. Between them, there were too many regrets, too many sighs, too many misunderstandings.

They all knew it, but those regrets and sighs seemed hard to overcome.

Before, one of them pretended not to know, and the other tried hard to keep it a secret. It seemed like they could still get along and communicate.

But now, it seems they can't even communicate. Silence simply lingers between them.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Mian sighed softly and stood up.

Lu Bozhou assumed she was leaving because she was embarrassed, so he immediately sat up straight.

The simple movement caused excruciating pain, as if his internal organs were being torn apart. Although Lu Bozhou remained silent, his face and lips turned deathly pale.

Jiang Mian noticed the change in his expression.

I reached out and gently pressed down on his shoulder, carefully supporting the only patch of skin on his shoulder that wasn't covered by a bandage.

Then she gently covered him back with the blanket that he had previously lifted.

"Don't move around, wait for me a moment, I'll go get Song Xu to give you the medicine," Jiang Mian said in a low voice.

After tucking him in, Jiang Mian turned around and prepared to go out to call someone.

Before she could even take a step, her wrist was grasped by cool, slender fingers.

The slightly cool temperature, though not scorching, seemed to have a penetrating power.

Jiang Mian stood frozen in place, and the skin on her wrist inexplicably felt as if it had been burned.

"Don't go. I'm fine, I don't need the medicine," Lu Bozhou said weakly.

The person, who was usually assertive, spoke these words with a strange air of stubbornness.

Jiang Mian stood by the bed, her wrist held by him, and she stood there for a moment.

He asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." The man nodded.

"Is it okay if I don't take the medicine?"

"Okay." The man nodded again.

Jiang Mian raised her hand and gently poked his chest and ribs.

Lu Bozhou's eyes widened suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply, his face turned as white as paper, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

Even though he didn't utter a sound even at this point, it wasn't hard to tell from the sudden change in his expression how much pain he was in.

They're just stubbornly holding on.

He's really good at enduring things; even though she launched a surprise attack, he managed to keep quiet and not utter a sound.

But he no longer had the strength to hold Jiang Mian's hand, and Jiang Mian easily broke free from him and walked towards the door.

The two brothers who had said they were going out for a walk didn't actually go out; they barely managed to go out.

He was standing right outside in the hallway.

As soon as Jiang Mian opened the door and stepped out, she saw Song Xun and Song Xu standing there as if they were being punished, each fiddling with their phones with their eyes down.

Hearing the door open, the two men looked at her. "What's wrong?"

"Let's give him some painkillers," Jiang Mian said.

Song Xu raised an eyebrow. "Your words were effective. I told you he was just stubbornly refusing to listen. How did you persuade him?"

Jiang Mian pursed her lips. "I pressed on his wound."

Song Xu's smile froze, and the next second he quickly pushed open the door and went into the ward.

After taking the painkiller, Lu Bozhou's condition quickly improved, and his tense expression and muscles visibly relaxed.

Then waves of fatigue washed over him. Lu Bozhou's eyelids were half-open, as if he was about to succumb to a deep sleep.

This annoyed him, and his low, husky voice carried a hint of reproach, "...Song Xu, what did you give me? Sleeping pills? How could I be so sleepy..."

Song Xu glanced at the speed of his IV drip and said, "You're so sleepy because you've been holding on and enduring the pain without closing your eyes. Now that the pain has subsided, it's no wonder you're so sleepy. Go get some sleep."

Song Xufan, annoyed by his lack of respect for illness, had a sharp tongue: "Don't let the injury kill you, or you'll die from exhaustion yourself."

Lu Bozhou remained silent, seemingly about to fall asleep.

Just when they all thought Lu Bozhou had fallen asleep, the man on the bed didn't even open his eyes, but accurately grasped Jiang Mian's hand.

Jiang Mian was startled, looked down at her hands, and then looked up at the man with his eyes closed on the hospital bed.

Lu Bozhou's voice was slurred with sleepiness, "Just stay here for a while, just for a little while..."

Jiang Mian looked at the hand holding hers, which still had an IV needle inserted, her gaze flickering, as if she were thinking something.

Her voice was very low and soft, "She didn't say she was leaving."

But the person in the hospital bed was exhausted and asleep, unable to respond to her words.

However, he never let go of the hand that was holding hers.

Jiang Mian held her phone in her other hand and sent a message to Jiang Yu.

Jiang Yu was extremely anxious, as messages kept pouring in like a bombardment.

Jiang Mian found it too troublesome to type out a long text reply, so she simply took a picture of Lu Bozhou instead.

I didn't take a picture of his face, but only of the layers of bandages wrapped around his upper body, and sent it to him.

Then I simply sent a message: [I've seen him, he's not in any danger.]

After the message was sent, Jiang Yu's message came back after a while, as if the person who had been bombarding him with messages was not him at all.

A moment later, the phone vibrated in Jiang Mian's hand. She opened it and saw a message from Jiang Yu.

Even through the screen, Jiang Yu's emotions were palpable in his words: "Although... why is he holding your hand?"

Jiang Mian was taken aback. She clicked back on the photo she had just taken for Jiang Yu and then saw that the main subject of the photo was Lu Bozhou's body wrapped in bandages.

But at the bottom edge of the photo, you can vaguely see Lu Bozhou's hand, tightly holding someone else's hand.

Jiang Mian: "..."

They have pretty sharp eyes.

Jiang Mian didn't reply, but a short while later, Jiang Yu sent another message.

Was he using a self-inflicted injury as a ruse? Are you feeling soft-hearted? I knew you would.

Jiang Mian tapped the screen with one finger in reply: "Even if I weren't soft-hearted, I couldn't possibly beat up a wounded soldier, could I?"

Jiang Yu didn't dwell on the matter further, but instead asked, "How badly is he injured?"

Jiang Mian sent Lu Bozhou's injury information to her. She had already reviewed Lu Bozhou's medical records and had a basic understanding of his condition.

Whether it was what Song Xun told her or what Song Xu said later, it wasn't as comprehensive as the medical record.

When Jiang Mian saw the medical records, she seemed to have a more direct understanding of the kind of crisis this man had survived.

When Jiang Mian thought back to her previous panic and tears, she realized that her panic and tears were not without reason.

He was really lucky to survive.

One of his eardrums was also shattered. Jiang Mian had just noticed that if she stood on the other side of the hospital bed and spoke to him, he couldn't even hear her clearly.

Upon realizing this, Jiang Mian's heart involuntarily clenched with pain.

The emotions were stronger than before.