"Sister, I know you're not asleep."
"Sister, open your eyes and look at me."
Shi Youxi hooked his little finger around hers. In the dead of night, he finally tore away the pretense of being sensible and ignorant in front of her, and their fingers were no longer just intertwined.
The boy took those hands and let them slide over his body, beginning a childish yet direct attempt to explore.
"Are you really asleep... or are you pretending not to hear me again?" The boy's hot breath was close at hand.
"I like you, I like you so much, sister..."
"My sister is a coward."
"......"
coward...
Mu Yiran stared blankly at her palm, which was lying on her lap. There were no marks on it, but it still couldn't hide the burning heat left on it yesterday.
The red marks on her shoulder, hidden by her clothes, told her that it wasn't a dream, it was real.
Shi Youxi really cared about her...
The mask she had been trying to hide and maintain was torn away by Shi Youxi in this way.
This shouldn't be happening... This can't be done.
A sharp pain shot through her fingertip, and Mu Yiran closed her eyes in annoyance.
"Come back in a week to have the stitches removed. You can't eat seafood or other foods that may trigger allergies. You'll need to remove the gauze, disinfect, and apply medication every day. You can only use the scar removal cream after the stitches are removed."
Seifer typed out the prescription on the computer, "But there's one that can be used at the same time. What about the ones you bought? Bring them here and I'll tell you."
"...."
The loud clattering of the keyboard abruptly stopped. Seifer glanced at the woman sitting there in a daze. She printed out the prescription without expression and slapped it down in front of Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran suddenly snapped back to reality: "Ah!"
Seifer leaned back in his chair and mimicked her speech: "Oh, you, what? Did you buy the medicine?"
Mu Yiran sat up straight, looked at the prescription on the table, and stood up: "I'll go get the medicine now, thank you, Dr. Seifer."
The intern next to her immediately stopped her, "Lady, Dr. Seifer wants to see which scar removal creams you bought."
Mu Yiran met Seifer's cool gaze in surprise, realizing that her disrespectful and absent-minded behavior was like being called out for daydreaming in class. Mu Yiran's skin tightened, and she immediately sat back down in front of Seifer, obediently taking out all the medicine.
Fortunately, the other party didn't say anything more, just briefly reiterated everything, and then Seifer glanced at the computer and suddenly said:
“That little girl was discharged from the hospital the day before yesterday, and she even asked me for your contact information.”
Mu Yiran paused in her act of getting up to leave. "Is her injury fully healed?"
Seifer: "Pretty much. She wants to pay you back for the medical expenses," she said, taking a piece of paper from the drawer and pushing it in front of Mu Yiran. "Contact information."
Mu Yiran shook her head: "She doesn't need to pay it back."
Where would a homeless orphan get the money to repay his debts?
Seifer was impatient: "Then you tell him yourself that you should handle not only her, but also the people you brought. My office is not a help center. Leave your phone number and give it to them when you come."
Mu Yiran: "Ah, okay, I'm sorry for the trouble."
She quickly wrote down Shi Youxi's other phone number in her notebook.
The girl lowered her head, her long eyelashes obscuring her bright eyes, making the small mole on the tip of her nose even more noticeable. Seifer glanced at her a few times, frowned, and suddenly asked, "Are you from China?"
“S...No.” Mu Yiran’s attention was on the paper, and she almost blurted out “Yes.”
Seifer nodded and didn't say anything more. After Mu Yiran left, the intern next to him asked curiously:
"Professor, is she the one who's been taking those injured orphans to the hospital all this time?"
"Hmm." Seifer put the notebook away.
"I thought she was from a welfare agency or an orphanage, but it turns out she wasn't."
"Joles' teachers...could they be trying to use these kids for publicity?" The intern fell silent immediately upon meeting the woman's icy gaze.
"In the fashion industry, if you want to create hype, your face is enough." Why bother going to all that trouble of picking up those tiny kids on the street every day and bringing them to the hospital? It's a thankless task.
"...."
Although she didn't know why Seifer, who was usually cold and serious, was unusually easy to talk to Mu Yiran, whatever her boss said went, and whether she could pass the assessment depended entirely on the other party's word.
The intern immediately chimed in obsequiously, "You're right."
...
Mu Yiran clutched the medicine bag and walked toward the VIP ward. As she approached the door, she heard a low voice inside and stopped in her tracks.
Shi Youxi is back?
Not long after she woke up last night, Shi Youxi received a phone call and went out. Thanks to that call, Mu Yiran was able to catch her breath for a night.
She lay awake until dawn, her mind racing with thoughts, but the only conclusion she could come to was that one.
Mu Yiran took a deep breath and casually pushed open the door to go inside.
Shi Youxi was leaning on the sofa making a phone call. Hearing the noise, he looked up and saw that the person on the other end was saying something. His eyes were full of smiles. "Yeah, I'll talk to you later. I'll hang up now."
He tossed his phone onto the table and strode straight toward the woman who had entered.
Mu Yiran raised his hand to block the broad chest that was blocking him, but Shi Youxi grabbed it and casually placed it on the gauze on his left ear.
"Sister, where did you go? My wound hurts so much." Shi Youxi hooked her slender waist, tilted her head and pressed it against Mu Yiran's shoulder, her breath brushing against Mu Yiran's neck as she spoke.
Mu Yiran stiffened, abruptly pulling her shoulders back and saying, "Don't do that."
Shi Youxi raised an eyebrow, staring at her inscrutablely: "What's wrong?"
"...I mean, doesn't it hurt? Don't twist your neck like that, or you'll reopen the wound, and I won't care." Mu Yiran naturally avoided his embrace, walked to the table, and took out the medicine. "Come here."
Shi Youxi stared at her for a few seconds, then obediently walked to the low table and sat down. He propped himself up with his hands, tilted his head back, and looked up at Mu Yiran with a casual and unrestrained posture, yet his eyes were full of innocence.
He liked this position and this angle; it was convenient to hold her and to bury her.
Mu Yiran carefully lifted the gauze and gently dabbed the wound with a cotton swab.
"Hiss—" Shi Youxi immediately cried out.
"It hurts so much, sister."
Mu Yiran: ".....I didn't use any force." But she still used very light force, and as soon as they touched, the boy trembled violently.
"It still hurts."
Mu Yiran retorted, "Now you feel pain? Weren't you so cool during the fight yesterday? Serves you right! You'd better bear it!"
The boy in front of me replied quietly, "Don't you know why I fight?"
"......."
Seeing that the woman's face had turned cold, Shi Youxi rubbed his chin against her hand that was applying medicine and said coquettishly, "Blow on it, blow on it and it won't hurt anymore."
Mu Yiran's lips twitched twice. She hadn't realized it before, but after last night, she now realized how strange their usual way of getting along was.
Mu Yiran suddenly remembered Li Buhuo's warning to her. At that time, she had confidently assured Li Buhuo that there would be absolutely no other feelings between her and Shi Youxi.
This slap has now landed squarely on her own face.
It was these overly frequent physical contacts that caused Shi Youxi to develop the wrong feelings, leading him to mistakenly believe that it was romantic love between a man and a woman.
Mu Yiran didn't blow on it, but instead stuck the cotton swab on it a few more times and then reattached the gauze.
The expected tingling sensation didn't come, and Shi Youxi looked up in dissatisfaction, only to see Mu Yiran's head turned away.
After dawdling over putting the medicine away, Mu Yiran tried to speak, "Where did you go last night? The doctor said that to recover quickly, you can't stay up late and should abstain from alcohol."
She dodged him time and time again, even ignoring his cries of pain. It would be strange if Shi Youxi didn't notice her unusual behavior. He stared at her intently and asked, "How did you know I went out last night?"
"..." Mu Yiran clicked her tongue inwardly, thinking, "That clever little devil!"
“I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and didn’t see you. I asked the nurse on duty and she said you had gone out.”
Shi Youxi's lips curled into a faint smile. "Really? It seems my sister slept quite well even when I wasn't there."
"......"
These words left Mu Yiran speechless.
Shi Youxi had no intention of hiding it, and even kept reminding her that hiding was useless.
This guy didn't care about her thoughts at all; he just kept trying to get Mu Yiran to accept him through various methods.
But she couldn't accept it!
Why don't we just talk it out directly?
Mu Yiran closed her eyes briefly and said, "I have something to tell you."
Tessa ran away.
The two spoke at the same time. Mu Yiran looked at Shi Youxi in astonishment, "What? She ran away, what do you mean..." Her eyes widened, "You caught her?!"
When Shi Youxi saw the undisguised joy in her eyes, all other thoughts vanished, and he just smiled along with her. "We didn't catch her, but she doesn't dare stay in Qiao Lisi anymore. The people behind her abandoned her and ran away."
It turns out that he didn't touch Tessa for two reasons: first, because this woman had a nepotistic relationship with a local councilor, and he couldn't easily make a move against her; and second, because of his own selfish motives.
But now that senator is embroiled in scandals and on the verge of collapse, everything is going according to plan. He used Tessa to change his relationship with his sister, and he can use this opportunity to get his sister to accept him again.
Tell her, it wouldn't hurt to cheer her up.
The boy lowered his eyelids to conceal the deep thoughts in his eyes, and grasped Mu Yiran's hand. "She can't hide for long. Catching someone is easy, but we don't know what she'll do if we push her too far. So, until we catch her, it's safer for you to stay by my side, okay?"
Mu Yiran swallowed back the words she was about to say to Shi Youxi. "Then, what about Mu Zhentong? Tesa is already overwhelmed, so it should be easy to rescue him, right?"
Shi Youxi's lips curled into a smile, and after a few seconds she replied, "Hmm...but does my sister care about him a lot?"
Mu Yiran didn't think much of it and said:
"Although it wasn't my fault that Mu Zhentong was arrested, I ended up taking Mu Yiran's identity for no reason. I'm partly responsible for the trouble he's been going through lately. It's good that I was able to save a life, after all, he's still just a child... I just don't know where Mu Yiran went."
Shi Youxi gently kneaded her hand without saying a word, "You don't need to think about these things. Just stay by my side and wait for news."
Something was off about that. Mu Yiran opened her mouth, about to speak, when Shi Youxi's phone on the table rang. The boy answered, said a few "uh-huhs" and hung up. He then stood up and said, "I need to go to Shimen. Sister, go home and wait for me."
"The day after tomorrow... my parents will come to London to celebrate my birthday. Although it's not actually my birthday, sister, do you still remember what you promised me?"
Mu Yiran tensed up again. "What?"
The two left the ward, where Shi Men's bodyguards were already waiting at the elevator. Shi Youxi stopped and saw the unease on her face. He was anxious but still made the effort to be patient.
If his sister thinks it's too rushed, he's willing to slow down.
He wouldn't be like his father, nor would he let his sister look at him with eyes full of fear like his mother; this was not what Shi Youxi wanted.
He will prepare everything and, when the time is right, tell her his feelings without reservation, and then give himself to her without reservation.
Shi Youxi bent down, placed her hand on his head, and smiled both sweetly and mischievously: "Of course, it's to make up for those birthday presents I received. I said I wanted the most expensive ones."
He didn't spell it out, which relieved Mu Yiran. "I know, I remember."
"Besides that, can I have a little hope that my sister will give me this time?"
Shi Youxi pondered, "I really liked all the cufflinks and lapel pins you gave me before. Last time it was a cello, it can't be this time—"
"Wow! What a beautiful watch!" A voice suddenly exclaimed from above.
Mu Yiran slammed the jewelry box shut and looked up to see Ella, the administrative teacher from the same office.
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