Chapter 127: Their First Night Spent Alone Together Away From Home

While Wen Zhixia was thinking, Gu Pingsheng, lying on the hospital bed, slowly opened his eyes. He pressed heavily against his forehead, his sharp brows drawn together.

Wen Zhixia held down his hand. “Don’t move yet. Wait until the doctor comes.”

Her voice made Li Yueting and the police officer turn around at the same time.

“You’re finally awake. You nearly scared me to death. If I hadn’t happened to be passing by and turned around to call security, who knows what might have happened?” Li Yueting came over, taking all the credit in a single sentence.

Wen Zhixia said nothing. She bent down and pressed the call button, then prepared to leave the place beside him to Li Yueting.

But Gu Pingsheng seized her hand, gripping it tightly. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “What… happened to me?”

The hand Wen Zhixia had intended to pull free paused. “You really don’t remember?”

The retrograde amnesia the doctor had mentioned?

Gu Pingsheng frowned as he tried to recall. All he could summon were indistinct, blurred images, as though veiled by a thin layer of gauze. Bracing himself, he tried to sit up.

Li Yueting had already reached out to help him. It seemed only then that Gu Pingsheng noticed her. “Why are you here?”

Li Yueting’s expression stiffened. Not only had she spoken just now, she had also mentioned that she had indirectly saved him—but clearly, Gu Pingsheng had completely overlooked it.

“I came to the hospital for an appointment and happened to see those people causing trouble, so I went to call security,” Li Yueting repeated.

“What people?” Gu Pingsheng could no longer remember the scene of his injury. Almost instinctively, he turned his head toward Wen Zhixia. “Were you hurt?”

Li Yueting’s expression stiffened for the second time.

Under his gaze, Wen Zhixia shook her head. “I’m fine.”

Only after hearing her say that did Gu Pingsheng relax. At that moment, the doctor came over and examined his condition.

“He can’t remember what happened,” Wen Zhixia explained from the side.

After listening to his heart through a stethoscope, the doctor said, “This sort of thing can happen after a head injury. Some people also experience symptoms of autonomic nervous dysfunction, such as mental fogginess. Some recover quickly, within a few hours, while a small number may need several days. He should get plenty of rest during this time and avoid exhaustion…”

The doctor went over several precautions.

Seeing that Gu Pingsheng was currently unable to cooperate with the investigation, the officer offered a few words of reassurance and left.

Gu Youzhi climbed onto the bed and carefully touched his father’s head. “Daddy, it doesn’t hurt.”

“Only when Mommy touches it will it work.” Holding his son’s soft little hand, he said this to him.

Wen Zhixia poured him a glass of water without saying anything.

Li Yueting clenched her hands and asked, “President Gu, did you offend someone? When I arrived, they looked furious and seemed to be shouting something about having been cheated out of their money.”

She had not missed what the woman causing the disturbance had shouted as the officer led her away. Nor did she believe Gu Pingsheng would have a financial dispute with a woman for no reason. The only possibility was that this troublesome affair had been caused by Wen Zhixia.

“Daddy, that auntie was mean.” The little boy suddenly pointed at his cheek. “It hurts.”

There was still a bandage on Gu Youzhi’s face, along with several bruised marks. Hearing Li Yueting’s words, he remembered that he ought to complain.

Wen Zhixia’s gaze swept toward the father and son on the bed. Both of them were battered and bruised, looking like a pair of unfortunate comrades in misfortune.

“Go take care of your own business. Xiaxia can look after me here,” Gu Pingsheng said to Li Yueting.

He had dismissed her so directly that Li Yueting was rather unwilling to leave. “President Gu, I should stay and take care of you. General Manager Wen still has to go home and keep her husband company.”

Her words made both Gu Pingsheng and Wen Zhixia pause.

The former did so out of displeasure; the latter because she could hear the hidden meaning in Li Yueting’s words.

“There’s something I didn’t have time to ask you just now, Miss Li,” Wen Zhixia said calmly. “Did you notice the camera outside the emergency room, in the southwestern corner?”

Li Yueting narrowed her eyes. “What camera in the southwestern corner?”

“Nothing. I only suspect that they may have already been waiting outside and watching us when we came out. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen to attack when there were fewer people around.”

The question was somewhat strange, but not so abrupt as to arouse suspicion. Li Yueting paid it no mind.

But Wen Zhixia’s fingers tightened. When she looked at Li Yueting again, there was an added layer of speculation in her eyes. The camera in the southwestern corner of the emergency room had been installed only a year ago, specifically to reduce blind spots in the surveillance coverage. Clearly, Li Yueting did not know that.

Yet she had been able to state the exact location of a camera installed three years ago.

Gu Pingsheng glanced at Wen Zhixia. He did not believe she would ask such a seemingly meaningless question without reason.

Li Yueting opened her mouth, apparently intending to say more, but her phone rang first. She walked to the doorway to answer it.

Gu Pingsheng took the water Wen Zhixia handed him. He had barely taken two sips when his expression suddenly changed. He threw back the covers, got out of bed, and rushed into the bathroom. He had not even managed to close the door before the sound of retching came from inside.

The little boy anxiously followed on his short legs. Seeing this, Wen Zhixia had no choice but to follow as well.

Gu Pingsheng was braced against the washbasin, nauseated and dry-heaving. After rinsing his mouth, he began to feel dizzy and develop a headache, and his face turned somewhat pale.

Wen Zhixia was accustomed to seeing him remain expressionless even when he was ill. Seeing him suddenly so weak and unwell stirred indescribable feelings within her—especially since he had been injured while shielding her. Otherwise, that blow might have landed on her instead.

Her body was nowhere near as strong as his. It might well have taken half her life.

“Don’t just stand there. Help me over. I’m too dizzy to stand steadily.” Seeing her still staring at him blankly, Gu Pingsheng sighed faintly. “After all these years, how are you still such a little bookworm?”

There was a reason he called her that. She had always carried books in her arms, often keeping to herself. When other girls were going through the hazy awakening of adolescence, most of them developed at least some special feelings toward the boys around them.

But not her. A handsome man as conspicuous as him had been constantly appearing before her eyes, and she had somehow remained completely oblivious.

If he had not received stacks upon stacks of love letters every day, Gu Pingsheng might have suspected that he was so unattractive that even throwing himself at a girl would fail to stir her heart.

Wen Zhixia helped him back to the hospital bed. Gu Pingsheng leaned against the pillows. “It’s uncomfortable staying in this hospital. Let me rest for a while, then we’ll go home.”

Wen Zhixia opened her mouth, intending to say that she needed to return to Scenic Garden, but he cut off her escape as though he had foreseen her words.

“My head hurts, and Youzhi still needs looking after. Are you really heartless enough to abandon the two of us?”

“Aunt Zhao and Aunt Wang can take good care of you.” Wen Zhixia refused to fall for his ploy. “Besides… in your condition, you need to stay in bed and recuperate. Why would you insist on going home?”

“Then stay here. There are no servants to look after me.” He seized the opportunity.

In psychology, there is a phenomenon known as the foot-in-the-door effect. When we want someone to do something substantial but are worried they may refuse, we can first ask them to do something similar but smaller. Generally speaking, people are reluctant to accept difficult or demanding requests, but more willing to agree to smaller, easier ones. Once they have fulfilled the smaller request, they gradually become willing to accept the larger one.

This psychological phenomenon also has a more straightforward name: the escalating demands effect.

After hesitating for a moment, Wen Zhixia nodded.

Outside the room, Li Yueting watched Gu Pingsheng’s expression relax after Wen Zhixia agreed to stay. Her grip tightened around her phone, and then she turned and left.

By evening, Wen Zhixia had grown tired from playing with the little boy. The two of them fell asleep leaning against each other on the sofa.

Gu Pingsheng was reading his emails. Halfway through, he noticed that no sound came from their direction except for their soft breathing. His gaze shifted toward them.

The older and younger figure were curled together on the sofa. It was large enough that they did not seem crowded, and instead gave off an air of intimate warmth.

Gu Pingsheng pushed back the covers and got out of bed. First, he lifted the little boy and placed him on the bed. Then he turned and scooped Wen Zhixia up around the waist. The blue bedsheets made her skin appear even paler and more delicate.

He sat on the edge of the bed and covered them both with the blanket. In that instant, Gu Pingsheng remembered the first time the two of them had spent a night alone outside.

The bed in that cheap hotel had been blue as well.

They had gone on an outing and been caught in a torrential downpour. Wearing their jackets over their heads, they had run to the nearest hotel, only to be told that there was only one room left.

They had just started university then and were still very young and inexperienced. The moment Wen Zhixia heard that there was only one room, she hesitated and turned to leave.

But the owner told them that his was the only hotel nearby. The next one was three or four kilometers away. If they refused the room and could not find anywhere else, even this last room might be gone when they returned.

“We’ll take it.” Gu Pingsheng pulled out his identification card. “Please give us the room.”

Wen Zhixia tugged at his sleeve. “But…”

“You can sleep on the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.” He made the promise readily enough as he checked in.

Wen Zhixia believed him.

Once they entered the room, he ran the bath for her and told her to wash first. “Change out of those wet clothes and take a hot shower. Don’t catch a cold.”

Sharing a room with him made Wen Zhixia feel somewhat awkward. But since he behaved no differently from usual, she went inside. “I’ll be quick. You should take a shower afterward too.”

Gu Pingsheng nodded. He turned on the television and waited for her in a chair nearby, setting his soaked jacket to one side.

She showered quickly. When she emerged, steam clung to her skin. Having just taken a hot bath, her cheeks were flushed. Wrapped in a white towel, she rubbed her dripping hair, keeping her eyes lowered and avoiding his gaze as she said softly, “You can go in now.”

Gu Pingsheng turned his head and looked at her slender, fair arm, her exquisite collarbones, and the long, graceful line of her neck exposed above the towel. His Adam’s apple moved.

He had always known that his little bookworm was beautiful. But only now, seeing her like this, did he understand the meaning of the phrase “a feast for the eyes.”

He rushed into the bathroom. Every muscle in his reflection was taut, his heart pounding rapidly, his mouth dry.

As the shower streamed down, the bathroom seemed to retain the faint, clean fragrance of her. He did not dare turn on the hot water and washed himself with cold water instead. Only after half an hour, when his body had returned to normal, did he come out.

The small hotel did not provide robes, so he had wrapped a towel around his waist.

She sat on the bed, wrapped tightly in the blankets, revealing only her lovely, clean little face.

Gu Pingsheng came over and sat beside her. Her body visibly stiffened. “You—you should ask the owner for another blanket. There’s only one here.”

“The floor is cold,” he said, moving closer.

She shifted away. “You said—you said you would sleep on the floor.”

“If I hadn’t said that, would you have come upstairs with me?” Because they were so close, he could clearly smell the pleasant fragrance on her skin—the same scent that lingered in the bathroom.

Wen Zhixia stared at him. “You lied to me.”

He pressed her down onto the bed. His peach-blossom eyes lifted slightly, and a roguish smile curved his lips.

“Why are you so nervous, little bookworm? Are you imagining something inappropriate for children? Are you plotting something improper against me?”