Chapter 28 “Can I Have a Kiss?”

Originally she had only wanted him to drop the idea. But the way he said it made her worry seem completely unnecessary.

Luo Yi had been taught by him before. She naturally knew Ye Xiaoyang’s grasp of textbook knowledge was very solid. Not only did he understand it himself, he could also explain it clearly to others. That was impressive.

Ye Xiaoyang: “What do you think?”

Luo Yi: “I…”

“You don’t have to answer me right away.” Ye Xiaoyang was perhaps afraid. He was afraid the answer that came out of her mouth wouldn’t be what he wanted, so he spoke up to stop her.

Such an important question couldn’t be decided carelessly.

If Luo Yi were the rational person economics spoke of, she would definitely agree to his request.

He simply couldn’t think of any point where he was bad. Being with him had a hundred benefits and not a single harm.

Ai. He was both playing pitiful and offering benefits. Too hateful.

Luo Yi thought.

The nurse came in to change Luo Yi’s infusion bag. She stared at the pitch-black ceiling with dazed wide eyes.

She lay uneasily on the bed. Her fever-muddled brain grew more and more confused.

Forget it. Sleep.

Maybe when she woke up she would discover all of this was a dream.

Then she wouldn’t need to face a question this tangled.

Luo Yi slept until nine in the morning.

Since starting high school, she had rarely slept this late.

Outside it was fully bright. The clean, bright ward was so quiet it didn’t seem real.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and propped herself up from the hospital bed in a daze.

“Awake?” Ji Shu was sitting on the sofa looking at her phone. Seeing Luo Yi wake, she quickly had the nurse come check.

Luo Yi turned her head like a dazed little animal and saw Ye Xiaoyang leaning against the pillow. On the white bedding was an open book full of formulas and symbols.

Did he have to be this serious?

His hand was fractured and he still didn’t forget to study?

Before, Luo Yi had only thought Ye Xiaoyang’s grades were good because he was gifted. But now she suddenly discovered that behind everyone’s bright grades was effort others could hardly imagine.

Was he smart? Yes.

But being smart alone completely couldn’t reach a height like his.

Innate cleverness without later study wouldn’t work. If you only played small tricks, over time you would fade into the crowd.

Even someone as sharp as Ye Xiaoyang would fall behind if he didn’t study hard. Maybe he had also read the story of Fang Zhongyong.

The nurse took Luo Yi’s temperature. 37.8. A low fever.

Luo Yi knew that once she had a fever, she couldn’t recover in less than two days.

Her body would switch back and forth between low fever and high fever. The drip could only ease it for a while.

The nurse poured a cup of warm water and took out the pills she had to take this morning.

A big handful of red and green. Just looking at them was frightening.

These past few years her constitution had been much better than when she was little. She rarely took so much medicine at once anymore.

She swallowed them one by one with warm water. The corner of Ye Xiaoyang’s eye stayed on her the whole time.

His right hand hurt badly. It wasn’t until three or four in the morning, when sleepiness completely conquered the pain, that he finally fell asleep.

He had woken a little after seven. At that time Luo Yi was still sleeping soundly.

She was curled in the quilt, so small.

Both hands were clenched into little fists, sticking out of the quilt.

She lay on her side facing him. The bangs on her forehead were a bit messy.

The way she slept was obedient beyond words. Thin eyelids lowered. Black feathered lashes pressed tightly against the lower lids. Her little nostrils rose and fell. Pale cherry lips lightly breathed out.

Ye Xiaoyang quietly watched her sleeping face. A thought rose in his mind.

If every morning for the rest of his life he could open his eyes and see her face, that would be good.

“This morning I went to school and brought your books over.” Ji Shu pointed at the bag by her bedside. “Your aunt will come see you at noon. Your fever hasn’t gone down yet. Rest here for now.”

Luo Yi nodded obediently and said, “Thank you, Auntie.”

“Are you hungry? I bought millet porridge and buns. Want some?” Ji Shu asked.

“Mm. A little hungry.”

Ji Shu put the millet porridge and buns in the microwave to heat. Watching her busy figure, Luo Yi couldn’t help envying her.

She really was so jealous of Ye Xiaoyang, having such a pretty and gentle mother.

Ji Shu gave her the feeling of a spring breeze. On her, Luo Yi found a thread of motherly love she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Luo Yi got up to wash in the bathroom. When she came back, Ji Shu had already set the steaming breakfast on the table.

“Has Ye Xiaoyang eaten?” Luo Yi asked.

“He ate early.” Ji Shu pushed the porridge over and handed her a spoon.

Watching Luo Yi take small bites of the bun and drink the porridge, Ji Shu sighed. “Ai. What will my Yangyang do when he goes back to school? His right hand can’t use chopsticks. He won’t even be able to eat.”

“Can’t he just use a spoon?” Ye Xiaoyang turned a page and said calmly.

“Your school cafeteria is definitely packed at mealtimes. What if someone bumps your hand?” Ji Shu worried. “You’re injured. You also have to watch your diet. How can you eat cafeteria food?”

Ye Xiaoyang was speechless. So in his mom’s eyes he was a doll made of glass, shattering at a touch.

She said to herself, “How about this. From now on I’ll cook at home and bring it to you.”

“Mom—” Ye Xiaoyang interrupted her. “Don’t you find that troublesome?”

“What’s troublesome about it?” Ji Shu said. “I don’t have much to do all day. Taking care of you is my biggest matter.”

This wasn’t false.

From the time Ye Xiaoyang could remember, Ji Shu had been a full-time housewife.

Although the rough and dirty work at home was handled by hourly aunties, everything else was Ji Shu’s concern.

Being a qualified bank president’s wife wasn’t easy. She had to be presentable in the hall and capable in the kitchen, and also help her husband save face in their circle.

“Your mom is really good,” Luo Yi said.

Ji Shu and Ye Xiaoyang both thought of Luo Xueqing’s words last night—Luo Yi had had no mother since she was small.

This scene of mother and son seemed extremely warm to her. She didn’t know what Ye Xiaoyang was resisting.

After breakfast, the two of them leaned against their headboards and read.

Ye Xiaoyang’s right hand was broken. He couldn’t write or draw. After looking at the competition book for a while, he put it down.

This kind of thing still needed practice problems to be fully mastered. Just reading, the line of thought wasn’t clear enough.

He switched to an English book and planned to memorize vocabulary for a while.

Luo Yi peeked at his vocabulary book. On the red cover was written GRE Core 3,000 Words .

Luo Yi: “…”

Most high school students were still being tortured enough by the 3,500 words required for the college entrance exam. Ye Xiaoyang had already started memorizing GRE.

Although Luo Yi had never come into contact with the GRE, she had heard of it.

The GRE exam was preparation for graduate study in North America. It contained a large number of academic subject words and advanced English vocabulary ordinary people might never encounter in their lives.

Compared with the GRE, the difficulty of college entrance exam English was simply a small witch seeing a big witch.

Seeing him reading English, Ji Shu suddenly remembered something and said, “Your foreign teacher requested two weeks off. She’s going back to America once, so these two weeks of classes are cancelled.”

When Ye Xiaoyang was very small, Ji Shu had hired him a one-on-one English tutor, so his English was extremely good. His American accent was quite standard.

On ordinary days at school Ye Xiaoyang almost never studied English. His time was mainly spent on other subjects.

“Mm. Got it.” Ye Xiaoyang recited words and answered lazily.

Luo Yi asked Ji Shu, “Is he going abroad later?”

Ji Shu said, “There’s no plan for undergraduate. For master’s and PhD he should go abroad.”

For undergraduate, Ji Shu still wasn’t very at ease.

Around her there were also people who sent their children to America or Britain for high school, then directly took American or British undergraduate exams.

But Ji Shu thought that sending a child into such an unfamiliar environment abroad before he came of age wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

The formation of one’s outlook was very important.

Some children, once abroad, lacked parents’ discipline and came into contact with all kinds of strange new foreign things, and easily went down the wrong path.

So she and Ye Rongcheng had planned from the start that Ye Xiaoyang must do his undergraduate studies in China.

At noon, Luo Xueqing brought lunch to see Luo Yi.

Her temperature had risen a little again, so she had no appetite, but she still symbolically ate a bit.

Luo Xueqing sighed. “Ai, this child. Did you tell your dad?”

Luo Yi shook her head. “It’s only a fever. No need to make him worry.”

Luo Xueqing said, “That’s true. Your dad is busy over there too. Better not give him more to worry about. I’m afraid if he hears you’re sick he’ll fly back to see you. Going back and forth is too hard on people.”

In the afternoon Luo Yi still had to have the drip, so Luo Xueqing could only let her stay at the hospital.

She gave Luo Yi a few reminders, thanked Ji Shu again, and said she would come pick her up in the evening.

Ji Shu accompanied Ye Xiaoyang to have the cast put on. Luo Yi was alone in the room. She soon grew sleepy and burrowed back into the quilt to sleep.

When she woke, it was almost four.

Ji Shu wasn’t there. Ye Xiaoyang was lying on the bed reading. His right hand was in a bandage. The newly applied cast was especially eye-catching.

“Where’s Auntie?” Luo Yi asked.

Ye Xiaoyang turned his head to look at her and said, “My mom went out to buy fruit.”

“Oh.” Luo Yi said dully.

Actually she didn’t really want to find Ji Shu. She only felt that if Ji Shu were here, the two of them alone in the room wouldn’t be so awkward.

Luo Yi got out of bed and went to the bathroom. The nurse said she would come at five in the afternoon for the drip.

When she came out and saw Ye Xiaoyang’s unhappy expression, she asked, “How’s your hand?”

She stood in front of his hospital bed. Rarely, she looked down at him.

Hearing this, Ye Xiaoyang sat up straight on the bed. He patted the empty space beside him with his left hand and said, “Come sit over here.”

It was over. Luo Yi thought. He was definitely going to ask her about those words from last night again.

She hadn’t thought of anything at all.

Seeing her hesitate, Ye Xiaoyang let out an “aiyo.”

Luo Yi startled, thinking his hand had been bumped again, and quickly sat down, wanting to look at his hand.

Ye Xiaoyang quietly curved the corner of his lips. This move never failed.

Luo Yi was flustered. Ye Xiaoyang hid his right hand in the quilt.

“Let me see,” she said.

“There’s nothing to see,” Ye Xiaoyang said. “At most I’ll be a cripple later. I won’t lose my life.”

The moment she heard the word “cripple,” Luo Yi couldn’t hold it in. Tears “whoosh” came out.

“Wu wu wu…” She sobbed. “You absolutely can’t be crippled.”

“Afraid you’ll have to take care of me for the rest of your life?” Ye Xiaoyang raised an eyebrow and asked.

Luo Yi shook her head and said, “Of course not… I mean someone as outstanding as you, if you were crippled it would be too much of a pity.”

“You feel bad for me?” he said.

Luo Yi didn’t argue anymore. She silently nodded.

She felt so bad it was killing her.

Ye Xiaoyang’s heart felt sweet. He forcefully pressed down the joy and kept his tone as calm as possible. “Since you feel bad for me, why won’t you agree?”

He leaned over and brushed the tears from the corner of her eye with his fingertips. He said, “Why do you love crying so much? I can’t stand seeing girls cry.”

It was because of you that she was crying.

Luo Yi wiped her tears messily and said, “You’re taking advantage of the fire.”

“How am I taking advantage of the fire?” Ye Xiaoyang laughed lightly.

He clearly knew she couldn’t bear to refuse him at a time like this, so he insisted she decide now.

If that wasn’t taking advantage of the fire, what was it?

“Be good. Just agree, okay?” Ye Xiaoyang said. “A patient’s mood has a big effect on the injury. Do you want me to lie in the hospital my whole life?”

It was only a wrist fracture. How could he lie in the hospital his whole life? The doctor would be the first to refuse.

Luo Yi whimpered. Tears stained her fair face, making that patch of tender skin look unbearably fragile.

She softly said “Mm,” then lowered her head even more.

“You agreed?” Ye Xiaoyang could no longer hold back the rising end of his tone.

His heart was as happy as a little bird breaking out of a cage.

He wanted to hug her, but Luo Yi dodged and said with a bit of anger, “Don’t move your hand.”

He was too careless. Did he really want to lie in the hospital his whole life?

“Fine. I won’t move my hand.” Ye Xiaoyang sat properly like an obedient elementary student.

He said, “Then you come over and let me kiss you once, okay?”

Luo Yi: “…”

Her face instantly turned as red as a shrimp.

How could he act like a hooligan with her in a hospital ward?

Uh. It seemed this couldn’t be called acting like a hooligan either. Just now she did seem to have agreed to be his girlfriend…

“Just kiss the forehead once.” Ye Xiaoyang of course didn’t dare make a more excessive request. He was afraid the girlfriend he had just gotten would be scared away.

But he really wanted to kiss her. How could she be so cute and pitiful?

“Kiss once and the hand won’t hurt,” he said.

“Nonsense.” Luo Yi was shy. “I’m not a painkiller.”

“You are.” Ye Xiaoyang pulled Luo Yi over without allowing argument.

Luo Yi braced her hands and looked at him uneasily.

“Just once,” she emphasized. “No extra kisses.”

“Mm. Fine. Just once.” The smile on Ye Xiaoyang’s face grew thicker.

Anyway, no one had said how long “once” was, right?

Ye Xiaoyang brushed aside the bangs on her forehead. Luo Yi was so nervous her heart was about to jump out.

She could clearly feel his warm, damp breath spilling onto her forehead.

He came closer bit by bit. Luo Yi closed her eyes.

“Knock knock knock knock!” The ward door was suddenly pushed open.

“Open up! The class is here to deliver warmth!” Tang Kunyu’s loud voice rang out.

Luo Yi and Ye Xiaoyang froze on the spot. Equally frozen was Class 6’s condolence squad, holding flowers and carrying fruit.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

Screw your granddad. Deliver warmth to your sister!

“What are you two doing?” Tang Kunyu asked, just to make things worse.