Chapter 72
The night breeze was refreshing, and the branches and leaves of the banyan tree rustled as if clapping their hands. The leaves swayed and fell, rolling all over them with a playful laugh.
In the midst of the tranquil joy, even the man's indifference and aloofness seemed to dissipate somewhat.
He, on the other hand, remained unmoved by any storms or upheavals.
Jiang Li curled his lips: "Give you back what?"
The tone was a bit too assertive, which puzzled Guan Nan. She thought that since she had asked, the man who picked up her things should return them.
But he seemed completely unaware of the situation.
Guan Nan turned his hand over and pointed to the little gadget in his hand.
“Oh,” Jiang Li said slowly, handing it to her. “Here you go.”
Guan Nan was taken aback: "What would I do with your phone?"
"If you don't want it, then here you are." Jiang Li's eyes crinkled at the corners, and he smiled in a friendly yet innocent way.
"······"
How familiar and slightly roguish Jiang Li is! Guan Nan sighed silently, handed the phone back to him, and stated in a calm tone, "It fell out of my bag just now, and I saw you pick it up."
Jiang Li looked up at her and asked, "How do you know it must be me?"
"...There seems to be no one else here besides you." Guan Nan felt helpless, as there was no way to reason with him, so she followed his tone and said.
Jiang Li stared at her for a few seconds, then said, "That's not necessarily true."
"······"
“Jiang Li,” Guan Nan called out his name for the first time since their reunion, her voice soft, “that’s mine.”
"Oh, so you know my name now?" Jiang Li's tone was surprisingly sarcastic, blunt and mocking. "You're so busy, I thought you'd long forgotten about lowly minions like us. How rare."
Faced with Jiang Li's behavior, Guan Nan felt a bit frustrated and had a headache. She muttered to herself, "His name is Jiang Li, not 'unreasonable,' so why is he so unreasonable?"
The whispered words were carried by the wind; it's unclear whether they reached his ears.
But Jiang Li just stared straight at her.
Under that gaze, Guan Nan felt inexplicably guilty. She looked away and said in despair, "Then take it, I don't want it."
Just as she was about to leave, Jiang Li asked in a lazy yet barbed tone, "For me?"
Or else?
You refuse to pay it back.
Guan Nan didn't say it aloud, otherwise she might be labeled as presumptuous and self-righteous again.
She pursed her lips, gripped her canvas bag tightly, and nodded reluctantly.
Jiang Li twisted the retractable cord, the bracelet completely open and scattered, the silver coins dazzling in the halo of the streetlight: "But aren't these my things?"
"······"
Guan Nan said with a straight face, "This is mine."
"Is that so?" Jiang Li said calmly, "Then why is my name written on it?"
His name is on the coin?
Guan Nan wore this bracelet for six years, and she herself couldn't remember how many times she had caressed and examined it, but there was not a single word related to Jiang Li on it.
After hearing this, she looked completely bewildered, clearly unaware of the situation.
Guan Nan wanted to say something, but couldn't say anything.
She simply stopped talking and said she didn't want it anymore.
As if by some kind of premonition, the next second, Jiang Li didn't even glance at her again, and stuffed the bracelet into his pocket right in front of her, acting with utter self-righteousness.
"······"
After saying goodbye to him, Guan Nan left first, walking slowly along Renmin Branch Road.
As we continued forward, the trees provided dense shade, their tall branches intertwined.
Walking on this long and endless road, Guan Nan couldn't help but drift off into thinking about all the plans he had made before. But after facing Jiang Li time and time again, his meticulous and rational chessboard shattered into pieces.
She wanted to have a proper talk with Jiang Li countless times.
However, due to moral and ethical constraints, she not only dared not speak much, but also lacked the courage to get too close to him.
Perhaps in the past, or more precisely, during her middle school years, Jiang Li was rarely willing to give her a kind look or be her friend. Now, however, he no longer expects a kind look, and even a pleasant tone of voice has become a rarity.
Guan Nan sighed softly.
To say that no one liked her would be true; there were some, but her heart was too small to hold anyone but that one person. And that person, unfortunately, was a red line she couldn't cross.
This meant that every time she encountered Jiang Li, she felt both fortunate and tormented by moral dilemmas.
Guan Nan was walking slowly forward when her phone vibrated in her canvas bag.
She answered the phone and heard Ye Na say, "Nan, have you gone far? Where are you?"
Guan Nan looked up at the grocery store not far away: "Almost home."
"Isn't Jiang Li with you?" Yu Shu asked hurriedly from Ye Na's end. "He just called me and said his appendicitis has flared up. Could you go to Feijiu to check on him? If it's serious, could you take him to the hospital?"
Guan Nan: "Appendicitis?"
"Yes, he was admitted to the hospital a while ago, and he hasn't gone for his follow-up appointment yet."
Guan Nan knew when she last went to the hospital, but she didn't know why the follow-up appointment had been delayed until now.
After hanging up the phone, Guan Nan hesitated for a moment, torn between calling him for an ambulance or checking on the situation first. But then she remembered that she had just ridden in his car, even though he hadn't been very nice to her.
Guan Nan hesitated for a moment, but still decided to be a grateful person.
When I went back, he was still sitting there.
He was hunched over, rubbing his abdomen with his palms out. He looked somewhat uncomfortable.
Just now, he was doing the same thing, his hand holding the phone would occasionally rest against his side. At the time, Guan Nan just thought he was used to being lazy, leaning on whatever he could find, pretending to be nonchalant.
Guan Nan walked up to him and squatted down.
"Didn't you leave? Why are you back?" Jiang Li paused, then subtly moved aside, leaning back with his limbs outstretched, once again displaying that arrogant and lazy spoiled brat demeanor.
"Jiang Li," Guan Nan looked up, gazing into those clear eyes, a lump forming in her throat, "Are you in pain?"
Jiang Li slowly lowered his eyes and gazed at her across the distance for a moment.
The intensity of the attacking gaze diminished sharply, becoming subtle and difficult to articulate.
But the next second, he curled his lips into a half-smile and asked, "Which aspect are you referring to?"
This person is too vengeful and always likes to misinterpret their own meaning.
"But...why not say it?" Guan Nan opened her lips, her tone strained as if she had lost all her strength, her voice soft and low.
Hearing this, Jiang Li stared at her and said urgently, "You asked me?"
It was at this moment that Guan Nan vaguely realized...
He seemed to be blaming her.
But his words seemed to come out casually, because Jiang Li didn't give her any time to think. He ordered her around without hesitation, and was very polite: "Excuse me, could you take me back to my coffee shop?"
Looking at the hand that was being placed on hers, Guan Nan had a feeling that she was in a palace drama, where the concubines were delicately raising their hands to support the eunuchs.
Thinking about it this way, if she's a eunuch, then what is Jiang Li?
Imperial Concubine?
So arrogant.
That does seem to make sense.
Just as she was stunned, Jiang Li pretended to pull his hand back: "If you don't want to, just say so. I hate forcing people."
Guan Nan snapped out of her daze and said awkwardly in a low voice, "I didn't say I didn't want to."
Ignoring the burning sensation on her cheeks, Guan Nan calmly let him support her, keeping her head down as she hailed a taxi. After hailing the taxi, she remembered that he didn't seem to be feeling well that evening, and that receiving an IV on an empty stomach could easily cause nausea, so she asked, "Would you like some millet porridge?"
Jiang Li paused for a few seconds, as if he was thinking seriously.
"You can't drink Sprite," Guan Nan reminded her.
Upon hearing this, he turned his head, his expression once again revealing a complex and subtle understanding, tinged with a hint of mockery.
Guan Nan made him feel uncomfortable, so he lowered his head and scrolled through the food delivery app. It was too late, and there weren't many restaurants still open and suitable for patients.
Barbecue, fried skewers, crayfish.
There were only a few porridge shops, and the scene seemed rather lackluster as I looked around.
"Then I'll have plain porridge." Guan Nan pondered for a while, added millet porridge to her shopping cart, then selected plain porridge, and finally asked him about the price before placing the order.
Jiang Li: "Whatever."
"······"
People who are easygoing are the hardest to please.
After a two-second silence, Guan Nan wrote in the notes: "Please have the shopkeeper pack the white sugar separately."
The ride-hailing service was quick at night, and just then the driver called. Guan Nan answered the phone and politely said, "Hello."
"Hello, hello," the driver said on the phone. He had arrived at his destination. At the entrance of Hecangyuan, unfamiliar license plates not registered with the community could not pass through the gate, so they would have to walk out on their own.
After listening, Guan Nan asked, "Are you still able to walk?"
"Where are you going to take me?" Jiang Li didn't answer, but instead asked in return.
His belated alertness made Guan Nan sigh inwardly, "It can't be that it's been sold."
That didn't seem quite right, so she added very sincerely, "Besides, someone as precious as you, no one could afford to buy you, right?"
Jiang Li snorted coldly, as if to say that she still had some self-awareness.
They chatted idly about unimportant things.
Before I knew it, I had reached the door.
"Hey," the driver said with a smile as he saw him helping someone out, "how much did they drink?"
Guan Nan gave a dry laugh: "He didn't drink."
The driver had heard this kind of thing from young people many times before, so he smiled and said, "You haven't had any drinks? You can't even stand up straight now. Without you, you'd probably be lying on the side of the road."
Although she moved like a eunuch, Jiang Li walked the entire way on his own.
The act of helping was merely decorative.
Jiang Li, upon hearing this, nodded to the driver, opened the car door, and stepped inside. There was an empty seat in the back, and the door wasn't closed.
"Young lady, sit in the back. There are trash bags there. If your boyfriend throws up later, you can catch some for him." The driver turned halfway to the side, pulled out a trash bag, and handed it to her. "Two hundred if he throws up on the bus."
Guan Nan was about to explain, "He's not—"
Then Jiang Li said impatiently, "Aren't you coming up?"
Seeing that she couldn't explain herself, Guan Nan simply got into the car in silence and didn't say a word afterward.
She turned to look out the window. In recent years, Fuling has developed into a tourist city, with events of all sizes held every year. Some people have stayed, while others have only taken a cursory look around before leaving.
It's very popular online, and the traffic and visitor numbers haven't decreased. I heard that some people even came because of a certain celebrity.
But this seems unlikely, since that celebrity is busy eating, drinking, and having fun every day, and doesn't do anything like an artist, let alone meet with fans.
Recalling Xie Qiao's words, Guan Nan couldn't help but turn her head and glance at the person sitting next to her.
The car was dimly lit. The man casually glanced over, his upturned eyes captivating, without any deliberate attempt to avoid the gaze.
His gaze was direct, intense, and full of meaning.
Just as Guan Nan was about to look away, the driver stepped on the brakes.
We've arrived at the hospital.
Last time, there was a big misunderstanding, which meant that the doctor who treated him this time happened to be on the night shift and remembered him. Not only did the doctor accurately say his name, but he also pulled up his medical records and knew perfectly well that he hadn't come for his follow-up appointment.
The embarrassing truth was revealed just like that, and Jiang Li remained expressionless, showing no emotion whatsoever.
I've already had the skin test.
Guan Nan stood with him in the infusion hall, waiting in line. The child in front of them had to get the needle in several times because the veins were too thin and the needles were too tight. The inaccurate needle insertion caused the parents to get angry and frown.
When they arrived at Jiangli, Guan Nan squeezed the child's box and said, "Excuse me, could you please put a little pad under it for him too?"
The nurse pinched the IV tubing and flicked the syringe: "Why would an adult need padding?"
“The needle will slip,” the nurse said, not wanting to put a pad on it. Guan Nan tried to reason with her again, but when that didn’t work, she made up a story, “He’s only sixteen, he just looks a bit older than his age. If the needle slips, he won’t be able to do his homework when he gets back.”
The nurse looked him over suspiciously.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Li glanced at her, seemingly condoning her without a word.
Unexpectedly, the nurse glanced at the injection fluid, then at Guan Nan, and handed him a flat medicine box to cushion his hand: "Next time, find a smarter excuse. This is too clumsy."
Guan Nan looked over and saw the label on the injection fluid.
Jiang Li, male, 25 years old
Guan Nan was speechless for a moment.
Holding the IV drip, she hung it on the hook after Jiang Li sat down, then picked up a bag of medicine and went to find the hot water room, only to realize she hadn't brought a water cup.
The medicine had just been started and wouldn't finish dripping so quickly, so she went out to buy a water cup.
When I got back, I received another call from the food delivery service, so I picked it up on the way back.
Guan Nan prepared the medicine, leaned against the wall, looked at her phone, and typed out the precautions one by one in her notes.
1. Maintain a regular diet and eat three meals a day on time.
2. Eat less cold food, avoid spicy and greasy food, and avoid mixing hot and cold foods.
3,
At this point, Guan Nan deleted the third point and added to the previous one, "Pay attention to sleep, avoid staying up late, staying up late damages the liver." After editing, she continued writing.
Prohibited: Sprite, alcoholic beverages, and leftover food.
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