Yi Wenze didn’t look up and continued reading the instruction manual.
Jia He poked him again. Only then did he raise his head to look at her. Jia He asked very softly, “Who is it?”
With a click, the kettle had just finished boiling. He poured half a cup of water. “The voice doesn’t sound too familiar. Probably someone from the crew.” Jia He oh-ed. “Maybe they’re looking for you for something. Go take a look ba.” After speaking, she suddenly felt her own tone was somewhat sour and swollen.
The door was knocked another two times. Truly stubborn!
“Go on,” Jia He nudged her mouth toward the main door. “Otherwise they won’t be able to sleep if they don’t see you.” After speaking, she walked through the hallway into the bedroom and turned on the TV with the remote control.
Yet right after she finished talking, he really went to open the door.
Damn it! Take me as dead why don’t you… Jia He silently ground her teeth.
The hallway lighting was dim and unclear. The young woman Yi Wenze had helped yesterday happened to be standing at the door. She seemed to have just showered—her long hair reached her waist and faintly glistened from the water wash.
“Teacher Yi, you haven’t slept yet?”
Well duh, even if asleep, your knocks would’ve woken me up!
Jia He mocked to herself within and secretly scooted to the side, silently chanting if you dare take another step closer, I’ll… I’ll… What should I do?
Can’t be too violent. If that attracted gossipy onlookers, wouldn’t that damage Yi Wenze’s image?
Can’t be too submissive either. If I go along so easily like that, then wouldn’t she just keep knocking every night?
Yi Wenze didn’t respond and directly cut to the chase instead. “Something the matter?”
“Nothing much.” The woman smiled. “Just wanted to ask how Teacher Yi’s arm injury is doing.”
Injury?
Jia He’s heart thudded. She scooted forward another step, not even daring to blink her eyes for fear of missing any words she shouldn’t be hearing—terrified she would repeat history from many years ago. Her vision slid over the magazine publisher’s tall building she saw back then and that silent tight embrace inside the tea room. A voice suddenly piped up softly at the bottom of her heart.
Jia He, defend your happiness. You must defend your happiness!
“Thank you.” Yi Wenze politely smiled. “If there’s nothing else, my wo—” He hadn’t finished speaking when he suddenly felt warmth around his waist. Someone hugged him from behind as a very gentle voice uttered, “Hubby, my tooth hurts…”
He lowered his head to see her squeezing out from under his arm. His eyes crinkled as he said, “Hello there. Come in and sit for a bit? We haven’t slept yet.” He had originally wanted to directly refuse this woman right before her, but sometimes, she would still do some things even he couldn’t expect.
The dim corridor lighting was like boisterous nightscape while the warm yellow rays behind were akin to lamplight in a home.
That woman completely froze as she watched Yi Wenze lower his head to look at the woman in his arms. Amidst his smile even carried ten percent more gentleness. He lightly coughed then suddenly felt an impulse, yet couldn’t clearly state what he wanted to do.
In the end, he still grasped her hand and directly shut the door, “Wasn’t your tooth hurting? Hurry and take medicine first.”
Jia He watched him slam the door without saying another superfluous word. On the contrary, she instead felt somewhat silly. What was up with him? So unlike him! …He picked up the medication blister pack and passed her the water in his embrace.
Extremely faint sounds rang out. The aluminum foil had just been squeezed and broken when Jia He very naturally stretched her hand out to take the medicine. Yet he pinched a tablet and gently stuffed it into her mouth instead.
Tearing medication foil, feeding medicine—all in one go.
She had originally wanted to coldly ask why this woman had come knocking so late into the night. But she then felt completely pathetic and helpless that with just this one action, over half her anger already dissipated. “Where did you get injured? Why didn’t you tell me about it?” She pulled up Yi Wenze’s right sleeve and after discovering no wounds, went over to check the left side instead. Only then did she spot a very long and deep laceration.
Judging by the color, it should’ve been from the past couple days.
“Just got sliced by a prop. Not too serious.” He lowered his sleeves but she pressed down firmly again. “Yi Wenze.”
It was the first time she had called his full name. It did indeed catch him off guard a little before he smiled and lifted her onto the bar counter to sit. “So serious. Got something to say?”
“I need to very gravely tell you something,” she held her breath. Sitting in this spot allowed her to directly face his eyes. “You’ve committed a very egregious mistake.”
He merely smiled quietly as he candidly watched her speak.
“I feel you haven’t been taking our relationship seriously. We aren’t acting some idol drama that only requires sharing joys and sorrows. If my tooth aches, you would still accompany me to see the dentist. Yet you got injured. Even disregarding if it’s minor or major, not telling me first thing is the biggest mistake.”
The more Jia He spoke, the more aggrieved she felt. Only then did she notice bitterness in her mouth and recalled she still had medicine inside. She swiftly knitted her brows and hastily drank three large gulps of water before finally managing to swallow the dissolved medicine. “So bitter…” Both bitter and painful. Simply unbearable misery.
It was just the optimal moment to continue combining their words for negotiation when he suddenly embraced her, covering up her mouth.
The concentrated bitterness still lingered on the tip of her tongue but he seemed unaffected as he thoroughly entwined and probed deeper. Why…why so suddenly? The remnants of her consciousness kept echoing this question. Her back was pressed against the mirror. One of her hands pressed on the bar table surface, right over that sheet of medication blisters.
She reflexively clenched her fist tightly, popping crackling noises from the foil. A month plus—thirty-four days. Such a short period yet it felt like a lifetime since she last saw him. Even a deep kiss like this turned unfamiliar yet scorching. She shut her eyes tightly, shockingly forgetting the toothache that tormented her earlier. Trying to respond to him, he instead abruptly pulled away. Using only one hand to prop himself against the mirror behind her, he steadied his own impulsiveness.
He had filmed countless injury scenes over the years but never once had this kind of sensation until now. After getting his injury bandaged up, he had unexpectedly even received her text message which gave him a trace of hesitation for some reason. Should he let it heal before letting her come?
He never expected her reaction to be so huge.
“Still bitter?” he asked.
Jia He absentmindedly hmm-ed. He pressed close once more, continuing to slowly sweep his tongue over her lips and teeth. Amidst the increasingly deeper probing, she heard him say it was time to sleep. From the counter to the bed, he carried her by the waist the entire time. Already pacified of her anger, she could only obediently lie in his arms and make a final struggle, “I’m not done talking yet.”
“Go ahead.” His hand slid from her back into her clothes. Each and every shift carried gentle, attentive focus.
You doing this…how can I even talk…
Jia He resentfully watched him.
“What’s wrong?” He lowered his head to nibble her ear tip.
The heated breaths brushed over her ear and neck, silently eroding, silently penetrating deeper.
She shut her eyes, trying hard to concentrate, “In the future even if you merely get nicked by a nail clipper, you still have to report it to me.”
“That probably wouldn’t happen much,” he kissed along the arc of her neck all the way to her collarbone. “You’d be more likely to have something like this occur instead.”
She nearly got choked to death. “I’m just speaking hypothetically…” Yi Wenze hmm-ed, “Understood.” Then he grabbed the dark brown thin blanket to cover them both as he calmly proceeded with his work beneath it.
The screen flashed some incomprehensible TV series. Nothing more than romantic affairs, extramarital affairs, third party—such dog-blood family dramas were truly forever eternal hot topics. Accompanied by muffled sobs, the lead actress tearfully questioned, Why couldn’t you resist temptation? Can a few days with someone you just met compare to five years of marriage?
Truly…such perfect timing!
Jia He desperately clung onto the last remnants of clearheadedness as she grasped his wrist. “I’m not saying I won’t get angry either. Just that dealing with external worries first takes priority before internal trouble.” He hugged her in his embrace. “What external worries are there?”
She bit her lip, nearly about to lose control from his advances. Blushing furiously, she squeezed her eyes shut and mumbled you’re always so good to anyone. That’s clearly intentionally attracting admirers. There’s no difference whether it’s me or someone else… Yi Wenze chuckled and softly asked her, do you think I would treat anyone else like this?
There was a chance, she stubbornly insisted, yet had already softened quite a bit. He finally turned somewhat helpless as he started attempting to get her to relax. I’ve never interrupted a work call for anyone else before, never taken initiative for someone to stay over at my home, never faced the public and media for someone else’s sake either, moreover I’ve never had moments where I’m always together with a person, reluctant to let her leave my side… Skin adhering tightly together. Impossible to discern who first became fiery hot. In the end, nothing except wholly fusing as one.
She would feel fear, feel apprehensive, yet in the end hadn’t declined still. Her hands gradually embraced his back tighter. Feeling the scorching damp heat in her palms, his breathing before her clearly rose and fell. A slight pain, yet more of an unbearable tingling agitation. So gentle, yet still torture.
Each and every second—torment akin to enduring years.
But he instead suddenly quieted down, gazing unwaveringly at her. Jia He blankly opened her eyes.
Wifey, come with me back to New Zealand. Okay? His voice oddly turned low and bewitching, tantalizing. Like her heart was grabbed in a tight pinch, she choked on her breath. Very slowly, she hmm-ed once. Just as she wanted to say something, she fiercely seized the skin beneath her hand instead, nearly digging deeply in…
In the deep of night, she practically clung onto him entirely. The more she thought about it, the more she felt he was far too sly and treacherous. She fiercely pinched his arm. He shifted slightly, not avoiding it, “Looks like this injury will need tending for several more days.” She jerked back as if electrocuted, hastily retracting her hand, “Did I pinch you somewhere?”
Yi Wenze didn’t reply. Merely chuckled softly, pleasant intoxication.
The television was still on. Unsure when it had changed to some other channel. No dialogue, only loud background sounds. Jia He listened bewilderedly. Yet she preferred remaining curled up against him drenched in sweat, not even daring to poke her head out to see his face. Only muffling her voice in curiosity asking, what’s playing on the TV? The sounds are so weird.
He indifferently took a look at the television before tightening the hand around her waist again. Once more, he flipped their bodies over to press her below him. And uttered in a low voice, midnight adult programming. What…what are you trying to do? Jia He nearly cried out. Her entire body shook uncontrollably. The slight clarity she had just regained was thoroughly shattered again by him, submerging once more into that annihilating depths…
By the very end, she finally mustered effort craning her neck to sneak a peek at the TV. She instantly raged—it was clearly a classical music concert! Yi Wenze hmm-ed. He hugged her entire body in his embrace, every hand and foot aligned together. Midnight adult viewing programming indeed…
Going overboard…
Eyelids heavy as a thousand pounds, she still could only curl against him, inwardly cussing out a couple lines before sinking heavily into slumber.
But she had barely slept for a bit before already feeling chilled to the bone throughout.
Jia He struggled awake from her dreams. Hearing the door lightly open, she mumbled groggily, “What time is it?” A voice brushed close behind her—very near, “Six o’clock.” So early ah… Jia He felt occasional splitting headaches as her entire body ached painfully, nearly dying. Yet he instead asked beside her ear, “Still hurting?”
How…how could it possibly not hurt?! Jia He kept her eyes screwed shut and hmm-ed.
“Want medicine?” He seemed to have walked off from the bedside. Then came the sounds of pouring water and boiling water. Only then did Jia He understand what he was asking about. Blushing furiously from head to toe.
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