Chapter 21
Anyway, not needing to work overtime is always a good thing.
I pondered for two days before I cast aside the problem completely. I began to enjoy my relaxed working life once again.
December was approaching, so the weather was gradually turning cold. I have to wear more and more clothes so there was also more and more clothes to be washed. Thus I often gathered all my clothes in a bag and brought it to Yin Jie’s place to wash with her washing machine.
Today, I once again brought a bag of clothes over there. When I arrived, Yin Jie was sitting on the ground in the doorway and playing with her mobile phone.
I was confused. “Oh no, didn’t you say you’re at home?”
Yin Jie patted her back and stood up: “I am at home ah. Heehee, just that I’ve forgotten to bring my key, so I deceived you to come over to keep me company.”
“You did not bring your key again ……”
I was simply speechless. Yin Jie is really efficient and reliable on work matters, but is really sloppy in her personal life until one does not know what to say about her. When she was staying in the same dormitory with me, she also always forgot to bring her key. After she moved here to live, this was the second time that I came across her not bringing the key.
“Yu Hua is not at home ah?”
“She went to Kunshan to visit her cla.s.smate, so I don’t know what time she’ll come back. I just went to the Dormitory Administration to get the spare key but n.o.body was there. Aiya, to have such bad luck.”
I tried to recall when I came just now, the people in the Dormitory Administration seemed to be still away. With no other way, I asked: “Are the windows opened?”
“They are opened. Xi Guang, you want to climb up to the window again? Don’t la, since the sky is almost dark so it is a lot more dangerous. Better to wait for the people from the Dormitory Administration to come, then we’ll see.”
“Who knows we’ve to wait until when?” I put the bag of clothes in my hands on the ground, “Nothing would go wrong. Anyway, this is not the first time.”
Their dormitory was on the second floor. The exterior window sill on the second floor is one meter wide and joined together. When looking from a distant, it generally resembles a broad decorative border. Thus it will not be dangerous at all to walk over it, so long as you pay attention to avoid those rubbish thrown from upstairs.
After knocking on a few dormitories, there was also no response. Only until the fifth dormitory, there was someone in. I climbed out from people’s window, slowly holding on the wall towards Yin Jie’s dormitory. I was walking steadily and firmly, almost reaching my destination. However suddenly I heard the sound of an exaggerated screech from downstairs.
I subconsciously turned my head and saw Lin Yu Sen’s taut face as well as the look of horror on the face of a young woman who was dressed stylishly next to him. Then my foot seemed to have stepped on some slippery stuff ……
As a result, I fell down from the window sill.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. There was not enough time for my mind to react before I hit on the pine and cypress tree. Then I rolled from the pine and cypress tree to the ground.
The moment I landed on the ground, I felt a hand caught me. But the powerful momentum still knocked my head on the ground once, an onset of sharp pain.
After the sky span and the earth went round (giddy with one’s head spinning), I opened my eyes and stared blankly into a pair of deeply worried eyes. I have never seen that before so I felt fl.u.s.tered.
Lin Yu Sen?
……
He quickly laid me flat on the ground and knelt down beside me. With one hand undoing my collar, the one hand was feeling my pulse.
“Nie Xi Guang!”
He called out my name, his complexion pale and solemn. I have not managed to recover from the shock of falling down so I looked lifelessly at him.
“Don’t be afraid, look at me. Can you hear me properly?”
“Yes.”
“Answer me, what day of the week is today?”
“Sunday.”
I thought that I had answered him, but was a little unsure if I did voice out my answer. Suddenly my head was struck by an intense feeling of swaying. Thus I felt unwell and cannot help but close my eyes.
However I felt that I was still mentally alert, and could hear people around me talking. I heard Yin Jie and an unfamiliar female voice cried out in panic. I also heard Lin Yu Sen’s particularly strict and calm voice ……
But what did he really say?
Everything gradually became fuzzy ……
I woke up several times. Once, when I woke up, I seemed to be in the ambulance and heard Lin Yu Sen was talking on the phone, “…… no obvious head injury. Cannot feel any hematoma on the scalp. No sign of other injury, but there was a temporary loss of consciousness …… ah, get ready to do CT scan of the head …… ”
After that, I arrived in the hospital …… in fact I felt much better afterwards except feeling sleepy. But I was awakened repeatedly by people in light blue shirt who appeared constantly in my line of vision ……
When I was fully awake, the sky was already completely dark.
I opened my eyes and it was still the light blue shirt which caught my eyes.
Under the faint light in the hospital ward, Lin Yu Sen with his eyes closed, was sitting on the sofa by the window. He seemed to have already fallen asleep. With the hair a bit messy and shirt wrinkled, he was devoid of his usual clean and calm demeanor.
He…… still around?
My gaze rested on him for a while. Then I turned my head and looked around the room. When my gaze returned to Lin Yu Sen, I cannot help but was startled because I did not know when he had awaken. With the eyes opened, he looked at me without saying a word.
I wanted to say something. But when I opened my mouth, no sound came out because the throat was dry and sore.
He stood up, poured a gla.s.s of warm water and came up to me. I was about to get up, but he has already propped me up and fed me some water.
A strong arm firmly encircled my shoulder, transmitting burning sensation. I was almost half leaning against his chest, his hard chin in front of me. Our breathing can be heard because we were at a distant that was close enough to feel uneasy. I was a little embarra.s.sed and quickly drank two mouthfuls.
“Thanks.”
He let me lie down and put the gla.s.s aside in silent.
I did not feel dizzy at all now. In fact, I felt good about myself. But seeing that he appeared so quiet, I started to feel a little worried. Hence I had to ask: “I …… nothing is wrong with me, right?”
“What is your name?” When he spoke, his voice was unexpectedly and particularly hoa.r.s.e.
“……” What was the situation? “Nie …… Xi Guang?”
“What about me?”
“…… Lin Yu Sen.”
“I am Sheng Xian Min’s grandson (daughter’s son).” He looked at me and said that all of a sudden.
Sheng Xian Min? The chairman of Sheng Yuan?
I pondered for a moment: “…… You have not told me before, right?”
He paused for a moment.
“Very good, you’ve regained your consciousness.” He straightened and stood up, like he was restraining himself from something. He moved away his eyes and tried to talk to me in a calm manner: “Your health is in good condition now. There is no problem in all the check-ups, except for some bruises which are nothing serious. However it is best to stay in the hospital for further observation. Yin Jie followed the ambulance here but I have already let her go back. She will come tomorrow to take care of you.”
“Oh, she must be really frightened.”
“Ah, she was really frightened?”
I did not know what sore point this sentence had touched because suddenly he cannot maintain his calm composure, “I’m really astonished at Miss Nie’s kindness because you actually can still think of other people’s feelings at this time.”
I was startled by his sudden outburst, stared at him wide- eyed and remained speechless. I only said that casually so why did he flare up?
“If you are truly so kind-hearted, why ……”
Suddenly he stopped talking, took a deep breath and able to control his emotions once again. However, the sarcasm in his tone of voice was too obvious. Even someone like me who has always been slow to react was already hurt by his words.
“Taking into consideration that I am already so unlucky, can’t you at least control your prejudice against me?! Be a bit more pleasant la!”
Suddenly my eyes swelled up with tears. Initially I did not want to appear so weak, but I immediately felt aggrieved because it hurt so much to be treated with cynicism.
In a short while, tears gushed out.
The room instantly became quiet.
His irascible figure seemed to freeze instantly, standing stiffly in front of my hospital bed.
“Why are you crying? You are unscathed, so what is there to cry about?” A long time later, he spoke with his hoa.r.s.e and low voice.
So, I did not even have the right to cry?
“If it were not for your friend’s blood-curdling screech, I would not have fallen down. Because of you, I am in such wretched condition. Moreover I have to be mocked in all sorts of way by you. Can’t I even cry a little?”
“…… Because of me?”
“If not because of you, then because of who?” I was so unlucky to meet you ah!
I poured out all the grievances which I had suffered lately, “I tripped and fell. Also my head was. .h.i.t by machine parts. Do you know how tiring stocktake is? I even fell directly from a building now ……”
“Nie Xi Guang ……”
He called my name in a low voice.
Everything was blurry so I wiped away the tears. “Lin Yu Sen, I have a question.”
“Ask away.” I did not know if it was an illusion. His voice seemed a little more gentle, but still sounded rigidly uncompromising.
“I am the daughter of Nie Cheng Yuan, so what? There is no animosity between the two families. Thus why are you making things so difficult for me?”
He was silent.
I almost felt uncertain, “…… there is really animosity between our two families?”
“The Sheng and Nie families have always cooperated closely.”
“Then why?”
“…… I also want to know why?”
He mumbled these words. His face showed something like a self-mocking expression and his eyes seemed to be filled with fatigue instantly.
“Nie Xi Guang, is it very painful?” He asked me in a low voice.
I unconsciously nodded my head.
“Ah, me too.”
I stared at him. I did not know why but I actually felt that he was in more pain than me.
What happened? Could it be that I am not the one who is making a complain against him now? Why did I feel that I am the one who is hurting him?
I cannot help asking: “Are you …… alright?”
He seemed emotionally stirred. His complex and difficult to distinguish gaze focused straight at me as if looking for something. For a split second, I even thought that he will reach out to touch my eyes.
“This sentence ……”
His voice was all the more softer until it cannot really be heard. Standing face to face, I believed my eyes will certainly look lost. Remembering the teardrops at the corner of the eyes, I quickly wiped them.
He slowly moved away his line of sight.
A while later, he said: “Don’t cry anymore.”
He stood quietly in front of the hospital bed for a while. Then he moved to stand in front of the window.
He stood for a long, long time.
So long until I thought that was simply an immovable statue. So long until the color of the sky outside the window started to light up bit by bit. So long until I was a little tired and sleepy and nearly close my eyes.
“In the future, I will not be like this again.”
Suddenly the deep and low voice can be heard in the quiet room.
I blinked my eyes and virtually felt that I was hallucinating.
He turned around and looked like a calm sea after a storm. Just a moment ago, those gloominess, irritation and hidden anguish …… all in all, returned once more to that calm expression. Besides the shadow of tiredness under the eyes, he was the same as ever, still calm and collected.
“In the future, I will certainly not treat you like this again.”
He repeated this sentence once again with a firm and determined tone. I did not know why but I felt his words were not spoken to me but more like spoken to himself.
I stared blankly at him and did not know what to say. He also did not need me to say anything. He picked up his coat from the sofa and said: “You rest more. I am going to help you to bring your breakfast.”
He seemed to return to his calm demeanor. Whereas I was at a loss at such turn of events.