Zhen Lang bought congee for Gu Jing.
Zhen Lang sat on the bed next to Gu Jing. He read a newspaper and she ate congee.
Gu Jing glanced at the front page of the newspaper Zhen Lang read and she fumed. ‘Who wrote this article? I’m a girl! Why did they write that I’m a boy?’
Gu Jing coughed and her hoa.r.s.e voice sounded huskier than her usual voice.
Zhen Lang put his hand on Gu Jing’s forehead, her fever returned. He turned the page and he folded the newspaper in half to hide the front page. ‘If you keep talking then many people will think you’re a boy.’
‘It’s your fault!’ Gu Jing said.
Gu Jing fisted her left hand and she aimed it at Zhen Lang’s face.
Zhen Lang caught Gu Jing’s left hand when it was two inches from his face, and he gently put her left hand down. ‘Patients shouldn’t jump around. Take your medicine and rest.’
Zhen Lang came across many patients with fevers over forty degree Celsius. But Gu Jing was his first patient who had a forty degree Celsius fever yet she had enough energy to jump around.
Gu Jing ate the congee and she felt better except her voice sounded hoa.r.s.e. ‘I don’t need to take medicine and rest. I feel better. I want to go find this newspaper’s headquarters to even the score with the writer and editor.’
Zhen Lang smiled. ‘You feel better? Then let’s go shopping for your engagement ring. What diamond cut do you want?’
Gu Jing pretended to cough and she pulled the bed sheet over her body up to her neck. ‘Ah! I have a headache and my bones ache.’
On the inside Gu Jing cursed Zhen Lang – ‘You took advantage of me in the morning when I’m hungry and dizzy to trick me into promising to marry you!’
‘If your head and bones ache then rest,’ Zhen Lang said.
Zhen Lang slid his hand inside Gu Jing’s shirt and he took out a thermometer under her arm. He looked at the thermometer and he was relieved her body temperature reduced a bit. He put the thermometer on a bedside table then he picked up the newspaper on his lap and he continued to read articles.
Gu Jing laid on the bed. She silently watched Zhen Lang who sat next to her. He flipped through the newspaper and occasionally his arm brushed her head. She felt like she was under a bird’s protective wing.
‘Mr Vet,’ Gu Jing called softly.
Zhen Lang put the newspaper on his lap. His hand caressed Gu Jing’s cheek. ‘Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?’
Gu Jing shook her head. Zhen Lang retrieved his hand and she felt disappointed his hand left her cheek.
‘Why do you want to marry me?’ Gu Jing asked.
Even if Gu Jing didn’t eat pork, she knew pigs could run. She never got married before, but at least she knew two people needed to love each other deeply before they got married… but she wondered if she and Zhen Lang loved each other, because clearly they were enemies not lovers.
‘About… between a wife and husband if they want to live together they need to be compatible and take care of each other, right?’ Gu Jing asked softly.
‘Do you know how to cook?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing shook her head.
‘Do you know how to wash dishes?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing knew how to break dishes. She shook her head.
‘Do you know how to clean the house?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing knew how to sweep floors, but if she mopped floors she would break the mop in half. She shook her head.
‘Do you know how to wash clothes?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing nodded her head.
‘Do you know how to clean toilets?’
Gu Jing nodded her head.
‘Good!’ Zhen Lang said.
Zhen Lang lowered his face until only two centimetres separated his face and Gu Jing’s face. She felt his hot breath on her face.
‘I’ll cook, wash dishes and clean the house. But I don’t want to wash clothes and clean toilets. Can you see how compatible we are? We’re compatible to the point we can’t be any more compatible, right? Of course we can take care of each other,’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing thought what Zhen Lang said sounded reasonable… but if he only expected his wife to wash clothes and clean toilets, she felt his expectations were too low. His expectations of his wife were extremely low compared to a parent’s expectations of a nanny. She realised his reasons to marry her didn’t add up.
Gu Jing pushed Zhen Lang’s chest. ‘Do you think I’m a fool? Tell the truth!’
‘Tell the truth?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Zhen Lang laid on top of Gu Jing’s body. He kissed her lips and he bit her lips. She tasted his lips and tongue.
Zhen Lang held Gu Jing’s waist and he looked straight into her eyes. She didn’t understand what the deep contemplative look in his eyes meant.
‘What reason do you think I want to marry you?’ Zhen Lang asked.
On the inside Gu Jing cursed Zhen Lang – ‘If I knew why you want to marry me then would I need to ask you? I can’t read your mind!’
‘Is it because you want me to be conveniently in front of you every day to torture me for you to be in a good mood?’ Gu Jing asked.
Apart from Zhen Lang being happy when he tortured her, she couldn’t think of another reason why he wanted to marry her.
Zhen Lang shook his head. He kissed Gu Jing.
‘I won’t torture you. I’ll love and dote on you unconditionally. Do you believe me?’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing scoffed. Unless she had a monster head and she was insane then she wouldn’t believe him.
Zhen Lang laughed. ‘Because… people say a man’s daughter is his old lover in a previous lifetime. If in this lifetime I genuinely love you, in the next lifetime I can be your daddy.’
Gu Jing widened her eyes and mouth. She thought Zhen Lang’s reason to marry her was insane!
Gu Jing felt powerless to dispute Zhen Lang’s reason to marry her. She pulled the bedsheet over her head and she heard Zhen Lang’s laughter echoed in the room.
Gu Jing knew she couldn’t marry Zhen Lang. Although he wouldn’t torture her to death, but he would frustrate her to death.
Gu Jing lifted the bedsheet off her head and she saw Zhen Lang smiled at her.
Zhen Lang’s smile suffocated Gu Jing’s heart. She realised she feared his smiles, because if she saw his smile her heart would pound chaotically.
Suddenly Gu Jing remembered the four questions Peng Cheng Gui asked her about Zhen Lang – ‘Firstly, when you think about him do you feel like your heart is full of sweetness and thinking about him makes you smile? Secondly, when you think about him do you think his smile is beautiful? Thirdly, when you think about him does your heart melt? Fourthly, when you think about him immediately you want him to appear in front of you and if you don’t see him for a while you miss him?’
Gu Jing blamed her confused heart and mind on her cold and fever. Because she was sick she wanted someone beside her. Her heart and mind wasn’t confused because of Zhen Lang.
‘Mr Vet, I…’ Gu Jing said softly.
Zhen Lang touched Gu Jing’s forehead and he frowned. ‘What is it? Where do you feel uncomfortable?’
Of course Gu Jing felt uncomfortable! She felt Zhen Lang’s frown looked too stunning and beautiful. She thought perhaps her cold and fever didn’t affect her heart and mind in that way.
Zhen Lang hugged Gu Jing. ‘Do you feel cold?’
Gu Jing didn’t feel cold, she felt hot. Her cheeks burned and even if she closed her eyes Zhen Lang’s smile, eyes, arms and legs appeared in her mind like a movie played in slow motion.
Zhen Lang worried Gu Jing had other symptoms, because she didn’t answer his question. ‘What is it? Where do you feel uncomfortable?’
‘Mmm…’ Gu Jing said.
Gu Jing felt wanted to wrap her arms around Zhen Lang’s body.
‘Hungry?’ Zhen Lang asked. He let go of Gu Jing. ‘What do you want to eat?’
Gu Jing nodded her head. She remembered her teeth marks on Zhen Lang’s chest. She swallowed her saliva, because his body looked appetizing. She realised her feverish state turned her into a cannibal.
‘Then lay in bed and rest. I’ll go buy you food,’ Zhen Lang said.
Zhen Lang got off the bed and he changed clothes.
Gu Jing didn’t blink and she watched Zhen Lang changed clothes. The longer she looked at his body the faster her heart pounded and the more breathless she felt.
After Zhen Lang left the room, Gu Jing took a deep breath and she quickly regained her senses.
Gu Jing jumped off the bed. She ran to her room, she put on a jacket, grabbed her suitcase and she ran away.
At the studio Peng Cheng Gui calculated the payments received for the day. Suddenly she saw a breathless Gu Jing who didn’t dress properly charged through the front door.
‘Cheng Cheng, I realise I love someone,’ Gu Jing said.
Peng Cheng Gui dropped a calculator onto a table. ‘You’re finally sane!’
‘But… the person I love is the jinx,’ Gu Jing said.
‘I know,’ Peng Cheng Gui said.
Gu Jing shook Peng Cheng Gui’s arm. ‘What do I do now? I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to face him.’
‘Why?’ Peng Cheng Gui asked.
‘I-’ Gu Jing said.
A stylist walked downstairs and she interrupted Gu Jing and Peng Cheng Gui’s conversation.
The stylist put a newspaper on the table in front of Gu Jing and Peng Cheng Gui. ‘Boss, something bad happened. Isn’t this the photo we hung up in front of the studio a while ago?’
Gu Jing looked at the photo printed on the newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nt. The advertised photo for lingerie was a photo shopped photo of a familiar young beautiful woman’s hand covered half of her naked chest, her eyes were blurred, her snow white bare back and her short hair above her shoulders showed off her sensual slender neck. Also a photo shopped arm and hand covered her underwear.
Gu Jing read the caption under the lingerie advertis.e.m.e.nt photo – ‘Absolute guarantee any woman who wears this lingerie will turn on her man.’
‘What is this?’ Peng Cheng Gui asked.
Gu Jing clutched the newspaper. She couldn’t believe she left the studio for a day, one newspaper wrote a shady article about her and another newspaper dared to use her image to endorse a lingerie product without her permission. She wanted to explode!
Gu Jing gritted her teeth. ‘Cheng Cheng! This photo of me, apart from you who else has a copy of the original photo of me?’
‘Apart from me, only Zhen Lang has a copy of your original photo,’ Peng Cheng Gui said.
‘The jinx!’ Gu Jing yelled and the studio front gla.s.s door shattered like a withered flower.
At the w.a.n.g company’s headquarters a manager pa.s.sed a newspaper to a director. ‘It’s illegal for us to use a person’s image to endorse a product without their consent. Won’t our company be sued for this? Right now is a critical time if our company wants to do business with Wen Lang’s company, our company can’t afford a scandal.’
A lady looked coldly at the manager. ‘It won’t affect our company’s business with Wen Lang’s company. This is just a lingerie advertis.e.m.e.nt. Our company altered the person’s image, so who can prove we used a person’s image without their consent? Our company already consulted a law firm about it. Don’t worry, if the person sues our company and our company loses in court the case will increase our company’s publicity and sales.’
End of Chapter Twenty-Nine