28 Chapter 28

◎ "Next time you are afraid of the dark, you can hug me."◎

Although it was her first time as a model, the wedding photo shoot was not difficult and did not require any close interaction. Yang Xueyi only had to stand properly next to Ying Yun and take a dignified photo of the two of them.

In just half a day, Yang Xueyi received her daily salary of one thousand, and Ying Yun received his six hundred.

Perhaps because the amount of money was much less than Yang Xueyi's, when Ying Yun received the money, there was no trace of joy on his face as if he had received a windfall.

Yang Xueyi couldn't bear to watch it any longer: "Six hundred is a bit too little."

Sure enough, after hearing this, Ying Yun raised his head and his expression relaxed a little, as if Yang Xueyi had finally said something fair.

Yang Xueyi sighed: "At least 700!"

Ying Yun stared at Yang Xueyi, his voice slightly raised, and asked in disbelief: "Seven hundred? I'm worth seven hundred?"

Yes! It's entirely possible to raise the total by a hundred! His surprise is completely understandable.

"Of course you're still worth seven hundred!" Yang Xueyi said earnestly, "It's just that you revealed your cards too quickly. Even if your psychological price was six hundred, you couldn't have just lowered your price right then. The male model wanted eight hundred, so you could have asked for seven hundred and fifty. After a couple of rounds of haggling, you could have at least settled on seven hundred!"

She lamented, "Just because you're inexperienced, you've lost a hundred dollars!"

Ying Yun pursed his lips. He was probably in a bad mood because he missed out on a huge sum of money. His face was dark and he seemed unable to utter a word.

Alas, it is already very difficult for the young master to go into business for money, and asking him to lose face and bargain may be a bit unreasonable.

Yang Xueyi patted Ying Yun's shoulder and said, "Forget it. Think positively. Just give yourself two more red envelopes when you order takeout and make back the 100 yuan difference."

"Inflated red envelope?"

Yang Xueyi was stunned: "You don't understand this?"

Ying Yun pursed his lips and said simply: "I don't eat takeout."

Yes, eating takeout also requires a certain level of financial resources, and Ying Yun doesn't have that kind of money right now! As long as he's not on duty, he goes home for every meal. He's more punctual than a dog who brings his own bowl every day at mealtime.

No matter what, Yang Xueyi is not a stingy person.

After making a small profit, she increased the investment in meals in the near future and improved the quality. Ying Yun seemed to be easy to feed. He ate the meals cooked by Yang Xueyi every day and was surprisingly not difficult to feed. He also became very good at washing dishes and could wash them quickly and well.

Yang Xueyi returned to the workplace. There was a lot to learn in the field of medical translation. She stayed up all night for several nights and had to drink a cup of instant coffee every morning to stay alive. Ying Yun saw this and the young master also made a cup like Yang Xueyi. After just one sip, he frowned in disbelief, obviously surprised by the poor taste.

However, perhaps because he had been poor before and had become more down-to-earth, Ying Yun no longer spoke wildly about the taste of instant coffee. He just looked at Yang Xueyi silently with a complicated look in his eyes.

However, perhaps because he had such bad luck, fate gave Ying Yun some small treats as compensation.

A few days later, Ying Yun brought home a coffee machine, saying it was a bank promotion and he redeemed it using his previous bank card points.

Yang Xueyi checked the brand and was immediately shocked. "What kind of bank is this? They're offering such an expensive coffee machine for a promotion? And they only use points to redeem it! I want to apply for a card too!"

Ying Yun paused, then said awkwardly, "It's for old customers." He glanced at Yang Xueyi and added, "You know, I used to have a lot of turnover and a lot of points."

oh……

Yang Xueyi thought sourly that bank cards actually have such good promotions for big customers.

But none of this matters. What matters is that Yang Xueyi no longer has to drink instant coffee every morning, but can drink real quality and fragrant freshly brewed coffee - of course, this job also falls to Ying Yun.

Since accidentally discovering that fermented compost made coffee grounds a great fertilizer for flowers, Yang Xueyi assigned Ying Yun a new job - after cleaning the coffee machine, she would ferment the coffee grounds and then fertilize the rose pots she planted on the balcony.

Poverty made Ying Yun more hardworking and he accepted Yang Xueyi's arrangements with almost no resistance, and he worked better and faster.

At the same time, Yang Xueyi's new job was on track. After doing odd jobs for her colleagues for a while, her translation skills and work quality were well-known. Soon, the project manager in charge of her assigned her a translation job to be completed by her alone.

The client is a medical device company, and the contracts that need to be translated are related to medical devices. These contracts involve not only medicine but also professional terms in the fields of machinery and electronics. The professional knowledge points are dense and the disciplines are intertwined and complex, making the translation quite difficult and an urgent task.

Of course, corresponding to this, there is also a lot of money.

To this end, Yang Xueyi worked hard translating in the company during the day and worked overtime at night.

Medical translation is very professional. Even if a medical student changes his career to become a translator, he cannot master all the professional terms in medical translation, let alone an English graduate like Yang Xueyi. This is an industry that requires lifelong learning.

In order to carefully translate this contract, Yang Xueyi spent the past few nights in a nearby library, looking through dictionaries and studying relevant journals in the library. Each major journal has corresponding standards to follow, and there are many parallel texts available in the journals. She referred to the relevant translations of medical devices and strived to achieve greater accuracy.

Ying Yun also has night shifts these two days. I don’t know if the department is bullying him because he is poor, but the night shifts are so frequent that it’s a bit outrageous.

But it was quite a coincidence that there were several times when the library was closed and Yang Xueyi left, and she actually met Ying Yun who was going home from get off work not far from the library entrance.

Although his residence is within walking distance to the hospital, it would be inconvenient to drive and park there, but Ying Yun, probably because he is used to behaving like a rich young master, actually insists on driving to and from get off work every day.

Nowadays, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and it is already a bit chilly at night due to the heavy night dew. Yang Xueyi is also happy to take a ride.

But I won’t be able to get it tonight because Ying Yun’s night shift has ended.

Yang Xueyi bit her lip and continued to struggle with the English characters in front of her.

**

In fact, Ying Yun didn't have many night shifts recently, but since Yang Xueyi once said that there was a stalker in the community, in order to prevent her from getting into any safety problems, he was embarrassed to explain to Aunt Yang, but he didn't want Yang Xueyi to think too much, so he claimed that it was on his way home from the night shift and drove Yang Xueyi a few times.

It’s a pity that Yang Xueyi overheard the phone call with Yu Shi this morning and learned that Ying Yun did not have the night shift tonight and it was inconvenient for Ying Yun to drive out.

There was no night shift today, and no need to pick up Yang Xueyi. Ying Yun could have gone home early, but Yu Shi stopped him midway.

"Give me a ride! Take me to the next subway station!"

Not only did this guy freeload, he also had no sense of self-awareness. As soon as he got in the car, he started to speak nonsense: "You said you only have such a short distance to go, and you drive to work? You don't even mind the trouble of finding a parking space."

"Who drives the other doctors in the hospital who live close to the hospital, except for those who are in love and need to pick up their girlfriends? You don't even have a partner, so why would you drive? Do you know about low-carbon travel?"

Fortunately, Ying Yun always drives seriously, so in order not to be distracted, he just pretended not to hear.

If they were any later, there would definitely be traffic jams during the evening rush hour, so as soon as they arrived at the subway station, Ying Yun immediately asked Yu Shi to get off the bus. Without even saying hello to him, he turned around and drove away.

As soon as he got home, Zhong Tian called.

"Yang Xueyi, the person you recommended, is really capable at work. She's down-to-earth and hardworking. Her work is exceptional, and she's especially willing to delve into research. You've truly found a gem."

It sounded like he was here to express his gratitude, but Zhong Tian's tone quickly turned plaintive. "She's so beautiful, but I didn't expect her to be a workaholic. She was quite enthusiastic towards me before, but I don't know why, but she suddenly took a turn for the worse and started to draw a clear line between superior and subordinate. It seems like I'm going to be single again!"

Zhong Tian was very frustrated: "Brother, I'm sorry for your kindness! You've helped me get to this point, and it's all my fault! It seems I can't share my good news with you!"

Ying Yun pursed her lips and thought to herself that she didn't really want to hear good news from him.

But still comforted: "Don't say that."

Zhong Tian was probably overly sensitive after being rejected by Yang Xueyi, and he immediately yelled, "Why do you sound like you're gloating?!"

"No." Ying Yun lowered his lips, "What does it have to do with me? I'm not that boring."

He said calmly, "Office romances affect your professionalism. Since you've already started your own business, there's no need to think about dating so soon. It's a good thing not to talk about it now. The most important thing for a man is to work hard on his career."

"Why didn't I realize you were so good at comforting people before! Ying Yun, you're so kind to me!"

Zhong Tian was happy again. He didn't dwell on the topic anymore and chatted with Ying Yun about something else. Just as Ying Yun was about to hang up, he heard Zhong Tian whisper, "The news just said that the barbaric construction of the municipal project in your area accidentally dug up two cables, causing a power outage in a large area. How is the hospital?"

Ying Yun glanced at the work group and found no news about power outages, and the electricity at home was also working normally.

But he suddenly remembered something, frowned and searched, immediately hung up the call with Zhong Tian, picked up the phone and rushed out.

**

According to the final deadline, Yang Xueyi set a translation workload for herself every day. However, when she had only half a page left to complete today's task, everything in front of her suddenly went dark and the power in the entire library went out.

Yang Xueyi subconsciously looked out the window and found that not only the library, but also the office building and supermarket outside the library were dark.

The clouds covered the moon, and even the moonlight was barely visible, and the library was pitch black.

Because of the sudden large-scale power outage, no one knew what was happening. Groups are always prone to panic in the face of unknown darkness. Some people around began to call for help, some rushed to run outside, noisy shouts came one after another, anxiety began to ferment, and negative emotions are naturally contagious, and it soon developed into everyone scrambling to run outside.

Yang Xueyi's scalp was tingling, and she just wanted to go to a bright place immediately.

But she tried hard to suppress her fear of the darkness. She turned on the flashlight on her mobile phone and wanted to run outside, but she fell down under the shoving of the crowd around her. The mobile phone, which was the only source of light, was thrown away, and the translation manuscript in her hand also scattered on the ground.

This is the result of her nearly a week of hard work on translation!

Yang Xueyi almost immediately fell to the ground and began to grope for her translation with the help of the lights from the mobile phones in the crowd.

There are ten in total.

When Yang Xueyi finally stumbled and found all ten pictures, she found that no one except her had left the study room.

The entire library was empty in an instant, with only faint voices coming from a few distant corners, but they seemed to be separated by a different space and were very far away from Yang Xueyi.

Yang Xueyi’s first reaction was to call Ying Yun. Ying Yun was at home and would be here soon.

With such belief, she finally groped and found the dropped mobile phone, but discovered that not only was the flashlight function gone, but the entire phone had been trampled beyond recognition, with the screen shattered and automatically shut down.

The unknown darkness and emptiness made the entire space seem even more terrifying. After the power was completely lost, not only was there no light, but even all sounds seemed to have disappeared.

The only pale moonlight filtered through the towering office buildings and shone in from the back window of the library, turning the bookshelves and desks in the light into giant monsters hidden in the darkness. Their outlines became distorted and unreal, and the places not illuminated by the light looked like vacuum black holes, as if they were harboring even more terrifying unknown creatures.

Long-lost memories were activated, and Yang Xueyi's fear almost reached its peak.

She is afraid of the dark.

The stress trauma associated with darkness was like a dormant monster, striking back violently at Yang Xueyi's most unexpected moment of weakness. Panic and anxiety suddenly broke out, and panic was automatically triggered, making Yang Xueyi's emotions uncontrollable.

Even though she kept telling herself that she had grown up and this time was different, Yang Xueyi still seemed like a helpless child trapped in a dark bookcase.

When she was a left-behind child, her grandmother had to work odd jobs and often delayed picking her up from school. The teacher who was forced to work overtime to take care of Yang Xueyi became quite resentful. After a few times, if she was dissatisfied at all, she would lock Yang Xueyi in the bookcase at school as a punishment.

Therefore, Yang Xueyi has never had a good experience with darkness.

Another memorable time was one night shortly after her fifteenth birthday.

Mr. and Mrs. Ying went out for a banquet, while Ms. Yang Meiying was assigned to clean another idle property of Ying Yun's family.

There were only Ying Yun and Yang Xueyi in the whole villa.

The power outage happened in an instant. In fear, Yang Xueyi didn't think too much. Driven by fear, she almost subconsciously approached Ying Yun and hugged Ying Yun like she used to hug her grandmother.

Then the next second, in the darkness, Ying Yun pushed her away violently.

Then came Ying Yun's loud rebuke: "Yang Xueyi! What are you doing!"

The eighteen-year-old Ying Yun's voice was as cold and arrogant as it is now: "Stay away from me!"

I don't know why, Ying Yun was just indifferent most of the time, but one time, he seemed extremely flustered. Yang Xueyi couldn't see his expression in the darkness, she could only feel the disbelief and gritted teeth in his voice, even with a slight tremor, as if he had discovered some terrible fact.

The darkness seemed to have cast some kind of spell on him, causing him to have an unacceptable reaction, and he became angry and humiliated.

As if Yang Xueyi were a virus, Ying Yun quickly moved away from her, almost in a state of panic, his tone unnatural and urgent: "Don't touch me! You killed my dog, and you still want to kill me?"

…

The power outage actually lasted only five minutes, but Yang Xueyi felt it was as long as five days and five nights.

Ying Yun's words defeated Yang Xueyi's fear of the darkness, but instead, she felt humiliated, ashamed, and endlessly wronged and sad.

The memory of when the power was restored has become vague, only Ying Yun’s scolding in the dark is still clear as if it happened yesterday after the baptism of time.

Yes, even if the phone is intact, what's the point of calling Ying Yun.

He may not come.

No one will come to save her.

Yang Xueyi huddled in a corner of the library, clutching her translation manuscript tightly.

"Yang Xueyi!"

"Yang Xueyi, where are you?"

…

The distant shouts seemed to come from another dimension, and the cold voice, which had hardly changed from the past, now carried a hint of panic and impatience.

Was he so frightened that he started hallucinating? And he even hallucinated Ying Yun's voice?

However, in Yang Xueyi's self-doubt, the voice came from far away and finally stopped above Yang Xueyi's head, turning into a real and firm syllable.

Following the light of the flashlight in Ying Yun's hand, Yang Xueyi looked up and saw the expression on Ying Yun's face. There was some unreal panic and worry. His chest was heaving up and down, and he was panting, as if he had run.

When Ying Yun squatted down, his face was as calm and indifferent as usual. The panic just now was probably an illusion of Yang Xueyi due to the change in light.

He frowned slightly: "Why didn't you leave?"

It only takes two words to say "afraid of the dark", but for no reason, Yang Xueyi felt ashamed. A 25-year-old was actually so afraid of the dark that her legs went weak.

She panicked subconsciously and said, "I, I sprained my ankle. Someone just pushed me down and stepped on me. I don't know if it's broken..."

Ying Yun bit the phone between his lips and, using the light, almost immediately lifted up Yang Xueyi's trouser leg. His cold fingers briefly touched Yang Xueyi's left ankle. His movements were professional and flawless. After checking that everything was correct, he lifted Yang Xueyi's right foot...

In fact, Yang Xueyi regretted it after she said it.

Ying Yun is an orthopedic surgeon, what kind of lie is she telling!

He probably had discovered Yang Xueyi's lie. Ying Yun's fingers were still on Yang Xueyi's right ankle. His eyelids were slightly raised, and he looked at Yang Xueyi unrealistically in the ambiguous dim light of the mobile phone.

Yang Xueyi suddenly felt like a newly hired vixen with poor skills. She had the audacity to mistakenly believe that Ying Yun was a scholar who knew nothing about the world and was showing off her skills in front of this expert demon hunter...

I don't know how he will laugh at me.

Yang Xueyi's face became hot, and she wished she could erase her existence from this world.

Just die!

After a moment, in silence, Ying Yun turned off his phone, and the surroundings fell into darkness again.

Could it be that Ying Yun thought she was pretending and was going to abandon Yang Xueyi and run away?

But soon, Ying Yun told Yang Xueyi the answer with practical actions——

The next second, Yang Xueyi's body felt empty, and a warm and strong arm stretched across her shoulders and held her in his arms.

Ying Yun said nothing, his appearance was calm, his movements were natural, and he performed them in one go, smoothly and effortlessly.

Instead, Yang Xueyi cried out in shock amidst her pounding heart: "Ying Yun!"

Although he was holding Yang Xueyi, who was so big, Ying Yun still walked with a brisk pace as if he were walking on flat ground. After a while, he had carried Yang Xueyi out of the library.

At this moment, on the flat ground outside the library, there were still men and women waiting for the bus to go home. Ying Yun was holding Yang Xueyi, ignoring the various inquiring and curious eyes around him, and was frank and natural.

In the end, it was Yang Xueyi who couldn't stand it anymore because of embarrassment: "Ying Yun, why are you hugging me!"

"Didn't you say it was broken?"

That's fake!

Ying Yun glanced at Yang Xueyi calmly and said, "I just took a quick look and it's a fracture."

Yang Xueyi was very shocked. Is this the ability of the attending physician of the orthopedics department of a Grade A hospital?

Ying Yun, are you a quack?!

The quack doctor himself was completely unaware: "There's a large-scale power outage in this area, many people are stranded, and there's traffic jams both for taxis and cars. You have a broken bone, I'll carry you."

…

"No!"

At this moment, Yang Xueyi's fear of the darkness had disappeared. The heat from Ying Yun's body made her feel uncomfortable and her heartbeat accelerated, making her want to jump away from Ying Yun immediately.

"Have you forgotten? You said I killed your dog, which is bad luck, and I might even bring bad luck to you. I thought it over and decided it's better to believe it than not. I'd better stay away from you!"

I heard that doctors are also very superstitious, and the word "unlucky" really made Ying Yun pause.

Just a moment later, Yang Xueyi heard him speak coldly: "I'm sorry about what happened in the past. I didn't know it then."

Ying Yun's voice sounded a little unnatural: "It was only a few years later that I learned about your childhood experiences from Aunt Yang."

"I didn't get the chance to apologize before."

"Something happened when I was eighteen. I was in a bad mood and a terrible person. I said a lot of hurtful things. I'm sorry, Yang Xueyi."

Yang Xueyi was stunned. After ten years, she actually heard Ying Yun's apology.

After ten years, has Ying Yun grown into an adult who can reflect on himself?

Has the outdated young master finally realized that the saying that dogs can kill people is nonsense and feudal superstition?

Just as Yang Xueyi was about to express that she no longer cared, she heard Ying Yun continue:

"Go ahead. I'm not afraid anymore."

?

Ying Yun gave Yang Xueyi a blank look and said, "I only buy Nike now."

Yang Xueyi: "..."

Fortunately, after Ying Yun finished speaking, he probably realized that something was wrong and immediately changed his words: "It's not a matter of whether it's strong or weak."

He spoke unnaturally, "I was unable to regulate my emotions at the time. I was in the rebellious period of adolescence when everyone hated me, and then something happened. You are completely innocent, and it's only right that you hate me. It's my fault."

Ying Yun apologized again, his tone much more serious: "Yang Xueyi, I'm sorry."

Just when Yang Xueyi was speechless and didn't know what to say next, Ying Yun's voice rang out again -

"Next time you're afraid of the dark, you can hug me and I won't be such a jerk anymore."

【Author’s words】

In the past, when the young master was suddenly hugged, his body actually...

Ying Yun's perspective in the mini-theater: My defense is broken! My family! My body is too cheap! It's not worthy of my cool personality.

200 red envelopes in this chapter [shy]