Chapter 28

They checked out at nine in the morning and had breakfast nearby.

Fu Cheng went to arrange his grandfather’s discharge, while Youyi waited in the car.

By the time all the paperwork was completed, it was nearly eleven.

The old man insisted on going back on his own and wouldn’t let Fu Cheng drive him. So, Fu Cheng had to send someone to pick him up.

Youyi asked, “Why do you and Grandpa always argue?”

This morning she had seen the long bruise on his back—extensive, with deep purples, crisscrossed, and even the area around his shoulder blades was badly bruised.

Fu Cheng replied, “The way we talk isn’t pleasant.”

The grandfather and grandson both had harsh ways of speaking, but Fu Cheng was punished because he cared for the old man.

He couldn’t avoid making him angry, so he had to let him vent his anger, a beating was nothing.

Youyi held his hand and said softly, “Next time, try not to get beaten.”

At least just one hit would be fine. How could he take so many?

And Fu Cheng hadn’t really done anything wrong.

If she had been there, it would have been different.

She promised to help mediate, but it hadn’t worked out.

Fu Cheng fastened his seatbelt, “At Grandpa’s age, if he wants to hit me, let him do it a few more times.”

The rain hadn’t stopped today. Raindrops pattered on the car windows, and the gloomy weather brought a sense of depression. Youyi found a comfortable position in the passenger seat and was getting drowsy.

She had barely slept five hours the night before and was woken up at seven in the morning.

When she woke up, the car was already parked in the underground garage.

Fu Cheng sat next to her.

“Are we home?” Youyi blinked drowsily.

“We’ve been home for a while.” Fu Cheng got out of the car, opened the passenger door, and reached to carry her. “Are you tired?”

“I’m so exhausted.” Youyi sighed.

She was almost falling apart from fatigue, while Fu Cheng was still full of energy.

Fu Cheng said, “Then you should go back and sleep.”

Fu Cheng patted Youyi’s head.

They went up from the underground garage to the ninth floor. Youyi was still sleepy and dozing off. Fu Cheng let her rest in her own room first and told her to message him when she woke up.

As soon as Fu Cheng entered the room, there was a knock on the door less than two minutes later.

Opening the door, Youyi stood there with a medicine box.

She lifted her face, her eyes filled with exhaustion, trying hard to stay alert, and said earnestly, “I’ll treat your wounds.”

Fu Cheng asked, “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Youyi shook her head.

Even though she was very tired, she was thinking about his injuries. She had put it off for so long, and it couldn’t be left untreated any longer.

So Fu Cheng let her in.

He directly took off his shirt and sat down in front of Youyi.

The bruises on his well-defined muscles were almost as thick as her forearm, with broken flesh that looked like a roaring beast. After a whole day, the bruises had spread and looked even more terrifying.

Most people would be scared by such a sight.

Youyi was not. Some of the patterns in their textbooks or things she had actually seen were far more frightening than this.

Fu Cheng paused and said with concern, “If you’re afraid, it’s okay.”

Besides these injuries, he also had old scars. The scar on his waist was long and thick, something that wouldn’t appear on her delicate skin.

“I’m not afraid,” Youyi said softly while cleaning his open wounds with saline solution. “After all, I’m studying medicine.”

Although she was still just a novice medical student.

Youyi cleaned the wounds with saline, then disinfected them thoroughly with iodine tincture using large cotton swabs. She applied the disinfectant three times over a large area before covering them with gauze.

“You need to change the dressings every day. Don’t do it yourself. I’ll take care of it,” she instructed.

Fu Cheng agreed, “Alright.”

He went to the room and came back with a clean shirt.

Youyi’s gaze lingered on the scars on his back.

“How did you get these injuries?”

These were not minor wounds. They had been stitched up with many stitches and might have even brought him close to death.

Fu Cheng put on his shirt, and the scars on his back disappeared from her view.

He turned back around.

In fact… he didn’t want her to see them too clearly.

“Did you last ten minutes?” Fu Cheng asked her.

Youyi was taken aback.

Last time Fu Cheng mentioned that if she was curious about his injuries, she had to endure ten minutes first, and then he would tell her.

Youyi furrowed her brows, her fingers gripping tightly, and said unhappily, “You’re not even telling me.”

How unfair.

He wasn’t telling even her—

She thought she should be able to know.

Her tone was unbearable.

Fu Cheng’s brows twitched slightly, and his voice softened.

“It’s all in the past,” he said.

During that reckless provocation, four of his brothers died, and the blood on the riverside under the icy peaks stained the entire riverbank. He was severely injured and underwent two major surgeries. As the commander, he chose to retire after being injured.

But it was not a very well-known story.

Two major surgeries…

Youyi’s brows furrowed even more.

“Does Grandpa not know?”

“He doesn’t.”

He was severely injured and spent time in the hospital without telling anyone at home, so Grandpa never knew the real reason for his retirement.

Grandpa always thought Fu Cheng retired without reason and had beaten him several times. Fu Cheng endured all of it in silence.

“It doesn’t hurt…” Youyi said with concern.

She thought about the injuries he had suffered. Even though she hadn’t seen them in person, just hearing him talk about them made her heart ache.

It must have been very painful.

Fu Cheng turned around and saw the tears in the corners of her eyes. He gently brushed them away with his fingertips.

“Not sleepy?”

Youyi shook her head.

She wasn’t sleepy at all.

Youyi sniffled and blinked, realizing that she might like Fu Cheng a bit more than she had thought.

She gently touched his wounds.

So, on that snowy day, his discomfort was also due to this.

*

Youyi quickly packed up her things.

She had a lot of stuff. An entire wardrobe couldn’t fit her clothes. When she moved from the dormitory to here, she had called for a moving service.

But moving from Room 901 to Room 902 was much easier, and she didn’t need to do anything herself.

Fu Cheng had great strength. He could carry one box in each hand. For Youyi, moving a suitcase was quite difficult, but he lifted it effortlessly.

The large boxes seemed like toys in his hands.

His bedroom didn’t have a makeup table, so Youyi had to put many of her skincare and makeup products on the desk in the study for now.

It only occupied one-third of the desk.

With her things added, the atmosphere of his whole house changed.

It wasn’t as dull as before.

Youyi looked at the bedroom arrangement, noting that the empty space could still hold a lot of things.

For example, she definitely needed a makeup table, and a standing cabinet next to it would be useful for storing more items.

When Fu Cheng came out of the shower, he saw Youyi standing by the bed, staring at it.

“What’s wrong? Do you think the bed is too small?”

His bed was not small at all.

Fu Cheng was a big man, so the bed he bought was 2 meters by 2.2 meters, big enough to accommodate several Youyi-sized people.

Youyi shook her head, “I don’t like this bedding set.”

The room’s items were mostly dark-colored, and the bedding set was brown with a textured pattern.

Youyi’s own room had a light blue porcelain-like bedding set that she had chosen after much deliberation, which improved her mood significantly when she slept.

Fu Cheng wondered what was going on.

“Feel free to buy whatever you like.”

“Will you mind?” Youyi asked, turning to him.

If she bought something in bright colors.

“Mind what?” Fu Cheng sat on the edge of the bed and casually pulled her onto his lap. “Mind your taste?”

She had just taken a shower and had a faint scent of body wash, a fresh green grape fragrance. Her hair was still wet, and as he held her, the water droplets fell onto his arm, sliding down.

His body was cool, and as she pressed against him, the cold made her shiver.

“I feel…it doesn’t suit you.” Youyi said.

Fu Cheng’s hand rested on her waist, and he whispered, “As long as you and I match, that’s enough.”

Youyi suddenly remembered something. She got up, went to the drawer outside, and came back with something, then voluntarily sat back down on his lap.

“I’ll trim your nails,” Youyi said. “They’re a bit long.”

Actually, his beard needed a shave too. He had been so busy lately that he might have gone two days without shaving, and honestly, it was starting to feel uncomfortable.

She looked down and took hold of his fingers.

Fu Cheng had a slightly tanned skin tone with paler backs of his hands, prominent veins extending up to his arms. His nails were trimmed neatly, but they had grown a little long and hadn’t been cut yet.

Youyi’s hands were only half the size of his. Sitting on his lap with her legs curled up, she held his hand and placed it on her lap.

As she lowered her head, her hair fell to the side of her face, its soft ends brushing against his arm. She was gentle and meticulous as she trimmed each of his nails.

The room was filled with the crisp sound of the nail clippers clipping his nails.

After finishing one hand, she softly said, “Now for the left hand.”

Fu Cheng willingly offered his left hand to her.

As she worked on the last finger, she used the other end of the nail file to smooth the edges, her movements delicate as if she were afraid of hurting him.

“Did I injure you last night?” Fu Cheng suddenly asked. “Is that why it’s so neatly done?”

Youyi paused, put down his hand, and blushed as she denied, “No.”

Fu Cheng really liked seeing Youyi like this beside him.

So obedient, so lovely.

“Very, very good,” Fu Cheng said. “Do you want to help your husband shave his beard as well?”

Youyi looked up seriously.

She shook her head, “I don’t know how.”

“It’s quite simple.” Fu Cheng lifted her and walked toward the bathroom.

The razor was in the mirror cabinet above the sink, which had three layers. Fu Cheng held her with one arm and retrieved the razor with the other.

He placed Youyi on the sink, spreading her legs apart with his thighs, and set the razor in her hand.

“Make some foam first.” Fu Cheng instructed. He squeezed a bit of shaving cream into her palm, and as they rubbed their hands together, foam began to form. He guided her hand to spread the foam evenly around his chin.

Youyi’s fingers touched his stubble, which felt a bit prickly. She retracted her fingertips slightly but continued to spread the foam.

His razor was manual. He was used to manual razors from his time in the military, and they were cleaner than electric ones.

“Wait two minutes,” Fu Cheng directed. “Shave with the grain first, then against it. This will give a cleaner shave.”

The manual razor had blades as sharp as surgical instruments. Youyi glanced at it, seeing the blade glint in the light.

“Will it cut the skin?” she asked anxiously.

“No,” he reassured her.

Youyi raised her hand and gently shaved away the stubble. The sound of the blade cutting through the hair was soft and somewhat soothing.

Fu Cheng had never experienced such a gentle shaving method before.

She carefully shaved in the direction of the hair and then against it, achieving a much cleaner result.

After moistening a towel and wiping away the foam, Youyi touched his face to check, and there wasn’t a trace of stubble left.

“You did really well,” Fu Cheng praised her softly.

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