41. Her warmth
My consciousness seemed to be sinking to the bottom of murky water, floating up bit by bit with great effort.
The first thing Chen Yisheng felt was a burning, dry pain in his throat, followed by a pervasive soreness and weakness in his muscles. With difficulty, he opened his heavy eyelids and focused his vision. The unfamiliar white ceiling and the faint scent of disinfectant were visible.
He moved slightly, and the feeling of restraint and slight tingling in his left hand made him turn his head - an infusion needle was buried in the back of his hand, and transparent liquid was slowly being injected into his blood vessels drop by drop.
"Awake?" a gentle female voice sounded. The nurse came over and checked the IV bag and his condition. "How are you feeling? Are you still having a bad fever?"
Chen Yisheng opened his mouth and spoke in a hoarse voice: "Hello...what's wrong with me?"
"City Third Hospital's Emergency Observation Room," the nurse replied. "You have a high fever of 39.7 degrees Celsius, and are slightly dehydrated. You have a bacterial infection caused by overwork and a weakened immune system. It's not the flu."
It's not the flu, which means it's not contagious.
Chen Yisheng breathed a sigh of relief, nodded, and simply said thank you.
"But are you taking the wrong medication? Your blood test shows some drug reactions. You can't take fever-reducing drugs and antibiotics randomly. If they're not taken for the right condition, they'll only increase the burden on your liver and kidneys."
Chen Yisheng frowned slightly, vaguely remembering that he seemed to have swallowed several pills while drowsy, but he could not remember what they were.
"I'm sorry." He said hoarsely.
"You're awake. Stop talking," another nurse said. "Your condition isn't serious. Be thankful your wife brought you here on time. It doesn't look like you've developed any serious complications like pneumonia or myocarditis, but you're severely exhausted. You need to stay in the hospital for a day for observation, to stabilize, and to finish this course of antibiotics. No matter how busy you are at work, you have to take care of your health first. Young people shouldn't overwork themselves."
Wife?
Chen Yisheng then turned his head and saw Chi Jin, asleep at the table. Her long hair was a little messy, draped around her cheeks, and there was a faint shadow under her eyes. Even in her sleep, her brows were slightly furrowed. Her hand was unconsciously clutching her phone, and her computer bag was beside her, as if she was ready to work at any time. She hadn't removed her work badge yet, obviously having followed him out in a hurry.
"Your girlfriend was really worried about you. She rushed all the way here to get you here, running around to handle the paperwork. Her eyes were red with anxiety. She just stayed here and fell asleep out of exhaustion."
A strong feeling of heartache and self-blame instantly gripped Chen Yisheng's heart, making him feel more uncomfortable than any physical discomfort.
It was his miserable appearance that dragged her down.
"Okay." Chen Yisheng nodded, "Thank you."
The two nurses wrote something on his bag again and went to check on other patients.
Chi Jin hadn't woken up yet, and Chen Yisheng had no intention of waking her. Almost involuntarily, he slightly raised the hand that wasn't receiving the IV, his fingertips trembling as he tried to touch her.
The moment his fingertips were about to touch her hair, he suddenly stopped and pulled them back stiffly.
Keep your distance.
He can't forget.
Besides, a gentleman should not take advantage of others when they are in trouble.
But he is not really a gentleman.
But what position did he have to engage in such an intimate gesture? Was he overstepping his bounds as a superior, or... the entanglement of a suitor who had already been clearly rejected? It would only make her more troubled and want to stay away even more.
His Adam's apple rolled, and he struggled to suppress all his emotions back into his heart. When he raised his eyes again, his face had returned to its usual almost rigid calmness.
But his eyes fell on Chi Jin again, and he didn't move away for a long time. The observation room was very quiet, with only the sound of dripping infusion and her shallow breathing.
After an unknown amount of time, Chi Jin's eyelashes trembled a few times, and he seemed to be waking up.
Chen Yisheng looked away almost at the same moment she opened her eyes, looking out the window. He spoke in a tone as calm as possible, even with a hint of alienation, as if he was stating a business matter that had nothing to do with him.
"Are you awake? Thank you for bringing me here... ahem... how much did you advance? I'll transfer it to you."
Chi Jin had just woken up, her chaotic brain shuddering at his words, which were like an icy spike, and the remaining warmth in her heart instantly cooled. She didn't look at his face, but silently picked up her phone, unlocked it, clicked on the transfer interface, and said mechanically, "Okay, then I'll calculate and send it to you."
"Trouble." He spat out three words.
A depressing silence spread in the air filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Chi Jin felt it necessary to tell the doctor about his condition: "Oh, by the way, the doctor said it's not the flu, it's overwork. The temperature is very high, so you should take care of yourself in the future."
"Yeah," he replied, his gaze still fixed on the window. As if unconsciously, yet also deliberately, he whispered the key information again, each word crystal clear. "It's not the flu... so it won't be passed on to you."
Chi Jin's body froze, not knowing whether the route of transmission he was talking about was the physical contact just now, or the brief kiss that day.
A suffocating silence fell between the two of them again, with only the faint sound of medicine dripping from the IV tube.
Chi Jin lowered his head, slid his fingers quickly across the screen of his mobile phone, opened the food delivery app, selected the nearest porridge shop, placed an order for a bowl of red bean and barley porridge, and filled in the delivery address at the food delivery counter downstairs in the hospital.
She told herself that this was just based on minimal humanitarianism - he was alone, and if she didn't care, he might really faint in the elevator and no one would care.
Chen Yisheng didn't dare look at her. He just stared at her computer and told her to leave: "Go back to work."
"I'll go back and punch in before leaving get off work." Chi Jin didn't look at him, his voice flat, "I'll tell the team that I'm outsourcing. If Sister Huan asks about it, please remember to help me smooth things over."
"I see." He replied briefly.
Chi Jin pulled out her laptop, placed it on her lap, and began processing emails. The sound of her keyboard tapping was a bit intrusive in the quiet observation room. Then, as if remembering something, she added, "Your car is parked in Area B of the surface parking lot. You can drive back tomorrow when you feel better."
Chen Yisheng was stunned when he heard this. He was dizzy due to fever just now, and had to work hard to recall that it seemed that it was indeed Chi Jin who drove him here.
"I didn't say anything off the top of my head..."
"No." Chi Jin stared at the screen. "You'd better work less overtime. I've never seen you leave work on time, and you don't get paid for overtime."
Chen Yi was silent for a moment before whispering, "There's no one at home. Sometimes when I'm in the office, I feel more like there's someone there."
Chi Jin's heart clenched, and she pinched her fingertips hard, forcing herself to swallow back the sympathy and concern that almost blurted out. She didn't dare to give him any extra warmth, for fear that he would misunderstand her, and she would be unable to respond.
"Take good care of yourself, or you won't even know if you're talking nonsense or not."
Chen Yisheng smiled bitterly, nodded, and ordered him to leave: "Go back to the company."
Chi Jin closed the computer and stood up suddenly. His movements were so large that the chair legs made a harsh sound when rubbing against the ground, as if he was deliberately expressing his dissatisfaction.
She walked out with thumps on her feet. Even if she had to wait by the takeout counter, she didn't want to be in the same room with this guy.
Twenty minutes later, Chi Jin returned with a takeout bag. She walked to the bedside, took out a paper bowl, and placed it on the nightstand. "Red bean and barley porridge," she said in a stern voice. "My roommate's been sick the past couple of days, and this has helped."
The warm porridge emitted a faint steam through the plastic bag.
Chen Yisheng looked at the bowl of porridge, then looked at her face which had obviously turned back but was deliberately cold, and his heart felt like it was burned.
"Thank you." He paused, looking at her with complicated eyes, his voice was very soft and trembling, "Didn't you tell me to keep my distance? Why are you still so nice to me?"
This sentence was like a fuse, instantly igniting all of Chi Jin's suppressed and chaotic emotions.
She suddenly put the porridge down on the table again, making a loud "dong" sound, as if this could cover up her panic at the moment. She met his gaze, but her eyes were as cold as ice, and she replied clearly word by word:
"Editor-in-Chief Chen, you're overthinking it. It's just normal concern between colleagues. This porridge is twelve yuan. Remember to pass it on to me."
After saying that, she grabbed her computer bag, turned around and walked away quickly, never looking back.
The door to the observation room slowly closed, shutting out all the noise from the outside world. Only the regular ticking of the instruments and the scent of disinfectant filled the air remained. Chen Yisheng remained staring at the door for a long time, not moving. A sense of emptiness and loss washed over him silently like a tide.
After a while, he slowly leaned back onto the pillow, turned sideways, and found his phone from under the pillow. The screen lit up, making his eyes a little dry.
He subconsciously opened WeChat and logged into the small account where he didn't have many conversations.
That was his only remaining selfish desire, a window through which he could occasionally check her circle of friends without being noticed.
He sent a thank you and prepared to transfer the money to her.
However, what caught my eye was an extremely glaring red exclamation mark and the system's cold prompt text below: "The message has been sent, but was rejected by the other party."
He was blocked.
When did she block him? Was it after that night? Or just now, after she walked out of that door? Was she using this method to completely sever all unnecessary contact, to enforce the phrase "keep your distance" with such decisiveness?
Chen Yisheng closed his eyes, took a deep breath, suppressed the lump in his throat and the urge to cough more violently, switched accounts, and logged into his work account. He found the work chat window with Chi Jin, paused his fingertips on the screen for a moment, and then began to enter the transfer amount.
He calculated the medical expenses, plus the cost of the bowl of porridge, in detail. The postscript box remained blank for a long time, and finally, only the four words "advance payment" were typed dryly.
Only then did he return to the main WeChat interface to respond to his colleagues' concerns and arrange work matters.
After finishing the necessary work, his eyes involuntarily drifted to the bowl of red bean porridge on the bedside table, which was no longer steaming. Although he was not a native of L City, he had never liked the slightly gritty taste of bean porridge since he was a child, and his family never made it.
But this was bought by Chi Jin.
He stared at the bowl of porridge in silence for a long time before finally reaching out and picking up the plastic bowl. The porridge was already a little cold, and the texture was still thick and sandy, which he was not used to.
He gritted his teeth and drank it mouthful by mouthful.
Just when the porridge was almost gone, the screen of the phone in my hand suddenly lit up.
He paused and clicked on the message almost immediately.
Reply from Chi Jin.
Not a single word.
There is only one ordinary one without any warmth——
“OK.”
Chen Yisheng stared at the little expression and started coughing violently.
He raised his hand to wipe away the tears from the corner of his eyes, and when he looked at the phone screen again, the "OK" was still lying there quietly, like a silent period, coldly sealing all possibilities.
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