The doctor advised Zhang Jue to wait until all physical indicators stabilized before being discharged from the hospital, so he stayed in the intensive care unit for another half a month.
During these days, most nights, his mother stayed with him in another room of the intensive care unit, and his father would come to accompany him as long as he did not go out.
Chen Boqiao's call time was gradually fixed as Zhang Jue's health improved, and the more awake time. Usually around nine o'clock in the evening, the chat is sometimes long and sometimes short, but it happens every day.
Zhang Jue knew about Chen Boqiao's application to retire from active service due to a major family change two days earlier than the media.
Compared with the media and the people of the Asian Union who reacted strongly, Chen Boqiao seemed very calm.
He just told Zhang Jue that he had applied for retirement and temporarily handled some necessary affairs in his father's group. After the dust settled, he might participate in the election. Due to the special situation of Chen Boqiao, he does not need to return to the original army for the next six months. However, because of his rank of colonel, he also needs an application period of nearly half a year to retire. He still needs to report the itinerary when he goes abroad, so it will not be too convenient to meet Zhang Jue. .
Zhang Jue felt very right and had no opinion.
One night before he was discharged from the hospital, the doctor came to replace Zhang Jue's last medicine. As soon as he walked out of the door of the ward, Zhang Jue's cell phone vibrated beside the quilt.
Although the anesthetic was applied, the back of Zhang Jue's neck was still a little tingling, and the skin attached to the medical tape was very tight, making him uncomfortable. He sat cross-legged on the bed, trying to answer the phone, his fingers almost touched the answer button, but suddenly found that Chen Boqiao sent a video call application.
Zhang Jue was startled, and his hand hung in the air.
He wanted to see Chen Boqiao, but he didn't want to be seen by Chen Boqiao in his hospital gown. He half-held the phone hesitantly. He didn't know what to do yet. After wiping it, he pressed to hang up and pinched Chen Boqiao's call.
Before he had time to go back, Chen Boqiao had already redialed an ordinary voice call.
As soon as Zhang Jue answered, Chen Boqiao said, "I'll hang up."
"No, I pressed it wrong." Zhang Jue tried to defend himself.
"Really," Chen Boqiao said flatly, "I thought you didn't want me to see you."
Before Zhang Jue could make a sound, Chen Boqiao said again: "Didn't you say yesterday that the gauze was removed? Can't you see it even after it was removed?"
"Only the circle around the neck was removed." Zhang Jue said, he couldn't help but hesitantly raised his hand and touched the thick gauze on the back of his neck.
"It's still covered with gauze," he told Chen Boqiao again, "and it can be seen from the front."
More than ten years ago, he made an incision from the scalp and implanted the glands downward, leaving no obvious scars, but this time the glands were removed, in order to prevent the impact on the nearby Omega glands, it must be directly removed from the alpha glands Frontal incision of the body. The doctor euphemistically reminded Zhang Jue that the operation would leave an unsightly scar. If necessary, he could recommend a plastic surgeon to Zhang Jue to remove the scar.
Zhang Jue didn't care about this before, but this time, he left the contact information of the plastic surgeon.
Chen Boqiao did not force Zhang Jue, but changed the subject and asked Zhang Jue to send him a copy of the results of the pre-discharge examination, saying that the secretary had contacted a MD who worked in the τ differentiation agent project, please read the doctor too. one look.
Just as Zhang Jue agreed, the door of the ward was knocked on by his mother.
Holding a forehead thermometer in her hand, her mother saw Zhang Jue on the phone and asked, "Is it Jiaxi?"
Zhang Jue didn't admit or deny it, and her mother assumed it was Ai Jiaxi. She sat beside Zhang Jue's bed and said, "I'll take your temperature, keep taking it", while sticking the forehead thermometer on Zhang Jue. between the eyebrows and press the button.
Starting in the afternoon, Zhang Jue had a low-grade fever, and the doctor said that it was just a normal late-stage pheromone replacement reaction, so there was no need to worry.
But Zhang Jue's mother was still worried, and walked in every once in a while with a forehead thermometer to take his temperature.
The forehead thermometer lit up yellow, she picked it up and looked at it, it was still thirty-seven degrees nine, she sighed worriedly, and said, "Why doesn't it go down." Then she put the back of her hand on Tie Zhangjue's cheek and said: " My face is also a little hot."
Zhang Jue looked at his mother quietly, and honestly said, "The heat on his face is because the heating in the ward is too high."
"Not high," said the mother in a low voice.
"Didn't Jiaxi only come here during the day, and I have to talk on the phone at night," she glanced at Zhang Jue's hand holding the phone again, lowered her head and turned off the thermometer, telling Zhang Jue, "Go to bed early." Zhang Jue's bedside lamp dimmed before he went out.
After the door was closed, Chen Boqiao was silent for a few seconds and asked Zhang Jue, "Do you have a fever?"
"Low-grade fever," Zhang Jue told Chen Boqiao, "the doctor said that it was caused by changes in pheromones, and it will go away tomorrow and the day after."
"A low-grade fever is also a fever." Chen Boqiao pointed out slowly.
Zhang Jue lay quietly without refuting.
He saw the back of his jagged hand, glanced at the forearm that was exposed outside the hospital gown, raised his hand, and turned off all the lights in the room. Zhang Jue was originally tall and thin, but he became even more frightening after the operation. He didn't even dare to look in the mirror when he took a shower. When he saw it in the corner of the eye, he knew that he lacked beauty. Also, keep the handset close to your ear.
At least Chen Boqiao didn't see him now. Chapter determined to think.
He sometimes felt that the days when he and Chen Boqiao were in the independent country of Thailand were just around the corner, and sometimes they felt like a fake.
Before Zhang Jue closed his eyes with the injection of anesthesia, the last thing he remembered was a day when he and Chen Boqiao had sex in a safe house in broad daylight.
The sun shines through the gaps in the curtains, allowing the dust and floating objects in the air to float up and down. The sun nearing dusk was not so bright, and it shone with a velvety sheen, like a wonderful halo in a sweet dream.
They have sex on the third floor, the glass windows are not well insulated, the sound of people riding bicycles passing by downstairs is very close to them, and the residents living in the shanty towns chat and laugh loudly in Thai, ringing the crisp bell of their bicycles or electric vehicles.
Chen Boqiao's sweaty skin was rubbing against Zhang Jue's. Zhang Jue could smell the rosin and sea salt, the aftertaste of the incense, and his own taste.
An old, self-abandoning sex.
The place where Zhang Jue was born is modern and developed. Looking out from the intensive care unit on the 21st floor of the inpatient department, you can just overlook the night view of the southern half of the capital.
In order not to miss any word or sound of Chen Boqiao's words, Zhang Jue closed his eyes and listened quietly.
Someone called him from Chen Boqiao, he asked Zhang Jue to wait a moment, whispered a few words to the other party, and came back to call Zhang Jue's name.
Zhang Jue responded in a very light nasal voice and asked him what was wrong.
Chen Boqiao suddenly stopped, and after a while, he said, "Next week."
He paused briefly for another second before continuing: "Next week, I will go to the Zhaohua branch in North America for four days. But—I can't come to the New Independent Country this time. Because of Zhaohua's business in the New Independent Country Back to North America."
Zhang Jue opened his eyes subconsciously, and immediately affected the muscles in his neck, causing a tingling pain.
He grabbed the handrail of the hospital bed, restrained himself from exhaling, thinking that Chen Boqiao was going to North America.
"I—" He wanted to say that I would come to North America soon, but suddenly remembered his parents who had been restricting him a lot recently, he hesitated for a while, and then said to Chen Boqiao, "I will be staying at my parents' house next week, and they may not let me go."
"I didn't ask you to come here." Chen Boqiao burst into laughter, his tone seemed to be saying to Zhang Jue, "You think too much".
"You just finished the operation, don't walk around," he said, "I'm reporting the trip to you."
Zhang Jue was stunned for a moment, then said dumbly, "Oh, that's it."
He heard Chen Boqiao clear his throat and asked in a lower voice than usual, "Zhang Jue, do you really want to see me?"
Although he couldn't meet, Zhang Jue was still a little embarrassed. He pursed his lips and said, "I want to."
"Really." Chen Boqiao said, with a little smile in his voice.
Zhang Jue felt that the heating in the room was indeed too high, so he sat up again, grabbed the phone tightly, lowered his eyes, and made an inaudible "um" before saying, "I really want to see you now."
Zhang Jue was blunt, knowing that he couldn't say anything particularly nice. I just wanted to tell Chen Boqiao too.
Chen Boqiao smiled lightly, but Zhang Jue heard it.
"It's just over a month," Chen Boqiao said. "Didn't I tell you to wait for me obediently?"
And Chen Boqiao's voice was very low and gentle, and even a person like Zhang Jue who wanted to stop dreaming would be hopelessly moved again.
Zhang Jue said unexpectedly, "I'm sorry."
After speaking, I remembered what he found out in the past few days. Chen Boqiao didn't seem to like his apology, but he couldn't take back what he said.
"It's okay," Chen Boqiao didn't bother with him this time, but simply said, "I want to see you too."