Chapter 197 Dumb Puppy Hey, Hey

Zhu Yingning learned Xu Sirui's private address in Shanghai from Zheng Boyu. After landing in Shanghai, she took a taxi straight to her destination.

Although I rushed to the airport as soon as I got off work, the journey to the airport took time, the waiting time for boarding took time, and the ride from the airport to Xu Sirui's house also took time. By the time I finally arrived at his door, it was already past ten o'clock in the evening.

The moment she stood at the door, she suddenly backed away, worried that he was resting inside and that if she rashly pressed the doorbell, she would wake him up.

Although there was no actual evidence, Zhu Yingning had already imagined in detail the scene of him tossing and turning with a serious illness, finally falling asleep due to the pain, but being tragically awakened by her doorbell.

Xu Sirui lives in a residential complex and enters and exits by swiping a card or using a password. She was able to get in thanks to the password Zheng Boyu told her, so from the moment she decided to come to Shanghai yesterday to the moment she actually arrived in Shanghai, she did not disturb him the whole time.

Now that I think about it, I should have alerted him in advance.

Zhu Yingning regretted it so much that she could only try to send him a message on her mobile phone, asking him if he was asleep.

Xu Sirui did not reply.

...Looks like he really fell asleep.

She sighed, wondering whether she should book a hotel room nearby for the night or wait outside the door until he woke up. The latter option sounded silly, but there was a reason for it—she had a strange fear that Xu Sirui was neither awake nor asleep, but had passed out.

You couldn't blame her for worrying. According to Zheng Boyu, Xu Sirui had always lived alone, and his relationships with the neighbors seemed average, practically nonexistent. To put it bluntly, even if he died inside, it might take two or three days for someone to discover his body. Furthermore, Xu Sirui lacked common sense and was so delicate, he certainly couldn't muster the energy to properly care for himself while seriously ill. Ordering takeout was considered a good idea; I was worried he'd be too listless to even bother ordering.

Zhu Yingning stood at the door, thinking about this and that, and was so confused that she didn't know what to do. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that Xu Sirui had most likely fainted inside.

At this moment, there was a ding-dong sound from the elevator not far behind her, and the elevator door suddenly opened at her floor.

She was startled, worried that the person who came was a resident on this floor. Seeing her as a stranger wandering aimlessly here, they would misunderstand her as a bad person with bad intentions. So she could only pretend to be busy, lowered her head to unlock her phone, and waved her fingers quickly at the screen, trying to create the illusion that she was busy sending messages to the owner of the house instead of doing nothing.

An elderly woman emerged from the elevator. Her half-black, half-silver hair was meticulously combed back into a tight ponytail. She was carrying two bags full of groceries from Hema. As she passed by Zhu Yingning, the woman glanced at her suspiciously for a few moments before she brushed past her and walked straight to Xu Sirui's door.

The next second, the old lady skillfully rang the doorbell of Xu Sirui's house.

Um? ? ?

Zhu Yingning looked at the old lady in surprise, then looked at the doorbell that she had rung naturally.

She didn't remember Xu Sirui having such a relative. Given his personality, it was even more unlikely that he would have a friend with such a large age gap—he wasn't known to be so friendly and easygoing. So who was this old lady...?

Could it be that she remembered the address Zheng Boyu told her incorrectly and mistook someone else's home for Xu Sirui's?

Zhu Yingning was extremely embarrassed. Just as she was about to take out her cell phone to check the floor number Zheng Boyu had sent her to confirm, she saw the door open from the inside.

Xu Sirui walked out of the house wrapped in a blanket and wearing a black mask. He first glanced at the old lady, then turned sideways as if to let her into the house, and then his eyes inadvertently swept across Zhu Yingning's face.

Stop halfway through the sweep.

He widened his eyes in astonishment, blinked hard, closed his eyes, paused for a few seconds, and then widened his eyes again.

“…”

“…”

Zhu Yingning and he looked at each other in silence from a distance.

The old lady also noticed something was wrong. She turned around and looked at Zhu Yingning, then said to Xu Sirui, "Sir, do you know this girl? I saw her standing at your door looking suspicious. She wasn't texting at all, but she pretended to be. It's very suspicious."

Zhu Yingning: “…”

She felt deeply that her most urgent task was to install a privacy screen protector on her phone.

The old lady continued, "If you don't know her, I can go downstairs and ask the security guard to help chase her away, but you'll have to pay me extra. The salary you give me is only enough for me to cook dinner for you tonight. Although I charge by the hour, this extra service is not included in my hourly rate."

Combined with the two large bags of food in her hands, Zhu Yingning finally realized that she was the hourly worker hired by Xu Sirui.

She found it a little funny, but at the same time, she suddenly felt a subtle sense of loss.

Her impression of him still remained on the scene of him being unable to move due to illness in middle school and high school and needing others to take care of him. But when she thought about it carefully, they had been separated for so many years, and without her knowing, he must have learned to take care of himself a long time ago, and was no longer the person who showed his pampered and fragile nature when he was sick.

Did he really need her to come? Wouldn't it be too presumptuous of her to come all of a sudden?

The light in the corridor made her smile look pale and haggard.

Xu Sirui looked at her for a while, took the two bags from the hourly worker with one hand, and quickly typed a line on his mobile phone with the other hand and showed it to the aunt.

After reading it, the aunt showed a surprised expression, and then said: "Oh...I don't mind, anyway, I have already taken your money, there is nothing to lose, but are you sure you really don't need me to cook for you?"

Xu Sirui waved his hand to make a gesture of no use.

The aunt left, looking back every few steps.

After watching her figure disappear in the closing elevator door, Zhu Yingning turned around and looked at Xu Sirui. Before he could say any opening remarks, he reached out and pulled her in.

The door closed behind her, blocking out the light from the hallway. With no lights on in the room, she was left with complete darkness. She stood in the bright hallway for a long time, her eyes still unable to adjust to the darkness. She subconsciously reached for her side, only to realize she had accidentally grabbed onto his blanket and quickly let go.

A few breaths later, the cold light of a cell phone screen lit up in the dark room, illuminating his eyes. Looking closely, she realized that his face beneath the mask was faintly flushed from the fever. His long, thick eyelashes drooped, covering most of his eyes. He looked listless and listless.

He opened the memo and typed on it, asking her, "Did you come here after work? By plane?"

Zhu Yingning didn't answer his question directly, but pointed at his throat: "What's wrong with your throat? Can't you speak?"

Xu Sirui shook his head and continued typing: "I can speak. But my voice is unpleasant, so I don't want to speak."

"So you didn't answer my call yesterday because your voice was bad?" she laughed.

He typed for emphasis: "...it's really hard to hear."

He was obsessed with his image, so Zhu Yingning didn't make things difficult for him. She reached out and touched his forehead. She could feel the heat on his forehead with just her palm.

"Have you taken your fever-reducing medicine?" she asked.

Xu Sirui nodded.

"When did you eat it?"

He held up his phone with both hands: "Two o'clock in the afternoon."

Zhu Yingning thought about the instructions for the antipyretic: "It's been eight hours, you can take another one." He turned around to look for the antipyretic, but after a few steps he remembered that he was not familiar with his house. He could only turn back and ask, "Where is the antipyretic?"

Xu Sirui didn't answer. He stood there blankly holding his phone, staring at her motionlessly, his eyes blank, as if focused and yet out of focus on her face.

She waited for a while, but got no answer. She smiled helplessly and said, "...Are you stupid, Xu Sirui? Why are you looking at me? I'm asking you a question. Where is the fever-reducing medicine? Hey... Hey, you..."

The meaningless interjections at the end were because she saw his red eyes. Although red could also mean feverish, she remembered that his eyes were not like that a few minutes ago.

She was so shocked that she forgot what to say. She uttered a few silly "eh" sounds, paused, and then couldn't help laughing.

The laughter was not loud, nor was it meant to mock. It was simply because she felt that he looked like a poor dumb puppy as he stood there holding his phone screen seriously and sadly.

I reached out to pat his chest and tell him, "Okay, stop doing this," but as soon as I raised my hand, he grabbed my wrist.

The temperature of his palm was incredibly hot, burning the cold skin of her wrist.

The next second he suddenly opened the blanket and wrapped her in it.