Fortunately, I Met You

She took two steps back and looked at him. Her eyes were so bright that it seemed like sparks of flame would come out of them at any moment; meanwhile, her lips had become red and swollen from his biting, and they looked just like ripe peaches that had been slightly pinched, which gave them an unusual charm of their own.

Lu Chenzhou"s fingers moved a little, and the IV drip was pulled taut against the back of his hand, sparking a jolt of pain. He regained his senses and found that the needle had been half pulled out. The medicine was now mixing with his red blood, and the resulting blend was slowly dripping down the side of the bed.

He decided to just rip the whole needle out, throw it to one side, and use his other hand to tightly press against the bleeding one.

When Cheng Xi saw this series of actions, she became quite disconcerted, so much so that she eventually called the nurses" station. “The VIP room"s patient is bleeding from his hand.”

Lu Chenzhou glanced at her, put on his shoes, and got off of the bed as Cheng Xi looked at him warily. “If you keep messing around…” Before she could finish, he had already left the room without looking back, all the while clutching his hand.

Cheng Xi heard his impatient tone. “The bed"s dirty!”

“……”

The nurses quickly came over. Some changed the bedsheets, others mopped the floor, and some others changed the IV drip; the room was suddenly filled with bustling activity.

Cheng Xi had calmed down by now, and was currently standing to one side. Lu Chenzhou"s grandparents noticed that she was forcing herself to stay calm, and when they thought to their grandson"s “valiant” actions, they felt a bit guilty. But they didn"t even mention anything about him to her, instead trying to fawn over her. “Dr. Cheng, do you want something to eat?”

Or, “Dr. Cheng, are you tired?”

As Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother was asking if she was tired, her husband pulled on her arm.

Cheng Xi pretended to not have heard anything. Given how convoluted it all was, what could she say?

Upon hearing the commotion, Lu Chenzhou"s primary doctor also rushed over. After finding out that Lu Chenzhou"s IV drip had had a problem, he was very displeased. “Was he playing around with it?” First, he scolded all the bystanders. “What were all of you doing? His hand"s as swollen as a steamed bun. Do you think that his illness is funny?” And then he scolded Lu Chenzhou. “Mr. Lu, I know you have a bad temper, and honestly, my temper"s worse than yours. However, you shouldn"t think that you can relax just because your condition has improved a lot these last few days. If septicemia were that easy to treat, then you wouldn"t have been sent here in a hurry that night! Your life is your own affair. If you think that it"s funny to play around with it, then fine. Please turn right as you exit, and stop causing trouble for the hospital!”

Besides Lu Chenzhou, everyone else was scolded so much that their faces turned green. The primary doctor grew more and more mad until he finally left in a huff with a cold face right after he finished inspecting Lu Chenzhou.

Lu Chenzhou"s grandfather quickly chased after him.

On the other hand, Lu Chenzhou acted as if nothing had happened. His face was still frowning as he complained, “The bed"s dirty.”

Nurse A replied, “We"ve already replaced the bedsheets, they"re all clean.”

“It"s still dirty!”

Nurse B explained, “It"s really not dirty. We"ve already disinfected everything, and the floor"s been mopped clean too.”

Even his grandmother coaxed him, trying to get him to relax, “It"s really not dirty anymore. I just inspected it. It"s really clean.”

Lu Chenzhou still felt that the sheets weren"t clean, so he sat on the sofa as he continued to frown heavily with pursed lips and an expression saying that he wouldn"t tolerate it one bit.

While they were stuck in a deadlock, Cheng Xi stood up. “Do you feel like your blood"s dirty too? Then do you also know that you used to stoop and p.o.o.p near the dining table in your home? And who knows how many people"s saliva, sweat, germs have touched the road that you walk on daily. And that"s not even mentioning the children and pet feces and urine……”

Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother anxiously cried out, “Dr. Cheng!”

Cheng Xi ignored her, continuing to look at Lu Chenzhou and monologue. “Do you think that when you wash yourself after going home that you"re really clean? Do you think that, after you disinfect yourself, everything will be just fine? Yes, at least you"ll be clean and free from germs, but so what? You"re a clean freak through and through, but do you think that your unnaturally sensitive skin is actually natural? No, it"s not. It"s a result of your overly fastidious habits. Your body"s immune system has lost its capabilities, which is how such a small allergic reaction could lead to such a severe cold and even to septicemia! Do you remember what I told you that time? About how the nature of clean freaks is to like dirty things? It"s not you who likes it. It"s every cell in your body, every strand of hair and every gland in your skin! They"re all particularly susceptible to dirtiness and attractive to all sorts of bacteria! Do you understand?!”

She said this with such vigor and conviction that the two nurses listening had been struck dumb. She waved them away. “Leave, let him do what he wants! As the doctor said, this illness is his to treat or not treat. This body is his. As to whether it"s dead or living, why should we care? All he"s doing right now is throwing a tantrum because he knows that there are others who are willing to coddle him!”

“Doctor… Dr. Cheng……”

“Leave!”

Nurses A and B looked at Lu Chenzhou, who was sitting on the sofa with a face like biting cold, and then at the severe expression of Cheng Xi, before wordlessly deciding to leave together.

The door opened and closed again. The lawyer who was sending someone out had returned. But when he popped his head in and noticed the heated atmosphere, he quickly closed the door again and retreated.

The sudden silence left the room feeling like a bottle devoid of oxygen, and Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother felt like she was unable to breathe… My goodness, what sins had she wrought, that she was forced into a situation such as this?

“Cheng… Cheng Xi, should I also leave?”

Cheng Xi turned towards Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother, her tone calming down. “No, it"s fine. Coincidentally, I have something to say, and it"s better if you listen to it too.

Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother made an "Oh" sound before obediently standing to the side of the sofa and looking at Cheng Xi anxiously as she clutched the hem of her clothes.

“……”

She could only look away from her and refocus on Lu Chenzhou instead. His face was still like a mask of cold indifference as he stared at his hands.

Cheng Xi asked, “Do you want to go back inside and lie down?”

Lu Chenzhou"s face twisted. Despite his refusal to answer, it was clear that he had been truly disgusted by her words.

But Cheng Xi didn"t mind. “Alright, it"s fine if you stay here too.” She dragged a stool over and sat down in front of him. “Mr. Lu, there"s something that I"d like to confirm with you.”

“Go on.” Lu Chenzhou didn"t say anything; his grandmother had responded for him.

Cheng Xi looked at her.

Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother tried to explain, slightly embarra.s.sed. “He… Ah, he doesn"t like to speak very much. It"s fine if you just talk. He"ll listen.”

Cheng Xi was silent. If this was how Lu Chenzhou had been brought up as a child, then this was the source of his tendency to only care about his own actions, wasn"t it? In her heart, she sighed before she openly said, “Alright, then I"ll say it. I want to confirm that you like me. Don"t you? No matter what kind of "like" it is, you feel something towards me, right?”

Lu Chenzhou finally looked at her.

“Alright, I understand you. But I won"t be in a romantic relations.h.i.+p with any of my patients because that"d violate my ethics as a doctor.”

Lu Chenzhou suddenly opened his mouth. “As I recall, before I became your patient, we"d already been in bed together.”

! ! !

Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother, who had been prepared to be a wallflower, was badly startled. Her old eyes suddenly widened as she looked at the two of them with both shock and a desire for gossip.

Cheng Xi, on the other hand, had no words to respond to Lu Chenzhou"s brazen words.

She once again regretted her rashness that night, that she had rashly left with him, that she had rashly drank the alcohol that another person had given her, and that she… had been unable to absolve herself from blame!

She took a deep breath. “I"m sorry. I"m sure that you know better than me what exactly happened that day.” She then abruptly changed topics. “This isn"t my main point. What I want to say is that, given that our doctor-patient relations.h.i.+p has already been corrupted, that I plan on requesting the hospital to a.s.sign you another psychiatrist.” She waved her hands with a rare conviction, stopping Lu Chenzhou"s grandmother from interjecting.

“And now, I"m single once again, and I don"t have someone I like anymore. If you"re really sure that you"re interested in me, no matter what kind of interest, then you can try to woo me. Lu Chenzhou, I won"t accept a kiss from you as a friend, but I"m very much willing to accept a kiss from a man that I love. If you"re truly interested in me, then do your best to make me love you! Again, I believe that any kind of intimacy not founded on love is immoral. You"ve read through so many books about love and romance that I think you know what to do.”
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