Sooo my girl wanna do adventure in the midnight," Yuan said while giving his mischievous smile, of course the obvious one that he usually gives when he's going to do something in the Xu Yuan style way.
"Will my overprotective boyfriend allow me to do any adventure?" I asked.
He smiled and said, "Of course. Zhao Shiza's wish is Xu Yuan's command."
Then without wasting any time, he lifted me up from the bed on his back. I didn't even get a moment to realise what had just happened.
"Yuan, what are you doing?" I asked him shockingly.
He chuckled and said, "Can't you see? Just making my girlfriend experience some adventure here. I thought she must be getting bored sitting here for so long on this hospital bed, so I thought to make her entertained."
"What kind of entertainment is this, Yuan? I think you have forgotten that I am a patient. Just a few hours before, I got a transfusion done. I am weak, you can't—" I was about to complete my sentence, but he stopped me midway and said, "Don't you dare. Don't you really dare to call my girl a weak person. She is never a weak person. In fact, she is the strongest girl I have ever met in my life," he said.
"Yuan, but only you think that way. Otherwise, I am a weak person. Deep inside me, I know it too," I said in my small voice.
"Done with accusing my girl?" he asked.
"What?" I asked him.
He smiled faintly and said, "You are literally interrupting my girl's adventure by talking these useless things about her."
"Ooo really? Okay then, make your girl feel adventurous. I won't say a word," I said.
"Promise?" he asked.
I smiled and said, "Yuan's promise that Shiza can never be able to break."
He smiled. "Then Shiza must have gotten caught in a wrong promise. So does that mean Yuan's promise can make Shiza do anything?" he asked.
I smiled and said, "Now who is forgetting about the adventure, hm?" I asked.
"Okay," he said. Then he took me out of my room on his back. We were walking in the corridor, but no one was there. It was late night time; all the patients must have slept by now. Doctors and nurses were also not taking rounds here. Maybe their round duty was over, or maybe they would come later.
"Yuan, is your back okay? I mean, isn't it too heavy for you to carry?" I asked him.
He smiled and said, "What do you think about me, silly? Is your boyfriend, your Xu Yuan, that weak that he can't handle your weight? Don't worry. You are too light. I don't feel any burden on my back."
My smile faded for a moment and I said, "Yes, of course. You have lifted so many beautiful actresses in your drama series. You must be trained."
He noticed it and looked at me while tilting his head.
"Yuan, look straight. We'll fall if you do this," I said worriedly.
He smiled and said, "No, you won't fall. You'll never fall unless Shiza is with her Yuan. He will never let her fall."
"You are so good at making dialogues, isn't it? You really don't need a script to say anything," I said while smiling.
"Didn't you fall for me for this quality?" he asked.
I smiled and said, "Don't ask me for what I have fallen for you, because it's not a specific one. Let's not go there."
"How is that? At least give some examples," he asked.
"Okay, only because you are insisting. So listen. It's like I was standing in front of a deep ocean with heavy waves approaching towards me. Then suddenly, without thinking anything, without planning, without any reason, I just jumped into that ocean. When I got deep inside, I saw the most beautiful world in front of my eyes—the imaginary one that can never and will never exist in the real world."
"Hmm, so I am that deep ocean of yours where you have dived in, right?" he asked.
"I didn't say that," I replied.
"But you didn't refuse it either," he said.
I pinched his arm slightly and said, "Yuan, stop teasing me. I am a patient now. It's really, really not good for a patient who recently got a transfusion."
"What is not good for that patient?" he asked.
"This… making my heart flutter so much," I said.
He laughed and said, "Okay, I won't."
Then we walked forward in the corridor. While walking, a light was hanging from the ceiling. I got afraid that my head would collide with it. I buried my head down on his shoulder and said, "Yuan, down, down, down. We'll get hurt by it."
He smiled and said, "My silly girl, we don't need to bend. Don't be so overconfident on yourself."
"Overconfident on myself? What does that mean?" I asked him.
He smiled and said, "I am five feet eleven inches tall, but not you. You are just my tiny little silly girl who is barely five feet. So don't worry. No matter how low the light is hanging, we won't hurt ourselves."
"Yuan, now put me down. It's enough," I said.
"Okay, okay. Let me take you back to the room at least," he said.
I nodded my head.
Then we got back to the room. He put me down very carefully from his back onto the bed, then tucked the blanket over me and said, "Rest for a bit, you stubborn child."
I smiled and said, "You have already made me a dumpling by tucking this blanket over me like this."
He smiled and said, "Shanghai winters have not gone yet. It's only early February. You must stay warm. You already have cold body temperature and low blood sugar level, and with this new thing we have just explored today—your Rh-null blood group, the rarest one," he said in a quiet, worrying tone.
I got a little shocked when he said all this and asked him, "Yuan, how do you know that I have low blood sugar levels and cold body temperature?" I asked him suspiciously.
"Isn't there anything that I haven't known about my girl?" he replied.
"Yuan, tell me," I said.
"You don't need to know how I know this. You just need to know that I know. I know you. I know my girl," he said, carrying so much in his eyes that he couldn't say in words.
I chuckled and said, "You know what, Yuan? Today you made me remember my bàba. When I was seven years old, he always carried me on his back like this, the way you did today."
"So I am the second one after your bàba to carry you like this?" he asked.
I smiled and nodded my head. Since childhood, I decided that only bàba and my future— I was about to slip it from my mouth, but thank God I didn't. But it was enough for him.
"What future?" he asked immediately.
"Nothing. I mean future day today," I said while covering my mistake of words that I had just spilled.
"I got you, silly girl. I so got you," he said while smiling.
"What you got? There is nothing to get," I said, pretending to be confident.
"Then why are you blushing, silly girl?" he asked while coming a little closer to me.
"Blushing? Who is blushing? I think you are blushing. Stop putting your blushing on me, okay?" I said.
"Okay, fine. I am the one who is blushing. See, my ears and face have become so red," he said.
I covered my face with the blanket and said, "Stop it, Yuan."
He smiled and said, "What? I am just saying how much I am blushing. There is nothing to stop in it."
"Hmmm."
I put my head out from the blanket and asked him, "Why this long hmmm?"
"Nothing. I was just thinking something," he said.
"What are you thinking?" I asked.
"How rarest love I got," he said so casually.
"What? What? Yuan, please just go. I need to rest. Tomorrow we have to go back on set for shooting on time. Please, you go," I said.
He smiled and said, "Okay, okay, I am going," and then he went outside the room.
Finally, I let out a sigh of relief. Now I could control my blushing. I held my cheeks with both hands and said to myself, "Control, relax your emotions, Zhao Shiza. You can't always blush like a cherry plum in front of him every time. What will he think about you—a foolish person?"
"Who is foolish?" he asked.
I got startled. He was back again, holding my favourite vanilla ice cream with choco chips in his hand.
He entered the room, handed me the ice cream, and said, "Before going to bed, eating this will normalise your heart flutters and emotions that are going too high and low. It will relax you."
I immediately took it from his hand and said, "I am not agreeing with what you just said, but I'll take it."
I took a quick bite and said while closing my eyes, "This is the second best thing in this whole world," enjoying my ice cream.
"And who is the first best thing?" he asked.
I smiled and said, "Do I really need to answer it?"
He chuckled.
"Now who is blushing?" I said while pointing my finger at him.
He held my finger, put it down, and said, "Stop it, silly girl. Just eat it and go to sleep," while patting my head from behind.
I smiled and stayed busy eating my ice cream.
He watched me, thinking to himself things he never said out loud—how childish she is, eating like a kid who got her favourite candy at midnight; how every time he sees her, he feels the need to protect her; how the world is too loud for her and she is too tiny for it; how he can't let the world take advantage of her fragileness or innocence; how he can't let anyone think her kindness is weakness when it is actually her strongest quality; how he can't let the world ruin her—never.
It was a silent promise he made to her.
At the same time, he knew he couldn't tell her that her accident was pre-planned, because the moment she knew, she would go to Yang Lulu and start fighting. So hiding the truth for now was the best decision.
Suddenly she asked, "Where are you lost, Mr. Xu Yuan?"
"Nothing. Just lost in you," he said.
"How did you get ice cream at this late hour?" I asked.
"Is there anything your boyfriend can't do for his girl?" he asked.
"Don't tell me you made the shopkeeper open his shop for this ice cream," I asked.
He smiled and said, "How do you even know this? You are quite smarter than I expected."
"Yuan, you are literally like my bàba. You know what? He used to do the same thing when I was little," I said.
He smiled and asked, "Today you are mentioning your bàba so much. Are you missing him?"
"Hmm," I said.
"Did you call him?" he asked.
"No. He'll get worried. I'll call him after a few days," I said.
"Hmmm, as you think," he said.
"Yuan," I asked, "no one noticed you here, right? Otherwise there will be a big fuss."
"Don't worry. Your Xu Yuan has his ways to handle such matters," he said confidently, like always, in the typical Xu Yuan style.
I smiled, knowing he could handle it well.
He patted my head and said, "Now sleep, silly girl. I'll be back tomorrow," before leaving the room.
"Tomorrow, I want to see your face as the first thing the moment I open my eyes," I said.
He smiled and said, "Fine. Your Yuan's promise. And you know, Yuan's promise can't be broken at any cost."
"Good night," I said while closing my eyes.
He smiled back. "Good night to you too, silly girl."
Then he went outside the room after tucking me again in the blanket like a dumpling.
He reached the corridor, made a call, and said, "Handle this matter carefully. Make sure she doesn't even know about it…"