I slept for a little in the emergency room, in which I was woken up twice. The first was when Jiang Chen shifted a green folding screen from G.o.d knows where to separate the beds. The screen probably was not maintained for years, it created loud cracking sounds like a firecracker when pulled. I think I glared at him resentfully, then turned back to sleep. The second time is now, the other side of the screen came low groaning sounds of a man, the sound went "ah, ya, ah, ya", it was very ambiguous.
I sat up, and wanted to peep, but was startled by the valiant words of the nurse.
She said, "Can you not yell so disgustingly, we are not even giving you a colonoscopy."
In my heart I was calculating the distance between the large intestine and the entrance of a colonoscopy, I couldn"t help but laugh.
The person the other side already transitioned from a yell to a high-pitched scream. I heard Jiang Chen reprimanded, "Keep your mouth shut, don"t disturb other patients."
I detoured past the privacy screen, then I regretted on why I even did that.
The person was probably a young chap, I said probably is because I determined from his hair which was like a bunch of exploded straw. As for now, I am unable to determine his age from his face as it was stained with fresh red blood. There were even green pieces of gla.s.s stuck into him, it looked like those from a beer bottle. Amongst the pieces were two which were stuck onto each side of his cheeks, and it even came with the brand logo. I squinted my eyes for a better look, one probably had the word "纯" and the other, "生"*. (T/N: 纯 – Purified. 生 – Live. It is a standalone word by itself but when put together, it is a type of beer that is non-pasteurised, only filtered to remove the yeast.)
I really wanted to take a camera to capture his face and upload it to a forum with the t.i.tle - X College Art Student"s b.l.o.o.d.y Graduation Project, Appeal for Society"s Concern on , *, , , etc of the Never-Ending Beauty of a Human Being. The Caption has to be Long. (T/N: 1st life is life as we are living, and the 2nd life is a human life.)
Trust me, any form of art that is anomalous will become viral.
Jiang Chen was the first to see me come out. He pointed at me with the tweezers he was holding and said, "Go in. Why did you come out for?"
I have yet to speak, the Gla.s.s Face person scolded rudely, "F*ck, what the heck are you looking at, ah…F*CK!"
His last "ah…F*CK!" came abruptly as a loud piercing scream. I stumbled backwards from shock and stared blankly at Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen threw the piece of gla.s.s with the word "Live" to the plate on the push cart beside him, "This is a hospital, speak more cleanly."
When he said that, that was no other expression on his face, even his tone was dull without any intonation. But I feel that he was very handsome/cool.
The Gla.s.s Face person used that face of his to express a "dare to show but dare not speak" expression. He also spoke very modestly, "I got it, doctor can you be gentler."
Jiang Chen agreed to him and looked at me to say, "You, go in."
I went back behind the screen and sat cross legged on the bed to day dream.
I heard Gla.s.s Face using a fawning tone to say, "Doctor, your girlfriend? She"s pretty."
Jiang Chen seemed to acknowledge by making a sound. Then Gla.s.s Face continued, "Doctor, bringing your girlfriend on the hospital bed, exciting ohhh."
As expected, Gla.s.s Face screamed for his mother again. You see, this kind of pain only deserves two words - served you right*. (T/N: served you right is 活该 in Chinese. That"s why its two words.)
Not sure how long have past, I started to doze off while sitting cross-legged. When I regained my consciousness, I realised my legs were numb to the point I didn"t dare to touch it.
"Chen Xiaoxi, are you meditating?" Jiang Chen stood beside my bed while removing the white rubber gloves off his hands.
I wriggled my toes, a tingling pain of numbness climbed through my cells up my entire body, I made a crying face and replied him, "Jiang Chen, my legs are so numb they are going to be crippled."
He threw the gloves to the dustbin at the corner, walked over to the bed and sat down. He stretched out his index finger to poke on my leg, I screamed, "Don"t, it"s really numb."
Jiang Chen suddenly extended his arm to push me, I was like a spoilt roly-poly. I swayed futilely and stayed in my cross-legged position while I fell sideways onto the bed.
My left thigh was then crushed under my right thigh, I was so numb I cried out loud.
Jiang Chen seemed really happy. He crossed his arms and turned his head to look at the me who was slanted on the bed and laughed endlessly. He laughed till his dimple looked like it was going to fly off.
Then he gently entangled my left and right legs, laid them straight and patted on my calves.
Every hit of his palm on my legs, I felt like my blood was circulating back to my two legs, I was numb, I was in pain, I was numb to pain.
After about five to six minutes, my legs finally went back to normal. I gave Jiang Chen a kick, to indicate that my legs are good enough to be able to kick someone. I also indicated that I was very unhappy when he took advantage of when I was unable to move freely and treated me like a roly-poly.
Actually, I wasn"t very brutal with that kick, but Jiang Chen fell back onto the bed from my kick. He held onto his stomach and said, "Chen Xiaoxi, are you a female wrestler?"
I gave him another kick, "Are you an Academy Award Best Actor?"
Jiang Chen was still clutching on his stomach and not moving. I was even starting to feel that he was starting to perspire on his forehead. I started to feel that something was wrong. It can"t be that this numbness caused my legs to become a Shadowless kick* leg. A gentle kick can take a person"s life? (T/N: A type of martial arts kicking technique made by a famous Chinese folk hero - Wong Fei Hung.)
I climbed over to pat his back, "Are you okay? You okay? Don"t scare me."
He suddenly turned to hug me, "Are you an idiot, I am clutching onto my stomach why are you patting my back!"
He hugged really tightly, as though he was putting his entire weight on me, I was a bit breathless. I said, "What"s wrong? Don"t suffocate me."
He said he"s fine, and that he has a bit of gastric pain, and asked to let him hug for a while.
I gently patted on his shoulder and said, "Are you hungry? How about I buy some food for you? Or where"s your medication? I will take it for you. Why are you always having gastric pain? That"s not good, you have to take good care of yourself."
He rested his head on my shoulder and said, "Chen Xiaoxi, I can"t take care of myself well."
My maternal instincts as a female overflowed as I heard that line, I stroked his head and said, "Jiang Chen, I"ll take care of you then."
"Okay." He said.
After Jiang Chen handed over his duty to the next shift, he listed a series of clauses on how to take care of him while he was driving back me home. Most of these clauses were no stranger to me as he gave me a list before when we were in university. For example, he was in charge of delivering breakfast to me, and I delivered him his lunch and dinner. Another example, if he were to eat any type of food with sh.e.l.l, I would have to remove the sh.e.l.l for him, this was mainly meant for tea eggs. Or another example, every week I have to wash his worn clothes (for the week) and beddings for him.
I sat at the pa.s.senger seat and flipped back and forth noisily on the two pages of medical prescription form that was given to me. However, he remained unmoved. I finally could not take it anymore and waved the two pages of paper in front of him and said, "Why do I have to deliver you dinner?"
He said, "That was based on the list from our university days."
I protested, "University was nearby ah! It was convenient. Furthermore, you delivered me breakfast during university."
He said, "That was because I had to wake up early to read, so it was convenient. Also, didn"t I remove the clause on having to deliver lunch?"
I was lost for words, "But.. but I still don"t want to deliver dinner to you."
He side-glanced me, "Who said she wanted to take care of me?"
There was nothing for me to say, I could only give in and a.n.a.lyze the clauses. On the 6th clause, Jiang Chen wrote: "Have to clean up my house every 3 days."
I shook the paper and said, "Look at the 6th clause. We didn"t have that in university."
He tapped on the steering wheel while waiting for the red light. He leaned his head towards me and said, "We lived in dorm during university. I can"t let others take advantage."
Alright, I was wrong. It was me whom in the 3 years of memories, beautified him too much. As such, I was only able to remember his good, and totally forgotten about his bullying. The reason why memories are so beautiful, is because no one is able to go back.
Actually, during this long time I have known Jiang Chen, hidden under his gentleness was a heart of absolute unrestrained tyrannical abuse towards me. For example, the library incident, what everyone saw the him flipping my book for me. In actual fact, it was so cold that day, how I wished I could just snuggle in my bed in the dorm. However, he insisted on forcing me to accompany him to the library. He said a student should be diligent in studying, he even said that when he thought about him studying so hard in the library and all I will be doing is sleeping so hard in my dorm, he felt very uncomfortable, and psychologically unbalanced. He is a medicine student who has to study diligently everyday so as to prevent misdiagnosing and killing someone. However, I study arts. If you force me to go to the library every day, that"s murdering my freedom of creativity. So the reason why I could not become Vincent van Gogh, or Pica.s.so, was actually all caused by Jiang Chen.
"We"re here." Jiang Chen patted on my head. I looked out and said distractedly, "You went to the wrong place, this isn"t my house."
He released his seatbelt, "I know this isn"t your house. This is my house, come up and cook me something to eat. At the same time, you can tidy the place a bit."
…..