Chapter 252 You don’t want your fourth brother to be sad while being injured, right?
Ji Linshen's heart was sinking. Lu Shiman's appearance frightened him.
He pinched Lu Shiman's jaw, and his thumb was bitten between her teeth, leaving a deep purple mark.
"Bite me."
Lu Shiman's sudden move of turning her head to avoid the situation caused some of her long hair to fall off.
The blood beads dyed her lips bright red, forming a sharp contrast with her pale face.
He wiped the blood-stained tissue across the peak of her lip and found that the fresh bite on her lower lip was oozing blood, mixed with the old blood scab to form a dark red patch.
"Baby, look at me." Ji Lin held her cheeks tightly and forced her to look at him, his palms immediately stained with cold tears.
She could feel Ji Linshen's trembling as he wiped her tears. She blinked away tears and raised the corners of her mouth, trying to comfort him with a smile.
Ji Lin's heart felt like it was hit hard by a sledgehammer in the chest, it hurt...
He suddenly pressed her forehead into the crook of his neck and repeated in a hoarse voice, "Don't laugh."
Smelling the familiar and reassuring scent on Ji Linshen's body, her eyes couldn't help but turn red.
Lu Shiman rested her forehead against his collarbone, her breathing rhythm suddenly disordered: "Ji Linshen, it's my fault. Fourth brother is like this because of me."
"It's my fault. I'm a troublemaker. I've ruined Fourth Brother."
Ji Linshen pressed his thumb on the corner of her twitching mouth, and with his other hand, he cupped the back of her head and pressed it towards her heart.
Lu Shiman's sobs were muffled in his woolen sweater, and cold sweat seeped out of the back of his neck and soaked through his palms.
She suddenly raised her head and hit his chin: "I should be the one who got blown up. I deserve to die."
"I shouldn't be alive... Ji Linshen..."
"It should be me lying there. It should be mine."
"...I'm right, Ji Linshen, I harmed Fourth Brother."
"It was me who harmed Fourth Brother. It was me who harmed him..." Lu Shiman became more and more agitated as he spoke.
"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have called him. I shouldn't have mentioned the gift..." Tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice became a little sharp because of excitement.
"I shouldn't have given Fourth Brother a gift, I shouldn't have gotten close to them, I shouldn't have existed, I should have died..."
Lu Shiman's forehead was pressed against Ji Lin's collarbone, and her movements were shaking. Every word she said made his sternum tremble.
The arms around her tightened, as if to embed her into his body, transferring her pain to himself.
Lu Shiman kept repeating: "...I deserve to die...I deserve to die..."
Guilt and self-blame were like a force ten tsunami, drowning Lu Shiman's soul and breaking it into pieces.
Ji Linshen suddenly held the back of her neck and forced her to look up, and wiped her thumb heavily across the tears she had swallowed.
He pressed his index finger to her lips to stop her self-loathing words: "Fourth brother is still waiting for you to take care of him."
"If he wakes up and hears you say something like this, he'll be sad."
"You don't want Fourth Brother to be even more sad because of his injury, right?"
"Furthermore, the cause of the laboratory explosion and the person who hurt Fourth Brother have not yet been found."
"Have a good rest tonight. Get enough rest so you can catch the bastard who harmed Fourth Brother."
The cold and solemn tone carried magic, which calmed Lu Shiman's heart little by little.
Lu Shiman suddenly buried her face in the crook of his neck and took a deep breath, her nose touching his throbbing blood vessels.
She gripped his collar with her knuckles, her voice muffled by the wool fabric: "I have to bring breakfast to my brothers tomorrow. Third Brother likes it..."
The ending tone suddenly turned into a long breath, and the tense back finally relaxed a little.
Ji Lin breathed a long sigh of relief and patted her back lightly.
The car slowly drove into the villa, Ji Linshen carried her out of the car and walked directly to the room.
After putting her on the bed, he turned and went to the bathroom to get a basin of hot water and a towel.
Lu Shiman sat blankly on the edge of the bed, staring at the ground with her head down, her face expressionless. Only her hands, which were rubbing hard on her legs, betrayed her mood.
Ji Linshen placed the basin on the floor beside the bed, wrung out the towel, and gently wiped her face.
Like a doll being manipulated by others, Lu Shiman did not move.
After wiping her face, Ji Linshen held the basin in his left hand, held her wrist with his right hand and put it into the basin, gently washing her hands.
He put down the basin, picked up the towel on his arm, and wiped her hands dry.
Ji Linshen picked up the basin, stood up, touched her head, turned around and went back to the bathroom.
After a long time, he came out with a foot bath filled with stress-relieving essential oil.
Putting the foot bath bucket beside the bed, Ji Linshen knelt on one knee on the cashmere carpet, holding Lu Shiman's ankle with his palm.
When she took off her shoes, she found that the edges of her socks were stained with gray powder from the laboratory explosion site.
He paused for two seconds, then suddenly balled up the whole pair of socks and stuffed them into his trouser pocket, as if this could hide the evidence of her guilt.
The foot bath tub was steaming with the scent of lavender, and Ji Linshen tested the water temperature with his fingers.
He held Lu Shiman's cold soles and dipped them into the water, his thumb unconsciously stroking the pale blue veins on the top of her feet.
When the hot water reached his ankles, Lu Shiman's toes suddenly curled up.
"Hot?" Ji Linshen immediately lifted her feet, causing messy ripples on the water surface.
He added cold water to the bucket in such a hurry that he didn't even notice that half of his sleeves were soaked.
He lifted her heel and put it back in, and water droplets flowed across her arch.
After soaking for ten minutes, Ji Linshen pulled a soft blanket over his knees.
He held her dripping ankle and placed it on the soft blanket, and suddenly stopped when he wrapped the towel around her foot.
A large area of skin on Lu Shiman's heel was worn away, and the blood that seeped out turned pink and white after being soaked in hot water.
He gently wiped the wound with a cotton swab dipped in iodine. He pressed her Achilles tendon with his fingertips to prevent tremors. The disinfectant seeped into the wound, causing the veins on the top of her foot to suddenly tighten.
When the towel wrapped around her cold heels, Lu Shiman suddenly reached out and touched Ji Linshen's wet cuffs.
The water stains spread out at her fingertips. She stared at the dark circles of water stains and murmured softly, "Fourth Brother's feet are bleeding too..."
Ji Linshen stood up and lifted the quilt: "The doctor must have treated it. I'll go get you pajamas."
Lu Shiman stared at his gradually receding back in a daze. Suddenly, her chest ached and she found it difficult to breathe.
She grabbed the flesh of her thighs hard, and the pain made her breathing much smoother.
When Ji Linshen came back holding her clothes, she acted as if nothing had happened.
After helping her change into pajamas, Ji Linshen turned off the main lights, dimmed the light of the bedside lamp, let her lie down, leaned over and kissed her forehead: "Go to sleep, when you get up tomorrow, Fourth Brother will be awake."
Lu Shiman lay there obediently. The moment he stood up, she grabbed his collar and asked, "Where are you going?"
Ji Linshen paused in his movement to stand up. He remained bent over and tucked the hair that fell on her cheeks behind her ears with his fingers.
"I'm going to take a shower."
She grabbed Ji Linshen's clothes and said, "Don't go, Ji Linshen, don't go."
Ji Lin squatted down and held her hand in his palm: "No."
"Come up."
"Be good. You're dirty. I'll take a shower and be back soon. It won't be long, okay?" Ji Linshen coaxed softly.
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