Jiang Nuan put the bowl into the dishwasher, then leaned against the kitchen counter and opened her terminal.
She quickly entered a string of encrypted information, encoding the fact that Ye Que had been rescued along with the safe house’s address, and sent them separately to Shen Wu’s and Jiang Ce’s terminals.
After confirming that the messages had been sent successfully, she shut off the terminal.
When she returned to the living room, Ye Que had his eyes closed, and his breathing was considerably more labored than before.
She reached out and touched his forehead.
He was burning up. He had a fever.
Given the excessive blood loss and the infection in his wound, a fever had been almost inevitable.
Besides, he had previously been injected with both an ability suppressant and an anesthetic. With several drugs conflicting inside his body, his immune system was probably a complete mess by now.
“Ye Que,” she called softly. “You can’t sleep on the couch. Go to bed.”
His eyelashes fluttered, and he struggled to open his eyes.
They were already unfocused, a thin veil of moisture clouding his pupils as he looked at her.
“…Okay.”
Jiang Nuan moved around to his right side and carefully draped his right arm over her shoulders.
The moment his weight settled on her, her knees wobbled again.
The contours of the muscles hidden beneath his shirt pressed fully against her now, leaving nothing to the imagination.
With one hand, Jiang Nuan picked up a box of fever reducer. With the other, she supported Ye Que, gritting her teeth as she half-carried him toward the bedroom and did her best not to aggravate his wound.
When she finally lowered him onto the bed, her own arms were aching with exhaustion.
The moment she straightened up, he caught her by the wrist.
Jiang Nuan looked down at him.
Half of his face was buried in the pillow. The loose strands of hair over his forehead were damp with sweat, clinging to skin so pale it was almost translucent.
“…Don’t go.”
It was those same two words again.
Jiang Nuan froze for a moment, then sighed.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m just getting you some water and medicine.”
He still refused to let go.
Jiang Nuan had no choice but to scan the room with her eyes.
Eventually, her gaze landed on the unopened bottle of mineral water on the nearby nightstand.
Keeping her hand trapped in his, she leaned forward as far as she could, stretching her free arm to its limit. At last, her fingers hooked around the bottle, and she dragged it toward herself.
She broke out the tablets and placed them in her palm.
Ye Que’s hand seemed to have grown onto her wrist, hanging heavily from it and swaying with every movement.
“Ye Que, take your medicine.”
He didn’t respond.
Jiang Nuan bent down and lightly patted his cheek with her fingers.
“Ye Que.”
Only then did he open his eyes a little.
Jiang Nuan brought the tablet to his lips. He obediently opened his mouth and took it, and she raised his head so he could swallow it with the mineral water.
Once he had taken the medicine, his head fell back onto the pillow.
But the grip on her wrist didn’t loosen in the slightest.
Jiang Nuan tried to pry his fingers apart one by one.
She had just managed to separate two when the remaining three tightened even more.
…
Fine.
You win.
In the end, she kicked off her slippers and carefully lay down beside him on her side.
Once the warm light was turned off, the room sank into complete darkness. Only the faintest glow of the city’s neon lights filtered through the gap in the curtains.
At first, it was all right.
She could hear Ye Que’s heavy, labored breathing. She could feel the faint tremors traveling through the mattress whenever pain made him jerk.
Jiang Nuan closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.
Then, ten minutes later—
A scorching arm reached across and wrapped around her waist.
Her entire body was pulled backward, her back colliding with a blazing chest.
Ye Que locked her in his arms, his chin resting on top of her head. His arm tightened around her, leaving her almost no room to struggle.
Jiang Nuan went rigid for a moment, but ultimately didn’t move. She was afraid of touching his wound; she had no desire to perform another round of stitching without anesthesia.
His body heat seeped through the thin fabric between them. He really was burning up.
And his arms were far too solid. Even weakened by his injuries, the sensation of powerful muscle enveloping her was impossible to ignore.
…
Jiang Nuan stared into the darkness, her eyes wide open.
Sleep?
Who could possibly fall asleep?
What normal adult woman could sleep while being wrapped up like an octopus by a handsome man nearly one meter ninety tall, with perfectly defined muscles all over his body?
She wasn’t made of wood.
Jiang Nuan tried to distract herself, but in the darkness, her senses only grew sharper.
She could feel the rise and fall of his chest.
She could feel the firm, tense muscles of his abdomen.
She could even feel every faint tremor brought on by the pain of his wound.
“…Jiangjiang.”
A barely audible murmur suddenly shattered the silence.
Jiang Nuan’s heartbeat skipped.
She turned her head.
By the faint glow filtering in from outside, she could make out Ye Que’s profile.
His eyes were still closed, but his sleep was restless. His brow was drawn tightly together, his face as pale as paper, while his lips had taken on an unnatural flush from the fever.
“Jiangjiang…”
He called her name again. His voice was muffled with pain.
Jiang Nuan’s heart softened.
After a moment’s hesitation, she raised her hand and reached toward his forehead, wanting to check his temperature.
The next second, his free hand shot out like lightning and seized her other wrist.
Both of her hands were now pinned against his chest.
He looked at her.
In the darkness, he watched her for several seconds.
Several seconds of silence.
“I want you.”
His voice was so hoarse it was almost harsh, the words abrupt in the darkness.
Jiang Nuan froze.
Her face instantly flushed bright red. “Are you crazy? You’re injured this badly… and you’re still thinking about that?”
What kind of useless garbage was this man’s brain filled with!?
“Not… that kind of wanting.” Ye Que looked at her, his throat bobbing once. “I’ve been waiting here for more than four hundred days.”
“I thought about you every single day, until I nearly went insane. I was going insane.” He released her wrists and buried his face in the hollow of her neck. “I just want to make sure… that you’re really here.”
“You’re mine.” His burning breath brushed the skin above her collarbone. “Jiang Nuan, let me feel you.”
Jiang Nuan went stiff, the touch against her neck hot and damp.
Her emotions were impossibly complicated.
Of course she knew what kind of person Ye Que was.
He was one of the chief culprits who had dragged her into all of this—perhaps even the one who had set everything in motion.
She hated him.
That hatred was clear and sharp.
Every time she thought of it, it surged up again, piercing straight through her heart.
She also knew—from the moment she had been at the Bai family’s home, and from the moment she had fed him earlier—that what Ye Que wanted was more than just…
He wanted an emotional response from her.
But that hatred stood between them like a wall. No matter what, she couldn’t swallow it down.
She had no way to give him what he wanted.
And yet…
Her gaze traced the outline of his face in the darkness: his lips, drained of color by the fever; his brow clenched by pain; the loneliness of more than four hundred days; a cat named Jiangjiang.
How could she not feel sorry for him?
She hated him, and she felt sorry for him.
Those two utterly opposite emotions tore at her, leaving her unable to push him away, yet unable to hold him close either.
To hell with it!
Jiang Nuan cursed viciously under her breath.
She would deal with the immediate problem first.
She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath.
Then, carefully, she sat up… bracing herself over him.
Her cheeks felt slightly warm.
Ye Que lay on his back. In the darkness, his fever-bright, moist eyes stared fixedly at her.
One hand lifted, his fingertips threading through her loose hair before his palm settled against her back.
His body was still weak, but that palm of his was astonishingly hot.
“Jiang Nuan.”
He called her in the darkness.
“No matter how you define our relationship…”
He paused.
“If one day you want to leave me…”
His other hand closed around the wrist bearing her bracelet, his fingers clasping around it one by one.
“I’ll keep you here.”
His voice was perfectly calm, but his grip slowly tightened.
“…The process may be rather unpleasant.”
Jiang Nuan’s fingers trembled.
The air froze.
She could immediately imagine what that “unpleasantness” would entail.
It would no longer be as simple as merely “hiding her away.”
He would make her grow accustomed to his scent, dependent on his judgment, and afraid of his absence.
…That was what true unpleasantness looked like.
How ridiculous.
The person she had risked everything to save had turned out to be a complete lunatic.
She closed her eyes.
Her long lashes trembled violently in the darkness.
The silver chain around her wrist gave a faint, almost inaudible jingle with the movement. A pool of light cast upon the wall swayed.
“You’ve started…”
His voice rolled up from deep in his throat, carrying the satisfaction of someone finally sated.
“Since you came to me of your own accord… I won’t let you stop again.”
