Chapter Eleven (Part 1)

An Xiao Li left Qin Sang’s house in a daze. She went to have breakfast at one of hers and Qin Sang’s favourite restaurants that made delicious buns. When the buns she ordered were cooked and put on her table, she ate one bun and she thought she heard the restaurant owner called ‘little Bai’ to come to the kitchen. Then she requested the owner to take away the rest of her buns instead.

At the hospital the sounds of giggles were heard from the nurses’ break room. Rong Yan stepped out of the nurses’ break room with a grin on his face. He strode toward his third brother’s hospital room and from a distance he saw a girl stood in front of his third brother’s hospital room.

When Rong Yan approached the girl he looked closer at her – oh, she was the girl that caused his sixth brother to be exiled to the Middle East by his third brother!

‘Are you here to visit the patient?’ Rong Yan asked gently from behind An Xiao Li’s back.

Rong Yan nodded his head and gave An Xiao Li a warm smile. ‘Why aren’t you going inside?’

‘Mmm… I don’t want to intrude on CEO Chen’s resting time,’ An Xiao Li lied.

Rong Yan saw the way An Xiao Li awkwardly fiddled the take away bag she held and heard her call his third brother ‘CEO Chen’ and he understood straight away – she and his third brother were having a lover’s tiff.

Rong Yan thought that An Xiao Li was a rarity – she was the reason why his third brother was taken to the hospital!

Rong Yan wanted to earn brownie points with his third brother so he draped an arm over An Xiao Li’s shoulder and used his other arm to push open the door. ‘You’re already here, you may as well come inside.’

An Xiao Li couldn’t retreat even if she wanted to, Rong Yan dragged her into Chen Yu Bai’s hospital room before she could protest. They pa.s.sed a small living room and she saw Chen Yu Bai laid on a large bed.

‘Your remedy is here,’ Rong Yan teased.

Chen Yu Bai was resting on the bed. Ji Nan was reading a magazine on the sofa. When they both heard Rong Yan’s rowdy voice, they turned to see what was the remedy.

Something shimmered in Chen Yu Bai’s eyes but disappeared before anyone noticed.

Ji Nan recognised third sister-in-law and she wanted to tease third sister-in-law. ‘Visitors usually bring flowers and fruits, but what are you holding in your hands?’

Chen Yu Bai turned his head away from An Xiao Li but turned back to look at what she was holding in her hands.

An Xiao Li quickly hid the take away bag behind her back and laughed awkwardly. But unfortunately Rong Yan pushed her forward toward the bed and everyone stared at her. She was forced to take out the buns she ordered in the morning and asked the restaurant owner to wrap it up for her to give to Chen Yu Bai. ‘Mmm… do you want to eat? The buns are delicious.’

Rong Yan bent his head and politely held in his laughter. Ji Nan wasn’t as polite and laughed loudly.

Chen Yu Bai looked intensely at An Xiao Li who stood in front of the bed. He sighed, no matter what angle he looked at her, she still looked like a dummy. He felt unlucky, why did it have to be a dummy girl?

Chen Yu Bai calmly accepted a bun from An Xiao Li and took a bit into the bun.

Rong Yan and Ji Nan smiled like fools and didn’t say anything.

An Xiao Li forced herself to smile – she felt regret, the way Chen Yu Bai gobbled up the bun she was certain that the bun he ate was more delicious than the bun she ate in the morning.

The hospital doctor led a group of nurses into Chen Yu Bai’s room and interrupted the peaceful atmosphere.

‘Mr Chen junior! Why are you eating that?’ one of the nurses asked.

Afterward a chorus of other nurses joined in to stop Chen Yu Bai from eating something that looked unsanitary.

The doctor swept a cold gaze over the nurses to stop them making a commotion. Then the doctor turned to his uncooperative patient that kept eating the bun as if his patient didn’t hear the chorus of naysayers before. ‘Mr Chen junior, for the time being you can only eat liquid food. Please cooperate with our duty of care, we want you to recover fully.’

The nurses wholeheartedly supported the doctor’s advice. ‘That’s right!’

An Xiao Li bent her head and spoke softly to Chen Yu Bai. ‘Then you shouldn’t eat anymore.’

Chen Yu Bai glanced coldly at An Xiao Li. He didn’t say anything and kept eating the bun.

The doctor helplessly looked at Rong Yan and Ji Nan. The doctor’s silent plea was dismissed. Rong Yan shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms. Ji Nan turned to her third sister-in-law and laughed at her pitiful third sister-in-law.

An Xiao Li closed her eyes, grabbed half of the bun in Chen Yu Bai’s hand and shoved it into her mouth.

Rong Yan and Ji Nan was in awe of their sister-in-law, they wanted to bow down to their sister-in-law’s rare gift to bring peace into the room that their non-human third brother occupied. Whilst their third brother laid in bed with a wide smile on their third brother’s usually indifferent face.

The doctor finished examining the uncooperative patient then he recorded the patient’s body conditions on the patient’s chart. ‘Your peptic ulcer is caused by your poor diet, irregular eating habits and worsened by your cold. In the future you need to be more careful or the next time you’ll experience more severe symptoms.’

The doctor took out the needle from Chen Yu Bai’s wrist. An Xiao Li used a cotton swab to wipe the blood residue off Chen Yu Bai’s wrist. She felt guilty after she heard the doctor’s advice. The other night… after the air-conditioner was turned on, Chen Yu Bai wrapped the bed sheet around her and she slept on his chest. She didn’t realise he didn’t cover himself with anything until it was morning. It must have been that night that he caught a cold. She also realised why his complexion was poor that morning and she dismissed it as him being in a bad mood.

After Rong Yan and Ji Nan left, An Xiao Li stayed back and used her fingers to remember all the things that the doctor advised for Chen Yu Bai to do to recover quickly.

‘Why did you come?’ Chen Yu Bai asked coldly.

An Xiao Li thought Chen Yu Bai was strangely extra cold toward her in the hospital room.

‘Spit it out,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

‘I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have made you skip lunch,’ An Xiao Li apologised.

An Xiao Li heard Miss Chen’s voice scolding her in her head. Since she was little Miss Chen expected simple things from her – for her to be honest and kind.

An Xiao Li felt that it didn’t matter what happened between her and Chen Yu Bai before, since the reason he was taken to the hospital was because of her. That was why it was only right that she apologised.

Chen Yu Bai’s cold aura lifted. He patted the empty spot next to him on the bed. ‘Dummy, come here.’

An Xiao Li sat on the bed like an anxious little bride. Chen Yu Bai wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to lay on top of him. She tried to get off him but he hugged her tighter. ‘Don’t move. Let me hug you for a while.’

Only a bed sheet separated Chen Yu Bai and An Xiao Li. He hugged her for a long time. The hospital room was quiet and peaceful for a long time too.

‘Does your stomach still hurt?’ An Xiao Li asked.

‘Um,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

‘Last night… what happened after I left?’ An Xiao Li asked.

‘Nothing happened,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

‘Little Bai,’ An Xiao Li called.

‘A security guard thought I forgot to turn off my office lights. He didn’t know you pushed me against my work desk. He came inside my office to turn off the lights and found me unconscious. He took me to the hospital,’ Chen Yu Bai explained.

‘Chen Yu Bai,’ An Xiao Li called.

‘What?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.

‘I shouldn’t have pushed you, I’m sorry,’ An Xiao Li apologised.

‘Um, I forgive you,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

‘The times you pretended you were sick… haven’t you heard of the story of the boy who cried wolf?’ An Xiao Li asked.

Chen Yu Bai fell into a state of speechlessness. He sighed. Why did it have to be the dummy girl that was laying on top of him?

End of Chapter Eleven (Part 1)