“Aren’t you going to sit?” Xu Jingqian asked, standing about a meter away from her with disinfectant tools in his hand. His gaze shifted from her to the sofa beside her.

Qi Yu paused for a moment, put down her things, and walked over to sit on the sofa.

The bandage on her knee was completely stained with blood. If not changed promptly, it could hinder the healing process. Xu Jingqian half-knelt in front of her, gently holding her calf to peel off the useless bandage.

His movements were gentle, and as he peeled it off, he asked if it hurt.

“A little,” Qi Yu admitted, frowning slightly.

Xu Jingqian threw the removed bandage into the trash can and picked up a cotton swab with iodine from the table. Looking at the coin-sized wound, which was also dirty around the edges, he knew that disinfecting it with iodine would be painful. He warned her, “The wound needs to be cleaned properly, and it might hurt a bit. Try to bear with it.”

Qi Yu pursed her lips and nodded silently.

Xu Jingqian broke off one end of the cotton swab, allowing the iodine to be absorbed into the cotton at the other end. As soon as it touched the wound, Qi Yu cried out in pain. She tried to pull away, but Xu Jingqian held her firmly. “It hurts, it hurts! Stop, stop! It hurts, Xu Jingqian! It really hurts!”

He was already being as gentle as possible, so he tried to distract her. “The weather forecast says it will rain tomorrow. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“Rain?” Qi Yu was still gripping the sofa tightly, but the topic successfully distracted her. “If it rains, I won’t be able to see the Golden Mountain in the sun, and my plans to go out will be ruined!”

“Probably,” Xu Jingqian agreed, taking the opportunity to use a new cotton swab to clean the wound a second time. He thoroughly cleaned the wound and the smaller cuts around it.

Qi Yu couldn’t accept this harsh reality. She checked the weather forecast on her phone and saw that it was indeed going to rain.

“Why is it going to rain all day? What am I going to do?” Qi Yu felt instantly despairing. She slumped back onto the sofa, deflated like a punctured balloon.

Xu Jingqian suggested, “You can explore indoors.”

Qi Yu thought for a few seconds. “That’s not a bad idea. I have a car, so it’s convenient to get around. I’ll decide tomorrow. It’s just a shame I won’t be able to see the Golden Mountain in the sun.”

Qi Yu’s biggest plan for this trip was to see the Golden Mountain in the sun, but she hadn’t anticipated the rain. The weather had been partly cloudy, and it seemed likely to clear up, but now it was going the opposite way.

On top of that, she had fallen today. Everything seemed to be going wrong.

Qi Yu sighed deeply.

Xu Jingqian carefully placed a large waterproof bandage over the disinfected wound, pressing it down with his palm to ensure it was securely attached. “Take the rest of the bandages with you,” he instructed. “Try to keep the wound dry.”

Qi Yu sat up straight on the sofa, nodding in agreement. “Got it,” she said, her expression dejected, clearly affected by the weather forecast.

“Thank you,” she added softly.

Xu Jingqian cleaned up the table, handing her the remaining cotton swabs and bandages. Qi Yu took them and put them in her bag, thanking him again. She picked up her things from the doorway, ready to leave.

“If it doesn’t rain the day after tomorrow, I’ll take you to see the Golden Mountain,” Xu Jingqian suddenly said. “You won’t need to plan that part of the trip. Just take tomorrow to rest.”

Qi Yu turned to look at him, his handsome face catching her gaze and sending a strange, tingling sensation through her chest, as if she had been injected with a sudden dose of anesthetic.

She nodded, somewhat dazed, and then asked, “Do you have a girlfriend? If you do, then never mind.”

What was she saying? If he had a girlfriend and was acting this way with her, wouldn’t that make him a terrible person? But… it wasn’t entirely impossible.

Xu Jingqian crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the door. He chuckled softly at her question, his eyebrows raising slightly. “Do you think I have one?”

“I don’t know,” Qi Yu replied.

“I don’t,” Xu Jingqian assured her. “If I had a girlfriend, I would keep my distance from you.”

Qi Yu gripped the bag tightly, feeling a pang of sadness at the mention of keeping distance. She replied calmly, “I see.”