41-year-old Shen Fu still keeps a small ponytail.

His impeccably tailored suit gave him a rare air of refinement.

He held a blanket and pillow in his arms and placed them on the accompanying chair next to him: "What bad things did you say about us while your mother and I were away?"

“There’s no such thing as secretly. I always speak my mind openly.” Ning Yanshu raised her chin and said defiantly, “You didn’t even come to see me when I was sick. You don’t love me anymore.”

A vein throbbed on Shen Fu's forehead: "Ning Yanshu, you're already 14 years old..."

The implication is that you shouldn't be so childish.

But Ning Yanshu just loved to argue with him: "Love has absolutely nothing to do with age or gender."

The father and son were about to start their verbal sparring again.

Ning Wan stepped in at the right time to mediate and call a truce: "Alright, alright, let's eat first. We'll have the energy to keep arguing after we eat."

Shen Xu helped lift and place the small table next to the hospital bed.

Ning Yanshu couldn't help but swallow as she smelled the delicious aroma wafting from the lunchbox: "It smells so good! What are we having for dinner?"

"Rice porridge, stir-fried vegetables, and lean meat soup."

Looking at the three bland dishes laid out in front of him, Ning Yanshu was clearly not satisfied.

He asked with a pained expression, "Is this all the patients are supposed to eat?"

"You can't eat too much spicy or stimulating food after surgery, as it will increase the burden on your stomach and intestines." Ning Wan took out a spoon and handed it to him: "Do you know how to eat by yourself?"

Ning Yanshu raised her uninjured left hand and moved it: "It seems unlikely."

Before Ning Wan could even speak, Shen Xu had already taken the spoon from her and taken the initiative to feed Ning Yanshu.

Ning Yanshu was in a good mood, pointing at the meat one moment and staring at the vegetables the next.

Shen Xu thoughtfully fed it to him.

The treatment they received was comparable to that of ancient emperors.

Ning Wan found it amusing...

...

Considering that Ning Yanshu had just undergone surgery at noon and still faces many inconveniences in her daily life.

Moreover, the hospital needed a family member to stay at night for care. So Shen Xu volunteered to stay.

Ning Wan and Shen Fu did not object.

After dinner, the couple left together.

Shen Xu opened the cot and laid it flat, then neatly spread the blankets that Shen Fu had brought on it.

Ning Yanshu turned to the side, resting her cheek on her uninjured left hand, and looked at him with great interest.

Shen Xu is 16 years old this year.

Since moving to the school dormitory, I can only go home on weekends and holidays.

Perhaps it's because I've grown up.

Although Shen Xu and Ning Yanshu's relationship was not exactly distant, it was not as close as it had been in their childhood.

Due to his personality, Shen Xu doesn't like to talk to people.

Dull and introverted.

Having shed the naivety and immaturity of his childhood, he now possesses the refined elegance of a gentleman.

She has fair skin, a high nose bridge, and soft facial features between her eyebrows and eyes.

With a gentle and approachable demeanor, like jade.

Of all the people I've met, there's no one who doesn't like him.

Suddenly, Ning Yanshu's eyes lit up.

As if struck by a sudden thought, he became interested. He asked, "Shen Xu, do you have a girl you like?"

Shen Xu paused in his actions, then quickly replied, "No."

"So... how many girls like you and have confessed their feelings to you?"

"No."

"How is that possible?" Ning Yanshu's eyes widened, his expression exaggerated. "I don't believe it."

Shen Xu ignored him.

After making the bed, she went to the bathroom to fetch a basin of warm water to wash Ning Yanshu's face and get her ready.

He wrung out the towel, and Ning Yanshu tilted her head back and closed her eyes in response.

She kept chattering, "Look at you, you're pretty, you get good grades, and you have a gentle personality. When I was in kindergarten, all the girls in my class liked to play with you."

"Tang Tang used to always use the excuse of dragging me along, but actually she just wanted to play house with you. When we were in elementary school, people would always ask me to pass you love letters. Even after An An got you as her older brother, she stopped liking me, her stinky older brother."

Ning Yanshu ripped the towel off her face and looked at Shen Xu with bright, curious eyes: "So many people like you, don't you have a single person who likes you?"

Shen Xu felt inexplicably annoyed.

Without thinking, the question slipped out: "So, what about you? Do you like me?"

The air was briefly still.

Shen Xu was so nervous that his voice seemed to have gone hoarse.

The hand holding the water glass trembled slightly.

Ning Yanshu was stunned for a few seconds.

He then replied somewhat blankly, "Of course I like you. We grew up together, and you're even my uncle. Of course I like you."

Hearing Ning Yanshu's reply, Shen Xu's frustration only intensified.

He had to work hard to suppress his emotions in order to keep himself from losing control.

He liked him because they had grown up together and knew each other well.

He's still his uncle.

Ning Yanshu was right; he was the one who was wrong...

...

Shen Xu handed the water glass to Ning Yanshu: "Open your mouth, rinse your mouth, and spit it out."

Ning Yanshu said "Oh" and obediently did as instructed.

For some reason, he felt that Shen Xu seemed angry...

...

The atmosphere in the ward suddenly became somewhat awkward.

Shen Xu carried the washbasin back to the bathroom.

He turned on the tap, and the sound of the rushing water annoyed him.

The ripples on the pool's surface mirrored his restless heart.

When exactly did he begin to have different feelings for Ning Yanshu?

Perhaps it was my excessive dependence on him from childhood.

Or perhaps it's because Ning Yanshu is carefree and takes the initiative to be intimate on ordinary days.

Or perhaps it was his first dream, a dream during which he lost consciousness, and the beautiful scenes that occurred in the dream.

But when he realized that his feelings had changed, Shen Xu understood that he could never go back to the way things were before.

He doesn't have many friends.

Shen Yurong already has his own family.

He didn't know who to confide this unspeakable secret to.

In order not to hurt Ning Yanshu, Shen Xu took the initiative to suggest living at school.

When this heartless guy found out, he actually cut off all contact with me for a whole month...

...