Good boy
Ye Jia felt that Gu Anzhou's smile was stiff, like someone who had never smiled before smiling for the first time.
She didn't understand what it meant to be deaf for a moment. No, of course she understood, her father was deaf, but she couldn't connect Gu Anzhou with being deaf at all.
But many images flashed through my mind, such as his aloofness and indifference, her barging into his room and him not noticing while he was changing clothes, and her walking right up to him but him not noticing. All of these things happened on his left side.
"SSD?" Ye Jiajing paused for a moment, then asked in a slightly louder voice. She could see Gu Anzhou's unease, so she deliberately used a more professional term, "unilateral deafness," to let him know that she was knowledgeable about it.
Gu Anzhou was surprised. Most people wouldn't know this term, so... "Are there other hearing-impaired people around you?"
“My dad has severe hearing loss in both ears.”
Gu Anzhou remained silent. He had been wondering why her father hadn't left home to work when she mentioned cooking at home, but he hadn't asked, thinking it might be offensive. Now he knew the answer.
Ye Jia sensed heartache in Gu Anzhou's eyes, but she felt that he was the one who should be pitied at this moment.
She wanted to take his hand and say something to him, but it didn't seem appropriate. Luckily, his hand was constantly stroking the cat, so she could probably feel the warmth.
"Would it be more convenient for you if I sat over there?" Ye Jia asked him.
Gu Anzhou shook his head: "It's okay, I can read lips."
This way he would have a legitimate reason to look at her face.
Wow, all of them?
Gu Anzhou noticed that she enlarged her lips and the corners of her mouth curved slightly: "Not all of it, about two-thirds."
Ye Jia exclaimed "Wow!" again, then laughed: "You're really amazing. My dad can do that too, but he only understands the swear words. I said, what's so special about that? I can understand them too."
Gu Anzhou paused for a moment, then smiled too, a smile that was no longer forced, but natural and bright.
"Why?" Ye Jia looked at his seemingly unharmed left ear and still found it hard to believe. "Is it congenital?"
"The day after tomorrow."
"oh……"
Ye Jia lowered his head. The scars on his body, his ears—he was only in his twenties. Even in a high-risk profession, how could he have so many injuries?
He said he used to work in her hometown, which is a bit chaotic, bordering Southeast Asia, where drug trafficking and human trafficking are rampant. So, he is probably not an ordinary policeman.
A black claw pressed down on her hand.
Ye Jia looked up at the hand controlling the claw, then asked with a smile, "What are you doing?"
Gu Anzhou was a little nervous. He squeezed the black cat's paws so hard that the cat got impatient and kicked him from behind, then jumped onto the table.
The cat stretched out its paw and started to pry at the bottle cap, as if it still wanted to drink water. This little incident made him relax a bit. Gu Anzhou reached out to pour water for the cat, saying, "I'm not what you think."
Ye Jia also reached out and pulled Gu Anzhou, making him look at her.
Gu Anzhou was in a flurry of activity.
"Do you know what I'm thinking?" Ye Jia asked.
"I should have known." The first time they met, she was so frightened by him that she screamed and ran away. He even pointed a knife at her. Gu Anzhou knew she was definitely afraid of him. "But I'm not a bad person."
"Of course!" Ye Jia was thinking of completely different moments. "Would bad guys help me with my fall injuries? Would bad guys come to pick me up in the rain? Would bad guys build a house for the cat?"
Gu Anzhou answered seriously, "Yes."
Ye Jia choked up. What he said made sense. It wasn't that bad people wouldn't do these things.
"...But the cat chose you too, and you're a police officer, right?"
Gu Anzhou paused for a moment. So she had guessed it. Yes, she was very smart.
"Yes, it used to be."
Ye Jia nodded: "Do you want to tell me about your time as a police officer?"
After the cat finished drinking a bottle cap of water, Gu Anzhou poured another bottle cap and said softly, "I don't want to for now."
"Okay, then I won't say it." Ye Jia realized he wasn't looking at her after she finished speaking, so she reached out and tugged at him again. When he looked over, she repeated herself.
Then Ye Jia noticed that Gu Anzhou was inexplicably smiling.
"What are you laughing at?"
"It's nothing." Gu Anzhou lowered his head and continued to pour water for the cat.
She thought he couldn't hear her voice, but actually her voice was very easy to hear. Not only was it loud, but it was also very penetrating. As long as she spoke naturally, he could probably hear her even if she was to his left. It was just that sometimes she would lower her voice for some reason, and then he couldn't hear her.
But he didn't want to tell her about it; the way she tugged at him was adorable.
Seeing that Gu Anzhou was focused on feeding the cat water and not looking at her, Ye Jia couldn't say anything, afraid that he wouldn't hear her and it would be pointless to say anything.
She felt that Gu Anzhou had a really tough time. He was completely deaf in his left ear, such a huge obstacle, yet no one noticed his abnormality. Even she, whose father was hearing impaired, didn't realize it.
After Gu Anzhou and the cat finished sharing a bottle of water, he skillfully flattened the bottle, put the cap back on, and prepared to take it to the recycling station later.
"I'm fine now. You still have work to do, right? I'm sorry to have taken up your time," Gu Anzhou said, looking at her.
"It won't delay you." But Ye Jia didn't feel the satisfaction of finally getting an answer to her question. Knowing what he had been hiding so well made her feel uneasy.
Ye Jia didn't leave, but said, "Let me see your heart rate first, have you rested enough?"
Gu Anzhou handed her his wrist.
"After resting for so long, there's still a hundred left," Ye Jia said, then the number changed again, "One hundred and twenty!"
Gu Anzhou felt he couldn't wear the watch anymore. Director Li bought it for him to monitor his health in real time, but he could feel how fast his heart was beating, and Ye Jia noticed something unusual about it.
"The watch is broken, I don't think it's that fast," he said.
Upon hearing his words, Ye Jia reached out for his other hand. He hesitated before handing it over, and she took his pulse.
Gu Anzhou could hear his pulse thumping, and Ye Jia had indeed counted it.
"This is very abnormal of you." Ye Jia looked at him, as serious as an old Chinese medicine doctor announcing an important matter. "You must make sure you get enough sleep from now on. Go back and catch up on your sleep as soon as you get back today."
"good."
Ye Jia let go of his hand, stood up, patted the kitten's head and said goodbye: "Let's go, see if we can find a taxi, if not, we'll walk back slowly."
"Are you going to take me back?"
"yes."
She said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Gu Anzhou followed Ye Jia, wanting to ask her if she could get up a little later in the future and run with him, but how could she give up watching the sunrise for him?
Ye Jia was walking on Gu Anzhou's left. She wanted to switch to the right, but he stopped her.
There's a car here.
"It's alright." There weren't many cars on the road, but seeing that Gu Anzhou seemed to have protecting others ingrained in his bones, Ye Jia said, "Then let's go along the coast."
"It's very sunny over there."
So the two walked along the shops along the street, with Ye Jia on the inside and Gu Anzhou on the outside.
I don't know if it was lucky or unlucky, but I didn't encounter any taxis along the way. I only saw a lot of people doing morning exercises or buying groceries.
"Good morning, Xiao Ye! Are you exercising with Xiao Gu today?"
"Good morning," Ye Jia said, glancing at Gu Anzhou. "Let's exercise together."
"Great! It's best to have someone to exercise with! That way, it won't be tiring!"
Ye Jia wasn't actually tired running alone; she was used to it and would only enjoy it. Besides, her pace was different from Gu Anzhou's, so they weren't really suited to running together.
But she simply nodded in response to her uncle's words and continued walking forward with Gu Anzhou.
Gu Anzhou asked her, "Have you ever run with other people before?"
Ye Jia faced him and said, "I was in the running club at school, and we often set off together, but sometimes I would end up running alone."
"Be careful." Gu Anzhou reached out and grabbed her arm to prevent her from bumping into the electric scooter parked in front.
The invisible barrier between strangers seemed to have been broken down, and no one felt uncomfortable touching each other's arms.
They walked side by side, their hands brushing against each other several times.
Upon arriving at the bar entrance, Ye Jia waved first: "Then I'm leaving. You should catch up on your sleep and get some more rest."
"Okay." Before Gu Anzhou could say anything more, he saw Ye Jia run away.
Standing there watching her figure disappear into the white light, Gu Anzhou went inside and upstairs.
He obediently went to bed, but couldn't fall asleep. His heartbeat was still pounding, and his mind kept replaying his conversation with Ye Jia, even the smallest pause in her words.
Seeing that she was worried about him, he impulsively confessed to being deaf, exposing his wound in a self-destructive way, wanting to know if she would mind.
She didn't mind, but that's because her father has hearing problems, so she understands how to be considerate of people with hearing impairments.
Her father couldn't go out to work to help support the family, and she had a very difficult time growing up. Moreover, he could feel that Ye Jia loved her family very much. Her father was hard of hearing, so she must have been going through a lot too.
Even breathing feels like my chest is being pulled open and I feel uncomfortable.
But instead of taking the medicine, he picked up the book she had read, "Chasing the Sun Island," and started reading it. Rereading a book always brings him peace of mind, and he gradually calmed down.
Gu Anzhou slept soundly until the afternoon, a rare occurrence for him, and surprisingly, he slept quite well, his head not hurting when he opened his eyes.
He picked up his phone from the bedside table and glanced at it, just to check casually, but he didn't expect there to be a text message.
From Ye Jia.
[Message me when you wake up, I'll bring you some food!]
Gu Anzhou felt that he was probably still asleep.
After staring at it for a while, Gu Anzhou tried making a phone call.
"Hello? You're awake." The voice on the other end was cheerful. "Did you sleep well?"
"You're alright..."
"Then wait for me, I'll be right there." Ye Jia interrupted him and hung up the phone.
Gu Anzhou sat on the bed in a daze for a while before getting up immediately, taking a quick shower, and then going downstairs to bring in the goods that had been delivered to the door.
Ye Jia arrived shortly after, riding Chu Nian's electric scooter. She brought a food container and her laptop bag.
"Perfect timing, I'll just use their Wi-Fi." Ye Jia handed over the lunchbox, picked up the laptop as if he were already very familiar with it, put down the chair on the table, sat down, plugged in the power, and started running code in one go.
The internet at home had been restored, so she didn't need to borrow it. However, just to avoid making Gu Anzhou feel bad and to be polite to her, she brought her computer with her.
But it must be said that the internet in the bar was much faster, making her work much smoother.
Gu Anzhou didn't even have time to say a word before seeing Ye Jia working, so he didn't say anything, but heated up the food she brought. It wasn't the taste of her hometown; it was a very light meal, but it was still delicious.
Ye Jia was working, but she kept glancing at Gu Anzhou, who was eating and looked very well-behaved.
Honestly, how could she have found him scary in the first place?
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