It was a quiet moonlit night, and darkness poured down the corridor, illuminating the area just outside the door.
Lu Shizhen was totally unprepared for Xu Shiyue's arrival, and there was an indescribable feeling mixed with the surprise.
Facing Xu Shiyue's question, Lu Shizhen hurriedly shook his head: "No."
Then he tried to explain his deliberate delay by saying, "My leg was bruised, so I walked a little slower."
Xu Shiyue nodded slightly, not wanting to care about the fact that Lu Shizhen took a long time to open the door for her. She handed the thing in her hand to Lu Shizhen and said, "This ointment is very effective for wound recovery and scar removal. You can try it."
The white ointment was handed to the person opposite, and their fingers briefly touched for a second.
A slight coolness brushed across Lu Shizhen's fingers, and the surprise and astonishment in his eyes became real.
Xu Shiyue actually came to bring her medicine.
Thinking of Qin Wen's reply to Aunt Sun just now, saying that he didn't have such an effective ointment on hand for the time being, Lu Shizhen couldn't help but ask: "Isn't this kind of thing rare?"
"Luo Ji gave it to me." Xu Shiyue thought otherwise. She knew that Lu Shizhen knew about Luo Ji's existence, so she said it frankly.
Then she paused, and then asked, "And don't you like your legs very much?"
Xu Shiyue said this very calmly, as if he was describing a very insignificant matter.
When Lu Shizhen heard this, her face turned red, and she couldn't help but recall what happened yesterday when she pulled Xu Shiyue and insisted that he touch her legs.
For a moment, she didn't know whether she should be happy that Xu Shiyue remembered what she cared about, or feel bad that her socially embarrassing scene was remembered by others and she wanted to find a hole to hide in.
Lu Shizhen nodded hesitantly: "... Thank you."
"No need." Xu Shiyue shook her head lightly.
At first, Luo Ji was afraid that she would get hurt in this place, so he secretly hid them for her under the flowerpots of the plant brothers and stuffed several of them in.
The expiration date was printed on the firmly pressed end. Xu Shiyue stroked it and read the number that showed it was still a long time before it expired. After hesitating for a moment, he still gave it to Lu Shizhen.
Not for anything.
Maybe they just think that medicine should be consumed during use rather than left to expire.
Thinking of this, Xu Shiyue turned around and left.
But he didn't expect to be stopped by Lu Shizhen: "Xu Shiyue."
"Is there anything else?" Xu Shiyue paused.
"You gave me the medicine, did you apply it yourself?" Lu Shizhen asked.
Of course she still remembered that she fell down the stairs with Xu Shiyue, and she also remembered the scars on Xu Shiyue's arm.
No one likes to have scars on their skin. She doesn't want it. Putting herself in Xu Shiyue's shoes, does she want it too
"Yes." Xu Shiyue replied, his voice a little indifferent.
Her eyes could only see vague outlines, and she could only feel the scars by feel.
It was not an easy task for her to apply medicine, so she simply did not do it.
Xu Shiyue knew that she could ask the servants for help. Now that Lu Shizhen was under pressure, the servants at home didn't dare to treat her like they did in the past.
But she didn't want to draw pity from others because she couldn't see this. She didn't like, or even hate, the kind of vague pity that others showed when they faced her.
She doesn't need anyone's pity.
It’s just that the wound will heal slower and the scar will fade slower.
Anyway, no one can really notice it, so just fool around.
Xu Shiyue was thinking like this, but she heard a snort in her ear: "Liar."
Lu Shizhen touched the unopened ointment in his hand and immediately thought of Xu Shiyue's eyes. His mind suddenly became clear: "You can't see. If you want to apply the ointment, you have to ask the servants at home. If the servants at home knew that you had such a good thing, they would have snatched it for me long ago."
The girl spoke quickly and clearly, full of impeccable reasoning.
Xu Shiyue couldn't help but pause when he heard this.
In fact, many things are not invisible or imperceptible, but depend on whether you are willing to care about them.
And Lu Shizhen is the one who cares about it.
But Lu Shizhen is the one who cares about it.
An indescribable emotion spread in Xu Shiyue's heart, so strange that it was hard to see clearly.
She just pursed her lips lightly, and was slow to respond to Lu Shizhen's reasoning.
And Lu Shizhen didn't wait for her reply, and took the initiative to say: "Well, if you don't mind, how about coming in and I'll apply medicine for you?"
"You gave me the ointment, and I'll apply the medicine. We don't owe each other anything."
There is neither condescending mercy nor arbitrary and domineering strength.
Xu Shiyue just stared at the ointment that was shaking in her sight. It was rare that she heard a sense of negotiation in the man's tone that sounded somewhat clear.
"Okay, don't hesitate. I'm very careful and won't hurt you."
Seeing that Xu Shiyue was reluctant to deny herself, Lu Shizhen felt that there was a chance, so she simply imitated the original owner's coquettishness, and then she pulled Xu Shiyue, who was still hesitating at the door, into the room.
Yuanzi was taken back to Aunt Sun's room to sleep early. Without her guidance, Xu Shiyue was wary of this strange environment and wanted to find a familiar place to settle down.
But it was Lu Shizhen's hand that fell on her wrist, covering the only familiarity she had at that moment.
The man was very skilled and just turned his wrist to let himself hold it.
Xu Shiyue almost forgot that before she had Yuanzi, Lu Shizhen had also been her guide stick and was a trustworthy person.
I don’t know if it’s for the reason she explained when she opened the door for me just now, but this person didn’t walk very fast.
The subtle sound of a chair being pulled open rang in Xu Shiyue's ears, and then Lu Shizhen guided her to stop: "There is a chair on your left, similar to the one in your room, you can sit down."
"There's a desk next to it. You can put your hand on it so I can apply the medicine."
Following Lu Shizhen's instructions, Xu Shiyue slowly groped his way down and sat down, rolling up his sleeves leisurely.
The off-white sleeve was folded above the girl's elbow, revealing her arm covered with medical gauze.
The moonlight from the window fell brightly onto the desk, giving the girl's skin a cool white glow.
The well-proportioned forearm was white and clean, and the gauze attached to one side was particularly eye-catching.
Lu Shizhen carefully took off the gauze on Xu Shiyue's arm and said, "I'm going to apply medicine to your arm. It may be a little painful, so just bear with it for a while."
"Okay." Xu Shiyue nodded calmly after hearing that.
The unopened ointment made a subtle "pop" sound when it was punctured, which was particularly obvious in the quiet room.
The bright light cast the shadows of the two people facing each other on the wall, and the cotton swab rolled over the scabbed wound with great care.
Dense pain penetrated into the nerves in Xu Shiyue's arm through the wounds that had not yet healed, but her face remained expressionless.
The halo depicted the figure of a person who lowered his head slightly in her sight. Through the not-so-clear movement, she vaguely saw Lu Shizhen's caution.
This person is really serious about applying medicine to himself.
Focus on one thing.
No, not at all.
Maybe it’s because of his own poor health since childhood, but Lu Shizhen always likes to pay attention to other people’s limbs.
Just like at this moment, Lu Shizhen took the opportunity to apply the medicine to secretly look at Xu Shiyue's arm that was in her sight several times.
Xu Shiyue's arms are long and well-proportioned, with bluish-purple veins clearly visible on the back of his hands, revealing a faint pink tint.
The slightly raised wrist bone lifted up a thin layer of skin, and when the light fell on it, it looked cold, white and transparent, just like the luster of jade.
Lu Shizhen grew up in the hospital over the years and met so many nurses, doctors, and patients' families, but none of them could compare to Xu Shiyue's arms at this moment.
Suddenly, Lu Shizhen thought of a Yue Opera that his grandmother had played for him, "Skin like cream, face like cinnabar, fragrant shoulders leaning against the jade tower, Xiangyun embraces the green maiden."
When she was a child, she always felt that the babbling sounds that she couldn't hear clearly were uncomfortable, and so unreal that they were hard to believe.
Only now did she realize that she was too narrow-minded and unwilling to believe.
If she could restore Xu Shiyue's health to the state it was in before the accident in her family, this sentence would not even be enough to describe her.
Thinking of this, Lu Shizhen carefully rolled the cotton swab in his hand across Xu Shiyue's arm again.
But before she could apply it again, Xu Shiyue's voice rang in her ears: "Applying twice is enough, you have already applied it for the fourth time."
The voice was faint, like a simple reminder.
Lu Shizhen suddenly woke up as if from a dream, and tried to cover up her distraction. She said "Oh" and said guiltily, "I thought it would be better if I applied a few more layers. Sorry."
"It's okay." Xu Shiyue shook his head calmly. Feeling that the ointment on his arm was almost dry, he lowered his sleeve from his elbow.
The soft fabric brushed across her shoulders, causing a dull pain. She seemed to remember something and called out to Lu Shizhen, "Lu Shizhen."
Lu Shizhen immediately stopped what he was doing, looked up and asked, "What's wrong?"
"There is another place. Could you please apply the medicine to me too?" Xu Shiyue said calmly.
Originally, Lu Shizhen thought that Xu Shiyue was willing to let her apply medicine, which was enough to cure her condition. She didn't expect that she would also ask her to apply medicine to other parts of her body.
This is a rare trust.
"Of course." Lu Shizhen was a little flattered, and immediately opened the ointment that had just been screwed on, "Where is it?"
Unexpectedly, Xu Shiyue opened her thin lips and uttered three words in a light voice: "Shoulder blade."
The room shrouded in night was filled with a tranquil silence, and the soft home clothes made slight rustling sounds as they fell.
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Shiyue turned his back and unbuttoned his collar.
The dim light swayed in the night, and the girl's round shoulders, shining brightly in the moonlight, appeared in Lu Shizhen's sight.
(End of this chapter)