Chapter 40: Come to the Car.
Neither of them slept well that night. Huai Xing was in a daze, and her high fever didn’t subside for a long time. Chu Wantang, true to her promise, only dared to close her eyes after her fever had gone down, but she didn’t sleep soundly either. She was afraid that her fever would come back and got up several times during the night. Only after hearing her even breathing did she gradually feel at ease.
Before dawn, a light rain began to fall in Jingcheng. When daylight came, the view outside the window was a gray haze.
Chu Wantang opened her eyes first. Her head was aching a little. She took a moment to send a message to Auntie Chen and then went to the bathroom to take a shower.
She had a lot of Huai Xing’s tears on her. After so long, they were no longer sticky, but she felt that this patch of skin was still scorching hot.
When she came out of the bathroom, Auntie Chen was already busy in the kitchen.
She was wearing another set of pajamas and came to the guest room. Coincidentally, the patient had also just woken up and was in a daze on the bed.
Seeing her, Huai Xing reacted a beat slow and said, “Jiejie.”
“Are you still feeling very uncomfortable?” Chu Wantang came to the bedside, bent down, and touched the top of the girl’s head.
Huai Xing’s black pupils had no light, and her lips were still a little pale. She said, “I want to take a shower. I sweated a lot last night.”
Chu Wantang’s delicate brows furrowed slightly, and she rejected her idea. “No, you’re still very weak. I’m afraid a shower will worsen your cold.” Seeing her face fall, she smiled helplessly. “You can wipe yourself down properly. When your symptoms ease tomorrow, you can take a shower, okay?”
“Then I’ll go now.”
Chu Wantang asked very naturally, “Do you need my help?”
“No, no,” Huai Xing said, waving her hand in refusal, a thin layer of red on her cheeks. “I can do it myself.”
As she spoke, she lifted the comforter, but she had no strength and was a little unsteady on her feet.
Chu Wantang immediately supported her, then wrapped her arm around her waist and looked at her obsidian-like eyes, smiling. “Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
She then cleared her throat and asked with a hint of teasing, “It’s not like we haven’t showered together before. What are you shy about?”
“That’s different…” Huai Xing’s ears also began to turn pink.
Chu Wantang didn’t insist anymore. “Then when you’re brushing your teeth, I’ll get you water.” She squeezed Huai Xing’s hand. “You don’t have much strength right now.”
“Thank…”
“Don’t thank me anymore.”
Chu Wantang cut off the words on her lips, raised her hand to smooth her somewhat messy hair, her voice tinged with a hint of blame. “You already thanked me last night. Besides, is our relationship very distant? You would also take care of me when I’m sick. We are the closest people in the world, Xingxing.”
Hearing this series of words, Huai Xing’s lips curled up slightly. “I know, Jiejie.”
When Huai Xing returned to the dining room, the breakfast Auntie Chen had made was on the table. Elders always showed extra care for sick juniors and couldn’t help but ask, “Why is Miss Huai sick too?” She then sighed. “Miss Chu’s illness just got better not long ago.”
Chu Wantang couldn’t help but laugh. “Auntie Chen, I was sick over a month ago.”
“There’s always a time for a cold in all four seasons, Auntie Chen,” Huai Xing said, holding a spoon and also replying with a polite smile.
“You young people work too hard now, so your bodies are prone to getting sick. You have to be more careful in the future,” Auntie Chen said, going into the kitchen to clean up.
“We will.”
Chu Wantang sat opposite Huai Xing. She stirred the white congee in her bowl and asked nonchalantly, “Why were you at the party so late yesterday?”
“The party ended a long time ago, Jiejie.”
“Then when did you come back? Ten o’clock?”
“I didn’t pay much attention. I’ll check my taxi records,” Huai Xing said, taking out her phone and unlocking it. She said slowly, “Isn’t Xinxin pregnant? Pregnant women are a bit sensitive. She was eating and then she threw up, and she also said her stomach hurt. Huan Yuan took her to the hospital, leaving us friends there to eat. There were originally other activities, but since Xinxin was at the hospital, we ended the party early. We didn’t even have time to take a group photo.”
“Later, I went to the hospital to see this mother-to-be… oh, I got home at five past ten, Jiejie.”
She blinked, pushed her phone towards the woman, and revealed a smile. “I’m always very self-disciplined when I’m out at a party. I won’t come back very late.”
Chu Wantang looked as if she believed Huai Xing very much. “I know.”
She didn’t look and pushed the phone back, a dimple appearing by her lips as she asked, “Then how is Xiao Xin’s condition?”
“It’s nothing. She and Huan Yuan are new to this and have no experience, so they get nervous easily.”
Huai Xing scooped up a spoonful of congee, her voice a little hoarse as she said with emotion, “It’s really not easy.”
Chu Wantang glanced at her expression and, after confirming that she was not lying, did not continue on this topic. Instead, she said, “Hurry up and eat. Take your medicine after you finish.”
“Okay!”
After taking her medicine, Huai Xing returned to her room. The four-piece bedding on her bed had been changed by Auntie Chen, and the smell was very fresh, no longer smelling of sweat.
The light rain fell from the lead-colored clouds outside the window. Huai Xing leaned against the headboard, her eyelashes lowered.
She still had some cramps, and her body was not very comfortable, but she was not sleepy. The words she had heard last night and Chu Wantang’s behavior in front of her made her feel very torn.
But she knew that none of it was a hallucination. The woman who had been so caring to her in front of her did indeed have two faces that were hard to see through.
She had discovered it too late, had fallen too deep, and had fallen even harder.
Thinking of this, Huai Xing got up and placed the bag she had bought last night from the cabinet next to the small night light. As if proceeding according to the original plan, she cleared her throat and called out to the door, “Jiejie!”
Soon, Chu Wantang pushed open the door and asked with great concern, “What’s wrong?”
What met her eyes was the smiling Huai Xing, and the luxury bag on the cabinet at the side. She was stunned for half a second, then realized. “Did you buy it for me?”
“Yes,” Huai Xing said with some embarrassment. “Before I went to the hospital to see Xinxin last night, I also walked around there. You gave me such a beautiful dress. I didn’t want to not show any appreciation.”
Chu Wantang sat down by the bed, took the familiar bag, and opened it. The corners of her lips lifted as she asked with a smile, “Did you buy it with your own salary again?”
“Yes, my salary for March and April, and the bonus from the runway show before…”
“Thank you, Xingxing.”
“I don’t want to hear you say thank you either,” Huai Xing said, clearing her throat. “I want to hear you say you like this gift very much.”
Chu Wantang took out the bag and said with a smile in her voice, “Mm, I like this gift very much.”
“You’ve spent too much.”
“How have I spent too much? You even transferred fifty thousand to me before. You’re the one who’s spent too much, okay?”
“Transferring money to you is a habit of mine.”
Hearing this, Huai Xing couldn’t help but think of the sentence “I’ve also spent hundreds of thousands on her these past few years.” She swallowed the rising discomfort in her heart and said with a grin, “Then buying gifts for you will also become a habit of mine. Anyway, I have a job now. I want to be a part of every category of your gifts.”
Chu Wantang was stunned for a moment, her expression softening a little. “Then I will like every gift.”
Huai Xing: “Okay.”
As she spoke, she leaned over, hugged her waist, and buried her face in her shoulder and neck.
For a moment, they were silent, not saying a word.
Huai Xing’s silence made Chu Wantang feel that something was wrong. Or rather, she had felt that something was wrong with Huai Xing since last night. She hugged her back and said slowly, “You’ve forgotten something else.”
“What?”
“What you replied to me on WeChat last night,” Chu Wantang hummed lightly. “I still haven’t heard it.”
It was about the topic of missing her.
Huai Xing cleared her throat, but because of her cold, her voice was still a little muffled. “I also miss you very much, Jiejie. I miss you even more than they do.”
She couldn’t help but think with sadness—did my saying these words make you even more “soft-hearted”? Then that’s really my… honor.
“I know. I miss you very much too.”
Chu Wantang then asked her own question. “Is something on your mind?”
“I was thinking of my mom when I saw Xinxin pregnant last night, and I also dreamed of her at night.” This was the reason Huai Xing had prepared in advance for her low spirits, but it wasn’t entirely a reason. She had indeed thought of Huai Zhao several times last night, but Huai Zhao was no longer in this world.
Hearing her say this, the tense string in Chu Wantang’s heart loosened a little.
She turned her head, rubbed her ear with her chin, and said with a dense gentleness, “Then let’s find some time to go back to Yuncheng to see her?”
“Okay,” Huai Xing agreed at once.
Chu Wantang’s lips curled up, and she asked again, “How are your cramps now? Do you want me to rub them for you again?”
“You rubbed them for me for a long time last night, Jiejie,” Huai Xing said, releasing the embrace and looking at the woman’s somewhat haggard face. She raised her hand to stroke her face, her eyes full of concern. “Don’t worry about me. You should go get some sleep.”
“I’ll sleep here with you.”
After a while, Chu Wantang held Huai Xing in her arms. She closed her eyes and pressed her somewhat hot palm against Huai Xing’s lower abdomen, relieving Huai Xing’s discomfort.
Huai Xing held the jade comb with her back to her, her gaze fixed on a spot in the air, her lips pressed together lightly, her eyes cold.
—
This deliberate illness, combined with her period, came quickly and went slowly.
Three days passed, and Huai Xing’s cough was still a bit severe. Her throat was dry, itchy, and painful, and she would often cough uncontrollably at night. In order not to disturb Chu Wantang’s sleep, she suggested that Chu Wantang go back to the master bedroom to sleep, so as not to affect Director Chu’s work next week.
But Chu Wantang disagreed, saying that she would be there to take care of her, and she also brought out the same old line that they were the closest people in the world.
Huai Xing had no choice but to agree.
But what Chu Wantang said was not a lie. When Huai Xing coughed in the middle of the night and wanted to drink water, she would timely bring her warm water. She had been woken up several times, but she was not impatient at all.
All Huai Xing could do was to hold her, hold her very tightly, as if she were melting all her love into the embrace.
At this moment, Chu Wantang would gently pat her on the back and whisper in her ear, “I’m here.”
By Wednesday, Huai Xing’s cold was much better, and she was barely coughing. Only then did she appear at the company.
She had taken a leave of absence for the past two days. Ren Jiao had sent her a message asking when she would be back. If she didn’t come back to suffer with her, she wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
Now that Huai Xing was sitting at her workstation, Ren Jiao came over and first showed some concern, then couldn’t help but say, “I’m really afraid you’ll resign, Huai Xing. Do you know? Once a work buddy resigns, it’s no different from the sky falling.”
Huai Xing didn’t say that she was planning to resign. She revealed a smile. “Aren’t I here now?”
“Work! Start!”
“But, Jiaojiao, I have a question,” Huai Xing said, typing on the keyboard and pausing. “How long does it take to leave our company after resigning? Do you know?”
“Our position doesn’t have much work to hand over. After submitting the resignation application, it should take about a day for approval and another week for handover,” Ren Jiao said, then became very nervous and asked vigilantly, “Wait, Huai Xing, what do you mean?”
Huai Xing’s typing fingers paused, and she replied with a smile, “I’m just curious!”
She was still on her period, and her cold was not fully recovered. Huai Xing had a hard time working all morning.
During the lunch break, Chu Wantang sent her a message, wanting her to go to a nearby hotel to sleep.
Huai Xing politely refused: [It’s so far, Jiejie.]
Jiejie: [Then lie down on the sofa in the pantry.]
[Someone has taken it.]
Huai Xing: [It’s okay. The break will be over soon. My top priority now is to wait for the end of the workday.]
Jiejie: [Come to the car.]
Huai Xing looked at the three words and could imagine Chu Wantang’s expression when she said them, probably with her brows furrowed and her tone brooking no refusal.
The look of being angry because she hadn’t rested well.
If it had been before, Huai Xing would definitely have thought that Chu Wantang was very concerned about her.
But now…
Huai Xing stared at the three words, a little dazed.
Jiejie: [I’ve already adjusted the car seat for you. The parking space is in Area A.]
Jiejie: [Be good. Come down.]
Huai Xing’s eyelids lowered, and in the end, she resignedly walked through the dim parking lot and got into the familiar silver car.
Chu Wantang handed over a glass of warm water. “Did you still cough this morning?”
“A little,” Huai Xing said, holding the glass. She couldn’t see Wantang’s face very clearly. “The team lead also came to ask me if I wanted to continue my leave. I politely refused.”
Chu Wantang: “Why?”
Huai Xing swallowed two mouthfuls of warm water. She moved a little closer to Chu Wantang and answered very seriously, “I want to go to and from work with you. I don’t like the feeling of waiting for you at home.”
She stared at Chu Wantang’s eyes, her own eyes as if they were holding a cup of warm tea, the steam filling the car. She then curled her lips and said, “I’m the one who has to rely on my salary to buy gifts for my sister. A day off will deduct a lot of salary. I won’t allow it.”
Other cars passed by in the underground parking lot, making the light in the car flicker.
Chu Wantang listened to the true meaning in her words and felt her inadvertently revealed sincerity. She reached out and stroked her face.
Huai Xing raised her wrist and held the woman’s hand. “What’s wrong, Jiejie?”
Chu Wantang’s eyelashes trembled, and her throat moved slightly, but she didn’t answer.
But unexpectedly, Huai Xing leaned over in the next second and planted a light kiss on her lips, sighing softly, “We can’t kiss yet, but a peck is okay, Chu Chu.”
