Shаng Zhi Тао fеlt trapреd, unаblе tо move forwаrd оr retreаt. Luan Nian blосkеd аll hеr еscaрe routes, leaving her fееling somеwhat hеlрlеss. Аfter lеаving thе hоsрital, shе curled up оn thе sofа in Luan Nian’s living roоm, with a cuр of boilеd wаtеr hе hаd рrеparеd fоr her nеаrbу. Luan Niаn insisted shе drink, аnd everу timе he glаnced her wаy, she toоk а siр.
She listеned as Luan Niаn sроke tо his mоthеr оn thе рhonе: “Мild pnеumoniа causеd by mусоplаsmа infесtion, acсompanied by сoughing and high fevеr. What should shе eаt?”
Тhe рerson on the other end talked for a long time, and then Luan Nian replied:
“It’s not me. I’m asking for a friend.”
“I understand. Goodbye.”
After hanging up, Luan Nian went to grab his coat and said to Shang Zhi Tao, “Ask alex for sick leave. Take five days off.”
“But I still have work.”
“If you burn up and die, you won’t have to worry about work anymore.”
“Then I’ll go home to rest.”
Hearing this, Luan Nian paused and looked at Shang Zhi Tao. He asked her directly, “What’s bothering you?”
Shang Zhi Tao pressed her lips together and stayed silent. Luan Nian glanced at her and said, “Think about what you want to say. We’ll talk when I get back.”
Shang Zhi Tao really did start organizing her thoughts. Despite her fever and muddled mind, she managed to outline the key points: First, what happened between us was an accident; second, this kind of relationship is morally questionable; third, we’ve already ended things, and I was the one who initiated it. Therefore, we shouldn’t do anything that seems ambiguous.
As she thought, she drifted off to sleep.
People with fevers tend to sleep a lot, and Luan Nian’s sofa was comfortable, the thin blanket covering her was warm, and the place was quiet, free from the noise of construction drills. Everything was just right, perfect for sleep.
When Luan Nian returned with groceries, he found her sound asleep on the sofa, her face flushed red from the fever, a fine sweat on her forehead, and her nose making soft wheezing sounds as the virus battled inside her body.
He took off his coat and headed to the kitchen.
He had just gone out to buy a lot of things, all from the recovery list his mother, Dr. Liang, had sent him. Dr. Liang had even wished his friend a speedy recovery and emphasized the importance of proper care, warning that if pneumonia isn’t nursed well, it could recur and cause suffering later.
If Dr. Liang knew his friend was currently sleeping in his home, what would she think?
Luan Nian cooked a meal for Shang Zhi Tao, with his phone’s notes open beside him, detailing what she could eat and what to avoid, as instructed by Dr. Liang. He didn’t dwell on why he felt a bit anxious and worried about Shang Zhi Tao’s illness, simply thinking she seemed pitiful, alone in Beijing.
Sympathy at work, he concluded.
When did you start having sympathy? he asked himself while cooking.
The meal was ready, but Shang Zhi Tao was still asleep. Luan Nian sat on the sofa flipping through magazines while a pot of rock sugar and pear soup simmered gently on the stove. Luan Nian had countless magazines at home, which he browsed in his spare time to keep up with trends. Occasionally, he reached over to check her forehead—her temperature had improved slightly.
Shang Zhi Tao woke up in the dim light and saw Luan Nian had turned on a small lamp. Under its glow, his facial features still didn’t look soft; he remained aloof and distant. She felt a pang of sadness. No one had ever told her what to do when falling in love with someone like him. She watched him quietly, waiting for the right moment to speak and deliver the speech she had prepared.
Hearing her stir, Luan Nian turned to look at her. “Awake?”
“Mm.”
“Let’s eat.”
Shang Zhi Tao was a bit surprised and swallowed the words she had been about to say. Coughing a few times, she followed Luan Nian to the dining table."Thank you for your trouble."
"You should change the way you address me."
"What?"
"Aren't you tired of using 'you' so formally?"
"Oh."
Luan Nian prepared a few vegetable dishes and a slow-cooked beef stew. Shang Zhi Tao felt a bit overwhelmed by such preferential treatment, completely forgetting the speech she had rehearsed before bed. She ate quietly, occasionally glancing at Luan Nian, only to find him as cold and distant as ever, as if the person who had laughed so happily in Hokkaido wasn't him. After the meal, she felt it was time to leave, but Luan Nian brought over a small bowl of pear soup with rock sugar.
Shang Zhi Tao's heart suddenly ached sharply.
Being treated so well by a casual partner suddenly made her imagine how he must have treated Zang Yao—it must have been a level of kindness she couldn't even fathom.
She silently drank the pear soup, then stood up to put on her coat and said, "Thank you for taking care of me. I'm feeling much better and won't disturb you any longer."
Luan Nian frowned but didn't say much. "I'll drive you."
"That would be a bother."
Shang Zhi Tao didn't want to say anything more. She felt that being firm herself was more effective than any words. She got into Luan Nian's car, and as they neared her place, she rummaged through her bag for her keys, only to realize they were missing. How could she have lost them? She had clearly placed them in a safe spot in her bag. So she called Sun Yu, who, hearing her hoarse voice, asked if she was feeling worse. Shang Zhi Tao said she was much better. "I can't find my keys. What time will you be back?"
"I'm on my way to Tangshan right now. There's a matchmaking event tomorrow, and I have to keep an eye on it."
"That's fine. I'll ask Zhang Lei."
After hanging up, she remembered that Sun Yuanzhu had gone to the northwest and Zhang Lei was in Chengdu. Shang Zhi Tao clutched her phone, unsure of what to do.
Luan Nian's car turned around and headed back toward his home.
"Could you drop me off at the intersection? There are hotels nearby." Not going back to Luan Nian's place was her last bit of stubbornness.
"To die in a hotel?" Luan Nian's words were especially cutting when he was angry, though he rarely got angry. The few times he had been angry in the past six months were all because of Shang Zhi Tao.
Stung by his words, Shang Zhi Tao grew genuinely angry. She stared out the car window without speaking, her breathing heavy from the cold and her anger, her chest rising and falling.
Luan Nian knew exactly how to handle people. He recited a phone number and said, "This is it, right? If you go stay at a hotel, I'll call your family and explain your situation. I'll also make it clear that if anything happens to you or if there are any complications, it won't be the company's responsibility."
Shang Zhi Tao's defiance instantly vanished. Luan Nian had struck her weak spot with precision. She didn't want her parents to know she was sick, afraid they would worry. After all, she had always told them over the phone, "I'm doing great. My colleagues like me, my boss values me, my income is enough for me to live comfortably, and if things keep going this way, I'll be able to buy a house in Beijing before I'm thirty."
If Luan Nian called her parents, he would definitely say she was barely meeting expectations, repeatedly teetering on the edge of being fired or laid off, her income was only average or even below average at the company, and there was no way she could buy a house before thirty. He might even add, "Your daughter seems to have a questionable private life."
With his sharp tongue, he would definitely say something like that.
"I just didn't want to trouble you."Luan Nian glanced at her indifferently and said calmly, "Don't worry, our relationship is over, but we did sleep together a few times. I’m just providing after-sales service. Once you’re better, we’ll be completely done." Then he mimicked Shang Zhi Tao’s tone: "I’ll never tell anyone about us."
... Shang Zhi Tao couldn’t argue with him, so she nodded. "Then thank you."
"You’re welcome. It’s the least I could do."
After all that commotion, they ended up back at Luan Nian’s place. The security guard at the residential complex watched their car drive out and then back in, couldn’t help but greet them: "Mr. Luan, back so soon?"
Then he smiled at Shang Zhi Tao. The guard always felt Shang Zhi Tao didn’t look like someone in an unsavory profession, and Luan Nian didn’t seem like the type to hire such services, but she also didn’t seem like his girlfriend. Their relationship was truly strange.
And it wasn’t just the guard who was curious.
Shang Zhi Tao was curious too.
What kind of person was Luan Nian? Someone so tough, yet he made her a meal for when she was sick; surrounded by so many women, yet he dared to bring her home; while others kept their distance from pneumonia patients, he took care of her.
"Could you lend me a T-shirt? I don’t have pajamas, and I need to take out my contact lenses..."
Luan Nian walked into the guest room, opened the wardrobe, where two sets of loungewear were hanging, then went to the bathroom, pulled open a drawer, and there were contact lens cases, contact lens solution, and even women’s skincare products.
Shang Zhi Tao didn’t understand why these things were here, why his home had them. But Luan Nian just shrugged. "Share them with the other women." He said it half-jokingly, even pulling out sticky notes in different colors. "Label them, so others won’t wear or use the wrong ones."
Even Shang Zhi Tao, as clueless as she was, could tell Luan Nian was teasing her. These were clearly prepared for her, because she had once asked: "Pajamas, towels, contact lens solution..."
What had Luan Nian said back then? "Can’t you bring your own?"
So this was the kind of person he was. Someone who seemed indifferent to everything but actually listened to what you said.
So he had silently allowed her to leave things at his place—was it because she was his only bed partner in this city?
Lost in her thoughts, Shang Zhi Tao went to take a shower and put on the pajamas Luan Nian had prepared for her. The pajamas were comfortable, but she wasn’t wearing a bra, which made her feel a bit uneasy. Luan Nian knocked on the door to bring her medicine, and she burrowed under the covers, only her head peeking out, watching him place the medicine on the bedside table, refusing to come out.
Luan Nian was both amused and annoyed. "Haven’t I seen it before?"
"?"
"What are you afraid of?"
..."It’s not appropriate for a man and a woman alone together," Shang Zhi Tao said seriously.
"Hmm." Luan Nian turned to leave but paused at the door to say, "Didn’t think it was inappropriate when we were intimate?"
He closed the door and left.
Under Luan Nian’s coercion and persuasion, Shang Zhi Tao stayed at his place for a full week, until she went for a follow-up checkup. Only when the doctor said the inflammation had subsided did he agree to let her go. Shang Zhi Tao followed Luan Nian out of the hospital, returned to his place to pack her things—just those two pieces of clothing, stuffed into a backpack. Before leaving, she went to the bathroom and saw the contact lens solution conspicuously placed there. Her heart suddenly ached. To this day, she couldn’t understand why Luan Nian had prepared these things for her, or the Christmas gift left on the sofa. All of it made her feel as if Luan Nian might actually like her a little.
Suddenly, a wave of grievance washed over her again.She stood there for a while before pushing the door open and stepping out, seeing Luan Nian waiting for her at the entrance. She walked straight up to him, looked him in the eyes, and asked seriously, "Why do you speak so viciously?"
"Is it to everyone or just to me?"
Luan Nian didn’t understand why she was asking these questions, his brows slightly furrowing.
Whoever takes things seriously again from now on is a damn grandson! Shang Zhi Tao thought to herself, then reached out, grabbed Luan Nian’s collar, pulled him forcefully toward her, and bit his lips.
Neither of them mentioned Shang Zhi Tao’s earlier talk of ending their relationship. She had just recovered, and Luan Nian was gentler and more patient than before. Shang Zhi Tao was frantic with urgency, but he held her hands above her head, refusing to give in to her desires and satisfy her.
Luan Nian held a grudge. Now that she was desperate, why had she been so carefree when she talked about ending things? He wouldn’t give her what she wanted—plainly, he was punishing her. Only when he had teased her to the brink, her eyes reddening, did he press his lips to hers and ask, "Not ending it anymore?"
Shang Zhi Tao felt like she was losing her mind, shaking her head slightly, her lips brushing against his as she offered him her tongue.
They couldn’t deceive themselves, nor could they deceive each other. No matter how vicious their words, their bodies were the most honest. Their bodies loved each other the most—more than anyone they had ever been with before. Eventually, they both lost a bit of control. Luan Nian bit her earlobe and asked fiercely, "Still going to cause trouble?"
Shang Zhi Tao shook her head, her eyes misting over. Luan Nian suddenly felt a pang of pity and softened, pulling her tightly into his arms.
Luan Nian finally admitted that the drink he had after Shang Zhi Tao talked about ending things was bitter, and deep down, he felt a little regretful.
He really did love her body.
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